The piece of gold that Huang Lun found was about the size of a thumb, which could barely be considered a nugget of gold.
He was excited for several days and nights, and people came to congratulate him every day. In fact, they wanted to see what the gold nugget looked like.
Wang Chongdu also came to express his condolences and said to Huang Lun: "If you are afraid of losing it, you can sell it to me. Nugget gold is more valuable than ordinary gold, but yours is too small and you will definitely not be able to sell it at a high price."
Huang Lun was afraid that Ye Changmengduo would cause trouble, so he nodded and said: "I will sell it if the price given by the owner is suitable!"
The two haggled for a while and settled on a 10% increase in the Guangdong official gold price when going overseas.
Of course, the ship tickets, meals, medicines, waist knives, and port entry taxes that Huang Lun owed on credit must also be deducted. This does not include the monthly gold rush tax.
After all the efforts, Huang Lun still owed Wang Chongdu.
If we continue to work hard to dig for gold, we will soon pay off the debt here. The next step is to pay off the debt back home.
By purchasing a nugget of gold, Wang Chongdu once again reiterated to the gold diggers: "You can sell all your gold to me, and you can take back the rest to pay off your debts. But I want to remind you that when you return to China and file taxes in Hong Kong, no matter what
All gold and silver will be sold to the government. Anyone who hides it and takes it home is guilty of smuggling gold and silver!"
This rule was not set by Zhu Ming, it had always been like this in the pre-Song Dynasty.
While the Northern Song Dynasty allowed private mining and gold panning, it also stipulated that the gold and silver mined must be sold to the government. However, because the official purchase price was too low, more and more people hid gold and silver privately.
The Ming Dynasty learned from the lessons of the Northern Song Dynasty, raised the official purchase price, and announced the current price of gold and silver every six months. The people called it the "official price", and all gold, silver and coin transactions were based on the official price.
Of course, gold and silver are also of high quality.
There are always some corrupt officials who, when purchasing gold and silver in mining areas and ports, deliberately lower the price by saying they are of insufficient quality.
There was a big riot in Fuzhou. As the Keelung River gold sands were mined out, many gold diggers returned to Fujian with their gold, and the government generally bought it at a price of 40%.
The gold diggers became more and more angry as they thought about it, and in the excitement of the crowd, they smashed up the government office that purchased gold and silver.
This incident caused a big fuss and soon alerted the censor. Following the clues, other cases were discovered. Two officials and seven other officials were beheaded, 19 were exiled, and 36 were imprisoned.
Wang Chongdu continued: "I know you have a fellow countrymen association, and you can help each other. Don't let me deal with those shady people. Li and Gao, the two ship owners, and I are both from Shanxi. Although we have not recruited many fellow countrymen from Shanxi, we can
I can’t help you fellow Fujian and Guangdong people bullying me. You should think about it yourself.”
"From the Anxi Protector's Palace to the Andong Protector's Palace, from Japan to Jambi, there are hometown associations everywhere, and they will cause some troubles from time to time. The imperial court hated this very much, and although it did not order a ban, it also openly and secretly suppressed it.
The fellow villagers will disperse."
"To tell you the truth, when we first got off the ship, I deliberately separated the gold diggers from various provinces into groups. From now on, you will only recognize your own small team and large team, and don't talk about people from the same hometown. Grandpa, I will piss you off.
If you dig a hole and bury it, you will be told that the natives killed it when you return home!"
Wang Chongdu walked along the river named Jinshan River and kept telling the gold diggers these things along the way.
He had to slowly establish rules, and when the monsoon changed, only a few armed men would be left here, and the rest would all have to return home. At that time, it would be easy for something to happen, either from the natives who came to kill him, or from the internal chaos among the gold diggers.
Wang Chongdu didn't want to see one more person die.
For example, someone who died of illness along the way still owed Wang Chongdu the money for the ship ticket, food and medical expenses. He couldn't go back to China to ask for payment from the family of the deceased, because those who are willing to go to sea are miserable, and the family is too poor to ask for it.
How much?
"After one month, each team will re-elect the captain, deputy captain, squad captain, and squad deputy. You may not be convinced by the captain I temporarily appointed. When you re-elect the captain, all orders from now on will be obeyed by the captain. If the captain
If you do something unfair, come to me again, or to the person in charge I left behind!"
While talking these words along the way, Wang Chongdu had walked along the river for several miles.
Suddenly, there was an exclamation in the distance.
Wang Chongdu went over to check it out in person, only to find out that someone had discovered nugget gold again...
In another time and space, 80% of the gold nuggets weighing more than 10 kilograms recorded in human history were discovered in Australia.
Especially in this place where Wang Chongdu brought the gold diggers, gold nuggets are found in endless amounts.
When the gold here was almost exhausted, two guys went further upstream to look for gold mines. On February 4, 1869, they found a large gold nugget.
Because the gold nugget was too heavy, I couldn’t find a suitable scale, so I had to smash it into three pieces and weigh them separately: 79 kilograms!
This nugget of gold is located in the upstream area, only a dozen days' journey from the gold mining spot here.
By the way, the largest gold nugget in human history weighs about 285 kilograms. It’s just north of this gold mining spot and it takes more than a month’s walk to get there.
"Where's the scale? Get the scale quickly!"
