Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1112 Hunting Turns into a Massacre

Li Long made quite a commotion, startling the fish. They had been swimming upstream in an orderly line, but his sudden movement caused them to dart about wildly, splashing water everywhere and attracting the attention of Liu Shanmin and the others.

These pike ranged in size from as long as a chopstick to as small as a finger, and they swam extremely fast. Occasionally, a few crucian carp would join in and cause trouble. Li Long excitedly jumped down to the riverbank, but seeing so many fish, he was anxious because he had no tools at hand.

He simply squatted down and reached out to grab them, but the fish were incredibly slippery. He managed to grab four or five in one go, but the pike struggled and darted away, falling into the water and swimming frantically before disappearing from sight.

His movement caused Liu Shanmin and Liu Gaolou to arrive at the riverbank, unexpectedly disturbing Buick's relatives, Buick, and Murat who were coming to greet them.

"Wow, so many fish! Are these loaches?" Although Liu Gaolou had been in the northern frontier for some time, he really didn't know much about this fish.

"The locals call it dogfish, it's actually a highland loach." Li Long waited patiently and finally caught a few. It's a pity he didn't have any tools, otherwise he could definitely have gotten several kilograms in a while.

"Alright, alright, we'll talk about it later. The owner is coming, it's not appropriate for us to be here," Liu Shanmin said. Li Long smiled and went up to the riverbank.

Just then, he suddenly heard a splashing sound in the water. He turned his head and saw a rockfish (a type of cold-water fish from high mountains) weighing more than a kilogram dart over the pike and disappear into the deep water.

The stick fish really does look like a stick. Li Long doesn't know its scientific name. He has eaten this fish in later generations. It is really delicious when stewed. It is also expensive, costing over a hundred yuan per kilogram.

Pity.

But it was just a fleeting thought. He went ashore and met Buick's relatives with Liu Shanmin and the others.

Liu Shanmin and his group took out the things they had brought for them from the jeep. He couldn't understand much of what Buick's relatives were saying; it was mostly Russian, with occasional bits of Kazakh.

They mainly brought things like white sugar. They grow their own grain, and although they're not rich, they have enough to eat.

They also raise cattle and sheep, and can produce dairy products themselves, so their life seems alright.

However, there's no way to get condiments like white sugar. You can't get them yourself; if you want to buy them, you have to queue up, and you're not guaranteed to get them.

Because of Buick, they now receive some supplies every month, which is enough for their daily needs.

Therefore, they were particularly warm to Liu Shanmin and his group—of course, the Kazakh people are known for their hospitality.

There's only one family like this within a few kilometers. They have pastures and farmland, a single-story house, livestock pens, and some trees, but everything looks withered and yellow this season.

Upon entering the courtyard, one could already see people slaughtering sheep. Clearly, preparations had begun as soon as they learned of Liu Shanmin and his group's arrival.

Li Long and his companions were ushered into the house to sit, but they couldn't really sit still. They couldn't do the work of butchering sheep and cleaning the meat, and they couldn't understand the language either, so they simply went to Liu Gaolou, got a shovel and a small iron bucket, and went to the stream.

Beef and mutton are nothing special, but getting some fish and making a fish soup would be nice too.

Liu Gaolou shared the same thoughts. They couldn't understand what these people were saying, but Liu Shanmin could understand some of it, and since he was the guest of honor, most of the people were surrounding him.

There were a few people following me, but I couldn't understand what they were saying, so I decided to do something I liked.

Kazakhs generally don't eat fish. Even if they do, they mainly eat sea fish, so they don't eat river fish.

This is a matter of habit, not religion—it's still the Soviet era, they all raise pigs, and religious customs have little to do with ethnicity.

It was only after the split that some of the old customs were revived.

This family had quite a few children; two of them, around seven or eight years old, followed Li Long and the others to the ditch and watched them catch fish.

The fish were probably startled, and there were visibly fewer of them, but there were still groups of a dozen or so swimming upwards.

The ditch is not wide, or you could call it a canal, about two or three meters wide, and the deepest part is probably less than a meter.

Li Long found a shallow spot and simply used a shovel to dig mud and build a dam.

