Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The day after leaving Bolati, Li Long drove back into the mountains, carrying two boxes of canned goods, heading to Halim's place.

It had just rained in one section of the mountains, and the Land Cruiser was moving a bit slowly. Mud splattered all over the back of the car, and the rearview mirror was completely obscured.

The air in the mountains was exceptionally fresh after the rain, and since I was driving, even if the mountain roads were a bit muddy, I only had to use the accelerator a little, so I didn't feel any pressure at all.

Moreover, you can see very beautiful scenery. Light shines from the east, and in the distant valley to the south, clouds and mist swirl around, not yet completely dissipated, creating an ethereal and beautiful scene.

Then he saw someone walking along the roadside into the mountains, carrying a white urea bag on their back, trudging through the mud. He had already heard the noise and kept turning his head to look at Li Long, probably worried that the mud splashed up by the passing car would hit him.

Li Long has good eyesight and can tell that the person walking by the roadside is not in a good mood—unlike himself, who can sit in a car and not get his clothes and shoes wet.

Life is tough for people who live in the mountains. Even though they can bring down dozens of kilograms of fritillaria bulbs worth hundreds or even thousands of yuan each time, the life they lead in the mountains is not something that ordinary people can endure.

Li Long understood how they felt, but he didn't sympathize with them. If you want to earn that kind of money, you have to endure that kind of hardship; he'd been through the same thing.

As the car passed the person, there was a puddle. The person didn't have time to climb up the hillside by the roadside, so he could only turn around and face away from the road, hoping that the bag could block the water splashed up by the passing car.

Li Long slowed down, and the wheels only pushed the water out of the puddles without splashing it.

The expected splash of water didn't get on him. The man looked surprised as the car passed, then, seeing Li Long accelerate, he suddenly shouted:
"Hey, comrade!"

Li Long stopped when he heard the shout.

Seeing Li Long stop, the man quickly took two steps and followed from behind at an angle to the driver's seat.

"Comrade, do you have any food in your car?" the man asked somewhat anxiously.

Li Long looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

"I'll trade, I'll trade!" The man realized he had said something wrong and quickly added, then put down the bag and started rummaging through it, saying, "I'm digging for fritillaria bulbs in the mountains. There are fritillaria bulbs here. You know fritillaria bulbs, right? They're a very precious Chinese medicinal herb, very valuable!"

Li Long looked into his bag and saw that there really wasn't much fritillaria, at most ten kilograms.

"If you don't want fritillaria bulbs, I also found some antiques in the mountains. Don't be fooled by how dirty and rusty they are; these things would definitely be worth a fortune in a big city—you must have seen the world to be able to afford this car..."

As he spoke, the man bent down and pulled out something. Li Long thought it looked like a bronze mirror, but to be honest, it was heavily corroded.

It's not very valuable.

Seeing that Li Long wasn't interested in the bronze mirror, the man had no choice but to take out something else.

Li Long's eyes lit up. This thing was pretty good; it was a bronze incense burner. Although it was somewhat rusted, its original shape hadn't changed much because of its original heavy material.

"I have canned meat here, would you like to trade?" Li Long asked.

"Change it, change it!" The man immediately spoke up when Li Long spoke, swallowing hard as he thought of the canned meat—when was the last time he ate meat? Had it been half a month? It should have been more than that, right?

What does meat taste like?
After getting out of the car, Li Long said, "Two cans of meat in exchange for one kilogram of fresh fritillaria... Is your fritillaria dried or fresh?"

"I just dug this up yesterday." The man took two steps back, opened the bag, reached inside, grabbed a handful of stuff, and showed it to Li Long: "Take a look."

The fritillaria bulbs were quite large, and still had some soil on them. The soil wasn't completely dry, so they were definitely fresh.

"Are you going to replace that incense burner? If you do, you can get a few cans of food in return."

"How many can I exchange?" The man carrying the incense burner was getting impatient. This thing was like a double-edged sword; he had finally found it, so he was reluctant to throw it away, but carrying it felt too heavy.

The main issue was that at that time, ordinary people didn't yet have a clear understanding of the value of bronze artifacts. So when they were exchanged, the person didn't feel any regret, mainly because he had nothing else to replenish his supplies.

