My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 7 The Most Precious Thing

To travel to northern Xinjiang, starting from Jiangyang, you first need to take a bus to Jinguancheng, then a train to Shanggui, then another train, passing through Jincheng, and finally to Wucheng.

This is a long journey.

When the region was first liberated, there was no railway in northern Xinjiang.

It wasn't until 1952 that the railway from Shanggui to Jincheng was completed and opened to traffic. It took another ten years before the train from Jincheng to Wucheng was opened, which ended the history of no train service in northern Xinjiang.

However, the trains on this railway were still in the steam age, those old-fashioned, slow green trains.

In Zhou Jingming's memory, it would take another two or three years before these steam locomotives were gradually replaced by diesel locomotives that burned oil.

Driving this kind of steam train is quite a hardship, requiring two people to work together: one to drive the train and the other to constantly add coal to the boiler.

The temperature inside the cab was very high, and coal dust was everywhere, so the drivers' faces were always "black" all year round.

Even the passenger carriages were dark, and when eating steamed buns, you would find black ash on the surface of the buns as you ate them.

Such a vehicle naturally wouldn't have heating like in later generations; it would have to rely on burning coal for warmth in winter.

The key point is that the speed of only about 30 kilometers per hour makes this long journey even longer. With frequent stops along the way, it will take about seven or eight days to reach Wucheng.

This wasn't Zhou Jingming's first time taking this train. He had made preparations before boarding. He specially bought a lot of delicious, fragrant, inexpensive, and long-lasting baked buns, prepared two military water bottles filled with water, and also picked out two thick novels from the used bookstore.

These items, along with the clothes, filled the canvas backpack to a bulge.

When you're hungry, you can eat two baked buns; when you're thirsty, you can drink some water; and when you're sleepy, you can hold this canvas bag in front of you, put your head on it, and fall asleep.

At first, the carriage was packed with people, reeking of sweat and feet, with some smoking pipes, and many bringing along animals like chickens and ducks...

The complex smells that fill the carriage always make people frown as soon as they enter. Even after an hour or two, there is always a strange smell that can't help but enter the nostrils.

Fortunately, Zhou Jingming's seat was by the window, and pulling the window up allowed fresh air to flow in, making him feel better.

But at night, it has to be turned off. It's only early spring now, and it gets quite cold at night. Moreover, the further northwest you go, the colder it gets.

Occasionally, I'd go to the restroom or have a smoke at the junction of the carriages to stretch my legs. When I returned, there would definitely be people without seats trying to take my place.

Those who are sensible or easy to talk to will give up their seats when they see Zhou Jingming return, after a simple greeting.

Some people pretended not to see and acted like scoundrels. Zhou Jingming naturally didn't give them a good look. If they didn't respond after a few words or acted aggressively, he would directly pull them out of their seats.

Another one, after being pulled out by Zhou Jingming, muttered to himself, saying to Zhou Jingming, "Oh ho, you're pretty arrogant! Show me your ticket. If you're like me, standing room only, don't blame me for getting angry!"

Zhou Jingming merely glanced at him, then pulled out the dagger he kept at his waist for self-defense, slammed it on the small table in front of him, and the man immediately became obedient, slinking away and disappearing into the crowd, disappearing into who-knows-which carriage.

These days, train checks aren't as strict. You can bring any gun on board, let alone just a dagger. If you have a gun license, you can even bring a gun on board.

On a long journey in a crowded carriage, a small seat becomes the most comfortable place to stay. No one can give up their seat, otherwise they will suffer. Besides, some people will only take advantage of the situation.

Therefore, it's important to put aside your desire to help others and prioritize your own comfort.

As it turned out, showing the dagger was very effective. After that, even after Zhou Jingming left, no one ever sat in that seat again.

Two novels, "Border Town" and "Fortress Besieged," were presented to Zhou Jingming. He found that these kinds of books were not suitable for him and that he found them somewhat difficult to read. So he skimmed through them. Fortunately, they had a good hypnotic effect, and after reading for a while, he began to feel drowsy.

And sleep is undoubtedly the best way to pass the time.

