Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

At noon, Liang Yuemei cooked an extra dish, and Li Long took out the Maotai he had bought.

"Jiangxiang? That koji flavor is so strong, what's the point of drinking it? You've lost money on this wine!" Li Jianguo slapped his thigh as he saw the wine, "This wine is not cheap, right? Can I return it? If I can, return it. What's the point of drinking this wine?"

Sure enough, the guy at the counter was right.

"This wine is a famous brand." Li Long said with a smile, "Would you like to try some?"

"No, no, I've drunk it before, but the taste of koji is too strong and I can't get used to it." Li Jianguo turned around and took out a plastic cage from under the bed - actually it was one of those flat square plastic pots, which have a capacity of one liter, three liters, five liters and ten liters.

Ever since this thing has been sold in stores, people have really liked it - farmers use it to bring water to work in the fields, use it to make loose wine, use it to bottle honey, and herdsmen also use it to hold homemade sour mare's milk.

It's almost a universal pot.

Li Jianguo took out a five-liter pot, which was mostly filled with something. Li Long guessed it was wine.

"If you want to drink, drink this. Don't be fooled by the cups. This is bulk. This is real grain wine, produced by the food company's winery."

"Brother, when did you buy it?" Li Long was a little surprised, as he had never seen his brother buy this wine before. But to be honest, his brother Li Jianguo's alcohol tolerance was really extraordinary.

"Buy it? No, someone gave it to me as a gift." Li Jianguo sat down and opened the cage. Li Long took three cups and put them on the table.

Li Juan and Li Qiang also put down their things and came over to prepare for dinner. The cage was opened, and the smell of wine wafted out. It was really fragrant.

I won’t talk about how it tastes, but it tastes really good.

"Dad, can I drink it?" Li Qiang asked bravely.

"You can't drink it. You can't drink it until you get to college." Li Long said first, "Adults can drink this wine, but it will burn children's brains and make them stupid!"

"Then I won't drink it!" Li Qiang hugged his head, "I don't want to turn into a big spoon!"

Dashao is the village idiot, or rather mentally retarded, who doesn't bully others, a bit like the village guardian in later legends. Of course, his name was determined when he was born, so his younger brother is called Gashao, who is not stupid at all. After his parents passed away, he has been supporting his older brother. After the village nursing home was disbanded, Dashao lived in his younger brother's house.

There are two mentally retarded people and one mentally ill person in the whole team. The two mentally retarded people have the IQ of a seven or eight year old child and can communicate. One is born like this, and the other had a fever when he was a child and his brain was damaged.

The one with the mental illness - Li Long suddenly thought of something. That woman was usually very nice, independent and didn't communicate with others. It seemed that she suddenly became ill about ten years later and killed a child with a shovel - should I remind her then?

Liang Yuemei brought the rice, and Li Juan followed her mother to divide the bowls and chopsticks.

"Have two drinks?" Liang Yuemei asked with some surprise when she saw the wine glass.

Usually people drink at night because it doesn’t interfere with work. After all, if you drink at noon, it will delay anything you have to do in the afternoon.

"It's okay. We've finished what we need to do." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "You should have a drink too. Xiaolong brought Moutai, which has a strong yeast flavor. I'll take out the wine sent by the food company and have a couple of drinks."

"Wine sent by the food company?" Li Long was even more surprised. "Can they send us wine?"

"Haha, you don't know." Li Jianguo waited for everyone to sit down, and then he said to Li Juan and Li Qiang, "You guys eat, your uncle and I are going to have a couple of drinks, after you finish eating, go play."

Li Juan and Li Qiang nodded and started eating.

"I'll go get two more dishes." Liang Yuemei stood up and said.

"No, sister-in-law, that's enough." Li Long said hurriedly, "That's enough."

"Don't do it." Li Jianguo also said, "They are not outsiders."

After that, he said to Li Long:
"We grow rice on our team, right? The food company's winery wants to use the rice husks left after the rice is ground into rice to make koji. So they have to have a good relationship with us, right?"

Is there anything else to say?
Li Long had never paid attention to it before.

"Don't think this is loose wine. It's not as good-looking as the one in your bottle, but it tastes good." Li Jianguo held the bottom of the plastic cage and poured three glasses of wine. Then he put the cage down, covered it with a lid and said:
"There are two wineries in our county, one in Pingyuan Forest Farm and one in County Food Company. They both use grain to make wine. The wine is good, unlike the wines from my hometown. Those wines are made from sweet potatoes, that is, white wine made from dried sweet potatoes. That wine is really not good to drink! It gives me a headache! Let's call it Headache Daqu!"

