HPDBC Chapter 1882 One tendril is 1.3 meters long
Chapter 1882 One tendril is 1.3 meters long
Chapter 1882 A single whisker is 1.3 meters long
Zhao Jun didn't have time to listen to Li Ruhai's explanation of how he had put the Zhao family's hunting gang in check; he simply strode into the office building.
Li Baoyu told Zhao Jun everything about how Li Ruhai reported to his superiors that morning. Zhao Jun thought Li Ruhai had done a good job, but he was different from Li Ruhai. Zhao Jun didn't choose to report to a higher-level leader, especially since Zhou Daikui and others were with him.
So Zhao Jun led his men back to the security team. But Liu Jinyong wasn't there; there was only a junior security guard in the office.
Zhao Jun asked him, "Where did Team Leader Liu go?" The junior security guard replied, "Team Leader Zhao, Team Leader Liu led us to interrogate the prisoners and take their statements, and then sent them to the local police station."
The forest farm security team has no law enforcement authority. Minor offenses, such as petty theft or fighting, can be handled internally by the security team. However, serious offenses must be sent to the local police station.
But before handing over Pang Gaoming and others to the local police station, Liu Jinyong secured the evidence and testimonies, so that even if the Pang family used their connections, they wouldn't be able to overturn the case.
They all lived in this forest area; Zhao Jun knew Liu Jinyong, and the Pang family also knew him. Moreover, Pang Zhihua and Han Wenxue, who had committed the crimes, lived in the same village as Liu Jinyong.
Liu Jinyong was able to enforce the law impartially, and Zhao Jun appreciated his kindness regardless of the reason.
So even though Liu Jinyong wasn't there, it wasn't wrong for Zhao Jun to go find Yan Shugang. In fact, Zhao Jun was quite anxious, but he still found a stool in the security team and sat down.
"Has Team Leader Liu been gone for most of the day?" Zhao Jun asked after taking his seat. The young security guard replied, "He's been gone for a little while."
Zhao Jun nodded upon hearing this. The local police station was right next to the forest farm, and Liu Jinyong should be back in half an hour.
Zhao Jun waited at the security team for nearly twenty minutes before Liu Jinyong and his group returned from outside.
Upon entering the room and seeing Zhao Jun and the others, Liu Jinyong immediately asked, "Zhao Jun, how did you get that big claw?"
"No, team leader." Zhao Jun said with a wry smile, "We found its hiding place, but we didn't even catch a glimpse of it."
Although Liu Jinyong doesn't hunt, he knows that going into the mountains to hunt during this season is not an easy task.
But then Zhao Jun told Liu Jinyong about the tiger's injury.
Upon hearing this, Liu Jinyong's mood instantly soured.
Last year, the Yong'an forest area was plagued by wild animals, with wild boars, bears, and tigers taking turns causing trouble. Many of these animals were injured.
Liu Jinyong's old comrade-in-arms, Hong Yuntao, the former deputy leader of the security team, died under the claws of a large brown bear whose quills had crawled into its anus.
“Okay, Zhao Jun, I understand.” After hearing Zhao Jun’s suggestion, Liu Jinyong immediately replied, “Let’s do it your way. Let’s go find Director Yan now.”
“I won’t go, team leader.” Zhao Jun stood up and said, “I’ll go back to the mountains now and take the people and dogs for another round.”
Zhao Jun's words weren't exactly a lie, since going to carry the ginseng king could be considered a trip into the mountains.
As for the Siberian tiger, it's not that Zhao Jun isn't trying, but rather that he doesn't have any good solutions right now.
After hearing Zhao Jun's words, Liu Jinyong thought that he was going to go into the mountains to look for tigers again, and for a moment he was very moved by Zhao Jun's dedication to his job.
"Zhao Jun, what do you think... do you need manpower?" Liu Jinyong said, "How about I go with you in the next couple of days?"
"No need, team leader." Zhao Jun was going back to carry ginseng, so he couldn't take Liu Jinyong with him. He refused, saying, "I'm going home later. If you want my dad to come along, then I'll ask him to."
