Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Although he really wanted to live in the big yard for a while, Li Long knew that there would be a big job coming up, so he still had to go back and prepare.

After all, whether you can make a big profit before the end of the year depends on this opportunity.

After riding his bike to the department store and buying some food, Li Long went home.

He was wearing a cotton coat, a cotton hat on his head, a mask on his face, a scarf knitted by Gu Xiaoxia around his neck, and the big-toed shoes he got from Li Xiangqian on his feet. He was basically fully armed.

After passing the commune and turning east, Li Long saw that the water in the Mohe Canal had stopped flowing. The few pools of water left at the bottom of the canal were also covered with a thin layer of ice. There was a gap between the ice and the remaining water below, and the bubbles in the middle of the ice layer could be seen with the naked eye.

There were several children playing near the ice, and one of them was hitting the bubble with a stone, and it seemed that he was catching small fish or something from underneath.

Since the water in the Mohe Canal has been cut off, the next big event should be coming soon, right?

Thinking that there might be another big battle, Li Long immediately sped up his riding. When he arrived at the elementary school and saw that the students had already left school, he rode forward and found Li Juan and Li Qiang in the crowd. He took them home quickly amid the envious gazes of the other children.

So far, there are no more than five bicycles in the whole village, and the total number of bicycles in the whole township is no more than 100. So almost everyone you see on the road is walking, with the occasional person pulling a horse-drawn or donkey-drawn cart, or a cart pulled by human power.

After returning to the Li family, Li Long left some of the food behind and went to the Gu family, where he left some of the food. He told Gu Boyuan about Xiaoxia's situation and chatted for a few words, then returned to the Lao Ma Hao.

Tao Daqiang was waiting for him here.

"Brother Long, you're back." Tao Daqiang greeted him with a smile, "You must be exhausted during this period."

"Not bad," Li Long parked his bike and called him, "Come on, go inside. It's cold outside."

"It's okay. It's not cold now. It will get colder in a few days."

"Daqiang, what are your plans for the future?" Since Tao Daqiang didn't want to go into the house, Li Long stood outside and chatted with him, "How are the preparations for the wedding going?"

"Well..." Tao Daqiang felt a little embarrassed at this time, "It's almost done, just waiting to get things done."

"So do you want to take some time off, or do you plan to make some more money?" Li Long teased him with a smile, "Are you dating your partner every day?"

"No, no..." Tao Daqiang waved his hands hastily, his face flushed, "How can it be every day... two or three times a week?"

Okay, kid finally got it.

"Brother Long, can you still make money? Catch fish?" Tao Daqiang asked, "With so many people coming from your hometown, it's not easy to sell the fish you catch. If you go to the county..."

Li Long did not explain directly, but asked him:
"So do you want to make some money? Don't worry, this time, even with more people, we can make some money. But you have to be able to endure the hardship. The fatigue and coldness are not ordinary, and it may be harder than before."

"I'm not afraid." When Tao Daqiang heard about hard labor, he waved his hands, "What's there to be afraid of? I didn't feel tired at all when I broke the ice hole last year."

He subconsciously thought that Li Long was going to expand the matter of smashing the ice hole.

"Then you just need to be prepared. Ask your father to prepare the donkey cart as well. We will need it as well. We will pay for it together later."

Li Long just wanted to seize this opportunity and make a big move. Maybe he could earn a tractor for next year!

Tao Daqiang got the confirmation and happily prepared to go back. As soon as he reached the gate, he turned around and asked Li Long:
"Brother Long, Yongqiang asked me before that he wants to work with you, what do you think..."

"If he wants to do it this time, that's fine." Li Long really didn't care about the number of people this time. The more people, the better.

"Okay, I'll go and talk to him." Tao Daqiang left with a brisk pace.

As it got dark, Li Long added some coal to the stove in Li Anguo's room and used some coal foam to suppress the fire. This way, when they came back, they only needed to use the stove hook to light the fire and it would be started.

I put some coal on my side, and when the fire was turned on, the room immediately became warm.

Uncle Luo was shouting outside:

"Xiaolong, are we going to wait for them to come back to eat this meal?"

"No, let's eat first." Li Long pushed the door open and walked out. "They ate the leftovers when they came back. They've been strolling around the county today, so they probably aren't hungry."

Of course, Li Long was just joking. We had soup and rice in the evening. It was cold in winter and we didn't have to work hard, so it was normal to eat something thin. Besides, we were eating white flour. If anyone had any complaints, Uncle Luo would probably hit him with a spatula!

