Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Mrs. Lu happily carried a basket of things, waved goodbye to Liang Yuemei at the gate, and then walked towards her own yard.

Although it was dark, she was particularly happy today.

Entering the house, a warm feeling hit me. My son Tietou and my daughter Nier came in from the inner room. Tietou took the basket from Mrs. Lu, and Nier also looked inside.

"What did you eat today?" Mrs. Lu asked as she untied her headscarf. "What delicious food did your dad make for you?"

"My dad gave me some fish roe." Lu Tietou is seventeen years old and has passed his voice change period. His voice is a little muffled. "There's still some in the pot. Mom, have you eaten it?"

"Eating caviar? In the afternoon or in the evening?" Mrs. Lu paused after untying her headscarf. "No vegetables? You're eating this for both meals?"

"There are also baked steamed buns." Lu Nier's sharp eyes had already seen the sheep's head and sheep's hooves in the basket. She asked excitedly: "Mom, these sheep's heads and sheep's hooves are ours, right? Can we eat them tomorrow?"

Li Long gave each of them who helped him two sheep heads and eight sheep trotters. After taking them back and cleaning them up properly, they would be enough for the whole family to have a good meal.

"Not tomorrow." Mrs. Lu waved her hand. "It's too troublesome to do. I have to singe the hair, scrape the skin, clean it, and cook it for a long time."

Lu Nier immediately showed a disappointed expression on her face. When children are growing, they are particularly greedy for meat.

"But I brought back a pot of meat." Mrs. Lu said with a smile. She touched Ni'er's head, "Go into the inner room first. I'll heat up the meat and you can eat it in a while."

The words were gentle, but she was a little angry inside. Is this how her husband fools his children? Both children are growing up, will they be full with this fish roe? The family is not poor, why can't they have a proper meal?

Mrs. Lu went over and opened the lid of the pot. Seeing that there was still half a pot of thick fish roe inside, she felt that she had misunderstood Mr. Lu.

This is a lazy man's meal, but it has meat and dried vegetables in it, and it smells pretty good. There are also freshly steamed buns and baked bun slices in the bun basket next to it.

The baked steamed buns are made by slicing the leftover steamed buns from last time and baking them on the grate. They are baked until they are golden brown and smell delicious.

There were also fried pickles on the chopping board, with some meat lumps in them. Although they were cut a bit big, they should be easy to eat.

Okay.

Mrs. Lu's anger subsided. She washed her hands, put the pot on the stove, poured water into it, and took out an enamel basin covered with a cage cloth from the basket. Inside were a few pieces of mutton and solidified mutton soup on the top.

There is a thick layer of fat on each piece of meat. Liang Yuemei specially serves this for Mrs. Lu, just to give her family a good meal.

Mrs. Lu counted and found four pieces of meat in total, one piece for each family member. But she didn't plan to eat it, so she kept it for herself so that she could add some water to the meat and make mutton soup for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Lu Yingming came in from outside, holding a pig feed bucket in his hand. He looked at Mrs. Lu busy in the kitchen and asked with a smile:

"You're back? How's that?"

"Hey, those sheep are so fat!" Mrs. Lu pointed at the meat in the pot and said to her husband, "Look, there's a thick layer of fat! What were you doing so late at night?"

"The water in the pig trough froze, and the pigs couldn't drink any water. They kept crying anxiously. I knocked off the ice and got half a bucket of warm water. I watched them drink it all, and then I cleared the water away."

Lu Yingming wiped his nose, put down the pig feed bucket and looked at the meat in the pot.

After electricity was available, households initially used 15-watt light bulbs, which saved electricity and allowed people to see things clearly.

Later, Li Long told Li Jianguo that all the light bulbs at home had been replaced with 25-watt bulbs, and 50-watt bulbs were used in the yard outside, which immediately made a difference in the brightness.

After Lu Yingming worked with Li Jianguo for a few times and had some money, he changed the light bulb. According to Li Long, too dim light is bad for the eyes.

Those who have not changed their light bulbs at home scoff at this statement. Why didn't anyone say this when they used kerosene lamps? The lights were still dim at that time, and even a 5-watt light bulb couldn't compare.

But Lu Yingming believed it and changed the light bulb as well. Now he saw that the water in the pot was already steaming and the white fat on the pieces of meat was really tempting.

