My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 130 God’s Blessing
The tractor arrived at the meeting point around 5 p.m.

In early August in northern Xinjiang, the sun rises before 7 a.m. and it gets dark around 10 p.m., so the daytime lasts about 15 hours.

There were at least four hours left until nightfall.

Peng Yuanchao and the others had been waiting on the roadside grass for quite a while, and they didn't have much to say. They took a nap in the shade, and when they woke up, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang still hadn't returned, so they strolled around the river.

Some people saw fish in the water plants by the riverbank and used wooden hairpins to spear them.

Some people see many smooth stones in the river, polished by the river and with beautiful patterns, and search for them on the riverbank. But they quickly realize that they are just stones, worthless and not interesting, and throw the stones they find back into the river.

Some people, unable to stay idle, would take a gold dipper to the riverbank, find a place where silt had accumulated, fill the dipper with some silt, and clumsily shake it in the river, trying to shake out the gold. If they actually saw a tiny bit of gold dust at the bottom of the dipper, they would be overjoyed.

They only gathered together when they heard the sputtering sound of a tractor in the distance and saw that Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang had returned.

Peng Yuanchao went up to him and said, "Brother, you're finally back. If you hadn't come back, we would have been preparing to set up tents here and cook dinner."

On their way there, the two encountered the gold prospectors who were leaving. They greeted them and learned that they had been waiting there for quite some time.

Jinwang, who had been jostled all the way, was the first to jump down. He almost lost his balance and stumbled, then wobbled to the river to drink water, and then lay down on the grass to sleep.

Zhou Jingming jumped off the car and took out the naan bread he had bought, which was in a cloth bag: "No need to cook dinner, I've already brought it for you! Hurry up and fill your stomachs, then load the car, we still have a long way to go."

Peng Yuanchao took the naan and turned to distribute it to everyone.

This stuff, although it's also dry food, tastes much better than bland and tasteless steamed buns.

Once everyone received their share of naan, they all started tearing at it in silence.

Zhou Jingming handed a cigarette to the two drivers, then sat down on the grass and lit one for himself.

To be honest, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang were both exhausted by now, mainly because they had barely slept last night.

The two had already eaten in the tractor bed and were still full, so they went to the fire to pour some water to quench their thirst.

There were no clean water sources nearby, so the water in the antimony pot was scooped from the river. It tasted muddy and fishy, ​​but at least it had been boiled. After settling, there was a layer of mud and sand at the bottom of the pot.

There aren't many rules in the wild; you just have to make do with what you have to drink.

Peng Yuanchao, munching on a steamed bun, came over to pour water and asked, "Brother, I've been asking you for a while now, but you wouldn't tell me where the new mining site is. Is it far? Can you tell me now?"

"I didn't tell you before because I didn't want the news to get out and someone to go there first and take over the mining site I had my eye on. Now I can tell you, the place we're going to is called Haxionggou."

At the small peninsula mining site, every now and then, a few mining foremen would walk around the camp. In addition, Peng Yuanchao and Li Guozhu would lead people to Tiemaike or the places where locals sold supplies every now and then. It was hard to guarantee that the news would spread unintentionally, immediately attracting more gold prospectors to Haxionggou.

It's different now.

Since we're already on our way, there's no need to hide it anymore.

He hadn't even told the two tractor drivers before.

"Ha Xiong Gou...where is Ha Xiong Gou?"

When Peng Yuanchao first arrived in the Altay region, he had no idea about the terrain.

Wang Youping then interjected, asking, "The Haxionggou you mentioned, is it the Haxionggou that goes towards the Yunmu No. 4 Mine, passing through Tomarde?"

"Yes, that's it."

Zhou Jingming nodded affirmatively.

Wang Youping immediately chimed in, "Leaving aside the road conditions over there, you didn't tell me when you approached me before. I should have known better than to agree."

Zhou Jingming knew perfectly well that he just wanted more money, so he smiled at him and said, "Master Wang, I only found a tractor because I knew the road conditions were bad. Otherwise, with all this stuff, I would have just gone to find a car, which would have been faster and could have carried more."

Don't say you won't go; we'll give you extra money.

Upon hearing this, Wang Youping raised an eyebrow: "Fifty, at least fifty each, no less!"

"Sure, you said it yourselves."

Zhou Jingming no longer cares about the hundred yuan. As long as he can get there sooner and start panning for gold sooner, he can earn it back quickly.

After the matter was settled and everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Peng Yuanchao stood up and called out to everyone to load the supplies onto the two tractors.

The heaviest items were the diesel engine and the oil drum, which took some effort to remove; the rest were relatively easy.

Actually, after repackaging, it didn't feel like there were that many things, but one car couldn't fit them all.

But that's all we can do; there are still sixteen people to sit in the car.

After everyone got on the vehicles, the two tractors sputtered and rattled along the dirt road, one after the other.

This is the section of road leading back. After returning to the Fourth Mine Bridge, turn onto the other side of the road. The first section is the road to the No. 3 shaft of the Fourth Mine, a place with frequent car traffic. When two tractors drive by, they can kick up dust behind them. After passing this section, the dirt road becomes difficult to travel on.

Many of the broken roads were full of gravel, and tractors kept slipping on them.