We followed this road uphill hoping to find some herders and perhaps find something to eat.

He didn't leave the mountain because he hadn't found many fritillaria bulbs, and it was too far to go out and come back in.

In the end, Li Long exchanged the fritillaria bulbs, the bronze incense burner, and a few other odds and ends from the bag for a total of fifteen cans of food.

The man was overjoyed. Before Li Long could even leave, he eagerly opened a can, broke off two branches from a nearby bush, stripped off the leaves, and started eating with them.

"Eat slowly," Li Long thought for a moment, then took out a few more naan breads from the trunk and handed them to him: "These are naan breads I bought a couple of days ago. I forgot to take them out, so I'll give them to you."

The man held the can of food and kept saying thank you. Because he still had meat in his mouth, his words were slurred. He held the can of food in one hand and took the naan bread in the other, and he felt like he was about to cry.

“Go back along this road…” Li Long added, but was interrupted after only one sentence:

"I have no intention of leaving the mountain!" The man's tone was resolute, and he shook his head vigorously. His hair was a bit long, and the shaking caused it to bounce violently.

"I didn't tell you to leave the mountain. Just follow this road back. When you're almost at the end, there's a road that goes west. Walk along that road for two or three kilometers, and you'll see a wooden hut. They trade fritillaria for supplies there."

Li Long smiled and said, "If you find any fritillaria bulbs, you can exchange them for some daily necessities there. If you go into the mountains now, it will take two or three days to find a herdsman. There aren't many fritillaria bulbs left where the herdsmen live, so you should turn back."

After saying that, Li Long ignored him, put the items he had received in the trunk, and continued driving forward.

The man stared blankly at the departing car for a moment, then lowered his head and began to eat heartily again.

With food in his stomach, he remembered Li Long's words, packed the canned food and naan into a bag, slung it over his shoulder, turned around, and started walking back. After walking for a while, he began to turn into the mountains. Ultimately, the most important thing was to dig up the fritillaria bulbs.

Li Long already knew that this was a novice.

Every year, many novices flock to the mountains to dig for fritillaria and ginseng, all dreaming of a month's work for a year of ease.

Having dreams is good, but if you're not prepared, you might not even make back your investment this month.

The mountain road that had been raining was about ten kilometers long. After driving through it, the weather cleared up, the sun became bright, and the sky was particularly blue. Li Long knew that the ultraviolet rays would be very strong at this time, and he guessed that the altitude should now be around 1,500 meters.

He didn't feel any discomfort. Occasionally, his ears would feel a little foggy, but he only needed to move his eardrums to make the surrounding sounds clear.

It is said to be a basic human skill, but some people just don't know it.

Just like some people choke easily when drinking water because they don't know how to control their epiglottis.

Continuing to drive south, we soon felt the mountain breeze. Although the sun was shining brightly, the breeze was quite cool, especially around the bends where the sun couldn't reach. The wind suddenly picked up, as if it were autumn.

When they arrived at Halimu's summer pasture, it was already past 1 p.m. Li Long noticed that there were significantly fewer cattle and sheep on this undulating mountain grassland.

Halim was herding sheep in the distance. When he saw the car, he rode his horse over at full speed. By the time he arrived, Li Long had already gotten off the car and was carrying a box and a half of canned food off the vehicle.

Gulimire was making cow dung cakes when she came over to greet Li Long, then washed her hands and went to make milk tea.

"What are you carrying? Canned goods?" Halim asked, looking at the boxes Li Long had brought down.

“Yes, it’s canned beef from our cannery,” Li Long explained. “It tastes pretty good. I just happened to come up to see you guys, so I brought some with me.”

"Great! I'll try this canned food you mentioned at noon." Halim was quite pleased. Although the road was now open and there was a tractor, making it easy to go up and down the mountain was a relief.

But it's a hundred kilometers, after all, and it's unlikely that you'll be coming down the mountain often under normal circumstances. There are only about ten families on this grassland, and it's really a joy when someone comes up here occasionally.

Humans are, after all, social animals. Most people would not be able to stand living alone and losing their social life.

