Chapter 44: The First Spear Hunt After Rebirth

The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle has a very long barrel; it is the standard firearm Li Long has used most across both his lifetimes.

To be honest, its recoil is definitely greater than that of the Type 95 or Type 03, but it is not as massive as some people in web novels claim.

Li Long remembered his first live-fire exercise with the militia; following Militia Company Commander Xu Chengjun's instructions at the time, he pressed the stock firmly into the hollow of his shoulder, and when he pulled the trigger, it felt like a punch to the shoulder—that was all.

After firing five rounds, his shoulder wasn't even red; after firing another five, the sensation remained much the same.

Those online claims about the Type 56 having huge recoil and leaving shoulders agonizingly painful after a volley only have two possible explanations: first, the shooter failed to press their shoulder firmly as required, so the recoil slammed into them, naturally causing pain; second, they were just blowing smoke, having never actually fired one, spreading rumors based on hearsay.

This particular Type 56 semi-auto clearly saw frequent use; holding the handguard beneath the barrel with one hand and gripping the handguard below and to the side of the trigger with the other, Li Long tilted his head to test the fit and found it extremely comfortable. This gun must have been used often.

Seeing Li Long's skilled movements, both Ha Li Mu and Brother Brother Yushanjiang felt reassured. If he had been a greenhorn, they would have written him off. Although Ha Li Mu had asked Li Long about this earlier, only now was he truly certain.

This time, Li Long had brought nineteen rounds of ammunition; he gave two rounds to each of the two children, leaving fifteen. After a moment's hesitation, he decided not to take those out, thinking that after tomorrow morning's wild boar hunt, regardless of how many remained, he would leave them all for Brother Brother Yushanjiang as repayment for borrowing the rifle.

For these herders who possessed firearms, ammunition was the scarcest resource of all.

Previously, guns had been issued to them, primarily due to the international environment of that era; later, the purpose shifted to protecting livestock and property. After the Reform and Opening-Up, these policies were gradually discontinued. Subsequently, their firearms were progressively confiscated, and the domestic ban on guns began to be implemented.

The current period was when firearm usage was most widespread and when ordinary citizens could most easily access guns.

After chatting with Brother Brother Yushanjiang for a while longer, Ha Li Mu took Li Long and departed from Brother Brother Yushanjiang's home.

On the way, Ha Li Mu told Li Long that Brother Brother Yushanjiang had said this rifle had previously been sighted in by someone, so wherever you aimed was where it hit, unlike his own gun, which hadn't been sighted in and which he didn't really know how to adjust, requiring him to aim slightly lower.

Li Long understood. While carrying the rifle on his back, he was careful not to let the front sight or rear sight get bumped.

Returning to Ha Li Mu's home, Li Long hung up the rifle and put away the jade stone, then followed Ha Li Mu to feed the sheep; the two of them also made a special trip to the location where the wild boars had come down.

The location was east of Ha Li Mu's winter camp; crossing a single mountain ridge brought you there. Li Long could see a large patch of snow on the hillside below that had been rooted up, with tracks of wild boars trampling through the snow covering an area nearly half the size of a soccer field.

"We will ambush from there," Ha Li Mu said, pointing to a pine forest on the mountain ridge. "That position is downwind. Wild boars have an incredibly keen sense of smell; if we change locations and they catch our scent, they won't come. The pine forest there is very dense, so they can't charge up through it."

Li Long had heard about the ferocity of wild boars, but to be honest, across two lifetimes, this was his first time hunting them, and he felt somewhat excited.

Having surveyed the area and confirmed the ambush site, the two of them walked back.

That night, Li Long squeezed onto the wooden kang with Ha Li Mu's family, falling asleep only very late.

However, it felt like he had slept only a short while before Ha Li Mu woke him up.

Li Long climbed up, saw that the others were still asleep, quietly put on his outer clothes, accepted the fur coat and rifle that Ha Li Mu handed him, and the two of them went outside.

It was still very dark outside when Ha Li Mu said:

"Load the bullets first, but do not release the safety catch—avoid accidental discharge."