Even so, he only spent three days reading the two books. It seems that when he looked back, he found that he couldn't even connect the complete story outline, which shows how confused he was.

When I got bored, I would chat with people on the bus, but after a while, we ran out of things to talk about.

Leaving Jiayuguan, the further west you go, the fewer people there are. The Gobi Desert stretches endlessly, and gradually, you can see the continuous mountain ranges lying on the horizon, creating a vast and desolate landscape. Fortunately, there are fewer and fewer people in the car.

But the more this was the case, the more vigilant Zhou Jingming became. By now, many of the people remaining in the car were probably on their way to seek their fortune in northern Xinjiang.

Northern Xinjiang has always been a place for military exiles and conscripts; ordinary people would not want to come to this godforsaken place to seek their fortune.

Those who are willing to come are mostly migrant workers who can't make a living, released prisoners, or even fugitives.

Most of these people are single and have no ties, but the more they are like this, the more unscrupulous they are. Their insidious methods and ruthless nature allow them to thrive in places like northern Xinjiang.

Having worked in geological exploration for several years, Zhou Jingming knew of several wealthy business owners who had spent time in labor camps.

The same applies to Zhou Jingming in his previous life.

Of the gold prospectors he knew, half had spent time in labor camps across the country.

This is also why Zhou Jingming didn't want to bring people from his hometown.

Their simplicity and petty calculations in the fields and among neighbors are insignificant here, and in fact, fatal.

With nothing else to do and no one around, Zhou Jingming took out his small notebook and a fountain pen and began to read through the diary.

Forty years later, to be honest, he has become very forgetful of the contents of the diary.

The main reason is that he lost his notebook in his previous life. Five years later, after leaving the labor camp, he came to northern Xinjiang. He tried to find a few places with gold mines that left a deep impression on him based on his memory. He found that those gold mines had either been mined or occupied by others.

Tens of thousands of gold prospectors searched all over the Altay region. No matter how well hidden the places with gold seeds were, they could not be kept for long and would eventually be found by someone or by chance.

There are many shrewd people. Over time, the gold prospectors' own practical experience has led them to develop gold-mining methods that are no less effective than those of geological exploration team members.

In fact, the tools used by geological teams when they went into the mountains to explore were very simple: hammers, compasses, and magnifying glasses.

Unlike later generations, which were equipped with high-tech equipment such as digital video cameras, digital cameras, voice recorders, handheld GPS devices, PDAs, satellite remote sensing interpretation, and digital image processing, achieving a breakthrough in integrated aerial, surface, and underground gold mine observation.

These days, geological teams rely on compasses for positioning, determining the terrain, and providing a basis for drawing maps. They also rely on hammers to tap and magnifying glasses to search.

It's not much different from ordinary gold prospectors going into the mountains to look for gold seeds; they all make judgments and attempts based on their experience, and there's a significant element of luck involved.

It is precisely because the chances of finding gold nuggets are so slim that the places with good quality gold nuggets that are recorded in the notebook become even more valuable to gold prospectors.

The five years he spent in the labor camp in his previous life had been wasted, so the contents of that notebook were no longer of any use to Zhou Jingming at that time. He stopped thinking about it and instead relied entirely on his own exploration experience to find the gold seedlings.

It is precisely because of this that his brain has begun to selectively forget information that is unimportant or useless, to the point that when he opens his diary now, it feels unfamiliar to him.

Zhou Jingming could only read the diary sentence by sentence, using it as a guide to try to recall those lost memories, to remember the situation at that time, to identify, and to guess.

However, they gradually uncovered a lot of hidden information.

As a result, the diary gradually became filled with wavy lines, circles, checkmarks, question marks, and emphasis marks, and some places were filled with densely packed annotations.

The diary, already filled with messy handwriting, became even more chaotic, resembling scribblings. Without patience, one might not even be able to read it.

It is precisely because of those symbols and annotations that the value of this diary begins to stand out, becoming the most precious thing about Zhou Jingming.

But this time, Zhou Jingming did not plan to bring the diary into the mountains.

It's not time to use it yet.

(End of this chapter)