sbdcsierra Chapter 1737 Turning Yong'an into Snow Village
Chapter 1737 Turning Yong'an into Snow Village
Chapter 1737 Turning Yong'an into Snow Village
This trap is called a "pair" because it has two rows of wooden sticks nailed to the ground, facing each other in pairs.
Each section of colored wood is paired with two rows of pointed wooden sticks, with fifteen pointed wooden sticks in each row. Therefore, thirty wooden sticks are needed to set up each pair.
Zhao Jun brought three hundred wooden sticks from his home and set up ten pairs of traps on the slopes on both sides of the nearby mountains and ridges.
They finished their work around 2 p.m., then went down the mountain to take a bus home. They arrived home close to 4 p.m.
When Zhao Jun and his family arrived home, they found the jeep wasn't at the door. Zhao Jun figured the only people in the family who could drive were Zhao Weipeng and Li Baoyu.
Zhao Weipeng has his own car, so Li Baoyu must have driven the Jeep away.
"That kid," Zhao Jun muttered, "instead of staying home, where has he gone?"
“Maybe he drove off to take our brother and sister-in-law for a drive,” Zhang Yuanmin said, and Zhao Jun felt that was possible.
But after entering the house, Zhao Jun discovered that Liu Mei was also there. At that moment, the young wife was peeling garlic while whispering to Ma Ling, Zhao Chun, and Li Tongyun.
Seeing Zhao Jun and the others, Liu Mei, the new bride, felt a little embarrassed.
However, Zhao Jun's attention was not on her, but on Wang Meilan, asking, "Hey, Mom, where's Baoyu?"
“He went out with Ru Hai,” Wang Meilan said. “He said he went to Yongli to do business.”
"Ah..." Zhao Jun guessed that Li Ruhai went out to promote the badger-collecting business, and immediately thought that the kid was quite dedicated.
"Hey?" Just then, Zhao Youcai came over and asked Zhao Jun, "Taking the dog to chase badgers tonight?"
Badgers hunt at night, and with dogs as tough as Zhao's, they could easily take their dogs into the mountains to catch badgers after 10 p.m.
"Come on, Dad," Zhao Jun refused. "The other day, even the black bears came out. The dogs went into the mountains, smelled the scent, and then went after the black bears. In the dark, we can't even see the dogs, that would be a real problem."
"Tsk!" Zhao Youcai smacked his lips upon hearing this and went back inside. As a veteran gunman, he knew everything Zhao Jun was saying, but he was just too bored staying at home.
To give Zhao Youcai something to do, Wang Meilan asked him to cook braised prawns for tonight's dinner.
Zhao Youcai was not pleased, but he accepted it nonetheless.
Because the Li family had a lot of leftover food from yesterday's banquet, the meals for the next few days will be quite good.
Tonight, for example, there were twelve dishes in total, including both meat and vegetables.
Having finally managed to visit her parents' home, and with her brother's wife so warmly inviting her to stay, Zhao Chun and Zhou Dao decided to remain at the Zhao family home.
With his wife and daughter there, Zhou Jianjun didn't go back to Yongsheng. After get off work, he went to the Zhao family with Li Dayong and a few others.
During lunch, Li Dayong suddenly remembered something and asked Zhou Jianjun, "Jianjun, I heard them saying in the group today, what's going on? Is the commuter bus we take to work going to be canceled twice?"
"Hmm." Zhou Jianjun took a bite of a shrimp and said, "Four trips are a bit wasteful. Two trips will be enough. One trip for our two villages, and another for Yongfu and Yongli."
Listening to the conversation between Li Dayong and Zhou Jianjun, Zhao Jun recalled that at this time in his previous life, two of the four commuter buses in Yong'an Forest Area had also been cancelled.
After the shuttle bus is discontinued, it will first pick up employees from Yong'an one week, and then go to Yongsheng. The following week, it will first go to Yongsheng, and then to Yong'an.
This saved a lot of manpower and resources, but the two small trains that were removed were originally intended to be sold to Sengoku Railway, but Sengoku Railway did not want them.
