228 South African trivia (3)

"The quality of this gold is quite good!" In the newly established compound of the Liangu Township Government, Huang Chao, who was newly transferred to the deputy commissioner of the Yicheng District Administration Office, picked up a gold coin that had been refined and stamped and exclaimed.

Huang Chao took up his post just last month. Originally, he was the county magistrate of Qingdao County, and he took the initiative to apply to his superiors to serve in the "backward areas", and became the deputy commissioner of the Yicheng District Administration and became Xiao Jingzong's deputy. However, in fact, the two of them also have a division of labor, Xiao Jingzong is mainly responsible for the two counties of Chenggao and Yicheng in the north, focusing on the operation of Yicheng Port Wharf, Yicheng Iron Works, Chenggao Coal Mine, and at the same time focusing on the development of the local agricultural and animal husbandry economy, laying a good foundation for more in-depth colonial activities in the future - grain, is the basis for all industrial, agricultural and military activities, which will never be wrong.

As for Huang Chao, he is in charge of the south, which is actually Yiyang County, and of course, the newly opened up territory in this direction by the people of the east coast in the future. For example, he has now set up his office in Liangu Township, a newly opened settlement in the west of Yiyang County, which can be described as poor and white, but Huang has a sense of peace.

At present, there are only more than 20 people in the Liangu Township Government, who are in charge of various affairs, and they are so busy that they do not touch the ground. At the same time, a temporary and simple military camp was built next to the township government, and the first regiment of the provisional army was equipped with a cavalry company here, which guarded the safety of the township government and continued to sweep away the indigenous forces that might flow over in the surrounding area.

Somewhere between the barracks and the township government, the East Coasters also built a small industrial facility here, namely a crucible smelting furnace and a steam stamping coin (powered by a small 7.5 hp steam engine) to intermittently mint gold coins of 50 and 100 yuan.

The gold needed to mint gold coins was all the spoils of war captured by the army soldiers when they went out to fight against the natives, and after they were handed over to the local government - God knows how much they secretly hidden, after all, it would not be difficult to find someone to smelt underground when they returned to the big cities in the future - the amount of smelted and minted was not much, and the total amount was only more than 20,000 yuan. If you count the weight, it's only a few dozen kilograms.

The money, as usual, could not be touched locally, and had to be transported to Yicheng Port and deposited in the vault of the local Northwest Reclamation Bank. After accumulating a certain amount (such as 500,000 yuan or 1 million yuan), the Second Fleet of the Navy will send warships to the mainland, and the State Administration of Precious Metals will manage it as a reserve fund for future currency reform. In other words, although the gold was minted in the form of gold coins, it was not intended to be put into circulation in the market at all, but was placed in the vault as a reserve at the bottom of the box.

Therefore, no matter how rare Huang Chao is now, these yellow and clear gold coins in his hand can only be reluctantly put down in the end, let his subordinates carefully count them, and then wrap them in red silk cloth and lock them in the box. These, after all, are the money of the masters of the Ministry of Finance, and they have little to do with him Huang and the Yicheng area.

Of course, they don't need much money. As a newly established settlement, Liangu Township needs more labor tools, food, medicine, livestock, daily necessities and even weapons and ammunition. In terms of these materials, although the Executive Committee cannot say that it satisfies all of them, at least it satisfies a considerable part, so they are not very resistant to transporting these gold, they are all equivalent exchanges, not to mention that the local government must also obey the unified strategic deployment of the central government.

"The natives did not know the wonders of gold, nor did they have a history of the large-scale use of ko's head gold as a general equivalent. Even then, the army brothers snatched so much gold from them, so who can tell me how much gold there is in the outback? Huang Chao looked at the boxes sealed with gold in the house, and said with emotion: "There is doghead gold, which means that the mining conditions in the gold mining area are very good, and the cost should be very low, so we have to work hard." ”

In fact, what Huang Chao said is not all the truth. Black people in South Africa certainly don't have a history of using gold as a general equivalent, but that doesn't mean they don't know the value of gold. They would strike iron, they would smelt copper, and they would make it into all kinds of utensils, and gold would be just a metal, and they would not recognize its value for a long time. What's more, the East Coasters have been on the East Coast of South Africa for so many years, and have also sent many expeditions and caravans to the inland areas to trade with the blacks, and they have already understood from the extraordinary thirst of the East Coast merchants for gold that this metal has a value beyond other items, so they will slowly and consciously begin to consciously increase the reserves of this metal to cope with trade.

