HPDBC Chapter 1945 Crossing the gully and climbing step by step
Chapter 1945 Crossing the gully and climbing step by step
Chapter 1945 Crossing the gully and climbing step by step
Zhao Jun, who had just come out of the Lushuihe Forest Farm Security Section, stood in front of the house gazing at the distant mountains, followed by the Zhao family members, young and old.
Xu Qingyan led the security team out to see them off. Seeing that Zhao Jun was behaving strangely, Xu Qingyan quickly came over and patted Zhao Jun's shoulder, saying, "Team Leader Zhao, thank you for your trouble."
"Of course, Secretary Xu," Zhao Jun replied with a smile. "You go ahead with your work, we'll be going now."
After saying that, Zhao Jun waved his hand, and the Zhao family members, young and old, followed him toward the guesthouse.
"Brother, shouldn't we just go straight to that Wolf Grass Gully?" Li Baoyu caught up with Zhao Jun and asked. Before Zhao Jun could speak, Zhang Yuanmin chimed in, "We just finished arguing. Even if we go down into the gully now, we can't go through their family quarters."
Shen Qiushan and his gang, with whom they had just had a conflict, were all local residents. If they were to run into each other in the residential area, it could easily lead to unnecessary conflicts.
The Zhao family gang isn't afraid of trouble, but there's no benefit to fighting at this point, so it's really not worth it.
"What should we do then?" Li Baoyu asked. Zhang Yuanmin looked at Zhao Jun and tentatively said, "Brother, how about I give you another idea?"
Zhang Yuanmin, who had just devised a plan to set fire to the mountain, seemed somewhat unsure of himself when he said this.
"No need for now, brother." Zhao Jun didn't say anything, only that "Let's go back first and discuss it in the house."
As Zhao Jun spoke, they were not far from the guesthouse where they had stayed the previous day.
The group went inside, but instead of going into the east or west rooms, they gathered in the outer room.
With the front door, back window, and east and west doors closed, the Zhao family huddled together whispering amongst themselves.
Zhao Jun cut to the chase, saying, "I have a grudge against this Shen Qiushan. So I thought I'd use the excuse of helping them hunt wolves to come and mess with their territory."
At this point, Zhao Jun paused slightly, then continued, "Especially that mountain opposite Langcaogou, they all say that no one has gone up there to mine for food for several years. I think if there's a pit there, there must be a lot of meat."
Zhao Jun didn't hide it; he did indeed have a grudge against Shen Qiushan, and it was quite a big one.
What Zhao Jun didn't say was that the two were enemies from a previous life.
Hearing him say that, the people from the Zhao family looked at each other, none of them knowing there was such a thing.
But the Zhao family gang always supported Zhao Jun, so Li Baoyu immediately asked, "Brother, did he offend you before the meeting in Fusong?"
"Pretty much," Zhao Jun said. Zhao Jinhui chimed in, "Brother Jun, what else is there to say? Since we're here, let's scrape them clean, leave them nothing!"
“That’s right!” Xie Chen also said, “I’ve had my eye on that kid for a long time. I wanted to beat him up back in Fusong!”
Jie Chen said this entirely to support the leader.
"Third Uncle," Zhao Jun said to Xing San beside him, "you tell me, isn't what I'm doing a bit against the rules?"
"What's the point of rules when there's a grudge?" Xing San said bluntly, "Take revenge first, then we'll talk about other things!"
After saying this, Xing San flung his hand away, glared at Zhao Jun, and said, "You two have a grudge, why didn't you say so earlier? Or should I have killed him?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Jun quickly patted Xing San's hand to comfort him. Then, Zhao Jun said to everyone, "Before leaving home, I thought that since we're here, if we leave the sticks, we can all get a share. But now, looking at the situation, I think we might easily suffer a loss."
“Brother, don’t be afraid!” Li Baoyu retorted, “They may outnumber us, but when it comes to a real fight, who’s afraid of whom?”
“It wouldn’t be good if we bumped into each other.” Zhao Jun pressed his hand down, signaling Li Baoyu not to speak yet, and then asked Ma Sheng and Lin Xiangshun, “Brother, second brother, what do you two say?”