Li Long looked up and saw that many lambs were jumping and hopping around in Halim's flock, so he said:
"There must have been quite a few lambs this year, right? I bet there will be a huge flock when they come down the mountain in the fall!"

"Yes, more than a hundred lambs survived this year." Halim was quite happy. "By autumn, we can get rid of fifty or sixty culled sheep. If we do this for another two years, the flock will be about the same as before."

Li Long nodded, then asked, "Yushanjiang isn't grazing sheep anymore, so what will happen to his pasture?"

“We can all go and graze our livestock there,” Halim said. “The grass in the summer pastures isn’t harvested. There are three neighboring herders, and we can all graze our livestock there. This year, everyone has fewer cattle and sheep, so the grass should grow well, and we can graze for a few more days.”

"By next year, the flock will have grown larger, and the grass will be eaten faster, so the grass won't grow as long."

He pointed to the tent and said:

"By the way, I caught two baby roe deer in the mountains a few days ago. You can take them back."

Li Long thought to himself that Halim was still impressive. He put down the canned food box and went over to take a look.

The two roe deer cubs were slightly larger than lambs, about two months old, and were lying on the other side of the yurt with ropes tied around their necks.

There was some hay next to them, with signs of grazing, so it seemed they could eat grass.

Seeing Li Long approach, the two little roe deer were not afraid of people. They stood up and walked towards Li Long, whether they wanted to beg for food or wanted to smell Li Long's scent, it was hard to tell.

Li Long reached out his hand, and a small roe deer licked his hand. Li Long guessed that it must have tasted salty.
“Two roe deer, I’ll give you five hundred yuan,” Li Long said.

“It’s free.” Halim waved his hand. “I didn’t pay you for those canned goods either.”

Harim's attitude was firm, so Li Long said nothing more.

In the distance, sheep were bleating loudly. Halim told Li Long and then rode off to see the sheep. Li Long didn't touch the two roe deer. He saw mushrooms on the nearby grass, so he took a plastic bag from the car and went to pick them.

Gulimire finished making the milk tea and came out to call Li Long for some. Li Long told her to leave the milk tea there and that he would come over after picking some mushrooms.

So Gulimire poured two bowls of milk tea and placed them on the wooden kang (heated brick bed) in the yurt, and then prepared to cook.

Li Long had little resistance to the mushrooms on this grass. The grass in the summer pasture wasn't as lush as in the winter pasture in some places, but the mushrooms grew better there.

The grass grew too lush, so the mushrooms couldn't grow. Therefore, you can see patches of tiny mushrooms here, their caps barely open, round and fleshy, very cute. The largest are no bigger than an egg, usually about the size of a quail egg, and some are even the size of a broad bean.

Don't underestimate its small size; it's already mature, because once it sprouts and sees the sun, it stops growing bigger.

Because there were many mushrooms, Li Long picked and chose, focusing on the large and fresh ones, and discarding any that were old, had been sitting overnight, or had a grayish or wrinkled appearance.

There's no way around it, we have just too much, that's how extravagant we are!
When Halim drove the cattle and sheep to the vicinity and came over again, Li Long had already picked three or four kilograms of wild mushrooms. He straightened up and smelled a fragrance.

Halim tied up the horse, went to get a can, pried it open, looked inside, then poured the contents into a small bowl and served it to Gulimire.

"Heat this up in a pan later. This is canned beef that Li Long brought. Let's try it."

For lunch, I made pilaf, which smelled delicious. Gulimire didn't say much; she just piled the dried meat on top of the rice and placed it on the wooden table.

The high altitude of the summer grassland has the advantage of fewer mosquitoes and a lower temperature, making it very comfortable during the day.

Of course, the temperature will be lower at night, and it will be cold.

The braised beef, now hot and steaming, was served with the distinctive aroma of canned food.

Halim picked up a piece with his chopsticks, tasted it, said "delicious," and then picked up another piece to eat.

Li Long mainly eats pilaf – he prefers pilaf to canned food.

They chatted about the situation here while eating.

“Yushanjiang took on your job; they need a lot of people. He drove up here a few days ago and took seven or eight people down the mountain. Now, most of the people left on the mountain are elderly,” Halim said.

