My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 92 Gold Dealers

Time flew by and it was already mid-June.

That day, everyone was working on the small peninsula. Around noon, Zhou Jingming was sitting on the pebbles by the river, shaking his golden bucket, when Wu Yang, who was cleaning the felt next to him, suddenly ran over: "Brother Zhou, Brother Peng, look, look! People are coming down below!"

The water pump was running nearby, making a lot of noise and making it hard to hear. Zhou Jingming's attention was entirely focused on the golden bucket, so he didn't notice the situation immediately.

He instinctively looked in the direction Wu Yang pointed, and saw three people riding horses up the riverbank downstream. When they reached Wu's mining site, the three stopped and jumped off their horses.

The people working on the riverbank stopped what they were doing, huddled together, and looked at the three people.

As they got closer, Wu went up to the three men and said something to them. The gold prospectors then ran towards the area around the dugout, but soon returned.

Then, of the three who rode into the valley, one went into the woods next to the dugout, while the other two did not move. Then, Wu, the foreman, and the others followed him into the woods and did not come out for a while.

Wu Yang was somewhat puzzled and wary: "What are these three doing? I noticed the other two are carrying guns."

Peng Yuanchao figured it out: "They must be gold traders coming to the Gold Rush Valley to buy gold. That's good news."

He could tell, and Zhou Jingming naturally knew as well: "We've been in the valley for almost two months now, and this is the first time we've seen gold dealers come into the mountains."

Since Zhang, Wu, and others visited us some time ago, the upstream and downstream mining sites have been visiting each other from time to time and have gradually become familiar with each other.

Wu's group had a different method of distributing gold than Zhou Jingming's group.

The team of ten would divide the gold once they had collected eleven grams. Wu, the team leader, was familiar with the gold panning valley and knew how to find gold seeds. He would receive two grams each time, while the other nine would each receive one gram.

Of course, Wu, the team leader, didn't contribute any funds to purchase supplies. The team members pooled their money to buy them, including the food they brought into the mountains. So, every now and then, three or four people would be sent out to buy supplies. Every month, regardless of whether it was cloudy or rainy, after working for ten or fifteen days, if they felt tired, they would choose to rest for a day.

They were all from the same place in Jingzhou, and they were very united.

Gold prospectors in the Altay region habitually refer to gold as "things" rather than simply as gold.

Although gold is a hard currency, it cannot be used as money everywhere. And places where gold can be used as money are generally quite corrupt.

Normally, it's better to use it in cash.

Wu and his gang often needed money, so almost everyone sold some gold.

The government opened up gold mining to private individuals and set up gold purchasing stations at the exits of major gold-mining valleys, because according to regulations, the gold mined must be sent to these stations for purchase.

In reality, only a few honest, timid gold prospectors who are afraid of getting into trouble or who are in a hurry to solve their living problems will choose to sell their gold at the purchasing station if they cannot wait for someone to buy their smuggled gold.

Since gold dealers can offer double or even higher prices to gold purchasing stations, most people will choose to sell to gold dealers if possible.

More and more people are coming to the Gold Rush Valley to pan for gold, but the amount of gold collected by the gold collection stations hasn't increased significantly, and sometimes it even decreases.

The reason for not going through the formalities is that once registered, one would have to regularly and in accordance with the quota to hand over gold to the purchasing station, as there are quota requirements.

People who come to pan for gold are taking huge risks; they're all after the money, and nobody wants to sell their gold for a pittance.

Therefore, whenever gold dealers come into the mountains, it is a cause for celebration for the gold prospectors in the Gold Rush Valley.

To a large extent, many of the people who went to the Gold Rush Valley to pan for gold were actually doing something illegal, which can be considered illegal mining.

Zhou Jingming and his group were no exception; they went into the mountains to pan for gold without any proper permits, just to avoid the gold-handing-over quota after obtaining the permits, and in order to make more money.

Because the gold-buying stations couldn't collect any gold, they would send people into the mountains every now and then to chase away and arrest gold prospectors without legal permits.

But for now, it's just a matter of chasing them away. As soon as they leave, the gold prospectors who ran away will immediately come back to continue their work.

