Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1004 This year will be tough for people in the mountains.

The road from Qingshuihe to the mountains was almost completely covered by snow. It was better at higher elevations where there were no bushes around, as the wind would blow the snow away. However, it was more troublesome in the lower valleys, where the snow was nearly a meter deep in some places.

The tractor has a high horsepower, so it is relatively easy to push snow and can easily push a road through it. However, the snow is too thick and quickly submerges the snowplow blades in front of the tractor. So, after pushing for a while, you have to stop and clear the snow piled up in front of you.

Li Long used a small four-wheeled tractor with a snowplow attached to it to help clear the snow that had accumulated in the middle of the road to both sides every now and then. After a few trips, he cleared the snow.

With the small four-wheeled tractor and the Dongfanghong 75 tractor working together, they drove from Qingshuihe Village all the way to the mountain pass on the first day, until they were too exhausted to continue.

It was already afternoon, and we had lunch at Meng Hai's house again.

“Comrade Li Long, let’s call it a day for today. How about we continue tomorrow? Today we’ll just rely on the machinery. I’ll go back and call some more people so we can work together tomorrow. The mountain road will be cleared soon,” Meng Hai said. “Everyone has made a lot of money from you building roads. We won’t have to spend any money clearing snow tomorrow. The people in our village are quite sensible.”

The mountain roads are quite long, Li Long thought for a moment and said:
"Let's see how it goes tomorrow. We'll try to clear it with a tractor first, and if that doesn't work, we'll call in reinforcements. This year's snow is significantly heavier than last year's. If this continues, we'll probably have to close the mountain passes, and the herders in the mountains won't be able to get out."

"Yes. Who would have thought that it would snow so heavily at the beginning of December!" Meng Hai exclaimed from the tractor. "In previous years, the yellow sheep and other animals would only become more abundant around New Year's Day, but this year there are already quite a few. Many people in our village have gone out to chase rabbits and hunt yellow sheep."

"How was the harvest? Did you get anything?" Li Long asked as he packed his things.

"Hey, I got seven or eight rabbits," Meng Hai said with a smile.

The two drove the tractor back to the village, and Li Long rested at Meng Hai's house for a while.

"Comrade Li Long, your snowplow is quite good," Meng Hai exclaimed. "Unlike ordinary snowplows, it just shovels the snow away, so there's no snow accumulation in front of you. You can use it all the way, as long as the snow is no more than a meter thick, it looks like it will work."

"Yes, it was made to overcome the shortcomings of snowboards," Li Long said. "It looks pretty good."

Wang Cailing brought over tea and then prepared to cook dinner. Li Long, however, only drank the tea before preparing to leave. Meng Hai and Wang Cailing wanted him to stay, but Li Long said that it was quite far from the county, and the tractor was slower than a jeep; he was worried that it would be difficult to get back after dark.

Meng Hai didn't try to keep him any longer and asked when Li Long would be coming over the next day.

"Tomorrow will be about the same as today," Li Long said. "We're not in a rush; we can take our time."

Although they said they weren't in a hurry, they were actually quite anxious. The reason Halim and his group weren't leaving the mountain was definitely because the snow on the road leading out of the mountains was too thick. However, they had already cleared the snow to the mountain pass, and it should be cleared in two or three days at most.

Li Long didn't feel it much when he arrived, but on the way back he clearly felt it; the tractor was far less comfortable than the jeep. If he hadn't been wearing his thick fur coat inside out, his knees would probably have been numb from the cold.

Compared to this, he felt more and more that high-horsepower wheeled tractors were the future of agricultural tractors in rural areas, and that these small four-wheeled tractors would become less and less useful in the future—thirty or forty years from now.

When they drove back to the county and arrived at the courtyard, it was just getting dark. Sister Yang had already prepared dinner: sour soup with hand-pulled noodles, which had a rich flavor, and Li Long thought it was just right for him.

After Li Long left, Meng Hai realized that relying on just two people and two cars wouldn't be enough, so he went door-to-door to notify everyone, especially those who had done the road repairs and received payment, and those whose families sent two or three people to work in the fall.

