Gold is found everywhere on the west coast of the United States, especially in California!

Two of the larger ones, one found near Los Angeles and one in Southern California. But it attracted hundreds of gold diggers, and it didn't cause a stir, mainly because those places were full of Indians, and not many Americans settled here.

Now, the Natives are taking them to the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers that have caused a national sensation in the gold rush.

After walking northeast for about three days, the Daming expedition encountered a second indigenous settlement in the woods by the river, and the number of indigenous people here exceeded 1,000.

The relationship between the two settlements is very good, and although they are very close, they can complement each other.

The first indigenous settlement, where you can get rock salt and bison horn. The second indigenous settlement, on the other hand, produced fine pottery, fishing, hunting and gathering wild fruits, and had a more developed agriculture (by the river). They often exchanged stone salt for pottery, and each of them did not lack food, and when they multiplied to a certain size, they moved separately, and there was no need to fight for survival.

Upstream of the river, there were larger tribes, and the natives of the second settlement were separated from upstream.

This is the most livable place on the west coast of North America, rich in resources and blessed with a pleasant climate. But it is precisely because of the abundance that human development is slow, and it has not even entered the slave society.

Wars and natural disasters were the driving force for the early progress of human society, but there were no wars and natural disasters here!

Well, there are floods, but they are all seasonal river floods, and the land is more fertile when the floods recede.

After the two indigenous leaders communicated, the big tribe immediately collected the dog's head gold, and exchanged it for two iron axes with Zhu Hai on the spot, and his people celebrated with singing and dancing.

In exchange for more iron axes, the natives set out en masse and took Zhu Hai to the river beach.

At this time, the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River was very different from later generations. Because there are no hydropower plants upstream, let alone California's North-to-South Water Transfer Project, it is much narrower and the water flow is more rapid.

By the way, the United States after World War II was indeed like a beacon for mankind, and it was able to carry out the north-south water diversion project in the 50s. It not only remediates the flooding in Northern California, but also solves the problem of water shortage in Southern California. If it were the United States in the 21st century, such a huge project, it is estimated that the vote would have to be cast for twenty or thirty years.

In the fertile delta where the two rivers meet, Zhu Hai encounters a third indigenous settlement, where the tribe numbers two or three thousand and has a large amount of farmland for growing broad beans.

When they came to the south bank of the estuary, everyone's eyes were straight.

Through the clear water of the river, the shallow water shimmers with a little golden light under the sunlight.

"Golden Sands!"

I don't know who shouted, and the rest of the team members all rushed over, and Zhu Hai couldn't suppress it for a while.

Li Changzhu took off his shoes and trousers and jumped into the water, holding a handful of sand in both hands, which was visible to the naked eye mixed with several grains of golden sand. He swallowed his saliva and said: "Duke, it is more powerful than the gold river in Johor, this is not gold panning, it is gold grabbing!" ”

Seeing more and more team members going down the river, Zhu Hai scolded: "What are you panicking about? Come up and look around! ”

There are two rivers in total, and the southern one has fewer golden sands, and the further upstream you go, the harder it is to see gold. But the river to the north is simply crazy, everyone walked for miles online, and you can see golden sands everywhere.

As a result, these two rivers have Chinese names, called Liujin River (Sacramento River) and Shanjin River (American River).

After exploring all day, the natives were looking for dog-headed gold, but they didn't know how to collect golden sand.

Li Guangcheng was itchy and persuaded: "Dugong, don't explore anymore, quickly make some sand nets to pan for gold!" ”

Zhu Hai pointed to the natives who were looking for dog-headed gold, and said with a smile: "How much gold can we get for dozens of people?" You should make sand nets, let the natives help pan for gold, and then exchange all kinds of iron tools with them! ”

"That's right, it's still the governor who is wise, we can sit back and reap the benefits!" Li Guangcheng patted his ass and said.

Unfortunately, there was no bamboo here, so everyone searched around the river and found patches of wild flax. The natives who live by the river already know how to weave nets with linen knotted rope, but unfortunately they don't know how to weave linen.

