Chapter 472

As night fell in Xiao Bai Yang Gou, in front of the campfire in front of the dugout, the young people who couldn't sleep listened to Li Jianguo telling stories of the past.

"... Back then, Osman led those bandits, running through Northern Xinjiang, Eastern Xinjiang, and later even toward Qinghai and Gansu. Anyway, those bandits never did anything good. When they first started their uprising, it was to resist Sheng Sheng Shi Cai, but later, this guy grew powerful and started robbing. Once they arrived in a place, they would rob it of all its wealth and grain... it's fair to say they were capable of every evil."

"Did they rob our place here?" Xu Fei Hu was quite interested in this and asked.

"They did. It seems they fought against Sheng Sheng Shi Cai's army here. When he was powerful, he had many people—thousands of bandits, all riding horses. They robbed a lot of things and killed a lot of people..."

"And what about the things they robbed? Did they spend it all?"

"Who knows? The grain was probably all eaten. As for the wealth, some of it could have been used to buy weapons and recruit people from the then-Soviet Union and later the United States. It's said that later, when our Xinjiang was peacefully liberated, he refused to surrender. At the time, a special envoy from the United States and agents from the Old General all had people among his bandits; that money was probably spent there."

"I heard that he was also the one who caused the destruction of Po Cheng Zi. Is that true?" Wei Zhong Hua asked while poking the fire from the side.

"No, no." Li Jianguo had been to many units, read many books, and had even personally experienced the Yita Incident, so he was very familiar with the history of Northern Xinjiang. He said: "When Po Cheng Zi was destroyed, it was at least before the Qing Dynasty. Osman didn't exist back then, so it had nothing to do with him. He robbed money and grain, and at most, he could burn down a village or something; he couldn't burn down a city."

"Hey, Uncle Lao Li, you say, if some of the treasure he robbed back then was hidden in these mountains, and then found by someone later, is that possible?"

"That's definitely possible! They were bandits; if they couldn't beat the regular army, wouldn't they have to run into the mountains?" Li Jianguo didn't speak, but Lu Yingming chimed in, "Maybe there's stuff left behind by those bandits right near us."

"If only we could run into it. Get a pile of it, and why would we need to work? Go to Wu City, buy a house, get a city resident's household registration, and then we'd be living the good life!" Xu Fei Hu's eyes were full of fantasies.

Li Jianguo smiled and said nothing. He remembered the things Li Long had brought back once; it seemed they were obtained in these mountains.

Whether they belonged to those bandits, although he had his guesses, he wasn't very sure.

"You? Even if you ran into it, would you recognize it? That's stuff from decades ago; who knows what it's rusted into now? It's said there's jade in these mountains, but I don't know if that's true or not." The one speaking was Xu Dejun.

They all looked at Li Jianguo.

"There really is jade." Li Jianguo nodded. "The Ma County gazetteer says that during the Qing Dynasty, the Mahe had a 'gold plate and jade bottom,' meaning there were gold sand mines and jade in the river. This Jade Mountain was washed down from the Tianshan Mountains. Last year, Xiao Long's friend even sent him a piece of green jade. However, most Mahe green jade has black spots and isn't worth much."

Li Jianguo didn't want to bring trouble to Li Long, so he blurred that part over. Hearing this, others could also imagine that the jade Li Long got wasn't worth much.

In fact, it was the truth; there isn't much valuable jade to be picked up in the mountains now, just like the jade Li Long and those three people picked up when they went into the mountains to hunt. That one was very ordinary.

"We are still too remote. If we were in the interior, there would be many valuable things in the ground," Tao Jian She said. "In the cities back home, old graves and such—after a long time, things would be exposed. Here, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and there were no famous cities in the past, so there aren't any good things."

This point was agreed upon by everyone.

The campfire gradually died out, the moon rose, and Li Jianguo said:

"Alright, pack up and sleep. Get up early tomorrow morning to cut strips and weave carrying-frames; earning money is what's real."

"Right, right, right." Xie Yun Dong echoed, "Just listen to those stories; what you earn from weaving carrying-frames is what's real."

The crowd dispersed, each going to their own dugout, pulling out their quilts to sleep.

During the day when there was sun, they would hang their quilts outside or spread them on the grass to dry; only by covering themselves with these quilts at night could they stay warm. After all, the dugouts were still damp now; although they were lined with dry grass, the temperature difference between morning and evening was large, and the dampness rising up was quite uncomfortable.

