Chapter 1742
Uninvited Guest
Amidst laughter and chatter, the four began to gut and bleed the eight little yellow dogs, then cut off pieces of flesh to feed them to the dogs.
These eight little yellow-haired animals were not very big. The largest weighed only about 50 kilograms, and the smallest weighed just over 40 kilograms. After they were gutted and bled, the weight of each little yellow-haired animal was reduced by a lot.
So when Wang Li suggested going back to fetch horses to carry the meat, Wang An immediately rejected the idea.
In Wang An's view, the pork weighed less than 400 jin (200 catties) and the distance was not far, so four people could easily carry it back. Going back to fetch the horse would not even take up enough time.
So, Wang An and his three companions each cut down a tree trunk as thick as their wrist to use as a carrying pole, and each carried two pigs on their shoulders as they headed back.
At noon, Wang An and his three companions finally got to eat the stewed and roasted meat they had been longing for. They ate until their mouths were greasy and they were so full that they lay there, too stuffed to move.
Wang Li lay down, patting his bulging belly, and said with a smug look on his face:
"Oh my god, eating meat is the best! It makes my whole body feel good."
Wang An, with a cigarette dangling from his lips and eyes half-closed, said in a rather dreamy tone:
"Of course it's necessary. You can't stand it without meat. I really don't know how those ginseng gangs manage to survive by eating vegetarian food every day after they go into the mountains."
Upon hearing this, Wang Li immediately looked puzzled and said:
"Yeah, those guys are really something else. They eat millet rice and pickled vegetables every day, and they have to walk to and from the mountains. If it were me, I'd be starving by now."
Looking at the azure sky, Mu Xueli said with a face full of emotion:
"I still have to get along well with my brother-in-law. That guy can eat whatever he wants, and he even has a horse to take him in and out of the mountains."
After saying this, Mu Xueli suddenly turned to Huang Zhong and asked:
"Xiao Zhong, don't you have anything to say?"
At this moment, Huang Zhong was listening to Wang An and the other two chatting with a smile on his face when he suddenly heard Mu Xueli's question. He subconsciously replied:
"I, I, I don't have anything to say. I just follow my older brother and do whatever he tells me to do."
After Huang Zhong finished speaking, Mu Xueli stared blankly, momentarily at a loss for words.
The four chatted for a while, then closed their eyes and dozed off for a bit before getting up to deal with the pig bones and pork.
Just like when they processed roe deer meat, they put the bones with meat in sacks, then weighed them down with stones in a nearby stream, using the flowing water to slow down the spoilage of the pork.
The pork was buried in the charcoal fire, so that they could eat it until they came down the mountain.
After processing the wild boar meat, seeing that it was still early, Wang An and his three companions headed towards the nearby old embankment, which was also the ninth old embankment they were about to wade through.
After spending more than half an hour finding Lao Zhao, Wang An and the other three began to line up and practice their sticks.
As the saying goes, "time flies in the mountains," and three days passed by in the blink of an eye since the four of them found Lao Zhao and started practicing their sticks.
And finally, Wang An and his three companions waded through the entire ninth old village!
To be fair, Wang An and his three companions actually made quite a bit of progress in this old village.
The reason it is described as "really good" is because this old burrow has never been waded through, and Wang An and his three companions finally dug up the third and fourth six-leaf seedlings they had encountered on their mountain expedition in this old burrow.
If we include the ginseng seedling with seven leaves that they dug up a few days ago, Wang An and his group of four have now acquired five wild ginseng seedlings that are over a hundred years old.
It must be said that even in this era, and with Wang An and his companions having a deer hide map for precise location guidance, obtaining wild ginseng over 100 years old was still an extremely difficult task. Keep in mind that after wading through this old embankment, Wang An and his group had already waded through nine other old embankments.
From nine ginseng nests that are over a hundred years old, only five wild ginseng seedlings over a hundred years old were produced. The probability of this is extremely low.
Besides the two seedlings with six leaves, Wang An and his three companions also dug up six seedlings with five leaves, 21 seedlings with four leaves, two seedlings of ginseng that had undergone a transformation, as well as several ginseng plants and ginseng seeds in this old burial mound.
Half a month has passed since Wang An and his three companions entered the mountains, and their harvest has been quite gratifying.
除了5苗百年以上野山参以外，80年以上的五品叶13苗，50年以上的四品叶107苗，还有转胎人参9苗。
It is worth noting that these 9 ginseng seedlings are all relatively heavy, and although the overall price will be higher than that of the 4-leaf variety, the unit price of this thing is definitely not as high as that of the normal 5-leaf variety due to its appearance.
There's no way around it; the first thing to look at with ginseng is whether it's damaged, the second is whether it looks good, and only the third is its weight.
For example, the ginseng seedling with a large number of thorns that Wang An and the others found in the shack, although it was quite heavy because of the large number of thorns, could only be priced at the price of a fourth-grade leaf, and could never reach the price of a fifth-grade leaf.
As for the lampstands and the two Jiazi (a type of ancient Chinese divination tool), although they are the most numerous, they are all defective items, and no one has ever done a count.
The day after they finished wading through that old embankment, Wang An and his three companions packed up and went to the tenth old embankment.
Just as Wang An and his three companions were searching for ginseng in the tenth old hamlet, Xiao Bai and Xiao Hei, who were sleeping there, suddenly stood up, raised their heads, and shouted loudly.
Xiao Bai and Xiao Hei would never bark for no reason, so Wang An and the other three immediately stopped searching for ginseng with their sticks, casually stuck their ginseng-picking sticks into the ground, and each of them instinctively reached for their lower backs, instantly pulling out their large 54s.
With a gun in hand, one remains calm. Even if another tiger comes, these four Type 54 pistols would be enough to kill it.
In just a short while, seven people holding rope sticks and carrying flower baskets on their backs appeared in the sight of Wang An and his companions.
Of these seven people, only two were carrying double-barreled hunting rifles.
Upon discovering that the other side only had two guns, which were hunting rifles, Wang An and his three companions immediately relaxed considerably.
Upon seeing the attire of these seven people, Wang An and his companions immediately knew that they had encountered fellow ginseng diggers.
To put it bluntly, the other party was a regular seven-person ginseng gang, but to Wang An and his three companions, they were uninvited guests.
Normally, the number of people in a group is odd, such as 3 people, 5 people, 7 people, or even just one person going into the mountains alone.
Larger groups may have 11, 13, 15 or more members, but without exception, they are always an odd number.
Because in the eyes of ginseng diggers, good things come in pairs, and ginseng is also counted as a person, so odd numbers of people go into the mountain and even numbers of people come down the mountain.
To put it bluntly, it's just a wishful thinking, a pipe dream that you'll reap rewards just by going into the mountains.
Wang An and his three companions watched silently as the seven people approached. Suddenly, the person at the front clasped his hands in a fist salute to Wang An and his companions and said:
"A single flower blooms in the Northwest, all bandits under heaven are one family!" (End of Chapter)