Chapter 774: The feeling of revisiting an old place

That group of wild donkeys ran very fast, and when they saw the jeep, or rather, heard the sound of the jeep, they had already turned around and ran into the depths of the sand bags.

"Heh, they run really fast! If they were slower, we could have hit them." Li Qing Xia looked at the wild donkeys and said.

Being able to encounter wild donkeys meant there should be quite a few wild animals here, and all three of them felt relieved.

The car continued forward, and Li Jianguo suddenly pointed to a piece of land covered by snow and said:

"This is land the unit farmed when I was a logistics officer. Further ahead there's a piece of apple forest, I don't know if it's still there... Heh, it's still there."

That piece of farmland was nearly a thousand mu, a very large piece. The Xinjiang Corps had started mechanized reclamation very early, and since it was located on the edge of the Junggar Basin, it was flat as a plain, and the farmland was also very large, piece after piece, hard to see the end at a glance.

Next to this piece of farmland was a relatively sparse apple forest. The fruit trees didn't grow long, they should have been pruned, and Li Long could still see a shriveled apple on a tree at the edge of the plot. A few birds landed on the tree branches, and when they saw the jeep driving over, they flapped their wings and flew away.

"Then is this whole piece farmland? Will we not see Mongolian gazelles later?" Li Qing Xia was a bit disappointed, "Where is the unit you were originally in?"

"Keep walking forward, it's far." Li Jianguo said, "This piece of land, look, south of the road is land, north of the road is Gobi sand bags, it's fine, we often saw Mongolian gazelles and red deer in the north, there are, there definitely are!"

Driving here, it was already past one o'clock in the afternoon, almost mealtime, but none of the three were hungry, mainly wanting to find the target as soon as possible.

However, driving for another few kilometers, there were forest belts ahead, and houses appeared. Li Jianguo didn't even need to say anything, Li Long and Li Qing Xia guessed that this should be the unit Li Jianguo had stayed in before.

"Brother, after you went to the Fourth Team, did you never come back?" Li Long asked suddenly.

"No, how could I come? It's so far, it takes more than a day by horse-drawn cart, what a waste of time to go back and forth, and there was nothing to do..."

Li Long could tell that Li Jianguo actually wanted to come back and see, after all, this was where he first lived when he came to Northern Xinjiang.

"Stayed for two or three years, and got to know some friends, I don't know how they are doing now." Li Jianguo sighed and said, "Life was really good then, better than in my hometown. At noon, we could eat steamed buns every day, although one person only got one, and although other leaders of the unit, and the regimental leaders stationed here, would also come to grab them, I, as the logistics officer and the kitchen squad leader, had to steam two cages a day, but life was really good then..."

"That's true. When you first came to Northern Xinjiang, Little Long hadn't been born yet. At that time, let alone eating steamed buns at home, we couldn't even get enough to eat, and there was no money for your school fees... It's me who was useless." Li Qing Xia also sighed.

The voices were very low.

Li Jianguo had taken the county first middle school exam in his hometown, with the seventh-best score in the whole county, but unfortunately, he couldn't finish, there was no tuition money, even though the principal at the time felt it was a pity and wanted to pay the five-yuan tuition for one semester for him, he still couldn't go—going to junior high meant living at school, and there was no living expense either.

So he could only give up, drop out, and then go home to do farm work.

The Central Plains had little land, the Li family had many people, and they couldn't get enough to eat, so they followed Li Qing Xia to sell pears and ginger. Catching up with those three difficult years, they really couldn't hold on, so they ran to Northern Xinjiang.

Quite a few people ran to Northern Xinjiang at that time. Li Jianguo had a big advantage: he was literate. So when he arrived here, he was immediately accepted by the Corps, first as a document clerk in this unit, and a year later became a logistics officer.

If it hadn't been for Li Qing Xia's insistence at the time that Li Jianguo go back, maybe Li Jianguo would be a cadre of a considerable level in the Corps now, after all, that was nearly twenty years ago.

"Dad, why did you let my eldest brother go back then?" Li Long was a bit puzzled. He knew roughly about Li Jianguo's history, but not very clearly.

"Your dad, I, had no ability." Li Qing Xia shook his head and said, "I was alone, farming didn't work, doing business didn't work, couldn't support this family... and your older brother and sister were young, and your mother's health wasn't good, so I thought about letting your eldest brother come back to support the facade."

