Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

At the dinner table, Halimu said while eating noodles:
"The grass on the ranch is pretty good this summer. The grass grows well, and our cattle and sheep eat well. There are actually quite a few wild creatures here, too, including deer and roe deer, and even herds of wild goats. These things attract wolves and foxes... Anyway, at night, there's a lot of noise."

Li Long was quite interested in what he heard. He had been busy all the time, otherwise, he should have gone to the Xia Ranch with them.

"Every family has a radio this year. When we have nothing to do, we can ride horses and follow the sheep. It's quite comfortable to carry a radio with us. I'm going to bring some batteries with me this time. Actually, every family has batteries, but I'm afraid they won't be enough after using them."

Li Long remembered the portable radio that the county gave him as a reward, and said:

"I have something else to tell you."

He reported his house renovation in the autonomous region's daily newspaper, and then told Halimu about the commendation and reward he received for it.

"I'll buy another radio. When you go back later, I'll put one at your house for your mother to listen to, and the other at Yushanjiang's house."

Halimu nodded. When he arrived at Li Long's house, he saw the TV antenna. Li Long also told him that he had a TV and a radio at home. Since Li Long didn't need them, he could put them in his yard.

"Because of you, I was commended and even went to the autonomous region to attend a meeting," Li Long said with a smile, "So, the honor belongs to me and the reward belongs to you. We share it equally."

Halimu laughed when he heard this.

Li Long asked about the terrain and climate of the summer pasture. Halimu told Li Long that the summer pasture was very high, but a large area was actually quite flat, similar to a mountain grassland, with rivers, pine trees, hot springs, and even glaciers that never melted in the distance.

Li Long listened and sighed to himself, this place is probably the dream place for those hikers in later generations.

After dinner, Li Long drove a tractor and took Halimu to the supply and marketing cooperative again.

He remembered that Section Chief Li Xiangqian also had rifle bullets, so he asked Halimu to wait on the tractor and went to the office.

"Your herdsman friend wants bullets to kill wolves? That's no problem." Li Xiangqian took the manuscript paper, tore off a piece, wrote a note, signed his name, and handed it to Li Long:

"Take it to defend the unit. Two hundred rounds of ammunition. Is that enough?"

"That's enough." Li Long was overjoyed. "Captain, if I had known it would be so convenient to get bullets, I should have come to you earlier."

"It's because you don't know much about our supply and marketing cooperative?" Li Xiangqian scolded with a smile, "You are a member of the cooperative. Don't you know that our predecessor was the grain procurement team? They went out with guns to purchase grain..."

"Isn't that stealing food?" Li Long deliberately argued with him.

"Bullshit! What do you mean by robbing food? There were bandits back then! Requisitioning food means buying food, and when you buy food and bring it back, someone will rob it if you don't have a gun. Do you understand? You little bastard!"

Li Long laughed and joked, then went to the security department with the note.

Chief Hou of the Security Section was a serious middle-aged man. He looked at the note, then at Li Long, and said slowly:
"Xiao Li, right? Two hundred rounds exceed the quota allocated by your Section Chief Li. Take the note and ask Director Wei to sign it. I'm not trying to make things difficult for you. Your Section Chief Li doesn't know the new regulations. People at our level can only sign and approve one hundred rounds of bullets now..."

"Okay." Li Long took the note back and went to find Director Wei for his signature.

When Director Wei learned that the bullets were for the herdsmen in the mountains, he signed the agreement readily and asked Li Long if it was enough.

Li Long naturally said enough, then took the note to find Section Chief Hou.

Section Chief Hou had already prepared bullets for Li Long and even gave him a half-new satchel to store them:

"Here's the satchel for you. Go back and tell your Section Chief Li to stop bragging and gossiping. When you have time, study the new documents issued by the higher-ups."

Li Long nodded in agreement, carrying a bag of bullets to the purchasing department, and conveyed the message to Li Xiangqian.

