Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 243 Expert
After walking around the square, Chen Fan and Zhang Wenliang were invited to Zhong Zihong's house to sit and wait for dinner.

Those who came to accompany us today, besides Zhong Zihong and Wu Fengfei, were Wu Fengwen, a student from the veterinary class, and Lao Peng, who had once been to the provincial hunting team.

He was specially invited by Zhong Zihong because he saw that Chen Fan was interested in hunting.

Old Peng was very thin, almost skin and bones, but he was very energetic. You couldn't tell how old he was. His face was dark, and he had some wrinkles on his forehead. He always had a smiling face, and he smoked his pipe without saying much, but he liked to glance at people with his eyes.

I don't know if it's a habit left over from hunting in the past.

Chen Fan was very interested in Lao Peng. Whether before or after his transmigration, he had never heard of Yunhu City having a professional hunter.

After all, Yunhu is mainly water. Apart from a few small hills in the city, there are also a few low peaks in the two counties below. Such a place certainly cannot produce excellent hunters.

But the fact that Lao Peng was able to join the provincial hunting team is quite remarkable.

Provincial hunting team... what was that again?

Anyway, anything that starts with a province must be extraordinary.

If you don’t understand, just ask.

Seeing that Chen Fan was very interested in the hunting team, Lao Peng didn't hold back a few words.

He puffed on his pipe and said with a smile, "The hunting team is a unit under the jurisdiction of the Jiangnan Provincial Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export Corporation..."

Upon hearing the first sentence, Chen Fan's eyes widened.

These days, the most important task for economic entities is to generate foreign exchange for the country.

However, not all entities are qualified to earn foreign exchange; they must possess an import/export license. The higher authorities established specialized import/export companies to handle foreign trade for various industries across the country.

For example, all 13 companies that participated in the first Canton Fair were state-owned professional import and export companies.

The companies are categorized into machinery, chemicals, agricultural specialties, and grains and oils. The first two are primarily import-based, while local specialties and grains and oils bear the responsibility of exporting to earn foreign exchange. With both imports and exports, almost all foreign exchange is controlled by these companies and then used according to plan.

So, this provincial hunting team was still used to generate foreign exchange?
That rank and power are quite high!
While Chen Fan was distracted, Lao Peng continued, "There is a restaurant in the provincial capital that specializes in wild game. They are very skilled at processing wild game and have a good reputation among overseas Chinese. So our hunting team is affiliated with this restaurant and is responsible for hunting. The game we hunt is then handed over to the restaurant for processing and export to earn foreign exchange."

Chen Fan looked at him curiously, "So, do you only hunt in the provincial capital? Or can you hunt anywhere in the province?"

Old Peng said with a smile, "It's not just the whole province. With our letters of introduction, we can go anywhere in the country without any problems. Moreover, not all the members of our hunting team are from this province. Although we mainly consist of well-known hunters from this province, if we hear that a hunter from another province is famous, we will invite him over. After they come, they will most likely take a trip to the mountains and forests they are familiar with."

So we've ventured into the old forests of Northeast China, explored the vast mountains of Guangxi, and even hunted tigers in Hunan. If you were to ask where the tiger problem is most severe in the country, Hunan would undoubtedly be the answer.

In Leiyang alone, over a hundred tigers were killed in just a few years, all by a man named Chen Qifang and his son. The situation was similar in Hengyang, and hunters in Yanling County were also highly skilled at tiger hunting, frequently invited to other parts of the country to share their tiger-hunting expertise.

Compared to the South China tiger, the Siberian tigers in Northeast China, though fiercer, don't live in packs and are much easier to hunt.

Chen Fan swallowed hard; it was the first time he'd ever heard anyone say that Siberian tigers were easy to hunt.

He paused for a moment, then asked, "Have you ever hunted a tiger?"

Old Peng took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said with a smile, his expression unchanged, "Go ahead and hunt! Why not? A tiger skin can sell for $3000, and there's plenty of demand for tiger bones and tiger penises. Tigers are always in short supply. We hunt one and sell it, and we even get a bonus."

Unfortunately, tigers are still scarce, so we mainly hunt other game: pheasants, wild ducks, deer, roe deer, gazelles, wild boars, and rabbits. We hunt any wild game we can find.

I remember my first trip was to Guxian County in Henan Province. Our team of 15 could hunt over 20 wild sheep, 5 wild boars, and occasionally a leopard or a wolf, as well as a couple hundred other small animals a day.

He pointed outside and laughed, "These are the animals we're hunting today. They used to be everywhere, very easy to hunt." So in his eyes, foxes and weasels were just small animals.

