Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1282 This Li Long has really given us a big problem!
In the workshop of the agricultural machinery factory, Engineer Deng and several technicians were disassembling a machine. They were having lively discussions and sometimes arguing heatedly. Engineer Deng was also jotting something down in his notebook from time to time.

Clearly, after the machine was delivered, their technology made great progress, but new problems also arose.

After inspecting the other operating rooms, Director Du arrived here and saw Engineer Deng and several others frowning as they studied a part. He asked:
"Engineer Deng, how's it going? With this equipment, aren't those problems easier to solve?"

“Not entirely,” Engineer Deng shook his head and said. “How should I put it? What we’re doing right now is comparing the problems we’ve deduced with the same parts of this equipment, and then we found that the things Comrade Li Long raised are not exactly the same in this respect.”

"What do you mean? Comrade Li Long has misremembered?"

"No, that's not it. Through our comparative research, we found that in some aspects, the concepts proposed by Comrade Li Long are quite advanced, better and more convenient than the original equipment."

"That settles it then. As you know, although Comrade Li Long is only a middle school student, he is quite capable in agricultural machinery research and development. So, we can't underestimate him."

Since his idea is more advanced, let's just go with his approach. What we need to do isn't to imitate the foreigner's equipment, but to develop a new system suitable for our own situation. Otherwise, I'd be embarrassed to exhibit it, right?

"That's true, but it's still a bit troublesome." Engineer Deng's brows remained furrowed.

"What's the problem? Tell me," said Director Du.

"That's right. Based on our current processing capabilities, some things can be made, some can be made with difficulty, and some are simply impossible to make."

"Can't we make it... Is it that our technology can't produce it, or is it that it's generally not possible to produce it in northern Xinjiang?" Director Du thought for a moment and asked.

"Basically, they probably can't make it." Engineer Deng was quite confident in this regard. "A few years ago, our technical strength and craftsmanship were not even among the best in northern Xinjiang."

Our factory has improved significantly in the last two years. You've been willing to invest in technological improvements and process upgrades, and our capabilities in these two areas are now top-tier in northern Xinjiang. If we can't produce it, other factories basically can't either.

"So we have no choice but to compromise? Do it the way it is with this equipment? Won't this conversion cause the equipment to malfunction?" Director Du asked again.

"It's possible, so we'll need to do some debugging then. But let's try our best to see if we can do it according to Comrade Li Long's ideas." Engineer Deng is quite proud; who in the tech field wants to admit they're incapable?
"In addition, I think we still need to get the raw materials. We need to conduct experiments. We can't just work on it blindly. We need to experiment little by little."

“Alright, I’ll send people to get the raw materials. You guys focus on mastering the technology first,” said Director Du.

(Thanks to reader kcman for his strong support and corrections; he's a true professional.)
Ma County, located in the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains, is the site of winter settlements.

Li Long drove his Land Cruiser to the place where Harim and his men were cutting grass.

Several tractors were advancing in a line, spaced several dozen meters apart, with the harvesters leading them cutting down the tall grass and revealing the green stubble.

The smell of grass juice filled the air.

Li Long didn't see Talihar's GAZ-69, so he figured he'd probably gone hunting in the mountains.

He took a bag of naan bread, some dried meat, and a bag of vegetables from the trunk of the SUV.

The men who came down the mountain to cut grass were mostly men, and while their cooking wasn't exactly haphazard, it was certainly a shoddy job. Since Li Long had come all this way, he thought he should bring some extra food so they could have a more varied and nutritious meal.

Li Long also saw the makeshift stove they had set up, which was just a few stones piled up with a pot on top. At this time, there was still a pot of soup in the pot—the cattle and sheep were all on the mountain, so they couldn't make milk tea, and they basically ate dry naan bread.

Li Long put his things down here and stood there for a while. After the tractor and the harvester returned from a round, Halimu and the others turned off the engine and walked over to Li Long.

After exchanging greetings, Li Long asked:

"Where is Talihar? Where did he go?"

“He came over in the morning and picked up all the stones and wood in the pasture, then drove off in his GAZ truck, saying he was going to look for jade or something. I think he’s gone mad.”

Li Long smiled, thinking this was normal. After all, firstly, someone else was tending to Talihar's cattle and sheep, so he could either take care of them or not. Secondly, when they came to cut hay, there were only a few tractors, and some herders didn't have tractors and had to use others'.

