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

"hey-hey."

In one day, they successfully sold all the tiger skin, tiger bones, tiger gallbladders, and tiger meat, earning several thousand yuan, which made everyone very happy.

In this day and age, if you're not from the city but just a farmer in the countryside, making money isn't an easy thing.

In the city, there are factories and enterprises: cement plants, timber mills, furniture factories, metallurgical plants, food factories, slaughterhouses... These are all secure jobs.

If you can't get a stable job, you can still do odd jobs, set up a street stall, or do some small business... there's always a way to make money.

But it's different for farmers in rural areas. They have to participate in collective labor and earn work points. At the end of each year, the village committee will calculate the money for each villager based on the work points they have earned.

However, many people who work in the village collective struggle to earn even 100 yuan a year.

Even the hunters in the village could only go into the mountains to hunt when they had time outside of participating in village collective labor.

Only during the winter months do these hunters have ample time to go into the mountains to hunt.

Hunting is not a profitable activity. Although Guapigou Village is backed by mountains, there are several other villages nearby.

Other villages also have hunters, and they also go into the mountains to hunt.

They can hunt the game in these mountains, and hunters from other villages can also hunt them.

Not everyone has the courage of Li Yunshan to hunt tigers and bears, nor is everyone as lucky as Li Yunshan to encounter large prey like red deer.

When they go hunting in the mountains, they usually hunt wild rabbits, pheasants, and roe deer. If they are lucky, they might encounter sika deer or red deer, which are more valuable or larger in size.

If you hunt a tiger, sell its skin, meat, bones, and gallbladder, you can make several thousand yuan in one go. If you divide it equally among everyone, you can get several hundred yuan.

Thinking that they would get their share of the money when they returned to the village, Cai Er and the others were filled with anticipation.

It's winter now, the weather is cold, and the New Year is just around the corner.

Once the money is divided equally, they will have some cash on hand. They can buy their wives and children a couple of new outfits, and prepare more food and supplies for the New Year, making the holiday more festive.

"Cai Er, you said we'd get seven or eight hundred when we get back to the village, right?"

On the way back, the tractor's headlights were on, and the cyclists' headlights were also on. Wang Laojiu couldn't help but ask Cai Er.

"It should be."

Cai Er said.

"Hehe, remove the word 'should,' and it's guaranteed to be there."

Li Yunshan smiled.

A tiger skin sold for 5,700 yuan, a tiger gallbladder sold for 150 yuan, and according to Li Yunshan's estimate, the tiger meat and bones should have sold for nearly 1,300 yuan.

All things considered, it came to a little over seven thousand yuan. If divided equally, each person would receive more than seven hundred, nearly eight hundred yuan.

Eight hundred yuan is a lot of money for them.

At least, they earn less than a third of that 800 yuan by working in the village collective all year round, plus hunting in the mountains during the off-season.

This amount of money was already a considerable sum for Uncle Zhou, Brother Zhang, and the others.

"Hehe, no need to rush, we'll split the money when we get back."

Seeing the eager looks on Cai Er and the others' faces, Uncle Zhou said with a smile.

Cai Er and the others laughed somewhat embarrassedly.

Just then, on their way back to the village, a few hundred meters away from Li Yunshan and his group, several beams of flashlight light flashed by in the darkness.

Upon seeing the light, Li Yunshan, Uncle Zhou, and the others immediately became alert.

Transportation was still inconvenient back then, and owning a bicycle was a remarkable thing.

In addition, with the weather so cold and freezing, most villagers stay home to hibernate. Who would be idle enough to travel at night?

Because it was already close to 7 p.m., and it was long dark, in the middle of nowhere, several flashlight beams suddenly flashed by...

Ordinary people might not think much of what happened, but Uncle Zhou and his men are hunters who spend their lives hunting in the deep mountains and forests, and they are particularly sensitive to unusual situations.

Furthermore, since they successfully sold the tiger at the county town's farmers' market and the pharmacy in the west of the city today, and now have so much money on them, it's inevitable that they will attract the attention of those with ulterior motives.

Li Yunshan, in particular, was very sensitive to the beams of those flashlights.

After all, he had personally experienced being targeted by highway robbers when he was selling wild animals at the county's farmers' market.

Those beams of flashlight beams were most likely caused by highway robbers.

Although there were nine of them, if they were targeted by highway robbers, the highway robbers would inevitably take the risk.

After all, money can be very tempting.

"Grab your weapons and stay alert."

Li Yunshan said in a deep voice.

"Yata continues driving the tractor, Unzan, the three of you put the bicycles on the trailer, we'll take our guns and advance on foot."

Uncle Zhou also said in a deep voice.

