Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 178: Elk, it turns out it’s because of the horse, not the deer!
After locking the door, Li Long rode his bicycle to Xiaobaiyanggou.

In Xiaobaiyanggou, everyone was still burning strips and making bamboo poles. Li Long took a look around and saw that there was nothing to do, so he said hello to Xie Yundong and rode his bicycle into the mountains. He remembered that Halimu and Yushanjiang seemed to have specifically mentioned some ravines with "specialties" when they left, but in fact, Li Long had not really visited them until now.

Riding a bicycle, he came to a ravine where he had been twice. The first time, Yushanjiang brought him here, saying there were red deer here. The second time, Li Long came here by himself, hoping to see if he could pick up deer antlers, but he found nothing.

After hiding the bicycle in the bushes at the mouth of the ditch and locking it, Li Long walked into the ditch with his gun in hand.

The grass in the ditch is not very dense. It runs from east to west. The shady slope is covered with pine trees, and the lower part is covered with grass, which is a bit damp. The northern slope is a large area of ​​grass with some small shrubs growing in it. It looks like it has thorns and is not easy to walk on.

Li Long walked into the ditch with his gun and took a closer look. He found that the ditch was not straight to the end. There were some bends and there was a stream at the bottom of the ditch. The water was not large and appeared and disappeared from time to time.

By this time the sun had risen. He walked diagonally up the shady hillside and found that there were no goat paths here. There should be few herdsmen grazing here, so the place remained in a relatively primitive state.

Stepping on the grass, holding the gun in both hands and moving forward step by step, Li Long felt like a man who was trying to get lucky. It was really a joke to come here to gamble his luck.

It would be better to stay in Xiaobaiyanggou and see if anyone can help find the traces of the prey, and then go and hunt it directly.

But now that he was here, Li Long had no intention of giving up. He walked forward, one step deep and one step shallow. As he walked, he saw quite a few Fritillaria seedlings and Codonopsis pilosula plants.

It is not cost-effective to dig Codonopsis pilosula now, as it is hollow inside and only a layer of skin remains after drying. However, Fritillaria thunbergii has not bloomed yet, so it is the right time to dig it.

But Li Long no longer cares about this little money. After all, as an amateur, he may only dig one kilogram in half a day, and sell it for only five or six yuan after drying.

And if you really find a deer, you can make hundreds of dollars by shooting it!

Now that you have a gun, do some hunter work.

He ignored the Codonopsis pilosula and Fritillaria thunbergii, including some straw mushrooms, and continued walking into the ditch while avoiding the thorny bushes.

The ditch was quite long, and when he was almost halfway there, Li Long suddenly stopped.

This place is located at the turning point of the ditch, just in time to see the ditch mouth and the ditch head. The whole ditch is like an uneven blunt angle, and now Li Long is at the tip of this angle.

He saw a huge elk eating grass about twenty or thirty meters below the ditch, shaking its head constantly as it ate.

The antlers on its head are one long and one short, and no one knows why. From a distance, this red deer looks tall and big, like a half-grown foal, no wonder it is called a red deer!

The elk looked very leisurely, strolling in the grass, occasionally lowering its head to take a bite of grass. It didn't seem to be very hungry, and seemed to be waiting for something.

Li Long estimated the distance with his eyes. The elk was about seventy or eighty meters away from him. He could definitely hit it at this distance, but he felt that the power of the small caliber was not enough for this elk, which was about the same size as a cow.

So Li Long opened the safety of the small-caliber gun, pulled the bolt to load the bullet, and slowly moved over there holding the gun with both hands.

If we could get a little closer, that would be about right.

Li Long moved forward cautiously while observing the movements of the sika deer. He was worried that if he was not careful when walking, the sika deer would run away and all his efforts would be wasted.

There was no path in the grass, and it was very troublesome to walk with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Occasionally, there would be small thorny bushes that would catch on his pants and clothes, preventing Li Long from moving forward.

At this time, it was a test of patience. Li Long carefully solved the problems one by one. After advancing more than 20 meters, the grass in front was a bit deep. He planned to find a good position to shoot after passing the grass.

Just when he reached the deep grass, something suddenly flew out from the grass and rushed directly to the other side of the hillside. Li Long was startled, and then he knew that something was wrong!

This thing is a wild chicken!

He didn't care to be cautious anymore, and jumped out of the bush with his gun in hand. Sure enough, he saw that the elk had been startled and turned around to run up the slope. He half-knelt hurriedly, took the gun, took a quick aim, and fired!

"Clap!"

