My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 131 Ambition
The group arranged the carts and loaded the supplies that had been piled on the ground into them. They also added a lot of grain, meat, and vegetables that Zhou Jingming had bought from Tiemaike, making the carts even heavier.

There were sixteen people, five of whom were responsible for one cart. Zhou Jingming carried a bag of flour weighing more than 60 kilograms on his back and led the way.

Tractors can't travel on foot, but there are rugged pastoral trails winding through the mountains and grasslands. For a handcart, it's actually much easier than traveling along the valleys and riverbanks. It's just that you have to push like crazy uphill and pull like crazy downhill.

After much effort, the group continued trekking into the mountains for about twenty miles, and finally, as they climbed up a mountain pass, they saw the river valley below.

In the valley, a river more than ten meters wide winds through the mountains like a silver chain.

The mountains here are no longer the lush woodlands they once were, but large stretches of wasteland, interspersed with towering rocks, small groves of fir trees, and numerous poplar trees growing along the riverbanks.

Further away, the mountains turned into woodlands.

"We're almost there, let's take a break!"

Zhou Jingming took out a pack of Red Lotus cigarettes and passed it around among the group: "Brother Peng, Brother Li, guess where our mine will be?"

Peng Yuanchao and Li Guozhu lit cigarettes and stood up to look around the valley.

After observing for a while, Peng Yuanchao spoke first: "Gold comes from the shady slope. This river runs east to west. We are currently on the north side of the valley, so the mining site must be on the south side of the opposite bank."

The mining site you chose… that little ravine, its shape is a bit like the small peninsula we used to pan for gold on, like an outstretched hand blocking a riverbed. It's a place where silt has accumulated, so it should be there, right?”

Peng Yuanchao guessed that Zhou Jingming's question indicated that the gold panning location was in the valley below, so he picked out what he thought was the best spot in the valley and mentioned it.

The location he was referring to was about two hundred meters upstream along the valley, where a small ridge extends down and the river makes a bend at the end of the ridge.

Li Guozhu looked at it for a while and said, "I also think it's the place Yuan Chao mentioned."

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly: "It's certainly possible to use that place as a mining site, but it's not the best location yet."

"where is that?"

Peng Yuanchao and Li Guozhu both looked at Zhou Jingming.

The others also looked at Zhou Jingming with curiosity.

Zhou Jingming pointed to a spot about 500 to 600 meters upstream in the valley: "See that mountain? That's what you often call Guanmen Mountain. There are poplar trees in the valley that block the view, so you can't see the specifics."

One gold prospector, who didn't understand, asked, "What is Guanmenshan?"

Since he was free anyway, Zhou Jingming could still share some of the feng shui experience passed down from the older generation of gold prospectors. As for anything too technical, Zhou Jingming figured they wouldn't understand anyway.

Should we explain the natural sand-stabilizing method to them?
Should we talk to them about the heavy sand method in engineering?
Let's talk about geological and geomorphological survey methods, and how to analyze and determine the composition of minerals.
This involves a lot of technical terms, and even if Zhou Jingming wanted to explain, he found it very difficult.

On the contrary, the experience passed down from the older generation is easier to understand and they are more interested in it.

"This is a method used by the older generation to determine the location of gold deposits based on the terrain and the patterns of gold enrichment. They usually say to look at the 'three mountains' and 'four areas where gold is not exposed'..."

The so-called Three Mountains are Zuoshan, Guanmenshan, and Yingmenshan.

A mountain is a gold-producing mountain in the upper reaches of a river valley, where gold veins are located. It is characterized by its height and abundance of karst formations.

Horse tooth stone, also known as quartz stone.

The older generation believed that river valleys with mountains were more likely to form placer gold veins.

Yingmen Mountain is the mountain at the bend of the river valley.

This is relatively easy to understand. When a river flows down, its straight course is blocked by a mountain, causing a bend in the flow. This inevitably slows down the flow, causing the silt and gravel carried in the river to settle.

Guanmenshan, on the other hand, is a pincer-shaped mountain in the river valley.

This is actually somewhat similar to Yingmen Mountain.

However, Yingmen Mountain directly blocks the water flow, creating a large river bend.

Guanmenshan, on the other hand, resembles an open pair of pliers, biting diagonally into the riverbed as if trying to shut it off, forming a V-shaped valley that became a gold-rich area.

Typically, the valleys above Guanmenshan or in front of Yingmenshan are rich in placer gold.

The older generation also referred to Guanmenshan and Yingmenshan as "Bu Luzui" and "Bu Lukou".

This brings us to the concept of "four things not to be revealed".

According to the experience of the older generation, a good placer gold deposit should not have an open mouth in front of the ditch, no blockage at the back of the ditch, no wind in the ditch, and no exposed rock in the entire ditch.

"Not exposed" means that the gold mine is large enough.

"Not exposed to the wind" or "not exposed to the waist" refers to the fact that the mountains on both sides of the valley where gold sand is produced must be relatively high, so that the wind seems unable to blow in.

"Not exposed" means that the rocks at the bottom of the riverbed are not exposed, indicating that the valley is still in the deposition stage, with a continuous flow of gold-bearing silt accumulating.

However, nothing is absolute.

Just like a while ago, there was a heavy rainstorm in the mountains, which caused a great flood. The river cut down a lot, and the silt that had been accumulated in many places was washed away, exposing the rocks and slabs at the bottom of the riverbed.

