Li Xiangdong's arrival was not only warmly received by his maternal grandmother's family, but also by Kong Dezhu, the captain of Liangbo Brigade.
The two did not meet last time, but this time Kong Dezhu personally hosted a banquet at his home and invited Li Xiangdong and his group to dinner.
The next step required Kong Dezhu's cooperation, so Li Xiangdong gladly went and brought Captain Kong three meters of Dacron cloth as a gift.
Dacron, as the most popular fabric at present, is not only expensive, costing 2.2 yuan per meter, but also very sought after, and ordinary people cannot easily buy it.
Anyway, Captain Kong's wife and daughter-in-law had never seen such beautifully patterned Dacron fabric at the commune's sales point.
Captain Kong noticed how much the two of them loved it, and he secretly nodded in approval, thinking to himself that the young man was quite sensible.
On Captain Kong's dining table were several rough porcelain bowls filled with steamed pork with rice flour, twice-cooked pork, and stir-fried bamboo shoots. A bottle of corn liquor sat on the corner of the table; it looked a bit cloudy.
After the men sat down at the table, the women automatically returned to the kitchen. The little boys stared longingly at the meat on the table, their mouths watering.
Li Xiangdong wasn't the type to eat while the children watched; he used an empty bowl to scoop out a bowl of meat for the little ones and handed it to them.
The little ones, clutching their bowls of meat, cheered and ran outside to eat.
Kong Dezhu personally poured wine for Li Xiangdong, saying, "I heard from Yonggang that you came here this time to buy more wild boars?"
Li Xiangdong gestured with both hands to support the wine bowl, indicating politeness, "Yes, but this time I want a live wild boar."
Ah~
Kong Dezhu was a little disappointed; his family had even hunted two wild boars to sell to Li Xiangdong!
"I want some cured meat too!"
Hearing this, Kong Dezhu's mood improved again.
In the time it takes to eat a meal, Kong Dezhu has already decided to send all the able-bodied men in the village into the mountains to hunt wild boars.
Everyone had a hunting rifle, and some people also carried crossbows, shovels, bamboo sticks, sickles, and hemp ropes.
A group of forty or fifty people, accompanied by black tigers, black leopards, and a dozen hunting dogs, set off in a grand procession toward Wild Boar Ridge.
Just by looking at the name, you can tell how many wild boars there are in this area.
According to the villagers, the lone boar that was previously killed came from Wild Boar Ridge. Few people dare to go to Wild Boar Ridge alone, because they don't know how many wild boars live there!
There was a man in his thirties named Gaptooth who had once accidentally wandered into Wild Boar Ridge, and this time he was the one leading everyone there.
"There is a large oak forest in Wild Boar Ridge, and a river runs through the middle of it. The wild boars usually eat acorns and rarely come out. But if a person goes in, they won't easily come out either."
Speaking of his experience ten years ago, Huo Yazi still feels lingering fear. If he hadn't run fast and happened to run into the passing militiamen, his bones would have been chewed to pieces by the wild boar!
The group climbed to a hilltop about 200 meters above sea level, traversed through lush forests, and continued climbing westward up the mountain.
I don't know how long we climbed, but then the direction changed, and we started going downhill again.
The road was covered with lush wild grass, and the bamboo forest was full of bamboo shoots. According to Luo Yonggang, this type of bamboo is called arrow bamboo, and pandas love to eat the bamboo shoots of arrow bamboo.
Although the scenery is beautiful, there are also many poisonous insects.
Fortunately, Li Xiangdong had applied insect repellent all over his body, otherwise he would have been bitten to death by the large mosquitoes and leeches.
As a result, he had several large red bumps on the back of his hand from being bitten, which were extremely itchy and would ooze yellow fluid when scratched.
They encountered several snakes along the way, and the villagers quickly killed them and extracted their gallbladders.
Li Xiangdong didn't dare to look, but just followed closely behind Luo Yonggang.
Bai Yulong teased him, "Afraid of this?"
Li Xiangdong asked with a serious face, "Have we reached Wild Boar Ridge yet?"
