Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

After waiting all night, they didn't see the tiger enter the village. Although they were somewhat disappointed, they knew that this was to be expected.

After all, they still couldn't confirm whether the tiger had just come to visit the village, was still wandering around the village, or had gone to a nearby village.

Disappointment arises because the tiger did not appear.

If a tiger were to appear, with just the guns in their hands and them hiding in the granary, they could take advantage of the situation and kill the tiger with a flurry of shots. They could then sell the tiger and split the profits, making at least a few hundred dollars.

As for whether you'll earn a few hundred or a few hundred, that depends on fate.

However, after so many years of hunting, everyone knows that hunting requires patience, rather than waiting there and having prey automatically come to you.

"Go back and catch up on your sleep, eat and drink well, and get plenty of rest so we can continue our vigil tonight."

"Yes, that's right. Once I've rested enough, I won't close my eyes at night."

On their way back, Cai Er and the other hunters encouraged themselves.

"Let's go back and rest."

Uncle Zhou yawned. Although Li Yunshan had been keeping watch for him for the rest of the night and he had slept for half the night, as people get older, their energy levels are low and they are prone to drowsiness.

"I'm going to Xiangyang Commune."

Zhang Sange said.

Uncle Zhou, who was about to head home, suddenly stopped. He glanced at Zhang Sange and asked, "What are you doing at Xiangyang Commune?"

"Hehe, Uncle Zhou, I've wanted to buy a hunting rifle for a while, but I was short of money. Now that I've finally saved up some money, I've decided that I need to buy a hunting rifle as soon as possible."

Zhang Sange chuckled憨憨地.

"I told you a long time ago that I should buy a hunting rifle, but you wouldn't listen. If you had bought a hunting rifle earlier, with your hunting skills, you would definitely have caught more game than you would with a bow and arrow."

"I wouldn't have dared to do that before. Back then, my kids were still young, my wife was sick, and I was afraid of spending money, especially if there was a sudden emergency where I needed money..."

Zhang Sange explained.

In fact, Uncle Zhou and Li Yunshan understood that Brother Zhang's health was depleted because his family had given birth to five children in eight years when his children were still young a few years ago, which caused the family to have many expenses.

Moreover, back then it was the era of earning work points in large collectives. Rural people could only earn a little money throughout the year by relying on work points earned by the collective, let alone save any money.

If a family has many expenses and borrows a lot of grain from the village collective, they might end up owing the village collective a sum of money when the work points are settled at the end of the year.

If it weren't for Zhang San's hunting skills, and the fact that Uncle Zhou and Li Yunshi would take special care of him when he caught prey while hunting in the mountains, Zhang San's life wouldn't be so easy.

"Now I've figured it out. I need to buy a hunting rifle. If I can shoot a big wild boar like Yunshan did, or kill a deer, then I'll make a fortune," Zhang Sange said optimistically.

"Since you want to buy a hunting rifle, I'll go with you. I don't know if that tiger is just dropping by the village or roaming around nearby. It's not safe for you to go to Xiangyang Commune alone," Uncle Zhou said after thinking for a moment.

Actually, he was also worried that Zhang Sange might encounter some danger on the way. After all, he only had a bow and arrow, which could hardly cause any real damage to a tiger. The arrows were like tickling a tiger.

But when a tiger goes berserk, a single charge can tear a person to shreds.

"My shotgun is almost out of bullets, so we can go together."

Li Yunshan also said.

This is not a lie, because after Gao Hongmei used his Tiger Head brand hunting rifle a few times, a lot of bullets were used up, and there are only a little over two boxes of bullets left at home.

Li Yunshan also suffers from a fear of ammunition shortages. Moreover, with the tightening of policies in the future, the control of firearms will become increasingly strict. Not to mention that rifle bullets will become increasingly difficult to obtain, even shotgun bullets will be hard to come by.

In the early 1990s, after the Battle of Martinogler, the country quickly introduced strict gun control policies, and eventually even air guns disappeared from public view.

Therefore, Li Yunshan also planned to buy some more hunting rifle bullets, and went with Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang San.

But how could Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang not understand Li Yunshan's intentions?

"Alright, let's each go home and give instructions to our families, then meet at the village entrance and we'll go to Xiangyang Commune together."

Uncle Zhou said on Friday.

Soon, the three parted ways and went home.

Half an hour later, Li Yunshan rode his bicycle to the village entrance and met up with Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang San.

Uncle Zhou also borrowed a bicycle from the village.

Li Yunshan had Zhang Sange sit on the back of his bicycle, and then he and Uncle Zhou headed towards Xiangyang Commune.

They arrived at Xiangyang Commune very quickly.

However, today was not market day in Xiangyang Commune, so the streets were rather deserted, and even the supply and marketing cooperative had far fewer people than on market days.

Upon entering the supply and marketing cooperative, the three headed straight for the counter selling hunting rifles.

"Comrade, bring me that Worker-Peasant brand double-barreled shotgun."

When he arrived at the counter, Zhang Sange glanced into the display window and quickly spotted a Gongnong brand double-barreled shotgun on display.

