"In the Treaty of Todesillas, God gave the Spaniards a lot of gold and silver, so theoretically Brazil should have a lot of precious metals like these, so that it would be fair, after all, they are all the Lord's people." The man who spoke was Vicente, a Portuguese Brazilian who had been part of the São Paulo Flag Corps in his youth, and was now hired by the East Coasters to carry out various expeditions and prospecting activities in order to earn himself enough for his pension.

Xiao Guang, who led the team, glanced at him, didn't say anything, and was still looking at some documents in his hand. These documents are all materials that the General Directorate of National Intelligence managed to obtain from the colonial authorities of Portuguese Brazil, and most of them are mining or exploration materials reported to their superiors by various local military and political chiefs during the Portuguese occupation era, which is very valuable.

For example, these sources record that gold was found on the island of São Vicente in the 1560s; In the 1570s, gold placers were found in the Paranagua area; In addition, there have been numerous reports of gold occurrences from Espírito Santo, Pernambuco, Curitiba, etc. Some of them have been confirmed to be hearsay, some have been confirmed to have only a small reserve and have been exhausted in nearly a hundred years, and some have not been confirmed, so that the expedition sent by the Brazilian governor died before reaching its destination.

When the East Coasters regained these precious reports from 100 years ago, they began a new journey to find precious metals in Brazil. The Ministry of Finance now allocates 500,000 yuan a year to expeditions from the Ministry of Geology, the War Department and the Statistical Survey of Syphilis Patients to explore various parts of Brazil.

Xiao Guang is the grandson of Xiao Bailang, a veteran of the first government, born in 1655, a graduate of the Corps Fort, and is currently serving as a captain and staff officer in the War Department. In this cooperation with the Ministry of Geology, Xiao Mou, who was very idle, took the initiative to ask for help, got the position of an expedition team leader, and took a team of about 30 people to the inland area of Brazil for exploration.

Going to the interior of Brazil to pan for gold is honestly not an easy task. Towering mountains, deep valleys, and rushing rivers all geographically block the eyes of the people in the coastal areas from peeking inland. The changeable climate, ferocious beasts, poisonous snakes and insects, and irritable natives are also the biggest obstacles to inland land reclamation. Over the years, the people of the East Coast have experienced such things as they have been able to reclaim land in the interior of Brazil.

Therefore, before the large-scale reclamation operation was launched, it became necessary for the small-scale team to carry out many expeditions and surveys, and this operation has occupied a large amount of funds from the State Development Administration and the Ministry of Geology for decades, almost reaching seven or eight hundred thousand yuan per year, which is shocking - the total number of expeditions is close to 2,000 people, including guides, guards, intelligence officers, botanists and botanists, geologists, veterinarians, cooks, doctors, craftsmen and a series of personnel, as well as a large number of draft animals, Material and other expenses.

Of course, the cost is so huge, and the benefits are no small either. First of all, this has given the people of the East Coast a rough understanding of the topography, forests, climate, and minerals of the wild areas within their own borders, and they can be targeted in the future, whether it is the construction of settlements, the construction of roads, or the development of resources, instead of being blinded.

Second, the government-organized expeditions can more effectively detect the risk factors and help later immigrants filter out most of the sources of danger. This is actually very crucial, it can effectively reduce the mortality rate of immigrants, think of the wars between the North American colonists and the Indians in later generations, the civil power is always very weak, and this aspect still has to rely on the government.

Finally, if an official-led expedition discovers a mineral resource, it can receive the rights to the state. Otherwise, just like in Brazil in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the people did not report the gold mines they discovered, and secretly mined them themselves, so that the country lost a lot of income in vain.

All in all, it is not unreasonable for the state to spend huge sums of money every year to send staff from various departments to form dozens of expedition teams to go deep into various regions of the country (and even some foreign regions) to carry out expeditions. Now Xiao Guang's expedition team set off from Zhuolu County, trekking all the way through mountains and rivers towards the legendary gold source.

The original source of information was the local Tupinamba Indians, a small number of whom lived in river and forest areas, and a small number of them were naturalized by the East Bank government, who then informed them of this vital information. Although the Buraku people soon rebelled over an attempt by the East Bank government to forcibly relocate them to settle in the Namib Desert in South Africa, news had already spread and the East Bank government took it seriously.

