"The quality of these golds is quite good!" Huang Chao, who was newly transferred to the deputy commissioner of the Yicheng District Administration in the newly established Liangu Township Government compound, picked up a piece of gold coins that had been refined and stamped and exclaimed.

Huang Chao just took office last month. Originally, he was the county magistrate in Qingdao County, he took the initiative to apply to his superiors to work in a "backward area" and became the deputy commissioner of the Yicheng Regional Administration, becoming Xiao Jingzong's deputy. However, in fact, they also have a division of labor. Xiao Jingzong is mainly responsible for Chenggao and Yicheng counties in the north, focusing on operating the Yicheng Port Terminal, Yicheng Iron Factory, and Chenggao Coal Mine. At the same time, he focused on developing the local agricultural and animal husbandry economy to lay a solid foundation for deeper colonial activities in the future - grain is the basis for all industrial, agricultural and military activities, and this will never be wrong.

Huang Chao is responsible for the south, which is actually Yiyang County, and of course, it also includes the newly opened territory of the East Coast people in this direction in the future. For example, he has now set up his office in Liangu Township, a newly opened settlement in the west of Yiyang County. He is poor, but Huang feels quite at ease.

The Liangu Township Government currently has only more than 20 people, and is in charge of various affairs, so busy that it is not touching the ground. At the same time, a temporary simple military camp was built next to the township government, and the first army regiment temporarily organized a cavalry company here. While protecting the safety of the township government, it also continues to sweep away the indigenous forces that may have roamed around.

In a corner between the military camp and the township government, the East Coast people also built a small industrial facility here, namely a crucible smelting furnace and a steam die-casting machine (powered by a small steam engine of 7.5 horsepower), and intermittently cast gold coins of 50 yuan and 100 yuan in denominations.

The gold required to mint gold coins is the spoils seized by the army soldiers when they went out to fight against the natives. After handing them over to the local government - God knows how much they have hidden, after all, it is not difficult to find someone to smelter underground after returning to a big city in the future - smelting, the amount of casting is not large, and the total is only more than 20,000 yuan. If it is weighted, it is only a few dozen kilograms.

As usual, these coins cannot be moved locally. They must be transported to Yicheng Port and stored in the local Northwest Reclamation Bank's vault. After a certain amount is accumulated (such as 500,000 or 1 million yuan), they will be transported to the local area by the Second Navy Fleet, and will be managed uniformly by the State Administration of Precious Metals, as reserves for future monetary reforms. In other words, although these golds are cast into gold coins, they have no intention of putting them into the market for circulation, but are placed in the vault as reserves at the bottom of the box.

Therefore, even though Huang Chao is so fond of the yellow gold coins in his hand, he can only reluctantly put them down, let the people under his command carefully count them, then wrap them in red silk cloth and lock them in the box. After all, these are the money of the men from the Ministry of Finance.

It has nothing to do with him, Mr. Huang and Yicheng.

Of course, they don’t need much money. As a newly established settlement, Lianguxiang actually needs more labor tools, food, medicines, livestock, daily necessities, and even weapons and ammunition. What they need is real supplies, not cash that cannot be eaten or drunk. In terms of these supplies, the Executive Committee cannot say that all of them satisfy them, at least it has met a considerable amount of them. Therefore, they do not resist the transportation of these gold. They are just equivalent exchanges, not to mention that the local government must obey the central government’s unified strategic deployment.

"The locals don't know the beauty of gold, nor does it have a history of using dog-headed gold as a general equivalent on a large scale. Even so, the army brothers have snatched so much gold from them. So who can tell me how much gold is in the inland areas?" Huang Chao looked at the boxes sealed with gold in the house and said with emotion: "There is dog-headed gold, which means that the mining conditions in the gold mining area are very good, and the cost should be very low, so we have to work hard."

In fact, what Huang Chao said is not entirely true. Although the black people in South Africa have no history of using gold as a general equivalent, this does not mean that they do not know the value of gold. They can make iron, smel up copper, and then make it into various instruments. Gold is just a kind of metal. They will not realize its value over the long years. What's more, after the East Coast people came to the East Coast of South Africa for so many years, they have sent many expedition teams and caravans to the inland areas to trade with black people. They have already understood from the unusual desire of East Coast merchants for gold that this metal has a value beyond other items, so they will gradually begin to consciously increase the reserves of this metal to cope with trade.

