My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 147 Killing
Zhou Jingming excitedly took the quartz rock and drilled it out of the mine.

Hearing the crunching sound of footsteps on loose rocks coming from inside the cave, Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun, who were guarding the cave entrance, immediately rushed to the cave entrance.

A short while later, Zhou Jingming was seen crawling out of the hole.

Wu Yang asked impatiently, "How is it?"

Zhou Jingming took out the quartz ore from his pocket: "See for yourself!"

Wu Yang only glanced at it before exclaiming in shock, "Holy crap!"

He took the ore and examined it closely. He saw that the surface of the quartz was covered with tiny golden particles, which were clearly visible. Moreover, it seemed that there were more in the crevices of the ore.

Bai Zhishun also came over, without saying a word, but his eyes were fixed on the ore.

Zhou Jingming didn't disturb the two. He sat down by the mine and lit a cigarette.

Wu Yang handed the piece of ore to Bai Zhishun, then turned to Zhou Jingming and asked, "Is it a lot?"

"I did see a few other pieces, but they haven't been taken out yet!"

"What's the situation inside the mine?"

"It was quite sturdy. We only went in about ten meters before it collapsed, blocking the entrance. Most of what was going to fall down has probably already fallen. I estimate that if it hadn't collapsed, we probably wouldn't have seen this gold."

"Then what are we waiting for... let's go in and get back to work!"

Wu Yang grabbed his tools and prepared to crawl inside.

"Don't worry!"

Zhou Jingming quickly stopped the two of them: "This mine is very old and the situation is quite complicated. Let me rest for a while before we go in together. Neither of you has ever been down in a mine before, so there are some things I need to explain to you properly, otherwise there may be problems. We can't just act recklessly. I can't explain it clearly right now, but once we're inside, I'll show you and you'll understand... Have a smoke to refresh yourself first."

Upon hearing this, Wu Yang could only sit back down at the mine entrance, take out a cigarette, light it, and offer one to Bai Qishun as well.

This hunchback, who had never smoked before, has learned how to smoke in the past few days.

After they had finished smoking, Zhou Jingming led the two men, along with their luggage, into the mine.

The hunting rifle and roe deer hide container were left at the entrance of the mine. The three men only brought tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and steel chisels inside.

Watching the three disappear into the darkness of the cave, Jinwang growled anxiously and tried to burrow into the cave as well. However, after only a few steps, it dared not go any further.

After all, they are not animals that live in caves, and they are always somewhat uncomfortable with the stuffiness, darkness and complex atmosphere of caves.

It crawled out of the hole and barked wildly at the inside. Seeing that Zhou Jingming ignored it, it circled around the entrance for a while, then lay down. Occasionally, when it heard a sound, it would immediately look up in the direction of the sound, but most of the time it was looking at the mine shaft.

Zhou Jingming led the two into the cave, pointing out the cracks and rocks on the rock wall, explaining which ones might fall, and urging them to be careful. He also pointed out the rotten parts of the wooden supports supporting the cave wall, and to pay special attention to the light from the kerosene lamp at all times...

It didn't take long for the three of them to reach the collapse site. Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun's eyes were quickly drawn to the few pieces of ore that were shimmering with golden light when the flashlight shone on them.

The rest was easy. The three of them cleared away the rubble with shovels or moved it by hand while searching for gold-bearing ore.

The three of them spent four whole days in that cave.

Gold-bearing ore is often found only in a small crevice in the mountain, not everywhere. The amount of gold-bearing ore that can be found in these collapsed rocks is also very limited.

But the results were quite good.

Every day during mealtimes, they would carry the gold-bearing stones out of the cave entrance to heat water and dry their rations over a fire. They would then use the hammers they brought to break the ore into small pieces on large stones, and then finely grind it into powder.

To prevent stones from flying and damaging the gold, Zhou Jingming went to the riverbank in the ditch, found a large poplar tree, and stripped a piece of bark from it to wrap around the tree and use as a barrier.

Bai Zhishun is the one who does most of these things.

He has always been very patient when it comes to this kind of work.

After being crushed into powder, Wu Yang put it in a golden bucket and washed it in the ditch at the foot of the hill.

In four days, at least three pounds of gold were extracted.

The only downside is that rock gold contains more impurities and is of lower quality.

The gold extracted from these ores is bluish-green, yellowish-green, and reddish-green, meaning it contains only about 70% gold.

If you sell it, the price will be much lower.

But the amount was substantial, and it was still a considerable sum of money, enough to excite the three of them.

Indeed, gold from lode gold veins is usually of lower quality than placer gold from riverbeds.

It is likely that these gold deposits detached from the rocks as they weathered and were transported into the river by flowing water. Over many years of sedimentation and sifting, it seems that many of the impurities were purified.

Therefore, placer gold in riverbeds is mostly yellow or reddish, while gold deposits in rock veins tend to have a bluish tint.

As for those of even lower quality, they cannot be considered gold.

The cave was a completely different world from the outside. The weather remained gloomy, the wind grew stronger and stronger, and it was unbearably cold.

However, the temperature inside the mine is more stable, so it doesn't feel particularly cold.

