Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

In just ten minutes, Li Long caught a dozen crucian carps weighing nearly two kilograms, and this was even before he caught some small ones that he didn't want.

"Hey, Xiaolong is really good at catching fish." Old Uncle Luo said with a smile, "This is enough to stew a plate."

"Well, fresh crucian carp is delicious," Li Long casually pulled a piece of Spathiphyllum from the roadside, strung the fish together one by one - through the fish's mouth and out through the gills, forming a fish skewer, and then handed it to Uncle Luo:
"Uncle Luo, you guys can stew this fish for lunch. Add this wine and you'll have a nice drink."

"Okay." Uncle Luo took it with a smile. "I was thinking about waiting for the water to stop and looking at the water inlet to see if I could use a scoop net to catch some fish. But you caught it right away."

The fourth team has actually changed a lot in the past two years. Take eating fish for example. In the past, people like the Li family who had eaten fish before would eat any fish they caught, regardless of winter or summer.

After all, in an era when meat is scarce, fish is a good thing and is not bad for supplementing nutrition.

In the past, some old people from northern Xinjiang and those who immigrated from Gansu and Shaanxi basically did not eat fish - after all, the crucian carp and silver carp produced here have relatively many bones, which makes them troublesome to eat, so they simply didn't eat them after being pricked a few times.

But in the past two years, Li Long's innovative ways of eating have made those who originally didn't eat fish start to like it - the first is to fry the fish and eat it in pieces, although the fish meat is also broken, it has flavor. Especially for big fish, the bones are also big, if you don't make it so broken, the small bones will be visible and it is not easy to get pricked.

The other method is even more convenient. Add more water when stewing the fish, stew it until it is well-cooked, and then use a colander to remove the fish bones and fish bones, leaving only the fish soup and fish meat. This is great for soaking rice or cooking noodles.

In later generations, people would use a wall-breaking machine to break up the stewed crucian carp with the bones and meat, but Li Long has never tried it.

With these ways of eating, those who originally did not eat fish naturally gradually accepted it - although the people in Team Four were richer than those in other production teams, not every family ate meat every day like the Li family.

Having fish to eat is better than eating vegetables every day, right?

More importantly, Team 4 is blessed with a unique natural advantage. As long as they release water to irrigate the land, whether it is fields or vegetable plots, there will definitely be fish in the canal water. As long as they are a little diligent, they can "pick up" the fish.

However, in the eyes of those villagers who have just begun to accept eating fish, people like the Li family are professional "fishermen". Even if they find out that there is news that there are fish to be caught somewhere, those who have a good relationship with them will come directly to find these families, and then take them to catch fish together, and they will "pick up" some along with them.

Professional things should be done by professionals, and this concept is really implemented by them. In the eyes of people like Li Long and Li Qiang, the fish are in the fields, in those pits where water can accumulate. They don't have to catch them, they can just pick them up. These people from Henan and Shandong are very familiar with this.

But in the eyes of those people, this job is not easy.

This reminded Li Long of the old lady in the bank who was afraid to confirm anything.

They confine themselves to a small circle which they think is safe, and are determined not to accept or actively contact things from the outside world.

"You go back first." Li Jianguo finished digging the dam in the field, and came to the field with a shovel and said to Li Long, "What are you doing here? It's so hot, and the sun is shining."

"What, brother? You killed a snake?" Li Long was surprised to find a soil worm hanging on the head of Li Jianguo's shovel.

"Hey, just now when I was walking on the edge of the field, I felt something bumping against me. It bumped against me twice, and I saw it was a long worm, so I slapped it to death. I remember when you were a kid, you liked to peel this, wrap it in sunflower leaves and roast it," Li Jianguo smiled, "This one is pretty thick, do you want it?"

"Yes, of course I don't want to." Li Long said with a smile, "I haven't seen one in a long time."

When Li Long first came to northern Xinjiang, he was a reckless teenager who wanted to try all kinds of strange things. He was even almost becoming a legend in the eyes of a certain generation in this village.

I have chased badgers with my bare hands and killed several poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. When I was a child, the few crucian carps I caught were not enough to stew, so I simply peeled them, sprinkled some salt and chili powder on them, wrapped them in sunflower leaves soaked in water, and buried them in the red ash of a burnt earthen stove. I could take them out and eat them after a dozen minutes.

