Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1131 Hunting, Slaughter
The crisp or muffled gunshots echoed across the wilderness, and the herd of antelopes instantly sprang into action, galloping wildly across the grassland. The rising snow dust, like clouds and mist, enveloped their figures, making them appear and disappear.

There were so many antelopes that almost everyone fired more than two shots. After Li Xiangqian, who was holding a hunting rifle, fired two bullets, he quickly opened the magazine, ejected the spent cartridges, reloaded, and was able to fire another shot.

Unfortunately, the antelopes had already run far away when the shot was fired, so it missed.

However, Li Xiangqian was quite satisfied. His two previous shots were well-aimed, resulting in at least one dead and one wounded prey, which was a good result.

Director Qian also put away his gun. Thanks to the excellent rate of fire of the semi-automatic rifle, he had fired three shots and all three hit the target. However, he only remembered the approximate location now because the snow dust kicked up by the antelopes covered the targets, making it impossible to distinguish one from another.

Director Qian wasn't in a hurry; he was enjoying the hunting process. However, the process was rather simple, almost like a massacre, and not very satisfying.

"Alright, put your guns away and go check on the prey," Liu Shanmin shouted, taking the lead in putting his gun away. After watching the others put their guns away, he strode forward.

The others followed, carrying or holding guns.

When they arrived at the spot where the antelopes had been, there were many antelopes lying haphazardly on the ground, five or six of them still alive, crying out pitifully.

They come in all shapes and sizes, and most of them are male antelopes with horns on their heads.

Li Long glanced at them and saw that there were seventeen.

There were eleven rams, six of which were not quite dead yet.

He took the knife and went up to finish off the enemy.

This time, Li Long fired five shots, killing four and wounding one.

The density was so high that even when people were running, it was chaotic, which is why there were so many casualties.

"Hey, that was really fun!" Li Xiangqian wasn't one for sentimental musings; catching prey was a good thing. He had served in the grain requisition team, and back then, the prey they hunted was all delicious food. There was basically no reverence for nature; a dead antelope was considered a good antelope!
"Everyone lend a hand, Buick, you kill the live ones, and everyone else pull the rest over and pile them together," Liu Shanmin shouted.

Li Long also pulled out a knife. This knife wasn't one he brought with him; he couldn't bring any more with him. He bought one at the market yesterday.

He went to the farthest place, dragging an antelope towards the middle.

One, two, and if one wasn't quite dead, he would simply step forward and slit its throat, sparing it from pain.

Seventeen antelopes were piled up in a large heap. Liu Shanmin spoke again:

"Today was a trial hunt. Murat and I will stay here. Buick, you drive back and then bring another car and some people. Murat and I will skin the antelope here first, it will be difficult to skin it if it's frozen."

"How about we take the antelope back in a van?" Director Qian suggested. "We can skin it as soon as we get it back. At this distance, the antelope shouldn't freeze, right? We can also wander around the area."

“The van can’t hold them all.” Liu Shanmin shook his head. “That’s it for today. Go back first. We’ll go to Nalingol this afternoon. That’s when we’ll really go hunting. Whether we catch anything depends on your luck.”

Director Qian then stopped insisting. After all, Liu Shanmin was the host, and the guests should abide by the host's decision.

“I’ll stay too,” Li Long smiled. “I can skin them just as fast as they can.”

“Okay.” Liu Shanmin nodded, remembering Li Long’s skills.

"Do you want me to take the guns back for you?" Liu Gaolou asked.

"No way." Before Li Long could speak, Li Xiangqian objected, "The smell of blood is too strong; it might attract a pack of wolves. We can't do this without a gun!"

"Yes, that's right." Liu Shanmin nodded.

Liu Gaolou hadn't seen any wolves on his hunting trips before, and he was unaware of this situation, so he blushed slightly.

Li Long had already gently cut open the skin on the leg of an antelope. Li Xiangqian looked at it and nodded.

This guy peels skin with such ease.

The van drove away, and Li Long and Murat were skinning the animals. Liu Shanmin didn't help; he was looking around with his gun, clearly on guard against the appearance of wolves.

