Chapter 532: A Work of Art of Nature's Craftsmanship

After building the gold-panning troughs, except for Wang An, everyone guards a gold-panning trough and begins the great cause of panning for gold.

And although Wang An is not guarding a gold-panning trough, he is also not idle, because Wang An has more important things to do.

After observing the gold dust left on every section of tree bark in everyone's gold-panning troughs, Wang An carries an iron shovel and walks toward the upper reaches of the river.

The gold-panning troughs Wang An built each use a full 5 sections of tree bark; in this way, although some gold dust will be washed away by the river water, it is already negligible.

Furthermore, in panning for gold, one must pick the big and release the small, which is to say, getting the gold dust out of the gold nests is the most important thing.

Like that little bit outside the gold nest, it's fine for people with nothing to do to mess around with it; at the very least, they can earn some pocket money.

If Wang An's group were to specifically pan for that, it would truly have no value.

Because the amount of that kind of gold dust scattered on the river bottom is quite small.

One shovel down, having four or five grains of gold dust is already quite a lot; sometimes one shovel down, and there isn't even one grain; these are all normal situations.

Wang An drags the iron shovel and walks along this small river, occasionally using the iron shovel to poke at the stones or reflecting points in the water by the river.

Actually, Wang An's purpose in walking upstream is, on one hand, to search for dog-head gold, and on the other hand, to find the location of the real gold mine.

One must know that wherever there is placer gold in a river, there must be a gold mine somewhere in the upper reaches of the river.

This is an inevitably existing thing!

However, compared to finding a gold mine, Wang An actually wants to find more dog-head gold.

Because the gold mine is right there and can be found sooner or later, but dog-head gold is a thing that, although it is also right there...

... one must admit that it is very possible to miss it with just one moment of carelessness.

When Wang An has poked at stones I don't know how many times, he finally discovers the second piece of dog-head gold since arriving here, under a pebble.

To be accurate, it is a pile of gold dust tightly stuck to an uneven stone.

How the gold dust stuck to the stone, Wang An doesn't know, but Wang An knows that this kind of dog-head gold is more valuable.

Because the reason dog-head gold is more valuable than pure gold lies in its scarcity, its ornamental value, and its research value.

One can say that dog-head gold is a pure natural work of art, and it is a unique existence among all works of art.

Although it is extremely normal for dog-head gold to be mixed with sand, small stones, and the like, dog-head gold like this, with gold attached to a stone, is very rare.

Wang An struggles to dig this stone out of the ground before seeing the overall image of this piece of dog-head gold.

The whole stone plus the dog-head gold weighs about three or four jin; viewed as a whole, it is an irregular disc shape, the surface of the stone is pitted, and the dog-head gold is stuck in these uneven little pits.

The shape of the whole dog-head gold looks like a galloping steed; of course, calling it a donkey galloping is also not wrong.

To tell the truth, nature's craftsmanship is truly quite awesome.

Because this piece of dog-head gold looks like it was clearly hung on bit by bit by countless gold dust particles, just like painting with fine sand, only replacing the sand with gold dust.

Wang An holds the stone and examines it for a long time, only feeling that this dog-head gold is simply too beautiful, almost second only to Mu Xueqing.

Beautiful, especially beautiful!

Pretty, quite pretty! This is simply a work of art of nature's craftsmanship! After looking at it for a while longer, Wang An carefully puts this stone with the dog-head gold into the sack.

Many people might commit this mistake: clearly, a stone is very sturdy, but when it is endowed with certain value, people will feel that this stone is quite fragile, as if it would shatter with just a light touch.

Wang An ties the sack containing the dog-head gold to his back and continues to drag the iron shovel to search.

To tell the truth, dog-head gold is something that can be met but not sought; in ancient times, this thing was a treasure that could be offered as tribute to the Emperor.

One can imagine that the Emperor, as the monarch of a country in the feudal period, could be said to have any rare treasure within his reach.

And the feudal officials from all over would also send various treasures to the Emperor one after another; if one said that of all the wonders of the world, the Emperor alone occupied nine-tenths, it would probably not be wrong at all.

Because in ancient times, it was a "family empire" in the truest sense! And as for gold, it might only be considered the most inconspicuous existence among all treasures.

But dog-head gold, as a member of gold, could become a wonder; thus, one can see how expensive the value of dog-head gold is.

What one must know is that everything is valued for its scarcity, so one can imagine how scarce dog-head gold is.

Therefore, Wang An carries the dog-head gold and searches for several miles, but doesn't discover the appearance of a third piece of dog-head gold.

However, just as Wang An intends to cross the river to the opposite bank to continue searching, Wang An discovers that not far from the riverbank, there is actually a patch of stalks of some kind of withered plant.

In these mountains, withered stalks can be said to be seen everywhere, and patches of stalks are also not rare.

But when one knows that this place has a gold mine, one must pay attention to this kind of patch of stalks, because anyone who has a little research into mineral searching knows that many minerals have companion plants.

Because there are records in ancient Chinese books, such as "where there are onions on the mountain, there is silver underneath," "where grass stems are red and beautiful, there is lead underneath," etc.

It must be said that the wisdom of our ancestors is truly quite awesome.

And as for gold mines, the companion plant is called "Dianthus."

Of course, it is not to say that where there is a gold mine, there must be Dianthus, nor is it to say that under all Dianthus, there is a gold mine.

It is just that when in the wilderness, if one accidentally runs into Dianthus...

... remember, one must use an iron shovel or pickaxe to dig a bit; even if there are no tools, one must use a tree stick to poke under the Dianthus.

Because under this Dianthus, it is very possible that a gold mine exists!

Even if there is no gold, wouldn't it be quite good to get a few pieces of gold ore and secretly bring them back?

Speaking of Dianthus, many people might not understand it.

Dianthus, also called Luoyang flower, or Luoyang Dianthus.

The origin in China is in the Northeast, North China, and the Yangtze River basin.

Dianthus is a perennial plant, and a perennial plant is one that, as long as you plant the seeds, can grow year after year.

Wang An looks at the plant stalks in front of him and subconsciously walks up, because no matter how Wang An looks at these stalks, they all look like Dianthus.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 533 =====