"There is such a rule?" Li Xiangqian was also surprised. "Then I really have to take a look. Lao Hou also gave you a shoulder bag? Not bad, that's quite thoughtful. Okay, go and do your own thing. I'll look through the documents to avoid him making fun of me if I come across them..."

Li Long blindly guessed that Section Chief Hou should have a good relationship with Li Xiangqian, but Section Chief Hou was not good at joking and spoke little, and his personality was different from Section Chief Li.

He went out with a bag of bullets, and when he got to the tractor, he gave the bag to Halimu.

"So many?" Halimu was a little surprised as he picked up the bullets. "Did you get them from here or buy them? How much?"

"No money. I got the reward for what I just told you, and our unit also got a reward. Now the leaders are more supportive of what you and I are doing, and these bullets are to support our brothers in the pastoral areas." Li Long started the tractor, sat on it and said:
"This is what you deserve, don't think too much."

Halimu smiled. He didn't think he deserved it. Anyway, Brother Li Long helped him find so many bullets. At least the dozen yurts in the summer pasture would have enough bullets for everyone this summer.

After all, I'm not a hunter. I just need to kill and drive away the malicious wolves and other wild beasts.

More than enough.

Li Long drove the tractor to the department store again. He asked Halimu if he needed to buy anything. Halimu shook his head, so Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car. He first bought a portable radio, five large boxes of batteries, and some salt, sugar cubes, and brick tea. It doesn't matter if you have more necessities, but it's more troublesome if you have less.

After buying these things, Li Long drove his tractor to the medicinal materials company and bought some commonly used medicines.

Li Long had bought these things when Halimu and the others left, but it has been almost two months now, and Li Long estimated that most of them have been used up and need some replenishment.

After putting the herbs in the car, Halimu thought that Li Long should go back to the big yard this time, but he guessed wrong again.

Li Long drove a tractor to the butcher shop of the county food company. The butcher shops in the county are divided into two groups, one selling large meat and the other selling beef and mutton. The meat in the large butcher shop sells faster, while beef and mutton sell a little slower and there are fewer items.

"Give me three sheep." Li Long got off the tractor and said directly to the clerk after entering.

The clerk was a Uighur. He didn't say anything when he saw Li Long, but after hearing what Li Long said, he was stunned for a moment and asked:

"How much do you want?"

"Three." Li Long repeated, "Klangzi sheep, three, do you have any?"

"Yes, but do you have enough money? Do you have enough tickets?"

Li Long took out a stack of Great Unity and put it on the counter, and then took out a stack of meat coupons. He had quite a few meat coupons, but he had hardly used them. The meat they ate at home was basically bought from the mountains, and no coupons or money were needed.

Today is different.

The clerk looked at the money and tickets and estimated that they were enough. He immediately turned around and took the sheep from the iron hook. He had a scale and a platform scale here, so he needed to weigh them. The three Klangzi sheep were placed on the scale for a while. Li Long watched the clerk slowly add the weight, and finally calculated that it was 68 kilograms.

The blackboard said mutton was 1.15 yuan per kilogram, cheaper than the market, but a ticket was required. Li Long counted the money and tickets while the clerk put the mutton on the counter. Seeing that Li Long didn't take anything, he found a bag to pack it.

If you can buy three sheep, giving away a bag is nothing.

Seventy-eight yuan and twenty cents. Li Long counted out eighty and handed it over. The clerk gave him one yuan and eighty cents in change, which still smelled of mutton.

Li Long didn't mind and put it in his pocket along with the other money. The clerk also asked:
"Do you want to pluck it?"

"No need." Li Long waved his hand, "I'll just take it away."

Three sheep were loaded into two bags. At this time, the bags were usually larger, one containing two sheep and the other containing one sheep.

Halimu saw Li Long carrying the sheep out directly. He was not sure whether the sheep was bought for him, so he did not stop him.

"Take these two sheep back later. Put one at your mother's place. The elderly and children need more nourishment. Put the other at Yushan Jiang's home. The same principle applies."