In another mountain gully, in a stone cave, Lin Xiao Hu and He Yi Ku were sleeping head-to-head, with grass spread beneath them. The bedding on the two of them was very new. He Yi Ku couldn't sleep and asked:

"Boss, do you think we can find that location?"

"The map should be real, it's just that the hand-drawn part is a bit too casual. Let's look at the mountain shape again tomorrow. I think we can find it. There are several points on this; as long as we find one of them and confirm it, we'll know the rest. The source of this map is fine, so I think the content should be fine too."

"I hope so; all our hopes are on this."

"I gave away my family's entire fortune to trade for this map; I think it must be real. As long as we dig up the things in the map, our future days will be easy!"

Outside came the sound of wolf howling, right nearby. He Yi Ku looked at the stone cave blocked by a simple door woven from tree branches and said viciously:

"Once we confirm it and find those things, I'll go get that gun. Not one of these wolves will be allowed to live! They keep wandering around nearby every day; they're trying to treat us like snacks."

"Hehehe, don't act rashly first, so as not to alert the enemy. I think we should be close to the place in these two days; we should have preliminary results tomorrow or the day after."

Everyone had their own thoughts that night.

The next day, just as it was getting light, Lin Xiao Hu and He Yi Ku climbed up. They boiled some porridge on a simple stove and ate it, then extinguished the fire, disguised the entrance of the cave, and walked into the mountains with their tools.

Lin Xiao Hu would climb up to the mountain ridge from time to time, take out an old piece of yellow paper to look at, compare it with the terrain, and then slowly made his way to the area with the rocks where Li Long had found things last year.

"Found it! It should be here!" Lin Xiao Hu was very excited. "Yi Ku, come, let's move these rocks!"

He Yi Ku looked around and said:

"Boss, you watch the situation, I'll do this work."

He Yi Ku had great strength and quickly pried open the rocks in that area, revealing some messy things underneath.

"It looks like it's been touched by someone." Lin Xiao Hu came over, squatted down, and looked carefully. Although there were still some things underneath, most were copper and not very valuable, and some cloth had all rotted away.

"The good stuff was all taken?" He Yi Ku was greatly disappointed. "If I find out who took it, I'll kill them!"

"Don't be so full of hostility." Lin Xiao Hu said with a smile, "As long as we found a point, it shows that the map is indeed real. Although the things at this point were taken by someone, this isn't the most important hiding spot; there are several other locations. Let's look slowly; as long as we find the biggest one, we won't have to worry for the rest of our lives!"

Lin Xiao Hu didn't think much of these things and said:

"Put the rocks back in a pile and bury them, let's go!"

They quickly left this area.

Li Long slept in today; after getting up, he saw the sun was almost out. He opened the door to let out the stale air in the room, went to the toilet in the back to relieve himself, and then came over to set up the stove and cook.

After breakfast, seeing the sun had just risen and the dew hadn't dried yet, he moved the carrying-frames on the tractor down one by one and placed them next to the house, making it convenient to haul them again today.

There was enough space next to the wooden cabin to place the frames, but he planned to save up a hundred before hauling them down the mountain once; after all, the courtyard of the warehouse in the back of the supply and marketing cooperative was large and easy to store them in.

After the dew dried, he took out the fritillaria to dry, and hung the air-dried meat up again. Although he couldn't go far for fear that someone delivering fritillaria wouldn't find anyone, Li Long wasn't idle either; he carried his gun and wandered around the nearby grass. By late April, morels hadn't come out yet, but there were already plenty of straw mushrooms. Picking more of these mushrooms and drying them to eat in winter was also quite good.

A morning passed, and no one came to trade fritillaria for things or money, which made Li Long a bit puzzled. Did someone dig them up and take them down the mountain yesterday, or was there someone like him wandering the mountains collecting fritillaria, and they sold them to others?

Of course, such a thought only flashed for a moment; it wasn't very likely. There were too many fritillaria in these mountains; Li Long guessed that those digging for them probably planned to save up a batch before sending them over.

