Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 199: Grand Transformation

After breakfast the next day, Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei went to work in the fields, Li Juan and Li Qiang went to school, and Li Long tidied up the house and hitched the carriage to the Lao Ma Hao.

Uncle Luo was feeding the pigs. To Li Long's surprise, several young men had already arrived. Tao Daqiang was building a fire and burning wood under the stove, which he got from somewhere. The big pot was filled with bones cut into fist-sized pieces. The water was already boiling and was bubbling up and down.

Seeing Li Long coming, several young men came over. Tian Siping, relying on his good relationship with Li Long, said with a smile:
"Xiaolong, this venison looks really fat. We will make sure to do this job for you today. What do you think we should do?"

"It's very simple." Li Long pointed to the stable and said, "The stable used to be used to raise large livestock. We want to raise pigs and deer in the back, so we have to divide it into rooms. In the middle of the big yard, Uncle Luo will grow vegetables in half, and the rest will be for deer and roe deer to roam. So we have to build a wall in the middle..."

"But we don't have enough soil." The speaker was Wei Aihua, Wei Zhonghua's younger brother. He knew how to build walls and was considered a technical talent among these people. He frowned and said, "It's too late to build soil now!"

"No need to rub it now." Li Long said, "I've already told the captain that the soil blocks on the wall of the old team headquarters can be used. Anyway, the old team headquarters has been abandoned, so it doesn't matter where it is. Now we just need to mix the mud here, remove the soil blocks over there, and transport them here by carriage."

"That's no problem," Wei Aihua said, kicking the tile knives and shovels under his feet. "This job is easy. As long as there is enough soil, it can be finished in one day."

"Then let's divide the work. Aihua, you will be in charge of building the wall here, and Siping, Daqiang, and Tietou will be left to you..."

Tietou from the Lu family is not very old, but he is no longer in school. This time Li Long called him over just to have a share of meat - it is normal for a child of this age to work in the team.

Li Long took the remaining two people and pulled a horse-drawn carriage to the old team headquarters to demolish the wall. He also told Wei Aihua that if anyone came again, he should watch over them and go to the old team headquarters.

It would be more reasonable to have four people on each side - Wei Aihua responded and started to order people to dig the soil and get the wheat tails to prepare the mud.

There are still a lot of wheat tails around the wheat fields. These things are usually used to feed cattle and sheep and then mix with mud. At present, there is no large-scale sheep farming, so there are a lot of leftovers every year. In another year or two, there will be no wheat tails or even straw left on the edge of the wheat field.

Li Long led the carriage to the old team headquarters, which was only 200 meters away from the old horse number. It was the break between preschool classes, and Li Long saw many children lying on the low wall of the old team headquarters to dig out the sparrow nests inside.

There is only one female teacher in the preschool, her last name is Zhang, and she doesn’t care about the kids—unless they climb up to a higher wall, then she will yell at them to come down.

It is very normal for children to grow taller and shorter these days, and no one cares.

It is rare to hear about children getting injured by falls or anything else. Even if they bump into something and bleed, the kids usually grab a handful of fine soil and rub it on the wound and then continue playing.

If it were Li Qiang, he would be more careful. He had heard a lot of miscellaneous knowledge from his father Li Jianguo, so if he was injured, he would go find some grass leaves with thorns on the edges, then tear off the thorns and apply the juice squeezed from the leaves on the wound - this thing would stop bleeding.

What the hell is that?

Next to the preschool class are the first and second grade classrooms. Li Long knew that Wu Shufen was here - this girl who had become a passerby had not appeared for a long time. Li Long had actually forgotten about her and only remembered her when he got here.

"Let's park the carriage there." Li Long said, "One person will go up to dismantle it, one person will take it down below, and another person will load it onto the carriage."

"Then Xiaolong, you go up, I'll load it on the side of the carriage," Xie Yundong said with a smile, "Cheng Gang, you take it down below."

The other person is Zhao Chenggang, who is one year younger than Li Long. He doesn't talk much, but he works hard, just like Tao Daqiang. But although he is silent, he is not as easy to bully as Tao Daqiang. If anyone really offends him, he will really fight.

"Okay." Zhao Chenggang just responded.

Li Long climbed up the wall with a tile trowel, first scraped off the wall skin on both sides, and then removed pieces of soil and passed them down.

I have to say that the soil used to build the team headquarters was of very good quality. After so many years of use, even after shoveling off the mud on top and bottom, it is still very solid and looks thick, without any signs of cutting corners.

While dismantling the house, Li Long saw a bird chirping in a hole in the wall.

