Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Long heard what Yang Yongqiang said, he turned around and pulled out a stick from the carriage and asked:

"where is it?"

"Brother Long, Brother! The person has already run away..." Yang Yongqiang didn't expect Li Long to react so strongly. He immediately stopped him and said:
"I was selling fish, and there were many people wanting fish. I remember you said to keep an eye on people when there were a lot of people. I saw someone stealing someone else's wallet, and I warned him, and the thief ran away. Unexpectedly, when there were fewer people, he came with another person to cause trouble for me. I picked up a brick and started fighting with them, shouting that they were thieves. Then the people next to me helped me, and I knocked one down. The market manager came over and took him away... I just had a few scratches on my face, but it's fine."

After listening to this, Li Long calmed down. He handed the stick to Yang Yongqiang and said:
"Then don't go over there. You stay here, and we can sell the fish quickly here. Daqiang will come over later, and we can join him."

It was okay. Those who bought fish did not stand idly by, which made Li Long feel good - the blood of the Corps people was still very strong. After all, they were all veterans or descendants of veterans.

"No, no, they sell out quickly over there." Yang Yongqiang said, "I've already caught one, I don't think anyone will mess with me again."

"Then take the stick with you." Li Long handed the stick to him. "It's better to have something with you than to be empty-handed."

Yang Yongqiang did not refuse. He felt more at ease with the weapon in his hand.

At Li Long's reminder, Yang Yongqiang wiped the blood off his face. Li Long then saw that there was a piece of broken skin at the corner of his eyebrow. There were tiny blood vessels there, so the bleeding was more. The actual wound was not big, and it had formed a scar now, so he was fine.

Not long after Yang Yongqiang left, Tao Daqiang also came back. He and Yang Yongqiang were not in the same direction, so he did not see Yang Yongqiang fighting.

"Da Qiang, bring your stick with you when you go over there." Li Long reminded him, "Yong Qiang just ran into a thief and had a fight, so you should be careful too."

"Well, I see."

Tao Daqiang took the rabbit himself, while Li Long weighed fish for others. The fish buyer looked at Li Long and instructed Tao Daqiang, and said with a smile:

"You're not from Stone City, are you?"

"No, from Ma County." Li Long said as he weighed the fish, "I haven't been here for a long time. I don't know why it's like this now."

"Well, you'll get used to it. Just be more careful." The fish seller reminded Li Long after receiving the fish, "They are all wandering here. I don't know where they come from. Anyway, they are not good creatures."

Listening to the chatter of this man in his fifties, Li Long knew that this should be the true feeling of most people in Shicheng.

There are people who come to the carriage to buy fish and rabbits, but not many, but the advantage is that the flow of people is long-lasting. This is not a gathering place for people, so it is not crowded. Therefore, although Li Long has been vigilant, he did not find the phenomenon of three hands.

But he always felt that someone was observing him from a distance. He raised his head from time to time and looked around. There were so many people that he couldn't identify the target.

It doesn’t matter. We are three big guys with guns and sticks. What are we afraid of?

Near noon, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang came back one after another, and the things they brought with them had been sold out.

Every time they came back, the two would give Li Long large-denomination bills. Li Long had basically nothing left, just a few fish and a rabbit. Li Long didn't plan to sell anything and closed the stall.

He made a rough estimate and found that he had made about three hundred yuan in total. He pulled the carriage himself and paid for the fish himself. He had agreed in advance to pay Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang their wages.

According to the time calculation, in four or five days, he planned to give 60 yuan to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang respectively. This money, averaged out on a daily basis, would be equivalent to the income of the Dingliang family or the Yang family. However, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang are the same person, while these are brothers or father and son.

So it’s actually quite a lot.

"Let's go, have a bowl of milk tea to warm ourselves up first, then we'll go back to the county and have some noodles at the big meat restaurant."

Li Long drove the carriage and took Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang to the milk tea shop. He found that in addition to the boss, there was also a young man here.

The boss, Keyum, came over and asked in an authentic Henan accent:

"Three bowls of milk tea?"

"Well, three naan and a dish of honey." Li Long said with a smile, "Your shop is profitable, and you even hired a new employee."

"What's the profit?" Keyum smiled bitterly. "I don't believe you can't see that this market is a bit chaotic. I called my brother to help. The two of us can take care of each other if anything happens."

