Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

What surprised Li Long was that after he cleared the snow in the yard and swept the snow outside, he went to Xiaohaizi with his father and others at around 12 o'clock, and found that the road to Xiaohaizi had been paved.

Someone has arrived ahead of time.

Li Long quickened his pace, wanting to see who was so "dedicated". He walked fast, but Li Qingxia behind him and Li Qiang who followed him were not so fast.

Although the snow was not very thick, it was still difficult to wade through. Although someone had waded through it in front of me, there were only footprints, and if I followed behind, I still had to step into the snow.

After Li Long climbed up the northern embankment of Xiaohaizi, he found two groups of people at the ice hole. One group consisted of Liang Dacheng and his two brothers, who were clearing snow. The other group consisted of Lao Meng's family, who had cleared the snow, broke the ice hole again, and were catching fish.

Really hard work!
Li Long saw that there were already fish jumping around the edge of Lao Meng's ice hole.

After the snow, the temperature dropped even lower, and as the ice became thicker, it became more difficult for the air above to reach the water below. Once these holes in the ice were broken, it was easier for fish to gather around.

Li Long went to the Liang brothers and saw that the snow on the two ice holes had been cleared away. They were using pickaxes and steel chisels to break the new layer of ice.

"You came so early today." Li Long said.

"Well, because of what happened yesterday, we are all worried that someone from the Baitukeng Reservoir and Yawagou Reservoir in the north will really send fish here. There are more fish in their reservoirs than in ours, so we have to work harder and catch more. The more we catch, the more money we can make."

Liang Dacheng did not hide anything and expressed his true thoughts.

"Hey, that's impossible." Li Long smiled, "How could anyone be interested in my small business?"

"I can't say for sure. Right now, the fish sales in our county are just small-scale operations, and there aren't many people who have the means to get a big demand." Liang Dacheng has also analyzed the situation and said, "No matter what, if we catch more fish and sell more money, we can have a good New Year."

This is the truth. Once you find the opportunity, hard work can really make you rich.

The prerequisite is to seize this opportunity.

Apart from these few families in the village, don’t other families know that they can make money by fishing?

Now that every household has worked hard for Li Long for two years, they can still afford a scoop net.

I just feel it's cold and don't want to do it.

This is an opportunity right in front of you, but you don’t grab it.

I don't want to suffer from the cold.

Li Qingxia and Li Qiang rushed over, took a look at the fish here and started catching them, then went to the ice hole on their side with Li Long.

"Hey, Grandpa, uncle! A rabbit fell into this ice hole and ran away again!" Li Qiang, who ran over first, saw the rabbit prints in the snow over there, chased after them, and shouted excitedly.

Li Long went over to take a look and indeed found a rabbit running over from the eastern shore, falling into the ice hole on this side, then jumping out and turning south.

There was a patch of cut reeds not far to the south. Rabbit Yin circled around there twice and then ran south again.

Here, the ice hole was covered with snow because of the wind at night, so the rabbit was able to sink into it.

Li Long and Li Qingxia were responsible for one ice hole each, while Li Qiang ran between the two. Li Long simply asked him to collect reeds, the more the better.

"Qiangqiang, don't go into the reed stubble when you're holding the hairy reeds." Li Long warned again, "The reed stubble in there is very sharp, and you'll get your face stabbed if you fall."

"Uncle, I understand." Li Qiang responded and went to find Mao Weizi.

After breaking the hole in the ice, Li Long used a scoop net to scoop out the broken ice and threw it on the ice surface. Then he did not scoop up the fish immediately, but continued to clear a large piece of snow on the ice surface beside the two ice holes.

Li Qingxia was a little slower. By the time he broke the hole in the ice, Li Long had already cleared out a large piece of snow, and Li Qiang also came over excitedly with a bundle of hairy reeds.

"Qiangqiang, stay away from here. I'm going to light up the hairy reed." Li Long said, and Li Qiang ran far away. After watching the fire start, he continued to look for hairy reeds.

After the fire was lit, Li Long did not roast it. When he felt it was about time, he went to get the scoop net and prepared to scoop the fish from the ice hole on his side.

Then he saw a black shadow swaying under the water in the ice hole, and then a big mouth as big as a baby's fist stretched out.

