My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 257 I trust you to handle things

The sudden gunshot startled the approaching herd of argali sheep, causing them to turn back and rush towards higher ground.

Seeing that the four argali sheep that had fallen after being shot, except for two that did not get up, the other two were able to struggle to stand up and run with the flock. Without any hesitation, the three fired another shot each. They saw three more argali sheep fall, and only one of them stood up and ran with a limp.

"stop fighting!"

Zhou Jingming spoke up to stop them: "That's enough. There are already four that can't run anymore. We still need to look for the ones that were injured. Otherwise, it would be a waste if they died in the mountains. In any case, we can still find one or two. If we kill too many, we can't eat them all, and it will be difficult to even carry them back."

Jinwang chased after the herd of argali sheep, running wildly. It couldn't outrun the argali sheep, but it could outrun the injured ones.

The argali sheep that was limping when it ran was left behind by the flock and immediately became Jinwang's target. It rushed up and, with nowhere to escape, bit the argali sheep's hind leg and dragged it down.

That argali sheep was also fierce; it turned around and charged at Jinwang.

Jin Wang refused to give in, and was immediately rammed on the rump by the argali sheep, letting out a strange cry and rolling away.

It underestimated the argali sheep's butting ability.

Zhou Jingming wasn't worried at all. If he couldn't handle a bighorn sheep with an injured leg and limited mobility, then that would be ridiculous.

He was pleased to see this and hoped that Jinwang could practice more. In his opinion, its body was too fleshy and not agile enough.

Jinwang quickly got up again, barking wildly as he chased after the argali sheep that had turned and run away.

As soon as it went up, the ram immediately turned around, making a show of wanting to butt, and leaped up several times with its front legs, trying to butt Jin Wang.

Having learned his lesson, Jinwang was no longer going to let the argali ram attack him. As soon as the argali ram made a move, he immediately jumped aside and then rushed over to bite it.

The argali sheep was forced to run around in circles. Because it was bleeding continuously and only had one hind leg to support it, its strength was rapidly depleting, making it unable to support itself. It tried to jump up twice, but because one hind leg could not support it, it fell down first.

Seeing this, Zhou Jingming was completely relieved: "It can't run away. Let's hurry up and bleed those sheep. Otherwise, the blood will all pool in the meat, and the meat won't taste good."

Wu Yang and Zhao Li put away their guns and followed Zhou Jingming toward the fallen argali sheep. On the first sheep, they saw its huge, twisted horns had pierced into the flesh of its face, and that piece of flesh was already rotten.

Zhao Li clicked her tongue: "That's really true..."

Zhou Jingming chuckled: "You think I'm bragging to you?"

As he spoke, he pulled out the Yingjisha knife and pierced the argali's neck, from which bright red blood flowed.

Zhou Jingming then moved it to a different position, head down, along the hillside, so that the blood could flow out of its body as much as possible.

Wu Yang and Zhao Li also found the other three sheep, each taking out their knives. By the time Old Liu and the others climbed up and joined them, the three of them had already dragged the four sheep together.

"Two more were injured and escaped."

Wu Yang urged Qiang to go and check the bloodstains to continue the investigation.

"Don't worry!"

Old Liu stopped him: "The prey is injured. Don't rush to chase it. They are already running for their lives. If you chase them, they will run even more fiercely. You will find that you can chase them for miles or even more than ten miles and still not see them."

In this situation, you shouldn't chase after it. Run for a while, and when you feel there's no danger, it will lie down on its own. Once it lies down, it will gradually lose the strength to stand up due to continuous bleeding. Then you can pick it up.

Of course, the injury needs to be serious enough; a minor injury won't be of much use.

These words even made Batu, who was listening nearby, light up, and he looked thoughtful.

Since Old Liu had said so, Wu Yang didn't rush to chase after him. He just looked at the argali sheep that Jin Wang had entangled and was too weak to stand up, and simply lay down on the ground, letting Jin Wang tear it apart.

He said to Zhou Jingming, "That's about enough!"

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly.

The two men walked towards Jinwang together without firing their guns. One held down the argali's head while the other used a knife to bleed it. Once the argali was no longer moving, they dragged it back together.

It wasn't until this point that Gao Jianjun, who hadn't lost weight after two years in the Gold Rush Valley, finally climbed up, panting heavily. When he reached the group, he collapsed onto the grass, gasping for breath: "I'm exhausted. If I had known it would be this tiring, I wouldn't have come."

