Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The group of wild donkeys ran very fast. When they saw the jeep, or heard the sound of the jeep, they turned around and ran deeper into the sandbags.

"Hey, they run so fast! If they run slower, we can still hit them." Li Qingxia said, looking at the wild donkeys.

Encountering wild donkeys meant that there must be a lot of wild animals here, and the three of them felt relieved.

The car continued to move forward, and Li Jianguo suddenly pointed to a piece of snow-covered land in front and said:
"This is the land that the company cultivated when I was the quartermaster. There was an apple orchard further ahead, but I don't know if it's still there... Hey, it's still there."

The arable land there is nearly 1,000 mu, a very large area. The Northern Xinjiang Corps has long started mechanized reclamation, and this place is located on the edge of the Junggar Basin, with flat land and very large arable land, one piece after another, and it is difficult to see the end at a glance.

Next to this farmland was a sparse apple orchard. The trees were not very tall and must have been pruned. Li Long could see a shriveled apple on a tree at the edge of the plot. A few birds landed on the branches and flew away when they saw the jeep coming.

"Then this area is all fields, so we won't see any gazelles in the back?" Li Qingxia was a little disappointed. "Where is the company you were originally in?"

"Just keep going forward. It's still far away." Li Jianguo said, "This piece of land, you see, there is land on the south side of the road, and there are sand bags in the Gobi Desert on the north side. It's okay. We often saw gazelles, red deer and other animals on the north side of the road. Yes, there must be!"

It was already past one in the afternoon when we drove here, and it was almost time for lunch, but none of the three of us were hungry. We mainly wanted to find the target as soon as possible.

However, after driving a few kilometers forward, they saw a forest belt and some houses in front of them. Li Jianguo didn't even need to say anything, Li Long and Li Qingxia guessed that this should be the company where Li Jianguo had stayed before.

"Brother, have you never been here since you joined Team 4?" Li Long suddenly asked.

"No, then how can we get here? It's so far, it takes more than a day to drive a carriage, and it's a waste of time to go back and forth, and there's nothing to do..."

Li Long could tell that Li Jianguo actually wanted to come back and take a look. After all, this was the first place he stayed when he came to live in Northern Xinjiang.

"I stayed here for two or three years and made some friends. I don't know how they are doing now." Li Jianguo sighed, "Life was really good then, much better than back home. We could eat steamed buns every day at noon, although each person only had one. Although other company leaders and the regiment leaders stationed here also came to grab them, I, the quartermaster and the cook squad leader, had to steam two baskets a day, but life was really good then."

"That was when you came back for the first time, Xiaolong wasn't born yet. At that time, our family couldn't even have enough food, let alone steamed buns. We didn't even have money to send you to school... It was all my fault." Li Qingxia also sighed.

The voices are all very low.

Li Jianguo took the entrance exam for the No. 1 middle school in his hometown and ranked seventh in the county. Unfortunately, he did not finish the course because he had no tuition. Even though the principal at the time felt it was a pity and offered to pay five yuan for his tuition for one semester, he still could not continue his studies - he had to live on campus in junior high school and had no living expenses.

So I had no choice but to give up, drop out of school, and go home to do farm work.

There was little land in the Central Plains, and the Li family was large. They could not get enough to eat, so they followed Li Qingxia out to sell pears and ginger. They ran to the northern border when they could not endure the hard three years.

At that time, many people went to the northern border, and Li Jianguo had a big advantage, he could read and write. So when he arrived here, he was immediately accepted by the Corps, first served as a clerk in this company, and became the quartermaster a year later.

If Li Qingxia had not insisted on asking Li Jianguo to go back, Li Jianguo might have been a cadre of a fairly high level in the Corps now. After all, that was nearly twenty years ago.

"Dad, why did you let my elder brother go back then?" Li Long was puzzled. He knew a little about Li Jianguo's previous history, but he was not very clear.

"I, your father, am incompetent." Li Qingxia shook his head and said, "I am alone. I can't farm or do business. I can't support this family... Your brothers and sisters are young, and your mother is not in good health, so I want your eldest brother to come back and support the family."