Zhu Hai called the three indigenous leaders, asked his subordinates to peel hemp skins on the spot, and taught them to weave simple sieves. Then he had a sieve to pan for gold, piled the begged gold sands together, and placed an axe next to it to indicate that it could be exchanged.

The natives rejoiced, learned to weave a sieve, and then jumped into the river to pan for gold.

Zhu Hai, on the other hand, at the suggestion of the onmyoji Hu Yuan, left half of the people to supervise the gold panning, and the other half to explore the rivers further downstream. The confluence of the two rivers flows into a large lake, which the expedition members thought was an inland extension of the bay, and the lake was freshwater with high salt content.

Continuing down, the Great Lake closes and comes to a river valley.

Across the river valley, there is a wide bay.

Hu Yuan held a compass in his hand and drew a simple diagram on the ground with a knife: "Dugong, we have made a big circle and continued to the west or southwest along the shore, and it is likely that we will return to the place where we landed." Next time, you can take a boat directly to the northeast, and you will definitely be able to reach the Liujin River and the Shanjin River. ”

Zhu Hai laughed: "That's more convenient!" ”

Li Guangcheng suddenly said: "Dugong, I have observed in two Turen villages, and they do not have anything thick to protect against the cold. Since they don't need to protect themselves from the cold to survive, the winter here may not be as cold as Mr. Hu said. ”

"How is that possible?" Hu Yuan retorted, "It's common sense that it's cold in winter and hot in summer. There are only more than 10 degrees in the summer, and the winter is bound to be extremely cold. The farther north it gets colder, the farther south it gets, and we should rush south before winter. ”

"Not necessarily. The Governor said, the earth is a round ball," Li Guangcheng smiled and raised his fist, "This fist is the earth, the Ming Dynasty is in the north of Temasek (Singapore), but if you flip the fist, Temasek is not in the north of the Ming Dynasty." How can you say that the further south you go, the hotter it gets, and the further north you go, the colder it gets? ”

Hu Yuan was stunned for a moment, clenched his fists and pondered. He was not a disciple of the physics school, but he had studied physics books on his own, and the problem was obviously beyond his knowledge.

Zhu Hai said with a smile: "Then wait for another two months, we can't be alive, but we will be frozen to death, right?" ”

Two months later, according to Hu Yuan's calculations, it was already the late autumn of the Ming Dynasty.

The temperature did drop, but to Hu Yuan's surprise, the temperature only dropped by a few degrees, which is different from Daming and Nanyang.

Hu Yuan wrote in his logbook: "The land of Fushan (San Francisco) is quite strange. In the middle of summer, the maximum daily temperature is 20 degrees; In mid-autumn, the highest daily temperature is more than 10 degrees; In the middle of winter, there is no snow at the coldest time, and the temperature is bound to be above freezing. Such an anomaly, it is no longer my knowledge that can speculate, perhaps the great master of physics, Wang Shilang, can solve it. ”

The Spring Festival of the sailors was spent at Mazu Lake in Fushan.

During these months, they explored the surrounding area for 300 miles, and encountered six indigenous tribes. The tribes further upstream of the Shining Gold River, where the natives are more fierce, there are thousands of people, and they want to steal their iron weapons with more people.

Zhu Hai decisively ordered to shoot, killing more than ten people on the spot, these natives scattered in a hurry, and they were already gods walking in the world.

At the same time, Zhu Hai sailed northeast, crossed a strait, and then crossed a river valley, and came to the great lake they had encountered before, along which to the west were the Shanjin River and the Liujin River.

In this way, it is very convenient to travel to and fro, and you can go directly by boat to collect the gold, without having to take the unpredictable overland.

When the big boat sailed to the mouth of the river, those natives were stunned, and they all lay on the shore to worship, and even worshiped Zhu Hai as a god.

After the Lantern Festival, the fleet finally headed south to find Magellan's route back home.

And when they left, they took with them more than eighty sacks of gold, which were supposed to be used for food.