Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

(I have something to do today, so there is only one chapter)
Li Long did not expect that when he proposed to go to Shicheng Department Store to shop before going into the mountains, the most bought items by Halimu and Talihar were personal items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap.

After the haircut, the two people looked no different from ordinary plains people - except for the clothes, of course. Li Long took Talihar directly to the hospital without changing his clothes. It was okay in the hospital, as they were all wearing hospital gowns, so there was no difference between them.

But after leaving the hospital, the Zhongshan suit and the slightly worn cotton coat he was wearing seemed out of place.

If he hadn't cut his hair and shaved his beard, I'm afraid everyone would have looked at him even more strangely.

This is also the reason why Li Long took them to get a haircut after he was released - the skills of the barbers in the state-owned barber shops are impeccable. A short flat head like Li Long's and then shaving his beard will make him look a lot younger.

Then Li Long took Talihar to buy clothes. Originally, he wanted to buy a set of clothes for Halimu as well, but Halimu refused.

After changing his clothes, Talihar's image changed a lot. He was obviously a handsome Kazakh boy, and his ethnic features were even more handsome than Batai in the previous film about Altay - in terms of ethnicity, after all, the actor himself was not a Kazakh.

After looking in the mirror, Talihar was quite satisfied with himself, especially his teeth. He felt that brushing his teeth these days was particularly enjoyable.

That's why I wanted to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Li Long was also happy to see Halimu and Talihar buying such a large bag of daily necessities together.

Does this count as changing the living habits here in advance?

To be honest, at this time, there are only four teams, and many adults may not brush their teeth every day. Children are better at complying with these small matters.

When Li Long drove Halimu, Talihar and others to their winter home, Halimu's wife, children and the old lady were all surprised.

"Dad, you're much more handsome!" Nathan reacted the fastest. He rushed over yelling and hugged Harimu's waist.

Susken followed.

I was discharged from the hospital in the morning. After buying things, drinking milk tea and eating naan, and getting a haircut, it was already afternoon when Li Long dropped me off.

After drinking milk tea in the winter nest, Li Long hurried back. Talihar's horse was still with Halimu, and he would definitely rush back today.

When Li Long returned to the yard, the sun was about to set. Bringing Talihar back was a big accomplishment, and Li Long also felt that it was time to have a good rest.

Talihar did not stay in Halimu's winter home for long. Not long after Li Long left, he harnessed his horse, loaded the things he bought, rode on his horse, said goodbye to Halimu and the others, and headed home.

There were a lot of things to buy, so Talihar bought a big black bag. He put the black bag in front of him, carefully held the reins, and rushed home on horseback.

The snow was still very deep, but the horse was very familiar with the road. Perhaps because it hadn't been home for several days, it was also quite excited. As it walked, it habitually trotted when it came across a flat road.

Every time this happened, Talihar would pull the reins slightly - mainly because the doctor had reminded him in the hospital to move more slowly, not to affect the wound, and try not to tear the wound again.

This time, Talihar really learned a lesson. He decided that the first thing he would do after returning would be to find his gun. He would continue hunting in the future, but he would be very careful.

When Talihar was lying on the hospital bed, he had a conversation with Li Long. The experience that Li Long shared was very useful to Talihar.

When hunting, it is best not to get close if possible.

Not only animals like wild boars, wolves, and black bears are dangerous, but a human body can easily be seriously injured even if it is butted by a elk.

Talihar took note of this carefully.

At present, he is the only one in the entire tribe who often hunts in his spare time. He feels it necessary to teach this to other guys when he has time in the future.

When we returned to our winter den, it was already dark.

Grandma was really happy to see Talihar come back. She hugged her grandson and kissed him on both cheeks to celebrate his return.

"You're just like Li Long now, like an outsider." Grandma commented while lying on the wooden kang.

Talihar just laughed.

He opened the black bag, distributed the things he brought back from the city to his family, and then demonstrated how to use them.

"Look at my face, look at my teeth, it will really get better." Talihar felt that he had to change his family's living habits.

