Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

It was already very cold, and frost had formed on the glass windows of the house where the children lived.

Li Juan clenched her right fist and slowly pressed her palm on the ice on the glass. The palm stayed on the ice for a few seconds, and when her hand left the glass, a mark was left on the glass. The ice had been melted by the warmth of her hand.

After shaking her hands, Li Juan stretched out her right index finger and made five dots on the mark. The first dot was big, and the next four dots were small.

After ordering, she looked at it carefully, very satisfied, then pulled Li Qiang over and asked:

"Qiang, what does this look like?"

Li Qiang was at the door listening to his uncle, grandfather and father talking about hunting in the inner room. He was somewhat reluctant when Li Juan pulled him over, but the pressure from his sister was still quite heavy.

Li Qiang had an unhappy expression on his face. He glanced at the pattern on the glass, but couldn't remember it for a moment. He looked at it again, his eyes widened:

"Eh? This... looks like a little foot. Sister, can you teach me how to draw it?"

"Haha, that's a good guess. Come, I'll teach you!"

Li Juan was not very interested in hunting. She had wanted to follow Li Long to catch quack chickens before just to eat meat. In the past two years, she had eaten more meat and had grown taller, so she didn't miss meat as much.

On the contrary, Li Qiang, although very interested in the little feet drawn by his sister, was still thinking about the hunting that Li Long talked about.

"In the early years, there were really a lot of yellow sheep." After listening to Li Long's story, Li Jianguo recalled, "We went to the Gobi Desert in the north to dig up red willow roots and brought them back to burn. At that time, a group of yellow sheep would come running over from time to time.

At that time, there were hundreds of gazelles in herds, and they were so loud! I was not doing public work at that time, and I didn’t have a gun. I watched the gazelles run away just a dozen meters away. At that time, you could hit them with a stone..."

"Then why don't you smash it?" Du Chunfang found it interesting and asked.

"I couldn't kill them by smashing them." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Without a gun, I could only stare at them. They were much bigger than domestic sheep. Later, I got a gun and shot a few of them. I brought them back and had a good meal."

"I feel that the meat is just so-so." Du Chunfang felt that it was not as delicious as pork and was difficult to chew.

Everyone laughed, and Li Qingxia sighed:

"I never expected it. My hometown always thought that the northwest was a bitter and cold place, and that this place would be full of deserts, hard work, and nothing could be achieved. Who could have thought that it would be so convenient to hunt and fish here... Hey, I came to the right place!"

"Dad, if you go back and tell them, they won't believe it." Li Long said, "You saw it and caught it, so you believe it. Those people will think you are bragging when they hear you say it."

"Who cares what others think? We just need to live our own lives well." Liang Yuemei said while sewing shoe soles.

"Hey, sister-in-law, you say that now, but let me tell you, when you go back to your hometown and hear others say that Northern Xinjiang is not a good place, you will definitely be more anxious than I am at that time." Li Long said with a smile.

Hometown, alma mater, and old company, these three places are where you can complain about whatever you want, but rarely allow others to judge you at will.

When Li Long went out to travel, it was a different era, but there were still people who misunderstood that northern Xinjiang was full of Gobi Desert. He had argued about this with others more than once or twice.

But strictly speaking, he cannot be considered a pure northern Xinjiang person, after all, he was born in his hometown.

But it is not calculated that way for people in Northern Xinjiang. If you have lived in Northern Xinjiang for 20 years out of your 30 years of life, then you are a Northern Xinjiang person.

Of course, if you don’t want to admit it, that’s fine too, it’s up to you.

According to the development of the previous life, Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang came to Northern Xinjiang, but they didn't stay for long each time. Li Jianguo was unable to spare the time, so Liang Yuemei went back twice.

Then she came back sick. She was extremely disgusted with her hometown because she had been exposed to so many negative things there.

Li Jianguo would send money and gifts to his family every year, and Liang Yuemei would also bring gifts back home, but less than half a month after she returned, the family was unable to make ends meet.

It's a feeling that is hard to bear looking back on.

But in this life, because of the changes on Li Long's side, Li Qingxia brought Du Chunfang here and decided to settle here. In this way, Li Jianguo and his wife would not have to go back to their hometown and go through those troubles.

