My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 198 is nothing short of heaven-defying.
Xu Youliang never expected that Zhou Jingming would have already taken over all the good mining sites in Haxionggou.

A wooden sign was placed at each mining site, which looked rather frivolous.

But Zhou Jingming's team of over a hundred people was a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention Haxionggou, which hadn't attracted many visitors yet, even in places like Haiertes River and Genhe, which had become popular gold-mining spots in the last two years, such a team was extremely rare. So no one dared to take those wooden signs lightly.

There are still some mining spots on the riverbank, but those spots are either too small or the gold is not of good enough, only suitable for a dozen or so people to do small-scale mining.

Xu Youliang managed to recruit at least twenty people. He looked down on the small mines, but he didn't dare to compete with Zhou Jingming for the good ones.

Although he was full of resentment, he couldn't think of a better way after thinking it over. After asking Li Guozhu about the situation, he had no choice but to shamelessly go to Zhou Jingming to see if he could give up a mining site out of consideration for their past relationship.

If he simply felt that the income from working with Zhou Jingming was too low and wanted to go solo, without any other intentions, that's only natural. Everyone wants to earn more money. Zhou Jingming had no objections and, considering they had worked together to mine for gold last year, was even willing to ask for less and transfer a mining site.

They spread rumors everywhere that Zhou Jingming is greedy and pays low wages, telling people not to work for him, and making it sound like they owe him a lot from last year, showing no basic respect whatsoever.

If he doesn't care about last year's relationship, why should Zhou Jingming give him a friendly look?

Seeing that appealing to emotions wouldn't work, he hesitated for a long time. He felt that even if he left Haxionggou for another valley, he wasn't very confident of establishing himself or finding a good mining site. At least he still had some acquaintances in Haxionggou. Finally, he braced himself and asked, "Brother Zhou, how much money would you need to transfer the business?"

Once money is involved, things become much easier.

Zhou Jingming lit a cigarette for himself: "I see you have over twenty people, and you do have a decent mining spot that I can transfer to you. Don't think I'm greedy; other teams would ask for the same price. Deliver three kilograms of gold to me within a month and a half. You have a water pump, so the panning process will be faster. I believe getting this much gold shouldn't be a problem..."

Three kilograms?

"If you think that's too much... that's easy. We also have options that only require two kilograms and one kilogram. However, with your manpower, you won't be able to work at those mines until the end of this gold rush season. You can choose for yourself."

"Then... let's keep the three kilograms!"

"Okay... I'll take you to see it now."

Zhou Jingming carried a Type 56 rifle on his back and asked Bai Zhishun to watch over it by the chute. He then called Jin Wang over and led him upstream, also stopping by the mine site that Li Guozhu, Zhao Li, and Sun Chenggui were leading.

Two sluices have now been set up there. Truckloads of ore are sent to the sluices to be washed, and the collection of gold nuggets and the packing of felt for return are also handled by Li Guozhu.

Zhang Debao and his gang, after a few people ran away the night they were incorporated, no one else did. They seemed to have accepted the change of leadership and were carrying out their work at the mine in an orderly manner.

After walking upstream for more than a mile, Zhou Jingming pointed out the mining site to Xu Youliang and emphasized to him, "Don't try to cheat me, and don't use me as a shield in the future." Then he led Jinwang back.

That evening, a batch of felt that had been sun-dried for two days finally dried.

Zhou Jingming took an iron pot to the place where mercury was being refined by the poplar grove, put some firewood in the pot and lit it, then asked Su Xiulan to help him put the felt strips into the iron pot one by one to burn, and used a wooden stick to stir it so that the felt burned more thoroughly, until it was all turned to ashes.

When the burning was finished, a mixture of heavy sand, wood ash, felt ash, and gold was left in the iron pot.

He carried the iron pot directly to the riverbank, used a gold bucket to wash it, and cleaned out the wood ash and slightly larger pieces of sand and gravel. Then he put it back into the iron pot, went back to the dugout to get mercury, poured in some mercury by feel, and stirred and ground it.

After more than an hour of fussing, he obtained several clumps of mercury gold that remained after squeezing and filtering them with gauze.

The next step was simple: put the mercury in an iron pot, heat it over a high flame, and recover the mercury by turning it into mercury vapor. In the end, only a lump of gold remained in the iron pot.

After waiting for the gold to cool down, Zhou Jingming couldn't wait to take the lump of gold back to his dugout. He weighed it on a balance scale and it weighed 734 grams.

Upon seeing this result, Zhou Jingming couldn't help but laugh.

With the current market price of gold, one could earn around 30,000 yuan a day, which is simply incredible.

Even if you only work 23 or 24 days a month, you can still earn 600,000 to 700,000 yuan.

But after laughing, Zhou Jingming was also weighing another matter: whether he had been too ruthless in accumulating gold.

You have to understand that, based on the current number of people at the mining site, an ordinary gold prospector earns 600 yuan a month, Peng Yuanchao and others earn 800 yuan a month, plus an extra 20 grams of gold they receive each month in cash, and the group they recruited from Zhang Debao only gets 500 yuan. If you do a quick calculation, all the expenses added up to 110,000 yuan a month is more than enough.

