Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 223: Cut the pole and catch the thief!

In fact, when this matter is told, many people may feel disgusted. Some people will vomit if they really see it.

There was a palm-sized wound on the yellow sheep's hind leg near its buttocks. The wound had now festered and many flies were hovering around it, occasionally taking a bite from it.

This is nothing, the most disgusting thing is that there is a rotten spot in the center of the wound, and a group of maggots are densely packed and neatly swarming there... People with trypophobia will probably feel dizzy when seeing this.

Li Long's shot hit the back of the yellow sheep's neck, causing fatal injury.

Tao Daqiang also stopped there.

Li Long was only stunned for a second, then he pulled out the machete he was carrying, walked up to the yellow sheep, and with two slashes, he cut off the wound on the back of the yellow sheep, including the festering part, and then threw it far away.

"Daqiang, carry it on your back, let's go back."

"Okay!" Tao Daqiang walked forward, picked up the yellow sheep and walked back.

Li Long estimated that the yellow sheep should weigh more than 20 kilograms. It was a little thin, probably because of the injuries it had suffered recently.

"What did the sheep bite?" Li Qingxia asked Li Long excitedly.

"It could be a wolf or something else. A small creature can't bite a gazelle, so the most likely possibility is a wolf."

After Li Long finished speaking, he turned around and asked his father:

"Dad, you also saw that the meat was eaten by maggots. You don't mind it, do you?"

"Then what are you complaining about?" Li Qingxia said with a smile, "How can you complain about meat when you have it to eat? Didn't I ask you to cut off the part with maggots? Besides, it's good to have meat to eat these days. Back home, we were starving a few years ago. Not to mention fresh meat, we even ate stinky meat!"

Li Long understood that there were many people in his hometown, so supplies should be more scarce.

"Xiaolong, you don't know that there are many people in my hometown, but there are few things to eat... Do you know that the maggots you just cut off and threw away are specially picked up and eaten by some people. What are they called... meat buds?"

Li Qingxia had traveled a lot and had some experience, so he told Li Long about what happened to him when he was young.

"That was a rich family. They would hang up a piece of rotten meat to let flies lay maggots, and put a basin underneath. The maggots would dig up the rotten meat and grow bigger and bigger, and the rotten meat would become less and less. Finally, the maggots could no longer crawl on the meat, so they fell into the basin. Then those people would fry the maggots and eat them - eh~~!"

Li Qingxia had a look of disgust on his face, but he was very interested when talking about these curious things.

Tao Daqiang was walking in front and listening, and couldn't help but interject:
"Then it doesn't feel uncomfortable to eat?"

"Some people like it." Li Qingxia explained, "Just like some people like to eat snake meat, while others are afraid of it; some people like to eat dog meat, while others can't stand the killing of dogs... It's the same."

Li Long nodded.

The three of them returned to the cabin. It was already bright outside. Li Jianguo had already boiled water and was making pancakes and mixing cold dishes. He was surprised to see Tao Daqiang carrying something:

"Did it really hit you?"

"My brother Long shot it with one shot..." Tao Daqiang said loudly, "I didn't even see where the yellow sheep was lying, but Brother Long found it at a glance!"

"Haha, he's lucky." Li Jianguo laughed, "This yellow sheep is not small...it's just a little thin."

"So he was injured." Li Qingxia said, "A wolf bit him."

Li Long put down his gun, took out his knife, and waited for Tao Daqiang to put the yellow sheep down before he began to skin and gut it.

"We won't eat meat in the morning." Li Long said as he peeled the meat. "I'll finish peeling and gutting it, and take care of the offal. Then we can cook some meat for lunch."

"Okay." Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo had no objection, but Tao Daqiang didn't say anything.

Li Long first peeled off part of the yellow sheep's skin, cut open the belly, put the internal organs and other things in a basin to soak, then washed his hands and had breakfast.

"Xiaolong, you take care of the yellow sheep later, Daqiang and I will continue to cut poles," Li Jianguo said while eating, "Dad is here to help you..."

"I won't stay here. I think Xiaolong can handle this sheep by himself. I'll go cut the poles too." Li Qingxia waved his hand, "It's better to finish this job as soon as possible."

"Okay then, Xiaolong, you stay here alone. We'll go cut some poles and come back at noon to eat the meat you cook."

"Okay." Li Long did not refuse. It would take some time to prepare the meat.