Hey, this fish is quite big!
Li Long immediately pressed down with the scoop net, then scooped it up. He then saw the tail of the big fish swaying in the net, then it slid down and disappeared.

Li Long was a little anxious. He hurriedly stepped on the steps carved at the edge of the ice hole, scooped the net down again, turned it around under the water, and when he pulled it up again, he felt the net sink and his heart was filled with joy.

When the scoop net was pulled up and flipped over onto the ice, a big carp weighing nearly three kilograms fluttered on the ice.

But Li Long was a little disappointed.

The fish that just slid down was not this fish, but a bigger one than this one, as you can tell by looking at its tail.

After he threw the fish and two palm-sized crucian carps onto the ice, he quickly stirred the net underwater again. Unfortunately, after going around in a circle, when he finally pulled it up, there was only a small crucian carp and two small pike in the net.

The big fish has escaped.

"Uncle, you are so awesome! This fish is so big!" Li Qiang came over with the hairy reed in his arms. He pressed the hairy reed onto the fire and then ran towards the big carp.

The carp is full of energy. Even on the ice surface at minus 20 degrees Celsius, it keeps flapping its wings, showing its indomitable vitality.

Li Qiang reached over and skillfully grabbed the gills of the crucian carp, and raised his head with all his strength. Li Long knew that he was trying to prevent himself from being hit by the fish's tail.

Ever since he was hit by a big fish's tail two years ago, Li Qiang has been very careful when catching big fish.

"Hey, this fish is really good!" Li Qingxia's attention was attracted by Li Qiang's voice. He watched Li Qiang pick up the big carp and exclaimed, "It must be three kilograms, right?"

"That's about right." Li Long said with some regret, "There was a bigger one that just surfaced, but I didn't copy it out."

"That's not ours." Li Qingxia was very open-minded, "What belongs to us can't escape."

Li Long thought about it and smiled.

After the snow, the fish were even more short of oxygen. So whether it was the Li father and son, the Liang brothers, or others, although they did not stay here for long this morning, by the time of lunch, they all had a good harvest.

The smallest fish caught was a fish weighing seven or eight kilograms.

So when Li Long set up his yard to collect fish, he found that in less than two hours this morning, he had caught more than 50 kilograms of big fish.

This is more than we harvested in one day sometimes before the snow started!
It seems that the fish in the small lake still have great potential.

The same thing happened in the afternoon. The morning's harvest stimulated many people, and the time for lunch was shortened a lot. When the sun was about to set, Li Long went back to start collecting fish, and he didn't finish until the sun had completely set and it was almost dark.

In one afternoon, we caught more than 70 kilograms of big fish. The largest one was a silver carp more than one meter long and weighed more than ten kilograms.

Li Long planned to keep this fish for his family to eat during the New Year. Together with the carp, it would be enough.

Although he paid more than a hundred yuan a day, Long found that if he continued like this, he would have caught all the fish in two or three days.

But he didn't plan to stop collecting fish until he had collected enough. After collecting enough fish for the supply and marketing cooperative, he planned to take the remaining fish to Shicheng to set up a stall.

Although his family is not short of money now, he should not forget his roots. He still remembers that his first pot of gold was fish and mountain products.

The money earned from setting up stalls in Shicheng and the county slowly snowballed.

It’s less than a month away from the Chinese New Year, so now is a good time to check out the market conditions in Shicheng Old Street.

"Brother, help me collect the fish tomorrow. I'll go to the Shicheng Sugar Factory to get some sugar residue." Li Long said, "And by the way, check out the fish market in the Old Street."

"Okay." Li Jianguo naturally had no objection.

Li Long left two hundred yuan and Li Jianguo did not refuse.

After drinking the fish soup, Li Long took some fish from his yard, loaded them into the jeep, and drove back.

When he returned to the courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia had already returned. Li Long secretly blamed himself for not coming back earlier to pick her up.

Fortunately, Gu Xiaoxia took the initiative to say that she would not let Li Long send her there anymore. She could just walk to work. The round trip was less than a kilometer, and it would only take about ten minutes to get there.

"It was really dangerous today. Two people in our bureau fell off their bikes. One of them was fine, he just slipped and his butt hurt a little, and the other one collided with someone else and his nose was bleeding."

Gu Xiaoxia herself was still frightened. If she collided with someone while riding a bicycle, she would be in big trouble.

