Chapter 225: This matter can't be settled by just two whips!

What surprised Li Long a bit was that there were actually quite a few good things in the dugouts of these two guys!

Three deer antlers, two of which were a pair, both with four branches, and another one was particularly large, with seven branches. Li Long weighed it, and these three deer antlers were about twenty kilograms.

Half a bag of fritillaria, the sun-dried kind, he confiscated them together without any politeness.

A pile of pots, bowls, basins, etc., most of which were taken from Li Long's wooden house, and they looked used. Li Long didn't leave a single one because he found them disgusting.

Three machetes, with purple-black blood stains on the blades, very fishy. Li Long wasn't sure what blood this was.

A dozen codonopsis dug out, already sun-dried, a bit shriveled, but the main body was quite thick, and a dozen added together weighed more than a kilogram.

Half a bag of corn flour, some dried vegetables, and some dried mushrooms. Li Long didn't want this stuff either.

Li Long pulled a sack, packed the deer antlers, fritillaria, codonopsis, and other things, and just as he was packing, he suddenly turned around, the gun on his shoulder slid into his hand, and he fired a shot at the calf of the young man who was preparing to attack him with a wooden stick behind him!

"Bang!"

The young man threw the stick aside and lay on the ground screaming.

Li Long looked, the blood didn't flow too much, a penetrating wound, shouldn't have hit an artery.

"This time I'll give you a chance to live. Since you came to the mountains to beg for food, honestly get mountain goods. If you do such animal things again, the next shot will hit your heads!"

Li Long carried the five-six-half rifle, carried the sack, left a few harsh words, and left.

Those two didn't find things until Li Long left, and then hurriedly found things to bandage the wounds. The older one turned out a paper-wrapped medicine powder from his dugout, sprinkled it on his arm, hesitated for a moment, and sprinkled some on the wound of the younger one.

"Admit bad luck!" He said to the younger one, "Fortunately, the food wasn't taken away, otherwise, we would really starve to death here..."

The younger one's face, besides pain, also had a look of resentment.

But he also knew it was useless, the other party had a gun, not killing him was considered the other party's benevolence.

Li Long arrived at Halimu's winter nest, handled the shit on the wooden kang, found some water to wash the wooden kang, and finally closed the door, using a few pieces of wood to block the wooden door.

Actually, this stuff is just to prevent gentlemen but not villains, but it's also a warning. If someone opens it again and does such things inside, Li Long naturally won't be polite again—the mountains are so big, there are probably only that gang nearby, no need to look for others.

Carrying the sack back to the wooden house, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang had already gone to cut poles, Li Qing Xia stayed in front of the wooden house, watching the pot of meat bones and the pot of marinated offal.

"Xiao Long is back? What are you carrying?" Li Qing Xia was a bit surprised. "Where did you run off to?"

"Went to catch thieves." Li Long put down the sack, and took out things one by one. "This is deer antler, three can sell for sixty or seventy yuan, this is fritillaria..."

"This is deer antler? Can sell for money?" Li Qing Xia interrupted Li Long's words directly. "Is it true?"

"True... Dad, are you..."

"Oh my!" Li Qing Xia slapped his thigh. "I ran into one this morning when I was cutting poles. I thought it was quite rare, but I didn't know what it was. Looking at it like wood, I didn't care. I was just busy cutting poles at the time... Can I go get it back now? Does this stuff sell for money?"

"Yes! Three or five yuan per kilogram!"

"Then I must get it back!" Li Qing Xia didn't wait for Li Long to finish, immediately ran to the place where he cut poles in the morning.

"Dad, take the axe, be careful of wild boars!"

"Sure!" Li Qing Xia turned back, picked up the axe, and then saw the machete Li Long took out, dropped the axe, picked up a machete, and left hurriedly.

Deer

Li Long wasn't ruthless enough. Otherwise, if he had taken away all their grain bags, those two would either have to come out of the mountains to beg for help or just wait to die in the mountains.

Those who could endure in the mountains for so long were either misanthropic or had cases against them; there was no other reason. After all, the fritillaria had already been dug up, and there was no major work to earn money, so most of those who ran the mountains had already left.

There were bloodstains on the two remaining machetes. Li Long carried them to the spring, found a flat stone, and began to sharpen them.

As the rust was ground away, the two machetes, half a meter long from tip to handle, appeared to have been forged by the same blacksmith, and the material used was quite good.

