Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1152 Compared to this place, the fish in the big and small lakes are nothing to brag about.
Watching the white figure dart out, leap into the water, then leap back up and disappear, the people on the shore exclaimed in regret.

"Sigh, it's such a big fish, it's a pity it got away!"

"Yeah, it looks like it weighs at least six or seven kilograms, right?"

"It looks like a silver carp?"

"A silver carp this big is amazing!"

They looked at Li Long, and some thought that Li Long was too impatient, or that he hadn't held on properly.

"What are you saying?" Wu Yongbo reminded them, "Boss Li is just trying it out. You're not going to get involved, so don't make sarcastic remarks."

Although he didn't go into the water, he knew it was very cold.

Li Long had no time to pay attention to what the people on the shore were saying. He bent over slightly, kept his hands clasped together, and slowly moved forward.

"Has he already caught a fish?" Someone realized what was going on and changed their story, saying, "Two fish darted in; he caught one and the other got away?"

"Mr. Li, do you have a fish in your hand?" Wu Yongbo shouted.

“There’s one, it should be a carp.” Li Long responded, took two more steps forward, and finally reached the front of the net. He raised it with both hands and pulled it out of the water. A big fish struggled desperately, but in the end, it was no match for Li Long’s strength and was pulled out of the water.

It was indeed a large carp, about a meter long, with its tail thrashing about, a wide body, and a large, fat belly.

Li Long slowly adjusted his posture, using one hand to pry open the fish's gills and the other hand to reach over to the other side of the net. He spread his fingers, pried open the fish's mouth and gill covers, and pinched the fish. Only then could he truly say that he had caught the fish.

The fish seemed to know that it would die if it didn't struggle, so it desperately twisted its body in the air and swung its tail. Li Long used his other hand to support the fish's body and then walked towards the shore.

His leg bumped into the second net, and then he shouted to the people on the shore:

"There are fish in this net too, come quick!"

This time, the group no longer suspected Li Long. They immediately ran to the riverbank, jumped in with a splash, and exclaimed that the water was cold as they reached for the net.

Li Long didn't care about anything else. He carried the fish ashore, quickly walked to the fire, put the fish down, then turned to the side, rubbed his underwear down, wrung it out, and pulled it back up. Buick had already brought him his coat. Li Long took it and put it on, letting out a long sigh of relief. It was so damn cold!

"What do we do with this fish?" Liu Gaolou, who had watched the whole thing, asked with a smile, "Boss Li, your eyesight is truly amazing! With such a big splash, we could only see the water, but you could also spot the fish..."

"Hey, that's huge!"

Two people in the river worked together to catch another fish and bring it ashore. It was a slightly smaller carp, but it was still over 80 centimeters long and looked very beautiful.

"I told you, I'm a fisherman," Li Long said with a laugh, pulling his coat tighter around himself. "It's fucking cold!"

He didn't realize it when he went into the water to catch fish, but when he came up to the fire, he found that his body was almost frostbitten.

"What should we do with this fish?" Wu Yongbo asked Li Long.

"Grill it? Didn't I say we'd get fresh fish and grill it?"

"Then leave it to me." Wu Yongbo asked this question out of respect for Li Long, since Li Long was the one who caught the fish.

Actually, everyone knew that it was impossible to catch one or two fish today. But this fish looked really good; its head and tail were yellow and red, its fins were also red, and its barbels were very long, making it look quite beautiful.

Wu Yongbo asked the question because he was worried that Li Long might take the fish back with him. Now that Li Long said he would grill it, he could start cooking without worry.

He first went over and cut down a few thick branches, then took the fish to the water's edge and began scraping off its gills and scales. Liu Gaolou called out from the side, "Old Wu, be careful, don't let the fish get away."

"Don't worry, Mr. Liu, I definitely won't let it get away." Wu Yongbo replied while taking a small knife from his waist and gutting the carp after scraping off its scales and removing its gills.

"Male fish, that's fat, no roe," Wu Yongbo shouted as he gutted it. "It'll be delicious grilled later."

Buick also went to help, and Li Long asked Liu Gaolou:

"Is Murat with your uncle over there?"

“Yes, he said he’s already established himself over there, and Murat can handle things on his own. I’m not as familiar with this place as he is, so I can’t manage alone. That’s why I’m having Bek come with me; it’ll be easier to handle things if anything happens.”

