Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After talking with Niu Dajun, he found out that in Team 4 alone, there were at least seven or eight people like him who saved some rabbit skins and planned to exchange them for money at the purchasing station.

There are also some in the third team, but with fewer people. This is mainly because there is less wasteland in the third team, so there are naturally fewer rabbits.

On the contrary, the area in the north close to the Gurbantunggut Desert has a lot of rabbits, hedgehogs, foxes and everything else.

Li Long had already told Niu Dajun that he had opened a purchasing station, and Niu Dajun's eyes lit up.

"I will then take my more than 100 sheepskins to the leather factory. I will also take your rabbit skins with me. Let's go over there and have a look. If we can sell them, we will sell them. If we can't, we can think of other ways."

Li Long's words gave Niu Dajun peace of mind, and he hurriedly said:

"Okay, then I'll take the leather to Lao Mahao after lunch today and give it to Lao Luo, so you don't have to make another trip."

Niu Dajun was very confident in Li Long and Lao Luo. He felt that as long as he handed over the skin, he would be relieved.

It also means being lazy, leaving things to capable people, and verbally saying "I trust you, I'll take care of it no matter how much it sells to", but in fact it is just shifting the conflicts and difficulties to other people.

But they are all from the same village and there is no conflict. Li Long just came along for the ride.

After finishing the work here, the hot water was ready and we could slaughter the pig.

Li Jianguo didn't even need to start. Several young men jumped into the pigsty. Two of them chased the pigs, one drove the other pig into the warm pen, and one stayed outside with an iron hook. When the pig in the open pen was driven to the door, the iron hook was stretched out and pulled, firmly hooking the soft flesh under the pig's mouth. The pig screamed and involuntarily followed the iron hook to go out.

The two people at the back pushed and pulled the pig out. Then two or three people who had been prepared outside grabbed the legs and pressed the head. Then they knocked the pig down together, tied its legs, and lifted it onto the platform that had been prepared in advance.

"Hey, this pig weighs a hundred kilograms!"

"One hundred kilograms, I think I can get one hundred and one!"

"We'll know after we weigh it later."

"Uncle Li, after you kill the fish, can you weigh a leg for me?" Some people have already started making reservations.

"I want a streaky pork belly!"

"Back seat, give me a back seat if you can weigh it!"

……

"I'll sell one of the two pigs and eat the other one myself." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "After we slaughter them, you can divide them among yourselves."

"How much is it per kilogram?" someone asked immediately.

"Two yuan," Li Jianguo had inquired about it a long time ago. This was the market price, two yuan for pork, or this was the price in the market a month ago.

It may be a little more expensive now, but for Li Jianguo, a cent more or a cent less doesn't mean much.

Anyway, his family is not short of meat, so he can just keep one and share it with his brothers and sisters.

Gu Boyuan also came over and just stood there with his hands behind his back, he didn't help and no one dared to tell him to do anything. As Li Long's father-in-law, Gu Xiaoxia's father, and now he has opened a store in the city, Gu Boyuan has already gained a new status in the minds of the team members.

Li Long came to help, but found that he couldn't find a seat, so he simply went over to get a borrowed teapot to fill with water to scald the pig hair.

Mrs. Lu was holding a large basin with flour and a rolling pin in it, which she was preparing to collect the pig's blood.

Wang Caimi took out a butcher knife from his bag, sharpened it twice on the iron rod, and then walked towards the screaming pig.

The pig was held down so tightly by several young men that it couldn't move at all and could only squeal.

Li Long vaguely remembered seeing something on the Internet in his previous life saying that pigs were very smart animals with high IQs. It should have known the fate it would face by now, but it had no other choice but to scream.

Today's young men are very strong and have done heavy work before, so lifting a sack is not a problem for them. Therefore, it is quite easy for four or five people to hold down a pig weighing about 100 kilograms.

It is difficult to see pigs being held down and run around in videos of later generations now.

Wang Caimi is very steady. He made a fool of himself last year and he doesn't want to make such a joke again this year.

He aimed at the right spot and stabbed it with a knife. He tilted his hand slightly, and Mrs. Lu shouted:

"Blood, I got the blood... I got it!"

