Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Long came back from the county and went fishing with Tao Daqiang, he told him about this matter.

"If your eldest brother wants to make money now, then go dig this Cynomorium, I will take whatever you dig. Of course, the Cynomorium dug out must be complete, without any damage, and the soil on it must be cleaned. You must spread the word clearly, don't let your brother bring a bunch of broken ones, I won't take them, then you will be in trouble."

Tao Daqiang took note of Li Long's words carefully.

"I only buy fresh ones, five cents per kilogram. If you work hard, you can dig more than a hundred kilograms a day, and earn a few dollars, which is not a small amount." Li Long also pointed out the point that Tao Daqiang was most concerned about.

"That's not a small amount." Li Qingxia, who was listening nearby, interjected.

Although Li Qingxia can earn dozens of dollars every day now, he has not forgotten what his situation was like before - five dollars a day, which was once the high salary he dreamed of!
Now I actually look down on it a little.

Although I know that I can't keep making this much money now, why do I feel so superior?
Tao Daqiang naturally had no idea what Li Qingxia was thinking. He went over Li Long's words twice in his mind, making sure he remembered them before he felt relieved.

In fact, when it comes to fishing, Li Long also thought about gathering together all the people who were fishing with nets in the small lake, and then just collecting the fish and selling them to make a profit from the difference, but then he thought better of it.

The fish I have now are the limit of what I can transport. If I want more fish, I will need a bigger and faster vehicle. Although a horse-drawn carriage can carry more, it is slow and many fish will die, making it difficult to sell them. Unless I get a tractor or other motor vehicle, this cannot be done.

Of course, these people need to take the initiative to propose this matter. Now they have tasted the sweetness of selling fish in the market, earning a few or more than ten yuan a day. If they are asked to sell fish to Li Long, they will definitely not be happy, after all, they will feel that Li Long has made a profit from the price difference.

This requires an opportunity.

This time, Li Long still cast twelve nets. The fish sold on both sides were quite good, which was equivalent to attracting most of the people who liked to eat fish in the two markets.

After the net was cast, Li Long rowed out on the tire and Li Qingxia was still there casting the net.

"Xiaolong, that fish tastes really good when it's grilled. Can this carp and the black carp be grilled?"

"It can be cooked." Li Long said with a smile, "Just add more seasonings. When cooking, use a knife to cut the thick parts of the meat so that the flavor can penetrate into the meat."

"Okay, let's cast more nets and burn more at night." Li Qingxia said with a smile.

After returning home, Li Long had more work to do. He skinned the fish, leaving the fat and seeds, and fed the remaining stomach and intestines to the chickens.

Li Long simply smeared the fish with green onions and ginger, cut a few times in the thick parts of the meat, sprinkled salt and chili powder on it, then wrapped it in several layers of sunflower leaves prepared in advance and stuffed it under the stove where there was still hot ashes.

"Dad and Mom, please be careful of the tiny bones when you eat." Li Long reminded them while holding two fish that had been peeled, and then went to Laomahao.

Tao Daqiang had already gone back with some fish, and he wanted to try the way Li Long had suggested. After all, there was nothing to do for the rest of the night. Although there was electricity and a radio, it still felt like he was free, so it would be nice to have some snacks.

After all, eating too much salted dried fish is not good for you. This grilled fish is obviously much better than salted dried fish.

The next day when Li Long came back from selling fish, Tao Dayong had already pulled a sack of Cynomorium songaricum to the door of Li's house.

"Dayong, let me be frank with you," Li Long said, "If it's damaged or dirty, I won't accept it."

"Don't worry!" Tao Dayong was very confident, "Daqiang told me everything, I know how to dig!"

"Then follow me to Laomahao. This is the only place where the Cynomorium songaricum can be dried in the sun." Li Long hung the scale at home on the handlebars and went to Laomahao.

There are many houses in Lao Mahao, and there are ladders to go up to the roof, so it is better to dry it there. Li's house is not that big, and the roof is not as solid as that of Mahao, so Li Long plans to process Cynomorium songaricum at Mahao, and there are many idle houses there, which is also convenient for storage.

When Tao Dayong carried the sack and went to the stable with Li Long, they poured out the Cynomorium songaricum. Li Long took a rough look and found that they were not bad and were basically intact.

Li Long picked out about five or six kilograms of remnants and put them aside.

Tao Dayong was a little embarrassed. He blushed as he explained:

"Xiaolong, this... this is mostly caused by bumps..."

"Yeah, I know." Li Long said, "But no matter what, I definitely can't accept these. I can't sell them even if I accept them."

