Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Long held naan in one hand and a piece of meat bone in the other. He picked up a random piece of wood and started gnawing on it.

He secretly sighed that his appetite was really good these days. Forty years later, he would feel bloated and unable to eat even a little.

You still have to protect your teeth. My old man lived to be over 80 and still had a full mouth of teeth, but I am now 60 and only have a few teeth left.

Can't compare, can't compare.

Just as I was daydreaming, Sana came over with her grandson Talihar.

Both of them were holding naan in their hands. Talihar pulled a piece of wood and sat next to Li Long. Li Long hurriedly greeted Sana. He remembered this old lady, who was the one who said that the cabinet and box belonged to her at the beginning.

Li Long guessed that she came here to talk about furniture.

Sure enough, Sana spoke a string of words, and when she finished, Talihar translated for her:

"Li Long, my grandma said that you said that furniture will be brought in later. Is that true? Also, can we choose what furniture we want? And how much does the furniture cost?
My grandma said that we had prepared in advance, and we could directly exchange things at home. We also have some things picked up from the mountains, some deer antlers, some jade, and that... natural gold..."

Li Long was shocked for a moment, then waved his hands hastily:

"No, no, I don't need that much."

He calmed down before answering the questions one by one:

"In the woodworking factory I went to, I had already brought all your furniture with Kazakh ethnic characteristics. But if you need it, I can ask them to order it, and I think they should continue to do it.

That’s why I hope you can tell me what you want so that I can write a list and discuss it with them.

As for the price of the furniture, it is really not enough. One piece of furniture is about the price of a sheep, which is not expensive. You should keep the valuable things you found in the mountains. They will become more and more valuable in the future. "

Li Long was talking here, and the people who listened were not only Talihar and Sana, but also other people who were interested. Even Halim's wife stood on the periphery, wanting to hear how Li Long arranged the furniture.

Talihar translated Li Long's words to Grandma Sana, who nodded repeatedly and said a series of words.

Talihar's translation was also heard by others, and they immediately thought about what kind of furniture they would need in their homes.

In fact, if it is not expensive, which of these old ladies would not want to replace all the furniture in their homes? With new furniture, who would want to use boxes that have peeled paint, corners gnawed by mice, and are infested with bugs?

It is true that they were passed down from the older generation and that they were kept as commemorations, but in terms of practicality, they are far inferior to these new furniture.

Soon, everyone expressed their needs.

At this time, Yushan Jiang spoke:

"Don't worry, we are eating. After dinner, we will have some time to rest. Then you can talk to Li Long slowly. If you talk now, how will Li Long remember?

Okay, eat first, and don't think about other things while eating. It's strange that you still have the mind to think about other things when there is such a big piece of meat in front of you!"

After Yushanjiang finished speaking, everyone left with laughter. Li Long had originally planned to put down the naan and meat and find a piece of paper to write it down, but now that everyone had left, he just smiled and continued to eat.

Talihar did not leave. He went to the small table, took a piece of pila seed and handed it to Li Long. He also took a piece for himself and ate it while saying:

"Li Long, you know what? I envy you. You can get all kinds of things we want, and you can even get bullets. People in our tribe, both adults and children, like you very much, and they all hope to see you often..."

Li Long was ashamed. He shook his head and said:

"In fact, you are also very powerful. You killed seventeen wild goats in one go. I think it will be impossible to have such a record in the past or in the future. You can be a very powerful herder and hunter in the future."

As he spoke, Li Long stuffed the naan in his mouth, took the naan in his left hand and held it with the bone, reached into his bag with his left hand, took out a pack of bullets and handed it over:

"Here, there are a lot of wolves these days, this will be useful to you."

Talihar took the bullet and expressed his gratitude sincerely.

"Do you think we can leave this mountain and live outside in the future?" Talihar suddenly asked.

"Of course." Li Long was thinking about the settlement and animal husbandry development project proposed and promoted by the government in later generations. At that time, all the herders in the mountains were moved out and given land to grow feed and grain.

