Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Mutton is quite fatty. Li Long tried to choose meat without oil, while others did the opposite.

It feels so good to eat mutton with naan.

The old lady and Yushanjiang's wife brought over a plate of pig buds. Li Long picked up a piece and ate it, and the others followed suit.

Deputy Captain Adili was helping just now, so he did not leave during the meal. He walked over to Li Long while eating with a piece of ribs in his hand, found a clean place to squat, and said:
"We should be able to finish the work here today."

"Well, we'll stay here today and go to Yushanjiang's yard tomorrow." Li Long said, "The yard will be better and we'll be more comfortable living there."

Nowadays, all the houses are made of earth. The difference between the houses on the pastoral team's side and those on the fourth team's side is that the houses are a little shorter, with more wood used on the roof, and then a thick layer of Stipa sphenanthera is laid, and finally covered with mud.

Because it has been in disrepair for many years and is close to the mountain, with strong winds and heavy rain, the roof is covered with a layer of grass.

When we put up the mud on the roof, we have to pull out the grass. The guys in the team were surprised to see grass growing on the roof at first, but when they looked around, they found that everyone had the same problem. The wind was strong here, and some grass seeds were blown onto the roof. If it rained, they would sprout. Some roofs not only had grass, but also small trees.

Pull out the grass on the roof, sweep away the garbage, and then use a trowel to smooth out the mud, especially filling in the holes made by rats so that it won't leak when it rains.

This is what he did in the morning. The roof had been plastered, and some holes on the walls had been smoothed out. Li Long planned to plaster the front wall in the afternoon to avoid it looking ugly. After all, if he filled it directly, the marks would be very obvious.

The courtyard wall also needs to be repaired. The courtyard wall here is made of rammed earth. Over time, the soil at the base of the wall has been eroded, and the wall is very dangerous and may collapse at any time. What needs to be done is to reinforce the base of the wall with soil.

There was still plenty of time in the afternoon, so Li Long planned to finish plastering the front wall of the house and then reinforce the perimeter wall. He would use the rest of the time to shovel the weeds in the yard, level and fill the ground in front of the house, and compact it with a tractor. At least the open space in front of the house would be better made.

If the old lady and Yushanjiang's wife were not good at growing vegetables, Li Long even planned to clear the yard for them - in the eyes of the Han people, it would be a pity not to grow vegetables in such a big yard.

Several children were standing in front of the pot, vying for Yushanjiang's wife to fish out the hind leg bone for them. They all wanted the bone with the thigh stone. But there were only two bones, so in the end Li Long stepped forward and asked them to play rock-paper-scissors to decide the winner. The winner would take the bone, and the loser would not lose out either, as the bone marrow that would come out after eating the bone would belong to the person without the thigh stone.

Li Long and his friends were eating. The old lady and Yushanjiang's wife also ate a few bites. Then Yushanjiang's wife went out carrying a bucket.

After a long while, she finally came back with a bucket of water - it turned out that she had gone to get water for drinking.

Tao Daqiang hurried over to take the bucket and poured it into the vat.

Li Long turned around and asked Adili:
"Captain Adili, where is the well where your team gets water?"

"Where is the well? We get our water from the river to the west. As for water, we just need to boil it."

Li Long looked at this area, thoughtful.

After dinner, Li Long announced a half-hour break. The workers looked for places to lean or lie down, and Tao Daqiang and Xu Dejun even had a quarrel over who should get on the tractor. Xu Dejun was quick and got on the seat first, so Tao Daqiang had no choice but to get on the tractor. There were still some unused wheat tails on it, so it was nice to lie on it, but be careful not to let the wheat tails get into your clothes, otherwise it would be very exciting.

Li Long half-lay against the wall and closed his eyes for a while. He had done physical work today and he was very tired, but it was very fulfilling. He saw the mud on the roof and sides of the house slowly drying up, and the places with missing corners and pieces were now straightened out, and he felt a sense of accomplishment.

Because the mud was mixed in the morning, the work was much more efficient in the afternoon. Four people went to repair the wall, two people plastered the wall of the house, and the remaining one went to shovel the grass in the yard and fill in the uneven places.

