Chapter 1535: Nomads March on Rome

"You — confess honestly — where is the god's shit?"

The man questioning Crazy Horse, chief of the Apache tribe, was an elderly Japanese gold prospector surnamed Okubo. He was an old-timer who had come over from Kyushu with the Shimazu clan.

He had been allotted a farm near Angel Fort, but it produced little, and he lived a hand-to-mouth existence.

So after his son came of age, he handed the farm over to his son along with the military service obligation (the service was tied to the farm), and went off to be a gold prospector, searching for gold in the southern part of the Great Stone Mountains.

But gold prospecting was no easy business. Not only did it involve fighting and killing, it also required some skill in finding ore and panning gravel. And you needed a gang, a faction — you had to band together to prospect.

And because this Okubo was a Japanese samurai, he found it hard to fit into the gold-prospecting groups dominated by Chinese immigrants. Besides, every prospector had a gun, so they looked down on these samurai and their skill at stabbing people with swords.

So he could only join a group of old prospectors, likewise from Japan, and go looking for gold in Apache territory, doing a little trading with the Apaches on the side.

Over time, he picked up some of the Apache language.

Because he could speak Apache and also Chinese, once the "Eastern Gold Rush" got going, he spent a bit of capital and got himself a post as an interpreter under Prince Huai, Zhu Hekun.

And today was the day for him, the interpreter, to put on a fine performance!

"What... shit?" Crazy Horse, chief of the Plains Apaches, could not quite understand Okubo's Apache — Okubo had always dealt with the Western Apaches, so the Apache he knew was rather different from the Apache Crazy Horse knew.

"The god's shit!" the old man Okubo roared. "Is there any here or not?"

Crazy Horse still looked utterly baffled. Staring at this "Mongol" who was flying into a rage and demanding to know where there was shit, he had no idea how to answer.

And he did not dare say anything rash!

He was a captive now... By Indian custom, being captured meant no good end!

If he ran his mouth and angered these savage, murderous Mongols, he would likely die an even uglier death.

"Baka!" Okubo was now furious, and began rolling up his sleeves, looking ready to extract a confession by torture.

Wang Shaohua, watching from the side, hurriedly stopped Okubo, who was about to lose control. "Okubo, did you ask clearly? Does he know why we've come?"

"I asked clearly," Okubo said with great certainty. "He's an Apache... The style of his clothes, feathers, and tattoos all show he's a chief of an Apache tribe!"

"Then... do the Apaches know what gold is?"

"Of course they do!" Okubo said. "It's not as if they've only dealt with us and the Westerners for a day or two..."

At this point Okubo was no longer quite so sure of himself, so he simply pulled out a small pouch, opened it, and held it in front of the bound Crazy Horse for him to see.

Inside the pouch were some "shit samples."

"This is the god's shit! Recognize it? Is there any over here by the Mississippi River?"

Seeing the actual "shit," Crazy Horse finally understood what the other party wanted!

"No!" he answered honestly enough. "The Mississippi has no such stone."

"No?" Okubo was somewhat disappointed. "Those white men didn't come to pick up the god's shit?"

"No, they didn't," Crazy Horse answered truthfully. "They came because the great chief Louis was bullied by a person called China, so they asked us Plains Apaches and the Great Soviets to come here and protect him... We came to kill that person called China!"

As he spoke, Crazy Horse let out a sigh, and tears nearly came to his eyes. Kill people, indeed — now he was the one about to be killed... He wondered whether it would hurt.

Hearing this, tears nearly came to Okubo's eyes too!

No gold? Was it a rumor? From what he knew of the Apaches, they did not much lie or deceive, and they certainly would not deceive anyone over a bit of god's shit!

Moreover, he had even honestly blurted out such a deadly thing as "kill the Chinese"...

So if this Crazy Horse said there was none, then there truly was no gold!

What was to be done? He had spent no small amount of capital to come pan for gold on the Gold River.

