Chapter 534: Two Jin and Two and a Half Liang

Wang An discovers while digging that these Dianthus have truly been here for some years!

It is possible that they themselves have survived for countless years, or it is possible that from the first batch of Dianthus until now, they have grown for I don't know how many generations.

Anyway, at the roots of these Dianthus, there are quite a lot of Dianthus root hairs that have already rotted into little skins like rice bran, and there are also quite a lot of root hairs that have rotted until only a tube-shaped root skin remains.

The key is that these root skins are also layered one on top of another; even on fresh root hairs, there are quite a lot of rotten root skins covering or stuck to them.

Besides this, one can also see from the size of the roots of these living Dianthus that the age of many Dianthus is absolutely quite long.

However, what is surprising is that not a single grain of this golden millet is wrapped by root hairs.

Therefore, Wang An only suspects that these golden millet grains might be related to these Dianthus, but he absolutely dares not guarantee it.

It is mainly because Wang An can't explain the ins and outs, and furthermore, the matter of "eating the sack" is still fresh in his memory; to make blind guarantees without any basis again, how heartless would that be? When Wang An finishes picking up the golden millet in the pit for the third time and intends to dig the fourth pit, the shout of Wang Li suddenly comes from not far away; one hears Wang Li shout: "Fourth brother, fourth brother, time to eat."

Hearing Wang Li's shout, Wang An looks at his watch and discovers that, unexpectedly, it is already 12 o'clock noon.

Consequently, Wang An raises his voice and shouts to Wang Li:

"Hey, got it, I'm coming back now."

As he speaks, Wang An stands up, picks up the sack and the Type 81 rifle on the ground, and walks back on the road he came.

Wang Li stands there and waits for Wang An for a while; after Wang An walks up, he walks side-by-side with Wang An and says excitedly to Wang An: "Fourth brother, do you know how much gold dust we washed out this morning?"

The reason "panning for gold" has the word "pan" is because the process of refining gold absolutely cannot be separated from water.

No matter when refining gold, the first step is often washing the sand with water, just like "washing rice" when cooking.

Of course, in later generations, all kinds of chemical liquids and mercury are used to extract it from gold ore, because the gold panned out by the gold-panning method of Wang An and the others also has quite a lot of impurities.

And there will also be many tiny pieces of gold that are contained in stones and then washed away by the water.

Simply put, there is a lot of gold that will be wasted in vain.

And the "washing out gold dust" that Wang Li speaks of is actually a local way of saying it; furthermore, the words "wash" and "pan" are also not much different for getting gold out of sand.

Wang An, hearing Wang Li's words, is somewhat unimpressed; this is mainly because Wang An is too familiar with this method of panning for gold using gold-panning troughs.

No matter how serious you are, no matter how hard you work, after a day, the gold dust produced by each gold-panning trough will be a fixed number.

Of course, this fixed number is determined according to the gold dust content in the gold nest, not to say it is the same everywhere.

Some might ask, then why doesn't everyone guard two gold-panning troughs? Wouldn't the efficiency be higher?

Asking this is not wrong, but one must know that the sand shoveled out from the bottom of the water is very thin; if one shovels up large stones, one still has to use one's hands to pick them out and throw them aside.

And the locations where gold-panning troughs are set up are all places where the water flow is relatively fast.

That is to say, even if every shovel you scoop up is sand, without even one stone, the speed at which you shovel sand is not as fast as the speed at which the sand on the gold-panning trough is washed away.

Normally speaking, two people guarding one gold-panning trough is barely enough to supply it.

Because when Wang An was forced to pan for gold in his past life, it was two people guarding one gold-panning trough, but even if it was two people, they couldn't be lazy; as long as someone was lazy, the task would definitely not be completed.

Always believe one thing: as long as you are under someone else's control, the person controlling you will definitely calculate you to death and will absolutely not let you have even half a bit of strength left! This is a fact! However, although Wang An knows the group's harvest very clearly in his heart, he still asks with a smile:

"How much gold dust did you get? Looking at how happy you are, you must have gotten quite a lot, right?"

Wang Li, hearing this, is even more overjoyed and says: "Yeah, Brother Wang has a small scale; after weighing it, Brother Wang said it was a total of two jin and two and a half liang."

Wang An hears this, and it is indeed as expected: 9 people, averaging about 2 liang and 4 qian of gold dust panned per person.

However, this was half a morning, to be accurate, two hours of panning; if one averages it again, it is about 1 liang and 2 qian of gold dust panned per person per hour.

Converting liang to grams, that is 60-plus grams of gold dust.

However, gold dust still has many impurities; if one continues to refine it, it will only produce about 55 grams of pure gold at most.

But this harvest can also be said to be quite, quite considerable! After Wang Li finishes speaking, Wang An says with a smile:

"That's truly quite a lot, very good, really very good."

One sees Wang Li continue excitedly: "Brother Wang also said that the current gold price is 8.5 yuan per gram; in this half morning, we got about 9,000 yuan, averaging about 900 yuan per person; they are all happy to the point of madness now."

Wang An hears this and immediately jokes:

"Then let's hurry up and go; don't let them really go crazy. In this wilderness, if they go crazy, there's really no way to deal with it."

Wang Li hears this and is stunned for a moment, then laughs loudly with Wang An.

The two talk as they return to the campsite where the group set up their tents.

Seeing Wang An return, the group, as if they had discussed it, all stand up and shout in unison while cupping their fists toward Wang An:

"Welcome back to camp, Leader!"

To tell the truth, this formation truly gave Wang An a start, and he subconsciously took a step back.

It is mainly because this was too uniform, just like ancient ministers welcoming an Emperor back to the palace.

However, Wang An, having reacted, immediately cooperates with a smile:

"Everyone has worked hard! Let's eat!"

It must be said that with Wang An cooperating like this, the whole atmosphere instantly rose.

Immediately following, the group begins the second round of praising Wang An for today, but just when Wang An wants to be smug again, he suddenly notices Zhang Shuya's smiling eyes.

Then, Wang An becomes obedient.

It is mainly because being smug is fun for a moment, but getting beaten means losing face; it is truly not worth it.

When everyone has finished praising, Wang An says to the group with a smile:

"I have decided that this afternoon, we will put the matter of panning for gold aside for now!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 535 =====