Chapter 775: The former colleagues and comrades-in-arms have all changed

Li Jianguo looked at those few figures, his expression changing from doubt to surprise, and then he became somewhat excited.

"Deputy Company Commander Wang—Old Chen?"

Those few people were also somewhat surprised looking at the jeep driving over. This car was at least at the level of a regimental commander or farm director, and they could come here just to hunt?

They had also heard the gunshots, so they all ran out.

Looking at the number of this jeep, it was a car from the Corps, as for which regiment it belonged to, it wasn't clear.

But it didn't matter, they were all in the same system, greeting them, and being able to receive them was also good.

Anyway, they were the landlords here, and leaders from the same system had come, and if they didn't receive them, it would be very ugly if it spread out later. Their own leaders wouldn't be able to save face either.

"Eldest, acquaintances?" Li Long asked, "Stop or not?"

"Stop, yes. Look at that tall one, that's the former Deputy Company Commander, Wang Mingjun. At that time, my relationship with him was quite good, the Deputy Company Commander manages logistics, you know. That fatter one, Old Chen, is older than me, at that time he was the kitchen squad leader, and he was under my management—at that time the unit wasn't as big as it is now, and everyone ate together."

Li Jianguo looked at the four people in front while recalling the scene at that time: "At that time, everyone's appetite was really big..."

The jeep stopped on the side of the road, and those few people immediately gathered around.

They had already seen Li Long in the driver's seat, a young man, looking really spirited, a good driver.

Passenger seat... this is...

Wang Mingjun and Old Chen's eyes suddenly widened!

How is it possible?

Li Jianguo only reacted when the car stopped, then he opened the door, got out, and walked toward the two with a smile.

"Deputy Company Commander Wang, Old Chen, what, don't you recognize me?"

"Heh, Little Li!"

"Logistics Officer!"

Two excited greetings, one hand each gripped the hand Li Jianguo stretched out, and Old Chen even hugged him:

"Logistics Officer, I thought I wouldn't be able to see you in this lifetime... It's been almost twenty years since you left, right?"

"Heh, that's really... what, look at you two, the changes aren't considered big. By the way, where is Company Commander Chai? And Instructor Liu?"

"Company Commander Chai was transferred to the regimental headquarters, serving as the Minister of Armed Forces. Instructor Liu went to the brother regiment to be the Organization Section Chief. Having culture is different. If you had stayed at that time, you would definitely have gone to the regimental headquarters too... But it's not bad now, you're sitting in a small car, which regiment are you in?"

"Heh, which regiment am I in? I'm an old farmer now." Li Jianguo said with a smile, and then introduced Li Qing Xia and Li Long who had already gotten out of the car: "This is my old man, this is my brother, come, come, come, these two are my former colleagues, Deputy Company Commander Wang Mingjun, this is Old Chen, the kitchen squad leader at the time, what are you two now..."

"Now I'm Company Commander Wang." Old Chen said with a smile, "I'm the Logistics Officer, taking over your position at the time. This is our document clerk Wei Qingshu, this is the kitchen squad leader Hua Wenfeng. Old man, little brother, hello, come, come, come, go to the unit headquarters, let's talk inside."

Li Jianguo followed them, Li Qing Xia and Li Long got into the car, and the jeep followed behind the crowd, walking slowly forward.

Wang Mingjun and Old Chen kept asking Li Jianguo some questions.

In their view, Li Jianguo must have been modest. How could an old farmer sit in a jeep that a regimental-level cadre would sit in, and also sit in the passenger seat?

This whole car was their family, which meant what? It meant this jeep was theirs!

In this situation, even if they had the face to borrow a jeep, it was estimated that the other side would send a driver. After all, at this time, a jeep represented status and couldn't be borrowed casually. What if it broke?

At this time, let alone a jeep, even a driver was a rare thing.

The jeep stopped at the unit headquarters. Li Jianguo looked at this unit headquarters and sighed:

"The place is still this place, but it has really changed a lot. At that time, it was a row of low, flat, earthen houses, there was no courtyard, now it's good, brick houses are built, and the place is much bigger. You guys have really upgraded, haven't you?"

"Heh, twenty-something years, there must be some changes, right?" Old Chen said with a smile, "Go, go, go, go inside, everything is prepared inside."

Entering the room, a sumptuous feast was laid out on a large round table in the unit cafeteria.