Peng Yuanchao laughed and said, "It'll be even more tiring when we get back. There are five gazelles here, weighing several hundred pounds. The seven of us can't carry them all back in one go." Gao Jianjun sighed, "I thought it would be exciting and thrilling, but it's just a chase, a few shots, and that's it. It's boring!"

"You make it sound so easy. If it were you, even if you had a machine gun, you might not be able to hit them. It's just that those few are good marksmen. Otherwise, do you think you could so easily control a herd of argali sheep that's running? It's not that easy to shoot them down."

Brother Zhou called us here to move meat, not to fight. We originally arranged for you to stay at the mine to take care of you, but you insisted on coming along to suffer. Serves you right!

Sun Chenggui took the opportunity to say a few words to him: "I told you not to come, but you insisted on coming, and now you regret it... Don't be lazy when you go back later!"

"Stop talking nonsense, Brother Peng. It's too much trouble for you to lead them to skin and butcher them, carrying all that back with the fur and excrement still inside. Let's just take the meat we need back."

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang dragged the argali sheep back and urged everyone to get to work.

Old Liu and Batu were both very skilled at this. They took out the knives they carried with them and asked Peng Yuanchao and others to help them peel off the skin and gut the animals.

Zhou Jingming then called Wu Yang and Zhao Li, and led Jin Wang, who was drooling with envy, to the spot where the argali sheep had escaped into the forest to look at the bloodstains.

The three quickly spotted bloodstains in the grass. One of them lit a cigarette and slowly followed the bloodstains into the woods.

They had only gone a hundred meters or so when they saw a argali sheep lying on the ground. The bullet had pierced its chest and abdomen. Although it was able to run, it died not long after that, leaving a large pool of blood on the ground.

This argali sheep isn't very big, only about 80 or 90 pounds.

The three ignored it and searched the forest again. They found a second trail of blood and continued to follow it.

This time, after walking for about three miles and passing through a large forest, we startled the argali sheep that was sleeping under the rocks on another grassy slope.

It still wanted to run, but it was already walking unsteadily, and could only call out repeatedly.

Jinwang rushed out and grabbed its hind leg to hold it back.

Zhou Jingming didn't want to waste time here, so he followed up, grabbed the ram's horns, and twisted it to the ground. Wu Yang then finished it off with a blow.

This argali sheep weighed only about 100 pounds and was shot in the abdomen.

After it died, the three of them didn't stop, pulling and peeling each other's skin.

They discarded the sheep's head and hooves, which had little meat, but the sheepskin was valuable and they couldn't bear to throw it away, so they had to take it with them. They also pulled out the dirty intestines and threw them on the grass to feed Jinwang.

After more than an hour of fussing, the three of them, along with two sheep, met up with Old Man Liu. They had also finished dealing with the five argali sheep.

In the blink of an eye, it was already afternoon. The group didn't dare to delay and hurriedly took the mutton back.

This trip involved carrying even more stuff than when they went into the mountains. By the time the group returned to the mine, it was nearly evening.

At that time, Li Guozhu was leading Bai Zhishun and Wang Dong, rolling a mine cart bucket toward the riverbank.

They found this mining cart bucket in the pile of rocks. Using this thing to carry ore to crush it is much better than the machine cover Zhou Jingming mentioned. It's thick enough and can prevent the ore from flying everywhere when it's being crushed.

They have already set one up on the riverbank.

Seeing Zhou Jingming and the others return, the three of them temporarily put down their work and went to greet them, helping to place the meat they brought on the pine branches and leaves that Su Xiulan and the others had cut to smoke the meat.

Li Guozhu asked with a smile, "Brother, what do you think? Is this cart bed alright?"

Zhou Jingming handed him a cigarette: "Brother Li, I don't need to worry about you when you get things done. You're better than I expected. I saw the truck bed when I came here last time, but I haven't thought about using it yet."

"It took quite a bit of effort to dig them out, but they are big and durable enough. All we need to do is shorten the handle of the sledgehammer so that people can smash the ore directly inside the bucket."

This is my first time cleaning a cave. How exactly does it work?

"That's simple. The ore in the mine is all in the fractured layer and quartz zone. When we come to clean the mine, we can't be too meticulous. We just need to pick out the good ore. In a day, we can get about ten or twenty bags."

Zhou Jingming had a plan: "When the time comes, we'll have two people here crush the ore, and the rest of us will go to the mine shaft to dig, sort the ore, and clean up the slag. Don't worry, the gold yield in a place like this will definitely be substantial, and this trip will be a big success."

(End of this chapter)