Li Long understood. At this time, there was no such sign in Northern Xinjiang, even so, the eldest sister-in-law's family was almost bullied. This aspect was very serious in the hometown. Whoever had many sons and strong labor force had power and wouldn't be bullied, and could even bully others.

Didn't those brothers from the Liang family who wanted to bully the old Liang family think that way? It's just that this didn't work in Northern Xinjiang, and they kicked an iron plate.

But in the Central Plains, at least in the village where Li Jianguo and the others were, this was equivalent to a hard rule and hidden rule. His old man was alone, so he thought about letting his eldest son come back to support the facade.

Li Jianguo didn't speak, and didn't know what he was thinking.

"Do you want to go in and see?" The car had already arrived at the unit gate, and some staff were curiously looking at the jeep.

Regimental leaders, that is, the regimental commander (non-military) or the farm director, could drive such an imposing small car. Which leader was this?

"... Let's not go in for now, right? Keep driving northwest, there's a large piece of wasteland over there, there are sand bags, that's where the unit used to hunt Mongolian gazelles, we should be able to run into them, business is important."

Li Long smiled. His eldest brother clearly wanted to go in, maybe he had some concerns, didn't know if it counted as "near home and timid," or was afraid that the people he knew were no longer there, or because sitting in a jeep was quite flamboyant, so he didn't go in.

Then he continued driving west. When their jeep drove two or three hundred meters away, two or three people ran out from the unit, looking at the direction of the jeep, puzzled:

"Where is this leader going? If they go further that way, won't they enter the sand nest?"

"Is there any special mission? Shall we prepare first? There's no road over there, they'll have to come back, preparing in advance won't be wrong."

"Right, right, right, prepare at the unit headquarters, Old Chen, you go and arrange it, make it sumptuous."

"Don't worry, I'll go to the vegetable cellar to get things right now!"

Li Jianguo and the others didn't know that someone was already preparing things for them, and continued to pay attention to the wild land.

Slowly, the flat farmland disappeared, replaced by sandy land with red willows, saxaul, and alkali wormwood. Going further, there were undulating sand bags. Even the road they walked on was in the gaps between the sand bags. This road should have been temporarily trodden out, and there was no regular road anymore.

The snow in the Gobi sand bags was thinner than on the Fourth Team's side. There were many hoof prints and claw prints in the snow, the most being rabbit prints, weaving between the red willow and saxaul bushes, looking very much like ropes connecting these shrubs.

The red willows and saxaul here weren't dense, didn't form a forest, and weren't tall, and there were traces of being eaten.

The jeep stopped by the side of a relatively high sand bag. To their north, a hundred meters away, a group of Mongolian gazelles were eating the tender branches on the red willow bushes.

When the jeep stopped, the Mongolian gazelles had already discovered this "colossus," but since the distance was far, the Mongolian gazelles were quite confident in their legs and feet. A few male Mongolian gazelles straightened their necks to look over here, and then didn't care anymore.

Li Long scanned them. This group of Mongolian gazelles had more than a hundred, with all sizes. The ewes were teaching the half-grown lambs to eat grass, and occasionally a small lamb still wanted to drink milk, arching under the ewe's belly.

Some lambs were already quite big, but still hadn't shed the habits of small lambs, their front hooves jumping high, and then butting heads with other small lambs.

A very lively, very quiet picture.

Li Long took out his gun.

He was thinking, if he fired a shot, would it scare those Mongolian gazelles, and then they would scatter and flee, and then he would catch those small lambs?

A very cruel thought.

"Little Long, at this distance, can you hit those few Mongolian gazelles?" Li Qing Xia took out another gun—a sand gun.

That was a double-barreled shotgun.

"Let's try." Li Long opened the safety, sent a bullet into the chamber, aimed standing, and said: "Should be able to hit them, but once this is fired, they'll run immediately."

"I see the snow over there is quite flat, can you drive this jeep and chase them for a while?" Li Qing Xia asked, "If you can chase them, maybe you can chase some lamb babies."

"Absolutely not," Li Jianguo waved his hand hurriedly, "It looks like flat ground, but no one knows if there are snow nests underneath. In summer when there's no snow, you have to be careful driving in here, and at this time, if you get stuck, the three of us won't be able to get it out at all."