The reason for having Li Yunshan put the bicycle on the truck bed and then having everyone walk was to reduce the risk of being attacked by highwaymen if they encountered them.

After all, highway robbers and bandits also have their own preferences when it comes to targeting people.

Some highway robbers are only after money and generally do not intend to kill for it, so they don't have any weapons that they can use as a deterrent.

However, some highway robbers are extremely vicious and may have hunting rifles or even standard rifles that circulated among the people before the founding of the People's Republic of China, which is also very possible.

As the leader of the hunters in the village, Uncle Zhou also had to consider the needs of Li Yunshan and Cai Er when faced with unknown risks.

Soon, at Uncle Zhou's command, Li Yunshan and the other two placed their bicycles on the tractor's trailer.

Cai Er opened the tarpaulin and took out his hunting rifle.

Li Yunshan, Zhao Shuanzhu, Zhang Sange, and the others also took their hunting rifles. The eight of them formed a formation of four people on each side and four people in front and behind. They followed the tractor driven by Li Baotian slowly forward, taking bullets from the bullet pouches on their waists, loading them into the barrels of their hunting rifles, and fastening the safety.

"Hey, Shuanzhu, do you think they might be highway robbers?"

As they moved slowly forward, Peng Youlian cautiously looked around while quietly asking Peng Youlian in front of him a question.

"I hope not."

Peng Youlian responded in a low voice.

Highway robbers are seen by many as vicious and ruthless individuals. They are just ordinary hunters, and although they have hunting rifles, no one wants to deal with them.

"What are you afraid of? We all have shotguns. I don't believe any highway robbery gang is so arrogant as to dare to mess with us."

Cai Er said dismissively.

"Yes, we don't need to be afraid of those highway robbers. If we encounter them, and they dare to make a move, we'll fight them to the death."

Wu Shenghong also said.

Highway robbers usually rob people of money and valuables. They don't have much to steal from them except the money from selling the tiger...

That was money they had worked hard for, risking their lives to earn; it was the money they used to support their families. Anyone who dared to covet that money was, in Cai Er's and Wu Shenghong's eyes, a death sentence.

Although they didn't want to provoke highway robbers, they weren't afraid of anything if things really came to that.

"Bang! Bang!"

But just then, two gunshots rang out in the darkness.

Immediately afterwards, several beams of flashlight light pierced the darkness and quickly disappeared.

Seeing this, Li Yunshan and the others were stunned for a moment.

A gunshot rang out, followed by the flashlight beam that quickly disappeared; it was almost certainly a highway robbery.

But... the highway robbers' target... wasn't them?

Thinking of this, Cai Er and Zhao Shuanzhu couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment.

If the highway robbers weren't targeting them, then that gunshot just now...

"I suspect that the gunshot just now was a highway robber trying to cover it up. Let's go check it out," Uncle Zhou said.

"You can go, but you must remain vigilant."

Li Baotian said.

"Follow me closely and keep formation."

Li Yunshan stepped forward and spoke.

He has night vision and thermal imaging capabilities. Although everyone has a flashlight or headlamp, he is the only one among the nine who can move freely in the dark.

In the dark, he can see targets nearly 300 meters away, and his thermal imaging ability allows him to sense targets that can generate heat within 150 to 200 meters.

The effective range of a hunting rifle is generally around sixty meters. Li Yunshan was confident that with his two abilities, he could detect the presence of others even when they were out of range of their hunting rifles.

So, to ensure everyone's safety, Li Yunshan chose to lead the charge.

Seeing this, the others had no objections.

Soon, Li Yunshan led the way, followed by Cai Er, Zhang Sange, Zhao Shuanzhu, Wang Laojiu, and others. With headlamps on their heads and hunting rifles in hand, they walked cautiously toward the direction from which the gunshots had come.

After walking four or five hundred meters, Li Yunshan, using his night vision, did not find anyone nearby, but he did spot a car parked on the side of the road.

Then, using his thermal imaging capabilities, he sensed the presence of two heat sources.

However, Li Yunshan heard a faint cry for help.

"Help...help me..."

Clearly, the other party saw the light from the miners' lamps above them in the darkness, which is why they mustered the strength to call for help.

"Cai Er, I'll go with you. Zhang San Ge, you, Zhao Shuanzhu, Wang Lao Jiu... you stay behind us and keep a close watch."

Upon hearing the cries for help, Li Yunshan quickly realized that someone had fallen victim to highway robbers.

Those two gunshots were probably from the highway robbers who killed people to cover their tracks after successfully robbing the victims.

Unfortunately, it's unclear whether the robbers were bad at shooting or what, but those two shots didn't kill anyone.

The fact that the victim was still able to call for help indicates that the highway robbers had already left.

So, as the one leading the way, he quickly made arrangements to go and see what was going on.