Chapter 91: Digging for Gold
Zhao Zhen led Yang Lin into the front hall and asked the village man to bring out a fruit box of wine. Zhao Zhen held three cups in his hand. Yang Lin thanked Zhao Zhen and drank. The two sat down, and Zhao Zhen said to Zhuang Ding who was waiting next to him: "Go to the east courtyard and invite all the heroes to talk together."
As he was talking, he heard Tang Sen shouting loudly from a distance. : "Master of the village, gold, gold, gold has been found."
Tang Sen ran into the front hall panting. When he saw someone in the hall, he did not bother to salute and said: "Master of the village, we found it in Dry Tree Mountain. Got the gold." He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Zhao Zhen.
Zhao Zhen took over and said: "The lanterns announced last night, and the magpies are noisy this morning. First a good man came to vote, and then there is good news. Everything will be fine today."
With that said, Chao Gai, Guang Hui and Song Wan came to the hall. After seeing the ceremony, everyone sat down and talked about what happened just now. Zhao Zhen opened the veil, put it on a tray, and showed it to everyone.
Zhao Zhen said: "Guanshi Tang, how did you discover the gold mine."
Tang Sen said: "I also want to thank King Chao Tian for the goose that he gave to the owner."
Chao Gai After hearing this, he said: "How do you say this?"
Tang Sen said: "Last time, these big geese were placed at the northern foot of Kushu Mountain, where they meet the lake. In the past few days, the geese have been sent back to Dongxi Village. I don’t want to waste the goose manure here. Today I took a few farmers to clean it. Unexpectedly, I picked up a small piece of gold. It was shining in the sun. I bit it and it turned out to be gold. "< br>
Just as he was talking, everyone looked at Song Wan, and saw that Song Wan was taking a slightly larger piece, putting it in his mouth and biting it, and everyone burst into laughter.
Song Wan also laughed, picked it up, smelled it again, and said, "It doesn't stink."
Guang Hui said, "Gold and silver are not dirty, and making money doesn't make you shiver." Everyone listened. Well, everyone said that Guanghui’s words had a Zen meaning.
Tang Sen continued: "I collected the goose dung and washed half of it. I got these small and large pieces of gold. I was anxious to report it. I took the gold sand and hurried away. Come here."
Yang Lin heard this and said: "I heard that the scholar said a strange thing: 'There is a golden pond in Han County, and the people living there suddenly raise geese and ducks, which are often seen in the feces. If you pick up some pieces of bran and gold, you can collect them and get one or half a tael a day, so you can become rich. "
Zhao Zhen said: "If this is true, there may be gold mines in the lake, but it cannot be mined, and I don't know the output." He asked Tang Sen again: "Has it been weighed?"
Tang Sen said: "When it comes, , I weighed the geese, and they weighed six taels. "
Zhao Zhen said: "These more than a thousand geese have been here for five days, and they can earn almost two taels of gold every day, which is quite a fortune. Road, I didn’t expect there to be gold sand in the lake, what a surprise.”
Tang Sen said: “Master, do you want to invite the geese back?”
Zhao Zhen shook his head and said: "Dongxi Village doesn't have much industry, and there are only more than a thousand Baizi Geese now. If you put them here, don't do anything bad. Moreover, if they all move to your place, the output of Dongxi Village will be much less in the future. In this way, You move all the ducks and geese in Xixi Village. I remember there are more than a thousand of them. Leave more than a hundred for daily consumption. They will be placed in a circle next to the lake. I will build a shed first and let them hatch some. Hatch some more geese in Xixi Village, and your place will be enough for another three to five months. Then you can tell Ding Chou about this and handle it accordingly."
After hearing this, Tang Sen was overjoyed and said, "The owner of the village is right. I will go down and find Manager Ding to tell you." After that, Tang Sen happily resigned.
