Chapter 917: A group of red deer almost triggered a gunfight

After finishing breakfast, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, Han Fang went to school as usual, while Li Long squeezed out a large pile of snowballs the size of eggs for Mingming and Haohao.

The two children were now obsessed with snowball fights and had to play outside for a while every day. The snow in the front courtyard had been cleared, so Li Long got some clean snow from the backyard and squeezed out snowballs that weren't very firm, letting the two children "fight" each other.

Sister Yang was preparing food for Li Long to take on this trip.

"These mutton buns won't taste good when cold. If you can find a suitable place, heat them up before eating," Sister Yang reminded Li Long while loading things into the jeep. "There are no vegetables in this winter, so I packed a few pieces of salted radish for you to eat with them."

The pickled salted radish was carrot. After being cut into strips, it was crispy and tasted very good.

Besides these, Sister Yang also cut a bag of braised meat and brought a few boiled eggs. The Li family didn't lack all kinds of food, but the environment outside was just like this. No matter what you brought, unless you could start a fire or find someone to heat it up, what you finally ate was cold.

Li Long actually didn't care. Although this heavy snow had covered most of the shrubs and wild grass, for him, it was very easy to find firewood in the wild to start a fire. Of course, if he could find a suitable household and eat a hot meal at their place, that would also be good.

There were also townships and corps companies and regiments along the Wuyi Highway in the north. If possible, he could also find food there.

No worries; the things Sister Yang brought were just backups.

Sister Yang finished tidying up and took over Mingming and Haohao, while Li Long drove the jeep away and drove toward the Fourth Team.

Tao Daqiang and the others had all gathered at Li Jianguo's house. There was only one tractor outside the door, which was driven by Jia Weidong.

"Weidong, you have to dress thickly. We guys sitting in the small car won't be cold, but you'll suffer."

Xie Yun Dong and the others discussed it. They followed Li Jianguo and sat in Li Long's jeep, while Jia Weidong drove the tractor. Of course, driving a tractor, although suffering from the cold, also had benefits: for every ten gazelles hunted, he could choose one more.

Even if it was less than ten, he could be given two more legs or something.

Among these people, Jia Weidong's strength was considered the weakest. Just this time, he borrowed money from Xie Yun Dong to buy a gun, and buying a tractor had emptied his bottom.

So this time, although he suffered a bit of cold, it could be considered taking care of him.

"It's okay, I'm wearing a leather coat, and on my feet are big-headed shoes. My wife knitted wool socks for me. With this set, I don't believe I'll be frozen while driving a tractor?"

Jia Weidong said while adding a nose guard to his cotton hat, but he was still very cautious.

According to Li Long and the others, driving a tractor today would take at least two hours. These two hours basically meant he couldn't get off the tractor, so his legs and feet would definitely be frozen.

It was already early November. Although the outdoor temperature hadn't reached the lowest point of the winter, the further north toward the sand nest area, the lower the temperature, and Jia Weidong wouldn't joke with his body.

So he also wrapped a scarf around his neck, the mohair kind. It looked like a woman's, but no one laughed at him.

At this time, Xie Yun Dong and the others were sitting in Li's house, commenting on each other's dry rations.

Tao Daqiang brought steamed buns and pickles. However, the pickles were stir-fried with meat, cut into fine and crispy pieces. If the steamed buns were heated, and the pickles were sandwiched in the middle, it would definitely be fragrant.

Xie Yun Dong brought leavened pancakes and mutton chili sauce. Last time, they had braised the mutton Li Long shared with them, and part of it was made into chili sauce. Rolling it in the pancakes would definitely be delicious—his wife also cut some shredded green onions, so the taste would be even better.

Jia Weidong's was relatively simple: buns, and it was about the same as Li Long's. Although it was also mutton filling, it added a lot of radish and green onions. After all, it was impossible to use almost pure meat for filling like the Li family.

Liang Dacheng's was a bit different; he brought stir-fried fish and steamed buns. A canned bottle of salted fish stir-fried with chili peppers. The three Liang brothers caught quite a few fish before winter, dried them into fish jerky, and put them away. At this time, they took some, soaked them soft with water, and stir-fried them with chili peppers. Although it wasn't as delicious as fresh fish, it was also quite good.

Li Jianguo's side, prepared by Liang Yuemei, was also meat-stir-fried pickles, braised meat, steamed buns, etc.