Before he finished firing two shots, the red deer had already disappeared on the opposite slope. Li Long was still unwilling to give up, so he ran over there with his gun in hand. When he ran to the top of the slope panting and looked down, he could no longer see the red deer.

There was a patch of deep grass below the slope, with pine forests and bushes on both sides that were not very dense, but were more than enough to hide a red deer.

Li Long was extremely disappointed. He looked carefully nearby and finally saw a little bit of blood on the leaves of a bush - not blood beads.

He was hit, but the injury wasn't serious, so he ran away.

Is this Li Long’s first failure in gun hunting?
He felt a little disappointed. As he walked back, he kicked the grass from time to time, thinking that he should blame the flying pheasant, or if he had shot in advance, he could have at least fired two more shots, and maybe the pheasant would have stayed.

As a result, he kicked something and kicked it up.

Li Long took a look, bent down and picked it up in surprise - it was a deer antler!

It is nearly half a meter long, with four or five branched antlers!

The deer antler felt quite heavy in his hand, probably about seven or eight kilograms. Li Long felt better. This was an unexpected surprise.

He weighed the deer antlers, turned off the safety of the gun and put it on his back, and walked forward leisurely. As he walked, he suddenly thought of something - what was the pheasant doing in the deep grass?
He hurried over and parted the long grass to search for it.

Sure enough, a nest of pheasant eggs was soon discovered!

These eggs are smaller than ordinary eggs, and are both bluish-white and white, and there are seven of them.

Li Long happily picked up the eggs and carefully packed them in the two pockets on both sides of his clothes. At first, he thought about picking a handful of wild leeks and frying them directly when he got home, but then he thought about it and realized that the pheasant was clearly hatching eggs, so could he take them back and ask the old hen to help hatch them?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this should be possible. He happily walked out of the ditch, kicking the grass from time to time as he walked, trying to see if he could kick out another nest of eggs.

It was not until he kicked something like a rope into the air that Li Long immediately realized that he could not kick it anymore!
This season, these guys are out!
Fortunately, Li Long was wearing high-waisted rubber shoes, and fortunately he kicked from time to time, otherwise he might have been ambushed and bitten!
The plateau pit viper is very poisonous!

After Li Long was startled, he immediately rushed to the ditch entrance, holding the gun in one hand and the deer antler in the other, and ran very fast. When he reached the ditch entrance, he felt wet on his ribs.

Oops, the egg is broken!

He placed the antlers on the ground and carefully took out the eggs. Sure enough, one of the eggs was broken, with a little bit of egg liquid, which was a bit smelly - and there was also a little pheasant hatching, with a ball of yolk stuck on its butt.

He threw the thing away in disgust, then grabbed a handful of hay from the roadside to wipe his pocket, put the pheasant eggs in it, tied the antlers to his bicycle, and rode back.

Li Long went straight back to the yard, put the antlers away, found a cloth bag to pack the pheasant eggs, and rode back to the team.

It was already noon when he returned to the team. To Li Long's surprise, Tao Dayong was pumping water from the well in the yard. He saw Li Long riding back on his bike and said with a wry smile:

"Xiaolong is back?"

Li Long and Tao Dayong didn't talk much. He nodded, responded, then parked the car and went into the kitchen with the pheasant eggs.

Liang Yuemei was cooking. When she saw Li Long coming in, she smiled and was about to speak. Li Long raised the pheasant eggs and said:
"Sister-in-law, I picked up a nest of pheasant eggs in the mountains. Does our old hen have any chicks?"

"No... Our two hens are both carrying chicks. Tietou has an old hen sitting on eggs. Should we put them in his chicken coop?"

Li Long thought for a moment and said:
"Okay, I'll go over and talk to you."

When Li Long came out, Tao Dayong was about to leave with the bucket. He looked at Li Long and said with a smile:
"When will Xiaolong go into the mountains? How is Daqiang there?"

"Daqiang is fine. He will probably be back in half a month." After saying that, Li Long went to the Lu family.

The Lu family was also cooking. Li Long explained his purpose. The eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family asked curiously:

"Pheasant eggs? What do they look like? Let me see?"

Li Long took out six pheasant eggs from the cloth bag.

"It's a little small... Give it to me, I'll put it in the chicken coop. My hen is just starting to lay eggs, and I was wondering if she has laid too few eggs... Can you bring one out for me?"

"How can there be only one? Three. Six eggs, three for each of our two families." Li Long said with a smile, "If I can't take them out, I have to keep them at your house, right?"

"Okay, okay." Lu's eldest sister-in-law smiled and took the pheasant eggs with both hands and walked to the chicken coop in the yard. When the old hen saw someone coming, she immediately made a threatening clucking sound. Lu's eldest sister-in-law was experienced. She first handed the chicken to one hand and half-cupped it against her belly, then picked up the old hen with her right hand, and then quickly stuffed the six eggs into the chicken coop, and then put the old hen in.

