Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Xiangqian was not there, and the ox had not been sent out, so Li Long pulled it back to the yard along the same route and asked Sister Yang to deal with it.

There's more to come anyway.

Li Long did not rest either. He was anxious to ask Halimu and the others how and where the tiger was killed. He was wondering if it was possible to get the tiger bones back.

After all, tiger bones are better than tiger skins.

Of course, he felt that the possibility of getting it back was slim. After all, although the tiger skin looked fresh, there were so many carnivores in the mountains. They might be scared when the tiger had its skin on. Once the skin was peeled off, it would just be food, right?

Li Long drove the tractor towards the mountain. He was worried and felt less cold.

Li Long drove the tractor directly to Halimu's winter home.

Halimu's wife came out of the winter nest and told Li Long in a stuttering voice that Halimu had gone to Talihar's winter nest to participate in the winter slaughter.

Li Long drove the tractor again, trying to find a suitable road in the mountains and drove to Talihar's winter camp.

It is easier to get to Halimu's winter camp and Yushanjiang's winter camp with a tractor, but Talihar's winter camp is far away, so it is easier to get in with a horse than with a tractor.

Li Long took many detours and finally arrived at Talihar's winter camp. The cattle had been slaughtered and the meat was almost cooked.

Seeing Li Long coming, everyone was very happy. Li Long took out the bullets and gave them to Yu Shanjiang who was walking closest, and asked him to distribute them to others.

He went to find Halimu and asked him in a low voice about the tiger.

"We met him on the way back from the farm." Halimu guessed that Li Long would ask, so he said:

"We were driving the cattle and sheep towards this side when we saw the big guy. It suddenly jumped out from the pine forest, knocked down one of our sheep, bit its neck and dragged it into the forest.

I hadn't reacted yet, so I yelled at it. It turned its head and looked at me. It was quite angry after all. It put down the sheep whose neck it had bitten off, and yelled at me, which scared me. "

When saying this, Halimu's expression was one of lingering fear. Apparently, the tiger's roar was quite powerful at that time.

Come to think of it, this is not a wolf, it's a tiger!
Li Long thought, could this be the last Northern Xinjiang Tiger?
It shouldn't be. He heard in the short video introduction in his previous life that the traces of the Northern Xinjiang tiger were found from Qitai in the east to Tacheng in the west, a distance of nearly a thousand kilometers, and the time difference was also forty to fifty years. It couldn't be the same tiger.

"When he roared, my cattle and sheep were scattered everywhere. I got angry and shot him. He got so scared that he didn't even want the sheep anymore and turned around to run away. Unexpectedly, he fell into the den."

Halimu showed a little smile on his face and continued:
"At the time I thought since it had fallen into the den, I would not be polite. The horse did not dare to approach, so I dismounted, took the gun, and when I was more than 20 meters away from it, I fired several shots and killed it!"

Li Long felt that it was a bit unscientific. Is it that simple?

"How deep is that snow pit?" Li Long asked.

"About four or five meters. After it fell, its entire body sank into the snow. It struggled several times but couldn't get out. That's when I took aim."

After Halimu finished speaking, he looked around and whispered to Li Long:
"Only Yushan Jiang knows about this. Don't tell anyone else. I don't want them to know..."

"Okay, okay." Li Long's mind was still in a mess. It took him a while to remember his purpose. He asked hurriedly:

"What about the big guy's bones?"

"In that snow cave." Halimu said, "After I killed it, I hurried to drive the cattle and sheep back. After I drove them back, I skinned the sheep that it had bitten to death, and I also skinned the tiger.

It was quite big, weighing about 200 kilograms, and I couldn’t carry it, so I buried it in the snow along with the sheep.”

"Is it far from here? How far do we have to go if the two of us ride horses?" Li Long asked.

"If there are only two of us riding horses, and we set off in the morning, we should be there in the afternoon, right?" Halimu said.

"How about we leave before dawn tomorrow morning?" Li Long said, "The bones of that thing are very useful!"

