Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The Tianshan Mountains are over 600 kilometers wide, which is an average.

Leaving aside the Eastern Tianshan Mountains, the area from Wucheng to Shicheng in the west, especially the Tianshan Mountains south of Ma County, is relatively narrow. From north to south, those mountains are densely stacked and crowded, like students warming themselves by the fire in winter, wishing they could all squeeze together.

As we go further west, the middle of the Tianshan Mountains split into two branches, forming the Central Tianshan Mountains, and with the Ili River Valley, the Tianshan Mountains became wider. With the Central Tianshan Mountains, there are the Southern Tianshan Mountains and the Northern Tianshan Mountains.

Of course, the widest part of the Tianshan Mountains is almost outside the country, so we won’t mention it.

In the middle of the Tianshan Mountains to the west of Shicheng, in the Ili River Valley, there are large areas of alpine grasslands in the Tianshan Mountains. The altitude of these grasslands is more than 1,000 meters, and some are even higher than 3,000 meters.

Why are there many places in Yili called sky grasslands? It is because these grasslands are on the mountains, on the top of the mountain - such as Tohulasu and Nalati. You walk from the city to the mountains, go around the winding mountain road again and again, and then finally climb to the top of the mountain. Suddenly, you find that the top of the mountain is actually a large hilly grassland - it turns out that the top of the mountain is like this!

It subverts many people's perception of the mountain top, so it is called the grassland in the sky.

In the section of the Tianshan Mountains from Shicheng to Wucheng in the east, there are almost no large grasslands in the mountains, and grasslands are almost invisible in the air. This can be seen from the rough map.

But if you zoom in on the map, you can see that when you enter the mountains from the north and walk out of more than ten layers of mountains, alpine meadows will appear in the mountains, scattered and not necessarily connected.

These alpine meadows are very small compared to the aerial grasslands in Yili, but they are actually enough for grazing by one or two families, or one or two small tribes.

There are abundant alpine meadows like this in the deep mountains south of Ma County, but they are not large in scale and are occupied by small tribes like Halimu, whose ancestors used to graze their livestock there.

Li Long is currently walking on such an alpine meadow. He estimates that the altitude here is at least 1,200 to 1,300 meters.

The grassland near Yerjiang's home is thousands of acres in size - this scale is insignificant compared to the hundreds of thousands or millions of acres of grassland in the Ili River Valley, but Li Long still feels very small when walking in it.

Li Long knew that it was difficult to find prey on the grass. From time to time, a marmot would show its head. Even though it had been sleeping for a whole winter, it looked plump no matter how you looked at it, as if it had never been thin.

These guys were extremely timid, not at all as reckless as their descendants, the Internet groundhogs. They immediately retracted their necks upon seeing Li Long - mainly because there were many natural enemies nearby, especially hawks and falcons flying in the sky, and animals such as foxes appearing in the grass on the ground.

Of course, Li Long is one of them.

However, Li Long disdained these little guys. First, they might have the famous No. 1 disease, and second, they were too fat and not to Li Long's taste. Even if Meng Hai and the others didn't mind, how many would they have to catch?
trouble.

So Li Long looked around and found that the forest in the south was too far away, so he walked east. There was a sparse pine forest about 400 to 500 meters east, and there seemed to be a stone wall behind the pine forest. There should be prey there. Even if there is not, the terrain there is higher, and it will be easier to find things after climbing up.

When Li Long walked to the edge of the forest, a breeze blew over and he immediately felt cool.

This is the situation in the mountains. It's too hot in the sun and the ultraviolet rays are too strong. Once you get under a tree, you will immediately feel cool, even a little bit cool in the shade.

However, what surprised Li Long was that he found a lot of particularly large morels in the moss here.

Li Long immediately put his gun on his back, took out a cloth bag from his backpack and started picking these precious mushrooms.

It seemed that no one had ever picked the morels in this pine forest. They were large and grew in clusters. Looking far away, there were seven or eight of them gathered together, growing densely in clusters. The largest one was as big as a palm. When I picked one up and took a look at it in my hand, it was very tender and broke if I used a little force.

