The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

The group spent half a day panning for gold in the canyon. Everyone tried their best to find gold. Some took tools, some imitated Min Xi and carried basins to water the plants in an attempt to copy their good luck, some moved stones with their hands, and some went directly to the cliff to knock for gold.

Although it is impossible to be as lucky as Yun Ji and pick up a nugget of gold weighing more than ten kilograms, many people have indeed found nugget of gold, some the size of a finger and some the size of a soybean.

The two craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry simply moved the stones, dug out the mud and sand from under the stones, and started to wash them in a puddle. They rarely came back empty-handed. Although this was a bit tiring, their income was very stable, and they panned out a lot of gold sand.

Min Xi and Yun Ji did not go panning for gold. They used the afternoon to go to both sides of the canyon to understand the topography. It is not quite accurate to call it a mountain, as the terrain here is all so high, and only the canyon is the lowest here. It should have been formed by billions of years of geological movement and rain erosion.

Moreover, except for some grass and trees in the canyon, the rest of the area is basically bare. It seems that even if this gold mine is to be mined in the future, materials will have to be transported from somewhere else, or the ore here will have to be moved outside for smelting. In short, it will be difficult.

After they finished looking at the terrain, they came back and saw that everyone was still digging among the rocks. They did not urge them, but let them do their work while they took the initiative to find firewood to cook dinner.

They didn't stop until it was too dark to see anything. Min Xi and Yun Ji had already prepared dinner. When they sat down to eat, they felt embarrassed: "It's really wrong to let the two adults cook for us today!"

"It's okay. It's a rare opportunity. Everyone has worked hard with us for so long. Now that we can find gold, it's a reward for everyone." Yun Ji said with a smile.

Min Xi called everyone: "Come and have dinner. Who has gained the most today?"

"No one has gained as much as Lord Yun." Someone said with a smile.

Min Xi laughed and said, "Don't compare yourself with Lord Yun. His situation is really rare. What about you? How big is the biggest one you picked up?"

"Brother Li Si is the luckiest. He picked up a piece of gold nugget the size of an egg and became rich." Someone said with envy.

Li Si chuckled and said, "Good luck, good luck!"

"Li Si's luck seems to be really good, congratulations!" Min Xi praised with a smile, "Did you all get anything? Did anyone find any gold?"

No one answered. It seemed that everyone gained something, just to varying degrees.

Yun Ji said, "Everyone has come so far with Lord Min and me. This journey has been really hard. When we return, you will certainly get your reward."

When everyone heard this, they immediately became interested. Yun Ji was originally the richest man, and now he had obtained the largest piece of gold nugget, so he had the biggest gain. He promised to give everyone a reward, so there was no way back, but they didn't know how much the reward would be.

They spent the night in the canyon. The wind was very strong, howling through the canyon, but fortunately it was summer, so the wind only made people feel cool.

The next morning, after breakfast, everyone rushed back to the beach. Some people took advantage of the time to look for gold in the canyon, and one lucky person even found a bean-sized gold.

They sped up on the return journey and avoided any delays on the road. It took them ten days to go there and only eight days to return.

The gold nuggets that Yun Ji brought back shocked everyone. They didn't expect that this gold mine was so rich and had such large gold nuggets. Everyone who went there picked up gold to a greater or lesser extent. It would be a lie for those who didn't go there to say that they were not envious.

Fortunately, Yun Ji said that he would give all the people a bounty after he returned, which gave them a little comfort. Despite this, some people still felt that they had suffered a great loss, and secretly planned in their hearts that they would find a way to follow Min Xi and Yun Ji when they led the team to look for mines next time.

During the days they went looking for gold, the people who stayed on the beach had already replenished their food and water, especially citrus fruits, which were fully prepared. Some of them were collected by themselves in the wild, and some were exchanged with the natives of the indigenous tribes.

The natives knew they could exchange things with them, so they tried their best to find things to exchange with them. The most common thing was citrus, because it was the easiest thing to get. Some people also ventured into the sea to fish for pearls, but pearls are something that can only be found by chance. Without human intervention, the chance of shellfish producing pearls is not high.

They had been gone for half a month, but the natives only caught two pearls. But they were lucky, one of the pearls was of very good quality, not only large in size but also in perfect shape, while the other was flat and could only be used for medicine.

Min Xi and his companions returned to the seaside to rest for a night, and set sail early the next morning to continue heading south. Many people on the ship were eager to return to Ming Dynasty, but this time the nugget gold incident gave them confidence, thinking that if they continued to move forward, they should be able to find gold mines, and maybe they could also find a large nugget gold, and maybe this trip would save the three generations of their family.

This time, after the ship sailed south for only a few days, its course began to change. This was because the land no longer extended southward, but eastward. The ship had no choice but to change direction and sail eastward along the land.

Although they would stop at the coast every few days to replenish fresh water and food, Min Xi never went looking for gold mines again. His goal now was very clear, which was to go to southeastern Australia.

Min Xi's idea now is very simple. He wants to lead the fleet to sail around Australia, familiarize himself with the terrain of the entire country, and understand the basic conditions of various parts of Australia. This trip may not go to South America, but it will lay a good foundation for going to South America in the future.

He stopped looking for gold mines, which disappointed the people on the ship. It seemed that the dream of getting rich was not so easy to achieve.

After stopping and walking for more than a month, they finally arrived in the southeast of Australia, which is the most suitable place for human habitation.

When they set out, it was summer in the local area, and they even celebrated the New Year of Daming on the boat. When they arrived here, three or four months had passed, so it was already autumn in the local area. Counting the days, it should be spring in Daming. Unknowingly, they had been away from Daming for almost a year.

Min Xi led the fleet into the bay. He was very familiar with this place because when cargo ships came from China, they were usually not empty but fully loaded with Chinese-made goods. The Port of Melbourne was the port where they often unloaded goods.

Although there is little overlap between here and the Melbourne he is familiar with, the general terrain of the harbor is still similar. And as far as Min Xi knows, there are many resources near this port, not only coal mines, but also gold mines, because he has brought coal back from here.

So when he announced to everyone that they would stay here for a while to look for mines, everyone's spirits, which had been depressed for a long time, were finally lifted up again. They were finally going to look for gold mines again!

This bay left a very good impression on everyone, and the lush vegetation on the shore made everyone excited: where there are many trees, there must be a lot of fruits, and this season is the harvest season, so there should be a lot of edible fruits.

As soon as their ship landed, they found the natives. There were a lot of them, and when they saw the five large ships approaching, they all gathered on the shore to watch.

To be honest, it was the first time for everyone to see so many natives. Unlike the natives we had seen before, those natives were not lightly dressed. They were wrapped quite tightly. It might be because of the climate. The weather here was obviously colder than the places we had visited before.