My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 160 The Legend of Gold Rush in the Western Sea
Two people were already sitting in the driver's seat, so Zhou Jingming and the other two had to sit in the passenger compartment.

This truck must have carried cattle and sheep quite a few times. Although it has been cleaned, you can still see bits of sheep droppings or remnants of cow dung in the gaps of the truck bed.

This also meant that the empty carriage always had a strong, fishy smell.

But in any case, having a car to ride in is better than waiting in Timbukir for two days. That little bus will definitely be packed with people, and the various smells inside won't be any better than this carriage.

In the morning, the wilderness was covered with frost left over from the night. Even though the sun was out, the wind blowing into the car as it drove by still had the hateful ability to pierce people's clothes and skin like needles, and it was still cold enough to make people rub their hands and feet.

All the three of them could do was pull down the brim of their earmuffs to cover their ears, put their hands in their pockets, and tighten their clothes to make them fit better so that the cold wind wouldn't get in.

This ordeal lasted until around 11 o'clock before it gradually improved, because the sun, which was obviously very bright but not very effective, finally had some warmth, making people feel less uncomfortable.

Along the way, Zhou Jingming observed everything. He remembered Bai Zhishun saying that he had taken a driver's car from Altan back to Tiemaike and encountered a roadside stall that robbed people at a fork in the road halfway. However, he did not see such a place along the way, so he asked Bai Zhishun, "Shunzi, do you remember where that roadside stall you encountered was?"

Bai Zhishun shook his head: "It seems like we didn't take this road... I can't remember clearly. This area is full of Gobi Desert, grasslands, and low hills, and they all look pretty much the same."

Seeing that he said that, Zhou Jingming didn't ask any more questions.

Suddenly, their brisk running caused the dusty car behind them to slow down abruptly. Caught off guard, all three men inevitably slammed their heads against the metal plate of the carriage with a thud, and each of them grimaced in pain.

A sudden deceleration definitely indicates a problem.

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang immediately stood up, holding onto the carriage, and realized they had been overthinking things.

Ahead of the road, herdsmen rode horses and drove their flocks of sheep along the road. Hundreds of sheep were clustered together, occupying a long section of the road.

The arrival of the car startled them, causing them to bleat incessantly, creating quite a commotion.

The herdsman, however, seemed not to see the car at all, riding his horse slowly along the road without bothering to herd his sheep to make way.

The driver could only drive carefully, approaching the flock of sheep little by little. Driven by the car, the sheep scattered a bit, and the driver slowly entered the center of the flock until he had passed through the entire flock before accelerating again.

Two dogs chased after the car, barking incessantly, for hundreds of meters before finally stopping.

Zhou Jingming couldn't help but think of Jin Wang, wondering how he was getting along with Old Man Liu.

At this moment, in Haxiong Gully, Old Liu returned from the grassy slope behind the mountain with two wild rabbits. He skinned them and let them dry. He then took the rabbit intestines and entrails to feed Jinwang. As soon as he threw the food in front of Jinwang, Jinwang immediately turned his head and barked at him...

Ever since Zhou Jingming left Haxionggou, it's been like this for two days now. She just won't eat anything he feeds her and she even yells at him every time.

Old Liu scoffed, "I've never seen such a stubborn dog. If you want to go hungry, then go hungry. I don't believe you can survive that."

He didn't untie the rope around Jinwang's neck, worried that it would find Zhou Jingming's scent and run away. If it got out, he didn't know if it would ever come back.

In Altay, he traveled to many places and knew that there were quite a few people there who hunted and ate dogs.

We need to keep them chained up for a few more days to get them used to before we dare to let them go and try taking them hunting in the forest.

Otherwise, if this gets lost, it will be difficult to explain when Zhou Jingming comes back.

The rest of the journey went smoothly, and we arrived in Altan in the afternoon.

After getting off the bus, the three of them went to a restaurant to fill their stomachs, and then went to the station to inquire. They learned that there would be a bus to Wucheng the next day, so they had to find a hotel to stay in first.

If there's a shuttle bus available, I'll naturally choose to take it; at least my butt will feel a little better.

