Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Long returned to the purchasing station from the supply and marketing cooperative, he found that there were already several people waiting there.

He parked his bicycle on the side of the road and went to open the door. As he opened the door, someone said:

"Boss, why is your purchasing station sometimes open and sometimes closed? We have been waiting for a long time."

Li Long unlocked the big iron gate, then turned around to push his bicycle, asking:

"Isn't there a new purchasing station over there in the market? Why didn't you go there?"

Although this kind of news would not spread as quickly as in later generations with the advent of mobile phones, the county town was so small that even if Li Long didn't say it, these people would soon know it.

"Hey, of course I didn't go there, but that's not a place for business. The price is too low. We don't want to sell things there. The price you give is still better."

The person who was speaking was also pushing a bicycle with a roll of leather on the back seat. Li Long took a look and found that except for one yellow sheepskin, the rest were sheepskin and rabbit skin.

"My fellow, does the sheepskin have small intestines? If it doesn't have small intestines, I won't accept it."

"Yes, yes. We know the rules." The man said with a smile, "This is not my first time here. We still know the rules."

Leather factories have a threshold for accepting leather, and these street vendors usually don't have so much stock. Although the price of selling these sheepskins to Li Long is not as high as in the leather factory, he is very satisfied to make three or five yuan per piece of leather.

Li Long propped up and locked his bicycle, then opened the door of the purchasing station. It was already morning and the temperature was still okay, so he didn't set up a stove and started collecting goods from these people.

As the door opened, more people came in one after another. Li Long originally wanted to find some time to renovate the original blackboard on the wall, but it seems he has to wait until the afternoon.

The purchasing station was well organized and well prepared. There was a blackboard on the wall, but it had not been used for a long time and the black color of the blackboard had been eroded by wind and rain.

Li Long planned to take some time to go to a nearby store to buy a bottle of ink and just brush it. The blackboards in schools are all like this now. After writing for a period of time, if the black color of the blackboard fades, just brush it with ink. After the brush dries, the writing will be very eye-catching again.

After collecting all the people's things, Li Long saw that it was almost half past one. Sister Yang should have started cooking at this time, so he hurriedly locked the door and rushed back. When he arrived at the big yard, he found that his father-in-law Gu Boyuan was watching the two children playing in the yard, and Sister Yang was cooking in the kitchen.

Gu Boyuan looked at Li Long and asked:
"Where did you go? You didn't drive?"

"Let's go to the market. There's a new purchasing station over there. I'll go over and take a look."

"What's the matter?" Gu Boyuan had two fingers held by Mingming Haohao, so he could only squat there and could not stand up. He had to raise his head to talk to Li Long.

Li Long held back his laughter, pushed the bicycle to the wall and propped it up, then walked over and squatted down. When the two children saw their father coming, they immediately pushed away Gu Boyuan and wanted Li Long to hold them.

Li Long picked up the two children and spun them around while saying:

"It should be opened by the son of an official in the county, and the employees hired are the former employees of the supply and marketing cooperative who were retired. To be honest, the price is very low, but they know a lot and what they say makes sense, so it may be popular for a while."

"Then what about your purchasing station?"

"It's okay." Li Long said with a smile, "It will be prosperous for a while at most. Our county is so big, I can't buy everything by myself. Don't worry, our purchasing station sign is there, and everyone still recognizes it. I came back late today because there were many people coming to sell things. It's still early spring, and there should be more people after a while."

The Fritillaria season is coming soon, and there should be a large number of Fritillaria coming down the mountain to be sold here.

There are many good things in the mountains, not just these.

Seeing that Li Long had his own ideas, Gu Boyuan didn't say much. He walked to Li Long's side and teased the two children.

Two kid goats also ran up to Li Long and bleated, and there were also two little elk and Xiao Hei, so it was quite lively for a while.

After a while, Gu Xiaoxia and Han Fang returned to the yard one after another, and Sister Yang had already prepared the meal.

Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia each held a child in their arms, coaxing them while eating. The child is a little older now, but still can't stand up, let alone walk. It used to be necessary for one person to watch the child and wait for others to finish eating before taking over.

Now I don’t have to do that. I can hold my child and occasionally feed him some flavor of the food I’m eating.

When the adults were eating, the children also had their own rice, sticky rice. Li Long thought that sticky rice would be difficult to store after the spring heat, so he had to buy a refrigerator.

This matter must be resolved before entering the mountains.

In the next few days, Li Long still went to the purchasing station every day. He didn't care whether there were more or less people selling things here. He could hear from these people that most of them already knew that a new purchasing station had been opened in the market.

No matter what they thought in their hearts, these people who came here all patted their chests and guaranteed that they would definitely sell things to Li Long in the future. The main reason was that Li Long offered good prices, accepted a wide range of products, and would not be too picky.

As for what he thinks in his heart, Li Long has no control over it.

I sold a batch of leather to Zhao Hui some time ago. The cash back from the purchasing station was very fast, which was considered a healthy development, so Li Long started to collect more things.

Even though some things cannot be sold at a high price now, Li Long will still buy them and at worst just keep them for a while, such as some ancient books.

These people felt that it was not worthwhile to sell the ancient books they had collected from their homes to the scrap yard, so some of them brought them to Li Long with the attitude of giving it a try. Unexpectedly, Li Long actually accepted them.

Although it is only a little more expensive than what the scrap collection station charges, a few cents is still money, and it can buy several kilograms of noodles!
When the news reached the ears of the other person who opened the recycling station, he laughed. Is this a material recycling station or a scrap recycling station? With such a person, is there still a need for him to compete?

After this happened, the man who was originally quite nervous, staring at his purchasing station from time to time, trying to find ways to attract people over, now simply became lazy, working for three days and drying the net for two days, and basically handed over the affairs of the purchasing station to Yang Guifang.

He trusted Yang Guifang very much. This retired aunt was introduced to him by a relative. Judging from the situation in the past few days, she was indeed very capable and had a lot of momentum. She was able to control the common people and make a lot of extra money.

He didn't know much about Yang Guifang's past, but he felt that she was trustworthy, at least better than himself, an outsider.

One day in late March, when Li Long came to the purchasing station in the afternoon, he was surprised to find that the number of people gathered at the door was several times more than usual. He was a little surprised.

"Boss Li, you don't know? Something big happened at the purchasing station in the market!" Someone said impatiently after seeing Li Long.

"What happened?" Li Long asked as he opened the door.

"The person who collected our goods falsified the accounts. He paid us very cheap prices, but wrote down quite high prices when doing the accounts. He took kickbacks in the middle, and it was discovered. The police even came to our door!"

"How could this be? It's unlikely, right?" Li Long was a little surprised. He opened the big iron gate and let these people into the yard. Then he opened the inner door, went into the house and went behind the counter. Only then did he continue to listen to the man.

"How is that impossible? The police came this morning and took that woman, Yang Fang, away! The owner of the purchasing station was also there at the time and he scolded that woman..."

Li Long was not too surprised by this. A temporary team was prone to problems. He just didn't expect it to explode in less than a month.

"Then we can just change the person at the purchasing station." Li Long said as he started to collect the goods, "It turns out that we didn't find the right person."

"Hey, reopening isn't that easy." The person who broke the news didn't rush to sell anything, but continued to gossip on the side:

"After this incident, how can the boss not be vigilant when hiring again? The workers must feel uncomfortable when being watched - you certainly can't imagine that many of the things they received were not stored properly. It is said that many things in the warehouse separated at the back of the room are smelly and moldy... What a waste!"

This time Li Long was completely speechless. This shouldn't be the case. The collected items should be sorted and stored according to their wetness. It's impossible to just throw this thing in the same pile and leave it there, right?
Is the boss just being a hands-off manager, or are the hired employees being lazy?
Isn't this giving yourself points?
He smiled, didn't comment, and continued to collect his goods.

This can also be regarded as a warning to myself. I must learn from other people's lessons. If I really make the same mistake, the whole county will laugh at me.