"Bai Gan?" Li Long thought of a famous brand in later generations and asked, "Which Bai Gan?"

"It seems to be Dan County? Oh, and that Gujing Gong, it's also a headache! Yanghe Daqu and Shuanggou Daqu are better, but we live here, if we really want to drink bottled wine, we still have to drink Yilite and Kuitunte. Of course, Santai, Baiyang, and Gucheng are also good. But those wines are expensive once they are bottled. It's better to buy this loose wine, which is sent by others, and it tastes good!" (This is the evaluation of wine by people in the past, which does not represent the present)
As he spoke, Li Jianguo picked up the cup, gestured to Li Long, and drank it all in one gulp.

Li Long knew Li Jianguo's habits. As he was Li Jianguo's younger brother, he certainly couldn't toast to him. Li Jianguo could drink a lot, so it didn't matter if he had food in his stomach or not. He would just drink a glass - even if that glass contained 50 grams.

Li Long picked up the cup and smelled it. It was really fragrant, but as soon as he took a sip of the wine, he felt the spiciness. He knew he couldn't be timid at this time, so he tilted his head back and drank it.

Fortunately, I didn’t feel cold but hot.

That's it.

Li Long has a habit when drinking. Once he feels that the wine is cold after the first sip, he will not drink it anymore. Otherwise, he will definitely lose his memory and vomit all over the place.

But it was still spicy, so he quickly picked up the chopsticks, picked up the food and started eating, trying to reduce the spicy taste.

Liang Yuemei didn't touch the cup, she waved her hand:

"You guys drink, I'll just have this one cup, I need to eat something before I drink."

"Look, this tastes spicy at first, and has a fragrant aftertaste. It's completely different from the sweet potato wine." Li Jianguo picked up the cage again, removed the lid, and carefully poured it for the two people.

The cage is big and the cup is small, so it's easy to spill if you're not careful.

After drinking a glass of wine, Li Long felt hot all over and his mouth was full of alcohol. He asked while eating:
"Brother, the wine in our county has no name?"

He vaguely remembered that many wineries were closed down in later generations, but it seemed that there was a winery in every county. However, he had no impression of the wine in the county. Was it possible that they had been making loose wine all the time?

After all, this is also an ancient city. The name of the ancient city was used by Qitai. Of course, the ancient city of Beiting has a long history and is much more famous. But Ma County is not much worse, right?

"No. Both wineries produce bulk liquor," Li Jianguo picked up the pickled vegetables with chopsticks and took a bite, wiped his mouth, put down the chopsticks and said:

"Loose liquor doesn't cost that much, and there aren't that many complicated procedures. Once it's made, it can be sold directly to the store. Just like the people in our team recognize this liquor, the herdsmen in the mountains also recognize this liquor, isn't that enough? If it's made into a brand, we have to make bottles and add trademarks, which will increase costs. Our county's winery doesn't have that much output..."

OK, is this contentment with a small fortune or short-sightedness?

Li Long took two more bites of food, picked up his wine glass and said to Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei:
"Brother, sister-in-law, it's almost New Year's Day, let's have a drink. Last year was better than the previous years. I was not sensible before, but I think last year was okay, and we will be better in the future!"

"Hey," Li Jianguo said happily, "Xiaolong is great, your words are getting better and better."

"That's right!" Liang Yuemei also picked up the cup, "Thanks to you last year, we ate a lot of meat throughout the year. Juan and Qiangqiang have gained weight and have become picky eaters. Life at home has become better. Who would have thought of this two years ago? We didn't even dare to feed the children fine grains every day!"

Liang Yuemei's words are all about food, which is actually the most direct reflection of farmers' lives. Before last year, the land was not distributed to each household, and the grain was distributed at the end of the year in a 2:8 ratio, 80% coarse grain and 20% fine grain. Fine grain was only eaten by children, and Li Long also ate it.

But only two fen of fine grain was not enough, and Li Long had a big appetite.

Only when you manage a household do you know how expensive firewood and rice are; and even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice, so Liang Yuemei has the hardest job.

