My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 150 Showing No Mercy

"Why did it take you so long to come back? Breakfast is ready, everyone is waiting for you!"

Shen Wei returned more than an hour after leaving. Gao Jianjun casually asked him about it, and noticing that his expression was slightly different from usual, he asked again, "Did something happen?"

Shen Wei reached out and wiped his hooked nose, which was running with clear snot from the cold: "It's nothing, what could possibly happen? Zhang Haifei helped me a lot, after all. Now that he's gone, we can't let our friendship end. I saw him off a little further and tried to persuade him to come back, but unfortunately, he just wouldn't agree. That's a bit of a shame."

Then, he shook his head and said, "Forget it, let's not think about it too much. Let's eat as soon as the food is ready and do what we agreed on yesterday."

"The Zhangs have already left. If we keep blowing up the mine, and we don't know how to watch over it, what's the point? Let's leave too!"

Some people are starting to back out again.

Shen Wei raised an eyebrow and glared at the man: "From what you're saying, you can't clean the cave without Zhang Haifei. Putting aside everything else, as long as you blast open the mine, you can always tell whether there's gold on the cave walls or not, right?"

That being said, he would have left if you hadn't hit him.

How come... you can't live without it now?

He retorted with a few words, and the man immediately fell silent.

Shen Wei ignored him and urged the others to eat quickly.

Noticing that Shen Wei was acting strangely, Gao Jianjun paid more attention to him. He suddenly noticed that there was some dark red on the cuffs of his black cotton coat.

That color was somewhat familiar to him.

It seems to be on the trouser legs and shoe uppers.

Although it has been washed, some residue remains, especially the dark red spot on the upper of the shoe, which is the most noticeable.

That's blood...

He suddenly realized something.

But such words should obviously not be uttered, as one careless remark could bring disaster upon oneself.

Gao Jianjun's desire to quit grew stronger. As he pondered what excuse to use, he suddenly heard Shen Wei assigning men to lead six people to continue blasting the mine, while Shen Wei himself would lead the remaining three to pan for gold along the river. He said that this was a mining area, and gold was easy to find along the river. Normally, it was restricted and not allowed to come in, so not many people had panned there. Maybe they could find a big gold nugget.

Gao Jianjun couldn't find a good reason to back down. The key issue was that he was a blasting expert, and if he withdrew now, the mine wouldn't be able to be blasted. He was worried that this might attract Shen Wei's attention.

After thinking it over, I figured the explosives would only last for the last three mine shafts, which would only take two or three days. I'd leave once the explosives were used up.

With more people around, it's probably safer.

Being alone is the most dangerous situation.

After eating and drinking their fill, the group packed up their things and went down from the mine entrance on the hillside to the riverbank.

The mine shaft to be blasted was selected when they came to this valley and went deep inside to scout the location. They blasted their way out from the upper reaches of the valley.

Shen Wei reminded Gao Jianjun, "Be careful with the medication. These are the last three mines. Don't blow up the whole mine."

Gao Jianjun nodded and led the six men downstream for a short distance. Then they climbed up a mine shaft not far from the slope. He first went into the shaft with a flashlight to check the situation, then came out and called the others to follow him into the shaft. When they reached the deepest part, he chose a spot and had the others start drilling blasting holes according to the locations he had marked.

Shen Wei led the three of them upstream, selecting places where gold easily accumulated, such as rocky pools, large rocks on the riverbank, and crevices in the rocks, digging out the silt and sand that had accumulated inside.

While the three men endured the biting cold of the river to dig, he searched and rummaged around at the foot of the slope.

This was originally a mine shaft left from long ago, where soil and gravel were excavated and transported out, dumped on the slope, and some of it rolled down from the mountain.

He hoped to rummage through the ore scraps to see if he could find any gold-bearing ore. If he did, he could extract some gold from the ore and, depending on the circumstances, perhaps even find undiscovered veins in the mountains.

Actually, his main purpose in choosing to pan for gold upstream was to return to the mines that they had blasted during this period, to go inside and take a good look, and see if he could find the mines that Zhang Haifei had discovered as gold veins but were told were poor mines.

Of course, he wouldn't tell even if he found it.

Because he knew what it meant to have a mine shaft with rich deposits.

It wasn't just Zhang Haifei who had the idea of ​​finding a rich mine and secretly selling it to Boss Jin for a huge profit; Shen Wei had the same idea too.

Or rather, he had this intention from the very beginning.

Therefore, when he found the gold-rich ore in Zhang Haifei's bag, he immediately guessed what Zhang Haifei was thinking.

Now that he has only brought three people out, it is easier for him to hide his true intentions and to act more conveniently.

The three men who were digging in the cold water by the river, shaking their golden buckets, were initially quite uncomfortable watching Shen Wei stroll around so leisurely. They felt that he could go without touching a drop of water while they had to suffer like this.

After fiddling around in the river for only a short time, my hands and feet started to sting from the cold.

Shen Wei was about to complain when he actually picked up a palm-sized piece of gold ore from the hillside. It was a piece of waste ore from before, probably washed away by the recent heavy rains. It was originally covered in mud, but now it revealed its true nature.

After the ore with several gold inclusions visible on its surface was broken into powder and washed, a considerable amount of gold was found, at least sixty grams. They had nothing more to say and began to spend more time examining the ore waste at the foot of the slope while searching upstream.