After eating mutton, everyone was full of energy, talking and laughing. Yushanjiang's wife went back to her home, and the old lady boiled tea and placed the teapot in the yard. Anyone who was thirsty could drink water from the enamel basin that Li Long had given them.

The mutton pot was also in the yard. The fire underneath was not completely extinguished, and the mutton soup was still hot, with mutton in it. If you wanted to drink the mutton soup, you had to serve it yourself.

When the sun was still a stalk high in the west, the work in the yard was done. Li Long inspected it one by one. The yard was filled and flat. When the tractor was used to flatten it, several young men rushed to drive the tractor. Li Long could only require each of them to drive two round trips. They didn't know how to reverse, so they had to drive forward and Li Long drove back.

Although it was troublesome, the young men enjoyed it. Not only did they level the yard, they also repaired the section of the door leading to the outside road. Li Long looked at it one by one. Several young men took the leftover naan from lunch, and each of them scooped out a small piece of mutton or a bowl of mutton soup to continue eating.

That's dinner.

"Not bad, not bad, the work is done well today." Li Long looked at the quality of the work and thought it was good. The young men did not slack off and worked just as hard as they did in the team. At least the yard now looked completely different from when they came here in the morning.

"Go back, have a good rest, and we'll come back tomorrow." Li Long saw that everyone had finished eating, so he asked everyone to get in the car. The old lady came over and held Li Long's hand and said something. Adili was not there, so Li Long couldn't understand. Xie Yundong came over and translated two sentences:
"She said thank you, thank you to us. She didn't expect that her son's friends could repair her house while he was away. She said that when Halim comes back, she will thank us and treat us to a good meal."

"Haha," Li Long laughed and said to Xie Yundong, "Brother Yundong, tell the old lady that we are like brothers with Halimu, and it is right for us to do this."

Driving the tractor, as if they had won a battle, they headed for the county against the wind. When they arrived at the county, Li Long stopped to ask them if they needed to buy anything, but everyone shook their heads, so they continued to drive to the township.

When he arrived at the village, Li Long stopped for a moment. He went to the blacksmith shop to find the master, spent thirty yuan to make two wellheads, and told them that he would take the money the next morning. The master took the money and replied quickly:
"I'll make it for you tonight!"

There is money to be made, what else is there to say?
Yes, Li Long plans to dig two wells in the yards of Halimu and Yushan Jiang's family. Even if the shallow water has a bit of alkaline taste, it is better than running so far to drink water from the river, right?

After arranging the matter of pressing the well head, Li Long drove the tractor to send the people back to the team, and then went to his eldest brother's yard.

Hearing the sound of the tractor, Li Qingxia arrived at the gate first. Li Long drove the tractor to the side and stopped, and the family knew that he would return to the county later.

"Dad, where's my big brother?"

"I'm feeding the pigs." Li Qingxia said, "This little piglet is a big eater. I need to prepare a lot of pig food every day. I think you'll have to bring back a cart of sugar residue in a few days."

"That's no problem." Li Long nodded and went to the pigpen.

Li Jianguo is pouring pig feed into the trough. Because there are piglets, a new pig pen has been added to it, dividing it into two pens, with the sow and the piglets in one pen and the other pigs in another.

The piglet has grown to seven or eight kilograms and is very lively. It keeps calling for food and even fights for it.

"Are you back from work?" Li Jianguo asked, "How is it?"

"Two, one is done. I saw that they have difficulty getting water, so I thought of digging a pressure well. Today I asked the blacksmith shop in the village to make a pressure well head, and tomorrow I will go to Wujiaohua to buy pipes. I came here to ask, brother, please tell me in detail how to dig the pressure well, so that we can do it tomorrow."

"Drilling this pressure well is actually very simple." Li Jianguo put down the pig feed bucket, squatted down and demonstrated to Li Long on the spot, "You have to first find a place where water can easily come out and where the pressure well can be easily placed. Generally, if the grass grows well, there must be water underneath. But if you want to drill a pressure well in the yard, generally the place you choose should not be in the way, right? It should not affect walking, and it is best to be close to the waist wall, just like our yard..."

