Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The next morning, when Uncle Luo was still making breakfast, Li Long, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang were already on their way to Dongdagou.

The weather was still very cold, but everyone was in high spirits, especially Yang Yongqiang and Tao Daqiang, who felt like they had a backbone again.

At this time, the entire village, including the fields, was silent. Not even the sound of birds singing. Li Long could only hear the rustling sound of three people stepping on the snow.

When they reached Dongdagou, the three of them were panting, their hats were covered in white, and the air they exhaled formed mist, like the breath of immortals.

Li Long followed the terrain and began to look for the trap he had set.

He walked to one side, where the footprints were very shallow. Although it had not snowed during this period, before the sun rose every day, the wind would blow up the nearby snow powder and then fall down, similar to snow, which would cover the traces.

"Eh? Brother Long, are you using condoms there too?" Yang Yongqiang was a little surprised, "I don't remember there being any."

"Yes, I set seven or eight traps." Li Long vaguely remembered, "It seems that I caught a rabbit when I was patrolling the traps the next day after setting the traps."

There were no new rabbit tracks here, and the old rabbit tracks were slightly covered by snow and could not be seen clearly. Li Long found a set next to a red willow tree based on his memory.

There's nothing on it.

In fact, this is expected. After so many patrols, if there is a hook, it is likely to have been taken away. If it is not taken away, it may be that it is not in the rabbit's must-pass place, and the rabbit did not come here later, so the hook was not put on.

Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang did not follow Li Long. They each had their own division of labor. They had to collect the rabbit traps, regardless of whether there were rabbits or not. After collecting them, they would take them to other places to set them.

However, they would look at Li Long from time to time to see if Li Long had any gains.

After all, they haven't patrolled the rabbit traps here.

Sure enough, when Li Long used the second rabbit trap, he found a big rabbit caught in it. Unfortunately, it was eaten by something and only the lower half of its body was left.

Because it was bitten into a mess, Li Long didn't want it and just took off the thin wire.

"Brother Long, are there any rabbits there?" Yang Yongqiang kept watching and observing Li Long's movements, and started shouting from thirty or forty meters away.

"There was half a rabbit, but it was eaten by a fox or a badger. It's gone." Li Long responded and continued to move forward.

The third one was a bit far from the second one, about ten meters away. There was another rabbit here, a little smaller, about three kilograms, and frozen hard. Li Long had to dig it out of the ice and snow several times before he could get it out.

But it is always a joy to have a gain. Li Long held the rabbit in his right hand and the condom in his left hand, and continued to move forward with a smile.

After the rabbit traps were completed here, Li Long already had two rabbits in his hand. He walked over there with the rabbits in his hands. Seeing that Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang only had traps in their hands, he shouted:

"It seems that this set really needs to be moved to another place. Look here!"

The three men took out more than a hundred condoms, and Yang Yongqiang found a rabbit over there. It was not big and weighed more than two kilograms.

"Let's go back later and take one of the three rabbits each." Li Long said, "Eat them when we get home, and come back tomorrow to sort out these traps. Maybe we'll have more."

"No, no, no, keep it and sell it for three or five dollars each." Yang Yongqiang was the first to disagree, "We have eaten a lot of rabbits, we don't need this one."

"That's right, Brother Long, let's not eat them anymore." Tao Daqiang also said, "Save them and sell them."

"Okay." Li Long readily agreed. "Then we'll save them and sell them. Let's go, walk along this ditch to the south, farther away. If we get closer, there won't be any rabbits. The team will have chased them all away."

The three of them walked along the East Ditch. When they had walked more than a kilometer, Li Long saw that there were many red willows and white thorns, and there were also many rabbit tracks, all of which had trampled out a path, so he said:
"Okay, let's just go down here."

The three people acted separately and each found a direction to set rabbit traps. Half an hour later, the three people met at the front and then walked back carrying the rabbits.

"Brother Long, did you get the melon seeds this time?" Yang Yongqiang asked.

"We got some, about 20 kilograms." Li Long said, "I heard from an expert that it can be used to grow crops on 10 acres of land."

"Not much." Tao Daqiang said beside him, "Isn't it difficult to pick melon seeds now?"