Zhang Wenliang, who was listening intently, asked curiously, "You've even hunted leopards? Are leopards easy to hunt?"

Old Peng shook his head and laughed, "Leopards are hard to kill, even harder than tigers. The main reason is that leopards are fast. They run away as soon as they sense something is wrong, and you can't catch them. But if you can get close to a leopard, it's quite easy to kill."

You all know about Chen Chuanxiang, the "female Wu Song" from Shennongjia Forest District in Hubei Province, right? It was in the newspapers.

Then everyone just gave an awkward smile.

Zhang Wenliang, Zhong Zihong, Wu Fengfei, and Wu Fengwen do not read newspapers. Unless they are attending a team study session, they get a headache as soon as they see a newspaper and run away as far away as possible.

Chen Fan, however, was unaware of this because it had been a long time and he hadn't arrived yet.

Old Peng chuckled, puffing on his cigarette. "It's okay if you didn't read it. It's about a 19-year-old woman in the forest who killed a leopard with her bare hands. The newspapers raved about it, making it sound like she really fought like Wu Song for ages. Actually, she just took advantage of the leopard knocking down someone, jumped onto its back from behind, strangled it, broke its waist, and then the others swarmed in and killed it. If it had been a tiger, she probably wouldn't have made it."

(Newspaper report)
After that, Lao Peng told several stories about his time in the hunting team, about hunting tigers and wolves.

What made him most proud was that even the leaders of the provincial import and export company had to appease them. A special car would follow them around every day, and every time they hunted a certain amount of prey, the car would bring the prey back and then come over again to serve them.

There were fewer cars than airplanes a few decades later, and the car drivers were all arrogant and didn't take ordinary county-level leaders seriously, but they treated the hunting team with great care. No wonder Old Peng looked so smug.

Old Peng chatted for a while before finally saying, "However, the year before last, I went into the mountains with the team and accidentally broke my leg, so I had to leave the hunting team. Originally, the import and export company wanted to arrange for me to help out at a restaurant and be responsible for handling the game."

After all, most of us hunters have some skills in handling prey, so going there wouldn't be considered keeping idle people around.

But after thinking about it, I think I'll pass.

He smoked a cigarette, his eyes somewhat glazed. "I've been a hunter all my life, killing at least fifty or sixty thousand animals. I don't know how many lives I've taken. Maybe that time I broke my leg was a warning from God."

After much deliberation, I decided against hunting or killing. I'd already saved up quite a bit of money after all these years with the hunting team, so I figured I might as well retire.

Zhong Zihong, who was standing next to him, continued, "So you've come here with your daughter to retire?"

Old Peng laughed heartily, "I'm all alone in my hometown. What's the point of staying there? Anyway, it's not far from here, and my son-in-law is a good person. I might as well come with my daughter and take care of myself in my old age."

Seeing that Chen Fan and Zhang Wenliang were somewhat puzzled, Zhong Zihong smiled at them and said, "Old Peng is not from here, nor is he from Yunhu. He is from the next city. His daughter is named Peng Huixia. She married into our team three years ago. The couple met a few years ago when our team's sideline business team went to their place to make money. Old Peng came a few months late and had to recover from his injury for a long time."

Their area is mountainous, and the harvest isn't as good as ours, so it's not uncommon for women to marry into Yunhu. Also, many people there know how to hunt. His daughter told me that Lao Peng was a hunter and had even worked for the provincial hunting team, so I assumed he was just an ordinary hunter.

As he spoke, he turned to look at Lao Peng and laughed, "I never expected you to be so secretive. You even hunt tigers and leopards. If Teacher Chen hadn't come today, we wouldn't have known your true abilities."

Old Peng laughed and waved his hand, saying, "What do you mean by hiding my true abilities? I'm lame now, and I've lost half of my skills. Besides, there are no high mountains or deep valleys around Yunhu. It's a land of plenty with good weather every year. I don't need my hunting skills. What's there to mention?"

At this moment, Wu Fengfei asked curiously, "Master Peng, you probably didn't pay for the repairs of Dajiang's house, did you?"

"No, no."

Old Peng waved his hands repeatedly and said seriously, "My son-in-law paid for the repairs himself. I just added some furniture for him, so that I can contribute by living here."

He paused for a moment, then suddenly sighed softly, "Before, I relied on my skills and knew I was still far from retirement, so I didn't think too far ahead. Back then, I earned 90 yuan a month, plus a 1.5 yuan daily allowance, which made 135 yuan a month. But after giving money to my family for living expenses, I spent almost all of it on restaurants, eating it all up, and didn't save much money at all."

Now, I can't hunt anymore, so I can only rely on my skills to earn a meager living, which is nothing like before.

(End of this chapter)