Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 193: Nosebleed, young man, you can’t eat this!

Li Long had heard that the Codonopsis pilosula that had not been dug up for many years in the deep mountains would be very large. After all, this thing is not as valuable as ginseng, and there are so many Codonopsis pilosula in the Tianshan Mountains, from the east line to the west line, stretching for hundreds of kilometers, with few people and abundant resources, so few people dig it.

I just didn’t expect that just digging up a tree would have such a big head!
He was a little amused and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He just wanted to dig out a piece of cake as thick as a chopstick and chew it to quench his thirst!
But since I've dug it, I'll just keep going.

He placed one end of the stick on the ground, stomped on it with his foot, broke it, leaving a sharp wooden head, and continued digging.

A ten-centimeter-long section of the Codonopsis pilosula head was dug out, which was as thick as Li Qiang's arm, not an exaggeration at all. Moreover, the skin of the Codonopsis pilosula cracked as soon as it was dug out. Li Long guessed that it was probably because it grew in the soil and was bound by the soil around it, so it was relatively intact. Once it was dug out, there was no restraint around it, and the juice inside was relatively rich, so it burst.

This Codonopsis pilosula grows very neatly. The top part has no branches and is straight up and down. It is thickest at about 30 centimeters and becomes thinner further down. It has hair roots, but Li Long didn't care about it as it was not valuable anyway.

He remembered that he seemed to have talked with Chen Hongjun about it. During the Codonopsis pilosula harvesting season in September and October, the purchase price of dried Codonopsis pilosula at their purchasing station and medicinal materials company was only 20 yuan per kilogram.

This one root might weigh half a kilogram when dug out, and two or three hundred grams after drying?
If you calculate it this way, it's actually quite profitable. Digging ten roots a day shouldn't be a problem, right? Thirty or fifty yuan?
Li Long suddenly felt that there was something he could do!

While thinking and digging, when he was a little tired and was about to change hands, he saw Tao Daqiang digging a hole three or five meters away. Tao Daqiang was much faster than him. Li Long stood up and looked over. He found that the hole Tao Daqiang dug was not as thick as his, but the diameter was about three centimeters.

Not too small.

Li Long dug for half an hour and finally dug out a nearly one-meter-long Codonopsis pilosula. Its overall shape was a bit like an irregular herringbone, with two branches near the bottom quarter, one thick and one thin.

He filled the excavated soil back in, mainly because he was worried that if there was a heavy rain, the dug hole would be easily washed out of the cliff, which would lead to soil erosion.

It's possible.

Ten minutes later, Tao Daqiang's was also dug out. It was shorter than Li Long's, but more like a human figure, with two "arms" but no legs.

"Brother Long, is this how we eat it?" Tao Daqiang saw Li Long filling the soil back, so he followed suit. After he finished, he asked Li Long excitedly.

"This..." Li Long felt that it was a bit of a waste to eat it like this, but if he kept this thing, there was no doubt that it would be hollow after drying and would not be full, so it would be of little use.

"Come on, wash up, and eat a few bites from the root. Don't eat too much, I'm afraid you'll have a nosebleed."

Codonopsis pilosula replenishes qi and blood, and treats spleen and stomach deficiencies. It is definitely not good for people like Li Long and Tao Daqiang who are full of vigor and vitality to eat too much of it.

He took Tao Daqiang to the bottom of the ditch to find a spring. After washing the water, Li Long took a bite of about five centimeters of the fish and chewed it carefully.

Tao Daqiang also took a bite, then smiled and said while eating:
"It's delicious."

He finished it in three or two bites and took another bite.

Li Long was speechless. Just wait, boy.

"Brother Long, you have a nosebleed..." Tao Daqiang suddenly pointed at Li Long and said.

Li Long wiped his nose, sure enough!

Is it so damn fast?
"Same for you." Li Long said to Tao Daqiang while washing, "Okay, let's not eat it. Take it back and let it dry."

I don't know how old this Codonopsis is, but its medicinal effect must be strong enough.

Li Long blindly guessed that there was another reason for their nosebleeds, which was that young people had hot blood and sufficient qi and blood.

Tao Daqiang put the Codonopsis pilosula into the urea bag with some regret. It was quite delicious, but he couldn't eat it anymore.

The two men each carried a piece of Codonopsis pilosula back to the wooden house. Li Long threw the Codonopsis pilosula directly onto the shelf in the small room and let it dry naturally. With the climate in the mountains, there was no need to worry about it getting moldy.

"Brother Long, can I take this back? I plan to boil some water for my dad. Is this okay for them to drink?"