Wang Chongdu pushed through the crowd and squeezed in. He found a gold digger holding a big lump in his arms.
The team leader of this person was very responsible. He held a sieve in his hand and gestured around, not allowing anyone to get too close, fearing that jealous people would directly grab him.
"It's so big, how did you find it?" Wang Chongdu asked.
The gold prospector was an honest man, excited and frightened at the same time. Holding the gold, he trembled all over and replied: "I... I thought it was a stone... a stone. The sieve hit it... several times, and I wanted to pick... pick it up."
Get up and throw...throw it ashore..."
Wang Chongdu was speechless. Soon, the scale was brought.
More than 24 pounds!
The Jin system in the Song Dynasty went through several changes. After the founding of the People's Republic of China by Zhu Ming and his sons, the standard in the late Northern Song Dynasty was adopted, with one Jin equal to approximately 625 grams.
Converted to modern kilograms, this nugget of gold weighs about 30 kilograms.
Wang Chongdu glanced around and said to the gold digger: "Stop digging for gold. It's not beautiful to die of illness or exhaustion. You can keep the gold yourself, or you can store it with me. When the monsoon comes, come back to Guangzhou with me."
"
The gold digger was just honest, but not really stupid. He subconsciously hugged the nugget gold tightly and said, "I...I will go back with my fellow villagers."
Wang Chongdu couldn't laugh or cry: "I don't want to harm you, but I want to bring you and the nugget gold back to Guangzhou to attract more gold diggers here. If you are afraid, you can also find a few fellow villagers to go home together. Or let Fujian and Guangdong
All the gold diggers in my country mention you when they write home. With so many people writing home, do I dare to steal your gold? I have to take care of you all the way, lest you die of illness at sea."
The gold digger was still hesitating.
There was no way, Wang Chongdu could only ask: "Where is your hometown?"
The gold digger said: "Huizhou, Heyuan County."
Wang Chongdu ordered his followers: "Call everyone from Heyuan County to bear witness together. Forget it, call everyone from Huizhou."
The Huizhou fellows who had been scattered to go out to hunt for gold gathered together one after another. They were shocked when they saw such a big gold nugget.
With the support of fellow villagers, the gold prospector finally felt relieved and signed a note to deposit the nugget gold with Wang Chongdu.
This old man has only been working for more than half a month, and he has really stopped prospecting for gold, because gold prospecting is too taxing on his waist.
He had a skill as a carpenter, and he specialized in carpentry from then on, making furniture or tools for other gold diggers. He waited for the monsoon to come and then sailed back to Guangzhou.
Wang Chongdu couldn't eat such a big gold nugget, and the Guangdong government didn't dare to keep it privately. It would definitely be handed over to the emperor in the end.
In just one day, this matter had spread throughout the world, and all the gold diggers felt more powerful.
Huang Lun was stunned for a while when he heard the news. He thought he was lucky, but he didn't know that he was even worse than others.
In the following months, 12 pieces of nugget gold were discovered one after another.
There are also many gold pieces the size of fingernails. Although they are not gold nuggets, they are enough to make the lucky ones cheer.
There is so much gold here!
Historically, 120,000 gold prospectors panned here for three years. After panning the river, they went to both sides of the river to dig and mine. Then the Chinese gold miners arrived belatedly and could only mine the waste mines abandoned by the white people a second time. However, the Chinese miners
As long as they didn't die, they all still made money and went home.
At that time, more than 100,000 people gathered here. In the first few years, there was news about gold nuggets almost every month.
In human history, 80% of the gold nuggets weighing more than 10 kilograms came from Australia. And nearly half of the gold nuggets in Australia came from here and hundreds of kilometers around. Not to mention those weighing less than ten kilograms!
Half a year later, Huang Lun developed a back problem from exhaustion and planned to work for another year before going home.
He believed that not only would he be able to pay off his debts, but he would also have surplus money to use for business.
Just open a shop and do business here.
There must be more and more gold diggers, and there is no shortage of customers at all. His family used to do business, and the eldest brother will definitely not want to come. You can bring the second brother and some fellow villagers.
He wants to be the founder of the Huang family in Jinshan, Australia!
Since the gold mining results were much higher than expected, even Wang Chongdu's group could not help but join the gold mining team.
Wang Chongdu could not continue to block it, so he had to set rules for changing shifts (enough manpower must be left to guard the ship to guard against indigenous raids), and at the same time increase his salary during his stay in Australia.
After much thought, Wang Chongdu led his men to take the initiative to raid the tribe near the port. That tribe also participated in the attack on the gold diggers last time.
He also captured many indigenous prisoners of war, not to let the indigenous people pan for gold, but to let them cultivate land and cultivate food.
It is impossible to sustain the consumption of so many people solely by transporting food from Java or hunting here.
Those indigenous prisoners of war didn't know anything, and it was difficult to communicate verbally, so they could only be taught step by step. If they didn't learn it after two more lessons, they would be whipped, and they would be able to do it after repeated beatings.
After half a year, the monsoon finally changed. Wang Chongdu left behind a group of armed men and returned to Guangzhou with the rest of his men.
Also taken away with them were a few gold diggers and a large number of gold diggers' letters from home.
There are also the ashes of nineteen gold diggers, two of whom were bitten by poisonous snakes.
Over in Guangzhou, you will soon know what the nugget gold shock is.