Chapter 744: This Li Long Really Knows How to Get Things Done

More than thirty yellow sheep lay together, and Xu Chengjun and the others wore obvious excitement and agitation on their faces.

Xu Haijun even said:

"Without Xiao Long, I truly didn't expect this; we gathered so many at once! We've waited less than half an hour; should we change locations and hunt again?"

"Hunt my ass!" Xu Chengjun reached out and slapped him. "If we bag more, how do we haul them back? These are over thirty sheep, not thirty chickens! Even this is hard to pull; if we hunt more, will you carry them back on your back?"

Everyone burst into laughter. The joy of the harvest spread among these people.

"Why is it hard to haul? Pile these yellow sheep in the truck bed, and we'll just sit on the side boards," Xie Xie Yun Dong said; he hadn't expected such a huge harvest immediately upon arrival, and he was quite excited too.

"Let's head back first," Li Qing smiled. "You can try loading the yellow sheep into the truck bed to see how many will fit."

He had personally hit three—mainly because the herd of yellow sheep had already been driven right up to their faces, requiring almost no deliberate aim; it was all done by experience as he went rat-tat-tat.

He had just counted: Old Father had bagged one, Gu Gu Bo Yuan and Li Jianguo had each bagged two, Lu Yingming had bagged one and wounded another that hadn't managed to escape before being killed by someone else; the specific details weren't clear yet, and they were still looking into it.

However, judging by his demeanor, he wasn't very concerned; with every militia member holding at least one yellow sheep, the rest would be distributed anyway, so he didn't mind much.

According to Xu Chengjun, when he led the militia out hunting, the first animal bagged counted as the militia member's own, and the second counted as the team's; basically, everyone had bagged two, with some overlaps, and a few had even bagged three.

The yellow sheep bagged by Li Qing and his group were not shared with the team; this was the benefit of Li Qing leading everyone here.

This time, Lu Yingming took the initiative to carry his own yellow sheep to the tractor's truck bed, while everyone else marked the yellow sheep they intended to take home, and those destined for the team were piled in the middle of the truck bed.

At this moment, one could see the difference in family conditions and the richness of experience.

Some people, when choosing which yellow sheep to take home, only looked at whether the size was large, since larger ones naturally yielded more meat.

Those with richer experience, whose families were not so short of meat, chose one- or two-year-old male red deer or young female red deer.

When selecting, they also checked the teeth to judge age, knowing that such meat tasted better and didn't have such a strong gamey flavor.

Xie Xie Yun Dong was one of them, and Tao Daqiang was much the same.

Having stayed in the mountains with Li Qing for three years, and having previously participated in sideline teams sent out by the production brigade, he naturally knew which wild creatures had tasty meat and which did not.

Some people humbly asked him for advice, while others stuck firmly to their own selection criteria.

So what if it doesn't taste good? No matter how bad it tastes, it's still meat, which is better than pickled vegetables and potatoes!

Those still striving between having something and having nothing would not bother agonizing over whether it was good or not.

There was no way to fit all eight yellow sheep from Li Qing's group of four into the jeep. Originally, Li Jianguo wanted to squeeze onto the tractor with Lu Yingming and the others, but Li Qing refused. Just kidding; why ride a tractor when there's a jeep? Was it really just for these few yellow sheep?

It truly wasn't necessary.

The bellies of all the yellow sheep had been slit open to release the heat.

Li Qing also explained this method to Xu Chengjun and the others; everyone admired Li Qing when it came to hunting, so they all followed suit. Those without knives simply used the flat bayonets of their Type 56 semi-automatic rifles to poke a hole first.

Li Qing handed over one of the yellow sheep he had bagged to the team; Xu Chengjun took that yellow sheep and said to Li Qing:

"Without Xiao Long, with this haul, the meat you owed the team is now squared away. Your method for fattening sheep is good; next year, some in the team want to learn from it."

"No problem; if they want to learn, they can just go find Uncle Lao Luo," Li Qing smiled. "The yellow sheep my old father and my brother bagged are also on your tractor; let me share in your good luck."

Xu Chengjun was driving his new tractor; to make it convenient for carrying passengers, wooden planks had been specially added to the side boards on both sides, and now the interior was piled full of yellow sheep.

He naturally had no objection to Li Qing's idea and agreed readily.

Li Qing entrusted the three yellow sheep bagged by Li Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo to Tao Daqiang and Xie Xie Yun Dong to watch over respectively, while he loaded the yellow sheep he and Gu Gu Bo Yuan had bagged into the jeep, then drove away.