Zhao Zhen handed the handkerchief to Zhao Yuanli and said: "Yuanli, take this and wrap it in gold, let Zhang melt it and cast it into gold melon seeds weighing one penny. Do the same with the gold sand you get in the future. . Go to the carpenter's workshop and make a boxwood box to put it in."
Zhao Yuanli took the bag of gold sand and responded. Zhao Zhen then said: "I won't go to the workshop today, and we will arrange a banquet to welcome Brother Yang Lin."
As he said that, Zhao Zhen got up and everyone went to Dongkuayuan together. Went to the pavilion under the shade of willows, everyone sat down together, and ate some snacks and fruits first. After a while, a table of ready-made delicate fruits, vegetables, and wine was laid out, followed by fat geese and tender chickens, freshly caught in the lake. Fish, shrimps, turtles, crabs, and freshly braised fat pigs and lambs were also served one after another.
After five or seven glasses of wine, Li Xiaoer led a boy over, brought a plate of sweet and sour fish, and placed it in front of Yang Lin. Li Xiaoer pointed to the sweet and sour fish on the table and said: "Master, I was waiting in the back kitchen to hear that another hero came to invest today, and the owner has good luck with wealth. Today I will make sweet and sour four-tailed carp." Like a fish leaping over the dragon's gate, I wish the owner good fortune, good luck and good fortune, and I wish Yang Yingxiong a bright future as he leaps over the dragon's gate."
After hearing this, everyone applauded and laughed. At this moment, Zhao Yuanli hurried over, handed over a cloth bag, and said: "Master of the village, Zhang Da and Yang Mazi worked together to cast golden melon seeds from all the golden sand, a total of 60 seeds, and they are all here."
Zhao Zhen took it, opened the bag, took one out, handed it to Li Xiaoer and said: "Xiaoer, I give you this golden melon seed. Not only do you cook every day, but you are still willing to use your brain. Not only is it delicious and delicious, but now I am becoming more and more refined. I will study more dishes in the future and strive to become a great chef like Zhu Yizun, who wrote a masterpiece of health and food literature like "Shi Xian Hong Mi"."
Li Xiaoer took the golden melon seeds. , said excitedly: "When Xiao Xiao was in trouble, he was taken in by the owner of the village. He was rewarded with money, food and clothing, and was assigned tasks. At that time, he made up his mind to serve the owner of the village. Now my wife and I have become stewards, and our lives are also good. The good life is a gift from the owner, and I will do my best in the future. I have no other ability but to serve the owner three meals a day."
Zhao Zhen helped Li Xiaoer. After giving him a glass of wine and a few words of encouragement, Li Xiaoer resigned.
Zhao Zhen sighed and said to him: "I didn't expect that the waiter was so thoughtful. He made a whole fish feast when he first came here. Today, the sweet and sour fish dish has been improved a lot. Brother Yang Lin, Come and try how this fish is doing.”
Song Wandao: "Brother Yang Lin, I only came two days earlier than you, and yesterday I also ate this spiritual fish specially made for catching the wind." After hearing this, Yang Lin was not polite, picked up his chopsticks, and started eating.
Everyone drank and drank until dark, then dispersed.
At night, Zhao Zhen talked about this matter with Bai Zhi. Bai Zhi said that it was incredible and she had never heard of this matter. He picked up a golden melon seed with his fingernails and said, "Guardian, is this really gold?"
Zhao Zhen said, "It's absolutely true. If you don't believe it, just bite it and you will know." Bai Zhi frowned, as if After making up his mind, he handed the golden melon seed to the lion cat's mouth and said: "Xiaobai, don't you want to be called Xiaobai? Take a bite of this golden melon seed, and I will never call you Xiaobai again. I'll give you another name." What about the name, Snow Dumpling? ”
Zhao Zhen also looked at the lion cat. The lion cat tilted its head and seemed to be thinking seriously. He stepped forward, sniffed it first, and then actually took a bite.
Then he quickly stepped back and made a 'meow' sound, as if to say: "What the hell, I can't bite it at all."