“Hey, that works.” Liu Jinyong laughed when he heard this. “Master Zhao is really skilled. You should have taken him up the mountain earlier.”
“I had heard about it before, but since it wasn’t confirmed, I didn’t let him come along,” Zhao Jun explained. “If he wanted to come, I told him that living in a makeshift shelter in the mountains would be too hard, so I told him to stay home and wait for news.”
At this point, Zhao Jun changed the subject and asked Liu Jinyong, "Team leader, what did the local police station say? How are Pang Gaoming and the others handling this?"
"Chief Chen said they'll all be transferred to the branch office today," Liu Jinyong said. Zhao Jun pressed further, "So, in their situation, will they have to be detained in jail?"
“They have to be arrested.” Liu Jinyong nodded, then said to Zhao Jun, “This is a gang case involving attempted assault with weapons. Gangs and weapons are both key targets for crackdown, and they should be severely punished. And for their attempted assaults, there are further categories: attempted minor injury, attempted serious injury, and attempted serious injury with lethal or particularly cruel means.”
According to their confession, they planned to break your arms and legs, so this would be considered attempted serious injury or attempted serious injury by cruel means.
Director Chen wasn't sure what the specific sentencing would be. But if it were considered attempted serious injury, the ringleader, Pang Gaoming, would face two to four years in prison. The others would get at least six months, depending on how their cases were classified.
If the attempted serious injury was committed through cruel means and failed, Pang Gaoming would have to serve at least four years, with a maximum of six. His subordinates, on the other hand, would all have to serve at least one year.
Before Zhao Jun could say anything after Liu Jinyong finished speaking, Li Baoyu asked, "Team leader, they don't have the death penalty or anything like that?"
"Huh?" Liu Jinyong was taken aback, then shook his head and said, "No, they only failed. This is a serious crackdown, otherwise it wouldn't even qualify as such."
Zhao Jun frowned slightly. He also hoped to kill Pang Gaoming and his men. It wasn't that Zhao Jun was ruthless; he was just afraid that these people would retaliate after they were released.
But every country has its laws, and since that's the ruling, Zhao Jun couldn't do anything about it.
Having finished speaking, Zhao Jun led Wang Qiang, Li Baoyu, and Li Ruhai away from the security team.
As he came out of the office building, Wang Qiang suddenly spat on the ground and said, "Damn it! These few adopted sons got off easy."
“Okay, Uncle,” Zhao Jun advised. “Didn’t you hear what Team Leader Liu said? They only attempted it. If we want a heavy sentence, we need someone to beat them badly. It’s better if we all stay healthy.”
Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Wang Qiang nodded and said nothing more. But then Li Ruhai chimed in with a grin, "We should have pushed Ma Yang out there. Let Pang Gaoming and his gang beat Ma Yang up, and then Pang Gaoming and his gang would be finished... Hmm?"
Just as Li Ruhai was getting into the mood, he noticed Zhao Jun looking at him with a strange expression.
Li Ruhai was taken aback, then heard Zhao Jun say irritably, "If I break him, how am I supposed to explain this when I get back?"
Regardless of whether Ma Yang ran away secretly or not, if anything happens to him in the mountains, Zhao Jun will be blamed, and it might even affect the couple's relationship.
Li Ruhai was quick-witted. After a brief moment of surprise upon hearing Zhao Jun's words, he smiled and said, "Brother, if that's the case, then we absolutely can't take him up the mountain anymore. If something happens, you'll be blamed, and that won't do."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Jun's lips twitched. He didn't say anything, but just gave Li Ruhai a deep look before walking towards the jeep.
"You rascal!" Wang Qiang pointed at Li Ruhai and laughed, "You really know how to poison people's minds."
After saying that, Wang Qiang chased after Zhao Jun. Li Baoyu glanced at Li Ruhai and then followed closely behind Wang Qiang.
Li Ruhai stood there and chuckled, not going with Zhao Jun and the other two, but heading straight for the workshop where Ma Dafu was.
Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang got into the jeep, while Li Baoyu drove the Jiefang. The three of them and the two vehicles left the forest farm and headed straight for Qingshilazi.
At 2:30 p.m., the two vehicles stopped at the foot of the mountain. Li Baoyu got out of the Jiefang truck and squeezed into the jeep with his dog.
The jeep went up the mountain and stopped about 200 meters from the hut. Then the three people and four dogs returned to the hut.
As they approached the shack, Qinglong and Heilong, who were left behind, made a sound, which quickly attracted the attention of Xing San and his group.
At this moment, Xing San, Xie Chen, Zhao Jinhui, and Ma Yang were gathered around watching Zhang Yuanmin carry ginseng.
Lifting the ginseng king requires hands full, so Zhang Yuanmin dared not let Xie Chen or Zhao Jinhui help. He had to kneel on the ground alone and slowly pry it out with the deer antler spoon.
When Zhao Jun returned, only Zhang Yuanmin remained kneeling on the spot, while the others greeted him.
"Brother-in-law," Ma Yang asked as soon as he came up, "Did you get hurt by those big claws?"
"No," Zhao Jun said, then quickly walked towards Zhang Yuanmin and asked, "How's the situation, brother?"
"Look at this, brother." Zhang Yuanmin greeted Zhao Jun with a smile, and Zhao Jun saw that the ginseng body had been unearthed when he got closer.
Zhang Yuanmin is now using a deer antler spoon to pick up the ginseng roots. He is worried that the unearthed ginseng roots will fall over and delay his work, so he sticks a small stick next to it and then wraps the three ginseng roots with strips of cloth to the stick so that the ginseng body will not fall over.
This scene is somewhat reminiscent of traditional herders using a wooden club as a lock.
At this moment, Zhao Jun looked at the ginseng king he had been longing for. He saw that the three ginseng bodies were intertwined and twisted. It would be an exaggeration to say that it was as big as a white radish. However, there is a kind of water radish in Northeast China that is similar in shape to the core of a corncob after the kernels have been removed.
These three ginseng roots, when embraced together, are thicker than a radish.
"My goodness!" Zhao Jun exclaimed after just one glance, "This club is so beautiful."
"Hehe..." Zhang Yuanmin laughed, raised his arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead, then propped up his kneeling right leg and changed to kneeling on one leg to get up.
But Zhang Yuanmin must have been kneeling for too long, because he couldn't get up. Seeing this, Zhao Jun quickly went over to help Zhang Yuanmin up.
“Brother.” Zhang Yuanmin handed the deer antler key to Zhao Jun and said, “You take over, I need to rest for a while.”
"You've been carrying it for ages, brother?" Zhao Jun asked. Zhang Yuanmin sighed and said, "I'll keep carrying it as long as you leave."
As he spoke, Zhang Yuanmin pointed to the ginseng and continued, "Brother, don't just look at the top, look at the roots."
"Hmm?" Upon hearing this, Zhao Jun went over and took a closer look. He saw that only half of the rootstock was protruding from the soil. One end of this protruding rootstock was still attached to the rootstock, while the other end was buried in the soil.
That's normal, but what's not normal is that the ginseng rootlet that was unearthed must be 80 or 90 centimeters long. Moreover, judging from the thickness of the end that wasn't in the soil, Zhao Jun felt that the rootlet must have been at least 20 or 30 centimeters longer in the soil.
In other words, this single stalk must be over a meter long.
“Brother,” Zhang Yuanmin said with a smile, complaining to Zhao Jun, “We had lunch at eleven o’clock. After lunch, I could rest for a little while, and then I got up and started trying to lift this beard. I’ve been trying to lift it for almost three hours now, and I still can’t get it out.”
After saying this, Zhang Yuanmin chuckled and said, "I was afraid I'd break it, so I stared at it with my eyes wide open until my eye sockets hurt. After kneeling for so long, my legs felt like they weren't even mine anymore."
