Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1132: The Investigation Concludes, Cooperation Deepens

The car stopped while Li Long was lost in thought. Bai Shanbai got out first and then called to the others.

"Director, have you noticed that all the people that Boss Liu has us contact are very obedient?" Li Xiangqian whispered to Director Qian. "They're very cooperative with our operations, except for those officers from last night, of course."

"These people must work for this Boss Liu. They're obviously living a better life because of him, which is why they're so obedient," Director Qian said. "Let's not concern ourselves with their business. Let's just see if we can get anything out of them later."

“It should be possible. Although it’s just separated by a border river, I’ve noticed that there are significantly more things here than on our side,” Li Xiangqian said. “Thinking back to a couple of years ago when we could find things in the mountains on our side, it should be possible here too.”

"Pretty much. There are far fewer people here, so the demand for wild animals isn't that high." Director Qian analyzed as he got out of the car with his gun, saying as he walked forward, "In this cold weather, we probably won't be able to shoot a bear. Let's see if we can hunt a snow leopard or something."

"Hey, if I could really get a snow leopard, I'd have so much to brag about when I get back!" Li Xiangqian said with longing.

Yesterday's massacre filled him with anticipation for the upcoming hunt.

In the past, in Ma County, the only gazelles we encountered were a few or a dozen at a time. As for antelopes, I only heard from Li Long that we had seen groups of a few at a time.

The first time I saw antelopes here, they were in groups of three or four hundred. Liu Shanmin said that this was a small group, and there were even larger groups of over a thousand.

With so many herbivores in herds, there must also be some herds of carnivores.

Bai Shanbai led them into the mountains following the path trodden by cattle and sheep. Once inside, the snow path, which was originally wide enough for two people, became only wide enough for one person. After crossing two mountain passes, there were only scattered hoofprints. Occasionally, there would be a very narrow snow path, and most of the way, it had to be waded out by manpower.

“In winter, very few people go hunting in the mountains.” Through Buick’s translation, Li Long and the others understood what Bai Shanbai was saying. “But when I was asking around yesterday, I heard from someone who had been into the mountains that there are snow leopards here. Their sheep were taken away, and when they went in to look for them, the snow leopards were heading in this direction.”

Good news. Li Xiangqian was still thinking about what Li Long had said yesterday. His observation skills were quite sharp; he could find traces of snow leopards and maybe even find a living one to shoot down!

With so many people and so many guns, they wouldn't be afraid of snow leopards, let alone wolves or tigers.

Yesterday, Li Xiangqian didn't perform well when hunting antelopes. The shotgun's range is short, and he couldn't hit anything good under those circumstances. So today, Li Xiangqian was really determined to turn things around in the mountains.

After crossing another hill, most of them were panting heavily, covered in sweat, and their breath was white.

The pale sun was already hanging low in the southeast, but it didn't feel like it could bring much heat.

Bai Shanbai tightened his clothes, looked around, and realized they were getting close to the place the man had mentioned yesterday. So he spoke to the others through Buick:

"Please note that this area is rarely visited by people now, so there are many wild animals here."

This is to remind everyone to pay attention to safety, and of course, to prepare for hunting.

Li Long looked at the eagles circling above the mountain in front of him, pointed, and said:

"There are eagles up there, and who knows what's ahead."

Everyone looked up and saw the eagles circling in the air without landing or flying far away, and they believed Li Long's words.

"Let's go, let's go take a look, maybe there's prey!" Li Xiangqian said excitedly.

Everyone was a bit tired just now, but now that Li Long has pointed out the changes from before, they have regained their energy.

When hunting in the mountains, one naturally hopes to find prey. After walking for so long without seeing anything, it would be a lie to say that one is not discouraged.

But now that there is hope, there is naturally strength.

After descending the ditch and climbing the mountain, the eagles circling in the sky flew even higher because of Li Long and his group's intrusion, but they still did not leave.

When they reached the top of the hill and looked down, Li Long and his companions understood why the eagles were reluctant to leave.