Ma Sheng and Lin Xiangshun were both taken aback. Ma Sheng said, "Jun, what do you want me to say?"
"Brother, I was thinking of asking everyone, do you think this is a good idea?" Zhao Jun said, "If you don't think it's a good idea, let's kill these wolves today and then leave."
"Will that work?" Ma Sheng raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and said, "We've come all this way, we should at least take a couple of 'clubs' back with us."
“Exactly!” Ma Sheng said, and Lin Xiangshun added, “Why don’t we go to their hamlet? We’re even helping them fight the wolves! If we don’t fight the wolves, their hamlet is there, and they can’t get there anyway.”
"Brother Shunzi is right!" Seeing everyone taking turns to speak, Ma Yang couldn't help but say to Zhao Jun, "We came here in big trucks and small bags, why are we going back?"
As he spoke, Ma Yang waved his hand and said, "Brother-in-law, if you had said something the other day, I would have kowtowed to them."
"You..." Li Ruhai was about to retort when Ma Yang pushed him. Then, Ma Yang continued to Zhao Jun, "Brother-in-law, don't treat me like Li Ruhai. I'm a fierce fighter."
After Ma Yang finished speaking, he felt a lightness in his body as Zhao Jinhui grabbed him by the back of the neck and lifted him aside.
After dragging Ma Yang away, Zhao Jinhui stepped forward, approached Zhao Jun, and said, "Brother Jun, don't think about anything. If things get tough, we'll just take them down."
“Yes, Brother Jun!” Jie Chen chimed in, “Let’s just do it!”
Upon hearing Xie Chen's words, Zhao Jun's lips twitched, and then he turned to Wang Qiang and asked, "Uncle, why don't you say something too?"
"What are you saying?" Wang Qiang said, "Let's hurry up and go into the mountains to spend two days in Anzi. After that, we still have to go home and organize a big meeting."
After saying this, Wang Qiang smiled and said, "Let's sell those two giant ginseng seedlings in no time, and next autumn I'll tidy up the house and build five rooms!"
Hearing Wang Qiang's words, everyone chuckled. Ma Yang raised his hand from the back and said, "My house will have a second floor!"
"Get out of my way!" Ma Sheng slapped Ma Yang with his stick. Ma Dafu and Wang Cuihua had already filed a complaint against Ma Sheng. When Ma Sheng heard Ma Yang say he wanted to take over the house, he became somewhat agitated.
Seeing that everyone agreed, Zhao Jun felt relieved and immediately stood up, saying, "Let's set off then!"
"Let's go!" Everyone responded enthusiastically. But just as they were about to leave, Zhao Jun remembered something and called out to Wang Qiang, "Uncle."
"Huh?" Wang Qiang was taken aback, then heard Zhao Jun say, "We need to be on the right track. After we get back this time, we'll have the Three Seed Ginseng King in our hands."
"Huh?" Everyone was both surprised and delighted upon hearing this. After regaining his senses, Wang Qiang laughed and said, "Nephew, then our Anzi is even more in need of help!"
"Let's go!" Zhao Jun said, already coming out of the house. He pointed to the Liberation truck and said, "Let's drive this truck, past the place where we fired yesterday, and then go down the ditch."
"I'll drive!" Jie Chen volunteered. The older Xing San and Wang Qiang squeezed into the passenger seat, while the rest of them got into the trunk.
Two minutes later, the Jiefang truck drove out of Lushuihe Forest Farm, passing the place where everyone had used up half of their bullets the night before, and arrived at Goubangzi.
The Jiefang truck was parked in the woods next to it, and everyone got out of the truck.
After taking down the ten large bags, everyone except Xing San carried one.
Xing San didn't carry a backpack; instead, he carried two repaired ash wood sticks, which he intended to use as knife handles and pickaxe handles.
In addition, Zhao's gang took out ropes and sticks from the back of the truck and distributed one to each of them.
After distributing the luggage and equipment, Li Baoyu, carrying a large bag on his back, leaned on a rope with one hand and pulled a stick with the other, and led Mudfish to Zhao Jun, saying, "Brother, give the order!"
"What order did I give?" Zhao Jun was taken aback, then realized what he meant and said to Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, clear the way!"