Li Long fully supported her decision and said he would pick her up when he was free.

Gu Xiaoxia originally wanted to object, but Li Long insisted, so she didn't say anything.

In fact, I feel a little happy in my heart.

Li Long drained the water from the jeep, divided the fish into four bags and put them on the tractor. He planned to drive the tractor to Shicheng Sugar Factory tomorrow.

The next morning, while Sister Yang was cooking, Li Long added boiling water to the tractor and put some charcoal on the iron tray under the tractor. Li Long was very skilled at this and did not burn the pipes, just enough to keep the water tank and oil tank hot.

While Sister Yang was cooking, he went to the glass room to set up the stove.

The vegetables in the glass house were growing well, and the cabbages were actually ready to eat. However, Li Long had no plans to eat them yet. After the stove was lit, he sprayed some water on them, planning to wait until they grew a little longer before eating them.

After breakfast, Li Long walked to send Gu Xiaoxia to her workplace, then came back, started the tractor, said goodbye to Sister Yang, and drove towards Shicheng.

When we were halfway through the drive, the sun finally came out and there were more cars passing by than in previous years.

He truly felt the development and changes brought about by reform and opening up.

There were many people traveling on the road, most of them driving donkey carts or horse carts, and very few were driving tractors.

The road was very slippery. The passing cars pressed the snow on the road into ice. A cyclist could easily fall and slide six or seven meters if he was not careful.

When Li Long drove his tractor to the old street, he found that it was already crowded with people. The stalls were packed and if there was a vacancy, someone would immediately occupy it.

He didn't go to the parking lot, but drove the tractor to the yard where his sister lived.

Li Xia was sweeping the snow in the yard, and Hongqin followed her mother.

The snow at the gate of the yard has been cleared, and the snow inside has been piled up into several piles. What Li Xia has to do now is to shovel the piled snow and throw it into the vegetable garden.

Hearing the sound of the tractor, Hongqin looked outside and saw Li Long walking in with a bag.

"Uncle!" Hongqin was sharp-eyed and recognized Li Long at the first sight. She ran over happily.

"Hey, Hongqin, you still know my uncle!"

"How can I not know you?" Li Xia was very happy. "Xiaolong, are you here to do something?"

"Well, I'm doing some work and came to see you guys. Sister, here, these are the fish I brought from home. These crucian carps were peeled by my mother and sister-in-law. You can thaw them and stew or fry them.

These big fish are not peeled yet, just melt one when you want to eat it."

Li Long brought four portions of fish, and the largest portion was for his sister and brother-in-law.

"Come in, come in and have some water. You must be frozen." Li Xia took the fish and hurriedly called her brother into the house.

Hongqin looked at the fish curiously. Li Long smiled and said, "Hongqin, tomorrow I'll get you a bottle and hold a few live fish for you to keep, okay?"

"Okay, okay!" Hongqin was very happy when she heard that. There were no familiar children here, and she really had nothing to do by herself.

Li Long even wanted to take her to his elder brother and sister-in-law's house to stay for a few days. With Li Juan and Li Qiang accompanying her, she would not be lonely there.

Of course, it's just a thought. I can't be the boss of both sides, so I have to take the initiative to propose it.

I can guide her and ask her when I get back. My sister-in-law will definitely agree, but I don't know if my sister and brother-in-law will agree.

Actually, there's nothing wrong with it. You can just come and play for a few days. If you want to set up a stall here later, you can just send it back. It's like visiting relatives.

After staying with Li Xia for half an hour and telling her about the situation at home, Li Long drove his tractor to the sugar factory.

During the chat, Hongqin kept asking about Li Juan and Li Qiang.

Sister Li Xia also told her brother-in-law Chen Xingbang about the situation. The food factory didn't expect that the meat stall on the old street would be so popular. The leaders also attached great importance to it and directly focused on supplying meat to the masses, increasing the daily meat supply.

So Chen Xingbang is much busier than before, otherwise he would not even have time to sweep the snow in the yard.

Just be busy. Once you become a backbone, you will be able to take root here as soon as possible.

Li Long went to the sugar factory and waited at the back door for a while. Then he saw Song Ming driving over with sugar residue.

His apprentice Zhang Xueliang was not there, and it was unclear whether he had already completed his apprenticeship or was absent due to some other matters.

