Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 108 The matchmaker wasp is more ferocious than the ghost wasp!

The old branch secretary's move was a feint to the east and attack in the west.

The remuneration for Fang Hongan and Wang Tong was finalized immediately.

Fang Hongan carried his luggage and asked Wang Tong to call Fang Chengtao.

The group first arrived at Shanmuling Village.

Along the way, Fang Hongan wanted to mention the matter of homestead and contracted mountain.

But after thinking about it, I finally endured it.

Neither of these things is imminent.

Besides, it would seem more natural to bring it up again after I have finished this matter.

In Shanmuling Village, on the road next to the old Party Secretary's house, Fang Hongan saw the car that Vice President Sun mentioned.

It turned out to be... a jeep.

Nowadays, most of the official vehicles used in towns and villages are 28-inch trucks.

Only departments like the finance office and the police station are equipped with sidecar tricycles.

As for jeeps like this, according to Fang Hongan, in the 80s, only the town government could have one in the entire town.

Seeing Fang Hongan looking curiously, Vice Principal Sun also began to explain.

This jeep was also borrowed by them from the town government.

Their main purpose of coming to Shanmuling Village this time was to coordinate some important matters of Shanmuling Village Primary School.

It was only after I arrived there and heard what the old branch secretary said that I realized that Shiwan Village was actually part of the brigade of Sangmuling Village.

That's why they asked the old branch secretary to lead us there.

This jeep looks quite old.

According to Vice Principal Sun, it was given to the town government after being replaced by a unit directly under the county.

The driver was a 40-year-old man with a square face.

His surname is Zhou. He has a tall and straight figure and you can tell at first glance that he has been a soldier.

According to Vice Principal Sun, the driver was also borrowed from the town government.

Their school is not qualified to have a driver who can drive a jeep.

When he said this, his face was full of sorrow.

However, since the town government only has one jeep, they can still borrow this one.

The town government also has to provide a driver, which shows that Vice Principal Sun is definitely not just a vice principal of a central school.

After listening to Vice Principal Sun's arrangements, the driver, Master Zhou, first opened the trunk and helped put the two large bamboo baskets away.

After all four of them got into the car, they started the car, stepped on the accelerator, and drove along the mountain road towards Qianmaping in a cloud of dust.

In the car, the front passenger seat was naturally given to Vice Principal Sun.

Fang Hongan, Wang Tong and Fang Chengtao squeezed in the back row.

The rear seats of this jeep are narrow and hard, and for three people, it is quite crowded.

However, after taking the bus from Qianmaping to the county town.

Fang Hongan can completely adapt to this kind of environment.

As for Wang Tong and Fang Chengtao, they seemed extremely excited.

This is a jeep!

It was the first time for both of them to ride in this kind of car.

This car was specially sent to pick them up, and when the work was done, it was also specially sent back.

The feeling of being in the upper row made the two of them extremely happy.

As soon as I got in the car, four big eyes kept looking into the car.

Fang Hongan glanced outside the car and saw that the car had already left the entrance of Shanmuling Village. There was almost no dust outside the window, so he rolled down the window.

The road this cart took was the same road they drove their donkey carts on to the market.

They are all rough stone and dirt roads, and the road is very bumpy.

Fang Hongan couldn't stand the stuffiness without opening the window.

Vice Principal Sun, who was sitting in the front row, saw Fang Hongan roll down the car window quite skillfully out of the corner of his eye, and a hint of surprise flashed across his eyes without leaving any trace.

"Hong'an!" He imitated the old branch secretary's way of addressing him, tried to get closer, and started a conversation by finding a topic.

He first inquired about the situation at Fang Hongan's home. When he did not find the clues he wanted, and saw that Fang Hongan's answers were quite sophisticated, he realized that the young man behind him was indeed somewhat unusual.

So I simply gave up trying to find out, and started chatting casually about anything that came to my mind.

As they talked more, Vice President Sun became more and more surprised.

Fang Hongan clearly said that he only studied up to junior high school, and apart from visiting the county town a few times, he had never left the mountain to see the outside world.

But the vision, logical ability and insights into some things displayed in this chat are totally unlike those of a mountain farmer.

Even many teachers in their school can't compare to him.

This made Vice President Sun even more surprised.

However, based on my previous experience of inquiring, I knew that this young man was quite experienced and perceptive.