A stream of pig blood spurted out from the knife wound. Mrs. Lu reacted quickly, holding the basin and leaning sideways for fear that the pig would run away and hit her. The blood flowed quickly. Wang Caimi stabbed the knife in again, and blood flowed out along his hand. Mrs. Lu said with disgust:

"Wang Caimi, have you washed your hands? This blood is used to make steamed buns, and so many people are eating it..."

"Don't worry, it's been washed!" Wang Caimi said hurriedly.

When the blood was almost collected, Mrs. Lu left with the basin in satisfaction. The few drops of blood that remained flowed on the ground and spread. The pig's roar went from full of energy to silence, and it just kicked its legs a little. The boys who were holding the pig knew that it was about to die.

"Come on, carry it to the grass nest, and prepare to shave it!" Li Jianguo commanded. Xie Yundong, who was about to slaughter a pig, looked at the grass nest and suddenly wanted to run over. He pulled a piece of waste plastic cloth from the flower wall and spread it on the grass nest, saying:
"Use this so the grass won't stick to the pigs."

The dead pig was placed on a plastic sheet. Two people took out razors and prepared to shave the hair. Li Long was already holding a kettle and pouring water on the pig.

"Xiaolong, pour it from the pig's trotters..."

The shavers pointed at Li Long, and only at this time, Li Long, a young man who usually felt more capable than others, would obediently listen to their instructions.

Of course, I will be very polite when speaking - he has the ability, so even if he doesn't have this ability, he should be respected.

Things like this will not change even in the next forty years.

Li Long was running back and forth watering the pigs. There were three people watering the pigs while they were being shaving. The next pig was not ready to be slaughtered yet. They had to wait until this pig was gutted, its stomach and intestines taken out, and cleaned before they could start the next one.

Li Qiang was there with a group of kids plotting and discussing something. Li Long only vaguely heard the words "pig shit (sui) bubble". He thought that they were planning to open the pig's stomach, take out the bladder, pour out the urine, and then blow it up and kick it like a football.

He suddenly thought that he should find time to buy a football for Li Qiang and his friends. Nowadays, children have very limited options for playing outside in winter. Playing with old cows is the most common one, and this thing is also limited by the terrain.

But if you have a football, you can kick it anywhere in the field, and you don't have to worry about falling when playing football in the snow. Although it will be more tiring, it's just for fun.

I thought about buying it for Li Qiang when I get back, and he would definitely become the coolest guy in the village again.

The oldest man in the village, Mr. Tian, ​​also came. This old man is nearly eighty years old, older than Li Qingxia. Before the village was built, he was a long-term worker in the home of a local old northern Xinjiang family.

After Lao Tian came over, Li Jianguo hurriedly let him into the east room and arranged a seat in front of the stove. Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang were in the front yard at this time. The doors of the east and west rooms, including the kitchen, were open and hung with cotton curtains. There were many people inside.

In the kitchen, it was mainly women who were cutting sauerkraut and preparing ingredients.

After the first pig was shaved and rinsed, it was lifted onto the table and the internal organs were removed. The pig's head was then cut off and the meat from the trough was taken inside to prepare the butcher's dish.

Li Long changed a bucket of warm water and brought it to the front door. At this time, Wang Caimi, who had slaughtered the first pig, was already preparing to wash the intestines, while the others were also cutting the pig into two pieces and preparing to weigh it.

The Li family didn’t have a scale, only a 50-kilogram scale.

"Fifty kilograms can't even hold down this half piece of meat!" Two young men lifted up a pole to weigh half a piece of meat, and found that it still weighed more than fifty kilograms.

"Cut it in the middle and continue weighing it." Someone suggested.

Li Long did not participate in these tasks. After he supplied the water, he saw that there were people doing the tasks. Everyone also consciously went to the positions where people were needed. Li Long then took a break.

"... Let me tell you, more than a hundred years ago, our Ma County was still called Suilai, and it was a terrible place. During the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui Rebellion, almost all the people in this area were killed. If our Dong family's ancestors hadn't fled to the sand wharf in the north, I guess we wouldn't have that surname now..." Shaanxi-Gansu Hui Rebellion? Has it spread here?
Li Long was a little confused. He could tell that the voice was that of Grandpa Tian. He should be telling history to the younger generation.