After a large bowl of noodles, Li Long felt a little sweat on his back. He smiled and said:
"Uncle Luo, your cooking skills are getting better and better!"

"Haha, that's nonsense." Old Uncle Luo said with a smile, "You're eating it yourself, so just figure it out bit by bit."

Uncle Luo is very content. He is doing his old job and getting paid. Although he still cooks part-time, he has to cook when he is alone. Besides, with so many people together, it is a lively meal. He just needs to put in a little more rice and knead a little more dough when cooking. What's the big deal? Now other old friends envy him.

After dinner, Li Long helped Uncle Luo clean up the dishes and then returned to his room.

He plans to check on the situation tomorrow and keep an eye on it every day for the next few days.

There was nothing to do at this time, so Li Long heard that Uncle Luo was feeding wild boars and deer outside, so he didn't go over to help. He turned on the light and casually took out a book from under his pillow. He had read almost all of his brother's novels, and now he had this book, which was picked up from the county yard. It was a reactionary book, "The Outlaws of the Marsh". If he hadn't read "Water Margin" first, he might have been fooled by it.

As it got dark, the voices of Li Anguo and others were heard outside.

Li Long put down the book and walked out of the house. He saw that his eldest brother had already left with the carriage, and his second brother Li Anguo and others came over carrying some things.

"Xiaolong, you are very fast." Li Anguo said with a smile.

"How can a bicycle not be fast?" Chen Xingbang said enviously, "When I make more money tomorrow, I'll buy one, even an old one will do."

"Uncle Xiaolong, try this egg cake, it's delicious." Li Junfeng handed the egg cake to Li Long. Li Long took a piece and asked while eating:

"Did you have a good time shopping today?"

"It's OK. The county town is a little small," Chen Xingbang said. "There are fewer shops and fewer people. But there's nothing special about it."

"That's right. The population of a county here is only as large as that of a town in Kouli." Li Long said with a smile, "There is a lot of land and few people. What we lack now is people. You should have seen it when you went to the market. Any handmade product can be sold for money."

"It's true. There are so many opportunities. It seems that there are not many people with skills here." Li Anguo was deeply touched. "There are all kinds of things sold in the market. I was thinking, can that thing be sold? There are really people who buy it..."

"Come in, it's cold outside." Li Long said, "The stove is on, you can use the stove hook to poke it and there will be a fire. Uncle Luo has prepared dinner for you."

"Uncle Xiaolong, can I learn to ride your bicycle tomorrow?" Li Junfeng asked hurriedly. "Tomorrow afternoon is fine. I need to use it in the morning."

"Okay, okay, afternoon is fine." Li Junfeng actually didn't care about the morning or afternoon. After this trip, he had a bold idea to earn more money, even if he stayed out for half a year or a year, and then buy a bicycle when he returned home. How nice!
Li Junshan didn't say much and seemed to be worried about something.

Li Long didn't ask. He was not a psychologist. They were all adults and he couldn't care less.

Li Long lives alone in a room, and the four of them live in one room. At the beginning, Chen Xingbang and the others had some objections, but now they don't.

Four people living in one room, although the smell is a bit unpleasant, but isn't it lively? Li Junfeng and Li Junshan are two younger generations, so there are many things that they don't need to take care of.

Li Long mentioned this to them when they finished pressing the reeds. Han Benzhong and his family had returned, and now there was an empty house. If they felt it was too crowded, they could live separately, since the stove and coal were already there.

What puzzled Li Long was that Chen Xingbang was the first to object, while the others had no objections. So Li Long did not say anything else.

Fortunately, the houses in this stable are all built according to the layout of warehouses and offices. Each house is at least 30 to 40 square meters, and is large enough so that four people can live in it without feeling crowded.

After breakfast the next day, Li Long rode his bicycle north.

He passed through the old village and arrived at the second food-grabbing field allocated to his family. He rode along the path made by the horse-drawn carriage along the edge of the field all the way to the edge of the sea.

The water in the sea was much less than when the net was cast earlier. Some shallows had already been exposed to mud, and some troughs were also exposed.

There was some thin ice on the shore, and because the water receded quickly, the ice piled up layer by layer all the way to the water's edge.

At first glance, there was no one in the sea. The air temperature was already below zero, and no one would go into the water to catch fish at this time.

