sbdcsierra Chapter 1689 Zhao Family Army
Chapter 1689 Zhao Family Army
Chapter 1689 Zhao Family Army
While Li Ruhai and Li Tongyun went out to gather information yesterday, Zhao Jun was also busy. He went to Xishantun and Kaoshantun to spread the word, telling the able-bodied men of both villages to gather in their villages today at the agreed time. Zhao Jun would then come over and use a Liberation truck to take them to Xinlengchang.
As Zhao Jun approached the outskirts of Xishan Village, he saw a sidecar truck swaying leisurely ahead.
The road conditions in Yong'an Village are pretty good, but the road conditions in Xishan Village are a different story.
Sensing a car approaching from behind, the person in the sidecar quickly moved to the side to make way. When the person in the sidecar turned around, Zhao Jun, who was in the jeep, saw him clearly.
"Hey? Baoyu!" Zhao Jun raised his hand to signal, and Li Baoyu quickly honked the horn twice before stopping the car.
"Quick, quick, call him back!" Zhao Jun urged, and Li Baoyu honked the horn twice more.
Zhao Jun quickly rolled up the car window and asked, "Brother Jinbao, where are you going?"
Both men in the sidecar were from the local police station. Zhao Jun didn't know the name of the man driving the sidecar. But the man sitting inside was Yang Jinbao, whom Zhao Jun had spent some time with during his second investigation of Wang Jiusheng's shack.
Two murders have shocked Yong'an, and the local police station and forestry security team are working tirelessly to solve them. When these two officers appeared outside Xishan Village, Zhao Jun assumed Xishan Village was connected to the cases.
"Hey, Brother Jun!" Yang Jinbao asked with a surprised look when he saw Zhao Jun, "We're here to investigate the situation in this village, what are you doing here?"
Hearing Yang Jinbao's words, Zhao Jun got out of the car and asked Yang Jinbao, "Brother, what's going on? Did Hu the Cripple come to this village?"
"Huh?" Yang Jinbao was taken aback, then smiled and said, "No, Brother Jun, it's not that case."
Zhao Jun was momentarily stunned when Yang Jinbao said with a smile, "Our police station doesn't just handle that one case. We're here for something else."
"Something else?" Hearing this, Zhao Jun subconsciously glanced in the direction of Xishan Village, then asked Yang Jinbao, "What is it? Can I ask?"
“Why not?” Yang Jinbao smiled at first, but when it came to the matter at hand, he became serious and said, “There are people in their village who are doing drugs.”
"What? What is that?" Zhao Jun couldn't believe his ears.
Seeing Zhao Jun park his truck, Jie Chen behind him also stopped his Jiefang truck and opened the windows to listen to Zhao Jun and Yang Jinbao talking.
Upon hearing this, Xie Chen asked with an eager look, "Did you take rat poison?"
Yang Jinbao glanced at Xie Chen, then said very seriously, "It's not rat poison, it's painkillers."
"Painkillers?" Zhao Jun frowned and asked, "Is it really necessary to go through all this trouble for you?"
These days, oxytetracycline and cold medicine are rare. In rural and forest areas, the most common medicine is painkillers.
This medicine can be described as a miracle cure in the countryside; it works for any pain, no matter where it hurts. It's also effective for colds and diarrhea. Even when you're tired from work or traveling, or just feel weak, pop a couple of tablets in your mouth, and you'll feel refreshed in no time.
Because of its ingredients, this stuff can be addictive if you keep taking it. In rural areas, some elderly people always carry painkillers in their pockets. They'll pull one out and pop it in their mouth whenever they're chatting or playing cards.
As soon as one person takes the lead, the elderly men and women around them will take out their medicine. If someone finds they don't have any medicine in their pocket, they will ask the person next to them for two pills.
But these days nobody cares about that, because even in rural areas, people openly grow tobacco gourds in their own little gardens. If nobody cares about that, how can anyone care about taking painkillers?
Faced with Zhao Jun's question, Yang Jinbao said very seriously, "The county called this morning and said that yesterday a couple came to the pharmacy and ordered a thousand packets of painkillers."
Zhao Jun: "..."
One pack of painkillers contains 100 tablets, so 1,000 packs would contain 100,000 tablets. No wonder it alarmed the county GA bureau.
At this point, Yang Jinbao added, "The pharmacy said they didn't have that much, but the couple wanted 800 packs. They said they didn't have 800 either, but then they wanted 500."
"Hehe..." Zhao Jun and the others were amused by Yang Jinbao's words, and Yang Jinbao continued, "In the end, the two of them took four hundred bundles and left. Afterwards, when people asked them where they were from, they said they were from Xishan Village, Yong'an Forest Farm, surnamed Wu, and called..."
“Not Wu.” Upon hearing this, Zhao Jun corrected Yang Jinbao, saying, “His surname is Wu, the Wu of martial arts, and his name is Wu Dalin.”