Of course, now the East Coasters don't trade with them. Heavily armed army soldiers replaced merchants laden with goods, shiny bayonets replaced a dazzling array of daily necessities, the black tribes were crushed one by one, the people were either enslaved or killed, and the property they left behind became the spoils of war for the East Coasters, including a large amount of dog's head gold.

"County magistrate, the army has basically been discovered, and the area is very large, maybe hundreds of square kilometers. It is also there that these negroes must have obtained some gold-bearing rocks that had been cut by the wind or the current, and then collected them to trade with us. We are more optimistic about this, because with a civilization as clumsy as the black man, we can collect so much gold, so how much gold can we get if we are more technologically advanced and more determined? This may be an unimaginable number. The person in charge of the small smelting workshop stood behind Huang Chao and said in a slightly flattering tone: "Deputy Commissioner Huang, this gold mine is an excellent opportunity, once it is fully discovered and official production begins, it will be a great event in any way. ”

Huang Chao nodded when he heard this. It is now clear that no one knows that there are gold mines in the inland region not too far from here, and even that this gold mining area is a wealth of immeasurable magnitude that is unrivalled on the east coast. He had already made up his mind to wait for the Liangu Township to gain a foothold a little, and then urge the army to continue to send people to the west, build new settlements, and open up the road to the gold mining area step by step, with the ultimate goal of making the entire gold mining area run as soon as possible, and exporting gold to the east coast in exchange for all kinds of materials needed for residents' life and construction - in this process, his Huang people's political achievements are naturally great, which is extremely beneficial to the development of his career in the future.

"As soon as the gold mine is found, we must immediately start building a road from Yiyang Port to the gold mining area. It's a pity that all the money from the regional administration has been thrown into the Yicheng Railway, and even a lot of the aid money from the upper and lower levels has been used there, so I'm afraid there is not much money to support us to build the road here, which is a pity. Huang Chao instructed several officials behind him: "But it is impossible to allocate a little money from above, if the army sponsors some more supplies, this road should be completed in a not too long time." Anyway, it's a convenient way to transport gold temporarily, and it doesn't need to be of good quality, just enough. ”

"By the way, I heard that there are coal and iron mines very close to here?" Huang Chao seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly asked, "Is this news accurate?" Have you sent anyone to verify this? ”

"County Magistrate Huang, this is what we have confirmed that there is indeed a large-scale coal storage belt not far to the west. Its coal is of high quality, large reserves, shallow burial, and has many types, which are much stronger than those local coal mines that are not completed. Next to the coal field, our expedition members also found traces of the existence of iron ore, and inferred through a variety of signs that this is a very large reserve of iron ore, but I don't know how much the taste is, it is estimated that it should not be too bad. Someone immediately replied: "This is actually a very good coal and iron joint mining area, if you really want to develop it well, you can set up a series of enterprises here, like a large industrial institution like the Ping An Coal and Steel Complex." It's a pity that there is already an iron plant in Yicheng County now, which is troublesome, and the above should not give us the indicators of the two steel mills in the area, and this place is destined to be abandoned. It's a pity, it's a pity! ”

In fact, there are many other mineral resources such as chromite, copper, manganese, platinum, diamond and uranium along the way from this coal and iron mining area to the gold mining area further west. It's a pity that the scale of these is large and small, and some of them are not recognized, so the mining order may be relatively low.

"I'll talk about the coal and iron joint venture base later, this is a bit of a conflict with the projects on the Yicheng and Chenggao sides, and there is no need to duplicate the construction. What we need to focus on now is to get the gold mine up and running first. This matter is relatively closely watched, and it must be done as the first thing to be ordered. If it is not done well, not only you, but also I, Huang, will have to eat and hang. Huang Chao said with a serious face: "I came here after all the hardships not to enjoy the mountains and rivers, but to complete more tasks assigned by the state." I don't care what method you use to build the road to the goldfields, but it will start before the end of the month. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to go further in your career in the future, there is the best opportunity in front of you. ”

After saying this, Huang Chao left the smelting and stamping workshop, and then returned to the township government office across the wall, and discussed with other cadres how to communicate with Yicheng County in the next step, and try to obtain enough funds, equipment and money to use as the initial capital for the construction of roads and the establishment of a settlement (the initial plan was to establish a settlement near the small town of Fredhead).

The plan to advance into the gold mining area is the step for him to advance in the future, and he will not allow anyone to hold him back!