He pushed his bicycle along the periphery of Dahaizi, wanting to go around to the north gate to take a look.

There used to be several small canals and rivers in the southeast, which were also the source of water for Dahaizi. Now they were completely dry, with only some cow and horse manure in the ditches.

Li Long didn't ride the bicycle because there were many camel thorns in this area. He was worried that he might not ride well and directly puncture the bicycle tire, which would be very troublesome.

When we reached the easternmost part, there was a dam with standard cement slabs in the front and soil piled in the back. The top of the dam was two meters wide, so it was no problem to ride a bicycle.

Riding along the dam all the way to the sluice gate, Li Long found that the sluice gate was raised to its highest position. The water in the lake rushed down through the sluice gate and flowed downstream.

Occasionally you can see a fish jumping up from the gate and then falling down.

You don't need to tell the difference to know that only silver carp will do this.

Li Long stayed at the gate and watched. Soon someone from the small house below the gate came over and saw Li Long and shouted:

"What do you do?"

"I'm from the village above. Let me see what the water is like here."

"What else can we do? Let's release the water." Looking at Li Long riding his bicycle, the man's tone slowed down a bit, "There's nothing to see here. Outsiders are not allowed to come up here. You should get off quickly."

"When will this water be stored?" Li Long asked, wanting to verify what he remembered.

"What's it to you? Go down quickly." The man didn't want to say anything, waved his hand, then turned and went into the house.

The house was actually made of branches, wood and mud. There was a little smoke coming out of it, so there must be a stove. The man was probably the gatekeeper, and he was probably warming himself by the fire.

Li Long pushed his bicycle to the door of the "shack", parked the bicycle, pushed open the half-open door and walked in.

"What are you doing here?" The man was poking the stove, and the room was filled with a burnt smell.

Li Long was happy when he saw the slightly burnt fish placed next to the stove.

He took out a cigarette from his pocket, took out a cigarette and handed it to him, saying:
"Come on, brother, have a cigarette."

After taking the cigarette handed over by Li Long, the man's expression eased a little. He looked at the cigarette, the corners of his mouth twitched as if he was smiling, then he pulled out the hook from the stove and lit the cigarette.

The man was in his forties, shorter than Li Jianguo, only about 1.6 meters tall. He had not much hair, his face was very tanned, and his clothes were very dirty. It had been unknown how long since they had been washed, and they gave off a fishy smell.

The room was not big. There were two grilled fish hanging next to the stove. There was a wooden bed at the back. There were five or six fish weighing two or three kilograms in a basin next to the bed.

"Brother, this is a lot of fish!"

"That's right. We release water every day, and a fish will jump out from time to time. If you want to eat one, take one!" This man is also very generous.

"No need for that. I just want to ask you a question - brother, are we going to drain the water from this big sea? I think the water in the Mohe Canal is not flowing into it anymore."

"Hey, that's right!" When the man heard that Li Long had guessed it, he took a long puff of his cigarette:

"When the downstream and upstream water managers are arguing, we are the ones who are holding back - we just do whatever the higher-ups tell us to do. We didn't win, so they told us to drain the water out of spite, so we just did it..."

"Is there a reservoir under the water?" Li Long asked. There is actually a series of reservoirs under Dahaizi, but the further north you go, the deeper into the Gobi Desert, and the more desolate it becomes.

"That's not true... But it's said that this time it's not like that. This time the water will basically end up in the sand pits. A leader over there said that they're going to open up the sand pits next year, but now they're releasing water to soak it - that's nonsense! If you put water in the sand pits, it will seep down and there will be nothing left. What the hell is the point of soaking it!"

After chatting with him for a while, Li Long understood the basic situation. He left the remaining half pack of cigarettes here and stood up to leave.

The man felt bad, so he found a net bag, put two fish in it and stuffed it into Li Long's pocket:
"Here, it just jumped out this morning, it's alive, eat it without worry!"

Li Long felt bad about it, so he took it.

Cigarettes are nothing to me, and fish are nothing to the other person, so this is a win-win situation.

Li Long rode his bicycle but did not return by the same route. There is a county road here that goes around the west side of Dahaizi and leads to the commune. The road condition is not bad because there are large trucks passing by from time to time.

After riding to the commune, Li Long turned east and rode back to Laomahao.

It was already time for lunch, and Li Long felt a little relieved.

Next, I will go to check the situation every day. (End of this chapter)