Short of money

  The first sparse rain finally fell, bringing cold winds from Siberia, wrapping the entire camp. Fortunately, with the addition of a large number of Indian laborers, the expansion of the camp has been completed.

  The camp was finally divided into two parts, one side was Li Mo and others, the other side was the newly arrived natives, with a wooden fence in between. In the four corners of the camp, four high watchtowers were also built, with people guarding day and night to prevent danger.

  To better control the natives and minimize the crisis, on Li's suggestion, the women and children among the natives were protected and took charge of logistics. They panned for gold sand in the river bay in front of the camp and provided a large amount of food for free. This policy not only reduced the natives' resistance to the lowest level but also greatly accelerated the speed of gold mining. As a result, the first batch of gold sand was successfully transported back three days ago.

  The sharp increase in population will inevitably lead to increased consumption, and Rudolf's original reserves are far from enough. Fortunately, this sparsely populated, unopened treasure land has never lacked food, with dozens of kilograms of large fish and a large number of wild animals filling the camp with vitality. For this reason, Li Mo even specially formed a hunting team.

  The core of the camp was next to the room where Li Yunfei was, several workers were pulling hard on the bellows, and with a golden liquid being poured into the mold, thumb-thick gold bars suddenly appeared before their eyes. Looking at the fruits of several months of hard work, almost every worker had a flushed face.

  "This is mine, mine, mine, and still mine." Li Mo looked at the large pile of gold bars in front of him, counting them one by one, teasing Thomas until finally picking up two and handing them to Thomas, whose face had already turned black: "This is yours!"

  One hundred gold bars, each weighing one kilogram, Thomas couldn't bear to see Li Mou so shamelessly putting them into his pocket. He stretched out five fingers and said in the half-baked Chinese he had just learned: "Li, 5%!"

  "Haha!"

  Everyone burst out laughing when they saw Thomas with a black line on his forehead, looking like he was about to devour the pile of gold in front of him. Amidst the laughter, Li Mu suddenly raised his middle finger and drew several strokes towards Thomas.

  "?" Thomas asked in confusion: "What do you mean?"

  "Oh, this is a Chinese custom, it means asking about your mother!" Unexpectedly, this internationally common gesture hasn't spread yet, Li Mu shamelessly said.

  "How's your mother?" But I'm an orphan, my mother died long ago!" Thomas was bewildered, just as Li Mu pushed three gold bars in front of him again. This guy didn't continue to ask questions, but instead smiled and drooled at the gold bars.

  While Chen Ping and others beside him didn't understand the gesture at first, after hearing Li Dashi's explanation, they suddenly understood and bit their lips hard to prevent themselves from bursting out laughing.

  "Thomas, how many pounds are these gold worth?" Li asked immediately, still not quite understanding the current price of gold.

  "In the UK, one pound is approximately 7.3 grams of pure gold, here there are a hundred kilograms, which is roughly thirteen thousand seven hundred pounds, if exchanged in the US it would be around sixty-eight thousand dollars."

  According to Thomas, Lee soon calculated that a pound was equivalent to five American dollars. Looking at the large pile of gold in front of him, he suddenly felt a little disappointed and couldn't help but sigh: "So little!"

  "Less? Oh, no......" Thomas slapped his forehead in disgust. "Li, do you know that Rudolf's ship is only worth ten thousand pounds!"

  Li Mo ignored Thomas, since he knew the current gold price, he naturally also knew the current purchasing power of currency. It should be said that money is still quite valuable now. In those years, the Qing dynasty purchased the Yangwei and Chaoyong warships, each costing around 90,000 pounds, which was already a price after being cheated.

  At this moment, the most famous pre-dreadnought battleship of that era should have been built, and its total cost was only about ￡500,000.

  ￡13,000, nearly $70,000, would be a vast fortune for an ordinary person, but for Li Mu, it was not even enough to cover the most basic expenses. According to Thomas, the Canadian government is eager to develop this land in northwestern Canada, just like the American West was developed, but unfortunately, it's too cold here, with only three months available for farming each year. As a result, except for occasional gold prospectors, hardly anyone comes here, so the land price is very cheap, about $2 per acre.

  Two dollars seemed very cheap, but when Li Mo took out the map he had drawn, everyone was stunned. Not only did the map become much larger, but it also had several big red circles on it.