In a short while, Li Long had picked more than half a kilogram.

The resources in the mountains are truly abundant, in places where few people go. Things that are worth hundreds or thousands of dollars grow freely here without anyone paying attention.

The morels looked strange and had a bland taste, so birds and animals were not interested in them, which gave Li Long an advantage.

After picking up this small patch of morels, Li Long continued to walk into the woods with the bag. Morels are fragile, so he didn't put them in his backpack. He planned to pick up more if he couldn't find anything later, and then carry them back directly.

Not long after walking into the pine forest, Li Long smelled a scent of blood.

He suddenly became alert and no longer cared about the morels. He put the cloth bag containing the mushrooms into his backpack, held the gun with both hands, turned on the safety, loaded the bullet, and slowly moved towards the direction of the smell of blood.

This pine forest was not big. After walking more than 20 meters forward, he came out of the pine forest. At the edge of the pine forest, he saw two gray wolves gnawing on something in the grass under the mountain wall in front of him.

A wolf was gnawing vigorously and pulled hard. The head of the animal being gnawed was pulled up from the grass, revealing two round stick-like antlers. It turned out to be an adult elk.

It was not known whether it had fallen from the cliff and died, or was hunted by two wolves. At this moment, the elk was motionless, and one of the wolves had already opened its belly and was gnawing at its internal organs.

Carnivores prefer to eat the internal organs of their prey because they are rich in fat and can quickly replenish energy.

Li Long raised his gun and aimed at the gray wolf that was close to him.

"Ow—!"

Before the gun went off, a gray wolf howled in Li Long's blind spot, blocked by a pine tree!
It turns out there was a wolf on guard there!
After hearing the howling, the two gray wolves quickly turned their heads to look into the pine forest. After seeing Li Long, they turned around and ran away!
Boom!

Two gunshots were heard, and one gray wolf fell to the ground, while the other gray wolf jumped and ran deep into the bushes.

The gray wolf moved very quickly. Li Long held the gun steadily, predicted his movement trajectory, and then shot.

boom!
boom!
boom!
After three shots, the wolf, which had run about twenty or thirty meters, fell on the grass.

When Li Long stood up and looked for the alert wolf again, it had already disappeared.

From beginning to end, Li Long never saw what the guard wolf looked like.

Li Long did not relax his vigilance. He took out the magazine from his backpack, pulled the bolt to catch the ejected bullet, then filled the magazine. After putting away the magazine, he pushed the bullet into the chamber and walked forward vigilantly with the gun in hand.

The grass was not very deep, and the wolf either hid in the forest or fled along the edge of the forest.

After looking around and finding no trace of the wolf, Li Long went over and picked up the wolf that he had knocked down in the distance.

The gray wolf is not very fat, weighing about 40 kilograms. It is big in size, but looks very lean.

Putting the two wolves together, Li Long went to see the deer again.

The elk is much larger than the wolf. If it were alive and uninjured, it would weigh more than 70 kilograms.

At this time, its stomach had been torn open, its intestines had been pulled out, and half of its heart and liver had been eaten.

Li Long squatted down and took some sika deer blood and smelled it. The blood smelled very fresh, indicating that the deer had died not long ago.

He put his gun on his back, took out his knife and started to deal with the elk.

This elk had no signs of being injured by a fall, but had many scratches on its body, which meant it must have been hunted by three wolves.

He used a knife to cut off the bitten part of the abdomen, took out all the internal organs in the stomach and piled them aside. He could feel the heat from those internal organs.

Then Li Long began to process the red deer.

Cut off the deer head and put it aside. These wolves don't know the value of things, leaving the most valuable antlers alone - Li Long got a bargain. Although the two antlers on the deer's head are not big, they weigh nearly two kilograms together, and they are still intact after being tossed around by the wolves for so long, which is good.

Li Long planned to take it back later - without a saw, it would be difficult to cut it off with a knife.

The deer's internal organs had been taken out, so it was a bit difficult to skin it. Li Long was very careful and peeled slowly, mainly because he was afraid of damaging the skin - the wolf would make irregular cuts when tearing open the deer's belly, and if the skin was torn at this time, the value of the skin would be greatly reduced.

