Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

In the afternoon, Li Long started cleaning his gun in the stable room.

This time when I go hunting, the bullets are guaranteed, but the gun still needs good maintenance.

The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle is quite easy to maintain. Li Long also focused on cleaning the barrel and bolt, and applying oil. Gun oil in winter is different from that in summer. Scientifically speaking, it should be the viscosity, solidification temperature, etc. Li Long doesn't understand it very well, but he knows that winter gun oil should be used in winter.

When the gun was halfway wiped, there was a knock on the door. Li Long shouted, "Come in," and the people who pushed the door open were Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang.

Li Long was happy.

Now these two are like the two generals Heng and Ha, Jiao is inseparable from Meng and Meng is inseparable from Jiao.

"Brother Long." Tao Daqiang came in and greeted him, then squatted opposite Li Long.

"Go to the side." Li Long stretched out his hand and pushed him away. "Did you forget again? How can you face each other when cleaning your gun?"

Tao Daqiang grinned, walked to the side and squatted, helping Li Long pass the gun cloth.

The space for cleaning the gun was small, so Yang Yongqiang didn't go to get together. He sat on the bed and asked:

"Brother Long came back in the morning?"

"Yeah." Li Long asked as he wiped the area, "Are you two free?"

"Yeah, I'm free." Tao Daqiang nodded, "All the fish are sold out. Brother Long, do you think it's profitable to break the ice hole and sell fish now?"

"Of course there is some profit to be made. Are there many people in the team who have broken ice holes?"

"There weren't many before, but today I see quite a few people there." Yang Yongqiang said, "They are all young people, two brothers from the Zhao family, three brothers from the Liang family, and the father and son of the Bai family... The fish in that small lake will be very busy."

Li Long calculated that it had been more than a month since the beginning of winter and almost two months. He said:

"If you two want to do it, you can do it. How about we go and take a look this afternoon?"

"Okay." This is what Yang Yongqiang was waiting for. "Actually, we're still hesitating. Yesterday, I heard someone say that some people caught fish by breaking holes in the ice, while others didn't. I don't know if this job is doable. When I heard you were back, I thought of coming over to ask."

"Okay, let's pass the gun over and see." Since the two brothers believed in him, Li Long also hoped to help them.

In the winter, there are not many resources in the countryside, and it is not easy to make some money. But from Yang Yongqiang's words, we can hear that many young people in the village want to make money and don't want to stay at home.

It could be that the Li family was stimulated by the money they made, or it could be the idea of ​​living a good life. In any case, it is a good thing.

After cleaning the gun, Li Long went to find a net bag, an axe and a steel chisel, and told Li Junfeng and the others about it.

Chen Xingbang and Li Anguo had no plans to go. They were discussing the return trip. Li Junfeng and Li Junshan gathered their things and followed them out.

They first went to Li's house, where they had a net bag, which they also took with them. Li Jianguo knew they were going to the small lake to catch fish, so he found them an axe and a crowbar.

The group went to Xiaohaizi in a grand manner, chatting and laughing, and attracted a lot of attention along the way.

The road to Xiaohaizi has been trodden by many people, and a small path has been trampled out. Moreover, this path is not the kind of narrow path, but is quite wide, and a wheelbarrow can pass through. Li Long asked:
"Are Meng Zhiqiang and his men fishing every day?"

"No? They broke the ice when it froze, but we didn't catch them. We didn't see them again." Yang Yongqiang remembered it clearly, "When we went to the county to sell fish, we didn't see them later."

That means it was stepped on in the past two days. It seems that a lot of people from the village have come here.

When we reached the north bank of Xiaohaizi, we saw footprints suddenly spread out like outstretched fingers, extending into Xiaohaizi.

Here you can see that there are still people guarding some ice holes, some are still prying the ice there, or fishing in the ice holes with net bags.

Occasionally you can hear people cheering, while others feel regretful. It seems that some people catch fish while others don’t.

"Let's go and have a look." Li Long said with a smile, "See what they have harvested."

Having said that, he went down the embankment and headed in the nearest direction.

The three Liang brothers were in front of the ice hole. They only had one net bag, and the three of them took turns.

