Chapter 308: Moving the Troops

Zhou Daming raised a concern. “There are so many wild boars. If it’s just us, who knows how long it’ll take to move them all?”

Especially since one of the boars weighed over four hundred jin—it would take at least three or four people just to lift it.

“What else can we do? Go back to the village and call more people to help, or we’ll be in trouble if the blood attracts other large animals,” Zhou Yimin said bluntly.

“And have the old village secretary send someone on my bicycle to the steel factory to find Dafu. Tell him to bring Captain Li and drive a truck over to haul the pork.”

He’d just counted—nineteen wild boars in total. One had already been taken, leaving eighteen. From a rough estimate, the total weight came to over three thousand jin of boar meat. There was no way the village could finish all of it.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Dashan immediately volunteered to take the job.

Zhou Daming gave further instructions. “Dahui, you go with him!”

That way, they could look out for each other in case of danger.

Zhou Dahui nodded without hesitation.

The two of them headed off toward the village, jogging all the way back to speed things up so they could get the wild boar meat moved as soon as possible.

After nearly an hour of travel, they finally made it back.

As soon as they returned, they went straight to find the old village secretary. The matter was urgent—there was no time to rest.

Seeing the two of them gasping for breath, the old secretary immediately had a bad feeling. “Dashan, Dahui, what’s the rush? Did something happen?”

If something had happened to Zhou Yimin, it would be a devastating blow to Zhoujiazhuang, especially now when things were finally looking up.

If he’d known this would happen, he never would’ve let Zhou Yimin go into the mountains.

“Old secretary, great news! As soon as we entered the mountains, we ran into a herd of wild boars. We got a bunch of them, but we can’t carry them all. We need more villagers to help us move them,” Zhou Dashan panted.

The old secretary was stunned for a moment, then burst into excitement. “What? You actually ran into a wild boar herd?”

Then he immediately asked, tense, “No one was hurt, right?”

In truth, what he really wanted to ask was whether Yimin had been hurt. As for the others, it didn’t really matter—as long as they weren’t dead, they’d be up and about again soon enough.

“Old secretary, I wouldn’t joke about something like this. We were all extra careful this time. No one got hurt,” Zhou Dashan replied.

The old secretary beamed. “Good, good! I’ll make arrangements right away.”

“Wait, old secretary—Sixteenth Uncle asked you to send someone to the steel factory to find Dafu. Have him bring Captain Li and drive the truck over to collect the pork,” Zhou Dahui reminded him.

“Got it. I’ll get someone on it now. You two take a breather,” said the old secretary, turning at once to make the necessary arrangements. The others would need them to lead the way later.

Most of the people in Zhoujiazhuang were currently working on the reservoir, so to find enough manpower, the old secretary would have to head there.

Not daring to delay, he jogged all the way over.

Seeing the old secretary rushing over, the brigade leader asked, “What’s the hurry? Something urgent?”

“Put the reservoir construction on pause. Everyone from Zhoujiazhuang, come help move some pork,” the old secretary ordered.

The brigade leader was puzzled. “Pork?”

“Daming and the others ran into a wild boar herd and took down a lot of them. They can’t carry them all, so we’re going to help,” the old secretary explained quickly.

Upon hearing the good news, the brigade leader didn’t dare delay. He gathered the men from Zhoujiazhuang, leaving behind the workers from Shuangtian Village and some Zhoujiazhuang women to continue the reservoir construction.

Everyone was eager to help out as soon as they heard the good news. Without wasting a moment, they followed the old secretary back to the village.

When the people of Shuangtian Village heard about it, they were green with envy.

Liang Liu was shocked. “Liang Zan, just how many wild boars do you think they caught to need that many people to help carry them?”

Sure, working in Zhoujiazhuang guaranteed good food and no hunger. Best of all, you could take food home to share with your family every night. He was already content.

“Who cares how many they caught? Either way, we’ll get a share,” Liang Zan replied.

Every time they hunted, they got extra food the next day. That’s what he’d come to expect after working in Zhoujiazhuang for a while.

Other villages would never be so generous—meat would be saved for the New Year or distributed only to their own people.

But Zhoujiazhuang treated everyone the same. Whatever Zhoujiazhuang villagers ate, Shuangtian villagers ate too.

“You’ve really got insight,” Liang Liu said, giving him a thumbs-up.

Liang Zan clapped his hands. “Let’s get back to work!”

Only then did the Shuangtian villagers resume working.

The old secretary led a group of at least thirty or forty people.

Zhou Dashan and the others didn’t even need to be told. They were already up front leading the way.

The old secretary held back the brigade leader.

The brigade leader had been planning to go up the mountain too—he was curious about how fierce the fight must’ve been to bring down so many wild boars.

“Ride Yimin’s bike to the steel factory to find Dafu. Explain the situation and have him bring the truck over,” the old secretary instructed.

Hearing that he’d get to ride a bicycle into town, the brigade leader immediately gave up on his mountain plans. “Alright, I’ll head out now.”

With that, he turned and made his way straight to Zhou Yimin’s house. After all, the whole village only had that one bike, and usually, no one had the nerve to ask Zhou Yimin to borrow it.

Soon, he was off to the steel factory.

Meanwhile, Zhou Dashan led dozens of people into the mountains.

The small animals scattered at the sight of so many humans, afraid of being caught.

As they neared the site, signs of the earlier battle became more obvious—trees broken by panicked boars, bullet holes in trunks, and bullet grazes on bark.

After running for several more minutes, they spotted from afar the pile of over a dozen boar carcasses, leaving the Zhoujiazhuang villagers stunned. They had not expected such a massive haul.

“If we kept all of this for ourselves, we’d have enough meat to last till the New Year,” Zhou Xucai said, wiping away the drool threatening to escape his mouth.

“Dream on. The old secretary wouldn’t keep it all. He might leave one or two, but the rest will probably be taken by Yimin to sell at the steel factory,” someone else said.

As much as everyone wanted to eat meat, being able to fill their bellies regularly was more important.

If they sold the meat for grain, the village could eat for a long time.

Seeing the villagers arrive to help, Zhou Daming began directing the effort. Everyone worked in an orderly fashion. Zhou Daming’s group didn’t even need to lift a finger—the helpers had already “divvied up” the boars and begun hauling them.

And so, a large group of people carried the boar carcasses back toward Zhoujiazhuang.

Meanwhile, Zhou Daming and the hunting team kept watch on the side, in case some blind fool tried to rob them. If anyone did, well—bonus loot.

(End of Chapter)