Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1015 The sheep is yours, but we can't just eat it!
After lunch, Li Long was going to drive his jeep with Harim to find Yushanjiang and the others to discuss the matter of slaughtering sheep down the mountain the next day.

Halim originally wanted to ride a horse there himself, but Li Long said that the snow on the road had been cleared and the road had been repaired. The jeep was faster than the horse and it wasn't cold, so it would be better to drive.

Halim thought about it and agreed. In the dead of winter, no one wants to ride a horse around in a comfortable carriage; it's uncomfortable for both the rider and the horse.

When the jeep arrived at Jiangjiadongwozi in Yushan, he was cleaning up the hay scraps in the sheepfold with his children.

Yushanjiang was delighted to see the jeep. He set up the wooden fork by the sheepfold, walked over to the jeep, hugged Li Long who got out, and greeted him.

Most of the snow on the winter pasture near the Jiang family in Yushan has been cleared, and Li Long can still see a lot of sheep, cow, and horse droppings on the snow.

The water pipes that were installed two years ago, and the water pools they built, didn't freeze. The water flowed down and formed a small stream. There was no ice within a two- or three-meter radius of the pipe opening, but it froze further down. However, the ice was broken up at this point, and there was a section about twenty or thirty meters long. This section was probably used for cattle and sheep to drink water.

There was also a large bag of coarse salt next to the sheep pen, which was mixed into the hay for the cattle and sheep to eat.

Yu Shanjiang invited the two people into the house for milk tea. His son, Yang Gangzi, was tidying up inside. When he saw Li Long come in, he smiled and quickly made milk tea.

Li Long explained his purpose, and Yu Shanjiang said with a smile, "There's definitely no problem. We've been waiting for you to come and discuss this matter. I think it's about time. If you don't come soon, we'll head down the mountain."

"I've been busy collecting beef and mutton lately," Li Long explained. "You guys cleared the road leading to my wooden house, right? I'll go up the mountain to stay for a while and do some hunting after I'm done with this."

"Alright, alright, there are too many wolves in the mountains now, we need to hunt them down properly," Yushanjiang said. "How many sheep do you plan to slaughter this year?"

"Four or five hundred, I guess," Li Long gave a rough estimate. "Not just sheep, but also cattle and deer. You're experts at this, so we have to get you out here."

"The young men love coming down from the mountains. There's nothing to do in the dead of winter, and with the heavy snow this year, even horse racing and goat-grabbing are impossible. Although the roads between the winter huts are now open, there's still very little to do in the dead of winter. As soon as you say you're coming down the mountain, they're all very happy."

"That's good, that's good. I'll notify you one by one later, and then I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning."

“You don’t need to notify them one by one. We can just ride our horses and notify them separately,” Yushanjiang said. “You just need to go back and get the preparations done. It will consume a lot of hot water, and we need to process the offal from slaughtering the cattle and sheep. We also need to prepare meals for so many people… There’s a lot to do!”

As he was speaking, two children came in from outside and told Yushanjiang that the grass scraps in the sheepfold had been cleaned up.

"Okay, then pick a few bundles of hay and spread them out for the cattle and sheep. Mix some salt into the feed trough, just a little bit. Check if those ewes have given birth yet."

After the two children finished listening to the arrangements, they went out. Yu Shanjiang then said to Li Long, "Last year, halfway through the class, the children's textbooks were taken away, supposedly for some kind of inspection. After that, there were no textbooks in class, so the teachers were very casual when they taught. They also didn't assign much homework during the holidays."

“Nathan and Sasken’s textbooks have also been collected,” Harim added. “They’re both overjoyed; they have less homework during the holidays and can play most of the time.”

Li Long was somewhat surprised. Was the feedback from his superiors so quick? Were they already getting involved directly?

Of course, this is a good thing.

He didn't comment much on the matter, as it had far-reaching implications, but these were not yet apparent, so further discussion would be pointless.

The children in the Yushan Jiang family are older now and in junior high school, while the children in the Halimu family are still young and in elementary school. At this stage, elementary school textbooks have little impact, while junior high school textbooks have a greater impact.

In a few years, textbooks will have an impact starting from elementary school.

Now that the butterfly has flapped its wings, maybe things will be different.

After finishing their milk tea, Yushanjiang told Lilong to hurry back and prepare. Lilong said that someone had already made preparations, but he insisted on driving, taking Yushanjiang and Halim with him, to notify each household.

Because the jeep can only seat a limited number of people, following Yushanjiang's directions, four families were notified, and someone will definitely be able to sit in the back.

