My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 171 The Three Gather
With a lot of things to do, Zhou Jingming asked the men he had brought to tidy up the messy dugouts and settle them in. He also assigned them their next task: to continue digging dugouts nearby.

Once everyone is gathered, there will be at least several dozen people, which is clearly not enough to fit in just three small dugouts. We must hurry up and make preparations.

Of course, the material that is dug out is also mineral material that can be washed.

It's only early March now, and in places where it might snow in May, without dugouts, half of the group would probably freeze to death.

Some people started complaining: "Why did we come so early? We were assigned tasks as soon as we arrived, which allowed the later arrivals to take advantage of us."

Zhou Jingming knew perfectly well what they were really thinking: they were worried that they wouldn't get any benefits from doing the work. He immediately said, "You'll start working tomorrow, and your wages will be calculated from tomorrow as well. At the end of this month, you'll be paid in full."

Hearing this, the group felt relieved.

Zhou Jingming was also busy returning to Tiemaike, planning to take advantage of Wu Yang and the others' arrival to buy more supplies to bring into the mountains, so as to save himself from having to make multiple trips later.

But before leaving, he did not forget to make arrangements for Su Xiulan.

He specially called Grandpa Liu, Li Guohua, Zhao Li and Su Xiulan together: "Sister, I'm afraid I'll have to make several trips back and forth these few days. When I'm not around, if you need anything, just ask these three... Grandpa, please take good care of her for me."

Old Liu called Zhou Jingming aside and whispered, "What's the deal with this girl?"

Zhou Jingming also lowered his voice: "I found out he was abducted here, so I took him in and brought him to the mine. He helps with cooking, washing clothes, and so on. I'll observe him for a while. If he has a good temperament, I plan to take him home when we go back at the end of the year."

Old Liu nodded slightly: "So that's how it is. I thought you were also like those wealthy bosses who were having affairs... Since you're planning to date, I'll help you keep a close eye on things."

However, with a bunch of grown men coming up to the mine, and her being the only girl, is that appropriate?

“There’s nothing wrong with it. If I can’t even take good care of her, a girl, then I’m a failure as the head of the unit.”

In this desolate wilderness, a group of lonely men would inevitably feel restless upon seeing a beautiful girl.

When he's not around, there's no guarantee these people won't cause trouble, so he can only entrust them to Old Man Liu, Li Guohua, and Zhao Li for care.

At the same time, he was also thinking that it would be best to find an opportunity to declare sovereignty. At that time, if anyone dared to have any ulterior motives, they would not need to be polite at all.

After explaining everything, Zhou Jingming went to the dugout to get his roe deer skin tube and the Eagle Rabbit brand double-barreled shotgun, preparing to leave. After thinking for a moment, he also took a kettle he had used to clean the cave before the New Year, which he could use to boil water in case the engine froze and wouldn't start.

Upon seeing its master, Jinwang, despite having followed Old Man Liu for quite some time, did not choose to stay. It trotted forward as if afraid that Zhou Jingming would leave it behind again, and could not be stopped even by calling.

Rushing along, Zhou Jingming returned to the tractor near nightfall. It was cold at night, and if the vehicle broke down somewhere, it would be difficult to handle. Instead of driving the tractor to Tiemaike at night, he spent the night huddled in a roe deer hide in the mountains.

He knew the nature of tractors well; they were easy to start in hot weather, but things became difficult when the weather was cold.

To avoid the car failing to start the next morning and causing unnecessary trouble, he specially set up two fires on either side of the engine to warm it up when starting the engine.

Even so, the next morning, he was still made to change the water in the tractor's water tank to hot water, and he had to crank the handle many times before he could start the tractor.

Watching the engine sputtering and belching black smoke, trembling faster and faster, Zhou Jingming couldn't help but think to himself: Luckily I had the foresight to bring a water bottle.

He opened the back door of the truck bed, intending to let Jin Wang get in, but the guy didn't appreciate it.

Remembering how Jinwang had been exhausted and listless after riding on Wang Youping's tractor several times before, Zhou Jingming stopped paying attention to it and drove the tractor on the road, letting it trot alongside him.

When they reached the Fourth Mine Bridge, Jinwang had been running for quite some time and was starting to fall behind.

This time, Zhou Jingming pushed it onto the car, and it finally didn't jump off again.

By the time he arrived in Timak, it was already evening.

Zhou Jingming wandered around the town but didn't see Wu Yang and the others. He guessed that Bai Zhishun hadn't arrived yet, so he went to find Wang Youping first.

There was a knock on the door. Wang Youping opened it and was taken aback when he saw Zhou Jingming. He then smiled and invited him in, saying, "Why are you here so early?"

"It's too late if we don't come early. If we're too late, we won't even get a decent mining spot... I won't go in. Let's go to a restaurant for a meal. Also, I'd like to buy some gas coupons and get some diesel fuel. I'd like to ask for your help. Of course, there will be a reward for you!"

They had collaborated several times last year, and Wang Youping trusted Zhou Jingming's words. He didn't have much to do at the moment, so he readily agreed.