What pleased Meng Hai was that every household was willing to send someone to clear the snow, and just as he said, it was free.

"We're only doing this for two or three days, why would we need money? People pay us so generously in the summer and autumn, why would we need money to clear snow now? We're not all obsessed with money, and we don't have much to do in winter anyway, so this is a good opportunity to get some exercise."

"That's right. Whenever Comrade Li Long has a good opportunity or a lucrative job, he always thinks of us. We can't just think about money and forget about his kindness."

Meng Hai was relieved. When He Yuqing learned about this, he smiled and said, "Although the production team has implemented the household responsibility system, the morale of our team members has not been lost. They are capable of great things!"

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long drove his tractor and snowplow back to Qingshuihe Village.

Meng Hai was not there; the tractor had already reached the mountain pass. Only Wang Cailing was waiting for Li Long at the edge of the village. When Li Long arrived, she told him:
"Comrade Li Long, my husband Lao Meng has already taken people into the mountains to clear the snow. He said you can just go there when you arrive."

Li Long was surprised that Meng Hai had actually managed to gather everyone, so he asked, "Sister-in-law, how many people went?"

“There must be at least seventy or eighty people, right?” Wang Cailing said. “Many families sent just the two of them.”

"Hey, I'd better go check it out right away."

When Li Long drove his tractor to the mountain pass, he found that the snow on the road had been cleared for two or three kilometers, and the snow on the section of the road from Qingshuihe Village to the mountain pass had also been cleared.

These people were divided equally, each person was assigned a section of snow several tens of meters long. The tractor would push it over in one go. In places where the snow was thick, several people would work together to push the snow into the ditch. In places where the snow was thin, the tractor would push it over directly. The people behind would be responsible for shoveling the remaining snow.

As Li Long's snowplow approached, people along the way greeted him.

Li Long was quite touched; everyone's enthusiasm was really high.

As someone who was truly responsible for the work, he naturally couldn't fall behind. After greeting everyone, he drove his tractor to the front, met Meng Hai, chatted for a bit, and then began clearing the snow.

The roads in the mountains are narrower than those outside, but the snow is easier to clear. After all, the mountains provide some shelter, so the snow isn't as thick. The snowplows on the small four-wheeled tractors come in handy. Although they're not as fast as the Dongfanghong 75 tractor, they clear the snow really well.

"Comrade Li Long's snowplow is in full swing, we can't fall behind!" someone shouted. "Let's go ahead, spread out, and shovel some snow off the road first to relieve the pressure on the snowplow!"

In this way, people worked in sections, snowplows worked in sections, and tractors with bulldozers worked in sections. The progress was very fast, and by noon, they had basically reached the ditch where Halimu and his men were.

The terrain became flatter, and the snow on the road became thicker, slowing down the pace of work.

Of course, there is another major reason: small four-wheeled tractors and Dongfanghong 75 tractors don't know how to get tired, but people do get tired.

Then the sound of a tractor came from behind, and the workers cheered. It turned out that the team members had come to deliver food in a tractor.

The tractor driver was none other than the team leader, He Yuqing. Two people were sitting in the tractor's trailer, carrying baskets, buckets, and other items wrapped in cotton blankets.

It's obviously to keep hot food warm so it doesn't get cold when taken out.

Of course, even if they are wrapped up like this, by the time everyone gathers around, the steamed buns will only be lukewarm.

Fortunately, the tea was still hot, and the vegetables in the basin were also hot—lunch was steamed buns with vegetables—and the vegetables were stir-fried with pickled vegetables and meat, all paid for by the team.

Li Long also stopped the tractor, preparing to have dinner together.

Just then, the sound of horses neighing came from the valley. Li Long turned his head and saw that it was Halim riding over on horseback.

Li Long hurriedly went to greet him.

Harim's horse struggled to move through the thick snow. With each step, its legs sank deep into the snow. Eventually, Harim had to put the horse down, dismount, and wade through the thigh-deep snow to meet Li Long. The two embraced and then shook hands.

"It must be quite difficult in the mountains, right?" Li Long asked.