"It's OK, it must be good." Li Long smiled and said, "You can dig more when you leave. The effect of Codonopsis pilosula is not so good now. Wait until autumn, when the stems are dry, and then you can dig some out and hang them up to dry. That's good."

"Okay!" Tao Daqiang said excitedly.

Li Long washed the mushrooms, cut them simply, then put a pot on the stove made of several stones outside, fetched a bucket of water from a spring not far away, poured it into the pot, and started to cook mushroom soup.

Tao Daqiang walked around outside, picked up a bunch of dry branches, and prepared to start a fire at another stone stove. He took a burning wood from the fire lit by Li Long and stuffed it under the stove over there. He had already stuffed a few handfuls of dry grass and some thin branches under the wood. Soon, the fire on the stove over there also started burning.

"Let's make some unpasteurized dough." Li Long said, "Let's make something simple. If we can't catch anything today, we can just eat something casually. We'll try to have a good meal tomorrow."

After dinner, when the stove was extinguished and it was still dark, Li Long said to Tao Daqiang:

"Go to bed early today and get up early tomorrow, even earlier than usual to get the nets. Let's go see if there are any wild boars. By the way, remember to lock the door at night. Remember what I said last time."

"Brother Long, I understand." Tao Daqiang entered the small room and locked it from the inside.

After a tiring day, Li Long lay down on the wooden kang and fell asleep quickly.

The biological clock is really a magical thing. He remembered to get up early and woke up while it was still dark.

Looking outside, Li Long estimated the time and thought it should be about time, so he rubbed his face, got up and put on his clothes.

It was quite cold in the room, so he got dressed, put his gun on his back, opened the door and went out, then knocked on the window of the small room.

The window was a wooden frame with plastic sheeting nailed to it. When he knocked, Tao Daqiang inside immediately responded:
"Brother Long?"

"Well, get up, let's go find the wild boar."

"Okay, I'll be out right away."

Tao Daqiang came out with a small-caliber gun on his back. Li Long pointed in a direction and he immediately followed.

"Wild boars come out early, so we have to get up early too. But we didn't see any traces of wild boars yesterday. Let's patrol the ditch today, walk all the way to the east, and come back when we are almost at Xiaobaiyanggou. If we can see any, we will hunt them. If we can't see any, we will wait until daytime to look for deer."

"Okay." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

The two of them walked eastward along the narrow path, one in front and one behind. Compared with yesterday's deep mountain walk, today they mainly walked outside the mountain - from the outermost dirt mountain to the fourth or fifth layer of the mountain inside. There are grass slopes in the north and pine forests in the south. Pine cones will roll down. There are usually springs at the bottom of the ditch, and some plants that prefer shade and moisture will grow there. According to Li Long's previous experience, wild boars usually like to come to such places.

After walking through two ravines, there was a hint of dawn in the east, but the stars in the sky were still bright and could be seen clearly.

Li Long was a little disappointed as he found nothing.

Was he looking in the wrong place? He decided to walk eastwards through another ditch. If he still couldn't find anything, he would walk further up the mountain and then go back.

When he reached the top of the ditch, Li Long had a feeling that there was something underneath!
Although he didn't hear any movement, he still took the gun off his shoulder, and his movements were much slower.

Tao Daqiang followed suit and immediately took the small-caliber rifle in his hand, bending down and walking forward parallel to Li Long.

The top of this mountain was a bit flat. Li Long quietly walked forward a dozen steps and when he reached the place where he was about to go downhill, he saw a wild boar digging up grass roots and eating them about forty or fifty meters ahead. It dug up a few times and took a few bites, then raised its head and looked around.

Surprisingly, there was only a half-grown wild boar. I didn't know whether it ran away or was driven out from the wild boar herd.

Li Long had had several experiences, and this distance was just right. He immediately half-crouched down, turned on the safety, pulled the bolt and pushed the bullet into the chamber.

Although the sound of pulling the bolt was very small, it still traveled far away in the silent night. The wild boar, which was lowering its head, suddenly raised its head!
Tao Daqiang subconsciously wanted to shout, but immediately covered his mouth!
"Boom!"

Li Long pulled the trigger twice, and when the wild boar was about to run, the bullet flew out!

So in Tao Daqiang's eyes, the wild boar suddenly jumped up in the air, and when it was about to run, its body suddenly went limp, and it fell heavily to the ground, twitching a few times, and then stopped moving.

"Let's go!" Li Longguan put his gun away and ran over there quickly.

He just ran halfway and then looked into the distance.

The ditch on the hillside is about a hundred meters away. You can just barely see a big guy running quickly out of the ditch, and soon it rushes up the opposite hillside and then disappears at the top of the mountain.

