In fact, Xiao Guang guessed correctly, after getting the news they reported, Ma Wenqiang, chairman of the executive committee, immediately instructed the State Development Administration to photograph the telegram to Jinglong County, the nearest telegraph terminal to Zhuolu County, and then sent a messenger to arrive at the place on a fast horse, giving the latest instructions to Xiao Guang's expedition.

The messenger first affirmed the spirit of Xiao Guang's expedition that was not afraid of danger and had the courage to sacrifice, and at the same time authorized the ministry to recruit any government officials in Zhuolu County, including but not limited to cadres, militiamen, policemen, hunters and even ordinary farmers and herdsmen, with a maximum of 30 people, and the required money and food were unconditionally spent by the Zhuolu County Government, and then the Central Ministry of Finance would hand over the money and grain to the Zhuolu County Government.

The messenger was accompanied by two officials of the Ministry of Geology who were prospecting in Jinglong County, who had come to replenish the officials of the Ministry of Geology who had unfortunately died during the previous expedition. In addition, they took the central telegram and withdrew 2,000 yuan in cash from the Jinglong County Finance Bureau, and carried them all the way to Zhuolu County on horseback, which was used to distribute part of the bonuses and pensions of the previous expedition - more than bank deposit receipts, it was more than a bank deposit certificate to boost people's morale.

Xiao Guang didn't expect such a big battle from above, and at the same time, he was excited about the huge power given to them by the State Development Administration. Personnel, money, food, and funds are rolling in, so that he can fight a big fight, how can this not make people happy? Xiao Guang is only in his early thirties now, with the rank of captain, and it is the time to pursue progress. has such an opportunity in front of him, and he will wake up laughing when he really dreams - of course, this is also what he fought so hard for, and others can't envy it.

And just when Xiao Guang and the others were gearing up in Zhuolu County and preparing to do a big job, the rest of the expedition teams also returned one after another. Of these expeditions, one was completely missing, no news was returned, it is not known whether it had not yet had time to return or if something had really happened, two suffered serious attrition, it is said that it had received an attack by the Tupinamba Indians, and one suffered minor losses, and also found a large emerald gem mine, of considerable value.

This team did not receive the grand treatment of Xiao Guang and them. Perhaps because the top did not particularly value the value of emerald mines, felt that the market for this kind of thing on the east coast was not particularly large, and had to find a way to sell it, and at the same time, it did not help the Ministry of Finance to brew the currency reform for many years, so they did not pay special attention to it.

Xiao Guang felt a little glad about this, because it meant that there was another wave of people competing for funds. Zhuolu County is a newly established county, and the economy is not very rich, and after the increase in the number of people, the expenses of Xiaoguang's expedition for a month will be about 1,500 yuan worth of money, food, and materials, which is not a small amount. In a small and poor county like Zhuolu County, it is not easy to maintain one of their expedition teams, and the two of them will definitely go bankrupt.

At the end of December 1686, before Xiao Guang and the others had set out, a contingent of more than 1,000 immigrants arrived from the area of Changcen County in the west, divided into a large number of ships. Their destination was not Zhuolu County, but to continue eastward, establishing new settlements in the half-baked wilderness to the east of the county in preparation for further development of the country.

They did not come because of the discovery of gold or gem mines, but the discovery of these important deposits certainly boosted the determination of the higher authorities to establish settlements in the Zhuoshui and Tuanjie River valleys. After all, if in the future the Executive Committee decides to make a big effort to open up roads to the gold and gem fields – which, I have to say, is a high probability in the current situation – then these settlements will play a very crucial role.

Xiao Guang's expedition team was stained with light, and together with these pioneer immigrants, they took a small steamer and traveled up the river to their destination. Because it had already entered the summer flood season, and the lower reaches of the Zhuoshui River were wide and easy to navigate, the small 72-ton steamer with a shallow draft sailed quickly, and it took only a few days to reach the first destination, Shiyi Township (located in the later small town of Passus, Brazil), near the riverbank.

Here, the immigrants were divided into two groups, one wave (more than 800 people) carrying a large amount of supplies south to establish a settlement in the area of Shiyi Township, and the other wave of about 200 able-bodied men, carrying weapons and ammunition, landed on the north bank of the Zhuoshui River, intending to establish a strong foothold in the area of Fangshan (that is, the source of the Tuanjie River).

In addition, about 2,000 people will travel overland to the east of Zhuolu County to establish three settlements, including Zhending Township (near the later city of Ribeirão Preto), Jiumen Township (near the later town of Franca), and Guquan Township (near the later town of São João da Boavista), which is almost the size of a county.

