Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The shape of the Tianshan Mountains is different from that of many other places. The outer mountains here are several layers of soil and gravel. At the beginning, nothing grows. Later, some weeds and shrubs grow, but they are relatively sparse. Only then will more dense shrubs and trees grow further in.

Going further in, there are many grasses or pine and cypress trees on the mountain. After climbing over a dozen steep mountains, there will suddenly be a large gentle slope.

There are almost no trees on these gentle slopes, only high-quality pasture. From a distance, they look like undulating curves and staggered shapes, like the figure of a beautiful woman. Later generations called them human grasslands.

For example, Kalajun, Qiongkushitai, and Nalati Sky Grassland.

There are also such grasslands deep in the southern mountains of Ma County, but they can only be seen after passing many steep mountains.

At this moment, Li Long was walking in the mountains with a gun in hand.

He was quite excited - it had been a long time since he had searched for prey in the mountains with a gun. This was what hunting was all about.

Li Long didn't have the tracking skills of an old hunter, but he had a strong observation ability. When he went down to the ravine, he could see if there were any signs of recent collisions on the grass or bushes, and whether there was any feces or urine from wild animals nearby.

From these clues, it can be analyzed whether there have been any wild animals nearby recently - of course, Li Long doesn't have the time to do that, so he relies on his long legs, fast speed and great strength, plus good eyesight, and simply uses the most direct way, climbing over the ravines and violently crossing them.

In the winter nest of Yushan River, Li Xiangqian was resting, breathing heavily.

He hadn't worked properly for a while, and after moving bricks for a while, he felt that he had lost his strength.

Fortunately, Meng Hai and his team came over to unload the materials immediately after Li Long left. These people were the main force of the work. After they unloaded the materials, they began to remove the roof of the winter nest as planned, and the construction waste was piled aside.

The wood above was already a bit old, and some of them showed signs of decay at both ends. After consulting Li Xiangqian, Meng Hai began to replace the unusable wood.

When Yushanjiang and his team left, all the supplies in the winter nest were taken away, leaving only the wooden kang. So when renovating, they only needed to ensure that the wooden kang was not damaged, and everything else could be moved.

Li Xiangqian sat in front of the brick pile, pointed to the southeast and said:
"When we were pulling the water pipes earlier, Li Long told me that there were more than a dozen winter camps in the mountains, and it was difficult to get there by car. These supplies..."

"We'll carry the supplies up." Meng Haibian continued while working, "Director Li, don't worry about this. Since we have accepted this job, we will definitely do it well."

"In that case, the construction period will be extended and it will be very hard work. Li Long agreed with you that the daily wage was five yuan, right? In this case, I will raise it to ten yuan. Later, you may need to carry these bricks and cement to other winter shelters."

"Thank you so much!" Meng Hai rubbed his hands and looked at the others, indicating that they all understood that they had made a profit this time.

Although ten dollars is not as much as a salary, it is better than five dollars, right?
The others were also very happy to hear what Li Xiangqian said. This was a great thing!

"Now that you've had a good rest, come and get to work!" Li Xiangqian stood up and started to help with other cadres.

Ma Xiaoyan started taking pictures again, then took a pen and recorded the necessary information.

He will also interview Li Xiangqian and Meng Hai later.

She originally wanted to take the opportunity to interview Li Long as well, but Li Long ran fast and she couldn't catch him.

"Plop!"

A pheasant came out from the bushes, flew to five or six meters in the air, flapping its wings, and was about to land on the opposite hillside. When it flew up, it happened to see Li Long. The pheasant reacted quickly, turned in the air, and flapped its wings desperately to fly away.

Li Long raised his gun, took aim, and put it down again. Wouldn't this thing be broken by a shot?

He was also worried that the gunshot would scare away the wild animals around him, so he put away his gun.

There were about ten people coming this time, and if there were not enough small prey like pheasants and rabbits, they would not be enough to fill their stomachs.

Li Long continued to climb the hill with his gun in hand. He encountered two hares and a pheasant, both of which he let go.

He wanted to hit a big guy.