In the valley, a patch of snow was trampled and littered with bloodstains and the carcasses of some ibex. However, these ibex were being devoured by a pack of seven or eight wolves.

The eagles on the mountain coveted the meat of these ibex, hoping to scavenge some scraps after the wolves left.

The commotion on the hilltop attracted the attention of the wolf pack. When the wolves saw Li Long and his group, they didn't seem to want to run away. One of the wolves howled, and then several wolves gathered together, seemingly planning to launch a charge.
"If we can't hit a snow leopard, hitting a few wolves will do," Director Qian said with a smile.
"Come on, get ready!"

The distance from the valley to the mountaintop is only fifty or sixty meters, a distance that can be easily reached by either a hunting rifle or a rifle.

Just as Li Long and the others climbed up and, after listening to Director Qian's advice, found good positions to prepare to fire, the wolves suddenly began to charge!
It's unclear whether these wolves had never interacted with humans before, or whether they were having a meal and were extremely annoyed by anyone interrupting their meal, but they actually charged straight at the people on the mountaintop!

It's incredibly fast!

The snow on the hillside had been falling for some time, and the surface snow had formed a crust. The wolves ran across it without sinking in. Seeing this, Li Long roared:
"Fight quickly!"

As he spoke, he released the safety, cocked the gun, chambered a round, aimed at the fastest wolf, and pulled the trigger!

"Bah!"

The wolf fell to the ground with a thud, but the other wolves only slowed down slightly before scattering and continuing to charge up the mountain!

These wolves were extremely fast and knew how to dodge. Li Long's second shot missed. By the time he fired his second shot, the others had only just begun firing their first shots.

Li Xiangqian missed both of his shots, and he was a bit far from the others. As he hurriedly unloaded the spent cartridges and prepared to reload, a wolf suddenly rushed up the hill and pounced on him first!

In the nick of time, with a "bang," the wolf was shot while it was airborne and fell to the ground. Li took two steps back and looked at Li Long, who had fired the shot. Li Long had already started firing at the wolves below!
Li Xiangqian quickly loaded the bullets, closed the shotgun, aimed at the last two wolves, and fired while cursing:
"Damn it, you think you're fierce? Let's see how fierce you really are!"

The last two wolves died on the way, their blood staining the snow red. Not a single wolf escaped along the way!

Or perhaps they didn't even have the thought of escaping before they were all killed in less than three minutes.

“We’re still too used to shooting at fixed targets.” Director Qian sighed as he looked at the wolves that had fallen all the way. “Of these eight wolves, Li Long took down four by himself, I took down one, and Xiang Qian, it seems you didn’t hit any.”

Li Xiangqian's face turned slightly red. Moving targets were indeed his weakness, and although he wasn't scared when those wolves charged forward relentlessly, it did affect his shooting.

Does getting older make you more timid?
"No, no, Director, it's just that I'm often out in the mountains, and when I see these wolves, my instinct is to shoot. You guys haven't seen them as often, so naturally your reaction isn't as fast as mine." Li Long smiled. "Anyway, we've hit them, so shouldn't we get these wolves up here first?"

It's impossible to take all eight wolves; at most, you can only take a few pelts and break off a few teeth.

Buick also brought a camera, so after bringing all eight wolves up, Director Qian and Li Xiangqian took pictures while standing on the wolves and carrying guns.

Li Long didn't want to take a picture, but Li Xiangqian pulled him along and he took a picture with the two of them.

“You’ve come all this way and captured so much stuff, how can you not take some photos to remember it?” Li Xiangqian said to him. “If I were you, I would definitely take a picture after shooting down that bear. Decades later, future generations can see that we had our glorious days.”

Li Long smiled and said that what he said made sense. Although he was low-key, it was good to take pictures of some things so that he could look back on them later.

Before the wolf's body softened, Bai Shanbai, Bieke, and Li Long began skinning it.

Since it was impossible to bring all the wolves back, Li Long asked Director Qian and Li Xiangqian to tell them his requirements.

Director Qian naturally wanted to get back the wolf skin he had hunted, including the wolf teeth and the wolf thigh stone.