Talihar's family owns a tractor and a harvester. He lends his tractor to others, so it's only natural that they help him cut grass.

Of course, the most important point is that he has already made money by collecting jade and gold. Once someone has profited from this, it's impossible to ask them to give it up.

Moreover, for Talihar, this was extremely profitable, far more lucrative than hunting for furs.

After all, who can resist the temptation of working hard for two or three months and then getting a car in return?
Talihar's family was considered relatively well-off among these herders, and he was also quite resourceful. Li Long was speculating that once these herders were reintegrated into the production teams at the end of the year, Talihar might completely transform into a treasure hunter.

After all, treasure hunting in the mountains is much more exciting and profitable than herding livestock.

As soon as you speak of the devil, a GAZ truck appears on the mountain road. Li Long and Halim were chatting when the truck drove up to them.

Besides bringing supplies to Halim and his group, Li Long also had another purpose in coming: to exchange some of the things the herders had collected for money and give them to them.

Some jade stones are so valuable that even if the herders find them, they have nowhere to exchange them for money—they have no idea that good jade will be bought up by the jade factory in Wucheng. There are a few jade merchants outside the mountains, but these people are unlikely to find the herders in the mountains. The language barrier alone is enough to deter more than 99% of them.

People who encounter strange things in the mountains might have ignored them before, but now it's different. With Li Long around, they're all thinking, "Maybe it's valuable?"
So these people took out some things and showed them to Li Long.

Li Long has seen a lot in both his previous and current lives. In his previous life, he was exposed to a mixed bag of people in short videos, and the presence of some people doing live-stream appraisals broadened his horizons.

Therefore, he generally recognized the items that these people brought.

"This is agate, but it's not very big. Talihar gave me one a while ago. Yours has fewer cracks and looks quite pretty. It's probably worth about ten yuan."

Agate is found in very large quantities throughout northern Xinjiang, so it's really not worth much—unlike later-era Southern Red Agate, which was marketed as highly.

In terms of marketing, the agate from northern Xinjiang is really not good, not even as good as the golden silk jade, also known as Gobi jade, which is found all over the Gobi Desert in later generations.

Of course, the popularity of Golden Silk Jade only lasted for a short time. After the hype died down, although people still occasionally went to the Gobi Desert to collect stones, it became increasingly difficult to find good stones.

After all, when it became popular, nearby residents were already bringing tons of it home.

"Yours is nice, it's a fossil, it looks very beautiful, but it's not worth much, just one yuan." Another herdsman was holding a fritillaria fossil, which looked quite complete.

The Tianshan Mountains are also home to a great many fossil sites. This area was originally an ocean. Geographically speaking, Sayram Lake and the Tianshan Mountains were once seas. Over time, geological tectonic plates collided, causing the mountains to rise, and fossils deposited on the seabed ended up on the mountains.

The fossil reserves are also very large. Unless they have become jade-like and are relatively large, they are really not worth much. It's just that it takes some effort to pick them up, but there are still a lot of them.

"This one is also a fossil, same price, one yuan."

Li Long paid them while he collected their goods, and the herders were quite happy. They didn't haggle with Li Long; for them, this was a business with no cost, and whether it was one yuan or ten yuan, it was all good.

After these people finished selling their goods, Talihar came over and handed Li Long something, saying:
"Look at this."

Talihar wasn't interested in things like agate and fossils, as their value was too low. He wanted to deal in something more valuable to earn more money each day.

Li Long took the item handed to him and examined it carefully.

This is a piece of ore with specks of gold on it, which looks a lot like placer gold.

However, Li Long weighed it in his hand and said to Talihar:

"This looks a lot like gold, but it's not. If I'm not mistaken, this should be pyrite, which isn't worth much. If you can find it in the mountains, you should be able to find a patch of it where there's ore that can be smelted into iron."

"Worthless?" Talihar was somewhat surprised. "Really worthless?"

“Yes.” Li Long handed the ore back to him. “Take a look around the area where you went. There should be a large area there. If you’re lucky, you might even find a vein if you keep digging. Gold mines aren’t like that. Finding one or two pieces of gold is very rare. Generally, the amount of gold in a mine is very small.”

Talihar was skeptical. He took the ore from Li Long, but instead of throwing it away, he picked it up and examined it carefully.

