My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 139 is very likely
To a large extent, Haxionggou and Haiertes River Gold Rush Valley both belong to what the herdsmen call Xigou (West Gully).

However, this area is characterized by crisscrossing mountains. Although there are only two major rivers, the Ertis River and the Ulungur River, which originate from the Altai Mountains, these two rivers are formed by the confluence of numerous rivers of varying sizes in the Altai Mountains, creating a sizable network of waterways.

The location of the herders' summer pastures changes with the migration of sheep, sometimes covering hundreds of miles during a single grazing season.

This means that the ditch they are referring to is a very large area.

Mountains and ravines are folds in the earth. They may be close together and not very far when you look at them, but once they are spread out, it takes a long time to reach them by foot.

As the saying goes, "Looking at a mountain makes your horse run itself to death."

Furthermore, many gold prospectors are not skilled at feng shui and finding gold deposits, and a large portion of them are even trying gold panning for the first time. So, usually, they gather wherever they hear that gold can be found.

This is only the beginning of the gold rush in Altay. There aren't many prospectors yet, and there are still many hidden places deep in the mountains that prospectors haven't reached.

However, the influx of more and more gold prospectors will disrupt the tranquility of this wild land.

Hidden valleys with gold are constantly being discovered, confirming the legend that each of the seventy-two valleys in the Altai Mountains contains gold.

For Zhou Jingming, it was not surprising that someone had discovered Haxionggou, a place that was only occasionally mentioned by herders, and he knew that this was a trend.

Tractor driver Wang Youping knew about this place because he had helped transport supplies to the herders there before.

It is precisely for this reason that Zhou Jingming has an increasingly strong sense of urgency.

Because that means more and more people will be competing with them for this opportunity to make money.

But this was actually something Zhou Jingming had already anticipated.

Just as he expected, in the following days, every time Jinwang barked, he could see groups of gold prospectors appearing in the valley, and he could see their undisguised excitement when they saw his mining site.

So, some people started panning for gold in the upper or lower reaches of the river valley.

However, these were almost all small-scale operations, with two or three people gathering together to dig a small pit and wash things in the river.

Some people came and left not long after.

There are also individual hunters who operate as guerrillas in the river, taking advantage of the current scarcity of gold in the valley to search for small pits or crevices where gold might be hidden, and then scoop out the mud and sand to wash it.

The largest group he saw was a team of five people; there wasn't a single team with more than ten people.

That afternoon, while Jinwang was sunbathing on the grass behind his dugout, he made another discovery. Suddenly, he stood up and barked at the downstream river.

Zhou Jingming, who was panning for gold in the river, called Wu Yang and ran to the edge of the dugout to watch.

After watching for a while, I still couldn't see anyone.

This made Zhou Jingming suspect that someone was hiding somewhere, gathering intelligence on the situation in the pincer-shaped ravine.

He gestured to Wu Yang, and the two of them went into the dugout, picked up their hunting rifles, loaded bullets into their pockets, and climbed up to a higher grassy slope behind them.

These days, the frost at night is getting heavier and heavier, the temperature is dropping sharply, the wild grass is starting to wither, and the deciduous trees, under the increasingly fierce mountain winds, have lost more than half of their leaves in just a few days.

This is why the forest is less crowded, and the whole mountain range seems to become more open and sparse, making it easy to observe if you are not too far away.

However, when the two climbed halfway up the hillside and looked closely into the valley, they still couldn't see anything.

Jinwang, who followed, continued to bark.

Its barking was still directed towards the lower reaches of the river, but this area was mostly grassland, and it was clearly visible at a glance. The only obscured spot was a small bend in the riverbed below, which was hidden by a row of poplar trees growing along the river.

Zhou Jingming frowned slightly: "Damn it, which scoundrel is causing trouble... Let's go down and take a look!"

Just as Zhou Jingming was about to walk up the slope, Wu Yang suddenly grabbed him: "I think I heard someone shouting..."

Zhou Jingming immediately stopped and covered his ears to listen carefully. Sure enough, he could vaguely hear something: "It's a woman's crying... It sounds like Nora! Let's go quickly and see."

The two immediately grabbed their hunting rifles and ran down the hillside.

As Wu Yang ran, he asked, "Didn't Batu and his family move to the mountains to graze their livestock? I thought they had already moved away."

Zhou Jingming guessed: "It's probably because the weather is getting colder, and they're planning to move to the autumn pastures and are starting their return journey. I told him I wanted to buy sheep, and he also said that it would be closer to move their sheep here."

In any case, besides pasture grass, there are also shrub branches and leaves in the mountains, which are all things that sheep can eat. The further south you go, the more Gobi Desert there is. Although the temperature is higher, it is not conducive to grazing.

Weather permitting, they won't be back that quickly.

Wu Yang was a little confused: "Brother Zhou, we're all going to leave once it gets cold, why are you still buying sheep?"

"What else can we do besides feed them? We can't just buy them out of boredom!"

Zhou Jingming tried to catch his breath: "Given the current situation, I don't think I can leave. I have to guard all the things in the dugout and the mining site. Otherwise, when I come back next year, they might have already been taken over, and that would be difficult to handle."

"What's there to worry about? We can just take it back later!" Wu Yang thought it wasn't a difficult problem.

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "You make it sound so easy. What if a team of hundreds of people takes over the mining site? You may not know, but there is another type of gold prospector in the mountains, who mostly work as guerrillas to pan for gold."

