My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 31 A false alarm

It only took ten able-bodied men two or three trips to move those supplies and tools.

The goods were quickly loaded onto the truck. Peng Yuanchao went to settle the bill with the stable owner, and then urged everyone to get on the truck. They wrapped themselves tightly in their cotton-padded clothes and trousers, tucked their hands into their sleeves, and squeezed together in the truck bed.

Seeing that Jinwang had finished eating the bone scraps, Zhou Jingming walked over to it, preparing to lead it into the car.

Upon seeing Zhou Jingming approach, Jinwang began to gently wag its fluffy tail and sniff at him, no longer as wary as before, and began to get acquainted with its new master.

Zhou Jingming stood there and let it sniff for a while before untying the rope. With the pull, Jinwang no longer resisted and followed him obediently to the car, where it was lifted into the vehicle.

After he got into the car, he sat down next to Wu Yang and pulled Jin Wang to his side as well: "Adasi, I'll have to trouble you to drive to the street again. I need to buy some food!"

"can!"

Wang Youping responded, took the short-handled crank, pressed the depressurization button, and shook the short handle at the front of the tractor. He shook it faster and faster, then released the depressurization button, pulled out the crank, and the engine started up, spitting out puffs of black smoke. Then, he jumped onto the tractor, put the crank back in place, and drove the tractor toward the street.

When they arrived at the grain and oil store, the tractor stopped, Zhou Jingming jumped off, handed Jin Wang to Wu Yang to watch over, and walked towards the grain and oil store.

Peng Yuanchao also got off the car and followed Zhou Jingming into the grain and oil shop.

Zhou Jingming was asking about grain prices when he was told that cornmeal cost 25 cents per kilogram and that he needed grain coupons.

Since the reform and opening up and the implementation of land ownership by individual households, the role of ration coupons for buying and selling grain has been continuously weakened. Over the years, in many places, it is possible to buy grain with money without ration coupons.

However, when Zhou Jingming tried to negotiate with the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper refused, insisting on having grain coupons. At the time, Zhou Jingming didn't have enough grain coupons and was too lazy to find someone to exchange them, so he decided to go to the street to look for some.

In his memory, in many places, farmers would bring their own grain to sell, forming a black market.

In fact, in northern Xinjiang, this kind of thing is not strictly controlled, so you can see it on the streets.

In winter, many herders need to feed their livestock, and the amount they need is often quite large. If they were to use ration coupons to restrict the supply, it is unknown how much loss it would cause.

Of course, the government will also provide subsidies to herders by distributing grain.

He quickly picked out a cornmeal vendor on the street, a thin, dark-skinned Han man. When he asked the price, he learned it was three cents a kilogram. Buying fifty kilograms would only cost him two dollars and fifty cents more than at a grain and oil store.

Not wanting to waste time, Zhou Jingming decided to buy both shallow bags of grain from the Han people. When weighed, they weighed a little over 63 kilograms.

After calculating the amount, it came to nineteen yuan. Peng Yuanchao rushed to pay, but Zhou Jingming stopped him, saying, "I raise my own dog, I feed it myself, so I should pay for it myself."

“Brother, that’s a bit too formal. When I saw stray dogs in the mountains, I was just joking with you when I told you that if you wanted to keep a dog, you had to buy your own food. Don’t take it seriously. Besides, bringing a dog into the mountains to guard the camp is for everyone’s benefit… We’re like family, right? I’m willing to spend this little bit of money!”

Peng Yuanchao was somewhat trying to curry favor.

Zhou Jingming knew that this was because he had witnessed his ability to find gold in the mountains, but he still felt that there were some things he needed to persist in.

Furthermore, if he's willing to spend forty yuan to treat Wu Yang to a meal and twenty yuan to ask someone for a dog, why would he care about the nineteen yuan for dog food?

"I'll do it myself. Jinwang will be taken into the mountains and belong to me alone. I don't want anyone else to have designs on it in the future!"

Zhou Jingming persisted in his idea and took out nineteen yuan from his pocket, handing it to the Han Chinese from the northern frontier.

The temporary teams would stay in the mountains for a few months and then disperse. Nobody knew what would happen the following year.

If something goes wrong in the mountains, like a food shortage, and everyone is starving and thirsty, it would be difficult to talk to someone who tries to take advantage of Jinwang.

Seeing this, Peng Yuanchao clicked his tongue, took off his earmuff, scratched his head, and didn't say anything more. He just helped Zhou Jingming carry a bag of grain and walked back.

As they passed a clinic, Zhou Jingming stopped him: "I almost forgot about this... The weather in the mountains is unpredictable, sometimes cold and sometimes hot. People often get headaches and fevers, and injuries are common. If you have any spare money, bring some medicine and bandages into the mountains. They will definitely come in handy. This is the important thing."

"That's true..."

Peng Yuanchao thought for a moment, put down the grain bag, went into the clinic, and came out with some medicine in a short time. It was nothing more than some antipyretics, anti-inflammatory drugs, cold medicine, headache powder, mercurochrome, and some bandages.

