Chapter 113 The Magic Gun
"Hey, Dad, where are those firecrackers coming from? Is there anyone in our village having a wedding today?"

Gong Chunhua had just put a bowl of cornmeal cakes on the table when she suddenly heard the sound of firecrackers coming from outside the house. She couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.

"No ah!"

Ma Changxi thought about it for a while, then shook his head in confusion and replied, "I remember that no family in our village seems to be holding a wedding recently!"

"Then where did the sound of firecrackers come from?"

Gong Chunhua was slightly stunned, then hurriedly asked.

"From what I heard just now, it felt like it was coming from Sister Yinfeng's house. If you go out and take a look now, you will know!"

Ma Changxi turned his head to look out the window, then spoke with some uncertainty.

"Really? Then I'll go out and take a look!"

Gong Chunhua raised her eyebrows, then turned around and walked out of the house.

Soon, she saw the red firecracker paper scraps scattered all over the ground in front of Qu Yinfeng's house, which made people feel a sense of joy.

Then, without even bothering to go into the house to have breakfast, she hurried towards Qu Yinfeng's house. After a while, she saw Li Guoqiang and Qu Yinfeng stacking firewood in the yard, which immediately made her feel confused.

"Sister Yinfeng, what are you doing?"

"Yo!"

Qu Yinfeng turned her head and greeted her with a smile, "Chunhua, why are you here?"

As she spoke, she stepped forward and explained, "Didn't Qiangzi say he wanted to build a bathhouse and toilet?"

"Bathhouse? Toilet?"

Gong Chunhua's eyes widened, and then she said in astonishment, "Just now I heard you setting off firecrackers, and I thought you were having a wedding? Turns out you're just building a bathhouse and toilet?"

"This is quite a rare thing!"

"Harmful!"

Qu Yinfeng waved her hand, then laughed and said, "You also know that our old man handed this family over to Qiangzi when he was dying. Since he wants to do it, let him do it!"

"Anyway, he has the ability to make money on his own, so there's no need for me to worry about him!"

"Forehead"

Gong Chunhua's expression froze, and then she said sourly, "That's true! It's been many years since we've seen anyone kill a blind bear in our village. Your Qiangzi went into the mountains this time and killed a blind bear, which is at least equivalent to our family's income for four or five years."

"Not to mention building a bathhouse and toilet, it's more than enough to rebuild three large houses."

"Look what you said!"

Seeing Gong Chunhua's envious look, Qu Yinfeng quickly retorted: "Do you think it's so easy to make money? If you're not careful, your head will be gone!"

"Besides, Qiangzi gave the bear gall to Guanglu to help him buy a gun two days ago. How could he have any money left to build a house?"

"Did you use it to buy a gun?"

Gong Chunhua was slightly stunned, and then asked in surprise: "Why didn't you stop him? He spent so much money on a gun, and he will have to spend money on bullets in the future. When will he be able to earn back the money?"

"you do not say!"

Upon hearing this, Qu Yinfeng immediately nodded with a distressed look on her face, and then said, "Now when I think about how so much money is gone before I even have time to warm it up, I feel a little upset!"

"hehe!"

Gong Chunhua was delighted, and quickly spoke to comfort him: "It's okay, isn't your Qiangzi quite capable? Sooner or later he will be able to earn back the money!"

"I hope so!"

Qu Yinfeng nodded and sighed with a melancholy look on her face.

"okay!"

Seeing this, Gong Chunhua waved her hand and said, "Go back and do your work first! I won't disturb you any more!"

After saying that, she quickly turned around and walked towards her home, wanting to share the good news with her family.

Qu Yinfeng looked at Gong Chunhua's leaving back, shook her head helplessly, then hurried into the yard to help Li Guoqiang.

Over the years, she has seen through the fickleness of human nature, and has come to understand better that wealth should not be revealed and human hearts are hard to predict.

Therefore, when Li Guoqiang proposed to exchange the bear bile for a gun, she not only did not stop him, but she also agreed very much.

On the one hand, this can give people the impression that the money has been spent, so that people will not be too jealous. On the other hand, it can also provide Li Guoqiang with more security when he goes into the mountains to hunt in the future.