Fortunately, there were more than ten men who helped push, and they were able to get up.

After a long and arduous journey, they continued until nightfall, when the road ahead ended and the tractor could no longer proceed, at which point they finally stopped.

Peng Yuanchao seemed to be quite wary of the stone figures on the grassland. When he got out of the car, he muttered, "Luckily, I didn't see any stone figures."

Once you reach this valley, it's already a standard forest area. Before dark, all you can see are mountains and trees, with only a few bare rocky hills and large patches of lush green grassland interspersed among the mountains.

The scenery along the way was quite beautiful, but no one seemed to be paying much attention to it; instead, they appeared drowsy.

On these grasslands, you can see white tents every now and then, which are the dwellings of the herders. Cattle and sheep graze leisurely on the grassland.

These mountains are actually a pristine and tranquil treasure in the hearts of the people of Keketuhai, and the location of summer pastures.

Wang Youping and the tractor driver surnamed Zhao were worried that the road would be difficult to navigate and they would have trouble dealing with things if they went back at night. So they gave up the idea of ​​returning overnight and decided to stay in the mountains with Zhou Jingming and the others until dawn before going back.

Another reason is the fear of encountering bears or jackals on the road, which they might not be able to handle.

As vegetation grows lusher, so too does the potential danger from animals.

No one had the time to set up tents. Since it had been sunny for several days and the ground was dry, everyone brought their own bedding, spread it out, and went to sleep.

But a fire must be kept out of wild animals.

Zhou Jingming left this task directly to Peng Yuanchao and Li Guozhu. He was so tired that he ate a few mouthfuls of naan, spread out his bedding on the ground, wrapped himself in it, and went to sleep.

He probably just lay down, turned over, and fell asleep.

He was awakened by the sound of the tractor starting up. When he opened his eyes, the sun had already risen, and everyone else was awake too.

Two tractor drivers walked towards him, and he could tell from their outstretched hands that they wanted to pay the bill and leave.

Zhou Jingming didn't waste any time. He took out his money, counted out five large unity bills for each of them, and then each of them asked for a naan bread before driving off in his tractor.

Zhou Jingming didn't delay: "Let's all get moving and travel while it's still cool. We should be able to arrive this afternoon and stay in our tents tonight, where we can eat meat."

Li Guozhu glanced around at the place and sighed, "It's surrounded by mountains and forests, too remote. It'll be difficult to get diesel fuel when the engine runs out."

Zhou Jingming lit a cigarette and said, "This year, we'll use manual water pumping to work for a while, and then we'll use up the diesel we brought. It'll be about time to leave the mountains. Actually, the distance that tractors can reach here is not as far as the distance to the small peninsula. There's nothing to worry about. It's just a matter of paying more for transportation."

Moreover, there are more herders here, so it's easier to get meat than on the small peninsula.

Peng Yuanchao looked at the surrounding mountains and said, "I don't see any gold here at all."

Zhou Jingming glanced at him: "You don't trust my choice?"

Peng Yuanchao shook his head repeatedly: "What I mean is, if I were here, I would never think of going inside to look for Jin Miao."

"There are so many trees on the mountain that it's not easy for mud and sand to wash into the valleys, and the gold hidden in the mountain is not easily weathered away..."

Zhou Jingming asked with a smile, "Then tell me, where did the gold we panned for on the small peninsula come from? The hillsides on both sides are covered with fir forests, and there are no gold veins..."

Peng Yuanchao was taken aback for a moment: "It came down from the upstream gold vein."

"So what does it matter whether there is lode gold on the riverbanks when choosing a mining site? As long as there is lode gold vein upstream, that's fine. What we're panning for is placer gold, which is a placer gold vein formed by water transport and sedimentation."

Zhou Jingming took a deep breath and looked into the distance at the mountain peaks still covered in snow: "Most of the dozens of gold veins in the Altai Mountains are concentrated along the line from Altai to Tacheng. There is placer gold in many of the valleys here. The saying that there are seventy-two valleys in the Altai Mountains and every one of them has gold is not an exaggeration. It's just that the amount of gold varies."

You might not believe it, but the Altai Mountains are located at the intersection of China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia. The part of the Altai Mountains on our side is only a small section, but even this small section is rich in many rare minerals such as gold and silver. In other countries, these minerals are either absent or have very small reserves, making them unprofitable for mining.

Heaven is protecting our China.

As they were talking, Zhou Jingming suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet shake. Even Jin Wang, who had been listless overnight from the jolting of the tractor, suddenly became agitated, turning his head and shouting wildly.

"What just happened? Was it an earthquake?"

Some people looked panicked.

Zhou Jingming quickly reassured him, "It's an earthquake, but don't be so scared. The Altai Mountains are located in an area prone to earthquakes. It's just an occasional tremor, and it's not very noticeable. There's no need to make a fuss."

I don't know if you've heard of it, but around this time in 1931, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Altan, creating a rupture zone over 170 kilometers long. I visited that rupture zone when I was doing geological exploration, and it's still there now.

"It's just that this area is sparsely populated, so there wasn't much damage. If this had happened in the city, who knows how badly it would have been destroyed. This is even worse than the Tangshan disaster."

(End of this chapter)