My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 78 A Lucky Number
Robbing others of their gold has always been the fastest way to obtain gold in the Gold Rush Valley, and it's a common occurrence.

Zhou Jingming and his group worked on the small peninsula for more than a month, and they only managed to pan for about 630 grams of gold.

They received 363 grams of gold from the bearded man and his gang, while Old Tang had even more, 1,383 grams. This amount of gold was enough for them to work on the small peninsula for more than two months.

Wu Yang hoped for more waves of these gold-digging teams, treating them as wealthy patrons to be treated well.

Not only him, but Zhou Jingming also had similar thoughts, and the others also saw it as something gleaming.

Peng Yuanchao laughed as well: "Brother Zhou is right. We fought to the death for gold. If we had been busy looking for an opportunity to get revenge back then, we wouldn't have so much gold now. We pointed out the mining sites to them and let them mine. This past month has been worth it!"

Zhou Jingming shook his head and smiled bitterly: "You guys, you've already forgotten the pain while the scars are still fresh? You should know that in this valley, there are always stronger hands among the strong. We are still too weak. Put your minds to work. Now we have water pumps and good equipment. Once we've recovered, the most important thing is to work hard to pan for gold. Don't think about those other things."

It's better to avoid dangerous activities; isn't it better to just live a good life?

"Just saying!"

Peng Yuanchao fiddled with the jar in his hand: "Dividing the gold... this gold can't be divided equally as before."

I have an idea. If it weren't for Brother Zhou and Brother Wu Yang, we wouldn't even be able to keep the gold and mines we have, let alone get this gold.

Old Tang's group was basically scattered by Brother Zhou and Brother Wu Yang; the rest of us were just there to cheer them on.

Moreover, they had taken this gold back from the fleeing Old Tang. To put it bluntly, it wouldn't be unreasonable for the two of them not to hand over the gold.

But now that they've brought it out, it shows their openness and honesty.

Here's what I'm thinking: of the 1,383 grams of gold, Brother Zhou deserves the most credit and gets 500 grams, followed by Brother Wu Yang and gets 300 grams, and the rest we eight can divide equally.

Do you have any objections?

Sun Chenggui stated first: "I have no opinion. I also think they should get more. Without them, we wouldn't get anything."

After some deliberation, the others all expressed that they had no objections.

Peng Yuanchao seemed worried that Zhou Jingming would be dissatisfied with this distribution, so he tentatively asked, "Brother, do you think this distribution is acceptable?"

"Sure, why not? It's just that you'll be the one who suffers. All the gold you've saved up over the past month will go to waste too."

Zhou Jingming could see some of Peng Yuanchao's thoughts, which were nothing more than leading by example and trying to unite these people closely.

After this period of refinement, this ragtag team has indeed become more and more presentable, which is the foundation for establishing itself in the valley.

Peng Yuanchao shook his head indifferently: "Now that we have so many supplies, especially the water pumps, we can work much faster. As long as everyone is willing to work hard, we will make more and more gold. I am already very satisfied with this result."

Zhou Jingming smiled and nodded at him.

Peng Yuanchao immediately made the final decision: "Then it's settled... Youliang, calculate how much each person should get!" Xu Youliang picked up a small twig, smoothed out the ashes in front of him, wrote and drew on it, calculated for a while, and then looked up at everyone: "Including the three grams left over from before, each of us eight will get seventy-three grams, and there will be two grams left over..."

“Not bad. Although we have some minor injuries and pains from these two battles, we will recover in ten days or half a month at most. And the gold we have now is something we might not be able to get even after working for two months.”

Sun Chenggui said excitedly, "Boss, Brother Zhou, I promise I won't back down if anything happens in the future."

While fighting with the bearded gang, the Yuzhou man who had been knocked unconscious laughed and said, "Next time, even if it's not a shovel, I'll dare to go for it, even if it's a knife. If they're after our gold, we'll fight them to the death!"

The others echoed this sentiment.

After a while of excitement, Peng Yuanchao told them to quiet down and began to divide the gold using a small balance scale. He first divided Zhou Jingming's 500 grams, then Wu Yang's 300 grams, and then divided the remaining 73 grams one by one. He also emphasized again that the matter of hiding gold could not be taken lightly.

So far, Zhou Jingming has 126 grams of gold he received from the previous gold mining, 40 grams from the bearded man and his gang, plus this 500 grams, for a total of 666 grams.

666, that's an auspicious number.

Based on the bank's purchase price of sixteen yuan, it is worth 10,656 yuan. If based on the market price, it would be at least 21,300 yuan.

With this amount of money, it's more than enough to assemble a decent gold-digging team.

After the gold was distributed, everyone was quite happy. Since it was a time for rest and recuperation, some people slept, some enjoyed the cool air, and some boasted.

Zhou Jingming collected the leftover bones and fed them to Jin Wang.

He now realized that Jin Wang was undoubtedly bowing his head in incense, but whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat.

He couldn't expect the perfect dog; as long as it was usable and easy to use, that would be enough. Such excellent dogs were rare to begin with.

After Jinwang had eaten his fill, Zhou Jingming, without keeping it a secret from the others, took out the glass bottle he had hidden behind the stone in the well wall, put all the gold into a jar, slung it over his shoulder in a canvas bag, took the Eagle Rabbit brand double-barreled shotgun and some bullets, and then led Jinwang toward the back mountain.

He traveled quite far this time, crossing the mountain pass he had followed in his search for Cao Qidong, and descending diagonally to the ravine on the other side of the mountain.

When he left last night, he remembered that there was a ravine with many stones supporting it, and a small cliff.

I went there during the day and took a closer look at that seven or eight-meter-high cliff; it's a great landmark.

The cliff is not regular in shape; it is more like a pile of mottled boulders covered with gray moss. There are many cracks and crevices between the rocks, where clumps of wild grass grow and some plants with yellow flowers.

After looking around to make sure no one was around, Zhou Jingming took off his shoes and climbed barefoot to a high spot on the cliff to avoid leaving obvious mud and dirt marks on the rocks while climbing. He hid the jar in a crevice behind a clump of yellow flowers and buried it with some stones, soil, and withered grass from the crevice.

After hiding, he went down the cliff and led Jinwang into the pine forest on the slope. Using the pine trees as cover, they waited inside for more than half an hour. Only after confirming that there was nothing unusual around them did he lead Jinwang away.

This is the foundation he's building for next year, and he must be cautious.

(End of this chapter)