"Okay." Halimu agreed without hesitation, "I just don't know if it's still there. You know, wolves have very sensitive noses."

"Try your best to find it." Li Long was unwilling to give up this little bit of hope.

This might be his best chance to get a tiger bone in his life. If he gave up, he might regret it for the rest of his life.

Next comes the meat.

But Li Long still didn't understand, how could such a tiger be killed so easily?
Think about the video I saw in my last life. The Siberian tiger was so big that it carried an animal like it was playing. There was also a video where a person fell into the tiger enclosure of a zoo and the tiger carried the person away easily, just like it was carrying a toy.

In those hunting novels, tigers are described as so powerful that they can see people from more than ten or twenty meters away, and then they will rush to the person and carry the person away.

Why was it that when it came to Halimu, he was defeated so easily?
Li Long couldn't help but recall the scene in which Monk Wei was beaten to death in a TV series he had watched before.

Is this considered a small capsize in a ditch?
Or is it because the Xinjiang tiger is not as big as the Siberian tiger?
These things can only be guessed. No matter how hard Li Long tries to reconstruct what Halim said in his mind, it is impossible to truly restore it to the truth.

However, as a result, he was much less awed by creatures like tigers.

Maybe the Xinjiang tiger is indeed not as good as the Siberian tiger. After all, the Siberian tiger is the largest tiger species in the world. It is large in size, so its movements are naturally different.

Putting this matter aside, Li Long started eating meat with everyone.

The herdsmen were still in high spirits, but Li Long was already feeling a bit tired. He had been eating beef for three consecutive days with the same menu, and he no longer found it tasty.

So when I came here, I actually brought some spices with me. I found a wire and cut some beef to grill, which is also quite nice.

After he did this, others followed suit and used branches when they didn't have wire.

When Li Long saw that the fire was surrounded, he simply stopped grilling the meat. He made a dipping sauce with salt and chili powder, and tore the boiled meat into pieces to dip it in. It was also delicious.

As more ways of eating appeared, everyone became interested again.

After eating the meat, Talihar took out a few skins from his winter den and gave them to Li Long:

"Li Long, I also want to use that water pipe. Now that spring is here, can you get me some plastic pipes?"

"No problem." Li Long nodded. There were a lot of plastic pipes in the supply and marketing cooperative. He used that kind of pipe to drill wells for the animal husbandry teams in Yushanjiang and Halimu.

The supply and marketing cooperatives will deliver some of this kind of pipes every once in a while. Although it is a bit difficult to get a few hundred meters, it is not impossible.

The other guys came over and said the same thing.

"No problem, I'll pull the pipe over in the spring." Li Long agreed readily.

The boys also said they would exchange some leather and other things.

Most of the skins that Li Long had brought back before were from Halimu and Yushanjiang, and a small part belonged to others.

Each family actually has some stock, and now they are thinking of taking it out and replacing it with plastic tubes.

Some people really want to make it convenient. After all, the cattle and sheep are usually let out after the spring, and most of the housework is done by the elderly. It is really not convenient to ask the elderly to fetch water from the winter nest to the stream dozens of meters below.

Some people just follow the trend and feel embarrassed if others have done it but they haven't.

Don’t think that they are not concerned about their reputation just because they are simple and honest. In fact, reputation is very important.

Li Long was thinking about it and suddenly an idea came to his mind. He said:

"We don't need to get so many skins. Each family can just provide a discarded sheep. How about Sheep Cronus?"

After these herders joined the pastoral team, they had to hand over some sheep to the team every year, including discarded sheep and two-year-old lambs.

The culled sheep are actually five or six year old sheep. These sheep will be sent to food factories, where they will be slaughtered and processed and then sent to where they should go.

"Kronzi sheep? Is one enough?" Talihar asked doubtfully.

"That's enough." Li Long said with a smile. He didn't expect to make money from this, but he would lose some money.

But it doesn't matter. He has made a lot of money dealing with these herdsmen, Dosen, and they have established good relationships with him. Why should he be obsessed with this?

