Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 150: Half-finished Winter Home

Li Long pedaled his bicycle with difficulty on the mountain road. This section was the most difficult to walk on. The road was overgrown with weeds, the slope was high, and there were many stones.

After climbing this long slope of nearly one kilometer, the gentle slope ahead became much more comfortable. Li Long held the handlebar with one hand and rode forward while wiping the sweat off his face.

Bicyclists are just like people who drive cars in later generations. Once they get on the bike, they don’t want to get off, even if they know it might save some effort to push the bike after getting off, they still want to pedal back on.

After riding the bike into the mountain pass, the road ahead was full of twists and turns. Fortunately, this road was trampled by passing herdsmen with their cattle and sheep, so it was quite comfortable to ride. Li Long avoided the prickly scorpion grass all the way and came to the vicinity of Halimu's winter nest.

Halimu was just outside the winter den. When he saw Li Long coming, he ran over with a smile, followed by Nathan and their dog.

"Li Long, you didn't come yesterday," Halimu said, "I was thinking of taking you to see your winter home."

"It's fine now." Li Long said, "I had something to do at home yesterday, so I didn't come here - let's put this food in your winter nest first."

"Well, leave it here for now. After we unload the food, we'll go to your winter camp. It's a good opportunity to tell them that you brought back food. When we get to the summer pasture, this is what they need most."

In his previous life, Li Long heard that the herdsmen in the mountains usually ate Fucha and naan. If they had side dishes, they might have ghee, butter, or jam, which was very simple. It was impossible for them to eat meat every meal - eating meat was also a luxury for them. Usually, they would only slaughter sheep during festivals or when guests came.

He had only heard about it and didn't know whether it was true or not, but he didn't ask.

Together with Halimu, he moved the food to the winter camp and then headed west.

"They have already started building the wooden walls. According to Yushan Jiang, your house will be ready in less than two days. You can move in then - you need to prepare the things inside by yourself, after all, our accommodation habits are different from yours."

"I understand." Li Long was still a little excited. Apart from the house in the team, that was his eldest brother's house. When he got married, he would definitely have a homestead to build a house.

Not to mention the houses on the street, they were bought directly and they are decades old, it is impossible to feel any empathy for them.

But the building you are about to see, which cannot even be called a house, was built just a few days after I came to this life. It was built by these lovely and enthusiastic Kazakh herdsmen to thank me for my tiny insignificant contribution.

This really made Li Long excited.

Before he saw the house, Li Long heard someone singing and the sound of a radio. It should be the announcer broadcasting the news. Although he was not speaking Chinese, he could still hear the accent.

There was also the sound of knocking on wood and laughter.

"They are very happy." Li Long said with a smile, "You have a really good attitude."

"Our ancestors have passed down the saying that people should look forward. Although we are in the mountains and don't have as many things as you do at the foot of the mountain, we are very content." Halimu's words made Li Long dazed for a moment.

In his previous life, his life could be said to be extremely rich in material terms, but it did not seem as happy as in the past few months.

The arrival of Halimu and Li Long made the men even happier.

Yushanjiang called out to the men who were still working to take a break, and everyone gathered around, talking to each other. Li Long shook hands with them one by one. He didn't understand what they were saying, but looking at those faces with sun spots but full of enthusiasm and innocence, he really felt that he was very lucky in this life.

Yushanjiang took Li Long to the house with wooden walls on both sides and said:
"Look, once these two sides are built, the back will be ready soon. This house has two rooms, one for living, and one for storing things. Oh, and we'll lay wooden boards inside, and we'll smear a layer of mud on the walls, so that there won't be any problems with burning in the future."

The frame of the house is very simple, with two rooms, one big and one small. The big one is about 30 square meters, and the small one is about 20 square meters. It looks very rough and primitive now, but it has a different kind of beauty.

"Thank you, thank you!" Li Long said to Yushan Jiang sincerely, "I really don't know how to thank you..."

"Friends, don't say that!" Yu Shanjiang said seriously, "You have helped us so much, and we really want to do this. We, the people on horseback, can't say so many nice words, but we will treat our friends sincerely."

Li Long stopped talking.

After Halimu spoke to the others, they suddenly cheered.

