Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 151: Work hard for a better life
"Have you eaten?" This was the first question Li Jianguo asked Li Long.

"I just ate at a friend's place, how about you guys?"

"I ate the dry food I brought with me." Li Jianguo said, "It's hard to find this place. If it weren't for Yundong, it would be hard to find it here."

"Brother Yundong is here?" Li Long looked around but did not see Xie Yundong.

"He went to look at the strips and said he remembered there were dozens of big willow trees in the area ahead. He would cut the strips there, carry them here to burn, and then weave them."

Tao Daqiang saw Li Long, walked over quickly and said:

"Brother Long."

"Have you dug your hole?" Li Long asked him.

"It's done. Go cut some branches later." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously. He knew that it was Li Long's suggestion that allowed him to come here this time, so he was very grateful to Li Long.

Although I was already grateful enough to Li Long before.

"Let's go and help Lao Gu dig his own burrow. Not only does he have to dig his own burrow, but he also has to build a stove. It's quite troublesome."

Gu Boyuan was in charge of cooking, so he was naturally in charge of the stove. At this time, Gu Boyuan was digging a cave with great effort. His movements were not as fast as others, and when he came down, the caves in a good position had been taken by others. He could only choose a cave that had collapsed. Even though it collapsed, at least he didn't have to dig from the beginning.

After Li Jianguo and the other two arrived, Gu Boyuan smiled, but before he could say anything polite, Li Jianguo said unhappily:
"I just want to go back early. Stop talking nonsense. You should go and build the stove. At least we should have something hot to eat at night, right?"

"Okay, okay, whatever you say goes." Gu Boyuan really didn't need to be polite to Li Jianguo. He smiled and nodded to Li Long and Tao Daqiang, then went to dig the stove.

"Uncle Gu knows how to dig a stove?" Li Long asked with some confusion.

After all, this is a scholar disguised as a farmer, so it is doubtful whether he can work.

"He's a college student!" Although Li Jianguo didn't speak well to Gu Boyuan, he respected him behind his back. "His knowledge is unmatched in our village, not to mention the whole township! So digging a stove shouldn't be a piece of cake, right?"

Li Long turned his head and saw that Gu Boyuan had found a slope nearby. He looked up at the sky, licked his fingers and put them up, as if he was measuring the wind direction, and then began to dig diagonally.

It looks like that.

It was easy for three people to dig a half-finished earthen cave. After digging, Li Long and Tao Daqiang went to the nearby forest to cut branches, while Li Jianguo went to watch Gu Boyuan dig a stove.

"There are quite a few strips here." Tao Daqiang is also an expert at making up the handles. He made all the handles at home. "They should be good to make—"

"Use larger branches to build your nest. By the way, if you encounter an animal, tell me when I come over, and I'll kill it and we can share it." Li Long said:
"There are roe deer here. They should be growing new horns now. If you pick up deer antlers or roe deer horns, remember to keep them. They are quite valuable."

"Okay, I understand. By the way, Brother Long, Xu Jianjun said in the car that he would take some time to go dig for Fritillaria and asked me if I wanted to go. I said no."

"Don't go. The Fritillaria here are under the supervision of someone. You don't have the documents to prove it. If you are caught, you can confiscate the Fritillaria and you won't have anything to say. You may even be fined!"

When Tao Daqiang heard that he would be fined, he immediately shook his head:

"I'm not going." He had no money at all now, and he still owed Li Long a lot of money.

The two men cut a lot of branches and dragged some dry sticks from the woods.

The two of them first focused on covering the top of Tao Daqiang's dugout. They covered it with branches densely, in several layers, and then began to cover it with soil. After covering it with soil, they went to work on Gu Boyuan's dugout.

In the end, these two dugouts were built the fastest.

At this time, Xie Yundong had already returned. He saw Li Long and greeted him with a smile:
"Xiaolong, you're here—do you live here too?"

"No, no, no, I have a place to live." Li Long shook his head. "I come over here every day. It's not far from here. My friend's winter home is over there."

Hearing what Li Long said, many people showed envy. No matter how good the underground cave is, it is not as good as the winter cave. In the underground cave, not only can the waist not be straightened, but also because it has just been dug, the soil is relatively damp, which makes it easy to suffer from rheumatism or joint pain.

Although the winter nest is only one word different from the dugout, it is actually a house. It is warm and has windows for light. It is not as dark as the dugout, and it has a large space.

But even though they envy him, they know that they can't live in a winter nest. It's good enough to make money here.