"It's fine to keep it. When you have time, you can go to the school and ask the geography teacher, like Yerjiang's teacher, to take a look," Li Long said with a smile.

He had no intention of establishing his own authority. He himself had found it very strange when he first saw pyrite, and he was also very surprised to find clumps of sulfur in the coal he brought back in winter.

Cognition is developed gradually; not everyone is born with knowledge.

"And this?" Talihar took out another item and handed it to Li Long, but it was clear that this item was not as important to him as the previous piece of pyrite.

This is an ancient jade piece.

The moment Talihar handed over the item, Li Long was certain. In his later years, he had seen countless ancient jade pieces in videos—Middle Ages jade, High Ages jade, and some with patina, including jade cong and the like.

The piece that Talihar handed over was carved from jade, with a very simple and ancient style. It was about the size of a fist and shaped like a bird.

It is thought to be a bird not only because of its pointed beak, but also because of its two wings that are not fully extended.

The jade is of good quality, with almost no black spots. It seems that people here in ancient times were able to find good jade and judge whether it was good or not.

However, Li Long couldn't determine the age of the jade; he only felt it was very ancient. Based on his limited knowledge of antiques, he felt it was at least from the Han Dynasty or earlier.

“This is good,” Li Long asked. “Where did you find it?”

“It’s not far from this mine,” Talihar said. “After I found this ore, I looked around the area but didn’t see any other ores. I just found this one next to the rocks. Is it valuable?”

“It should be worth some money,” Li Long said. “I’ll give you a hundred.”

Li Long wasn't sure exactly how much this thing was worth. He had acquired quite a few antiques, most of which were stored in his cellar. In his previous life, he had heard many stories about the value of jade.

For example, some people say that ancient jade is not as good as new jade, and new jade is not as good as raw jade. That is to say, at a certain point in time, raw jade was the most expensive, and ancient jade was not as good as newly carved jade.

It may be because the material of many ancient jade pieces is not as good as that of new jade.

Of course, it's only for a specific period of time.

In other periods, some ancient jade pieces were still quite valuable, though the upper limit wasn't high. After all, our country once had an era where jade culture was very prominent, and although other cultures arose afterward, jade culture continued, resulting in a large number of surviving ancient jade pieces.

“Okay.” Talihar was pleasantly surprised. He knew the value of the items the others had sold, and his ancient jade was the largest one.

This is equivalent to getting a decent sheepskin, although it's not as good as I imagined, but it's still acceptable.

In addition, he didn't quite agree with Li Long's statement that the pyrite was worthless, so he was thinking of having someone else take a look later.

Anyway, he won't lose his things anytime soon.

After exchanging the items, Li Long chatted with them for a while longer. Halim and the others continued working, so Li Long didn't stay any longer and drove to his own cabin.

Since the fritillaria season ended, Polati no longer stays here; he runs all over the mountains, so the wooden house has been empty.

When Li Long arrived at the cabin, he found that the lock had been pried open again. He was already used to it; there wasn't much to steal inside anyway. What was meant to be taken had already been taken, and there was no point in moving the rest.

Li Long parked Lu Xun next to the wooden house, took the large broom that hadn't been taken, cleaned the house and swept the outside, and finally nailed the torn door latch back on before leaving.

This wooden house played a huge role at a specific time, and it will continue to play a role for the time being, but Li Long will definitely not come here often in the future.

Driving back to the courtyard, Li Long put the things he had traded from the mountains into the cellar. He habitually checked the inventory again, found nothing wrong, and then locked the cellar.

After that, Li Long would go into the mountains every few days, and Talihar would bring him something new each time.

Some were useless ores, some were large fossils, and sometimes they brought back a cluster of crystals. Once, they even brought back a broken amethyst cave the size of a football.

Heaven knows how such a thing could exist in the Tianshan Mountains!
Of course, Li Long collected everything he felt was valuable, but these things weren't worth much money at the moment. The two most valuable things Talihar had acquired during this period were a rough emerald stone, as thick as a child's arm and about ten centimeters long.

The other piece was a large stone slab, about the size of a big iron plate, inlaid with many garnets.

This thing is a type of gemstone, not very valuable, but the garnets on the one Talihar brought over were quite large, almost the size of quail eggs, and looked very beautiful, so Li Long accepted it.

Of course, he was given a hundred yuan for both items combined.

This frustrated Talihar, who realized that the most valuable things were gold and pure jade.