After climbing over two more mountains and descending into a ravine, Li Long suddenly heard someone shouting. He listened carefully and found that the noise was coming from the next ravine.

Li Long rushed up the hillside. When he reached the top and looked down, he found that about fifty meters to his left, a male elk was limping forward, aiming at the ravine in front of him. About twenty meters behind the male elk, there was a man holding a stick in his left hand and a bag in his right hand, and was chasing the male elk with all his might.

The male elk was lame because its right hind leg seemed to be slightly broken, but it didn't care about that at the moment. It ran forward desperately with its remaining three legs, and actually put some distance between itself and the people chasing it.

The people chasing behind didn't notice Li Long on the hillside. They ran breathlessly and shouted:

"You beast, stop right now! I tell you, if I don't chase you to death today, I will write the word 'king' backwards!"

In an instant, the male sika deer had arrived at the ravine in front of Li Long, and it also did not notice Li Long standing in the bushes.

Li Long estimated that the end of the ravine was less than a hundred meters away. Based on the speed at which the man surnamed Wang and the male elk were running, there would be a distance of forty to fifty meters between them when they reached the mouth of the ravine.

The man named Wang will definitely not be able to catch up.

The main reason was that the bag he was carrying must have contained more than ten kilograms of things, and this guy was reluctant to throw them away, which slowed down his speed.

Li Long picked up the gun, estimated the probability of advance, took aim, and fired a shot. The bullet hit the male elk's head.

The elk fell down because of the sound. The man named Wang who was chasing it was stunned.

He looked up and saw Li Long holding a gun. He screamed and turned around to run back.

"Don't run! I'll shoot you if you run again!"

Li Long shouted loudly, and the man surnamed Wang really stopped. He raised the hand holding the stick high:
"Don't shoot, don't shoot, I won't run away!" After saying that, he threw away the stick.

"Come here!" Li Long shouted again, then walked down the mountain towards the sika deer with his gun.

Half a minute after Li Long reached the bottom of the ditch, the man came over and looked at Li Long tremblingly, fearing that he would shoot.

"Did you hurt this deer?" Li Long looked up and asked, looking at the fresh wounds on the sika deer's hind legs.

"Yes... yes." Wang Qiang said with a little stammer, "I just hit it with a stick."

"Sure! Are you ambushing the elk?" Li Long turned on the safety of the gun, put the gun on his back, pulled out a knife, and began to bleed the elk.

"I saw this elk moving around in the ravine yesterday. It dug a pit there last night and covered it with grass. This morning I saw this elk again and chased it towards the pit, and then it fell into the pit.

I thought I could catch it alive, but when I chased it to the edge of the pit, the elk ran out and I only had time to break its hind legs with a stick. "

"Very clever." Li Long praised, "Are you digging for Fritillaria in the mountains?"

"Well. Don't catch me. I'm leaving now. I don't want these Fritillaria anymore. I'll give them all to you. Don't catch me." Wang Qiang put the bag in front of Li Long. "There are more than ten kilograms of Fritillaria in this bag. They are worth some money. I don't want them anymore. I'll give them all to you. Don't catch me!"

"Don't leave yet." Li Long just responded, and then continued to skin the elk. When the skin was almost completely peeled off, Li Long removed one of the elk's hind legs, the injured one, and handed it to Wang Qiang, saying:
"Here, take it. You were the one who found and injured this elk. Even though it would have gotten away if I hadn't shot it, you still have a share of the credit. Now, take it and go."

Wang Qiang found it a little unbelievable.

"Hurry up, I have my own things to do." Li Long urged him while holding up the sika deer's leg.

Wang Qiang took it hesitantly, and seeing that Li Long was giving it to him sincerely, he thanked him earnestly. After picking up the deer leg, he turned around and was about to leave, looking back from time to time as he walked.

"Take your Fritillary. I'm not a robber. Although I'm also a forest ranger, I'll let you go today since we have a chance." Li Long shouted again behind him. Wang Qiang listened and turned around and hurriedly dragged up the Fritillary bag. He bowed deeply to Li Long and then left quickly.

