My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 56 You seem to know everything
"It's work!"

Peng Yuanchao shouted towards the direction of the dugout, and the group, who had rested for quite some time, came to the small peninsula, picked up their tools, and each took on their assigned tasks to begin the afternoon's work of digging and washing mud and sand.

After two days of digging, the deepest part of the sand pit was more than four meters above the ground.

Judging that they had reached the real gold-rich layer, Zhou Jingming specially filled a gold bucket with the mud and sand at the bottom and went to the river to wash it. Peng Yuanchao and Xu Youliang and Wu Yang, who were in charge of the sluice, all came over to watch.

Zhou Jingming shook the golden bucket in the water, removing large pebbles and using the swirling river water inside to wash away the lighter silt, leaving only a small handful of fine sand in the bucket.

As he tilted the golden bucket forward slightly, the fine black sand scattered with the flowing water, revealing the golden bottom.

To their delight, they discovered that besides a few small pieces of bran and some gold dust, there was also a gold nugget the size of a grain of wheat.

This gold content is at least three times higher than that in the surface mud and sand.

Zhou Jingming washed another bucket of mud and sand from the bottom of the pit. Although he did not find any more gold grains the size of wheat, he found six or seven small pieces of bran gold.

The third round is also going well.

If a large amount of gold is found in a single gold pan, it's just a coincidence. But if a large amount of gold is found in three consecutive gold pans through mud and sand, that speaks volumes.

Zhou Jingming said confidently, "We've reached the gold-rich layer. We'll continue digging down to the bottom, then expand the sand pit to pan for gold. We'll definitely try to dig into the bottom layer of mud and sand where there's the most gold. And there's an advantage now: the deep part of the pit is frozen soil, and it'll be a while before it completely thaws. Although digging now is a bit more strenuous, there's less seepage, which will make things much easier and ensure we get more gold every day."

Since the small peninsula is coveted, the most practical thing to do is to mine the richest gold layers, pan for more gold, and get the gold in hand.

Because the small peninsula was formed by river siltation, although its surface is covered by landslides, it is prone to collapse and cannot be mined by drilling holes like in a mine.

When expanding the mining area, it is still necessary to peel back the surface layer to reach the gold-bearing layer. Only by going down the gold-bearing layer can one reach the gold-rich layer, which is the real gold line. This is unavoidable.

Zhou Jingming didn't mean that the gold-bearing surface layer would not be mined; he simply meant that, where possible, the gold-rich layer would be mined first to get as much gold as possible.

If we rush to excavate the surface layer on a large scale, little by little downwards, and the small peninsula is eventually occupied by someone else, and the real gold-rich layer becomes someone else's property, then that would be a real loss.

Peng Yuanchao understood Zhou Jingming's meaning, and he nodded: "I'll make the arrangements right away!"

Just as he was about to turn and head towards the sandpit, Zhou Jingming stopped him again: "Brother Peng, if I'm not mistaken, we might reach the muddy bottom today, probably more than five meters deep. We'll have to use ropes to pull the mud and sand out from the bottom. It's too deep and too strenuous. We'll have to set up the pole frame and windlass to transport the sand in relays. There's no time for today, so you'll have to lead the way and get it done tomorrow morning."

"You should be able to make a pole and a well pulley, right?"

"I will do it..."

Peng Yuanchao hesitated for a moment: "You promised to help someone with feng shui tomorrow, are you sure you don't want me to go?"

Seeing that he was still so concerned, Zhou Jingming worried that refusing again would discourage him, so he finally nodded: "Alright, let's talk about it after we see Jin Miao!"

Peng Yuanchao immediately became delighted.

Zhou Jingming turned to Wu Yang and Xu Youliang and said, "When you're washing the sand with the sluice, be careful and don't wash it too hard or you'll wash the gold away. Also, make sure to change the felt in the sluice more often."

The two nodded and agreed to the terms.

Xu Youliang looked at Zhou Jingming, then at Peng Yuanchao, wondering what had happened between the two of them that had turned them into technicians recruited into the team, now ordering the head around tasks.

But Peng Yuanchao seemed quite willing.