  As Li Mo explained, everyone soon understood that the red circle was where Li Mo had located several major gold mines, and some of the other mineral deposits he had found in his spare time. Looking at this map which almost covered the entire Yukon River basin, not just Thomas, but even Chen Ping and others began to drool over the map.

  As the saliva flowed out, everyone began to worry again. According to estimates, even if only a few large gold mines are located in this area, it will be approximately over 10,000 square kilometers, which is nearly three million acres. This would require exactly $6 million, equivalent to ￡1.2 million. In addition, the machinery, personnel and massive material consumption required for mining these gold mines... Oh Lord, how much gold is needed!

  "Got it!" Li Mo stretched out a finger and shook it, humming heavily.

  "One ton!"

  People who just learned about the public system were already unable to react, and they started counting on their fingers. Matos, who reacted quickly, had already opened his mouth wide, although he also knew that Li Mo's plan required a lot of money, but he didn't expect it to be so much.

  It took the crowd three whole months to get only 100 kilograms of gold, and this was still relying on the main mine. What's more, with the arrival of winter, the river gold panning work would soon be stopped, leaving only underground gold mines temporarily available for operation. However, considering the climate here, after November, it is basically difficult to mine again, and we have to wait until next May to continue. Calculated this way, I'm afraid that by next year, they won't even be able to gather a ton of gold.

  "I'm going to the gold mine!" Thomas suddenly bit his teeth and ran out quickly. Thomas's sudden departure left Li Yunfei bewildered for a long time, only saying later: "This guy won't be planning to start mining himself, will he?"

  Before Li Mo could hear the response, he heard Long Guozhang muttering to himself with a stupid expression: "Five years... one ton... ironclad warship!" After mumbling to himself for half a moment, he suddenly followed Thomas and rushed out of the room.

  "What are these guys doing today? Have they taken the wrong medicine?" Li Mo could only cast a helpless glance at Chen Ping, who was still relatively normal. The latter smiled wryly and spread his hands: "I reckon your plan has stimulated them, I reckon they've probably all gone down to the mine with their people."

  "... Li Mo's forehead suddenly fell a few black lines, what kind of people are you, isn't it just that the money is not enough? Is it worth it? If you want to make money, young master has plenty of ideas, wait until next month when I go to America and let you see!"

  Seeing everyone walking away, Li Mo had no choice but to roll up the map and ask: "By the way, has Li Qiang returned?"

  "It's been almost ten days since he came back, and just a few days ago, he took the team to the gold mine again. I estimate it will take three more days for him to return." Chen Ping knew what Li Mo wanted to ask, so he continued: "Young Master's guess was correct, that place indeed attracted many gold prospectors and adventurers to check it out, until half a month later there were still people coming to investigate. But don't worry, Young Master, all those people were taken care of by Li Qiang. He guarded the place for five days and no one else showed up, only then did he return."

  After listening to Chen Ping's words, Li Mo nodded his head. He had expected that attacking the Indian tribe would attract scouts. Fortunately, he had left a backup plan and let Li Qiang lead people to stay behind and cut off their pursuit, so they didn't expose the location of their camp.

  But this can't go on, as more and more people come here, the camp will eventually be exposed, and the only thing I can do is to buy it openly before it's exposed, which is the safest.

  "Ask Zhao Long and Li Qiang to come here when they have time, I have some things to entrust them with." Li Mo thought for a moment and said: "In addition, the water is already very cold now, so let's stop panning for gold on the riverbank. Everyone go to the mine to help out and try to extract as much gold as possible before it snows. As for those who have nothing to do for the time being, arrange them to cut wood and hunt immediately to stockpile winter supplies."

  "Yes." Chen Ping nodded and turned to leave the house. When the cold wind blew against his face, he suddenly realized that this temporary steward of his had nothing much to do, as if everything had been arranged by Young Master's previous words.

  In fact, he had discovered this situation more than once, especially recently when he was with Li Mo, he would always forget that this young master was actually only twelve years old. Many things, even now, he couldn't believe that Li Mo was only twelve years old.

  "Perhaps this is the gift of those born to be superior." Chen Ping looked up at the dark clouds pressing down on the horizon and suddenly thought.

  Of course, no one noticed that after they left, Li Dashi's eyebrows were locked again, staring at the pile of gold bars, and he sighed softly after a while.

  "I'm short of money..."