"Then take this skin and I will slaughter a sheep for you," said Talihar.

In the winter of Kazakhstan, people need to chant sutras before slaughtering the animals. That is why families come one after another to slaughter the animals.

There were people around, so Talihar told his parents and went to the pen to get a sheep, and quickly slaughtered it. Li Long said he only wanted Klangzi, so after they slaughtered the sheep, skinned it, removed the internal organs, and put Klangzi on the bucket of Li Long's tractor.

Some people are envious. This Talihar has already reserved the third water supply.

Some people are still hesitant, thinking that it is only used in spring and winter, so why bother? Some people are also wondering if the water pipes will freeze, and are discussing it quietly.

Halimu and Yushanjiang were standing next to Li Long, also asking the same question.

"As long as the water at the water source keeps flowing, the water won't freeze." Li Long said, "It's the same reason why the water in the stream doesn't freeze. Of course, if it's blocked, it will freeze. That's why we have to clean the water inlet and cover it with gauze to prevent sand and small stones from entering."

Halimu and Yushanjiang nodded to show that they understood.

"It's not so bad in the summer, as it's easy to repair if it gets blocked. But it's hard to repair in the winter when it's frozen." Li Long said, "So try not to let it get blocked. But we'll see how to fix it after we use it. Only after we use it will we know how to fix it."

This is the truth. Nathan only understood why the wellhead had to be taken away every night after seeing Li Long solve problems with everything, including the wellhead.

Li Long still left early.

He wanted to go back and rest early, and planned to go to Halimu's place early tomorrow morning before dawn, and then the two of them would ride horses to see if the tiger bones were still there.

Two people riding horses can move the pasture much faster than driving a large group of cattle and sheep.

Hope to be back within a day.

There are already a lot of plastic pipes in the warehouse of the supply and marketing cooperative, at least several hundred meters in stock.

It is obviously not enough to install such water pipes in all the herdsmen's homes here.

But we have to do it step by step. It is impossible to install everything at once, and some people may not install it.

This is definitely a matter of personal preference. Generally speaking, it is a good thing. In fact, there is another way to prevent freezing in winter, which is to dig a half-meter deep trench and bury the pipes in it. However, if it really freezes, it will be more troublesome to inspect and repair it.

Dig shallower and it will be easier to repair.

Let’s talk about it later. Li Long was thinking of gradually changing the living environment of Halimu and others.

The practice of relocating pastures for grazing was still being carried out in some places until Li Long left in his previous life.

Around 2010, the herders in Ma County were gradually relocated from the mountains to settle down and develop pastoralism. To put it simply, they grazed on the plains and mainly kept sheep in herds in winter.

As for the source of forage, the herders will be given some land to grow forage in the places where they are relocated.

There are large grasslands in places where people are still migrating for grazing. However, the grasslands in the deep Tianshan Mountains south of Ma County are not in large stretches, but in small pieces, so they can accommodate fewer herders.

So let’s just move it so that it’s easier to manage.

Judging from subsequent developments, the herders who moved down were living quite well.

Back in the cabin, Li Long took the sheep and leather from the truck bed and put them into the cabin. Then he drained the water from the tractor and went into the cabin carrying the crank.

He set up the stove and boiled some water. Since he wasn't hungry, Li Long made a pot of tea and planned to go to bed early.

The fire in the stove cannot be put out, because we have to get up early tomorrow to start the tractor.

Sure enough, the next morning it was much colder. After the beginning of winter, it gets colder every day, but today is especially cold.

Li Long added boiling water into the water tank and tried to crank it three times. When he was about to crank it again, the sound of the engine did not seem like it could ignite.

Helplessly, Li Long had to go to the wooden house, take a few pieces of red charcoal from the stove and put them under the tractor engine to roast them.

He added some more charcoal into the stove, and after it started burning, he pressed down the fire with coal foam.

After leaving the house, he looked around and found that the charcoal fire under the tractor had not burned the pipe, so luckily.