At least six meat dishes, in this era, it was truly very sumptuous.

A cage of loose liquor was also placed on the table, and the document clerk was helping to add bowls and chopsticks.

"Logistics Officer, you haven't drunk the liquor brewed by our unit for more than ten years, have you?" Old Chen let Li Qing Xia sit down, pressed Li Jianguo to sit down, and poured him wine while carrying the cage:

"At that time, this burning liquor pot was set up by us. Over these years, it basically hasn't been broken."

"Heh, that's really true." Li Jianguo sighed, "At that time, we planted a lot of grain, and when we couldn't finish it, we burned it into liquor. I didn't expect it to still be going on."

"That's right, this liquor is quite famous in this area, and quite a few people come to buy it." Wang Mingjun said with a smile, "How should I put it, after the old company commander left, he asked us to send some burning liquor every year, saying he was used to this taste."

"That's good, is there a lot of burning liquor this year?" Li Jianguo was also hooked on his addiction to alcohol.

It wasn't that he really liked drinking, but he liked the time when he led people to burn the liquor.

"A lot, there are still three vats this year." Old Chen said, "Drinking until next spring is no problem."

"I'll take some when I leave, but you have to give me the wholesale price." Li Jianguo said with a smile.

"Aren't you scolding me?" Old Chen waved his hand, "You come to drink, and I still let you pay? If that's really the case, the old company commander would scold me if he knew. At that time, you were leaving, the company commander persuaded you, saying he wanted to focus on cultivating you. If you hadn't left, maybe Wang Company Commander wouldn't have been able to be Company Commander..."

"Old Chen, your words are not pleasant to hear." Wang Mingjun said with a smile, "At that time, Little Li was under my management..."

"That's easy to say... the old company commander could have moved the Logistics Officer to the neighboring unit to be a company commander or instructor, no problem." Old Chen and Wang Mingjun had a very good relationship, and they didn't have any scruples when joking.

"That's true, that's true... Old man, come, come, come, eat, pick up your chopsticks. Arriving here is like arriving at your own home. Little Li is our comrade-in-arms, we went to the border to perform missions together at that time, not to say life-and-death brothers, but we also walked through it together. You are Little Li's dad, so you are our uncle, don't be polite with your own people..."

Li Qing Xia nodded and said:

"Not polite, not polite..."

Li Long knew that his old man's mood now must be particularly complicated.

Thinking about what Wang Mingjun and Old Chen said, if his eldest brother hadn't been called back by his old man at that time, maybe he would be the main officer of some unit now.

Compared to being a farmer in the Fourth Team, his future here must be much better.

It was estimated that his old man was also very regretful.

The food was sumptuous, and the taste was also very good. Red-braised pork, pickled cabbage and vermicelli stewed with meat, what surprised Li Long somewhat was that there was also Mongolian gazelle meat on this table, so he asked:

"Company Commander Wang, do you also hunt Mongolian gazelles? I'm eating this, it's Mongolian gazelle meat, right?"

"Right, right, right, Little Long, did you also go to hunt Mongolian gazelles just now? I heard the gunshots."

"Right, Logistics Officer, did you go hunting?" The current Logistics Officer Old Chen asked his former leader Li Jianguo.

"Hmm, idle, so I came over to see if I could hit some." Li Jianguo smiled and said, "I didn't expect that after more than ten years, there would still be groups of Mongolian gazelles."

"There are many in autumn." Old Chen said, "After harvesting the crops in autumn, we organized people to hunt a few times, got dozens, and dried them into dried meat. You can also take some when you leave."

"What about the pelts?" Li Long's heart moved, and he asked, "Are the Mongolian gazelle pelts still there?"

"They are, they haven't been sold yet." Wang Mingjun said, "You want them? I'll give you two."

"No, no, no, I opened a collection station in the county, if you don't have a mission, if you plan to sell these pelts, I'll collect them."

"Heh, that's fine!" Wang Mingjun laughed when he heard this, "Alright, Old Chen, keep a few, and sell the rest to Little Long."

"Then how do you collect them?" Once the business was mentioned, Old Chen's face also became quite serious.

"The original collection station in the county was withdrawn, I'm doing one myself, got a business license, it's formal. Normally, a Mongolian gazelle pelt is thirty or fifty yuan." Li Long said.