"It's not easy to do. This thing is only grown in small areas. Even in its place of origin, it's not grown in large quantities."

"Can you give some to us?" Yang Yongqiang asked.

"That's right." Tao Daqiang also thought, "One acre of seeds will do..."

Li Long looked at the two of them and smiled.

"You two should go back and discuss this with your father first. Planting melons is not like following me to catch rabbits and sell fish. Those are all extra. If you can convince your father to let you try planting, then that's fine."

Yang Yongqiang stopped talking.

Tao Daqiang also lowered his head.

Their families would definitely not object to them following Li Long. After all, Li Long helped them make money, and a lot of it.

But if we follow Li Long to grow melons, something the team has never grown before, that is not necessarily the case.

Melons, that's not watermelons. As for watermelons, even if the team members have never grown them, they have at least eaten them. At least this thing is quite popular in summer and the yield is also large. In fact, it's not to say that the team members have never grown them. After the household contract responsibility system was implemented last year and the food rations were distributed, many families would plant a few different kinds of melons at the edge of the field or at the edge of the field.

So I know a little bit about growing watermelons.

But I simply don't understand what is going on.

Farmers, especially the older generation, are still very cautious about accepting new things, and not many are willing to try, change, or make breakthroughs.

This is also why Li Jianguo is actually considered one of the more advanced-minded people in the village. He already had the idea of ​​growing cash crops at the beginning of land allocation and contracting - because just growing grain will not make money unless it reaches a certain scale.

After Li Long analyzed the pros and cons of growing melons and got advice from an expert, he immediately decided to give it a try on ten acres of land.

Do others dare to do that?
If the crops are not good, what will happen to the public grain that needs to be handed in next year? What will the whole family eat? How will we explain that the crops are piled up at home without being sold?

The main reason is that the guarantee is too low. If you don’t have a lot of money, you can’t afford it. This is also the reason why ordinary people are better off not opening a store directly - it’s no big deal if you lose money by setting up a stall, but if you open a store directly, you will have to pay the cost and it may take several years to recover.

Of course, it also has something to do with the environment. When there is a gust of wind, even pigs can fly, but when the wind is calm, even a whale can only create small circles of water when it leaves the water.

Li Long did not mean to attack them, and said:

"It's a good idea. After all, not all melons can be grown in any field. This year, my family is growing one kind of melon, so I can set an example for the team members. Then we can see what to pay attention to when growing this thing, how to deal with it after it grows, and where to sell it after the harvest."

After he said this, Yang Yongqiang and Tao Daqiang felt balanced. Li Long was telling the truth. Only when someone in the team grows crops and makes money, their families will be willing to try.

Just like planting cotton, not all cotton in southern and northern Xinjiang was planted at the beginning. Only when people could make money from planting it would people follow suit - of course, some people could make money from following the trend, while others would only lose everything.

For example, red dates, snow chrysanthemum, black wolfberry... and so on.

The three people returned to the team. Li Long carried the three rabbits back to Laomahao, while Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang went home.

When Yang Yongqiang returned home, breakfast was already ready and his sister had prepared a bowl of porridge for him.

When they sat down to eat, Yang Yongqiang still had some hope and asked his father:
"Dad, Brother Long said that his family wants to grow melons. Can we grow some at home?"

"Plant melons? Plant a little? How much?"

"I was thinking of planting one acre of land." Yang Yongqiang's family was allocated twenty acres of land. In his opinion, taking out one acre from the twenty acres to plant melons is not much.

"It's okay to plant one furrow, but an acre of land? No." Yang Hua immediately rejected his son's idea. "Li Long can make money, but when it comes to farming, he is far behind his brother."

"But his brother Li Jianguo also agreed to grow melons." Yang Yongqiang didn't understand why his father was unwilling to grow melons.

"Is it easy to grow melons? His family is rich and powerful, they can afford the losses, but what about us? One acre of land has to invest at least dozens of dollars from planting to harvesting. We don't have seeds and technology, and we don't even know who to sell them to after we grow them. Why should we grow them?" Yang Hua has his own logic.