The two found a restaurant with good business, ate some barbecue and drank some wine. Wang Youping was very satisfied with the meal, and immediately led Zhou Jingming to find his acquaintance to buy all the diesel coupons they had accumulated over the past few days.

After Wang Youping returned home, Zhou Jingming did not rest. He went to the wilderness and took out all 1,742 grams of low-quality rock gold that he had obtained from washing the cave.

He plans to exchange all of this gold for money this time.

It won't be long before he has to pay the wages to the people who came to pan for gold. He doesn't know exactly how many people will come, but he's sure that six hundred a month for each person will be a considerable expense, not to mention that they also have to be fed.

The money he had on hand was almost used up in the last two days buying diesel fuel tickets and other supplies, so he had to make preparations as soon as possible. When he was in Altan, he went to the gold trading den to inquire about the situation. By February of this year, the price of gold was just as he remembered, with the purchase price rising to 22.4 yuan per gram and the market price reaching 45 yuan per gram.

It's the start of the new year's gold rush season, and there aren't many prospectors yet. This is when gold is most scarce. The fact that when he left Altan's hideout, the middleman followed him closely, saying that the price of 45 yuan per gram was negotiable, is enough to show that there is still room for price increases.

However, he did not venture to the gold trading dens on the outskirts of town at night.

Going it alone during a time of scarcity, it's easy to be taken advantage of if you fall victim to a scheme.

He planned to wait here for Wu Yang to arrive and have him come along; it would be much safer that way.

To everyone's surprise, another day passed before Zhou Jingming finally got his bus at noon on the third day.

More than twenty people got off the bus at once, making this remote town feel lively.

Zhou Jingming was already waiting at the bus stop. As soon as these people got off, he immediately saw the hunchback who was half a head shorter than the others.

Bai Zhishun saw Zhou Jingming immediately and came over: "Brother Zhou, I'm late. It's mainly because of the delay in getting here that I couldn't arrive on time."

"It's good that you're here... Your home is in Luoyue, which is the farthest away. Even I, who left home on the third day of the Lunar New Year, couldn't get here by March 1st."

Zhou Jingming patted him on the shoulder and offered him a cigarette: "Did you see Wu Yang in Altan?"

"I saw him. He came today too. He found a car to bring people over, but the car isn't as fast as the shuttle bus. They're still behind. It shouldn't be long before they arrive."

How many people did you bring this time?

“I didn’t bring as many people as Wu Yang did, only eighteen… When I got home, I built three brick houses, and people immediately came to ask me about them. I told them I had made a fortune panning for gold, and soon many people came to find me, saying they wanted to come and make a fortune. Several of them had panned for gold in the Gold Rush Valley before.”

However, when I told them that they would receive 600 yuan a month and have one day off a week, they objected. They all wanted a share of the gold, and several of the people I had previously recruited left with them, leaving only these eighteen.”

"Eighteen is already quite good."

Zhou Jingming did a quick calculation. Including himself, the four of them, Old Man Liu, and the people Wu Yang brought, there were a total of forty-nine people. It was still too few. They couldn't even distribute them to the promising mining sites.

At this point, Zhou Jingming couldn't be sure whether Peng Yuanchao, Li Guozhu, and the others would still bring people to work with him. If they did, there might be as many as seventy or eighty people at the mine.

If they had other plans, Zhou Jingming planned to recruit more people when gold prospectors flooded into Timbuk.

For now, we can only wait and see.

Regardless, Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun both came.

It's great that the three of them are together!

He had Bai Zhishun lead a group of people to the inn to stay. After settling them in, he led them to a restaurant for a meal. Not long after they sat down, another car drove into the town. The people who got out of the car were all the people Wu Yang had brought. He invited them to a restaurant for a meal.

In addition, Wu Yang had two 200-liter barrels of diesel fuel unloaded from the truck. This amount of diesel fuel would be enough to last for quite some time in Haxionggou.

But Zhou Jingming was not satisfied and planned to buy some more from the Tiemaike Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

So a group of people went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy oil, and managed to buy all the diesel fuel that was in short supply.

The salesperson had to make a phone call to have oil delivered immediately.

For the rest of the afternoon, Zhou Jingming led Wu Yang, Bai Zhishun, and several others to the black market to buy grain, potatoes, cabbage, cooking oil, and other necessities.

This busy period took up most of the day.

After finishing his business, Zhou Jingming called Wu Yang and headed to their hideout on the edge of town.

He didn't bring all the gold; he only brought a portion to test the waters first.

After some haggling, things went smoothly. The first batch of 500 grams of rock gold was sold at a 30% discount to the agreed price of 48 yuan per gram, which is equivalent to 33.6 yuan per gram.

The buyer introduced by the middleman couldn't buy that much at once, so he introduced three more before finally buying the 500 grams of rock gold, earning a total of 16,800 yuan.

Zhou Jingming inquired and found that there were other buyers waiting, hoping to sell all the rock gold while the price was at its highest. He then took all the remaining rock gold.

To everyone's surprise, when they entered the room where the transaction was taking place, the door was immediately closed, and two more people entered through the back door, both carrying guns.

(End of this chapter)