sbdcsierra Chapter 1736 The Zhao Family Gang Sets Up a Heaven-and-Earth Showdown (Thanks to Alliance Leader Tha
Chapter 1736 The Zhao Family Gang Sets Up a Heaven-and-Earth Showdown (Thanks to Alliance Leader Tha
Chapter 1736 The Zhao Family Gang Sets Up a Heaven-and-Earth Showdown (Thanks to Alliance Leader That Year, That Time for the extra 45 chapters)
Badgers and bears are actually quite similar; both have thick skin, sharp teeth, and sharp claws.
As is well known, bear bile is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine. In contrast, badger bile is not recognized by traditional Chinese medicine.
But as mountain runners know, badger gallbladders are also known as bear gallbladders.
Bear bile can treat diseases such as eye diseases, rashes, and clearing heat and detoxifying. Badger bile also has the same effect, but its medicinal properties are quite different from bear bile.
If badger bile is used instead of bear bile, it is indistinguishable to the naked eye, and even experienced pharmacists cannot tell the difference by taste. However, once it is used in medicine or made into a finished product, the difference can be detected through drug testing.
This is similar to wild ginseng and artificially cultivated forest ginseng. They have the same components and effects, but their medicinal value is vastly different, and their prices are worlds apart.
……
The day after Li Baoyu's wedding, on April 18, 1988, Zhao Jun got up at 5:30 as usual and went out with Ma Ling to walk the bear and feed the dog.
Normally, the potatoes I put in the dog food are put into the pot with cold water, but today the water in the pot is already bubbling, and the potatoes haven't even been put in yet.
At this moment, Zhao Jun brought over a small enamel helmet with a lid from the front yard warehouse. Inside the helmet were five pig gallbladders.
No matter what kind of animal's gallbladder it is, the bile will flow out without dipping it in boiling water after it's removed.
The pigs were slaughtered even earlier than this yesterday. These five gallbladders were left in the small container for a day, so some of the bile leaked out. But after they were removed from the liver, the bile leaked out much slower, and quite a bit of it remained.
Following the method for processing bear bile, Zhao Jun tied the top of the pig's gallbladder with a thin rope and then dipped it into boiling water.
After dipping it twice, the gallbladder swelled up like an inflated balloon, and then Zhao Jun moved on to the next one.
After processing the five pig gallbladders, Zhao Jun took them back to the front yard warehouse and hung them on the roof beams one by one.
After leaving the storeroom, Zhao Jun fed the dogs. Once the dogs were full, he and Ma Ling finished cleaning up. As the young couple walked towards the front yard, they saw Xing San, with one hand covering his thin cotton-padded jacket, hurrying towards the door.
Zhao Jun and Ma Ling called out in unison, "Third Uncle!" Xing San then gestured towards the house and asked, "Shall we have steamed buns for breakfast this morning?"
Yesterday, Zhao Youcai and the others had some leftover broth from the feast, so this morning Wang Meilan steamed pork and scallion buns.
When they entered the house, Wang Meilan was picking up steamed buns from the pot. The buns were steaming hot, and Wang Meilan was dipping one hand in cold water while holding a flat spoon in the other.
With a flat spoon, she lifted the bun up, and the instant it left the steamer cloth, Wang Meilan quickly grabbed it with her hand and deftly placed it on a large enamel plate.
After picking up ten steamed buns, Wang Meilan asked Zhao Chun to bring the plate to the table. At this time, Zhao Jun, Zhao Youcai, Xing San, and Zhou Jianjun were already sitting at the table waiting.
When the large steamed buns were served, each of the four people took one. Zhao Jun bit open the bun, and a burst of hot steam escaped first.
Then, you could see the filling inside, which had been formed into a meat patty. Although it was supposed to be pork and scallion filling, Wang Meilan used the white part of the scallion when preparing the filling. This white part of the scallion was tender and yellowish, and after steaming for fifteen minutes, the white part of the scallion melted into the meat filling.
The steamed buns made by Zhao Jun's family are all made with leavened dough, and the dough for leavened buns is different from that for steamed or boiled dumplings.
Dumpling wrappers shouldn't be soaked in soup. If you mix soup into the filling, then when you bite into the dumpling wrapper, the first thing you'll hear is a stream of soup.
When you eat soup with leavened dough, all the soup from the filling seeps into the dumpling skin, making the dumpling skin flavorful as well.
Zhang opened his mouth wide and took a bite, skin and filling included. The soft dough and firm meat filling entered his mouth, and the four of them instantly fell silent.
After taking a bite, while chewing, dip the remaining bun in the sauce in the bowl. The soy sauce, vinegar, and chili oil enhance the flavor and further stimulate the appetite.