Since no one was sending fritillaria, he started tidying up the room. The fritillaria sent by those two people yesterday was already half-dry; Li Long picked out the dirt from it and dried it for an afternoon, and after drying it for another day today, Li Long felt it would be about right. This fritillaria was a bit dirty, and because it was half-dry, it wasn't easy to wash, so he simply sat by the fritillaria and picked out the dirt.

Last time, Chen Hongjun had shown it to others and said his fritillaria was clean and of a high enough grade; once this reputation was built, it couldn't be ruined. So there was no other way, just pick it.

After picking until noon, Li Long saw it was about right, then went to cook.

The mushrooms picked in the morning could be broken open and dried on the grass; they were large and he wasn't afraid of them falling into the grass and not being found, but the fritillaria couldn't be done that way.

Li Long even used a carrying-frame as a drying yard, putting some mushrooms on it to dry, which was also quite good.

Anyway, since he was idle, he had to find something to do.

For lunch, he had rice; he guessed that Lao Huang would definitely give the people in Xiao Bai Yang Gou flatbread or steamed buns in the evening, so he could just eat rice here at noon. He would put the remaining rice in the room and stir-fry it with the eggs he brought tomorrow morning. Just as he was cooking, someone came over, which surprised Li Long a bit.

"Boss, do you trade things for fritillaria here?" The person was about fifty years old; judging by his voice, he was from Gansu. He wasn't tall, was a bit hunched, very thin, carrying a bag and holding a stick in his hand.

"I do." Li Long said while stir-frying vegetables, "How much fritillaria do you have, and what do you plan to trade for?"

"Can I trade for a meal? I haven't had enough to eat for several days."

"Sure." Li Long wasn't picky, "How much fritillaria do you have? And what else do you plan to trade for?"

"Clothes, shoes, rice and flour, quilts—I want to trade for everything, it's just that I don't have enough fritillaria; I dug seven or eight kilograms yesterday and today," the man said.

"Wait until I dish out this vegetable." This time it was wild celery stir-fried with meat. Li Long dished out the vegetable, pushed the fritillaria on the table to clear a space, and put down the vegetable basin, "Open it up and let me see how the fritillaria is."

The man opened the bag to let Li Long look inside.

"Pour it onto that carrying-frame over there; how can I see it like this?" Li Long said, "No, wait a minute, let me weigh it for you."

This old man's shoes were broken, his clothes were also tattered, and looking at his face, there were several scratches; this could be considered suffering a great deal.

Li Long went into the room, took out a scale, and weighed it for him: six point nine kilograms. Li Long counted it as seven kilograms for him.

!.

"You have liquor here too?" Li Long's small room door wasn't closed, and the old man saw the cage containing the liquor inside.

"Yeah, I have loose liquor."

"Then can you trade me a cage of loose liquor? I like to drink a little in the evening. I haven't had any for several days."

"Sure, but I think it's better if you trade for more grain." Li Long kindly advised.

"Okay, okay, trade for everything, trade for everything."

The old man couldn't carry it all on his back, so Li Long traded him half a bag of flour, a pair of shoes, a set of work clothes, a cage of liquor, and gave him an enamel basin, filled it with a basin of rice, and covered it with plenty of vegetables on top.

Originally, Li Long thought about letting the old man eat here, but he didn't eat, saying he wanted to go back.

He didn't know if there were others in the mountains.

So in the end, Li Long gave him another five yuan, saying it was the remainder, and didn't dare give the old man more things for fear he couldn't carry them.

How to put it, living isn't easy.

The fritillaria poured onto the carrying-frame actually surprised Li Long a bit; this was the cleanest fritillaria he had collected. There were almost no miscellaneous leaves, and very little dirt.

It almost didn't need washing; just dry it directly. The old man might be slow at digging medicinal herbs, but he was very meticulous.

Li Long regretted a bit that he should have given the old man more money; next time, then.

After lunch, Li Long habitually took out the quilt to dry again. Sleeping with a quilt that had been dried in the sun at night was truly very comfortable. Just as he was drying the quilt, Bolati came over.

This time Bolati didn't bring fritillaria, which surprised Li Long.

After greetings, Bolati dismounted and said to Li Long:

"Our forestry team came to notify us. Recently, from the east, from the Beiting side, it's said that a wanted criminal has entered the mountains, coming from the mouth. They told us to be careful when patrolling the mountains. Everyone in our forestry team knows, so I came over to tell you. Those people in your team, I've already told your older brother and the others; they have many people, so it's fine. You should be careful on your side too."

