Chapter 115 Tao Family Affairs
The Li family's house was warm as spring. Li Jianguo had stored the pine wood that Li Long had brought back that could be used as lumber, in preparation for spring preparations. As for the pine wood that was about to rot, Li Jianguo had already chopped it into firewood during the time Li Long had been hunting.
"Uncle, this gun is very heavy." Li Qiang was lying on the kang, barely holding the small-caliber rifle, shaking it and speaking with difficulty.
"This is considered a light punishment." Li Long was right beside him, and he instructed his nephew, "Don't point the muzzle at people, you can't pull it out - I turned off the safety."
Li Juan was lying on the kang, holding her doll and looking at the gun with some curiosity.
"You went to hunt a yellow sheep and brought back a gun?" Li Jianguo still couldn't believe it. "The captain came over and told me about it. I said he was joking. How much is a yellow sheep? How much is a gun? I didn't expect you to actually bring it back!"
"We shot four yellow sheep in total," Li Long explained. "Three of them were male. They wanted the yellow sheep's horns, which they used as antelope horns. They needed them urgently. Besides, not everyone can shoot yellow sheep. They are hard to find."
"That's right." Li Jianguo nodded. "Everyone knows that there are gazelles in the Gobi Desert, but there are none in our team that can catch one. You are the first one."
Li Long took the gun from Li Qiang and handed it to Li Juan:
"have a look?"
"Hey!" Li Juan happily put down the doll, picked up the gun, and aimed at the window in a very serious manner.
"This gun should be good for shooting rabbits." Li Jianguo's eyes were filled with envy. He had touched guns before. When the production team was first established, the first group of people who came here used the old Type 79 rifle to guard against wolves at night. Later, a militia company was established, using Type 56 semi-automatic and Type 56 submachine guns.
But those guns are public property, and the bullets cannot be used casually. Now the small-caliber rifle in Li Long's hand is his own, and the feeling is completely different.
"It should be possible to hunt rabbits, snowcocks, foxes, yes, and badgers," said Li Long.
"When badgers and foxes fight, their hides get hurt," said Li Jianguo.
Seeing that Li Juan could no longer lift the gun, Li Long took it and handed it to Li Jianguo:
"Badgers, pigs and water rats can be dug out, but foxes are hard to deal with, so we can only fight them."
Li Jianguo took the gun, opened the safety skillfully, pulled the bolt, and after it got stuck, he looked through the bolt hole at the chamber, then asked:
"Do you have any bullets?"
"They gave me two boxes. I plan to go to Xinhua Bookstore and buy a few more boxes as a backup."
Until the gun ban, Xinhua Bookstore no longer sold small-caliber rifles, air guns, and sand guns, but small-caliber bullets were still on the counter, which made Li Long very strange. However, he didn't have a gun at the time, so he didn't ask.
"Yes, there's no harm in having extra bullets." Li Jianguo fiddled with the gun for a while, then handed it to Li Long. He stood up, unfastened the key from his waist, opened the chest of drawers, and took out a shoulder bag.
Li Long recognized that this shoulder bag was Li Juan's schoolbag. Later, after Li Long bought a standard schoolbag for Li Juan, this schoolbag was put away by Liang Yuemei.
"These are the bullets I got from the team these days. You need bullets for hunting, and those herdsmen friends in the mountains should also be in need of them. They have helped you a lot, so you can't be stingy. Use them. If they are not enough, I will find a way."
Li Long did not refuse. He took the bag and felt it. There should be at least one or two hundred bullets.
It's very useful.
"And this." Li Jianguo took out two knives from the chest of drawers and handed them to Li Long. The two knives were one long and one short, the long one was thirty or forty centimeters, and the short one was about ten centimeters, both with sheaths. Li Long took the knives and looked at them one by one.
"When you hunt in the mountains, you need to use good knives for gutting, skinning and cutting. I asked someone to make these two knives with cannonball steel. They have been sharpened and are very sharp." "Cannonball steel? Where did the cannonball steel come from?" Li Long asked in surprise as he looked at the sharp knife that was flashing with a cold light.
"Nanshan Shooting Range." Li Jianguo said with some pride, "Doesn't our county artillery regiment have a shooting range in Nanshan? After shooting, the soldiers didn't clean up the range completely, so there was some leaked shell steel, and someone picked it up. A blacksmith I know has a few pieces, and I asked him to make two knives for me some time ago."
Li Long still used an old knife with a wooden handle, the steel had worn off. The skin of the roe deer was damaged, mostly because of Li Long's poor skills, but also partly because of the poor quality of the knife.
Li Long was really happy as he looked at the two knives with great interest.
Li Qiang saw the knife and wanted to touch it out of curiosity. Li Long quickly sheathed the knife and said to him:
"Qiang Qiang, you can't touch this knife. It will cut you if you touch it. It's very sharp!"
When Li Qiang heard this, although he was still a little curious, he immediately took a few steps back to the edge of the kang. He didn't want to get hurt.
Seeing Qiangqiang being so cautious, Li Long felt relieved.
"You haven't seen Daqiang these two days, right?" Li Jianguo locked the chest of drawers and turned to ask Li Long.
"No, I was wondering why he had been missing for the past few days, as he used to come home every day."
"His father is sick." Li Jianguo said, "He has a lung problem. Old Tian checked it out and said that he could only wait and see. If he wanted treatment, he had to go to the county hospital. Tao Daqiang wanted to take his father there, but Tao Jianshe refused to go, saying that it was just an old problem and not a big deal."
Li Long was speechless. Nowadays, medical conditions are not as good as those in later times, and it is really difficult for poor families to see a doctor. The barefoot doctors in the village did solve many people's problems, but some serious diseases can only be treated in large hospitals, and ordinary people have no money.
On the contrary, in later generations, when the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme was introduced in rural areas, he remembered that several people in the team were diagnosed with cancer during physical examinations. They then went to Wucheng for surgery and lived for many more years.
So although the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme has been criticized by many people, everyone in the team is very active in participating in it.
The older generation is used to hardship, so when they get sick, they will just endure it if they can. At most they will get injections and take medicine. The story of Sun Shaoping's grandmother counting painkillers in "Ordinary World" is nothing new in rural areas.
Even until Li Long passed away, many old people in the team still believed in Analgin, Aspirin and painkillers when they were sick. Although these two drugs have great side effects, in the eyes of the elderly, they are cheap and effective.
I’m old now and can’t think that far ahead.
"I'll go take a look." Li Long took the knife and gun and prepared to put them in the east room.
"Xiaolong, if you put the things in the east room, you have to lock the door." Li Jianguo reminded him, "These things are not cheap."
"I see."
"Bring something with you when you go. There are canned food and sesame cakes at home. I'll cut a piece of meat for you now."
"Okay." The Tao family has plenty of fish, but they should bring some meat. After all, Tao Daqiang is working with Li Long, so he still has to go and see what he needs to see.
Tao Jianshe was lying on the bed covered with a quilt, coughing once or twice from time to time. Tao Daqiang was washing clothes by the stove. He was a little surprised to see Li Long coming in. He stood up, feeling a little embarrassed, not knowing what to say.
Li Long sighed secretly, this silly brother is still the same.
(End of this chapter)