"Then let's shoot." Li Long carried the gun and walked forward, saying, "Let's walk forward, walking closer will make it more accurate."

"Then let's walk." Li Qing Xia was a bit regretful. This car wasn't good enough, but thinking about it, he was actually a bit ungrateful. Now that he could drive a car and go wherever he wanted, how many people could do that?

Which son was so doting on his old man, saying he wanted to go to the sand nest and just ran to the sand nest?

One very important reason for Li Qing Xia's big emotional change was that he also remembered Li Jianguo's previous situation.

If he had ability, could his eldest son have gone to junior high and high school normally, and now be a national cadre?

He had no ability, and delayed his eldest son.

Li Qing Xia was sometimes willful, but he knew his son had that ability and could bear his willfulness.

But to say he didn't regret, didn't blame himself? That was impossible. The good life now was run out by his eldest and youngest, and what did it have to do with him?

Basically nothing.

So his words were sometimes many, sometimes few, sometimes really unintentional and brainless, but sometimes, he felt his eldest was really bitter.

If he really hadn't called his eldest back at that time, although this place was remote, listening to what his eldest said, in the sixties, they could eat steamed buns every day, how good that life must have been...

It was just that the place was remote, and not as good as the Fourth Team.

While thinking, the three of them had walked more than twenty meters slowly. Li Long raised his gun to aim, and those Mongolian gazelles, seeing three upright monsters coming, also became vigilant. Nearly half of the more than a hundred Mongolian gazelles raised their heads to look over here, and there were ewes vigilantly calling their lambs.

Li Long stopped and said:

"Don't walk anymore, if you walk further, these Mongolian gazelles will run—shoot."

He originally wanted to get some lamb babies, but now it seemed it wasn't easy to get them. He thought it was simple, he should have brought a small-caliber one. If he hit them with that, the probability of not killing them was high, and he could bring them back to raise.

If there was time next year, after the wheat was harvested in August, he could take time to come over. By then, the small Mongolian gazelles would have just been born not long ago and couldn't keep up with the main force. If he came over, maybe he could get some.

Li Long's brain was also messy, but at this time he had already raised his gun and prepared to aim.

"Eldest, you shoot." Li Qing Xia looked at this distance, seventy or eighty meters, he didn't have much confidence with the sand gun. It would be better if it were closer.

At noon, the sunlight was quite strong, and Li Long's semi-automatic rifle's virtual light had been processed. He aimed at a Mongolian gazelle that had just grown up last year.

Just as he was about to shoot, he suddenly heard a scream from a Mongolian gazelle, and the group of Mongolian gazelles became chaotic. Those more than a hundred Mongolian gazelles fled frantically from the north, and then swept from north to south, the kicking hooves stirring up crushed snow, quite imposing.

The direction they ran over was actually Li Long's side!

It was just that after running over more than twenty meters, they immediately deviated from the direction. Clearly, the leading Mongolian gazelle also knew that these three upright monsters were not easy to mess with.

Li Long stood straight and looked into the distance, seeing a group of seven or eight wolves, forming a small encirclement, one of which had already pressed a Mongolian gazelle and was biting it, and the others also had their own targets.

So it wasn't just his side that had targeted this Mongolian gazelle group, there were also wolves in the desert!

"Bang!" The Mongolian gazelle group ran horizontally from fifty or sixty meters in front of him. Li Long wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity, raised his gun and shot down one first. Over there, Li Jianguo also fired a shot and wounded one, and that Mongolian gazelle ran for more than ten steps before falling down.

After Li Long fired another shot, the Mongolian gazelles ran far away.

The legs of these animals were slender, but very powerful.

The gunshots on their side not only startled the Mongolian gazelles but also startled those few wolves. The ones that were originally hunting slowed down, and some fled directly.

Li Long turned the muzzle and aimed at the two wolves that were biting the Mongolian gazelles—prey in the mouth, these two wolves were still a bit reluctant.

He hadn't fired yet, when Li Jianguo over there fired a "bang" at a wolf.

Li Jianguo had two bullets in his shotgun, fired one at a Mongolian gazelle, and didn't fire when he didn't have confidence when shooting again. At this time, he also saw those few wolves, so he simply shot at the wolves!

This gunshot made the two wolves leap up and flee into the distance.

"Sigh, missed!" Li Jianguo was a bit annoyed.

