My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 195 Can’t afford to offend

Li Guohua led his men to help move the supplies from the bridge back. After about half an hour, Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun led Zhang Debao's group to move all the supplies they had brought into the mountain to the mine.

In addition to rice and flour, Zhou Jingming and his team also bought as many onions, cabbage, and potatoes as possible when purchasing supplies.

Zhang Debao and his group were different. Besides the tools needed for gold panning, they only had rice, flour, some noodles, and a lot of soy sauce.

Zhou Jingming knew without a doubt that their best food consisted of boiled noodles with soy sauce.

Even a few years from now, many gold mine owners who have obtained mining licenses will still have their meals arranged in this way. If they want to eat meat or vegetables, they have to find their own way to get them. Even so, they still have to pay for their own living expenses.

Many gold prospectors, unwilling to spend money, would bring only rice and flour with them when they went into the mountains, eating very simply.

Many people suffer from chronic vitamin deficiency, becoming emaciated, riddled with illnesses, and in extremely poor condition; they are truly risking their lives to make a living.

In comparison, Zhou Jingming is already much stronger.

Zhou Jingming didn't really care whether those he recruited stayed or left. He knew that some of them were just saying they wanted to stay.

We can't always send people to watch over them; that would be too exhausting. We have to see if they're willing to do it.

There's not much point in forcing those who don't want to stay to stay.

But he believes that some people will always be willing to stay.

More people working at the mining site will always bring in more revenue.

That night, Wang Dong helped Su Xiulan prepare a lot of food, including stewing a lamb that Zhou Jingming had bought from Batu last year, which had been slaughtered and smoked.

Including those who were recruited, there were a total of 136 people. A single mutton was eaten up in just one meal.

The first people to arrive at the Haxionggou mine had been working for some time. On this April 1st, Zhou Jingming asked Su Xiulan to summarize the work situation in March.

The project only lasted for about half a month, with some delays due to snow. In total, it cost about 20,000 yuan. That same evening, the wages for March were settled, and the money for Peng Yuanchao's purchase of supplies was also paid.

The manpower at the Qianxingshan'ao mining site is now sufficient, and Zhou Jingming estimates that the labor costs for April will be over 80,000 yuan.

He realized that with the limited funds and manpower he had, it wouldn't last until the end of the gold rush season.

Downstream from Haxionggou, a person hurried down from the opposite forest to reach the downstream mining site.

When Zhang Debao and his group entered the valley, they made quite a commotion.

After the people at the downstream mining site noticed this situation, the middle-aged foreman immediately sent someone up to investigate.

To avoid misunderstanding, the man didn't dare get too close and watched from the woods diagonally opposite Zhou Jingming's mining site.

They rushed back immediately after the matter was over.

Upon seeing him return, the middle-aged man hurried over to ask, "What happened?"

"More than forty people arrived, and a conflict broke out between the two groups, but..."

"Stop beating around the bush, what's the deal?"

"These guys are too powerful. Several of the newcomers have died and been subdued."

"I saw the bodies. One of them was stranded on the riverbank right next to our mine... What about their casualties?"

"No one was injured. Then another group came. They were together. There were about a hundred of them, and they had a lot of weapons, at least a dozen hunting rifles."

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged foreman sighed slightly: "We can't have any other ideas. We'd better be honest and do our best to pan for gold and send that kilogram to someone... We can't afford to offend them."

Early the next morning, Zhou Jingming had Zhao Li follow Li Guozhu and lead Zhang Debao's group to the upstream mining site.

In a river bend, a mining site with a similar grade to the pincer-shaped ravine was selected. The people were instructed to dig dugouts there and work there. As for meals, they would have to return to the mining site in the pincer-shaped ravine.

Anyway, it's only a ten-minute walk away, so it doesn't have much of an impact.

As for the matters at the pincer-shaped ravine mining site, Zhou Jingming entrusted Peng Yuanchao and Bai Zhishun to lead them.

As for patrolling the mine sites, Zhou Jingming temporarily entrusted the task to Old Man Liu.

After arranging everything, he tied Jin Wang to the mine, called Wu Yang, started the tractor, and headed to Tiemaike.

Upon arriving in Tiemaike that afternoon, his first action was to go to the hideout on the edge of town to find Sun Huai'an.

Quite by chance, just as the two arrived near the hideout, they saw Sun Huai'an riding out on a motorcycle.

During this period, motorcycles were still a rarity. Most people couldn't buy them even if they wanted to. Those who could afford motorcycles mostly imported them from abroad.

Upon seeing Zhou Jingming arrive at the hideout, Sun Huai'an quickly stopped his motorcycle: "Here to sell something?"

"Gold mining hasn't officially started yet at the mining sites. It's too cold, so we're still just digging for raw materials and we don't have anything on hand."

Zhou Jingming stopped the tractor, got off, and walked to Sun Huai'an's side, looking at the motorcycle with a look of wonder.

This thing is much faster than a tractor. If I had one, I could easily make a round trip between Haxionggou and Tiemaike every day.

"So, is something the matter?"

"I wanted to ask if you have any 5.6-6.5 chips here." "Yes, we do!"

"Get me a couple of these... Damn it, someone tried to raid my mining site yesterday, and I almost lost it. I need to get some good stuff."

