My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 260 Something Extremely Exciting

Peng Yuanchao laid out the balance scales and placed all the chips directly on the left tray.

Seeing the group's expectant expressions, Zhou Jingming didn't want to spoil their fun. He placed the small gold nuggets into a tray and began to weigh them.

The balance is too small, so the weighing must be done in multiple steps.

He weighed the items while simultaneously making statistics with pen and paper.

Everyone stood around the tent, no one spoke, just watching the small gold nuggets being placed on the balance tray and then taken off, repeating this process.

After struggling for more than half an hour, Zhou Jingming finally weighed all the gold he had panned over the past few days. After tallying it up, he announced the number: "38,548 grams."

"Holy crap, 38,548 grams, that's more than 38 kilograms! That's so much gold, that's equivalent to more than a hundred people working at the two mining sites in Haxionggou for two months... That's incredible!"

Even Li Guozhu thought it was an exaggeration.

Back in Haxionggou, he led a group of people to work at the upstream mining site. He was an old gold prospector. Every evening when he returned, he would take the felt from the sluice box and bring it back to the pincer-shaped ravine to give to Zhou Jingming. He could roughly estimate the daily gold output of the upstream mining site, and the gold output of the pincer-shaped ravine was even higher. He had a good idea of ​​the gold output and knew that Zhou Jingming would receive at least ten kilograms of gold each month after deducting all expenses.

After he finished speaking, he suddenly realized that he had been too talkative, and smiled apologetically at Zhou Jingming: "I couldn't control my mouth."

"It's okay!"

Zhou Jingming no longer cared. The people at the mine weren't stupid. Wu Yang knew this, and the others, after so much time, had a rough idea of ​​what was going on. It couldn't be kept secret.

The people who came with him to clean the cave were all screened, so he felt quite at ease.

"That's why every year after the gold rush season ends, many people risk freezing or starving to death in the mountains to clean mines. If you manage to clean a slightly better mine and successfully bring the gold out, you can really become rich overnight."

Zhou Jingming looked at the gold on the table: "We've already weighed it, let's just divide it up. It'll make things easier to have the gold in our hands. Let me make this clear from the start: I consider everyone here as my brothers, as one of my own. If someone among your own tries to turn against you, that's the most disgusting thing, and the thing I can't tolerate the most. If we're going to be brothers, then let's be brothers properly. You understand what I mean?"

Everyone grinned and said they absolutely wouldn't.

Zhou Jingming then picked up his pen and scribbled on the paper, quickly arriving at a conclusion: "As previously agreed, I will take 30% of the gold, which is 38,548 divided into ten parts. One-tenth is 3,854 grams, so 30% is 11,564 grams. To round it up, I only want 11,500 grams. Any objections?"

"No objection, what objection could there be? We spent ages looking inside that cave and still couldn't figure out where the gold was. We were only able to get this opportunity to make a fortune thanks to you. Don't you all agree?"

Peng Yuanchao gave a shout, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Zhou Jingming first weighed out his share of gold and put it in an oil paper bag, then distributed it to the others: "After taking mine, there are 27,048 grams left. You ten people... each of you will get 2,704 grams."

Li Guozhu nodded, quite satisfied: "To be able to get so much gold in just over ten days is quite a lot. At the current gold price, even at the lowest price of forty yuan per gram, that's more than one hundred thousand yuan. In the past, when panning for gold, like last year on the small peninsula, you could only get a few dozen grams a month. Even if you worked for several years, you might not be able to earn that much. What's there to be dissatisfied about!"
As for Xiulan and the other two women, once the ore washing is finished, we'll pool our money together and give you what you're owed... Is that alright?"

Su Xiulan first looked at Nara and Zhang Xueqin, then nodded: "Okay!"

"Then it's settled!"

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly, then divided the remaining gold into nine portions using a balance scale and handed them to them.

Everyone took out oil paper bags and put their gold into them for safekeeping. Next was the rest time, so naturally, they had to have a good meal.

The happiest person was Batu. He had only been working for a short time and had already received so much gold, which was something he had never dared to dream of before. If it were converted into money, he would definitely be one of the richest people among the Kazakh herders.

He specially went to fetch two mutton legs, cut them into pieces, smeared them with oil, and then chopped up some wood, sharpened it, skewered them, and roasted them over the campfire, saying he wanted to make some good roasted meat for everyone.

As everyone gathered around the fire to warm themselves, Zhou Jingming dropped an even bigger bombshell: "Brother Li said before that the price of gold would be at least forty yuan, but that's actually not true."

In August of this year, the price of gold purchased by the purchasing station rose again, reaching 28.8 yuan per gram. As you know, the market price is at least twice the purchase price, so it's at least 50 yuan per gram.

Now that it's snowing, the gold prospectors can't continue panning for gold, and most of them will leave the Gold Rush Valley. If you can wait until next year, when those gold dealers have no gold on hand, selling it for sixty yuan a gram shouldn't be a problem.

Also, regarding the gold you have, unless you absolutely need to spend it, I suggest you keep it on hand for now; its value should increase later.

In Zhou Jingming's memory, the purchase price rose to 32 yuan per gram in December 1986, and it remained so until May 1988.

In June 1988, the price of gold rose again to 38.4 yuan per gram. In December of the same year, it rose again to 48 yuan per gram, and this price remained at that level until 1993.