"Fortunately, everyone has a tractor now. If anything happens, we can drive the tractor down the mountain in a day. Now that there are fewer cattle and sheep, everyone carries medicine with them, making the work of herding sheep much easier."

This road has greatly changed the lives of the herders, which makes Li Long very gratified.

It's understandable that Yushanjiang did what he did. He took people out to work so they could earn more money. The cannery now needs about ten cows a day to produce its meat.

It's impossible for him, Talihar, and Bek to accomplish this.

When he first went to the production team, he had no way of knowing the people there, so he felt more at ease with the people from his own tribe.

After the meal, Li Long chatted with Halim for a while longer. Actually, he was thinking of helping Halim develop into a large-scale sheep farmer, but judging from Halim's attitude, he didn't want to go down the mountain to raise sheep in enclosures yet.

As for quickly becoming a large-scale breeder on the mountain, he doesn't seem to be in a hurry; he wants to let things take their natural course.

Then let him have his way. Not everyone is thinking about how to develop and get rich. Many herders are content with their lot and feel that their current life is good enough. Even if they develop further, it won't change much.
Carrying mushrooms and the two roe deer, Li Long and his wife Halim said goodbye and headed down the mountain.

Although Li Long didn't put the car in neutral as he drove down the road, he felt a whooshing wind and the speed was extremely fast.

When Li Long arrived at the place where he had exchanged cans that morning, he was surprised to find that the ground had dried out, and the tire tracks left by his Land Cruiser had now become two ditches on the road.

Fortunately, it was originally a gravel road, so the ruts weren't too deep. However, Li Long still slowed down, otherwise the car would have been quite bumpy.

After driving for a kilometer or two, the road surface improved, and Li Long was about to accelerate when he vaguely heard someone shouting in the nearby mountains, as if calling for help.
He immediately eased off the accelerator to reduce the noise, wanting to hear if there were really cries for help.

Sure enough, another cry of "Help!" was heard.

Li Long hurriedly pulled the car to the side of the road, then shifted into neutral, pulled the handbrake, and turned off the engine. He took out the Type 56 submachine gun from the car, unlocked the safety, chambered a round, and crept towards the direction from which the cries for help had come from.

(To explain, this is military terminology. "Disengaging the safety" means the gun is ready to fire, while "disengaging the safety" means the gun is in a non-firing state, meaning the trigger cannot be pulled.)

That's how orders are given in the military. Some readers say that turning off the safety means being in the firing position—perhaps thinking it means flipping the safety device to disengage the safety. That's one understanding, but it's not the commonly used terminology. For now, we'll mainly use military terminology.

It seemed that the person who had been shouting for help had found hope when they heard the car stop, and they started shouting again.

Li Long thought the voice sounded familiar and felt a little strange: Could it be the person who swapped cans with him this morning?
Li Long feared it was a trap, so he cautiously moved forward with his gun, listening to the sounds around him, planning to retreat or fire if anything seemed amiss.

It had been a long time since Li Long had searched the mountains with a gun, and he was somewhat excited, even hoping that someone would ambush him.

Unfortunately, apart from that cry for help, there was no other sound around.

After walking about twenty meters into the ravine, Li Long saw the man. He was leaning against a tree, his face covered in blood, and the bag was gone.

"Help me..."

Upon seeing Li Long approach, the man struggled for a moment but couldn't get up, clearly indicating that he had been badly injured.

Li Long surveyed his surroundings, but there was still no movement. He walked over, gun in hand, and asked:

"What happened? Were you robbed? When did this happen?"

“Just now—two men snatched my bag, all the canned goods, and they even tried to search me. I heard your car horn, so I yelled for help, and then they ran away…they ran from there…”

"You wait." Li Long looked in the direction the man was pointing, then drew his gun and chased after him. After a few steps, he realized what was happening, slowed down, and asked, "How are you now?"

"It's alright, I can still manage. It might be a broken bone, and it hurts a lot, but it's not a fatal injury..."

Hearing this, Li Long felt relieved and chased after him—he had a gun in his hand and wanted to find a target to move against, even if it was just to scare them.

