Chapter 1516: The Mississippi River of Gold

Zhu Hehao, King of the New Continent United States and Khan of the Great Plains, had not come specifically to inspect the Third Chiliarch of Huaizhou. He had urgent business at Prince Huai's Chiliarch and was merely passing by the Third Chiliarch of Huaizhou's camp, so he stopped to take a look.

He wanted to see how everyone had been doing lately — were they more like Mongols now? Had they learned to herd? Were they sick of eating meat yet? So he had someone sound the assembly call, gathered up all the "trainee Mongols" who were out herding cattle and sheep, reviewed them, said a few words, and after it was over gave each household a few silver coins as a reward. Then he took his guard and headed for Prince Huai Zhu Hekun's royal tent by the great river.

By the time Zhu Hehao reached Prince Huai's royal tent, it was already dark. The sky was full of stars, a magnificent starry expanse that seemed to wrap everything between heaven and earth in its embrace. It was now autumn, and the night wind in the great river basin was somewhat cold. Tonight the wind was strong, howling past his ears, giving him the feeling of leading a vast army to raze the enemy's lair and sweep their dens, marching north to chastise the grasslands beyond the frontier. No, wait — that wasn't quite the feeling!

He was now Great Plains Khan Zhu Muzhen! And he was leading two fully armed nomadic Chiliarch legions — was this an invasion of the Great Wall? What a pity this was not the Mongol steppe but the New Continent, and he could never go back in this lifetime. No matter how many Chiliarchs he had, it was useless. Better to just be the "Great Khan of America"!

"Your younger brother, Prince Huai Hekun, greets the Great Khan!"

"Your younger brother, Prince De Hezhen, greets the Great Khan!"

Just as Zhu Hehao was searching for the feeling of being a Great Khan, two Ming princes were already waiting outside Prince Huai's Chiliarch camp to welcome this great khan of his. If Zhu Cilang ever found out about this scene, he would certainly write a letter and give his three fooling-around sons a thorough scolding.

Nomadism is nomadism — why pretend to be Mongols for fun? What if they got too good at the act and couldn't turn back?

But scolding was about all he could do. The three "tycoon prince" brothers now had strong wings and were quite capable. Compared to that bunch of palace-raised child princes in Ming history, they could outdistance them by a whole Great Wall.

Zhu Hekun had also prepared a Mongol-style dinner for his two brothers, set up inside a tent with a fire lit. A large pot hung over the fire, and chunks of air-dried salted beef were dropped in. A small iron kettle hung over the fire too, and the fragrance of milk tea wafted over in waves.

While the milk tea and beef soup were still cooking, Zhu Hehao said to his two good brothers with a delighted expression: "Let me tell you something. It's news the Grand General's Office's covert intelligence bureau picked up — a French expedition found large amounts of gold in the middle reaches of the Mississippi River, in some Apache territory! The gold was found on a tributary of the Mississippi. They say the local Indians have always called that river the Shit River!"

Zhu Hekun was just taking a freshly brewed cup of milk tea from a concubine and about to drink when he heard his eldest brother say "shit." He immediately frowned and said, "Shit... Eldest Brother, we're eating. Can you not say that?"

Zhu Hezhen was more curious. He blinked and asked, "Eldest Brother, why is it called sh— what river was it again?"

Zhu Hehao said with great animation: "The Indians call gold 'the gods' shit.' This is a river of gold!"

A river of gold!

Zhu Hekun no longer found "the gods' shit" disgusting. He took a big gulp of milk tea and then pressed, "Is the information reliable?"

Zhu Hezhen also pressed, "Is there really a whole river of gold?"

Zhu Hehao nodded and said, "Extremely credible. The covert intelligence bureau has Portuguese agents posted in Mexico City gathering intelligence. Although they can't pick up any secrets, news that's all over the streets and alleys they can still send back."

So it turned out this was fake news planted by the Spanish and French that had reached Washington City, and it had actually fooled the tycoon prince Zhu Hehao.

Zhu Hehao continued: "That Marquis de Marignan whom the French sent to Mexico City — after learning this news, he dropped everything about fighting us and set off for that New Rome city at the mouth of the Mississippi!"

