Suppressing his excitement, Liang Yao excitedly picked out the large and small gold particles at the bottom of the ore washing trough and put them into a glass bottle.
Deng Yan and the Deng brothers were all smiling happily, which was a change from the previous dull atmosphere.
After the ore washing trough was put into use, their gold panning efficiency increased greatly. They no longer had to sift the gold slowly, bit by bit, using a frying pan.
Instead, the gold-rich ore soil and sand are poured directly into the ore washing tank, and the flowing water is used to wash away the lighter sand and soil, completing most of the screening work for them.
All they had to do was to find the gold particles that had settled at the bottom of the uneven ore washing tank.
It's a pity that the blankets are now used to keep warm, and Liang Yao doesn't have any extra blankets to use as collection pads at the bottom of the ore washing trough, otherwise the gold mining efficiency could be improved to a higher level.
But these were not a problem, as the nearby Indians had furs. The Indians did not know the value of gold at first, and the whites often deceived them with cheap small items in exchange for their valuable specialties, including furs.
Over time, the Indians became more sophisticated and demanded to trade in gold. Even Sutter's Indian employees and slaves no longer accepted payment in kind, but demanded that their wages be settled in gold.
As long as he had gold, it would not be difficult to exchange some furs from the Indians. If he had enough sales channels and connections, he could even do the fur business and sell these things to Europe and Asia. But it was too early to consider this now.
"Third brother, a full 158 ounces of gold! This is truly a gold mountain! Gold is everywhere!"
As large amounts of gold were scoured out from the mine soil and sand, Liang Yao's status in everyone's eyes also rose.
They now believe more and more that as long as they listen to Liang Yao and follow Liang Yao wholeheartedly, they will have an endless supply of gold.
"Is there really so much? Third nephew, did you weigh it wrongly, and mistake sand for gold?"
Deng Yan found this result unbelievable. They had worked hard for more than half a month and only found more than 130 ounces of gold. Today, they found 158 ounces of gold in one day. No matter how they thought about it, it was just a dream.
Many people would think this number is exaggerated. In fact, early gold miners could usually wash out about ten ounces of gold a day or even more. This is also the culprit for the crazy prices in California. With more gold, it is naturally less valuable.
"No doubt about it. Several bottles are full." Deng Wenyu patted his chest and assured Deng Yan, lowering his voice and exclaiming in ecstasy, "We are rich!"
Deng Yan adjusted the musket strap on his shoulder. They had developed the habit of never leaving their guns. Then Deng Yan slapped himself hard and grinned, "It's really not a dream."
"Congratulations to Captain Deng, congratulations to Master Liang, and congratulations to everyone for finding a way to make money."
Cai Mingsheng congratulated them.
Liang Yao asked Deng Wenyu to bring two glass bottles filled with fine gold, weighing a total of forty ounces, and wrapped them in a piece of rag and stuffed them into Cai Mingsheng.
"Uncle Cai has been worried these days."
"We are all from the same village. It doesn't matter if we have to worry about it or not. This is all thanks to Master Liang. Master Liang is very talented and has the ability to turn stones into gold."
Cai Mingsheng waved his hand to indicate that he didn't need so much gold. After several refusals, he knew Liang Yao's temper and accepted the gold.
Cai Mingsheng had been working for them in Sacramento for most of the month and had no time to go home, so he temporarily said goodbye to Liang Yao and returned to San Francisco. Before leaving, Liang Yao asked him to find some reliable craftsmen.
It is not a long-term solution for so many people to live in tents in the middle of winter. Now that he has a certain income, Liang Yao decided to build a house here.
"Don't be happy too soon. There is a lot of gold in the mine at the beginning, but the gold in the mine will become less and less later. If we want to get rich, we have to use our brains to think of other ways." Liang Yao poured a basin of cold water on everyone.
The temporary success did not make Liang Yao go to his head and lose his mind. This income was far from his goal. In his opinion, the gold mining method of washing trough was not efficient enough.
"Understood."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Third brother, now that we have gold, why don't we rent some more land from that Sartre? Before, we could only wash 20 to 30 barrels of ore a day, but now with this ore washing trough, we can wash 700 to 800 barrels of ore a day. We can find some craftsmen to make the ore washing trough bigger, or make a few more ore washing troughs. It won't be difficult to wash several thousand barrels of ore a day." Deng Wenyu suggested.
"You are the only one who is smart! Doesn't the Sartre know that there is gold in his land? Why would he grant you all these lands?"
Deng Yan knocked Deng Wenyu's forehead in annoyance. What Deng Yan said made sense. It was true that Sartre was short-sighted, but that didn't mean he was a fool.
"We need to think about these things in the long run. Starting from tonight, you brothers will follow me to learn the foreign language and write the foreign characters."
Some time ago, in order to survive, they had to pan for gold with a frying pan day and night. Now with the ore washing trough, they can save a lot of time.