Zhao Jun devoured the fist-sized bun in five bites.
"Son, eat later." At this moment, Wang Meilan called to Zhao Jun, "Take this bun that I just picked out to Baoyu."
Yesterday, Wang Meilan told the young couple in the west courtyard that they didn't need to cook breakfast. Once the food is ready, Zhao Jun can carry it to the wall, whistle twice, and Li Baoyu can come out to receive it.
But before Wang Meilan could finish speaking, Zhao Youcai said, "You're talking nonsense! What time is it? How can a child get up so early?"
"Is it almost done?" Wang Meilan checked her watch, then said to Zhao Jun, "Son, you eat quickly, we'll get more for them when the next batch is cooked."
The meat-filled steamed buns were served with a thick porridge. Zhao Jun ate eight, Zhao Youcai ate ten, and Xing San even ate six.
As Zhao Jun put down his chopsticks, the second batch of steamed buns was ready. Wang Meilan went to call the two maids to get up and eat. Zhao Jun carried a small basin out of the house and whistled fifteen or sixteen times in front of the wall between the two houses before Li Baoyu hurriedly came out.
The two brothers exchanged a few words, and then Li Baoyu took the steamed buns back to his room.
Zhao Jun didn't go back into the house, but walked out of the yard. When he got to the woodpile outside, Zhao Jun looked for a stick that was slightly thinner than his wrist and pulled it out.
He pulled one out and threw it on the ground. Soon, more than ten were lying haphazardly around Zhao Jun's feet.
At this moment, Zhao Youcai and Xing San came out of the yard. Zhao Youcai glanced at them and said, "I'll get you the saw."
With Zhou Jianjun around, Zhao Jun's house had all sorts of common tools—it would be an exaggeration to say they had as many as one could need. But Zhao Youcai entered the yard and within two minutes came out with three saws and a claw hammer.
Once outside the courtyard, Zhao Youcai found a Y-shaped Kabbalah stick and nailed it to the ground. Then he placed one end of the wooden stick chosen by Zhao Jun on the Kabbalah stick, causing the stick to tilt.
Then, saw vertically down the ground to cut the wrist-thick wooden stick into sections about sixty centimeters long, with one end pointed.
The three were busy when Li Ruhai arrived. He walked along the wall of the Li family compound, tiptoeing to peek into the courtyard as he went.
"Ru Hai!" Upon seeing this, Zhao Jun quickly called Li Ru Hai over and asked him to replace Xing San in sawing.
The three men and three saws worked for more than two hours, sawing out three hundred of those sixty-centimeter-long wooden sticks with a pointed end.
Find some old burlap sacks and pack them all into the sawn wooden sticks. Because they're sharp, some sticks might puncture the sacks. But since they're old burlap sacks, Zhao Jun doesn't plan to use them after this.
After stuffing the fish into five large sacks and tossing them onto the Liberation truck, Zhao Jun went inside and asked Wang Meilan for some small fish.
A few days ago, Zhao Jun caught some small river fish and left some for the little black bear to eat. He picked out forty of them and put them in a can.
When Zhao Jun came out of the house again, he called Li Ruhai over and said, "Ruhai, spread the word that our family will start collecting badgers from today."
"Badgers?" Li Ruhai was taken aback and said, "Brother, we're collecting badger pelts too?"
“I’m not buying badger pelts,” Zhao Jun said. “I don’t want badger pelts, I want the whole badger. Live or dead, it’s fine, but it can’t have been dead for too long. It has to be soft before it comes to me, it won’t do if it’s hard, I won’t take it if it’s hard.”
"Brother, then..." Li Ruhai shook his head and said, "That's not easy to handle."
Li Ruhai didn't attend the meeting yesterday, so he doesn't know the spirit of the meeting.
"Ten yuan each." At this moment, Zhao Jun asked Li Ruhai, "Is that okay?"
When Zheng Xuekun first came to the Zhao family last year, he received several kilograms of bear bile, a piece of paper for waiting to get rich, and seven badger pelts.
Zheng Xuekun offered ten yuan per piece, and he said he would charge that price no matter where he went.
Zhao Jun guessed he wasn't lying, because when Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu first went down the mountain to sell lynx pelts last year, the supply and marketing cooperative at the foot of the mountain had only just started buying badger pelts. At that time, the price was on the blackboard: nine yuan and fifty cents for both male and female pelts.
After Zhao Jun went to Hebei, he learned that a badger pelt could only sell for eleven or twelve yuan. Not only was the profit small, but the pelt was also dirty and smelly. Therefore, the Zhao family chamber of commerce did not launch a project to collect badger pelts.