This kind of grilled fish is now extinct and no one probably eats it anymore.

Li Jianguo's two words evoked Li Long's memories. He smiled, took the snake from his elder brother's shovel and began to look at it.

The snake's head had been crushed, and it was dead as hell. The snake was more than a meter long, slightly thinner than a child's wrist, and quite heavy.

Li Long once thought about making a belt out of snake skin. It is said that this thing will keep you cool in the summer when tied on. However, he got a few snake skins and didn't know how to process them, so they dried up and were wasted.

So he gave up the idea and took out a knife, and cut a circle around the snake's neck, like a circumcision. After cutting, he put the knife away and peeled off the snake's skin. He held the snake's head in one hand and pulled the skin down with the other hand. Using skillful force, he pulled and tugged, and the snake skin and body were separated.

"Hey, Xiaolong, you really look like a hunter!" Uncle Luo, who had already sent the fish back, came back and saw this and exclaimed, "This skin... is great!"

What was pulled out was not only the snake skin, but also the snake's stomach and intestines. The snake's gallbladder was not small, as big as a broad bean, but Li Long didn't want it.

He was about to throw the leather away, but Uncle Luo took it:

"Xiaolong, this snake skin is pretty good. Do you want me to process it for you?"

"Uncle Luo, can you do this?" Li Long was a little surprised. "Isn't this difficult to handle?"

"Hey, let's give it a try." Uncle Luo smiled but didn't guarantee anything.

Li Long was a little surprised. It seemed that all these people in Lao Mahao had some abilities. However, in this era, even if they had abilities, they might not be able to succeed.

"It will take some time. I'll give it to you when it's done. If it's not done, there's nothing I can do about it. Don't blame me."

"Of course. I don't know how to use this thing either. I originally wanted to throw it away."

"It's done. It will be a good belt for Xiaoxia." Old Uncle Luo said, "This snake skin is too thin after processing. It's not suitable for men."

Li Long didn't care. If he could catch one, he could catch ten - there were many snakes in the saline-alkali land of the Gobi Desert!
This is still a local worm, and there is also a plateau pit viper. Is the skin more advanced?
This is actually a specialty.

Seeing that Li Long was not leaving, Li Jianguo did not say anything and continued to deal with the watering. Farm work was child's play for Li Jianguo. After another half an hour, more than 20 acres of beets had been watered thoroughly. Li Jianguo even put the accumulated water at the end of the field into the saline-alkali land, so that the salt and alkali leached out by watering would be taken out.

This is the reason why flooding can suppress salinity and alkali – salinity and alkali dissolve in water, and after the surface layer melts, it is carried away by the water, so the salinity and alkali will be weaker.

Although the salt and alkali in the ground will come back up after a while, this period of time is enough for the crops in the field to grow well.

Someone hurried over carrying a shovel, and Li Jianguo walked from the end of the field to the end and chatted with the man for a few words, thus completing the handover.

At this time, watering is based on time, not cubic meters - although the final water charge is calculated based on cubic meters, without accurate measuring tools, it can only be calculated based on time.

More than 20 mu of land, less than an hour of watering time, the amount of water is quite large. The person who came to take over opened the water hole that Li Jianguo had blocked in advance, and the water flowed from the branch canal to their land. They had also made a water plugging hole over there, and the water flowed into their land after their own land was opened.

Li Jianguo blocked the water outlet at the edge of the field, and the water stopped flowing into the beet field. Soon there was no water in the field.

Occasionally, small crucian carps or puppy fish could be seen jumping, but Li Long didn't care.

The law of survival in nature is survival of the fittest - those fish that do not float downstream and remain in the small lake will survive longer.

Using a shovel to dig mud and block water is a technical job. If you don't know how to do it, half of the shovel may flow away with the water.

Li Jianguo moved very smoothly. With just two shovels, he blocked most of the water outlet with a shovel full of mud. The remaining reinforcement was a piece of cake.

Li Long looked at the skinned snake in his hand. Many people said that snakes in the wild had parasites, and the Tang bricks said there were also parasites, but Li Long had not seen any. He felt that the snake meat was crystal clear, and the blood inside was bright red and beautiful, which looked quite nice.