"Hey, it's really fat, almost as fat as pork." Lu Yingming has eaten mutton before, but he couldn't help licking his lips when he saw the meat. "How many did you kill today? This sheep is so fat, one must be at least 20 kilograms, right?"

"More than that, Xiaolong said that a sheep, including offal, weighs thirty kilograms." Mrs. Lu was actually a little tempted. She discussed with Lu Yingming, "Let's raise a few sheep next fall. Let's learn from Li Long and feed them sugar residue, sunflower heads and bran. They grow meat after eating them. In two or three months, they can grow ten kilograms of meat, which is ten yuan!"

"Where can we get the sugar residue?" Lu Yingming went to wash his hands at the washbasin rack by the door of the inner room. Seeing Tietou and Ni'er staring at the mutton in the pot, he felt a little sad and changed his words:

"That's fine. We can use a tractor to pull the sugar residue. We don't need to raise too much, but one truckload can be enough to feed the family for several days."

This year, Lu Yingming planted melons and sold them to buy a tractor. He thought that if he asked Li Long to buy a harvester next year, he could go to a distant place to harvest wheat. He didn't ask for much, but earned a thousand yuan. In October, he could buy a few dozen sheep to raise - he couldn't buy that many because there wasn't enough fodder, so he could just buy a dozen.

But how do we sell the sheep? The team can't eat that much meat, right?

Then buy a few, or at worst set up a stall in the market... Alas, that's also troublesome.

Soon the house was filled with fragrance and a hint of mutton, but not too strong. Sheep that eat grass in alkaline fields don't have a strong mutton smell. Seeing the water boiling, Mrs. Lu called Tietou and Ni'er to prepare the meat.

Even the Lu family, who were considered wealthy in the village, could only eat such large chunks of meat and bones a few times a year. The two children couldn't wait to eat.

Lu Yingming originally planned not to eat it, but after being persuaded by Mrs. Lu, he picked up a bone and started chewing it. While chewing, he tore off a large piece of meat from it and stuffed it into his wife's mouth.

Let’s eat together.

The next day, everyone in the village knew that the sheep Li Long raised had three fingers of fat.

So when Li Long took Yu Shanjiang and the others to the horse stable and started slaughtering sheep, soon someone from the team came to watch.

Although there are more families raising pigs in the team this year, those who don’t are already discussing whose family will get the meat when the time comes to slaughter the pigs, the taste of pork is still different from that of mutton.

As farmers' lives are getting better and better, when the people in Team 4 are preparing supplies for the New Year, they are no longer thinking about how many kilograms of meat to prepare, but rather what kinds of meat to prepare.

If you have chickens at home, and if you don't have any pork, you can go to someone's house and buy some. For mutton, the rich can just slaughter one directly, while those with tight budgets can get one from a few families - in previous years, we would go to Ma Jinbao's house to buy it, but this year there is an additional option.

If the mutton at Li Long's place is really good, I would definitely not choose one from Ma Jinbao's.

Who wants to eat lean meat when there is fat meat these days? That stuff just gets stuck in your teeth, how can it be better than fat meat? It tastes delicious, and after it is stewed, it goes into your stomach like noodles, and it also satisfies your craving!
Today, three people changed when Li Long went down the mountain. Yushanjiang and Halimu remained the same, but Talihar and his three companions did not come. The ones who came with him were Alma, Yersen and Tukebai. These three people were even more shy than Talihar and his companions.

After all, although Talihar and the others don’t talk much to outsiders, they can still talk a lot with Li Long.

When Alma and Yushanjiang chatted, they talked a lot, but when they met Li Long, they just said hello and smiled. Although they had met often before, their Chinese was not very good, and they seemed a little afraid to speak.

They didn't talk much to Li Long, so when they got to the stable, they just kept their heads down and worked. Their professional level was similar to that of Talihar and his men. They had sharpened their knives before coming, and they were very skillful in slaughtering sheep.

Li Long still asked Halimu to kill a sheep and cook it first. According to Halimu, the leftover mutton soup from yesterday could be eaten with naan. Even if they were in the mountains and needed help with work, they couldn't cook mutton every day.

Li Long waved his hand and said:
"This is the first time I've asked you to come down the mountain to help me with work. We are friends. I won't give you money, but I will definitely treat you well. I understand ethnic customs. You will definitely not like the food we cook, but I will definitely provide you with enough meat - if you don't have it, then I won't say anything, but if you do, then don't be polite!"

