Break out of the courtyard

The next day, early Sunday morning, Xu Damao brought over a pine board one meter long and wide, and asked Zhang Heping to carve the Great Wall of Mountains and Rivers and poems by great men. He also gave 10 one-foot cloth tickets as reward, and left a sentence:

"The third uncle wanted to sell bamboo to my family last night, but we didn't want it!"

Zhang Heping looked at the Yan family across the street and thought for a while. It wasn't until Xu Damao pushed his bicycle away from the courtyard gate that Zhang Heping shook his head and said with a smile: "This is very Yan Lao's way."

Zhang Heping entered the house, opened the low cabinet next to the kang, took out the radio inside, uncovered the blue cloth covering the radio underneath, and a bamboo pad baffle, picked up 10 yuan from the dark layer below, and then took out the money hidden there. The place was restored to its original state, but the radio was not put back as it would be used later.

This dark layer is where his household registration book, grain book, non-staple food book, as well as change and meal stamps for the week are kept. Everyone in the family knows this.

The other money notes were divided into three glass bottles and hidden under the low cabinet next to the kang, the sewing machine outside, and the blue bricks under the desk. Her mother, Ma Xiuzhen, knew the locations of these three places. Others only knew that Zhang Heping hid the extra money notes. This house.

Zhang Heping gave 10 yuan and 10 feet of cloth coupons to his mother, Ma Xiuzhen, and asked her to buy two single clothes for her two sisters. The clothes they brought from their hometown were too tacky and patchy.

However, when Zhang Heping was sitting on a chair under the window and had finished most of the carvings on the pine board, his mother, Ma Xiuzhen, came back with a pile of white floral cotton cloth, saying it was for making clothes.

When grandma Xie Ermei heard this, she immediately abandoned the small flower garden and went into the house to make plans.

Yan Bugui, who was opposite the door, came over and sat on the other side of the coffee table to watch Zhang Heping's calligraphy. He thought that the brat's calligraphy was so good that he should never write Spring Festival couplets during the Chinese New Year.

Zhang Heping distractedly asked Yan Bugui if he could get cloth tickets from the ticket seller?

Yan Bugui hurriedly shook his head and said that he only sold his own extra tickets and never bought any. Doing so was speculative. A teacher at his school was suspended for this.

This answer disappointed Zhang Heping. Yan Bugui's ability was at its peak, and his usable value was greatly reduced as the number of people Zhang Heping knew increased.

As for Yan Bugui's report on Zhang Heping yesterday, how could Zhang Heping know that the reporter was sitting next to him with a smile on his face?

After carving the board at noon, Zhang Heping asked his cousin to take him on a bicycle and deliver the pine board and a bottle of canned fruit to the Xu family's new house.

The canned fruit is used to repay the gift, and those dozen eggs are now more valuable than the canned food.

On the way home, Zhang Heping saw his father, Zhang Bing, who had left the house early in the morning. He was standing next to a shoe repair stall, watching others repair shoes.

"Could he be too idle and looking for something to do?" Zhang Heping guessed, but instead of asking, he went to the canteen of the steel rolling mill with his cousin and took the food home.

While waiting for Lao Zhang to come back for lunch, the two sisters went home and joined the kangside garment-making team, chattering away.

Zhang Heping randomly found a piece of firewood in the firewood pile under the window of the penthouse, chopped it into a bow shape with a hatchet, then used a piece of hemp rope as a bow string, brought it to the small coffee table, and began to slowly polish it with a peeling knife.

Bowmaking: Beginner (23%).

……

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, after Zhang Heping got his bow-making skill to Dacheng (1%), he took a hatchet and hemp rope and went out on a bicycle to find bamboo and wood.

He initially decided to make a bamboo crossbow for practice. The bow arm was made of two 60 cm long bamboo pieces and three 40 cm, 30 cm, and 20 cm bamboo pieces. The crossbow bed was made of 50 cm wood, and the bow string was made of uncle. The string of the bow given.

Zhang Heping would like to make a more powerful pulley steel crossbow, but the materials and tools are difficult to come by. It should be possible to make it at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, but it is a pity that it is public territory.