Because there was a problem at the purchasing station over there, many people came here to sell things. Li Long was particularly busy today.

Fortunately, Gu Boyuan is more Buddhist now. His working hours will never exceed eight hours a day. He goes to the big yard early in the morning and afternoon, mainly to play with Mingming and Haohao. Gu Xiaoxia always said at the dinner table that her father was not so kind when she was young.

"It's the relationship between generations." Gu Boyuan didn't avoid the question at all. "You are my child, I have to educate you well. Mingming and Haohao are your children, it is your responsibility to educate them. I am their grandfather, I just need to be kind." Okay, this is also a set of truth.

Li Long was very busy for the next week before he had a little break.

He took some time to go to the livestock market on the other side of the Ma River, but didn't find any dairy goats - what was sold now were culled sheep and ordinary goats. Dairy goats are not a popular breed and most herders don't raise them.

If you can't find it, then forget it. You can look for it slowly later. Li Long went to the store of the supply and marketing cooperative and bought a few bottles of carat phosphorus, which is used to wash sheep and kill the worms on the sheep. Then he drove to the mountains.

The road leading into the mountains was dry. There were people walking on the road. When they saw Li Long's jeep coming, they hid on the side of the road.

There are more Gobi deserts and less grass in the northern mountains, but the shrubs have sprouted, and there is a breath of spring.

As soon as we entered the mountain, we could clearly feel the temperature drop. Although the sun was still strong, the mountain breeze felt very cool.

When Li Long drove the jeep to Halimu's winter home, Halimu had already driven the sheep out of the pen and were laying them on the grass.

The grass on his winter pasture had turned green but was not very tall. The cattle and sheep were nibbling on it diligently. After all, no matter how little green grass there was, it was still better than hay.

Li Long's jeep drove to the front of the winter nest, and Halimu also rushed back on horseback.

"Hello, Jax," Halim greeted Li Long with a smile, "It's been a long time since we last met. How are your family members?"

"Okay, okay." Li Long said with a smile, "Are we going to change the scene soon?"

"Well, we will enter the mountain in a few days." Halimu tied up the horse and pointed to the inside of the mountain. "Now the road inside is still difficult to walk, so we have to wait a few days."

"I brought you some medicine for washing sheep, called clarithromycin. There's a ratio on it. When the time comes, fill the sheep-washing pool with water, pour this in, and then you can drive your sheep in for washing."

"Okay, okay, I know this!" Halimu followed Li Long to carry down the box of carat phosphorus and said excitedly, "After we shear the wool in the next few days, we can wash the sheep. After washing the sheep, we will go into the mountains."

The life of herders is just like that day after day, year after year. If you want to see some changes, you have to wait another ten years. At that time, the policy was to settle down and develop animal husbandry, and all the herders in the mountains moved out, and the original life was different.

"Li Long, do you want some wool? If you do, I'll keep some for you." Halimu asked.

Li Long knew that part of the wool sheared by Halimu and his friends would be taken away by the pastoral team, just like the public grain paid by the production team, and part would be kept at home. Halimu's mother would spin wool and weave things when she had nothing to do in the summer.

So Li Long listened to Halim's words, waved his hand and said:

"No, you guys keep the wool, I don't want it."

After delivering the insecticide, Li Long went down the mountain and returned home with a few wolf skins given by Halimu. Halimu planned to wash the sheep in three days. He also had to inform Yushanjiang and others that the sheep should be washed together, mainly because the pesticides should not be wasted. Washing sheep from several families together would maximize their effectiveness.

Halimu asked Li Long to come over in three days, saying that he would bring him something.

Li Long thought it should be leather, deer antlers or something like that.

He won't refuse either.

For the next three days, Li Long was at the purchasing station every morning and afternoon. He found that 70% of the people who came to the purchasing station to sell things were ordinary people. What they sold were things they had stored at home or things they had obtained themselves.

The remaining 30% are middlemen who ride bicycles to the countryside to collect things, then come here to sell them and make a profit from the difference.

