My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 94 Underhanded Tactics, Ruthless Moves, and Dirty Tricks

The transaction was successfully completed, and everyone returned to the tent. Wu Yang handed the sack containing the money to Peng Yuanchao and went outside to find Zhou Jingming, who was sitting under a birch tree enjoying the cool air, to ask him for a cigarette.

He lit the cigarette Zhou Jingming offered him and sat down beside him: "This gold trading business is really interesting. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I definitely wouldn't have believed it just by hearing about it from others!"
After they paid us, I saw that there was only half a bag left. They'd probably leave soon. The bag of gold looked heavy, a large lump, probably weighing several pounds.

Zhou Jingming asked with a smile, "What... are you tempted? Want to snatch it?"

"To say I wasn't tempted would be a lie. When I went to get the money, I was thinking, if all that gold were mine, I could probably live a life of ease!"

Wu Yang took two puffs of his cigarette, brought the lit end to his lips, blew on it, and blew away the ash: "As for robbing... I'm not that stupid!"

Zhou Jingming smiled and said nothing more.

There were a total of twenty people in the camp. Only Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang did not spend any gold. The rest of them spent almost all the gold they had.

Eleven new employees were recruited and worked for more than half a month. Except for two days of rest due to rain, there was almost no delay.

They received two grams of gold every day, and occasionally even three grams. Among the newcomers, Zhou Jingming knew that they should have received about thirty-three grams, since he had received ninety-nine grams.

In other words, these newly recruited men spent over a thousand dollars on gold this time, and those who went into the mountains with them from the beginning spent even more.

The money-sharing was quickly settled, and Peng Yuanchao came out with a smile: "Brother, we won't work this afternoon. I'm also planning to take a break for the next three or four days!"

"Wu Yang and I will guard the mine site. If you want to go to Tiemaike, go ahead and take care of the diesel fuel while you're at it. Bring back as much as you can."

Regarding the diesel fuel, you can contact Wang Youping. He owns a tractor and should have a way to get fuel. You can also ask him to drive you back.

Locals also transport supplies into the mountains to sell, but the prices are much higher than outside, making it unprofitable.

Food supplies are relatively plentiful right now, but we should still bring back some potatoes and cabbages. I'll reimburse you for the fuel costs when we get back!

As soon as Peng Yuanchao opened his mouth, Zhou Jingming knew what he wanted to say.

Previously, gold was relatively easy to store; it could be put in small glass bottles, cigarette boxes, canning jars, or similar items and hidden away somewhere.

But now, one gram of gold is worth more than three grams of money, and stacks of it are not so easy to keep safe. If you keep it in the tent, you are afraid of losing it; if you find a place to hide it, you are afraid of rain and rats.

The best way is to go to the township and send what needs to be sent back, or store what needs to be stored. The nearest township is Tiemaike.

How they handle it is their own business.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Jingming added, "When you go to Tiemaike, make it clear to them that you're going to find women and gamble. If anything goes wrong, you're on your own. Don't cause us any trouble."

With money in their pockets, and money coming in easier than at home, a bunch of young men can't help but have all sorts of wild thoughts. With the slightest temptation, their minds can easily lose control, especially when it comes to the things in their crotches.

But Zhou Jingming was too lazy to care about these things, nor did he want to. As a man, he knew the nature of men.

Peng Yuanchao nodded: "I will tell them!"

"Bai Zhishun is going too?"

"I want to go to both!"

"Please take good care of him for me!"

"Okay... bro, you seem to really care about him!"

"No, that's not true. It's just that after observing him these past few days, I feel he's quite reliable, hardworking, and obedient, so I'm thinking of taking care of him a bit."

Zhou Jingming had the idea of ​​helping Bai Zhishun to repay the kindness of shielding him from harm in his previous life, but he didn't mean to give him a lot right away, nor did he want to appear too close to him. He just wanted Bai Zhishun to stay by his side with peace of mind, to suffer less humiliation, to earn money every year, and not to waste his life like he did in his previous life, so that he could eventually return home and live a peaceful and prosperous life.

After collecting and distributing the gold, it was already past noon. Instead of working in the afternoon, the group of people hurriedly prepared a meal, and after eating, they lazily took a nap under the shade of a tree.

Some people took the opportunity to wash their clothes haphazardly by the river, or took out some scraps of cloth they had brought to mend the holes in their clothes and pants.

Every day, we deal with mud, sand, and rocks, and we are often soaked in water, so our clothes wear out and rot quickly.

When they entered the mountains, most of their clothes were patched, but at least they were intact. Over the past few days, not to mention the others, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang, who sat on the river pebbles every day shaking their golden buckets, had long since had their buttocks exposed. However, there were no women in the valley, so the grown men didn't seem to care.

Zhou Jingming got some things from Lao Tang, and when he went to see them, he found several pairs of jeans.

He guessed that Old Tang must have heard of or read about American cowboys or gold prospectors, so he brought some jeans with him into the Gold Rush Valley.

In America, this thing was originally worn by cowboys and gold miners, and its biggest feature is its durability.

In recent years, with the reform and opening up, a lot of foreign things have been introduced, and the popularity of jeans is one of them. In those days, they were a symbol of "fashion".

Zhou Jingming, being in a favorable position, picked out two that fit him first and set them aside.

Early the next morning, Peng Yuanchao led a large group of people, carrying some dry food, and left the valley early for Tiemaike.

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang guarded the camp. Since there was no one else in the camp, their training didn't deliberately take place in the fir forest. Instead, they conducted their training on the grass next to the tents. On this day, Wu Yang saw that Zhou Jingming was quite familiar with the Black Dragon Eighteen Hands routine, so he started asking Zhou Jingming to demonstrate the moves and explain the practical techniques.