Gu Boyuan had already dug the stove here. Li Long went over to take a look out of curiosity and was surprised to find that it was a double-eye stove. There was a hole for placing firewood, and there were two stove eyes on it, so one could boil water and cook at the same time. The smoke exhaust hole was very long, which looked quite scientific.

It turns out that he is someone who has attended college.

"Try getting some wood." Li Jianguo patted the dust off his hands and said, "Maybe it looks beautiful, but it's actually useless."

"Then let's give it a try." Gu Boyuan smiled and said, "There are a lot of dry wood. I can pick some up. I'll go get a pot and boil some hot water for everyone."

As he said that, he went to move the pot. Li Jianguo went to help move the cooking utensils, while Li Long and Tao Daqiang went to collect firewood. There were a lot of dead branches here, and they just picked up a bunch of firewood with a few moves.

Tao Daqiang put down the firewood and picked up the bucket to fetch water. At this time, the other people who had prepared the dugout began to spread out the bedding inside, but no one came to help.

Gu Boyuan put the pot on the stove, and seeing that the stove was a little small, he used a shovel to fix it and put the pot on it. Tao Daqiang came back, and he poured water into the pot and started to light the fire.

"Where do you get the water?" Li Long asked.

"There's a spring in the ditch ahead." Tao Daqiang pointed to the edge of the ditch and said, "The spring was bubbling water quite happily, so I scooped some water from there."

At that time, the groundwater level was relatively high. Not only in the mountains, but also near the small lake in the village, there were many springs. There was also an artesian well more than 20 meters deep next to the small lake. The water flowed there until the late 1980s, when it was filled up for land reclamation.

After boiling water in the pot, Gu Boyuan spread out the chopping board he brought with him and looked around, but there was nothing suitable to put it on.

"Uncle Gu, wait a minute. Daqiang and I will go move some stones." Li Long patted Tao Daqiang, and the two of them found a few stones in the ditch, moved them up, and placed them next to the stove.

Gu Boyuan put the chopping board on the table and adjusted it a little, placing a stone slab under one of the stones, so that the chopping board became level.

"Okay, you guys stay here, I'm going back." Li Jianguo saw that everything was almost done, so he said, "Xiaolong, do you want to stay here or go to the winter den over there?"

"Brother, you have to wait a moment. Daqiang and I will go get some fallen trees for you to pull back. I can be of use."

"Okay," Li Jianguo thought that since they were already here, it would be bad to go back with an empty car, so he followed Li Long and the others, carrying an axe and looking for fallen trees.

Watching Li Long and the others leave, Xu Jianjun curled his lips and said:

"Li Long orders Tao Daqiang around like a dog, and Tao Daqiang keeps following him. What a spineless person."

Tian Siping next to him glanced at him and said:

"If you give me five dollars a day, I can let you do that."

Xu Jianjun rolled his eyes at this. He originally wanted to use this topic to arouse everyone's jealousy towards Li Long, but he didn't expect that other people were not stupid either.

This job was introduced by Li Long. Wouldn't it be asking for trouble if I offend Li Long now?
Seeing that no one responded to him, Xu Jianjun rolled his eyes and said to Xie Yundong:
"Old Xie, I'm going to take a walk in the woods and will be back soon."

After saying that, without waiting for Xie Yundong's consent, he quickly ran into the woods.

Xie Yundong looked at his back and shook his head, then looked at the others and said:

"If you want to go, that's fine. We're all adults now, so I don't need to take care of you. But there are poisonous snakes in the mountains now. As you know, the forestry team was patrolling when we came here. If you get caught now, it's hard to say what will happen to you later.

If you have this time, you might as well fix up your dugout and live more comfortably. If you really have nothing to do, you can go cut some strips or dig holes for weaving. Isn't it better to get more money if you do more?"

After he said this, the others immediately went back to work. Most of the people who came were honest people, and they knew that what Xie Yundong said was right.

Li Long, Tao Daqiang and Li Jianguo soon found a fallen tree, which should have fallen last year. Li Long chopped off the branches with an axe and found that the branches were still strong. He knew that the wood could be used, so he said:
"That's it."

Three people, three axes, some chopped branches, some cut the branches, and in less than an hour, a pine tree that was as thick as a man's embrace was chopped into three pieces. Li Jianguo harnessed a horse-drawn carriage, pulled the wood, and walked down the mountain.

When passing by the stove, Gu Boyuan shouted:
"Stop and drink some hot water."

"Okay." Li Jianguo walked over, picked up the cold boiled water that Gu Boyuan had prepared in a bowl, drank it in one gulp, and left.

Gu Boyuan looked at his back, said nothing more, and started preparing dinner.