"Bang!"

Li Long aimed for a long time with this shot and directly shot down a running wolf.

"Your gun is fine for hitting close ones, but not accurate for hitting far ones." Li Long said, "The sand gun has no rifling, it's really not easy to hit far away..."

"Not bad, not bad! This looks like quite a few, go, go, go, hurry and get them back..." Li Qing Xia didn't shoot, but seeing several Mongolian gazelles fall down was quite excited, "Heh, the harvest is really not small! And there's a wolf..."

The three walked forward. Li Qing Xia didn't carry the gun, walked in the front, and first held the Mongolian gazelle that was wounded by Li Jianguo and was closest.

This was a ewe, the bullet hit from above the hind leg, a bit below the butt, and went through, bleeding a lot. At this time, seeing Li Qing Xia come over, it was still screaming miserably there.

"Don't know if it can live." Li Qing Xia said, "Get it back first."

"Can't live." Li Jianguo shook his head, "The back butt is all smashed."

"Wipe it, so it doesn't suffer." Li Qing Xia handed this Mongolian gazelle to Li Jianguo. Li Jianguo also carried a folding knife, stepped forward, and wiped the sheep's neck.

The two Mongolian gazelles shot by Li Long were dead, and the blood soaked the snow, a puddle.

Li Long carried the gun on his back, lifted the two Mongolian gazelles with one hand each, piled them together, and then went to see the wolf that had been shot down.

The wolf hadn't been shot dead, and was currently lying in the snow twitching. When Li Long came over, its head lifted, and then it leaned back into the snow.

Li Long walked to the front, the wolf suddenly rushed up to bite Li Long. Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo were both watching, and Li Qing Xia even shouted, but Li Long wasn't in a hurry at all. When the wolf raised its head and opened its mouth to bite him, he almost simultaneously raised his foot and kicked the wolf in the neck, directly breaking the wolf's neck!

Ta Lihaer's matter made Li Long always maintain vigilance against these wild creatures. Even a rabbit will bite when anxious, let alone these wolves? So he always maintained vigilance, and when this wolf moved, he didn't hold back either.

Looking at this forty or fifty-kilogram gray wolf kicked out three or four meters by Li Long, Li Qing Xia walked over and praised:

"Little Long, your reaction, heh, really fast! If it were me, I don't know if I would have been bitten by this beast."

Li Long smiled. This wolf was already dead—he couldn't hear it breathing, so he bent down and carried the wolf back.

Li Qing Xia also walked back. He walked to the position of the two Mongolian gazelles, lifted one, and walked toward the car.

Li Jianguo had already lifted the Mongolian gazelle he hit and placed it by the car, and came over to lift a Mongolian gazelle again.

"Pity we didn't get Mongolian gazelle babies. The current Mongolian gazelle babies are all big, too able to run. Just now I looked at that group of Mongolian gazelles, the fastest running was the leading male, and the rest were half-grown Mongolian gazelle babies."

Li Qing Xia hadn't forgotten the purpose of this trip, and said with some regret.

"It's fine, having a harvest is enough." Li Long carried this wolf and said while walking, "Come again when there's an opportunity later."

Li Jianguo didn't speak.

Three Mongolian gazelles and one wolf were placed by the jeep, and Li Long began to open the bellies of these prey.

"This place is much colder than the team." Li Qing Xia felt it and said, "This is colder the further north you go, it's minus twenty degrees in the middle of the day."

"It's colder at night than the team too." Li Jianguo said while pulling the wolf leg to help Li Long, "Originally when I was in the unit, I couldn't come out to relieve myself at night, it was freezing."

Li Long listened and smiled. What his eldest brother said was relatively elegant, wasn't that just freezing the butt?

After opening the bellies of these prey and releasing the dirty air, and packing them up with bags later, this trip was considered over.

It didn't take long, and there was no danger, feeling a bit imperfect, as if it wasn't exciting enough, but asking them to run and find another group of Mongolian gazelles didn't seem realistic.

After all, in this empty place, the gunshots traveled far, at least there couldn't be any Mongolian gazelle groups within a few kilometers nearby.

They were all scared away.

Driving the jeep back, when they were almost at the unit, Li Long found that there were a few people standing in the middle of the road they came from.

They were looking at their side.

He turned his head to look at his eldest brother sitting in the passenger seat. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 775 =====