Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 194 Not Everyone is Suitable to Be a Hunter - Tao Daqiang

Li Long estimated that the distance from here to the roe deer was about 100 meters. He whispered to Tao Daqiang:
"Da Qiang, let's sneak over there, I'll be on the left and you'll be on the right. Remember to turn on the safety and load the bullet."

After saying that, Li Long picked up the five-six-and-a-half rifle, opened the safety, loaded the bullet, then slowly took a few steps to the left, deliberately waiting for Tao Daqiang, and the two of them moved forward in parallel.

Tao Daqiang was excited and nervous. When he was hunting wild boars, he didn't get a chance to shoot, and he didn't dare to shoot. Now there was a roe deer in front of him, and Li Long said in person that he had a chance to shoot, so how could he not be excited?

Although the basic militia had fired guns during winter training, some of them were five or six or a half, but they were lying on the snow piles on the south bank of Dahaizi. Someone was shouting commands for everything. They had to lie down and listen to the commands to load bullets, pull the bolt to load the gun, and shoot according to the commands. They had no autonomy at all, and there was no reward or punishment for whether they hit the target or not - unless the sharpshooter hit the full target or zero rings, both of which were almost impossible.

Tao Daqiang kept in sync with Li Long through his peripheral vision, pulled the bolt to load the gun, turned on the safety, and then walked slowly forward with the gun in both hands.

The grass was quite deep, but fortunately the distance was far enough and the wind was not strong at this time of year. Li Long was not worried about being smelled by the roe deer, but the main concern was the noise.

Both of them were bent over. They were both quite tall, and it was quite uncomfortable to bend over for a long time, but they had no choice but to endure it at this time.

After walking 20 to 30 meters, Li Long saw that the distance was about right and he could aim. However, there was a lot of tall grass ahead, so he turned to Tao Daqiang and said:

"Da Qiang, let's go forward another ten meters or so, go around this patch of tall grass, and then aim and shoot. I'll count to three, two, one and then we'll shoot."

There were bushes mixed in the tall grass, so the two men carefully went around them. Tao Daqiang's clothes were caught, so he hurried back to untie them. But he was worried that the noise would scare the roe deer, so his face turned red with anxiety and he was sweating.

After untying it, he walked over to the right and saw Li Long kneeling on one knee and taking aim. He immediately followed suit and aimed his small-caliber rifle at the roe deer on the right. His finger subconsciously rested on the trigger, and then he subconsciously:
"Snapped!"

Li Long was aiming when he suddenly heard Tao Daqiang's gun fire next to him. He immediately realized that he must have fired accidentally. Although he was not ready yet, the roe deer over there had been alarmed. In desperation, he quickly aimed at a male roe deer and pulled the trigger!
By the time we were ready to fire the second shot, the group of roe deer had already rushed to the reverse slope.

"Chase!" Li Long didn't look at Tao Daqiang's confused and immediately guilty expression, and shouted, "Let's go see if we can hit him!"

Tao Daqiang finally reacted and rushed forward with his gun.

"Turn off the safety first to avoid another accidental discharge!" Li Long reminded him again, keeping a certain distance from him and jogging forward.

Tao Daqiang lowered his head to turn off the safety, then strode forward. He exerted all his strength and quickly rushed past Li Long and rushed up the hillside like the wind.

Li Long also sped up, and the two of them, one in front and one behind, soon arrived at the place where the roe deer had just stayed. They did not stop, but continued to run forward, rushed across the flat slope, and saw the downhill road behind the mountain.

Over there was a grassy slope with knee-high grass, with an occasional shrub or two, but overall there were no tall obstructions, and one could see quite far at a glance.

Then I saw a roe deer limping along the ditch from the bottom of the slope into the distance, barking as it ran.

The roe deer was less than eighty meters away from Li Long and Tao Daqiang, and its speed did not seem very fast.

A male roe deer with short horns on its head.