Just as Li Long finished skinning one antelope and was about to skin the second, he heard the sound of a car engine. He was a little confused. Was the van coming so fast?

When I stood up to look, I realized it was a pickup truck coming.

It turned out that after hearing the gunshots, the herders knew there must have been a kill, so they immediately drove their pickup truck over to pick them up.

There were four or five people in the pickup truck, all carrying knives. They came over and helped with the skinning, which made the process much faster.

When the van came back, the antelope's hide had been mostly peeled off, and just as Li Long had seen, the stomach and intestines were simply thrown into the snow.

Actually, Li Long was thinking of taking some back to cook himself, since the fish soup he made last time he came was quite popular.

But after thinking about it, I decided against it. Peeling the skins and then going back would be tiring enough for me and others, so I shouldn't cause them any trouble.

We have to take a bus to Nalingol this afternoon, and we might have to go hunting in the mountains tomorrow, so let's not bother with all that.

In the distance, three or five wolves patrolled the area, but dared not approach. There were many people around, and these wolves were afraid of being attacked. The fire-breathing thing was extremely harmful to them. Wolves are smart and know that it's best not to provoke them when there aren't enough of them.

After those people leave, the fattest and most delicious offal will be waiting for me.

As the sun approached its zenith, all seventeen antelopes had been skinned and gutted. The roe was piled on the pickup truck and secured with ropes, with the hides covering it. The others got into the truck, some took out cigarettes to smoke, and others offered some to Li Long.

Li Long's skinning skills earned them their acceptance of this alien. Of course, they had met him once before when he came, so they were already considered ordinary friends.

Li Long took the cigarette, lit it with the other person's cigarette butt, and started smoking. It was like burning incense; it wouldn't get into his lungs anyway.

By the time they got back to their lodgings, it was already noon. Director Qian and Li Xiangqian and the others heard the car and came out of the house. The aroma of food was already wafting through the yard, and Li Long immediately felt hungry.

After a quick lunch, Liu Shanmin instructed the locals to clean the antelope horns so they could take them with them on their return trip. Then, he and Li Long continued their journey in their van.

It was already dark when we arrived in Nalingol.

“This county town…” Li Xiangqian’s expression when he saw Nalingole County Town was exactly the same as when Li Longtou first came here.

"Yeah, it's a bit small and a bit dilapidated." Li Long's expression was calm. "It's quite far from Almaty. Besides, there aren't many people here to begin with, and with so few people, it's impossible to carry out construction."

No problem.

There is strength in numbers, that's a valid point.

After they settled into their lodgings, it was already dark. Liu Shanmin was helplessly pulled away by the same people from the Habian outpost.

This time he didn't bring Director Qian and the others, mainly because he was afraid of causing any trouble; it was a private matter. Bai Shanbai hosted Li Long and his group, and the main dish was still Naren. It was getting cold, so it was the most convenient and appropriate choice.

After eating, Director Qian and Li Xiangqian went outside in the courtyard to digest their food, with Li Long accompanying them and pointing out the situation on the other side, such as the border, the border line, and the companies of the Corps on the border.

Li Long already knew that the opposite side was the 70th Regiment of the 4th Agricultural Division, and a border defense company from Yili. Their garrison was in Poma, but he hadn't been there and didn't know the specifics.

Later he learned that an ancient tomb had been unearthed during the road construction, yielding a large number of gold artifacts, including a beautiful gold mask inlaid with rubies.

It was dark by then, and only a few lights were on in the settlements on both sides. Nalingol was mostly quiet after dark, except for the outpost area, which was a bit more lively. "They're not even aware of their surroundings," Li Xiangqian remarked, already knowing Liu Shanmin had been there, observing the situation. "I can vaguely see there are still people outside."

Li Long recalled the last time they ate together and said:

"The officers ate inside, and the soldiers ate outside. The food inside was better, while the soldiers outside ate bread with cured fatty meat. Their hierarchy was very strict."

Director Qian is familiar with the situation of our troops. After hearing what Li Long said, he frowned and asked:

"How could this happen? Big Brother is also a socialist country, this shouldn't be happening."