Bai Yulong chuckled, "We'll be there soon. Look, it's just ahead."
Looking around, one could see oak trees, dozens of meters tall, growing together in a dense, impenetrable mass. The forest was dark and deep, and one had no idea what was inside.
The hillside next to it is covered with slightly shorter shrubs.
The man with the gap-toothed man led his men to dig a pit just inside the oak forest. At the bottom of the pit, they buried several bamboo skewers, each about the thickness of a finger and with one end sharpened, and covered them with dead branches.
Fortunately, the soil here was loose, so digging the pits wasn't difficult. There were thirty people in total, and each person was responsible for digging a two-meter-deep trap pit.
The remaining men, armed with homemade guns and Type 56 rifles, stood guard around the perimeter in case wild boars suddenly appeared.
Li Xiangdong held Luo Hongkai's Type 56 rifle in his hand, a sickle tucked into his waistband, and looked around.
Huh?
Suddenly, a patch of exceptionally lush, slender, willow-leaf-shaped, glossy green plants under the shade of bushes in the distance caught his eye.
On that patch of green, there were green and purple flowers that looked like little lanterns, swaying gently in the mountain breeze.
Li Xiangdong's heart skipped a beat; these looked like the leaves and flowers of the fritillaria!
Fritillaria is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the lily family. Its bulb is used in medicine and has the effects of clearing heat and moistening the lungs, relieving cough and resolving phlegm.
Fritillaria is the main ingredient in many commonly used traditional Chinese medicines such as Chuanbei Loquat Cough Syrup and Chuanbei Autumn Pear Syrup.
China has over a hundred varieties of fritillaria, with Sichuan fritillaria being the most premium. Wild Sichuan fritillaria is extremely rare, often referred to as the "white pearl" of traditional Chinese medicine, and is more valuable than gold.
As early as 1987, wild fritillaria was listed as one of the 29 national key protected medicinal plants under the "Regulations on the Protection and Management of Wild Medicinal Resources". In 2022, it was included in the "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species".
Only now can digging up wild Sichuan fritillary bulbs not result in criminal charges.
Li Xiangdong walked closer to examine it closely, and then gently dug out a plant with his finger. He saw a small white bean under the tender, slender root.
The small bean is composed of two scales of different sizes, with a hard and brittle texture and a glossy appearance. The larger scale tightly encloses the smaller scale, and the part that is not enclosed looks like a crescent moon.
"Embracing the moon! Seven clam shells!"
Li Xiangdong gasped in surprise; there was a huge expanse of seven shells!
If we take the price of 5,000 to 8,000 yuan per kilogram in later times, this large area could sell for at least several hundred thousand yuan!
What is a Seven-shell Shell?
As the saying goes, "One year for silver needles, two years for chicken tongues, three years for a single leaf, four years for a son, and five years for lantern flowers."
This describes the five-year growth characteristics of fritillaria.
In the first year, the fritillaria seedlings only grow one needle-like leaf, commonly known as "a silver needle".
In the second year, the needle-like leaves grew larger and wider, and it was called "chicken tongue".
In the past two years, the underground bulbs of fritillaria have just formed, grow very slowly, and are very small, so they have no harvesting or medicinal value.
In the third year, the fritillaria bulbs gradually grow larger. Most of the above-ground plants have one leaf, but some have two leaves, which are called "one leaf" or "double ribbon".
In the fourth year, all the fritillaria bulbs sprout stems, commonly known as "tree sons." The underground granules can grow to about 8 millimeters in size, with abundant nutrients and the best medicinal effects, making them the most suitable for harvesting.
The medicinal properties of these shellfish are considered to be the best when harvested in July, and they are known as "Seven Venerable Shells".
In the fifth year, the fritillaria bulbs become too large and are mainly used for propagation, with very low medicinal value.
This is the life cycle of Fritillaria cirrhosa.
Fritillaria cirrhosa painting
Green Fritillaria
Purple Fritillaria
Freshly dug fritillaria
Fritillaria
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