"Understood!" Li Baoyu clasped his hands in a fist salute to Zhao Jun, then, carrying a large bag on his back and leading Mudfish, he was the first to cross the ditch and enter Langcaogou.
Then came Xie Chen, Zhao Jinhui, Zhao Jun, Xing San, Zhang Yuanmin, Li Ruhai, and Ma Yang in the middle, with Ma Shenghe and Lin Xiangshun, who was leading Mao Mao, bringing up the rear.
Just past the ditch, Li Baoyu stopped, pulling on the mudfish.
"What's wrong?" Zhao Jun asked when he saw this, but Jie Chen and Zhao Jinhui also stopped and turned to look at him.
"Brother!" Li Baoyu stared straight at Zhao Jun and said, "Fool."
"Huh?" Zhao Jun was taken aback, and only after regaining his senses did he ask, "What grade of leaves?"
"Step by step, we climb higher!" At this moment, a stalk with three palm-sized pieces was swaying in the wind in front of Li Baoyu's feet.
Although it grows among weeds, it is taller than the surrounding grass. When the mountain wind blows through the ravine, these three leaves sway and nod to the Zhao family gang, as if to indicate that Wolf Grass Gully welcomes the Zhao family gang.
"How many seedlings?" Zhao Jun asked. Li Baoyu replied, "They're all over the mountain!"
After the ceremony, Zhao Jun strode forward, glanced down at the three-leafed seedling, and then called to Zhang Yuanmin, "Brother!"
As he spoke, Zhao Jun made a gesture of holding a shovel with both hands.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanmin nodded to Zhao Jun, then turned around to take off the bag behind him.
Xing San and Wang Qiang supported Zhang Yuanmin from both sides, helping him remove the large sack from behind and place it on the ground.
Then, Zhang Yuanmin pulled open the tight rope of the sack and deftly took things out of it.
The sack contained a curved saw, a small axe, a hammer, and a shovel head.
At this moment, Xing San handed over a willow branch, and Zhang Yuanmin immediately put the shovel head on it.
Seeing Zhang Yuanmin carrying a shovel over, Zhao Jinhui couldn't help but ask Zhao Jun, "Brother Jun, are we just going to dig like this?"
"Dig!" Zhao Jun said without hesitation, "There's no time to dig it out carefully."
With that, Zhao Jun waved to his left and right, instructing everyone, "No need to line up, let's just go straight!"
Zhao Jun didn't think this was an old ginseng field, but since a single plant with three different leaves had appeared, there might be other wild ginseng plants.
Zhao Jun said there was no need for the batons, so the Zhao family members dispersed and searched in all directions.
Zhang Yuanmin took a shovel and dug it 20 centimeters away from the stem of the three-leafed plant. He shoveled it very deep and then pulled it up with force.
Zhao Jun went over, used both hands to dig up the soil, grabbed the ginseng rootlet, and pulled the ginseng seedling out of the soil.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanmin came over, holding a small cloth bag containing ginseng-catching tools, and was about to take out small scissors to cut the above-ground stem of the ginseng seedling.
Zhao Jun didn't stop him, but when Zhang Yuanmin was about to throw away the cut stem, Zhao Jun stopped him.
Zhao Jun looked around, then grabbed the military water bottle slung across his chest.
The kettle was still full when I came out.
Zhao Jun unscrewed the kettle, took two sips of water, and then called to the others, passing the kettle around so that everyone could drink most of the warm water inside.
When only a small amount remained in the pot, Zhao Jun inserted the stem from the ground into the pot.
After being inserted, the three leaves adhered to the spout of the pot, remaining stable and unshaken even in the wind.
Seeing Zhao Jun hanging his military water bottle with a three-leaf twig inserted in it around his neck, Zhang Yuanmin asked, "Brother, what's the story behind that?"
"Ah!" Zhao Jun responded, and Zhang Yuanmin quickly asked, "What's wrong?"
“The leaves aren’t wilted when you plant them here.” As soon as Zhao Jun said this, Zhang Yuanmin’s face fell, and then he twitched his lips.
When Zhang Yuanmin first saw Zhao Jun's actions, he thought there was some superstitious belief involved.