It's not just a question of whether it looks good or not, he asked, and the doctors, nurses, and even Li Long told him.

"Brushing your teeth regularly can keep your mouth from smelling bad, prevent your teeth from falling out as you age, and make your teeth whiter..."

At this time, Talihar was very much like a clumsy salesman in later generations. He converted what Li Long and others said into his own language and told it to his family.

It is actually quite easy to get used to brushing your teeth - imagine that you have been brushing your teeth for a week and suddenly stop brushing. The next day when you lick your teeth with your tongue, you feel a layer of plaque on them. That uncomfortable feeling makes you want to brush your teeth immediately.

The family members looked at the toothbrush and toothpaste that Talihar handed to them with curiosity, watched Talihar demonstrate to them, and watched the white foam coming out of his mouth, and they all laughed.

A small change begins.

A similar thing was happening in Halimu's family, but because Halimu was the head of the family, he gave toothbrushes and toothpaste to his mother and wife, and asked Nathan and Susken to teach them how to use them.

Nathan and Sasken are very active. They were taught by adults when they were young, and now it is their turn to teach adults. They are really excited, serious and proactive.

For the next period of time, Yushanjiang's family also used toothbrushes and toothpaste, which were brought by Halimu.

Not only their family, but other families were also infected when they visited. After all, after brushing teeth, the breath and the whiteness of teeth have changed, which is obvious - Li Long probably didn't expect that the next time he came, the things everyone wanted him to bring the most were toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The New Year is getting closer and the weather is slowly getting warmer. The outdoor temperature has dropped from -30 degrees Celsius during the day and -35 or -6 degrees Celsius at night at the coldest time to -10 degrees Celsius during the day, and the sunlight has become noticeably warmer.

During this period, Li Long went to the purchasing station every one or two days to clean up. On the one hand, there were warehouses, and on the other hand, the snow in the backyard needed to be cleared to prevent it from filling the yard with snow when the rain thawed.

As long as the purchasing station is open, there will still be people coming to sell things every day. Sometimes you can buy a sack, and sometimes you can buy half a sack.

Li Long lends out several hundred yuan in cash almost every day, and now a room in the courtyard is almost full.

This would not work, Li Long knew he had to find someone to help him collect the things. The yard of the collection station was nice, with a two-meter-high brick wall, and it was not far from the police station, so it was quite safe.

So when people live in this yard, it would be nice to renovate the back and create a vegetable garden.

It just depends on who comes to live here.

"Why don't we ask our parents to come over?" At night, when Mingming and Haohao fell asleep, Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia discussed, "Your father has to run the agricultural supply store, so it's not easy for him to take care of it. Why not ask our parents to come over? They just need to collect some things anyway."

"Can my parents do this? They are so comfortable staying in the team." Gu Xiaoxia didn't know whether her father-in-law and mother-in-law were willing to come.

This kind of thing must be handled by one of our own people, but Gu Xiaoxia is at work and cannot look after the store, and Li Long himself does not want to be tied to this purchasing station all the time.

Now he felt a little regretful. It would have been better if he had known not to go through all this trouble. Why did he have to tie himself up?

The more things there are, the more troublesome it becomes.

"Or maybe it would be good to just open it every now and then." Li Long thought again, "It's our own store anyway, so can't we open it whenever we want?"

"You feel relieved, but what about those people? Those near the county are still okay. Those who are farther away, like those near Shawo, take a day to get here, but if you don't open the restaurant, won't they just come for nothing?" Gu Xiaoxia was considering the issue of customer source.

Li Long wanted to refute, but he couldn't stay there alone every day.

But think about it, Gu Xiaoxia's analysis is correct. If we are going to open it, we should do it seriously.

Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia didn't come to an agreement. Actually, Sister Yang is also a suitable candidate, but Mingming and Haohao still need someone to take care of them, so she can't leave.

Li Long plans to visit the team tomorrow. It is already February and the New Year's Eve is coming soon. He wants to go and see if his eldest brother's family has prepared anything for the New Year and how the preparations are going, and see what he can bring back.

