Chapter 277: Gold Mine
Chapter 268 – Gold Mine
Guinea.
This era hadn’t been developed yet, and most of the area was a tropical forest. Now that it was the rainy season again, the jungle was even more dangerous.
However, none of this could stop people’s enthusiasm to get rich. Austrian colonists have begun to reach out to the interior, do not even need the government to organize, want to get rich civil armed team, has already acted spontaneously.
Europeans in this era, as long as it is the initiative to the colonies, that is the existence of the courage to fight and dare to break through, can be forced to immigrate than the Vienna government has the courage to immigrate to a lot of people.
This also has to do with the proportion of young and strong refugees, affected by the Balkan wars, a large number of young and strong deaths, and finally went to the African continent of the refugees appeared to be more women than men situation.
This is also a good thing for the Vienna government to develop the African continent, this era engaged in colonization activities are basically all men, countries are for the colonies of male-female imbalance headache. Because of this problem, the later colonies appeared a large number of mixed-race children.
Now there is no need for headaches, a large number of female immigrants have solved this problem. Once they started families, they were basically stabilized.
Franz had already worked out a propaganda plan and was just about to discover the gold.
There was no way around it, Europeans in this era recognized gold mines, and for most people, digging up gold mines was the easiest means to make them rich overnight.
In order to attract immigrants, Franz have endured the pain of giving up the plan to monopolize the gold mine. Of course, not knowing the exact location of the gold mine was also a major reason.
……
After the rain, Baron Fikeni took the colonization team on the road. As a traditional German military noble family, in this era of great change, his father’s generation was not able to keep up with the pace of the times, and the family business slowly declined.
Originally, the output of the land was not much, and after the abolition of serfdom, his income was even less. Relying on the income from the fiefdom alone, he could no longer maintain his lavish aristocratic life.
In order not to become one of the bankrupt aristocrats, after the Vienna government opened up the African colonies, Fikeni mortgaged his fiefdom to the bank and organized a colonial army of two hundred men.
Unlike other colonial armies, all the men in his group knew their roots, and they were all private armies composed of hired peasants in the fiefdom.
These people were the result of many years of operation by the Fikeni family, and even after the abolition of serfdom, the local people still owed him allegiance.
Although among all the colonization teams that went to the African continent, the size of this team could only be regarded as medium, but the fighting strength was the existence of the front.
This was the heritage of the noble family, that even if it was the capital left over from the fall, it was not something that could be compared to an outbreak.
……
“Baron, the sentries found the indigenous tribe hunting in front, the number is around one hundred and fifty people, their weapons are mainly bows and arrows and bone spikes.” A middle-aged man said seriously
Fikni frowned, he very much disliked dealing with these purely indigenous tribes, there was no way for the two sides to communicate.
It wasn’t like he was a slave trader, he had little interest in capturing slaves. Though American slave traders, during this period, had appeared in colonial strongholds specializing in acquiring slaves, and the bids weren’t low.
Noble birth Fikeni still can not pull the face, run to do slave traders, he thought it insulted the family’s honor.
For those who degenerated to profit from selling slaves team, he has never been contemptuous.
The Vienna government also banned the slave trade, enacting the Abolition Act shortly after Franz’s succession, which was the legal basis for the Vienna government’s emancipation from serfdom.
Of course this law, for the time being, could not control the African continent, as long as the slaves were not brought to the Austrian mainland, then no one would ask questions.
Americans, Portuguese as slave traders, the colonial government never asked, but also can not control them, this is the African continent, the order is to rely on the fist.
I’m afraid that the battalion of Austrian soldiers inside the colonial stronghold alone is no match for the slave traders.
Reality is so cruel, overseas colonization is also to consider the cost. Austria opened more than twenty colonial strongholds on the African continent, and the troops of one infantry division were just scattered out.
In addition to government troops, from the domestic size of the colonial team is also an important part of the organization of the colonial army, a single armed team is inconspicuous, once all organized is two infantry divisions.
From the moment they set foot in the colony, they became a member of the Austrian Army Reserve. In case of emergency, the colonial government had the right to recruit all armed groups.
Fikni asked, “Can we avoid them?”
He had come to find gold and get rich, not to have a firefight with a tribe of natives, which would not bring him any semblance of glory and would consume valuable ammunition.
The middle-aged man thought about it and said, “I’m afraid I can’t, they’re blocking our way unless we’re not advancing.
Otherwise, even if we avoid them, it is very likely that we will be ambushed by them on our way back. There have already been several teams in the stronghold that have been sneak attacked by the indigenous tribes.
Moreover, these people have someone’s skull around their waist, most of them are cannibal tribes, not good things, there is no need for us to be polite with them.”
“Bang Bang Bang ……”
Without waiting for Fikni to give the order, the sound of gunshots already rang out.
“What happened?”
“Baron, the enemy has discovered us and is attacking us.” A soldier hurriedly came and said
After learning that the enemy had launched an attack, there was no hesitation, Fikeni immediately ordered, “Vinny, take the men up to finish them off, use your guns directly to settle the matter, don’t be stupid and go to fight them physically!”
“Yes!”
