Chapter 974: Throwing dynamite to clear a dud—that counts as creativity

By the time Li Long returned to the road construction site carrying a half-grown wild boar, the safety officer had already been replaced.

This time, Li Long didn't do the work himself; he had Meng Hai find the cook to process the boar, while he shouldered his rifle and headed back into the mountains.

Ma Xiao Yan followed him this time. She ran up to Li Long and asked, panting:

"Comrade Li Long, should this wild boar be enough for all of us to eat? What else are you planning to do?"

"Less than a kilometer ahead, there's a giant boulder blocking the only path for this road. I'm going to take a look and study how to deal with it."

"Then I'll go with you to take a look," Ma Xiao Yan asked. "Is the rock big?"

"Very big. As big as a few houses. It can't be dug out; I reckon we can only blast it," Li Long said.

The last time Li Xiangqian and the others came to work, they brought quite a bit of dynamite. They used some at the time, and there was still some left over as a reserve.

Li Long was thinking of checking the condition of the rock, estimating that when they reached this point in the construction, they would have no choice but to use dynamite.

Arriving at the giant boulder again, Li Long pointed at the ground below and said, "I picked up the wild boar right here just now."

"Picked it up?" Ma Xiao Yan was very surprised. "You can pick up wild boars too?"

"It was returning to the deep mountains with the main boar pack this morning when it fell from here. Its hind leg was injured, so it couldn't walk away, and I just happened to run into it," Li Long explained, then went to observe the giant rock carefully.

This giant rock stood alone. Some shrubs and moss grew on it, but due to the passage of time, some fissures had appeared after weathering, and quite a bit of stone skin had fallen off the bottom.

After circling it once, Li Long discovered that blasting this rock wouldn't be too difficult. There were enough fissures around it to install dynamite—the dynamite referred to here was the ammonium nitrate dynamite stick, about the size of a relay baton.

Anyway, if the power was low, they could just use more sticks. Dynamite was very easy to obtain at this time, and with plenty of supply, Li Long didn't believe they couldn't blast it open.

Of course, this was just his own idea; he still had to ask Meng Hai—Meng Hai was the militia company commander, and his experience in this area should be richer than his own.

Li Long's idea was that since Meng Hai and the others were building the road behind, and he had nothing to do anyway, he would go ahead to solve such difficulties. If his idea worked, they would blast it directly; if it didn't, they would do it according to their plan.

This way, neither would be delayed—after all, there were many people on the road construction side, and it wasn't easy for him to participate, so it was better to do this kind of work that required more technical skill.

"How is it? Can this rock be solved?" Ma Xiao Yan asked after seeing Li Long circle it twice and touch the stone fissures one by one before stopping.

"It's alright, it should be solvable," Li Long said. "I'll go get the dynamite in a while and come over to try it out."

Hearing Li Long say it was possible, Ma Xiao Yan firmly believed he could do it well. She didn't know when, but in the eyes of Clerk Ma, Li Long had become omnipotent.

Returning to the road construction site, Meng Hai was directing the tractor to drag the felled trees back. The trees that had been dragged to the side yesterday had all been washed downstream by the flood. Not many trees were cut today, and as they went further back, there were fewer and fewer trees blocking the road, making construction much more convenient.

There were also some people digging sand and gravel from the riverside to transport to the roadbed. After transporting it here, they would level it, and finally, it would be pressed by the small four-wheelers and the 75-tractors, and it would be roughly finished.

Li Long came to Meng Hai's side and told him about the giant boulder. After hearing Li Long's idea, Meng Hai said:

"Although I know there is directional blasting technology, none of us understand it. That requires calculating the charge amount and looking at the position and angle of the blasting structure. For rough fellows like us, we just pile the medicine to blast the rock. Your idea is the same as mine. Let's do this, I'll go with you to blast it..."

"No need, no need. You just send someone to help me make the dynamite sticks—I'm a bit slow at wrapping the fuse and pulling the fire ring by myself."

For dynamite to explode, it needs to be connected to a detonator, a fuse, and a pull-ring. Given the general environment, the details will not be described.

Li Long estimated that blasting that giant boulder would require at least twenty or thirty dynamite sticks, so it was better to prepare more.

Anyway, they brought plenty from the supply and marketing cooperative. These things would just sit there, and if they stayed too long, they would expire and become ineffective, so they might as well use them.

"Hmm, then you must be careful. Although this thing doesn't easily produce duds, it's not impossible," Meng Hai said. "If there are duds, definitely don't go over. Wait for us to go over and clear them or think of other ways."