In other words, you can make a net profit of around 500,000 yuan per month.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, making 3.5 million this gold rush season shouldn't be a problem.

But the gains didn't stop there. The gold he received from the transfer of those mining sites could be sold at market price, bringing in over a million in revenue... This doesn't even include the gold nuggets he collected while guarding the sluice gates, or the occasional tiny gold nuggets the size of a finger.

Such an income is quite extravagant these days.

He couldn't manage everything at the mine by himself, so he was fortunate to have the help of Li Guozhu and others. Everyone was smart enough to see things clearly, and even the novices could estimate Zhou Jingming's monthly earnings as they learned more, which was something that would easily make others envious.

The best way to win people's hearts is undoubtedly to make everyone feel that working at this mine is "worth it." The safest approach is for everyone to get rich.

For the sake of stability at the mining site, and for his own safety, he felt it was necessary to increase their income.

But after thinking it over, I decided to wait and see how my income is in the next few days before making a decision.

The situation in Haxionggou was relatively stable after that.

Waves of gold prospectors poured into the valley, and the mining sites that Zhou Jingming had designated were transferred one by one after they understood his rules.

When Zhang Debao's gang was incorporated, the number of people at the two mines reached 136. Sun Chenggui then brought 13 more people, making a total of 149.

Such a team is an absolute behemoth in Haxiong Valley. Faced with their intimidation, players either choose to explore other gold-mining valleys or compromise.

Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was time for our weekly day off.

Over these four days, more than 600 grams of gold were extracted on one day, more than 700 grams on another day, and more than 800 grams on two other days.

On average, as long as the selection is done normally, the daily gold output can be stabilized at around 700 grams.

In a month, you can get seventeen kilograms of gold.

After weighing the situation over the past few days, Zhou Jingming gathered Peng Yuanchao and others together this morning: "The gold production at the mine is slightly better than I expected, which is also thanks to everyone's help."

Therefore, I've decided to increase the amount of gold from 20 grams to 200 grams, in addition to the 800 yuan monthly salary I promised you.

Only Wu Yang, Bai Zhishun, Old Liu, Li Guozhu, Peng Yuanchao, Zhao Li, Li Guohua, Wang Dong, Sun Chenggui, and Su Xiulan received this salary, and in fact, only two kilograms were lost.

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up.

Peng Yuanchao, in particular, exclaimed, "Give us an extra 200 grams! That's incredible! With our wages, we'll get an average of more than seven grams of gold a day, more than when we were the foreman last year!"

Li Guozhu nodded with a smile: "It is indeed a lot. The key is that you only need to walk around and take a look every day. You don't have to do heavy physical labor. This money is easy to earn. I told you long ago, you won't lose money following Brother Zhou."

Since the two veteran gold prospectors had said so, the rest of the people had no questions.

If I was somewhat uneasy before, now that I hear Zhou Jingming's arrangements, I suddenly feel that following Zhou Jingming was the right decision.

Especially for Zhao Li and Li Guohua, two complete novices, after learning about the situation during their time in the valley, they did a little calculation and realized that Zhou Jingming had already taken great care of them, earning them a solid two thousand yuan a month. They had never imagined in their lives that they could have such a high monthly income.

Then there's Su Xiulan. She hadn't expected Zhou Jingming to include her in the calculations, and she was momentarily bewildered.

Afterwards, Zhou Jingming went outside the dugout and gathered everyone together to announce another decision he had made: "From now on, in addition to your wages, I've decided to give you an extra twenty grams of gold each month. Those who join the mine protection team will receive thirty grams each... This amount is among the highest in the Altay gold mining area. Because this is your net income, I'll take care of your food, drink, and other necessities."

I also hope that if the wages are paid properly, everyone can be more united and work together to protect the mining site. If the mining site is gone, you will probably find it hard to get such good opportunities elsewhere.

Also, those who came with Zhang Debao and have chosen to stay are probably looking to earn money honestly. I won't say you're only getting 500 yuan; your treatment is the same as everyone else's. I hope you treat the mining site as your own, protect it well, and don't be half-hearted anymore.

Also, don't forget the established rules. Without rules, there can be no order. If anyone breaks them, I won't be polite, especially about petty theft. Don't get caught; losing a hand or a leg isn't a pleasant experience.

Excluding the eleven leaders such as Zhou Jingming and Li Guozhu, there were 138 people actually mining and washing the ore. According to his distribution, they would have taken an extra 3 kilograms of gold.

So, in total, he lost an extra 5 kilograms a month. Zhou Jingming still had at least 12,000 kilograms of gold on hand.

In fact, including the gold nuggets he collected every day, he would have at least 15,000 kilograms left over after a month.

He was content, and everyone else had also gained a lot.

Starting the next day, it was obvious that everyone's enthusiasm for work increased significantly.

On this day, the gold production exceeded 900 grams for the first time.

It seems that, when you really calculate it, after deducting all expenses, his income hasn't decreased much.

A net income of around 500,000 yuan a month is still possible.

These unexploited mineral deposits always fill people with hope.

(End of this chapter)