"Did you bring them rice and flour?" Yushanjiang suddenly asked.

"Well, I asked Halimu what you guys were going to need when you got to the summer pasture. He said that besides brick tea and salt, the most needed thing was food. I bought some in the past two days, and I will buy more later."

"Look, you said thank you to us, we should thank you." Yushanjiang patted Li Long on the shoulder and said, "We put in the effort, and the effort will come back if we use it.

But when we got to the summer pasture, the food was gone after we ate it. You prepared food for us with sincerity, right? You didn’t expect us to do anything in return, right? Friends, Adasi, that’s how it is!”

Li Long actually wanted to say that the money I used to buy food came from the deer antlers you gave me. But he couldn't say it. In fact, when he bought food before, he really hoped to help these sincere friends.

Halimu said something else, and then the men looked at Li Long.

"Halimu said that you can help them get what they want. Deer antlers, roe deer horns, or leather or something like that will do."

"Sure!" Li Long said firmly, "I'm willing to help my friends!"

The boys looked at each other, and no one wanted to be the first to speak.

Li Long and Yu Shanjiang walked over from the house, came to the wood where the young men were sitting, and found a piece of wood to sit on.

A young man mustered up the courage to stand up and said a few words.

Halimu looked at him with some surprise, then turned to ask Li Long:
"He said he saw a red deer with its fawn and asked how many fawns like that could be exchanged for a radio like this?"

How many?

Red deer calf?

Change the radio?

Li Long felt like his brain was kind of freezing.

Then I realized that it was normal. In the eyes of these herders, an immature elk calf is not more valuable than a sheep. After all, it is difficult to raise it. Even if it has antlers, it will take several years - and it may not be a male deer.

Then it is inevitable that this little deer is worthless.

But it's different here with Li Long! Every deer is a treasure, even a fawn! "One, change one." Li Long raised a finger and said, "Of course, there are no radios in the county now, I have to go to Shicheng to have a look."

Halimu turned around and explained to the young man. An ecstatic expression appeared on the young man's face. He sat down. Someone next to him asked him a question, and he nodded without saying much.

I guess you have already started thinking about how to catch that deer?

After the first person came in, the second person soon spoke a bunch of words.

"Deer antlers, how many deer antlers can be exchanged for a radio?" Halim translated.

"Deer antlers..." Li Long thought about it and realized that the average price of deer antlers is five yuan now, so about ten kilograms can be exchanged for a radio. With a box of batteries, the maximum amount would be twelve or thirteen kilograms.

"Two or three antlers will be enough." said Li Long.

After he finished speaking, Halimu and Yushanjiang looked at him blankly, their expressions clearly showing disbelief.

"Really." Li Long said, "However, I'm not sure if we can receive the signal in the mountains. After all, this is a winter pasture. It's too high to reach the summer pasture. I don't know if we can receive it. Adding wire as an antenna may not guarantee it."

"We can't let you suffer any loss." Yu Shanjiang suddenly interrupted, "Li Long, we are friends, and friends should not suffer any loss. We work voluntarily for our friends, and you brought us news from outside..."

Halimu looked agreeable.

Li Long smiled bitterly.

Am I a selfless saint in their eyes?
He thought for a moment and said to Halimu and Yushanjiang:
"The two pieces of jade you gave me the first time can be exchanged for five or six radios. As for deer antlers, they were not enough at that time, but now the price of deer antlers has increased, so we can exchange them for them. We can produce radios in our country now, and many factories can make them, so they are not very expensive."

Halimu and Yushanjiang looked at each other, and then Halimu began to translate for the boys.

After hearing this, some of the young men also showed expressions of disbelief on their faces.

Most of them wanted to exchange for radios, some wanted to exchange for food, some wanted to exchange for bamboo shoots, medicines and tools. Li Long answered all their questions one by one.

Through this conversation, Li Long realized that the herdsmen in their winter dens were really short of supplies.

Although material shortages were a common phenomenon in the entire society at that time, due to language communication problems and ethnic customs, the herders in this area had relatively fewer supplies.

In contrast, because of the location of their pastures, they actually control a large number of precious resources, namely various leathers, jade, deer antlers, roe deer horns, and a small amount of velvet antlers, etc.

