Chapter 159: [Apache News Agency]

More than half a year later, in mid-December 1847, Ma Shao returned to slepping bear city.

Compared to when we left, the size of slepping bear city has grown a lot. At a rough glance, the area has expanded by at least half, and there are obviously more brick and stone buildings in the city.

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

A group of hunters came back from the south, with their carriages loaded with dozens of freshly hunted bison.

A few dozen bison were already a good harvest. After all, the number of bison had been decreasing rapidly, especially the bison herds near slepping bear city.

Soldiers were standing guard or patrolling everywhere, and many were training in the open space. The sound of slogans could be heard one after another, and of course there was the fluttering golden fist and red flag.

The city and its surroundings were filled with various sounds and scenes, which was both prosperous and somewhat chaotic.

There was naturally a red flag with a golden fist in Ma Shao's team, which was very eye-catching, so people quickly realized: "The Great Chief is back!"

Greeted by the soldiers, Ma Shao entered slepping bear city from the west gate. Of course, before entering the city, registration procedures are also essential. Since the epidemic, registration has become a rule that everyone must abide by.

Those members who are not qualified to carry guns must not only register but also leave their weapons outside the city. They can carry guns for self-defense on the road, but they cannot bring guns into the city.

Anyone who brings a weapon into the city without permission will be punished, and Apache has very strict weapons control.

After completing the entry formalities, Ma Shao ordered: "Send all the 'packages' to the chief's hall."

"Yes," some of the team members responded, and then unloaded the packages the team was carrying and carried them to the chief's hall.

The packages were not large in size, but seemed quite heavy, and it was not easy for many people to carry them.

"Liniu, what's wrong with you? Are you so tired just from carrying two small packages? You were not like this before." A resident asked a burly soldier.

Li Niu replied: "You can also go to California and try it. It's 2,000 kilometers away!"

"It's not like you can finish the journey in one day. I see you just can't do it... let me help you." The resident wanted to help Li Niu share a package.

"Get out of the way!" Li Niu didn't appreciate it at all. He carried two packages breathlessly and went straight into the chief's hall.

Dozens of small packages in the team were all moved into the chief's hall and piled on the ground, and the team members responsible for the moving were also gathered here.

"Thank you for your hard work." Ma Shao said to these people, "Go back and have a good rest."

Then he reminded: "Be sure to pay attention to the confidentiality agreement. No matter what others say to you, you can't reveal a word."

"Yes, Chief!" people responded.

After everyone left, Rainy Day, who had been full of doubts for a long time, couldn't help but ask: "What's in these packages? Why are they so heavy?"

Ma Shao smiled and said, "You will know if you open it and take a look."

"This box is nailed shut." On a rainy day, the cloth covering the package was untied, revealing a wooden box nailed shut.

Ma Shao took the wooden box from him, exerted force with both hands a few times, and directly pried open the wooden board nailed by iron nails. Then a golden light appeared in the room.

"Is this... gold?" Rainy Day couldn't help but open his eyes wide and look closer.

"Of course, apart from gold, what else can have such a moving luster." Ma Shao picked up a gold ingot in the wooden box and weighed it in his hand.

This full and heavy feeling makes people feel happy.

Rainy Day also picked up a gold ingot and looked at it, then remembered something and pointed to the dozens of packages on the ground: "Are these all gold?"

"Yes, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold." Ma Shao said with a smile.

Rainy Day was stunned for a moment: "Could it be...did you find a gold mine in California? With that metal detector?"

Ma Shao nodded: "Yes, but I think it is more of a blessing from fate. After all, you know, the detection range of metal detectors is very small."

He sat back in his seat on a rainy day, looked at the gold ingot in front of him, frowned, and fell into silence.

Ma Shao continued to talk to himself: "After discovering the gold mine, I directly built a logging camp there, and let the tribesmen pan for gold in the name of logging. Then I built a new city near the logging camp, called 'Donggu City', and a military base 'Xiquan Fortress'..."

He gave a general overview of the current situation in Sacramento.

It was raining when he suddenly asked, "Are there a lot of gold mines there?"

"It seems so." Ma Shao nodded and pointed at the gold on the ground. "At least after mining so much gold, the output of the gold mine has not decreased at all. I estimate that there may be gold mines worth millions or even tens of millions of dollars."

Of course this is not the case.

California's gold mines are worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars, a huge amount of wealth that is enough to make a country salivate.

Rainy Day was silent for a while, until he said, "Why do I feel like you've expected this?"

"Ah?" Ma Shao paused.

Rainy Day: "Why else would you insist on going to California."

"Of course it's for the ocean. The West Coast will become the richest place in the United States." Ma Shao concealed his guilty conscience. "We must prepare early. After all, after the Mexican-American War, California will be the territory of the United States. More and more Americans will definitely flock there."

This is indeed a very important reason.

Rainy Day finally said: "Okay, I believe it..."

Ma Shao changed the subject: "Let's talk about the situation in slepping bear city over the past six months. I feel that there are at least five or six thousand more people here."

"The population of Sleeping Bear City has exceeded 20,000 people, making it the largest city in the Midwest." Rainy Day nodded and said, "Apache's merger plan is still ongoing. Add to that the population that has moved in from other tribes, and we'll absorb at least a thousand people every month."

"Most of the people who moved in from other tribes heard about our victory in epidemic prevention. The impact of this victory is greater than I imagined."

"In fact, we have been featured in newspapers in the United States and Mexico." After a pause, Rainy Day continued, "More than one reporter visited me, including one from New York."

"Where's the newspaper? Let me take a look." Ma Shao was a little surprised.

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

On rainy days, instead of taking out the newspaper, he took out a manuscript book with many cut newspaper fragments pasted on it and some notes next to them.

"I set up an Apache News Agency to collect and organize important news from various newspapers. All the important news in the past few months are here," said Rainy Day.

"Apache Communications?"