That very night, Zhou Jingming went to the outskirts of the county town, found the small grassland stone figure from his memory, and retrieved his notebook.

As for hiding the guns, we'll deal with that when we get closer to Wucheng.

The journey from Altan to Urumqi is nearly 500 kilometers, traversing vast deserts and Gobi, where the possibility of encountering problems is not small.

At the current speed of the shuttle bus, which travels 40 to 50 kilometers per hour, and with a departure time of 9:00 AM, it means that the bus will keep running without any delays and will arrive in Wucheng after dark.

Moreover, there's no way there won't be delays. Putting aside everything else, there will always be stops for eating, drinking, and relieving oneself, which will only make it later. Therefore, such a vehicle will only run once every four or five days.

The next morning, the three of them arrived at the bus station early, bought tickets, and managed to snag seats. Traveling such a long distance without seats, being jostled and pushed around with other people on the bus, would definitely not be a pleasant experience.

At nine o'clock, as soon as the train doors opened, the three of them immediately sat down in adjacent seats, and the carriage was quickly filled with people.

At this time, not many locals were taking the bus; many of them were actually gold prospectors stranded in Altan.

They spend most of their lives in the Gold Rush Valley, and the harsh environment leaves obvious marks on them. Although the vehicle was crowded, very few people spoke.

Zhou Jingming was used to this kind of situation. After all, he had worked in the Gold Rush Valley for a year. Some people made money, and some people lost money. In any case, he was on his way back now, carrying either gold or money, and he had some of it with him.

Unless they are acquaintances, they might occasionally whisper a few words to each other, but they remain wary of other strangers.

Around noon, the bus stopped for a lunch break at a place called Kamerstebastau. There was a restaurant by a small lake there that sold naan and mutton.

Passengers who brought their own food either got off the train to find a place outside to relieve themselves, or went to a restaurant to buy some naan bread and drink some water, while others went inside to order a meal.

This was a transit point on their long journey. Zhou Jingming had been to this place twice when he worked for the geological team and hadn't encountered any problems. However, for safety's sake, the three of them had already prepared some good food in Altan, naturally some roasted mutton, but they drank as little water as possible.

The journey is too long, and it's quite troublesome to ask the driver to stop and let people out on the way.

While the driver was resting, the three of them got out of the car to stretch their legs and smoked two cigarettes.

Along the way, the landscape was mostly barren, yellowish-brown grassy slopes and Gobi desert, with hardly any scenery to speak of. Most of the time, the three of them would hug their bags tightly and close their eyes to sleep.

The car stopped for about half an hour, then the driver called everyone to get on, and the swaying ride began again.

However, the car became quite lively.

Two older gold prospectors, probably having had drinks at the restaurant, started talking more. What began as a casual chat gradually turned to the topic of gold panning.

One of the gold prospectors heard another call him by the name Musa.

They came with four or five others, all from a small village on the banks of the Yellow River. After the land was distributed to individual households, each person had less than half an acre of land, enough to grow one crop of wheat a year, barely enough to survive.

The two men were arguing about who first discovered gold in Hoh Xil, and the conversation turned to gold panning.

These are gold prospectors who stayed in the West Sea.

In his previous life, Zhou Jingming had also been to the Altun Mountains and Hoh Xil in the West Sea. He originally went there to look for gold veins, but he found that the environment there was even harsher than that of Altay. In the end, he chose to develop in Altay.

Regarding the question between the two, Zhou Jingming felt that the most reliable explanation was: When Ma Bufang, the King of Xihai, ruled Xihai, he controlled the gold mining in Xihai and forcibly conscripted many laborers. The laborers knew the general location of the gold mines. Those who survived sold the information about the gold mines or went to pan for gold. As a result, the rumor spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred, that there was gold everywhere in Kekexili and Altun Mountains.

The middle-aged man named Musa said, "Wheat is harvested only once a year, and the whole spring is a slack season for farming. There's an opportunity to make money, so of course we have to go panning for gold..."

The first time he went to pan for gold, he and fifteen or sixteen villagers pooled their money to hire a tractor, each carrying seventy or eighty jin of flour, which was more than a month's worth of food, along with some simple gold panning tools.