But these two things are very hard to find.

Gold, in particular, is something that's truly rare and hard to come by. Li Long himself had gone into the mountains several times, hoping to find some more, but after visiting many places, he hadn't found a single piece.

There were noticeably more people in the mountains than before. Li Long wondered if it was just his imagination, but even though the fritillaria and mushroom seasons were over, there were still quite a few people looking for things in the mountains. Some were panning for gold, some were looking for jade, and others were doing something else that was unclear.

Once, when Li Long was out of the mountains, he ran into Bolati, who told him that the forest police had arrested a group of people who were illegally panning for gold in a tributary upstream of Ma County a few days ago. Those people were panning for gold in the mountains on a large scale, and it seemed that several hundred grams of placer gold had been seized, which was considered a big case.

Li Long thought to himself, "These people are really bold."

However, if it's a tributary in Ma County, it probably has nothing to do with the road they built. After all, the road they built is quite a distance from Ma County.

He knew this was just wishful thinking, but there was nothing else he could do. Even if he encountered gold prospectors in the mountains, he would try to avoid them unless he had a gun.

By late August, Halim and his men had finished cutting all the hay. The first batch of hay had dried and they started bundling it up and taking it back to their winter shelter. The remaining hay would wait to dry.

Fortunately, the sun is very strong at this time, and the freshly cut grass can be dried in three to five days. If it weren't for the concern that it might not be dried thoroughly and easily get moldy, the grass could be bundled up and taken back in less than a week.

Halim and his men had learned their lesson, and since it was convenient to travel back and forth to the summer pasture now, they simply waited for the hay to dry completely before bundling it.

This time, the herders had nothing left to trade with Li Long. However, Li Long didn't stay long; he just wanted to wander around the mountains. He thought the jade bird Talihar had gotten last time was quite good, and he had already asked Talihar for its exact location. He was thinking of going there to see if he could find anything else.

After all, some things in the mountains are exposed to the elements, and some will weather away over time. Li Long also found a suitable excuse for himself: protecting cultural relics, so it's okay to walk around in the mountains more.

At this time, Qiangqiang had not yet started school, and Mingming and Haohao were still living in the fourth team, enjoying the last bit of happiness during their summer vacation.

Li Long was just taking advantage of these few days to wander around. Once the tasks assigned by the state and local authorities came down in September, he wouldn't have much time to go into the mountains anymore.

Carrying a gun, they crossed ravine after ravine and arrived at the ravine that Talihar had mentioned.

Li Long saw footprints and traces of digging here—these must have been made by Talihar when he was mining pyrite.

There were also signs of searching nearby, so Li Long guessed that Talihar had come back later.

After all, a single jade bird sells for a hundred yuan. If we could find more, we could make a small fortune.

However, nothing similar was found nearby. After telling Li Long the location, Talihar also said that nothing was found there and that Li Long shouldn't bother.

Li Long picked up a twig and searched the area. This ditch used to have a stream, but for some reason the upstream flow had dried up. However, the bottom of the ditch was sandy and gravelly, with little grass and only the occasional clump of shrubs, making it relatively easy to find things.

Li Long searched the vicinity with a tree branch, but he didn't pay attention to the pyrite deposits. Instead, he looked towards the head of the gully.

The ditch runs southeast to northwest, with the ditch head in the southeast direction. However, Li Long could vaguely see that the ditch head was not blocked, and it seemed to be open.

He held the gun on his shoulder with one hand and a tree branch in the other, walking uphill while poking and probing around to see if there was anything there.

Generally, if you find something in the mountains, especially in rivers or streams, and it's not nearby, look upstream. Unless it's a unique item, there's a high chance you'll find it upstream.

Sure enough, after walking twenty or thirty meters, Li Long saw another object in the sand and gravel at the bottom of the ditch, which was almost the same color as the sand and gravel.

He bent down and picked it up. It was a small jade dog, no bigger than the palm of his hand, covered in a layer of dust. If Li Long hadn't been sharp-eyed and noticed that its shape was different from the other pebbles, he would have missed it. Li Long carefully wiped away the dust from the jade dog, revealing its emerald green color.

The jade quality is similar to that of the previous jade bird; I don't know if they're from the same batch or if the materials were similar when they were selected.

Li Long looked around the area again, but found nothing else, so he continued walking forward.