This was something that had to be agreed upon beforehand, but even though they were sitting in the back, the young men were very happy. They had already been out of the mountains once, and the outside world was definitely more fun than being inside the snowy mountains.

After notifying everyone, Yushanjiang told them to sharpen their knives and get ready. Then Li Long drove the two of them back to the winter hut before driving away in his jeep.

However, Li Long did not go down the mountain directly; he drove his jeep to his cabin.

The road leads directly to the door of the cabin, and even the snow on the wooden floor at the doorway has been cleared. A small path has also been cleared to reach the spring.

The key to the cabin was always in the jeep. Li Long took the key and opened the door. Nothing had changed inside, except for a chilling aura.

He fetched firewood and coal from the shed next door and set up the stove. Because it had been a long time since he had lit the stove, it smoked for a while after the fire started, filling the whole room with smoke. Li Long opened the door and let the smoke dissipate for quite some time.

After the smoke in the room subsided, the fire in the stove burned smoothly, the coal smoldered and made a whooshing sound, and the chill in the room, carrying the lingering smell of smoke, slowly dissipated. Li Long piled the bedding next to the bed, near the stove, and slowly warmed it over the fire.

The stove slowly warmed up, and the room was no longer filled with smoke. Li Long went out of the house, closed the door, took a long pole from the shed, and began to clear the snow from the roof of the wooden house.

The snow on the cabin was quite thick, and he was worried that the stove inside would melt the bottom layer of snow, which would then seep into the soil of the roof.

Simply pounding the snow with a pole wasn't enough. After pounding down the snow near the door, he moved the wooden frame out from the small hut and used it as a ladder to climb up the hut, clearing the snow from both sides. Finally, he came down and swept away the snow that had fallen in front.

While I was shoveling snow, I heard the howling of wolves coming from the woods to the south.

This wolf is a bit arrogant.

Li Long put down the broom, took out a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle from the jeep, leaned it against the hood, and looked south.

After careful observation, the wolves remained hidden in the woods, not daring to show their faces. However, they occasionally howled, clearly indicating they had no intention of leaving.

It's unclear whether their target is Li Long or other prey in the vicinity.

Recently, quite a few gazelles have been crossing the uninhabited area from the sand dunes in the north to the mountains in the south.

A significant portion of the animals were hunted by part-time hunters, but a large number successfully made their way into the mountains. After all, the mountains have more bushes and forests, making them less likely to be completely covered by snow, and there's more food to be found there than in the sand dunes.

Logically, in such an environment, these wolves should be able to find their prey. It's hard to say why they're eyeing the winter den. Maybe they're particularly tempted by the lambs? Or perhaps the smell of the ewes giving birth has been quite strong lately, attracting them here? Li Long's mind was filled with all sorts of speculations. After waiting for a while and finding that the wolves hadn't come over, he put away his gun, moved the wooden frame back into the small room, and prepared to leave.

Li Long turned the jeep around and drove less than fifty meters when a pack of wolves sprang out of the woods to the south and ran west.

Li Long hurriedly got out of the car. When he raised his gun to aim, he found that there were five or six wolves. Although the snow was thick, the wolves ran quite fast.

Li Long spotted the wolves from afar. As he ran, his body only sank twenty or thirty centimeters into the ground, suggesting there was a hard crust of snow beneath. This meant the top layer of snow that had fallen earlier had already frozen into ice; the subsequent snowfall was softer.

By this time, the wolves had already run more than two hundred meters away. Li Long simply glanced at them and then gave up the idea of ​​shooting.

However, after seeing how the wolves were running, Li Long adjusted his original expectations.

I thought that with such thick snow, once a wolf was spotted, it wouldn't be able to escape. After all, the snow was almost as thick as the wolf's height. If the snow were soft, the wolf would sink in with every step it took, making it impossible to run.

It seems I was just assuming things. These wolves were very fast while running. I don't know if they had scouted the route beforehand or if this was the case on the snow all around.

Li Long started the jeep again and drove out of the mountains. He drove slowly, looking around to see if there were any other prey.

After all, before last year, they had hunted not only gazelles and red deer in the snow, but also saiga antelopes.

This time he was a little disappointed, however, as he drove all the way to the Qingshui River without seeing a single living creature.

Seeing that it was getting late, Li Long didn't linger at Qingshuihe. He sped past, drove all the way to the county town, put the hides and antlers he had brought from Halim at the purchasing station, and then drove through the town to Lao Ma Hao.

To Li Long's surprise, several sheep had already been slaughtered at Lao Ma's place. A pot was placed on the newly built high stove in the yard, and water was boiling in the pot. The slaughtered sheep were placed against the wall, but the meat was not being cooked.

