Chapter 909: Help the Urgent, Not the Poor

Wang An was stunned for a moment, subconsciously raising his eyelids to glance at the three brothers.

It had to be admitted that regardless of age, as long as someone was a man, there was likely no one who wasn't interested in guns.

Wang An took the gun from Li Dahe's hand and nodded with a smile.

"Learning how to fire is simple, but wanting to hit your mark is a bit harder. To master this thing, you'll need a fair amount of ammunition."

As he spoke, Wang An broke open the barrels of the double-barrel shotgun and said to the three brothers

"This double-barrel thing isn't much different from a single-barrel; it's just a matter of having an extra barrel."

As he spoke, Wang An began to explain while giving the three brothers a detailed demonstration.

How to load, how to unload, how to pull the firing pin, and how to brace the gun against the shoulder when firing, as well as how to maintain it when not in use—he explained everything with extreme detail.

The three brothers listened very intently. After Wang An demonstrated once, they were able to try it themselves.

Mainly, guns are things that are very easy to operate; many people can figure them out on their own even without a teacher.

However, if one wanted to use a gun with extreme proficiency, or train their marksmanship to a certain height, that was a very difficult task.

After teaching the three brothers, Wang An suddenly remembered that he still had quite a few single-barrel shotgun shells at home.

Thus, Wang An said to the three brothers

"Keep in mind when you're coming and going; my house still has some shells and casings for this gun. I'll bring them over for you later, so you can make your own bullets before you run out."

The reason single-barrels and double-barrels remained popular among the common folk was, on one hand, because these two types of guns were relatively cheap, and on the other, because their ammunition was relatively easy to obtain.

By recovering spent casings and buying some lead blocks, steel balls, and gunpowder, one could make the ammunition themselves.

It wasn't like the Type 56 SKS, where you could only spend money to buy bullets, and at a price of ten cents per round, it was a significant expense.

Hearing Wang An say this, Li Dashan immediately refused

"There's no need to trouble you for bullets, brother. Anyone who uses those things has to spend money to buy them; we'll figure something out later."

After Li Dashan finished, Li Dajiang echoed

"Yeah, Brother Xiao An, we'll just find a hunter in our village to help us make some later."

Although Li Dahai didn't speak, he clearly felt the same way.

He never expected that these three brothers would be so stubborn, possessing a bit of that "the poor do not accept charity" feeling.

Wang An couldn't help but laugh

"It's useless for me to keep those things; over time, they'll just become duds. Besides, we all use the Type 56; that single-barrel of mine has been sitting there untouched for a long time."

Any hunter who knew their trade would not use a single-barrel or double-barrel if they had a Type 56.

Although using a single slug meant the single or double-barrel actually had more power than the Type 56, the accuracy of these two guns dropped sharply at longer distances; you wouldn't even know where the bullet flew.

Moreover, the Type 56 could fire repeatedly if the trigger was pulled continuously, so in terms of suppressive fire, a hunter's safety could be effectively guaranteed.

Seeing the three of them looking at each other, Wang An spoke again

"It's fine, we're not strangers, don't be polite."

Only then did Li Dashan say, his face flushing red

"We're troubling you for everything, big brother; it's really embarrassing."

Wang An waved his hand

"It's no problem. Like I said, we're not strangers, hahahaha..."

Actually, the reason Wang An was so generous was mainly because shotgun shells were indeed useless sitting in his house.

Furthermore, only a few of the shells in Wang An's house were machine-pressed; the rest were homemade. Homemade shells weren't very precise, and over time, they were prone to misfiring or the very dangerous occurrence of a barrel explosion.

While Wang An was chatting with the three brothers, Wang Li returned riding the sidecar motorcycle.

Looking at the happy expressions of Wang Li and Li Xiuyu, one could feel that the affection between the two was continuing to heat up.

As soon as she got off the vehicle, Li Xiuyu announced the good news to Li Dashan and the others

"My brother-in-law lent our family a lot of grain this time: 50 jin of cornmeal and 200 jin of corn kernels. Oh, and he also gave 10 jin of white flour! My brother-in-law said it'll be fine to pay them back after the autumn harvest."

When Wang An previously told Wang Li to ask Mu Xueli's family for grain, he truly hadn't considered having Li Xiuyu's family pay it back.

Mainly, Wang An didn't really think much of two or three hundred jin of corn.

However, hearing Li Xiuyu say this, Wang An didn't contradict her. Help the desperate, not the poor; the three Li brothers had hands and feet, so there was truly no need to help them excessively.

Looking at this life-saving borrowed grain, Li Dashan's family was extremely excited.

In this era of food shortages, even among relatives, borrowing a little here and there was fine, but borrowing this much all at once was truly a very difficult thing.

Hearing Li Xiuyu's words, Li Dashan nodded

"Mm-hmm, we must remember this kindness; this is saving our whole family's lives."

Li Dashan wasn't wrong in saying this; one had to realize that for Li Xiuyu's family right now, the thing they needed most urgently was grain.

Besides the grain, the sidecar was also carrying quite a few food items.

It was clear that Wang Li was very willing to spend money on Li Xiuyu; he had bought plenty of canned food, biscuits, white sugar, and brown sugar, and had even bought several jin of sugar balls.

After they were distributed, the children of the three Li brothers were absolutely thrilled.

It had to be said that having money was great; you could buy whatever you wanted without ever worrying about running out of money.

As they talked, everyone worked together to move the things from the sidecar into the house.

After eating a lunch that didn't have a single bit of meat or grease, Wang An and Wang Li finally left Li Xiuyu's house.

To say there wasn't a single bit of meat was an understatement; the table was entirely green. Out of four or five dishes, everything was either stewed or boiled, and the only seasonings were soybean paste and salt.

To be honest, while a table full of green looked okay, it tasted truly mediocre.

Fortunately, Wang An and Wang Li didn't care much about the quality of the food, so the meal passed by in a blur.

After leaving, Wang An and Wang Li didn't go home, but headed straight toward Xing'an Township. Calculating the time, Sun Nian and the others should have departed from the county.

After Wang An and Wang Li arrived at the location, they didn't have to wait long before the large sister-car from the morning approached from a distance.

Seeing the two of them, Sun Nian simply rolled down the window and told them to follow, then rolled the window back up and told the driver to go.

Thank you "20241126-db" for the tip, thank you, thank you!

(End of Chapter)