For the next week, the women of the Zhang family spent all their time studying how to use sewing machines to make clothes. During this period, they even went to tailor shops to steal their skills, and even the aunts and uncles in the courtyard gave random instructions.

Zhang Heping, on the other hand, was quietly tinkering with the bamboo crossbow parts. When these bamboo pieces, the crossbow bed, and the bow string are not combined together, it is difficult to think of the crossbow.

Saturday morning.

Zhang Heping carried a sack and quietly rode to the western suburbs. He took out the parts from the sack to assemble the bamboo crossbow.

For this crossbow, he did not use a trigger to pull the crossbow, but used a downward-pressure spring hook at the end of the crossbow bed.

In this way, the space in the belly of the crossbow bed is saved, and 10 emergency crossbow arrows can be placed inside.

The crossbow arrows he brought this time were made in a very simple way. He followed the method of making bamboo chopsticks and sharpened the bamboo strips into round sticks. He also followed the method of sharpening pencils and sharpened the arrowheads. Then, there were no tail feathers.

The five bamboo pieces are arranged long in front and short in back. Hemp rope is used to bind the bamboo pieces. No glue is used to stick them. This will have some impact on the rebound of the bow arm.

After stringing the bow, Zhang Heping tested it with bamboo arrows of 25, 30, and 35 centimeters in length. The shooting data of the 25-centimeter bamboo arrow was the most stable.

The longest shooting distance is more than 50 meters.

The effective killing distance is about 15 meters.

Summary: It’s better to shoot farther than a slingshot!

Zhang Heping pushed his bicycle and carried a crossbow, and he conducted practical tests in a stop-and-go manner. He shot down two birds from a tree and picked up a wild duck from the grass by the water. A week's hard work finally paid off.

Just when Zhang Heping picked up the duck and returned to the roadside, he happened to meet three acquaintances, Huang Lao Er Huang Wenyu, Huang Lao San Huang Wenxuan, and Zhao Lao Liu Zhao Jianguo.

Zhao Laoliu was embarrassed. Last time he agreed to hunt with Zhang Heping, but his fifth brother disagreed. Then they met Zhang Heping as soon as they left the city.

"Zhang Heping!" Huang Wenxuan, the third child, exclaimed, jumped off the back seat of his second brother's bicycle, ran to Zhang Heping, and took the bamboo crossbow over, "My dear! Where did you get this crossbow? Borrow it. I’ll play for two days!”

The green military uniform Zhang Heping is wearing was the one that was eliminated by the Huang brothers. What can I say, I borrowed it!

When Zhang Heping taught Huang Wenxuan how to use the bamboo crossbow, the fat man Zhao Jianguo came over and said, "Zhang Heping, that..."

"Zhao Jianguo, do you also want to learn?" Zhang Heping changed the topic to avoid everyone being embarrassed.

Then, Zhang Heping told Huang Wenxuan and Zhao Jianguo how to use the bamboo crossbow and its range. Finally, he reminded: "It doesn't matter if the crossbow is broken. I can make another one, but this bow string is from my other bow." , please don’t mess with me!”

"Did you make this crossbow?" Huang Wenxuan, the third child, became excited when he heard it. "Can you help me make one too?"

Zhang Heping said casually: "If you can find a bow string, I can give you this crossbow."

In his opinion, the bow was not made well and the bow arms were less elastic.

As for those bamboo arrows, they were even worthless.

"That's what you said!" Huang Wenxuan hugged the crossbow excitedly, took off the sack from Zhang Heping's bicycle, put the woodcutter, skinning knife, and two birds in the bag into Zhang Heping's bicycle basket, and then carried the sack The bamboo arrow ran away.

"Am I being robbed?" Zhang Heping smiled and looked at the envious Zhao Jianguo next to him, and said, "If you can also find a bow string, I can also make you a crossbow."

"I'll go back first, you guys take your time and play!" Zhang Heping said to everyone, and then rode away on his bicycle.

Among the young men who were hunting together, someone asked out of curiosity: "Who is this kid? Which courtyard is he from?"

……