My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 214: A Little Knowledge of Boxing and Kicks
Zhou Jingming didn't rush to approach the Western-style building, but instead busied himself with stopping Musala: "Let's not rush over there for now, let's find a place to drink first."

Musa looked at Zhou Jingming with suspicion: "You're already here, why aren't you going over? Aren't you two sworn brothers?"

"I need to make sure Wu Fusheng is there or not. If he's not there and there's only a woman at home, there might be some misunderstanding if the two of us men go in!"

Zhou Jingming made up a random excuse.

Musa thought for a moment and said, "That's true. These Jin bosses' buildings are mostly used to hide money and women, so they're quite secretive about it."

Zhou Jingming took Musa to a lively restaurant, where they ate and drank together before Musa went home. Before leaving, he told Musa that when he saw Wu Fusheng, he should ask if he needed anyone else. However, since they hadn't seen each other for many years, he didn't know if Wu Fusheng would still give him face and couldn't guarantee that he would take him in.

Upon hearing this, Musa's expression darkened.

Having spent so much time in the gold rush, he knew that there was little trust between people in such places. He and Zhou Jingming had only met twice and didn't know each other well, so Zhou Jingming couldn't possibly take his affairs too seriously.

Furthermore, according to Zhou Jingming, he and Wu Fusheng had not seen each other for many years. Putting aside whether their life-and-death friendship was genuine, even if they were, it was hard to say whether Wu Fusheng would acknowledge it. Every Jin boss is very fickle.

He could only sigh softly, lean on his cane and limp away, returning to the mosque entrance to guard his stall, saying nothing, perhaps still holding onto a sliver of hope in his heart.

Now that we've found Wu Fusheng's Golden Building, things will be much easier.

Zhou Jingming believed that as long as he stayed here, he would definitely be able to see Wu Fusheng.

Anyway, he and Wu Yang needed to rest properly, so they weren't in a hurry to leave.

Zhou Jingming looked around and saw a shop not far away. He called Wu Yang and walked towards the shop. He bought two packs of cigarettes and handed one to Wu Yang.

Then, he tore open his own packet, gave one to Wu Yang, lit one for himself, and sat down on the steps outside the store, gazing at Wu Fusheng's Western-style building in the distance.

Wu Yang lit a cigarette and sat down beside him: "Brother Zhou, is hunting antelope hides really that profitable?"

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly: "The gold panning here has been going on for over a hundred years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, a large number of gold panners rode yaks and drove wooden carts to pan for gold in the Yeniugou area at the foot of the Qilian Mountains."

Their only food consisted of barley, bean flour, roasted corn flour, mixed grain dry rations, and frozen potatoes that they had brought with them.

To improve their lives and supplement their meat supply, gold prospectors began hunting, mainly targeting gazelles and antelopes. When food became scarce, they relied on hunting wild animals as their primary food source.

The situation is similar now. Large numbers of gold prospectors from Xihai and Ganzhou have entered Hoh Xil to pan for gold, and antelopes have become their main source of meat.

Besides being edible, the antelope's head and horns can be taken home as decorations. Furthermore, traditional Chinese medicine and Tibetan Buddhist theories have long held that they possess heat-clearing, detoxifying, and swelling-reducing properties, and antelope blood is believed to have anti-diarrheal effects.

"Is it expensive because it can be used to make medicine?"

"No, that's not it. Antelope fur is expensive because its cashmere can be used to make a high-end shawl called shahtoosh, which can sell for thousands or even tens of thousands of US dollars. Listen carefully, it's US dollars. Right now, one US dollar is roughly equivalent to three of our dollars."

"Damn, that means it would cost at least 20,000 yuan to buy a shawl."

"Pretty scary, isn't it?"

"too exaggerated."

"The world of the rich is beyond our imagination. Not to mention abroad, even in China, there are more and more rich people. So don't think that we are rich just because we make a hundred thousand or so a year in gold mining. Compared with many people, we are just a small fry."

"What's so great about this shawl? Why is it so expensive?"

"I can't really explain what's so good about it. I just heard that a shawl made of antelope wool can be threaded through the middle of a small ring, so it must be very light and thin."

A shawl requires the cashmere of three to five antelopes. In Hoh Xil or Golmud, an antelope hide can sell for four or five hundred yuan, but when transported to the border, to India and Nepal, the price of an antelope hide can rise to more than two thousand yuan.

"One can fetch more than two thousand... This is a good business. If you catch one, it's equivalent to at least one or two taels of gold. If you catch a hundred, that's ten jin."

Wu Yang's eyes lit up with excitement again: "According to Musa, if done well, we can get hundreds at once... Brother Zhou, are there many antelopes around here?"

Zhou Jingming nodded: "Yes... but we won't do it!"

"Why? It's such a lucrative business."

Zhou Jingming's words poured cold water on Wu Yang, and his reaction was somewhat intense.

Zhou Jingming thought for a moment: "The path of gold mining is enough for me. I don't want to get involved in too many other things. Besides, I always feel that people should have some respect for this world."

Wu Yang thought for a while and didn't dwell on the issue any longer. He believed that Zhou Jingming must have his reasons for not wanting to do this.

In Zhou Jingming's memory, poaching, which was originally attached to gold mining, probably began to become independent around this time.

The reason he was unwilling to follow the path of hunting antelopes was because he had witnessed the scenes of hunting and found them to be far too cruel, and he also knew the efforts that later generations had made to protect antelopes.

Around 1991, poaching reached its peak. The Western Working Committee in the city, which was under the administrative jurisdiction of Hoh Xil, originally aimed to develop the mineral resources of Hoh Xil. However, no one expected that later, the core task of this organization, and even the Wild Yak Team, would become anti-poaching. The secretary of the committee, Sonam Dargye, even paid the price with his life for this.