"Yongqiang." Yang Hua put down his chopsticks and said earnestly, "I have no objection to you following Li Long to catch fish and chase rabbits to make money, but that is not a long-term plan. You are still young, and it is okay to have fun while you are energetic, but you must understand that for us farmers, farming is the foundation.

If your sister can pass the exam and become a government official in the future, then we won’t talk about it. You didn’t catch up with the right time to go to school, and you are not good at studying, so just be a farmer. Now the country has allocated land to us, and there is a lot of land. The land here is much better than that in my hometown. If you work hard to farm, you will have no problem eating well. Don’t think about it, and don’t make trouble. "Yang Yongqiang lost his temper at his father's words.

But he couldn't say that his father was wrong. According to Brother Long, he could only say that people's ideas were different because they stood in different positions.

Perhaps, only after he gets married can he make his own decision - but getting married doesn't seem to be an option, because according to the team's rules, families like his, where there is only one male, will not be allocated separate homesteads or separate families.

Alas, at this moment, Yang Yongqiang actually felt deeply powerless.

Forget it, let’s go and smash the ice hole after dinner.

For a moment, Yang Yongqiang wanted to run away from home.

I don’t know whether Tao Daqiang’s father is willing to use the land to grow melons?
"That melon is not easy to grow." Seeing that his son was silent, Yang Hua picked up the chopsticks and said, "It has very high requirements for soil, fertilizer, and water. Not everyone can grow it..."

Yang Yongqiang didn't listen at first. He didn't realize that his father knew a lot about beating melons.

Seeing that his son didn't ask any more questions, Yang Hua didn't say anything else.

After dinner, Yang Yongqiang said goodbye to his family and went to the stable with his tools and bag.

"Brother, wear something thicker." Yang Yongqiang's sister shouted at the door, "Don't get frostbite."

"Okay, I got it. Please come in." Yang Yongqiang waved his hand wearing rabbit fur gloves and strode out of the yard.

He met Tao Daqiang at the door of the stable.

"Is your father willing to grow melons?" Yang Yongqiang couldn't wait to ask this question after seeing Tao Daqiang.

"No. My dad said, it's better to grow crops than to grow anything else. We can only eat for a few days..." Tao Daqiang's tone was full of dissatisfaction.

Yang Yongqiang immediately felt the same way:

"My dad said the same thing. He said we can't afford the compensation."

At this moment, the two people actually felt a sense of sympathy for each other.

Li Long heard the noise, came out, looked at the two of them, and said with a smile:

"You're here pretty quickly. Wait for me for a few minutes and I'll be right out."

He went into the house, put on thick clothes, a hat and gloves, locked the door behind him when he went out, and then went to a spare house to get a scoop net, a shovel and a bag.

"Let's go." Li Long said, "I haven't been there for a few days. Let's see how Xiaohaizi is doing now."

"It's been cold these few days, and the ice is frozen solid, so there's less air underneath. But the fish are not active either, and there aren't as many as last year." Tao Daqiang followed Li Long in breaking holes in the ice to catch fish from beginning to end last year, and he knows how they caught fish last year.

I really miss it.

The three of them chatted all the way, and when they were about to reach Xiaohaizi, Yang Yongqiang finally couldn't help asking:

"Brother Long, why don't you ask my family what they say about growing melons?"

He had been holding it in, thinking that when Li Long saw them, he would ask them, and when he got the answer, he might even say that his guess was correct.

Originally, he thought Li Long would make fun of them as a joke, but Li Long didn't ask any questions from beginning to end, which made him feel depressed.

"What do you want to ask?" Li Long climbed up the embankment of Xiaohaizi, looked forward, and found that there were already three groups of people digging ice holes in Xiaohaizi.

Even in such a cold day, there are still people doing this, which shows that the enthusiasm of many people has really been mobilized.

This is a good thing. At least it adds vitality to the team and also increases income.

"I just asked my family if they allow me to plant melons." Yang Yongqiang was a little dejected. It was obviously a good thing, so why didn't his family agree?