He did not continue to inquire, but just thought to himself that perhaps he could pay more attention to this young man.

……

It’s been a bumpy ride.

It took about an hour.

Outside the car window, the most eye-catching large square of Qianmaping appeared.

It's not market day.

The flat land was completely deserted.

However, when Fang Hongan looked out of the car window, he saw that the small single-sided car of Meng Jiuxiang and Huang Guigen was still open, and it seemed that someone had just bought something and came out.

Looking at the display at the entrance of the store, there are obviously a lot more goods.

It looks like business should be good.

Coincidentally, when Fang Hongan was looking outside, Fat Sister Meng Jiuxiang happened to be sending out the person who had just bought something.

I saw the jeep speeding past and subconsciously looked out.

When I looked up, I happened to see Fang Hongan smiling.

Meng Jiuxiang paused for a moment.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands, looked again, and confirmed that it was Fang Hongan. His face suddenly showed surprise and astonishment.

Jeep!

He recognized it; it was the one belonging to the town government!
Fang Hongan was able to take this train...

When Meng Jiuxiang came to her senses from her shock, she was about to wave and say hello to Fang Hongan.

When I looked again, the jeep was already speeding towards the intersection.

Looking at the direction, it turned out to be the direction to the central school.

Meng Jiuxiang quickly turned around and ran into the house in a hurry.

"Huang Laogen! Huang Laogen! Guess who I saw in the jeep at the town government just now?"

"I bet! If I don't tell you, you won't be able to guess it even if you rack your brains..."

……

Cross the flat land of the market town.

That's just two minutes.

The car turned at an intersection and soon drove into the gate of the central school.

Fang Hongan attended the village primary school in Shanmuling for the first few years of his primary school.

I went to a village primary school in Jiangjialing for the last two years.

Although I passed by this central school many times when I was in junior high school in the town, this was my first time entering here.

Because it was the weekend, the school was very quiet.

Under the command of Vice Principal Sun, the jeep stopped next to the school playground. After getting off the car, Vice Principal Sun asked Fang Hongan and the others to wait beside the car, while he jogged all the way to a small building next to the teaching building.

Fang Hongan and the others didn't have to wait long. About two minutes later, Vice Principal Sun came over with a middle-aged man from the sea.

According to his introduction, this is Director Liu Dayou from the Logistics Department of their school.

Knowing that it was Vice President Sun who asked Director Liu Dayou to come back to clean the hive of the black bees, he was extremely enthusiastic and excited.

From his sighing words, it is not difficult to see that these two nests of devil hornets should be a headache for him as the logistics director.

When it comes to the exciting part, Director Liu Dayou even rolled up his sleeves and showed Fang Hongan and others the two marks on his arms.

According to him, this was left behind after he was stung by a wasp when they were cleaning out the wasp's hive last time.

Not only that, he also said that there was a young teacher in their cleaning team at the time. When being chased by the ghost-headed bees, he panicked and bumped into the corner of the wall at the stairs.

Not only was he stung many times, he also had a cut on his forehead that required seven stitches. Fortunately, he had hair covering it, otherwise his face would have been disfigured.

It is precisely because of this that Director Liu felt like he had seen his saviors when he saw Fang Hongan and the others.

He enthusiastically pulled Fang Hongan and the others in to have a few cups of tea.

His attitude was impeccable, but Fang Hongan wanted to go back home earlier today, so he declined. He just asked him to help with some tools first.

Seeing Fang Hongan being so pragmatic, Vice President Sun also set the tone and asked Director Liu Dayou to find the tools Fang Hongan wanted first.

Afterwards, he led Fang Hongan and the other three across the playground, around the teaching building next to the playground, and soon arrived at a small red brick house.

This house can be said to be the oldest house Fang Hongan and his friends have seen since they entered the school.

According to Vice President Sun's introduction after we went downstairs, this is indeed the case.

He said that this building was the teaching building when the central school was first established.

Later, because the building was too small and there were not enough teachers, another teaching building was built.

Since then, this house has been used as an office building, library and activity room.

Up to now, it has been basically idle because it is too old.

There were only a few rooms on the first floor where some sundries were stored.

So this building was called the storage building.

Precisely because it has been rarely used over the years, it was not until last year that the school discovered that there was an extremely large beehive in a room on the top floor of the building.