As the price of gold continued to rise, it became increasingly attractive, drawing more and more people to pan for gold. By 1988 or 1989, the number of gold prospectors had reached its peak, with an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 distributed across Altay, Xihai and other areas.

This only refers to the Northwest region. In other places, such as Ganzhou, the Han River region, Sichuan, Hunan, and the Northeast, where there is gold, a gold rush has been launched.

It is no exaggeration to say that there are at least a million gold prospectors hoping to make a fortune by panning for gold.

As the population grows, resources become increasingly limited. In other words, the competition among the gold rush sites intensifies, leading to more deaths and injuries.

This is also why Zhou Jingming is eager to formalize things and expand the business.

Because having that permit comes with a layer of protection, making it someone that ordinary gold prospectors can't easily mess with.

Otherwise, he could have remained a small-time investor, leading his own team and continuing to make money in the mountains; he would have earned even more that way.

But as the saying goes, you can't earn money forever without being able to spend it. As a retail investor, you're always a target, a knife hanging over your head, and you never know when you'll die, ending up with nothing. Moreover, the crackdown on gold smuggling is becoming increasingly strict, and Zhou Jingming doesn't want to one day become a wanted fugitive because of gold.

Formalization is the best way out.

Of course, besides formalization, there are other ways to make money.

When Zhou Jingming mentioned the price of gold, everyone became excited again.

Because that means that the gold you previously estimated you could sell for over 100,000, you can now sell for over 130,000, and if you hold onto it until next spring, you can sell it for 160,000 or even more.

Besides, he's only been washing ore for a little over half a month, so he still has plenty of time. By then, he'll have even more gold on hand, which will be a huge fortune.
This is something that can make anyone extremely excited just by thinking about it.

That night, the weather turned gloomy again. In the latter half of the night, there was a rustling sound coming from the tent, and the howling cold wind made the curtain covering the tent entrance bang loudly.

Despite the tents providing some shelter, the biting cold was still unbearable.

The people inside the tent were so cold that they were mostly half asleep.

"Has it snowed again?"

Seeing that the fire inside the tent was half-dead, Li Guohua crawled out of the leather tube, untied the ropes binding the tent flap, and prepared to go outside to fetch firewood.

As soon as the rope was untied, a gust of wind rushed in, causing the entire tent to shake violently.

Along with it came icy, knife-like snowflakes, along with sparks and ashes from the fire flying everywhere.

Now everyone woke up.

Li Guohua braved the wind and snow to go outside, carried back some firewood, and tried to tie the curtain ropes. However, he found that his icy hands were not very responsive, and he couldn't even hold the curtain down. He could only shout to the crowd, "The wind and snow are too heavy, come and help!"

They could only quickly get up and help pull the curtain back over their heads, then busily add firewood to the fire.

Bai Zhishun puffed out his cheeks and blew on the flames for a while before they sprang up and gradually grew stronger, creating a smoky and fiery scene.

Now, everyone was even more awake. They wrapped themselves in leather jackets and gathered around the fire to warm themselves.

Batu was a little worried: "With such heavy snow, it won't be easy to stay in the mountains from now on!"

"It's alright, we have plenty of food and drink, and we can hold out for many more days. The heavy snow hasn't blocked the mountain pass yet!"

Zhou Jingming wasn't too worried: "This isn't even close to a blizzard. If a blizzard really comes, that would be truly dangerous. Even inside a tent, you wouldn't know when you'd freeze to death."

Li Guozhu then asked, "I've heard that people who freeze to death die laughing. Is that true?"

"This... don't ask me!"

Zhou Jingming looked at Batu: "Batu, you should have met him before, right?"

“I’ve seen it, but I don’t know why. Some people have indeed frozen to death, and when they were found, they were smiling. Some people even took off their clothes. I once rescued a herdsman. We thought he was frozen stiff, so we put him in the yurt, and he woke up on his own. He said that at first he felt very cold, but later he started to feel hot, so he took off his clothes!”

At this point, Zhou Jingming thought for a moment and said, "I need to go out and wake the three women up to warm themselves by the fire, so they don't get cold."

He was genuinely worried that Su Xiulan and the others might fall asleep in a daze.

That tin shack wasn't much better than a tent.

He untied the curtain rope, shone a flashlight into the tin shack, and saw that Su Xiulan and the other two were already up and warming themselves by the stove. He gave them a few instructions before returning home reassured.

The howling wind gradually subsided as dawn approached, and the scattered snowflakes turned into large clumps of goose feather snow falling down.

In just over an hour, the outside world turned completely white, with snow piled up more than a foot thick on the ground.

In this kind of weather, nobody wants to move; it's more comfortable to warm yourself by the fire and sleep.

Fortunately, the snow didn't last long. It stopped by noon, and by evening, the clouds parted to reveal the sun, which wasn't very warm.

The next two days were sunny, and the snow melted relatively quickly, but everything was wet.

But this did not stop everyone from going down into the mine.

They originally planned to rest for two days, but ended up resting for four. Everyone felt that they had recovered almost completely, and even thought that they would be more comfortable in the mine.

After eating noodles early, Zhou Jingming led everyone to the mine to see the gold found in the fractured zone discovered in the lower level of the second mine.

The group excitedly carried their tools and entered the mine shaft. After going in for about twenty meters, Zhou Jingming had already passed through a small side tunnel when he heard Sun Chenggui shout in surprise behind him: "Ha...ha bear!"

(End of this chapter)