Meanwhile, Zhou Jingming and his two companions were also walking upstream along the riverbank.

Whenever I see a mine shaft, I go in to take a look. I've seen several mine shafts, some of which are severely collapsed, some are completely blocked, and some are held up by timber supports inside, leaving some gaps after the collapse. But it's not something you can just go in randomly. If you accidentally touch an inconspicuous but crucial rock, or make some noise, you could be buried inside.

Such a mine shaft is obviously not safe to enter.

To Zhou Jingming's dismay, of the three mine shafts that he visited that were still in good condition, all of them had been bombed.

He quickly realized that it wasn't that Gao Jianjun's group hadn't reached the upstream area yet, but rather that they had actually blasted their way out from upstream.

The mine shaft, which had been bombed, must have been thoroughly examined, making it highly unlikely that a gold vein could be found there.

But then he thought again that everyone's grasp of the mineral veins was different, and if they had overlooked something and he found it, that would be a great advantage.

It has already been bombed and the passage has been cleared. There's no need to drill holes and plant explosives yourself. It's quite convenient to go in and take a look, and it won't take long.

He still intends to take a good look at all these mines again.

However, considering that there was another group of people in this old mining area in the valley, he dared not leave Jin Wang alone to guard the entrance of the cave.

If it wanders around aimlessly and fails to warn anyone who comes, and gets ambushed and all three of them are trapped in the cave, then that would be troublesome.

When cleaning a mine shaft, everyone has some explosives on hand. Just light them and throw them in; even having a gun won't help.

Therefore, when entering the cave, he deliberately left Wu Yang outside and only led Bai Zhishun in so that he could help out.

In his previous life, Zhou Jingming had seen and heard a lot about this kind of thing.

The gold boss he followed would always organize people to go into the mountains to wash ore after the gold miners left the valley each year.

Zhou Jingming, a member of the geological team, was naturally a must-have for Boss Jin after he joined the team.

However, Boss Jin would explain things to him beforehand, telling him not to make a fuss about finding good gold veins, but to inform others about ordinary gold veins so that everyone could mine some and benefit from it, and they would be willing to do such things.

No businessman is without a heart; they just differ in the degree of their ruthlessness.

The boss Jin that Zhou Jingming works for is the type who eats the meat himself but lets his subordinates have some soup too. Compared to other bosses Jin, he is already considered quite good.

In fact, in the eyes of those gold bosses, these people they organized to go into the mountains to search for minerals were called "suicide squads".

Just from this way of addressing them, you can tell they're being sent to risk their lives.

The usual practice is to find a good mine without informing the people involved. After dismissing them, Boss Jin will reassign his trusted men to mine the mine throughout the winter. Since washing is inconvenient, they will use horses or camels to transport the mined good ore out of the mountain for storage. When the weather warms up, the ore will be crushed, screened, and washed.

Of course, there are also some who explore the wild mines. After finding good veins in the mountains, they find that they are not capable of mining them themselves, so they sell them privately to wealthy bosses.

This way you can make money quickly, but the risks are also considerable.

In his previous life, Zhou Jingming knew someone who had previously explored for minerals in the West Sea Gold Rush Valley and made his fortune by selling the mineral veins he found in abandoned mines.

Generally speaking, as long as a mineral vein is found, regardless of the gold content, once the gold tycoon buys it and mines it, he can break even and make a profit. There shouldn't be any major problems.

That guy was unlucky. Once, he blasted open a tailings mine and discovered a rich vein. He later sold it to a very powerful local businessman, Mr. Jin, for a high price and guaranteed him how many kilograms of gold could be extracted.

After inspecting the mine, Boss Jin didn't hesitate and immediately gave him a large sum of money.

As a result, the gold vein was cut off after only two days of mining by the Jin boss.

The situation was somewhat similar to the first mine shaft that Zhou Jingming and his team cleaned.

This time, Mr. Jin was unwilling and went to the prospector to get back the money he had been given.

Unfortunately, he had already spent half of that money on a winter of extravagant living, so he had no way of getting it back.

He was severely punished, and all his previous wealth was taken away. He couldn't afford to offend Boss Jin, who was a local tyrant, so he didn't dare to stay in Xihai anymore. That's why he came to Altay and is still doing his old job.

Zhou Jingming's first pot of gold was obtained in a similar way. He found a rich gold vein in two abandoned mines and received a considerable reward from the boss he followed. He then started to form his own team and work independently, during which time he also received some help from the boss.

Of course, Zhou Jingming didn't have much affection for Boss Jin. The relationship between the two was simply one of mutual need and exchange of benefits.

As Zhou Jingming gradually made great progress, Boss Jin also tried to take over his business, which led to a complete falling out.

Therefore, in this lifetime, Zhou Jingming knows where Boss Jin is now, but he won't think about having much interaction with him. Perhaps in the future, there will be more clashes over gold veins and mining sites.

Zhou Jingming will not choose to hold back.

Unfortunately, most of the gold veins he found in his previous life were in abandoned mines left by later gold mine owners, and they weren't located near the Haiertes River and Haxiong Gully. Now is not the time to touch those gold veins.

Things can only be put on hold temporarily.

Many gold bosses are now similar to Zhou Jingming, still just small-time gold prospectors or gold foremen leading twenty or thirty people.

It's time to rise up!

(End of this chapter)