Li Long took out the internal organs of the male elk and placed them in the ravine. Then he wrapped the whole deer with deerskin, tucked it under his armpit, and rushed back the way he came with his gun in hand.

When Li Long returned to his winter home in Yushan River, the place had changed a lot.

The roof of the winter house had been completely removed and replaced with new wood. The wood was laid very densely, and thick hay was laid on top. At this time, Meng Hai and his team were preparing to lay the mud on the house.

There were two people mixing cement mortar, and one person holding a large shovel and tile trowel, filling the gaps in the walls of the winter den with bricks and applying cement.

Li Xiangqian and two other leaders of the supply and marketing cooperative were digging a pit at the mouth of the water pipe. Seeing how square the pit was, Li Long guessed that they were going to lay bricks here to build a pool. The head of the water pipe had been led to the other side to facilitate construction.

Ma Xiaoyan held the camera and kept adjusting the angles, taking half a day to take a photo.

The film at that time was still relatively expensive, so people couldn’t take pictures casually like they did in later generations.

When everyone saw Li Long coming back with a deer, smiles appeared on their faces.

Li Long placed the deer next to the jeep and then repaired the stove outside.

After finishing, he took out a pot from the trunk of the jeep, rinsed it under the water pipe, filled half of the pot with water and placed it on the stove. There were a lot of firewood and fire starters nearby, so Li Long quickly lit the fire under the stove and then began to carve the venison.

When he was cutting the venison, he would cut the shaved bones with meat on into fist-sized pieces and throw them into the pot to cook.

Half of the meat bones were cooked, and for the remaining half, Li Long got out a few basins from the back of the jeep, put water in one of the basins, and then pulled the deer bones into the water.

After finishing these tasks, he went to Meng Hai to find a shovel, dug a trench in a relatively flat place nearby, put the excavated soil on both sides and compacted it to form two platforms. This was to make a barbecue trench.

After the trough was dug and the soil inside was cleaned, he saw that the firewood under the stove was almost burned - so he scooped it out with a shovel and put it in the newly dug trough, and then took some more firewood and stuffed it under the stove to continue burning.

Looking at Li Long's smooth movements, Li Xiangqian sighed:

"This guy is the master of the mountain. No one can starve in this mountain. Xiaolong, your shooting skills are getting better and better. You have shot such a big deer in just a short time."

"I also took advantage of others." Li Long took a branch and spread the charcoal fire in the trough evenly. Then he took a knife to the nearby waterside and cut red willow branches. While cutting, he said loudly:

"There was a guy digging for Fritillaria just now. He found this deer and broke one of its legs. But the deer ran fast and he couldn't catch up with it, so I killed it."

"What about that person?" Ma Xiaoyan asked curiously.

"I gave him a leg of deer and let him go."

"Okay, you're quite particular." Li Xiangqian said with a smile, "Does this count as a treat for everyone who sees it?"

"Count, of course." Li Long brought back a bunch of branches, sat beside the stove and cleaned them carefully, slowly carving out a bunch of wooden sticks.

After sharpening the wooden skewers, Li Long started to cut the meat.

Take the meat you just cut out out of the basin, take an empty basin, wash it clean and use it as a chopping board, pick out the fat and lean meat, cut it into pieces and thread them with wooden sticks. There is no need to marinate it at this time. Fresh meat, even game, can have a strong smell when grilled with enough seasonings.

Unless it's a particularly smelly kind, there's nothing we can do about it.

This male elk looks to be about two or three years old, not yet particularly smelly, making it just the right size for use.

There are two antlers on the top of the red deer's head, each with three forks. A fresh one can weigh more than two kilograms. This and the deer penis that Li Long specially left behind are both good things.

The meat on the stove over there was already boiling, but Li Long ignored it and continued to cut the meat into skewers. Ma Xiaoyan came over to help.

She found that Li Long's jeep was like a treasure chest, with all kinds of tools and condiments in the trunk.

Ma Xiaoyan found an aluminum spoon, took it to the drain to rinse it, and then went to the stove to skim off the foam on the broth and throw it away.

The fragrance slowly spread.