Zhang Yuanmin spoke his complaints with a smile. The more he lifted the ginseng, the more he felt that Zhao Jun's words, "Several families will be living a life of luxury in their next life," were not empty words. Therefore, the longer the ginseng's whiskers grew, the happier Zhang Yuanmin became.
Zhao Jun was also quite happy. He took the antler-shaped key that Zhang Yuanmin handed him and continued to lift the whisker.
They carried it until sunset, and Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin worked together to finally lift the tip of the tendril out under a red pine tree.
Before going up the mountain, Zhao Jiabang brought a 30-centimeter-long elm wood spirit level. After measurement, the spirit level was found to be 1.36 meters long.
Zhang Yuanmin focused intently and carefully rolled up the tendril, then wrapped it in a thin layer of moss before tying it to the stick used to tie the head of the reed with a strip of cloth.
After doing all this, Wang Qiang took the woven basket, placed the ginseng king underneath, and finally weighed the basket down with a stone.
After finishing their work, everyone had smiles on their faces.
"Uncle," Zhao Jun reminded Wang Qiang, "it's only a little past six o'clock, you can still make it back if you want."
Upon hearing this, Wang Qiang looked at Li Baoyu and Xie Chen.
Li Baoyu and Xie Chen shook their heads in unison. Li Baoyu went even further, saying to Zhao Jun, "Brother, let's get up early and leave tomorrow morning."
"Okay." Jie Chen nodded in agreement, and Wang Qiang added, "Nephew, it's getting dark now, so the three of us won't bother anymore. Let's leave tomorrow morning."
……
It gets dark earlier in the mountains than outside. At this time, in the Zhao family compound of Yong'an Village, two dining tables are set up on the red brick path in the courtyard, and men, women, and children sit around the tables to have dinner together.
The atmosphere at dinner tonight wasn't very good because Li Dayong, who came home from get off work, told us about Pang Gaoming, Han Shengli, and others raiding the Zhao family's shack, which made several families indignant.
Just then, two barks came from the backyard; Li Ruhai had returned.
The boy came back on the commuter bus, but instead of going home with Li Dayong and the others after getting off, he went to the village to control public opinion, neglecting to eat or sleep.
Upon seeing Li Ruhai return, Jin Xiaomei quickly invited him to sit down and eat.
"Everyone else had finished eating before you came back." Li Dayong glared at Li Ruhai, recalling what happened at noon today, and said something to Li Ruhai again.
Li Ruhai pursed his lips and ate in silence. He had only taken a couple of bites when Zhao Youcai called out to him, "Ruhai, did your older brother say what to do with that big claw up the mountain?"
Only the Zhao family gang and some members of the security team knew that Zhao Jun was going to send Zhao Youcai to deal with the Siberian tiger; Li Dayong was unaware of it.
Therefore, Zhao Youcai was unaware that the opportunity he had been longing for had arrived.
"I don't know." Li Ruhai put a piece of potato in his mouth, a sly glint in his eyes, and said, "My older brother didn't tell me. I think they'll continue chasing them over there tomorrow."
His older brother didn't tell him, but he heard it. It's just that Li Dayong's words just now made Li Ruhai not want to talk about it anymore.
"Sigh." Zhao Youcai sighed heavily upon hearing this, and said, "This kid... he's always messing around. How can he do two things at once, like carrying a shed or lifting a stick?"
After saying this, Zhao Youcai secretly glanced at Wang Meilan. Just as he looked at Wang Meilan, she was also looking at him and gave him a disdainful look.
Zhao Youcai pursed his lips, picked up the wine glass next to the bowl, and downed it in one gulp.
After the diners left in the evening, Wang Meilan sat on the kang (heated brick bed) in the east room washing her feet. As she washed, she thought about something and became increasingly angry. "No way, I have to go find Old Pang's family tomorrow! They're just too hateful!"
After Wang Meilan finished speaking, she did not receive a response from Zhao Youcai. When Wang Meilan looked up, she saw Zhao Youcai with his hands behind his head and his hands on the pillow, staring straight at the shed.