The hole in the ice was not big, and it seemed that it was not enough for the net bag to scoop out the fish, so I simply squeezed the round net bag into a long shape and scooped it out.

There was a pile of crushed ice nearby, mixed with a few very small crucian carps that had already frozen solid.

"How is it? Did you catch anything?" Li Long asked.

"Alas, there are fish, but not many." The eldest of the Liang family shook his head. Li Long's status in the village has quietly risen. Although the eldest of the Liang family is in his thirties, he does not regard Li Long as a young man.

"Let me see what kind of fish there are?" Li Long asked, and Liang Laoer next to him immediately opened the bag to show Li Long.

"Wow, this five-striped black fish is pretty good and quite big. If I take it to the market tomorrow, I can sell it for at least two dollars." Li Long looked at the bag and saw that there were indeed not many fish, at most three or four kilograms, but there was a five-striped black fish of good size, probably more than one kilogram. He said with a smile.

"Hehe." The three brothers were very happy to hear that.

"Then you guys continue, we're going to break the ice hole too." Li Long said again and walked in. Tao Daqiang followed, and Yang Yongqiang and Liang Laosan said hello and followed.

There were five people in the group, and they made quite a lot of noise. Everyone else near the ice hole was watching them.

Li Long didn't go anywhere else and went straight to the southernmost end of Xiaohaizi.

He remembered that there were several deep pits here. They were small lakes that were later transformed into above-ground reservoirs. After being filled with silt and the water was almost pumped dry, there were still a few pits where fish fry could be kept.

If I dig an ice hole here, I should get something out of it, right?

"Brother, Li Long is just looking at us." The third son of the Liang family said after Li Long and the others walked away.

"Don't worry about it. Come on, let's take turns to use the nets to fish a few more times and see if we can catch another big one. If we do, we can sell the fish tomorrow."

One fish costs more than two yuan. If I can find another one as big as this, it will be worth it if I go to the county tomorrow.

Four dollars a day, that's two or three days for a worker!

Li Long and his team arrived in the south, selected a location, and started to dig a hole in the ice.

"Two, one on each side, the same as we smashed last year, 30 meters apart." Li Long assigned tasks, "Daqiang, you and Yongqiang stay over here. Junfeng and Junshan, you stay over here. I'll get some reeds to make a fire."

Li Long was just a bystander this time, just coming to take a look. If they could catch some fish, that would be great, then they could go hunting in the mountains, and Daqiang and Yongqiang would have a way to make money.

He just couldn't understand it. It would be fine if Yang Yongqiang was not married, but Tao Daqiang was married. He was out all day. Didn't his wife have any objections?
It's still the honeymoon period now, right?

Of course, this is just a personal guess, and Li Long doesn't think much about it. He will get married next year, and he will feel it then.

Li Long gathered a large pile of reeds, and then divided them into two groups and started a fire at each of the two places where he had made holes in the ice.

The snow on the ice was very thick. The four people on both sides were breaking the ice, and Li Long was pushing the snow to clear a path between the two ice holes.

The hairy reeds burned very vigorously, and soon the person who broke the ice hole felt warm on his back, and it felt like his hair was being singed.

The two of them worked together and soon a shallow layer of pits appeared on the ice. Li Long looked at the side and then walked east. He and Tao Daqiang had dug water rats near here before, and now the pits were buried by snow. But looking east, there were many red willows growing on the beach to the east, and there were many rabbit prints on the red willow beach.

I don't know if anyone will buy the rabbits I put in the market to sell.

He just thought so. He turned around again and saw an eagle circling in the sky from a distance. Then it suddenly swooped down into the snow several hundred meters away. When it flew up again, it held something in its claws and flew away to the southeast.

These birds of prey are more powerful, they can be caught as soon as they are seen. Li Long was a little envious.

Then he turned back to the ice and saw Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang were still smashing a hole in the ice, Li Junfeng was resting, and Li Junshan was still prying. He went over, took the axe from Li Junshan's hand and started chopping at the ice.

Soon, the holes in the ice became deeper and deeper. One layer was cleared at a time, and half an hour later, two holes were smashed out of the ice one after another.