There were no poles to cut near the wooden cabin, so Li Long went to cut some grass, preparing to feed the horses in the evening.

Horses not only needed to eat grass at night but also needed extra feed; after all, a horse wouldn't get fat without night grass.

Now the wooden cabin lacked a shed, and Seventy-Six was left on the hillside eating grass, looking quite leisurely.

Li Long placed the cut grass beside the wooden cabin without spreading it out; otherwise, the grass would curl up in the evening, and the horses wouldn't eat it well.

After this busy work, he was a bit hungry, so he fished a piece of bone out of the pot and began to gnaw on it.

Before he finished gnawing the bone, Li Qing Xia ran over carrying two deer antlers.

Li Long looked at his father's excited appearance as he carried the antlers and wanted to laugh a little.

But thinking about it, his father's luck was really good. To be able to find deer antlers on his first time entering the mountains—he wasn't any worse than himself.

The two deer antlers weren't large, and they hadn't fallen off this year, so the quality wasn't very good. They looked a bit grayish-white, which might be one of the reasons they hadn't been picked up by anyone else.

Li Qing Xia excitedly brought the antlers to Li Long, raised them, and said:

"How about it, these are deer antlers, right?"

"They are deer antlers, even bigger than roe deer antlers. These two antlers must weigh seven or eight kilograms, and selling them for twenty or thirty won't be a problem." Li Long said with a smile, "Dad, you've made a small fortune."

"Hehe," Li Qing Xia put the antlers in front of Li Long, "They're yours!"

"Why are they mine? I have more money than you. In a couple of days, when we've saved up enough poles, when we pull them back, we'll take them to the collection station to sell. You can buy something for Mom, and keep the rest for yourself. Buy whatever you want."

"That... alright. I'll save up some money and buy a radio to take home and listen to."

"Why do you need to save money to buy that? When you go home, I'll buy it for you... it's hard to carry, forget it. When you go home, I'll give you the money, and you can buy it when you get back to your hometown. That stuff is cheaper there than here."

"Really?"

"Of course it's true. It's not easy to transport things to Northern Xinjiang; it costs shipping."

"That's true." Li Qing Xia nodded.

"Dad, are you not comfortable living here?" Li Long asked.

"Very comfortable, where else is this comfortable..." "Then why are you still thinking about going home?"

"That... we can't live here forever, right?" Li Qing Xia didn't know how to explain.

"Why can't you? Your eldest son and youngest son are both here, why can't you stay?" Li Long said, "It's more comfortable here than at home, the food is good, the living is good, and the climate is better than in our hometown..."

"This... sigh, I'm used to living in my hometown." Li Qing Xia sighed and said, "We'll talk about it later."

The topic ended there.

Li Long also knew that persuading him once wouldn't make his father agree immediately. This kind of thing was like a long, flowing stream; it would have an effect slowly.

After Li Qing Xia gave the antlers to Li Long, he solemnly told him another thing:

"Xiao Long, did you get these machetes from those thieves?"

"Yes." Li Long said.

"The blood on this isn't right... it doesn't look like animal blood, it looks like human blood! It's very fishy!"

Li Long looked at the machetes placed to the side. At this time, there were still flies circling above them. He thought of those two people; it was possible that they really might have...

"Those two thieves might have really hacked someone, or they might have hacked someone with machetes they stole or picked up from others." Li Long analyzed, "I shot each of them once. I didn't hit any vital parts, but it's enough for them to suffer."

!.

"That's true. If you don't give these thieves a little bit of a lesson, it'll be troublesome for this house after we leave."

Li Qing Xia was worried that those two guys would retaliate later, and it would be troublesome if they burned the house down.

"They don't know I'm the owner of this house." Li Long said, "Of course, even if they knew, I wouldn't be afraid..." He remembered the shadow he saw while braising the meat, over two hundred meters away. He didn't know if that old guy could tell it was him?

He had changed his jacket, and there was a distance of two hundred meters; he shouldn't be able to recognize him, right?

Even if he recognized him, he wouldn't dare to run wild here, right?

Li Long decided that before he and the others finished cutting enough poles and left, he would go again to see the situation of those two people.

Starting the next day, Li Qing Xia stayed in the wooden cabin to watch, and Li Long went out to cut poles.

He was very familiar with the surroundings and found a gully with many willow trees to start cutting. There were many miscellaneous trees here, which were also suitable for being used as large broom handles. Two days later, six or seven hundred poles were piled up beside the wooden cabin.