After all, the grasslands in the mountains are fragmented, making it difficult to raise cattle and sheep on a large scale. Moreover, it is difficult to manage the migration of herders in the mountains.

The pastoral team's settlement is just a pilot project, and everyone will move out eventually.

"If we can really get out of the mountains, what can we do?" Talihar was also quite conflicted. Living in the mountains, they are very curious about the outside world. After all, there are people like Li Long, which makes young people like them feel that the outside world should be very exciting.

The continuous flow of new things shows that the world outside must be very exciting.

They also went to the pastoral team, but that place was also very small for them and was not equivalent to the outside world.

So they wanted to see the wider world.

But if we go outside and lose our cattle and sheep, how can we survive?
Young people have already started thinking about this question.

So it's very contradictory.

"If you go outside, you can farm or work." Li Long said:
"In fact, I think what you yearn for most is this kind of life, that is, taking these special products from the mountains, such as deer antlers, cattle and sheep, and then exchanging them for supplies outside, running back and forth between the mountains and outside."

Talihar took a bite of naan and thought.

Well, that should be it. Not leaving the mountains, with the tribe as a backing, but also being able to go out into the world, learn about the outside world, and get what you need in return.

Sure enough, Li Long was really amazing. He hit the nail on the head on my mind right away, thoughts that I hadn't even thought through.

After dinner, during the break, Li Long took a piece of paper and a pen to record everyone's needs.

Sana had the most requests, as she was the boss of the house. So not only did she get the boxes and cabinets this time, she also wanted a long table, a box, and a small square table.

This is the main room. Her family's winter home also has an empty room, which also has a large cabinet, a larger square table, a few small stools, etc.

According to her idea, she wanted to replace all the furniture in the house.

Li Long was a little surprised when he was recording. This old lady is really courageous.

Sana also offered the price her family could afford: the fat sheep brought this time would be free of charge, and next she would ask Talihar to send a pair of deer antlers, a pair of roe deer horns, two pieces of jade and a small piece of natural gold.

When talking about this piece of gold, Talihuer was a little embarrassed, saying that the piece of gold was only as big as a child's fist and had some holes in it.

Li Long waved his hands hastily after hearing this:

"No, no, I don't need this gold. The sheep and the antlers of roe deer are enough. There is no need to take anything else..."

Talihar didn't agree, so Li Long asked him to talk to Sana.

Talihar whispered that he didn't dare to tell his grandmother because she would beat him.

Li Long was speechless.

He dragged Talihar to Sana and asked Talihar to translate:

"Grandma Sana, that piece of gold is very valuable and will be even more valuable in the future, so it's best for you to keep it. If Talihar gets married, it will be very useful then.

The furniture you mentioned, the sheep, and a pair of antlers would be enough..."

Sana didn't know what Li Long was going to say. Seeing that Talihar didn't dare to translate after Li Long finished speaking, she shouted to Yushanjiang.

Yushan River is coming.

Li Long explained the meaning to Yushanjiang, who smiled. He translated it for Sana.

After hearing this, Sana spoke with full energy, danced with her hands and feet, and finally clapped her hands together.

Yushanjiang said to Li Long:

"Sana said, then these sheep, plus the antlers, plus a small piece of gold. That's it. Well, the old lady has her own ideas, so you can take it."

Doesn’t Li Long want money?
He wants it very much!
But he felt the money was too hot to handle.

Is this gold easy to pick up?

It’s definitely not easy to pick up.

Sana must be in her 50s or 60s. She must have lived in the mountains since she was a child. How many pieces of gold could she have picked up?

There may be more deer antlers. If the nugget gold is really that easy to pick up, then there must be a big mine in this mountain.

Over the years, gold was mined in the upper reaches of the Ma River only during the Qing Dynasty, but it disappeared afterwards.

These nugget golds were probably produced by the upstream gold mines at that time. They will only become less and less, and will become more and more valuable in the future.

