My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 161 The friendship between life and death
The journey was long, and listening to Musa recount his experiences in the Western Sea was as captivating as listening to a story.

Perhaps because they were all gold prospectors, they each had their own experiences and stories, or had gone through similar experiences themselves, so they were particularly empathetic, and gradually more people joined the conversation.

The once quiet carriage became noisy.

Zhou Jingming wanted to get some sleep, but the noise was so loud that he had no choice but to listen.

Surprisingly, he actually picked up on something.

A gold prospector from Ganzhou said that he initially went to Xihai to pan for gold this year, but his trip was unsuccessful. He had just arrived there and hadn't even started digging when his childhood friend who had gone with him caught a cold.

At first, I thought it was altitude sickness, but taking Analgin didn't work. I had a persistent fever, fell into a coma, and later lost my ability to speak.

He was the leader, and his childhood friend was someone he had called there. He had a responsibility to send the body back, otherwise he wouldn't be able to explain it when he returned to the village. He was also worried that if he was too late, the body might not be saved, so he hurried back.

As a result, he hired a tractor, but his childhood friend died in less than a day. The expenses along the way, along with the compensation for sending the body back, cost him more than two thousand yuan.

He thought that place was unlucky, so he didn't go there again. But he couldn't stay at home and farm forever; he couldn't make a living there. So he had no choice but to go out and pan for gold again. He came to Altay after being introduced to it by someone.

As he said this, he added, "I can only let Mr. Wu down!"

Zhou Jingming was somewhat sensitive to this surname and couldn't help but ask, "Which Mr. Wu?"

The man blurted out, "Mr. Wu Fusheng!"

Zhou Jingming was stunned for a moment: "So it was him!"

The man asked, somewhat puzzled, "From what you're saying, you know Boss Wu?"

Zhou Jingming nodded: "It's more than just knowing him, we're sworn brothers!"

The man's eyes widened, but his next reaction was to pull out a pack of Red Lotus cigarettes from his pocket and hand one to Zhou Jingming: "How come I've never seen you at the gold mine?"

Back then, buses weren't like they are in later years, with no-smoking signs posted everywhere. A bunch of rough-looking men rode the bus, and if they smoked, there was no rule against smoking on the bus.

Zhou Jingming lit a cigarette and took a couple of puffs: "I haven't seen Boss Wu for a while, and we haven't been in touch for quite some time. I've been trying to make a living outside for the past two years, but I couldn't, so I thought I'd come here to try my luck. I originally wanted to come and work for him, but I don't know where he is."

“He’s at the Maqin Snow Mountain Gold Panning Site. He’s been there every year, and he’s here again this year. But I heard that he seems to be thinking of taking over some territory in Altay as well. There are two other gold bosses competing with him for territory at the Maqin Snow Mountain Gold Panning Site. Last year, there was a big fight between them, and I guess he’s not going to be able to hold on any longer.”

"Has he been living in Maqin Snow Mountain all this time?"

"How could that be! He's a gold mine owner, after all. How many gold mine owners do you see living in the gold mine? Most of them have their own residences in the city, and the gold mine is managed by their subordinates. They just go to the gold mine every now and then to check on things."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"I have no idea. How could Boss Jin tell us his address? Isn't he afraid of getting revenge? You've been to the gold mines before, so you should know what it's like there. That Boss Jin has a lot of lives on his hands."

"That's true!"

"This year is over, and it's not easy to make a living here in Altay. I joined a team, but we're constantly changing locations every month, it's so unstable. I'll have to go find Boss Wu next year and see if I can continue working for him. He's been pretty good to me, letting me work under him as a junior foreman for a year. I don't have to do any work, I just have to look after the gold mine, collect the gold we pan for every day, and the monthly pay and gold distribution is quite generous..."

The enemy in Zhou Jingming's eyes was, in this person's eyes, a very good person.

People look at problems differently depending on their perspective.

He didn't say much about it, just nodded and echoed the man's words: "Yes, it's not easy to get by in Altay."

The man laughed, full of flattery: "You and Boss Wu are sworn brothers. If you go, given Boss Wu's character, he'll definitely make you a big boss."

"I remember there was a woman with him..."

Now that they were already talking, Zhou Jingming naturally took the opportunity to thoroughly investigate Wu Fusheng's current situation.

Zhou Jingming knew Wu Fusheng in his previous life, but that was several years later. He had no idea about the current situation.

"Mr. Jin is rich, so he must have a lot of women around him. Which one are you talking about?"

"Oh, how many women does he still have?"

"Since I met Mr. Wu, I've seen four women who came with him to the gold panning site. I don't know if the one who came with him last year is still with him. To be honest, that woman was plain-looking. At first, I didn't understand why Mr. Wu would be interested in such a woman. She was not on the same level as the previous ones at all. It wasn't until later, when Mr. Wu brought that woman to the gold panning site, that I truly understood why Mr. Wu would be interested in her."

Speaking of women, most of the gold prospectors on the bus, who had been hanging out in the Gold Rush Valley for a long time, all looked at him.

But then this person started keeping everyone in suspense.

Until someone pressed, "Just say it!"

"Once, I went to deliver gold, and as usual, I went straight into the tent. I ran into that woman serving Boss Wu. She had a really good figure, and she was really good at it. She really knew how to serve people..."

The man suddenly shut up, as if he had realized something, and then turned to look at Zhou Jingming: "Brother, I couldn't control my mouth for a moment. Take it as me talking nonsense. You can't tell Boss Wu."