The ribs of snakes are a bit like the big spines of fish. Overall, he wanted to give it a try. "Brother, let's go back by car."

"No," Li Jianguo said as he arrived at the edge of the field, sat on the side of the road, took off his rubber boots, and changed into cloth shoes that were placed there. "I rode my bike and left it at the old horse shop. I'm covered in mud, so I won't take the bike anymore. You should drive back to the yard first, I'll be back soon."

Li Long drove the jeep back to the yard.

As expected, Li Qingxia was picking up the net - he went fishing again yesterday. Li Long saw a lot of dried fish hanging in the yard, swaying under the wire in the wind.

Du Chunfang was sitting under the shed picking fish. It looked like she would be cooking fish today.

The sister-in-law was weeding in the vegetable garden. There were already a lot of weeds piled up at the gate of the garden, divided into two piles. Li Long could see that one pile could be used as pig feed, and the other pile was weeds, which were ready to be thrown away later.

"Hey, Xiaolong, are you back?" Du Chunfang grinned, "You haven't been back for a few days."

"I was a bit busy recently." Li Long explained, then smiled and said to Li Qingxia, "Dad, you caught a lot of fish these days."

"There's less work to do in the fields now, so I'll just go fishing. There are so many fish in the lake, I'm itching to catch some." Li Qingxia smiled, "Fish are not selling well now, so I might as well dry them and eat them in autumn and winter."

After all, it was a bit far to ride a bicycle to Shicheng. It was only possible to go there occasionally, but it was too tiring to go there every day. Now that the Li family was not short of money, Li Qingxia would not do that. If he wanted to eat fish or exercise, he would catch fish or dry them.

In addition to growing crops this year, the Li family planted more sunflowers. Sunflowers are easier to care for than melons and do not require as much manpower, so farming will be easier for the Li family this year.

The land in northern Xinjiang is large, and if you want to work on the land, you can't finish it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, but if you want to take a break, you can take a break. After the sunflowers have grown, you don't need to be so diligent in weeding, because after the crops grow, the weeds can't be suppressed. Although they will compete for fertilizer below, the impact is not great.

The problem at this time is that the roots of the sunflowers are not deep enough and they will fall over when watering. In the 1980s, the high-quality seeds of dwarf big heads, which are very common in later generations and are resistant to lodging and have high yields, had not yet appeared, so we had to be very careful when planting. The presence of weeds on the ground can actually stabilize the soil, making the soil in this area less loose and the sunflowers less likely to fall over.

Of course, it depends on the specific situation.

"Dad, I made some money from selling Fritillaria this time, so I bought you a watch." Li Long took out the watch and handed it to his dad. When his dad, Li Qingxia, saw the watch handed over by Li Long, he immediately complained:

"Why buy that? I don't need to...spend money!"

Anyway, the elderly of this generation, including Li Long and his generation, basically have the same "morality" when they get old. When their children buy something for them, the first thing they say is "Why waste that money?" They are obviously very happy in their hearts, but they just won't say it out loud, and they even complain.

Well, it’s a sign of the times.

Anyway, Li Long understood, so he didn't feel uncomfortable. He smiled and put the watch into Li Qingxia's hand:
"Here, Dad. When you go to sell fish, you have to look at the time, right?"

"Hehehe, my hands are still dirty and smell fishy... Hurry up and take the watch first..."

"Just wipe it off. Don't think that something you wear every day is precious." Li Long has a new concept, which makes Li Qingxia very dissatisfied:

"How can I be so casual? This thing... is very expensive. In the team back home, only the captain and a few others have watches, right?" As he said this, he wiped the watch hurriedly and put it into his pocket. He then washed his hands and put it on again.

Li Long ignored his father's solemn words, turned to his mother, took out the bracelet and said:

"Mom, I bought this for you, try it on."

"It's a bit heavy... This must have cost a lot of money, right?" The bracelet was a bit big, and it was a bit shaky on Du Chunfang's wrist. Du Chunfang touched the bracelet and asked worriedly, "Why spend so much money when her mother didn't say anything?"

"What's there to say? She won't say anything." Li Long smiled, "Just wear it with peace of mind, old lady."

