Chapter 281: Valve Stems, Steel Balls, and Leather Flasks
After the three of them parted ways, Wang An returned to the supply and marketing cooperative's building. He bought a lot of thick and thin iron wire, as well as many springs used for making traps, along with a good number of long and short nails.
Whether it was rabbit snares or traps, they were all made of iron wire; they were consumables that had to be replenished at any time.
Like the iron wire, the nails were sold by weight. However, perhaps due to the manufacturing process, the nails were slightly more expensive than the wire, costing 1.4 yuan per jin.
The reason he bought nails was that Wang An discovered that, at some unknown point, various animals would just appear at home. Nails could be used to build cages of various sizes.
Furthermore, things like iron wire and nails were considered daily necessities in the countryside and could always be put to use, so buying a large quantity would neither be excessive nor wasteful.
Finally, after taking a lap around the cooperative, Wang An bought a bundle of bicycle valve stems, five jin of steel balls, and two cartons of Bingcheng cigarettes before turning to leave.
On bicycles of this era, valve stems were required for the tire valves, including the tires of "donkey bikes" with steel-wire rims.
A valve stem was essentially a hollow rubber tube with excellent elasticity.
Aside from being used on tires, this thing had little other use, but Wang An was buying them to make slingshots.
As for the steel balls, they were actually used in steel-wire rims. In this era, donkey bikes rarely used bearings because a full set of bearings was very expensive.
Most used loose steel balls and race bowls as substitutes for bearings; if they broke, one simply replaced the balls or the bowl.
Wang An bought these to use as slingshot ammunition.
This was because there were many types of birds and plenty of squirrels in the woods during this era.
Using a gun to hunt birds or squirrels was absolutely out of the question. One bullet would blow a bird or squirrel into tiny fragments.
Therefore, to hunt small animals, one could only use a "weapon" with less destructive power, like a slingshot.
A slingshot could actually be considered a weapon!
When hunting dog-circles, a slingshot wasn't very useful because one had to chase the dogs. Trying to hunt small animals with a slingshot while chasing dogs would be pure nonsense. Once you started sprinting, you'd be as exhausted as a damn tortoise; who would have the time or energy to fuss over small animals?
But now that the dogs were injured, if the three of them went into the mountains for "loose hunting," it was completely unknown whether they would find prey every time.
However, after entering the mountains, they couldn't just wander around checking snares and traps.
That was why Wang An wanted to make a few slingshots and bought many steel balls. This way, even if they couldn't find large prey in the mountains, they could shoot some squirrels or birds, ensuring they wouldn't return empty-handed.
Wang An remembered how difficult it had been to find prey during loose hunting every time he first returned after his rebirth. Although he never came back empty-handed, that was merely good luck—and luck is a very fickle thing. If everything depended on luck, he might as well go see the Buddha early and ask how to obtain a massive amount of it.
In this era, slingshot bands were mostly made from old bicycle inner tubes. But bicycles were rare in the countryside; not only were they unaffordable, but bicycle coupons were also very hard to come by. Thus, old inner tubes weren't that easy to obtain. Every single inner tube was patched until it couldn't be patched anymore before it was finally replaced.
Moreover, for making a slingshot, valve stems were actually more perfect than inner tubes. When an inner tube is cut into narrow strips, only the center strip is relatively straight. The side strips are curved, meaning the force is uneven and the recoil doesn't travel in a straight line. Making a slingshot with such strips made accuracy incredibly difficult.
Valve stems had none of these flaws. Not only were they straight, but they also had great elasticity and power. Most importantly, slingshots made from them were more accurate.
Of course, they weren't cheap. One was a bit over a foot long—about 33 centimeters—and cost 8 fen each. Making one slingshot required eight valve stems, four on each side. At the very least, six were needed—three per side; any fewer and the elasticity and power would be insufficient, making it useless even if they hit a small animal.
Steel balls weren't cheap either: 1 fen per ball, 2.3 yuan per jin. One jin was approximately 240 balls. By buying five jin, Wang An saved about 50 fen.
Actually, slingshots could use pebbles or clay pellets, but pebbles weren't round and were not very useful. Clay pellets required sticky clay and needed to be shade-dried and then baked, which took too much time. Therefore, he had to use steel balls as a transition.
Wang An was absolutely not going to exhaust himself making clay pellets; he felt that kind of work was suited for Mu Xueli and Wang Li. It wouldn't make sense for Wang An to provide the slingshots and then have to make the ammunition too; no one owed anyone anything.
After leaving the cooperative, Wang An found a secluded spot to organize the money in his pocket.
During this trip to the cooperative, he had sold furs, bear gall, and "hanging tubes" inside the building for 3,985.8 yuan, and sold guns outside for 1,600 yuan.
Among this money, 150 yuan from the hanging tubes belonged to Wang An himself, so he unhesitatingly took out 150.8 yuan and put it in his cotton jacket pocket.
Then, he combined the remaining 3,830 yuan with the 1,600 yuan from the guns, totaling 5,430 yuan.
Since 40% of the money belonged to Wang An, he took out two full stacks and then counted out 17 "Big Unity" ten-yuan notes, totaling 2,170 yuan.
Wang An suddenly realized that the amount of "death money" he had made time and again was actually quite substantial. It would be strange if there weren't opportunities to get rich from one tragedy after another!
The remaining 3,260 yuan were split evenly into two portions of 1,630 yuan each.
Once everything was organized, Wang An checked his watch. It wasn't yet noon, so he drove his sledge toward the market.
Because it was just after the New Year, people didn't have much money, so the market was relatively quiet. One could say there were more sellers than buyers.
As soon as he entered the market, Wang An saw an old Oroqen man selling leather flasks.
A leather flask—a water skin—was made in two ways: one used a tanned animal bladder as the inner liner, which was then wrapped and sewn in tanned fur. The other used a gourd as the inner liner, wrapped and sewn in tanned fur.
For holding liquor, the gourd-lined ones were best, because animal bladders gave the liquor a peculiar taste. Of course, for those who didn't mind the taste, it didn't matter.
Wang An found that these flasks were sewn quite beautifully. At 20 fen each, they weren't expensive, so he unhesitatingly bought two bladder-lined ones and three gourd-lined ones.
Mainly, leather flasks were very convenient; minor bumps and drops generally caused no harm. Especially the bladder ones—they usually survived even if they fell off a horse. Furthermore, whether holding water or liquor, they could hold a fair amount.
Moreover, making these required high technical skill, primarily in the tanning of the bladder; most people couldn't do it. Bladders were too thin; if someone didn't know what they were doing, they would accidentally poke a hole in it.
Finally, the honest old Oroqen man gave Wang An one more bladder-lined flask for free.
This gesture made Wang An feel quite embarrassed. Consequently, Wang An took two cartons of Bingcheng cigarettes from his sledge and gave them to the old man.
Reciprocity—nothing wrong with that.