……
One hundred and fifty meters away, gunshots rang out.
“Bang Bang Bang ……”
Without any suspense, the battle was over. It didn’t take much at all to deal with the natives of the Cold Weapon Era.
After routing the enemy, Baron Fikni didn’t order a further pursuit, he wasn’t a slaver and wasn’t interested in taking prisoners.
One of the soldiers who went up to check it out, suddenly shouted in surprise: “Gold!”
“Baron, these natives have a piece of gold on them, we’re about to find a gold mine!”
The presence of gold meant that there was a gold mine nearby. The activity range of the indigenous tribes in this era was limited, usually just a hundred or eighty kilometers in a circle.
After determining the range, it wouldn’t be difficult to find the gold mine. The crowd was pleasantly surprised, after a few months of busy work in the African continent, there was no harvest at all, it would be a problem if everyone didn’t despair.
For the sake of the gold, Baron Fikeni was in a good mood and said, “Priest, supersede for them!”
The priest said with great disgust, “I’m sorry, Your Excellency the Baron, they are not followers of God. Besides, I don’t think the evil cannibal tribes are qualified to go to heaven, their only destination is hell!”
Savage cannibal tribes, this was beyond the range of acceptance of normal people. Except for the brain-dead Madonna, I guess no normal person can agree that “cannibalism is a culture”.
Just because Baron Fikeni was in a good mood to be kind and ignored his enemy’s identity didn’t mean that he had a good feeling about the savage cannibal tribes.
“Alright, let’s continue our search for the gold mine.”
……
As if God had played a joke with him, the gold mine that was close at hand was slow to appear, instead, he was attacked by several jungle killers one after another, paying the price of three deaths and five injuries.
Facing these kings of the jungle, Fikeni’s colonization team was really a bit exhausted, and everyone’s morale inevitably became low.
“We’re running low on provisions, after searching this area, if we haven’t found any gold mines yet, we’ll return to the stronghold first to replenish our supplies.
Now start living and cooking, after using dinner, except for those who have arranged to keep watch, the rest of us will have a good rest. If we don’t have any results tomorrow, we’ll come back another time.
Don’t worry, the gold mines are all under the ground, they can’t run away, this is a God-given opportunity, now it’s just a test!” Baron Fikeni pacified
After being pacified, the mood of the crowd stabilized a lot. Searching for gold mines is never smooth sailing, and a few setbacks are nothing at all.
Legendary cannibal flowers, cannibal tree demons, and demonic sorcerers, they didn’t encounter any of them, but only encountered some poisonous insects and fierce beasts, which was already considered lucky, Fikeni reassured himself.
He was running out of money, if he couldn’t find any more gold mines, then he would have to become a mercenary, working for the colonial government to get paid, or working for the slavers to earn commissions to keep the team running.
After hesitating for a long time, in the end, the honor of his family prevailed, and he couldn’t afford to be ashamed of himself by working for a slave trader.
Working for the colonial government was at least serving the empire. Although the income may be less, but the status is different!
As an aristocrat, it would be a problem if he couldn’t become a member of the colony’s top brass if he made a merit.
At this time a familiar voice rang out, “Baron, this is the river sand we found in the river in front of us, it seems that this contains gold.”
After saying that, the man handed the river sand that was glowing with gold to Baron Fikni.
After looking at it, Fikni said in a hurry, “Quickly ask Father Batig to come here, we may have found a gold mine.”
Priests in Europe in this era also had multiple side professions such as teachers, scientists, and engineers. Without families to drag them down, and with plenty of time to learn knowledge every day, their knowledge level was usually good.
Fr. Battig was snubbed by Baron Ficoni, who promised to fund a Catholic church for Fr. Battig once he found the gold mine and to help him spread the Gospel of the Lord in the colonies.
The camp was not very large, and Father Battig, who was in the middle of a prayer session, was asked to identify whether the shiny substance in these river sands was gold.
Taking a magnifying glass and looking closely for a while, Father Battig said, “God bless you, Your Excellency the Baron, you have finally found gold.
However, I still need to personally go to the river to explore before I can determine the gold content in the river sand. If it exceeds 3 grams, then it has value for exploitation.
Judging from this handful of river sand alone, the gold content in this area should be very high, and judging from my experience, it shouldn’t be less than 5 grams.”
Fikeni couldn’t wait to say, “No problem, Father. It’s getting late now, so let’s rest for the night, and then we can go over for field exploration tomorrow.”
It was not a secret that gold existed in the river sand, but the amount was very touching. After as many as a hundred tests, the content did not exceed 3 grams of gold per ton of river sand.
This value in later life or is considered a rich mine, in this era, even mining value are not. Even if the forced mining and refining out, and can not do to make a profit.
At first, Baron Fikeni was still very enthusiastic about testing the river sand, and gradually he despaired. It was only when he saw the golden light in this cupped river sand just now that it drew his attention.
All already visible to the naked eye, this gold content is naturally not low. However, this cupped river sand does not have representative, to carry out field exploration, only to be able to determine the gold content.
Father Batig replied, “Your Excellency the Baron, I don’t have any problems. You can just arrange these things.”
……
(End of chapter)