After breakfast, Li Jianguo and his men went to the spring to wash the enamel basins, and then left with their machetes and axes. After Li Long reminded them to be careful of wolves and the like, he began to deal with the yellow sheep.

Peel off the skin first, then cut the meat into pieces and soak it in water. Put firewood under the stove, boil water in a big pot, throw the simply cut meat from the leg sticks into the pot and start cooking.

While the meat bones were being cooked, he went to chop a pine stick and threw it into the pot. He saw this in a novel about the Tang Dynasty when he was bored and reading novels in his previous life. He didn't know if it would work.

He carried the basin of water to the spring and began to turn over his intestines and wash his stomach.

The smell of dirty air is really unpleasant, but fortunately the spring water increases in volume in summer, making it easier to rinse. Li Long kept scrubbing and washing, cleaning the large and small intestines and stomach, and then he would deal with the meat.

In this hot summer, meat cannot be kept for a long time. Li Long first rubbed some bone meat with salt and prepared to smoke it, but he didn't smoke it too much, after all, eating too much smoked meat is not good.

He removed the remaining meat, along with the casings, lard and other ingredients, and simmered them in another pot. Once simmered, they were covered with oil and could be preserved for a long time.

Of course, it is also troublesome to make. The meat has to be cut into small pieces, otherwise it will be difficult to handle.

The water in the big pot soon boiled, and Li Long stuffed two pieces of firewood under the stove and let the soup in the pot bubble there. Without skimming off the foam for a while, the soup soon began to thicken, and the fragrance and smell of mutton wafted around.

This is a male yellow sheep with tiny horns on its head that haven't grown yet, so Li Long doesn't care about them.

After all, the head and hooves will be dealt with later and cannot be taken care of now.

Two stoves were running at the same time, cooking the meat bones and stewing the meat. Li Long was busy all by himself. It was not until almost noon that the meat was finally stewed and filled two enamel basins. Fortunately, he bought a lot of basins when he bought new things yesterday, otherwise there would not be enough basins.

After bringing the stewed meat to the small room and placing it on the shelf, Li Long began to prepare to process the internal organs and offal.

This thing is quite troublesome, mainly because it is difficult to store. Three people can't finish the offal in one meal.

But it was not worth it to go back for this little bit of water, so Li Long simply thought about braising it. After braising, it can be kept for another day or two. When he was washing the pot by the spring, he looked up and saw a figure flashing at the mouth of the ditch.

When Li Long straightened up and looked again, there was no one there.

He felt that his eyes were not dazzled. There was indeed a person who appeared just now at a distance of more than 200 meters. He probably saw him or saw that there was someone in the wooden house, so he hid.

It was too far to catch up, so Li Long took the pot and placed it on the stone stove, continued to burn firewood, and poured water to prepare the brine.

Theoretically, after this thing is cooked, as long as it stays in the pot and boils once every few hours, it will not go bad.

Li Long jumped into the water and chased after him with a gun in hand.

Li Jianguo took the small-caliber rifle away, and the five-six-and-a-half were left to Li Long.

When he chased to the place where he had seen someone just now with a gun on his back, he found footprints there, but the person had already left.

After searching carefully for a while, Li Long found that the footprints were heading southeast into the mountain.

Southeast?
Isn’t that the general direction of Halimu’s winter nest?

Li Long was a little worried, afraid that something might go wrong in Halimu's winter home again, but he didn't dare to go too far away from the wooden house now. After all, there was something cooking in the pot and no one was watching. It would be troublesome if something happened.

Li Long had no choice but to turn back.

When he returned to the wooden house and saw that the meat and bones were almost cooked, he began to add salt, served out a few bowls of soup, sprinkled wild onions on top, and the aroma was fragrant.

Then they took out the enamel bowls for eating, put two pieces of meat bones in each bowl, added some soup, and placed them on the wooden table rack to cool.

It was almost noon when Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang and Li Qingxia came back one after another carrying wooden poles.

"There are a lot of willow sticks in the ditch we went to today," Li Jianguo said as he placed a bundle of wood sticks he was carrying next to the wall of the wooden house. "We cut more than 30 sticks this morning. After we finish cutting down that patch of willow trees, I think we can cut 200 sticks!"

"I have quite a few over there," Li Qingxia said with a smile, "but the wood is hard to cut and takes a lot of effort."