On a larger scale, these people digging for fritillaria bulbs are all his potential customers, and he doesn't want the mountains to be too chaotic, which could cause problems for his fritillaria bulb collection.

On a smaller scale, his life was too mundane, so he wanted to find some excitement.

Seeing Li Long stride forward, Hu Mingfei felt relieved—he had a gun and was so fast, he should be able to catch those two bastards, right?

There are canned goods in there that I worked so hard to get.

Who would have thought that digging for fritillaria bulbs in these mountains would be so dangerous?
He subconsciously considered backing out; it had been too dangerous just now. If it weren't for the noise from that man's car, he might have been beaten to death.

In these deep mountains and forests, if you kill yourself and throw yourself into a ditch, you don't even need to bury yourself; wild animals will eat you clean!

Li Long took long strides, listening to the whistling wind in his ears, as if he had returned to the time when he was soaring high in the mountains. However, before he could savor the moment for long, he saw two figures quickly disappearing into the woods ahead of him.

"Stop!" Li Long shouted regretfully. The two men didn't even turn their heads; they immediately split up and ran in opposite directions, seemingly repeat offenders.

"Run again and I'll shoot!" Li Long shouted again. The two of them were about 40 or 50 meters ahead. Although there were trees in between, they were sparse and didn't block the shot.

One person hesitated for a moment, but the other didn't care at all and fired a shot into the air.

"boom!"

The one who had hesitated just now stopped immediately, threw away the sack in his hand, and raised his hands high.

The other one didn't stop at all, and even started running in an S-shape, so it seemed to be experienced.

snort!
Li Long didn't hold back. He raised his gun and aimed. One second, two seconds... in two more seconds that guy would be able to run into the woods!

"Bang!" Li Long fired the shot.

"Ouch!" the man cried out, clutching his right arm with his left hand and falling to the ground—the bag was gone too.

Li Long walked over with his gun and shot the man in the arm. It wasn't a fatal wound, but it wasn't pleasant either.

Seeing the man rolling around in pain on the ground, Li Long felt no pity whatsoever. He went over to check on the man who had stopped—he did have a knife on him, but it was sheathed and he hadn't taken it out.

Li Long put the knife away, then looked at the bag he had thrown away. It wasn't the other person's bag; it must have been his own.

Li Long kicked the man to the ground, then checked the bag and found several packages inside: one containing fritillaria bulbs, one containing clothes, and several others containing miscellaneous items that were not clearly visible.

Li Long ignored all of that, got up, and went to look at the man he had shot.

The one who didn't run away earlier was the young man; the one who got beaten up now was a half-baked bastard. Both of them had messy hair, and the half-baked bastard had quite a bit of a beard. He covered his face, but occasionally glanced at Li Long while rolling around, his gaze venomous yet tinged with fear.

"Run! Why did you stop?" Li Long kicked the man. "Go ahead and keep running!"

The man remained silent.

The young man behind him, however, begged for mercy with a tearful voice:

"Stop hitting me, or you'll kill my dad..."

Gansu accent.

Father and son.

Li Long used his gun to pry open the two bags. One belonged to the man from before, and the other to this man—the bag still contained fritillaria bulbs and other miscellaneous items.

Li Long, too lazy to look, said to the young man:

"Help me up, walk, get down."

It wasn't very interesting, and there was no resistance. Just thinking about how I had a gun made it all seem less dangerous.

He planned to take these two people to the forestry police station, and as for the other person, that was up to him.

Li Long pointed the gun at him, and the half-shelled man could no longer keep up and could only stand up—after all, Li Long had his son support him.

He could deceive Li Long, but he wouldn't let his son suffer.

Li Long gathered the three bags together, holding one bag in his left hand and a gun in his right—with his arm strength, he could take down the two guys even with just a gun.

When the three men reached Hu Mingfei, his eyes widened in surprise—he knew Li Long had caught up when he heard the gunshots, but he hadn't expected it to be so fast!
Seeing the two men being forced over by Li Long, and the one who had beaten him so badly was even injured, Hu Mingfei felt extremely satisfied. At this moment, he seemed to feel no pain anymore, stood up and kicked the half-baked man a few times.