"Xiaolong, do you think we can catch that yellow sheep again?" Li Qingxia asked, still unwilling to give up.

He could catch fish by digging holes in the ice anytime he wanted, but in all the decades he had gone hunting, he had never done the kind of hunting that Li Long described.

"I can do it," Li Long thought for a moment and said, "I have a double-barreled sand gun with a small caliber, but I'm afraid it won't work for hunting yellow sheep. You still need a rifle for this."

He turned to look at Li Jianguo and asked:
"Brother, can you lend me five or six and a half from the captain?"

"I'm sure I can borrow it. It's just one day, and I'll be freezing if I drive a tractor over there." Li Jianguo was actually tempted. Now that it's cold and snowing, there's really not much work to do in the team. Giving water and feeding to the pigs every day is the biggest activity.

Some people in the team have already started playing cards. If the Li family doesn’t play this, then there will be nothing fun to do.

After two snowfalls, they could go trapping rabbits, but the Li family had no shortage of meat. Rabbit meat was not very tasty and had a lot of bones, so Li Jianguo didn't want to do that.

But when it comes to beating yellow sheep, he really has some ideas.

"Then wait for two days." Li Long thought for a while and said, "Wait for two days and I'll see if I can borrow a car. We can go there by car..."

"Take a car? What are you thinking?" Li Jianguo knew that his younger brother Li Long was capable, but a car is not a tractor, how could he possibly borrow it?

And what Li Jianguo was thinking about was a big truck.

"Who will open it after borrowing it?" Li Qingxia also had doubts.

"Let's wait and see. Since we killed the gazelles yesterday, they may run away to a far place for a while and won't come back for another two days." Li Long didn't explain in detail, but said:
"Wait for another two days until they forget the danger and come back to the roadside. Then we can kill them."

"Uncle, why are those gazelles only running to the side of the road?" Li Qiang was standing at the door and couldn't help but ask at this time.

"Because there is grass on the roadside. In winter, when a truck carrying fodder passes by, some grass will fall to the roadside. The gazelles eat hay in the wild in winter, which is definitely not as nutritious as the fodder brought by the trucks. They are not stupid."

After Li Long explained this, Li Qiang understood.

This matter was settled. Li Long had lunch at his eldest brother's house at noon. If he came here and left without having a meal, not only Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei, but also Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang would be scolded.

Of course, unless there is an emergency. But right now, there is nothing urgent.

After dinner, Li Long drove the tractor back to the county, while Li Jianguo went to Xu Chengjun's house.

Xu Chengjun was planning the militia training. The weapons and bullets had been collected, and the gun cabinet was placed in his home, with the key hanging on his waist. He was not worried about this as it was done every year.

Xu Chengjun was a little surprised when Li Jianguo came over. He put the roster aside and asked:
"Brother Li, why are you here? What's the matter?"

"I want to go hunting in the mountains in a couple of days. Can you lend me one of your five or six?"

"Then..." Li Jianguo was not considered a basic militiaman, but he was already considered overqualified in the team. After all, there were many young men in the team, and they were enough.

Xu Chengjun rolled his eyes and said:

"How about this, when you need it, ask Xiaolong to come over and sign. He is still a basic militiaman in the team. Although he has asked for leave and will not participate in winter training, he can still get the gun."

Li Jianguo didn't care what method Xu Chengjun used, as long as he could lend him the gun.

"That bullet..."

"I don't have many bullets. I can only give you a pack of 25 bullets." Xu Chengjun said, "We don't have many bullets this year. We need to practice a lot during winter training."

"That's enough." Li Jianguo was very satisfied. "Okay then."

"Then you can take the gun away." Xu Chengjun said, "and then ask Xiaolong to come over and sign it."

Li Jianguo didn't know whether this could be considered as Xu Chengjun's simplification, but to be honest, the gun management of the Northern Xinjiang militia was relatively loose at that time, so much so that when the militia was actually training without guns, several rifles were lost in the team.

In the end, no one was dealt with.

Li Jianguo left the captain's house carrying a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and bullets. On the way, he wanted to try the gun, but then he thought better of it.

This is not the situation a dozen years ago. At that time, there were few people in the village, and there was only wasteland all around. A shot would at most scare away a flock of birds or a few wolves.

There are villages all around now. Although the distances are different, no one can guarantee where the stray bullet will hit.