After having a relatively stable path for primitive accumulation of capital, Liang Yao also had to start planning to establish his own small business empire before the big financial groups from the east came to California.
Liang Yao wanted to train his cousins to become the core management of his future team, but illiterate people would find it difficult to be competent for those management positions, and it would be difficult to deal with foreigners if they could not understand or write English. "The foreigners' foreign characters look like bean sprouts, all of them are the same. I know them, but they don't know me."
The youngest member, Deng Wenkang, felt like quitting.
"I am a rough man, you guys learn the foreign language and words, I am panning for gold"
"You're useless!" Deng Yan kicked Deng Wenkang hard. "You want to make a living here, but you can't speak or read foreign languages. How can you do that? You can just go pan for gold. When all the gold is dug up, what are you going to do to support yourself?"
Deng Yan was the chief because he could not read, and sometimes he had to ask people who could read to read the documents. Now he saw Liang Yao was willing to teach the children of the Deng family to read and write, but the children of the Deng family were still unwilling to learn, which made him very angry.
"I'll learn too, count me in." Deng Yan took the lead and set an example, indicating that he was willing to learn.
"Fifth brother, if you want to study in a private school in Xiangshan, you have to pay tuition to the tutor. Now that Yao Ge is willing to teach us how to read and write, it is our blessing. Yao Ge's family was once a high-ranking official in the capital. He passed the imperial examination at such a young age. He is very knowledgeable. Don't be ungrateful."
Deng Wenkang's elder brother Deng Wenqi also advised Deng Wenkang.
"I'm willing to learn." Deng Wenkang had no choice but to nod and agree.
"I want to learn too." Deng Ying, who was burning a fire nearby, heard their conversation and came over covered in dust and said timidly.
Deng Yan was about to open his mouth to scold, but Liang Yao stopped him. He certainly knew what Deng Yan was going to say in this era where men were valued more than women.
"Sister Ying, a woman is willing to learn. If you men don't learn, you will be worse than women." Liang Yao said with a smile.
Liang Yao's joy did not last for a few days, as the mounted police from San Francisco came to Sacramento on horseback and brought very bad news to the miners who were panning for gold.
Recently, more than 40 deserters stationed in a nearby military fortress fled their base.
In theory, this news is nothing surprising. In 1850, the salary of an ordinary soldier in the US army was a pitiful $6 per month.
If you join the gold rush team, as long as you are not a super unlucky person, it is easy to earn tens or hundreds of dollars a day. With such a big income gap, it is inevitable that there will be deserters.
After the Mexican-American War, the U.S. government had at least 800 troops stationed in major military fortresses in California, most of whom have now fled.
Not to mention the troops stationed in California, there were also many deserters from neighboring Oregon and even from the eastern United States who came to California.
However, this time, the deserters chose a simpler and more brutal method of gold mining, which was to rob directly. Mining for gold by yourself is not as fast as robbing directly.
What's worse is that there were military officers involved. They stole a large amount of arms from the armory before fleeing the fortress.
Ordinary gangsters are not scary because most of them are loosely organized violent groups that will scatter if something goes wrong.
It is obvious that these deserters are not ordinary bandits. They are well organized, have received good military training, have actual combat experience in the Mexican-American War, and are even led by professional officers.
Professional soldiers acting as bandits is a dimensionality reduction attack on these loose gold diggers.
Many of the leaders of the gold mining companies and hired gunmen had served in the military, and many of them had actual combat experience. For example, Captain Weber of the Boston Company next door was an experienced officer. The five or six gunmen they hired had served in the armies of various countries or participated in actual combat as mercenaries.
But these people are scattered in different gold-mining companies and organizations. They are just scattered sand and cannot form much combat effectiveness.
"Those daring guys, guess what they did? They actually attacked San Francisco! They looted many stores, and even our sheriff was shot! Fortunately, no vital injuries! My God! These damn deserters should all be hanged."
Since Liang Yao gave these errand policemen twenty ounces of gold, these policemen were also happy to reveal more details to Liang Yao. Of course, there was no lack of exaggeration.
"Oh my God, give my regards to Sheriff Flagg. I will pray to God that Sheriff Flagg will recover soon! California needs Sheriff Flagg and honest police officers like you. Without you, the law and order situation in California would be unimaginable!"
Liang Yao spoke with a grief-stricken expression and tone, as if the sky of California would fall without Flagg and these mounted policemen.
"Mr. Liang, I will report your words to Sheriff Flagg. I'm sure he will be very happy to hear them."
Although Liang Yao's words were exaggerated and corny, the policemen found them very useful.
"We are very poor and don't have anything good to give to Sheriff Flagg to thank him for everything he has done for us California. We can only give Sheriff Flagg some gold to show our appreciation." Liang Yao reluctantly took out another 30 ounces of gold and entrusted the mounted police to pass it to Flagg.
Flagg's injuries are not serious and will not endanger his life. California will not replace the sheriff in the short term, so there will be no harm in having a good relationship with Flagg.