"Yes, yes!" the officer in the sidecar echoed Zhao Jun, then asked him, "Team Leader Zhao, do you know this person?"
Zhao Jun nodded and smiled, saying, "Next time anything happens in Xishantun, just give me a call."
"Do they have a phone?" Yang Jinbao and his companion were completely bewildered. "Aren't they hooligans?"
“It’s not like that now.” Zhao Jun said to the two of them with a smile, “I’m sorry to trouble you to make this trip. They’re buying medicine for the collective.”
As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, Li Ruhai interjected, "My aunt said so."
"Your aunt?" Yang Jinbao and his companion looked at Li Ruhai in surprise. Zhao Jun quickly interrupted, saying, "That's my mother."
"Your mother?" Yang Jinbao exclaimed, but feeling that the question sounded like an insult, he quickly added to Zhao Jun, "Why is your mother involved with them?"
“My mom is their village head,” Zhao Jun said, which only confused Yang Jinbao and the others more. Your mom, an old woman from Yong'an Village, going to Xishan Village to be the village head? It sounds like a joke.
“Well… our forest farm’s Spring Festival travel rush is about to begin.” Zhao Jun explained to Yang Jinbao and the others, “Those who can help from Xishan Village are all going up the mountain today. Once the railcars arrive, they’ll start loading and unloading. Those who do a lot of work need to keep some painkillers on hand. Wu Dalin and his wife bought those medicines and they shared them among everyone.”
The first half of Zhao Jun's statement is correct, but the second half is exaggerated.
On the day the Zhao family moved, Wu Dalin went to the Zhao family to sell grey and fox furs.
Seeing the Zhao family moving, Wu Dalin even stopped selling his hides and worked incredibly hard to help them move their things. He carried whatever was heavy that the Zhao family owned.
Moreover, when he spoke, Wu Dalin constantly revealed his determination to die for Wang Tunchang.
This touched Wang Meilan deeply. She wanted him to stay for dinner, but Wu Dalin refused and insisted on leaving.
Having no other choice, Wang Meilan gave Wu Dalin two boxes of Shilin cigarettes and two bottles of Xifeng liquor. This infuriated Zhao Youcai, who kept muttering that these two items were enough to hire eight people.
The couple had different concerns. When Wang Meilan saw Wu Dalin off, she asked him about his family's small shop.
It turned out that Wang Meilan had promised to lend money to Wu Dalin and also introduce Wang Fu to him.
But Wu Dalin and his wife were quite determined. They borrowed enough money in the village and then contacted Zhang Lifu. They gave Zhang Lifu the money and asked him to drive an oxcart down the mountain to buy goods for them.
After listening to this, Wang Meilan gave Wu Dalin a way to make money. She suggested that when they went to buy supplies, they should also buy some painkillers on the way and have Wu Dalin take them up the mountain.
Once production starts, the workers will suffer hardship and toil, but they will also receive wages. At that time, these painkillers will find a market. Painkillers that were sold for eight cents a pack can be sold for eight cents a pack, and people will still want them.
But Wang Meilan told Wu Dalin that they couldn't be so greedy; selling a single unit for two cents would be the maximum.
When Wang Meilan was teaching Wu Dalin how to make money, Zhao Jun wasn't home. But when the young couple chatted that evening, Ma Ling told Zhao Jun about it as something new.
It's fortunate that Zhao Jun found out, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to help Wu Dalin block this way.
"Ah..." Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Yang Jinbao and Zhao Jun exchanged a glance, and then Yang Jinbao said to Zhao Jun, "Brother Jun, we need your aunt to write a note for us, and then we can take it back to report."
“Then you can come to my house and find my mother,” Zhao Jun said. “The village head’s seal is in her hands. After she finishes writing, she still has to stamp it.”
Zhao Jun's words made no mistake, but Yang Jinbao and the other man felt something was off.
But since Zhao Jun has said so, there is no need for them to look for Wu Dalin anymore.
After seeing the two off, Zhao Jun and his group got back into the car and drove into Xishan Village, all the way to the open space in the center of the village, the place where Wang Meilan was elected village chief.
People are punctual these days. If they say they're meeting at eight o'clock, many people arrive here at seven.
When the vehicle arrived, all the laborers in Xishantun had been waiting there for a long time.
The labor force mentioned here is not just young and middle-aged people; you can see that even a sixty-year-old man like Zhang Xinglong and a sixteen or seventeen-year-old young man are waiting here with their bags on their backs.
Zhao Jun got out of the car, glanced at the crowd, and didn't say much. In rural and forested areas, there's no such thing as retirement; as long as you can get out of bed, you have to work.
These people are all from the same village. When they go out to work together, they can always look out for each other. If the older ones can't work anymore, they'll come back.
Of the fifty-five households in Xishan Village, a total of eighty-two laborers came out. Apart from Wu Dalin, who was carrying two large bags, the others had little luggage.
