Chapter 372: Silver Dollars
Feng Chengmin stabbed the three horses to bleed them, and after Wang An and the other two finished stripping the clothes off the corpses, they proceeded with their usual routine.
They burned all the clothes, shoes, and hats.
It was only then that Wang An saw who the person was—the one with hobnails in the front of his leather shoes who hadn't been blown apart by the cannon.
However, he only had a general idea, because the man had taken two shots to the head, and one of the bullets had entered through the back of the skull.
As a result, a chunk of the man's face was missing, making it impossible to tell what he looked like.
Of course, none of that mattered; as long as he was dead, it was fine.
Just as Wang An was driving the sledge to dispose of the bodies, Feng Chengmin, who was skinning and butchering the horses, suddenly spoke up
"If you go west from here for about two and a half li, there's a proper, deep ravine."
Upon hearing this, Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li almost simultaneously turned their gaze toward Feng Chengmin.
It had to be said, Feng Chengmin was truly familiar with these mountains!
Noticing their looks, Feng Chengmin chuckled with a sense of pride, his face wearing an expression that said, "You didn't expect that, did you?"
Then, with a silent understanding, the three of them turned away at the same time and went back to what they were doing.
Regardless of the circumstances, although the four of them had killed together this time, no one would ever admit to having killed anyone in the past.
No matter how they were questioned, they simply didn't understand and had never killed a person.
By the time Wang An drove the sledge back, Feng Chengmin and the others had finished skinning the three horses and were now butchering the meat.
Wang An immediately stepped forward to help, speeding up the process.
Speaking of horsehide, it was actually very valuable, much like donkey hide, and far more expensive than cowhide.
On one hand, it was an excellent leather, and the hide from the front half of the horse differed from that of the back half.
The hide from the front half was thinner and looser, accounting for about three-quarters of the total area; it was used as ordinary leather for making shoes or clothes.
But the hide from the back half was tighter and more impressive, as it could be used to make waterproof leather shoes.
Specifically, the skin on both sides of the horse's rump, known as "haunch leather," was exceptionally wear-resistant and could even be used to sharpen knives.
On the other hand, horsehide had medicinal value; it could be burned into ash to treat psoriasis and similar conditions.
After the four of them finished butchering, without waiting for the meat to freeze, they loaded the horse meat, hides, and offal onto the sledge and drove home.
As for the horse heads and hooves, they were tossed into the brush; they didn't have much meat and took up too much space with nowhere to put them.
Racing back without any delay, the four of them arrived at Wang An's house two hours later.
At this moment, the east room of Wang An's house was filled with swirling smoke, but the atmosphere was remarkably solemn. Aside from the occasional "sizzle" of cigarettes being smoked, not a single person spoke.
Clearly, everyone was worried about the safety of Wang An and his companions.
When they saw the four return safely, the room immediately erupted in cheers and laughter.
However, everyone tacitly refrained from asking about the details and completely ignored the horse meat and the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle they had brought back.
The result was good; that was enough.
After a sumptuous lunch, everyone began the most important task of the day: "dividing the loot."
Calling it "dividing loot" wasn't technically wrong; although these things were obtained through their hard work, in essence, they were indeed "stolen goods."
However, none of them, including Wang An, thought of it that way, because they were all people without diplomas.
Would it be foolish to discuss whether something was "loot" or not with people who lacked formal education?
In their understanding, these things were treasures—treasures that belonged only to them.
To divide these treasures, Wang Dazhu specifically went to the small shop to borrow a scale.
First to be divided were the "treasures" from the grave.
Based on weight, Wang An divided all the gold and silver from the coffin into sixteen portions; Wang An and Wang Dazhu's son each took two portions.
Of course, this was the result of a unanimous agreement.
When it came to dividing the jade pieces, Wang An found it a bit difficult; after all, jade is typically priced based on material and craftsmanship.
Fortunately, the thinking process of people without diplomas was very simple and efficient, so everyone agreed that the jade should also be weighed on the scale.
The guiding principle was "no cheating the scale"!
To be honest, Wang An was stunned when this method of distribution was proposed.
He had heard of raw jade stones being weighed, but he had never heard of finished carvings being weighed.
But after thinking it over, Wang An suddenly felt that this method actually made a hell of a lot of sense.
No matter what the jade carving was, it was essentially jade stone; if the weight was similar, the value was roughly similar.
This was actually flawless logic!
And so, they continued sliding the scale weights.
When dividing the porcelain, everyone only took a plate or a couple of bowls as a symbolic gesture.
This was because while they were digging these things out, they knew Wang An valued the porcelain highly. If Wang An hadn't told them to be careful, perhaps not one in ten of these pieces would have survived.
As for the large coins, everyone simply ignored them.
Just as Wang An was about to divide them, Feng Chengmin said to him
"What use are these things? I've got half a basket of them in my lower room. If you want them, come over to my place whenever you have time and take them all."
Liu Deyuan added, "Yeah, I've got half a bag at home too. If you want them, I'll bring them over for you one of these days."
In this era, basically every household had large coins, and many had quite a lot of them.
But they really were useless; sometimes children threw them around like shuriken for fun, and if they lost them, they didn't even bother looking for them.
It was normal to pick one up while strolling through the village.
Wang An knew that until the time he was arrested, these things were worthless and useless.
So, Wang An didn't dwell on the coins and instead moved the jar left by Ninth Brother onto the kang.
After opening it and pouring the contents onto the kang, everyone's breathing became rapid at the sight of the pile.
Especially the elders like Wang Dashu; their eyes lit up when they saw the items.
There were only two types of things poured from the jar: gold bars and silver coins.
The gold bars were one thing, but the silver coins were silver dollars, commonly known as "silver egg dollars."
The vast majority of these coins were Yuan Shikai "Big Heads," with a small number of coins featuring President Sun Yat-sen and Guangxu Yuanbao.
It was evident that the things making Wang Dashu and the others' eyes glow were not the gold bars, but the silver egg dollars.
People who had lived through the era before the New China seemed to have a special obsession and emotional attachment to silver coins. Gold bars, jade, and jewelry were all "little brothers" compared to silver coins.
Because before the founding of New China, silver coins were the most stable currency on the land of China.
Banknotes of this kind or that were just paper—waste paper so stiff it was almost too hard to wipe one's backside with.
It must be said, although Wang Dashu and the others were all wide-eyed, not a single person stepped forward to pick one up to examine it.
Without a word, Wang An began the division.