Li Long understood. There was no such trend in northern Xinjiang at that time, but even so, the eldest sister-in-law's family was almost bullied. This was very serious in his hometown. The family with more sons and more strong laborers was powerful and would not be bullied, and could even bully others.

Isn't that what those brothers who wanted to bully the Liang family thought at that time? But it didn't work in Beijiang, and they hit a wall.

But in the Central Plains, at least in the village where Li Jianguo and his friends live, this rule is equivalent to a hard rule and an unspoken rule. The old man is dead, so he wants his eldest son to come back to support the situation.

Li Jianguo didn't say anything and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Do you want to go in and take a look?" The car had already arrived at the gate of the company, and some employees were looking at the jeep curiously at the gate.

Only the leader of a regiment, that is, the head of the regiment (not a troop or corps), or the director of the farm headquarters can drive such a luxurious car. Which leader is this?
"…Let's not go in yet, shall we? Keep driving northwest. There's a large wasteland with sandbags. In the past, our company would go there to hunt yellow sheep. We should be able to encounter them. Business is more important."

Li Long smiled. It was obvious that the eldest brother wanted to go in, but he might have some concerns. He didn't know if it was because he was "homesick", or he was afraid that the people he knew were no longer around, or maybe it was because the jeep was a bit conspicuous, so he didn't go in?

Then he continued to drive westward. When their jeep had gone two or three hundred meters, two or three people ran out from the company and looked in the direction of the jeep, wondering:

"Where is this leader going? If he goes any further, he'll just end up in a hole in the sand."

"Is there some special mission? Let's prepare first. There's no way out over there, and we have to come back eventually, so it's better to prepare in advance."

"Yes, yes, yes, let's prepare it at the company headquarters. Lao Chen, go and make sure it's something substantial."

"Don't worry, I'll go to the vegetable cellar to get something now!"

Li Jianguo and the others didn't know that someone was preparing things for them behind them, and continued to pay attention to the field.

Gradually, the flat farmland disappeared, replaced by sandy land with red willow, saxaul and alkali artemisia, and further away, there were undulating sand bags. Even the road they walked on was in the gaps between the sand bags. This road must have been made temporarily, and the regular road no longer existed.

The snow in the Gobi desert was thinner than that on the side of Team 4. There were many hoof prints and paw prints in the snow, most of which were rabbit prints, shuttling between the red willow and saxaul trees, like ropes connecting these shrubs.

The red willows and saxaul here are not dense enough to form a forest, and they are not tall either, and show signs of being eaten.

The jeep stopped next to a higher sandbag. To the north of them, more than a hundred meters away, a group of gazelles were nibbling on the tender branches of red willow trees.

When the jeep stopped, some gazelles had already spotted this "giant" creature, but the distance was far and the gazelles were more confident in their legs and feet. A few male gazelles straightened their necks to look over here and then ignored it.

Li Long took a quick look and saw that there were more than a hundred gazelles in the group, both big and small. The ewes were leading their half-grown lambs and teaching them to eat grass. Occasionally, a lamb would want to drink milk and would crawl under the ewe's belly.

Some lambs are already quite big, but they still haven't gotten rid of the habits of lambs. They jump high with their front hooves and then fight with other lambs.

Very lively and very quiet picture.

Li Long took out his gun.

He was thinking, if he fired a shot, would it scare the gazelles and cause them to scatter, and then he could catch the lambs?

Pretty cruel idea.

"Xiaolong, at this distance, can you shoot those gazelles?" Li Qingxia took out another gun - a sand gun.

That is, a double-barreled shotgun.

"Let's try." Li Long opened the safety, loaded the bullet, took a look, and said, "It should be possible to hit the target, but once we hit it, they will run away immediately."

"I see a snow monster over there, can you drive your jeep over there and chase it all the way?" Li Qingxia asked, "If you can, maybe you can catch some sheep."

"Of course not," Li Jianguo waved his hands hastily. "It looks like flat ground, but no one knows if there are snow pits underneath. In the summer when there's no snow, you have to be careful when driving in this area. If you get stuck now, there's no way the three of us can get out."

"Then let's shoot." Li Long walked forward with his gun in hand and said, "Let's move forward. We can shoot more accurately if we are closer."