Some middlemen became familiar with Li Long and would occasionally tell him a joke and tell him some news from the countryside.

For example, there are still people hunting yellow sheep from time to time in Shawozi in the north; someone was digging licorice in the sand near Shawo and was fined; there was a flood in Dagou in the east, which washed away the dam of the reservoir, etc.

Li Long thought that Xiaohaizi should also have floods. Fortunately, he paid for the team to connect the flood channel and the main canal two years ago, so that when floods come, they can be directly discharged through the main canal, and the excess water will return to Xiaohaizi, which can increase the water volume of Xiaohaizi without breaking the dam.

I think the crucian carp in the small lake should start laying eggs now, right? In another month or two, a large number of small crucian carp should appear in the irrigation canal again.

There is no way. This thing reproduces too fast, in too large a quantity, and has strong vitality. In this area of ​​northern Xinjiang, there is basically no need to worry about its extinction.

Three days later, Li Long hung a sign saying "rest" at the door of the purchasing station, then drove into the mountains with the purchased salt, sugar cubes, brick tea and other daily necessities.

When he arrived at Halimu's place, Li Long found that the sheep-washing pool had not been filled with water yet. Halimu's sheep had not been washed, and their wool had not been sheared.

Halimu was not there, his wife was busy in the sheepfold. Seeing Li Long coming, Halimu's wife hurried to the jeep and told Li Long in a rather blunt way that Halimu and his family had gone into the mountains yesterday and could not wash the sheep today, but would be free tomorrow.

Li Long was a little disappointed, but it was normal to think about it. Without mobile phones these days, it was inconvenient to notify others when something happened. If something happened here, there was no way to contact him.

This is what the saying "plans are not as good as changes" means.

He moved the supplies out of the car, helped Halimu's wife put them into the warehouse, then drank a bowl of milk tea and drove away.

He did not go down the mountain directly. Instead, he drove to Wenquangou, locked the car door, and walked in with a gun in hand.

Li Long planned to take a hot spring bath - he hadn't done so for a while and he kind of missed it.

The water vapor in the hot spring ditch is still very thick, permeating the air, the smell of sulfur is very strong, and there are no fish to be seen in the water.

Li Long walked up the road and saw hoof prints of wild boars and deer by the water, but he could not see any animals. He did not know if it was the wrong time or if there were fewer animals, so he did not notice any movement.

Walking to the hot spring pools, Li Long observed carefully and found that the hoof prints here should have been formed before yesterday. No animals came here today.

That's safer.

He had no plans to hunt for the time being, so he just wanted to soak in the hot spring to relieve his fatigue. Li Long observed the surroundings again, and when he found no movement, he took his gun and went into the woods to get some grass to spread on the edge of the pool, took off his shoes and clothes, and got into the pool to soak.

It’s so comfortable - I haven’t soaked like this for a long time. I guess when summer comes, I can drag my family over here to soak.

While soaking in the water, Li Long heard the sound of water splashing. He looked up and found that there was no movement in front of him, just the normal sound of flowing water.

Li Long turned his head and looked back, but didn't see anything.

But he clearly heard some noise, probably something was approaching him!

Li Long suddenly stood up from the hot spring and looked around carefully.

There are several pools here, and the hot spring water makes a lot of noise when it flows through. Li Long carefully identifies the source of the strange noise.

Soon, he stared at the bend where the water was flowing in front of him on the left, where the water was faster and the splashes were larger.

A water rat suddenly jumped out from there, and after seeing Li Long, it turned around and went back.

It turns out to be this guy.

Li Long relaxed and smiled, thinking that he might have been making a fuss out of nothing. He had just sat in the hot spring and was about to take another soak when he saw the water rat rushing over again, and behind it, a black shadow fluttered out of the water!
Ha bear!

When the brown bear saw Li Long in the water, it suddenly roared and pounced on him!
PS: I posted it late yesterday because it was reviewed. I was not allowed to write about the process of milking goats or the sign of the purchasing station. I don’t understand. (End of this chapter)