Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

There was only one month left, so Li Long was not in a hurry. He came out of the supply and marketing cooperative and rode his bicycle to the free market.

When he has nothing to do, Li Long likes to go shopping in the market.

It would be even better if you could visit Shicheng’s old street market more often.

Because everything sold in the market right now is natural, without any technology or harsh words, no additives, just something produced purely naturally.

Eggs are produced by farmers. At that time, chicken farms had not yet been built and chickens were fed with grain, so the eggs were naturally safe.

The same goes for other things.

If you visit the market from time to time, you can feel that the county is developing.

You can see more people selling grain, more people selling eggs and chickens, and more people selling various handicrafts. The sellers no longer wait silently for people to come and see the goods. Not only do they start shouting, but they also develop various shouting sounds.

It can be felt that many of the people selling goods are traffickers, who collect things from the countryside and resell them here.

Some of these people started out as part-time workers, then gradually became full-time workers, and later became the first group of people to become rich.

It is said that the former richest man in Northern Xinjiang started out as a raisin seller. He certainly didn't grow grapes, he was just a middleman.

Li Long bought some more eggs and took them back.

Gu Xiaoxia really likes the steamed eggs made by Li Long. Sister Yang also thinks the egg custard is delicious and learned how to make it.

Li Long thought it would be better to do it occasionally.

Sister Yang is selling rice. In this cold winter, she has changed the dish and is no longer serving porridge, but spicy noodle soup.

Regardless of how it tastes, just smelling it will whet your appetite.

And it’s hot noodles. Eating a bowl of it in such a cold day will definitely keep you warm for a long time.

So business was good. She didn't see Li Long, so Li Long didn't bother her. He pushed his bicycle from beginning to end and then returned to the yard.

After going to the backyard to check on the vegetables grown and adding a shovel of charcoal to the stove, Li Long came out.

The seedlings are growing OK, but a little slow. It's normal when you think about it. After all, it's not summer, not in the vegetable garden, so it's good enough that they can grow normally.

Returning to the courtyard, Li Long saw that the sky was a little cloudy and thought it was going to snow again.

He went into the kitchen, stoked the fire, put on the steamer, and prepared to steam a large bowl of egg custard. Not only Gu Xiaoxia liked it, but Gu Boyuan and Han Fang also liked it.

Eggs are the most easily available source of protein for the poor. I don’t know where he got this information from in his previous life, but it is a good thing anyway.

After steaming the egg custard, Li Long left the cooked one in the steamer to keep it warm.

Sister Yang was about to come back, so Li Long left the kitchen and went to check out the snow shoveling tools.

Nowadays, the tools for shoveling snow are basically made by oneself, with a wooden handle nailed to the back of a wooden board.

They are generally quite bulky, with a handle nailed on. Others are made of a large piece of wood with three wooden sticks nailed into a "West" shape. They can be used by one person or two people together.

Some people will tie two ropes on it, pulling in the front and pushing in the back, which is more efficient.

At this time, it was no joke to say that there is strength in numbers. In the 1980s, when it came to snow clearing, there really was strength in numbers.

After all, many snow-plowing tools had not yet been introduced at that time. In fact, many diesel or electric rolling brush tools of later generations might not be practical at that time.

After all, the ground here is basically not concrete. After the snow falls, the bottom layer may melt a little due to the ground temperature, and those rapidly rotating brushes can even brush away a layer of the ground.

Of course, if there is such a small tool, Li Long will definitely use it. It will snow tomorrow, and he will be the only one sweeping the snow in the yard. After sweeping the snow, he will go to Lao Mahao to help Lao Shu Luo sweep the snow.

After all, Uncle Luo is the only one in Lao Mahao right now. Although the yard is not as big as Li Long's, he still has to sweep a lot of space.

When it snowed at this time, it was really heavy snow, not like in later times when only a small amount of snow floated down and melted before it could even snow.

When Sister Yang came back, she saw Li Long repairing the snow-clearing tools, so she casually said:
"Uncle Li, can you get a snow shovel for Han Fang? It's going to snow tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and their school will definitely need to clear the snow."

"Okay." Li Long nodded. There was still a lot of wood at home.