They soon reached the head of the gully, where Li Long discovered that a mudslide had occurred, blocking the water and destroying the original waterway.

On the other side of the blockade, a small river is flowing.

It's the dry season now. The stream is about three or four meters wide, and the water doesn't look very deep or the current is very strong.

Judging from the location of the blockage, if there hadn't been a mudslide, the river water would still have flowed into this ditch.

Li Long climbed over the pile of stones that blocked the way and reached the riverbank, where he began to search carefully.

The mountains on both sides of this ditch are higher than those of the previous ditch, and there is a lot of grass and sparse trees growing on both sides of the ditch.

After walking upstream for about twenty meters, Li Long discovered several coins in the river. Sure enough, they were the same kind of coins as the Han Dynasty Wu Zhu coins—with large holes, unlike the copper coins of later generations.

However, it was so rusted that it crumbled at the slightest touch.

Li Long believed that these things must have been washed down the river somewhere upstream, so he continued walking.

As he rounded a bend, Li Long suddenly stopped, instinctively dropping the stick in his hand. With a slight twitch of his shoulder and a tilt of the sling, the Type 56 pistol slid into his hand. He held the gun with both hands, released the safety, and immediately felt confident.

Ahead, in the backwater area, there was a diesel engine, I don't know if it was pumping water or doing something else. Near the bank, about a meter high, there was a sloping trough, and several people were sitting on the bank resting—there were large piles of sand and gravel next to the trough.

The diesel engine wasn't running, which explains why Li Long hadn't heard any noise earlier.

When Li Long appeared, one of the men was very alert. He turned his head, saw Li Long, and after letting out a cry, grabbed an old-fashioned hunting rifle from the side and aimed it at him.

Li Long reacted extremely quickly, firing a shot in that direction:
"Put the gun down!"

The gunshot stunned everyone else, and the man holding the shotgun slowly lowered it—at a distance of twenty or thirty meters, Li Long fired a shot right at their feet, the bullet embedding itself in the ground.

Clearly, Li Long was an excellent marksman; this was a deterrent. If they didn't obey, the next shot might hit who knows where.

At such a distance, it's difficult for them to guarantee accuracy with their shotguns.

It's illegal gold mining.

Li Long was actually quite conflicted: should he arrest him or not?
If the other party hadn't raised their gun and hadn't affected them, he would have acted as if nothing had happened and quietly run away.

Li Long didn't want to offend this group of desperate criminals. After all, he had a family to support, and who knew if they would retaliate after they got out of jail?

He wasn't afraid of people like Gu Ermao, those cowards who dared to come to his door. He could beat them up a few times and they would submit. These people were different.

But now he was in a bind, having already fired the shot, so Li Long stopped looking back and walked forward with his gun in hand.

The three people sitting on the riverbank habitually raised their hands and stood in a row. When Li Long walked up to them, he found that besides their tools, there were two guns at their feet—a small-caliber gun and a hunting rifle.

Clearly, these people were on guard in the mountains.

"Just the few of you?" Li Long stopped about five or six meters away from them, gun in hand, and asked.

He saw a tent set up diagonally behind him and guessed that there must be people inside.

The three people looked at each other, and no one spoke.

Li Long stepped forward, kicked the hunting rifle and the gun aside, and said to the three men:
"You, turn around!"

He was worried.

The three hesitated for a moment, and one of the thin old men turned around—calling him an old man wasn't quite accurate, more like half an old man.

The other two followed suit and turned around.

Li Long slowly squatted down and took the two guns, hanging them on his shoulder—just then, something moved suddenly at the tent. Li Long instinctively rolled over, and then a bullet ripped up the ground where he had just squatted down!
"Bang!" Li Long, with his sharp eyes, dodged and saw the gun barrel sticking out of the tent window. He immediately raised his gun and fired two shots in that direction!

The three people who turned around screamed and scattered in fear, afraid of being injured by the gunfire from both sides.

Li Long found the two guns he had just been holding cumbersome, so he threw them on the ground and ran to the tent. He had heard screams when he fired the gun, so he had clearly hit the target.

But not knowing if anyone was still inside the tent, Li Long avoided the windows as he ran, reaching a blind spot. He then gradually slowed his movements and listened carefully to the sounds inside.

The three people had already disappeared from sight. They were clearly familiar with the area and knew which way to run to reach safety in the shortest amount of time.