They had only heard that there was gold in Hoh Xil, but they didn't know exactly where. It took them four days and more than a thousand kilometers to reach the goldfields near Malan Mountain. They simply drove to wherever the terrain was flat and the roads were easy to travel. After another ten days or so of hard work, the group finally found the goldfields near Malan Mountain, set up tents, and settled down.

They didn't know how to find gold nuggets, so they would just dig a pit where there was no snow, put the dug-up mud and sand into a gold sieve, shake and wash it, and if they saw small gold nuggets, they would continue digging.

If you dig to a depth and length of three feet and still find no gold nuggets, give up.

The main problem is that we can't dig any deeper; the ground below is frozen soil.

Typically, one person cooks while the other four dig, taking turns.

At an altitude of four or five thousand meters, the air is thin, and you have to pant to catch your breath if you move around. In addition, the tools are outdated, so the progress is very slow. Four people can only dig one pit a day. As soon as the sun sets, they have to eat and go into the tent quickly, otherwise they will soon be too cold to bear.

Musa said that in their tent, there was a layer of oil paper underneath and a piece of wool felt on top. After a day of work, they were covered in mud. They would only take off their dirtiest clothes and then sleep in their cotton-padded clothes. In the small tent, four or five people would squeeze together.

However, a few other things Musa said caught Zhou Jingming's attention.

He mentioned that he saw some people using a type of tent that is very thick, windproof, and can even be used to make a fire inside.

Zhou Jingming thought for a moment and realized that they were talking about military tents, which were not comparable to the three canvas tents he got from Lao Tang.

It's just that this thing is hard to get without connections; otherwise, it would be a really good thing, saving the trouble of digging a dugout. Let's see if we have a chance to get it in the future.

One of Musa's companions asked, "Did you find any gold that time?"

"I can't say that. I can only tell you that we dig secretly every day. We don't dare to make a fuss about whether it's good or bad. There are people patrolling the gold mine. They are all sent by the gold boss or the leader of a big gang. If they see that there is gold in the pit you dug, they will come and steal it."

These patrolmen were very experienced; if they saw that the gold miners had little rest time and a lot of working time, they could estimate that they might have found gold.

Gold prospectors would return to their tents at night to secretly wash the sand. There was no trust between people in the gold panning area, and robberies of the gold pans happened almost every day, often resulting in people being killed.

Usually, the leaders of the two gangs settle privately, paying a few dozen or a hundred yuan, digging a hole and burying the person. When it's time to leave, they'll transport the person out. That only works if they have reliable companions. If not, then death is death. Human life is as cheap as an inconspicuous weed.

If it's just a minor injury, nobody cares. So, if someone tries to take over your territory, and they outnumber you and you feel you can't win, you quickly give way and obediently leave, not daring to utter a single curse. It's all about who's stronger and who calls the shots.

Thousands upon thousands of people went to Hoh Xil to pan for gold, but not a single one claimed to have found any. No matter how much gold they found, they all said it was just a bowl of noodles.

Musa also said that when he went to Hoh Xil to pan for gold the following year, he was chased by more than 30 staff members from Golmud in jeeps. In the end, all the gold he had saved up after a year of hard work was confiscated, and he was also fined five grams of gold.

As he said this, he swore, saying that those people were not human, that all the gold had been confiscated and they were being forced to hand over more gold, calling them a bunch of bloodsucking monsters.

The people in the car listened to what he had said. Several of them had also gone to the West Sea to pan for gold, and they started talking about it one after another.

Sitting next to Zhou Jingming, Bai Zhishun asked in a low voice, "Brother Zhou, is what he said true?"

Zhou Jingming nodded: "It should be true... Compared to other places, the gold mining environment here in Altay is already quite good."

The reason he said "should" was because Zhou Jingming was too lazy to explain to him why he was so sure.

In fact, even in 1990, the situation in the West Sea remained the same. Moreover, the future trend of the Altay Gold Rush Valley was becoming increasingly complex and even more brutal than that of the West Sea.

(End of this chapter)