It turned out to be the case.

Li Long shook his head slightly. It seemed that there was some trouble here.

But it doesn't matter, he is just a passer-by who comes occasionally, and more importantly, he has enough things in his hands to deal with big troubles, so he is not afraid.

After drinking milk tea, the three of them drove the carriage eastward. Ma County was about ten kilometers away from here, and it took more than two hours. However, when they returned, the carriage was empty, and everyone walked briskly because they had made money from selling things.

When he arrived at the poplar forest, Li Long sighed as he looked at the people walking very slowly in front of him. Why was it always the same thing?

Can't these people go to another place, such as near the checkpoint?

That would save a lot of trouble!
"Take the sticks." Li Long said to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang, "I guess the two groups of people in front are probably trying to stop us and rob us of our money. So if a fight really breaks out later, don't hold back."

The people in front were walking forward, two by two, four people, about ten meters away. They walked slowly, and Li Long and his group slowly caught up.

A large truck was coming from the east. Li Long watched the truck driving very fast, rolling up the snow powder on the ground and spreading it in the air.

The big truck passed the two groups of people, passed the carriage and drove away. The two groups of people stopped, then turned around and looked at Li Long and the others.

The two groups began to merge, and Li Long's slight doubts were dispelled.

When driving the carriage almost to the front, Li Long saw the weapons in their hands.

Daggers, short knives, steel pipes and iron rulers.

Seeing that Li Long and the other three were all holding sticks, the four of them were a little confused.

Should I go or not? Obviously, they are prepared. Can they win this four-on-three situation?
After all, Li Long and Tao Daqiang both look tall and strong, and a height of 1.8 meters is still very intimidating at this time.

"Brother Long, the one on the far right is the one who hit me!" Yang Yongqiang suddenly spoke, which made Li Long, who was still a little hesitant, make a decision.

"Go, fight!" Nothing more to say!

Leaving the carriage behind and letting No. 76 move forward on his own, the three men rushed forward with sticks in hand.

What surprised Li Long was that one of the four people saw Li Long and his friends rushing towards him, turned around and ran away!

What the hell, what is this?
Ten minutes later, Li Long and the other three caught up with No. 76 who was walking leisurely forward.

"Damn, that guy is so cruel. I hit him three times with the stick, but he just held the stick and hit me back." Yang Yongqiang touched his left arm and complained with a grimace.

"I'm not bad," Tao Daqiang smiled innocently, not at all like the man who had just beaten one of the men black and blue. "He begged for mercy after a few hits."

Li Long counted the money he had seized from the three people.

Yes, three people. The one who ran first ran very fast and was not caught up.

Twenty-seven dollars.

"Nine dollars per person." Li Long smiled. "I can make money by fighting. Not bad." He divided the money, and then gave Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang sixty dollars each.
"This money is your share of this trip. Will you still do it when you get back?"

"Let's do it!" Yang Yongqiang took the sixty-nine yuan and felt that he was one step closer to his goal. "I've made so much money in the past few days, so of course I'll do it!"

"Aren't you afraid of the harm of the next robbery?"

"Hey, Brother Long, I saw it. There are five or six and a half miles of it under this bag!" Yang Yongqiang's eyes were sharp. "I don't believe they won't be afraid of this thing next time they come?"

OK, smart guy!
Tao Daqiang carefully stuffed the money into his inner pocket and patted it, only then did he feel relieved.

"Let's go back later and sweep the snow in the yard," Li Long said. "Xiaoxia is alone and has to go to work. She doesn't have time to sweep the snow."

"Okay!" Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang nodded in agreement.

It was already afternoon when they returned to the county town. Li Long and his friends went to the big meat canteen to eat. Manager Zhong was there. When he saw Li Long, he hurried over and took out ten yuan and handed it to him:
"It's too early in the morning. I haven't been to work yet. When I got here, I heard that you had delivered the fish. Comrade Xiao Li, you delivered the fish just in time."

"Haha, that's right." Li Long smiled.

Zhong Guoqiang did not disturb Li Long and the others while they were eating. He just went to the back hall and asked them to add more seasonings to the fried meat.

When the noodles and meat were served, Li Long habitually said to the waiter:
"Add six noodles."