Li Long nodded, already reviewing Halimu's yard in his mind, and where he should start the attack.

"You've seen well drilling, it's very easy. First dig a hole, one or two meters deep, and look at the soil. If the soil below is soft and there are signs of water coming out, then dig a smaller hole, and then use steel bars to push it down. In our county, water can be found in the shallow water layer at a depth of two or three meters, but the water that comes out is alkaline. If you want to drink good water, you have to dig deeper. One advantage of them living on the edge of the mountain is that the deep water layer is usually not too deep, three to five meters is enough."

Originally, Li Long thought that he would just dig into the shallow water layer and have water to drink. After all, it is troublesome for the elderly and children to go to the river to fetch water every day. Now that he heard what his elder brother said, it is not impossible to dig into the deep water layer and let the two families drink good water.

"I have a lot of work here, otherwise I would have followed you." Li Jianguo sighed.

"Brother, you go and do your own thing. There are many people watching the melon field. Let's take good care of it this year and harvest more. We can also show those people how to make money with cash crops."

Li Jianguo also meant this. The piglets will be ready for sale at the end of the year, which will definitely make some money, but his eyes are still on picking melons. Raising pigs is troublesome, and if picking melons makes money, he can expand the business next year, and then the scale of pig farming can be reduced. As a farmer, farming is still the main thing.

Li Long asked for some more details. Li Jianguo said that after feeding the pigs, he would find the tools for digging the well and Li Long could take them away tomorrow.

After finishing this matter, Li Long was ready to leave. Li Qingxia followed Li Long and asked:
"Xiaolong, how many more days will you work?"

"It will be over tomorrow."

"Okay, okay." Li Qingxia smiled.

"What, Dad, can we get off the net in Xiaohaizi?"

"Hey, I checked today and the flood has stopped. If Daqiang wasn't here, I would have logged off the Internet today." Li Qingxia is addicted to the Internet. The key point is that he can earn money every day when he goes online. He feels like he has lost a lot of money these days when he doesn't go online.

"Tomorrow, finish the work tomorrow, and Daqiang should be free to go online the day after tomorrow." Li Long smiled, "You can talk to him about this when he comes back tomorrow."

Du Chunfang came out of the vegetable garden and asked:
"Dinner is almost ready, why don't you eat something before you leave?"

"I ate while working, mom." Li Long said with a smile, "I ate well, mutton soup."

"That's fine." Du Chunfang smiled, "Okay, okay, let's go back."

Li Long drove the tractor to the Lao Ma Hao. To his surprise, Lao Shu Luo actually bought a donkey cart.

Seeing Li Long coming over, Old Uncle Luo, who was carrying grass down from the donkey cart, said with a smile:
"Xiaolong is here? Come, come, take a look at the donkey I bought. It's three years old, a female donkey, of the right age and good teeth. There's not much work now, so if you don't work, you can breed a donkey. This donkey and the cart cost less than a hundred yuan, and there's still a lot left. I'll give you the money."

"Uncle Luo, take the money first. I won't pay you for a while, I'll deduct it from that money first." Li Long said with a smile, "Why didn't you buy a horse?"

"Horses are too delicate to feed, and they are not as useful as donkeys." Old Uncle Luo said with a smile, "We just need to cut grass and pull grass, there is no need to go to all that trouble, a donkey is enough."

Uncle Luo is an expert, Li Long nodded.

"Uncle Luo, you go ahead and do your work. I'm going back to the county first."

"Okay, okay." Uncle Luo said with a smile, "You go back. I'll watch over here and make sure everything is fine."

When Li Long drove the tractor to the county, the sun had already set more than halfway, and the sky in the west was red, which looked very beautiful. There were no clouds in the sky, only red light. The students had already left school, and there were not many pedestrians on the road. Li Long drove very fast, and the tractor was rumbling along the road with black smoke. When he turned into the village, he had to turn on the lights.

As soon as the light was turned on, we didn't walk far before we saw a jerboa running in front of us. It couldn't outrun the tractor and was crushed underneath.