"No, no, no, Li Long, we don't lack meat at home..." Halimu felt that this time the matter was a bit serious. "Listen to me." Li Long was more insistent this time, "You brought the other things to the mountains. You can eat meat there, but it's different at home. If there is less meat, the elderly will be reluctant to eat it, which is not good for their health."

Halimu stopped talking. He knew that Li Long was telling the truth. There was indeed meat at home. The meat was brought by Li Long last time. The old man made it into air-dried meat and ate a little every few days. When I went back yesterday, my mother told me that when Li Long came to repair the yard, he slaughtered a sheep and ate the hand-pulled meat that day. Nathan and Susken ate it very deliciously.

Although the old man was just expressing how happy the children were that day, Halimu actually knew that part of the reason why the old man and the children were happy was that they got to eat meat.

Big chunks of meat.

He said no more.

"That sheep is mine. You see, it's fair. Each of our three families gets a sheep." Li Long said with a smile, pointing to the single bag.

"Okay." Halimu answered briefly with one word.

The tractor drove back to the yard, and Li Long and Halimu put the things on the horse's back.

"If there's no room, I'll drive the tractor to bring it to you." Li Long watched Halimu put things on the horse's back and was a little worried that there would be no room.

"No. You can put it down." Halim was an expert in this area. He first tied the bag containing the two sheep behind the saddle, and put the other things in the bags on both sides of the saddle. The radio was a relatively expensive item, so he finally took the box and prepared to put it in front of the saddle after getting on the horse.

Li Long was quite impressed when he saw Halimu putting things in order. Not everyone can do this. But when you think about the two times they move around every year, they need to put so many things away one by one, and it would take a lot of effort.

After Halimu put his things away, he said goodbye to Li Long and rode away from the yard.

It was more than an hour later when they returned to the animal husbandry team's stay. Halimu first went to Yushanjiang's house to put the sheep down, and explained that it was brought by Li Long. Yushanjiang's wife had no way to refuse and silently accepted it.

The woman took a knife and began to clean the mutton - in this hot summer, the only way to preserve the mutton was to air-dry it.

As for the radio, she had used it before she moved to Yushanjiang and knew how to use it, so she was actually quite happy to see the radio. When she was unloading the sheep, she turned on the radio and listened to the programs inside, which made her feel very good.

Halimu returned to his yard, unloaded the things on the horse's back, led the horse to the side and tied it up, gave it some grass to eat, and then began to process the mutton.

The radio was given to the old lady to play with.

After the old lady knew that the sheep and the radio were given by Li Long, she told Halimu to remember to give Li Long a few more sheep after the sheep were transferred back to the pasture. There are no beggars among the Kazakh people, and they will help each other. They received help from Li Long, and they will return it when they are able to do so.

As for the skins and deer antlers that Halimu brought to Li Long, they were nothing in their eyes and were far less useful than sheep and radios.

That's the difference in values.

Halimu unloaded the sheep silently. He removed some of the bones and cooked them in a pot in the yard. The rest was made into dried meat.

Nathan and Susken ran back from school. Yesterday, when Halimu came back, he said he would not leave today. They were very happy. They ran back today because they were worried that their father would leave.

Smelling the meat in the pot, the two children shouted in surprise. Halimu looked at the happy faces of the two children and smiled too.

The next morning, after Halim sent Nathan and Susken to school, he rode into the mountains with his things.

Three days later, he rushed to his own yurt on the summer pasture. His wife was not there, as she had gone out on horseback to herd sheep. After putting some things in the yurt, he rode his horse to look for Yushanjiang.

The yurt of Yushanjiang's family was not far from Halimu's family. At this time, Yushanjiang was not in the yurt, but was grazing sheep on the grassland.

Halimu told Yushanjiang about the whole matter, especially the two families' yards and water usage, as well as the children's school bags and sheep.

Yushanjiang pulled a blade of grass, thought for a moment and said:

"Li Long, the real Dosen. Actually, this matter is easy to handle. He took care of our family and sent so many gifts, so we can also send him gifts.

