North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 45 I Want a Chinese Son-in-Law
The paddle-wheel steamer, moving at full speed, passed Sacramento and Souter's Mill without stopping at either place.

Last time, it took Azu and Jason ten full days to reach their destination by rowing a small boat, while a paddle steamer took three days.

By the last leg of the voyage, the small tributary leading to Golden Lake was too shallow and narrow to allow a 300-ton paddle steamer to pass through.

They had no choice but to unload all the supplies and transport them bit by bit using three small wooden boats.

Before the paddle steamer returned, A-Zu gave Vic some more instructions.

"Captain, remember my words. Do not get involved in any fights. I'll discuss everything after I get back."

A Zu thought for a moment and then said, "If you encounter any difficulties, you can consult Mr. Poe for advice."

"If Mr. Poe is in urgent need of financial support to start a newspaper, please give as much support as possible."

Vic nodded and agreed: "Okay, I'll remember it all."

Vic turned around and was about to get on the boat, but was stopped by A-Zu: "By the way, Captain, remember to tell Vivian that I will rush back before she leaves for school."

Vic turned around and smiled meaningfully: "Lee, are you so cruel that you didn't even say goodbye to Vivian?"

"I was going to say goodbye!" A-Zu spread out his hands, "But I was afraid to see her tears!"

"Li, you are such a heartless person! It's rare to meet a beautiful girl like Vivian in a lifetime, and you don't even know how to cherish her!"

Without waiting for A Zu to answer, Vic winked at him again: "Of course, my Daisy is also very good! Besides, I don't mind having a Chinese son-in-law from the Far East!"

Vic steered the boat away, laughing heartily.

Only A-Zu was left, alone and disheveled in the wind!
Harley was kept by A-Zu because of his good marksmanship.

Harley, who was carrying supplies, nudged A-Zu with his elbow and asked with a gossipy look on his face.

"Hey, Boss, do you like Miss Vivian or Miss Daisy?"

"Don't ask me such stupid questions!" A-Zu glanced at him and said, "Only children answer multiple-choice questions!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Harley was confused.

"What do you mean?" Jason, smoking a pipe, couldn't help but interrupt, "Harley boy, you've also sailed the Eastern Route. Haven't you heard that Chinese people can marry multiple wives?"
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It took a whole day to transport all the supplies to Golden Lake, and we immediately started building the camp.

First, ten mobile cabins were built on the cliff above the waterfall, and then wood was cut down in the surrounding primeval dense forest to build a two-meter-high wooden wall around the camp.

Dozens of shooting holes were dug in the wooden wall, and four tall watchtowers were built at the four corners of the wooden wall, so that the camp had basic defensive capabilities.

Although this circle of wooden walls was not high, it was enough to keep out most wild animals. Even if we encountered Indians and bandits, it could prevent them from directly attacking the camp.

At the same time, two watchtowers and a wooden wall were built on both sides of the small river at the entrance of the Golden Lake Valley to guard against possible enemies.

It took three days to build the basic construction of the camp, and then A Zu organized everyone to start panning for gold.

First, dig a water diversion channel beside the river channel above the waterfall cliff, bypassing the Golden Lake below and diverting the river water through the water diversion channel.

Digging the water diversion channel entirely by hand was too slow, so A Zu directly used "Malin explosives" to clear the way.

The stones and earth excavated from the aqueduct were pulled into the wooden wall with wheelbarrows and piled up to form a wall, further strengthening the defense.

After the diversion channel was dug, the river was diverted. A Zu then used sacks filled with sand and rocks to completely block the river above the waterfall.

As a result, Golden Lake lost its water supply, so A Zu organized people to set up two steam pumps and began to drain the lake. In such a wilderness, the steam pumps had no coal to use, so they could only cut down wood for fuel.

Fortunately, this is the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. During the rainy season from November to March of the following year, there is abundant water, and there are dense fir and pine forests everywhere.

If it were in the arid eastern slope, the fuel source for the steam engine would be a real problem.

After the water pumps started working, two steam washers were set up.

The water outlet of the pump is directly placed on the ore washing machine, and the pumped lake water is used to wash the excavated gold ore.

Original soup into original food!
"Boom, boom, boom...!"

In the valley that had been silent for billions of years, the dull roar of a steam engine was heard, and four streams of black smoke shot straight into the sky.

"Huh!" Jason, holding his pipe, exhaled a puff of smoke, looked up at the black smoke rising into the sky, and said worriedly, "Li, we're making too much noise. It won't be long before we attract the Indians and gangs in the mountains!"

As A-Zu was adjusting the steam washing machine, he replied, "There's no other way. If we want to find gold, this is the danger we must face!"

"Can we, a few dozen fishermen, farmers, and boatmen who just picked up guns, stop the Indians and the bandits?"

With his hands covered in grease, A-Zu adjusted the ore washing machine to the ideal state, walked to the lake, washed his hands, and replied, "Let's give it a try!"

“Bang, bang, bang…!”

The two steam drum ore washers also began to rumble and rotate, and A-Zu personally poured the first cart of gold ore in the cart into the feed port.

What is being washed now is only the sand and gravel with the lowest gold content by the lake.

But even so, the gold content is many times higher than that of other gold mining spots.

In addition to the dozen or so people who were on guard at several watchtowers and responsible for logging and logistics, the remaining thirty or so people were surrounding the Golden Lake, constantly digging for gold-rich ore. Carts filled with ore shuttled back and forth like water, pouring carts of ore into the feed ports of two ore washers.

There are also special people who use wheelbarrows to dump the tailings washed out of the ore washing machine at the bottom of the cliff.

More and more tailings gradually formed a slope under the cliff, until finally a passage was formed leading directly to the camp above the cliff, making it convenient for materials to be brought up and down and for people to enter and exit.

In this era when gold panning relies entirely on manual labor and simple tools, the semi-mechanical and semi-manual gold panning process designed by A-Zu not only increases efficiency countless times, but also achieves a gold panning rate of at least 96%, which is also far higher than the 80% of manual panning.

In other words, after washing, only less than 4% of the original gold will remain in the tailings, while other people's manual washing of tailings will still have about 20% of gold left.

Finally, the first day of gold panning is complete!

As night fell, all the machines stopped.

After collecting all the gold washed out of the ore washing machine today, A Zu gathered everyone into the largest wooden house.

In front of everyone, A-Zu said, "I promised you that for every 200 ounces of gold we find, each of you will get one ounce."

"Now, let's weigh it and see how much gold we found today!"

Special thanks to: Chen Jia Xiao 6 for the reward support!
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Thank you to all the book lovers who voted for the recommendation!

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(End of this chapter)