At this time, it is more casual to bring tools for snow sweeping. In rural schools, everyone is required to bring a broom every semester. You can bring other tools when sweeping snow.

Children are usually more assertive and will bring a snow shovel with them. If there is no extra snow shovel at home, they will bring a shovel, which can also be used to clear snow.

Basically, few people bring brooms. Although you must use a broom to clean up the snow after sweeping it with a snow shovel, you will be laughed at if you bring a broom.

The contempt chain for tools is that a snow shovel is greater than a shovel and greater than a broom.

Of course, if anyone can bring a wooden shovel, he will definitely be like a king - some people in rural families are very proud of having this thing.

After all, not many families could afford wooden shovels at that time. At that time, the light industry in northern Xinjiang was still underdeveloped, and wooden shovels required very thin plywood, which was most likely shipped from the mainland.

This is also bought for winnowing and clearing snow in winter, but it is usually used by adults. If children damage the thin plywood, they will be beaten by adults.

And if the child could bring a wooden shovel to school, it is likely that he did it secretly.

Li Long found a thin board and made a small snow pusher for Han Fang. This thing is beautiful and easy to use, but you have to be careful. At this time, children don't mind "taking the wrong" snow pusher.

So Li Long found Gu Xiaoxia's ink brush and wrote the two words "Han Fang" on the board. Then he picked it up to simulate the operation. He felt that the wooden pole handle was good, so he put it aside.

When Sister Yang came out to pour water, she saw the small snowboard with the words "Han Fang" written on the side and said with a smile:

"Uncle, you made a great board."

"Haha, let's see if Xiaofang is used to it."

"I'm sure I'll get used to it."

Li Long continued to repair the snow shovel at home. He did not plan to transport the snow in the yard. He piled some of it in the flowerbed and vegetable patch in the front yard, and pushed some of it to the backyard. When it was ready to melt in the spring, he would put it in the glass house and treat it as rainwater.

After finishing the boards, Li Long looked at the remaining brooms. The snow on the road in front of his family's yard belonged to his family. Although there were sanitation workers at the moment, they were not many.

At this time, "each family should clean the snow in front of their own door" is not just a saying, each family really needs to clean the snow in front of their own door.

After all this was done, Sister Yang's meal was ready. Gu Xiaoxia was the first to come back, followed by Han Fang, and finally Gu Boyuan.

As soon as Han Fang came in, she saw the snow shovel with her name on it. She immediately ran over and picked it up. She first said "thank you" to Li Long, and then happily took the snow shovel and started pushing it on the ground.

"Hurry up and wash your hands and come help!" Sister Yang heard her daughter's voice, stuck her head out and saw Han Fang playing with the snowboard, and immediately frowned and shouted:

"Still playing! Then play with what your uncle Li just made for you! What if you break it?"

Li Long was amused: "Sister Yang, how can it be so easy to break?"

"That's right, just let her play, I'll serve the dishes." Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, and then she said to Li Long:

"It's going to snow tomorrow, so I'll also have a snowboard ready."

"There are plenty at home, take as much as you want."

"I'll take one too." Gu Boyuan said as a matter of course, "There are no tools in the yard."

"I'll bring you the snowboard and broom later," said Li Long.

"What do you want to send? I can take it myself." Gu Boyuan didn't let Li Long send it. He was only in his forties, in the prime of his life.

Li Long secretly admired his own foresight.

During the previous two snowfalls, these people should have been able to get by with it, but now that they have a board, they naturally don’t want to compromise anymore.

He was just thinking that he couldn't use an automatic snowplow, but now he is thinking about whether he can cooperate with the Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory to make a snowplow driven by a small gasoline engine.

Once snow falls in the entire county, or even in all units in northern Xinjiang, snow removal becomes the top priority.

In the previous life, I saw pretty girls from the Northeast praising the timely snow clearing in the northern border. Little did they know that “snowing is an alarm, and snowing stops is an order”, which has been engraved in their bones.

For a long time, whenever it snowed, people would take tools to work or school and do nothing else but clear the snow. If there were troops stationed there, some would clear the snow in the barracks, while others would go to the streets to clear the snow.