Just as Li Long was about to raise his gun and aim, Tao Daqiang rushed down like a gust of wind. It seemed that he wanted to capture the roe deer alive!
Li Long had no choice but to put away his gun, but seeing Tao Daqiang's lightning speed, he might be able to catch the roe deer.

Li Long quickly followed with his gun in hand. The male roe deer heard the noise, turned around and saw Tao Daqiang running towards him, so he immediately sped up.

Unfortunately, its front legs were hit, and any movement was painful and bleeding. It must have broken bones, so it couldn't speed up. It ran more than 30 meters before being caught up by Tao Daqiang.

Tao Daqiang put a small-caliber rifle on his back, grabbed the skin on the back of the roe deer's neck, bent down, grabbed its leg with one hand, and pressed the roe deer to the ground.

The roe deer that was shot was no match for the tall and strong Tao Daqiang and could only scream in fear.

Li Long ran over, looked down at the wound of the roe deer, and said with a smile:

"That's good, we caught him alive!"

"Brother Long, it's my fault. I don't know why I got so angry..."

"It's okay, it's okay. We just caught a live one." Li Long smiled. "It's your first time hunting, I understand. But you really need to practice your marksmanship and mental quality."

On the way back, Tao Daqiang asked Li Long to carry the small-caliber roe deer, and he carried the male roe deer on his shoulders and carried it all the way back to the winter nest wooden house.

The roe deer probably guessed its fate and stopped calling.

This roe deer wasn't very big, Li Long estimated that it should weigh less than 30 kilograms. Li Long arrived at the cabin, unlocked it, and Tao Daqiang carried the roe deer into the cabin. When he came out, he had tied a halter around the roe deer with the rope inside.

"Not bad, you can do this." Li Long said with a smile.

"We have a donkey at home. Watch my father do it a couple of times and he'll learn it." Tao Daqiang said with a simple smile, "I think the injury on this roe deer isn't serious. Should it be able to be kept?"

"I don't think I can keep them alive." Li Long shook his head and said, "Wild ones are okay for small ones, but big ones are not easy to keep. But now that the weather is hot, it's better to bring back a living one than a dead one. At least I can keep it for a few more days."

"Then let's put it here first?" Tao Daqiang asked, "What should we do at night?"

Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Da Qiang, how about I take it back to the team on my bike and leave it with Uncle Luo, and then I'll come back. Are you scared to stay in the mountains alone?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Tao Daqiang waved his hands. "What can there be in this mountain? I have a gun during the day, and at night I can hide in the house and won't come out no matter who calls me..."

"No need. It's only noon now. Let's get something to eat later and I'll go back. I can still be back before dark." Li Long said, "Let's cook first. The meat should be almost smoked. Let's keep it simple and grill it."

Eating in the mountains is not so particular. It’s good enough to fill your stomach, and having meat is already a treat.

Li Long went to see the smokehouse. The fire underneath had been completely extinguished after such a long time. The smoked meat turned black and yellow. Li Long used a knife to cut off a large piece of lean meat with a little bit of fat. Tao Daqiang had already picked a bunch of red willow branches. Li Long skewered the meat while Tao Daqiang built the fire and soon lit it.

He used thin branches, and the high fire burned out quickly, leaving a pile of white charcoal fire. Li Long placed the meat branches on the edge of the stone to roast them. The two of them didn't care and ate while roasting.

"Brother Long, can you come back later so I can dig some mushrooms for my dad?" Tao Daqiang suddenly said after eating two skewers of meat.

"Okay." Li Long said with a smile, "Get more, I'll get some too. There's plenty of this stuff in the mountains, but it's not easy for the team members to eat it."

There were a lot of mushrooms on the hillside, so it didn't matter whether to open an umbrella or not. As long as they were straw mushrooms and fresh, they were all picked. Soon the two of them had filled half a bag of urea.

Li Long also saw porcini mushrooms, but there were too many branches and species of this thing, so he didn't dare to pick them up, for fear of encountering poisonous ones.

Think about it, in half a month, the famous morels should be available, right?
Li Long was full. He went to the small room, packed the mushrooms into several bags and tied them to the front handlebars of the car.

