Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The first net was almost densely packed with fish - at least ten kilograms!

The mesh of this net is not small, about four fingers wide, and hooked on it are large crucian carp, grass carp, sticky carp and carp. There are very few black carp and some silver carp.

Most of them weighed more than one kilogram, and there were also a few small fish hanging on them. When Li Long took the net, the small fish were not stuck firmly and jumped away directly.

Even so, after collecting the net and putting it into the bag, Li Long clearly felt that the tire had sunk a bit.

I originally thought it was a good start and there might not be so many fish later, but who would have thought that there were just as many fish on the second net.

When Li Long was collecting the net, he looked forward along the net line and could clearly see that in the trough, where the net was, there were occasional splashes of water - obviously, these were all living fish still struggling in the net.

After stuffing the two nets into the urea bag, Li Long felt that most of the tire was already submerged in water - it felt like there were at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight kilograms in these two nets.

Li Long didn't dare to collect another net, so he turned around and rowed back. Li Long felt that if he collected even half of the ten nets, he might overturn the tire.

Tao Daqiang was a little confused looking at the shore. Why did he come back?

"Da Qiang, run home now and ask my eldest brother to harness the carriage over here. There are too many fish and we can't catch them all!"

"What?" Tao Daqiang was a little unconvinced, "How is it possible that we can't get it back?"

"Look, these three nets, one and a half bags, almost two bags." Li Long's tire had already hit the bottom when it was almost reaching the shore. He stood up and jumped into the water, dragging the two bags to the shore. "There are more than 30 kilograms of fish in these two bags. Just imagine, there are seven nets. How much will that be?"

Tao Daqiang came over, took the bag and carried it to the shore. He felt the weight and without saying much, he put the heavy bag on his back and strode back.

Li Long placed the other bag on the shore, then paddled the tire into the water to collect the net.

Not far into the water, he turned around and shouted to Tao Daqiang who had walked more than a hundred meters:

"Daqiang, bring a few more bags!"

I originally prepared four bags, thinking they would be enough, but now it seems that they may not be enough.

"I got it, Brother Long!" Tao Daqiang replied and continued walking forward.

Li Long collected three more nets, each of which held more than ten kilograms of fish. As he went deeper, he saw more and more silver carp.

But Li Long had no time to complain at this time. No matter what, more fish is always a good thing.

After putting the three nets and two bags on the shore, seeing that the carriage had not come yet, Li Long had to pour two large and a half bags into the water. The fish were entangled in the nets anyway and could not escape, so he could free up two bags and go in to collect the nets.

This time, the two bags were almost full with just two nets. The meshes of these two nets were smaller, and they were densely packed with palm-sized crucian carps.

These crucian carps are obviously thinner than the fish in the small lake, and their color isn’t as pretty, but there are plenty of them!

They are all alive!
When the two bags of fish were brought to the shore, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang had already arrived and were loading the fish onto the carriage.

"Why so many?" Li Jianguo was also surprised.

"Maybe not many people catch fish here. The water in this sea has never been drained for many years, so there must be a lot of fish in it, right?" said Li Long.

"Hurry up and load the fish into the car and go back to choose the fish." Li Jianguo felt that this was indeed the case and nodded.

"There's a net inside," Li Long said, "I have to go collect it."

"Brother Long, can I go collect it?" Tao Daqiang said, "You've already made several trips."

"Then you have to be able to find a place, right?" Li Long smiled, "It's okay, it's just a net, it's fast."

Li Long paddled back into the water. This time he paddled out quickly, but he couldn't paddle back quickly. Firstly, Li Long was really tired, and secondly, the last fish in the net must have weighed at least 17 or 18 kilograms!
When he reached the shore, Li Long felt that he had almost no strength left.

Tao Daqiang helped him get on the carriage. Li Long was most thankful that he asked Tao Daqiang to drive the carriage as soon as he felt there were too many fish. Although there was no road from the southeast bank of Dahaizi to the end of the field, the large rubber tires of the carriage would not sink.

"Brother Long, these fish... must be about a hundred kilograms, right?" Tao Daqiang was also very excited. It was the first time he caught so many fish.

"Yes." Before Li Long could speak, Li Jianguo interrupted, "There should be more. We have to go back and choose the fish quickly."

"We have to go to two places to sell today." Li Long said, "We have to go to the county and Shicheng, otherwise we won't be able to sell all the fish."

"Yeah." Li Jianguo said, and then asked, "Daqiang, can you sell it in the county?"

"No." Tao Daqiang is very self-aware, "I can't do it myself--"

"Then I'll go to the county." Li Jianguo said, "The team has already harvested all the sunflowers today, so I won't go to the wheat field to dry them."

