My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 114 The Qingshan Team Arrives

The two arrived at the grassy slope and saw that behind almost every mound of earth was a hole in the ground, with piles of excrement at the entrances, emitting a foul odor and attracting swarms of flies.

Wu Yang wrinkled his nose, looking at the various sizes of earthen caves: "With so many caves, how are we supposed to find it?"

The earthen caves, of varying sizes, were scattered around.

Zhou Jingming explained with a smile: "Marmots are excellent at digging burrows. Usually, a marmot family occupies a group of burrows consisting of various types of caves. So, if you find a marmot burrow, there are often many other burrows around it."

As far as I know, marmots dig different burrows in different seasons, including main burrows, secondary burrows, and temporary burrows. The main burrow is usually used for hibernation and raising young, and there are passages connecting the various burrows.

As for how to find it, that's a matter for Jin Wang to handle.

Unfortunately, Jinwang was too big to squeeze in. If it were a smaller dog, it could probably squeeze right in and catch the animal.

As he said this, Zhou Jingming glanced at Jin Wang, who was sniffing around one of the cave entrances, barking wildly, and digging at the soil with his claws.

“We didn’t bring any picks or shovels, so we can’t dig. How are we going to get this out?” Wu Yang was a bit stumped.

“Even with pickaxes and shovels, it’s not easy to dig. These holes are very complex in structure, like underground palaces. Moreover, they can be several meters deep and more than ten meters long. It’s very difficult to dig them out.”

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "In places like Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, there are even more marmots. Hunters catch marmots mostly with guns, traps, and snares."

But we don't have that much time to wait around; we need to think of something else... Let's get some hay and firewood!

Upon hearing about hay and firewood, Wu Yang immediately knew that Zhou Jingming was planning to use smoke.

The two separated and wandered around the surrounding grass for a while, bringing back some hay and shrub branches.

Zhou Jingming immediately rolled up a clump of weeds, lit it with a match, and stuffed it into the largest cave: "Wu Yang, go and block up the other cave entrances, just leave one open. When the marmot can't stand the smoke and comes out, just smash it with the butt of your gun."

Wu Yang did as instructed, searching the surrounding area for some stones and stuffing them into the holes. He then endured the stench and filled the holes with the soil that the marmots had dug out, sealing the entrances.

Finally, only one remained. He turned his shotgun around, gripping the barrel, and waited for the marmot to peek out.

Zhou Jingming kept adding weeds and firewood into the cave. When the cave was almost full, he found a few stones to block the entrance and covered it with mud.

Unable to burn completely, the flames on the weeds and branches quickly went out, turning into thick smoke that scurried around inside the marmot burrow.

Gradually, smoke and fire began to rise from the cave entrance guarded by Wu Yang.

Zhou Jingming also rushed over, gripping the gun barrel, ready to smash things at any moment.

The entrances to the caves were blocked, and Jinwang cried out in distress. It tried to pry open the entrances blocked by Wuyang with its claws, but when it got close to the entrances, it couldn't stand the smell of fire and smoke and could only retreat to the side, crying out in distress.

Not long after, there was movement in the burrow. A chubby marmot poked its head out, but as soon as it saw Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang guarding outside, as well as Jin Wang who immediately came over and barked wildly at the burrow entrance, it immediately shrank back and barked threateningly at the outside of the burrow.

Jinwang was getting impatient. He endured the smell of smoke and crouched down, trying to crawl inside and bite. But as soon as his head went in, he squeaked and quickly retreated.

When it came out, a large, fat marmot also came out with it.

It wasn't that Jinwang bit the marmot, but rather that the marmot grabbed Jinwang's mouth with its claws.

Wu Yang reacted quickly, raising his hunting rifle and slamming the butt of the gun hard against the marmot's back.

The marmot released Jinwang and rolled around on the ground, but after struggling for a few moments, it stopped moving.

Zhou Jingming saw blood flowing from its mouth and nose, which must have been caused by internal bleeding from the blow Wu Yang had dealt to it.

After lying in wait for a while, the two successfully killed two more marmots. When the fourth one came out, Zhou Jingming saw that it was still very small and must have just bred this year.

Looking at the three marmots, each weighing seven or eight pounds, enough for Jin Wang to eat his fill for two days, he decided not to bother anymore. He removed the stone from the main entrance of the cave, extinguished the still-smoking dry grass, and ended the marmot hunt.

Disliking the strong stench of the place, Zhou Jingming picked up two marmots, walked a distance away, sat down on the grass, took out a knife, cut open the fur on the belly of one marmot, and then, with Wu Yang pulling him, quickly skinned it.

However, he casually threw away the skin he had peeled off.

Wu Yang was puzzled: "Why did you throw it away? I thought the fur was quite nice!"

"Marmot fur is indeed quite good, but now is the hottest time of year. Just like people, when we wear thin clothes or even go shirtless, marmots molt. This is actually when their fur is at its worst and least valuable. Their fur is much better in autumn and winter when it is thick and sturdy."

It's not that these furs are completely useless; if they were taken out of the mountains, they could still be worth some money. But the weather has cleared up again, and there's no time to take care of them. Rather than letting them rot and stink, it's better to pan for gold.

He first took out the marmot's intestines, stomach, heart, and lungs and threw them to Jinwang. Feeling that wasn't enough, he cut off a few more pieces of meat and threw them to it as well.

Looking at the marbled meat, Wu Yang asked, "Is this meat edible?"

"It's edible, and I heard it tastes pretty good, but it's best not to eat it. I'm taking it back to feed my dog, not to eat it myself."

