My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 258 was better than expected.

The days are getting shorter and shorter, and the temperature drops quickly in the evening. You can already feel the chill as soon as the sun sets behind the mountains.

Zhou Jingming didn't rush to have the platters of mutton prepared; they wouldn't spoil if left out for a day or two. Everyone was quite tired, so he left the task of smoking the meat to the three women.

He simply instructed the others to prop up the mine carts that Li Guozhu and the others had rolled to the riverbank with stones.

That evening, there was fresh mutton. Zhou Jingming specially brought it from his hometown. He usually didn't eat it often, and now he had only a little bit of hot pot base left, so he took out a piece and asked Su Xiulan to cook her favorite spicy hot pot.

Seeing Batu and Nara, and preparing to give them special treatment, Zhou Jingming went to find the two of them: "Batu, Nara, I know that you have your taboos due to religious customs or some other reasons. Look, now Nara has agreed to marry Wu Yang, and you have also decided to come with us to mine for gold. They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do, so we should still make some changes."

Actually, when we come to Altay, we eat the same things as you: clear oil, tea bricks, naan, and steamed buns.

You two siblings have always cooked for yourselves, and I've always felt there's some distance between you.

It would be better if everyone ate together, and it would save you the trouble.

These days, Nara has been helping with the cooking, and she understands the process, so she should feel at ease.

The hot pot base I brought is made from pure beef tallow, with a lot of chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and some spices added. It doesn't contain any other oils, so you can eat it too.

Of course, if you insist, I respect your choice.

Kazakhs do not eat pork or animal blood, and when this is mentioned, it is always related to religion.

But in Zhou Jingming's view, that's not the case at all.

According to Zhou Jingming's understanding of Kazakh history, the Kazakhs in ancient times mainly believed in shamanism, and many also believed in Zoroastrianism and Christianity. Apart from the Khwarazmian Empire conquered by Genghis Khan, they had almost no concept of Islam.

Moreover, during times of famine, flu, and disaster, they would also become hunters, hunting animals such as deer, wild horses, and wild boars for food.

However, as former inhabitants of Tengri, they would never ask farmers for help, much less eat domestic pigs, because in their view, the environment in which domestic pigs are raised is extremely unsanitary, and their meat is not as delicious as the cattle and sheep that they raise freely on the grasslands.

In other words, from the moment they domesticated cattle and sheep, it was destined that domestic pigs would not end up on the tables of purely nomadic people. This had little to do with religion, because they simply didn't care for them.

They simply follow their dietary habits and prefer to eat venison, mutton, horse meat, etc., but they will not eat things that their ancestors considered sacred or unclean. Just like traditional Tibetans do not eat fish, it is a kind of pride that has long been engraved in their bones.

The main reason Zhou Jingming brought this up was that he felt Batu and Nara were no longer so traditional and had made breakthroughs in many things.

The brother and sister looked at each other, and after a long silence, Batu nodded: "Let's give it a try!"

It's a good thing that they're willing to try!

In the evening, a pot of bright red, boiling soup was placed on a campfire surrounded by four large stones in the tent. Su Xiulan brought over a half-basin of thinly sliced ​​mutton.

The campfire was a bit smoky, but when you're eating and sleeping outdoors, there aren't many rules to follow.

Zhou Jingming immediately put a lot of mutton into the pot, stirred it with a spatula, and after cooking for a while, he gestured to Batu, who was sitting around the pot, "Try it!"

After a slight hesitation, Batu picked up a slightly curled slice of meat from the pot with his chopsticks, dipped it in the sauce made with only salt water and scallions, took a bite, raised an eyebrow, and turned to Nara with a smile: "Delicious!"

Nara also took a bite and nodded slightly.

Actually, hot pot isn't just a Sichuan specialty; people in other parts of China also eat it. The earliest hot pot introduced was from Beijing, and after a few years, Sichuan-style hot pot and seafood hot pot became available. They also have their own famous local hot pot, yak hot pot, and so on.

This all follows the seasons.

When the weather gets cold, sitting around a steaming hot pot to eat and drink is an absolute treat.

Seeing that the brother and sister had relaxed, Zhou Jingming was also quite happy, and immediately picked up the wine pot and poured wine for everyone.

The meal took quite a while and was very lively. It seemed that the fatigue from carrying supplies into the mountains and hunting today had been greatly relieved.

At night, flames flickered in the iron stove inside the tin shack. Three women, who had crawled into the tin can and were covered with blankets, huddled together chatting.

Outside the tent entrance, a campfire was burning brightly. Only Old Liu was guarding the fire, while the other men had already lain down, some of them snoring.

They brought back quite a few plates of mutton, which had a strong smell of blood. Old Liu was afraid that it would attract some wild animals at night, so he insisted on keeping watch.

Even when Zhou Jingming told him that Jin Wang was also there, he was still not entirely at ease. He said that if it were Ha Xiong that came, Jin Wang would only be a matter of a slap in front of it.

Zhou Jingming thought about it and felt that what he said made sense, so he handed over the night watch to him.

Anyway, he didn't want Old Liu to go down into the mine, so it would be a good thing to hold onto this simple camp.

The next morning, after breakfast, Zhou Jingming led a group of people to three mines in the neighboring ravine.