After a busy afternoon, when Xu Youliang and Wu Yang brought back the refined sand they had washed and handed it to Peng Yuanchao, he couldn't stop smiling as he looked at the much more golden sand at the bottom of the aluminum basin than the previous two days.

He called Xu Youliang over, and together they picked the gold out of the fine sand, dried it in an earthenware bowl, used a magnet to remove the black sand, blew away the surface dust, weighed it on a small scale, and grinned: "The bottom layer of sand is really rich! We've found eighteen grams of gold today... Including what we had left over from the previous two days, each of you will get one gram, leaving nine grams." They could have found even more, but extracting the sand from the bottom of the pit was difficult, and they hadn't dug out as much sand as they had the previous two days. This meant that although it was a gold-rich layer, they hadn't found much more gold.

However, even this amount of gold is enough to make everyone happy.

Peng Yuanchao told them to prepare small glass bottles, and then divided the gold on the spot.

The remaining fine sand after the gold was selected was collected by Zhou Jingming in a glass bottle.

Sun Chenggui looked at the small layer of golden bran at the bottom of the small glass bottle in his hand: "If only I could get this much gold every day!"

Cao Qidong scoffed, "You're dreaming. Once the bottom layer of silt is hollowed out, the top layer will definitely collapse. That's the upper layer of the gold-bearing layer, so the amount of gold extracted won't be as much. But I estimate that we can get one gram a day, maybe even two grams occasionally."

Zhou Jingming looked at him with a smile: "You know it all!"

Cao Qidong paused for a moment, then quickly shut up and turned his head to the side, seemingly lost in thought.

After being warned by Peng Yuanchao last time, he became much more well-behaved. He didn't even interrupt when Zhou Jingming spoke, let alone argue back, for fear of upsetting Zhou Jingming.

He now understood very well that if Zhou Jingming didn't want to keep him, Peng Yuanchao could kick him out of the team with just a word.

Choosing to be content with one's lot is the wisest choice.

Peng Yuanchao took the opportunity to instruct: "Tomorrow, Brother Zhou, Brother Wuyang, and I are going to help someone with feng shui. While we're away, Youliang, you're in charge of leading them. Whether it's removing the surface layer of silt or digging up the gold-bearing layer of silt to transport to the sluice, it's all fine..."

"Oh, right, in the morning, go into the woods and cut some timber. Our mine is buried deep, we need it to make a carrying pole and a windlass."

"it is good!"

Xu Youliang nodded and agreed to the matter.

He must have known how to make the pole and the well pulley, which is why Peng Yuanchao arranged it this way.

There was still half a beaver left, but meat was always a scarce commodity in the valley, so they couldn't bear to eat it. They could only have it once in a while to change things up.

Dinner was back to the usual routine, just a bland and tasteless meal to fill my stomach.

After feeding Jin Wang, Zhou Jingming took his share of three grams of gold and walked with Wu Yang into the mountains behind. He also told Wu Yang about his feng shui consultation with Old Tang the next day and mentioned some things to be careful about.

Wu Yang simply hummed in response, without much reaction to the potential dangers of tomorrow.

Once they reached the high forest, Wu Yang first had Zhou Jingming practice the routine from yesterday. Seeing that Zhou Jingming had memorized it, he taught him the third and fourth moves of the Black Dragon Eighteen Hands – the Python Turns Over and Stealing Peaches from Under the Leaves.

According to him, the armed police force calls these two routines "abdomen strike and back throw" and "groin strike and chest push," respectively.

As usual, after Zhou Jingming had basically mastered the two movements, Wu Yang continued his high-intensity training, while Zhou Jingming repeatedly practiced the routine. Once he felt he had memorized the routine, he began doing regular push-ups and handstands against a tree.

When he was upside down, he was intentionally trying to find his own balance, hoping that one day he could do this without a big tree, and even practice the scorpion climbing upside down skill like Wu Yang.

After training, the two went to hide the gold.

Zhou Jingming first went to the climbing pine tree where the gold was hidden, stood quietly for a while, and then looked at Jinwang beside him. Seeing that it didn't react, and confirming that no one was around, he took out the glass bottle hidden in the rat hole, put the gold sand he had been allocated that day into it, put it into the rat hole, and then covered it up again.

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(End of this chapter)