Chapter XXVII: Before the Storm

The Daguang Road vegetable market in Hulong County is like a person's buttocks, and there are two streets that lead to it. This market is bustling during the day, with cabbage, radish, cucumbers, and eggplants all representing the peace of life. This vegetable market is eerie at night, and there is no passer-by, who will go to buy vegetables at night?

Street lamps have been smashed by bad boys, plastic bags are blown by the wind and rolled across street corners, and the surrounding low walls are silent.

At 12 o'clock in the night, some sneaky people came to the vegetable market one after another. They muttered and hurried away before dawn. Every day is like this, the night keeps order, and they make secret deals in the dark. Since the ban on fireworks, it has become a gathering place for the sale of fireworks and firecrackers. Later, some criminals also came here to sell prohibited items. There are a few smugglers selling antiquities in the shadows, a few thieves selling stolen goods in the shadows, fake cigarettes and alcohol are sold in the left corner, and a cement table on the right is full of all kinds of pornographic books and pirated CDs.

Sometimes there are a lot of customers and they are crowded. This black market is outside the law, only supply and demand interact with each other.

The police cracked down several times, but with little effect. They often know the news before the police strike, and there are always dark, roundabout places where they can escape smoothly over low walls.

On October 28, 2001, at midnight, three people walked into the Daguang Road vegetable market.

They are: Big Thumb, Ding Busi, Gao Fei.

They stopped in front of the stall selling detonators, and a female stall owner asked what was going on with the smile she had for a customer, and after a while, the deal was sold. They bought three packs of explosives, which are a kind of TNT industrial explosives, which are mostly used for mountain opening and mine blasting, and are so powerful that they are often sold by criminals on the black market.

They whispered a few sneaky words to the stall owner, who lowered her voice and said follow me. She led them through a few streets, a few dark alleys, and finally stopped at the end of a dead end.

The stall owner knocked on the door, and the door opened, revealing a man in a military coat in a slightly open door. When the stall owner said something to him, he looked stunned and cunning, and asked in a low voice, "You want to buy guns?" ”

Big Thumb nodded.

The men in military coats let them in, plugged in the door, walked through a courtyard with a well, and entered the hall. The man asked warily about something, looking at the words and looks, to see if they were police officers.

Goofy said, "Take it out." ”

The man in the military coat took out an oilcloth bag from the mezzanine of the wardrobe, which was unfolded to reveal a shotgun with a sawn off the barrel, and he said, "Here it is." ”

Big Thumb shook his head in disappointment.

The man in the military coat said, "This is what I picked up from the mountain, so look at it and make a price." ”

Ding Busi said, "We don't want it." ”

Gao Fei said: "It is better to shoot people fifty meters away with this gun, it is better to shoot the moon, they all have the same chance of hitting the target." ”

Ding Busi said: "What we want to buy is a gun that can kill people, not a gun that can shoot birds." ”

Big Thumb said, "Guns, and bullets." ”

The man in the military coat said, "No." ”

Big Thumb said, "Let's go." ”

As they were about to reach the courtyard gate, the man in the military coat and the female vendor exchanged words and discussed. "Wait, don't go first." He stopped them.

The man in the military coat said, "I have, have you brought enough money?" ”

Thumb patted his pocket.

The man took off his coat and walked to the well in the courtyard, where he slid down the rope and the woman dragged him up with a wheel. He took out an oilcloth bag from the bottom of the well, which contained three guns, two long guns with scopes, and a revolver.

Big Thumb picked up the revolver and asked, "How much?" ”

The man said, "It's a foreign product." ”

Brother Thumb asked again: "How much?" ”

The man continued: "The British police use it. ”

Ding Busi was a little impatient: "You just say how much it is." ”

The man still babbled: "This is not made of scrap metal, some of the guns made are dumb, they use nails, they use horseshoes, and they pour all these rusty things into the wrought iron furnace." ”

Goofy said, "I can see it. ”

The man added: "And the breaking sickle." ”

Big Thumb waited patiently for him to finish.

The man finally made an offer: "6,000 yuan for a revolver, 60 rounds of ammunition for free." These two are long, one is 7,000 yuan, and three are 20,000 yuan. ”

Brother Thumb asked: "Revolver, is it sold for 5000?" ”

The man said categorically: "No, this gun is made of copper,"

Ding Busi said: "In this case, the business will blow." ”

The man pretended to put the gun away: "It's okay, I'll keep it, someone who knows the goods will buy it." ”

Brother Thumb said: "5000, it's cash, give the money now." ”

The man got angry: "You don't know the goods, as long as this gun is pulled out, it will scare people to." ”

Big Thumb turned around, approached Goofy's ear, and asked in a low voice, "Is the thing okay?" ”

Goofy nodded.

Big Thumb said, "We bought them all, and those two spears." ”

The man corrected: "Wrong, this is not called a spear, this is called a sniper rifle, it is also a foreign product, I will give you two more mufflers." Look at this scope, it can be used as a telescope. Not to mention hitting birds, even phoenixes can shoot down. ”

Brother Thumb said, "Three guns, we bought them." ”

Hulong County is one of the three major black gun bases in China, and the three guns sold by the man in the military coat are not so-called foreign goods, but made by local farmers. Because of the poverty of the county, it is very common to make and sell guns in order to earn money to support their families. Since 1992, the number of local civilian guns has increased year by year. According to data provided by the police, a total of 8,772 illegal firearms of various types were seized in the six years from 1992 to 1996.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the underground arsenal was famous all over the country, and the history of making guns was very long, and they were proficient in military technology, and the guns they made were very exquisite, the bullets were standard, and the lethality was quite amazing, which was not inferior to the regular military guns.