Li Long felt that it was almost ready, so he took the crank, pressed the pressure reduction button and cranked it again. This time it started directly.

After cleaning up the charcoal ash underneath, Li Long went into the wooden house, put on his cotton coat and hat, then locked the door and got on the tractor, driving towards Halimu's winter home.

It was still dark, and the sky was full of stars, which was very beautiful. The moon was not visible, but the ground was covered with snow, so I could barely see the road.

When the tractor arrived at the winter den, Halimu had already come out of the house.

"Li Long, have you eaten?"

"Ate."

"Well, come into the house and have a cup of milk tea. The horses are ready. We'll leave after we finish drinking."

"it is good."

The two of them said simple things. After entering the house, Halimu's wife poured milk tea for the two of them. There was still some unfinished naan on the plate on the kang table, and honey and jam in the small bowl. This was their breakfast.

After drinking a bowl of milk tea, the two went out and rode their horses into the mountains.

The horses walked fast at first, then trotted later. They could trot fast in some flat areas. Because of the transfer, the snow here had been waded through, so it was more convenient to walk.

When the day broke, they had already climbed seven or eight mountains. With a road, climbing mountains was fast. The road for the transfer itself was relatively flat, and it was indeed easier to drive the horses at a fast pace than to travel slowly.

"If we were to move across these roads, it would take most of the day to walk." Halimu said to Li Long when they stopped to rest, "We ran across it in less than an hour."

"Rest for a while," Li Long said, "Should we wipe the sweat off the horse?"

"Ah."

The horse was also tired, with sweat on its neck. Li Long wiped the sweat off the horse with a towel, took a rest, and then took out a handful of corn from the bag next to him and fed it to the horse.

Halim is doing the same thing.

After resting for a while, the two men rode up again.

After daybreak, they could go faster, and by the time the sun came out, they had already climbed over several more mountains.

When they took a break again, Li Long took out the dried meat he had brought with him and shared some with Halimu.

After the two men finished eating, they mounted their horses and continued on their journey. Li Long felt that he had been in the mountains for a long time. He had seen all kinds of mountains, some covered with pine forests, some covered with rocks with only shrubs, and some covered with heavy snow. According to Halim, this place is like grassland in summer.

The route for transfer passes through the valleys, rarely going directly over the mountains. It follows the streams or river valleys, and occasionally goes diagonally up a gentle slope.

The snow has been trampled into paths by the migrating cattle and sheep, so at least they won’t run into snow pits and are less likely to get into danger.

"If it snows again, this road will be covered, and it will be difficult to find the way into the mountains." Halimu said as he walked.

At noon, the two men ate some dry food again. Li Long also saw wild goats flashing by on the top of the mountain in the distance. Here, the number of wild animals gradually increased.

"We'll reach the destination in another five or six kilometers," Halimu said. "It'll take about an hour. This section is relatively easy to walk, but it will be difficult there."

Li Long secretly estimated that from morning till now, the two of them had been riding fast for six hours and had covered fifty to sixty kilometers, and the straight-line distance should be about twenty to thirty kilometers.

The Tianshan Mountains are really deep.

According to Halimu, this place is still a long way from the summer pasture, and the location of the summer pasture is actually not yet at the center line of the Tianshan Mountains.

When Li Long followed Halimu to the snow pit where the tiger fell, he immediately felt the tiger's plight.

The snow pit is right next to the road for the transfer. The cattle and sheep are led by a leader, so they will not go the wrong way and therefore will not fall into the snow pit.

The snow pit is right next to the road. It looks flat on the surface. The wind and snow will fill the pit, making it as flat as other places, and you can't tell the height at all.

There was a road on the left side of the pit, a mountain wall on the right side, and ditches in front and behind. It was not easy to climb out all at once.

After Halimu skinned the tiger, he buried it in the snow and then smoothed the snow. It was impossible to tell whether the skin had been dug out or not.

Li Long took out the rope. (End of this chapter)