Li Long thought this was okay.

There are three settlements in the village, arranged in a triangle from south to north. The settlement where Li Long lives is at the southernmost one, Laomahao is in the middle of the three settlements, and Dahaizi is at the northernmost one.

Therefore, if the carriage wants to return to the Li family from Dahaizi, it has to pass through the settlement in the northeast corner, where Gu Boyuan's home is.

When the carriage passed through the residential area, there were dogs barking and people moving around in the yard. When they saw Li Jianguo leading the carriage, they all asked about it.

Li Jianguo did not hide it and said with a smile:
"Look, Xiaolong went to Dahaizi to set the nets yesterday, and this morning he went to retrieve the nets."

"That's a lot of fish, we need a horse-drawn carriage to pull it..." someone exclaimed.

"It's quite a lot, probably around 70 or 80 kilograms." Li Jianguo said a little less.

"Wow, that's a lot!"

I just listened to it and praised it, and then it was over.

After all, everyone knew that Li Long was the biggest fisherman in the team, the first generation of fishermen, and now Meng Zhiqiang and his friends were still behind Li Long in catching fish. The Li family was able to live better than other families now, thanks to the fish in this small lake, and now they were heading towards the big lake, they were really destined to make a living from this.

There is definitely envy, but it’s hard to say jealousy. After all, the big and small lakes are open there, and no one says that others are not allowed to catch fish. It all depends on your ability.

When passing by Gu Boyuan's house, Old Gu was brushing his teeth in the yard. When he saw Li Jianguo, he raised his toothbrush and asked:
"what's going on?"

"Xiaolong and the others are setting their nets in the sea. There are a lot of fish today..."

"A lot? How much? Can it be pulled by a horse-drawn carriage? This time your little dragon has really become famous." "Then it must be nearly 100 kilograms!" Li Jianguo was very proud, "Do you want some fish? I'll leave a net for you?"

"Forget it!" Gu Boyuan and Li Jianguo were sniping at each other. "It's better to sell the fish than to leave it for me to eat. I can eat one fish for two days... Let's go. The fish will become stale if it's kept for too long."

Li Jianguo walked back with a smile.

When I got home, Liang Yuemei was selecting fish in front of the plastic sheet. Li Juan and Li Qiang had already finished their meal and put on their school bags. Li Jianguo said to them:

"You should go to school first. There are too many fish today to pick them all in a short time. And I don't know when your uncle will be there to sell the fish."

Li Qiang was a little unhappy, so Li Juan took him away.

Then several people quickly selected the fish, took the big fish from the net and threw them into the fish basin. In order to distinguish the fish, Li Jiaguang had three large fish basins, which were fully utilized at this time.

"This fish is not as pretty as the one in Xiaohaizi." Liang Yuemei said.

"No, it's not as fat as Xiao Haizi's." Li Long said, "Brother, when we sell fish later, we have to sell them at a lower price."

"I know," Li Jianguo said. "We have a large quantity. Dad said before that if there are a lot of fish, we can't be too fussy. It doesn't matter if we are a dime or two below the market price. The important thing is to sell them out quickly."

Seeing that Li Jianguo knew the situation, Li Long felt relieved.

After picking the fish, Tao Daqiang wanted to go back, but Li Long refused and had breakfast at Li's house. Liang Yuemei went to work in the wheat field, Tao Daqiang was picking up the nets in the yard, and Li Long and Li Jianguo went to sell the fish.

At the Ma County Market, Meng Zhiqiang was quite happy. He didn't see Li Long when he was setting down the nets yesterday, nor did he see him when he was taking up the nets this morning.

Without Li Long and his friends around, the market competition for selling fish in Ma County is not that fierce. They can live in peace and sell fish leisurely.

I thought so, but I didn’t expect that not long after, Li Long didn’t come, but Li Jianguo came.

Two large basins were set open, and the big and small fish were poured out separately. Li Jianguo brought out the vigor he had gained in his early years and shouted loudly:

"Selling fish, selling fish! Fresh wild fish from Dahaizi! Selling fish, selling fish, fish are cheap! Wild fish from Dahaizi are cheap!"

Some people squeezed over to take a look. Although there weren’t many people, business quickly opened up - it was simply because it was cheap.

Small crucian carp 70 cents, large crucian carp 80 cents, carp 80 cents, silver carp 70 cents...

Although Li Jianguo and Li Long did not weigh them, the ten fish caught in the net filled up four and a half urea bags, so they definitely weighed over a hundred kilograms.