Things started to turn around during the Chinese New Year last year. Li Long went to haul wood and brought back frozen sheep. Then he caught fish to earn money to buy fine grains. Then...

I can eat meat every day.

Such a life was impossible even for some small landlords in the old society.

That's why Liang Yuemei said that.

The three of them drank the wine, feeling emotional.

Life is so good now. "It will be even better in the future." Li Long suddenly said. He took the cage from Li Jianguo and poured the wine himself. As he poured, he said, "After the New Year, it should be time to contract the land. At that time, we can contract more land and grow not only food but also cash crops. We can gradually get rich by farming."

You can be rich, but first of all, you have to have a large scale, that is, a lot of land, and secondly, you have to plant the right things. Li Long has actually been thinking about this. Given the relationship between him and his elder brother, his elder brother can't always work with him, and he has self-esteem anyway.

My eldest brother's forte was farming, and the first round of land contracting was about to begin in 1983. The fourth team had a unique advantage in that it had more land than other teams, and when it came to land contracting, anyone with money could contract it.

He vaguely remembered that the land was contracted according to the output. For example, the first-class land had a yield of 200 kilograms, and one share was 20 mu. The initial contract was for 15 years, and the fee was 3,000 yuan per share. In fact, this contract fee was very cheap.

Fifteen years later, in 1997 and 1998, the second round of land contracting began, and the land could be contracted again. After that, the land could not be moved. In other words, if you had contracted the second round, the next round of land contracting was only verbal, and in reality, the land could not be moved.

It was not obvious at the beginning, but by the 1920s of the 21st century, whoever had more land would make money, and this was the case in northern Xinjiang.

The annual contract fee for one acre of land in Ma County has reached 1,500 yuan, and the more expensive ones can reach 1,800 yuan. Even if you don’t cultivate the land and just contract it out, a family with 100 acres of land can make a net income of 100,000 yuan a year. Isn’t that great?

Of course, most families didn’t have that much land at that time.

Because farming was really not profitable in the early days. From the early 1980s, the price of wheat increased from 20 cents to 30 yuan in the early 2020s, which was a tenfold increase. In fact, what about other things? Houses increased by more than 100 times!
The farmers in northern Xinjiang are actually considered good. The others cannot be mentioned.

"The land lease fee is not cheap..." Li Jianguo sighed, "My family has saved some money, so we can contract some land, but it's hard to say for other families..."

This was also the first round of land contracting. Most families basically contracted only one piece of land, and some simply did not contract at all.

I can't afford it.

The land still belonged to the team, of course there were more lands contracted, until later on each family gradually contracted some lands. After all, land carries the hope of farmers’ lives.

"Which one is good?" Liang Yuemei asked. Wheat and corn must be planted, after all, they have to pay the public tax. Rapeseed must also be planted, and sunflowers are not planted much now, and the yield is not high. Most of these are planted for the public tax and for their own consumption.

If you want to make money, you can only grow cash crops.

"Beets are fine." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Shicheng Sugar Factory will harvest them, but it takes a lot of labor to grow them. It's troublesome to dig them up. Then, we can grow melons."

"Hitting the melons?" Liang Yuemei was stunned.

"I've grown melons before." Li Jianguo coughed and said, "I used to grow them in the Corps, using seeds. But it's troublesome to pick out the seeds! The seeds are expensive, several yuan per kilogram!"

"So expensive?" Liang Yuemei asked.

"Yes, it's the black melon seeds." Li Jianguo said, "One mu of land can produce more than 100 kilograms of melon seeds. At that time, one kilogram of melon seeds cost two yuan, right? Maybe it's still expensive now, right?"

"Three yuan, at least three yuan." Li Long vaguely remembered the price and said, "There is actually a way to pick out the seeds. We raise pigs at home, so we pick out the seeds from the melons, dry them and sell them. The melon rind and pulp can also be used to feed pigs, just like beets."

"If you can pick out the seeds properly, you can plant this thing." Li Jianguo nodded.

Li Long then told the method he knew in later generations.

"Will it work?" Li Jianguo was a little confused.

"It will definitely work. Let's try it next year and we'll know after planting a few acres." Li Long said with a smile, "The Shicheng roasted nuts factory will definitely buy it. When spring comes, ask the seed company and they may also buy it. They should also sell seeds there."

Li Long felt that these two were the only things that were relatively feasible to grow for the time being.