"No, no, no, add five." Yang Yongqiang said as he poured the dishes onto the plate, "I'll add one, if you can, add two. I think this is a lot of food, and one of me and the noodles will be enough."

The appetite of young people these days is astonishingly large, mainly because they don't have enough fat. In the words of later generations, the rice they eat is not oily enough. Even if the Li family eats meat frequently, they can't compare with later generations. After all, the ingredients are relatively simple.

"Today there are more vegetables and meat than usual." Tao Daqiang whispered. "It should be that the manager knows Brother Long, so he asked the back hall to take special care of us." Yang Yongqiang said vaguely while eating noodles.

After eating the noodles and drinking the soup, they wiped their mouths and went out. The three of them drove the carriage back to the courtyard. The door was locked. It was obvious that Gu Xiaoxia had not yet finished get off work.

Some of the snow in the yard had been cleared, but most of it remained. Gu Xiaoxia went out early and came back late, so she really didn't have much time to sweep the snow.

The three of them started to act immediately. In less than an hour, the snow in the yard was cleared and the sun was about to set.

It was still early, less than seven o'clock.

"Let's go back." Li Long said, "Let's see if we can get back to the team before dark."

Two hours later, Li Long had returned to the stable.

He had been traveling and busy all day, so the noodles he had in the afternoon were quite filling and he was not hungry yet. He drove the carriage back to his eldest brother's house, then came back, quickly washed up and went to bed.

Slept so sweetly.

The next day, the news spread among the team. Li Long and his three companions went to Shicheng to sell fish rabbits and earned hundreds of dollars per trip!
Although some people knew that this was exaggerated, many people saw Li Long and his team driving a carriage with a lot of fish and rabbits to Shicheng. What does this mean? It means that the fish in Shicheng are selling fast!

So some people were moved.

The Zhao family father and son immediately went to find other people - they did not find the three Liang brothers. The three brothers were definitely planning to sell their fish to Li Long. Although they were three brothers, they were so timid that the Zhao family father and son despised them a little.

Of course, it was only said in private and could not be mentioned publicly.

So the next day when Li Long took Tao Daqiang and others to set up a trap, Yang Yongqiang told them what he knew.

"The day after tomorrow, Zhao Laoshi and his son, together with the two brothers of the Qiao family, will take the fish to Shicheng to sell."

"Don't worry about them. Shicheng has a big market, so their fish will definitely sell well, and it won't affect us."

"What about us?" Yang Yongqiang asked.

"Let's stagger it by one day." Li Long said, "Let's see how much we can catch in the next two days. We need to get more fish to sell."

The gross profit of this trip was 300 yuan. He gave 120 yuan to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang, leaving 180 yuan for himself. After deducting the 50 yuan for collecting the fish, he was still left with 130 yuan. He gave 30 yuan to his eldest brother, leaving him with 100 yuan in the end.

Not much.

This made Li Long feel that he was making money a little slowly.

That wasn’t the case last year – there were a few big deals last year, is it possible to ask around this year?

Li Long suddenly thought that he hadn't gotten sugar residue for a long time. This stuff is also available in winter. Should he go and get a cart of sugar residue after selling the fish next time, and ask the sugar factory if they need some New Year's goods like last year?
After finalizing the matter, Li Long calmed down and started to prepare the condom.

This time we still got quite a few rabbits, eleven. Not as many as last time, after all, it has been a while since the snow fell, and the rabbits have moved around more widely, so there are fewer rabbits in this place.

Carrying the rabbit back to the stable, the three of them went to Xiaohaizi again.

Uncle Luo was processing the rabbits, and he was not impatient at all - who could complain about the hard work when there was meat to eat?

This is something that others would never even think of.

If you don't do anything, you won't feel at ease when eating!
When Li Long and his friends arrived at the small lake, some people were already catching fish there.

As expected, the two ice holes that Li Long and his team smashed showed signs of having been used - someone else had been there when they were selling fish yesterday.

This is normal.

Li Long and his team broke through the thin ice and started working. When the sun went down, they called it a day. What surprised him was that the Zhao family father and son and the Qiao brothers had not returned yet, and they were obviously planning to continue fishing.

It seems that he is preparing to go to Shicheng to sell fish the day after tomorrow.

You really work hard.

