After more than half a year, in mid-December 1847, the horse whistle returned to Sleeping Bear City.

Compared to when it left, the size of Sleeping Bear City has grown considerably, and roughly speaking, the area has expanded by at least half, and there are significantly more masonry buildings in the city.

There are also some buildings outside the city, such as gun shops, stables, registration offices, and so on on the east and west sides.

A group of hunters returned from the south, wagons carrying dozens of freshly hunted bison.

A few dozen bison is already a good harvest, after all, the number of bison herds has been decreasing rapidly, and even more so in the vicinity of Sleeping Bear City.

Soldiers stood guard or patrolled everywhere, and many trained in open fields, with the sound of trumpets and of course the fluttering of golden fists and red flags.

The city and outside the city are filled with all kinds of sounds and sights, both prosperous and somewhat chaotic.

Naturally, there was also a golden fist red flag in the procession of the horse whistle, which was very eye-catching, so people quickly realized: "The Great Chief is back!" ”

Greeted by the soldiers, the horse sentry entered the city of Sleeping Bear through the west gate. Of course, registration is also essential before entering the city, and since the pandemic, registration has become a rule for anyone to follow.

Those who are not qualified to carry guns must not only register but also leave their weapons outside the city. They can defend themselves with guns on the road, but they can't bring them into the city.

Anyone who brought weapons into the city without permission was punished, and weapons control in the Apache was strict.

After completing the formalities of entering the city, the horse whistle ordered: "Send all the 'packages' to the chief's hall." ”

"Yes." Some of the team members answered, and then unloaded the packages carried by the team and carried them to the chief hall.

These packages are small in size, but they seem to be quite heavy, and many people do not have an easy time moving.

"Liniu, what's wrong with you, you're tired of moving two small parcels? You weren't like that before. "A resident asked about a burly soldier.

Liniu replied: "You also go to California to try, two thousand kilometers!" ”

"It's not the end of the day, I think you just can't do it...... I'll help you. "Residents want to help Liniu share a package.

"Go aside!" Li Niu didn't appreciate it, panting and carrying two packages, he went straight into the chief's hall.

The dozens of small parcels in the team were all carried into the chief's hall and stacked on the ground, and the team members in charge of carrying them were also concentrated here.

"Thank you for your hard work." The horse whistle said to the men, "Go back and get some rest." ”

Then he advised: "You must pay attention to the confidentiality agreement, no matter what others say to you, you must not reveal a word." ”

"Yes, Great Chief!" People answered.

When everyone left, the rainy day, which was already full of doubts, couldn't help but say, "What's in these packages?" Why is it so heavy? ”

Ma Whistle smiled: "You can just open it and take a look." ”

"The box is nailed." On a rainy day, the cloth wrapped around is unwrapped, revealing a nailed wooden box.

Ma Sentry took the wooden box from his hand, and with a few exertions of both hands, he directly broke the wooden plank that was nailed by iron nails, and then a touch of gold appeared in the room.

"It's ...... Gold? "On a rainy day, I can't help but keep my eyes open and take a closer look.

"Of course, there is nothing other than gold that can have such a beautiful luster." Ma Sentry picked up a gold ingot from the wooden box and checked it in his hand.

This fullness of heaviness makes people feel happy.

On a rainy day, he also picked up a gold ingot and looked at it, then remembered something, and pointed to dozens of packages on the ground: "All this is gold?" ”

"That's right, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold." Ma Whistle said with a smile.

Rainy day stunned for a while: "Could it be ...... Did you find gold in California? With that metal detector? ”

Ma Whistle nodded: "Yes, but I think it's more of a matter of fate, after all, you know that the detection range of metal detectors is small." ”

Sitting back in his seat on a rainy day, he looked at the gold ingot in front of him, frowned, and fell silent.

"After discovering the gold mine, I directly built a lumberyard there, and let the people pan for gold in the name of logging, and then established a new city near the lumberyard, called 'Donggu Castle', and a military base 'Xiquan Fortress'......"

He gave a rough picture of what is happening in Sacramento.

On a rainy day, he suddenly asked, "Is there a lot of gold there?" ”

"It seems so." Ma Whistle nodded and pointed to the gold on the ground, "At least after so much gold has been mined, the production of the gold mine has not decreased in the slightest, and I estimate that there may be millions or even tens of millions of dollars worth of gold mines there." ”

This is certainly not the case.

California's gold mines are worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars, a huge fortune that can make a nation salivate.

The rainy day was silent for a while, until he said, "Why do I feel like you expected it?" ”

"Huh?" The horse whistle stagnated.

Rainy day: "Why else would you insist on going to California?" ”

"For the ocean, of course, the West Coast is going to be the richest place in the United States." "We must prepare early, after all, after the end of the Mexican-American War, California will be the territory of the United States, and more and more Americans will definitely pour into it." ”

This is indeed a very important reason as well.

Rainy day finally said, "Okay, I believe ......"

Ma Whistle changed the subject: "Let's talk about the situation in Bear City in the past six months, I feel that there are at least five or six thousand people here. ”

"The population of Sleeping Bear City has exceeded 20,000 people, making it the largest city in the Midwest." Rainy Sky nodded and said, "The Apache merger plan continues, and with the migration of people from other tribes, we will absorb at least a thousand people every month. ”

"Most of the people who moved in from other tribes heard about our victory in the fight against the epidemic, and the impact of this victory was even greater than I imagined."

"In fact, we've been in the newspapers of the United States and Mexico." After a pause, Rainy Day continued, "More than one journalist visited me, including one from New York. ”

"I'll take a look at the newspaper." The horse whistle was a little surprised.

As the westernmost state of California, the news is naturally more closed, and he doesn't know a lot of news in the east.

On a rainy day, instead of taking out a newspaper, he took out a manuscript with many cropped fragments of the newspaper pasted on it, and some notes were made next to it.

"I set up an Apache News Agency to collect and collate important news from the various newspapers, and the important news of the past few months is here." Said on a rainy day.

"Apache News Agency?"