Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

"Bamboo partridge?" Lin Heng was stunned. He hadn't hunted for a long time and hadn't noticed this.

He hadn't gone out hunting at night recently because he was really busy.

Grouse is a bird that likes to flock together. Its feathers are flaxen, and there are black eye-like spots on its belly and sides, and there is a patch of green hair under its neck.

This is a very common bird here. The largest one weighs only five or six taels, and the average one weighs more than four taels. But this bird has a characteristic that it likes to gather in a group. Finding one often means finding five or six.

"At least six or seven bamboo partridges are resting together, and the calls are very loud. We can go and shoot them when it gets dark." Li Baiquan whispered.

When it gets dark, bamboo partridges like to rest on a bamboo branch in groups. A shot with a shotgun can yield a big harvest.

"Then I have to borrow a shotgun. I'll go to Tian Baishun to borrow one and try." Lin Heng thought for a while and said, and it happened that Tian Baishun was also helping to thresh the grain today.

He came uninvited. The old man was familiar with Lin Heng and knew that Lin Heng had good food. He shamelessly came to help and get a free meal in the morning.

Lin Heng's bow and slingshot were not very effective in the bamboo forest. He had to use a hunting rifle, loaded with some small iron sand particles, and one shot could kill all the bamboo partridges with scattered damage.

"That's what I mean. Let's go together." Li Baiquan said with a smile.

Lin Heng nodded and went to find Tian Baishun with his uncle.

He asked someone and was told that Tian Baishun had just returned with a bag of millet and was walking to the field.

The two chased after him and found the old man before they had walked a few steps. He was holding a snakeskin bag behind his back and chatting with Liu Lan.

Liu Lan was squatting on the ground picking vegetables. His eyes looked into her collar from time to time. It seemed that the weather was hot and Liu Lan was not wearing underwear.

Lin Heng secretly laughed at the old man, saying, "Old man Tian!"

Tian Baishun was startled and turned around quickly, saying angrily, "What are you doing, Boss Lin? You are shouting so loudly. Do you dislike the old man?"

"Why are you afraid of me calling you?" Lin Heng smiled and continued, "Lend us your hunting rifle."

"Why? You use a bow and arrow, so what kind of hunting rifle do you use?" Tian Baishun asked curiously.

"Hunting bamboo partridges, we found bamboo partridges." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"Bamboo partridges, I won't lend them." Tian Baishun shook his head, then smiled and said, "Let me, the old man, do it. I don't want to give you all the bamboo partridges."

Lin Heng glanced at him and said, "That's fine."

The three of them discussed it and then went to the field together to help move the grain.

"You old boy, are you white or big?" Li Baiquan said sarcastically with a smile on the way.

Tian Baishun scolded seriously: "You think people are bad. I am not that kind of person. Lin Heng, you should believe me, right?"

Lin Heng smiled without saying anything, and gave him a look that showed his own experience.

"It's really hard to wash it off even if you jump into the Yellow River..." Tian Baishun was still pretending.

It was already 7:30 when he carried all the millet back home. Lin's mother and others had already prepared the meal.

Tian Baishun came back to get the hunting rifle and gunpowder first, and then came back to eat.

"Are you going hunting?" Lin's father asked curiously.

"Just in front of the door, my uncle found a bamboo chicken, and he will go to hunt it in a while." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"That's good luck, you can meet a bamboo chicken in front of the door." Lin's father couldn't help but smile. There are very few bamboo chickens in front of the door now.

After saying a few words, he went to the table to eat. The dinner was also very rich. It was worth it to come to help just to eat these two meals.

Lin's mother fried the chicken with hot and sour sauce. The local chicken at home tasted delicious no matter how it was cooked.

Lin Heng was chewing the chicken, and Xiongba was watching him from the side, licking his lips from time to time, as if to say to the silly dog ​​owner, don't chew it so clean, leave some meat for your good friend.

"Here, here, here, look at you silly." Lin Heng ate two bites and stopped chewing, and threw it directly to it.

"Aww~"

Xiongba raised his head and caught the chicken, ate it happily, and looked at him again.

When the meal was finished, it was completely dark. Tian Baishun took the hunting rifle and shouted: "Let's go."

"Are you okay? Are you drunk?" Lin Heng was a little worried.

Tian Baishun waved his hand: "How much wine is this? Who are you looking down on?"

"That's good." Lin Heng nodded, went home to get a bow and arrow, anyway, it was not heavy, just in case.

Lin Heng also gave each of the two a high-intensity flashlight he bought in the city, which can be recharged repeatedly.