Li Xiangqian got nothing; he only wanted two wolf fangs and two wolf thigh stones.

Although these things are easy to obtain domestically, they were fought abroad after all, so it's more prestigious to bring them back.

This makes things easier. We can definitely bring all the pelts back, and bringing one or two wolf foals along isn't out of the question either.

Bai Shanbai and his group naturally eat wolf meat. Just like Li Long thought five or six years ago, no matter how bad it tastes, it's still meat.

Li Xiangqian didn't know how to skin animals. He looked at the wolves and then at the wild goats below the mountain.

Since the wolves had all been killed, the eagles that had soared higher after the gunshots had now landed and begun pecking at the ibex meat. Li Xiangqian glanced around and saw at least five or six ibex below, most of them with their bellies ripped open and their internal organs eaten up, though their bodies were still mostly intact.

He glanced at it, his eyes lit up, and he grabbed his gun and ran down the mountain.

"Where are you going? It's dangerous down there!" Director Qian reminded him.

“Those ibex horns are quite long. I’m wondering if I can bring them back as decorations,” Li Xiangqian said as he walked down the road. “I have a bullet in my gun, so I’m not afraid.”

After he said that, Director Qian felt that there was no point in watching them skin people alive, so he followed them downstairs.

Sure enough, among those ibex, three had very long horns, curved like scimitars. I don't know if they were more than ten or twenty years old, but they looked quite spectacular.

Then Li Xiangqian ran into a problem. He didn't have a knife, and even if the ibex's internal organs were removed, its weight was still there, making it quite difficult to drag it up so that Li Long and the others could cut off its head.

Although Director Qian's rifle had a flat bayonet, the bayonet was not sharpened, so it couldn't cut flesh.

Director Qian also felt that it was much better to go back with a goat's head than with a wolf skin.

He looked up, hesitating whether to go up now to ask Li Long for help, or wait until Li Long finished skinning the animal before coming down.

“I’ll call out,” Li Xiangqian said. “Director, they’re quick at skinning the sheep anyway, it won’t take them long to cut off the sheep’s head.”

"Row."

Li Xiangqian shouted, and the eagles that had been startled into flight by them flew even higher because of his shout.

However, they still did not leave, patiently stretching their wings in the air, as if they knew that these people would leave sooner or later, and that the things below would eventually end up in their bellies.

Hearing the shout, Li Long realized he had only skinned the second wolf halfway. He stood up, looked at Li Xiangqian beside the ibex, pointed to the ibex's head, and said:

"Come down and help us cut off the sheep's head!"

Li Long smiled and walked down the street with his gun on his back.

Two sheep heads were cut off in just two or three minutes by locating the cervical vertebrae. Director Qian and Li Xiangqian each carried a sheep head and walked upstairs excitedly.

The two of them picked out sheep heads and horns that were intact. Once they got back, they skinned them, cooked them, removed the meat, and cleaned the horns to make a very nice pendant.

Li Long continued skinning the sheep; he had one that was bigger than the two sheep heads, so it wasn't anything special.

By the time they finished skinning the wolf, it was already noon. The group was hungry and had no intention of continuing the hunt. They carried or dragged the wolf-skinned wolf lads down the mountain.

We were full of hope when we went up the mountain, and although we had some regrets when we came down, we still gained a lot. So we chatted and laughed and were quite happy.

Compared to yesterday's slaughter-like hunt, today's slightly dangerous hunt was more to the liking of Director Qian and Li Xiangqian.

That's right, how can you hunt without encountering danger? A one-sided slaughter doesn't count as hunting.

When they arrived at the car, their sweat began to cool, and they started to feel a bit cold. They hurriedly urged each other to get in the car.

Bai Shanbai and Bieke tied the wolf pelt, two wolf scions, and two ibex heads to the roof of the car, secured them, and drove back.

Lunch had already been reheated twice. After they returned, they quickly washed up and immediately began to wolf down their food.

After asking a few simple questions about the hunting trip, Liu Shanmin announced during their meal that they would be heading back shortly.