There were sparrows flying around nearby, so he removed the plaster on the wall and saw a nest of naked sparrows with their eyes closed in the nest.

This thing can't survive.

Li Long had a little compassion, but it was not strong. He picked up the bird's nest and put it aside - even if he didn't tear it down, the little birds would not survive more than five days. With these energetic elementary school and first and second grade children nearby, not to mention the little birds, even the old birds might be caught and killed.

The destructive power of children at this age is very amazing.

"Uncle Qiangqiang, can you give me that bird's nest?" A child shouted from under the wall, "Uncle Qiangqiang..."

As soon as the child shouted, another child came running over. After a while, a group of children gathered around.

Li Long waved the tile knife:

"Stay away, we are working here! If you do something, the dirt will fall and hit you!"

Xie Yundong below also shouted for the children to leave.

The children were reluctant to leave, so Wu Shufen shouted at the door of the classroom:
"Hurry up and start class. If you don't come, you will be punished by standing!"

Li Long subconsciously turned his head and met Wu Shufen's eyes. She turned her head away proudly and walked into the classroom.

The students were afraid of the teacher, and they all rushed to the classroom.

It was just a small episode. To Li Long, this person was really just a passerby.

Half an hour later, a cartload of earth was removed. Xie Yundong drove the cart to the stable, while Li Long and Zhao Chenggang continued to remove the earth.

Sparrows like to build nests in holes like this. In less than an hour, Li Long had dismantled three sparrow nests.

Except for the sparrows in the first nest which had bald hair, the sparrows in the other two nests had grown hair, but they could not survive either, so Li Long placed the nest on the wall.

After pulling five carts of soil, the sun had already risen to the middle of the sky. Seeing that the preschool class was about to end, Li Long said to Xie Yundong:
"Brother Yundong, let's go over and have dinner after we finish pulling this load."

"Okay." Xie Yundong said, "Work harder and finish it as soon as possible."

Li Long was standing on the wall watching Li Qiang walking back with his schoolbag on his back, so he called out to him:
"Qiangqiang, come with uncle to the Lao Ma's to eat meat later. Go home and tell your parents first."

"Good—ah—!"

When he heard that they could go to Laomahao to eat meat, Li Qiang, who usually didn't lack meat, shouted and ran home with his schoolbag on his back.

He just likes to join in the fun. Most of the other kids envied Li Qiang, but Li Long smiled and continued to tear down the wall.

In one morning, they demolished a wall of one of the four rooms in the team headquarters. The workload was neither large nor small, but it was still quite tiring.

The horse-drawn carriage was pulling clods of earth, and Li Long and Zhao Chenggang followed behind. When they arrived at the old stable, Li Long was surprised to find that more than half of the wall in the middle of the courtyard had been built, and someone was using stones to lay the foundation for the unbuilt part. The horse stable was also being renovated, and some of the dismantled clods of earth were directly used to build the wall.

The yard was filled with the rich aroma of meat. Li Long washed his hands and went to the kitchen. A large pot full of meat had been served, and Uncle Luo was making steamed cakes on a fire - a layer of steamed cakes and a layer of steamed buns, which was agreed upon by Uncle Luo and Li Long in advance.

We can't just eat steamed buns, not because there's not enough white flour, but because doing this at least looks good on the surface. In the future, when people hire people to do the plastering and wall work, they can make an excuse even if they compare it to Li Long's place - the Li family has steamed corn flour cakes.

"Uncle Luo, how long will it take for this steamed cake to be ready?"

"About five or six minutes." Uncle Luo said, "It's very quick, and we can eat it right away."

"Okay, I'll go and shout for everyone to stop and wash their hands."

Everyone was there. Li Long shouted in the yard, and everyone stopped their work and started talking and laughing. Only Wei Aihua was the last one to come - he had to spread the last shovel of mud and put the soil on it, otherwise the mud would dry up soon and be wasted.

The technicians at this time were so persistent that they didn't want to waste even a shovel of mud.

While others were washing their hands, Li Long untied the horse from the carriage, led it to the stable, tied it up, wiped the sweat off his face, and then gave it fodder. No. 76 was quite excited to enter the stable, after all, he had always lived here.

After everyone finished washing, Uncle Luo distributed food in the kitchen:
"Each of you take a piece of meat, a bowl of soup, and a piece of steamed cake first. Don't waste it. Take more after you finish eating. There is plenty of meat today. You can see it. You will be full..."

Li Long queued up for food like everyone else. He picked up a piece of deer neck and gnawed on it. He also had a small bowl of deer meat soup and ate it with a steamed cake.

Cornmeal steamed cake has a natural sweet taste and tastes good if you eat it occasionally.