Unfortunately, his kicks were like tickling half a shell, having little effect.

“I’m going to take them down the mountain. Come with me. If you’re free, take these bags and come with me.”

"Okay." Hu Mingfei took the bag—Li Long, seeing his miserable state, only let him take his own bag, while he carried the other two bags himself.

The half-shelled creature let out a painful groan from time to time; his wound hadn't been treated, and he was clearly in a lot of pain.

Li Long pretended not to hear and let the two of them continue forward until they reached the car by the roadside. Only then did he throw the two bags behind the car and put them with the roe deer. He then took out a rope and tied the two men's hands behind their backs. After catching up with the car, he tied their legs as well.

He had Hu Mingfei sit in the passenger seat, and then he started driving.

He drove all the way out of the mountains to the forestry police station. His car was quite high-end, and some people at the forestry police station didn't recognize it. They thought a leader had arrived, and the people inside all ran out—putting on their clothes and hats as they ran.

After Li Long got out of the car, someone recognized him, and they were both disappointed and annoyed.

“I encountered the robbers in the mountains, caught them, and brought them over. Oh, and the victim has also been brought over,” Li Long said.

Upon hearing that there were prisoners, the officers who had run out immediately perked up and helped pull the two men out. Seeing that one of them was injured, one of the officers immediately asked what had happened.

“They didn’t stop when I was chasing them, so I fired a shot.” ​​Li Long didn’t hide anything. “I have a gun license… I’m actually a forest ranger.”

“I know, I know, it’s Comrade Li Long.” The other policeman immediately recognized him and didn’t even bother to check Li Long’s gun and ID. “This is the victim, right? I’ll take him over to make a statement.”

“Oh, right, these two bags belong to the two robbers, and this one belongs to the victim.” Li Long took out the items again. “I didn’t touch them.”

"Hey, thank you, Comrade Li Long, thank you for your support and cooperation with our work. Come on in, let's have some tea!"

It was called drinking tea, but it was actually a way of taking notes and recounting what had happened.

There's not much to say. The people at the forestry police station know very well that Li Long built that road, and it's perfectly normal for Li Long to go into the mountains to see Halimu and the others.

As for carrying a gun—duh, if you go into the mountains at this time of year without a gun, who knows what problems might arise if you encounter those vicious criminals who might be fugitives.

So it's okay to have a gun, and it's okay to shoot while chasing a fugitive, since the person was only wounded in the arm and it wasn't fatal.

After the statement was taken, they asked Li Long to stay for a while, but he said he had other things to do and drove away.

The police officers from the forestry police station gave the half-shell a simple bandage and then questioned the suspects separately.

The half-baked man kept his mouth shut, insisting it was his first time, but the young man, intimidated by the police, blurted out everything—it was his first time, but he had been to the mountains before, bringing back a lot of money, and said he had robbed people before.

After intimidating them one-on-one, that half-shelled guy actually had someone killed in his hands!

This is a major case!

These people were sincerely grateful to Li Long for sending such a valuable prisoner.

Li Long drove home and first took the roe deer off the road, untied their ropes, and let them frolic in the yard.

Then I took some sugar residue and put it in a bowl. Before the roe deer could eat it, the two little goat lambs came over and started eating it.

The roe deer were a little scared at first, but after running around for a while and seeing that no one was paying attention to them, they went over and bullied the little goat. Then they smelled the sugar residue and started munching on it.

Seeing that the animals had started to move around, Li Long decided to prepare dinner, but before he could even start cleaning up, Sister Yang returned.

After Sister Yang went into the kitchen, Li Long didn't go in. He went inside to change his clothes, washed up, and then went to clean up the antelope horns.

During dinner that evening, Li Long asked Sister Yang if the area around the cannery had been cleaned up yet.

"It's all cleaned up. There'll definitely be no problem with interviewing people tomorrow," Sister Yang said. "I took some time these past two days to tidy up all the rooms in the cannery. It'll definitely look different to the people coming over tomorrow."

Li Long nodded without saying anything.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long sent Mingming and Haohao to kindergarten and then went to the cannery.