It was only after a few years that various snow-clearing tools became available, and snow-clearing in offices and on roads was outsourced to specialized personnel. Only then did this activity gradually cease, but it did not stop, after all, there were still many places that needed manual cleaning.

Diesel engines can't do it, because they are still not small enough at that time, but gasoline engines have been miniaturized. Use a gasoline engine to drive the steel brush, adjust the direction of the steel brush, and let the snow roll out to the side and front, and that's it.

In fact, it is also possible to design a machine that rotates like a harvester and is driven by the front of a tractor. In later generations, there were snow blowers on the front of pickup trucks, so I think it should be possible to make one.

He believed that the Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory would be interested in this.

After all, this is a market with rigid demand. If the time for snow sweeping can be freed up, many units would not be reluctant to spend hundreds of dollars to buy such a machine.

But Li Long was not in a hurry, because the agricultural machinery factory there should be stepping up the production of harvesters. The production capacity there was not large, and if they were given this thing, they might not be able to handle it.

Li Long once again had a strong idea that if he could really own an agricultural machinery factory, he would specialize in making these agricultural supporting machinery, which would be really profitable.

After all, in his mind, from now until the 2010s, the endless variety of small machines will be enough to support his small agricultural machinery factory for a lifetime.

After dinner, Li Long nailed two more snow shovels, then drove a jeep and went to the team with the snow shovels and antelope horns.

Li Jianguo's family has become accustomed to Li Long's elusive appearances.

The people in the team gradually got used to it. With him showing up every few days, what's there to be uncomfortable about?

"I have a snowboard at home, you can use it on the street." Li Jianguo was a little amused when he saw Li Long taking the snowboard off the jeep.

"Then Juan and Qiangqiang have to go to school to get them. I think it's going to snow heavily tomorrow, so let's prepare them first."

"Hey, that's true. They are not in the same school now, and there won't be enough space at home to take care of both of them." Li Jianguo smiled.

I have been so busy lately that I forgot about the kids' snowboarding. Last time it snowed, the two kids seemed to have brought their family's snowboards? Were the snowboards borrowed from the Lu family?
At that time, I seemed to be just thinking about getting a snowboard, and then I forgot about it because I was going hunting or something.

After entering the house, Li Long took out the antelope horn and handed it to his eldest brother:

"Brother, this is antelope horn, take it. Juan and Qiangqiang are about to have a fever, scrape some of it, put it in a bowl, rinse it, and drink it, and it will be fine."

"Is this an antelope horn?" Li Jianguo looked at it curiously.

Li Qingxia did the same. He waited for Li Jianguo to finish reading it before taking it.

"The high-nosed antelope horn we shot that day is the antelope horn." Li Long said, "The high-nosed antelope horn is used for medicinal purposes. There are very few of them, so you can't tell others about it."

"Then we have to put it away." Li Jianguo waited for his family members to finish reading it, then hurriedly put it away.

"By the way, Dad, have you gone to break the ice hole these two days?" Li Long asked Li Qingxia again.

"No." Li Qingxia smiled, "Your elder brother said that the ice is not yet solid. The fish can still breathe from under the reeds. It will take a few days."

"Well, after the snow falls in a few days and the ice is frozen solid, I will come back to break the ice hole. The supply and marketing cooperative has a mission to collect fish. I will ask more people to get some then."

"Are you really going to take it? Of course." Li Qingxia was happy. He could catch fish for fun and make money at the same time. How could he not do it?
It’s cold, fish are kind-hearted, so you won’t be afraid if you catch the fish.

Li Long also told Liang Dacheng and others who had dug holes in the ice to catch fish last year about this incident.

This year he reduced the price of fish to one yuan, and everyone was happy to sell the big fish to him.

Finally I went to Tao Daqiang's house.

Tao Daqiang and Yang Pingping were playing with the child together. When they heard the sound of a jeep, Tao Daqiang came out.

Seeing Li Long, he hurriedly asked Li Long to come into the house.

"No, I'm cold. There are children in your room. Don't let them get caught in the cold." Li Long said.
"Let me tell you one thing. The horn you shot yesterday was an antelope. Keep it for your child's fever. Don't tell anyone else. Keep it for yourself. If your relatives have a fever, scrape some off and give it to them, mix it with water and they will drink it."