However, they took a different route on the way back, saying there was more for them to visit there.

Li Long was quite curious about what he would be visiting later, but when he arrived, he found that what he was going to visit was basically equivalent to a real slaughterhouse!

Hundreds of antelope carcasses lay on the snow, and dozens of people were skinning and sawing antelope horns under a makeshift skinning shed. The skinned hides were neatly arranged to one side, and the antelope horns were packed into burlap sacks, piled up in large heaps. Some people were rubbing salt on the hides to make them easier to preserve.

Further afield, the skinned croakers are neatly stacked, and trucks are specially arranged to haul them away.

Gunshots could be heard in the distance, and every now and then a pickup truck would arrive carrying the carcass of an antelope, before continuing on its way.

“This herd consists of several thousand antelopes,” Liu Shanmin explained. “It’s a large herd, one I’ve never encountered before. The hunting trip was organized by a border officer who contacted me after learning that I needed antelope horns. He said he could sell me the horns and hides at a very low price.”

Of course, he didn't need money; he needed sugar and shoes to exchange for the supplies he needed.

Li Long understood that this kind of slaughter-style hunting was destined by Liu Shanmin from the moment he started collecting antelope horns, and neither he nor he could control it.

Even without him and himself, this kind of thing would still continue, except that the killers would collect meat instead of horns or hides.

Because the famine here has already shown signs of breaking out.

The outlaw said that when people are starving to death, even giant pandas can become food, let alone antelopes.
But the fact that the country’s millions of antelopes will dwindle to tens of thousands in the next decade or so may not be solely due to famine.

Li Long didn't think too much about it; if he couldn't intervene, then he wouldn't interfere.

Director Qian and Li Xiangqian were also greatly shocked, and they remained silent in the car.

Compared to the small amount of prey one catches while hunting, the scene here is far too overwhelming and emotionally taxing; one needs a good moment to recover.

They barely spoke to each other until they returned to Almaty.

They hunted and traveled by carriage all the way, and by the time they arrived at their destination it was already dark. After a quick meal, everyone went to sleep.

The itinerary for the second day was to go shopping at the mall, buy some local specialties, and then prepare to go back.

Both Director Qian and Li Xiangqian had thoroughly enjoyed their trip, so they were quite selective when buying things. Since they had US dollars on hand and discovered that the dollar had high purchasing power here, they were quite generous with their purchases, buying things they felt would be useful, whether as gifts or for personal use.

So everyone bought a lot of things.

After making the purchase, Li Xiangqian regretted it a little. Could he take all these things back with him?
"Yes, we can." Li Long gave an affirmative answer. "Don't worry, we can bring them all back."

This is Liu Shanmin's retelling; it wasn't Li Long who agreed to it himself, as he didn't have that ability.

"Hey, then we can rest assured." Li Xiangqian said with a smile, "Almaty may not be as luxurious as we imagined, but to be honest, there are still quite a few things to buy. It's no wonder it's the capital of a small country."

Even so, Li Xiangqian himself did not realize that his tone already carried the condescending air of a great power looking down on a small country.

In reality, Almaty was just the capital of a medium-sized country among the Soviet republics, not the capital of Moscow.

Since he didn't go to Moscow, Li Xiangqian didn't care about anything else.

The main purpose of the day was shopping, and Li Long also bought some things. The next day, the people from the commerce department presided over a simple farewell ceremony, and Li Long and his group left Almaty by car and headed to the border.

Accompanying them was a long convoy of vehicles.

The truck behind them contained the things Li Long and his group needed to take back, sheep heads, wolf skins, and a new batch of antelope horns collected by Liu Shanmin, as well as items covered with tarpaulins.

Director Qian and Li Xiangqian were smiling as they looked at a stack of photos in the car. These were taken a few days ago during their meeting and inspection tour, and they could use them as keepsakes when they got back.

Once they crossed the border, they knew that their inspection tour had come to a successful conclusion.

The cooperation will continue and will become more in-depth.

(End of this chapter)