My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 153 Everyone has their own plans
As evening approached, Gao Jianjun led his men to drill holes for the blasting, load the explosives, light the fuse, and then quickly retreated.

After the explosion subsided and the dust settled in the mine, the group went inside and began clearing away the rubble.

After the passage was cleared and everyone carefully inspected it, they all left disappointed.

The third mine shaft was still empty.

Shen Wei stood at the cave entrance and took a deep breath: "Those who don't want to continue tomorrow, just leave!"

Gao Jianjun didn't say anything. Deep down, he knew that the third mine had already been blown up, and no matter what, he wouldn't stay any longer.

Ever since he discovered the extra bloodstains on Shen Wei, he had been uneasy. And now, three more people had gone missing...

We need to leave quickly and get out of this troublesome place.

As for the gold, how much gold could there be on that piece of ore that Shen Wei was holding?
He didn't even have the thought of speaking.

The other two, who also wanted to leave, were still thinking about it, saying that the ore contained some gold, and they should at least get a share.

Shen Wei already knew that gold had been found in the mine, so he didn't care about this small piece of ore. He immediately threw the ore next to the two men and said, "You can take it and divide it among yourselves."

One of them picked up the ore and examined it, asking the others one by one. After they all shook their heads, only the person with him remained silent. He immediately smashed the stone into pieces, then continued to grind it into powder. He took a gold bucket to the river to pan for the ore, and the two of them split it. Each of them received about ten grams, far less than Shen Wei had previously estimated.

The price of getting the gold was that a whole bunch of people were waiting for the two of them to cook.

At this moment, upstream in the mine, Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun emerged from the cave, bringing out another bag of gold-bearing ore.

The three of them painstakingly crushed the ore into powder by the fire. Zhou Jingming went to the river to wash it and came back, but at the bottom of the gold bucket, there was still only a pitiful little bit of gold dust.

"With this kind of output, we might as well pan for gold!"

Wu Yang looked at the tiny bit of gold and seemed somewhat disappointed.

Bai Zhishun, on the other hand, was quite optimistic: "No matter what, it's still gold. If you save it little by little, it will eventually grow more and more."

He put the little bit of gold in a small glass bottle.

When Zhou Jingming first brought out the ore, he washed it and roughly calculated that the grade of this vein was only three.

In other words, one ton of ore can yield about three grams of gold.

If it were for industrial-scale mining, it would be sufficient, but for Zhou Jingming and his group, it wouldn't be worth it.

The key point is that the gold that was panned out had a bluish tint, which means it had about 70% gold content, and in reality, it was even less.

But that's only on the surface of the gold vein, and it doesn't count.

All three wanted to see if there were any changes in the deeper parts.

So, for the entire afternoon, the three of them took turns guarding the entrance and continued digging into the mine along the gold vein.

The result of all the effort was not much different.

If you tell Boss Jin about such a gold mine, no one will even bother to offer a price.

Because river valley dredging is more cost-effective than this, it's not worth investing manpower and resources and taking the risk.

Unless it's been a few years, when machinery and equipment have been developed, and after several years of searching, most places have been overrun by people, making it difficult to find good mines, then such places will be chosen.

In other words, this is a poor mine.

"Let's try another mine tomorrow and stay for two more days. If we still can't find any good ore, we'll go back to Haxionggou."

Zhou Jingming sighed. He was quite worried about Haxionggou: "I wonder how things are at the mining site in Haxionggou!"

During the season when gold prospectors roam the mountains, it's not impossible that someone might find a mining spot at the mouth of a pincer-shaped pass, where there's food, lodging, and the chance to pan for gold.

Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun didn't say anything, but they made the fire burn even brighter, filled military water bottles with water, and put them on the fire.

Since we didn't bring any cookware, we could only boil water directly from the kettle.

For days, the military water bottle has been blackened by the flames.

After filling his stomach and feeding Jinwang, Zhou Jingming drank a couple more sips of wine to keep warm. As soon as it got light, he crawled into the mine entrance, put himself inside a roe deer skin tube, and went to sleep early.

That day, the three of them exerted a lot of effort and were exhausted. Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun quickly entered the mine entrance, crawled into the roe deer skin tube, and squeezed together with Zhou Jingming.

The pile of firewood burning fiercely at the cave entrance made a whooshing sound, and the flames swayed from side to side.

Bai Zhishun asked, "It's getting windy in the mountains. I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow?"

"It might be a trap!"

Zhou Jingming peeked out at the fire: "As long as it doesn't snow heavily, everything will be fine... Just sleep peacefully. If it snows, we'll just leave. Anyway, we've already made a profit on this trip."

Upon hearing this, Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun immediately thought of the buried gold in the oil paper bag, and they were both quite happy.

In the Gold Rush Valley, after working for so long, all you get is the harvest of a few days' work on a good mine.

Wu Yang added, "When will we be able to mine gold deposits? If we find a good vein, we'll make a fortune."

"You can mine gold right now. All you need to do is go out and get a license from the relevant department and buy the mining site. But mining gold requires too much investment, and most people can't afford it. The key thing is that once you have a license, you have to deliver gold to the purchasing station regularly. You can't just sell it privately unless you find a rich mine. Otherwise, the money you make is not much better than panning for gold dust in a ditch."

"Brother Zhou, do you know the locations of rich gold deposits?" "I know a few!"

