A sampan with sails was moored on the banks of the Sacramento River, and two sailors were checking the conditions of the oars, sails, anchors, and ropes on the sampan.

"The pickaxe, shovel, map, compass, first aid medicine, straw hat, magnifying glass, iron pot, telescope... there is no problem in the toolbox. You must move it on the ship. You must try to protect this box as much as possible. Without these tools, it is very troublesome. There are only a few tools we bring from the mainland. If there is no, not only will we encounter trouble in the inspection, but it will be inconvenient for navigation and other things." Geological experts patiently inspected the tools brought by this expedition.

The toolbox is a simple wooden box with many practical tools placed in it in different categories. For the Jinshan Town colonies, which do not have much production capacity, they are unable to produce qualified tools such as pickaxes, compass, telescopes, etc. Once the tools are lost, they can only wait for supplies from mainland ships in three years.

"The rest of the people should bring muskets and paper-shell ammunition, be careful not to let paper-shell ammunition soak in water, especially when we sail on the river, and it may also be rainy. We also bring daggers, tents, and dry food. There is no supply on the way, and everything depends on our wild survival skills." Cao Bianjiao reminded the sailors to bring muskets.

"You three should be able to use muskets, right?" Cao Bianjiao turned his head and asked two geological experts and Li Yizhu, who was responsible for identifying herb crops.

There were 11 people in the expedition team looking for gold, of which 8 were officers and soldiers, and only these three were technical talents.

"We learned how to use muskets when we were conducting wild survival training in the Ryukyu Islands, and there was no problem." Li Yizhu and two mineral experts received a musket and twenty rounds of paper-shell ammunition.

"We finally built this sampan, so don't damage it easily. It will use the sailing in the inland river in the future." Zheng Zhihu was a little reluctant to say to the sampan built locally in Jinshan Town, and said to Cao Bianjiao.

"The ship is built for use. I guess this expedition will be damaged in almost every ten years. Let's get on the boat!" Cao Bianjiao said.

The group boarded the ship one after another, and two giant Caucasian dogs also arrived on the ship. The small space on the ship made the two giant dogs feel a little uneasy.

"Pay attention to dangerous shoals, reefs, and crocodiles and water snakes that may appear at any time. The rivers are not as safe as imagined. Especially for this primitive river without people, try not to fall into the river." Zheng Zhihu reminded.

"We know, let's go." Cao Bianjiao asked the people on the shore to pull the sails and loosen the ropes and go upstream.

There were dozens of townsmen on the shore saying goodbye to Cao Bianjiao and others, although they didn't know that Cao Bianjiao and others were looking for riverbeds full of gold.

"Why are they going upstream of the river, is there food on it?"

"I don't know, but since the captain led the team himself, it might be to explore the terrain of the upper reaches of the river. I hope they don't meet savages, otherwise they will be in danger."

The townspeople who bid farewell talked a lot.

"Don't guess, the captain is taking people to find out whether there are iron ore and savages upstream of the river." Zheng Zhihu, who was left behind in the stronghold, said to appease everyone. Of course, he did not explain to everyone that Cao Bianjiao and the others were going to look for gold to prevent people from disintegrating.

Cao Bianjiao and others entered the lower reaches of the Sacramento River from the Bay Area. The river surface was still very spacious and gentle, and occasionally aquatic animals could be seen surfaced.

"Crocodile." The expedition team had just set off, and a sailor pointed to the side of the river and said.

Everyone looked in the direction pointed by the sailor. Sure enough, there was a black scale crocodile floating on the water, revealing a pair of eyes looking around.

Two giant Caucasian dogs on the boat roared at the crocodile floating on the water, as if they were full of alert for the giant crocodile surviving in this basin.

"I don't know if this crocodile is more than 100 meters tall. I think it is very likely that this primitive river preys on the weak. Indigenous people without iron tools may find it difficult to hunt giant crocodiles." Experienced sailors can roughly judge its length when they observe the giant crocodile.

"A giant crocodile that is ten or two feet long... If it falls into the water and meets such a big guy, it will be bad. Never fall into the water easily. If the bullet falls into the water, it will lose its power." Cao Bianjiao reminded.

The sampan boat continued to sail upstream, and they saw various wild animals such as crocodiles and water snakes. Both sides of the straits were lush and primitive forests, as well as the sound of insects and the sound of wild animals.

In addition to finding gold mines, it is also an important matter to survey and map the river channel, map the Sacramento River waterways and indicate the dangerous locations in order to develop the route of the river. Even if gold mines are found in the middle and upper reaches of the river, it is also necessary to use the river channel to send people to mine and transport gold.

On the fifth day of careful exploration on the river, their ships entered the valley, where they found something unusual.

"That thing is a canoe." A sailor pointed at the trunk of the tree that was anchored at the mouth of the tributary river. There were two small boats dug from the trunks parked in the jungle by the river. If you didn't look carefully, you might have regarded it as dead trees.

"It seems that there are indigenous tribes in the basin where this river is located. Two canoes can be found here, which means there are tribes formed by indigenous people nearby, and they can hunt and fish in groups. We did not find them before. It seems that not many of them gathered in the harbor area, but concentrated in the valley area where food is more abundant." Cao Bianjiao made his own calculations.

“In addition to being protected from wildlife, we also need to be protected from being attacked by indigenous tribes.”

The expedition team only advances more than twenty miles a day and then goes to the dock to replenish food and fruits. Li Yizhu and two mineral experts are familiar with wild vegetables, fruits and vegetables, so as to avoid people collecting toxic food.

However, they did not go deep into the mountains and forests and still did not see the real indigenous people.

On the thirteenth day of the expedition, they had entered the American River Basin.

"To be precise, the target location is 400 miles away from our Jinshan Town. According to the schedule, we should be about to reach the riverbed that enriches gold mines." As everyone was moving slowly, mineral experts were observing the surrounding terrain and drawing a map of the river.

"But the weather seems to be a little bad. It often rains here in winter. If the river rises sharply due to rain, it will be over." The sailors responsible for observing the wind direction and weather discovered that the gradually gloomy sky and the wind became stronger.

"Let's camp on the shore for the time being, and don't continue sailing at the risk of rain." Cao Bianjiao also felt the moisture in the air.
Chapter completed!