Tao Daqiang tied up the roe deer and tied it tightly to the back seat of the bicycle.

Li Long took a look and pointed out two places, asking Tao Daqiang to loosen the tie to prevent the roe deer from dying on the way.

"Brother Long, please take that Codonopsis root back to my father." Tao Daqiang said, "Can I dig a few more here?"

"Okay. I'll give you the five or six, and you can dig your stuff. If you run into others, don't believe anything they say. Wait for me to come back." Li Long said, "In case I come back late or come tomorrow, you should go into the house early, lock the door and go to sleep. Don't open the door no matter who comes." "Okay, I got it." Tao Daqiang agreed.

Li Long pushed the bicycle for a few steps and felt it was quite stable. Then he pedaled a few times and rode up, waved to Tao Daqiang, and went down the mountain.

After watching Li Long's back disappear, Tao Daqiang turned around and went back to the wooden house.

Without Li Long, Tao Daqiang did not feel free, but instead felt worried and frightened.

In fact, he knew that if he hadn't accidentally fired, Li Long might have gotten more today. Although he had captured the roe deer alive, it couldn't cover up the fact that his accidental firing almost caused the failure of this hunting.

In the past, when he followed Li Long, he only needed to do whatever Li Long said. Now that Li Long is gone, leaving him alone, he doesn't know what to do.

Thinking about what he had said to Li Long before, he locked the door, took a shovel, carried a gun, and went to look for Codonopsis pilosula according to the location he remembered.

After walking through a ditch, Tao Daqiang discovered that he didn't need to go that far at all. In the nearby ditches and on many shady hillsides, Codonopsis pilosula was growing.

Tao Daqiang immediately became interested and started digging.

After digging out a piece of Codonopsis pilosula, Tao Daqiang was a little disappointed. This one was not even half as long as the previous one. He stood up and looked around, and then he saw some Fritillaria growing nearby.

To dig or not to dig?
After hesitating for a while, Tao Daqiang still thought about Li Long's words and did not dig.

Continue digging Codonopsis pilosula and picking mushrooms.

After Li Long rode his bike out of the mountain pass with the roe deer, he began to speed up.

He was still a little worried about leaving Tao Daqiang alone in the mountains. But since he was already out, he would finish his work as soon as possible and go back to talk about it later.

Li Long rode all the way through the county town without stopping, all the way to the township middle school, Li Long turned in, and came to Gu Xiaoxia's dormitory. After getting off the bike, Li Long parked the bike and came to the door of the dormitory. He originally thought that Gu Xiaoxia was still in class, but he didn't expect that the door was open and Gu Xiaoxia was sorting things inside.

Li Long knocked on the door. Gu Xiaoxia turned her head and immediately showed a surprised expression on her face. Li Long took a bag from the front of the bicycle and handed it to her, saying:
"Here are some mushrooms I picked today, and some smoked wild boar meat. Take them and eat them. I have to hurry back to the team now, so I won't keep them."

"Wait a minute..." Gu Xiaoxia originally wanted to say a few more words to Li Long, but after hearing what he said, she immediately turned around and fumbled around the bed for a while, then took out a white shirt and held it in front of Li Long, gestured, and said:

"This is the Dacron shirt I bought for you. The weather is getting warmer, and you can't wear thick clothes anymore. You're tall, and this will show off your figure."

Li Long took it with a smile, gestured on his body and said:
"It looks like it fits me well, so I'll take it." He didn't bother to be polite with Gu Xiaoxia, and Gu Xiaoxia was also very happy.

"Then I'll go first. I injured this guy, so I have to leave him with Uncle Luo to see if I can keep him alive for a few days. I plan to clean up the stables and ask the young men in the team to do some work when they are free. If we can't keep this roe deer alive, we'll kill it and eat its meat."

"Yeah." Gu Xiaoxia nodded first, and then asked belatedly:

"You want to fix up the Old Horse?"