"Okay, wait till you get out of the nest!" Mrs. Lu clapped her hands, "Xiaolong, stay for dinner?"

"No, I'm not going to eat. My sister-in-law is cooking at home, and we have to rush to the county after we finish eating."

"Then you go ahead and do your work. I won't keep you here any longer."

When Li Long left, he heard the eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family saying in the room: "Xiao Long has made great progress..."

After lunch, Li Long rested for a while. When Li Jianguo and others went to work, he rode his bike to the county.

Of course, he came back not just for a few chickens. He went to the supply and marketing cooperative and found Li Xiangqian.

"You've compiled more than 200?" Li Xiangqian was a little surprised. "You're moving pretty fast. So you can finish it in less than ten days?"

"Yes." Li Long was sitting in Li Xiangqian's office, drinking water from an enamel pot with the words "Serve the People" written on it, and asked, "Section Chief, I want to ask, exactly 300 people, not one more, right?"

"A few more won't be a problem." Li Xiangqian waved his hand and said, "A few less won't work, but a few more won't be a problem. Then I'll contact the fleet to prepare for the haul - if we want to haul it all in one trip, we'll have to prepare at least three large trucks, and your people will have to help load the trucks when the time comes."

"There will be no problem loading it." Li Long took another sip. He remembered that the last time he used this enamel pot in his previous life was when he went to the Southern Xinjiang Scenic Area to eat pot meat. "I also want to ask when the bill will be settled?"

"Pull it back and check it and put it into storage, and we can settle the bill." Li Xiangqian said cheerfully, "Don't worry about this. These tools are urgently needed by various units now, and we won't hold back the account."

After he said that, Li Long felt relieved.

"Then you are busy, Chief. I'll be leaving first. I have to go into the mountains today to urge them to finish their work as soon as possible. I will also start to get busy with the work in the village."

"Then I won't keep you here. We'll talk when you come back." Li Xiangqian was still very satisfied with Li Long. The young man was hardworking and smart. If such a person came into his own territory, he would definitely be a good hand.

Li Long did not go back to the mountains directly, but went to the big yard, picked up the dried Fritillaria, put them in urea bags and went to the purchasing station.

Chen Hongjun was not there, so Li Long just did his job and asked the middle-aged lady behind the counter:

"Hello comrade, I am here to sell Fritillaria."

"Fritillaria? Which forestry team are you from?" the lady behind the counter asked curiously.

"No, I'm a buyer for the supply and marketing cooperative." Li Long felt that his non-staff identity was really useful. "I bought these Fritillaria from some people in the forestry team."

The elder sister smiled knowingly and said:
"Yes, dried Fritillaria or fresh Fritillaria?" asked the older sister.

"Dried Fritillaria, look at this stuff." Li Long put the bag on the counter and took out a handful to show the older sister.

"It's in good condition and very clean. Have you washed it?" the older sister asked curiously.

"No, I just picked it up after digging it out." Li Long said, "We are laymen and dare not mess around."

"Very cautious. This mother-of-pearl is of good size and color. It's first-rate. Thirty-seven yuan per kilogram."

Li Long was very satisfied. He weighed it and found it was more than five kilograms in total. He sold it for 198 yuan.

Li Long was just trying out the route this time. Since individuals could come to sell, it meant that although the forestry team had divided the mountain into different areas, the purchasing station had not yet connected them, and individuals were not prohibited from digging for Fritillaria.

After packing the money, Li Long went to the big meat canteen and bought some meat buns and took them to Xiaobaiyanggou.

In the next two days, Li Long would wait for a while after breakfast, and if no one came to find him, he would go to Xiaobaiyanggou and watch everyone weave the ropes.

Later, someone came to sell Fritillaria again. The quality of the Fritillaria was also good, and the quantity was large, more than twelve kilograms, and it was semi-dried. This made Li Long feel that he had a good harvest, so he bought the goods for five yuan per kilogram.

But after a few days, no one came anymore.

On April 16, by the evening, Li Long had counted 307 of them. This was expected, and he had already communicated with Li Xiangqian in the morning to send a truck to pick them up tomorrow.

Among the ten people, Tao Daqiang made the most, forty-one alone.

The one who compiled the least was Xu Jianjun, who compiled 22. In short, everyone has gained a lot in the past month.

Before leaving at night, Li Long specifically reminded Xie Yundong to be careful at night and not to let anything happen.

(End of this chapter)