"Could it be the person who wounded Hamiti?"

"No. There were two people who wounded Hamiti; the wanted criminal is one person, very fierce. In short, if you run into someone coming alone, be careful. You have a gun, so if there's a bad situation, take the gun out first. If you shoot, you shoot; saving your own life is the most important thing."

That Bolati could say this surprised Li Long a bit. He smiled and said, "Don't worry about that; I cherish my life very much. If there's any situation, I'll definitely save my life first."

"That's good. I haven't received any fritillaria these two days; once I receive it, I'll send it over to you."

Bolati really just came to give a notification; after notifying him, he left. Li Long dried the quilt, went into the room, and took his gun.

Being wanted, the person was likely extremely fierce, so he really had to be careful; otherwise, if he really ran into them, he would be the one to suffer.

He also knew that, in fact, in the mountains, the target of those drifters was smaller because one person could easily hide in the mountain forest and wouldn't be easily found. On the contrary, he had a wooden cabin here, which was a large target. The house couldn't be moved, and there were things inside, which was equivalent to tying himself up.

But there were also benefits; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to set up such a mountain "retail department" to exchange things with several parties. Every transaction would add a sum to his income. Although it wasn't much, and compared to the income from weaving carrying-frames it was very little, it added up. He wouldn't let these go.

And he knew there were many valuable things in the mountains, not just fritillaria. These drifters might be able to find some good things, which they might hold in their hands or trade for things they needed here.

Just like now.

"This thing, if it were in the past, if it were good, it should be worth some money, but now, I think it can trade for a few kilograms of rice," Li Long casually toyed with the thing brought by the tall, thin drifter in front of him.

From a few sentences just now, he already knew the other party's background. He came from the interior, heard that digging fritillaria was fast money, so he entered the mountains. Unfortunately, although he recognized fritillaria, he wasn't good at digging it; others only needed one shovel to dig it out, while he needed to dig it open and then rummage for a long time. Others dug several kilograms a day, while he couldn't even dig one kilogram a day. His dry rations were finished, and he was starving. After running into other drifters and hearing that things could be traded for food here, he hurried over, wanting to get some food first.

What Li Long held was a round copper mirror; he didn't know what era it was from, but the surface was covered in green rust. Fortunately, it felt like the rust was only on the surface, and it was relatively complete. There were patterns on the back, it seemed like birds and beasts or something. There was also a knob.

"Trade it, trade it, it was picked up in that gully," Li Long hadn't continued to probe, and this person said it himself, "In the stream, I was drinking water, and I saw it in the stone crevice by the water. What can this fritillaria of mine trade for? Is there any ready-made food? I'm starving!"

Li Long traded him some sesame cakes and sponge cakes, and packed some rice for him. He also wanted to trade for shoes and granulated sugar; it seemed he liked sweet things quite a bit, and he also wanted some money.

"That's not enough." Li Long waved his hand, "This bit of fritillaria of yours is only worth the money for this one kilogram of sesame cakes plus sponge cakes; the rest is traded for this thing. I've given you quite a lot. Besides, why do you need money in the mountains?"

"I don't want to do it anymore, get some money and go out, see if I can find a new way, or rely on relatives," the man said directly, "I found that I can't eat this bowl of rice; it's better to seek another way out..."

He hesitated for a moment, took something off his waistband, and said:

"Take a look at this, how much money can it trade for?"

This was a yellow piece, quite heavy, quite pressing on the hand. One end was square and one end was round, and the round end had an eye the size of a soybean. Li Long looked carefully; there were characters written on it, but they weren't Chinese characters, and they didn't look much like modern Uyghur or Kazakh. They were written vertically, and he couldn't understand them.

"Copper, right? Worth seven or eight yuan?" Li Long weighed it and said, "Where did it come from?"

"Also picked up there. I also found some rusted copper coins and rotten cloth pieces," that person said, "Can this one sell for seven or eight yuan?"

"Yeah."

"What about four?" That person took out three more from his waistband, "Can trade for thirty-something yuan, right?" His face was glowing, "You said it, you can't go back on your word!"

Li Long was a bit dumbfounded. What is this? Wholesale? Could it be goods imported from Yiwu?

He regretted the price he had offered earlier a bit. (End of chapter)