"Not bad," Halim smiled, pointing to the group. "You brought people to clear the road?" "Yes," Li Long smiled and said, "I guessed you weren't coming down the mountain because the snow was too heavy. Luckily, the snowplow was ready, so I thought I'd clear the road first. Then, I couldn't do it all by myself, so everyone came."

"Great! Great!" Halim was very excited. It wasn't that he hadn't considered going down the mountain, but it was truly difficult. The snow was so thick that in some places the snow crust was so thick it could injure the horses. If it weren't for the large amount of grass harvested in early autumn, the cattle and sheep would probably have suffered as a result.

As things stand, it's quite difficult for the herders in the tribe to communicate with each other. Although Li Long and his men repaired the roads connecting the various wintering grounds in the spring, two more snowfalls after they returned from their migration left the roads covered in snow, making travel very difficult.

While they were still wondering what to do next, Li Long was already calling for people to clear the way.

Meng Hai also came over to meet Halimu. The two were already acquainted and could chat for a few minutes when they met.

“It’s alright. We’ve already driven this far. After lunch, we’ll continue driving into the valley this afternoon, and we should be able to reach your winter camp soon. As for the road from your winter camp to the winter camps of Yushanjiang and Talihar, we don’t need so many people. We can just use my little four-wheeled tractor with the snowplow and drive slowly.”

"Okay, okay," Halim said excitedly. "Then you guys clear the way, I'm going back now. I'll slaughter the sheep now and make you some hand-pulled mutton later!"

Li Long hurriedly tried to stop him, and Meng Hai also felt bad, but Halimu had already quickly returned to the horse, jumped onto its back, turned the horse around, cracked the whip hard, and rode the horse towards the winter pasture.

"Let's eat first." Li Long knew he couldn't stop them, so he didn't. This was Halim's way of expressing his gratitude to everyone. "After eating, we'll rest for a while, and then we'll continue working. I'll pay everyone's wages tonight."

“Comrade Li Long, I don’t like hearing you say that,” Meng Hai said. “We all agreed that we’re here to work today purely on a voluntary basis, without any pay.”

“That’s right.” He Yuqing chimed in, “Comrade Li Long, we’re on the road to getting rich, but we’re a socialist country. Ethnic unity isn’t just your responsibility. Let’s all make our own contributions. You see, everyone knows we’re doing voluntary work this time, and they’re all very happy.”

Li Long laughed. Yes, it's clear that everyone is genuinely contributing to clearing the road, not for the money.

"Okay, let's not talk about money then." Li Long smiled. "Let's eat. I'm starving. How about trying your lunch?"

"Don't worry, it's guaranteed to be delicious. This meat is from a yellow sheep we hunted yesterday, a little yellow sheep, it's really tasty!"

When Li Long went over, the person in charge of serving food gave him a steamed bun. Li Long broke it open, and then another person next to him scooped a spoonful of vegetables from a bowl and poured it onto the bun. They wanted more, but Li Long hurriedly said, "That's enough, that's enough!"

I closed the steamed bun, pressed it down with both hands, felt its warmth, and then took a big bite. The oil from the vegetables squeezed out—it smelled so good!
Li Long finished a steamed bun in a few bites, then went to get another one and savored it slowly this time.

"Lots of steamed buns!" someone shouted from the truck bed distributing the buns. "Come and get more when you're done!"

Several large steamers of steamed buns and two large bowls of vegetables were served. After the seventy or eighty people finished eating, there were still some steamed buns left. The vegetables were eventually gone. Everyone was quite full, and then they found a place to sit and drink tea.

After eating, my body warmed up instantly, and the midday sun made me want to sleep.

So they found a place to sit down and rest for a while. After about half an hour, Meng Hai started calling people to get up and work, mainly because he was afraid that if they really fell asleep, they would get cold.

Although the sun is warm, the ice and snow are really cold; you can catch a cold if you fall asleep in the cold.

So they continued working, and since there wasn't much work left, they started chatting.

The same four-wheeled tractor and a 75-inch tracked tractor were used to clear the way, while the workers cleaned up the mess from behind. This method was quite fast.

Around 4 PM, they arrived at Halimu's winter hut. Li Long noticed that a stove had already been set up at the entrance of the hut—probably due to time constraints, the stove was just a few stones piled up, with a large pot on top, and mutton bones bubbling inside.

