Chapter 88

When Li Long arrived at Halimu's winter camp, it was about ten o'clock. Based on the current short days and long nights, it was the normal time just after finishing breakfast.

Halimu habitually heard the dogs barking and knew it was Li Long. He came out of the winter camp, helped Li Long tie the horse to his own horse post, and then pulled Li Long into the house.

"Drink milk tea first, then we'll go find Yushanjiang, and then we'll go hunt Mongolian gazelles together."

Knowing Li Long's purpose for this trip, Halimu didn't say any nonsense.

Having interacted with them for a long time, Li Long was becoming more and more accustomed to milk tea. He took a beautiful sip and said:

"Halimu, I see you've shoveled away all the snow that was stained with blood outside."

"I have to shovel it away," Halimu said with a bitter smile. "The wolves howled all night the night before last. Yesterday, not only were there wolves, but a snow leopard also came! You can't hit that thing with a gun at all! If I don't shovel away the snow stained with blood, I won't be able to keep my sheep."

"Then where did you throw the snow?"

"Threw it far away, into the ditch," Halimu said. "I also shot a wolf last night. When you leave, take the wolf skin with you."

"Alright." Li Long wasn't pretentious. After selling the sheep, his relationship with Halimu and Yushanjiang had risen to an unprecedented height, so there was no need to be polite.

After finishing the milk tea, Halimu gave his wife some instructions, and then he and Li Long rode their horses to find Yushanjiang.

Yushanjiang had also been waiting for a long time. After finishing the milk tea here, he took out a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle for Li Long.

"Brother Yushanjiang, this isn't the gun you had before, right?" Li Long looked at the gun; it was older than the one Halimu was carrying, but much newer than Yushanjiang's.

The gun was naturally a standard Type 56 semi-automatic rifle. The triangular bayonet and cleaning rod accessories that were rumored to be god-like in later generations were all there, and the paint finish had almost no wear, looking like it hadn't been used much.

"This is a gun specifically found for you," Yushanjiang said with a smile. "Your gun!"

"Mine?" Li Long was a bit surprised, and even more pleasantly surprised.

"Yes, the two of us exchanged six sheep, two sickles, and four bricks of tea for this gun. It was from another herdsman's family; they had no use for it, and I thought you didn't have one, so isn't this just right?"

"Great!" Li Long skillfully opened the safety, pulled the bolt to look into the chamber, and it was very clean, with only a few rust spots on the surface cover.

That was nothing; when training with the militia, he would just get some gun oil and wipe it well.

"The gun hasn't been fired, you'd better test it here, verify the accuracy, and then we'll go hunt Mongolian gazelles."

"Alright." Li Long took the gun and went out.

Walking a hundred or eighty meters out of the winter camp, Li Long loaded the bullets into the gun, lay in the snow, adjusted the sight to one, aimed at a knot on a willow tree by the river ditch fifty or sixty meters away, and fired two shots.

After firing, he closed the safety, ran to the tree to look, and the bullets had hit the knot, just a bit to the right and down.

Knowing the specific position, he just needed to aim slightly to the upper left next time.

In front of the winter camp, Halimu and Yushanjiang waited for Li Long to confirm the accuracy of the gun, and then the three of them rode their horses with guns on their backs and hurried to the location where the Mongolian gazelles appeared.

After riding for nearly an hour, Yushanjiang got off his horse first. He signaled Halimu and Li Long to get off as well, tied the horses to a pine tree nearby, and said:

"It's less than a kilometer from here, let's walk over."

Yushanjiang led the way, and they walked up and down the mountain, wading through the snow. Li Long's leather boots were already filled with snow, but he was full of excitement and couldn't feel the cold at all.

"Next time you come, you should wear felt boots," Halimu reminded from behind. "Those are better than what you have."

Li Long thought that was true. Felt boots were like long boots; although they were harder, at least their protection range was stronger than leather boots.

"Quiet, we're almost there," Yushanjiang reminded in a low voice from the front.

Climbing up the mountain top, Yushanjiang squatted down first and moved slowly toward the top.

Li Long and Halimu followed suit and moved over together, trying their best not to make a sound.

Reaching the top, they looked down. In the distance was a shrubbery, and there were traces of being stepped on and arched in the nearby snow. They were already on the outermost edge of the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains. To the north was the endless Gobi and wild grass beach, where one could occasionally see patches of red willow, white thorn, and saxaul. The location Yushanjiang pointed to was the shrubbery less than two hundred meters down the mountain.

But Li Long didn't see any Mongolian gazelles.

"Where are the Mongolian gazelles?" Halimu also didn't see them and asked Yushanjiang in a low voice.

"Your eyes aren't working anymore," Yushanjiang said in a low voice. "Do you see that shrubbery?"

"I see it."

"Beside those short trees," Yushanjiang pointed, "do you see those few clusters of reed grass?"

"I see them."

"Beside the reed grass, those grayish-yellow lumps."

"Aren't those rocks?"

"Of course they aren't rocks, those are Mongolian gazelles lying there."

Those were actually Mongolian gazelles?

Li Long looked carefully, and they really were Mongolian gazelles!

These guys must have had enough to eat and started to rest. When resting, they kicked away a large patch of snow, then lay down and huddled together, keeping each other warm in the snow pile.

!.

"At this time, it's best to hunt. They're all huddled together, the target is big, and it's easy to hit. If they were eating grass, at such a distance, it would really be hard to hit!" Yushanjiang said, "People with poor marksmanship can't hit them."

"Then let's..."

"Let's shoot now, how many we can hit depends on luck."

The three of them dispersed and slowly began to make their own gun rests.

Because the Mongolian gazelles were resting, there was naturally no need to rush when shooting at a fixed target, so the gun rest had to be made well, and the three of them had agreed.

"I'll shoot the ones on the left, Halimu, you shoot the ones on the right, and Li Long, you shoot the ones in the middle. After the first shot, the Mongolian gazelles will definitely be startled, and then we'll just pick them off."

Yushanjiang said this as if it were child's play, but he was very serious.

Li Long guessed if it was because he was a novice at hunting that they were so solemn.

In fact, it could be more complicated. But with him, a novice, they would pay great attention to details. Perhaps they were cultivating him as a quasi-hunter and teaching him experience.

While his mind was wandering, Li Long had already made his gun rest, then lay down, opened the safety, and began to aim.

The distance was relatively far, and the movement here didn't affect the Mongolian gazelles. Those guys were still lying there.

Squinting his eyes, Li Long could see that among these Mongolian gazelles, at least three were males; the upright horns were the sign.

Li Long aimed at the largest one in the middle, which was also the Mongolian gazelle with the longest horns. At a distance of two hundred meters, the point he could see was actually very small. But fortunately, the Mongolian gazelles were all huddled in a large lump, so the aiming range was relatively large.

"Alright, I'll count one, two, three, get ready to fire." Seeing that the three were ready, Yushanjiang said.

"One, two, three... Bang!"

Thanks to book friends "Weisuan abc" and "jerrysu1981" for the tips, and thank you all for your monthly tickets and recommendation tickets. Today is the first day of the fourth round of recommendations, and the data is stronger than yesterday. There are still quite a lot of tickets, thank you very much.

In order to strive for the possibility of getting on Sanjiang next week, I hope everyone who has extra tickets will help vote, thank you very much! If you haven't collected it, I hope you will add it to your bookshelf.

Try not to "raise" the book. This week is really critical. If you really want to raise it, I hope you will flip to the last page. Increasing a follow-up reading is also good...

Thank you all!

(End of chapter)