Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

For the next week, Li Long went to Dahaizi every morning to check on the situation, but this time he did not go to the sluice gate, but just took a look at the south bank.

The water line is receding every day. Slowly, there is no water on the south bank except for a few large troughs. There are still fish heads shaking in some shallow puddles.

However, the newly exposed ground was still very slippery, so Li Long didn't care about the fish and just looked at the water conditions.

In the afternoon, he gave the bicycle to Li Junfeng and others to practice. At first, it was only Li Junfeng and Li Junshan who practiced, and later Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang also joined in. At that time, the bicycle was no less advanced than the motorcycles of more than ten years later and the cars of more than twenty years later, and it was considered a high-end configuration.

While they were practicing riding bicycles, Li Long took some time to go to the county and bought a few scoop bags. He went home and installed handles on them and reinforced them for easier use later.

When the four of them had learned how to ride a bicycle, Li Long took them to Li Jianguo's home that afternoon.

Li Jianguo didn't have much to do, mainly feeding the pigs. Seeing Li Long and his men coming over, he invited them into the house.

"Brother, I came here today to discuss an important matter." Li Long said, "If this matter is settled, it will be no problem to earn a bicycle for each of my second brother and his friends."

"What?" Li Anguo was stunned, and then several people were surprised!
In the first ten days or so, each person earned thirty or forty yuan, which was a huge sum of money for them.

Now Li Long says that the next wave can earn a bicycle for each person, how can we not be surprised?
"What?" Li Jianguo calmed down a lot. In his opinion, he was well connected now, so any opportunity to make money was not surprising.

"It's like this. These days I go to Dahaizi every morning to check the water." Li Long first explained the reason. "The water level in Dahaizi has been dropping these days. Water has been released from the sluice gate, but the Mohe Canal has not received any water. I estimate that the water will be almost dry tomorrow. At most, there will be water in a few troughs..."

"The fish in there..." Li Jianguo was the first to react, "So we just need to pick up the fish?"

"Yes, I was picking up fish." Li Long smiled, "When I went there this morning, there were fish already out of several puddles."

"Let's go now!" Hearing that the water in a lake had dried up, Li Junfeng could no longer sit still. "Uncle Xiaolong, you kept it a secret. If you had told us earlier, we would have gone there two days ago... There are so many fish here."

"A lot, too much." Li Jianguo pointed at Li Long and said, "When you guys weren't here a few days ago, your uncle Xiaolong used a sticky net to catch fish, and he could catch more than 100 kilograms every day..."

"So many?" This time even the usually calm Li Junshan was amazed, "How can we finish it?"

"How much can we eat at home? We sell all of it." Li Long explained, "This time, let's go big and try to get as much fish as possible..."

He told his plan, and then looked at Chen Xingbang and Li Anguo who were staring at him in a daze.

Chen Xingbang was also full of admiration. He originally thought that his brother-in-law was just lucky and got rich because of the opportunity. Now looking at his ideas and vision, he was far behind!
"Then let's go now? What are we going to do tomorrow? Let's go and take a look. It shouldn't be far, right?" Li Junfeng was already extremely anxious. "Is it about ten miles away?"

"No, how can it be ten miles? About two kilometers, four miles." Li Jianguo thought for a while and said.

"Go, go, the sun hasn't set yet, go and take a look at what's going on!"

Li Long looked at Li Jianguo.

"Then let's go and take a look." Li Jianguo was also very curious, "I'll go and harness the carriage."

"Then you guys go. I won't go. I still have to talk to Daqiang and Yongqiang. More people need to get involved in this matter."

"Okay, then you go and do your own thing. I'll take your second brother and the others over to take a look." Li Jianguo was also very excited at this time. He had seen many fish, but he had never seen a place like Dahaizi where the water was drained to see the fish.

Then shouldn't we take a closer look?
When Li Long saw Li Jianguo putting up the carriage boards around the carriage, he smiled and said:

"Brother, you'd better bring more urea bags, otherwise they won't fit."

"Yes, yes." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Do we need to bring the landing net with us?"

"Better bring it."

The group went north in a carriage, while Li Long went to find Tao Daqiang.

In the courtyard of the Tao family, Tao Daqiang was cleaning a bicycle, and he cleaned the 28-inch bicycle until there was no dust at all. After cleaning, he did not forget to oil the chain.

Li Long felt ashamed of himself, because he really used his 28-inch bicycle as a bicycle. But this guy treated his bicycle as his uncle.

"Brother Long is here." Tao Daqiang put down the oil bottle and said with a smile, "Have you eaten?"

"I have eaten, how about you?"

“I have eaten it too.”

Tao Jianshe was smoking in the room. When he heard the noise outside, he hesitated for a moment and did not come out.

"We'll start working tomorrow." Li Long said, "This time will be different from before. I'll explain it to you in detail now."

"Brother Long, you say." Upon hearing that serious business was about to begin, Tao Daqiang immediately became serious.

"The water in the sea is almost dry." Li Long's first words were no less than a bombshell to Tao Daqiang, "You should know there are a lot of fish in it."

"I know, I know. How could I not know?"

"Tomorrow morning, you will lead the donkey cart over there, preferably with Uncle Tao. Oh, and Yongqiang, too. You should tell him about it. Bring your supplies, and you can catch fish, but I mean that you should collect the fish."