Li Long nodded; this was a prudent approach.

The group of people in the river quickly caught two fish and, seeing Wu Yongbo peeling the fish, followed suit.

Li Long felt warm enough, and then the people in the river jumped back in. He glanced at them and stood up.

"I see fish again?" Liu Gaolou was somewhat surprised. "Looks like there are quite a few fish here!"

"Okay, I'll go take a look." Li Long saw a fish struggling to swim out of an empty net. He hurried over to go into the water, and Liu Gaolou followed him to the water's edge.

This time it was the net closest to the other side. Li Long went straight to the front, wading through the water and making quite a loud noise. He could feel fish touching his legs. The underwater resources here are really good!
"Splash!" When Li Long reached the second net, a fish he touched got startled and swam back, crashing into the net and knocking over a person waiting behind it. The person was swept away by the water for six or seven meters before he could barely stand up.

"Wow, this fish is really strong!" The person next to him saw his companion stand up and stopped worrying about him. He quickly reached for the net and held the fish down.

Li Long smiled, didn't stop, and quickly waded through the water to the last net. Sure enough, the fish had already swum out of the net and was level with the stake. Li Long saw a bluish-black fish head, about the size of Qiangqiang's head, struggling to move forward!

"Hey!" He instinctively kicked the water, but missed. His movement affected the water, and the fish turned around and darted back into the net, just like the fish in front of him.

Li Long could roughly make out that it was a large, round grass carp, a little over a meter long. He immediately bent down and pounced on it. He wasn't wearing many clothes anyway, so he didn't care if the water was cold; at that moment, who cared about anything else?

The grass carp was very slippery, constantly trying to turn around and swim upwards under the net, while Li Long was directly opposite it, blocking its path. Several times, if Li Long hadn't had good eyesight, it would have escaped.

The fish was quite strong, thrashing its tail wildly in the water, slapping Li Long's arm several times until it was red. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Long grabbed a small piece of flesh on its tail fin, reached down and pried open its mouth; this time it couldn't escape.

Just as Li Long pulled the fish out of the water, he felt something touch his leg, and then something else!
"A school of fish is coming!" Li Long shouted, turning his head to look. He realized that it was too late to take the fish back. Looking down, he saw that the fish seemed to be a medium-sized sturgeon, about a meter long!
Hey! We can't let it get away!

Without thinking, Li Long instinctively twisted his body, used both hands and his waist to exert force, and flung the fish toward Liu Gaolou's side!

Li Long only realized why he had thrown it so far when he was casting it out. There was a bank nearby, even if it was on the other side. At least the fish wouldn't get away if he threw it there. He could just go and pick it up later!

But since he had already gotten past it, he didn't care about anything else and quickly bent down to catch the sturgeon.

"Hey! Mr. Li, you're really strong!"

Wu Yongbo, who had just finished processing the carp, stood up when he saw Li Long swing the fish around. He praised him, and the fish landed on the ground, about four or five meters to the left and behind Liu Gaolou.

When Liu Gaolou saw the fish thrashing about on the ground, he was about to grab it when Buick had already gone over and caught it first.

"Buick, you know how to clean it, right?" Wu Yongbo asked.

"No." Buick shook his head.

"Put it there, come and help me, I'll tidy it up."

Li Long was fighting with the sturgeon in the water. This fish was much slipperier than the grass carp. Its body was full of bony plates, and it was quite ferocious. Whether it was naturally ferocious, or because it was cold, or because it knew it was facing a life-or-death danger, it had already headbutted Li Long several times.

Li Long knew the fish had teeth, so he didn't dare to pry its mouth open with his hand. He thought it would be safer to remove its gills, but that's why he failed to catch it several times.

Knowing it was no match for Li Long, the fish changed direction and tried to escape. It was much faster than the grass carp, and Li Long found it difficult to stop it.

Finally, he managed to force the fish onto the net next to the stake, and before it could escape, Li Long slammed it into the ground. Fortunately, it was on the edge of the net, so the water wasn't too deep, but even so, half of Li Long's face was submerged in water.

The water was too cold!