"Hey, cars are so convenient!" Watching the jeep's taillights fade into the distance, someone remarked with envy and sighs, "I wonder when in this lifetime we'll ever be able to drive a car."

The others laughed at him for indulging in wishful thinking, but Tao Daqiang and Xie Xie Yun Dong, sitting together, exchanged a smile.

They had heard Li Qing say that in another twenty or thirty years, at least half the people in the team would be able to buy cars.

They believed Li Qing's words, and moreover, they believed they would definitely count among the first batch able to buy cars.

Li Li Qing Xia was also quite excited, but this was immediately followed by regret:

"If this gun had been in your hands, wouldn't you have bagged three yellow sheep just like Without Xiao Long? I'm old now; my eyes and movements can't keep up..." He was speaking to Li Jianguo.

"Where are you old?" Li Jianguo smiled. "How old are you? Aren't you still catching and selling fish every day, and managing to bag yellow sheep too? Only those who can't walk or work are called old; don't you agree, Old Gu?"

"Right, right, right," Gu Gu Bo Yuan said with a smile. "Brother Lao Li, how are you old? Didn't you just bag a yellow sheep? We shouldn't compare ourselves to those young lads; it's not the same."

"Mm, that's true." Listening to Li Jianguo and Gu Gu Bo Yuan, Li Li Qing Xia nodded with reserved satisfaction, his mood improving considerably; he even began reviewing the situation from the yellow sheep hunt, thinking that if he had aimed a few seconds earlier, he might have bagged two.

Li Jianguo glared at Gu Gu Bo Yuan; this guy was taking advantage of him. Originally, he was called "Old Li," but now his old father was being called "Brother Lao Li"; wasn't this an attempt to raise himself a generation?

Don't even think about it; let's keep our relationships separate!

The trip out had been cautious and careful, but the return was like wind and lightning; driving dozens of kilometers late at night, it was rare to encounter another vehicle. Unless near residential points where Li Qing would slow down, at all other times the speed was sixty or seventy kilometers per hour or more... don't think this speed is slow; in this era, under these road conditions, it was actually very fast.

After passing Shicheng and reaching Maxian, Li Qing first dropped off Gu Gu Bo Yuan; he didn't give him the two yellow sheep, telling him to return to the courtyard to rest first, before continuing to drive toward the Fourth Squad.

When the jeep arrived at the Li family courtyard, lights were on both sides; Li Juan and Li Qiang were the first to hear the engine sound, and the two ran out impatiently.

Seeing Li Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo get out of the car, Li Juan went up to ask about the hunting situation, while Li Qiang reached out to touch the gun Li Jianguo was carrying on his back—what boy doesn't love guns!

Li Qing got out cheerfully, and immediately the two children surrounded him, incessantly asking about the hunting situation, making Li Li Qing Xia feel a bit jealous.

Everyone knew that Li Qing had a good relationship with the two children; according to Liang Yuemei, because Li Qing used to play with the two children, he was essentially just a big child leader.

Upon being reborn, Li Qing still harbored a slight guilt toward the two children; his arrival had somewhat diverted Li Jianguo's care and love away from them, so whenever there were good things, he would think of the two children first.

After chatting for a while in the large courtyard, Li Qing drove the jeep back to the county town.

On the return trip, he didn't encounter Xu Chengjun and the others' tractor; it seemed there was still some busy work left to do on the tractor.

After returning to the large courtyard, Li Qing carried those few yellow sheep into the side room; he had no time to sort through these things late at night.

Xu Chengjun and the others didn't return to the Fourth Squad until past midnight. Although they were all so frozen they didn't want to speak while on the truck bed, once they returned to the team, they all became lively again.

That night, lights stayed on late in many households of the Fourth Squad before finally going out; after all, not everyone was like Li Qing's family, able to eat wild game frequently.

Basically, in every household of the backbone militia members who participated in the hunt, they were processing yellow sheep meat that entire night. The yellow sheep, hauled back from dozens of kilometers away, were frozen very solid, but these families kept waiting until the carcasses softened before skinning them and cleaning out the internal organs.

Not a bit was wasted.

Xu Chengjun and Xie Xie Yun Dong drove the tractor to drop people off at their homes one by one; before returning to his own home, he also delivered the three yellow sheep belonging to Li Jianguo's family to their doorstep.

The remaining ten or so yellow sheep counted as the team's; Xu Chengjun instructed that tomorrow, after these militia members cleaned their guns and returned them to the team, they should go to their homes to process the yellow sheep.

On the road, Xu Chengjun had already told these militia members that since they already had yellow sheep, when the time came to distribute the yellow sheep meat, these militia members would not participate in the distribution.