While eating dinner in the evening, Li Long said to Li Jianguo:

"Big Brother, you guys cut poles tomorrow morning. I'll harness the horse cart, pull these poles back to the brigade to hand them over, and sell the things I brought back by the way. Dad and I will go together. You two don't run too far while cutting poles."

"Alright." Li Jianguo had no objections. If all these poles were cut, one horse cart wouldn't be able to carry them all, so it was better to make a few more trips back. "Take a basin of the braised meat back too."

"Okay." Li Long said, "I saw traces of wild boars rooting when I was cutting poles yesterday. When I come back, I'll pick a morning to go hunting and see. If I can hit one, we'll change our taste!"

"You're really capable." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "We can't see anything, but you can see them from time to time."

"That's why I can be a hunter." Li Long also joked, "We'll go early and come back early tomorrow. Do you need to bring anything?"

"I don't need anything." Li Long turned his head to look at Tao Dayong and said, "See if Dayong needs to bring anything home? There's not much Mongolian gazelle meat left..."

"No need, no need, there's still meat to eat at home." Tao Dayong hurriedly waved his hand, "Really, no need to bring anything."

"Alright then, we'll go early and come back early."

Getting up the next morning, Li Long and the others had already loaded the poles onto the cart and tied them with ropes. After breakfast, Li Jianguo and the others went to cut poles, and Li Long and the others drove the horse cart toward the county seat.

A mattress was spread over the poles, and Li Qing Xia sat on it. At first, it was quite bumpy, but he got used to it later.

The things to be sold were packed in a large sack and tied to the back of the cart.

After leaving the mountains, the speed of the horse cart increased. When they were about to reach the county seat, Li Long discovered people in front.

Several people were riding horses, and some were walking. The few people walking seemed to have their hands tied.

Was this kidnapping, or were they arresting people?

Li Long was a bit suspicious, so he drove the horse cart faster. When he caught up with those people, he was surprised to find that one of the tied people was the one whose arm had been shot by his gun.

He scanned further and saw that the one with the leg injury was on a horse; it wasn't convenient for him to walk with a leg injury, but his treatment was actually quite good.

The one with the arm injury also saw Li Long and immediately shouted loudly:

"It's him! He robbed us of our things and wounded us! Otherwise, those things of ours would have been enough for the fine! It's him!"

His shout brought the people riding in front and those guarding the rear over.

Those two people came over and asked the person with the arm injury about the specific situation.

Li Long saw these two riders—one from an ethnic minority and one Han—both carrying guns. After they listened to what the man said, they came over to ask Li Long.

Li Long got off the horse cart, and Li Qing Xia also jumped down, pulling a pole from his hand, looking like he was prepared to fight in self-defense.

"I am a part-time border guard for the Forestry Brigade." Li Long wasn't nervous at all, "These two people were indeed wounded by me, and I did indeed take some things from them..."

"They were illegally digging things in our Forestry Brigade's jurisdiction, and those things are to be confiscated as fines..." the Han person said, "Where are the things?"

"Let me finish." Li Long looked at him and said: "When you found them, you saw the things they were using, right?"

"Saw them, quite a few daily necessities."

"Those pieces of bedding, pots, and pans were all stolen from my wooden cabin," Li Long said, "I took their things as compensation for me. Also, they took a dump in my friend's winter shelter wooden bed..."

"What? Took a dump in the winter shelter?" The ethnic minority forestry brigade member was furious when he heard this, "Really?"

"Really. I cleaned it up, but that... you think about people like this... so I fired my gun at the time, and I was also very angry. These people might even have human lives on their hands. I took their machetes, and there was human blood on those knives!"

The ethnic minority member turned his horse's head, took his whip, and lashed out at the person with the arm injury, cursing while whipping:

"Nang si gei! Are you even human? That's a place where people live, and you took a dump..."

The Han member asked Li Long with a serious face:

"Are you sure there was human blood on their machetes?"

"Basically sure. So I suggest you take them to the county seat, preferably hand them over to the public security department, and interrogate them to find out. In this day and age, fritillaria can no longer be dug, yet they were still hiding in the mountains and not coming out. You think there would be anything good about that? They must have committed some crime and didn't dare to come out!" Li Long stated his conjecture.

"Alright then, thank you." The Han member said, then stopped the ethnic minority member, and they led these people toward the county seat, one in front and one behind.

Although these two were still riding horses, their rifles had already been taken down, and it was clear they had also become much more cautious.

(End of chapter)