Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Long found Xie Yundong, he was carrying a shovel and preparing to go to the field. Seeing Li Long coming, Xie Yundong guessed something, he put down the shovel and asked:
"Xiaolong is back, is there any news?"

"Well, the work has come. It has been confirmed that there will be one thousand this year, which is much more than last year. It would be best if we could go into the mountains in the next two days, you see..."

"Then I'll go and notify them." Xie Yundong said immediately, "When will the work be finished? Do you need more people?"

"At the end of May, my eldest brother and Brother Lu Yingming will also go. We won't add the others, just the ones you know from last time. I heard from the captain that you guys have invited Old Huang along?"

"Well, someone has to cook." Xie Yundong said, "Your father-in-law said he can't go this time, so I have to find someone else. Old Huang is the team's master chef, so he must be the one to cook. This year, the team didn't provide anyone, so we can't give people work points, and we can't give them points ourselves. So I discussed it with the others and decided to give money. Everyone contributed money, and he thought it was okay. He originally thought he could earn 60 or 70 yuan a month, but now he can earn 100 yuan, so he's very happy."

"That's fine. I'll go to Daqiang's house now to see if he's going. Whether he's going or not, I'll ask him to go and tell you when the time comes. I'm driving a tractor here. I'm going into the mountains today. If anyone plans to go today, come find me when the time comes. By the way, how did you originally plan to go?"

"I originally planned to take your tractor. But then I thought you might not have time, so I thought I'd just rent the team's horse-drawn carriage and pay for it. It'll only take a day to get back anyway."

"Okay, then go and get ready. You'll be gone for at least a month, and you'll have to explain things to your family." Li Long pushed the cart and left.

Xie Yundong hurriedly carried the shovel back home. He really needed to clean up quickly.

When Li Long arrived at Tao Daqiang's house, Tao Daqiang was already pumping up his bicycle. After he was done, he was going to Li's house to ask Li Qingxia to go fishing together.

"Hey, Brother Xiaolong is back?" Tao Daqiang's wife Yang Pingping was the first to see Li Long with her belly bulging. She smiled and said hello, "Sister-in-law is not back?"

"Well, she's at work, so we can only wait until Sunday." Li Long smiled and said, "How many months will it take for the baby to be born?"

"About three or four months." Yang Pingping touched her belly, "It's very bad now."

"That might be a son, naughty." Li Long joked.

At this time, some people still had ideas about having a son, so when Tao Jianshe, who was sitting at the door, heard Li Long's words, a smile appeared on his face.

"Brother Xiaolong, are you here for something?" Daqiang knew that if Li Long could come here, it was probably because of something, otherwise he would have waited for him to come over.

"I'm still alive. The price of braiding a handle has gone up, four yuan each." Li Long said, "It's up to you whether you want to go or not, but seeing how your wife is, you'd better not go."

"Yeah, I'm not going." Tao Daqiang said with a smile, "My dad said he wants to go."

"Uncle Tao? You're going?" Li Long was a little surprised. "The conditions in the mountains aren't very good."

"Hey, what's good or bad about it? Back then, your eldest brother and I went into the mountains to dig Fritillaria as a sideline team. Wasn't it harder than it is now? Now we have a lot of food to bring with us, but back then we could only eat steamed buns and chew dried mushrooms..." When Tao Jianshe heard what Li Long said, he immediately became dissatisfied.

"That's fine." Li Long thought about it. Tao Jianshe was less than 50 years old, which was indeed not considered old according to the calculations of later generations. People of their generation, unless they got sick due to overeating, basically lived to be over 80 as long as they kept active.

"I'm going to drive the tractor to the county to buy things and then go to the mountains. Uncle Tao, are you going to follow Xie Yundong and the others, or go with me tonight?" Li Long asked.

"Let's do it later." Tao Jianshe thought for a moment and said, "I'm in a hurry today and can't finish it. I still have some things to arrange at home."

"Okay, then I'll go first." After Li Long finished explaining everything, he got on his bike and left.

"One person braids four yuan, and I can braid five or six in a day, which means 20 to 30 yuan." Tao Jianshe became excited after Li Long left, counting on his fingers: "Da Qiang, it's not worse than your fishing."