There is a pack of annoying wolves these days. They often come here at night to steal sheep. If you get the bullets back, we can kill those wolves in the next two days.

If we encounter leopards or something like that later, we will kill them if we can. We will give the skins to him when we return.”

Halimu nodded. This was indeed a good idea. Now that we have so many bullets, if we share them among ourselves, each family can at least get dozens of bullets. With these bullets, we can hit a lot of things.

After Halimu left, Li Long started unloading the sheep in the yard. Actually, to be honest, the taste of domestic mutton is definitely better than that of wild goats.

Li Long ate game because it was another way to eat meat. Who wouldn't want to eat free meat? And of course he also wanted to taste the flavor of wild animals.

This sheep is actually not enough. He plans to buy another sheep tomorrow. The sheep now are definitely not enough. He plans to keep half for himself and take the remaining half back to share with his father-in-law Gu Boyuan and Uncle Luo.

The whole sheep was given to the eldest brother. After all, he had parents, his eldest brother and his wife, his second sister-in-law, and four babies to feed, so any less would not be enough.

When Gu Xiaoxia came back, she saw Li Long was butchering a sheep, so she asked about the situation.

Knowing that Li Long had given sheep to Halimu and Yushanjiang's families, Gu Xiaoxia nodded and said:

"As it should be. They are all elderly and children, so they need to improve their nutrition."

"I'll buy another sheep tomorrow and send it to the team." Li Long said his plan, "Your father, Uncle Luo, and my parents should all share some."

Gu Xiaoxia didn't care much about this. Her husband could earn money, so he had the final say on how to spend it. Besides, Li Long's spending on these things seemed fair and reasonable, so she was naturally happy.

Gu Xiaoxia went to cook, and Li Long continued to prepare the meat. It was hot, so some of the meat had to be air-dried, some had to be stewed, and some could be soaked first.

After dinner, while the two were watching TV, Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia intermittently about the hunting experiences he had with Halimu and Yushanjiang in the mountains when they first entered the mountains, including the skins, antlers and velvet antlers that Halimu brought with him this time.

"If we sell those things, they are worth more than a thousand yuan. He gave them to us if he wanted to." Li Long sighed and said:
"It is my duty to take care of their family. Even if the money is deducted from this when I buy things for them, when will it be deducted?
Believe it or not, when winter comes and they return from their pastures, they will definitely send us a bunch of skins for free. If this continues, it’s unclear whether we will owe them or not.”

Gu Xiaoxia laughed when she heard this. She knew that Li Long was not short of money, and her family was not short of money. She also knew that if Li Long wanted to give the money to Halimu and his family, they would not want it. She thought for a moment and said:
"It's actually quite good. For them, it gives them peace of mind knowing that someone is taking care of their family.

As for the leather and deer antlers, I think in their eyes, their value is not necessarily more valuable than the well at home.

Don't think too much and don't feel too stressed. The things are here, we can slowly send them things. Anyway, I think the relationship between you two should be the kind that will last a lifetime, so take your time, there's no rush."

Li Long nodded. This was the only way.

Early the next morning, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long drove his tractor to the food company's butcher shop. He bought a sheep and drove it to the team.

When he arrived at the team, he first delivered the meat to Gu Boyuan and Uncle Luo, and then went to his eldest brother's yard.

My mother Du Chunfang is here, but my eldest brother, sister-in-law and second sister-in-law are not here.

"Your elder brother and his friends went to work in the fields." Du Chunfang said with a smile, "They said the grass in the melon field had grown again, so they went to weed it. Are you okay?"

Li Long took the sheep down and said:
"I bought a sheep and brought it back for you to eat. Since they are not here, I will butcher the sheep first. You can watch the pot and stew the meat later."

"That's right." Du Chunfang nodded first, then complained, "We have meat at home, why buy sheep? It's a waste of money."

"The money you earn is meant to be spent." Li Long smiled.

He planned to wait for his elder brother to come back and explain the precautions of planting melons. (End of this chapter)