Li Long and his friends have been living a regular life these past two days. They get up in the morning to catch rabbits, and then go to the small lake to break ice holes and catch fish. In the evening, they come back to weigh the fish sent by the three Liang brothers and others.

What surprised Li Long and his team was that as the temperature dropped, the amount of fish they caught each day increased. Although they didn't catch 50-60 kg or 70-80 kg of fish a day like last year, the highest amount they caught was more than 40 kg, which was still a lot.

In this way, the day after Zhao Laoshi and his friends went to Shicheng to sell fish, Li Long and his friends could head to Shicheng again.

"These fish have to be frozen separately one by one and then put into bags, otherwise the frozen fish will clumping together and will be difficult to sell." In the evening, after collecting the fish, Li Long was unpacking the fish and explaining to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang as he did so.

The fish collected were of all sizes, but there were no crucian carps that were too small, which meant that the Liang brothers had picked them out.

Very good, we can continue to cooperate in the future.

The Liang brothers have been catching more fish in the past two days, bringing in 30 to 40 kilograms of fish every day. Li Long guessed that if the small fish they picked out were included, the three brothers could catch 50 to 60 kilograms of fish a day.

More than twenty dollars a day, that’s impressive.

There are only a few shops on the small lake at present. Li Long thinks that in a few days, when Zhao Laoshi and his friends come back from selling fish in Shicheng, the people who broke the ice hole will probably get up.

There will be even fewer fish in the small lake next year - this is normal.

In a few years, when the market stabilizes and people plant more land, they will no longer rely on this small lake to make money. By then, this small lake will have time to recuperate and recover.

Should I wait for an opportunity to contract Xiaohaizi and build a holiday estate or something?

Forget it, there will be no profit in the short term, after all, there are too few people coming here.

Putting aside his divergent thoughts, Li Long unpacked the fish and then classified them into bags. He said to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang:
"Let's wait one more day and set off the day after tomorrow. The Zhao family went to Shicheng to sell fish today and they must have made a lot of money. But we don't envy them. Let's get more fish to sell the day after tomorrow and we'll get more money then."

Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang knew that Li Long was telling the truth and they both laughed.

The next day, they finished combing the rabbits. They moved the traps to a new place after combing them yesterday. Today, they retrieved fifteen rabbits. There are nearly forty rabbits accumulated in the past few days, which is more than enough.

When he was breaking the ice hole, Li Long was a little surprised that he didn't see the father and son of the Zhao family.

Could it be that he is tired from selling fish, so he is taking a break today?
"The Zhao family didn't go out today." Yang Yongqiang explained, "Someone went to visit their house and said he had a cold. They were afraid of infecting the family, so Zhao Laoshi and his son didn't show up."

Li Long became suspicious. Could it be that he was tired?

Could it be...

He felt that it definitely wasn't a cold, maybe something had happened.

Logically speaking, no? After all, they are not two people.

Li Long and his team caught more than 30 kilograms of fish that day. The largest one was a silver carp weighing more than 7 kilograms, which was caught by Tao Daqiang.

Li Long wanted him to take the fish back and cook it, but Tao Daqiang refused, saying it would be better to sell it.

Li Long thought that such a big fish might not be wanted by anyone.

But since Tao Daqiang doesn't want to sell it, then just keep it. If you can sell it, then sell it. If you can't, we can talk about it later.

That night, they packed up the fish, and Li Long went to get the carriage. He put the horses in the pen, set up the carriage, and loaded the things. This time, Li Long directly added the shed boards around the sides to make it easier to load the sugar residue after the fish were sold.

For this, he even asked Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang to put on dirty pants, otherwise it would be inconvenient to get on the car and unload the sugar residue.

At dawn the next day, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang came to the stable, had breakfast with Li Long, drove the carriage, and hurried to Shicheng in the cold wind.

The three men had walked less than a kilometer when the brims of their cotton hats, beards, and eyelashes were all covered in white.

Li Long estimated that the temperature was at least minus 27 or 28 degrees Celsius. In this weather, who would come out if not to earn a little money?

In the team, Zhao’s father and son sat at the table with bruised faces.

"Should Li Long and the others go to Shicheng today?" Zhao Laoshi asked.

"Yes," said his son, "someone saw it."

"Then it depends on their luck..." (End of this chapter)