Li Long simply turned off the lights. Fortunately, his eyesight was good. Although it was a little dark, he could still see the road clearly and could tell if there was anyone a few dozen meters ahead.

When approaching the county, he had to turn on the lights. Fortunately, there were no small animals at this time. He stepped on the accelerator and drove back to the big yard, where he found that the lights were already on.

Gu Xiaoxia is at home.

The next day, as usual, after breakfast, one went to work and the other went to the village to recruit people. Li Long went to the township to pull up the wellhead, and when he arrived in the village, he found that Tao Daqiang and the others had already gathered at the Lao Mahao.

"Get in the car first. I'll go to my eldest brother's place and get the equipment for drilling wells." Li Long said, and the young men got in the car one after another. This time, Tao Daqiang was the first to grab the position on the page board.

He went to Li Jianguo's yard to pull up the steel bars and ropes for drilling the well, and then went to pull up half a truckload of wheat tails. Li Long drove the tractor and turned out of the village.

After what happened yesterday, Li Long thought it would be no problem to slaughter another sheep today. He also went to buy naan and then rushed to the animal husbandry team.

He first went to Yushanjiang's yard. When he arrived, Li Long was a little surprised. Yushanjiang's wife had already built a stove in the yard and was boiling water. There was a small table next to it, on which were carrots, rice, mutton, etc.

It looks like he’s going to make pilaf.

Well, it looks like this sheep doesn’t need to be slaughtered.

Seeing Li Long and others coming, Yushanjiang's wife smiled and continued working.

Those who were used to working yesterday did not need to be told today, as everyone knew what to do. After Li Long unloaded the wheat tails from the tractor, he went to fetch water first. After fetching more water, he and Tao Daqiang drove the tractor to Halimu's house.

On the way, he met an old lady who was carrying a bag of naan bread. It was obvious that she was going to come to Yushanjiang to help. When he saw Li Long, he was a little puzzled. Li Long couldn't make a gesture, so he pointed to her home and gestured to continue working.

The old lady walked back.

Tao Daqiang had never done well digging, but he had seen it. He was usually very self-aware of technical projects, so he was only responsible for the work. Li Long already had a location in mind for the well to be dug. After arriving, he unloaded the things and then pointed to Tao Daqiang to dig a hole in the southeast part of the yard.

Of course, he dug too.

A pit of 1.5 meters long, 1 meter wide and 1 meter deep was dug out, and water was seeping out from below. The water layer here was very shallow. Li Long dipped his finger in the water and tasted it. It tasted a bit salty, and it was indeed saline water.

According to the era of the previous life, this water is actually quite good, much better than river water and reservoir water.

But Li Long thought that since he was going to do it, he should do it better. He continued to dig down where the water came out quickly. When he dug half a meter, the water began to seep up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The old lady looked a little surprised and said something. Li Long now felt a little regretful. He had been dealing with Halimu and the others for more than a year, but why didn't he think about learning Kazakh language?

The next step is to use steel bars to push down and make a passage for the water pipe. It was easy to do the distance of less than one meter, after all, it was all mud. But when we pushed further down, we encountered hard objects, which should be Gobi rocks.

Li Long and Tao Daqiang took the steel bar and poked it down hard. Although they only inserted it a little bit each time, the progress showed that they could continue to push.

The only uncertainty now is how thick the Gobi layer is.

While digging the well, Li Long saw from the corner of his eye that the girl who was writing something with a pen yesterday was coming again. She stood outside the yard, looked around, and then walked in tentatively.

Looking at Li Long and Tao Daqiang working, the girl whispered a few words to the old lady, and then walked towards Li Long and Tao Daqiang.

She watched for a minute or two, then suddenly asked:

"Excuse me, are you digging a well?"

Li Long looked up at her. She was a very beautiful ethnic girl, about eighteen or nineteen years old, with two braids and thick eyebrows.

“Yes, we are digging a well.”

"This is... a well pressure device." The girl saw the well pressure device placed nearby and exclaimed:
"I thought you were going to dig a cellar well, but this is a pressure well - great!"

Li Long smiled. It seemed that this girl had been to school and had seen these things. Was she going to interview him? (End of this chapter)