When Li Long said this, not to mention Halimu, even Alma and the others who didn't talk much were thinking in their hearts that Li Long was really a good friend!
The enthusiasm for work increased a lot.

"Xiaolong, how much are you selling these sheep for?" Xu Haijun, who came to see the sheep, finally couldn't help but ask.

When he watched it earlier, he also noticed that these ethnic people were very neat in slaughtering sheep and skinning them very quickly. The people who slaughtered pigs and sheep in the team, even the most professional Wang Caimi, were far inferior to them.

In fact, the team needs special people to slaughter pigs, but there is no need to slaughter sheep. Every family slaughters sheep by men. Even if they are not skilled in skinning, they can just peel it slowly.

"It depends on whether you want to keep it alive or slaughter it." Li Long pointed to a sheep that had been skinned halfway in the snow and said, "If it's slaughtered and weighed as a gram, it'll be 1.8 yuan."

Xu Haijun nodded. One yuan and eighty is the market price. In state-owned butcher shops on the market, the price of mutton is one yuan and eighty - a little more expensive than in summer, but definitely not as fat as this.

After hearing the news that the sheep raised by Li Long were very fat, these people came to see and actually saw the fat mutton. Many of them were interested, and Xu Haijun was the first to speak.

One dollar and eighty cents is not expensive. This is right next to my house, and the sheep are raised by my team members, so I can eat them without worry. And they are so fat, so there will definitely be a lot of oil when I braise them, right?
"What about buying live sheep?" another person asked, "Weigh them alive?" "Ninety cents for a live sheep." Li Long had already thought of the price. These sheep were basically over 40 kilograms in weight, and the meat and offal were about 27 or 28 kilograms. It was more cost-effective for buyers to weigh them alive, but the labor cost of slaughtering and processing had to be taken into account.

It depends on what you think.

The person asking the question thought about it and finally felt that it was more cost-effective to buy the work - they would subconsciously ignore the labor cost, because they were the ones doing the work, so putting in a little effort was not a big deal, and they would also get a sheepskin in return.

"How much are your sheep heads and sheep hooves?" someone else asked.

"Three dollars a pair." Li Long said, "Is it cheap?"

Of course it’s cheap, really very cheap.

The main reason is that Li Long has a large amount of sheep heads and sheep hooves, and these things are troublesome to handle. Otherwise, he could set up a big pot outside the market and sell white water sheep heads to make a lot of money.

Moreover, by selling mutton, he not only earned back his capital, but also made a lot of money. The sheep heads and hooves were welfare for the team members. They were just the money to make a big broom. Who couldn't afford them?
The sheep's head is well processed, not only does it taste good, but there is also a lot of meat on it.

These people were immediately tempted - if I can't afford a sheep, can I not afford a sheep's head and hooves?
Anyway, I have nothing to do in the winter, so I can roast a sheep's head and sheep's hooves in half a day. Isn't that easy?
Soon people came to buy, and basically they bought two or three sets at a time. After all, the price was so cheap that you would miss it forever.

Ma Jinbao's sheep heads and sheep hooves cost five dollars!

That guy knew that the people on the team were rich, so he asked for a very high price!
Xu Haijun thought for a moment and said:

"Xiaolong, please weigh this slaughtered one for me. Are the offal included?"

"Yes. Do you want the ones that were slaughtered yesterday or the ones that were slaughtered recently?" Li Long expected Xu Haijun's decision. This guy is not an ordinary person. He will definitely become rich in the future. He is not stingy and has a good vision. He has also made some money this year.

"look……"

"If you want to eat it yourself, it's best to slaughter it today." Li Long whispered, "Take it home and eat it. A newly slaughtered sheep is the most delicious on the day it's slaughtered, just like eating a pig... But if you want to keep it convenient, you can use yesterday's. It's already frozen and easy to take."

"Okay, come on, weigh one for me - I think this is the one." Xu Haijun said, pointing to a sheep that Yushanjiang had just skinned.

"Then you have to wait," Li Long smiled, "It will take a while to open the stomach and wash it."

"Let me help too. This is the sheep I want. I can't do anything else, but I can clean its intestines."

Xu Haijun was not polite, and Li Long was not polite to him either. Just round off the amount later.