If fried things like hemp leaves and Sanzi are ready, Li Long will definitely bring them back.

It's a very natural thought. Once you get used to it, it's your home after all.

It was natural to bring Han Fang with her. After these few visits, Han Fang and Li Juan have become very good friends. The last time Talihar was hospitalized, Li Long slaughtered all the roosters and hens that Meng Hai sent. Han Fang saved a lot of beautiful chicken feathers and made three shuttlecocks. She planned to give one of them to Li Juan. The copper coins were given to her by Li Long. During this period, she collected quite a few copper coins. They were all in good condition. They were not the kind that had just been dug out of the soil. At least there was not much green rust. They should be the kind that was stored in the house.

Li Long also collected some of the green ones dug out from the ground. They were just green rust on the surface, which could be brushed off with a brush. Most of them were from the Qing Dynasty.

Li Long just smashed the one that was completely rusted and broke when he bent it - it was completely useless.

Han Fang was very excited along the way. She hadn't seen Li Juan for about half a month and she missed her very much.

"Xiaofang, have you finished your homework?" Li Long asked while driving.

"I've finished writing it." Han Fang said obediently, "I even memorized all the texts in the Chinese textbook!"

Really amazing! Li Long felt ashamed of himself.

At present, both girls Li Juan and Han Fang are studying very well, and Li Qiang's grades are also gradually improving. This is really good.

“You haven’t started learning English yet?”

"No, Aunt Xiaoxia said we can learn it after we enter junior high school. Sister Juan said it's easy to learn, we just need to memorize more."

"Oh, then study hard and get into a good school in the future."

The jeep arrived at the Li family's yard. There were no children playing football in the open space in front. Li Qiang was practicing his football skills in the yard. It was almost the New Year, and every family was busy. Some children were rushing to do their homework - school would start after the New Year, and most children hadn't done much homework yet.

Except for Li Qiang, Li Juan is looking after him, so Li Jianguo and others don't need to take care of his homework.

So for now he can only play football alone.

Hearing the sound of the jeep, Li Qiang immediately picked up the football, ran forward a few steps, and then moved to the side.

The jeep stopped in the yard. Li Qiang rushed to the door and opened it, while shouting into the house:
"Dad, my uncle is back!"

When Li Long came down, both doors were opened. Du Chunfang walked out slowly, and the aroma of fried food wafted out of the house first.

Liang Yuemei was wearing an apron and holding chopsticks in her hand, frying hemp leaves.

She looked at Li Long and said with a smile:
"You came just in time. They are fried today. You can take some back."

"Then I came at the right time. Sister-in-law, please close the door first. It's cold outside. I'll go talk to my parents." Li Long responded with a smile, then went to greet Du Chunfang.

Li Long helped Du Chunfang into the house. Li Qingxia was listening to the radio in the house. Seeing Li Long coming, he smiled and asked:

"How come you have time now?"

"There's nothing going on in the county, so I came over to take a look."

"Nothing? Do you have a gun with you?" Li Qingxia's eyes lit up when he heard Li Long say nothing was wrong and asked.

"I brought it, what?"

"Da Qiang's father told me that his neighbor has relatives in the sand pit in the north. He said that there are groups of yellow sheep over there. Do you know how to get there? Is it far?"

"It's not that far, maybe about 60 or 70 kilometers." Li Long said, "The road isn't very good, it will take about two hours to drive."

"It's only two hours, so do you want to go?" Li Qingxia hasn't gone to break the ice hole these days. The main reason is that there are too many fish. It's not cost-effective to sell them in the county, as they won't make much money. But going to Shicheng is too far away.

Pedaling a bicycle is also very strenuous. If it is not for survival, but just to make money, the icing on the cake, Li Qingxia really doesn't want to go.

It’s almost the same as taking a car.

But starting a tractor in the middle of winter is a bit difficult.

Staying at home is boring, and listening to the radio to kill time is much better than going out.

That's why he encouraged Li Long to go to the north.

How wonderful it would be if you really came across a group of gazelles and fought with them?
Li Long was also somewhat moved, but he still asked:
"Then we don't know the exact location? We can't just go there and grope around, right?"