Song Ming also saw Li Long. He pointed inside the yard and signaled Li Long to drive directly into the factory so that he could unload the car first.

Li Long's tractor was not turned off, and he immediately drove the tractor into the yard. The truck drove out without stopping.

The sugar residue contained water and was seeping down all the way. Li Long knew that Song Ming could not park his car at the back door in the cold winter, otherwise, too much water would seep out and form thick ice, which would be difficult to shovel and he would definitely be blamed.

The guard saw Song Ming's gesture and did not stop Li Long. Li Long drove directly to the slag discharge port and waited.

Ten minutes later, Song Ming drove his truck over and stopped next to the tractor.

Li Long got off the car, and Song Ming also got off the car. After shaking hands with Li Long, he smiled and said:

"Comrade Li Long, I haven't seen you for a long time. You are a very busy man."

"No, I'm just wasting time." Li Long said casually, then took out two bags of fish from the tractor bucket, handed one bag to Song Ming and said:
"I have nothing to do these two days, so I've been digging holes in the ice to catch fish. This is for you. This bag is for Section Chief Hu and Team Leader Song, so please pass it on."

"I won't hand it over. I think it's better for you to go there yourself." Song Ming took the fish Li Long gave him and said with a smile, "Section Chief Hu was talking about you a few days ago, saying that you didn't come either."

Li Long was somewhat puzzled:

"The Section Chief wants to see me?"

"I don't know. You'll know when you get there." Song Ming pointed at the tractor and said, "Loading sugar residue, right? Leave it to me. I'll fill it up for you later. Go to the office building first."

"Okay, what about your apprentice? I brought him some fish as well."

"He's resting." Song Ming said, "Leave it to me, I'll bring it to him after get off work."

"Okay." Li Long took out another bag of fish from the tractor truck.

Song Ming had sharp eyes and saw that the three bags of fish were all similar. The two carps were the standard, and there was also a grass carp and a black carp. He felt quite satisfied.

It seems that Li Long did not favor one over the other just because Section Chief Hu was his leader. Although most people would have done that, Li Long did not do it, and he was very happy.

I think Li Long is real.

Li Long carried the fish into the office building. When he arrived at Section Chief Hu's office, he found that the door was open, but there was no one inside.

He waited at the door for a while, and soon, Section Chief Hu came out of the bathroom, shaking the water off his hands.

Section Chief Hu was also a little surprised when he saw Li Long:
"Hey, Comrade Li Long, come in quickly, come in quickly, when did you arrive?"

"I just got here too." Li Long said, "Section Chief, we've been digging holes in the ice to catch fish these past two days. Here, I'll give you two to try."

"Hey, not bad, not bad." Although frozen fish can also be bought in the market, this is Li Long's gift, so Section Chief Hu is naturally very happy.

After chatting about recent developments, Section Chief Hu expressed his plan to look for Li Long.

"The Chinese New Year is coming soon. I ran into my retired boss a few days ago. He said the mutton he distributed before the Chinese New Year two years ago was good, so he wanted to get some more.

I remember you were the one who brought the mutton. I was planning to look for you these two days, and you just happened to come over."

"Chief, are you planning to give out some whole sheep as welfare?" Li Long immediately understood what Chief Hu meant.

"Yeah, it's not difficult, is it?" Section Chief Hu poured water for Li Long, "If you can get it, get me fifty."

"Fifty?" Li Long thought about it and realized that if he really wanted to do it, it would not be impossible to get it.

"Well, at least fifty."

"Chief, it should be possible. But the price is high this year."

"Of course. I won't cheat you on the purchase price. Now that the New Year is approaching, all prices have gone up. Meat has gone up to two yuan, and mutton is one yuan and seventy or eight yuan. Let's calculate the wholesale price, how about one yuan and sixty yuan?" The price offered by Section Chief Hu was actually quite good.

"Okay." Li Long naturally had no objection, "Then I'll go back and prepare. When will the section chief need it?"

"It cannot be later than a week before the Chinese New Year. We need time to distribute the benefits. If we distribute them on New Year's Eve, we will be criticized."

"Haha, okay, okay." Li Long calculated that there was still more than half a month of preparation time, which should be enough.

It also helps Halimu and others in the mountains solve the problem of eliminating sheep.

Li Long thought it was no problem. He really didn't expect that he would really run into a problem this time. (End of this chapter)