While moving and searching for the ore in the cave, the three of them would often get covered in sweat, making them prefer to stay in the mine rather than suffer from the cold outside.

But you have to come out when you're eating halalsa.

As soon as you come out, a shiver is inevitable, and it usually takes a while to get used to it before you feel comfortable. Of course, when you sleep at night, you can sleep peacefully near the mine entrance with some shelter to block the cold wind blowing in, wrapped in a roe deer skin.

It's been five days now.

Most of the collapsed rocks in the mine have been cleared away.

They piled up the useless stones on both sides of the cave passage, leaving only a passage wide enough for one person to pass through, and kept clearing inside.

The reason for doing this was that most of the collapsed gold ore fell from the top, and from the top, Zhou Jingming saw a row of gold-bearing quartz veins.

The purpose of piling up these waste stones is twofold: firstly, to save the trouble of moving the waste out, and secondly, to allow for targeted excavation of the gold-bearing quartz veins using pickaxes and steel chisels.

We can now see the tunnels inside.

Carrying a lantern and a flashlight, Zhou Jingming continued to venture deeper into the cave. After going in for about twenty more meters, he found several corpses left behind from who-knows-how-many years ago, but failed to find any gold veins.

Looking at the situation inside, the risk of collapse was much greater than outside. He wisely withdrew and did not consider using explosives. He estimated that if explosives were used, the inside would collapse beyond recognition, and the possibility of finding the gold vein would be too small.

If there were more people, it would be worth considering, but with just the three of them, moving those scrap materials would be half their lives away, it's not worth it.

He planned to extract as much gold as possible from the quartz vein before moving to another mine.

As a result, on the sixth day, the three had to leave the mine, as the small gold-bearing quartz vein suddenly broke.

Zhou Jingming searched carefully and confirmed that it was gone.

In the past two days, we have been digging along the gold vein in a targeted manner, avoiding the trouble of moving stones, and have obtained about three kilograms of them.

Zhou Jingming was already very satisfied that he had found so much gold just by cleaning a mine shaft.

Even if we turn back now, this trip to clean the cave will still be a huge profit.

However, the food brought into the mountains could last for several days, and the weather wasn't so bad that it was unbearable. Since we had come all this way, we naturally wanted to bring as much food as possible.

Fortunately, the weather gradually cleared up, allowing the three of them to bask in the warm sun during their rest.

Over the next three days, Zhou Jingming visited seven or eight more mine shafts. However, these shafts were either blocked by collapsed entrances, requiring the clearing of large amounts of rubble and soil that contained no gold before entry was possible, or they were too dangerous, feeling as if they might collapse at any moment.

There were a few decent mine shafts, but after Zhou Jingming went in to explore, he didn't see any signs of gold. He didn't want to blindly use explosives to try and find gold.

He only intended to use it when he was certain he had found a promising prospect and mining was proving difficult.

That noon, the three of them were sitting around the campfire, waiting for the water to boil, when they saw a group of more than ten people enter the valley, carrying several hunting rifles.

These people did things differently from Zhou Jingming and his group.

That afternoon, they blew up four mine shafts with explosives.

This also makes the valley, which is rarely sunny and warm in late autumn, seem particularly desolate.

The sounds of explosions and rocks rolling down the mountain echoed across the wilderness.

Upon hearing these sounds, Wu Yang couldn't help but sigh, "These people are really fierce; they treat explosives like they're free."

Zhou Jingming simply smiled at this.

Bai Zhishun was even more curious about why these people would always kneel and pray facing southeast when they entered the mine after blasting it.

Zhou Jingming told him that it was actually wrong to kneel and worship the mountain god when choosing a mining site to start construction. The correct way was to kneel and worship the earth god who was in charge of gold, also known as Lord Huang.

This is a ritual performed by the older generation of gold prospectors to pray for wealth and safety, as they were afraid that if they had bad luck, the entire mine would collapse and they would be unable to enter.

After they finished eating, Zhou Jingming called out to the two of them, "Pack your bags, let's move to another place, we can't stay here any longer."

Wu Yang was somewhat puzzled: "There are still quite a few mines along this valley that we haven't seen yet, why change locations?"

Zhou Jingming simply showed him the mine that those people were about to enter.

Wu Yang immediately understood: "We really should leave right away!"

Bai Zhishun was completely bewildered by their conversation: "Why?"

Wu Yang reached out and shook his head: "Look at the cave entrance they're in now, it's the one where we went in and got the gold on the first day."

Once you get inside, you'll definitely see that there's gold inside.

Do you think these people might have designs on us?

Bai Zhishun suddenly realized what was happening and got up to pack his luggage and tools.

The three of them grabbed their belongings and, instead of heading towards the valley, went straight into the mountains.

Because if they go into the valley, their movements will be too easily spotted.

Once you go into the mountains and cross them, these people will be out of sight, and it will be difficult to predict their movements or intentions.

Anyway, once you get into this restricted area, there are mines not only in this side ditch, but in several side ditches.

Just as the three of them crossed the mountain pass, suddenly, a whooshing sound came from above, and a dark shadow swooped down from above them, heading straight for Jinwang.

(End of this chapter)