At this time, the ice was not as thick as last year, about thirty to forty centimeters. After it was broken, some water came up, and there was also some broken ice.

Li Junfeng used a net bag to scoop up the crushed ice, and then scooped it down excitedly.

Li Long didn't hold out much hope. The ice hole had just formed and it was unlikely that fish would gather around it for a while. There was almost no possibility of catching a big fish, unless there happened to be a fish there.

Sure enough, when the first net came out, there were only a few very small crucian carps in the net bag, which were thrown into the snow by Li Junfeng.

The same thing happened to the next two networks.

"You have to wait for a while. At first, the fish can't feel the ice hole and the air coming in. You have to wait for half an hour or an hour before the fish can feel it."

Over there, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang had already opened the ice hole and started digging around.

"Wait a while." Li Long said, "The ice has just broken, and the fish haven't felt it yet. There won't be that many fish for a while. We've killed a lot of fish in this lake since last winter and summer. It's impossible for there to be so many fish all at once like last year."

"That's right." Tao Daqiang was the first one to go fishing with Li Long. He had the most say. He said, "This year, we must have caught seven or eight tons of fish in this small lake. Even if the fish are very fertile, we can't replenish them all at once."

"So we're just waiting now?" Li Junfeng asked, "It's a bit cold."

"If you feel cold, let's go to the east beach and see if we can catch a rabbit." Li Long joked, "I think there are a lot of rabbit marks over there, maybe we can catch one!"

He was joking, but the others took it seriously and walked out together.

The east side is a flat beach. Usually, there is water seeping out of the reservoir in some places, but it has already frozen into ice. There are some tall Cyperus rotundus (Cyperus rotundus), which has dried up now. There are also some called knotweed, and then there are patches of tall red willows.

The snow was very thick, and there were paths for rabbits to run across between the clumps of tamarisks, some new and some old.

"Uncle Xiaolong, what do you think about putting some thin wires here to trap us?"

"Okay. Tomorrow when we go through the ice hole to fish, we can come here and set the traps." Li Long said, "We'll see what happens after one night. Look at the marks, there are quite a few wild rabbits!"

A group of five people walked in the snow for a while and made a few circles. In fact, Li Long felt that it was unlikely to encounter a rabbit. The others thought so too. They just wanted to walk around and waste time. However, when they passed by a clump of red willows, a rabbit suddenly jumped out and rushed forward along the rabbit footprints!
Several people were stunned for a moment, but Yang Yongqiang reacted the fastest. He shouted and chased after him. The four people behind him immediately spread out and surrounded him.

Their shouting directly startled the people who were still fishing in the small lake. They didn't know what they were doing, but they just felt it was a bit strange.

The terrain in Li's area was generally flat, but the rabbit did not run in a straight line. It started to turn after running for more than ten meters. In fact, Li Long felt that if the rabbit had the ability to run long distances, it would be easier to run away if it kept running in a straight line.

But it always turns, which wastes the advantage of short-track acceleration. After all, there are people on both sides, and it will encounter enemies no matter which way it turns.

Of course, a rabbit has long hind legs and short front legs, and is not suitable for running on flat ground for a long time. After going back and forth several times, just when it jumped up and was about to turn back again, it was kicked over by Li Junshan, and then pressed into the snow by Li Junfeng.

"Be careful," Li Long warned, "this thing is very fierce, and its claws are hard. Throw it to the ground now, or it will scratch you and it will be very uncomfortable!"

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" Li Junfeng had never caught a live wild rabbit before, so he felt a little nervous. After holding the rabbit and seeing that it didn't react, he grabbed its long ears and lifted it up.

"Alas..." Li Long sighed. He was another person who was fooled by a picture book (comic strip). This wild rabbit looked to be at least four or five kilograms, which was considered a big one. How could it be so easy to subdue it with ears?
As soon as Li Long finished sighing, Li Junfeng screamed, and the rabbit arched its body and kicked Li Junfeng's palm and arm hard with its claws - Li Long saw that the keratin claws of the rabbit were two or three centimeters long!
Li Junfeng was left with three bloody marks from the scratches, and he dropped the rabbit to the ground. The rabbit turned over and tried to run away, but Li Long stepped on it and lifted it up by its ears.