According to Director Liu, the school has been cleaned up many times from last year to this year.

The biggest event was when the school even asked the police station to come and help. After trying various methods, they finally burned down the hive of bees.

Unexpectedly, this year, a new beehive was built next to the burnt beehive.

At the moment, according to Director Liu, the hive of the black-headed bees is so big that it requires two adults to hug it together.

After figuring out the location and basic situation of the hive of black bees, Fang Hongan asked Director Liu to open the iron door on the first floor.

Calling Wang Tong, the two took out bee-proof suits from the bamboo basket and put them on immediately.

The steps for cleaning out the blackhead bees in the house and those in the wild are completely different.

Therefore, he must do it himself.

As for why Wang Tong went with him instead of Fang Chengtao, it was because in terms of experience and the degree of tacit cooperation with him, Wang Tong, who had been following him since the beginning of digging out the hive of ghost bees, was still one step ahead at this stage.

Of course, the most crucial reason is that only two sets of bee-proof suits were made at the beginning.

No more than two people can be on board at a time.

Fang Chengtao had no objection to Fang Hongan's arrangement.

He helped Fang Hongan and Wang Tong put on the bee-proof suits and checked them. After making sure there were no problems, the three of them high-fived.

Fang Chengtao asked Director Liu and Vice Principal Sun again, and after confirming that the hive of black bees was in the second room on the third floor of the building, he led Vice Principal Sun and Director Liu to the teaching building opposite.

After the three of them went up to the fourth floor of the teaching building opposite, Fang Hongan and Wang Tong walked into the iron gate and soon arrived outside the second room on the third floor of the utility building.

From the broken glass window, you can clearly see that in the innermost corner of the room, there is a huge gray-brown hive of giant hornets.

The overall shape is an irregular oval.

The thickest part in the center is probably at least 1.2 meters in diameter.

It is indeed as Director Liu said, it takes at least two adults to hold the baby together.

Generally speaking, bees build their nests in caves or underground burrows. The more hidden the place, the bigger the nest will be.

Because for the bee colony, the more hidden it is, the safer it will be.

When natural enemies find it difficult to invade, the bee colony will become stronger.

However, the hives of black bees in relatively open environments, such as in old houses and on trees, are generally not very large.

Because it is too easy to be invaded by natural enemies.

It is difficult for a bee colony to grow large.

But the hive of black bees in front of them is definitely among the top three in size among the dozens of hives of black bees that Fang Hongan and his three companions have dug up during this period.

"It's so big...how many ghost bees must there be!"

After leaning forward and seeing the outline of the beehive clearly, Wang Tong's eyes were filled with some amazement, but more of it was excitement.

However, after staring at the several ghost-headed bees lying outside the hive, the expression on his face suddenly changed: "Brother! That's not right! This ghost-headed bee seems to be different from the ones we dug up before!"

"Look!" He was worried that Fang Hongan didn't see it clearly, so he pointed at the bees and said, "They are much bigger! Their back plates are not black, but brown-red. They don't look like ghost heads at all!"

"Brother!" Wang Tong couldn't help but take a step closer to Fang Hongan and asked in a trembling voice, "Is this... still a ghost-headed bee?"

People always feel inexplicable fear towards things that are unfamiliar to them.

At this moment, Wang Tong looked at this creature that was obviously different from the ghost-headed bee, and suddenly he felt inexplicably weak in his heart.

"This..." Fang Hongan responded calmly, "It counts, and it doesn't count!"

In fact, when Fang Hongan saw the beehive for the first time, he realized something was wrong.

This beehive is so huge!

Moreover, the construction method and the wood grain outside the nest are obviously deeper than those of the previously dug-up ghost wasps.

After seeing the brown-red carapace of the bee, Fang Hongan immediately confirmed his guess.

This nest of bees was different from the ghost bees they had dug up before on the hilltop of their village and on the hilltop of Shanmuling Village.

"Brother! What do you mean by this?" After hearing what Fang Hongan said, Wang Tong was confused and couldn't help but ask again.

"That's right! The ghost-headed wasp we commonly call should actually be called the golden-ringed hornet!"

"But the golden-ringed hornet is a large species, and there are several subspecies under it."

"One is the golden-headed and black-backed bees that we usually see. They are commonly called ghost-headed bees here, but they are also called golden rings in many places. And the bees in front of us have golden heads and red backs, so they are called red golden rings in many places!"