"Then let's go for a walk." Li Qingxia felt a little regretful. This car was not good enough. But when he thought about it, he was really a little unsatisfied. How many people can drive a car and go wherever they want?
Which son loves his father so much that he would run into the sand pit whenever he wants?
One of the important reasons why Li Qingxia had such a big emotional change was that he also remembered what happened to his eldest son Li Jianguo.

If I had the ability, would my eldest son have been able to go to middle school and high school normally and become a state official now?
I'm incompetent and I'm delaying the boss.

Although Li Qingxia is a bit willful, he knows that his son has the ability to bear the consequences of his willfulness.

But do you think he has no regrets and no self-blame? That is impossible. The good life now is created by the eldest and the youngest on their own. Does it have anything to do with him?

Basically, no. So he sometimes speaks more and sometimes less. Sometimes he is really careless, and sometimes he feels that the boss is really suffering.

If we really hadn’t called the eldest brother back then, even though this place was a bit remote, according to what the eldest brother said, we could have eaten white flour buns every day in the 1960s, and life would have been much better…

It's just that the location is a little remote, not as good as the fourth team.

While he was thinking, the three men had slowly walked out more than 20 meters. Li Long raised his gun and aimed. The gazelles saw the three upright monsters coming and became alert. Nearly half of the more than 100 gazelles raised their heads and looked over here, and the ewes vigilantly called their lambs.

Li Long stopped and said:
"Don't go any further. If you keep going, these gazelles will run away. Go and beat them."

I originally wanted to come here to catch the lamb, but now it seems that it is not easy. I thought it would be simple. I should bring a small caliber rifle. If I bring that, there is a high probability that I will not kill it, and I can take it back and raise it.

If you have time next year, you can take time to come here after the wheat is harvested in August. By then the lambs will have just been born and won’t be able to keep up with the main group, so maybe you can get some if you come here.

Li Long's mind was also in a mess, but he had already raised his gun and was ready to aim.

"Boss, you come and fight." Li Qingxia looked at the distance. At a distance of 70 to 80 meters, he was not very confident with the sand gun. If it was closer, it would be fine.

It was noon and the sunlight was still quite strong. The blurriness of Li Long's semi-automatic rifle had been eliminated. He aimed at a yellow sheep that had just grown up last year.

Just when they were about to fight, they suddenly heard a scream from a gazelle. The herd of gazelles suddenly became chaotic. More than a hundred gazelles began to flee madly from the north, and then swept from north to south. Their raised hooves rolled up the broken snow, which was quite imposing.

The direction they were running towards was actually Li Long's direction!

However, it deviated from the direction immediately after running more than 20 meters. It was obvious that the yellow sheep leading it also knew that these three upright monsters were not easy to deal with.

Li Long stood up and looked into the distance, and saw a group of seven or eight wolves forming a small encirclement. One of the wolves had already pinned down a yellow sheep and was biting it, and the others also had their own targets.

It turns out that not only are they targeting this herd of gazelles, but there are also wolves in the desert targeting this herd of gazelles!

"Bang!" A herd of gazelles ran sideways about fifty or sixty meters in front of him. Li Long would not miss such a good opportunity. He raised his gun and shot one down first. Li Jianguo over there also shot and injured one. The gazelle ran more than ten steps with the gunshot wound before falling down.

After Li Long fired another shot, the yellow sheep ran away.

These animals have long, thin legs, but are very powerful.

The gunfire from Li Long and his team not only scared the gazelles, but also scared the wolves. The wolves that were originally hunting suddenly slowed down, and some even ran away.

Li Long turned the muzzle of his gun and aimed at the two wolves that were biting the yellow sheep - with the prey in their mouths, the two wolves were reluctant to let go.

Before he fired, Li Jianguo shot a wolf with a "bang".

Li Jianguo had two bullets in his hunting rifle. He fired one at the yellow sheep, but he didn't fire the second time because he was not sure. At this time he also saw the wolves, so he decided to shoot them!
At the sound of the gunshot, the two wolves jumped up and ran away.

"Oh, I missed!" Li Jianguo was a little annoyed.