"What's there to ask? If you're allowed to plant, then plant. If you're not allowed to plant, then wait and see." Li Long said, "It's not a big deal. If you were in your father's shoes, you might not be allowed to plant either. One acre of land can produce more than 100 kilograms of wheat, which can be ground into flour to feed your sister for a year. If the melon seeds we grow can't be sold, they won't satisfy our hunger. We can't just eat melon seeds every day."

Li Long's words made Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang laugh. Think about it, it is true. They have "superstitious" about Li Long's ability, but it does not mean that Li Long can do everything and is always right. Their parents, as bystanders, may see it more clearly, and it may be right to wait a while.

The three of them walked to the ice hole on the south side and found that a layer of ice had indeed formed on it, which looked quite thick. Li Long looked at the ice and knew that if the ice hole was broken, all he could get in a short time would be some small crucian carps, and he would have to wait until the afternoon to really catch fish.

But the good thing was that I had fresh fish soup in the evening.

Without waiting for Li Long to take action, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang each occupied an ice hole and started smashing it.

Li Long had no choice but to use the shovel to shovel the broken ice on both sides in turn. After shoveling, he used a scoop net to scoop out all the ice. Then he had no work to do.

After he cleared the ice on both sides, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang had already started fishing in the ice hole with a scoop net.

There were really no fish in the first few nets. Occasionally there were a few small crucian carps, which would jump a few times before freezing solid.

Li Long picked up fish for a while, then stopped and went to find some hairy reeds from a distance and lit them. There were ashes left over from the fire, so he lit the fire directly at the original location. When the fire started, he ran quite far away. The fire from the reeds was very strong, and if he didn't run away, his eyebrows would be burned off.

Feeling that it was boring, Li Long turned to the three brothers of the Liang family.

I learned from Li Jianguo yesterday that even if he was not around, the three Liang brothers would send the fish they caught over every day.

"How are you today?" Li Long asked.

In fact, he could see that there was a shallow spot in the bag, and he knew that this was what happened when a newcomer broke a hole in the ice.

"There's only one big one. We'll have to wait till this afternoon." Liang Laoer said as he picked up the fish. "The big one is a carp, more than a kilogram. It's not big, but it looks pretty."

As he said this, he opened his pocket and let Li Long see.

Li Long saw a carp with red and yellow scales inside. Its mouth was opening and closing, and there were whiskers on both sides. The fish was not completely dead yet, and it was twisting its head there, but it would not live much longer.

"Beautiful, really beautiful!" Li Long exclaimed sincerely.

Regardless of whether the fish tastes good or not, its image is really good, and no wonder it has become a good omen in ancient Chinese civilization.

It looks and feels different.

"How's it going over there?" Boss Liang took out a scoop of net and dug out three or five pike. He was a little disappointed and then asked Li Long.

"A few small crucian carps. The ice holes over there have been frozen for several days. There will definitely be no fish at the beginning. We will have to wait until the afternoon. It's been cold these past few days, and the fish haven't moved around well."

"That is."

"Li Long, I heard you want to grow da melons?" Liang Laosan asked as he dug in the other hole, "What are da melons? Are they the same as watermelons or winter melons?"

His voice was a little loud, and the Zhao family father and son in the distance were also listening.

Li Long was a little surprised. Has the news of growing melons spread all over the village? Even the Liang family knew about it?

The Liang family lived in the old village, not far from the new village of the Li family. He believed that his eldest brother Li Jianguo was not a talkative person. This meant that the whole village might know that he was going to plant melons.

But this is not something that needs to be concealed. After all, when the spring comes, it will still be spread. So he said:

"I'm going to plant some melons. These melons look a bit like watermelons, and the seeds are similar, but they're bigger than watermelon seeds."

"So are the picked melons sold as a whole?" Liang Laoer asked from the side. He didn't feel comfortable asking before, but now that his brother asked and Li Long was willing to answer, he continued to ask.

"No, we want the seeds inside the melon. The seeds are used for making snacks, and some people like to crack the seeds." Li Long explained, "And the flesh of the melon is not as delicious as that of watermelon. It is not so sweet, and it is not red. Most of them are yellow or white."

"Is that so?" The second son of the Liang family nodded, and he understood a little. (End of this chapter)