"Of course, just like the golden ring is more commonly called the ghost wasp, this red golden ring is more commonly called the red lady wasp."

"Like This!"

After listening to Fang Hongan's detailed explanation, Wang Tong finally understood why Fang Hongan said that. He stared at the bees again and couldn't help muttering: "This one with a golden head and a red back really looks a bit like a woman wearing red clothes! What a descriptive name!"

Then, he said as if it was a matter of course: "Brother! Then this bee shouldn't be as fierce as the ghost-headed bee!"

"Not as fierce as the ghost bee?" Fang Hongan curled his lips, "Do you think women are not fierce?"

"It looks more gentle!!"

"Haha! Even if you are single, haven't you heard the saying that women are the most vicious?"

"No...no way!" Wang Tong shuddered and looked at Fang Hongan in disbelief.

"Don't think I'm joking!" Fang Hongan said seriously, "No matter how vicious or toxic it is, the ghost-headed wasp can't compare to the matchmaker wasp! Especially in terms of the amount of toxins it excretes, they are not even on the same level!"

"So... after you go in, you must be extremely careful!"

"But! Don't worry too much! When I was making the bee-proof suit, I considered the possibility of encountering this kind of red wasp! From the perspective of protection, even if the red wasp's stinger is longer, it can't penetrate our bee-proof suit!"

"What we need to pay attention to is their method of attack by spraying venom..."

"You do this, first...then..."

After stressing to Wang Tong the danger of this nest of red lady wasps, Fang Hongan began to make arrangements...

Having confirmed that this swarm of bees was even more ferocious than the ghost bees, Wang Tong did not dare to be careless and listened attentively to Fang Hongan's arrangements.

After Fang Hongan finished speaking, he went to the corridor on the side and carried the old short ladder as Fang Hong had arranged.

When he came back, Fang Hongan had already slowly pushed open the door of the room.

After a creaking sound, the two men walked into the house on the ground covered with ashes and debris.

Wang Tong carefully placed the ladder against the wall less than one meter away from the beehive.

Then, he took out a large sack from the bamboo basket that Fang Hongan was holding.

This sack was what Fang Hongan had asked Director Liu to get. The mouth of the sack was wide and the bottom was deep. When it was brought over, Wang Tong tried it out and found that it could easily hold two big men.

The beehive in front of me can also be put in completely.

Wang Tong took a large hemp bag to the corner where the beehive was located, pulled the bag open with all his strength, and aligned it with the beehive little by little.

On the other side, Fang Hongan had already climbed up the stairs holding a beehive net in one hand and a huge spatula used for cooking rice in the other.

As we climbed higher and higher, the beehive in front of us was getting closer and closer. When we reached the entrance of the beehive at the top, we could vaguely see that the densely packed beehives were full of plump bee pupae.

At this time, the scout bees that were originally lying outside the hive also sensed Fang Hongan's approach.

It flapped its wings and immediately flew towards Fang Hongan's face.

When dealing with this kind of exposed ghost wasp, the most important thing is to be quick!
Fang Hongan waved the beehive net with his left hand and scooped up the red-necked hornets neatly.

Immediately, he picked up the spatula in his right hand, pressed the spatula against the ceiling, and shoveled it hard into the beehive.

“Shh…Puff…”

The spatula scraped across the ceiling and scraped the beehive. Although it encountered some resistance, Fang Hongan's strong shoveling forced the spatula to break through the honeycomb skin and pierce into the hive like a sharp blade.

Seeing that the beehive was shaking noticeably, Fang Hongan grabbed the handle of the large spatula and twisted and lifted it vigorously.

"Kick!"

There was an obvious cracking sound coming from where the honeycomb connected to the ceiling.

The outer part of the honeycomb was torn directly apart from the ceiling!
"Crack! Crack!"

Tearing sounds were heard one after another.

The entire beehive lost half of its balance and began to shake violently.

But even though it was shaking, this beehive showed no signs of collapsing!

At the same time, the crackling sound was immediately drowned out by a rapid "buzzing" sound.

The next moment, groups of golden-headed, red-backed red wasps, which exuded a tyrannical aura, swarmed out from the broken hole in the hive and violently attacked Fang Hongan on the stairs...

(End of this chapter)