Zhou Jingming disliked those literary names like "Azure Dragon Probing Claws" and "Dragon Girl Gazing in the Mirror," which were somewhat obscure and difficult to understand. He preferred the more colloquial names.

The eighteen moves are: disarming, blocking the door and throwing, striking the abdomen and back throw, striking the groin and pushing the chest, kicking and locking the throat, pressing the arm and gouging the eyes, grinding the leg, intercepting the elbow and grabbing the belt, striking the ribs and pulling the arm, dodging and lifting the groin, striking the abdomen and hooking the head, blinding and hitting the head, pulling the arm and hitting the chest, hugging the knee and hitting the head, chopping the leg and hitting the chest, intercepting the leg with the arm, striking the abdomen and pushing the chest, and striking the groin and hitting the chest.

These names alone tell you that they contain a lot of underhanded tricks, ruthless tactics, and dirty tricks.

They often target the groin, ribs, head, or other areas, and sometimes even use tricks like grabbing a handful of mud or sand to blind the person before attacking their head.

However, it must be said that these techniques are very practical, especially when fighting. Often, just one hit can instantly render someone powerless. If the force is strong enough, it can easily kill or maim them.

This is what Zhou Jingming is truly interested in. If it really comes down to a life-or-death situation where you have to fight someone bare-handed, it will definitely come in handy and be very effective.

Therefore, he followed Wu Yang, practicing their moves together, learning very diligently, and asking questions tirelessly.

Before he knew it, after a whole morning of running around, Zhou Jingming was covered in dust and dirt and was finally exhausted. He lay sprawled on the grass, looking at the azure sky with only a few floating clouds, and let his mind wander.

After resting for a while, he got up and asked Wu Yang to wander around the surrounding woods to find some wild vegetables. They also cut some smoked horse sausage, opened a can of Merlin, and the two of them set up a campfire by the dugout and cooked a simple hot pot.

With simple conditions, the food cooked up naturally didn't taste particularly good, but it was spicy enough. The two of them would get together, drink a little wine, and eat until they were drenched in sweat, which was quite enjoyable.

With the weather getting hotter and hotter, the tent was stuffy and the dugout smelled of feet, so it was really not a good place to rest.

Seeing Wu Yang soaking in the shallow water by the riverbank when the sun was at its hottest, Zhou Jingming followed him down, took off his clothes, and walked step by step into the still icy river water before slowly lying down in the shallow water.

Although the river water was icy cold, once you got used to it, it had a refreshing and soothing feeling that made it easy to relax.

Zhou Jingming was somewhat surprised to find that after these days of training, his muscles had become much firmer, especially his belly, which used to be a single piece, now had the outline of several abdominal muscles.

Jinwang also came to the riverbank. After dipping his tongue into the river water, he lay down under a bush on the riverbank, panting with his tongue sticking out.

It seemed to see something, stood up, ran to the water's edge, stared intently at the murky water, and suddenly plunged into the water, scratching at something with its front paws, splashing water droplets everywhere, but it was all in vain.

Wu Yang stood up and looked for a while: "Brother Zhou, there are fish in the river, and they're quite big."

"What's the big deal? The rivers in the Altai Mountains are full of fish, and there are quite a few kinds... Do you want to eat fish?"

"It's been a long time since I've had this!"

"Let's try tonight, come and do it tonight, see if we can get it!"

"How do we do this?"

"Just use a flashlight and a shovel to slap it down."

"Is this reliable? Shouldn't you use a fishing hook or something?"

"You'll find out tonight whether it's reliable or not!"

After soaking in the water for a while, Zhou Jingming hastily grabbed some mud and sand to wash himself, feeling his hands and feet were a bit stiff, and hurriedly got ashore. But soon, he felt somewhat aimless.

After thinking for a moment, he simply went to the edge of the shack, took a pickaxe and a can, and chose a birch tree behind the shack. He raised the pickaxe and dug a hole about 30 centimeters from the ground at the base of the tree. Then he tore off a birch leaf, rolled it up, and stuffed it into the small hole. Soon, drops of slightly yellowish sap dripped out from the leaf.

He carefully observed where the sap was dripping and placed the jar under the tree to catch it.

After watching the fish by the river for a while, Wu Yang tried to throw a stone at one of them. After several failed attempts, he gave up. Hearing Zhou Jingming making a noise behind the dugout, he ran up to take a look and immediately smiled: "This is good. I drank it once in Longjiang. It has a refreshing fragrance, is cool and refreshing, and is slightly sweet. Make more. I'll go find a canning jar."

Before long, he returned from the tent, carrying five or six canned food jars in his arms.

In the birch forest, the two men picked up sturdy birch trees and used pickaxes to directly drill holes to extract the birch sap.

They were all people who had lived in Heilongjiang and knew that birch sap was drinkable.

Wu Yang couldn't quite put his finger on what was so good about it, but Zhou Jingming knew that this stuff had been touted as miraculous for a time in later generations, and it could indeed be used as medicine, with effects such as relieving coughs, expectorating phlegm, relieving asthma, and antibacterial properties. It was also a pretty good drink.

But looking at how slowly it drips out, I wonder when it will be able to fill a jar.

During his time at the Beidahuang farm, he truly learned a lot of useful things.

I idly drifted away until evening, and finally got to drink birch sap.

The two grown men weren't exactly fussy people, so they used the leftover soup from lunch to cook some wild vegetables and a pot of rice that they had cooked and roasted over the campfire until it was quite crispy to fill their stomachs, and then it got dark.

After a short rest, the two practiced for a while. As it got dark, Zhou Jingming didn't forget about fishing that night. He had Wu Yang take a bucket and a shovel and head to the riverbank with a flashlight.

　Thanks to book friend 20230407080216640 for the reward!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)