"Got it," Li Long said. "I'll definitely count them one by one to see if they've exploded. Rest assured, I'm someone who cherishes my life very much."

Seeing that it was still early, Meng Hai called a young man to help Li Long make the dynamite.

The dynamite, detonators, fuses, and pull-tubes were all kept separately in the back of Li Long's jeep. He hugged the box of dynamite, took the young man to the giant boulder, and began to load the medicine.

Ma Xiao Yan wanted to help, but Li Long refused. This thing wasn't a toy; if the detonator and fuse weren't connected tightly, it would easily produce duds, and once there were duds, it meant man-made danger, so it was better not to do such things.

Ma Xiao Yan could understand, so she took photos on the side. Later, seeing that there was nothing to do nearby and she had taken enough material, she went into the mountain gully, looking like she wanted to pick some mushrooms.

"We're going to blast the rock in a while, stay a bit further away from here," Li Long said to Ma Xiao Yan, who was about to enter the forest. "Lest the rubble hits you."

"Okay, I know," Ma Xiao Yan nodded to show she understood, then continued walking into the mountains.

Li Long and the young man loaded thirty pull-rings in a row, using up all the dynamite in the box, and only then did they stop.

"You go back to work, leave this to me," Li Long said. "Tell Company Commander Meng, without my notification, people are not to come here."

"Comrade Li Long, don't you need my help here?" The young man actually wanted to stay, but he had to listen to Meng Hai, and Meng Hai told him to listen to Li Long, so he had to listen.

"No need, you go ahead," Li Long smiled. "It's enough with me here."

The young man left. Li Long placed the dynamite behind a tree more than thirty meters away from the rock, took two dynamite sticks himself, and went over, preparing to test the power first.

In a rock fissure leaning toward the river beach, he inserted the two dynamite sticks to the bottom one after another. Seeing that they were relatively stable, Li Long grabbed the pull-tube with one hand and the fuse with the other, pulling hard. The fuse was lit, and a "hissing" sound rang out. Li Long didn't dare to wait any longer, and immediately pulled the other pull-tube. After hearing the sound of the fuse burning, he ran back the way he came.

The fuse he left was half a meter long, and it would take ten or twenty seconds to burn. When connecting the fuse and the detonator, he had specifically cut a slanted opening to facilitate the flame spraying out to ignite the detonator.

It should be no problem.

Running all the way behind the tree where the dynamite was stored, Li Long stopped, panting heavily, turned around, and looked toward the rock.

"Boom!" With a loud sound, a large rain of stones erupted from the rock side, flying twenty or thirty meters into the air before falling. Most of the stones that flew into the distance rushed toward the river beach, and some were off-target, but very few, basically not exceeding ten meters.

Waiting until the stones landed, Li Long didn't hear a second sound. He was stunned for a moment, knowing it was bad—he had gotten a dud on the first try!

The two fuses connected to the dynamite were of different lengths, and the ignition times were different, so it was absolutely impossible for them to sound at the same time.

Hey, thinking about it now, why was he so stupid just now, specifically trying two shots? One would have been enough!

Li Long complained to himself, then thought of a way.

At this time, Ma Xiao Yan appeared from the forest on the slope behind him, shouting:

"Comrade Li Long, are you done blasting?"

"Not yet, I was just testing the shot. You go do your thing," Li Long waved his hand at her.

Ma Xiao Yan smiled, then entered the forest to continue searching for wild mushrooms.

Li Long carried his rifle and walked a few steps toward the rock, changing his position to look over. He wanted to see if the unexploded dynamite had been blown out.

It was alright. Li Long saw half a dynamite stick exposed—the two dynamite sticks were in different positions. The one below had exploded, blasting a pit the size of a washbasin into the rock, but the one above hadn't. He didn't know if it was because the explosion below had loosened its fuse and detonator, or if the detonator itself had a problem.

Li Long raised his rifle, thinking about whether to aim at it. Anyway, the ammonium nitrate dynamite stick wouldn't explode if hit by a bullet, but even if it was broken, the power would be greatly reduced if it suddenly exploded.

But thinking about it, he decided against it. Li Long felt the target of that rock fissure was quite large. He picked up a tied dynamite stick from behind the tree, checked it, shortened the fuse, pulled the fire, and threw it toward that rock fissure.

With Li Long's current hand strength and accuracy, he was confident in throwing it to the rock fissure—he had also practiced throwing grenades accurately.

Sure enough, as he thought, the dynamite was thrown to the rock fissure and got stuck, twenty centimeters away from the unexploded dynamite—it should be able to affect it, right?

Li Long leaned back and stared at it intently. ===== CHAPTER 975 =====