After all, a complete deerskin costs seventy or eighty yuan, so we can't be careless.

It took me about half an hour to peel off the deerskin. Although it was a little bit missing, the shape was basically intact. The most important thing was that there was almost no grease or skin on the peeled skin, and it looked in very good condition.

Li Long was also very satisfied with himself. He spread out the leather and stretched it, then lightly applied a layer of salt from his backpack, then applied another layer of salt on the deer's claws. After getting rid of all the flies and wasps, he sat on the grass to rest.

Li Long doesn't smoke, but if someone else were to smoke at this time, it would be the most comfortable time. At this moment, he is in a position with pine forests to the north, mountain walls to the south, the junction of pine forests and mountains to the east, and mountain grasslands to the west. Looking over, there is an undulating green, which is very pleasing to the eye.

Occasionally, you can see white dots on the grass, either mushrooms or stones. Li Long plans to wait until he has finished dealing with the wolves and deer at the winter den in Yeerjiang, and then come back in the afternoon to see if he can see the mushroom circle.

Although he had seen mushroom circles more than once, Li Long still wanted to see if there were any.

After resting for seven or eight minutes, Li Long felt his energy restored, so he stood up and began to skin the two wolves.

The first wolf was shot in the head, which was better, and a good skin could be peeled off. The second wolf was shot twice while running - Li Long remembered that he fired at least four shots, and two of the bullets were empty.

One bullet hit just below the spine, and the other hit the stomach. These two shots turned the skin into a remnant.

Of course, even the remaining skin is more valuable than sheepskin. Li Long first peeled off this remaining skin. One of the two bullets remained in the wolf's body, and the other went straight through it, leaving three bullet holes.

Since the wolf was not gutted, it was relatively easy to skin it. In less than 20 minutes, a wolf skin was peeled off. Then the wolf was gutted again, all the internal organs were taken out and put aside.

This time the internal organs will definitely be discarded, but the wolf's fangs must be pried off.

The other wolf was skinned very quickly as well. After skinning, the deer and wolf's internal organs were piled together as a sacrifice to the mountain god. You can call it a sacrifice or a tribute, that's the idea anyway.

Li Long remembered that he once found a group of stone houses in the mountains, where there were still primitive worships. He didn't know whether the residents in the mountains worshipped the mountain god or the ferocious beasts in the mountains.

In short, these are for them to enjoy.

After resting for a while, Li Long wrapped the claws of the two wolves with leather, took out a rope from his backpack and tied it on his back, then wrapped the claws of the elk with leather, and this one could only be held in his arms.

The deer's head with antlers was stuffed into the deer's horns - the same with the whip.

This is a bit cumbersome, but there is nothing we can do about it. Who can blame us for having so many things to fight?
Downhill.

Fortunately, this place was not far from Yeerjiang’s winter nest, and Li Long did not rest in the middle and walked to the place in one go.

Meng Hai and his men had just removed the roof of the winter den and were re-laying the wooden beams and boards. When they saw Li Long returning with a full load, they all cheered.

"Why don't you come and help me? All the mushrooms I picked are broken!" Li Long shouted loudly.

The two young men immediately ran over and took the prey from Li Long's hands.

"Is this a wolf? We heard gunshots just now. There were so many gunshots that we thought you were in danger." Meng Hai asked after taking a look at the prey.

"Two... no, three wolves were hunting a red deer. When I found it, the red deer had been mauled to death." Li Long pointed at the red deer that had been taken away and said, "I killed two wolves, and the other one ran away."

"Awesome, really awesome! Two wolves! Even with a gun, I'd still be scared..." someone exclaimed, "These wolves... hey, they're really fierce!"

"Well, I remember an old man in our team was bitten by a wolf, right?"

"The old man of the Zheng family was herding sheep. One of his sheep was lost, so he went to look for it with a whip. As a result, two wolves almost ate him." said another person.

Qingshuihe Village is not far from the mountains. There are more wolves here than in Team 4, and the chance of accidents is also greater.