"Then I'll wear it. I'm happy that my son bought it for me." Du Chunfang knew that this bracelet was much more expensive than the watch. She had already made up her mind not to go out much in the future. What would she do if she lost such a valuable thing?
Sister-in-law Liang Yuemei came out of the vegetable field. Li Long opened the jeep and moved the washing machine while saying to her:

"Sister-in-law, I bought this washing machine for you. It's troublesome to wash the sheets and quilts at home by hand. You can use this washing machine to save trouble!"

"Hey, Xiaolong, why... did you spend so much money? Don't we wash clothes by hand now?" Liang Yuemei didn't expect Li Long to buy her such a big item this time. She was really embarrassed.

Li Jianguo was riding back by bike when he saw the washing machine. He got off his bike, propped up the washing machine and put down the shovel. Then he couldn't help but said with a straight face:

"It's not like I don't have money, why do I need you to buy this? Isn't this a waste of money? If you save that money, you can build a house for Mingming and Haohao in the future!"

Li Long smiled and said:
"Don't worry, I have the money. Money is earned to be spent. If not, it will just be a pile of paper. Besides, when I first came to Northern Xinjiang, you bought things for me. Now that I have the ability, it's not normal for me to buy things for you."

My parents are here, so we can't talk about this topic anymore. Li Jianguo didn't say much and changed the subject:

"Have you harvested the Fritillaria? How is the harvest this year?"

"We collected several tons in total!" Li Long said with a smile, "Now that they are all sold, we can take a break. I brought Sun Jiaqiang back from the mountains and asked him to help Uncle Gu and manage the purchasing station. They collected the goods and I found sales channels. It seems to be going well now."

"Well, as long as the things we collect can be sold, that's fine." Li Jianguo nodded and said, "Don't store too much goods. The things you collect are all mixed, and some of them can't be sold. So stop collecting them immediately."

"Okay, got it." Li Long obeyed. Liang Yuemei kept looking around the washing machine, and when she heard Li Jianguo say this, she couldn't help but refute:
"Isn't Xiaolong better than you at doing business? You should just focus on farming. Xiaolong must know the answer to this question."

"That's just my concern." Li Jianguo blushed slightly. As the eldest brother, he used to think that Li Long was still a child, and as the eldest brother, he must remind him, but now that Liang Yuemei said it, Li Jianguo remembered that Li Long had already started a family and was already an adult.

Lu Yingming, who lived next door, was sharpening a sickle in the yard. He looked over when he heard the noise. Mrs. Lu simply walked over and saw the washing machine in the yard. She immediately exclaimed:

"Hey, isn't this a washing machine? I saw it on TV, so Xiaolong bought it?"

Living across from the Li family is both a blessing and a torment. Every now and then, the Li family would have something that wasn't in their yard but only appeared in TV commercials. It was a torment to be able to see something strange but not be able to afford it.

Televisions are no longer a novelty in Team 4, because Li Long has led everyone to work and earn money in the past two years. Now almost every family has a bicycle, and almost half of the families have a television.

This proportion is relatively high even in the whole country.

As for the washing machine, no one in the team has bought it yet. After all, for ordinary people, labor is not valuable, so why use a machine to wash clothes? Isn't it better to wash by hand?

But this thing is, after all, an advanced machine, and the fact that the Li family was able to buy it shows their strength.

With the big mouth of Mrs. Lu, the news that the Li family bought a washing machine spread throughout the three settlements of the village in just half a day. Afterwards, many people came to see the novelty, and some aunts and sisters-in-law encouraged Liang Yuemei to show everyone how this thing washes clothes.

Li Long had already thought about the plug when he bought the washing machine, so he brought the long plug with him. Li Jianguo had already secretly studied the manual of the washing machine at noon, and since everyone was interested in it, he might as well use it.

When the washing machine was filled with water and started to rumble, many people exclaimed in amazement, saying, "This thing looks so good!"
Okay, a single-cylinder semi-automatic one. Although Li Long thinks it is backward, it is already a very advanced thing in the whole village.

Some people may complain that the Li family sells foreign bags, but more people still yearn for it and wonder when they can buy one for their own use.

Then work hard to make money! (End of this chapter)