"Let's eat first, then take a rest. It's very hot in the mountains at noon." Li Long said, "If we keep chopping like this, we'll have enough trees in ten days."

"That's good." The three of them washed their hands and began to chew on the bones.

Li Long was worried, so he ate a piece of bone and drank a bowl of soup before stopping. He turned off the fire under the pot of braised meat, went into the house to change his coat, and came out to say to the others:
"You guys take a rest first, I'm going to go out for a while."

Li Jianguo and the others didn't ask. Li Long was much more familiar with this area than they were. If there was anything, Li Long would tell them.

Li Long walked to the place where the footprints were found with a gun on his back, and then chased in the direction the footprints left.

The footprints were difficult to find in the grass, so Li Long rushed towards Halimu's winter nest.

When he was almost at the ditch of Dongwozi, Li Long slowed down his pace and walked forward while observing his surroundings. When he could see Dongwozi, he stopped and waited quietly in the woods.

He just had a feeling that the person who had been hiding from him before was most likely in this winter den.

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, a figure came out of the winter den. He was holding a bag in one hand and touching his crotch with the other. It was unclear whether he was tying his belt with one hand or doing something else. Li Long got angry.

He felt that this guy must have done something dirty in Halimu’s winter home!

The figure came out of the winter den, carrying a bag on his back and walked along the ditch into the mountains. When he walked far away, Li Long hurriedly chased after him.

When passing by Halimu's winter nest, Li Long took a glance at the door and was almost angry to death!
This guy actually pooped on the wooden kang in Halimu's winter home!

What the hell!
Li Long was furious. How could he tolerate this?
This is the house where people live!
If Halimu was there, he would probably shoot the beast to death with one shot!
Li Long quickly followed him, thinking that this person must have a hideout. If he found their hideout, the rest would be easy.

Li Long quickly caught up with the man, who was still looking around in the mountains. Li Long thought he was picking mushrooms. After all, the Fritillaria was already in bloom and couldn't be dug up. Codonopsis wasn't in season yet, so digging it up wouldn't be very useful.

The man was humming a tune that Li Long couldn't understand, and he yelled once or twice from time to time, which could scare away a few birds.

Finally, after crossing two ditches, the man came to a relatively flat ditch entrance, where there were several dugouts arranged in a not very neat manner.

There was a rope tied to a tree next to the dugout, with some blankets on it, drying in the sun. It was probably because the dugout was damp and it was cool to sleep at night, so the blankets had to be dried in the sun during the day.

Li Long only took one look and was sure that those beddings were definitely from his wooden house!
Looking at the pot on the stone stove next to the dugout, there was a 99% chance that it was taken from his own wooden house.

There was steam coming out of the pot with a lid on, and I had no idea what was going on.

This is the den of thieves!

When the man got to the place, he put his pocket on the opening of a dugout and shouted. Then a man with messy hair came out from another dugout.

The first man looked to be in his 40s or 50s, and the second one was in his 30s. His clothes were all patched, and his hair and beard hadn't been cut for a long time. He didn't look good at all.

The two people talked for a few words there. Li Long didn't hear clearly the dialect they were speaking, anyway he couldn't understand it very well, but he vaguely heard that the first person, the one Li Long was following, said that he didn't find anything, and the other one complained a few words, saying that he had made too much before, and then the two people went to get the bowls.

Li Long looked at the number of dugouts. There should be at least four people here, but now there are only two. He didn't know whether the other two had gone out to work or had left the group.

But he didn't care about that anymore. He picked up the gun, took off the safety, loaded the bullet, and rushed towards the dugout angrily.

The two men were eating when the younger one saw Li Long and shouted in fear.

The older man turned his head to take a look, then threw away the bowl and ran into the woods. Li Long raised his hand and shot him directly in the arm!

The guy screamed - actually Li Long wanted to hit him in front and force him to stop, but when the guy was running, he raised his hand for some reason and was hit in the arm.

The scream frightened the other person who wanted to run away - this was too brutal! Without saying a word, he just shot?
Li Long strode up to them and kicked the young man to the ground. He then hit him a few times with the butt of his gun, causing the young man's head to be bleeding. Then he hit the old man several more times with the butt of his gun, causing the old man to beg for mercy. Only then did he stop.

There was no way to reason with these people, and Li Long had no intention of killing them. After venting his anger, Li Long began to loot their belongings.

No, it’s not plundering, it’s actively claiming compensation!
(End of this chapter)