Uncle Luo and the others squatted in front of a large basin, cleaning the sheep's intestines and stomach, chatting as they did so.

Seeing their ears and cheeks red from the cold, Li Long said with concern, "Uncle Luo, why aren't you working by the stove? And why don't you cook one of the slaughtered sheep?"

"It's alright, it's alright, there's not much left. We'll go inside after washing this basin," Uncle Luo said with a smile. "We eat meat every meal, so this one more won't hurt. Besides, even though we're raising the sheep, it's still yours. We can slaughter it, but we can't just eat it however we want."

We're not short of money. Look at us old folks, we're all much fatter than before, so you don't need to worry about our livelihood anymore.

Li Long then walked forward, wanting to help them wash their stomachs and turn their intestines inside out, but Uncle Luo persuaded him to stop.

"Xiaolong, there's not much work left, so don't get involved. These are some two-year-old sheep that were just slaughtered; the meat is quite good. Aren't you going to take some home? Don't your elderly relatives and children need some nourishment?"

There were four sheep slaughtered in total. Li Long thought for a moment and said:
"Uncle Luo, I'll take three, and you can keep one for yourselves."

"Hey, we've got dinner ready here, we're having this. You can take it all, the meat is really fresh."

"If you're not going to eat it, freeze it for now. We'll cook it as soon as the people arrive tomorrow morning. That won't be an easy job starting tomorrow; we need to make sure everyone has a good meal."

"Alright then," Uncle Luo said. "Xiao Long, when you come over tomorrow morning, buy some naan and bring it with you. The stoves here are all occupied, both inside and outside, for boiling water and cooking meat, so there's no time to steam buns."

"Get a few dozen naan breads; we can soak them in meat broth and eat them—it'll be so delicious!"

"Okay, I'll bring the naan when I pick up people tomorrow." Li Long replied, packed three sheep, and took most of a bag of offal to his elder brother's house.

Li Qiang and a few friends were playing in the yard when they heard the sound of a jeep. They cheered and ran out, then crowded around the jeep as it entered the yard.

Hearing the noise, Li Jianguo opened the door and saw Li Long carrying a sheep, about to walk into the house. He asked:
"Is everything settled in the mountains?"

“It’s done,” Li Long said, taking the sheep into the house and placing it in the kitchen. He then went into the inner room and said, “I’ll go fetch them first thing tomorrow morning. These next two days will mainly be spent slaughtering sheep.”

“I’ve already told Daqiang and Yundong in the team that several families will go to Lao Ma’s place to help out,” Li Jianguo said. “Your sister-in-law will also be there tomorrow; the more people there, the faster we can get the job done.”

"Okay," Li Long replied. "It will take three or four days to finish slaughtering them. Once this job is done, we can have a peaceful New Year."

"Yes, the Lunar New Year is earlier this year than last year, and we can rest for a while after the New Year. I just don't know if it will snow again. The snow this year was too heavy, and the team has almost caught all the wild rabbits in the neighborhood."

The two brothers chatted idly as Liang Yuemei brought over some freshly baked bread slices and dried fish. Li Long took the bread slices and ate them while going to the east room to check on his grandfather and mother.

Recently, due to heavy snow, Li Qingxia couldn't go anywhere, so Xiao Haizi went to break ice holes to fish, getting bored out of his mind.

As soon as Li Long came in, he immediately said, "Xiao Long, you're slaughtering sheep tomorrow, right? I'd like to come and take a look."

"Okay, Dad," Li Long said with a smile. "Just make sure you wear warm clothes so you don't get cold."

"How's it in the mountains?" Li Qingxia asked again.

"The snow is thicker than in the plains, and there are more wolves this year. They dare to howl in broad daylight. After I slaughter the sheep, I need to go into the mountains for a few days to fight them."

"Hey, that's great. Take me with you then." Li Qingxia licked his lips. "Hunt a wolf, skin it, and make a mattress for your mother."

"I don't want to!" Du Chunfang refused outright. "You should just stay at home. Xiaolong is good at hunting because he's skilled. If you, with your old arms and legs, follow along, wouldn't you just be a burden? And Xiaolong would have to make sure you can catch something?"

“Why would I need him to take care of me?” Li Qingxia naturally refused to admit she was old. “I can still carry a sack of corn by myself in the fall, how am I old?”

"Hmm, you're not old. Who says they're old, have stiff arms and legs, or a sore back in the middle of the night?" Du Chunfang bluntly exposed her shortcomings.

Li Long sensed something was wrong and quickly retreated, closing the door behind him. He wouldn't get involved in the old couple's argument.

It's better to stay with my older brother.

(End of this chapter)