Listening to only one person's breathing and screams inside the tent, the sounds gradually fading, Li Long waited for five or six minutes to make sure no one could hold their breath for that long before slowly walking to the side of the tent entrance and using a tree branch to lift the curtain.

There was still no movement inside. Li Long used a tree branch to hang the curtain on it, and then waited for a while before going in.

Inside the tent, below the window, a woman in a shirt lay motionless in a pool of blood.

The woman was in her thirties with short hair. If it weren't for her prominent chest, Li Long might have mistaken her for a man—she was also quite tall.

A double-barreled shotgun was on her body; she must have used it to attack herself earlier.

The tent smelled quite strong. Li Long glanced around and confirmed that there were four beds, meaning the four people were probably staying together.

He approached the woman, listened carefully, but there was no sound. He also noticed that her chest was not rising or falling. He had shot her in the carotid artery, and blood was flowing everywhere. She would be dead in no time.

Li Long didn't search the tent; he left.

This is the first time I've killed someone.

Although I felt a little uncomfortable, I didn't think too much about it. In that situation, it was either her or me who would die, so I couldn't blame myself.

The most important thing now is to figure out how to handle the aftermath.

Li Long actually intended to just leave. But killing someone and then just walking away would easily leave him with future troubles.

Some things become unclear over time.

But if we don't leave, we might not be able to catch those three people in a short time, and this is a really difficult situation to handle.

He paced around the perimeter of the tent, not looking for anything, but thinking about how to handle the situation perfectly.

Li Long could guess that one of those three people was probably hiding somewhere in the mountains watching him, and that they would definitely come back as soon as he left.

Finding three people at once is difficult; finding one should be easier. But we haven't seen how they transported the machinery and tools. If we could find them, it would be good to just take the body and the contents of the tent away.

Li Long decided to look around the area and actually found a simple road. The diesel engine was actually taken from a tractor; the rest of the tractor was hidden in some bushes.

Li Long looked at it, shook his head, and told him to pack it up, as it couldn't be fixed in a short time.

But his car was farther away, and if he didn't install it, he would have no choice but to leave now.

Just as he was thinking about it, Li Long suddenly smelled a foul odor.

It smells terrible!

At first, Li Long thought it was the stench of some wild animal that had died in the mountains, but then his expression changed. This wasn't right!
Then he found the source of the stench—in a natural pit more than 30 meters from the tent, there were two bodies buried almost completely, their heads not even fully buried!
This side was downwind of the tent, so the other side couldn't smell it. Li Long had to walk around before he could smell it.

Suddenly, that slight discomfort I felt in my heart disappeared.

These people are murderers too!
Li Long went back into the tent, picked up the double-barreled shotgun, searched it again, and found no more guns, but did find a pack of bullets.

He took out the gun and bullets—and then carried the two guns on his back as well, so he would be safer.

This was no small matter. Li Long remembered what Bolati had said about the forest police searching for and cracking down on illegal gold miners in the mountains. So, carrying three guns and holding his semi-automatic rifle, he climbed up the mountain in the direction one of the three had fled, hoping to catch him if possible.

Unexpectedly, when he was almost at the top of the mountain, he actually saw a person huddled in the bushes, so he pointed his gun at the person and said:

"Stand up, loosen your belt, and tie your feet tightly!"

The man had clearly intended to stay there and wait for Li Long to leave before going back, but he hadn't expected Li Long to come after him. Li Long was carrying a gun, and the man himself didn't dare to reveal himself, thinking he could get away with it, but he hadn't expected Li Long to catch him.

The boss had already been killed, so this man was very obedient. He took off his belt, tied his feet together, and then listened to Li Long's orders.

Li Long ignored him and continued walking uphill for another five or six meters. Once he reached the summit, he fired two shots towards the north.

Hearing the echoes of gunfire in the mountains, he waited a minute or two, then took out another hunting rifle and fired another shot. A few minutes later, he fired another shot.

He wanted to lure the forest police over—if they were still in the mountains and could hear the gunshots.

Li Long's location was less than five kilometers in a straight line from the mountain pass. If those people were really in the mountains, they should have been able to hear him.

After firing those shots, he sat down and, while loading his shotgun, said to the man:
"Tell me, what's going on?"

"Huh... what's going on?" This was the person who first saw Li Long and was about to draw his gun, but he was still pretending to be stupid for Li Long.