The dam was built high, blocking the water, and the downstream water flowed away quickly, leaving the fish stranded on the dry beach.

"Holy crap! So many!" Liu Gaolou had been watching from the beginning, but when Li Long quickly built the dam, the downstream water dried up and the fish came out, and he exclaimed in surprise.

There didn't seem like many fish before, but now that the water has been cut off, the dry beach is teeming with fish of all sizes, struggling in droves. There are even more fish in the small puddles!
"Hurry up and collect them, just fill a bucket. The water is high upstream, it will wash the dam away soon!" Li Long didn't have time to collect them. He kept digging mud and sand to build the dam higher, otherwise the water would overflow.

Liu Gaolou hurriedly picked up a bucket to collect the large items, and the two children jumped down to join him. They collected both large and small items and put them into the bucket together.

"Alright, alright, hurry up and get up here, the water can't be stopped!" Li Long shouted. He saw that Liu Gaolou and the others had collected quite a bit, more than half a bucket, enough for them to eat.

Liu Gaolou, still savoring the moment, climbed ashore, wiped the mud off his shoes, and seeing the water rushing down so fast it almost soaked his shoes, quickly took two steps back, and said with a laugh:

"I never expected there to be so many fish in here! I even found a big one!"

Li Long came over to take a look and found that the "big" he was referring to was a large crucian carp, not a bighead carp.

"Let's gut the fish right here by the water," Li Long said. "I don't know if they'll allow it at their house. If not, we'll build a fire and roast it."

"We'll let you do it, we'll definitely let you do it," Liu Gaolou said hurriedly. "Don't worry."

"How do you know?" Li Long thought to himself, "You've never lived here either."

"Don't worry, my uncle has a lot of influence. Besides, haven't you seen they all raise pigs? They certainly don't have that many taboos," Liu Gaolou said with a smile.

Li Long thought to himself that this was not bad.

They gutted the fish right there in the river and washed them. There weren't many rules here; the water quality was good, otherwise there wouldn't be so many pike.

This fish is notoriously picky about water quality; it simply cannot survive in poor water.

After cleaning and gutting all the fish, big and small, there was about half a bucket full. Li Long washed them clean in the water, carried them ashore, and went to the yard.

"You went fishing?" Liu Shanmin asked in surprise.

"Hmm, I was thinking of stewing some fish or making fish soup. There's so much fish, it would be a waste not to eat it," Li Long said.

"Then I'll tell them." Liu Shanmin pulled over the Buick and let his relatives tell them. They were surprised, but quickly nodded, obviously having no objections.

Naturally, it was Li Long who took action.

Lunch was a feast: hand-pulled mutton, roasted meat, freshly baked naan bread, and stewed fish and fish soup made by Li Long.

Unexpectedly, the fish soup was a huge hit, and Buick's relatives even asked him to ask Li Long how he made it.

Basically, you just put pike in a pot and boil it, then add a handful of salt, and cook it until it's almost done.

Logically, you should sprinkle some chopped green onions or cilantro at the end, but there weren't any here. Li Long went to the field, picked some wild vegetables that weren't completely withered, washed them, and threw them in.

The main reason is that these pike live in flowing water, so they don't have a muddy smell. They are cooked directly after being skinned and gutted, so they are naturally very fresh.

Liu Gaolou didn't like the taste of the mare's milk, but Li Long slowly savored a bowl, which unexpectedly won the host's appreciation.

Buick and Murat also told his relatives about what Li Long had done in China, and the family members came over one by one, smiling and praising Li Long's actions.

The eldest even showed Li Long a pattern embroidered on a rug, which Li Long guessed was to let him see if it was the same as the one in Yushanjiang's tribe.

Li Long took the blanket and examined it carefully. The blanket had fine stitches and an ancient pattern, which seemed to have eagle elements, but it was somewhat abstract. It was indeed somewhat similar to the one he had seen at the Jiang family home in Yushan, but not exactly the same.

He hadn't actually paid close attention to this pattern on the Yushan River side, so he could only tell the other party through Buick, and he wasn't sure either.

The old man was a little disappointed, but through Buick, he told Li Long that he could take the blanket back with him. If he showed it to Yushan Jiang, perhaps he would recognize it. Li Long nodded, carefully rolled up the blanket, and put it in a compartment of his backpack.

