My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 231 Driving Away the People from the Pass

"who is it?"

Zhou Jingming had similar doubts and couldn't help but ask.

“They are from the village of Haxionggou. Yesterday at noon, two men came to steal our sheep. There are only four people in our family, and we are short-handed. Nara always helps me herd sheep.”

At noon, while the sheep were grazing on the hillside, Nara cooked a meal and called me to eat. So I rode my horse to the foot of the mountain, leaving only two dogs to watch over the sheep.

Later, when I heard a dog barking, I quickly rode my horse to investigate, fearing it might be a wolf or a bear coming to bite the sheep.

Nora also rode up on horseback to help. When we arrived, we saw the two of them killing two sheep with sticks and carrying them into the woods.

My two sheepdogs are no good; they only dare to bark and not dare to bite. As soon as they turn around, they get scared and run away.

I rode my horse and chased after them. When they saw me coming, they threw down the sheep and ran away.

I caught up with one of them and gave him a good beating with my riding crop. The other one ran over to help, and when he saw that I was going to hit him, he took off his hunting rifle…

Batu looked regretful: "I was going to put my gun down and fight them too, but Nara wouldn't let me. She said we couldn't kill people. She made them put their guns down. The sheep were already dead. She made them pay money to buy the two sheep."

Later, they left thirty dollars, carried the sheep, and left.

After lunch, I went back to tending the sheep. Nora said she was going to pick some mushrooms in the woods to take home for dinner, but she never came back…

Look at her neck, there are still bruises and marks from being strangled. She was strangled to death, and... only those two people came here yesterday.”

Zhou Jingming hadn't noticed any of this. Her neck had been bitten by a jackal and was stained with blood. Now, upon closer inspection, she could indeed see bruises on both sides of her neck.

What did those two people look like?

Because Zhou Jingming built the road, most of the gold prospectors upstream and downstream of Haxionggou would pass by the wooden bridge next to the mine site in the pincer-shaped ravine when entering and leaving Haxionggou. Zhou Jingming could not name most of them, but he was familiar with their faces.

Batu shook his head: "I can't explain it, but I'll definitely recognize people when I see them."

Zhou Jingming then asked, "Do you need any help?"

Batu shook his head again: "I'll handle this myself."

As he said this, he was looking at Nora's corpse, his teeth grinding together.

Then he wrapped Nora in those clothes, tied her to the horse, and led the horse away.

Zhou Jingming and Old Man Liu exchanged a glance and had no choice but to head back home.

Batu was in no mood to talk to them about selling sheep after encountering such a situation.

Old Liu simply said, "I'll go out into the mountains more often these next few days to see if I can hunt down any bigger animals."

"Let's just stick to guarding the mining site!"

Zhou Jingming no longer wants Old Man Liu to go hunting: "When the meat runs out, I can just go to Tiemaike and buy some. The mine looks fine now, but there are actually a lot of problems, especially with Liang Mazi and his gang. We have to be very careful. Who knows what kind of trouble he will cause me next?"

Old Liu nodded slightly and said nothing more.

However, after coming out for a while, the two were not in a hurry to go back. They wandered around in the mountains and forests for a while and shot a pheasant that took flight in fright.

Zhou Jingming didn't realize it was Old Liu who fired the shot. He just watched as the pheasant, with its long tail trailing behind it, darted up and landed on a larch branch, preparing to fly away again, when he raised his gun and fired. The pheasant immediately fell to the ground, fluttered a few times in the bushes at the base of the tree, and then went still.

Along the way, they only saw a few birds and a squirrel. These small animals had so little meat that the two of them didn't even consider firing a shot.

We returned to the Haxionggou mining site just in time for lunch.

A large group of people, each carrying a large bowl filled with rice, potatoes, and cabbage, were scattered around the tent in twos and threes, eating and chatting, creating a lively scene.

Seeing Zhou Jingming and Old Man Liu return, Su Xiulan busied herself serving them rice and taking the two guns and pheasants they had brought back.

As soon as Zhou Jingming sat down on the wooden stool by the table, Li Guozhu asked, "How many did you buy?"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "I didn't buy it."

Wu Yang chimed in from the side, "Did you not find anyone, or did you ask for too high a price?"

Zhou Jingming shook his head again, took a deep breath: "Neither... I saw a corpse in the woods on the way. It was Nara's. She was murdered and mauled beyond recognition by jackals."