In the future, the State Development Administration will continue to set up settlements in the east, namely Lunu Township (located near the later Alfinas Town), Lingshou Township (located near the later Posuaregri City), Feilei Township (located near the later Tresco Lazonis Town), and Xiyang Township (near the later Kalancas Town), a total of four settlements, striving to connect the settlements in the Zhuoshui River basin all the way to the east and Yanle County in the coastal Hue region, although there seems to be a Brazilian shield in the middle.

But that's all for later, maybe it will be a few years away, and wilderness development is not so easy. Materials, technology, money, food, materials, and population are all indispensable, and it depends on whether the State Development Administration has the determination. However, with the current boom in the development of gold and precious stones, these places, which are closer to the hinterland of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, may be able to take a shortcut and develop ahead of schedule.

Well, let's get down to business. The people of Xiao Guang's expedition disembarked from the boat on the north bank with the 200 young men, and then for safety reasons, they walked together for a while until they reached the Fangshan Mountains in the upper reaches of the Tuanjie River. The 200 men planned to find a suitable place to settle down nearby and prepare for the future construction of a settlement, while the 50 or 60 men of the Xiao Guang expedition, with a large group of pack horses and supplies, meandered all the way north along the Tuanjie River, continuing the search for gold along the old road.

While making a small raft before departure, they found a skeleton in a nearby forest. If nothing else, the bones should be from the east coast, because the superiors have also sent expeditions to the nearby area before, but not many times. Next to the skeleton was a package carefully sealed with a rain cloth and rubber, and Xiao Guang had it opened, revealing a number of mineral specimens, hand-drawn maps, and other documents. There is no doubt that this is a missing member of the East Coast Expedition who got lost or died of a sudden illness during a field expedition, becoming one of the countless unsung heroes who died in the wild forest.

There was also a half-written letter in the package, Xiao Guang opened it and looked at it, and the words "Father Junjian, who has been away from home for a long time, and his health is ......" came into view. He sighed and asked people to put away all the relics of this person, pack them and give them to the young men who plan to open a base in the Fangshan area, so that they can have time to send them to the Ministry of Geology. This person may have been an employee of the Ministry of Geology before his death, and if he was a regular worker, then his identity would be easier to determine, but if an official of the Ministry of Geology was temporarily recruited in the countryside with money, it would be more troublesome to determine, and it may not even be possible to confirm it, because there are too many expedition members who have disappeared in the field over the years.

"No one knows your name, but your exploits will last forever......" Xiao Guang personally gathered this person's bones, handed them to others, and then said to his subordinates with a solemn face: "We have been established on the east coast for more than 50 years. In the past 50 years, life has been getting better and better, and the country has become stronger and stronger, even to the point that the European continent and the Far East countries cannot catch up. Our children have rice, noodles, beef to eat, milk to drink, and fruits to taste since they were young, and this kind of life is unimaginable to the people of the old continent. And is all this for nothing? No, it was all created by heroes like this brother who died in the jungle. We will also be in danger when we go on this mission, and we will also go through the test of life and death, but so what? Our country, unlike the Old World, is not a private kingdom with one surname, but a republic shared by all the people, and the sacrifices of all are not meaningless, all for the sake of a better future for this country. ”

Strictly speaking, Xiao Guang's words are actually not in line with the "rules". On the East Coast today, the de facto rulers (the more than 500 members of the Founders' Parliament) did not inculcate such republican ideas on many occasions, because the seats in the Founders' Parliament were obtained by blood, not anything else. This system, which is the same as the British House of Lords, is undoubtedly "rotten"—of course, relatively speaking, in fact, the Founding Parliament, which is composed of bureaucrats, business owners, and scholars from all walks of life, is still somewhat advanced in this era - and is not democratic enough, so the descendants of the 500 people generally try to avoid mentioning these things, so as not to give the people "bad associations" and create political pressure on themselves in vain.

Therefore, Xiao Guang said this, in fact, it was a bit taboo, which would make many people have an opinion of him. However, who made him not a member of the Parliament of the Founders, and he was not the eldest son of the family, so he didn't bother to look at the faces of the pretentious people in the Parliament. Even, he wished to make those people's faces more ugly, and there was a sense of crisis, of course, he hid this kind of caution very well, and generally did not expose it easily.

And after disposing of the bones and relics, the expedition continued to set off. They are following the old path, which seems to be easier, but it is still a hard and dangerous job. The primeval forest has never been friendly! In particular, there are many Indians who are spying on them with malice.

In the end, Xiao Guang and the others spent more than two months, sometimes by boat, sometimes by land, fighting poisonous insects and beasts in the mountains, and at the same time dealing with the Indians, and finally arrived at the gold mining area discovered last time. Here, they spent a lot of time searching, but unfortunately there was no other major discovery except for the discovery of a small gold mine, so they had to leave a dozen shrewd and capable men to set up camp here, and then continue with the rest of the men.