Zhu Hekun was starting to believe it. "Marquis de Marignan really went to the Mississippi? Then there seems to be some truth to this!"

Zhu Hezhen said, "Right! He's the allied Regional Commander. How could he leave Mexico City at a time like this?"

Zhu Hehao nodded lightly and said, "If there really is that much gold, then this is a great opportunity to push east. The Great Plains land is fertile, but the New Continent has too few people, so land isn't worth much! And the grain grown there can't be shipped back to the Great Ming to sell. So it can't attract many people. But gold is different — dig it out and it's money!"

Although the land of the New Continent's Great Plains was fertile, there was no water route directly to a western seaport, so direct exchange with the Ming homeland was difficult. The cost of migrating there was too high, and the Great Plains land simply could not compete with California's gold in attracting immigrants!

So the tycoon prince had no choice but to agree to his loving father Zhu Cilang's "exchangeable land bond" scheme, borrowing eight million taels of silver, and then used that money to lure in two nomadic Chiliarchs. Moreover, both Chiliarchs had been lured from the Ming homeland — no one in the New Continent United States wanted to "develop the Great East" at all. Everyone would rather go to Mexico to get rich than open up wasteland on the Great Plains.

And luring people over from the Ming homeland was too costly. Even for the tycoon prince, he could manage it at most one more time.

Being able to establish four nomadic Chiliarchs on the New Continent's Great Plains was enough to turn the tycoon prince into the "Loan Prince."

But if the Mississippi had a tributary where gold could be panned all over the riverbanks... then that would be no problem at all!

Gold itself could attract immigrants to travel ten thousand miles to get there! And the tycoon prince and his two brothers could take a cut from it, raking in a huge sum of money. Then the "Loan Prince" would turn back into the tycoon prince.

Zhu Hekun and Zhu Hezhen both grew eager — they had not been very interested in the eastern campaign to begin with.

If they could just laze around in the great river basin, they would have been quite content. After all, the great river basin was fairly close to Washington City, and Washington City was a lively place.

"Eldest Brother," Zhu Hekun said with a smile, "then let's not delay. Once winter is over, we'll start the eastern campaign!"

"Right!" Zhu Hezhen nodded. "The gold in the gold river is limited too. We can't let the Westerners dig it all out first."

Zhu Hehao said with a smile: "I came precisely to tell you this. Whether this news is true or false, we have to treat it as true! I've already thought it through — we'll use this news to recruit a batch of gold prospectors in the four provinces of Hua, Mei, Bo, and Jia, and add them all to your two Chiliarchs." He paused. "We can't let them join for free. We have to charge money! The slots are limited too. Each of your Chiliarchs will take 5,000 people, 10,000 slots in total, at 200 silver coins per slot as protection fee. That's two million."

So it could be done like that!

Zhu Hekun and Zhu Hezhen exchanged a glance, both muttering inwardly: You really take after our father... No use pretending to be Genghis Khan — you're a profiteer prince!

"Eldest Brother, how do we split these two million?" Zhu Hekun asked in a low voice.

Split? The word grated on Zhu Hehao's ears the moment he heard it!

It's all mine! I'm the eldest brother! The eldest brother stands in for the father — what right do you have to split it?

"Eldest Brother," Zhu Hezhen said with a smile, "you're the eldest, so you take a bigger share. We two are younger brothers, so we take less. You take one million, and we two take 500,000 each. Does that work?"

Zhu Hehao's face darkened. "Where would that much come from to split? Your two Chiliarchs have to set out early, so we need to buy up a lot more cattle and sheep. Otherwise, with sixty or seventy thousand people, what will they eat once they reach the Great Plains? At least half has to go to buying cattle and sheep, and maybe some horses too. Only what's left can be split. I'll take 400,000, and you two take 300,000 each. How's that?"

Even if he didn't want to share, he had to share!

The tycoon prince knew very well that his main duty as king on the New Continent was to preside over the division of spoils. From top to bottom, everyone had to get their share of money, land, and women — oh, and power too!

Only when everyone was satisfied with their share could his United States kingship continue smoothly!

Being king to a bunch of gun-toting rabble was truly not easy!

(End of Chapter)