My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 91 A clear conscience
Actually, when it comes to guerrilla gold panning, it's fine if you're alone; you can pan for as much gold as you can.

However, when there are two or more people, dividing the gold is bound to be the most complicated issue.

Unlike a team that finds a mining site and mines gold at a fixed location, where members simply divide the gold according to the signed agreement and the pre-arranged method.

When panning for gold, the amount of gold found is uncertain, and you can't predict what might happen along the way. Even if a distribution method is agreed upon at the beginning, deep down, everyone wants to get more gold, and everyone feels that they have made a great contribution. If they are not satisfied with the distribution, it will be a rift hidden in their hearts.

A volcano could erupt from that fissure at any time, causing anything from minor conflicts to serious crimes like murder and theft.

Even with your closest relatives, you can't guarantee that problems won't arise.

Zhou Jingming actually envied Wu Yang quite a bit, thinking that he was the most suitable person to fight guerrilla warfare and make money. He had an excellent temperament, was decisive in killing, and was good at fighting. He just lacked the ability to find those small gold mines.

In any case, the two were quite considerate of each other and properly divided the gold they had obtained from the guerrilla war.

The new gold prospectors set up their beds, each took their place, and put away their luggage. Xu Youliang also led his men to cook the roe deer meat and rice for dinner.

There were twenty people in total, and even the table in the middle tent wasn't enough to accommodate everyone, so they simply broke off some branches and leaves and spread them out on the grass next to the dugout. Everyone sat on the ground and ate.

Peng Yuanchao brought over a wine jug and poured some for everyone.

While eating and drinking, everyone introduced themselves to each other, which helped them get to know each other initially.

Of the eleven people Zhou Jingming brought, some were veterans of the gold rush, but half of them, namely the five from Yuzhou and Bai Zhishun, were novices.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Peng Yuanchao gathered them in the middle tent, took out the previously signed agreement, and reiterated the rules and distribution methods to everyone.

He got a little flushed after drinking: "We come from different places. If we don't speak our dialects instead of our awkward Mandarin, we probably won't be able to understand each other."

Today, all I want to say is that since we've all gathered here, let's be less scheming and avoid creating trouble for ourselves.

You might think our distribution method is unfair, but ask the newcomers how much gold they received in just over a month.

Newcomers who haven't panned for gold before lack experience and can't make comparisons, but those who have panned for gold before will surely know what's going on.

I'm an honest man, and Brother Zhou is an expert at finding gold. We currently have five guns, a water pump, and plenty of supplies to feed and drink you. Looking around the Gold Rush Valley, there aren't many teams with these conditions.

Therefore, I hope you can work here with peace of mind, and that we can all work together to protect this golden opportunity.

Okay, enough chit-chat. If you think it's okay, put your fingerprint on the agreement and construction will begin tomorrow. If you don't think it's acceptable, leave first thing tomorrow morning.

In fact, Peng Yuanchao didn't need to emphasize these things too much. The newly recruited people had already taken the opportunity to inquire with Xu Youliang and others. The gold panning veterans had also gone to the small peninsula to take a look. Although they hadn't tested the sand, they could tell from the erected poles, chutes, and windlasses that things were done quite professionally.

Indeed, the conditions were actually very good for Peng Yuanchao. If it were any other gold-mining team, they would either have to find their own food and drink or exchange them for gold from the foreman.

Some teams may seem to distribute gold fairly and justly, but the gold boss or leader will always find ways to exploit the gold miners under his command. In the end, it's hard to say whether you'll get any gold at all, and you might even end up in debt.

What is true black?

The truly ruthless bosses and tycoons of gold can drive some of their gold miners to the brink of starvation.

Peng Yuanchao added the names of the eleven people to the agreement in a crooked manner and then put out the inkpad box.

The newly recruited staff did not hesitate for long before stepping forward, finding their names, and pressing their fingerprints on the paper.

After finishing their business, everyone went back to their tents to rest.

Zhou Jingming cooked corn porridge and fed it to Jin Wang along with the leftover roe deer bones. He then went to the fir forest with Wu Yang for their daily training. They returned around dark, and also hid the gold they had each been allocated.