Li Long smiled. He remembered some rumors he had heard online in his previous life, saying that during the Soviet-German War, a million people died at the beginning, all of them were brave and upright Red Army soldiers from good families. Later, when the troops could not be replenished, they also took in vagrants, criminals and others.

As a result, the quality of the soldiers began to vary, and it's hard to say what will happen next.

After all, it had gone through several leaders, with each successor overthrowing the previous one. Coupled with a rigid system and many constituent republics, the situation was different and clearly completely different from the situation here.

Of course, at this time their combat strength was still very strong, and they were able to endure hardship, but the specific details are not very clear.

Perhaps feeling that discussing this topic was inappropriate, they started talking about hunting tomorrow.

“Xiaolong, you’ve been here before. Tell us the details so we can be mentally prepared,” Li Xiangqian said with a smile. “I heard from Bai Shanbai that you shot a bear last time. That bear weighed at least two or three hundred kilograms and was over two meters tall. He said you killed it with just two or three shots.”

"Well, it was a coincidence. Bai Shan asked where the bears were, so we went there. I often go into the mountains, and when I got there, I noticed some fresh tracks. We started searching, and the place I went happened to be where the bears were."

Li Long recounted his experience and doubts at the time:
"Actually, I saw the bear cub on the mountaintop. When I climbed up, I didn't see the bear cub, but I did see the bear cub preparing to charge at me, so I fired my gun."

"So you didn't find the bear cub later? If you had caught it, you could have kept it as a pet, right? You have deer, roe deer, and wild boar in your stable, so keeping a bear wouldn't be a big deal."

“Even though it’s called a cub, it’s already 1.5 meters tall. We definitely can’t keep it as a pet.” Li Long shook his head. “After killing the big bear, we searched everywhere but couldn’t find the cub. We don’t know where it went.”

"Xiao Li, you also raise deer and roe deer?" Director Qian was a little surprised. "What, are you planning to open a zoo? Or are you going to start a specialty breeding business?"

"We got the chicks from the mountains back then, thinking we'd see if we could raise them," Li Long explained. "We also wanted to give the elderly people in our area who are on welfare some work, and then we raised them."

"It's not small in scale at all," Li Xiangqian said cheerfully. "If you really look at the number of animals, it's no smaller than a zoo, it's just too monotonous."

"It can't be too complicated, or it might spread diseases," Li Long continued to explain. "Deer and roe deer are too susceptible to infectious diseases, otherwise large-scale farming would have started long ago."

It was getting cold outside, so they went inside and continued chatting by the stove. Bai Shanbai prepared milk tea for them and then went to inquire about the situation.

The outpost wouldn't bother with the people Liu Shanmin brought, but Baishanbai was different. Every time Liu Shanmin brought something, or any goods he brought, he could make a good profit. Winter was approaching, and life was becoming increasingly difficult. If he wanted to live a better life for himself and his family, he had to work harder to meet the needs of these guests.

Fortunately, these guests from the east did not have any special requests, otherwise Baishanbai would have had a real headache.

Li Long noticed that Bai Shanbai was wearing the cotton-padded leather shoes that he had sent from China. The style was completely different from the shoes here, and the shoes were still new; he could tell that.

Thinking about Liu Shanmin's words, Li Long thought that after returning, he could ask Bai Xiuming to send another batch of shoes over, so that he could send a few more truckloads over before winter was over.

Li Long never thinks he has too much money.

It's said that Liu Shanmin is very casual about the goods he sends domestically, but actually Li Long is just as casual about the things he sends abroad, sending whatever he wants.

Fortunately, the light industry base here was weak, and the Soviet planned economy was a unified system of allocation, so even if some things were special products of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, it was actually very difficult for the local people to buy them with money.

Therefore, the items sent here are in short supply, making them easy to sell at high prices.

At this point, being able to buy things is enough. As for the price, with inflation, money held in hand will only become less and less valuable, so it's better to exchange it for something else.