Li Long naturally knew these basics; he loaded the ten rounds he had brought one by one—theoretically, one more round could be chambered, but Li Long did not do so.

He estimated it would be difficult for him to fire all ten rounds. After all, those wild boars were highly intelligent and alert; as soon as the gun fired, they would bolt wildly, likely giving him only one or two shots at most.

With the rifle ready, the two of them wrapped themselves in fur coats and hurried toward the predetermined location from the previous day. Li Long estimated it was barely past five o'clock; for this place in Northern Xinjiang, which had a two-hour time difference from the interior, it was truly too early.

But his drowsiness had long vanished, blown away by the biting cold and the excitement of the hunt.

The fur coat was extremely crude, made directly from sheepskin and cloth; the sheepskin was poorly tanned and still somewhat stiff. Li Long suspected it was the handiwork of the herders themselves—simply tanning a whole sheepskin, cutting it into the shape of a garment, and sewing it together with cloth.

Ugly it might be, but its warmth was genuine; wrapped tightly, not a shred of wind could penetrate.

After walking for half an hour, they reached the pine forest, each finding a suitable spot to lie prone, then preparing their shooting rests.

Imitating Ha Li Mu, Li Long patted the snow in front of him solid, leaving a groove in the middle, then untied his fur coat, spread it over the snow, lay down, tested the position, and adjusted wherever it felt unsuitable.

Then came the long wait. Because the fur coat was beneath him and he needed to be ready to fire at any moment, Li Long dared not roll up the sides of the coat to wrap around his body.

So his back grew very cold.

After lying prone for a while, Li Long felt he was nearly freezing stiff; he moved slightly on the ground and turned his head to glance at Ha Li Mu.

Ha Li Mu remained motionless, but he had wrapped the fur coat around his body.

Li Long silently cursed his own stupidity; since he was currently downwind, even if he wrapped himself up, he could slowly loosen the coat when the wild boars appeared.

!.

It was still his own excessive nervousness at fault; observing Ha Li Mu, clearly an old hand, showed he wasn't that clumsy.

He slowly pulled up both sides of the fur coat to cover his back, and after a moment, felt somewhat warmer.

He didn't know how long they waited; it felt as though the sky first grew slightly darker, then gradually began to brighten ever so slightly.

Li Long's eyes had already adapted to the darkness; more than once, he aimed through the rear sight and front sight at the area rooted up by the wild boars, imagining using the front sight ring to trap the head or chest of a wild boar.

Moreover, he knew that when hunting wild boars, one should not target the overly large ones; ideally, avoid shooting male wild boars, as uncastrated males have meat that smells intensely gamey.

It was best to hit a female boar aged one or two years.

Of course, that depended on luck.

Finally, there was movement on the opposite hilltop; in the silent night came the sounds of wild boars grunting, panting, and running.

Immediately afterward, with a "Boom—rumble—," a large "force" charged down from the opposite side.

Li Long was startled; he had assumed a wild boar family would consist of six or seven individuals at most, never expecting over ten to appear at once!

The largest one appeared to weigh at least two or three hundred Jin Zhong—a male wild boar, its tusks already fully grown.

It was more than half again as large as a domesticated pig!

Most of the charging wild boars were black-and-pied, varying greatly in size; the largest was that male boar, while another five or six were roughly the size of a fully grown domestic pig, weighing just over one hundred Jin Zhong, and another seven or eight were smaller, weighing around fifty to sixty or sixty to seventy Jin Zhong, likely born that year.

The male wild boar ran the slowest; while the other boars had already charged down the slope and begun rooting through the snow-cleared grassland, it remained on the mountain ridge, vigilantly lifting its snout to sniff here and there, and only after detecting no danger did it slowly charge down.

At this moment, the fur coat on Li Long's back was already open; flexing his somewhat stiff fingers, he had already aligned his rifle's front sight ring on a female wild boar weighing over sixty Jin Zhong.

Do not aim for size; the priority is a one-shot kill!

(End of Chapter)