"It looks pretty good!"

Seeing Wu Yang's reluctant expression, Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "I have something to tell you, and you'll see how powerful I am."

In the early years, around the late Qing Dynasty, marmot fur was extremely popular on the international market. At that time, there was a process that could make marmot fur comparable in quality to mink fur, causing prices to skyrocket. Because of this, many Russian traders hired Chinese laborers to hunt marmots for them.

During the hunt, some Chinese laborers ate marmot meat and contracted the terrible plague, which then spread everywhere.

Fearing the spread of the plague, the Russians expelled all the Chinese laborers back to Northeast China. The plague then spread rapidly throughout the region, quickly engulfing Shandong and Hebei provinces. In some areas, especially in the north, more than a third of the population died…

Zhou Jingming sighed slightly as he said this: "Marmots are carriers of the plague virus. I'm not saying that eating marmot meat will definitely cause you to get the plague. During the three-year famine, many people hunted marmots for meat and nothing happened to them, but it's always good to be on the safe side."

"Yeah, it's better to be careful!"

Wu Yang is a smart man and doesn't dwell on this issue.

After Jinwang finished eating, the two of them each took a marmot and wandered around in the mountains for a while. They unknowingly walked quite far. Following the direction back to the valley, they found themselves upstream. The two of them could only walk downstream along the mountain forest.

As Zhou Jingming passed by Li Guozhu's mining site, he stopped and stared at the small peninsula for a while, his brows furrowing. "That's not right. Didn't Li Guozhu and his team only have seven or eight people? How come there are... about twenty now? Did they hire more?"

Wu Yang also looked for a while: "No, that's not right. It doesn't seem to be Li Guozhu's group!"

Zhou Jingming frowned: "Let's go down and take a look!"

The two men led their hunting dogs down the hillside. When they got close to the mine, they took a closer look and found that they didn't recognize a single face.

Zhou Jingming roughly understood what was going on, and he called to Wu Yang, "Let's go!"

"These people look like the same group that went up from the woods behind our camp a while ago... Should we go down and ask them?"

"There's no need to ask. In the Gold Rush Valley, it's all too common for mining sites to change hands... No wonder we haven't seen Li Guozhu and the others for so long!"

Given the quality of the gold mine on that small peninsula, Li Guozhu wouldn't give it up easily; it's highly likely that these people snatched it away.

But their relationship wasn't good enough for Zhou Jingming to stand up for him, and Li Guozhu hadn't asked him for help, so he naturally wouldn't provoke such a presumptuous trouble.

However, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

He didn't know if Li Guozhu and his gang were still in this valley, nor did he know that in this vast world, he would never see Li Guozhu again.

Deep down, he thought highly of Li Guozhu and had always been thinking about whether he could recruit him to be his helper...

But his discomfort quickly passed. After all, they were not people he knew very well, and he felt that it was best to let things take their course and not to care too much about them.

When the two returned to the small peninsula, it was already close to evening. Peng Yuanchao saw that Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang had brought back two and a half marmots, and thought that they would have something to eat.

Zhou Jingming could only tell the group of people again about the plague caused by marmots.

He skinned the two marmots and threw their pelts into the river to let the water wash them away, so as not to leave them near the camp and attract other wild animals.

As for the meat, he tied it to the riverbank with a thin rope and weighed it down with a stone before placing it in the water.

In this hot weather, it would go bad in just one day. Putting it in the river, at least the temperature is lower, and it can be preserved for longer.

Jinwang can finish all the meat in just two or three days.

On his way back, he took a look at the fish trap he had placed in the river. When he pulled it out, he saw four or five fish inside, which he took back and cooked with them that evening.

After a day of rest, the group was woken up early the next morning by Peng Yuanchao to begin their daily work.

These days, the sun is scorching, and many people can't stand the heat, so they take off their clothes and work shirtless. Their bodies are tanned dark red, and before one layer of skin has even peeled off, another layer peels off.

Even Zhou Jingming himself wore a red vest, which was more popular than a white T-shirt these days, to work.

After being exposed to the scorching sun for days, he took off his red vest, revealing a clear contrast between his skin and the darker areas. The white areas were covered by the vest, while the darker areas were naturally tanned by the sun.

That afternoon, he noticed that the skin on his left arm was peeling. He pinched and pulled it with his fingers, and it only got bigger and bigger. In the end, a piece of dead skin the size of his palm came off. It was quite exaggerated. The feeling was no different from a snake shedding its skin.

For the next ten days or so, the weather remained sunny, and gold production on the small peninsula was stable. Over these days, Zhou Jingming's gold holdings, including the gold nuggets and rock gold he picked up on the riverbank during the flood, as well as the gold ring and the small piece of gold chain, totaled more than a pound, specifically 583 grams.

Just then, a gold trader came into the mountains, and the group sold some gold. Peng Yuanchao noticed that there wasn't much diesel fuel left in the camp, so he decided to make another trip to Tiemaike.

This time, because they needed to save money, Lao Wang and Bai Zhishun went along with everyone else.

Only Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang remained in the camp.

On the third day after everyone went to Tiemaike, at noon, as Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang were preparing grilled fish in front of the tent, Jin Wang, who was lying under the shade of a tree, suddenly shouted.

The two men quickly ran into the tent, took out their hunting rifles, and waited for a while. They saw a man hurrying along the woods toward the camp. Upon closer inspection, they were surprised to find that it was Li Guozhu, whom they hadn't seen for some time.

As soon as he saw Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang from a distance, he shouted, "The Qingshan team is here!"

(End of this chapter)