"I killed one, I wouldn't mind killing another," Li Long said calmly after loading two bullets.

“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you.” The man immediately became clever. “We’re here to pan for gold. Boss Yang… that woman in the tent, she used to be Boss Jin’s woman.”

A few days ago, Boss Jin got drunk and said something that led to Boss Yang shooting him, and then Boss Yang became the boss.

"You have guns too, are you afraid of her?"

"I'm not afraid... but Boss Yang slept with Lao Xu first, and then he slept with Xiao San Gouzi, then..."

The person then fell silent.

Li Long understood.

Li Long was somewhat surprised by Yang Laoda's appearance and build, but considering that these people would probably stay in the mountains for a long time, it was understandable.

“I see two corpses in that pit,” Li Long said.

"Uh, that one was a herb gatherer from the mountains, beaten by Boss Jin. That guy must have found something good, came over and saw us panning for gold, so he joined in the fun."

Boss Jin probed him for details about what he had gained, and he said he had acquired something valuable. Boss Jin then shot him in the back and got the item.

That's really dark.

Li Long raised his gun and fired another shot into the air, then continued to ask:

"Tell me, what bad things have you done?"

"I didn't do anything, all I know is gold panning—there are placer gold mines in these mountains, and gold panning can make money..."

"What's your name?"

"Hou Yongliang," the man answered obediently.

Li Long asked many more questions, including about the two men, how long they had been panning for gold, and how much gold they had found.

He fired a shot every few minutes, but no one responded.

Half an hour passed, and Li Long was getting anxious. He thought that if no one came in another half hour, he would take Hou Yongliang to the forest police.

Fortunately, after waiting for more than forty minutes, some movement finally came from the north.

Three forest rangers arrived nearby, guns in hand. Li Long spotted them first—they moved slowly and were very well concealed.

Li Long shouted loudly:

“I am Li Long, a part-time forest ranger. I know Bolati. I discovered an illegal gold mining site here. They opened fire on me, and I acted in self-defense, killing their boss, Yang. They not only illegally mine gold but also commit murder... I arrested one of them. I'm one of our own!”

At this point, it's crucial to ascertain his identity as quickly as possible; otherwise, who knows if the forest police might mistake him for a gold prospector and beat him up.

"Li Long? You really know Polati?" one of them shouted from behind a rock.

“Polati has a wooden house at the mountain pass. He was helping me collect fritillaria bulbs at my house in the mountains a while ago,” Li Long said hurriedly.

After exchanging words for a while, the other person confirmed Li Long's identity and stepped forward.

Li Long had already put his gun down. Seeing Li Long standing there without a gun, the other side relaxed a bit, but they still walked up to Li Long with their guns still in hand.

When they saw the four guns at Li Long's feet, they were also startled.

“The Type 56 and a half guns are mine; I have a gun license. Those three guns belong to them. This is the gold prospector I caught,” Li Long said, pointing to Hou Yongliang.

Next came the handover and briefing. Li Long led them to the tents and the burial pit, which startled the three policemen.

After Li Long gave a detailed account of the shootout and how he killed the man in self-defense, and after Hou Yongliang testified, Li Long was cleared of suspicion.

“These gold prospectors didn’t just kill people, they robbed quite a few people too.” The leader of the forest police was named Cui Xinquan. He told Li Long, “We’ve received several reports from groups down the mountain, but those people can’t say exactly where they were robbed. We’ve checked the reported locations several times, but they’re all wrong.”

Li Long understood. These forest police officers were all recruited later, and they didn't know much about the situation in the mountains. It would be difficult for them to figure out the terrain in a short period of time.

Fortunately, with Li Long's help, the threat has now been eliminated.

Because there were many items here, and two people were still at large, the three police officers discussed the matter and decided to send one of them back to report the news and call for reinforcements. Li Long went back with him. The other two stayed behind to keep watch and continue their investigation of the scene.

Li Long couldn't be happier. He gave his home address and then went back with another policeman.

To Li Long's surprise, the policeman took a detour onto the road he had organized to repair. There, a green military police motorcycle was parked, and the policeman pulled Li Long down the mountain.

Li Long stopped at Halimudongwozi and drove his own car.

The police didn't stop either, telling Li Long to wait at home while he drove his motorcycle to fetch reinforcements.

Li Long sighed, "Today was really exciting!"

(End of this chapter)