"That's right, but Dad, let me tell you, the requirements for making a braid are very high. Brother Xiaolong was able to get this job because he said it all depends on the quality of the braids you submit. If the quality is not good, he will return it and you will lose face."

"How could I not know?" Tao Jianshe's eyes widened. "I knew it when I was dealing with reeds last year. Xiaolong looks polite and courteous, but he is serious about his work. Don't worry, I won't embarrass you!"

"Hehehe!" Tao Daqiang smiled innocently and touched his head.

When Li Long came back, he turned to Lao Mahao and told Uncle Luo about the lynx bones. Uncle Luo nodded with a smile on his face. After Li Long left, he looked at Li Long's back and thought that now he could chat with his old brothers and have something to brag about again.

Oh, no, Xiaolong said there aren't many bones, so we can't tell anyone. If we tell anyone, many people will want them and it will be hard to give them away. Well, I'll tell them after the wine is brewed. Hey, if I don't tell them where I got them, they will be so jealous!

Li Long rode his bike back to Li Jianguo's yard and found Li Jianguo filling the tractor with oil and water. Lu Yingming was also in the yard. When he saw Li Long coming, he smiled and said:
"Xiaolong, I'm going with you today too. Are you going to go straight into the mountains?"

"Well, we're going into the mountains today," Li Long said, "Brother, are you going in today too?"

"Go in. The earlier you go in, the earlier you can get the luggage." Li Jianguo pointed to the truck bed where he had already put the luggage.

"Xie Yundong and his team agreed that each person who helped carry the group would give 20 cents to Old Huang, the cook," Li Long said. "Each person would pay 10 kilograms of cornmeal, 2 kilograms of flour, and 1 kilogram of rice. Old Huang would carry the cooking utensils, and they would follow behind him."

"Then I'll go get the food." Lu Yingming hurried home, "I forgot about this."

Li Long smiled. After Li Jianguo added water, he asked Liang Yuemei to prepare food for him.

"What are you going to do tonight?" Liang Yuemei was a little worried.

"Brother and I will stay in the wooden house tonight." Li Long said with a smile, "The three of us can just squeeze in. Tomorrow morning we will go to Xiaobaiyanggou to prepare the dugout, and then we can make the poles in the afternoon."

"Then bring some steamed buns from home. If Old Huang can't come tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we need something to eat." Liang Yuemei said after thinking for a while.

"No, no, I have everything in my cabin." Li Long waved his hand, "I have steamed buns and meat, but it's a little far away, and I don't have any notes there, otherwise I can just ask my brother to weave them there."

"Hey, I'm going to make money, not to enjoy myself." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "I will definitely live with everyone else. Others can endure hardships, but why can't I?"

That's true.

Lu Yingming came over with a bag of food. Because it was packaged separately, there were three bags of different sizes. He also brought a can of fried pickles, which must have been fried before and now packaged.

"I'm going to the department store to purchase some goods later, and I'd better buy some more red tofu." Li Long said as he looked at it.

"Purchase goods?" Lu Yingming asked in confusion, "What goods are you purchasing?"

"I built a wooden house in the mountains, where I exchanged supplies with the migrant workers for the fritillaria they dug."

"Can we still dig?" Lu Yingming looked at Li Jianguo and asked.

"The forestry team is watching. But those migrant workers are digging secretly. If they are caught, their gains will be confiscated. If they are not caught, they will make a profit." Li Long explained, "The forestry team also comes to me to exchange things. What they get is the Fritillaria collected from the migrant workers. Some migrant workers will be caught and detained in the detention center. It depends on your luck."

"Is that so? Then we can go and make a group, right?"

"It's okay. I have a letter of introduction from the supply and marketing cooperative and also from the forestry team." Li Long did not say that he was still a non-staff forest ranger of the forestry team. It would not be good to be too ostentatious.

After bedding, tools, food, and personal belongings were loaded, and water and oil were also filled, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming got on the back of the tractor, and Li Long drove the tractor out of the yard. The two families waved goodbye at the door, and Li Long drove to the county.

It was just after five in the afternoon when the tractor arrived at the department store, and the sun was still high in the sky. He bought rubber shoes, matches, brick tea, sugar cubes and other supplies here, then went to the market to buy a few bags of rice and noodles. Then he drove the tractor into the mountains.