Bai Zhi raised the golden melon seeds in her hand and looked at them. At first glance, it turned out to be real. Snow dumplings’ teeth marks were left on the golden melon seeds.
Zhao Zhen said: "These have been burned in the furnace. Dirty things cannot be burned. I have never seen anyone think that money is dirty."
Bai Zhi said: "It was a temporary reaction. That’s all, whoever listens to this will feel uncomfortable.”
Zhao Zhen said: "You are just hinting in your heart. When I got the golden sand today, Song Wan bit it." The two of them had a rough fight before falling asleep.
The next day, Zhao Zhen got up early and practiced the Shajia pole with Song Wan, who lived across the courtyard in the east. Yang Lin looked at it, took out his muddy iron pen barrel gun, and practiced the Liuhe gun.
Later, King Guanghui and Chao Tianwang came to Zhuangzi and began to teach Zhuang Ding martial arts, and the east cross courtyard suddenly became lively.
After dinner, Mrs. Li first came to the village to measure the sizes of Song Wan and Yang Lin, and sent over some clothes that Zhao Zhen had made for Bai Zhi. After Mrs. Li took the measurements, she came over to report and then went about her business.
Zhao Zhen had breakfast today and was going to see the bankers panning for gold. After tidying up, he asked two strong villagers to follow him, and took two pieces of clothing as a baggage. Zhao Zhen took two heroes, Song Wan and Yang Lin, and rode straight to Kushu Tun.
Yesterday, all the ducks and geese were transported to Kushu Village. Tang Sen followed the others and handed Zhao Zhen a bag of gold sand. He said: "Master, this is the gold sand left by washing the goose dung yesterday. This part is close to the shore. , the gold produced was more than yesterday, eight taels."
Zhao Zhen took it, handed it to the soldier behind him, and said, "Go back to Zhao Yuanli, he knows how to play with these gold sands."
Seeing that everyone was interested in gold mining, Tang Sen said to Zhao Zhen: "Master of the village, do you want to go to the back mountain?" Zhao Zhen said: "Call Brother Bao Xu and come over to have a look together."
< br>Going up from the foot of the mountain to Kushu Tun, Zhao Zhen, Song Wan, and Yang Lin were also very tired. They took advantage of the opportunity to call Bao Xu and took a rest.
After meeting Bao Xu, several people met first and made a gift. Zhao Zhen first handed over the new clothes in the bag and said: "Brother Bao Xu, I asked the silk shop Wang Fen to make this for all the brothers. Please accept these two clothes. We are going to go gold mining today. Do you want to go with us?”
Bao Xu nodded and said: "This is the first time I have seen gold panning in these pickled things. Let's go together. Let's go together."
A few people went down to the northern foot of Kushu Mountain and saw from a distance There are many ducks and geese by the lake, and several farmers are panning for gold sand by the lake with pans, but not from the mud in the water, but from the excrement pile next to it.
Tang Sen said: "I cleaned it up today and asked the farmer to wash it to see if there is any gold sand."
Zhao Zhen said: "I just moved here yesterday, so there should be no food in front. Gold sands." Everyone walked over and took a look. Some gold sands were vaguely visible on the gold digger's plate.
I just moved here yesterday, and I was able to find gold sand today. It seems that there is a lot of gold sand under the water. After everyone watched the gold rush, the smell was indeed too strong, and after a while, they all walked away.
After seeing the gold rush, everyone returned to Kushu Village. Tang Sen said: "Master of the village, will the gold sand washed be sent to the village every day from now on?"
Zhao Zhen said: "I will ask Zhao Yuanli to arrange for the villagers to pick it up every two days. You only need to supervise the washing of the gold sand. "
Tang Sen nodded in agreement. The weather was getting hotter and hotter. Everyone was covered in sweat when they went up the mountain. Tang Sen led everyone to the village hall to enjoy the shade under the big tree.
(End of this chapter)