Later, the forestry station got angry and dismantled the two small trains, keeping some parts for spares, while melting down the sheet metal and steel plates.
"Brother-in-law," Zhao Jun asked Zhou Jianjun, "what are we going to do with the little train that was taken down?"
"So what's the solution?" Zhou Jianjun laughed. "It depends on whether Sen Tie wants it or not. If they don't, then we'll eliminate it."
“Wouldn’t it be a waste to phase it out?” Zhang Yuanmin said, and Zhou Jianjun immediately followed with, “What’s the use of leaving it there if it’s not phased out? We’re just chatting at home. That piece of junk isn’t even as practical as Moska. It’s just a waste of coal and it runs slowly.”
At this moment, Zhao Youcai raised his glass and started arranging for drinks. Zhou Jianjun picked up his glass and said in a moment, "Remove two this year, and those two next year too. After that, replace them all with Moska!"
After saying that, Zhou Jianjun tilted his head back and took a sip of wine.
As Zhou Jianjun put down his cup and picked up some food with his chopsticks, he heard Zhao Jun say, "Brother-in-law, if you don't want the forest iron, don't dismantle it or anything. Just give it to me cheaply."
"What?" Zhou Jianjun was taken aback, and the peanuts he had just picked up fell back into the plate.
With the arrival of Zhao Weipeng's family, Zhao Chun, Zhou Jianjun, and Liu Mei joined them, making the two tables too small to accommodate everyone.
Therefore, three tables were set up in the outer yard of the Zhao family's house today.
At this moment, not only Zhou Jianjun stared blankly at Zhao Jun, but everyone else was also shocked by Zhao Jun's words.
"I told you to handle it for me," Zhao Jun repeated. Just as Zhou Jianjun was about to speak, Zhao Weipeng said to Zhao Jun, "Nephew, I've seen that little train at the forest farm. It can't be used for transportation!"
Zhao Weipeng thought Zhao Jun bought the commuter car to use for freight transport, but the small locomotive was simply not up to par. It could handle a few passenger carriages, but it couldn't carry any freight, such as logs.
"Uncle, I have other uses for it." Zhao Jun smiled, then said to Zhou Jianjun, "Brother-in-law, just keep an eye on it for me, I don't think it's worth much money, right?"
"This..." Zhou Jianjun had no idea what his brother-in-law was up to. He looked at Zhao Youcai, but Zhao Youcai picked up his wine glass and said, "Come on, let's drink."
When no one else is around, Zhao Youcai can call Wang Meilan a spendthrift woman and Zhao Jun a brat.
But in front of others, let alone all these people present, even if only his son-in-law were there, Zhao Youcai would not say a single bad word about Wang Meilan or Zhao Jun.
At this moment, Zhao Chun looked at Wang Meilan with some concern. Lin Xue, Yang Yufeng, and others also looked at Wang Meilan.
"I really don't know what happened." Wang Meilan smiled and said, "He didn't tell me either. Let him do whatever he wants."
After saying that, Wang Meilan added jokingly, "If we don't want to, we'll buy it and drive it up the mountain for fun."
Everyone was amused by Wang Meilan's words. Seeing Li Baoyu, Zhang Yuanmin and the others staring at him, Zhao Jun laughed and said, "Why are you looking at me? My mom is right, let's buy it and modify it, let's drive it up the mountain for fun."
No one believed Zhao Jun's words. But Zhao Jun wasn't lying; he really did buy that little train intending to run it in Yong'an. The passengers, however, would be tourists from all over the country.
Back in Hebei, Zhao Jun had asked Zhao Weipeng if he had any relatives in the city who were involved in real estate development, or what is known as real estate.
Zhao Weipeng said no, and even advised Zhao Jun that this kind of job is not something that ordinary people can do these days.
Zhao Jun had given up before, but last night he chatted with Ma Ling in bed and heard Ma Ling talk about how she used to pull a sled on the ice of Dongdagou when she was a child.
These past few days, Zhao Jun, who has been thinking about starting a business, suddenly remembered that before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month after the Lunar New Year, they went to Shuguang Forest Farm. Shuguang Forest Farm is located over the mountains, which is Hailang Forest Farm in Dudanjiang.