The sheep was finally weighed at 27.5 kilograms. Li Long erased the half kilogram and the price was 48.6 yuan, which was 48 yuan.

Xu Haijun paid the money and said with a smile: "I'll lend you a bag. I'll bring it back this afternoon."

"Take it away, what's a bag?" Li Long waved his hand. He didn't have much here, just a lot of bags.

Many people bought sheep heads and hooves and carried them away in bundles with reeds. Seeing Xu Haijun buy the sheep so decisively, on the one hand, they envied his courage to spend money, and on the other hand, they felt that it would be better to buy the meat early.

So a few people came together to buy a sheep. After all, the sheep slaughtered by Li Long were all put together as a whole, so no one thought of buying individually.

It was not until the few people at the back couldn't get together that they remembered to ask Li Long if he sold in small quantities.

"Sell it, what part do you want?" Li Long asked while holding a knife.

"Give me a leg!"

"I want a fan of chops!"

……

Very motivated.

Li Long was busy selling mutton, while Ma Jinbao's face turned pale.

It turned out that the team basically went to him for mutton, especially in winter, when he could just get rid of a batch of culled sheep from his flock.

Although there are a few families who raise a few sheep, most of them keep them for their own consumption and do not sell them.

When Li Long first started fattening sheep, he specifically inquired about it and the information he got was that Li Long planned to fatten the sheep and open a shop to sell them in the market.

Ma Jinbao didn't care much at that time. After all, he had been raising sheep for many years. How could Li Long, an amateur, compare with him?
Unexpectedly, just overnight, through the mouths of Mrs. Lu and Deng Guilan, everyone knew that the sheep in the stable had become fat.

What’s more, their sheep heads and sheep hooves are very cheap!
Most of the people in the village went to buy sheep heads and sheep trotters, and many people also bought meat.

After all, the sheep's head and hooves look quite fat, and there is a layer of oil under the skin. Just imagine how much oil there is in mutton?

Isn’t this cutting off one’s own financial path?

Ma Jinbao wanted to go to Mahao and scold Li Long, but he knew that this was not acceptable.

Why, are you the only one allowed to raise sheep?

But if I don’t curse, I’ll feel uncomfortable because I can’t get rid of the anger in my stomach!

This is obvious. In the middle of winter, if the team members buy Li Long's sheep, then who will they sell their own sheep to?

He relies on two sources of income throughout the year. One is from shearing sheep in the summer and selling them for a few dollars. Although it is not much, it can sustain him for a while.

The main profit is selling mutton before the Spring Festival in winter. If you are lucky, you can meet several people who cooperate to buy whole sheep, and then you can make more money.

He knows that the sheep he raises are not fat, but others have no choice.

Now that there is competition, people will definitely not buy our products anymore.

Ma Jinbao couldn't think of a solution at this time - he was a lazy man, what could he do when the time came? Would he turn back after hitting the wall?

It must be too late.

It's not that no one has been trying to make trouble for him and wants him to go to Li Long. Although he is lazy, he is not stupid. How could Li Long be looking for trouble? Besides, he has no reason!

The news he got later was even more distressing - he heard that everyone in Team Three knew about the fat sheep in Li Long's stable, and they formed a team to buy sheep.

Although Team Three is not as rich as Team Four, it is still better than a few years ago when it was a bit difficult for one family to buy a sheep, but they could still buy it together. Some people even came to buy two kilograms of mutton, or sheep hearts and lungs for the elderly as a supplement, and Li Long would sell them to them.

When doing business, who would complain that someone buys too little?

On that day, Yushanjiang and his men slaughtered forty-seven sheep, Li Long sold eighteen, and there were still two that were not weighed.

The purchasing power of the four teams is still very strong!

Li Long's original plan was to slaughter sheep for two days and then slaughter red deer and roe deer on the third day. But now he has to change his plan and has to slaughter sheep for two and a half days and then deal with the red deer and roe deer.

Otherwise, the sheep might not be enough - even if the sugar factory only needs fifty sheep, there can't be too many left over. After all, for Uncle Luo and his men, fifteen or sixteen sheep can be slaughtered a day, which is probably the limit.

Since Halimu and the others are here, we can do more work and just get rid of most of the sheep. Although there is still more than a month left, it is the first year. Li Long originally wanted to break even and just summarize the experience. Now that he can make a profit, he should be content.

He was already planning what to do with the elk meat. (End of this chapter)