That's why Li Long wanted them to stay. If they really had to move downstairs in the future, they would be of great use.

Can't resist.

If there are any changes in the future, I will be their backup.

In fact, Li Long himself knew that he and the people of this small Kazakh tribe were already tied together. Although they could not be called family, there was not much difference.

The next few families will need some furniture, but basically they will only need one or two large items, which can be exchanged for today's grass-fed sheep.

Li Long always emphasizes to everyone that furniture is not expensive and there is no need to pay extra money or add anything else.

After counting, there were a total of seven small square tables, four long kang tables (which I posted in the egg picking chapter), four boxes, five cabinets, and five larger square tables.

Li Long estimated that all the items cost less than five hundred yuan.

But with so many things, it should be enough for the woodworking factory to resume operations, right?
Li Long thought of the furnishings of these people, and an idea came to him, and he asked loudly:
"Would you like a blanket or a tapestry?"

He remembered that the department store in Wucheng sold ethnic tapestries and blankets, but there were none in Ma County or Shicheng.

The main reason is that the minority population in these two places is relatively small. If it were in southern Xinjiang, in Yusup's hometown, there should be tapestries for sale in the small county town.

In fact, Li Long felt a little regretful when he asked this question. Most of the women in these herdsmen’s families know how to make felt and weave blankets, right?
Sure enough, they laughed after Li Long asked the question.

When the women of each family are free on the ranch, they will work together to weave blankets. The wool from the sheep of each family is mainly used here.

After dinner, they rested for a while and then continued to slaughter sheep and skin wolves.

Halimu and his team quickly skinned and processed the wolves, placing the wolf skins and meat on the tractor's bed.

Some of the shavings were unloaded and piled up beside the winter den, probably to be used as kindling. The rest was used as a cushion, and then wolfskin and sheepskin were spread underneath, and the sheep's kraal would be placed on top.

Fifty sheep are a lot of eggs. If you don't use ropes, you can't put them all in.

Halimu and Yushanjiang said to Li Long:
"You have to come again tomorrow to pull these things out of the water."

"It's not easy to release them at night," Li Long thought about it and felt a little worried, "There are so many wolves at night..."

"You don't have to worry about this." Yu Shanjiang looked at the sky and said, "After we're done, a few young men will take guns and send the old man to our winter home.

The others stayed here with their guns. The people who went down to the water were all sealed in the snow. At night, we took the guns and ambushed here. Halim and I guessed that the wolves would definitely come over at night, so..."

Yushanjiang didn't continue talking, Li Long understood.

This is to prepare to ambush the wolf.

Well, these wolves are really too rampant, we have to severely crack down on their arrogance!

"With the bullets you brought, we will have no problem dealing with the wolves."

With guns and bullets, we can even shoot down a Harimu tiger, so how could we be afraid of wolves?

He felt humiliated last time because he didn’t bring a gun and was chased by a wolf, so he was determined to take revenge this time.

Although Li Long wanted to join in the ambush of wolves at night, he had no choice but to pull back the sheep.

After all, the task must be completed first.

"Then take this money and I'll share it with everyone later." This time Li Long wanted twenty fat sheep. He looked at them and found that each sheep weighed more than 20 kilograms.

The grass and water are good this year, and these fat sheep are well fed and fat, unlike those culled sheep.

Li Long calculated the price at one dollar and fifty cents for everyone, which means one sheep is thirty dollars. After deducting the one hundred dollars for the furniture, Li Long gave Halimu one thousand four hundred dollars.

"No, no, no." Halimu waved his hands when he saw Li Long took out such a big bag of money. "You can't use so much. If you have furniture, you have to deduct the money for the furniture."

Li Long thought about it and decided to take back 400 yuan, leaving 1,000 yuan for Halim:

"Let's divide this. The rest is for the furniture. I'll give you the furniture list and you can calculate it for them."

Halimu looked at Yushanjiang, who smiled and said:

"Then you can take it and distribute it to everyone. Tell everyone that this is the money Li Long paid for the sheep according to the market price."