Liang Yuemei prepared a large quantity. Among these people, Li Jianguo was the oldest, and it was because Li Long had a good relationship with them that they called Li Jianguo "Old Li Ge". According to the seniority in the village, these people actually had to call Li Jianguo "Uncle".

So Liang Yuemei prepared the amount for everyone. She knew how much these young and strong men could eat when they were hungry.

Li Long drove the jeep to his older brother's place at ten o'clock. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he greeted them and left directly.

Lu Yingming had come to Li's house yesterday and came again today. He had been paying attention to the Li family's situation today. After hearing the jeep's movement, he couldn't help but come over after waiting for half an hour.

It was already crowded in the room, and this made it even more crowded. Li Jianguo let Li Juan and Li Qiang go to the east room and made space for Lu Yingming.

Li Qiang was a bit reluctant; he still wanted to hear how his father and little uncle hunted.

However, Li Juan was relatively sensible, knowing that there were more adult conversations at this time, so she dragged Li Qiang away and whispered that she would give him candy.

Actually, Li Qiang didn't like candy as much as other children at this time. He had pocket money, the family had good food, and like the fruit candy that ordinary children liked, he now felt it was just like that.

When did he actually not care about candy anymore?

"How is it?" Lu Yingming asked after sitting down. "Did you hunt anything? How much did you hunt?"

"Hey, Long Ge went hunting, how could he not hunt anything?" Tao Daqiang's tone was extremely proud. "Gazelles, red deer, hunted quite a few!"

Lu Yingming was greatly surprised and asked again:

"You all hunted something? Is that sand gun really that useful?"

"That's right, hitting from close range is good." Liang Dacheng said while eating steamed buns: "Thirty or forty meters, isn't it aiming where you hit? One shot, and that gazelle died!"

Although actually everyone was clear, if you really count it, the sand gun is still not as good as the 56-semi-automatic rifle. Firstly, it can only be loaded with two bullets, and to shoot again, you have to reload. Secondly, there is no rifling, so you can't shoot far.

But for Liang Dacheng and the others, this sand gun is their own gun, so how could it not be good?

It must be good.

"That's really amazing..." Lu Yingming didn't know the details of their hunting, but since they hunted prey, and it seemed like quite a lot, it was really amazing.

Li Long had already finished eating, put down his chopsticks, and rubbed his face. His ears were slightly itchy, which was frozen, but it wasn't serious.

He looked at his watch and said:

"In a while, Yun Dong Ge and Weidong should be here."

Lu Yingming originally wanted to ask and go back. After all, they were eating, and it wouldn't be good if he stayed too long.

But now hearing Li Long say that Xie Yun Dong and Jia Weidong and the others would be here soon, he decided to stay and see exactly how much they hunted.

Twenty-something minutes later, the sound of a tractor came. When passing the reed ditch, someone came out to watch. Seeing Xie Yun Dong sitting on the tied-up gazelles and red deer, everyone was shocked.

Last year, Xu Haijun and the others also hunted things, but that was almost the New Year. Everyone knew that there was nothing to eat in the Gobi Desert at that time, so those wild animals would gather.

Now it had only snowed twice, and Li Long and the others could hunt things and return after going out. What does this explain?

It explains that Li Long's hunting is truly amazing.

Of course, some people who heard this news would still sourly say, "Li family boy is lucky."

They believe in luck, not strength.

When the tractor opened to the Li family's door, Li Long and the others had already come out, hurriedly greeting Jia Weidong and Xie Yun Dong to come into the room to warm up, while they started to unload the things on the trailer and redistribute them.

Lu Yingming didn't go up to help. He looked very envious. If he had bought a sand gun yesterday, would he have a share in these prey today?

A gazelle skin is at least thirty, and if it's a full skin, it can sell for fifty. Ten skins are almost the price of a sand gun.

If he bought a gun, would he be able to buy parts for a gun now?

Of course, regret is useless. Lu Yingming thought about it and went home.

If we really can't find any in the end, we'll look for Wang Mingjun and the others.

Half an hour later, Jia Weidong drove the tractor back again, but he didn't go home first, but sent the things of Xie Yun Dong, Liang Dacheng, and Tao Daqiang's families back, and finally returned to his own home.

Although in the end, only one gazelle remained on the tractor, Jia Weidong was still happy. Having a harvest on the first trip, how could he not be happy?

However, there was also regret. After listening to Li Long and the others' hunting situation, he regretted why he chose a single-barreled one. If it were a double-barreled sand gun, he could have hunted two when encountering a group of gazelles later!