The name Hailang Forest Farm is almost unheard of by outsiders.
But Zhao Jun knew that the place would later have another name: Snow Town.
Zhao Jun doesn't think the scenery in Yong'an Forest Area is worse than that in Xuexiang. If Xuexiang can develop, why can't his hometown?
Thinking back to 2020, a 15-square-meter commercial cabin in Xuexiang would cost 50,000 yuan per month in winter.
With this much, why would they need to go to the city to develop real estate?
Think about Yong'an Forest Area. On one side is Phoenix Mountain Scenic Area, and on the other side is Snow Town. My hometown is just an ordinary little mountain village.
To be honest, the Yong'an Forest Area is not bad either.
If you want mountains, there's Dadingzi in the forest area, which is the highest mountain in the entire Heilongjiang Province; if you want water, there's the Lalin River and the Mangniu River.
As long as it's not illegal, you can have whatever you want to eat.
So, Zhao Jun had that idea. He wanted to transform the 300,000-hectare Yong'an Forest Area into a huge tourist resort in the future.
This plan is for the future, and it cannot be implemented now. First, the forestry area is still under construction, and second, Zhao Jun doesn't have that much money right now.
So Zhao Jun thought he should earn money for a few years first, and by the time the forestry area stopped production, he would have saved up enough money.
However, you can't refuse a tempting offer. Don't treat the little train like scrap metal; buy it cheaply and take good care of it. When Yong'an Snow Town opens to the public, a little train will be fully loaded with tourists, traveling up the mountain, through forests and snowfields, taking in the beautiful mountain scenery.
Zhao Jun couldn't share his vision for the future with these people. It wasn't that he looked down on them, but rather that their perspectives were limited; they simply couldn't imagine what China would be like thirty years from now.
……
After eating and drinking their fill and watching TV, the diners went home, and Zhao Jun and Ma Ling went to bed early.
In early spring, strong winds blow. Lying indoors, you can hear the howling wind outside, and even the tightly closed windows tremble slightly.
In the mountains and forests, the branches of the trees rustled incessantly.
At 12:30 a.m., a small animal walked down the ridge. It was nearly a meter long, mainly black, with black and white stripes on its head.
This is a 13-14 pound adult male badger!
The badger's front paws are larger than its hind paws, and it walks with a swaying gait, nimbly descending the hillside while supporting itself by its tail, following the fishy smell all the way.
Not far away, the badger was blocked by the withered branches and vines set up by Wang Qiang and Xie Chen. The badger sensed the fishy smell in front of it, so it went around to the entrance of the game.
The wind still blows, and wherever it passes, the branches of the trees on the mountainside sway in unison.
"Whoosh..." The sound came from afar and approached. The badger raised its head and sniffed the wind. Not noticing anything unusual, it plunged headfirst into the trap.
The badger squeezed into the tunnel formed by the sharp wooden stakes; the enclosed sides made it feel safer. The fishy smell ahead gave it a sense of triumph.
Smelling the increasingly close fishy smell and seeing the small fish so close at hand, the badger greedily opened its mouth to snatch the fish.
"Whoosh..." The trap was triggered, and all that could be heard was the sound of a fierce wind pressing down.
Before the badger could react, before it could even swallow the fish, a thick piece of wood, about 25 or 26 centimeters in diameter and over a meter long, slammed down on it with a muffled thud.
The "pair" strike, also known as the "hanging chop," is a downward chop that injures the badger's internal organs, damages its spine, and causes blood to spill from its mouth.
The badger lost feeling in its hindquarters. It kept kicking its two front legs, trying to lift itself up, but a piece of colored wood was pressing down on it.
This colored wood is not dry wood. In spring, as the earth revives and trees recover, it draws water from the ground, making this section of the trunk very moist and heavy.
With it pressing down on it, the badger, whose hindquarters were not functioning properly, had no way to escape.
Wild animals have their own survival wisdom. The badger knew it had to get rid of the piece of colored wood, so it tried to crawl out from one side.
However, at this moment, there were wooden sticks nailed to the ground on both sides of its body, leaving it no space to move around.