Like Zhang Xueqin, the group was also excited when they saw the pyrite piled up at the mine entrance and noticed the golden ore that shone in the sunlight.

Zhou Jingming had to explain the Fool's Gold to them again before they finally threw away the ore they had picked up. Last time they explored the cave, they hadn't noticed anything wrong with the air, but after so many days, they needed to check the situation inside before entering again.

Zhou Jingming had everyone split up to make some torches from the Mingzi. The first mine was one he had seen before; it was an abandoned mine. At least in the quartz bands and fractured bands on the cave walls, Zhou Jingming didn't see any mining value. Of course, whether the deeper layers would be different would only be known after digging.

But right now, Zhou Jingming doesn't have the right equipment or enough people, and he doesn't want to gamble on his luck. He feels it's unnecessary to go through all that trouble. The most direct approach is to mine directly where you can see the gold veins.

Therefore, he abandoned the first mine, had Wu Yang and Zhao Li wait outside, agreed on a time, and led everyone into the second mine, which was the deepest one.

The reason for leaving the two outside was in case something went wrong after they went into the cave, so that someone could go in to rescue them. For example, if there was a sudden collapse that buried a lot of people inside, someone outside could still dig them out.

Wu Yang had been inside the mine with Zhou Jingming, so he knew the general situation there. Zhao Li was also a reliable person.

Zhou Jingming took the lead again. This time, he specifically called Gao Jianjun to his side and kept an eye on the situation in the cave as they went deeper inside.

The two discussed where a collapse might occur and what areas needed to be reinforced with wooden poles, as well as the ventilation conditions in those areas.

After all, explosives are to be used inside a cave, and this is an old mine, so many unforeseen things can happen.

As he said before, having brought such a group of people to clean the cave, he hoped they would all leave intact. That would be the best outcome. These people were capable assistants he had cultivated over the past two years, and he didn't want any mishaps to occur.

This time, we were quite familiar with the area. There were only two places in the cave that could be mined: one was a quartz vein with bright gold that was exposed after a collapse in the upper side passage, and the other was a gold-bearing fracture zone found in the lower passage.

The group followed Zhou Jingming for about half an hour, inspecting two gold-bearing veins before leaving.

The air inside was fine, but after Gao Jianjun inspected it, he felt that there were many places that needed to be reinforced with wood before he dared to use explosives inside.

Zhou Jingming was more worried about the double-layered mine shaft. Regardless of whether explosives were used in the upper or lower layer, he was concerned that the shaft was too thin and would collapse.

However, professionals are professionals. After Gao Jianjun came out of the mine, he cleared a flat area at the mine entrance and used a twig to draw the situation inside the tunnel. He found that the two levels of the mine extended in different directions, and the thickness and strength of the rocks inside were sufficient to support them.

Seeing that he said that, Zhou Jingming felt much more at ease. He immediately ordered everyone to take saws and axes to the fir forest to cut down trees and began to transport timber. Under Gao Jianjun's command, they began to reinforce the tunnel.

This task took three days to complete.

The main reinforcement work involves reinforcing fracturing zones to prevent rocks from falling due to vibrations.

On the morning of the fourth day, they finally began digging for gold.

Zhou Jingming chose to target the quartz gold vein in the upper mine first.

Without machinery to drill holes, they had to rely on manual labor, holding steel chisels and wielding hammers to dig little by little into the blasting holes.

After a morning of work, six two-foot-deep blasting holes were drilled around the quartz vein.

The next thing to do is deal with Gao Jianjun.

He planted explosives inside, and Zhou Jingming told Li Guozhu to lead everyone to retreat to the fork in the road and wait, dozens of meters away.

Zhou Jingming waited in the cave, watching Gao Jianjun place the explosives.

Because the blast hole was relatively shallow, not much explosive was needed. He divided a tube of explosive into two sections and lit them. The two of them then quickly retreated out of the tunnel.

The fuse he left was long enough, burning at a rate of less than one centimeter per second. For the first test blast, he left more than ten centimeters of fuse to ensure he had enough time to evacuate.

After the two met up with Li Guozhu and the others inside the cave, they waited for three or four seconds before hearing a loud rumbling sound from inside the cave.

After a while, smoke and dust emerged from the tunnel, carrying a strong smell of gunpowder.

The group waited another seven or eight minutes until the dust settled before entering the cave with flashlights.

The quartz vein was blasted more than two feet deep, and the fallen rocks were piled up in the cave.

“There’s nothing wrong with the tunnel. Brother Li and Brother Peng, you two take charge and clear away these loose stones. Send the other rubble directly into the deeper part of the tunnel, but make sure to carefully pick out the gold-bearing quartz veins, no matter how big or small they are.”

After giving his instructions, he rushed to look at the crater created by the blast. When he swept his flashlight over it, he saw that the palm-width quartz vein was dotted with golden specks.

He sifted through the blasted ore pile and found a piece of quartz ore about half the size of a fist. He noticed that the surface and gaps of the ore were covered with a lot of gold.

He handed the ore to Li Guozhu, smiling as he said, "It's even better than I expected."

Li Guozhu looked at the gold on the ore in his hand and his face lit up with a smile. Just like Peng Yuanchao, he said, "Comrades, if you want to get rich, work hard!"

When everyone saw the ore, they were all incredibly excited, as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

(End of this chapter)