If everyone's willing, then that's that. Going along on the hunt, what they put in is just time and pulling the trigger once. Where the gazelles are, who drags them over — that's all for the team to figure out.

Right now each family has gotten one, which is already pretty good.

At this time the gazelles haven't burned through the fat they put on all autumn, so basically every one weighs over thirty kilograms. Even after skinning and gutting, there's still around twenty kilograms of meat on the bone. If you're careful with it, it's more than enough for a family to eat until Spring Festival.

So, by the next afternoon, the loudspeaker at Xu Chengjun's house blared again. Just like last time with the wild boar meat, this time each group brought people over to collect the gazelle meat — by drawing lots.

This time Xu Chengjun made far fewer paper balls. About ten households didn't take part in the distribution, and each of the remaining households basically got about a third of a gazelle — mostly meat with some offal.

As for the hides, they went to the team. Xu Chengjun planned to take them to the purchasing station the day after tomorrow to sell them off, so the team would have a bit more funds — of course, he kept one gazelle, which was meant as a gift for the township armed forces department. The township armed forces department had turned a blind eye to Xu Chengjun taking the militia out hunting. Nobody saw it, nobody reported it — the kind of thing where if the officials don't bring it up, the people don't pursue it.

Besides, Xu Chengjun had his story ready: he'd taken the militia out to train in snow ambush, and just happened to run into a herd of gazelles.

Since they had guns, didn't they just take a few shots while they were at it?

The leadership at the township armed forces department accepted the gazelle, so naturally they wouldn't say anything about Xu Chengjun — privately they could even praise him for knowing how to handle things.

In these times, how many people can hunt gazelles and still think to send one to the township armed forces department?

Li Jianguo was plenty busy. Three gazelles — just skinning them took him a whole morning. For these three gazelles, the whole family pitched in; even Du Chunfang was helping wash the intestines.

No choice — couldn't keep up otherwise.

Nobody thought to drag Li Long back to help — Li Long had even more on his end, four of them!

It took a full day to finish processing the gazelles. The next day Li Jianguo rode his bicycle to deliver one to Liang Donglou's place.

Actually, if Gu Gu Bo Yuan hadn't come along in the jeep, he'd been thinking of bringing Liang Liang Wenyu along if they went hunting.

!

A brother-in-law, after all — naturally you have to look out for him. But once Gu Gu Bo Yuan came, and Lu Yingming tagged along too, the jeep clearly couldn't fit anyone else.

Last year Team Four pulled this same stunt, and this year again — Liang Donglou was getting somewhat used to it.

Li Jianguo didn't stay long at the Liang house before heading home. At home, Liang Yuemei was still braising meat, and there were plenty of small tasks to deal with.

Of course, the busiest one was still Li Long. He got up early the next morning and started processing the gazelles.

But Li Long didn't process all four at once — he didn't have that kind of skill, and he didn't have that kind of intention either.

He processed two gazelles first and left the other two to freeze.

Of the two processed gazelles, one stayed at home for Sister Yang to brine and stew while the kids slept. The other he put into bags, divided into four portions, and hauled over to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Along with it, he brought the gun he'd borrowed from Section Chief Hou.

One gazelle, four legs — Wei Zhuren, the deputy director, Li Li Xiangqian, and Section Chief Hou each got one leg.

"Hey, I've been running the security section all these years, and lending out guns — only this year have I ever seen meat come back." Section Chief Hou joked as he accepted the rather hefty-looking leg without refusing. "You cleaned the gun, right?"

"Cleaned it." Li Long said with a smile. "Cleaned it very well, Section Chief — don't worry."

"No wonder Brother Lao Li has taken such a shine to you — the way you handle things just feels right." Section Chief Hou gave the gun a quick check — flipped off the safety, worked the bolt to check the firing pin, then re-engaged the safety and put it back in the cabinet.

At this time guns weren't yet required to be double-locked by two people — one person could manage them alone.

Back in Li Li Xiangqian's office, Li Li Xiangqian held out his tea mug to Li Long and asked:

"Same place we went last time?"

"A bit west of that." Li Long gestured. "On the way there we even ran into a horse cart hauling four or five gazelles — coming from over by Shawan West. They said there are big herds of gazelles over there too. It was evening, so it seems gazelles don't have a fixed time for crossing — as long as they don't see vehicles, they might just cross."

Li Li Xiangqian nodded and didn't say much.

Director Qian probably can't make it — after going once his enthusiasm faded. Mainly it's just too cold. If it were summer, he'd definitely drag Li Long out for another run.