The badger's sharp front paws clung weakly to the ground. It was incredibly resilient; for the next two hours, the badger did not die.
……
At four o'clock in the morning, Zhao Youcai appeared at the door of the West Mansion and coughed lightly twice.
Zhao Youcai's cough wasn't loud, but it was unusually quiet at the time, and the sound of his cough went directly into the room, waking up the sleeping Zhao Jun.
"Uh..." Ma Ling opened her eyes groggily and heard Zhao Jun whisper, "Wife, you go to sleep. I'm going out with Dad."
"Mmm," Ma Ling replied in a voice barely audible, "You and Dad should be careful, and come back early when you're done."
"Hey, go to sleep." Zhao Jun said, then got dressed and got out of bed. When he went out, Zhao Youcai was no longer in the corridor.
When Zhao Jun reached the outer room, Zhao Youcai was already dressed. The father and son left the house one after the other, got into the jeep, and drove out of the village.
Zhao Jun drove into the mountain area, heading straight for the 85th forest section where he had paired up with the team yesterday.
Yesterday, we were supposed to take Jie Zhong and Huang Gui home, but Zhao Jun drove a large Jiefang truck, which couldn't go into the mountains. Today, we rode in a jeep and drove straight in.
Feeling they had arrived at their destination, Zhao Jun and Zhao Youcai got out of the car and strolled around together.
Zhao Youcai came to look after Zhao Jun. He followed behind Zhao Jun the whole way, his small eyes warily scanning the surroundings.
The first pair wasn't triggered, so the father and son continued to slide uphill, finishing one side of the slope and crossing the ridge to the other side.
There were four traps on the mountain, and one badger was caught.
Zhao Youcai took out a small knife and deftly gutted the badger to remove its gallbladder. After removing the gallbladder, Zhao Youcai handed it to Zhao Jun, and then divided the remaining badger entrails into four portions.
The triggered traps were baited with badger entrails. For the other three traps that weren't triggered, a little more badger entrails were added to the small river fish.
Badgers and bears are similar; they are both omnivores and scavengers.
In the booklet left by Jiang Hua, it was noted that, except in winter, when setting up bombs, they must be placed a certain distance above the ground to prevent badgers from biting them.
The pungent smell of the entrails is what attracts badgers the most.
At this time, Zhao Jun was not idle either. He tied the badger's gallbladder with a thin rope, just like he would handle a bear's gallbladder, and then put it in a small cloth bag.
The father and son went to two more hills, and yesterday they played ten pairs of dice, killing three badgers in total.
That's quite a lot!
This is why badgers, having emerged from hibernation, have difficulty finding food in early spring; otherwise, this effect wouldn't be achieved.
The three gutted badgers were put into a sack, and Zhao Jun kept the badgers' gallbladders.
Because the father and son arrived early, not much bile had escaped, but the badger's gallbladder was too small, which troubled Zhao Jun. When would he be able to fill five pig gallbladders?
The triggered traps were all rearranged with badger entrails, and then the father and son went down the mountain to go home.
After finishing his meal at home, Zhao Jun planned to go into the mountains today and take his men to the Third Work Section for a visit.
The Third Work Section is their garrison for forest protection; it wouldn't make sense if they never showed up there.
Just as Zhao Jun was about to go out to pick up Wang Qiang, Zhang Yuanmin, Xie Chen, and Li Ruhai, he heard the phone ringing from the west hut.
"Don't rush off, go answer the phone." Ma Ling called to Zhao Jun, who quickly walked towards the west hut.
"Hello." Zhao Jun answered the phone, and heard the voice on the other end say, "Zhao Jun, can you recognize who I am?"
"Ah, hehe..." Zhao Jun chuckled and said, "Manager Huang, you're calling so early, is something the matter?"
Manager Huang of Huichuntang didn't beat around the bush and asked Zhao Jun directly, "Zhao Jun, do you know what a wooden dragon and a stone dragon are?"
Hearing Manager Huang's question, Zhao Jun, who was holding the microphone, smiled and asked in return, "Manager Huang, do you know angelica and astragalus?"
(End of this chapter)