But Li Long remembered that even when he looked on the Internet in his previous life, he had never seen anything like this?

"At that time, those who believed in religion would kill all those who did not believe. The officials in Suilai County, both Manchus and Han people, were almost killed. They also killed each other, because there were different factions among them...

Later, when Usman came, he also killed people... Alas, people were miserable at that time. We Han people just wanted to plant crops honestly and have enough food to eat, why was it so difficult?
Later, Wang Da Huzi, General Wang came over. Hey, that's great! Here, we finally have our own troops and our own officers. At that time... hey, the dead will be replaced by others..."

Li Long had complicated feelings after hearing this.

"Grandpa Tian, ​​what you said is different from what we learned in history." A voice rang out.

Hey, it's Li Juan.

Li Juan is doing well in junior high school, and is good at history. She even dares to refute Mr. Tian's words:
"In our history class, we talked about this period in northern Xinjiang. More than a hundred years ago, it was not that Yakub Beg, who was sent by Kokand to invade our northern Xinjiang. It was not the one you mentioned?"

"This is for the sake of unity." Mr. Tian was not annoyed and said with a smile:

"Before Yakub Beg came, the southern and northern Xinjiang were already in chaos. Many Manchu officials and Han people were killed, hundreds of thousands or even millions..."

Li Long was holding a kettle and listening here, listening to the old man of the older generation debating with the "intellectuals" of the younger generation.

"Grandpa Tian, ​​wasn't it said that Yakub Beg invaded, and then the army and people of northern Xinjiang resisted the invasion and fought the war?"

"In fact, before Yakub Beg came, the southern and northern Xinjiang had already started fighting. Don't be fooled by the fact that those people usually look very kind. When they really started the doctrinal war, they were too cruel, just like the Japanese devils! Alas, if General Wang could have been born a few decades earlier..."

Li Juan was still arguing, but Li Long didn't hear clearly what she said. He only knew that the history he knew was not entirely history.

In other words, much of history has been buried in the dust.

"…It's still better now. We can eat our fill and have meat. Juanjuan, do you know? In the past, even the landlords who farmed in this area couldn't eat meat often. It was not easy for ordinary farmhands to have enough to eat…"

"Couldn't we hunt at that time? Like my uncle did?" Li Juan was diverted from the topic and asked again.

"There were very few guns at that time." Grandpa Tian explained with a smile, "There were a lot of wolves, but it was not easy to kill them. These animals are very smart..."

"I know, I know. It's in the fable we learned. The wolf even knew how to attack from both sides!"

……

The topic went off topic, and Li Long wondered whether he should take some time to ask Mr. Tian about the truth of that forgotten period of history.

This area was considered a desert by many people in later generations. Han people have lived there since the Han Dynasty. However, whenever a major war breaks out, the Han people are the first to be targeted.

Being targeted would have been fine, but in later life, Li Long also saw on many online platforms that many people equated people from northern Xinjiang with ethnic minorities.

I don't know if it's because they have no common sense or no parents, how can such people exist? After all, we learned in elementary school geography and history that no matter which province in our country, even in autonomous regions, there are many ethnic groups living together, and nearly half of the population in northern Xinjiang is Han.

Li Long always responded to such posts by saying “Those who create accounts like this show they don’t have any parents.”

I feel relieved, but also sad.

It is like the Tang Dynasty soldiers who guarded the border city in the late Tang Dynasty. While they were guarding the city for the Tang Dynasty, they were abandoned by the people in the interior.

"Hey, one hundred and seven kilograms. With the meat in the trough, it must be over one hundred and ten. This pig is good!" Someone shouted excitedly over there in the shed, causing the black dog to bark loudly.

The black dog was originally tied in the yard, mainly to guard the house. When slaughtering pigs, in order to prevent it from biting others, it was led to the tractor in the east to keep the little yellow sheep company. The little yellow sheep's legs have recovered now, and it is no longer afraid of the black dog. It eats grass and looks at the situation here from time to time.

A pig weighing 110 kilograms was not considered big in later generations. In later generations, it was normal for a pig fed with grain to weigh 130 to 140 kilograms, even if it was a lean pig.