"boom!"

Li Long aimed for a long time and directly knocked down a running wolf.

"Your gun is fine for close range, but it's not accurate for long range." Li Long said, "The sand gun has no rifling, so it's really hard to shoot at a distance..."

"Not bad, not bad! There are quite a few of them here. Let's go, let's get them back quickly..." Although Li Qingxia didn't fight, he was very excited when he saw several yellow sheep fall down. "Hey, it's a big harvest! There's also a wolf..."

The three men walked forward. Li Qingxia walked in front without carrying a gun. He first caught the nearest yellow sheep that was injured by Li Jianguo.

This was a female yellow sheep. The bullet entered diagonally from the hind leg, just below the buttocks, and went through it, causing a lot of blood to flow out. At this time, it saw Li Qingxia coming over and was still screaming there.

"I don't know if he can survive." Li Qingxia said, "Let's take him back first."

"He can't survive." Li Jianguo shook his head. "His buttocks were all broken."

"Wipe it, to avoid suffering." Li Qingxia handed the yellow sheep to Li Jianguo. Li Jianguo also brought a folding knife. He handed the gun to Li Qingxia and went forward to wipe the sheep's neck.

The two yellow sheep that Li Long had shot were both dead, and their blood had soaked the snow into a pool.

Li Longda carried a gun on his back, held two yellow sheep in each hand and piled them together, then went to look at the knocked down wolf.

The wolf was not killed. It was still lying in the snow and twitching. When Li Long came over, it raised its head for a moment and then leaned back on the snow.

When Li Long walked up to the wolf, it suddenly jumped up and wanted to bite Li Long. Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo were watching. Li Qingxia even shouted, but Li Long was not anxious at all. When the wolf raised its head and opened its mouth to bite him, he raised his foot almost at the same time and kicked the wolf in the neck, breaking it directly!
The incident at Talihar made Li Long always alert to these wild animals. Even rabbits bite when they are angry, let alone these wolves? So he always remained alert, and when the wolf moved, he did not show any mercy.

Seeing this gray wolf weighing 40 to 50 kilograms being kicked three or four meters away by Li Long, Li Qingxia came over and exclaimed:

"Xiaolong, your reaction is really quick! If it were me, I would have been bitten by this beast."

Li Long smiled. The wolf was already dead - he could not hear its breathing, so he bent down, picked up the wolf and walked back.

Li Qingxia also walked back. He came to the location of the two yellow sheep and picked up one and walked towards the car.

At this time, Li Jianguo had already carried the yellow sheep he had shot and placed it next to the car, and then came over and carried another yellow sheep.

"It's a pity that we didn't get any yellow goats. Yellow goats are now grown up and can run very fast. I just saw the group of yellow goats, and the fastest one was the leading male. The rest were half-grown yellow goats."

Li Qingxia had not forgotten the purpose of this trip and spoke with some regret.

"It's nothing, as long as I get something." Li Long said as he walked with the wolf in his hand, "I'll come back again when I have the chance."

Li Jianguo didn't say anything.

Three gazelles and a wolf were placed next to the jeep, and Li Long began to gut the prey.

"It's much colder here than in the team." Li Qingxia felt it and said, "It gets colder the further north we go. It's already minus 20 degrees Celsius in the daytime."

"It's colder at night than in the team." Li Jianguo said as he pulled the wolf's leg to help Li Long, "When I was in the company, I couldn't go out to relieve myself at night. I was very cold."

Li Long laughed after listening to this, what his elder brother said was more polite, it's just a frozen butt.

After opening the stomachs of the prey and letting out the internal organs, they are then put into bags and the trip is over.

The time was not long and there was no danger, so it felt a bit unsatisfactory, as if it was not exciting enough. But it seemed unrealistic to ask them to run and find another group of gazelles.

After all, in this open area, the sound of gunfire could be heard from far away, and there would be no herds of gazelles within a few kilometers at least.

They all ran away in fear.

When driving the jeep back and almost reaching the company, Li Long discovered that there were several people standing in the middle of the road.

Looking at this side.

He turned his head and looked at his elder brother who was sitting in the passenger seat. (End of this chapter)