On this way back, the red deer and gazelles had already frozen, so Li Long took two red deer and three gazelles back to the county. He hunted four gazelles and one red deer, gave one to Jia Weidong, and the rest were originally intended to be left more at his older brother's place, but Li Jianguo didn't agree.

Li Jianguo's meaning was very simple: Li Long was good at skinning. It was easy for him to rot if he skinned it, and if it rotted, wouldn't the skin be worthless? It's better for Li Long to take it back and skin it slowly.

These people had actually already agreed that they would hunt again at least a week later, and wouldn't hunt for a short time. After all, so many shots were fired in the sand nest, and the gazelles were probably scared away.

Li Long thought about taking it back to skin the skins, and then pull the meat back, as there were few people on his side and couldn't eat so much meat.

Mainly, there was quite a lot of meat in the main courtyard, and he planned to go into the mountains after a while. When he hunted wild boars or something, there would still be meat to eat.

And he felt that wild game was okay to eat occasionally, but if eaten in large quantities, it wasn't as good as the taste of domestic cattle and sheep, and it needed heavy ingredients to press it.

That night, the Fourth Team was extremely restless.

People came to Tao Daqiang, Xie Yun Dong, Liang Dacheng, and even Jia Weidong's homes to ask about hunting.

Xu Haijun's family also had people go. They even urged Xu Haijun to set a measure as soon as possible, such as when to go hunting.

Right now, the snow had fallen, and some people had already started chasing rabbits in the red willow beach to the east, and the harvest was not small.

But in the end, it couldn't compare to hunting gazelles. Chasing rabbits for two days is only equal to hunting one gazelle. Everyone can calculate this account. And those who went, except for Jia Weidong, were almost all more than two. Just this trip out, it was at least seventy or eighty in income.

If it could be like Li Long, then it would be over a hundred!

Those who went to Tao Daqiang, Xie Yun Dong, and the others naturally hoped to join in, but these people couldn't make the decision, only saying they didn't know when Li Long would lead the team to hunt next time.

"Let's head over first," Liang Dacheng said. "This Red Willow Beach isn't far, less than a kilometer. We'll see how things look when we get there. If there's nothing, we can wait until we move to another spot, right?"

Li Jianguo naturally had no opinions. He felt a bit uncomfortable following a group of young ones to hunt, and with Lu Yingming joining, it was actually better.

Lu Yingming was naturally happy and went home to prepare money immediately, planning to ride a bicycle to the county to buy a gun tomorrow.

The next day, when Lu Yingming went to the Zhang Xin Hua Bookstore in the county to buy a gun, he was surprised to find that several people from the team were there.

They were a bit embarrassed, but then they all laughed. It seemed that everyone's thinking was the same.

However, what surprised them a bit was that the double-barreled sand guns in the county Zhang Xin Hua Bookstore were sold out!

Last night, Lu Yingming had already inquired and received Li Jianguo's suggestion that it was best to use a double-barreled sand gun, and a single-barreled one would definitely be too late to change bullets when encountering a large group of gazelles.

So he wanted to buy a double-barreled one, but there wasn't one.

Some others thought if there was no double-barreled one, then buy a single-barreled one, but Lu Yingming didn't buy it and pushed his bicycle out.

He planned to go to Stone City to buy a double-barreled one!

If you want to buy, buy a good one! If you really buy a single-barreled one, you will regret it later for this thing worth a few hundred yuan.

He really went to Stone City, then went to the Zhang Xin Hua Bookstore in Stone City, and bought a brand-new double-barreled hunting gun and two boxes of bullets.

Carrying the gun back home, Lu Yingming put down the bicycle and went to Li's house for the first time to tell Li Jianguo that he had bought a gun.

Li Jianguo was tidying up the meat and internal organs of gazelles and red deer with Liang Yuemei in the room, so he just perfunctorily said a few words—buy a gun if you want to buy a gun, there's no need to be so solemn.

Lu Yingming didn't see Li Jianguo's perfunctoriness. He was very excited, excited to the point of not wanting to rest, and took the gun to the barren beach in the south to test the gun.

On this day, gunshots would ring out from time to time in different places in the east, south, and north of the Fourth Team.

The west side couldn't, as the west side was adjacent to the Third Team, and you couldn't shoot here.

Li Jianguo suggested to Lu Yingming to go to the police station to open a gun license after buying the gun. Because this double-barreled sand gun was bought at the Zhang Xin Hua Bookstore, the source was legal, so it was very easy to handle the gun license.