This time, Zhou Jingming buried the glass bottle containing the gold at the base of a fir tree, covered it with withered branches and leaves, and placed a stone on top of it.

When he returned to his tent to sleep, he turned on a flashlight, carefully cleaned the new Brand pistol, put it in its holster, and hung it above his bed.

Starting the next morning, Zhou Jingming kept the Ma brand pistol tucked into his waistband and carried it with him at all times.

When he was cleaning it last night, he saw that there were eight full bullets in the magazine. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any extra pistol bullets in the bags or on the bodies of the two Russians. The pistol could only be used as a backup in case of emergency.

After training and breakfast, the group headed to the small peninsula to begin construction.

It's already mid-May, and the weather is getting warmer. The frozen mud and sand deep in the sandpit are melting very quickly. Especially during these few days of rest, many of the drainage ditches that were dug earlier have collapsed due to the melting of the frozen soil.

The drainage ditch was blocked, and a large pool of water had accumulated at the bottom of the sandpit. While Zhou Jingming led a few people to set up a water pump and connect the water pipes, Peng Yuanchao led the others to clear the drainage ditch.

To prevent the ditch from collapsing again and blocking the waterway, after the ditch was cleared and the drainage was unobstructed, he had people cut some wood from the forest, saw it into sections, lay it on top of the drainage ditch, and backfill it with some mud and sand, turning the drainage ditch into a hidden waterway.

After a whole morning of work, the excavation and material transportation process is finally sorted out.

Zhou Jingming also set up the water pump, connected the water pipe to the chute, filled the diesel engine's fuel tank with oil, filled the water tank with water, and started the engine.

The sputtering sound of diesel engines began to echo through the valley.

On the small peninsula, Xu Youliang led seven or eight people wearing waders, working hard to dig mud and sand and load it into baskets. Sun Chenggui, who couldn't exert much strength in his legs, was responsible for controlling the pole to transfer the sand to the second small platform, where it was then lifted up by a windlass and loaded into a cart.

The cart sped along, transporting the excavated mud and sand to the sluice. Peng Yuanchao and a man from Yuzhou, each with a shovel, scooped up the mud and sand and put it into the sluice. Immediately, the water pumped up by the pump washed away most of the mud and sand, while the large pieces of gravel that could not be washed away needed to be cleared.

But the speed is still very fast.

The felt needs to be changed every half hour or so.

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang were specifically responsible for panning for gold using gold pans. Things proceeded smoothly and methodically.

After a busy day, as evening fell and everyone finished work, they gathered around Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang. Looking at the gold mixed with a small amount of black sand in the antimony basin next to them, they were all delighted.

The task of selecting the gold should still be left to Peng Yuanchao.

He enjoyed doing this, as if he derived immense satisfaction from putting a small piece of bran into a jar.

As usual, before dinner, he and Xu Youliang selected the gold, dried and cleaned it, handed the remaining fine sand to Zhou Jingming, and then began to divide the gold.

After weighing the gold on the small scale, a total of 53 grams of gold were found over the course of half a day. Zhou Jingming and Peng Yuanchao each received 6 grams, Wu Yang received 4 grams, and the rest of the people each received 2 grams, leaving 3 grams remaining.

Such a harvest brought smiles to the faces of even the newly recruited veteran gold prospectors.

Zhou Jingming and Peng Yuanchao did not lie to them; the gold they received was more than the gold mining teams they had previously worked for.

Everyone felt at ease.

When dividing the gold, Peng Yuanchao used a small balance scale, which weighed it very fairly. However, there was a newcomer in the group, a veteran gold prospector surnamed Wang, who was nearly forty years old. He had a small, homemade scale in his hand.

The scale uses a can lid as the weighing pan, and the beam is a small, peeled and smoothed wooden stick with engravings that only he could probably understand. The weight is a small screw.

He seemed to have little faith in Peng Yuanchao's allocation; once he received the gold, he immediately took out a small scale to check it.

He not only weighed his own, but also attracted others to come over and weigh themselves.

Seeing this obvious disbelief in his actions, Peng Yuanchao felt uncomfortable and said angrily, "Old Wang, can you please not make things so ugly?"