"Brother Long, what is that?" Tao Daqiang also saw the guy, but he realized it was too late. When he saw him, the guy had already reached the top and dropped off the line.

"It should be a red deer." Li Long's expression was a little complicated, "and it might be a male deer."

At first he actually thought it was a big wild boar, but he soon found out that it was not, because the antlers (velvet) on the stag's head betrayed its identity.

Li Long felt a little regretful. If he hadn't hunted the wild boar and instead observed more, would he have been able to find the elk?

But there is no regret medicine to sell, Li Long pointed to the wild boar that was no longer moving and said:
"Let's go down and clean it up."

The wild boar is not big, and its current gross weight is only about 50 kilograms. It should be the nesting material from last year and has not grown up yet.

As for why he was left alone, Li Long didn't know.

Tao Daqiang handed the small-caliber rifle to Li Long, then carried the wild boar on his shoulders and strode back.

"Be careful not to get blood on your clothes." Li Long reminded.

"What's there to be afraid of? I'll just wash it later." Tao Daqiang felt that he did not contribute much in hunting the wild boar, so naturally he had to do the heavy work himself. Otherwise, how could he have the nerve to eat the meat?

By the time the wild boar was carried to the winter den, even though Tao Daqiang was strong, he was still exhausted and out of breath.

In fact, Li Long wanted to take over carrying the load halfway through the journey, but Tao Daqiang refused to let him.

It was already dawn. Li Long put away his gun. Tao Daqiang sat on the wooden floor outside to take a deep breath and rest. Li Long went to build a fire. After lighting the stove, he took out a large basin from the house and said to Daqiang:
"You take a rest first. I'll gut and skin the wild boar."

Skinning is a delicate job, which Tao Daqiang cannot do. Although disembowelment is relatively simple, Tao Daqiang does not dare to do it either, so he helps Li Long.

After the wild boar's stomach was opened, a foul smell hit Li Long's nose and he quickly turned his head.

"What a pity. We've been busy lately. Otherwise, we could have carried this wild boar back and called some young men from the team to take care of the stable."

Li Long said as he pulled the wild boar's internal organs into the basin.

"There are many wild boars in this mountain. After we kill the deer, we can stay here for a few more days and go down the mountain after killing some wild boars." Compared to being in the team, Tao Daqiang prefers staying in the mountains.

"That's fine. Let's prepare the wild boar meat today and smoke it. At night, wash the internal organs and leave some blood here. Maybe we can catch a wolf in the middle of the night." Li Long had experience, or lessons. He piled all the internal organs in a large basin and started to skin the wild boar. As he skinned the wild boar, he said, "It's not bad to catch a wolf."

When Tao Daqiang heard about the wolf, he got a little nervous and said:

"Will that guy bite?"

"If they get angry, they will definitely bite you. But there's no need to be afraid. We have guns."

Tao Daqiang carried a basin to process the internal organs, while Li Long peeled the skin. When the sun rose, the wild boar meat had been cut into many pieces, and the internal organs and offal had also been processed.

Tao Daqiang had worked with the team members several times before. Although he was not very skilled at turning intestines, he had not made any mistakes.

"In the morning, I'll make some pancakes and stir-fry some wild boar offal." Li Long said, "If there's no green chili, I'll use dried chili. This wild boar offal is delicious when it's fresh."

He collected the wild boar tripes and now has a lot of them.

There are several people who do this thing, but I don't know if it works.

Tao Daqiang also knew how to make pancakes, so that job was given to him, while Li Long cut pork offal on a large wooden chopping board and then started frying.

The two of them ate until their mouths were drooling, and it was very satisfying.

After eating, Li Long went to the pine forest to cut some green branches. He came back and built a smokehouse next to the wooden house. He lit a fire under the smokehouse. After the fire was lit, he put green pine branches on it and hung strips of meat coated with salt above the smokehouse.

"Okay, let's smoke the meat. Wild animals won't dare to come over," Li Long said, holding up his gun. "Let's go and look around to see if we can find a deer."

This time, Li Long planned to go southwest, that is, to go deeper. This side is close to the Ma River, and there are not many hills to walk on, so Li Long decided to go back after reaching the Ma River.

We had a good meal this morning, and both of us have some fat in our stomachs, so we should be able to walk a little further today.

Li Long walked all the way to the bank of the Ma River but didn't find any trace of the sika deer. He was a little disappointed.

After climbing over a mountain, he planned to go back across a ridge.

Then I saw a few roe deer leisurely eating grass under the pine trees on the flat top of the hill in front.

Li Long's eyes lit up!
(End of this chapter)