There is even real Tianshan snow lotus.

Although the medicinal effects of Tianshan Snow Lotus are not as magical as the legend says, it is also a precious gynecological medicine.

Moreover, in the eyes of local people, the snow lotus that appeared in film and television programs and in the counters of frontier specialty products in later generations is actually called stone lotus. Only the one that grows above the snow line is called snow lotus.

It’s just because it’s too rare, and some greedy guys would uproot it by the roots after discovering it in order to maximize their profits, resulting in people in later generations almost never seeing the real Tianshan Snow Lotus.

It is said that a pharmaceutical factory in the border area once produced a snow lotus and safflower tonic wine and invited a singer who later failed to become famous to be the spokesperson. They flew along the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains by helicopter for a week but did not find a single snow lotus above the snow line.

But Li Long is not sure about the purchase price of Xuelian yet, but he knows it will definitely not be high.

So Li Long said he would go and ask, but reminded him that it might require a lot.

The young man who asked Xuelian was a little disappointed.

"Okay, okay, let's get to work!" Yu Shanjiang clapped his hands and said, "Work a little longer. Your sisters-in-law will come to deliver food. We can't let the women see us slacking off. Let's get to work!"

Li Long and Halimu also joined the work team. He couldn't do it, but he could move wood and hit wooden wedges. Although they couldn't speak the same language, gestures were the best means of communication at this time. Through gestures, they could understand what kind of cooperation the other party wanted.

At noon, Halimu's wife brought a large pot of mutton, and Yushanjiang's wife brought a large piece of freshly made naan and mare's milk. Li Long ate meat, naan and drank mare's milk with them.

After lunch, during the break, Halimu called Li Long and said:
"Li Long, you don't have to work here anymore. Leave the work here to us and go do your own things. In two or three days, this winter nest will be built, and then it will be your job to arrange it. You will have endless things to do by then. I think if you have time, you can pull some wood down and make some furniture. We can make a wooden kang for you, but we can't do other things, you have to do it yourself."

Li Long nodded, that was indeed the case.

If possible, he also hopes to have wooden tables and chairs, iron stoves, cabinets, etc. in his own wooden house.

People like Yu Shanjiang can't do these things, and they don't have the right tools.

"Then I'll come over tomorrow. Our villagers have to work in the ditch on the east side of Hongshanzui. It may take a month. I will go to check on them often, so I will run back and forth between the mountains and the county town during this month. If anyone needs to exchange anything, I will exchange it for you."

"Don't worry, you'll be busy tomorrow. Maybe everyone will go back today and bring back a lot of things tomorrow, and ask you to help them exchange them."

"It's definitely no problem."

After leaving here, Li Long returned to Halimu’s winter home, rode his bicycle to Xiaobaiyanggou.

To get to Xiaobaiyanggou from here, you have to go outside the mountain, then ride along the outermost mountain trail to Hongshanzui, and then ride from Hongshanzui into the mountain. Xiaobaiyanggou is considered a ditch here, and its mouth does not directly lead to the outside of the mountain.

When Li Long arrived at the entrance of Xiaobaiyanggou, he saw that his own carriage and another family's carriage in the team had already stopped there. Most of the things on the carriages had been unloaded, and some people were digging holes on the flat slope a few dozen meters away from the entrance of Xiaobaiyanggou.

The winter den is where herders spend the winter. It is basically built against the mountain, or even directly made of adobe or wooden houses.

Diwozi is different. It is more common in the northwest and northeast. It is a temporary semi-underground place of residence. A pit is dug in the ground, usually square or rectangular, covered with a layer of branches or wood, and then covered with a layer of soil. People live in it, which is called a diwozi.

To enter the dugout, you just need to dig a trench from the outside to the inside, which can be steps or slopes. Usually, some grass is laid inside, and a roll of blankets is placed. If you are more particular, you will dig a wider trench to facilitate the placement of other things.

This place was once visited by a sideline team. Although the dugout where we lived at that time is no longer usable, the pit is still there and can be used after a simple repair.

Now Tao Daqiang and his people are cleaning the pit.

Seeing Li Long, Li Jianguo beside the carriage smiled.

(End of this chapter)