Wang Mingjun and Old Chen looked at each other, and then both laughed.

"Not bad, this price is much higher than the second-hand dealers who come to collect pelts here."

"Little Long, your business is done authentically, you will definitely get rich in the future." Old Chen sighed, "Didn't expect that you are so young..."

Speaking of this, he turned his head to look at Li Jianguo:

"Logistics Officer, you haven't told us in detail how you've been all these years?"

"How else could it be? After going back for two years, I came back again."

"Then why not come back here? If you had come back here, the old company commander was still here at that time; he definitely would have let you be the quartermaster. The old company commander really cared about you. When I was doubling as the quartermaster, the old company commander would often lecture me, saying I wasn't as capable as you."

"At that time, when I arrived in the county, I was assigned to the surveying team, measuring land for the county. After finishing, I was assigned to the well-drilling team. You also know, at that time, there was only one identity certificate, people waited at the bus station, and after getting off the bus, they were uniformly arranged. How could it be so free?"

Li Jianguo said this half-truthfully. If he really wanted to run, he could have run away, but on one hand, the unit was too far from the county, and on the other hand, he didn't really want to stay in the unit anymore. After leaving for two years, who knew what changes would happen later?

"Then the car?" Wang Mingjun endured for a long time before asking this question.

"My brother, Little Long's." Li Jianguo pointed to Li Long and said, "He has a post in the Beiting Prefecture Supply and Marketing Association, the leader let him work, and assigned the car to him."

"Hmm, it's a long-term mission." Li Long added with a smile.

Wang Mingjun and Old Chen were considered to have suddenly realized, and then they were a bit confused again. What does it mean, he's from the Beiting Supply and Marketing Association, and ran to open a collection station in Maxian, and could also assign a car?

But the local system and the Corps were different, so they didn't ask much, just thinking that these dozens of Mongolian gazelle pelts could sell for more money, which was also good.

Although the Corps unit was far from the city, it wasn't isolated from the world, and it also needed money to engage in construction.

Li Long's existence was truly a good thing for them.

During the meal, except for Li Long, everyone else drank quite a bit of wine. Li Qing Xia also praised the unit's burning liquor, but he didn't drink much, mainly saying that he was old and couldn't drink too much.

Li Jianguo kept drinking, the kind that wouldn't stop the cup. Wang Mingjun and Old Chen always had tricks and sayings to make him drink. Li Jianguo also took them all, drinking cup after cup, feeling that he had drunk almost half a kilogram in a while, but his mind was still very clear, and his eyes were getting brighter and brighter.

After this meal, Li Long felt that his eldest brother had drunk almost a kilogram, which was a bit exaggerated!

The alcohol content of this burning liquor wasn't low!

"Old Wang, we are all our own people, so I won't be polite, can you let me see our unit's vegetable cellar again?" Li Jianguo suddenly said after eating.

"Alright, why not?" Wang Mingjun didn't expect Li Jianguo to have this idea, and he immediately said, "Old Chen, go, let's accompany Little Li to see."

"All go, all go." Old Chen said somewhat proudly, "Logistics Officer, let me tell you, the rules of our vegetable cellar are still there for more than ten years, there are quite a few things inside in winter, when you leave, take some of each."

The vegetable cellar was next to the unit headquarters, and like the earth house, it was a long pit dug directly into the ground, with brick walls, covered with wood on top, then covered densely with reed bundles, and finally covered with soil.

When Li Long and the others entered, they smelled a rich fragrance.

The fragrance of fruit, Li Long could smell apples, pears. When the electric light was turned on, he could also see baskets of apples placed on the shelves. Maybe some were rotten, and he also smelled the smell of fruit fermentation.

"Are you soaking fruit wine?" Li Jianguo asked suddenly, "This smell... fruit wine, right?"

"Heh, what did I say?" Old Chen smiled, "Nothing can be hidden from you, Logistics Officer. Right, seven or eight years ago, we started soaking fruit wine, didn't soak much, one vat, we drink it ourselves."

Li Long was looking at this huge vegetable cellar, somewhat shocked.

The vegetable cellar was divided into various areas. Cabbages, potatoes, carrots, green radishes, and onions were in one area, cabbages hung on the wall, others were in grids below, half-covered with sand and soil.

Fruit in one area, pickles in one area, liquor in one area, and honey, etc.