It wasn't until yesterday, when Tao Dabao came, that Zhao Jun asked him about it and learned that the supply and marketing cooperative down the mountain was now buying badger pelts for 8.5 yuan each, which was lower than last year.
These days, badger oil and badger meat are worthless; city dwellers don't recognize them, and people in the mountains don't care for them.
Therefore, the price Zhao Jun offered was 1.5 yuan higher than that of the supply and marketing cooperative. Although it was for a whole badger, it was still considered a high price, and many people would have to go up the mountain every day to hunt badgers for it.
However, Zhao Jun's conditions were quite harsh; the survivors had to die relatively soon. It seemed unlikely they could collect too many survivors this way, so even Li Ruhai couldn't guarantee the mission's success.
After giving Li Ruhai his instructions, Zhao Jun drove his Liberation truck away from home. He drove around the village and picked up Wang Qiang, Zhang Yuanmin, Xie Zhong, Xie Chen, and Zhao Jinhui.
Jie Zhong went down the mountain to attend Li Baoyu's wedding, and today he has to return to Lengchang.
Xie Zhong wasn't the only one who came down the mountain for the wedding; Huang Gui, Jiang Weifeng, and others also came. However, after the banquet yesterday, they went to Jiang Ming's house in Yongsheng Village.
Since we're escorting Jie Zhong, let's give Huang Gui and the others a ride along the way.
On the way to Yongsheng Village, Zhao Jun, who was driving, said to Xie Zhong, who was squeezed into the passenger seat with Wang Qiang, "Brother Xie, after we get up the mountain, you should spread the word at Lengchang that when those workers have nothing to do, they should catch badgers on both sides of me."
A badger pelt and a whole badger gallbladder, those two together, I'll give you ten yuan. The pelt alone is eight yuan and fifty cents; if the gallbladder isn't complete, you can decide the price. Or if you really can't agree, ask Brother Huang; he knows how to price things.”
They were both buying badgers, offering the same price, but their requirements differed. For the family quarters, Zhao Jun wanted the whole badger; for the workers in the mountains, he only wanted the skin and gallbladder, and the workers could keep the badger meat for an extra meal.
Zhao Jun did this not to discriminate, but because collecting badger gallbladders in the village would easily arouse suspicion about his motives.
Jie Zhong knew what Zhao Jun was planning, and he readily agreed. At this moment, Wang Qiang asked Zhao Jun somewhat uneasyly, "Nephew, aren't you going to think about it some more?"
"What are you thinking about, Uncle?" Zhao Jun said with a smile as he turned the steering wheel. "We don't lie to people, haha."
At this point, Zhao Jun paused for a moment, then continued, "After it's finished filling and air-drying, find someone to deliver it to the factory. Don't tell them what it is; just let them pay you accordingly."
Hearing Zhao Jun say this, Wang Qiang and Xie Zhong both laughed. At this moment, Zhao Jun added, "No matter how much it sells for, we'll donate it all, like the ocean, and we won't keep a single penny."
Upon hearing this, Wang Qiang and Xie Zhong nodded in agreement.
……
After escorting Jie Zhong and the others back to Xinlengchang, Zhao Jun went to the cook's shed to check on his four little wild boars.
At this moment, Yu Quanjin, the acting director of Xinlengchang, heard that Zhao Jun had arrived and hurried over.
Secretary Yu, who had only been working at the factory for a few days, already looked very weathered.
Zhao Jun treated Quan Jin quite well because Quan Jin was not only one of his own, but also gave Xie Zhong twenty yuan yesterday when he couldn't go down the mountain, asking Xie Zhong to write down ten yuan each for Li Dayong and Li Baoyu as a gift.
When it comes to gift-giving, there's a give and take, but everyone prefers to deal with people who understand social etiquette.
"Zhao Jun," Yu Quanjin asked as he approached, "Is Boss Zhao at your house?"
The Zhao family chamber of commerce did not take the lead in the freight business, and no one in the forest farm knew that Zhao Jun's family had shares in it.
“It’s at my house, Brother Yu.” Zhao Jun asked with a smile, “What’s up, Brother Yu? Didn’t the empty wagon arrive the day before yesterday morning?”
"We've arrived." Yu Quanjin nodded. "I'd like to ask about the salary..."
"Salaries will be paid at the end of the month," Zhao Jun said. "This month doesn't have a 31st, so it will be paid on the 30th. After that, all workers will be paid on the 30th."
"A few extra days in the first month is fine, we're not paying by the day. We only pay for the cubic meters we lift. Before he comes at the end of the month, Brother Yu, make sure the payroll is all set up perfectly, he won't be shortchanged a single penny."