To his surprise, there were already four people waiting outside the door.

Li Long drove into the factory yard, where Sister Yang had already arrived and led him to the interview room.

“There are already some people outside. They seem to value this. Let them in,” Li Long said. “Let’s begin.”

"You can come, I won't get involved in the interview," Sister Yang said. "I'm not good at this..."

Li Long nodded.

Four people were brought in, but Li Long didn't bring them in one by one; instead, he brought all four together.

"Please introduce yourselves in order," Li Long said. "Name, age, education, where you are from, and your experience."

"My name is Huang Xinping, I'm from Baojiadian, I'm 22 years old, and I have a junior high school education. After graduating from junior high school, I worked on the farm for two years, then served in the army for three years. I was discharged last year and am currently unemployed at home." The first person's introduction went smoothly and the logic was relatively clear.

The second one was named Wang Dalong, with a similar background, but he was from Beiwucha, which was much farther away. Li Long asked him when he arrived, and he said yesterday, having stayed overnight at a relative's house in the county.

The third one is Wei Zhonghua. He is from the same township as Li Long, but not from the same village. He has never served in the army and has always been a farmer at home. His advantage is that he attended high school for a year.

The fourth one is Wu Jianhua, from the county. He attended high school for two years, never served in the military, and is currently unemployed.

Li Long originally planned to take all four, at least the attitude was good, and they came so early.

But Wu Jianhua was a bit slick in his speech and had a somewhat effeminate appearance, which aroused Li Long's suspicion. He casually asked them to clarify the situation, as the factory would conduct a background check at the police station and retrieve their files. As a result, Wu Jianhua couldn't hold back and said that he had been in a detention center for fighting.

This is something we need to consider.

It's not that they don't give those who have gone astray a chance; Li Long had already seen through the window that Sister Yang had brought in another seven or eight people.

Clearly, many people were interested in their job postings and came to apply.

Li Long didn't completely deny him a chance, so he asked Wu Jianhua why he had fought. Wu Jianhua paused for a moment and then said:

“A thug wanted to date my sister, but she refused. The thug threatened her, saying he would beat her up at our house if she didn’t agree. My father is gone, and my mother is in poor health, so my sister… When I heard about this, I went to talk to the thug and beat him up.”

Hey!
Li Long immediately became interested in this handsome young man. He said:

“We will check with the local police station and neighborhood office. If what you say is true, then we will take you.”

Wu Jianhua's eyes immediately lit up, and he asked, "Really?"

"Really, someone with your spirit is exactly what we need. Of course, that's assuming you're not lying—okay, all three of you are hired. You have two days to prepare, and report here the day after tomorrow. Is that alright?"

“No problem!” The three of them were quite excited.

“Wu Jianhua, I will personally inquire about your matter. If it is true, you should come over the day after tomorrow,” Li Long said.

"Thank you so much, boss!"

After the four people left, Li Long interviewed the remaining ones.

Before these interviews were even finished, another group arrived.

This made him somewhat regretful about relaxing the initial four conditions. Many of the later conditions were quite favorable, forcing Li Long to raise his standards.

Some were high school graduates who joined the army, while others were volunteers who came down from the ranks and could drive.

Overall, there are quite a few talented people here now. Not everyone who joins the army, or volunteers, can get a good job after their service.

Li Long recruited workers at this time, which means he picked up quite a few talented people.

In the end, fourteen people were recruited. Six were from the cannery, six from the purchasing station, and two from the jerky processing workshop—mainly security guards.

Of the six people at the cannery, two are security guards who work in shifts, while the remaining four are loading and unloading workers, mainly doing manual labor.

Two of the people at the purchasing station were security guards who also did cleaning, while the remaining four were responsible for miscellaneous tasks such as cleaning fritillaria bulbs and cleaning leather goods.

The base salary is 100 yuan, with bonuses calculated separately. A salary increase of 5 yuan is automatically given after one year of service; additional bonuses are awarded for significant contributions.

The base salary of one hundred is quite a lot at this point, considering it's the initial salary for the first year. It will increase later, which makes a difference.