The things in this unit's vegetable cellar were truly very rich.

"Heh heh, Old Chen, this vegetable cellar is managed well." At this time, Li Jianguo was like a leader, looking at these things, occasionally uncovering the pickle jars to see what was inside, "Hmm, still that taste."

"Logistics Officer, do you want me to scoop some pickles for you?" Old Chen asked with a smile.

"No need, no need, just get me some burning liquor to take back." Li Jianguo wasn't greedy. Revisiting an old place was considered fulfilling a wish. People respected you, and you also had to have a sense of proportion.

"Get a box of apples and pears, take two cages of honey," Wang Mingjun waved his hand, "Load two cages of burning liquor, the five-liter kind, and send them all to Little Li's car. Little Li, don't be polite either, we are our own people, even if the old company commander was here, it would definitely be the same."

"That's right, that's right, Logistics Officer, it's been so many years, don't be polite, we are our own people, you should come often in the future." Old Chen said with a smile.

Li Jianguo was somewhat moved.

"Alright, alright, go, go, it's

The clerk and the mess squad leader who were with them called for people to move the items, while Li Long and the others exited the vegetable cellar.

Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo returned to the company headquarters, and Old Chen called Li Long over to talk about the matter of the Mongolian gazelle skins.

"I have over fifty Mongolian gazelle skins here that I can sell. Are you collecting them now, or should we send them over later?"

"I brought money," Li Long said with a smile, "I can collect them now."

"Are you collecting wolf skins too?"

"I collect all wild animal skins here... oh, rabbit skins are a bit cheaper."

"You collect rabbit skins too? Can that stuff even be sold for money?" Old Chen was somewhat surprised.

"Yeah, if you have any, they're about two or three yuan a piece." Li Long intended to earn the price difference from them.

"Heh, if I'd known, I would have kept them all. The company staff produce a lot of that stuff. If you really want to collect them, getting a few hundred pieces wouldn't be a problem, but nobody really kept them."

Old Chen felt a bit regretful, then said:

"Alright then, let's look at the skins first."

Li Long opened the jeep and took out the bag he carried with him.

He kept two or three thousand yuan in the bag year-round, prepared exactly for things like this.

In the storage room, Li Long inspected the Mongolian gazelle skins one by one. As he had expected, among the fifty-plus skins, most were damaged.

"Brother Old Chen, I'll be honest with you. These skins of yours are all damaged; the bullet holes are all on the bodies. These really won't fetch much of a price."

"Just give me a price, don't worry, I won't haggle," Old Chen said with a smile. "We're our own people, no need to be formal."

"Alright then, for these damaged skins, an average price of thirty yuan each. For those dozen or so complete skins, fifty yuan each. How's that?"

"Fine." Old Chen smiled.

When others came to purchase them, damaged skins were twenty-two or twenty-three yuan each, and complete ones were about forty-plus yuan.

The price Li Long gave was quite a bit higher. This extra money was worth much more than the things they had given to Li Jianguo.

There were also nine wolf skins, all damaged; Li Long offered thirty for each.

There were two wild donkey skins; Old Chen made the call and gave them directly to Li Long.

In the end, Li Long paid Old Chen one thousand nine hundred and ninety yuan.

"Heh, I didn't expect this to actually generate extra income." Old Chen sighed after counting the money. "Without Xiao Long, will you keep collecting these skins in the future?"

"Yeah, as long as you have them, I'll keep collecting them." Li Long put the skins back in place, then Old Chen waved his hand, calling people to move the skins to the vehicle.

The vehicle was almost full.

"You guys shouldn't leave either, just stay for the night. I see your brother drank a bit too much; if you go back now, won't he vomit halfway?" Old Chen said. "The company has a guesthouse, don't worry, it's very clean."

Li Long looked toward Li Jianguo.

"It's no bother, I'm very clear-headed." He was drinking honey water. "Going home, I can't trouble you all any further here. If I stay the night, I'll have to drink again tomorrow morning—what you two are like, do you think I don't know?"

Wang Mingjun and Old Chen both laughed.

They did have that intention.

This trip not only hosted an old colleague but also cleared out the inventory, and the money gained was not small; it counted as an unexpected joy. Consequently, the way they looked at Li Long was different.

This younger brother of the old quartermaster is not simple! (End of chapter)