Let’s wait until there’s no one in the area.

Li Long drove his tractor back to the county. When he arrived at the compound, he was surprised to find a jeep parked at the gate of his compound.

I didn't go in, but drove closer and saw that there was someone else in the cab.

Hearing the sound of the tractor, the person in the cab got out of the car. Li Long looked and saw that it was Xiao Si. Xiao Si was almost frozen, but when he saw Li Long, he still pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile.

Li Long quickly stopped the tractor and asked:
"Why don't you go in? There's no one inside?"

"There were people there when I came, but I didn't go in because I knew it was full of women." Xiao Si rubbed his face and said, "The leader said that the car will be delivered to you today. Oh, and here's this."

Xiao Si handed Li Long a small handbag.

Li Long took the bag but didn't open it. Instead, he let Xiao Si:

"Come on, come on, come inside. You've been outside for quite a while, haven't you? Are you freezing? Come on, come inside and warm up. It's so cold..."

"No, I'll go back now that the stuff has been delivered. The director said you can use the car. The documents are registered with the state commune, and they will keep it for you. By the way, thank you, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the yellow sheep yesterday."

Xiao Si was very determined and Li Long had no choice. He originally wanted to send him to the bus station, but Xiao Si refused and walked south alone in his cotton coat.

Everyone who has served in the military has his own persistence, and Li Long admires that a lot.

It can’t be done, and it can be done but it can’t be done. It’s a matter of principle.

When Sister Yang opened the door, Xiao Si had already left.

"His uncle, just now someone knocked on the door and said they had sent a car to you. I got scared, but when I saw it was a small car, I was told to come in and wait. But when he asked if there were only three of us in the yard, he refused to come in..."

When comparing what Sister Yang said with what Xiao Si said, they are indeed similar.

Gu Xiaoxia was also in the yard. She was a little afraid of the cold recently. Seeing Li Long, she greeted him and hurried into the house. Han Fang was quite energetic and helped her mother with the work.

Li Long first drove the tractor into the yard, and then drove the jeep in.

The jeep key was in the car, everything inside was complete and clean.

Li Long pulled out the key, then drained the water from the tractor's water tank before entering the house.

Sister Yang had finished cooking, so she went to the market with Han Fang to sell the food. Li Long helped push the cart out, and when he returned, he locked the door and went into the house.

Gu Xiaoxia rested on the weekend and didn't want to go anywhere. There were only two hours of TV during the day, and now that it was gone, she listened to the radio and read.

As usual, Li Long asked her if she felt uncomfortable. Gu Xiaoxia leaned against Li Long, shook her head, and asked:
"How's everything going at home?"

"All right, I heard that we have hunted yellow sheep, and my elder brother and father both want to go."

"Is this the jeep that the leader said was exchanged for a tiger skin?"

"Yeah." Li Long then remembered the handbag and hurried over to take it.

After opening it, Li Long found three things in the handbag.

A piece of paper had the jeep number and the proof of the unit it belonged to written on it, and was stamped with the red seal of the state commune, which stated that the jeep belonged to Li Long. With this thing in hand, Li Long felt relieved.

The second one is a work permit, also given to Li Long, which states that Li Long is an employee of the state cooperative.

There was a piece of paper stuck in the work permit. It was a message from Director Qian. It had no beginning or end, but Li Long could understand it: it was telling Li Long that this work permit was just a cover for driving out, and it did not mean that he was a real employee of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Director Qian believed that Li Long would not do anything wrong with this work permit, and Li Long himself certainly would not really do anything wrong.

The third thing was much thicker; it was a stack of oil coupons.

Li Long's tractor runs on diesel. He bought two large barrels of oil, one at the team and one in the yard.

During the wheat harvest, a lot of diesel was used. Fortunately, diesel was cheap at that time, less than one yuan per liter, and it was also durable.

He had hardly used the car. This jeep burned gasoline. He had originally planned to bring a bucket of gasoline back after the car arrived. But then he thought better of it. This thing was not like diesel and was too easy to burn. He thought it was impossible for others to sell him a bucket directly.

It shouldn't be packed in large barrels, right?

Li Long roughly calculated the stack of fuel tickets and found that there were 600 to 800 liters, which was enough for a long time. This was not the kind of ticket that required money to buy a car, but a real fuel ticket that could be used to fill up the gas tank.