Besides, if I really need money in the future, the worst that can happen is that I can just sell the gun.

If Xu Guanglu really got the internal price through his acquaintances in the militia, he might be able to make a profit by selling the gun in the future!

However, there is no need to tell these things to others, you just need to understand them in your heart.

Soon, Li Guoqiang lit the pile of firewood, and then, while the fire was baking the ground to slowly thaw, he walked to the side and used a saw to cut the wood.

According to the construction design drawings he drew, the bathhouse and toilet will be built into a thatched house with a high front and a low back, with a total width of 6 meters, a depth of 4 meters, and an area of ​​24 square meters.

The bathhouse is 4 meters wide and the toilet is 2 meters wide. The walls around and in the middle are made of wooden sticks and reed curtains, while the roof is covered with layers of mud and reed stalks. In addition, there must be a door and window.

Overall it's not complicated, just a bit time consuming.

After a while, Li Guoqiang cut out nine main wooden piles and nine beams. He then cut the remaining wood and branches into sticks to build the wall.

Since there were no iron nails, he planned to use mortise and tenon structure, plus wooden nails and ropes to fix it.

By the time he had prepared the wooden stakes and beams, a carpentry skill quietly appeared in his personal attribute panel, allowing him to master many basic carpentry skills, completely removing the obstacles in the construction process.

At the same time, the ground was also heated.

Seeing this, Li Guoqiang hurriedly took a hoe and a shovel and dug a hole in the selected place to set up the wooden stakes. In order to make the built bathhouse and toilet more stable, a hole at least 60 centimeters deep had to be dug.

The digging lasted until noon, and they finally dug out nine holes.

Among them, the first six pits are in the yard, and the last three pits are outside the courtyard wall.

In this way, the construction work of most of the wall can be omitted and the wind protection can be better achieved.

Immediately after lunch, Li Guoqiang did not take much rest but continued to be busy erecting wooden stakes.

To this end, he went outside to pick up some small stones, and at the same time used the back of an axe to repeatedly pound the ground to compact the soil.

Then, he was busy carving out mortise and tenon structures and holes for wooden nails for the beams, and successfully upgraded his carpentry skills to L3, learning more carpentry knowledge and techniques.

While he was busy, Qu Yinfeng was also not idle. She was busy weaving reed curtains beside him.

Xu Dani was running back and forth, helping here and there, and also serving tea and water to Li Guoqiang and Qu Yinfeng. She was very busy and happy.

In the blink of an eye, it was the afternoon of the third day.

Li Guoqiang stood on the ladder, flattened and tied the last bunch of reeds on the roof, then came down the ladder with a satisfied look on his face, walked into the yard, stood with Qu Yinfeng and Xu Dani, and looked at the thatched house that had been completely built in front of them. He couldn't help but feel a very satisfying sense of accomplishment in his heart.

However, it is still a long way from being completely completed. He still needs to build a simple stove in the bathhouse to boil water and keep warm. He also needs to dig a drainage ditch in the bathhouse, the toilet and under the courtyard wall, and then dig a septic tank outside the courtyard wall.

In addition, he also wanted to pave the ground with pebbles to improve the sanitary environment and prevent the ground from becoming muddy due to bathing and flushing canals.

After a while, he went into the toilet with a shovel and a hoe and started working.

The excavated soil was directly transferred to the bathhouse with a dustpan and used to build a stove.

By the time he had finished digging the drainage ditches in the toilet and bathhouse, it had already darkened outside.

At Qu Yinfeng's request, he did not continue working, but simply packed up his things, went into the house to wash his face, and then went to the kang to prepare for dinner.

These days, due to the heavy workload, Qu Yinfeng specially prepared many meat dishes for Li Guoqiang, and none of them were the same twice, so that Li Guoqiang could enjoy the food with his mouth full of oil every day.

However, this also greatly increases the consumption rate of various meats stored at home.

If Li Guoqiang had not demonstrated his extraordinary hunting skills, Qu Yinfeng might have already begun to worry about Li Guoqiang's future meat-eating problem.

Early the next morning, Li Guoqiang first took firewood and placed it outside the courtyard wall, at the location where he was going to dig a septic tank, to melt the soil that had been frozen all night, and then started digging while it was still hot.