"Huh... what's going on?"

Upon hearing this, not only was Su Xiulan, who had asked the question, surprised, but everyone at the table stopped eating and looked at Zhou Jingming.

Everyone present knew Nara, the beautiful Kazakh girl. Su Xiulan had seen her earlier this year when her family passed through the pincer-shaped mountain pass during their migration. Women were a rare sight in the mountains, and Su Xiulan had even spoken to Nara.

"I don't know the specifics of what happened..."

Zhou Jingming looked at Su Xiulan, then at Li Guozhu: "Xiulan, Brother Li, were there any people at our two mines who didn't go to work yesterday?"

Su Xiulan was responsible for compiling statistics on the work situation in the pincer-shaped ravine, while Li Guozhu was responsible for taking stock of the personnel at the upstream mining sites and informing Su Xiulan when they came for dinner in the evening.

Zhou Jingming asked this question because he was worried that someone from his own mine might be the one to do such a thing.

If that's the case, it won't be easy to face Batu.

"Everyone was at work yesterday!"

Su Xiulan gave a definite answer.

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly, and he breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that they're not from our mine."

It's unclear what Batu will do next.

Gold prospectors, who were already disliked by Kazakh herders, were facing an uncertain situation. Given Batu's anger at the time, things certainly wouldn't end easily.

At this moment, Batu led his horse, carrying Nara's body, back to the tent along the valley. The tent was empty.

Because he was searching for Nora, the sheep had to be cared for by their parents.

He moved the body into the yurt, brought over a wooden bed, placed it on the bed, and stared at it blankly for a long time.

Then, he knelt down, moved Nora's already stiff body, placed her face to the west, and tied her chin. He went to the ditch to fetch water, washed a clean cloth, covered Nora's face, found a tent to cover the body, and then found two lamps to light under Nora's head and feet.

Then he took his axe, went to the woods by the grassland, cut down a wooden pole, dug a hole in front of the yurt, stood the pole up, and hung a red cloth on it.

The Kazakh people attach great importance to funeral rites, as these are the final rites in a person's life.

When someone dies, the Kazakhs erect a long pole in front of their yurt and hang cloth on it as a sign of mourning.

The color of the cloth used to hang the deceased varied depending on their age.

Generally, a red cloth is hung when a young person dies, a half-red and half-white cloth is hung when a middle-aged person dies, and a white cloth is hung when an elderly person dies. The approximate age of the deceased can be determined from the color of the cloth.

After doing all that, Batu did nothing more, but simply slumped to the side, staring blankly at Nara's corpse.

It wasn't until evening that his parents drove the sheep back to the camp.

The elderly couple saw the pole with the red cloth hanging from afar and rushed to the yurt in a panic. When they went inside, they burst into tears.

At that moment, Batu stood up and said, "I will go and inform the relatives to invite the mullah to chant sutras for her."

The Kazakhs are Muslims, and their funerals are generally conducted according to Islamic rites.

But Batu had other ideas.

He didn't say much to his parents, but simply took his hunting rifle, crawled out of the yurt, led his horse, and rode all the way down the valley.

Batu returned on the third day. Before that, twenty or thirty people, all of whom were close relatives, had arrived one after another.

The last person he brought was the mullah.

When Nora was seen again, her body had already been washed with clean water and wrapped in a white cloth by her close relatives who had come to visit.

The next day, an atonement ceremony was held, and the coffin was carried outside the yurt for the Ghanaza ceremony. After this ceremony, the funeral procession began.

Because the cemetery was quite far away, some of the close relatives who came brought camels to carry Nora's body to the cemetery.

The group spent another two days traveling before finally burying the body at the cemetery.

The Kazakhs practice burial without a coffin. The body is wrapped in a white cloth, laid upright with the head facing north and the feet facing south, and the body facing west, that is, towards the holy city of Mecca.

By the time the burial was completed, Batu, the once robust Kazakh youth, had become haggard and worn out.

But he showed no sign of stopping, coldly saying, "Grab your weapons, come with me, avenge Nara, and drive the people out of the mouth!"

A dozen or so strong men slung their hunting rifles over their shoulders, mounted their horses, and, led by Batu, galloped towards Haxionggou.

(End of this chapter)