Then he saw Li Qiang running over and standing at the end of the line. When it was his turn, he said to Uncle Luo:

"Grandpa Luo, give me a small piece... I can't finish the big one."

"Okay, I'll give you a shank bone to chew on. You can also get the marrow after eating it." Uncle Luo picked up a shank for Li Qiang. There was quite a bit of meat on it. Li Qiang happily held the bone and started chewing on it.

"Everyone, please be careful when eating. Deer meat strengthens the blood. If you don't feel right, don't eat it. Otherwise, you'll have a nosebleed!" Uncle Luo joked at the kitchen door.

Everyone laughed along. Tian Siping came to Li Long with his bowl in hand and said as he ate:
"Xiaolong, I heard from Daqiang that you hunted a lot of things in the mountains?"

"Not too many." Li Long pointed to the circle and said, "There's a roe deer, a red deer, and a half-grown wild boar. There are a lot of things in the mountains, but the mountains are also big. Sometimes you can run for a whole day and not find anything."

"That's right." Tian Siping nodded in agreement, and then asked, "Are there many Fritillarias dug in the mountains? I heard there are a lot of Fritillarias?"

This time, Li Long certainly couldn't call Xu Jianjun, but the story of Beimu still spread. Tian Siping was there at the time, and to be honest, he had some thoughts at the time, but when he saw Xu Jianjun was fined, he gave up. Now he came to ask, in fact, mainly because he wanted Li Long to take care of him.

Li Long did not hide it and said while eating:
"It's the same as when we were in charge of the forestry team. Some people dig the wood themselves, and some people dig it secretly. I have a certificate from the supply and marketing cooperative, so I can collect it and no one else can interfere. It's still the same now. If private individuals go in to dig, they make money if they don't get caught, but if they get caught by the forestry team, they will at least be fined - these days, the mountains are divided into plots just like the land here."

Tian Siping didn't want to ask Li Long to take him to the mountains to do these little things in front of other people, so he nodded and said nothing more.

After dinner, the men either lay down or sat down to rest for half an hour. Xie Yundong got up to harness the horses. Li Long then shouted:
"Get up and get to work!"

The young man stood up slowly. The sun was still very strong at that moment, but he couldn't rest for too long, otherwise he would lose the energy to work.

Perhaps because of the venison, the work efficiency in the afternoon was higher than that in the morning. Before the sun set, the renovation of each pens of the stable had been completed, and the one-and-a-half-meter-high walls had been built. These people even repaired some broken parts of the old stable. Finally, they used the remaining mud to cover the house.

Looking at the newly renovated stable, Li Long was very satisfied.

"Xiaolong, there is still a lot of venison left in the kitchen. What should we do with it?" asked Uncle Luo.

"Is one piece enough for one person?" Li Long asked.

"enough."

"Then cook two dishes. Those who want to eat the venison can eat it directly. Those who don't want to eat it can distribute it to everyone or take it home to eat." Li Long said, "We are doing physical work today, and we have to make sure everyone eats well."

"Okay." Uncle Luo nodded. "Once this stable is fixed, we won't have to move it for three to five years."

After everyone finished their work, they packed up their tools and washed them, and Uncle Luo called them to eat again.

"We'll have stir-fried vegetables and steamed buns for dinner. There's still some meat left from lunch. Eat whatever you want. If you don't want to eat, take one piece home. If you want to take the broth, take a bowl home as well." Uncle Luo called out, "Come over and get your meal!"

Li Long prepared quite a few enamel basins here, so everyone can have one for eating.

Two meat dishes and a meat bone. Although it’s still steamed cake, it’s already very good.

Everyone was chatting and laughing, and Xie Yundong came over and asked Li Long:

"Xiaolong, this mission of carrying the handle is completed. Are there any other tasks to come?"

"We'll see in the fall," Li Long said vaguely, "Let's see if we can get some other work in the fall."

"That's good." Xie Yundong's eyes lit up, "Don't forget us brothers when the time comes."

"That's for sure." Li Long said with a smile, "You are the first ones I would think of if I were alive again."

After dinner, Tao Daqiang stayed to help clean up, while most of the others went home with meat or soup. He had eaten the good food, but his family hadn't eaten yet. Not to mention the meat, there was a lot of minced meat and oil in the broth. He could take it home, add water and boil it again, add some leafy vegetables or noodles, and it would be another delicious meal!

Li Long and Tao Daqiang cleaned up the place and then drove the carriage home.

Now that a big thing has been done, it’s time to ask my eldest brother when my parents will be here.

(End of this chapter)