Wei Zhuren was also very warm toward Li Long, and even let slip to him that he might be transferred after the new year.

Wei Zhuren was also feeling emotional—he'd been in Maxian for quite a while now, and it was only in the two years since Li Long came that he'd really shown his face twice. He was quite grateful to Li Long.

Li Long hadn't expected Wei Zhuren to be moving on. After offering some vague congratulations, he hurried back to Li Li Xiangqian's office to ask about the situation.

"Supposedly it's a promotion of half a rank." Li Li Xiangqian had known this news for a while. "Most likely he'll go to Beiting City Supply and Marketing Cooperative as director."

Beiting City is a county-level city, but as the capital of Beiting Prefecture, being half a rank higher in level is perfectly normal.

As for whether it's good — definitely good. Wei Zhuren's home is in Beiting, and he goes back once a week. That's basically a long-distance marriage. With this transfer, he'd finally be reunited with his family.

"So, Section Chief, is there any chance you could become director?" Li Long asked with a grin. "If you do, I'll raise both hands in support."

"I'd love to, but whether I can or not is hard to say." Li Li Xiangqian certainly had that ambition, and with Director Qian there, he naturally wanted to move up a notch too.

But the message Director Qian had let slip to him was pretty vague — the gist being that someone had their eye on the Maxian position, though Director Qian didn't go into detail about who this big shot was.

Li Li Xiangqian was also thinking of making some moves. Director Qian's meaning was for him to wait and see how things played out on his end. Li Li Xiangqian and Director Qian had a good private relationship, and over the past two years the procurement section of Maxian Supply and Marketing Cooperative had done well — advanced unit year after year, and the autonomous region had taken note (the big broom incident). A promotion wouldn't be out of the question.

The main issue was Li Li Xiangqian's age — slightly on the older side. They were already starting to emphasize younger cadres, and required a certain level of education.

So this thing wasn't entirely solid.

There was nothing Li Long could do to influence it. He naturally hoped Li Li Xiangqian would become director — that way he himself could lean on a big tree for shade. But since he couldn't influence it, he didn't think on it further. If Li Li Xiangqian wanted to advance, he'd naturally go make it happen.

Back home, it took another two days to finish processing those two gazelles.

Now the storage room next to the kitchen had quite a bit of meat hanging from iron hooks. Winter was good for storage — frozen meat just hung there, and whenever you wanted to eat, you just took down a piece.

Meat was sufficient for now, so Li Long didn't think about going hunting again. He returned to his lazy life, taking the kids to Team Four every weekend.

After another heavy snowfall, the time reached the Winter Solstice—what everyone commonly calls the start of the "nine-nines" period. The militia training at Team Four was winding down. Xu Chengjun had already gotten word that this year's militia training organized in this manner would be the last. Starting next year, the scale of the basic militia would begin to shrink, winter militia drills would be organized by the township, and militia weapons would no longer be issued down to the villages.

When villages wanted to organize basic militia weapons training, they could file a report with the township armed forces department — whether it got approved or not was anyone's guess.

This left Xu Chengjun feeling a bit uncomfortable. They'd only been hunting for two years, and winter life had gotten easier, and the villagers' impression of the village committee had improved quite a bit. Now suddenly the village wasn't allowed to keep guns anymore — wasn't this just messing with people?

It was Xu Haijun who suggested an idea: if they still wanted to hunt like this, they could have the well-off folks buy a few hunting rifles next year.

Xu Haijun also let Xu Chengjun in on some news — apparently a certain team, some village west of the township, had "lost" two semi-automatics when turning in their guns to the township.

Supposedly they went missing during a night march with the militia.

"That can work too?" The moment Xu Chengjun heard it, he understood exactly what had happened. He was so angry he laughed. "Would the township armed forces department go for that?"

"If they don't like it, what can they do? Once it's lost, you can't get it back — can't exactly make someone conjure them up. In the end they just fined them." Xu Haijun said.

A fine?

Xu Chengjun was a bit tempted.

When Li Long returned, he also heard this news from Li Jianguo; Li Jianguo felt quite regretful, as it seemed there would be no way to organize a large-scale hunt next year.

Fortunately, all three rifles here belonged to Li Long himself; if the team couldn't hunt, the Li family still could.

Li Long vaguely remembered that it was around this time—though he had forgotten the exact year—that training for the backbone militia gradually became less intense, and firearms were no longer issued.

Although he had been a backbone militia member in his previous life, he was not very enthusiastic about training, so his impression of this was not deep.

It did not have much to do with him. (End of Chapter)