"The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle is indeed much better than a shotgun... but these things are hard to get and a bit expensive."

"Since we are partners, I presume you won't ask for an exorbitant price."

"One thousand each. If you're satisfied with the price, I'll go get it for you right now!"

A regular hunting rifle costs over 300 yuan, while a Type 56/5 rifle costs 1,000 yuan. The price is a bit high, but not outrageous.

Zhou Jingming nodded decisively: "Let's do it your way... But with such a high price, surely it wouldn't be a problem to include a few packs of bullets?"

"no problem!"

Zhou Jingming immediately took out two stacks of money and handed them to Sun Huai'an, then asked, "Are you selling this Suzuki motorcycle?"

Sun Huai'an was somewhat surprised: "You know about motorcycles too?"

Zhou Jingming chuckled: "They came from the Japanese side, two-stroke!"

These days, the Suzuki King hasn't been released yet, and Sun Huai'an's current motorcycle is already considered top-notch; there's no way to pursue anything higher.

Sun Huai'an gave Zhou Jingming a thumbs up: "You really are an expert. But don't even think about this motorcycle for now. I went through a lot of trouble and had to pull some strings to get it. It cost me over 6,800 yuan, and after all the shipping, it cost me over 10,000 yuan in total... If you really want it, I can ask around for you, but I can't guarantee I can get it for you."

"Please ask around and let me know when it's in stock!"

Zhou Jingming thought to himself that having a motorcycle would be great; it would be very useful in many situations, especially in places like this where you go out of the mountains and into the desert and Gobi, where a motorcycle would be perfect.

Sun Huai'an nodded slightly, turned around and went back to his hideout. Not long after, he brought over two Type 56 semi-automatic rifles wrapped in a bag. They were brand new and well-maintained with gun oil. There were also six packs of 7.62 bullets.

After checking the firearms and finding nothing wrong, Zhou Jingming called Wu Yang, got on the tractor, and drove off. They heard Sun Huai'an calling from behind, "We found something! Don't forget to come find me..."

Zhou Jingming waved his hand without turning his head: "I know!"

That night, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang did not go back. They stayed overnight in Tiemaike, mainly because they were still thinking about going to the Haiertes River to retrieve the gold. They couldn't return to Haxionggou that night.

Li Guozhu and Peng Yuanchao had just brought a lot of supplies into the mountains, and their tents were already full. There was no need to buy anything for the time being, so Zhou Jingming didn't bother with it either.

The two simply went out for a barbecue together and then returned to their hostel to rest.

Early the next morning, Zhou Jingming asked the innkeeper for a lot of hot water, filled the water tank, and finally managed to start the tractor. He drove away from Tiemaike early, speeding all the way towards the Haiertes River.

They set off early, before the gold-mining teams had entered the mountains, and encountered few people along the way.

The two found the stone figure. Wu Yang guarded it with a gun, while Zhou Jingming climbed up the hillside and looked around the black stone figure. He noticed that some weeds had been pulled up at the base of the stone figure. He easily lifted them up and found that the soil underneath was soft. He dug down about a foot deep and found an oil paper bag containing gold. He immediately took it out.

He weighed it in his hand, and it was about the same weight as Zhang Debao had described. He immediately put it in his backpack and quickly went down the hillside.

Wu Yang asked in a low voice, "Is there any?"

Zhou Jingming nodded.

Wu Yang immediately burst into laughter.

Without further ado, the two turned the tractor around on the road and headed towards Haxionggou.

It wasn't until we returned to the intersection of the Fourth Mine Bridge and the road leading to Haxionggou that we saw three tractors carrying people across the Haiertes River. The other people were inconspicuous, but I noticed a woman on one of the tractors who looked quite attractive.

If Peng Yuanchao were here, he would realize that this woman is his childhood sweetheart.

Zhou Jingming no longer cared that Haxionggou was discovered. In fact, the matter couldn't be covered up anyway. Without stopping, he missed the bus and headed straight for Haxionggou.

They didn't return to the mine until nearly evening.

When Peng Yuanchao saw the two return, he greeted them and said, "Those bastards, four of them ran away this morning under the pretext of going to take a dump. And the injured one, he got out of here too."

"Let them run away if they want. If they stay, they'll only cause trouble."

Zhou Jingming was busy checking how much gold there was. He briefly greeted Old Man Liu and the others, then called Wu Yang to the dugout. He immediately took out a balance scale and weighed the gold.

It's estimated that Zhang Debao himself didn't weigh it; he just gave a rough estimate.

After weighing it, Zhou Jingming found that it weighed a total of 5,123 grams.

After discussing it with Wu Yang, he gave Wu Yang 500 grams, gave Old Man Liu, who deserved the most credit, 500 grams, Bai Zhishun, Zhao Li, and Li Guohua 300 grams each, and the remaining 220 grams were divided into penicillin bottles and given to the eleven people who had been promised gold.

He also gave each of Peng Yuanchao, Li Guozhu, and Wang Dong two hundred grams.

This distribution can be considered a reward based on merit.

After all this, Zhou Jingming still had 2,403 grams of gold left, which could be considered a decent gain.

When Peng Yuanchao received the gold, he grinned and said, "I've already made a profit on my first day here. I knew I wouldn't go wrong following you."

(End of this chapter)