The meat skewers that Li Long skewered were relatively large, with each skewer weighing two to three hundred grams. The charcoal fire under the trough was not very strong, so it would take a long time to roast, so one couldn't be impatient.

After stringing twenty or thirty skewers, Li Long took the skewers, put them on the trough and started roasting.

He took salt, cumin and chili powder from the trunk of the jeep and slowly sprinkled it on the kebabs.

The deputy director who worked with Li Xiangqian and Section Chief Zhou couldn't help but smell the scent and kept turning their heads to look in Li Long's direction.

"Don't look at it anymore, let's get to work." Li Xiangqian said with a smile, "Don't wait until everyone else has finished their work and the three of us haven't even built a pool yet. That would be embarrassing."

The deputy director and Section Chief Zhou then sped up their work. Fortunately, this job did not require much technical skills. They just laid out a layer of bricks and applied a layer of cement mortar. The pool was about half a meter deep. Then they applied cement inside and outside. Then they just waited for it to dry. After it dried, they just covered the surrounding sand and soil.

They finished the work quickly, washed their hands, and ran quickly to Li Long.

"Xiao Li, let me try?" Section Chief Zhou Yuan volunteered, "I have grilled meat at home before, so I am familiar with this job."

"Okay, section chief, you do it then." Li Long stepped down and took the bag of salt. He walked to Ma Xiaoyan and sprinkled a handful of salt into the pot.

"Is it a lot?" Ma Xiaoyan asked.

“Not much, not much.” Li Long shook his head: “Almost.”

"Will the soup be salty?" Ma Xiaoyan asked worriedly again.

"No." Li Long didn't expect that Ma Xiaoyan was still planning to drink the soup, so he stopped when he was about to sprinkle a handful of salt.

Okay, he is a guest, show some respect.

"There are wild onions on that hillside. Go and pick some." Li Long didn't treat Ma Xiaoyan as an outsider at all and ordered her to do the work.

Ma Xiaoyan didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. She put the aluminum spoon next to the pot and started picking wild onions.

"Hey, Xiaolong, you're quite good at ordering people around." Li Xiangqian said with a low laugh.

"Make the best use of people." Li Long smiled, "By the way, Director, you don't need to come tomorrow, right?"

"Come, of course you can come, you have to come for at least three days. We are not putting on a show, we really want to help the herdsmen solve some practical problems."

"We're going to another winter camp tomorrow. This car can't get in." Li Long reminded.

"I know, I know. I also know that the construction materials that are going to be brought in tomorrow will have to be carried up by our brothers using the spanners. I just told them to double their wages from five dollars to ten dollars. This is hard work, and we should let them get the money they deserve for their hard work."

"Then I'll listen to you, Director." Li Long smiled, then lowered his voice, "I'll pack up the antlers and penis of this deer later, and you can take them back when you return."

"Hey, kid." Li Xiangqian patted Li Long on the shoulder and did not refuse.

At noon, Li Long saw that the barbecue was almost done, so he shouted at the top of his voice:
"Okay, stop what you are doing and have lunch. Then take a break and continue working."

Zhou Yuan was grilling meat just now. Seeing that he was quite skilled at it, Li Long did not take over. Instead, he skewered some more and grilled them on the side. At the same time, he also put the naan he brought today on the grill.

Naan and kebab are a perfect match.

Meng Hai and the others gathered together laughing and went to the water pipe to get water to wash the mud off their hands, faces and bodies.

"Meng, there are enamel basins and disposable chopsticks in the trunk. Give one to each of us. Officer Ma, please act as the chef and help everyone scoop out the meat and make soup."

Ma Xiaoyan had just pulled back a large bundle of wild onions. She followed Li Long's example and used the bottom of a basin as a table. She washed and chopped the onions and put them into a small basin.

If anyone wants to eat it while drinking soup, just grab a handful and sprinkle it into the soup. It has a very strong flavor.

Meng Hai and his friends were very tired, but they enjoyed the meal very much.

They could see that leaders like Li Xiangqian were sincerely working with them, and of course they were happier because they ate better and earned more money.

Even if this kind of work is tiring, they are willing to do it for a few more days. (End of this chapter)