"Uncle Xiaolong, be careful..." Li Junshan saw that Li Long was still holding the rabbit's ears and hurriedly reminded him. However, Li Long ignored the rabbit's struggle, picked up the rabbit, swung it around and threw it to the ground!
Li Long was a bit too strong, and when he fell down, the rabbit started twitching on the frozen ground!
Li Long was afraid that this guy was pretending to be dead, so he picked it up by its ears and threw it down again. The rabbit was still twitching, but it was obviously bleeding from the corners of its mouth and nose, and he didn't know how many bones were broken.

"Okay, it's okay." Li Long turned his head to look at Li Junfeng, "You've learned a lesson this time."

"Hiss—" The wound on Li Junfeng's hand was bleeding, and he gasped in pain, "Yeah, who would have thought that this guy is so powerful..."

Li Junshan picked up the rabbit and shook it, saying:

"Almost dead."

"Okay, we'll cook it later." Li Long said, "Let's go back now and see if we can get some fish so we can cook it together."

"Why don't we walk a little further? Maybe we can catch a rabbit!" Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang didn't get close to the rabbit, and they were a little unwilling to give up. "There should be a lot of rabbits in this red willow beach, right?"

"Okay, let's wait and see." Li Long felt that only a dozen minutes had passed and the fish probably wouldn't be able to come at this moment, so it would be better to walk a little longer.

They walked southeast for a while, but found nothing. If they walked further east, they would reach farmland, so they had to walk north. After walking 200 meters, they still didn't find anything. Yang Yongqiang was still unwilling to give up, so he broke off a red willow stick and hit a bunch of red willows with it to alert the enemy. Unexpectedly, when he was about to reach the small lake, he knocked a rabbit out of a small red willow tree!

Several people chased after it, howling. The rabbit ran towards the small lake, but was stopped by Li Long when it was halfway up the embankment. When it turned back, it fell down and was stepped on by Yang Yongqiang.

In order not to follow in Li Junfeng's footsteps, Yang Yongqiang followed Li Long's example, grabbed the rabbit's ears, and before the rabbit could react, he threw the gray rabbit to death.

This rabbit is a little smaller than the previous one, but at more than three kilograms, it’s not light either.

"Okay, let's go and see if there are any fish!" This time everyone was in high spirits, feeling that even if there were no fish, it would still be worth it.

Young people have a lot of energy but nowhere to use it, so they just let it out.

Carrying the two rabbits back to the ice hole, there was already a thin layer of ice on the water surface.

When Li Long broke through the ice, he could even see fish swimming underneath.

"Catch! There must be fish!" Li Long smiled and started to catch with a scoop net. Tao Daqiang reacted quickly at this time and ran to the other ice hole. He found that this side was also frozen. He didn't even break the ice. He directly used the scoop net to poke the ice, drew a semicircle downwards, and caught the fish.

"There's a fish!" Yang Yongqiang, who was still holding the rabbit, saw a fish thrashing in the net and shouted, "It's so big... It's a silver carp, not bad!"

The fish were thrown onto the ice and soon froze solid. Tao Daqiang also caught them with his second net. This time, he caught several palm-sized crucian carps and a chopstick-sized ditch fish. Tao Daqiang threw them onto the ice and they struggled tenaciously for a few times before they became motionless.

Li Long also caught a few fish with his first net, all of which were palm-sized crucian carps, which looked pretty. The second net caught two small crucian carps, and it was not known whether the other fish were scared away or Li Long caught them in the wrong place. The third net also caught only two or three small crucian carps. The fourth net was a turnaround, catching a five-stripe black carp weighing about half a kilogram.

Then Li Junfeng snatched the net away:

"Uncle Xiaolong, let me try - you take a rest first."

"Is your hand okay?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Okay, okay, no more bleeding." Li Junfeng replied and poked the scoop net under the ice.

Li Long came up and saw Li Junshan picking up fish, then looked elsewhere.

At those ice holes, other people were also picking up fish - it seemed that everyone had made a lot of gains. (End of this chapter)