"Okay." Seeing that Li Long had taken the rest, Tao Dayong felt relieved. He estimated that this sack should be more than 50 kilograms, and even if these five or six kilograms were removed, there would still be more than two yuan.

Li Long and Tao Dayong put the remaining items into sacks and weighed them separately.

"It's fifty-one kilograms in total, two dollars and fifty-five cents, and the five cents is for the skin." Li Long said, "How is it?"

"Okay." Tao Dayong naturally agreed.

Li Long took out some money, counted out two one-yuan bills, two two-cent bills, and one ten-cent bill, and handed them to him, saying:

"You can also dig with your wife and use your father's donkey cart to carry the goods. If you carry them on your own, your body will be stained."

Tao Dayong is like this now, the clothes on his back are all purple-red, and the sack is dyed even redder.

"Hey, I get it." Tao Dayong actually had the same idea, but he was worried that he wouldn't make any money from Li Long, so this sack was considered a trial sale.

With the money in hand, Tao Dayong happily walked home with the sack in hand. When he got home, Ma Chunhong was serving rice. Seeing him coming back, she immediately asked:
"Sold?"

"Sold it, two dollars!"

Two dollars is a lot these days. The tuition and miscellaneous fees for my children in the family are less than two dollars.

"Only two dollars for this morning?" Ma Chunhong suddenly became excited. "Then I'll go dig with you this afternoon! This money is like free money!"

Rural people are not afraid of hard work, but they are afraid of working for nothing. Not to mention now, even if it is 30 or 40 years later, most of the land in the team will be owned by cooperatives, and idle people will hear that bitter beans and Achnatherum splendens can be sold for money, so they will ride electric tricycles all over the Gobi Desert to dig them, not afraid of the sun that hurts their skin.

"Okay." Tao Dayong also meant this. "Xiaolong also said that if my dad is okay, let's call him and use a donkey cart to transport it directly. That way, there will be less loss. Five or six kilograms of what I dug today were rotten, and Xiaolong confiscated them. It will definitely be better if we use a donkey cart to transport that stuff."

"That's right." Ma Chunhong also nodded. If a couple digs and carries the stuff back, it will be very tiring. Besides, she also knows that it is not easy to wash after it is stained. She only has a few clothes. How can she wear them after they are stained? It doesn't matter to men, but as a woman, she should be more careful.

She suddenly thought of something and whispered to Tao Dayong:
"His father, do you think Li Long wants to make some money from this? If we expose this stuff to the sun and sell it ourselves, can we get more money?"

"Go play!" Tao Dayong directly denied his wife's statement, "That's what you said last time when you were selling fish. What happened in the end? I got him locked up!

I have finally seen clearly that people have a fixed amount of money to earn. We don’t have that way, so let’s not think about those fancy things! We should earn the money we deserve… Don’t let the hard-earned money go to waste when we don’t earn it!”

Ma Chunhong also thought of that incident and immediately said:
"Yes, yes, yes, I am blinded by my own greed."

The news that the three members of the Tao family went to Jiantan to dig Cynomorium songaricum soon spread throughout the village.

There was no way to hide this. When someone asked, Tao Dayong said that Li Long would buy it. After all, even if he didn't ask, others would be able to find out. This alkali beach has at least several thousand acres of land, and no one can say how much Cynomorium songaricum it can produce. It is impossible for one person to dig it all, so Tao Dayong didn't hide it.

Li Long sent Tao Dayong away, and seeing that Tao Dayong didn't take the remnants away, he simply found a shovel to shovel them up and threw them into the pigpen and roe deer pen.

I remember seeing on a short video platform that some farmers in a neighboring province dug up this thing, but when they couldn't get a good price for it, they would rather not sell it and feed it to sheep and pigs, claiming that it was health-preserving meat. As a result, many people bought the meat.

This is just like wild flower honey. If the food they feed is good, how can the meat quality not change? This is why everyone pursues wild ones, after all, they eat a variety of foods.

In the afternoon, when Li Long came back from fishing and arrived at Laomahao, Tao Jianshe and Tao Dayong drove a horse-drawn carriage and brought two sacks of Cynomorium songaricum, one large and one small.

The small one was dug by Tao Jianshe, and the big one was dug by Tao Dayong. As usual, Li Long picked out the broken ones and weighed them.

"Uncle Tao, there are 48 kilograms in your sack, that's two dollars and four cents." This time Li Long didn't try to excuse him. After all, he is Daqiang's father, so he had to give him face.

"Okay!" Tao Jianshe felt a little embarrassed, so Li Long stuffed the money into his hand.

"Dayong, you have 86 kilograms here, 4.3 yuan, here's the money." Li Long said, "Are you going to take the rest of the broken ones back or what should I do with them?"