The salesperson noticed that Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou were carrying guns, and Zhang Sange was carrying a bow and arrows. He immediately recognized them as hunters from the village and asked to see their gun licenses first.

"Comrade, this is my gun license. Could you please give me two boxes of bullets for my Tiger Head brand double-barreled shotgun?"

At this moment, Li Yunshan also handed his gun license to the salesperson.

The sales clerk took the gun license, opened it, and looked at it carefully: "Comrade, you look familiar. You just bought a hunting rifle and bullets not long ago, didn't you?"

"Yes, I bought it two months ago. But I run out of shotgun ammo quickly, so I'm going to buy some more just in case," Li Yunshan explained.

"Then what you're carrying isn't a hunting rifle, it's a rifle. It looks like a Mosin-Nagant to me, right?" the salesperson continued.

"It's a Mosin-Nagant; it was passed down to me by my father."

Li Yunshan added.

"Oh, so why does Comrade Zhang suddenly want to buy a hunting rifle?"

The salesperson then asked Brother Zhang.

"I used to use a bow and arrow, but I wanted to try switching to a hunting rifle to see if I could hunt more game in the mountains," Zhang Sange said honestly.

"Salesperson, a tiger came into our village the night before last. You might not know, but with his bow and arrows, the shots he took were like tickling the tiger. So he's thinking of buying a hunting rifle so he won't be afraid of tigers or bears when he goes into the mountains."

Uncle Zhou chimed in from the side.

After listening to the salesperson, he carefully examined Li Yunshan and Zhang Sange's gun licenses before taking out two boxes of ammunition and a Gongnong brand double-barreled shotgun from the cabinet and handing them to Li Yunshan and Zhang Sange respectively.

After receiving the bullets, Li Yunshan paid twenty yuan and put them in his pocket. Zhang Sange, on the other hand, was captivated by the Gongnong brand double-barreled shotgun. He looked at it for a long time as if it were a beautiful young woman waiting to be married before reluctantly placing the shotgun on the counter and taking out his money.

The money that Brother Zhang San pulled out was a thick wad of cash.

There are two old-looking 100-yuan banknotes and five relatively new-looking 100-yuan banknotes, which I borrowed from Li Yunshan yesterday.

The rest were two-yuan and one-yuan notes, along with a large handful of small bills and coins.

The sales clerk was momentarily stunned when she saw so many small bills on the counter, before carefully counting them all.

After counting for a long time, I finally counted 210 yuan, and then returned the rest to Brother Zhang.

But actually, there wasn't much money left, only ten or twenty yuan.

With money exchanged for goods, Zhang Sange was overjoyed to receive the gun.

From then on, he was also a man who owned a hunting rifle.

"Comrade, I need another box of bullets."

Brother Zhang carried the newly bought gun on his back and felt a change in his overall energy and spirit, as if he had gained a lot more confidence.

He counted out ten yuan from the dozen or so yuan the sales clerk returned and said to the sales clerk.

"Here you go." The sales clerk handed him a box of fluff.

"With a hunting rifle, I no longer have to worry about encountering large prey that I can't kill with my bow and arrow when I go hunting in the mountains."

Carefully tucking the bullet into his pocket, Zhang Sange smiled and said to Uncle Zhou and Li Yunshan.

"Even if you encounter a bear or a wild boar, there's no need to be afraid. If you encounter a roe deer, you can easily catch it. Besides, a hunting rifle is more accurate than a bow and arrow, so you can hit it more precisely."

Uncle Zhou laughed.

"Brother Zhang, now that you've bought a hunting rifle, you might just open your shop in a few days and pull off a big heist," Li Yunshan said with a smile.

"Hehe, then it definitely has to be a big one, otherwise why would I empty my savings to buy it?"

Zhang Sange chuckled.

The three of them left the supply and marketing cooperative while chatting and laughing.

However, after arriving outside the supply and marketing cooperative, Li Yunshan subconsciously glanced around before speaking, "Uncle Zhou, have you noticed that when we just bought some shotgun bullets, the sales clerk asked us a lot more questions than usual? This is not a good sign for us hunters."

"I can tell, what are you trying to say?"

"I think the government is preparing to tighten gun control policies. As hunters who make a living by hunting, we need to stock up on ammunition for our hunting rifles as soon as possible, so that we won't be unable to buy ammunition when the policies are tightened, or it will be even more difficult to buy it," Li Yunshan reminded.

As a reborn individual, Li Yunshan remembers that the country only began to introduce a comprehensive gun ban in the mid-1990s, but in fact, it had already begun to gradually tighten restrictions long before that.

"Then we need to stockpile more hunting rifle bullets, otherwise if the policies tighten in the future, we won't have enough bullets for hunting, and how will we support our families?"

After finishing his sentence, Uncle Zhou turned around and walked into the supply and marketing cooperative.

When he came out, he had two boxes of shotgun shells in his arms.

"Yunshan, lend me another ten yuan, I'll go buy another box of bullets."

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Sange also spoke.

"Brother Zhang, take this."

Without saying a word, Li Yunshan took out a ten-yuan note from his pocket and handed it to Brother Zhang.