This time it took them about the same amount of time to reach the confluence of the rivers Vellias and Unity. Although the riverbed was a little swollen, they still found placer gold in the Tuanjie River and its larger tributaries, more or less, and this time in large quantities, as if to indicate a large gold mine nearby. So they began to follow the Vellias River, carefully searching, exploring, and eventually discovering a huge gold deposit in a valley.

Of course, the large reserves of this gold mine are also estimated by Xiao Guang. They mainly judged from the scope of the gold mining area and the fineness of the gold mine, and concluded that the reserves of this gold mine are huge, which seems to be far more than the only Tieling gold mine currently mined on the east coast, and the reserves and mineable amount are more than ten times that of the other, provided that a huge amount of money is invested to open up the road to this place.

The Velas River basin was the densest area of gold mining in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and was called the "General Mining Area" by the Portuguese Viceroy at the time, and countless gold prospectors landed in El Salvador and then waited for the summer flood season to travel up the river to the banks of the Villas River to mine gold – although the Brazilian Governor repeatedly forbade private gold mining there, but with their low administrative efficiency, such a thing could not be stopped, so in the end they had to let it go.

These fanatical gold diggers, dreaming of making a fortune, took advantage of the summer monsoon to swim upstream, crossing more than 100 fords along the river and finally reaching the outskirts or core of the main mining area. The journey was arduous, with the high currents in the summer, small wooden boats full of men or supplies often capsized, and the Indians on the banks of the river were extremely vicious, often hunting lone or grouped Portuguese, looting their goods, and inflicting great losses on the gold prospectors—it is said that a Guaïcuru Indian, who had killed more than 4,000 Portuguese from El Salvador to the gold fields by the time they were finally wiped out by the Brazilian army in 1795.

But the miraculous thing is that no matter how difficult the road is, it can't dampen the enthusiasm of these gold diggers. They began to form larger groups and travel together to the goldfields. Historically, for example, in 1726, about 3,000 Portuguese travelled in 305 canoes up the river Unity to the main mining area, including the Portuguese governor who passed through here to take office in São Paulo.

This shows how much the gold reserves here tempted the Portuguese to the point where they would go there at all costs. The settlements of Portugal itself, the poor people living in Madeira and the Azores, the peasants off the coast of Brazil, the adventurers of the Old World (mainly from England, Ireland, France and the United Provinces), the deserted soldiers of the garrison and even the male monks from the monasteries all contracted a "disease" called the gold rush and went to the banks of the Velas in search of gold.

These people starved – because only a small fraction of them were willing to grow food in the first place, so much so that the local cats and dogs were hunted and eaten by hungry gold diggers – and they were intriguing with each other and even fighting each other just for the exclusive right to the lovely gold. Unfortunately, most of the people were unlucky, either they died in a mining accident, or they died of disease, or they died in a fight, but most of the gold diggers went through a lot of hardships and paid a huge price, and all they got was a few nameless graves full of pain, poverty, and wilderness. Those who can survive the gold rush and make a fortune are always only a few capable people with both intelligence and luck!

Of course, the Gold Rush wasn't all bad. At least after the middle period, when many people turned to growing food or working in handicrafts near the mines, and merchants, prostitutes, and mercenaries came from the coast to chase the smell of copper, the gold mining areas slowly developed, and villages and towns sprung up, making a huge contribution to the development of the Brazilian interior for later generations.

The way in which the people of the East Coast developed the gold mines could not have been as chaotic and disorderly as the Portuguese in history. Portuguese Brazil was poorly organized, underfunded, and not well stocked, so everything was difficult. But the east coast is different, first of all, this is a highly organized country, and the country has been established for more than 50 years, the foundation is relatively solid, and the people's centripetal force is also strong, so under the leadership of the government, the gold mines can be intensively mined (of course, the government can only grasp the big and let go of the small, it is impossible to monitor all the gold mines), orderly production, smelting and transportation, and maximize efficiency.

Don't underestimate that. Under the government's planning, roads were quickly built (it took the Portuguese nearly 30 years to build an improvised road of about 400 leagues), and with them settlements, pioneer settlers and a sufficient number of reservists responsible for security, and all kinds of production and living materials could be transported by road and river to the nearest distribution center, and then distributed everywhere to ensure the production of the gold mining area as much as possible.

Once the "total mining area" on the banks of the Vellias River is in normal production, it will easily become the largest gold-producing area in the Republic of East China and surpass the Tieling Gold Mine in the south, which has been producing gold for many years, and become the most important source of gold reserves on the east bank. And if we add the Huma gold mines in the Far East and the gold from the Japanese trade (including gold extracted from copper), this gold reserve is even more abundant. You must know that although the output of gold mines in the Far East is a bit average, the amount of gold obtained through trade and other channels is quite large, and Japan, which is rich in gold, silver, copper and other resources, is undoubtedly the top priority.