Chapter 146: [Ore Washing Tank]

To others, it was an ordinary name.

After all, this is the eastern part of a valley, so it is reasonable to name the logging camp "East Valley".

However, the reason why Ma Shao was given this name was mainly because of the game he often played in later generations, Yamaguchiyama.

Looking back, he still felt a little regretful about this game. After all, his previous life ended on a Monday night, or maybe Tuesday morning, anyway, he didn't make it to seven in the morning.

And in Yamaguchi-san's world, he had exactly thirty-nine chicken leg stick fragments, and he only needed one to complete it.

"Here, in addition to your salary, you will also receive a 'confidentiality subsidy'," Ma Shao said, "to compensate you for your efforts in keeping the secrets of the gold mine."

You can't get anything for free (note: the author is not implying anything), this is a basic principle of his doing things.

If a leader asks employees to do extra work but does not pay them extra salary, it either means that the work is meaningless or that the profits go into someone else's pocket.

Neither of these two situations is a good thing.

Therefore, Ma Shao has always paid extra salary to his tribesmen for their extra value.

This can also motivate him to be more rational at work and to arrange less waste of labor or assign less problematic tasks.

Gold mines mean crazy wealth, and getting it for free or relying purely on moral constraints obviously cannot be kept secret from the workers, at least it is far from reassuring.

Therefore, all the tribesmen working here will receive a high salary in the name of confidentiality subsidy.

"Of course, every right has an obligation." Ma Shao added, "Since you are receiving the confidentiality subsidy, you must keep it confidential. Otherwise, there will be additional punishment, and it will be heavy, because this is an important property of the tribe."

"Always be vigilant and supervise each other... In short, you must keep it confidential. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" people responded loudly.

Ma Shao nodded: "Okay, let's start building the lumberyard first. Let's choose a good place along this river."

People divided into two teams and continued to survey along the river. Finally, they chose a vacant land by the river and decided to build a logging camp there.

Of course, it is also a place of residence.

However, Ma Shao does not plan to build a formal town here. After all, it is surrounded by dense forests and is not suitable for long-term residence.

The place that is truly suitable for building a new city is undoubtedly the future city of Sacramento, which is a few dozen kilometers southwest.

There are better places, further away in San Francisco.

In the original history, although the gold mine was in Sacramento, the city that really rose because of it was San Francisco, or San Francisco.

The reason is that San Francisco is close to the ocean and transportation is very convenient.

When the news of the discovery of the gold mine spread, not only Americans, but gold prospectors from all over the world flocked to the area.

The first choice for gold prospectors who came from far away by sea was San Francisco, which caused the population of San Francisco to expand rapidly like an explosion.

In just a few years, San Francisco grew into the largest city in the western United States and has remained one of the largest cities in the country ever since.

But Ma Shao has no idea of ​​building a city in San Francisco for the time being.

Although San Francisco is a good place, the risks are also high and it is easy to be targeted.

At the same time, it is also not easy to control. After all, San Francisco's inherent conditions determine that it will inevitably develop rapidly and a large number of immigrants will inevitably pour in.

If San Francisco continues to develop as it did in history, it will soon become a large city with a complex population composition, which will be difficult to control.

So in the short term, Ma Shao will not go to San Francisco, and at most he will build a new town in Sacramento.

After choosing a place, the 300-man westward team settled down there, set up tents, and carried out their first hunt.

As a forest, the conditions here are quite good. Not only are the scenery pleasant and the air fresh, but there are also many wild animals, such as hares, pheasants, wild deer and so on.

Together with the fish and shrimp in the river, it is more than enough to sustain three hundred people.

After setting up the tents, people began to build buildings using local materials.

It's mainly a lumberyard, then there are log cabins and walls.

The wall must also be built, firstly to prevent wild animals, and secondly to prevent outsiders, at least to block people's gold panning work.

While the buildings were being built, gold mining also began.

Gold is one of the earliest metals obtained by mankind. It is not difficult to mine it, and the Indians also know how to mine it.

But some people are not sure: "How are we going to mine gold? Are we going to rely on metal detectors to pick it up in the water?"

Ma Shao: "No, this way we can only find larger pieces of gold, but they are only a minority. The real majority of gold is the tiny gold grains hidden in the mud and sand."

"What should we do then?" the questioner continued to ask.

Someone said, "Of course you use a plate to pan for gold, don't you even know that?"

"Plate panning for gold...how do you do it?"

The nonsense next to him activated his skill again and blurted out: "It's very simple - take the gold and discard the mud."

After listening to this, the questioner thought for a moment, frowned and said: "I seem to understand, but I don't seem to understand..."

Ma Shao interrupted their conversation: "We don't use plates to pan for gold, we use 'mineral sluices'."

He didn't want to use the almost entirely manual method of gold mining because it was too inefficient.

According to his worst plan, even if the news leaked out and the white people knew the existence of the gold mine, he would still make a fortune before the white people arrived in large numbers.

To achieve this, it is obviously impossible to rely on pure manual gold panning.

But he couldn't make too advanced machines, or he didn't have the conditions to do so.

So Ma Shao decided to make a relatively simple large ore washing trough using the wood that was everywhere here.

"Ore washing trough, what is that?" People obviously knew nothing about it, and asked in confusion when Ma Shao took out the design sketch.

Ma Shao explained: "A large tool used to pan for gold, essentially, the same principle as the pan used to pan for gold."

"Whether it's a plate or a sluice, it all comes down to gold being heavier than sand."

"For the plate, using this difference, as long as we shake it long enough, the gold will definitely separate from the other substances and sink to the bottom of the plate."

"We can use a plate to sift out the mud and sand, or we can use this wooden trough to sift out the mud and sand." Ma Shao pointed to the design drawing.

Feihua thought for a while and said, "Hmm... but it seems that it can't shake. Of course, it may be that I misunderstood."

Ma Shao said, "Don't shake it, just let the water flow through the wooden trough."

"See these shallow wooden boards spaced at intervals in the wooden trough? As the water repeatedly impacts, the gold at the bottom will be blocked by the boards, while the mud and sand at the top will mostly flow away with the water."