Still unwilling to give up, he pressed on: "Have you heard the story of the Gold River — no, the God's Shit River?"

"I truly have never heard of it," Crazy Horse, an honest man, answered honestly. "I have never heard of it... We came only to protect the great chief Louis."

Okubo's heart went cold! He had certainly been swindled!

What was to be done now?

"What? No, no gold?"

"My prince, truly there is none... Those white men and Indians came here to stop us!"

"Second Brother, I fear we've been tricked!"

"Tricked... who could be so wicked?"

"Who else could it be..."

Inside the Prince Huai residence in Gold City (just a few small wooden huts), the brothers Zhu Hekun and Zhu Hezhen heard Wang Shaohua's report and immediately understood they had been duped.

They had been swindled into coming to the Mississippi!

"No!" Zhu Hezhen gritted his teeth. "I must go settle accounts with him... my own brother!"

"Settle accounts, my ass!" Zhu Hekun hurriedly stopped his brother. "We're already here — can we even go back?"

"Then, then..." Zhu Hezhen was sweating all over his forehead, whether from anger or anxiety it was hard to tell.

Zhu Hekun was the clearer-headed of the two. He turned his gaze to Wang Shaohua and asked, "Besides you and Okubo, does anyone else know?"

"No... only the two of us know."

"Tell no one!" Zhu Hekun paused. "Understood?"

"This subject understands..." Wang Shaohua had already grasped Zhu Hekun's meaning. "This subject will go and speak to Okubo at once."

"Give him a pouch of gold!" Zhu Hekun said. "Tell him to keep his mouth shut!"

This matter had to be carried on as if nothing were wrong!

"Second Brother," Zhu Hezhen was no fool either, and understood what had to be done. "We keep up the deception?"

Zhu Hekun glared at his brother. "What kind of talk is that? How is it deception? The Mississippi does have gold! The Indians call the Mississippi the Gold River, and they call the land where we now stand Gold City! The land here is so good, the water and grass so fine — how could there be no gold?"

"Right, right... there must be gold here!" Zhu Hezhen nodded admiringly.

His brother's mind certainly turned fast!

The story of the Gold River and Gold City had to be kept going!

We need to lure more people over to pan for gold. If they can't find any gold, they can't go back to the West Coast... and if they can't get back to the West Coast, they'll have no choice but to farm and labor in Gold City.

Otherwise no one would be willing to come, and Gold City wouldn't develop even in a hundred years!

Zhu Hekun added, "Besides, the Great Plains are so vast—how could there possibly be no gold at all? Search carefully, and we're bound to find gold!"

"Second Brother, you mean..."

"We can't have Gold City as our only foothold," Zhu Hekun said. "And the grazing here isn't enough for so many cattle and sheep to feed on!"

"That's true," Zhu Hezhen nodded. "We can leave the gold prospectors here, first organize them into work units, have them repair the fort, hunt bison, and stockpile food for the winter.

The two of us, as Chiliarchs, can migrate south along the Mississippi River... heading toward New Rome and the northeastern parts of New Spain, to see if we can find rich, warm grasslands."

We're nomads, after all! Of course we have to follow the water and grass.

Although the water and grass here on the Great Plains are all excellent, Zhu Hezhen still leaned toward migrating south—ideally all the way to the edge of the Caribbean Sea.

Only by seeing the sea can a territory possibly become wealthy!

Besides, he also wanted to probe New Rome's strength.

If possible, sign some kind of treaty so the two sides could coexist peacefully in the future—it would benefit both parties.

"That works too. We'll migrate south." Zhu Hekun thought for a moment. "Then what do we tell the eldest brother?"

"Just say we've found the Gold River!" Zhu Hezhen said. "Even though we haven't located the gold vein yet, it's only a matter of time. Tell him to hurry up and invest more!"

What good brothers!

This is what they call sharing fortune together and enduring hardship together!

(End of Chapter)