After hearing this, Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously immediately and made note of it.

"Okay, after the snow falls and the ice freezes solid in a few days, I will come back to break holes in the ice and catch fish. If you are free, come with me. The supply and marketing cooperative collects fish, although not much, but it is still an income in winter."

After finishing his talk, Li Long drove back in the jeep.

When we were almost reaching the county town, snowflakes began to fall heavily.

The sky had turned dark, and Li Long knew that this snowfall would be heavy.

It snowed all night and the snow was up to Li Long's ankles before going to bed. He pushed the snow in the yard before going to bed.

When he got up in the morning and opened the door, the heavy snow had stopped. Li Long went to the yard and saw that the snow was knee-deep.

What a heavy snow.

Sister Yang was almost done with cooking. Li Long went to push the snow to clear a path out of the house.

The police on duty at the police station outside were already clearing the snow in front. Li Long also cleared the snow at the gate.

Gu Xiaoxia came out to help, but Li Long told her to go back.

After clearing the snow at the door, Li Long went back to the yard and pushed the snow to both sides along the snow path he had pushed out, one side pushing it towards the flower bed and the other side pushing it towards the vegetable patch.

In just ten minutes, the meal was ready. The few of them hurriedly finished their meal. Han Fang excitedly carried her schoolbag and her small snowboard and ran to school.

Gu Xiaoxia wanted to ride a bicycle, but Li Long persuaded her to stop. He added hot water to the jeep, started the jeep and took Gu Xiaoxia and her snow shovel to the Education Bureau.

Gu Xiaoxia didn't want to be too conspicuous, so she asked Li Long to take her down to a place about thirty or forty meters away from the Education Bureau.

Li Long told her that he would pick her up at noon. Gu Xiaoxia responded and went to work.

Someone was already clearing snow on the road. It was still dark, and Li Long returned to the yard with his headlights on and continued clearing snow.

Sister Yang also wanted to help, but Li Long asked her to mind her own business.

"People setting up stalls may be late today, so you should make something hot. The heavy snow has stopped and the temperature will drop. People will definitely like some hot food." Li Long made a suggestion and then started to clear the snow himself.

He was very strong and his snow shovel flew everywhere. He had cleared all the snow in the yard before lunch.

At noon, Li Long went to pick up Gu Xiaoxia on a bicycle. She was concerned about the impact, so Li Long went along with her.

Gu Xiaoxia was very satisfied with Li Long's approach. She sat sideways on the bicycle and talked about her work.

"We spent the whole morning clearing snow. Our bureau has a large yard. When Director Wang was clearing snow, he complained that he wondered which leader had built such a large yard. It took the whole morning just to clear the snow, and he couldn't do anything else."

"Is it the same in other units?" Li Long asked while pedaling his bicycle.

"Of course they are all the same. The yards are big and there are not many people." Gu Xiaoxia said.

"What if there is a snow blower that costs a few hundred dollars and one person can finish clearing the snow in one morning? Would your company buy it?" Li Long asked.

"If that's the case, I'll definitely buy it." Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, "How is that possible? I've seen tractors with two snow pushers behind them, but that's not very efficient."

With that said, Li Long felt that there would really be a market for a snow-clearing machine!

Of course, you still need to think carefully about how to do it.

This harvester is a gift to Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory. The snow blower cannot be used in the same way. We need to come up with a method that is beneficial to us.

But there is no rush for now. The most important thing right now is to drive a jeep to Beiting tomorrow and deliver the pair of antelope horns to Director Qian.

As for this afternoon, of course I have to go to Lao Mahao to help Uncle Luo shovel snow.

He believed that Uncle Luo had not yet finished pushing all the snow, after all, the area inside the Lao Ma Hao was quite large.

As the weather gets colder, Li Long is increasingly feeling the convenience of driving a jeep.

At least it wasn't that cold. There was heater in the jeep. Although it wasn't very convenient, it was much better than the tractor.

It's a great bargain to exchange tiger skin for this. (End of this chapter)