But actually, they weren't panning for gold for the sake of panning for gold. They were looking for mines in the mountains, then contacting some powerful gold mine owners and selling the locations directly to them. This way, they could make a lot of money without putting in too much hard work.

Experienced gold prospectors can find several locations a year and earn just as much as honest gold miners. Among them are geological exploration team members or veterans from the military who know how to prospect, such as those from the gold mining unit; they are quite skilled.

Nobody knows if there are any people searching for mineral deposits in the valley during this period. They could be people sent by wealthy businessmen to look for minerals; it's all uncertain.

“We have to keep an eye on them!” Wu Yang replied without asking any further questions.

Soon, the two ran down the hillside. When they heard Peng Yuanchao ask what was going on, they didn't have time to answer. They ran into the poplar grove, crossed the wooden bridge, and ran down the riverbank.

The shouts became clearer and clearer, and it was now completely confirmed that it was Nora.

However, just as the two ran less than a hundred meters down the riverbank, their shouts abruptly stopped.

The two stopped in their tracks, feeling somewhat bewildered.

But if they were screaming like that, something must have happened.

Since we're already here, a few more steps won't make a difference.

The two continued running down the riverbank.

After walking a few dozen meters further, the two saw the situation in the poplar grove by the riverbank. A tall man was carrying Nara and was entering the grove. After only a few steps, he put Nara on the ground covered with yellow leaves, and the action was that he was tearing off her clothes.

Seeing this, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang had no idea what was going on.

The distance was too far for the gun to reach, so Zhou Jingming could only shout, "What are you doing..."

The man was startled and instinctively turned around to look in the direction of the sound.

When he saw Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang rushing towards him, he didn't dare to stop and got up to run.

Seeing that he didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, Zhou Jingming knew that continuing to chase him wouldn't lead to trouble, so he immediately gave the order to Jin Wang, who was following closely behind: "Waaah..."

Even at a time like this, Jinwang, though not very bright, knew that the person was the target, and immediately chased after him, barking wildly.

The two rushed toward the poplar grove by the riverbank and saw that Nara's hard-shelled dome hat, decorated with owl feathers, had fallen onto the riverbank and was picked up by Zhou Jingming.

I also saw many pebbles on the riverbank that had been kicked and overturned, revealing damp sand pits, and many drag marks.

Clearly, this is where Nora met that man, and the two engaged in a fierce struggle and fight.

When the two arrived at Nora's side, they saw that the skin on her left forehead was torn and bleeding profusely, and her eyes were closed, her life hanging in the balance.

Her clothes were in disarray; her cotton coat had been torn off, her wool dress was lifted up, and her trousers were pulled up to her knees, revealing most of her firm, slender legs...

Seeing this, Zhou Jingming knew that if he had arrived just three or five minutes later, the attack would have already been carried out.

He reached under Nora's nose and checked for breath, finding she was still breathing: "She's just unconscious!"

Wu Yang cursed out loud: "Damn it, I'm going to kill him... If something happens to Nara here, Batu's first thought will definitely be whether it was us who did it!"

He was even more shrewd than Zhou Jingming had imagined. When he voiced this possibility, even Zhou Jingming was startled, feeling that it was very likely a trap targeting his group.

As Jinwang's barking faded into the distance, Zhou Jingming looked at Wu Yang and asked, "Are you confident?"

Wu Yang nodded firmly: "Don't worry!"

He grabbed his hunting rifle and chased after Jinwang in the direction from which the barking had come.

After a moment's thought, Zhou Jingming quickly stopped him: "Brother, leave him alive and bring him back, otherwise, some things will be hard to explain!"

Zhou Jingming really didn't want to get into trouble involving ethnic customs and traditions.

Wu Yang nodded and continued chasing after him, soon disappearing from sight.

Zhou Jingming looked at the unconscious Nara, frowned slightly, helped Nara pull up her clothes, covered her with her cotton coat, thought for a moment, squatted down beside her, and pressed hard on her philtrum with his thumb.

Perhaps stimulated by the pain, Nara shook her head, suddenly opened her eyes, and saw Zhou Jingming. She didn't recognize him at first, and shouted at him, flailing her arms wildly.

She was speaking Kazakh, which Zhou Jingming couldn't understand, but he guessed it was something like telling him to get lost...

Zhou Jingming didn't want to get scratched, so he stood up and stepped aside: "Nara, it's me..."

Startled by his loud shout, Nora snapped back to her senses and realized her own unease, freezing in place for a moment.

"We arrived just in time. The man has already been driven away. Wu Yang is chasing after him and will bring him back!"

Zhou Jingming turned and walked away, saying, "Hurry up and straighten your clothes."

Whether she had been violated or not, she knew her own body very well. She quickly got up, pulled up her pants, and straightened her clothes before saying, "Okay!"

Zhou Jingming turned to look at her: "How did you end up here?"

"We're moving to another area right away. You guys mentioned wanting to buy sheep, so my brother asked me to come and get you to pick some out..."

Despite living in the wilderness all day, this shepherdess was not as coy as one might imagine.

"I see... You're injured on your head, can you go back now?"

"no problem!"

"Then go back and treat your wound quickly. I have to go help; I'm worried something might have happened to my brother..."

After Zhou Jingming finished speaking, he picked up his hunting rifle and chased after the direction from which the barking dogs were coming from.

(End of this chapter)