It is much brighter than the silver-white aluminum shell flashlight with the previous No. 1 dry battery.

As soon as it was turned on, there was a bright white light, which made Tian Baishun show an envious expression: "How much is your flashlight?"

"This can be recharged, but it's not cheap, five yuan a flashlight." Lin Heng said with a smile. This is much more expensive than ordinary ones, so he bought three.

"It's so expensive, old man, I'd better use batteries." Tian Baishun was discouraged by the price.

Li Baiquan, who originally wanted to get one, also took back what he said, and it needed to be charged, and there was no electricity in the village.

When they arrived at the bamboo forest, the three of them shone the flashlight upwards, looking for the traces of the bamboo partridge. This thing will not fly even if you shine a flashlight on it at night.

Xiongba also followed Lin Heng around in the bamboo forest. This bamboo forest covers an area of ​​half an acre, and it really took a while to find it.

Lin Heng kept looking up and didn't pay attention to his feet.

In the dark night, Xiongba suddenly accelerated and pressed a black shadow to the ground. Lin Heng shone the flashlight over after hearing the squeak.

Seeing what Xiongba caught, Lin Heng couldn't help but widen his eyes: "Damn, such a big bamboo rat."

At this time, Xiongba had already bitten off the spine of the bamboo rat and threw it in front of Lin Heng. He picked it up and saw that it was a big bamboo rat weighing five or six pounds.

"Awesome, Xiongba." Lin Heng touched its dog head. He didn't expect such an unexpected surprise.

After a summer, the bamboo rat was really round and fat.

"Come on, the bamboo partridges are all here."

At this time, my uncle-in-law Li Baiquan suddenly called out.

"Old man Tian, ​​the bamboo partridges are here." Lin Heng walked over and called Tian Baishun.

"Okay." Tian Baishun nodded, and came to Li Baiquan one after the other with Lin Heng.

"Look, there are seven or eight of them." Li Baiquan took the scattered light of the outermost circle of the flashlight to look at the bamboo partridges.

There were seven or eight of them resting on the tip of the bamboo in front of them, each of them curled up into a ball.

"You two stay away." Tian Baishun said as he put up his hunting rifle, loaded the gun and checked it again.

Lin Heng and his uncle-in-law retreated a few meters, keeping the flashlight dim.

There was a crisp sound of nails, and a dark red light emerged from the dark forest. Almost instantly, a large amount of gunpowder scattered with red-hot iron sand.

"Boom!!"

With a loud bang, many birds around were frightened and flapped their wings and flew away, and Xiongba's four legs trembled.

Then there was the sound of falling.

"How many did you hit?"

Lin Heng and his uncle-in-law ignored the temporary buzzing in their ears, and came over with a basin and flashlight to pick up bamboo partridges.

The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder, and there were holes on the chair made by iron sand, emitting some coke smell.

Lin Heng picked up a bamboo partridge, and many of its feathers were burned, with a smell of burning nails.

"Lin Heng, how many did you pick up? I picked up four." Li Baiquan asked with a smile.

"I picked up three." Lin Heng walked over with a bamboo partridge.

"How is my shooting skill, old man?" Tian Baishun laughed and boasted.

"You are still boasting. If you can't hit it within five meters, go home and herd cattle." Li Baiquan mocked him.

Tian Baishun puffed his beard and glared at him, saying: "Hey, you know nothing. It takes skill to kill all the bamboo partridges at a distance of five meters."

"Uncle, take three bamboo partridges back. Old man Tian and I will each take two." Lin Heng distributed the bamboo partridges.

"I don't want it. There is only a few ounces of meat after processing for half a day." Tian Baishun shook his head.

Li Baiquan also shook his head: "I don't want it either. You take it back and eat it."

"I have a big bamboo rat caught by Xiongba." Lin Heng said, holding up the bamboo rat. He hadn't hunted for a long time. Tonight, he was lucky.

Tian Baishun insisted on not taking it, so Lin Heng forced three to his uncle.

When they got home, all the guests had left. Only Lin Heng's uncle and third uncle were still here. They were going to help thresh the remaining millet before going back.

"Lin Heng, let's go then. I'll bring the detonator down in a few days and we'll fry fish." Li Baiquan said that he had to go back tonight.

Auntie took Lin Heng and sincerely invited him to her house when he had time. Lin Heng smiled and agreed, and sent the two to the road.

When he got home, Lin Heng showed his wife the bamboo chicken and then the bamboo rat: "It's a big harvest tonight, and there will be meat to eat tomorrow."

"I've boiled water for you, and I knew there would be a harvest." Xiulan said with a smile.