If we rode a bicycle, it would be dark when we got to the mountain. If we drove a horse carriage, we might as well leave tomorrow morning. With the tractor, we drove over quickly, rumbling, rumbling, and when we arrived at the cabin, the sun had not yet set.

There was no one in the wooden house. When Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car, Li Jianguo also got out.

Lu Yingming stood in the truck bed and looked around:

"Xiaolong, this place is nice. This house is nice too. Did you build it?"

"No, a friend helped me build it." Li Long looked at the door locks, which were all in good condition and no one had touched them. He took out the key to unlock the door and moved the things from the car downstairs. "I still have a few friends in the mountains."

"Hey, this is great." Lu Yingming followed and moved things downstairs, while Li Jianguo placed things in the wooden house. He knew roughly where to put the things by looking at the shelves.

After laying out the things, Li Long started to build a fire, saying as he did so:
"Let's have a simple meal tonight. I'll cook some meat. There's some dried meat and some offal over there. Chop them up. There's also steamed buns. Just toast them."

"Why go to all that trouble?" Lu Yingming waved his hand. "Just set up a stove and bake some buns. We have red tofu, so we can just make some to eat."

"It's nothing, what's the harm in getting something to eat?" Li Long set up the stove, put on the pot and started to boil water to make porridge. "Have a good meal today and tomorrow morning, and then I'll drive the tractor to take you to Xiaobaiyanggou. There is a migrant worker there, and he is also my friend who lives there. I'll introduce you to him then."

"He also digs for Fritillaria? Aren't you afraid of being caught?"

"He knows a forest ranger in the forestry team. He knows him, so they won't arrest him." Li Long came over with a bunch of firewood, lit the stove outside, and put the pot on to prepare hot dishes. The offal brought from home had to be heated up every day, otherwise it would go bad. In this day and age, it's okay if the vegetables go bad, but if the meat goes bad and is not eaten, it's a big sin. After all, even though the team had a lot of land and people got rich quickly, there were still many people who could only eat meat a few times a year. It wasn't until the late 1990s that meat could be eaten regularly.

From this point of view, the Li family has already achieved one of the indicators of the well-off standard ahead of schedule.

Li Long vaguely remembered that when Li Qiang and his classmates were in junior high school, that is, in the early 1990s, the school was still using broomsticks and big brooms to do work. Of course, government agencies basically did not use broomsticks in the late 1980s, two-wheeled handcarts were gradually becoming popular, and tricycles were also in use, so the work of making broomsticks should still be done for another three or four years.

After completing the initial accumulation during these three or four years and gradually investing in mechanization, Li Long believes that he can still remain at the forefront of the team in terms of making money.

I don't have high requirements, just live a comfortable and good life.

Lu Yingming was in charge of the porridge and steamed buns, while Li Long got some wild celery. The one who cooked was Li Jianguo, who looked down on Li Long's cooking skills.

Li Long was naturally happy to eat the ready-made food.

When the sun was about to set, Li Long was somewhat surprised to see Sun Jiaqiang coming over.

"Why are you here?" Li Long asked, "You should know that I'm back, right?"

"I guess you should be back now. In fact, I came here this morning." Sun Jiaqiang, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming nodded and explained to Li Long, "Last time, you ran into that bad guy who pried open your door, so I thought you left, so I came here to take a look. I came here in the morning to take a look, and then Bolati came over too. I left when he came, and I told him I would come back in the afternoon."

Li Long was quite moved when he heard what he said.

"You don't have to thank me. I just thought that when I sell the Fritillaria to you, you could show me a higher scale and give me a better price." Sun Jiaqiang said seriously.

Although he knew he was joking, Li Long couldn't help but pat him:
"Since you're here, don't leave. Just stay here tonight after dinner."

"That won't do," Sun Jiaqiang waved his hand. "It'll take more than an hour. Anyway, it won't get dark. Don't worry, the wolves won't dare to touch me until it gets dark. I have a stick with me. I'll just come over to take a look and then I'll be back."

Li Long still insisted on not letting him go. Are you kidding? If he left at this time and really ran into a wolf, wouldn’t he be at a loss?