They were all to report for duty in two days. Li Long even went to a clothing store to design uniforms for them—jackets modeled after those worn by security guards in later generations, the kind made of blue work cloth. There was no rush to distribute them; just telling them there were enough made the workers quite happy.

Sister Yang was in charge of the cannery. Li Long knew that Sister Yang already had experience in management, so he didn't say much.

At the purchasing station, Liang Shuangcheng was in charge of the two security guards, and Sun Jiaqiang was in charge of the four workers. However, Liang Shuangcheng also had management authority when Sun Jiaqiang was not present.

In addition, the cannery set up a staff canteen. Sister Yang recruited two female workers from the factory to cook, and the staff could eat there for free after get off work—no takeout allowed.

This is considered an employee benefit, which is why these employees are very willing to stay.

The team grew rapidly, and daily expenses increased, but both Sister Yang and Li Long found things easier. With more people, many tasks could be assigned to different groups instead of doing everything themselves or procrastinating and finding odd jobs.

When Li Long went to the purchasing station again, he no longer needed to brush the hides himself; someone else did it, and they were noticeably more diligent—Sun Jiaqiang would explain to them how to use the right amount of force so as not to damage the hides.

The day after the workers arrived, Yushanjiang came over to chat with Li Long.

Yushanjiang is now beaming with joy, busy but also very happy.

"Now, my business has really covered most of northern Xinjiang. Every day, so many cattle and sheep are consumed, from the three eastern counties, Tacheng, Yili, and Bortala Prefecture, people come to sell their cattle and sheep."

It seems they really have covered almost the entire northern Xinjiang region!
Sister Yang has developed a cumin-flavored canned lamb. Cumin is the best seasoning to mask the muttony smell, so the taste is pretty good so far.

However, it will be made in small batches, depending on whether customers can accept it. Actually, Li Long wanted him to make it like cumin jerky, in large quantities. Although canned goods are easier to preserve, to be honest, there will still be a slight lingering smell after opening.

Most people can accept it, but not everyone can.

Therefore, making it into jerky actually highlights its unique characteristics.

Of course, the main factor is customer acceptance and market absorption.

“I brought about ten people from the mountains, but we still don’t have enough. I plan to recruit more. If I do recruit more, I’ll recruit Han Chinese,” Yushanjiang said.

“The people inside the tribe are our own people, so I trust them. But to be honest, those people outside the tribe are fine if they don’t drink, but once they do, they’re finished. But once they have money, it’s impossible for them not to drink… That’s why I recruit Han Chinese; they’re easy to manage and obedient.”

"See for yourself," Li Long said, pointing outside. "I just hired a dozen people, and they're very capable."

"That's right, more people means more work. I sold the hides to the leather factories, and they're selling really well now. I sold the meat to the canneries, and now I'm making money. I'm here today to share the profits."

Hey, finally we're seeing a return on our investment from Yushan River!
Li Long initially invested 50,000 yuan in Yushanjiang, and later invested more when he was collecting livestock. He received some of the profits back, and now he is officially receiving dividends.

This time, they distributed 20,000 yuan. Although it wasn't much, it showed that the cash flow in Yushanjiang was normal and the accounts were clear, which reassured Li Long.

Having Li Long review the accounts shows that Yushanjiang takes bookkeeping very seriously, which is the foundation for truly building a large business.

If the accounts are unclear, the business will never grow big.

P.S.: Thank you to reader Mr. Bai for the reward, and thank you everyone for your subscriptions, monthly tickets, and recommendation votes.

I've been watching short videos these past few days and I've come across a group of people praising Northern Xinjiang. To be honest, I felt a little embarrassed after watching them. Northern Xinjiang certainly has many kind and honest people, but frankly, there are good and bad people everywhere.

So wherever we go, we should keep a normal mindset. Don't think a place is backward just because of insufficient publicity, and don't think everyone here is a good person just because of excessive publicity.

Furthermore, there's a group of people using AI to create various images of people in military uniforms saying things like, "Uncles and aunties, we're working hard guarding the border," etc. Many of these are fake; you can tell by looking at the cap badges and collar insignia. And yet, a large number of people like these posts and say "Thank you for your hard work..." Sigh, there are too many scammers! (End of Chapter)