Now that the rebellion had subsided, the East Coast government sent five expeditions (30-40 men each, carrying a large number of mules, horses, equipment, and water) to the newly founded county of Zhuolu, and then diverged along different routes in search of the legendary place where gold, gems, and diamonds were produced.

Of course, it would be inaccurate to say that they were specifically looking for gold. Because the expedition team has many tasks, the search for gold is only one of the more important tasks, in addition to surveying the terrain, making maps, surveying flora and fauna, documenting the climate, surveying the indigenous peoples, collecting other ore specimens (if any), etc., it may be more accurate to say that it is a survey of the undeveloped areas of the country.

After resting in Panquan Township, Zhuolu County, the team led by Xiao Guang traveled all the way up the Zhuoshui (Grande River) for a whole month before arriving at the headwaters of the Tuanjie River (the San Francisco River, which is known as the "River of Unity" in Brazil in later generations, hence the east bank).

The reason why it took so long was not because of the long distance, but mainly because it was difficult to walk. Because it was the dry season, many waterfalls and shoals were exposed, which was not conducive to navigation, and this expedition was going deep into the inland areas and brought a lot of draft animals, so they did not choose to go up by boat, but went up the land along the river bank. And this is undoubtedly going to die, the dense forests and swamps along the way make them want to die, and the small tribes of the Tupinamba people that appear from time to time also make them panic, in short, now Xiao Guang regrets dying, he knew that he had taken the boat at the beginning, and he threw the boat away.

Either way, they have now managed to reach the yet-to-be-named mountain range and recuperate. Today (June 15, 1686) was the day of departure, and the Portuguese guide Vicente opened the haphazard map, looked at it carefully, and said the above words as if to cheer up his group. You know, if he finds a gold mine, Vicente himself can get a huge bonus of 1,000 yuan in addition to his already very good salary, which is the main reason why he is willing to venture deep into the interior of Brazil.

"I hope your God does have a bowl of water." Xiao Guang spit out the grass stalk in his mouth, waved his big hand, and said, "Don't rub it off, let's go!" Attention Indians! ”

So the team continued to set off. The long journey had already caused the group to lose their enthusiasm, but the morale seemed to be good. These are all elite soldiers selected by various ministries and commissions, who have been trained for a month before departure, and have been fully psychologically prepared for the difficulties of field exploration. So I felt a little tired – mainly psychological – but I was able to hold on until I reached the confluence of the Palau Peba and Unity rivers more than two months later.

At this time, there were only 24 people left in the team, and 7 people died in the previous two months of the journey: two died of sudden disease, two died of Indian attacks, one died of poisonous snakes while cutting down trees and building ships, and even Xiao Guang, the leader of the expedition, accidentally contracted malaria and relied on cinchona cream treatment to save his life.

However, this dire situation did not dampen the morale of the expedition for no other reason: the expedition had just discovered a lot of gold placers in a slightly dry riverbed. This is undoubtedly an important discovery, and the gold placer means that there is gold ore nearby that has been washed and broken by the current, so there must be a deposit, which is exactly what everyone is looking for.

As a result, more than two dozen people quickly divided into two groups and began to search for gold in two directions. They searched along the river, constantly sifting through the river sand in an attempt to discover the gold grains inside. After nearly two months of tossing and turning, they finally found a corner of the gold mine next to a small river valley.

The extent of the gold deposit may seem small and the reserves are limited, but it is already an exciting discovery. Xiao Guang asked people to write down the specific location and draw a more accurate map, and then continued to search the surrounding area for more than a month, but unfortunately there was no result. Maybe there are more gold mines hidden here, but the staff is too scarce, so we can only talk about it later.

This is not fanciful, as the entire state of Minas Gerais has historically been littered with gold, gem and diamond mines, albeit on a large scale. With the São Francisco River (Unity River) as the axis, the further downstream, the more gold placers appeared, and gold mines of different sizes were everywhere, until near the Velías River (a large tributary of the Unity River), gold mines suddenly became dense, and large, super-large gold mines appeared, so that in 1720, the Viceroy of Portuguese Brazil announced the establishment of the General District of Minas Gerais, which was the overall administration of this state with an area of nearly 600,000 square kilometers.

During the gold rush years, there was no one in Minas Gerais that was not profitable. In the 18th century, the government produced just over 20 tonnes of gold a year in the state, but private gold mining is said to have reached 70-80 tonnes, which is insane.