Considering that the water in the septic tank might freeze, he had to dig the septic tank deeper, lay a layer of wooden sticks and reeds on the septic tank, and then fill it with a layer of soil, just like digging a cellar.

It took him nearly four hours to dig a pit that was two and a half meters long, one and a half meters wide, and two meters deep.

Then he picked up some stones and built four stone walls in the pit, filling the gaps and smoothing them with wet soil.

Then he ran into the bathhouse and busied himself with mixing mud to build a simple stove.

In order to facilitate smoke exhaust, he chose to build the stove directly next to the courtyard wall.

In this way, he only needs to drill a hole on the courtyard wall to connect to the flue, and then he can discharge the smoke outside the yard.

In addition, after careful consideration, he decided to buy a large tub and place it next to the stove for bathing, because this would be more convenient for Qu Yinfeng and Xu Dani to use and would not be so troublesome.

As for building a pool that can be heated continuously, we should wait until we can buy cement and fire bricks.

By around 3 p.m., the simple stove had been set up.

While the stove was drying, Li Guoqiang continued to busy himself with laying the stone floor.

Finally, before dark, he successfully paved a layer of pebbles on the floor of the bathhouse and the toilet, and also backfilled the septic tank, leaving only a drainage channel.

Next, he only needed to go to the county town to buy a large vat and an iron pot, and then find a way to get some tiles and repair the drainage ditch, and then he would be done.

Just when he was thinking about whether he could borrow a donkey cart from the brigade to go to the county town, Xu Yuchang suddenly came to his door and informed him to go to Wangjiatun with Xu Guangshou early the next morning to help slaughter the New Year pig.

After hearing this, he could only temporarily give up the idea of ​​going to the county town and prepare to experience the special feature of this place, slaughtering the New Year pig.

After occasionally hearing Qu Yinfeng's introduction these days, he also knew that his cheap master Xu Guangshou could be regarded as the ancestor of all the butchers in the area. Any butcher with a little fame was basically his disciple.

Therefore, after seeing him being accepted as Xu Guangshou's last disciple, the people in the village became so jealous and wanted to introduce their daughters to him.

Apart from anything else, just relying on his job of slaughtering pigs for others, he won't have to worry about not being able to make a living in the future.

The reason why he hadn't seen anyone come to propose marriage until now was entirely because Tian Guixiang had specifically gone to Ma Chunmei and asked her not to help other families with matchmaking for the time being, and to wait for her daughter Xu Yuying to come back and get to know Li Guoqiang first.

Otherwise, given his current popularity, the threshold of his house would probably be trampled down by people.

After finishing the discussion on slaughtering the New Year pig, Xu Yuchang saw Qu Yinfeng was about to cook, and he didn't feel comfortable staying any longer, so he got up and left in a hurry.

Li Guoqiang sent Xu Yuchang out, then returned to the house and chatted with Xu Dani. Suddenly, a few dogs barked outside the house, and then Qu Yinfeng and Xu Guanglu walked in.

Seeing this, he immediately felt happy and quickly turned his eyes to Xu Guanglu's back.

When Xu Guanglu saw Li Guoqiang's impatient look, he smiled slightly, then took off the long package from his back, placed it on the table, and slowly opened it.

After a while, a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle that was about % new appeared in front of Li Guoqiang.

He looked at the beautiful mahogany gun body, reached out and touched the slightly cold barrel, and a look of excitement appeared on his face.

You know, this is the 56 and a half that has created countless sharpshooter legends!

With this gun, he no longer has to worry about not being able to deal with blind bears and wild boars when going into the mountains to hunt. He can even fight with fast-moving prey such as tigers, leopards, and lynxes to see whether their reactions are faster or his bullets are faster.

"Hey!"

Seeing this, Xu Guanglu hurriedly placed another package on the table and said, "I bought you 500 rounds of bullets this time. Use them sparingly. I think they will last you a long time."

Li Guoqiang looked at the small pile of bright golden bullets, a hint of joy flashed in his eyes, then he hurriedly glanced at the sky outside and found that there was still some light.

So he immediately grabbed a handful of bullets, carried the gun on his back and walked out of the house, ready to find a place to test the gun.

(End of this chapter)