It was just that the police station was also a bit surprised these two days. Why are there so many people buying guns in the Fourth Team? Is there anything going on?

The director was worried and specifically sent police to the Fourth Team to understand the situation.

Xu Chengjun naturally knew what was going on and explained the matter clearly. Anyway, the country now allows the buying and selling of hunting guns, so this matter can't be said to be illegal.

But the Fourth Team has since been on the key attention list of the township police station. After all, having guns to hunt, if there is anything, if there are conflicts between people in the village, will they use guns?

This is hard to say!

Li Long went back last night and didn't unload the red deer and gazelles on the jeep. After letting the water in the car out, he rested.

This hunting trip ran far, and there were some twists and turns in the middle. He was quite tired, so he simply slacked off.

The next day, after resting enough, he pulled the deer and gazelles into the kitchen. After they thawed, he started skinning and opening the belly.

Mingming and Haohao were not afraid either, dressed thickly, and watched Li Long operate there.

That red deer had a pair of long antlers, so Li Long simply broke the pair of long antlers off, one for each of the two children.

The two children had already reached the age of fighting, and couldn't yet lift the two or three-kilogram red deer antlers, but even so, they already had a trend of swinging them to fight. Sister Yang hurriedly stopped them, then took the antlers away, and rarely said a few words to Li Long.

Li Long smiled awkwardly and continued to peel and strip. He didn't think so much, didn't think that the sharp antlers would hurt the children.

There were many gazelles and deer, so even if Li Long was skilled in skinning, and still had to unload meat and open the belly, this took a whole day.

Sister Yang was also washing the intestines and stomach. This thing could actually not be kept, but Li Long liked this bite, and he felt that the intestines and stomach were better than the liver and heart, so he kept them all.

As for the skins, he didn't calculate clearly with his older brother. It had long been unclear. This hundred-something yuan, no need.

Fortunately, it was winter, and the meat didn't need to be boiled. Just hang it in the storage room to freeze.

After finishing all this, Li Long suddenly felt that hunting was quite troublesome.

Just like those fighting and killing in Hong Kong and Taiwan police and gangster movies, let Guo Tiebing say it, actually these are all small things, the troublesome thing is writing reports afterwards, that is troublesome!

Hunting is also the same. It's painful when hunting, but it's troublesome to clean up after hunting.

One or two is fine, but when there are many, it's annoying to clean up.

Thinking back to when he first hunted many things, it seemed like he didn't have this mood. At that time, he thought the more he hunted, the better.

It was only in these one or two years that he would have such thoughts, right?

Is it because living conditions are better, so he would have such thoughts? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 920 =====

Then they saw a herd of red deer charging out from within the Red Willow Beach, heading straight in their direction. The moment those red deer saw them, they were startled; some turned sideways and ran west, some froze on the spot, and some even tumbled into the snow.

"Shoot!" Li Long shouted in time and was the first to fire. He had aimed at the leading stag, which was crowned with long antlers. Li Long hit it right in the head with a single shot; the red deer's body tilted, and it collapsed into the snow, motionless.

Just at this moment, someone shouted from the northeast:

"Who's shooting?"

"Careful! Don't hit anyone!"

Li Long was startled. Was someone else chasing the red deer? Had they run into fellow hunters?

Would this lead to a dispute?

He hurriedly shouted for everyone to stop shooting. In fact, by this time, everyone's first round of fire had already ended.

The results were glorious!

PS: Thanks to kcman for the generous tip, thanks to Xiao Xiao Cao Fang 1980 for the tip, and thanks to book friends ren_cd, Yi Suo Yan Yu Ta Shan Dian, Xie Lan, Hai Jiao_ae, Jiang Xianpeng, Du Fei De Qing Luan, and others for their tips. To clarify: it's not that people in Northern Xinjiang call their father-in-law "Uncle"; it's that Li Jianguo calls him that, and Li Long followed suit. For others, it's the same—mostly they call him "Dad." Also, to clarify: here in Northern Xinjiang, especially with people driving from outside the region, I also hate it when some people don't use their turn signals and cut in line recklessly. But from what I've gathered over the last two days, many of the road blockages on the Duku Highway are caused by people from inland provinces driving their own cars and making U-turns wherever they please, blocking the road. So, bad habits exist everywhere... Don't take the bad habits of a few people and treat them as the collective symbol of a specific place. (End of chapter)