"Dad is really great!" Xiaoxia also said crisply. When she saw the bamboo rat and bamboo chicken, she only knew that there would be meat to eat again, and stretched out her hand to catch the bamboo rat.

Lin Heng quickly picked up the bamboo rat: "You can only look, not touch."

"Oh!" Xiaoxia nodded slowly twice, standing there watching Lin Heng and Xiulan deal with the bamboo rat.

Bamboo rats can be skinned or plucked with water. Lin Heng chose to skin them and keep the skin. It is good to sell it or make gloves for himself.

"This bamboo rat is thanks to Xiongba." When skinning, Lin Heng also praised Xiongba who was squatting beside him and watching him.

"Awoo~"

Xiongba stuck out his tongue and was a little happy.

The internal organs of bamboo rats and bamboo chickens were all cooked. It was a big meal for Xiongba, and his stomach was swollen.

The next day was the 26th day of the seventh lunar month, the day of the market. Lin's father and others were threshing grain, and Lin Heng went to the town alone, so he had to go and see.

If Liu Qicheng did something again, Wang Zhou might not be able to solve it.

It was just seven o'clock when he arrived in the town. Wang Zhou got up and was cleaning. He was still very concerned about this job. Not only did he clean the sanitation very cleanly, but he also checked the collected mountain products every day.

"Brother Lin!" Seeing Lin Heng, Wang Zhou hurriedly greeted him with a smile.

"Nothing happened these two days?" Lin Heng asked with a smile.

Wang Zhou shook his head: "Nothing happened, just that business was very bad. I only collected ten kilograms of epimedium from mountain products, and sold two bags of salt and one bag of cigarettes."

Lin Heng was not surprised: "This is normal. There are only people on market days."

After taking a breath, he asked again: "What about Liu Qicheng? Is there any movement?"

Wang Zhou said: "I heard that he was looking for a place to rent a house recently, but it seems that he didn't reach an agreement and had a quarrel with someone."

"It seems that there is no threat today." Lin Heng smiled, and he knew that Liu Qicheng would definitely adopt this method.

When he walked into the store, he greeted Mr. Gao and looked at the account book. Wang Zhou wrote the account very clearly and his work attitude was very serious.

Wang Zhou suddenly remembered something and said quickly: "By the way, Brother Lin, didn't you say you wanted to buy a horse? Uncle Li came yesterday and said he found one. Someone wants to sell a yellow horse, more than two years old, very docile."

The Uncle Li Wang Zhou mentioned was the tractor driver, his surname was Li.

Lin Heng put down the account book and became interested: "Yellow horse, where is the horse, is it far away?"

Lin Heng had wanted to buy a horse for a long time, otherwise he would be too tired every time he walked down, and the speed was slow.

He originally had 9,200 yuan, and he spent 1,700 yuan on buying things and opening a store to purchase goods, and he also left 500 yuan in cash for receiving goods.

Not counting the withdrawals, he still has 7,000 yuan in his passbook, but he doesn't want to buy a motorcycle. This money is the capital for building a fish pond, and it can't be spent casually. He knows what to buy and what not to buy.

Although the money is quite a lot, it is far from enough. Whether it is raising fish or shrimp, feed is very expensive.

"It's in their Liwan Village, only two kilometers from the town, not far." Wang Zhou said.

"Then let's go and have a look in the afternoon after we are done." Lin Heng nodded.

"Okay." Wang Zhou.

Soon, customers came one after another. Because the news that an additional purchasing station was opened last time spread, the purchasing prices of various mountain products have increased a lot, so many people came to sell today.

Liu Qicheng didn't come up with any good ideas, and all the business today was Lin Heng's.

While doing business, Lin Heng didn't forget to let people spread the news that he wanted to buy a horse.

This puzzled Wang Zhou: "Brother Lin, didn't Uncle Li have news?"

The driver uncle was very nice to him, and he wanted to help negotiate the matter.

"It may not be possible to negotiate, it's not a bad thing to pick more." Lin Heng shook his head and said that it was impossible to only look at one store for something worth four or five hundred yuan.

The two of them worked for a long time, and collected four or five times more mountain products than the last time. On this day, he made a profit of more than 100 yuan just from collecting mountain products. Even if there was money back from the store, he had to go to the credit union to withdraw another 300 yuan.

"Brother Lin, Lin Heng has become rich." Lin Wei said with a smile when he was doing the accounts in the afternoon. He collected mountain products worth 500 yuan today, and the profit was about 150 yuan. The store also made a profit of 30 to 40 yuan.

"There's nothing to be happy about. I collected a lot today, but it will be less next time." Lin Heng shook his head.