Because they were going hunting the next day, Li Long and the others didn't chat too late and went to wash up and go to bed. Although there were more people this time than last time, Bai Shanbai was still quite polite and arranged for his own family members to stay in other places, while Li Long and the others basically had their own rooms.

Except for hearing the door open in the middle of the night, which seemed to be Liu Shanmin returning, it was very quiet outside and I slept very well.

When Li Long got up to wash up the next day, the first thing he saw was Liu Shanmin, whose face was slightly pale.

"Those bastards, they're all just empty bottles, drinking like they're drinking water instead of wine," Liu Shanmin complained as he washed his face. "If I didn't need their help getting antelope horns and hides, I really wouldn't want to deal with these people."

"Why do we need their help?" Li Long asked, somewhat surprised.

"Because of the hunting over the past six months, those antelopes have become smarter and have started to run towards the border. The border is strictly controlled here, and the border guards will shoot if ordinary people get close to the border. So if you want to hunt these antelopes, you have to find these people."

No one bothers them when they hunt; they can even shoot at them with submachine guns. Like the herd of antelope we encountered yesterday, they were actually driven from inland. After we shot them yesterday, they definitely ran into the border control area.”

Li Long vaguely remembered that people were not allowed to enter freely within a few kilometers of the border, and it seemed that it was similar here.

After breakfast, Liu Shanmin's complexion improved slightly, but he still said to Li Long and the others:
"Let Bai Shanbai take you hunting. I drank too much last night and need to rest today. Like I said, whether we catch anything or not, we only have one day, and then we'll be heading back."

"You rest, we can handle these things ourselves." In fact, Director Qian and Li Xiangqian had low expectations for this inspection and reception activities, but from the beginning, Liu Shanmin's arrangements were excellent.

Although the conditions here are generally not very good, the visit and inspection were generally successful, so what more can we ask for?

So when Liu Shanmin said that, Director Qian immediately said, "You've already gone to a lot of trouble these past two days. From now on, the hunting will be a private activity, and we can handle it ourselves."

Liu Shanmin smiled and said nothing more.

Li Long's boss seems pretty good, more "sensible" than many of the ones he'd met before. If he'd had a boss like that back then, he probably wouldn't have left.

He watched Director Qian and the others drive into the mountains, while he found a room to sleep. Those guys had a high alcohol tolerance and had been taking turns drinking, so he was only able to do it because he was familiar with their tricks; otherwise, he probably wouldn't be awake by now.

As the car left the county town, it felt increasingly cold. Li Long pointed to the mountains that were getting closer and closer and said:

"We hunted bears in there last time. Judging from today's situation, the car might be parked quite far from the mountain, and we'll have to walk a long way in. There's snow on the mountain, so it won't be easy to walk. Be prepared for a tough journey."

"Don't worry, they're not young girls," Li Xiangqian said with a smile. "They're prepared."

Director Qian didn't speak, but held his semi-automatic rifle and looked out at the mountains through the car window.

This mountain is also the Tianshan Mountains, but this is the first time I've seen the Tianshan Mountains from abroad.

Li Long was also looking at the Tianshan Mountains, but he was looking in the direction that continued to extend westward.

This is the southern Tianshan Mountains, or rather, the border area of ​​three countries. Crossing south leads to Kyrgyzstan, another constituent republic of the Soviet Union.

He had also heard that more than ten years later, in the mountains where the three countries meet, there was a terrorist training camp, and it was rumored that my country had even crossed the border to attack it.

However, because Kazakhstan is not cooperating, it cannot be eradicated. After all, our people cannot penetrate deep into the interior without the other side's cooperation.

Of course, they later brought it upon themselves by attacking two border outposts in an attempt to seize weapons. They got the guns, but they also offended the two countries, who then joined forces to wipe out the camp.

Therefore, there is really no such thing as pure friendship between countries. But people in our country are too kind. They tend to repay the kindness of others tenfold or a hundredfold with trust.

This will result in a huge loss.

　May our motherland prosper and flourish! (As I type these words, I thought of the monk in the movie "My Chief and My Regiment")
　　
　
(End of this chapter)