My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 229 A Lively Treasure
When Zhou Jingming met Gao Jianjun last year, he already had the idea of ​​recruiting him into his team. However, they hadn't been in contact for many years, so he didn't know Gao Jianjun's specific situation. In addition, Gao Jianjun was already in Shen Wei's team, and poaching him at that time would easily cause conflict.

Things are different now. Gao Jianjun is now a freelancer. Since he's interested in striking it rich, we might as well keep him around and observe him to see if he can succeed.

Zhou Jingming felt that he was still a bit timid.

If he is indeed a goldmine, Zhou Jingming plans to bring him into his team and make him a core member.

The motorcycle sped across the Gobi Desert, crossed the Fourth Mine Bridge, passed through vast forests, and ventured deep into the Haxiong Valley in the mountains.

Upon arriving at the pincer-shaped ravine and seeing the busy crowd at the mining site, Gao Jianjun was immediately taken aback: "A mining site with so many people?"

Zhou Jingming asked with a smile, "What's wrong?"

Gao Jianjun seemed a little excited: "It's good to have more people. More people means less people will dare to mess with us, and it will definitely be more stable. Brother Zhou, you're not lying to me!"

Zhou Jingming glared at him: "So, all along the way, you thought I might be lying to you? Damn it... and you actually said you believed me? You don't believe a damn thing!"

Gao Jianjun just grinned.

When a stranger arrived at the mine, Jin Wang rushed over to greet him, barking incessantly at Gao Jianjun.

With such a big dog, Gao Jianjun dared not be careless and instinctively hid behind Zhou Jingming.

Zhou Jingming quickly stopped Jin Wang and emphasized to Gao Jianjun, "This dog is very fierce. Don't mess with it if you have nothing to do. Also, don't feed it anything."

Gao Jianjun sized up Jinwang and gave his initial assessment: "This dog is really ugly!"

"Never mind whether it's ugly or not, it's a great guard dog. With it here at the mine, any movement around will be easily detected, saving us a lot of trouble."

As Zhou Jingming spoke, he parked the motorcycle next to the tractor and led him toward the dugout.

When Wu Yang, Bai Zhishun, Peng Yuanchao, Li Guohua, and the others saw Zhou Jingming leading people to the mine site, they all gathered around.

Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun had already met Gao Jianjun last year, so there was nothing to say. They simply greeted him, and Zhou Jingming introduced Peng Yuanchao and Li Guohua to him.

After getting to know each other, Gao Jianjun was still turning his head to look around.

Zhou Jingming couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking at?"

"Where's the foreman at your mine? Whether you can hire me or not, he needs to agree!"

Upon hearing this, the group burst into laughter.

Peng Yuanchao pointed at Zhou Jingming: "What, you came with Brother Zhou, but you don't know he's the foreman at the mine?"

"What?"

Gao Jianjun looked at Zhou Jingming in disbelief: "You're the foreman... With so many people and such a large mining site, you're actually the foreman!"

"Why can't I be the leader?"

Zhou Jingming gave him a push: "What's the big deal?"

Gao Jianjun clicked his tongue: "You're a pen-wielding guy... In my impression, any capable leader is a rough, tough man who dares to fight and kill. Brother Zhou, you really don't seem like one."

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "I studied geology, and I'm someone who runs around in the wilderness every day. I'm naturally gifted in this line of work, okay... Hurry up, stop standing here like an idiot. Shunzai, take him to the dugout and find him a place to settle down."

Bai Zhishun, hunched over, called Gao Jianjun and left. Everyone else followed, still asking Bai Zhishun if it was true that Zhou Jingming was the foreman at the mine.

Hearing his question, Peng Yuanchao couldn't help but laugh: "Brother, where did you pick up this clown?"

"We met him on the way back. Don't underestimate him. He's from the Railway Corps School. He studied engineering blasting and is an expert in handling explosives and mining. He's a real talent. Take good care of him; he'll be very useful in the future."

Zhou Jingming emphasized this point, then went to find Su Xiulan and Wang Dong, asking them to stew mutton for dinner to welcome Gao Jianjun.

"There's not much mutton left, only two pieces!"

Su Xiulan asked softly, "Should we be more careful with our spending?"

With a larger number of people and better food at the mine, the mutton bought from Batu was consumed very quickly. In reality, a whole sheep was only enough for one meal for the more than 100 people at the mine, and they couldn't eat as much as they wanted.

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "Don't worry about it. If we run out of meat, we can just buy more... I'll go find Batu tomorrow and get some more sheep."

He has always been generous in this regard.

After Gao Jianjun's bed was set up, he quickly crawled out of the dugout and saw Wang Dong and Su Xiulan preparing mutton in the tent. He first went over to take a look, and when he discovered that there was actually a pretty girl at the mine site, his eyes immediately lit up.

He looked around and saw Zhou Jingming by the river chute. He immediately ran down to him and said, "Brother Zhou, is that girl... sold at the mine? She's so young."