Everyone brought cornmeal, and he couldn't cook anything delicious. So after he steamed the cornmeal cake, he found some wild vegetables by the ditch, boiled them in another pot, and prepared to mix them together.

Everyone brought red tofu, so we don’t have to expect so much when we are outside.

"Uncle Gu, there are still some dried mushrooms from last year in the forest. This year's mushrooms should be ready soon and they can all be eaten." Li Long reminded them, "If they have any objections, it's no problem to fry them for a euro."

"I know." Gu Boyuan said with a smile, "Just go ahead and do your thing."

Li Long did not follow Li Jianguo back to the county town. He rode his bicycle along the narrow path to the mouth of the ditch on the Halimu side. In fact, he wanted to find the place where they hunted yellow sheep.

Li Long wanted to see if there were any yellow sheep in that area.

Unfortunately not.

There were not many people living nearby, so Li Long simply leaned his bicycle against the side of the mountain, locked it, and climbed up the mountain by himself.

He thought about how Halimu and the others found so many deer antlers at once after the snow melted, and wondered if he would have the same luck.

After climbing over two mountains and passing through several pine forests and bushes, Li Long returned to his bicycle dejectedly.

It seems that deer antlers are not that easy to find.

He rode his bicycle higher and higher along the narrow path, and finally arrived at the top of the ridge. Only then did Li Long realize that he seemed to have changed his route.

Looking from a high place, he found that there was only a mountain between this place and the original road, so he did not change the route and went down along this road.

The narrow path leads diagonally to the bottom of the ravine. The terrain here is flat and there is a large patch of wild garlic or something like that, but it has just sprouted.

There is a small wetland, which should have been a spring in the past. Later, the groundwater level may have dropped and the spring water no longer seeped out, but the ground is still relatively moist, with many plants growing here, as well as some short shrubs.

Then Li Long saw a large area of ​​wet soil that was arched up.

There are wild boars!
Li Long was a little excited. He parked the car and ran over. Then he saw that the area where the land was turned over was about the size of a basketball court. It was very messy and some grass roots were turned out with tender white buds on them.

Because the ground was relatively damp, footprints of all sizes were clearly visible - big wild boars, small wild boars, and probably some very small ones, just like the piglets that Li Long caught two days ago.

And quite a few!

Li Long's heart was pounding! Wouldn't it be fun if he could catch a few wild boars and raise them together with domestic pigs?
But this thing is definitely not easy to catch.

Li Long knew that it was easy to kill a wild boar. He would lie in ambush here early tomorrow morning and wait for the wild boar to come and then shoot.

But it would be a bit troublesome to capture a wild boar alive.

But it's not impossible.

Li Long looked around carefully and looked at the terrain. He felt it necessary to give it a try!
It would be a lot of fun if we could really catch a wild boar, wouldn't it?

Since there is not much to do now, Li Long plans to get this done.

He stopped wandering in the mountains. He turned around, picked up his bicycle, jumped on it, rode along the narrow path to the mountain pass, and then rode back to the compound.

He took a gun, wire, pliers and other tools from the courtyard, left the courtyard, locked the door and went to the grain store. He bought several kilograms of corn in the grain store, packed it in a bag and went to the mountains.

When we returned to the place where the wild boars were, the sun was about to set.

Li Long began to make arrangements.

When he left earlier, he had already seen the environment clearly, so he began to scatter corn kernels from the place where the wild boar had opened up earlier to the bushes, and then spread them over a large area, covering the bushes.

Next, we started looking for sturdy bushes and began to set traps.

The wire used is No. 12 wire, which is twice as thick as the thin wire. The circle setting is a bit similar to the rabbit trap. I was afraid that I would miss the target, so I set more. Such a trap would definitely not be able to trap a big wild boar, but a small wild boar could easily be caught if it could get under the bushes to eat corn kernels.

Li Long set up more than twenty sets of traps, including both flat traps and vertical traps. He stopped only after he had used up all the wire he brought with him.

Mainly because it was his first time doing this alone and he had no experience, so he would do it in a more comprehensive way.

Now that all the covers had been taken off, he got on his bike and went back.

Li Long planned to go back to the compound and sleep first, and then come back to check the situation at dawn tomorrow. At this time, he didn't want to go to Halimu's winter nest - after all, it was no longer winter, and it would be inconvenient to be crowded.

After returning to the compound, it was completely dark. Although he was still a little excited, he knew that he had to rest early. So he found something to eat in the kitchen, ate quickly, and went to bed.

Originally Li Long was worried that he would not be able to wake up early the next morning, but fortunately his biological clock reminded him to open his eyes in time.

Looking at the dim sky outside, Li Long knew that he had to get to the mountains as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)