"Hey bro, what are you doing with this stuff?" Zhang Yuanmin asked, puzzled. Zhao Jun laughed and said, "Keep some, you never know when you might need it."
"Woof! Woof! Woof..." Just as Zhao Jun finished speaking, he heard barking from not far away.
Zhao Jun looked up and saw Li Baoyu and Lin Xiangshun pulling hard on the mudfish and the dog, while the two dogs were struggling to pull on their leashes, trying to attack.
Zhao Jun saw from afar a gray shadow darting nimbly through the grass.
It's a wolf!
They arrived so quickly!
The Zhao family gang has only just entered Langcaogou.
At this moment, everyone looked at Zhao Jun. Wang Qiang, who had grabbed his gun to aim at the dog as soon as he heard it bark, also put down his gun and looked at Zhao Jun.
Wang Qiang was a seasoned gunner, but once he had the gun in his face, he realized that the wolf was too fast, and he couldn't even get a shot off.
When the calls of the loach and the hairy creature cease to be continuous and intense, it means the wolf has already run far away.
Zhao Jun looked around and said, "Let's go, we'll walk and wade along."
The group picked up their ropes and sticks and began to clear away the grass as they went.
The Wolf Grass Gully gets its name from the wolves and the grass. The grass in the gully is very dense, and it is also dotted with countless wildflowers.
After walking about 130 or 140 meters, we didn't see any more wild ginseng, and the dogs stopped barking.
Just then, Li Baoyu, who was leading the way, stopped and pointed to the hillside on the right, indicating to Zhao Jun that there was an uphill path.
Zhao Jun looked up and saw that there was indeed a narrow path among the trees.
The road is narrow and steep. After walking up four or five meters, there is a steep ledge that takes some effort to climb over.
But from what I could vaguely see, it was indeed possible to climb the mountain from here.
“Brother.” At this moment, Zhang Yuanmin stepped forward and pointed to the left front, saying to Zhao Jun, “The Lushuihe family residential area is over there, quite far from here. I feel that there should be a mountain road over there opposite the family residential area.”
There were no roads in the world originally, but as more people walked on them, they became roads.
People always want convenience and to save time. After leaving the Lushuihe residential area, they would cross Langcaogou and go up the opposite mountain to collect mountain products. Over time, they would eventually find a direct mountain road.
Zhao Jun felt that Zhang Yuanmin's words made sense, but he suddenly had a bright idea and said to Zhang Yuanmin, "Brother, you go up along the wild path, and leave a mark for me no matter which way you go. Afterwards, Baoyu and I will chase after you."
"Brother, what are you doing?" Zhang Yuanmin asked. Zhao Jun waved his hand and said, "Big brother, let's talk when we meet up. Now let's hurry up and get going!"
As he spoke, Zhao Jun strode towards Li Baoyu and said, "Baoyu, let's go!"
Li Baoyu nodded emphatically, then turned and left, leading the mudfish. He didn't know what Zhao Jun was planning, but the thought of being able to act alone with his brother filled Li Baoyu with fighting spirit.
Li Baoyu led the way, with Zhao Jun close behind. The two brothers walked for more than a mile and sure enough, they found an old sled road leading up the eastern mountain.
The sled road was overgrown with grass. Zhao Jun gestured with his hand, and Li Baoyu led the dog onto it.
Zhao Jun followed behind, looking around as he walked.
After walking about thirty meters, Zhao Jun suddenly whistled and called out to Li Baoyu.
Upon hearing the sound, Li Baoyu led the mudfish back. After reuniting with Zhao Jun, Li Baoyu followed Zhao Jun to a tree.
Seeing Zhao Jun look up at the tree, Li Baoyu also looked up. When he saw a small tree hole about three meters above the ground, Li Baoyu looked at Zhao Jun in confusion.
Li Baoyu couldn't understand what Zhao Jun was up to. The two brothers used to dig up tree holes to steal food for squirrels during the winter, but winter was over, and there couldn't be anything left in the holes.
Besides, even if we had them, now is not the time to collect mountain goods.
Just as Li Baoyu was about to ask what was going on, the mudfish he was leading suddenly started barking wildly down the mountain.