"Hey, I know. I've got the names of the villages there memorized. If I find the village and ask someone, I'll know."

It seems that the old man trusts the people here quite a bit. I believe he can find out the answer as long as he asks.

He actually wanted to go over there, mainly to take a look at the herd of gazelles over there and see if he could catch some little gazelles.

If you can get one, just bring it back and keep it.

Now the ewes in Laomahao have started to give birth to lambs one after another. I guess the gazelles in the sandbags in the north that have not yet migrated south should also have lambs, right?
At this time, Li Jianguo just pushed the door open.

Just now he and Liang Yuemei were working together to fry hemp leaves. Now that they were done, he came over to take a look.

"What are you talking about?" Li Jianguo came in with some hemp leaves and asked while handing them to his mother who was leaning against the fire wall.

"They said they were going to the north to hunt yellow sheep in Shawo," Du Chunfang said. "It's sixty or seventy kilometers away. Your father must be so bored that he would think of running so far to hunt yellow sheep!"

"Hey, I've been there!" Li Jianguo was delighted when he heard this. "To be honest, there should be quite a few yellow sheep there. When I was the quartermaster in a company in the Corps, the company commander led the staff to hunt yellow sheep to improve their lives. We hunted quite a few!"

"Let's go. Xiaolong happens to be here today. He has a car and you know the place. What are we waiting for?" Li Qingxia was excited.

Li Long was a little confused. Was his father waiting for him to come over?

Li Jianguo didn't have any objection. Just go. Anyway, the main work for the day was done. But wasn't this a bit hasty? He looked at Li Long.

If Li Long has nothing to do, then go ahead. It's better to do it today than to wait for another day.

"Okay." Li Long didn't say anything, since his father liked it anyway.

"Don't call Xiaoxia dad today. He came here yesterday. Let's go some searching first and call him when we have some gains." Li Jianguo said.

Let's go.

Liang Yuemei knew that they were going north, but she didn't say anything. It was not yet time for dinner, so she just asked them to bring some food with them, otherwise it would be troublesome if they had no place to eat.

The jeep drove out of the four teams and drove to the rural road. When they arrived at the village, they turned north and kept going north. In the local dialect, "Just keep going down and you will reach the destination."

Actually, it was not entirely true. A few kilometers north, we reached the later Huoke Highway, which is the S201 Provincial Highway, but it had not been repaired yet. Most of the roads at that time were still dirt roads, but fortunately there was snow on them, and the road surface was frozen solid, making it easier to walk.

The further north you go, the fewer traces there are on the road. There are some marks left by horse or donkey carts, but there are more marks left by wild animals. Occasionally, you can even see wild rabbits running in the wild.

There were fewer and fewer people along the way. At the beginning, you could still come across a few villages, but as you went further, there were fewer and fewer villages, and the distances between them increased. The vegetation in the snow also gradually decreased.

"In the past, when we were doing business between companies, we had to carry a stick." Li Jianguo said with emotion as he looked outside, "because we were afraid of being surrounded by wolves."

"Were there no guns at that time?" Li Qingxia asked curiously.

"How can ordinary employees carry guns when they go out to do things on their own? Unless it's company business..."

"There are not as many wolves now as there were then," Li Long said as he drove. "Most of them are in the sandbags and mountains. There are more people, so there are fewer wolves."

In the distance, undulating sand bags appeared in sight, on which grew red willow and saxaul, the few plants that could survive in the desert.

One difference between the Gurbantunggut Desert and the Taklimakan Desert to the south is that the sand dunes here basically do not move and are considered fixed sand bags. There are even large and small oases and vegetation in the desert.

Although it is also a desert, there are far more signs of life here than in the south.

Then, Li Long and his friends saw a group of running animals—wild donkeys?
PS: I saw someone on the Internet putting lead-acid batteries in the Yangtze River. Is this illegal? How can these things be so bad? According to the information released by that person, he also wants to put them at the source of the Yangtze River. This is really inhuman. (End of this chapter)