He brought his large backpack with him this time; it could hold a lot of things and was very convenient. Even Liu Shanmin thought the bag was nice and planned to buy one later. Li Long genuinely liked the bag; he felt it would still be stylish even ten years from now.

"You all rest for a while, then we'll go out and scout out a spot to see where there's more prey," Liu Shanmin said to Li Long and the others. "We're currently dozens of kilometers from the border, where there are more animals. We might even have to go to the vicinity of the Tianshan Mountains. Let's make a good run around these next couple of days."

Li Long and Liu Gaolou weren't thinking about resting at all; they were already thinking about playing with guns.

A sniper rifle! I'd only ever heard of them before, never seen one. Now, I can finally fire one myself, and it's a prototype! He'd be happy with anything, even the Mosin-Nagant, since he can use the scope.

Moreover, the bullets contain more propellant and are more powerful.

Seeing how excited they were, Liu Shanmin didn't insist. He turned around and talked to Buick and the others, and then they started preparing the car.

My relative's Buick has a Toyota pickup truck, it's very old, I don't know how many years it's been used.

This time, Buick and Murati didn't squeeze in with them; they got into the back seat of the Toyota. Buick's relatives also had guns, but they were hunting rifles, and they looked quite old and worn; it was unclear whether they were still usable.

Li Long and his men didn't bring guns; they kept them in black bags at the back, to be taken out when they needed to fight.

The two cars drove out of the yard one after the other, heading northeast.

After driving for two or three kilometers, the road ended. This wasn't farmland, but a vast, untouched grassland. Most of the grass was still undisturbed, at least half a meter tall. The Toyota led the way, followed by an SUV.

"Damn, the resources here are amazing!" Li Long couldn't help but complain. "If this were back home, this grass would have been cleared out to feed cattle and sheep long ago, and the land would probably have been cultivated into farmland."

"Hehe." Liu Shanmin chuckled and said, "I've gotten used to it. This place is vast and sparsely populated, with fertile land. It's a really good place. It's a pity that it's no longer part of our country."

After these words were spoken, everyone in the car fell silent. Everyone had some knowledge of history and knew that this area once belonged to China, but not anymore.

This was something that couldn't be explained, and the atmosphere became heavy until Li Long suddenly shouted:
"Yellow sheep!"

Right to the right of the vehicle, a large herd of gazelles was startled by the car and was running away into the distance. However, they were clearly unaware of the danger approaching, and stopped after running less than a hundred meters to continue grazing.

Compared to their counterparts in China, the gazelles here are living a very comfortable life at this time of year. They don't need to worry about food at all, as there is grass everywhere!

Even if it snows heavily, the remaining grass won't be completely covered up; you can still find it by digging with your hooves.

Moreover, they encountered very few dangers, rarely seeing any human traces except for their natural enemies, which is how Li Long and his group came across them.

Without Li Long's prompting, Liu Shanmin stopped; it would be a waste not to hunt the prey he had encountered.

After getting out of the car, the men quickly took out their gun bags and picked up the guns they had chosen.

The Toyota stopped when it saw that the SUV behind it wasn't following.

“I used to lead them in hunting antelopes,” Liu Shanmin said. “Back then, I provided the guns. Of course, most of the antelopes were hunted by partners from other farms, not in this direction.”

However, the prey over there has become afraid of being hunted and will run far away at the sight of a vehicle, making them difficult to hunt. So they've come here instead.

I never expected Liu Shanmin to have such a wide network of connections here, even having several hunting grounds.

"Sigh, resources are still plentiful," Li Long thought to himself as he adjusted the gun.

It was the first time Li Long had ever held this kind of gun. The stock was different from other guns, and he was still a little unaccustomed to it.

The people from the Toyota came over to get their guns, and both sides aimed at the herd of gazelles.

The herd of gazelles was more than 100 meters away. Some people thought they would get closer before firing, while others took out submachine guns and planned to start firing directly.

"A shotgun is useless at this distance," Liu Shanmin said.