"If you don't want it, I'll take it back." Tao Dayong naturally couldn't leave garbage for Li Long in front of his father.

"I fed the pigs." Li Long said.

"Then you keep it." Tao Dayong said generously.

The remaining weight is only ten kilograms, and Tao Dayong has the final say.

This time it was more than four dollars, which was quite a lot! At the end of the day, I earned more than Daqiang did. This time I could be proud of myself!
"Dayong, help me lift these Cynomoriums to the roof - don't let them break."

"Okay!" It wasn't a big deal to put in some strength, so Tao Dayong readily agreed.

That evening, Tao Dayong showed up at the team's sales department and generously bought three cents worth of loose liquor.

As soon as he finished the wine, when asked by others, he could not help but spread the news of selling Cynomorium songaricum, and also told them the conditions mentioned by Li Long.

Now everyone knows that digging Cynomorium songaricum can make money.

After drinking, Tao Dayong returned home and went to sleep. When he woke up early the next morning, he thought about this and felt a little regretful.

But it's already been said, there's nothing we can do about it.

When the three people took the donkey cart to the nearby alkali beach, they found that there were at least a dozen people digging Cynomorium songaricum on the alkali beach!

Ma Chunhong and Tao Jianshe were still unaware of the situation, but Tao Dayong knew something was wrong.

"Let's go to another place." Tao Jianshe had a good idea. "The alkali beach over there in Dongdagou is bigger, and there are more Cynomorium songaricum. We have donkey carts, so we are not afraid of the long journey. There shouldn't be many people there."

"Yes, yes, yes," Tao Dayong hurriedly agreed, and then the three of them took a donkey cart to the farther alkali beach.

In the next few days, Li Long received hundreds of kilograms of Cynomorium songaricum every day.

With the strong sun now, the Cynomorium songaricum can be dried to 80% in three days, and then Li Long collected it in a sack.

That afternoon, he took a sack of Cynomorium songaricum to the medicinal materials company and found the director.

"The quality is good. I'll take these. If the future ones are still like this, I'll take more." The director was very friendly. After Li Long showed the certificate, he no longer regarded Li Long as a herbalist. This man was definitely a middleman, but it didn't matter, as long as he could get good things.

A sack of dried Cynomorium songaricum was not heavy. In order to ensure the quality, Li Long did not pack too much. The weight was 62 kilograms, and Li Long received 31 yuan.

Although it’s not as good as selling fish, it’s much easier!
There are still five or six sacks of dried berries in the warehouse. There are also piles of them on the roof. These are all money!

Of course, this stuff should have been dug a few months earlier, but it can be harvested now. Li Long plans to harvest it next year? The quality will be better then.

Some people in the team saw Li Long collecting Cynomorium songaricum and naturally knew that this thing could be sold for money, so some people started to have ideas.

Why can Li Long sell it for a good price? There are only a few purchasing points in the county. If he can sell it, others can also sell it.

That’s what Qian Zhongxin thought.

Qian Zhongxin came to the team two years ago. His family came here to live with relatives. It was not difficult to settle down at that time. After settling down, he built a mud house with the help of his relatives. This year, he was given land, so at least he can have enough to eat.

But people are never satisfied. In Qian Zhongxin's opinion, the lessons of Tao Dayong and Gu Ermao were just too stupid.

If you see something is wrong, just run away. How can you be caught? Things are not as important as people.

Of course, there is not much trouble with Cynomorium songaricum this time, you just need to find the right place.

He first sold more than 40 kilograms of Cynomorium songaricum to Li Long, and picked out more than 5 kilograms of them. Qian Zhongxin took the more than 5 kilograms back.

He dried what he dug the next day, including the remaining ones.

He felt that Li Long was looking for trouble and taking advantage of the damaged ones. It was the same with Chinese medicinal materials. What's wrong with damaged ones? Would they be ineffective? At most, they would be of poor quality and sold at a lower price, but that was also money.

Then he carried the dried Cynomorium songaricum on his back and went to the purchasing station.

Then he was politely let out by Chen Hongjun.

“We don’t accept it.”

Qian Zhongxin was not discouraged. He just tried one by one.

Naturally, the supply and marketing cooperatives will not accept it.

So he found a medicinal materials company, after all, Cynomorium songaricum is a medicinal material.

But he was "invited" out before he even saw the director. The main reason was that he was holding a bunch of Cynomorium songaricum, and an expert could tell at a glance that he was being handled by an amateur and there were some leftovers.

These people also know what the director means. Now that we have a large purchase, we should not buy the bulk goods. It is too troublesome! (End of this chapter)