My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 73 is truly a talent.
After waiting for about seven or eight minutes, a group of people returned from where the gold was hidden, bringing back their own hidden gold, which they kept close to their bodies.

"Damn it, I've been robbed!"

"Holy crap, mine's gone too!"

When one of the Yuzhou people and the last remaining Luoyue people in the group returned, they were furious.

Peng Yuanchao was even more furious, cursing, "I just changed locations yesterday and they still found me! When the hell did they start targeting me? I'm going to kill this bastard..."

Only after asking did I learn that one of the two men had buried the gold in the ground, and the other had hidden it in a tree hole; both gold had been stolen.

Peng Yuanchao hid the gold he had been allocated in the crevices of some rocks in the woods behind his dugout. He covered it with stones and sprinkled some withered leaves on top. When he arrived at the location and saw that the stones had been removed, he knew that something bad had happened.

Several novices each received 42 grams of gold, while Peng Yuanchao received three times that amount, which was 126 grams. This was a considerable sum and a large amount of money.

How could he not be furious?

Today, things happened all at once, and no one expected that Cao Qidong would take advantage of this situation.

Peng Yuanchao turned to Wu Yang and asked, "Brother Wu Yang, didn't you used to be a reconnaissance soldier? Do you have any way to find him?"

Wu Yang thought for a moment: "Brother Peng, this is really difficult. It's been sunny for days, and everything is dry, so it's not easy to leave a trace. Even if there is a trace, it won't be easy to see it as it gets dark..."

If we want to find them now, we can probably only go upstream and ask the other gold mining teams if they have seen anyone.

We were all on the downstream riverbank. After doing something like that, he shouldn't be going downstream or crossing the river to the other side. We could see him from the riverbank...

However, it's hard to say. Old Tang's group was scattered, and things were chaotic everywhere. Even if he took the gold, he probably wouldn't easily go to another camp. Carrying so much gold to someone else's camp would be like carrying a hunchback carrying copper—it would be like offering a hunchbacked soldier as a bribe.

Peng Yuanchao grew increasingly frustrated: "My gold! The gold we seized from the bearded man and the gold we lost is enough for him to work in the valley for two or three years. He should only be thinking about leaving the mountains, but this is such a vast wilderness, where can we find it?"

Wu Yang suddenly looked at Jin Wang standing next to Zhou Jingming: "Dogs have a keen sense of smell, they're very good at sniffing. Why don't we let Jin Wang give it a try..."

Zhou Jingming looked at Jin Wang, then at Wu Yang.

He certainly knew that hunting dogs were good at finding wild animals by their noses, and he also knew that there were special police dogs used for searching and security checks, which were very helpful assistants.

But they were all well-trained.

Zhou Jingming wasn't sure if Jin Wang would be of any use, but he really wanted to see if Jin Wang's nose was any good.

When he was in the Great Northern Wilderness, he heard from several hunters that dogs have a nose that smells incense when they look up and incense when they look down.

As the name suggests, "head-raising incense" means that hunting dogs can easily distinguish the scent of wild animals in the air and track them by raising their heads, while "head-lowering incense" requires hunting dogs to sniff the footprints, feces, and other traces left by wild animals in order to hunt them. In addition, the distance of the incense stick is also related to its position.

Zhou Jingming's original intention in raising dogs was mainly for guarding and protecting them.

He had also thought about hunting.

But he knew it could only be an occasional respite from the monotonous life in the Gold Rush Valley.

Once the gold rush truly began, there wasn't much time left to wander into the mountains.

The area around Gold Rush Valley is crowded and noisy, and even though there are some woods, there aren't many prey there.

Besides, hunting only earns a few coins, nothing compared to gold panning.

But that doesn't stop him from hoping that Jinwang will have a good reputation.

Deep down, Zhou Jingming had to admit that Cao Qidong was a rather shrewd person, and his ability to plan and observe was quite remarkable.

He would be a great candidate to assist in tasks, but unfortunately, he lacks foresight and is only interested in his own people.

That's why, whenever possible, such people should not be let go.

"Jin Wang hasn't been trained, so I don't know if it will work. I can only say give it a try... Don't have too high hopes!"

Zhou Jingming patted Peng Yuanchao on the shoulder as a form of comfort: "If we can't find it tonight, it will be even harder to find it the next day, and the hope will be slim. If we can't find it, we can only try to be more positive."