Halim was processing the sheep's offal, while his wife was baking naan. When she saw Li Long and the others coming over, she waved and continued working.

"Hey, we can eat mutton soon!" someone said excitedly.

"Two sheep were slaughtered? This Adasi is really willing to do that?"

“There are so many of us, one sheep definitely won’t be enough,” someone said. “They’re very generous. It’s just that the pot is only so big, otherwise they would have slaughtered three sheep.”

These are the results of summer work; I know the ethnic comrades of this tribe are really generous in this regard.

And so, Halim and his men cooked meat and made naan bread at their winter camp, while Li Long and his men cleared the snow. After clearing the snow leading to the winter camp, they began clearing the snow leading to the winter camp on the other side of the Yushan River.

This place was significantly more convenient than where we had worked before. With the help of two tractors, the road to Yushan Jiangdongwozi was cleared just before sunset.

Meng Hai and Li Long both breathed a sigh of relief.

The task of clearing the snow is now complete.

The roads leading to other wintering grounds will then be cleared slowly by a small four-wheeled vehicle equipped with a snowplow.

After learning that Halim had already slaughtered the sheep, people from Yushanjiang went over to help. Since it was already late, the workers carried their tools, each with half a naan bread wrapped around a piece of mutton bone, eating and chatting as they walked back, quite comfortably.

Li Long stayed behind and chatted with Harim and the others about the recent situation.

"We've actually been back for almost half a month. We originally planned to go down the mountain as soon as we got back, but it snowed the night we returned, and then it snowed again. The snow was so heavy that we couldn't go down at all. So we can only wait in the mountains, hoping to organize people to build a road out in a few days, and then do other things."

These past few days we've been clearing snow from our winter huts and the livestock pens. Thankfully, you helped us repair and reinforce the huts these past two years; otherwise, with this much snow, the huts and livestock pens might have collapsed.

Yushanjiang wore a relieved expression. He was telling the truth; some of the winter shelters in this small tribe were truly dilapidated. Normally, no one noticed anything amiss, but when a major snowstorm struck, the cattle and sheep pens, whose structures weren't very sturdy, easily collapsed under the weight of the snow.

What he didn't know was that many of the herders' pens, scattered throughout the pastoral areas, had actually collapsed this year. The snowfall in the mountains was even heavier than in the plains, making it a true snow disaster.

"Fortunately, we harvested a lot of grass this year. The snow in the winter pastures was all buried, so the cattle and sheep couldn't dig any more and couldn't eat. They could only eat the harvested grass." Halimu served Li Long a bowl of mutton soup and said, "I think our tribe is doing relatively well this year. I wonder how the others are doing."

“Once this road is open, we can go and check on the pasture team’s outpost,” Yushanjiang said. “Tomorrow, we’ll drive the tractor back down the mountain first. Then, Li Long, leave your snowplow for us. We need to clear the roads to the other winter pastures. Oh, and when you drive the tractor back tomorrow, you can also take back the hides and other things we brought back from the summer pasture.”

“When we came back this year, we were really shocked to see such a long road under construction,” Halim said with a smile. “Next year, it will be much easier for us to travel into the mountains.”

"Well, in two years at most, we'll be able to build the road to the summer pasture, and then I can go into the mountains to take a look," Li Long said with a smile. "But for now, let's get through this winter first. I'll contact the sugar factory, and once your road to the winter pasture is open, we'll bring over a few truckloads of sugar residue to supplement your cattle and sheep's feed, so they don't just eat grass and get thin from hunger in the winter."

Li Long knew that each of the herders in the tribe had a lot of cattle and sheep, and he figured that the grass they harvested wouldn't be enough.

Cattle and sheep are the livelihood of herders, and they cannot afford to lose them.

"Put that aside, you need to prepare some coarse salt for us," Yushanjiang said. "We haven't been able to get out since we came back, and we're running low on various supplies."

“Okay, I’ll bring the truck over tomorrow!” This was actually the simplest thing for Li Long.

It's time to show off your financial power!

(End of this chapter)