However, 110 kilograms is not a small amount at this time, and the family certainly cannot finish it according to their current meat-eating habits.

Some people have already started to divide the parts they need. Li Jianguo said nothing, happily cleaning up the place, waiting to slaughter the other pig.

"What are you doing? Get to work first!" Xie Yundong shouted, "There's still a pig that hasn't been slaughtered yet, why are you in such a hurry? Come quickly, catch the pig and tie it up, and finish the work first!"

Xu Chengjun was not here today because of something. As the former captain of the sideline team, Xie Yundong still had a lot of prestige among the young people. When he shouted, those who were still preparing to share the pork ran over with a smile and started to catch the remaining pig.

Li Long walked over and added water to the two pots on the stove in the yard, and poked the charcoal fire under the stove, ready to wait for the next pig.

Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang carried Mingming and Haohao to the backyard. Looking at this busy scene with everyone doing their own work, they both felt it was quite novel, and the two children also looked around.

The screams of the second pig scared the two children, so Li Long asked them to carry the children to the front yard again and come back to see after the pig was slaughtered, or come back after the meal was ready.

It must be said that the aunts and sisters-in-law of the fourth team have maintained their enthusiasm for making pig-killing dishes as always, and this will be the case for the next forty years. Whenever someone slaughters a pig, they will ask the women in the neighborhood to cook the pig-killing dishes, and everyone will respond positively.

Some people would even run back from Wucheng just to taste this dish, and some would even call from Beiting to ask for a piece of pig blood steamed bun to be left for them.

Significance.

When the second pig was being slaughtered and its hair was being shaved off by pouring boiling water on it, the aroma of stewed meat with sauerkraut began to waft through the yard.

The smell immediately excited the people who were working. Some were discussing the thickness of the large slices of meat that had been cut this time, and some were talking about how many kilograms of meat had been brought over. It was enough to be stewed for an ordinary family to eat for a month.

Li Jianguo's family had no shortage of meat, so he invited a lot of people to slaughter the pig this time. The tables in the two rooms in the backyard could not accommodate everyone, so he had to set up another table in the front yard like last year.

The only difference is that this time there are two more children, Mingming and Haohao, as well as two "relatives" Yang and Han Fang.

Han Fang and Li Juan have become good friends. She was a little reserved at first, but under Li Juan's guidance she quickly became familiar with the place. On the contrary, Sister Yang is not quite adapted to it for the time being, or perhaps this kind of neighborhood atmosphere is different from what she has been used to since childhood.

When the pigs were being slaughtered, some aunts and ladies would come to the front yard from time to time to see Mingming, Haohao and Gu Xiaoxia. They would chat for a few words and then ask about Sister Yang's situation.

Gu Xiaoxia would give a few simple and vague introductions, and those aunties and sisters would chat with Sister Yang enthusiastically, which made her a little uncomfortable.

In her hometown, Sister Yang was bullied. After coming here, she experienced hardships again. Later, she lived in the same yard with Li Long and others. Except for the Li family, the people she came into contact with were all city people, and the feeling was different.

Now when I return to the village and chat with these aunts and sisters, I feel both familiar and unfamiliar.

It took her a long time to realize that this was normal interpersonal relationship in the countryside.

Mingming and Haohao wanted to go outside and twisted around on the bed in the room, but there were so many people coming to see the two children, one after another, and before the two of them had time to take the children out, the meal was already ready.

For decades, the pig-killing dishes have remained the same, with steamed white flour buns as the staple food, and the side dishes being stir-fried pork with sauerkraut, stir-fried pork liver with bean sprouts, stir-fried pork heart with celery, and pig blood steamed buns in the afternoon.

The dishes are all served in large bowls, and you can have as much as you want. To make the food more satisfying, the trough meat is cut into large pieces of fat, which is very satisfying to look at.

As soon as the hot pot of food was served, the atmosphere immediately became lively.

Li Jianguo smiled and placed wine on the two tables in the north yard. At the women's table, everyone waved their hands and said they didn't want to drink, because steaming pig blood buns was quite tiring.

For a moment, the sound of laughter came from the two courtyards, making Li Long a little dazed.

This kind of atmosphere is many years ahead of the original history.

Is it his fault?

Yes. (End of this chapter)