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "It's nothing serious, it's not that big of a deal!"

He knew that this woman was the one in the plaid wool coat who had tried to frame him in Chengdu at the end of last year. Hearing Zhou Jingming say this, the man breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Little did he know that Zhou Jingming was already planning in his mind whether he would make a special trip to Maqin Snow Mountain once things stabilized next year.

Zhou Jingming had never been to Maqin Snow Mountain, but he knew of this place.

In his previous life, in order to find a better gold vein, he consulted a lot of information. One of them, "Draft of Ganzhou General History", recorded that "the local tribute of Ningsai County of Kuozhou was six taels of gold bran".

Kuozhou refers to the area around present-day Xunhua and Hualong.

In the thirty-ninth year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, local officials in Xining adopted a government-supervised, merchant-run approach to attract investment to mine the Zhamatu goldfield, employing more than 500 miners. Later, they stationed troops along the Xining-Yushu highway to supervise mining and transportation.

In 1936, Ma Bufang took over as the agent of Xihai and gradually controlled the mining rights of the main gold mines in Xihai, including the larger ones such as Kezhigou, Yeniugou, Maqin Snow Mountain, Xingxiuhai, and Jinqiangtan, which is located at the border of Xihai and Ganzhou.

In geological surveys for finding gold veins, examining traces of past gold mining and conducting interviews with local people has always been a very effective method.

Traces of old manual gold mining are commonly found in the upper reaches of rivers or in the narrow valleys of many placer gold-producing areas, serving as effective indicators for placer gold prospecting.

Based on traces of past mining, further exploration in the surrounding areas can often yield good results.

Tailings heaps in large-scale, old-style artisanal mining areas are often ore bodies with industrial value.

In addition, through field visits and investigations, as well as data verification, we can also obtain many geological characteristics, patterns, and clues for finding placer gold deposits.

Zhou Jingming's decision to go to the West Sea to look for minerals was actually out of desperation at the time.

The boss, whom he once regarded as a benefactor who helped him quickly make his first fortune, began to try to take him over after seeing that he was gradually gaining a foothold, and used many means to do so.

Seeing that his cash flow was about to dry up and he could no longer make a living in Altay, Zhou Jingming had no choice but to start making other preparations and look for another place. That's why he went to Xihai, visited Malan Mountain that Musa had mentioned, Xingxiuhai, and Yeniugou.

However, just as they were in Yeniugou, they happened to run into a joint operation by Xihai, Jiangyu, and Xuequ to clear the mountains. Thousands of gold prospectors arrived from different directions with their tools and surrounded the armed police. The biggest gold boss took out a bag containing ten kilograms of gold and said that he would give it to the armed police to even things out.

As a result, Boss Jin was still taken down unexpectedly. He fired a shot into the air, which scared the gold prospectors. Moreover, there were many checkpoints and sentry posts set up there.

During the day, gold prospectors dared not breach the checkpoint to send gold out, but at night, hundreds of hand-operated tractors, with all their headlights on, ignored the checkpoint and drove right through.

It was precisely because of what he had witnessed that Zhou Jingming realized that the West Sea Gold Panning Site was not a place to stay for long. The gold panning business was being regulated more and more strictly, and if this continued, it would soon be banned.

Such a fierce approach to resistance will only provoke even harsher measures in return.

Gold mining in China is becoming increasingly unsustainable.

Since the gold boss wanted to take him over, he simply went to negotiate with the gold boss and transferred his gold mine at a discounted price, using the money to expand overseas.

Zhou Jingming's judgment was correct. Not long after, Boss Jin's gold mine collapsed, and he himself went to jail and never came out.

From this man's words, Zhou Jingming could tell that Wu Fusheng was also about to run out of options in Xihai.

The reason Wu Fusheng went to the geological team to find Zhou Jingming, and even went to Chengdu to intercept and frame him, was actually to obtain first-hand information about the gold mine, in order to prepare to leave Xihai and move to Altay.

Zhou Jingming began to consider whether it was necessary to make a special trip to Maqin Snow Mountain now that he knew Wu Fusheng's location.

When it comes to revenge, Zhou Jingming felt it was necessary to learn from Old Man Liu.

Otherwise, who knows if it will become a stumbling block for you later.

The fact that he specifically sought out Chengdu to intercept him was a constant worry for Zhou Jingming. He often wondered if, if Chengdu could find him, would it also find his home at Huluzui Ferry? Could it disrupt his family's peace and even cause them irreparable harm?

Whether it's settling scores from a past life or eradicating a scourge in this life, it's better to do it sooner rather than later.

Time seems to pass faster when you're chatting with someone on the bus.

Before they knew it, it got dark, and they were approaching Wucheng.

Along the way, Zhou Jingming subtly learned a lot about Wu Fusheng from this person, which was quite a gain.

Carrying a handgun and getting off at the station would make them easy targets for inspection, so Zhou Jingming told Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun to get off the train early.

His previous geological team was based in Wucheng. Over the years, he had become very familiar with the area around Wucheng. He packed the pistol in an oil paper bag and buried it in a forest on the outskirts of the city before entering the city.

Wu Yang asked, "Brother Zhou, how did you and Wu Fusheng become such close friends?"

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "The kind of friendship I'm talking about, is one where it's either life or death."

"what!"

Wu Yang was taken aback: "What's going on? Do you have a grudge?"

(End of this chapter)