In addition, the chaos in the valley was getting worse and worse, and it was gradually getting out of control. That's why the Gold Administration Bureau was established in 1988, which was specifically responsible for the management of gold resource exploration, development and production.

This is why Zhou Jingming thought of coming to the valley as soon as he was reborn, because it was a time of relaxed regulation and the best time to accumulate gold and wealth.

When he came out in his previous life, it was already a time of vigorous rectification of the Gold Rush Valley and a severe crackdown on smuggling. Getting rich was far less easy than it is now, and there were not many people who could become rich overnight. On the contrary, the struggle in the valley was even more intense because everyone was vying for that last chance.

These gold dealers who ride horses into the mountains are, to put it bluntly, gold smugglers, and they mostly bypass checkpoints to enter the Gold Rush Valley.

The Altai Mountains are too vast, and the checkpoints set up are only on the main roads, leaving too many loopholes to exploit.

It didn't take long for the three gold dealers to complete their transaction with Wu and his men, then they mounted their horses and headed towards the small peninsula.

Jinwang was probably tired of the sputtering sound of the diesel engine. Every day, he would only come with Zhou Jingming when he arrived on the island. After staying for a while, he would run back to the tent to lie down and sleep, or go to the woods around the dugout to dig mouse holes, or watch longingly as the birds and squirrels in the woods flew by but could not reach him.

This morning, Jinwang roamed around in the woods for a while and is now asleep by the tent.

Hearing a noise from the woods on the riverbank below, it alertly rolled over and got up, looked down for a while, and then started barking wildly.

Fearing that it might bite someone or be shot, Zhou Jingming quickly put down the golden bucket, turned off the diesel engine, and ran towards the tent.

Peng Yuanchao also called up the people who were digging mud and sand in the sand pit and couldn't see what was happening outside, and led them back to the tent.

At this time, Zhou Jingming had already found a rope, made a noose, and tied Jin Wang to the birch tree.

The experienced gold prospector wasn't surprised to see three strangers riding up on horseback, but the novice seemed a bit nervous, especially when he saw that two of them were carrying Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, and that one of them, although not carrying a gun, had a bulging waist as if he were hiding something. After seeing the general shape and guessing that it was a pistol, they couldn't help but feel a chill.

The three men did not get too close to the crowd, nor did they rush to dismount. They remained on their horses, coldly watching the crowd with very wary expressions.

The man with a pistol tucked into his waistband had a cloth bag hanging from the saddle of his horse.

Inside the cloth bag, judging from its shape, were bundles of things, probably bundles of "big unity" (a traditional Chinese unit of currency).

The other bag contained very little, but it looked heavy, with the folds on the bag hanging straight down, presumably containing gold.

Collecting gold is an extremely dangerous business; if they collect too much gold, they fear being robbed.

Anything can happen in the Gold Rush Valley. The leader scanned Zhou Jingming and his group: "We're here to collect gold. Who's going to step forward and speak?"

Zhou Jingming glanced at Peng Yuanchao, only to see Peng Yuanchao looking at him as well. He couldn't help but grin and say, "You're the leader, why are you looking at me?"

Peng Yuanchao was a little troubled: "Brother, you should talk to them. I used to work in the West Sea area. Every time, we would negotiate the price with the boss and then sell the gold directly. You are more familiar with the gold price, so it's more suitable for you to go!"

Zhou Jingming thought for a moment, then took two steps forward without further ado.

Seeing Zhou Jingming step forward, the gold collector also jumped off his horse and walked to the side.

Zhou Jingming followed him to a birch tree at the edge of the meadow. The man spoke directly: "When we do things, we should be straightforward and get things done quickly and efficiently, without delaying each other."

Zhou Jingming nodded: "Okay!"

He didn't want to waste too much time on this kind of thing.

"The current purchase price of gold is sixteen yuan per gram, you know that, right?"

"That's the correct price."

"The market price is around thirty yuan..."

"Thirty? That's not a fair offer. As far as I know, the purchase price of gold is already very low, the market price is usually double that, and the international price is even higher. You're telling me it's thirty yuan per gram, do you think that's reasonable?"

"Then it's as you said, thirty-two yuan per gram!"

"No, it has to go up further. Some things, in fact, everyone knows over time. There are quite a few people buying gold, with various channels and different places to go. I don't know if this is your first year buying gold, but I know that the gold you bought last autumn should have been sold out by now."

