Chapter 144: [Gold Mine]

In order to avoid the rain, the westward team set up a simple tent on a rocky high ground and looked at the falling rain outside under the protection of cowhide.

The rain gradually subsided.

Ma Shao stayed in the tent and seemed to remember something. He took out his metal detector and modified it.

In fact, it is just some extra cowhide added for waterproofing.

"Great Chief, what is this?" Looking at the metal detector in Ma Shao's hand, Feihua couldn't help but ask.

Ma Shao: "This is a metal detector."

"Metal detector, what's it for?"

"…detecting metal."

"Really?" Nonsense blinked, looking like he didn't believe it.

Ma Shao groaned and said, "Of course it's true, but it's not very useful. I'm working on improving it."

As he spoke, he held the metal detector in front of him and scanned it. Then he took out a gold coin and put it in front of him, and scanned it again, indicating that the speed of the fan changed accordingly.

In 1847, electricity was a foreign concept to most people in the world.

The electricity in people's eyes at this time is probably like the quantum in people's eyes one hundred and seventy or eighty years, and it basically only exists in various high-end scientific and technological news.

Of course, it can also exist in scams.

"This...what's going on?" As an Indian, he had not learned much physics from Ma Shao, so he was naturally surprised by everything.

Du Tiao smiled and said, "This is electromagnetic induction."

"Electric...electromagnetic induction, what does that mean?" I didn't understand a single word of that nonsense and was completely confused.

"If you have the opportunity to attend a math and physics training class in the future, you will be able to understand these concepts." Du Tiao couldn't help but smile and teased, "If you don't attend a math and physics training class in the future, you probably won't understand it, but you can't say for sure."

"Hahaha!" Several people nearby laughed. "Du Tiao, you're not imitating well."

"Let me show you one myself." A soldier took out a piece of jerky. "Jerky, do you think this is beef jerky or venison jerky?"

"Maybe it's beef jerky, or..." He blurted out nonsense, then realized something and didn't continue.

Everyone burst into laughter.

At this time, Ma Shao handed the metal detector to Du Tiao: "Du Tiao, I'll keep this for now. When you have nothing to do, you can use it to explore the surroundings. Maybe you can find something good."

He had demonstrated and briefly explained the metal detector to some students in class, and Du Tiao was one of them.

So when Du Tiao took the metal detector from Ma Shao, he looked like an excited student who was about to attend a laboratory class.

The rain stopped and the sky gradually cleared up.

"Let's continue our journey." Ma Shao said.

The westward-bound team packed up and continued on their way westward toward California.

Along the way, Ma Shao asked some people to take turns playing with the metal detector. People seemed very interested in this novel and interesting thing, and everyone would keep exploring everywhere after getting their hands on it.

Although the gold mine has not been discovered yet, it is not a complete failure.

While passing through a desert, someone discovered several bodies using a metal detector.

The bodies were buried in the sand not very deep, and the coins and other metal objects on their bodies caused the detector to react.

Obviously, they were white people who died accidentally during the westward expansion. Their identities were unknown, and the ownerless property naturally belonged to Ma Shao's westward expansion team.

Going west was obviously not an easy task, and these bodies are proof of that.

Fortunately, Ma Shao and others were well prepared and did not experience any major setbacks. The only casualty was caused by the rattlesnake.

After more than two months of long journey, Ma Shao's westward team finally approached its destination, the city of Sacramento in the northeastern region of California.

To be precise, it is Alta California, Baja California is still in Mexico.

In addition, there was no city of Sacramento at that time, only the Sacramento River.

However, based on this river and his knowledge of the California Gold Rush in his previous life, Ma Shao was able to confirm the approximate location of the city of Sacramento on the map.

As for the location where the gold mine was discovered, he still remembers a few key words: under the Nevada Mountains, sawmill, and river.

Since it is located at the foot of the Nevada Mountains, it is naturally east of Sacramento.

Since the gold mine was discovered when the sawmill was being built, there should be dense forests nearby, plus a river...

Ma Shao pointed to an area northeast of Sacramento on the map and asked, "Is there any forest near this river?"

"Yes, there are large forests near Coloma." Nonsense said.

Ma Shao nodded, then asked, "Who lives or works here?"

Nonsense: "Mainly Maidu, Miwok... and the white people from Sutter's Fort."

"Sutterburg?"

"The place founded by John Sutter, he is a cunning and cruel guy!" Nonsense continued, "Many people have been deceived and even enslaved by him."

Ma Shao pondered for a moment, then pointed to the map and said, "Let's go here and take a look."

The place he was pointing to was the Coloma area that he had been talking about.

He could basically confirm that Coloma was the location of the gold mine that ignited the climax of the westward movement.

Even if it isn't, it shouldn't be too far off.

The gold mine is just around the corner!

"...In the Maidu language, Koroma means 'beautiful', and the name of the valley through which the Roundhouse River flows is actually 'Beautiful Valley'." Feihua introduced to Ma Shao.

Ma Shao looked at the surrounding scenery and nodded: "The scenery is indeed beautiful."

Coloma has rich soil and water, and is home to a lush forest. Clear, unpolluted rivers flow through the valley, making the nearby woods echo with the sound of water.

The scenery is pleasant and the air is very fresh.

"This place seems very suitable for building a logging camp. If we settle nearby, we will definitely need to use the timber from this forest," said Ma Shao.

Then everyone shuttled through the woods, and soon passed a shallow area of ​​the river, and people waded across one after another.

Just as everyone was crossing the river, a soldier who was waving a metal detector in his hand suddenly said in surprise: "Hey, the detector is responding!"

Most people didn't care much about it. After all, the detector had responded more than once along the way, allowing people to pick up a lot of scrap metal and a few coins.

However, Ma Shao almost always kept an eye on the metal detector, after all, this was his primary target.

"Is there anything in the river?" he asked. It seemed like a casual question, but he was actually quite expectant and nervous.

The soldier holding the metal detector leaned over and shook the detector again.

The detector's coil is now wrapped in cowhide and can be directly placed in water for detection.

The soldier looked at the indicator fan's changes, then reached out his hand and fished it out from the water. Then, under the sunlight that shone through the shade of the trees, he fished out a golden object...