But in some places, the accumulated silt is not easily carried away.

After finishing his cigarette, Zhou Jingming briefly recounted the experiences of these older generations. For seasoned gold miners like Peng Yuanchao, Li Guozhu, and Xu Youliang, who had worked in the gold panning business for some time, this was quite easy to understand. However, for newcomers who had only come this year to pan for gold, with limited experience and knowledge, it was still somewhat difficult to grasp.

"Our mining site is located in a pincer-shaped ravine. When we came to explore a few years ago, we found many layers of gravel and silt on the slope. It is estimated that millions of years ago, the riverbed was quite high, but as the water continued to erode and cut down, the riverbed was lowered. After many years of siltation, it cut down again."

The most obvious example is the recent floods, which cut the riverbed down by more than one or two meters, and in some places, by as much as three meters.

Or perhaps geological movements caused the formation of terraces that resemble steps.

Of course, in some places it's not so obvious. Years of rain erosion have carried mud and rocks down the mountain, accumulating on the terraces and forming gentle slopes. Wild grasses and shrubs grow there, creating the grasslands we see today, making the terraces less noticeable. In short, this time when we're gathering and transporting materials, we won't need to wear waders and wade in the water.”

Zhou Jingming looked at the location of the mining site from afar and said, "I'm not bragging, but the mining site I chose is big enough to keep a hundred people busy for a year."

When he said that, he was actually thinking about another way to make money even faster.

There aren't many gold prospectors yet, and the location is relatively remote and secluded, so it remains unchanged.

But soon, things should get lively.

As more and more gold prospectors flocked to the valley, the known gold mines could not accommodate so many people, forcing many gold prospecting teams to wander around the mountains in search of gold nuggets.

In more and more valleys, groups of gold prospectors began to gather, and dug out one dugout after another.

Soon, Haxionggou will become lively again.

The reason Zhou Jingming chose this place first was because when he came here after leaving the labor camp in his previous life, the mine had already been completely mined out, and the valley was overcrowded.

Along the way into the mountains, apart from a few scattered herders in Haxiong Valley, there were no gold prospectors in sight, so I guess I arrived early.

Early bird gets the worm.

Zhou Jingming's idea was to occupy the gold-rich areas in the valley in advance, so that when later gold panning teams wanted to come in to mine, they could simply sell those mining sites to them.

There are so many gold mines in the mountains, and each of them can have many mining sites. Each mining site can generate a sum of money, which would be a considerable amount.

He couldn't possibly eat it all by himself.

Besides, there are many other good places in the mountains.

Why not resell it and make a profit?
However, to carry out such a task, one must have a large number of men under one's command. Otherwise, if those gold prospectors harbor resentment, form gangs, and turn back to rebel, it would be more than ten guns could handle.

Manpower, manpower is in short supply...

Zhou Jingming turned to look at Peng Yuanchao, Zhou Jingming, and Wu Yang, then at the remaining twelve people, thinking to himself that he could only develop manpower through them.

However, doing so can cause people from the same place to band together. Once they have the ability to lead a team, their mentality will be different from that of ordinary gold miners. If they are envious of their income, they may resort to underhanded tactics. In that case, everything will fall apart, all previous efforts will be wasted, and they may even lose their lives.

Zhou Jingming took a deep breath after just a brief thought: We need to have our own reliable team. Should we bring a team from Sichuan as well?
Without a solid foundation, Zhou Jingming is all alone and easily preyed upon by those wolves-like gold diggers.

Zhou Jingming has great ambitions.

He had half a lifetime of gold panning experience in his previous life, and the fact that he chose the path of gold panning again in this life is enough to show his ambition.

On the other hand, if you're reborn without ambition, what's the difference between you and a salted fish? You're just going to come back and suffer.
The quality of life in those days was far inferior to that of later generations; even simple meals were considered a sin.

Lacking ambition is a sin, even amidst these great opportunities.

But right now he can only think about it roughly. He only has a general plan. He still has to take things one step at a time and walk steadily.

It's time to think more about the details.

Just then, Sun Chenggui asked again, "Brother Zhou, if what you're saying is true, you must also know that there are gold mines in this valley?"

Zhou Jingming snapped out of his daze: "You know?"

Sun Chenggui hesitated: "The gold in the valley all comes from the gold-producing mountains, so doesn't that mean there's even more gold in those mountains? Since we know the location of the gold-producing mountains..."

"You mean, why don't we just go to the Gold Mountain and dig for gold, is that it?"

As soon as he opened his mouth, Zhou Jingming knew what he wanted to say.

Sun Chenggui smiled and nodded: "That's the idea."

Zhou Jingming sighed: "Do you think I don't want to? But most of that gold is hidden in the rock layers, and it's very difficult to dig it out. Without large machinery, it's hard to excavate. Moreover, the whole process requires transportation, crushing, and screening."

Compared to struggling with rocks, panning for placer gold is the simplest, easiest, and lowest-cost method under the current conditions.

We can't keep using the old methods, like burning rocks to mine ore, then crushing the mined ore and grinding it into powder with a stone mill.

Even with methods like explosives for mining, crushing remains a major problem...

The conditions aren't good now; it's not as reliable as panning for gold.

"Work hard, save up some capital, and when you're successful and have the ability, then consider it."

Sun Chenggui scratched his head: "How could I possibly have that ability!"

(End of this chapter)