In other words, you're currently experiencing a shortage, and so are your downstream suppliers. Everyone knows that when supplies are tight, prices often rise. Therefore, I think the price could be even higher.

The man looked at Zhou Jingming with some surprise: "You used to work as a gold collector?"

Zhou Jingming said calmly, "That's not important. What's important is that I'm stating the facts!"

The man thought for a moment and said, "Seeing that you've already started using water pumps, you must have quite a lot of stuff on hand... Well then, since we all know so much about this, I'll raise the price a bit more. Thirty-four yuan per gram, that's the highest price I can go. And it has to be the best stuff. If it goes any higher, we'll leave."

Zhou Jingming weighed the options and figured it was about right, so he nodded: "Alright, let's go with the price you said!"

The man shook his head: "I still need to check the quality of the goods."

"What's so interesting about this? It's all the same river, flowing straight down. Our mining site isn't far from the ones below, and the gold quality is about the same..."

"It's better to take a look!"

"Alright then, come with me!"

Zhou Jingming led him into the dugout and took down the penicillin bottle that Peng Yuanchao had hung on the purlin. Inside were five grams of gold, which was left over from the gold division the night before.

The man took the small glass bottle, walked to the entrance of the dugout passage, and shook it: "Not bad quality!"

"Of course!"

Zhou Jingming hung the small glass bottle back on the purlin: "They're all reddish-yellow, already the best quality placer gold."

The color of placer gold varies depending on its purity. Gold with a purity of over 90% is reddish-yellow, gold with a purity of 80% is pale yellow, and gold with a purity of only 70% is bluish-yellow.

The small peninsula that Zhou Jingming specially selected must have excellent ingredients.

These gold collectors need to purify the gold dust they obtain, and the price varies depending on the purity of the gold dust.

The two of them crawled out of the dugout together: "Let them take what they want to sell!"

Zhou Jingming walked back to Peng Yuanchao's side: "The price has been agreed upon, thirty-four yuan per gram. If any of you need to sell, go and get the gold. This is the first time this year that gold buyers have come into the mountains, so the price will be the best of the year. It won't be easy to get this high again in the future!"

Upon hearing the price, everyone was overjoyed. After working so hard for so long, they were finally going to see money, and they all rushed to where they had hidden their gold.

Zhou Jingming didn't take the gold. He knew the price of gold was likely to rise in the future and didn't want to easily sell the gold he had specially hidden away at this time. He had ways to sell it when he really needed it.

Besides, he had some money on him, enough for the time being.

For the other gold prospectors, this is the best time to make their move, because it is difficult for them to find their own channels.

Those who collect gold operate through underground, clandestine channels, always keeping a low profile.

Wu Yang, having received Zhou Jingming's advice, had no intention of selling the gold, so he waited with Zhou Jingming on the grassland. Peng Yuanchao, on the other hand, went to retrieve some gold, as he had promised to buy sheep for a feast when herders passed by. Also, the diesel engine consumed a lot of fuel, and the diesel he got from Lao Tang wouldn't last long; he would have to go out of the mountains to buy more fuel, which would cost a considerable amount of money.

This gas money will have to be chipped in by everyone.

Otherwise, he alone, with the diesel engine burning all day long, wouldn't be able to withstand it.

Before long, everyone returned and gathered around the dugout.

The gold collectors in charge said they needed to find a secluded place to weigh the gold. Just as everyone was about to leave, Peng Yuanchao noticed that Old Wang hadn't returned yet. He spat on the ground and said, "Damn it, what's wrong with this Old Wang?"

Ever since Old Wang started weighing gold with his homemade scale, Peng Yuanchao has looked down on him.

Just then, Old Wang rushed out of the woods, looking utterly lost and pale. When he got closer, he stammered, "I...I..."

Zhou Jingming frowned slightly: "Old Wang, don't rush, catch your breath and speak slowly!"

Old Wang was still very anxious, trying hard to control himself, and finally managed to say in a tearful voice, "My gold... has been taken!"

　Thank you to the three readers, Guangyin Yilao Mohen Bieli, Jingxun, and Dongxia Qingqing, for their generous donations!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)