Despite the fish still bumping against his legs, Li Long ignored them after catching the sturgeon. He grabbed its gills with one hand and its tail with the other, then swam away. "Wow!" exclaimed the one still waiting to catch the fish, seeing that Li Long had caught a sturgeon. "He can even catch this fish! That's amazing!"

"Exactly! These things are hard to catch!" Someone had already realized what was going on, took a net from the back of the small four-wheeled tractor, stood by the stake, and waited to scoop up the fish when they darted up.

However, due to the depth of the water and his poor eyesight, Li Long clearly saw a silver carp swimming out of the net just over a meter in front of him, but he simply didn't see it.

Before Li Long could warn him, the fish swam away.

However, a silver carp that followed behind swam out and leaped up. It weighed about three or four kilograms. As soon as the man saw the white shadow leap up, he immediately reached out with his net and caught it.

People around him cheered, and Li Long thought to himself, "Okay, this is fine too."

He regretted not bringing a net with him.

After getting ashore, Liu Gaolou gave him a thumbs up:

"Amazing! I heard from Old Wu that this fish is incredibly fierce in the water! Almost no one can catch it with their bare hands. People here use nets to catch it. You've got some skill! This one must weigh at least twenty kilograms, right?"

"No, it weighs about seventeen or eighteen kilograms?" Li Long felt that the fish was a bit thin, not that fat, but it was still quite heavy.

The fish was writhing violently in Li Long's hand. Liu Gaolou, curious, said:

"Come on, let me see?"

"Stand back a bit. If you lose your grip and drop it, at least it'll fall to the ground, not into the river," Li Long reminded him.

“Okay.” Liu Gaolou readily agreed, took a few steps back, and Li Long followed and handed the fish to him.

"Damn it!" As soon as Liu Gaolou caught it, the fish clearly felt that it had less control over it. It twisted its body suddenly, broke free of its tail, and slapped hard on Liu Gaolou's shoulder. Then, while Liu Gaolou was dodging, it darted to the ground.

Unfortunately, the area was full of Gobi stones, and the fish was thrown into the rock and became quite disoriented. Even so, it opened its mouth wide and struggled desperately.

Wu Yongbo had already arrived, and using both hands to lift the fish by its gills, he held on despite its twisting and turning. As he held the fish, he said to Li Long:
"Mr. Li, you're really skilled at catching this fish! You're a fisherman, that's impressive! How do you prepare this fish?"

"I guess I can't bake it? It's a pity I didn't bring a pot, otherwise I would have just made it."

“Then take it back and cook it. I think the smoked flavor is quite good. If it’s freshly slaughtered and cooked, it should be pretty good too, right?” Liu Gaolou said.

"Definitely, it will taste great. I'll get some water first, just in time to make sure it doesn't die, then I'll take it back to cook." Wu Yongbo said as he carried the fish over.

Li Long put his coat back on and turned to watch Buick, under Wu Yongbo's instruction, scaling another carp.

The grass carp remained untouched, its mouth and gills tied with rope, and placed near the water to keep it fresh. Mainly, its shape made it difficult to cook thoroughly.

The people in the water kept bringing fish up, all kinds of fish, including silver carp, bighead carp, common carp, and grass carp. Occasionally there would be a sturgeon, but none of them were very big. The one that Li Long caught was the biggest.

"Damn! It's a mess!" Suddenly, the waterside became lively as more than a dozen silver carp leaped out from near the stake. Although each one was not very big, only about two or three kilograms, the sheer number of them leaping out at once made quite a splash.

"Are these fish crazy?" Liu Gaolou exclaimed, his mouth agape. "Is this a mass prison break?"

“A school of fish.” Li Long naturally knew what was going on. “A group of silver carp came downstream, but they got startled by the stakes and nets and started darting to the surface.”

Among Asian freshwater fish, silver carp are the most likely to dart upwards in groups, followed by common carp. Crucian carp also dart, but the crucian carp that like to dart are usually not very big.

Li Long wasn't interested in the silver carp, so he watched the fish dart around without paying any attention. The others in the water, however, were quite excited. The two with landing nets were swinging them around repeatedly, but unfortunately, the silver carp darted too fast. One caught one, but the other missed, and instead, he flung a carp away from the net.

"There are so many big fish in this water!" Li Long exclaimed.