"Then let's move forward, get within 30 to 50 meters before firing, just consider it a test shot. Anyway, this thing can only be used with leather, not meat."

Sheep horns are worthless here; in their eyes, only the hide and meat are worth something.

Li Long loaded the bullets, cocked the gun, and felt much more excited than usual.

After all, his gun was the longest and looked the coolest.

How awesome would it be to have a gun like this when I'm hunting back home!
Li Long walked forward for twenty or thirty meters and then stopped. He wanted to test the power of the gun.

I haven't calibrated it, so I don't know if this gun is accurate or not, but a gun is meant to be fired, and you'll only know once you've fired it.

To avoid hurting others, Li Long stood on the very edge, about ten meters away from everyone else. The grass was so tall that he couldn't see anything ahead while crouching, so he could only fire with his gun pointed at him.

When Liu Shanmin and his men reached a point about 70 or 80 meters away from the gazelles and saw that the herd had begun to stir, they stopped. Then they had everyone aim, shouted "Fire!" in unison, and fired their guns.

Li Long had already taken aim, and as soon as the other side shouted, he pulled the trigger. The back seat jolted him, and sure enough, it was huge!

Sure enough, it flew away!

The gazelle he was eyeing was running incredibly fast; it had already leaped and bounded far away.

Li Long fired another shot through the scope, but this time the prey was too blurry to see clearly in the scope, so the shot missed.

The back seat is very large and noisy; I'm not used to it yet.

Li Long felt he needed to properly calibrate the gun, otherwise he wouldn't be able to find the point of impact, which would cause problems when firing.

Or should I remove the scope before firing?
Liu Shanmin and his men had a good haul; they were firing submachine guns, shotguns, and rifles. When Li Long arrived, he found that they had shot down seven or eight gazelles.

Except for two gazelles which had one bullet hole each, the others had several.

Not only was Liu Gaolou carrying a submachine gun, but Buick and Murati were also using submachine guns, and Murati even emptied an entire magazine of bullets!

This is simply a massacre!
Li Long just muttered to himself and didn't say anything more.

The gazelle was about to be skinned and bled on the spot, and Li Long happened to have some free time to test his gun.

Sure enough, after testing the gun on a nearby tree, Li Long discovered that the sniper rifle with the scope veered to the left when fired, even at close range, where wind speed and other factors were negligible.

As expected, the accuracy is questionable.

Fortunately, after firing a few more shots, he realized the discrepancy. At a distance of 100 meters, a scope is not actually necessary, unless precision shooting is required, such as aiming specifically for the head.

After the gazelles were skinned, the meat processed, and stuffed into bags and placed in the carriage, Li Long felt more confident as they continued their journey.

After driving east for another hour or so, they spotted their prey again.

This was a herd of a dozen or so antelopes, smaller than the previous herd of gazelles, and they were more wary. Upon seeing the two vehicles, they ran two or three hundred meters away before stopping.

Li Long and his group got out of the car and crouched down to move forward through the grass.

These people were spread out, about 70 or 80 meters apart, roughly in a straight line, otherwise it would be easy to accidentally injure each other.

These rules were agreed upon before they arrived. Liu Shanmin and the others had fought before, so they should all be aware of them. Therefore, the main target was Li Long and Liu Gaolou.

Li Long was doing better, but Liu Gaolou would occasionally move forward or fall behind, and Liu Shanmin would remind him from time to time.

Liu Gaolou knew he was holding the team back a bit, mainly because he had gotten a little excited while shooting with the submachine gun and hadn't calmed down yet.

In fact, both he and Li Long knew that this afternoon's hunt was just an appetizer, a way to get used to things, and that tomorrow should be the main event.

When they were about 100 meters away from the herd of antelopes, they started running again, but this time only half of them were running; the rest were dragged along for about 20 or 30 meters before stopping.

Obviously, compared to the size of two cars, a dozen or so people didn't seem as dangerous to them.

Upon hearing this commotion, when they were less than 100 meters away, Liu Shanmin decisively ordered everyone to stop, find their positions, and prepare to fire!
Li Long was now confident. He remained at the very edge, aiming at a young male antelope with slightly shorter horns in the herd, and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

The antelope collapsed instantly!
(End of this chapter)