"I have a gun, so I'm not afraid. Okay, I'll unload the meat now. Come over and set up the stove. We'll have the cooked meat for lunch. Then I'll unload the meat and give some to everyone." Li Long said, "When the meat is cooked, someone will go and deliver it to Master Hou."

"No problem!" Meng Hai and the others agreed readily.

Li Long took off his backpack and looked at the morels inside. Just as he expected, most of them were crushed.

There is nothing we can do about it. After all, these mushrooms are very crispy and cannot withstand being pressed.

Regardless of all that, Li Long took a large basin from the back of the jeep, fetched water from the water pipe, and then began to unload the meat.

Now Li Long discovered that the water pipe was connected very well, making it very convenient for washing things and using water in daily life.

The stove was set up - in fact, this stove was also made of a few stones. Anyway, there was plenty of firewood. After using straw poles to light the branches and then putting chopped firewood on them, the fire under the stove became strong, and it was very convenient to boil water.

Li Long first removed some of the venison, removed the lymph nodes on the neck and other parts, and put them into the pot in pieces, followed by the ribs and legs.

Li Long's knife was made of very good steel, and he took good care of it, trying not to touch the bones with the blade, and never cutting hard if he could cut at the joints. He also carried an oil stone bought from a department store in his backpack, and rubbed it from time to time to keep the blade sharp.

A young man said enviously:

"Officer Li, your knife is really sharp! It looks like you made it yourself, right?"

"Well, I made it from shell casings I picked up at the artillery range." Li Long said as he unloaded the meat, "It's mainly because the steel is good."

"We've picked up quite a few of them. We all have kitchen knives at home because they're too difficult to sharpen." Someone continued.

There are target shooting at the artillery range every year, and shell casings are easy to pick up, so the management is not very strict at this time. Qingshuihe Village is closer to the range than the fourth team, which is more advantageous.

Li Long smiled and said:
"Some people still sell scrap metal, right? Get a piece and find a good blacksmith to make a knife that you can carry with you. It will last you a long time."

As they chatted, nearly ten kilograms of meat were soon put into the pot. The red deer was quite large, so this amount of meat only accounted for a small part. Li Long began to cut up the rest.

And wolf meat.

Since there were fewer people back this time, there was naturally more meat to be shared. With the two wolves and the remaining elk, each person could get nearly ten kilograms of meat.

So Meng Hai and the others couldn't stop smiling - they thought they might not get any meat today, but unexpectedly they got more than yesterday!
After Li Long finished unloading the meat, he wanted to help, but Meng Hai and the others persuaded him to stop working and take a rest since he had made great contributions in hunting prey.

Li Long smiled, spread out the skin to dry, and then went to deal with the antlers on the deer's head.

There was a hand saw in the jeep. He removed the antlers and was about to throw away the deer head, but Meng Hai stopped him.

"This deer head is also a good thing. We can't throw it away. Leave it here and we will take it back." Meng Hai said.

Li Longxin said, I didn’t tell me to leave the internal organs there, otherwise why didn’t you run over and pick them all up?
This is not just Li Long's conjecture. If he said it out loud, these people would really run over and pick up those internal organs.

That's all good meat!

Li Long left the deer head to Meng Hai, and washed the broken morels and then stewed mushroom soup.

Since it's already broken, we might as well make use of it and repair it for everyone.

He planned to spend the afternoon picking mushrooms. There were abundant resources of morels here, and he would definitely be able to pick more if he looked around. If he didn't go hunting, he would just pick mushrooms and take some home to dry in the sun.

One young man tried to imitate the way he had eaten yesterday and went to the nearby area to find some wild onions and garlic. He brought them back, washed them, processed them, and chopped them into small pieces. Li Long had already taken out the chili oil and vinegar, and they just needed to prepare the sauce and they would have a good meal.

The venison was not too tough and was cooked quickly, and the aroma of the meat filled the valley.

At this time, a black cloud floated in the sky, and Li Long hurriedly called out to everyone:

"Hide quickly, get in the car, get in the winter shelter, it will rain heavily soon!"

PS: The next chapter will be a little later (end of this chapter)