It's only May, a perfect time to start panning for gold; there'll be plenty more gold to come. You should be glad you still have the gold nuggets and those gold baskets you found.”

The gold he got from the bearded man and his gang was at least three or four taels, and now it's gone. It's impossible for Zhou Jingming not to be angry. No matter how much he gets, it's still a sum of money.

Peng Yuanchao looked at the last remaining Luo Yue man in the team: "You're all from Luo Yue. The guy surnamed Cao is close to you. Has he told you the exact location of his home... Damn it, if we can't find him, after the gold rush ends this year, I'll make a special trip to Luo Yue, find his door, and kill him!"

The Yue man shook his head: "I don't know!"

Zhou Jingming sighed: "Brother Peng, don't ask anymore. Who comes here to pan for gold to reveal their exact location? That would just attract unwanted attention. Nobody's stupid."

Peng Yuanchao kicked the wooden stump next to his dugout, where he usually sat and picked out gold.

The wooden stump was kicked and rolled away. He himself jumped up, grimacing and wincing, because his foot hurt terribly.

"What's the point of throwing a tantrum like this? We should hurry up and find someone!"

Zhou Jingming led Jin Wang into the dugout.

Although he had only heard about dog training methods and had never actually owned a dog, he still knew that the dog had to first memorize the scent of the target before he could try to get it to track it.

Having lived in the dugout for so long, Cao Qidong knew that the smelliest place was his bed, where the old, patched quilt still lay.

Zhou Jingming tore off a corner of the mattress, the end that Cao Qidong used to cover his feet when he slept, and brought it close to Jin Wang's nose.

Jinwang first tilted his head to look at him, then sniffed the mattress for a while, and then raised his paw to scratch it.

Zhou Jingming didn't know if Jin Wang remembered the scent or would follow it. He simply gave Jin Wang the command with anticipation: "Eek... Eek..."

Unexpectedly, upon hearing the order, Jin Wang actually turned around and ran through the people in the dugout, emerging from it.

Zhou Jingming was slightly taken aback, and immediately followed suit, crawling out of the dugout. He saw Jin Wang run to the edge of the woods behind the dugout and looked back.

He couldn't help but think to himself, "Wang Youping said that Ali has already used this dog for herding, so it must have undergone some training... Maybe there's a chance!"

Watching Jin Wang whimper twice and disappear into the woods, Zhou Jingming thought for a moment, then returned to his dugout, retrieved the flashlight he had brought into the mountains, loaded deer bullets into the Eagle Rabbit brand double-barreled shotgun, slung it over his shoulder, and called out to Wu Yang, "Brother, come with me to take a look!"

Without any hesitation, Wu Yang grabbed a flashlight and a hunting rifle and followed.

The two were almost at the edge of the woods when Peng Yuanchao hurriedly crawled out of his dugout and ran up to them, saying, "Wait for me, I'm coming too!"

"What are you going to do?"

Zhou Jingming turned to look at him: "Such a big thing happened today, and all three of us left. There's no one in charge of the camp. Aren't you afraid something will go wrong?"

Instead of coming with us, you'd be better off leading a group to retrieve what that Tang guy left behind and protecting our little peninsula. We're not even sure about finding it; do you really think you can find it if you go? Besides, you're injured!

Peng Yuanchao got angry: "No way, I have to catch him myself... This isn't the first time I've had gold stolen, I refuse to believe I can't catch a single one! I've already told Xu Youliang to lead the men to move the stuff."

Hearing this, and recalling what he had been through, Zhou Jingming couldn't help but sigh, "You really seem to be plagued by bad luck. How come you always seem to run into all sorts of trouble?"

Peng Yuanchao shrugged: "I also feel like I'm having a lot of bad luck!"

"No, I have to change beds when I come back, in case I get infected!"

Zhou Jingming joked, "This can't be cleaned by washing."

Peng Yuanchao rolled his eyes, already annoyed, and had no interest in joking with Zhou Jingming: "Get lost!"

"Alright, let's go!"

Zhou Jingming stopped provoking him: "It's only been half an hour since we clashed with Lao Tang's group. Cao Qidong has already taken all that gold and is looking for your hidden gold, which will take quite a while. He might not have gone very far yet."

If Jin Wang can really track us down, maybe we can catch up with him in a short time!

　Thank you to readers Hei A Niu Ge and ljx73 for the generous donations!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)