The two men carried their belongings to the side of the vehicle and loaded them onto it. After getting on, the tractor roared and officially left Tiemaike, heading towards the mountains.

Those supplies, plus the weight of ten men weighing over 100 pounds each, weighed at least two tons, and the tractor didn't carry them as easily as it did when it was empty.

Even so, it still swept along with the wind.

The power of a hand-held tractor has always been a mystery.

Other machines emitting black smoke might be breaking down, but a hand-held tractor emitting black smoke only means it's just starting to exert its power. When traversing mountains and valleys, it's still the most reliable. Although the sun was shining brightly in the sky, it seemed to have no warmth, and the biting cold wind felt like knives on my face.

The group huddled together in the swaying back of the cart, their necks hunched and sleeves tucked in, their noses running. Before long, their faces turned ashen, and they all took out their rolled-up blankets to wrap themselves in.

It had been quite dark for a while, and we estimated we had only covered about a third of the distance.

Under the cold moonlight, the group ate their dry rations and drank in the cold wind, but still felt somewhat overwhelmed. Frost fell during the night, making the bone-chilling cold even more intense.

Even Zhou Jingming, who was wrapped in a military overcoat and blankets, felt it was a bit too much.

Peng Yuanchao took out a wine pot and had the group pass it around to drink a few sips to ward off the chill.

After driving for a while, the young man driving the tractor suddenly slammed on the brakes and brought the vehicle to a stop.

The slammed foot on the brakes, and the tractor stalled immediately.

Sitting in the car, swaying and rocking all the way, the group of people, huddled together and somewhat drowsy, bumped heads and cried out in pain.

Just as Zhou Jingming was about to ask what was going on, he saw a huge black shadow, under the cold moonlight, rush down the barren slope on the side of the mountain road at an extremely fast speed, then rush across the mountain road, dart into the river beach beside the mountain road, and jump into the river.

After a few loud splashes, it crossed the river and rushed into the woods on the opposite bank, quickly disappearing from sight.

The group was startled and somewhat dazed. It wasn't until this moment that they realized what had happened and took out their flashlights to scan the woods where the dark figure had disappeared, but they couldn't see anything.

Xu Youliang stammered, "That...what is that thing?"

The young man driving the tractor shook his head: "I don't know, I've never seen it before. I only braked quickly because I suddenly caught a glimpse of it!"

Zhou Jingming thought for a moment and gave his answer: "It should be a moose!"

With such a large size, long legs, and a big head, only a moose could match his memory of Altay.

As the exploration team worked in the desolate wilderness of Altay, they saw many wild animals, including a moose, which they were fortunate enough to see once. However, the number of moose is very small, and they are rarely seen.

When I was a sent-down youth in the Great Northern Wilderness, I heard from hunters I knew that there were also moose in the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains, but they didn't call them moose, they called them 'an'. I also knew that there was a delicacy made with the nose of a moose.

"moose?"

Peng Yuanchao had clearly never seen a moose before and had no idea what one was talking about.

“It’s a very large deer, as tall as a camel and as sturdy as an ox, some weighing over a thousand kilograms!” Zhou Jingming explained simply.

Wu Yang interjected, "I've only heard of it, never seen it!"

Peng Yuanchao exclaimed in amazement: "More than a thousand catties... How much meat is that? If we caught that much, it would be enough to eat for a long time!"

Zhou Jingming laughed: "Come on, it's pitch black here, and you're running so fast, how easy is it to shoot... Where's your gun?"

Peng Yuanchao was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly looked for the gun. He found it had fallen under the gap of the rice and flour bag, and had been swaying back and forth. It had gotten mixed up with the pliers and pickaxe under the car and couldn't be pulled out. He couldn't help but yell at the two people sitting on the bag: "Can't you see I can't get my stuff out? Don't you have any sense? Get out of the way!"

The two men had to jump out of the car and turn around to help move the bags of rice and flour so that Peng Yuanchao could take out the hunting rifle.

Seeing his expression, Wu Yang frowned: "Brother Peng, is it loaded with bullets?"

Peng Yuanchao patted the hunting rifle: "Of course, a gun without bullets is no different from a fire poker!"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "I think this gun in your hands is no different from a fire poker. It's loaded with bullets, but you don't keep it properly. You just shake it around in the car, bumping and knocking it. Aren't you afraid it might accidentally go off? There are people all over the car!"

"It's not that easy to accidentally discharge a gun... I'll be more careful next time!"

Peng Yuanchao was somewhat embarrassed, so he quickly changed the subject and urged the young man driving the tractor, "It was just a false alarm, let's get going!"

Perhaps influenced by the noise of the tractor and the smell of cooking oil, Jinwang did not notice the large moose. He only struggled a few times and barked a few times in Zhou Jingming's arms when the moose rushed past.

But the moose had already disappeared, and Jinwang was still restless, calling out incessantly into the darkness.

Zhou Jingming thought he was startled and tried to calm him down, but he still couldn't completely stop him.

The young man picked up the crank handle again and cranked it wildly at the front of the tractor several times, but he still couldn't get it to start. He looked around and said, "Hiss... This shouldn't be happening!"

(End of this chapter)