Zhou Jingming kicked him, startling Gao Jianjun who jumped aside: "What are you doing?" "What do you think I'm doing?"

Zhou Jingming glared at him: "She's my woman. Call her sister-in-law when you see her from now on. If you dare to have any funny ideas, I'll castrate you."

Gao Jianjun was somewhat disappointed for a moment, and finally managed to say, "You really know how to enjoy yourself... What should I do now, go dig for ore, or stay here and help out?"

"It's getting late. Take your time to look around and familiarize yourself with the place. Just wait for dinner. Tomorrow, you'll be working with Brother Peng. Do whatever he tells you to do. Don't worry, once you're here, you won't be doing any heavy work. Just learn how to manage the mine!"

Since he is a talented person, Zhou Jingming naturally wouldn't treat him the same as an ordinary gold prospector.

Hearing this, Gao Jianjun was even more delighted: "This is exactly what I imagined gold mining to be like."

Afterwards, he strolled around the sluice gate, looked at the mining area, and finally climbed up the grassy slope to stand on the big rock behind it, looking around like a curious child.

Zhou Jingming ignored him.

It wasn't until evening, when Li Guozhu, Zhao Li, and Sun Chenggui led the people from the upstream mine back.

Seeing such a large group of people approaching the mine, Gao Jianjun, who had wandered over to the tractor, jumped up and ran towards the tent: "Brother Zhou, someone's here. There are quite a few of them. Are they here to rob the mine?"

As he said this, he busied himself looking around, found a pickaxe, and quickly grabbed it. But then he saw a group of people resting by the tents looking at him with smiles, which puzzled him.

Having been bullied at other mining sites so many times, Gao Jianjun seemed somewhat sensitive when people came to the mine.

However, in Zhou Jingming's view, this is not a bad thing.

Wu Yang patted him on the shoulder: "It's people who work at another mine upstream who are back for dinner. It's also Brother Zhou's mine."

Gao Jianjun's eyes widened again: "Two mining sites..."

Then, he turned to Zhou Jingming and said, "Brother Zhou, other people have enough trouble with just one mining site, but you actually have two mining sites in this valley."

Seeing his reaction, Zhou Jingming was both amused and exasperated: "Can you stop making such a fuss? We were the first team to come to Haxionggou to pan for gold, so what's wrong with having one more mining site?"

Gao Jianjun nodded repeatedly: "You should... You're really amazing, you've become the leader of so many people. Brother Zhou, you saw me last year and didn't even say a word, that's not fair."

"Get lost, I only came to pan for gold for the first time last year..."

"How did you manage to create such a big commotion in the second year?"

"I earned my place through hard work."

Zhou Jingming found that with this guy around, he didn't even have enough saliva to talk to: "Don't be so impulsive. Can you be a little more composed? If you keep this up, I'll fire you tomorrow."

"Hehe... Brother Zhou, you can't chase me away this time."

Gao Jianjun's shameless attitude amused Peng Yuanchao and the others once again.

Zhou Jingming still emphasized to him in front of everyone: "It's true that you've known me since we were kids, but you can't act like you're above the law here. You've panned for gold with other teams before, so you should know the rules of gold panning. Don't break them, or don't blame me for being ruthless. You can't make exceptions here."

"understood!"

This time, Gao Jianjun answered very seriously: "I won't make things difficult for you."

When Li Guozhu and the others arrived, Zhou Jingming naturally introduced Gao Jianjun to everyone again. During dinner that evening, a wooden stool specifically for Gao Jianjun was specially added to the table in the tent.

Zhou Jingming had previously told Li Guozhu and Peng Yuanchao about cleaning the caves after the gold rush season. Now that someone who knew about blasting had arrived, he naturally knew Zhou Jingming's plans. They welcomed Gao Jianjun's arrival and gave him plenty of meat and drinks.

Perhaps because meat was rarely seen at other mines, Gao Jianjun wolfed down his first meal at Zhou Jingming's place, prompting Zhou Jingming to exclaim, "Poor kid!"

I asked around and found out that Gao Jianjun hadn't seen meat for more than two months on the other side of the Haiertes River. He was eating either steamed buns, corn porridge, or noodles every day.

At first, we ate fish twice, but later, as more people entered the valley, we couldn't even find fish anymore.

These words evoked a sense of melancholy among the other gold prospectors at the mine.

There are already quite a few gold panning teams in Haxionggou. They know that at Zhou Jingming's mine, they can get just as much gold as other gold panning teams, and the food is even better.

The initial restlessness of the group had long since been calmed down.

Thinking about getting meat, the next morning, Zhou Jingming watched the mining site start construction, gave Gao Jianjun some more instructions, and then called Old Liu to go with him into the mountains to find Batu.

He originally wanted to ask Wu Yang to come along, but considering that they would have to cross a large forest, he figured that Old Man Liu, who was good at hunting, would be more capable in such a place, so he chose Old Man Liu.

As a result, when the two of them led Jinwang halfway there, Jinwang spoke up.

(End of this chapter)