This story has been made into a movie, and Zhou Jingming has seen it.

Hunting antelopes is ultimately not the same as panning for gold, nor is it the same as hunting a few wild animals for food. Large-scale hunting is truly against nature and the environment, at least for future generations.

In Zhou Jingming's view, Wu Fusheng's choice to do this kind of thing could very well lead to him being kicked out of the Maqin Snow Mountain Gold Panning Site, which would severely damage his business.

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang stayed in Golmud for three days but did not see Wu Fusheng return. On the fourth day, however, they saw a car parked in front of Wu Fusheng's Western-style house.

Five people got out of the car, knocked on the door of the mansion, and the woman told them to drive the car inside. Then the door closed and there was no more sound.

It wasn't until dark that the three men drove the car out again. Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang immediately followed, and saw the car stop in front of a sheepskin buyer in the city. Then they carried the sacks from the car into the house one by one.

Zhou Jingming knew without even thinking that those sacks were full of antelope hides.

Judging from the dozen or so bags they carried in, it's likely that another hundred or so antelopes were hunted and killed.

Similar to gold smuggling, antelope skin smuggling also involves a clear division of labor among poachers, skin buyers, traffickers, and processors, with close and covert cooperation.

All of this has begun to become professionalized.

According to Zhou Jingming's understanding, poachers usually pack five to ten antelope hides together into a sack, then transport them by car from the poaching site to the black market in Golmud or LS, where they are sold to hide buyers.

The buyers then hired people to peel the cashmere off the sheepskin piece by piece.

The earliest method of smuggling cashmere from antelopes was for herders to use yaks to carry it across remote Himalayan passes. Later, in order to evade inspection, many new methods emerged, such as packing the small pieces of cashmere into gasoline drums, sleeping bags, mattresses, or cotton clothing and transporting them across border crossings by vehicle.

A larger transit point than Golmud is located in LS.

After completing the transaction, these people drove the car back to Wu Fusheng's yard. The gate was tightly closed, and there was no movement for a long time. Zhou Jingming guessed that they would probably stay here tonight.

He called Wu Yang and they returned to the hotel: "Tomorrow we'll follow this car. We should be able to find out Wu Fusheng's exact location from these people."

Wu Yang glanced at the woman's window and asked, "What should we do with this woman?"

"After we deal with Wu Fusheng, we'll turn around and deal with her."

Zhou Jingming had no intention of letting her go. The reason he didn't rush to deal with her was because it was inconvenient to act in the city, and he didn't want to alert her too quickly, otherwise she would have died dozens of times over.

The next morning, before dawn, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang reappeared near the Western-style building, keeping an eye on the situation.

It wasn't until after 10 a.m. that these people left the courtyard. Instead of leaving immediately, they drove slowly along the street to buy vegetables, drinks, and other items.

After finishing their business and having a meal, they all got into their cars and drove out of the city.

Zhou Jingming hurriedly returned to the hotel, rode his motorcycle out, picked up Wu Yang, and followed the car out of Golmud. Seeing that the car was heading southwest, he knew they were going to Hoh Xil.

In this desolate wilderness, the roads are simple, so Zhou Jingming wasn't worried about losing them or disturbing them too quickly. Therefore, he kept a distance, only able to see them from afar.

As noon approached, the car turned behind a mountain ridge. To Zhou Jingming's surprise, as he slowly rode his motorcycle over, he saw a group of people stop their vehicle and eat on a riverbank with pebbles on both sides.

The place was open and both sides could see each other. If they hid at this time, it would seem deliberate and arouse suspicion.

Zhou Jingming simply rode his motorcycle straight through.

When the five men saw the two approaching on a motorcycle, they surrounded them and stopped them.

One of them asked, "What are you doing here?"

"What business is it of yours what I do?"

Zhou Jingming glanced at the group and noticed that their hunting rifles were draped over the back door of the truck. In this desolate wilderness, being polite would only be seen as weakness.

The man chuckled, "Oh... you son of a bitch, you've got quite the temper. In this desolate wilderness, you'd better answer whatever they ask, otherwise, we brothers won't be so easy to talk to either!"

The other person seemed more eager, circling the motorcycle, touching it here and looking at it there: "This motorcycle is good, it looks very new, not just anyone can ride it, I only saw someone ride it in Xining last year... It's a good thing!"

He felt that Wu Yang, who was sitting in the back, was getting in his way, so he grabbed Wu Yang by the collar and yanked him hard: "Get down here, you son of a bitch..."

Clearly, the group's initiative to intercept them wasn't because they realized Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang were following them, but because they had their eyes on the motorcycle.

Wu Yang was not angry. With a pull, he hopped off the back of the motorcycle.

Then, the man pulled Zhou Jingming down again: "Aren't you getting down yet?"

Zhou Jingming glanced at him: "What, trying to steal my car in broad daylight?"

"broad daylight?"

Another man laughed: "In this desolate wilderness, no matter how hot the sun is, you'll still be tanned. We've got our eye on this motorcycle, so what if we rob you?"

"You can steal, but I advise you to think about the consequences. Not everything is something you can just steal whenever you want."

Zhou Jingming laughed: "I'm trying to reason with you now. If you know what's good for you, just move aside and we can all live in peace. Otherwise..."

"Heh... trying to scare us, guys, he's just trying to scare us... haha... what else can you do? You think you can hit me?"

The five men burst into wild laughter.

Zhou Jingming was also smiling.

As they laughed, the five men could no longer laugh.

Zhou Jingming calmly set up the motorcycle kickstand, got off the motorcycle, took the key out and put it in his pocket: "Since reasoning won't work, then I'll just say I know a little bit about martial arts!"

The next second, he suddenly reached out and poked the eyes of the person blocking his way with his right index and middle fingers.

(End of this chapter)