Of course, the East Coast people are no longer trading with them. The army soldiers with live ammunition replaced the merchants loaded with goods, and the snow-clear bayonet replaced the dazzling array of daily necessities. The black tribes were defeated one by one, and the people either became slaves or were killed. The remaining property became the trophy of the East Coast people, which naturally included a large amount of gold.

"County magistrate, the army has basically discovered that it is very large, and may be as huge as hundreds of square kilometers. These black people should have obtained some gold-bearing rocks cut by wind or water flow there, and then collected them to trade with us. We are more optimistic about this because with such a poor civilization of black people, how much gold can we get after changing to more advanced technology and stronger determination? This may be an unimaginable number." The person in charge of the small smelting workshop stood behind Huang Chao and said in a slightly flattering tone: "Deputy Commissioner Huang, this gold mine is an excellent opportunity. Once it is fully discovered and officially started to produce, it will be an amazing event in any aspect."

Huang Chao nodded when he heard this. The situation is clear now. Everyone knows that there are gold mines in the inland area not too far away from this. Even knows that the area of ​​this gold mine is vast and unmatched. It is an incalculable wealth. He has made up his mind that after Liangu Township has gained a foothold, he urged the army to continue to send people westward to build new settlements, and open up the road to the gold mine area step by step. The ultimate goal is to enable the entire gold mine area to operate as soon as possible and export gold to the east coast local area in exchange for the living and materials needed for various types of residents. In this process, Huang's political achievements are naturally great, which is very beneficial to the future development of his career.

"After the gold mine is found, we must immediately start building a road from Yiyang Port to the gold mine area. Unfortunately, the money from the regional administration has been put on the Yicheng Railway, and even a lot of the aid funds sent from the upper hair have been used there. I am afraid there is not much money to support our road construction here, which is a pity." Huang Chao ordered several officials following him: "But it is impossible not to allocate any money. If the army is asked to sponsor some materials, the road should be completed in not too long. Anyway, it is a temporary road for temporary gold transportation, and it doesn't need to be of good quality, just enough."

"By the way, I heard that there are coal mines and iron mines very close to here?" Huang Chao seemed to think of something and suddenly asked: "Is this news accurate? Have you sent someone to confirm it?"

"County Magistrate Huang, we have confirmed that there is indeed a large coal storage belt not far from the west. Its coal quality is high, with large reserves, shallow burials, and many types are also very powerful than those local incompetent coal mines. Next to the coal field, our expedition team also found traces of the existence of iron ore, and inferred from various signs that this is an iron ore with very large reserves. I just don't know what the taste is, so it probably won't be too bad." Someone immediately replied: "This is actually a very good coal-iron-iron joint mining area. If it is really necessary to develop well, a series of enterprises can be established here, just like a large industrial organization like Ping An Coal-Steel Consortium. It's a pity that there is an iron plant in Yicheng County now, which is troublesome. The superiors should not give indicators to two steel plants in our area, and this is destined to be given up here. Unfortunately, it's a pity!"

In fact, from this coal-iron mine area to the gold mine area further west, there are many mineral resources such as chromite, copper mine, manganese mine, platinum mine, diamond mine and uranium mine along the way. Unfortunately, the scale here is large and small, and some are not recognized, so the mining order may be relatively low.

"I will talk about the matter of the coal-iron joint venture base in the future. This is a bit conflict with the projects in Yicheng and Chenggao, and there is no need for duplicate construction. Now we are working on the important thing to start operating the gold mining area. The matter is relatively tight and we must do it as the first thing to sort out. If it is not done well, not only you, but I, Huang, will also be slaughtered." Huang Chao said with a serious face: "I went through a lot of hardships not to come here to travel around, but to complete more tasks assigned by the state. I don't care what method you use to the road to the gold mining area, but to start construction before the end of the month. If you want to take a step further in your career in the future, there is the best opportunity in front of you, and everyone will encourage you."

After saying this, Huang Chao left the smelting and stamping workshop, and then returned to the township government office separated by a wall, and discussed with other cadres how to communicate with Yicheng County in the next step, and try to obtain enough funds, equipment and money as the start-up capital for the construction of highways and the establishment of settlements (the initial plan is to set up a settlement near the small town of Frehead in the future).
Chapter completed!