What, you don't believe me? If you don't believe me, then leave. I don't like the look of you.

"What's wrong with me? When I get paid, I have to check if the bills are real or fake, whether the money I receive is missing a corner, whether I can spend it, and whether the amount is enough."

Old Wang remained calm and composed, saying, "Boss, I worked in the Gold Rush Valley for two years. I've suffered a lot of losses and been cheated quite a few times."

Peng Yuanchao wanted to say something more, but Zhou Jingming pulled him outside: "Brother Peng, once the gold is distributed to them, it's theirs. They can weigh it however they want, even if they weigh it a hundred times a day, it's their business. As long as we have a clear conscience, that's enough."

Besides, you've been panning for gold for two years, so you should know that what he said is true. He's just more mature and steady, which isn't a bad thing; it's normal and only human nature.

Peng Yuanchao thought for a moment, then exhaled a breath of stale air: "You're quite open-minded. I'm the one dividing the gold!"

After saying that, he went back into the tent to put away the small balance scale, and then crawled into his nest to sleep.

The gold panning work proceeded smoothly from there.

Peng Yuanchao stopped paying attention to Old Wang's use of his homemade scale to weigh the gold. After several days of this, probably because there were no problems with the distribution of gold each time, Old Wang put away his scale and told everyone that there was no need to use it anymore, as the distribution was very fair.

Five days later, a light rain fell in the mountains, drizzling continuously.

Everyone rested for two days.

During these two days, Zhou Jingming, along with Wu Yang, Bai Zhishun, and a few others, went to the overgrown slope where they had previously gathered asafoetida mushrooms and spent two days picking mushrooms.

The once barren slope is now covered with various green plants. Looking around, it is lush and green, no longer the desolate, yellowish-brown landscape it once was, but full of life.

It's probably the peak season for mushrooms, so this trip has been very fruitful.

Beneath those tall, yellow-flowering ferns, eryngiums, and lagerstroemia plants, every now and then you can see one or two white ferns mushrooms.

Over two days, six or seven people managed to collect four sacks of mushrooms.

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang were finally able to enjoy a delicious meal of mushrooms that tasted almost like meat.

The leftovers were also cleaned by Zhou Jingming, and a fire was set up, a rack was erected, and stripped birch bark was laid on top to block the smoke and dry them.

After May, asafoetida mushrooms are almost nowhere to be seen. These remaining ones can't be eaten up in just a few meals; they need to be saved as a supplement to the vegetables later.

In addition, although there is a lack of vegetables in the mountains, the riverbank is a place where all kinds of wild vegetables gather. It is also the season when plants begin to grow rapidly. Wild vegetables such as pepper wormwood, dandelion, bitter greens, wolfberry sprouts, sow thistle, and willow buds can all be found.

Wild garlic, wild onions, and wild leeks, which can be used as seasonings, can also be found in abundance on barren slopes and in the Gobi Desert.

Zhou Jingming specifically requested that the people sent to cook each day be given as much time as possible to pick some wild vegetables to fill the gap in vegetables.

If you only eat rice and noodles every day without vegetables, your body will lack vitamins and will break down.

Peng Yuanchao felt this was a waste of time: "Instead of spending time on these things, it would be better to pan for gold. Wouldn't it be better to pan for more gold? As long as we have rice and flour every day to fill our stomachs, that's enough. There's no need for so many fuss in the mountains."

"Look at your cracked nails, and then touch the cracks and dry skin on your lips..."

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "I don't know about you, but I haven't pooped for three days. My stomach feels as hard as a rock inside, and it's so uncomfortable. If I don't eat some wild vegetables soon, I think I'll collapse."

He finished speaking and left, leaving Peng Yuanchao standing there dumbfounded. After a while, he scratched his head and said, "Having trouble pooping has nothing to do with whether or not there are vegetables to eat..."

However, after looking at his cracked fingernails and touching his mouth which was covered with several patches of dry skin, he never mentioned picking wild vegetables to Zhou Jingming again. He simply accepted whatever Zhou Jingming said.

(End of this chapter)