After saying that last sentence, Zhao Jun waved his hand and laughed, "It's only a few dollars, right? Would such a big boss be short of money?"
Upon hearing Zhao Jun's words, Wang Qiang, Zhang Yuanmin, Xie Chen, and Zhao Jinhui all straightened their backs unconsciously.
After explaining the situation, Zhao Jun led his men out of Xinlengchang by car. Based on the intelligence provided by "Badger" Zhang Yuanmin, Zhao Jun drove straight to the 85th Forest Section.
When they parked at the foot of the mountain, Zhao Jun, Wang Qiang, Zhang Yuanmin, and Xie Chen split into two groups, each carrying a sack, and walked up the mountain.
Zhao Jinhui wasn't empty-handed either; he carried a chainsaw on his shoulder and a large Dandong axe on his back, panting as he followed behind.
After walking up Zhenggang Ridge for two miles, Zhao Jiabang first descended the left slope of Zhenggang Ridge.
After walking down the hillside for about 180 meters, we put down the sack, but we still had to take the chainsaw and axe with us.
The group dispersed to search for trees on the hillside. Zhao Jinhui didn't recognize the tree species, but he was ambitious and followed Zhao Jun closely to learn.
When they heard someone whistling, the group moved closer to Zhang Yuanmin. At that moment, there was a small, colorful tree in front of Zhang Yuanmin.
The trunk of this small tree, which is 20 centimeters off the ground, is as thick as Zhao Jinhui's thigh.
Zhao Jun came over, took a look, and then patted the tree trunk, saying, "This is it."
After saying this, Zhao Jun waved his hand and said, "Let's get to work!"
As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, Zhang Yuanmin reached out and removed the chainsaw from Zhao Jinhui's body, while Wang Qiang and Xie Chen walked back to find the sacks they had just left behind.
With the chainsaw in hand, Zhang Yuanmin instantly recalled the "happy times" he had spent working at the workshop.
The chainsaw started, and as the chain drove the blade, the small colored tree was quickly felled.
"Shunshan is collapsing! Shunshan is collapsing!" Amid Zhao Jun's screams, the colorful tree crashed to the ground.
Zhang Yuanmin put down the chainsaw, picked up a large axe, and laughed, "I have to do the work of being the chainsaw's assistant too."
“I’ll take it, brother.” Zhao Jun reached out to take the axe and said, “I’ll cut the branches, you can have a smoke and rest.”
Zhang Yuanmin did not refuse and handed the large axe to Zhao Jun. Zhao Jun picked the middle of the tree, about twenty centimeters in diameter and of uniform thickness, and knocked off the surrounding branches.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanmin, who had finished smoking, got up, took a chainsaw, and cut off the section that Zhao Jun had selected.
This section, over two meters long, was cut in two by Zhang Yuanmin. Then, carrying a chainsaw, he continued searching for trees, while Zhao Jun carried one section and Zhao Jinhui carried another. The two of them went to meet up with Wang Qiang and Xie Chen.
When they found Wang Qiang, he had already nailed a row of sharpened sticks he had brought from home to the ground.
Zhao Jun came over, placed the colored wood sections close to that row of tree branches, and then placed another row on the other side.
Immediately afterwards, Zhao Jun lifted one end of the colored wood section and used a thin rope and a wooden stick to hang it on a nearby tree branch.
Then, Zhao Jun took out a can of small fish, took out two small fish, and set up a trap under the colored wood section.
At this point, even Zhao Jinhui, who had no experience running through mountains, understood. Once Zhao Jun had set up the trap, as long as any creature triggered the mechanism, the colored wooden stick would strike down with force.
The bait trap set by Zhao Jun was located on the inner side. When it struck, the wooden stick, which was nearly a meter long and 25 centimeters thick, had enough force to kill a large badger.
While Zhao Jun was setting up the decoy traps, Wang Qiang and Xie Chen began to set up their own traps around the area, surrounding it on three sides with tree branches and dry grass, leaving only the entrance open.
Seeing Wang Qiang and Xie Chen's actions, Zhao Jinhui immediately understood without their explanation and said to Zhao Jun, "Brother Jun, this is all knowledge."
Zhao Jun smiled upon hearing this. Just as he was about to say something, Zhang Yuanmin's voice came from behind him: "In military strategy, this is called 'surrounding three sides and leaving one open.' In our hunting profession, this is called a couplet, or a 'heaven and earth couplet'!"
There's a bonus chapter at the end of this chapter, featuring a picture of an old couplet from the mountains. You guys can take a look. (I don't know if it will be censored.)
I was planning to take a break today and didn't even post an extra update notification, but then I gritted my teeth and decided to stick with it.
(End of this chapter)