My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 70 Shock
Of all the people who came, Zhou Jingming's primary target was Zhang Aizi.

When he went to see Old Tang, he had already noticed that the short man Old Tang always led around was not as simple as he seemed.

When Old Tang talks about gold panning, he always mentions "Shorty Zhang said," which clearly indicates that many of his ideas came from Shorty Zhang.

He might be the one who allowed Lao Tang to seize the small peninsula, so naturally he deserves our close attention.

Having spent his past life shooting frisbees with a hunting rifle on the training field, Zhou Jingming's marksmanship, while not always perfectly accurate, was still quite good.

The distance was only about 20 meters, which was really not a challenge for him.

Because of the close distance, the dispersion range of the fired projectiles will not be too large.

Based on Zhou Jingming's experience, he estimated that at this distance, the dozen or so lead pellets from the deer slingshot would be about the size of a plate in the sand.

The bullets went straight for Zhang the Dwarf, and almost all of them hit his chest.

Zhang Aizi never expected Zhou Jingming to suddenly attack. He was shot and involuntarily took two steps back before falling straight to the ground.

Without any hesitation, Zhou Jingming slightly moved the muzzle of his gun and then pulled the trigger, knocking down another gold prospector who was also completely caught off guard.

The two shots were fired within half a second of each other.

Old Tang's gang of gold prospectors, who seemed somewhat carefree and relied on their numbers, were all terrified by the two shots. They turned and ran in panic, seeking cover, fearing that another shot might fall on their heads.

The only one who remained relatively calm was the gold prospector who was carrying a gun at the end. After realizing what was happening, he raised his gun and fired two shots at the three birch trees where Zhou Jingming was.

But his marksmanship wasn't particularly good; both shots went very wide.

The shot missed the tree where Zhou Jingming was hiding, but it tore the bark of two birch trees next to it, leaving them ripped open. One shot went low, and the other went high because the recoil wasn't controlled well.

After firing his two shots, Zhou Jingming had already moved behind the birch tree in the middle and hid when he saw the man raise his gun. He opened the folding shotgun, shook it to release the two copper cartridge cases, and quickly loaded the two buckshot that he had been holding between his fingers into the chamber.

Removing the spent cartridge case and loading the bullet took him at most two seconds.

He snapped the gun shut, peeked at the man, and saw him frantically loading bullets into the gun. He immediately turned around, raised his gun, and fired again.

The shot, unsurprisingly, hit the man, who fell to the ground instantly. However, unlike Zhang the Dwarf and the other man, who fell motionless after being hit, he screamed and scrambled to his feet, dashing left and right before finally crashing into a tree trunk and falling down again, his gun flying away.

The three leaders were taken down within seconds, their fate unknown. Old Tang and his gang were terrified and fled in panic.

But Zhou Jingming did not hold back; he fired a fourth shot.

This distance was quite far, and the area covered by the shotgun's fire was much larger, so two people were hit simultaneously.

Four shots hit five people; the fate of the first three is unknown, but the last two were able to stumble and run away.

Zhou Jingming's ruthlessness was enough to shatter their courage and terrify their souls.

As they ran into the woods, Zhou Jingming loaded his gun and shouted at Peng Yuan, "What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and go! Don't you know the consequences of not killing the snake?"

Now that we've started, we need to break them up, crush them, and terrify them. We absolutely mustn't let Old Tang escape, and the gold must be left behind.

If Zhang Aizi can lead his men over here, then Lao Tang must have returned to their camp on the riverbank.

Given Tang's unpredictable nature, Zhou Jingming had reason to believe that given the chance, he would definitely seek revenge, and it would be deadly.

Old Tang is the one who needs to be eradicated.

Even if he backs down, it won't work; Zhou Jingming doesn't want to gamble on the fickle nature of human hearts.

Only the dead are truly safe.

The absolute disadvantage was completely reversed after Zhou Jingming fired four shots. He loaded his gun and continued chasing after the group.

Wu Yang was the quickest to react.

After seeing Zhou Jingming take down three armed gold prospectors with three shots, he immediately released the rope holding Jin Wang and ran towards Zhang Aizi to pick up the gun.

Jin Wang then ran towards Zhou Jingming.

Peng Yuanchao and the others did not expect Zhou Jingming to be so fierce, not only daring to fire a gun, but also hitting it accurately.

He began to doubt whether Zhou Jingming was still the somewhat refined technician he had spent time with these past few days.

But no matter what, it's a good thing.

Hearing Zhou Jingming's shout, he threw down the shovel he was carrying and followed Wu Yang to pick up the second hunting rifle.

The third hunting rifle was picked up by Xu Youliang.

The others followed, carrying their weapons. Since they had no guns left, what was there to be afraid of? Even Sun Chenggui, who had an injured leg, followed along, limping, carrying an iron crowbar.

They were no longer panicked or afraid, and seemed to have forgotten their injuries. They charged out, shouting and yelling.

Having eliminated the main threat, Zhou Jingming, who was relentlessly pursuing his target, fired another shot, and after reloading, fired two more.

Those people ran very fast, and with the distance increasing and the trees providing cover, Zhou Jingming couldn't calmly shoot the frisbee like he could on the training field, so his accuracy became somewhat poor.

Fortunately, the gun was loaded with buckshot. The farther away the bullets were, the larger the blast radius became. A dozen or so lead pellets flew out, covering a certain area. Of his three shots, he still managed to hit two of them.

Judging from how they managed to get up and run away after falling, they shouldn't be seriously injured.

In fact, Zhou Jingming's current bombardment is not aimed at killing many people, but rather at intimidating them.

If too many people die, even in this remote wilderness, it could still cause a great stir and become a troublesome matter.

He wasn't a murderer; as long as he injured these people and scared them out of their wits, preventing them from panning for gold, the group would naturally fall apart.

Wu Yang was carrying a double-barreled shotgun, which was also loaded with deer bullets. He was a pretty good shot, and he only fired two shots because there were only two bullets in the gun. He still managed to hit two people.

Seeing that Zhou Jingming and his gang were chasing them like a pack of wolves, those people no longer dared to run ahead and get shot, and scattered and fled.

Some darted into the woods uphill, while others rushed into the river, trying to reach the other side to escape, but were quickly swept away by the current.

While Zhou Jingming was loading bullets into his shotgun, Wu Yang had already arrived beside him. He wanted to ask Zhou Jingming for bullets, but he found that he was holding a 16-gauge double-barreled shotgun, which did not match the bullets for the 12-gauge shotgun, so he did not speak.

At this moment, Old Tang was still lingering on the riverbank, waiting for Zhang Aizi and the others to return. After hearing several gunshots, he thought the matter was settled.

Looking around, he saw his group of people being chased and scattered, and he knew something bad had happened. He was immediately terrified.

"They're all a bunch of useless trash, they can't even handle a few people!"

He cursed, turned and ran into the tent, grabbed a hunting rifle, came out with a canvas satchel, and ran wildly downstream along the riverbank.

The two camps are only about 70 or 80 meters apart as the crow flies. As you run into the woods, there are trees and earthen slopes that block the way, and some ditches and gullies, but it's still only about 100 meters away.

When the two reached the riverbank, they saw Old Tang turn into the woods a few dozen meters away.

Zhou Jingming raised his gun slightly, but couldn't match it, so he could only continue firing at full speed to catch up.

　Thank you to the seven readers who gave me their donations: Hei A Niu Ge, Su You 20201027222018346, Tianya Zhiyin, Jingxun, ljx73, Sui Han, and Shenhuang Shenyin!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)