He had done similar activities in his previous life, which is why he was so skilled at net pulling. However, in his previous life, he benefited from the flood. The flood washed away other people's fish farms, and they pulled the nets at the flood inlet of Dahai Lake.

Although we caught a lot of fish that time, there were far fewer big ones. Or rather, I haven't seen so many big fish since the small lake was washed away in my previous life.

Even if the small lake hadn't been washed away in this life, Li Long would have had very few opportunities to catch such a big fish as he was doing now.

This happened in just a short time. What does that mean? It means there are so many big fish in this river, far more abundant than in the small lake.

It makes sense when you think about it. Xiaohaizi is a semi-artificial reservoir in our village. Although the fish in it have lived for many years, they have achieved ecological balance.

Here, it connects to the depths of the northern Tianshan Mountains and down to the Ili River, the Ili River, an international river. "The Ili River's waters ripple," as the song goes. Although later generations who travel to the Ili River see it as only a few dozen meters wide and with a small body of water.

But right now, the tributaries where the three rivers converge are already over a hundred meters wide, and the water volume is enormous!

So it's normal that there are many big fish here.

Wu Yongbo had already cut the fat carp into pieces with a knife, skewered them with tree branches, and roasted them by sticking the branches directly into the fire, just like the Lop Nur people roast fish.

Li Long noticed that the fish had already been coated with chili powder and cumin, and would likely also have been seasoned with salt.

"Mr. Li, this fish is huge! I cut more than a dozen pieces from just this one fish! Each piece must weigh one or two kilograms. Most people would eat almost all of it in one piece." Wu Yongbo complimented Li Long.

"Mr. Wu, you know so much! You can even grill fish like this!" Li Long exclaimed in admiration. "Not bad, not bad at all. Just by looking at it, I can tell it will smell delicious!"

Anyone can give a compliment. If someone treats me with respect, I'll treat them even better. A few kind words are cheap and effective, so I'll just say them.

"Hehe, I only know a few little tricks, nothing compared to you guys." Wu Yongbo chatted with Li Long while skewering fish pieces. "What kind of business does Boss Li run?"

“I run a purchasing station,” Li Long said. “I buy medicinal herbs, hides, and I also sell the cars that Boss Liu brought over. If you have any medicinal herbs or hides here, I’ll buy those too.”

"What kinds of medicinal herbs?" Wu Yongbo paused for a moment and asked.

"We collect the most fritillaria bulbs, and then we collect the rest, such as codonopsis and licorice."

"How do we collect fritillaria bulbs?" Wu Yongbo asked.

"My collection station mainly buys high-quality goods, which are clean, dry, and free of impurities. They cost around 100 yuan per kilogram," Li Long said. "If they come to collect them from your door, it will be cheaper."

"So expensive?" Wu Yongbo was stunned for a moment, then blurted out, "You're not kidding, are you?"

"Why would I lie to you? I've been buying them for years. The price of fritillaria was higher last year and this year. I started buying them at thirty yuan a piece, and the price has been rising over the years."

"If I receive it and deliver it to you, will you accept it?" Wu Yongbo asked, his eyes gleaming.

"Your clothes are on fire!" Li Long pushed him and said, "Go ahead and take it. Actually, you don't even need to send it over. Boss Liu gets sugar and cement from me every ten days or so. Just have him bring the fritillaria over in his truck."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Wu Yongbo said with a smile, patting the fire off his clothes. "Yes, yes, Mr. Liu is here. By the way, will you accept any price?"

"The more the better," Li Long said with a smile. "President Liu can vouch for it."

"What kind of guarantee?" Liu Gaolou was watching the fish by the water when he heard him being addressed, so he turned around and asked.

“Mr. Wu said he wanted to buy fritillaria bulbs and sell them to me. He was worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle too many, so I said I would buy as many as he asked, just as long as you guarantee it.”

"I'll vouch for him, I'll vouch for him." Liu Gaolou nodded. "Don't let Mr. Li's youth fool you, he's much richer than me!"

Li Long was about to say something modest to Liu Gaolou when he caught a glimpse of the water out of the corner of his eye and suddenly shouted:
"Holy crap! A school of fish! A school of carp!"

PS: The next chapter will be a little late.

(End of this chapter)