Li Long went to the big yard to get a basin and a scale, and quickly rushed to Shicheng.

By the time we arrived at Shicheng, the sun had already risen. It was already past ten o'clock and there were still a lot of people, but it was obvious that there were not that many people selling vegetables and cooking in the morning.

Li Long didn't mind. It was just a miscalculation, and there was nothing he could do about it. He found an empty spot, parked his bike, poured the fish into the basin, and started shouting.

"Young man, your fish is not as good as before." An old customer saw Li Long, came over to look at the fish and said.

"From the Dahaizi Reservoir," Li Long explained. "There aren't that many aquatic plants in the water, so the fish are thin. But the fish are also cheap, one or two cents cheaper per kilogram than before - 70 cents for crucian carp, 80 cents for five-cut black carp, how about that?"

"This price is not bad..." At a time when the prices of general goods are slowly rising, Li Long has lowered the price of fish a little. Customers feel that Li Long is honest when they hear this:
"Okay, I'll weigh a kilogram of crucian carp and try it to see if there's any difference."

"Okay. Here, one kilogram of crucian carp, and one extra one - this one should be a little thinner than the original one."

It was not a good time, so there were still people buying fish, but not as many as before. An old customer also said that some people came to ask about it earlier, but did not see Li Long, so some people bought other people's fish, and some people just went back.

The fish Li Long brought this time were not bad, just not as good as those from Xiao Haizi before. But in fact, the quality was similar to the fish sold by others, or even better.

Because he missed the best time, Li Long didn't sell out the two bags of more than 60 kilograms of fish until almost midnight.

Fortunately, these fish were very resilient. Until the old man bought the remaining two kilograms of crucian carp, the crucian carp in the basin were still swimming weakly.

This shows how strong the vitality of crucian carp is.

Li Long was quite satisfied with the 60-plus kilograms of fish sold for more than 40 yuan. Because he had already had breakfast at home, Li Long did not drink the milk tea. He poured the remaining dirty water in the basin into the ditch on the side of the road, packed up his things, and pushed the cart through the crowd.

Most of the people who are still walking around the old street are from the two counties. The locals are either still working or have gone home to cook.

There were stalls selling all kinds of things. Most of them were tools, and there were quite a few people who had some skills. There weren't many Han people in the northern border originally, but now it's like a sea of ​​​​inclusiveness, with people from all over the place. As long as you are diligent, you won't starve to death even if you don't have any skills - for example, now, if you go to the Corps to pick up autumn crops, you can pick up enough food for the whole winter.

After all, there were few people and much land, so in order to rush to harvest, the work was done roughly, and there was no time or time for anyone to do it so carefully. Even ten years ago, there were mothers and daughters who came from Kou Li to scavenge, picking up several tons of corn in the fall, and spending the winter in abandoned winter huts, eating corn.

Nowadays, anyone with a little skill and a quick mind can make a good living. With the household contract responsibility system, there is definitely a shortage of various tools, not only the collective but also the farmers. If you have some extra money from working, you naturally want to do a better job.

Li Long walked from the beginning to the end of the street and unexpectedly found someone selling wild mushrooms. They were very cheap, only 60 cents per kilogram, and they were also very fresh. Unfortunately, not many people bought them.

The mushrooms were very common, the kind of straw mushrooms that grew in patches on the hill next to Li Long's cabin.

There is one more food stall, in addition to the one selling sesame cakes, there is also one selling soup rice, the smell is very fragrant and the aroma spreads far away. The two stalls are one at the beginning of the street and the other at the end, they do not affect each other, which is actually quite good.

Li Long was a little hungry, so he went over to look at the vendor selling soup and rice.

In the small pot, the noodle soup was thick with a layer of chopped green onions floating on top. There were a bunch of bowls on the cart and a bucket next to it. The stall owner was a woman in her thirties. When Li Long went over, she was washing the bowls that the customers had eaten from with water from the bucket.

Then Li Long saw a finger print on the washed bowl and immediately lost interest.

Although the soup rice contained a lot of tomatoes and green leaves, and it smelled delicious, Li Long had no appetite.

He turned around and left.

I'd better go back and make it myself. Maybe I've become a little hypocritical after living two lives. He didn't eat it, but some people didn't mind it. What's there to mind about a bowl of hot rice for 20 cents?
The noodles are so thick and still filling.

Li Long rode his bike back and decided to go home and do it himself.

Anyway, there were onions and coriander ready in the yard, and chili peppers, celery, and braised meat in the kitchen, and there was no shortage of noodles.

Don't let yourself down, go back and do it yourself! (End of this chapter)