"Collecting fish?" Tao Daqiang was a little confused.

"Yes, we're collecting fish." Li Long said with certainty, "The villages on the north bank of Dahaizi must have known the situation earlier than us. I estimate that there will be more people there than here tomorrow, so there will definitely be more people in the lake tomorrow.

As for you, you can just pull a donkey cart and collect the fish. You can collect the fish they catch at 1 cent per kilogram and put them on the cart, picking out the big and good fish. Of course, if you can go even lower than 1 cent, 5 cents would be even better.”

"10 cents? How can they sell it?" Tao Daqiang immediately shook his head. "Even if it's cheaper in the market, it's still 50 cents."

"Don't worry, as long as you pay cash, they will definitely sell it to you." Li Long said with a smile, "With so many fish, how can the fish in the market be only 50 cents? It may even be 20 cents!" "Then you will lose money if you take it!"

"I'm not selling now." Li Long shook his head and said, "I'll collect them and put them away. Winter is so long, I'll sell them later when there are no more fish.

No matter how much you get it for, you can sell it to me for 1.5 cents, or you can keep it at home and take it to the county to sell it around New Year's Day. This is a way to make money. If you can do it well, you can get another bicycle this time without any problem."

Li Long stood up after he finished speaking and said to Tao Daqiang:

"Da Qiang, bring more bags tomorrow. The donkey cart alone can't carry that much fish. That's how it is."

Li Long left, leaving Tao Daqiang a little confused in the yard.

A few minutes later, Tao Jianshe came out and saw Tao Daqiang still sitting on the small bench in front of the bicycle. He asked with his pipe in hand:

"What do you think?"

"What?" Tao Daqiang looked up at his father and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Do you want to collect it yourself, or sell it to Xiaolong?"

"Of course I'll buy them and sell them to Brother Long." Tao Daqiang said naturally, "We'll buy them and sell them later. We can make a lot of money. I calculated that we can probably make several hundred yuan later. What about the future?"

Tao Jianshe nodded, then shook his head:

"Fools are blessed with good fortune... Xiaolong wasn't saying that to you, he was saying that to me."

"Tell you?" Tao Daqiang was a little puzzled.

"He knows that you must be following him, and you will sell the fish to him. What he meant by that was to tell me that if I want to make money, these two methods are fine. I guess he wanted me to talk to your eldest brother and take this opportunity to make some money. His family... Alas, the future will definitely be more difficult than yours."

Having said that, Tao Jianshe went out.

"Is that what Brother Long meant? No way? Why can't I hear it?" Tao Daqiang felt that Li Long probably didn't mean that. He felt that Li Long was just frankly stating the two possibilities and putting them out in the open.

When Tao Jianshe came back, Tao Daqiang went to find Yang Yongqiang and explained the matter to him.

Yang Yongqiang also understood very well and said immediately:
"I'll collect fish too. I'll put them in your car and then sell them to Brother Long."

The matter was settled like that.

Li Long returned to the stable and continued reading.

This "The Outlaws of the Marsh" is really challenging to the brain. It is written in a way that makes people feel a little annoyed. It is completely the opposite. After reading half of it, Li Long stuffed the book under his pillow and took out another one to read. This "The Heroine of the Ancient Capital" is quite attractive.

Li Long remembered that he had read it before, but he didn't finish it. He just felt that the Japanese were too brutal. Now he still felt the same way.

It was getting dark. He looked outside and found that it was still early, but Li Anguo and the others had not returned yet. Something seemed amiss.

After reading a few pages, Li Long felt a little worried, so he put the book down and went out. He walked around the yard twice and felt a strong chill.

The ice in the remaining puddles in the sea should be very thick tomorrow, right?

I wonder if it will go smoothly?

Then the sound of a carriage was heard.

"We're here, we're freezing!"

"It's worth it!" This is Li Junfeng's voice, very excited, "Who would have thought that the fish were really picked up! Picking up a bag of fish from a pit of water, where have you seen it? There weren't so many fish when the river dried up before."

"We caught one today!" Chen Xingbang said excitedly, "We'll cook it tonight. We have to cook it. This fish looks fat - so delicious!"

"That's right, let Uncle Luo do it later..." Li Anguo said with a smile.

"I'll help." Li Junshan added, "Make two more."

The carriage drove into the yard. Li Long looked at the five people who were shivering with cold but cheerful, and asked:

"How's it going?"

"Hey! There are so many fish! I can't pick them all up!" Li Jianguo laughed.

"Go in and warm yourself up. I'll take care of the fish." Li Long took the reins of the horse. "You guys go and warm yourself up by the fire."

"Yes, I need to roast it. I feel like I'm frozen through. How come I didn't feel it when I was picking up the fish?"

"There's fire on the fish." Several people said as they walked into the house.

Li Long picked out two large crucian carps, a carp and a black carp and handed them over to Li Junshan. Then he pulled the carriage inward to the outermost warehouse and started unloading the bags.

The innermost room was also covered with wooden boards. There was nothing on top at this time, so we just put the fish on top. There was no stove in this room, so the fish would freeze overnight.

As Li Long moved the items, he could tell that his elder brother and his friends only picked the big fish. There was a bag of crucian carp, the smallest of which was no smaller than his palm.

What a luxury! (End of this chapter)