"Well, my parents are coming over soon, and my house is not big enough. I'll buy the old Mahao and renovate it to make a house for us to live in. After a while, I'll ask Captain Xu about building a new house and see which piece of land to allocate for me."

Gu Xiaoxia was listening very seriously at first, but when Li Long said this, she realized the meaning and lowered her head without saying anything.

"You go ahead and do your work. I'll finish my work first and then come talk to you." Li Long took the clothes and folded them carefully and put them into his bag. "Eat more. I'll bring you more later."

Gu Xiaoxia watched Li Long leave at the door, then went back into the house and opened the bag.

In the bag were two pieces of smoked wild boar meat, the streaky kind. There were also two or three kilograms of wild mushrooms. The two smells mixed together and smelled weird.

She first took out the smoked pork, wrapped it in a cage cloth, and hung it at the back window of the dormitory. Then she took a basin and picked out the mushrooms one by one.

She couldn't finish it in one meal, so she planned to slice some and dry them, and give the rest to Teacher Wang next door. Teacher Wang had always been very caring towards her, so it was only right that things should be reciprocated.

Li Long rode his bicycle all the way to the elementary school. Seeing that the class was not over yet, he went straight back to Laomahao.

Uncle Luo was picking up some broken bricks outside the stable. He was a little surprised to see Li Long coming back. Then he saw that there was a living person on the back of Li Long's bicycle, so he asked with a smile:
"Xiaolong, what did you bring back?"

"I shot this roe deer. It's injured. I don't know if it can survive. I'll leave it here with you for now." Li Long said, "If it can survive, keep it. If not, I'll ask the young people in the team to clean up the yard in a few days. I'll use the roe deer meat to treat everyone."

"Okay, I'll take care of it first. Hey, the wound on your leg is not small, and you didn't even bandage it... Come on, leave it to me."

"Then you better be careful." Li Long carried the roe deer into the stable. "This fellow is about two years old. He is very wild."

"Don't be afraid. I can handle horses, so what's this guy?"

After giving the roe deer to Lao Luo, Li Long rode his bicycle home.

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei were not at home. Li Qiang was squatting by the well, busy with something. When he heard the sound of a car, he turned around and saw that it was Li Long, and ran over excitedly.

"Uncle, uncle! I caught a lot of fish, look!" He pulled Li Long to the well. Li Long saw a dozen palm-sized crucian carps in a basin beside the well, half of which had their gills and scales removed. He asked in surprise:
"Where did you catch him?"

"There's no water in the big canal behind. I caught it. Uncle, you're back. Can we stew some fish?"

"No, I'm going to the mountains soon. Do you want to eat fish?"

"Yeah." Li Qiang was a little disappointed.

"Then you clean out the belly of the fish and I'll grill it for you." Li Long thought for a moment and said with a smile, "But you have to wait for your sister to come back before eating together."

"Okay!" Li Qiang became happy when he heard there was food.

Li Long first put some mushrooms and meat in the kitchen, then he saw that there was water in the pot on the stove, so he took an armful of firewood and put it in the bottom of the stove to burn. After a while, the water was half boiled, and Li Long turned off the fire, leaving a red flame. He went to find some newspapers, and at this time Li Qiang had finished processing the fish.

Li Long went to the well and washed the fish while cleaning the ones that Li Qiang hadn't cleaned. After that, he wet the newspaper with water, took salt and chili powder, and rubbed them all over the fish, including inside.

After processing all the fish, Li Long wrapped four or five fish in wet newspapers. After wrapping them all, he came to the stove, picked out the red ash and stuffed the paper packages in one by one, and then covered the paper packages with wood ash.

"Qiangqiang, wait for twenty minutes. If your sister hasn't come back yet, take out the newspaper packages one by one. There are four in total. Eat one and save the rest for your sister and the others to eat together when they come back."

"it is good!"

Li Long cleaned up the firewood in front of the stove to prevent a fire from happening when Li Qiang took the fish bag, and then rode away on his bike.

(End of this chapter)