In fact, in later generations, because the land here is large, people have tried to grow various crops, such as watermelon, melon, tomato (for making sauce, not for cooking, commonly known as canned tomatoes), grapes, edible sunflower, millet, upland rice and so on.

In the end, cotton became the most popular crop, followed by tomatoes and grapes. These three crops almost took up all the nearby land, and the scale of cotton planting in Ma County reached one million acres.

Once something has reached a certain scale, it will be difficult to change, such as the cotton here, the peppers from Anjihai, the wolfberries from Jinghe and so on.

"As long as we are sure there will be a harvest, then we will plant!" Liang Yuemei said, "We are not afraid of working, but we are afraid that the crops will rot in the fields without anyone wanting them. Xiaolong, you can ask around later... I'll have another drink!"

The three of them clinked glasses together and Li Long poured the wine. At this time, Li Juan and Li Qiang had finished eating, took their dishes to the kitchen, and went out to play.

"This wine tastes really good." Li Long sighed. I didn't drink much before, and I didn't have much idea about wine in my previous life. I just thought it was spicy. Today, chatting and drinking like this, I feel pretty good.

"Of course, it's made from grains, and there's nothing adulterated about it, so there's nothing bad about it." Li Jianguo wiped his mouth and said with a smile, "As long as you don't drink to death, even if you get drunk after drinking a little, you can just fall asleep and you'll be fine."

"Some people sleep, some don't." Liang Yuemei stopped drinking and complained, "Like Lao Zhang in the team, he made a fool of himself after drinking, and stuffed raw fish into his mouth..."

Well, not everyone goes to sleep when they are drunk. This is the case with the Li family, but not necessarily with other families. There are always a few people who act crazy when drunk.

Li Long sighed and said, "You should be more restrained when drinking in the future. After all, it hurts your brain, and drinking too much is not good for anyone."

After this year, Li Long feels that he has done a lot of things, and he is actually quite proud of it. Not only has he changed his own life, but he has also changed the lives of his eldest brother's family, his parents, and Tao Daqiang for the better.

This is really good. Li Long doesn't think he is very capable, but with these changes, he will become more confident. Every decision he makes next may affect his life, but he will be very cautious and make decisions with a backup plan.

If you have money in your pocket, you will not be panicked and you will have the confidence to do things. Even if you fail, you will have the ability to turn things around.

After drinking three glasses of wine, Li Long stopped drinking and picked up his bowl to eat.

Li Jianguo did not persuade him. He drank two more glasses and tasted the wine happily. Then he covered the plastic cage and put it under the bed and started to eat.

"This day is so beautiful!" Li Jianguo sighed while eating, "Think about when Juan was little, she could only eat meat once or twice a year. She ate fish often, but that's different from meat. Now, hehe..."

He didn't finish, but everyone understood his meaning.

After dinner, Li Long leaned against the firewall and chatted with his elder brother for a while. After he felt better, he picked up a few bottles of champagne, put on his coat and went out.

He felt a little dizzy. This wine was quite strong, and the alcohol content was at least 50. He planned to go back to the horse tavern to sleep and rest before making any decision.

I think Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang should have gone home for dinner by now. Will they go to the small lake to catch fish in the afternoon?

This was just a fleeting thought, and he planned to give them the money when the two people came over in the evening.

I guess both of them should be looking forward to it, right?
If we really have to say who is tired, I am tired and they are tired too.

We are all striving for a better life, and only with this effort can we deserve the rewards.

After arriving at the Lao Mahao, Li Long said goodbye to Uncle Luo, went into the house, closed the door, and fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was getting dark outside. Li Long looked at his watch and realized he had slept for two hours. He got up and rubbed his eyes. He was still a little dizzy, but it didn't matter. He moved around, went out to get some water, and then went to the pen to check on the wild boars, deer, and roe deer. They were all fine.

Uncle Luo was already cooking in the kitchen, and Li Long could also smell fish.

It seems like the same thing I did before, which is to crush the fish and eat it?

probably?

While Li Long was guessing, he saw Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang enter the gate of the stable together.

"Brother Long, did this trip go smoothly?" Yang Yongqiang asked after seeing Li Long.

"That went well. That's great. Let's go into the house and divide the money among you." Li Long smiled and went into the house first.

Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang walked into the house with full of anticipation.

My mind is full of thoughts: How much can I get? (End of this chapter)