Although Director Qian didn't give a penny, what he gave was much more important than money.

Gu Xiaoxia took the work permit, looked at it, and said with a smile:

"Oh, my wife is now a member of the state supply and marketing cooperative. It seems that her rank has been raised several levels..."

"This thing can only fool laymen." Li Long smiled, put the things back into the bag, thought for a while, and took out the work ID. It would be better to take this ID with him when driving the jeep.

After thinking for a while, he suddenly asked:
"Big brother and dad said they want to go to our hunting place to hunt gazelles in a few days. Do you want to come with us? Although that place is uninhabited, if you are lucky, you can encounter gazelles in groups..."

"No, I'll freeze to death." Gu Xiaoxia was just afraid of the cold at the moment. Except for necessary work, she didn't want to go anywhere in winter.

She even didn't want to participate in the winter pig slaughtering, which she usually wanted to do.

Just because I was craving for the pig-killing dish, I told Li Long in advance and asked him to bring back a portion when he came back.

"Bring one? If my sister-in-law knew that I was going to bring one for you, wouldn't she have to cook another pot specially for you?"

There are several dishes for killing pigs, but everyone knows that what people in this area call killing pigs is actually stewed meat with sauerkraut.

Because the pigs are slaughtered that day, the meat is fresh, and the meat being stewed is the trough head meat (neck meat), which is live meat and tastes good in itself. It also takes a long time to stew, at least an hour for a large pot, and the grease on the fat slices is stewed away, and it basically melts in your mouth.

So everyone likes to eat. Those who come to help have a meal, and the women who help in the kitchen can take a portion home because they don’t eat in time.

Of course, most of what we bring are leftovers.

But if Gu Xiaoxia wanted to eat it, her sister-in-law Liang Yuemei would definitely take out what she wanted and freeze it outside before eating. After freezing, she would cut it into pieces so that she could take it back and heat it up.

This is very clean and it’s okay to keep it for a while longer in the winter.

Since Gu Xiaoxia was not going, Li Long was thinking that there would be enough space in the car for himself, his father, and his elder brother. He didn't know whether his sister-in-law would go, but his mother definitely wouldn't go.

By the way, you can ask my father-in-law Gu Boyuan, and bring him along if you want to go.

At that time, the regulations on the number of people carried in cars were not so strict, so people could squeeze in wherever they wanted. Li Long remembered that in the next ten years or so, Daihatsu vans were popular for carrying people. At that time, when there were no taxis, a Daihatsu van could squeeze in twelve people!

This is what he saw with his own eyes. It is said that there are more fierce ones in the mainland, but there are too many to count.

Canned human flesh.

Since we are still going to hunt, we need to pack up our guns.

After Li Long put the bag away, Gu Xiaoxia read a book while he listened to the radio and started to clean the gun.

I had to pack up my three guns. The 5/6 was easy, the rifle was stable. The small caliber was also good, the shotgun was stolen from the robbers, I didn't know how it worked.

After cleaning the three guns, Li Long put them away. The three guns all had holsters, which were sewn by Sister Yang when she had nothing to do. There was a lot of cloth at home, and when Li Long and his family moved here after getting married, they bought a sewing machine, but they didn't use it very often.

It was only when Sister Yang came over that it really came into play.

Gu Boyuan usually eats breakfast in his yard. The roads are slippery in winter, so he doesn't want to run. Sometimes he doesn't even eat dinner here. He tells us whether he wants to eat or not at lunch, and everyone understands if he doesn't come.

After breakfast the next day, Li Long strolled to the agricultural supplies store.

What surprised Li Long was that even in the middle of winter, there were still quite a few people buying agricultural supplies, seeds and fertilizers.

After waiting for Gu Boyuan to send this group of customers away, Li Long smiled and said:

"It's winter and we're not farming, why are there so many people buying things?"

"Hi, some people heard that the price of fertilizers and seeds will increase in the spring of next year, so they thought about buying some in advance and stockpiling them." Gu Boyuan said.

"Uncle Gu, in a couple of days I want to take my father and my eldest brother to the uninhabited area east of Kuitun to hunt yellow sheep. Do you want to go?"

He actually wanted Gu Boyuan to leave. (End of this chapter)