After all, the villagers had only had enough to eat a few days ago, and each of them was wearing only this one set of clothes.
But of these eighty-two people, fifty were carrying air rifles.
Although winter has passed and the difficulty of making ash has increased more than tenfold, the people of Xishantun have come from hard times, and their desire to earn money and change their lives remains as fervent as ever.
They carried guns up the mountain to hunt during their rest time. Although the hunt was difficult, they believed they could eventually catch something if they put in the effort.
Tong Youfeng, the richest man in Xishantun and owner of a No. 16 hunting rifle, did not participate in this collective labor activity. In his words, the village head and accountant were not present, and the director of the public opinion survey had also left, so he, as the militia captain, had to stay behind to take charge.
At this moment, Zhang Xinglong, the director of the poll, walked up to Zhao Jun and said, "Young Master, could you take us to the blacksmith's forge?"
Since learning of Wang Meilan's dissatisfaction with him, Zhang Xinglong has become much more respectful towards Wang Meilan and Zhao Jun, and has started calling Zhao Jun "Young Master" like the others.
"Huh?" Zhao Jun was taken aback, then heard Zhang Xinglong say, "Our family ordered a scalpel."
Xishantun used to be a poor village; some families didn't even have kitchen knives.
Since becoming affiliated with the Zhao family, every household in Xishantun has had an income, and they have been able to purchase some daily necessities.
But few families are wealthy enough to have knives and axes. If a knife is taken up the mountain, it will be useless at home.
So after discussing it, the group decided to order sixty blades from a blacksmith's forge.
When they received this huge order, the two old men at the blacksmith's forge were stunned.
The blacksmith's workshop wasn't far from here, so Zhao Jun immediately called these people to get on the vehicle and headed straight for the workshop.
Ten minutes later, the jeeps and Liberation trucks stopped outside the blacksmith's forge. The people from Xishantun in the Liberation trucks got out in a flurry.
Within two minutes, they all came out of the blacksmith's furnace, tucking knives behind them as they walked.
When they ordered the knives, they also ordered a matching knife storage unit.
"Young Master," Wu Dalin said with a smile as he approached the jeep, turning to Zhao Jun inside, "Do we look like we're going to drive mountain roads?"
"Yes, very much so." Zhao Jun replied with a smile, then opened the car door, got out, and clapped his hands. After attracting everyone's attention, Zhao Jun said, "Loading and unloading work is hard, not as simple as you imagine."
We thought to ourselves, those huge logs weigh over a thousand pounds each. Working all day, we didn't want to do anything afterward, sometimes we were so tired we didn't even want to eat.
"It's alright, young master." At this moment, Zhang Xinglong came over and said, "We people can't afford anything else, but we can endure hardship!"
They'd go back to their shacks and sleep after work, then get up early the next morning. Since it would still be light early in the next few days, they'd take a stroll in the woods before breakfast.
Hearing Zhang Xinglong's words, and seeing that he wasn't carrying a gun or a knife, Zhao Jun wanted to say something to him. This old man was quite old but still loved to fight, and he didn't even go hiking; he was just talking without a care in the world.
But considering Zhang Xinglong's advanced age, Zhao Jun swallowed back the words he was about to say.
Everyone got into the car and headed straight for the mountain area. After the two cars drove away, two people came out from behind the blacksmith's forge.
Both of them were operatives of the Pang family gang. After the fierce battle that day, their cheeks, the corners of their eyes, and the corners of their mouths were still somewhat red and swollen.
Looking at the dust kicked up by the truck, one of them said to his companion, "When we get back, we have to tell the foreman that we absolutely can't mess with the Zhao family anymore. Look at those guys, they even have knives now."
"Oh dear! You don't need to tell the boss. Last time he was supposed to beat up that bastard, even if you asked him to, he wouldn't."
When Zhao Jun arrived at Kaoshantun, a total of thirty people were gathered from both the north and south Kaoshantun.
It's not that Kaoshantun is deserted, but rather that the location restricts them from sending out all their able-bodied men like Xishantun does.
More than 110 people were standing on the Liberation truck. Looking at the throng of people, Li Baoyu excitedly said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, these are all our soldiers!"
"Brother Jun!" Xie Chen interjected at this moment, "Now that we've sent these people to the farm, shouldn't we get things started at our pig farm too?"
"Yes!" Zhao Jun nodded and said, "It's almost the end of March. In another ten or twenty days, we'll go up the mountain to find pigsties and catch some small flower buds!"
As he spoke, Zhao Jun looked at the towering mountain peaks in the distance, reaching towards the sky, and said, "If we do a good job this year, a million is no problem!"
"Big brother," Zhao Jun said, and Li Ruhai smiled and said to him, "Under your and my aunt's leadership, we will definitely achieve our goal!"
(End of this chapter)