"My eldest brother and my neighbor, Brother Lu, will go to the place where you are staying tomorrow. That is where our village's sideline team is weaving bamboo poles. Tomorrow they will go over to keep you company. They will weave bamboo poles while you dig your Fritillaria. It's just a good opportunity for you to take care of each other."

"That's great!" Sun Jiaqiang was delighted when he heard it. "Will you go there tomorrow?"

"Then we have to go there tomorrow. It's not easy to sleep in those caves now."

"Okay, I'm just worried about having no one to keep me company." Sun Jiaqiang nodded vigorously, "You guys go over, I won't be afraid of wolves at night when I'm alone."

Since it would be over tomorrow, Sun Jiaqiang didn't force it anymore and had dinner with Li Long and the others.

After dinner, the four of them cleaned up the place together. Sun Jiaqiang gave the Fritillaria he brought to Li Long and said that he didn't want money this time, but rice and flour.

While eating, he heard Li Long say that in the past, the people who made porters paid rice and flour to each porter, and a chef would cook for them. He then thought about joining in.

As for the money paid by the porter, he was not assigned to be a porter, but he could pay for the food.

If all else fails, he can deliver Fritillaria thunbergii. He asked Li Long, and according to Li Long's calculation, it would take about three days to deliver one kilogram of Fritillaria thunbergii.

At his current rate, he can dig five or six kilograms of Fritillaria a day, which means seventeen or eighteen kilograms in three days. Paying one kilogram as food expenses is really nothing.

Today he brought more than four kilograms of Fritillaria, which still wasted time.

Li Long gave him 10 kilograms of cornmeal, 5 kilograms of rice and 5 kilograms of flour, and left him 6 yuan.

Seeing how this "blind drifter" was very skilled in trading Fritillaria with Li Long, Lu Yingming whispered to Li Jianguo:
"Now I know how Xiaolong makes money. It's really not tiring to make money!"

"Hehe, that requires procedures, and ordinary people can't do it." Li Jianguo nodded.

"That's right, your little dragon is not an ordinary person!"

At night, Li Jianguo, Lu Yingming and Sun Jiaqiang slept on the wooden kang. The kang was spacious enough for four people, but Li Long couldn't stand the snoring, farting and grinding of teeth of the three of them, so he simply went to the small room, spread out the quilt and slept on the floor. After all, there were wooden boards, so he didn't worry about catching a cold.

The four of them got up early the next day and had a relatively hearty breakfast together. Before the sun came out, Li Long drove the tractor and took Li Jianguo and the others to Xiaobaiyanggou.

In Xiaobaiyanggou, the dugouts that were dug last year are still there. The Sun family has occupied one, and the rest have owners. Seeing that it is still early, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming decided to dig a new one each so that it would be more convenient for them to use.

Sun Jiaqiang also asked Li Long, knowing that even if he took one, the remaining holes would be enough, so he stopped digging. Li Long didn't let him work, and after putting down his things, he let Sun Jiaqiang dig Fritillaria by himself. You can't delay others from making money.

Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming dug the cave, and Li Long went over to cut branches to cover the cave. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming were good at digging caves, and they chose good places. The soil was still dry more than one meter down, and there was no water. Such a cave would not be very damp to live in.

They placed the branches that Li Long had cut on top of the dug pit, laid them out densely, and then covered them with soil to create a roof.

The rest was fine-tuning, which Li Long did not participate in. It was already noon, and he picked up stones to set up a simple stove and heated up the food he brought. This meal was relatively simple, since everyone came here to make money and did not think about enjoying themselves. Besides, having meat to eat was already very good, so they were very satisfied when eating.

After the meal, Li Jianguo drove Li Long away. According to him, there might be someone waiting in the wooden house to exchange things. There were so many things in the house, don't let anyone steal them.

In the afternoon they will cut the strips to prepare for weaving into handles. Li Long will have nothing to do here, so he might as well go back.

Li Long didn't hesitate to give a few instructions and then drove the tractor back to the wooden house.

On the way, he went to the place where the wild boar had dug and saw some fresh marks, so he thought about whether he should come here tonight to set a trap. (End of this chapter)