"Ah...then let's hurry up and find a rich mine to mine. It's better to mine it openly and honestly. That would be much more stable. At least no one would dare to mess with the mine. It wouldn't be like in the Gold Rush Valley, where it was like a pack of wild dogs fighting over food, biting and squabbling each other."

"Once I save up some more money... the year after next, we'll have a license and become gold mine owners. But then again, even if we become gold mine owners, many people will still be vying for mining sites, especially rich ones, and the methods they use will be much more ruthless, not as simple as you think."

Furthermore, we shouldn't give up on valley gold panning; don't underestimate it, it's very profitable. Take the mining sites in our Haxionggou Valley, for example; they're much better than some hard rock gold veins, requiring less investment and being easier to mine.

Zhou Jingming never considered giving up gold panning in the valley. At the very least, he needed to clean up the few mining sites he liked, as this was the side income with the least investment and the greatest return.

As for those gold deposits, you can simply save up money to buy them and mine them slowly.

The key is to seize the opportunity to gain momentum and secure mineral resources.

The three chatted casually and fell asleep without realizing it.

The next morning, Gao Jianjun and two other gold prospectors, who were preparing to leave, got up very early. They packed their belongings and headed out of the mountains early.

The three of them traveled together along the valley.

Gao Jianjun remained wary of Shen Wei, on high alert, and frequently looked back to see what was behind him.

They only breathed a sigh of relief after walking four or five miles without seeing any movement.

But he didn't dare to relax completely at once, and the other two people accompanying him became his new targets of vigilance.

These two people are from the same place, and by comparison, he is the one who is alone. If they have any ill intentions, it will be difficult to deal with them.

The main problem is that I don't have the necessary tools.

Shen Wei bought those three guns, and when he left, Shen Wei asked for them back as if he was afraid they would be taken away.

The only thing he could use for self-defense was a switchblade he carried in his pocket.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong along the way. The two companions didn't show any other intentions; they just kept talking about how to sell gold back in Tymaek, where to book tickets, and what their plans were when they got home.

Unbeknownst to the three, after watching them leave, Shen Wei and his group of five began to huddle together to discuss how to seize the mining sites next.

After much discussion, they realized the biggest problem was that Zhou Jingming and his group had dogs, and the location of the mine offered a clear view of a large area upstream and downstream of the river valley, making it very difficult to approach silently.

However, if it is discovered that both sides have guns, this matter cannot be resolved.

They couldn't get close enough, and even if they had explosives, they couldn't throw them in the right spot, so it was useless.

Some suggested using a luring method, first luring the dog away to kill it, and then approaching it. This suggestion was quickly met with opposition, as the risk of exposure was too great, and failure was likely to occur at the slightest mistake.

Some people suggested going directly to them and arguing with them. If they give up the mine, that would be the best outcome. If they don't, they could suddenly take action and catch them off guard.

But this suggestion was quickly rejected.

The reason is simple: there are gold veins in the mine. Forget about going up to argue, you probably won't even be allowed to get close to the edge... In a time like this, would someone who stays in the restricted area be an ordinary gold prospector?

After all that talk, there was still no resolution.

Shen Wei, in particular, thought a lot last night. He kept trying to figure out how to deal with Zhou Jingming and the other two, but he kept rejecting his ideas. He couldn't be sure of everything.

Finally, he could only look at the dark-skinned, lean young man in the group: "Luo Pingchun, you used to hunt in the mountains, you're familiar with the situation there, give me a suggestion."

Luo Pingchun was the guide in the group. While the others were arguing, he was the only one who rolled a cigarette and smoked it, and didn't say much.

Luo Pingchun lowered his head and thought for a moment: "When we hunt in the mountains, if we can't get close to the prey from the front, we can try from the side or the back. There's always a way. Besides, the weather is nice today, there's wind, and it's cold, so the scent doesn't travel as fast. If we approach from a high place behind, the dogs won't easily spot us..."

Upon hearing this, a thought seemed to flash through Shen Wei's mind. He looked at the mountain behind him and exclaimed with delight, "That's right! If we can't get close from the front, then we'll try from behind... Luo Pingchun, you're good at this, and you know dogs too, why don't you do it?"

Upon hearing this, Luo Pingchun hesitated.

Doing such things often leads to death, and although he offered advice, he didn't want to put himself in that dangerous situation.

If something goes wrong, he's quite capable of running away on his own.

After thinking for a moment, he shook his head: "It's not that I don't want to agree, it's just that I've never done this kind of thing before, and I'm afraid I won't be able to do it."

That's a pretty good excuse.

Shen Wei looked at the others and saw that they were either looking into the distance or lowering their heads, avoiding eye contact with him. He knew that none of them wanted to take the risk.

Or perhaps, they each have their own plans.

After thinking it over, I decided it was better to do it myself.

"Forget it, I'll do it. You guys follow the woods along the river to the vicinity of the mine, but don't get too close. You should be able to see me. Once I detonate the explosives, you guys rush up."

The success or failure of this matter hinges on this one move.

If I don't get close enough and they spot me, I'll have to run, and you all need to run too!

He took a deep breath, and another thought popped into his mind: Damn it, if I succeed in throwing the explosives, what use will I have for you guys? I'll just give you a piece of my mind, and that mine will be mine all to myself.

(End of this chapter)