After the accounts were settled, Lin Heng and Wang Zhou went to find the driver uncle to buy a horse.

He didn't bring a dime, and his passbooks were all in the store. It's not good to bring money to a strange village. If the negotiation is successful, the owner can just follow him to Huangtan Town to withdraw the money.

When he saw the driver uncle, Wang Zhou ran over and told him the situation.

The driver looked at Lin Heng and said, "Boss Lin, that horse is very good. It is tall and mighty with bright eyes. The most important thing is that it is gentle and very easy to ride."

"Let's go and have a look." Lin Heng didn't care much about these words.

This place is not a place where good horses are produced, and there is no bloodline to speak of. His requirements are also very simple, healthy and strong, gentle and obedient.

"Okay, I'll lead the way for you." The driver nodded and took Lin Heng and Wang Zhou to Liwan Village.

In more than ten minutes, the three of them arrived in Liwan Village, and under the guidance of the driver, they came to the door of a family surnamed Li.

"Li Gui, this is Boss Lin who I told you to buy a horse." The driver said to a middle-aged man who was younger than him.

The middle-aged man had a pair of green bean eyes, and it was hard to tell whether he was open or closed from a distance.

He was a little surprised that Lin Heng was so young, and said with a smile: "Boss Lin, do you want to see the horse directly?"

"Just see the horse directly." Lin Heng said, not wanting to waste time.

"Then you come with me." Li Gui led Lin Heng and others to a stable at the back.

There were three horses in the stable, all of which were yellow-brown horses, with average body color and fairly well-proportioned body shape. The shoulder height was estimated to be about 1.12 meters, ordinary, not as powerful as the driver said.

"These two horses are one male and one female, the male is two years old and the female is three years old. I have trained them both. They can be ridden or pulled." Li Gui pointed to the two horses on the outside and said.

The horse that was not mentioned must be the mare that gave birth.

Lin Heng walked over and touched them. Both horses were well-behaved and had no obvious emotional fluctuations.

The male horse looked stronger and was ten centimeters taller than the mare, but he felt that this male horse was a little too well-behaved and docile.

"Are you only selling this male?" Lin Heng looked at Li Gui and asked.

Li Gui shook his head: "No, they can all be sold, but the mares are more expensive, and this mare has not given birth yet."

Lin Heng nodded and looked again. These two horses are Mongolian horses, with big heads and necks, and they are incomparable to pedigree horses. He mainly wants to see if they are healthy and have any minor problems.

He doesn't know much about horses, but he knows that a good horse must have a strong heart and lungs and well-developed muscles. The nostrils of this stallion are obviously larger than those of the mare, the muscles on the chest are well-developed, and the distance between the legs is larger.

Compared to the stallion, the mare looks more symmetrical and obviously more docile.

Then he looked at the eyes and hooves and there were no major problems.

After a careful look, Lin Heng asked again: "Can you ride it for a few laps to show me?"

"Boss Lin, don't worry, the horse will definitely be fine." The driver said with a smile.

Lin Heng shook his head: "No, you have to run a few laps, otherwise how can I know the specific situation."

Although he didn't understand much, he could definitely tell whether a horse was good or not by running a few laps.

"Okay, I'll run two laps for you." Li Gui didn't refuse, and led the stallion to run first.

After running a few hundred meters back and forth, Lin Heng found that the stallion was not right, and his breathing was a little rapid.

Lin Heng looked at the two and asked: "Has this horse been sick?"

"No, it's just like that, it's very normal." Li Gui shook his head and said.

The driver also nodded and said: "It's normal to run a few laps suddenly."

Lin Heng glanced at the two, and didn't ask any more questions, and continued: "Then please help me ride the mare for two laps."

Li Gui rode the mare for a few hundred meters, and Lin Heng listened to her breathing again. It was obvious that the mare's breathing was much more even.

Lin Heng smiled in his heart, this stallion must have been sick and left sequelae.

Although he had never raised horses, he had raised pigs, cattle and sheep, and had a lot of veterinary knowledge, so it was not easy to deceive him.

The main reason was that he had heard that male horses were wild and fierce, but this male horse was a little too docile.

Under normal circumstances, it was a good horse with strong athletic ability and docile. But he didn't believe that he was so lucky to meet such a good horse.

After listening carefully to the breathing, he immediately noticed something was wrong.

"How much is this mare?" Lin Heng didn't expose it, and asked directly about the price of the mare.

Li Gui and the others were expressionless on the surface, but they were already in a storm in their hearts. How could Lin Heng be so experienced when he was so young?