What's even more impressive is that there is a very large iron mine, a large silver mine, and other deposits of copper, lead, mercury, etc., but few people are interested in them. The reason for this is that because of the small investment and large profit of placer gold everywhere, people can obtain excess profits from gold without much effort, so that no one wants to do it to extract silver from silver mines, let alone mine copper, mercury, lead ore and iron ore, and it is only later that the discovery of many gem mines, including emeralds, has aroused people's interest again, because this "stone" is really valuable in Europe, and the profit is not lower than gold, or even higher.

It can be seen that Minas Gerais is really a treasure trove - in fact, the neighboring states of Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso and Bahia have gold mines, especially Mato Grosso, which is not smaller than Minas Gerais - not only has a large amount of gold, precious stones, diamonds and other minerals that can be called cash, but also has world-class iron ore and other mineral deposits, the capital and raw materials needed for the industrial revolution are all alive, and the only thing that is lacking is probably coal, which is a hard wound and really cannot be solved.

Either way, the great value of Minas Gerais cannot be overlooked. Historically, Brazil's economy has gone through three cycles, the first is from the early days of colonization to the late 16th century, which is the so-called "mahogany cycle", that is, the Portuguese frantically cut down Brazilian suma, in addition to shipbuilding, making musical instruments, the main use is to make red dye, and then sell it in Europe, making countless profits. Of course, we also know the consequences, first the French coveted and tried to establish a foothold in Brazil, but they never succeeded, and were expelled by the Portuguese. However, the Dutch also rushed over, and this time the Portuguese struggled, losing a large part of the northeast for a time, and finally relied on the Anglo-Dutch war to successfully regain the lost territory and occupy Brazil again.

In the late 17th and 18th centuries, after the decline of the rosewood cycle (the Brazilian sumac was cut down by the Portuguese, and there was not much left), in the late 17th and 18th centuries, Brazil ushered in the so-called "Golden Cycle", that is, relying on the numerous gold, gem and diamond mines found in Ceará, Espírito Santo, Bahia, Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais, the Brazilian economy quickly developed on the basis of the mining, smelting, transportation and sale of these mineral deposits. Countless destitute people from the Old World came to Brazil in search of the legendary gold mines, which greatly enriched the Brazilian population and promoted the development of the country's interior – after all, gold diggers also consumed, and the related industries were quite large.

After the golden cycle, Brazil ushered in the famous "coffee cycle". That is, with the economic development of the Old World and the improvement of people's consumption power, Brazil's coffee industry began to develop greatly in the 19th century, once monopolized the international market, and earned huge profits for Brazil, making it once compete with the United States to attract immigrants from the Old World, countless Italians, Germans and Slavs from the Balkans came to Brazil, laying the foundation of modern Brazil.

Gold alone can sustain a cycle of the Brazilian economy, which is a testament to the abundance of gold reserves in Minas Gerais and the surrounding region. This kind of mineral deposit, which can get rich overnight, is really a happy trouble for the East Coast Republic, which has always been an industrial country, because the degree of profiteering is so staggering that if you indulge in it, it is even more terrible than the 21st century with real estate as the sole economic pillar. Therefore, it is conceivable that in the future, all the gold, silver, and gem mines of Brazil should be nationalized, private capital should be strictly prohibited from entering (and of course it is now), and the gold collected should be stored as a reserve fund for currency reform, and should not be put on the market as much as possible (or even if it is put into the foreign and overseas colonial markets), so as not to cause unnecessary trouble and disrupt the normal economic order of the East Coast.

Xiao Guang and the others didn't delay here for too long. Because the reserves of food and medicine had been reduced to near the warning line, and a large number of draft animals had died, they finally decided to go up the Tuanjie River first, return to the starting point of Zhuolu County, and hand in the expedition report and map.

Next, they planned to rest there and wait for the next order from their superiors. There is no doubt that a careful search along the Tuanjie River and its tributaries will surely lead to the discovery of a number of gold deposits, even in the depths of a jungle or river valley, where there is not necessarily a large gold deposit, which is extremely valuable.

Xiao Guang always felt that the Ministry of Geology, the State Administration of Development, and the Mei Agency—no, this kind of thing might "reach the heavens" and be directly intervened by the bigwigs of the Executive Committee—would most likely give instructions to continue the exploration, and replenish them with sufficient manpower, draft animals, and materials. Even at the same time, the wildland from Zhuolu County to the east, which has been explored a lot, may also be decorated with some new settlements to facilitate possible future development operations.

All of this is thanks to gold, which is truly a magical thing!