Li Long calculated the price at 1.5 yuan, which seemed like he didn't make much money, but the herdsmen who had gone into the water didn't want them, so Li Long took them to the Shicheng Old Street Market and sold them, making a profit.

Then there is the leather, which also costs money.

But what he didn't know was that the sheep bought by the animal husbandry team from the herders were much cheaper, with live sheep being sold at 70 cents per kilogram. In other words, the animal husbandry team paid about 20 yuan for a sheep, but Li Long paid 30 yuan.

Of course, the pastoral team will also provide other things to the herders, but the herders don’t think so. What Li Long provides is more and more scarce.

Medicines, salt, sugar cubes, etc., never ask for anything in return.

It’s just that the Kazakhs don’t like to take other people’s things for free, so every time Li Long brings supplies, they will give Li Long things from the mountains in return.

This feels different.

Li Long didn't think too much about it. He felt relieved after sending the money. He just wanted to complete the task of getting the sheep. He could sell the sheep with the fish when he returned.

Of course, if someone in the team needs it, we can sell the offal directly to the team. It's cheaper, and the money earned is enough to buy gas for the tractor.

As for the leather, I will ask Chen Hongjun if he wants to buy it. If not, I will sell it to the leather factory.

The county leather factory was quite prosperous at that time and it accepted all kinds of leather, even the skins of dead dogs.

Li Long still vaguely remembered that two years later, when Li Qiang in his previous life knew the importance of pocket money, he and a group of children took the blunt folding knives at home and prepared to skin a dead dog in the canal south of the settlement.

The dog was most likely poisoned after eating a dead rat, and it wasn't smelly yet. However, skinning it was beyond the ability of Li Qiang and his gang.

In the end, the plan ended in failure. After all, the knife couldn't even cut the dog's skin.

When the news spread, Li Long was laughed at for a long time.

Seeing that he could not help, Li Long pulled out a horsetail hair, rubbed it, and cleaned his ears.

At this time, ear picks are rarely seen. When the ears itch, there are usually two ways to pick them out. Either pick them out with a match, or pull a hair from a woman or girl's head at home, fold it in half, and then rub it, leaving a hole at the folded part of the hair, and then put it in the ear and rub it.

This will rub the earwax out of the ear.

Of course, matches are still used most of the time, after all, it is quite painful to pull out the hair.

In the afternoon, when the sun was still two poles high in the sky, the fifty-three sheep were slaughtered and processed. The young men who still had energy left began to help Li Long load the truck.

It was a bit difficult to load fifty-three sheep onto the tractor bed.

Fortunately, Halimu and Yushanjiang were prepared. They pulled out seven or eight wooden poles as thick as calves from the winter nest and laid them flat on the truck bed. Then they placed the sheep's calf on top and reinforced them with ropes.

Li Longrang put the three extra sheep in the truck bed, as these sheep would remain at home.

As for the money for the three extra sheep, Li Long didn't calculate it, and neither did anyone else.

It’s hard to calculate.

After tying up the sheep, Halimu and his friends said goodbye to Li Long. Halimu's wife hurriedly took out a few more pieces of mutton from the pot, put them in an enamel basin, covered the enamel basin with another one, tied it with a towel, and stuffed it into Li Long's mouth.

Li Long didn't know whether this was for himself to eat on the way or for his family to eat when he got home.

After putting the things away, Li Long put his gun on his back and said goodbye to everyone one by one. Then he started the tractor and drove away at a rumble.

The tractor was obviously struggling to pull more than a ton of stuff. Fortunately, the road was paved, and the chimney was emitting black smoke as it rumbled out of the mountain.

The sound of the engine echoed in the mountains. When turning the corner, Li Long looked towards the winter den and found that they had already started to light a bonfire. Then someone with a gun was escorting the old man into the mountains.

Obviously, preparations have begun.

Li Long was a little envious, but he knew he had his own things to do.

When he was about to leave the mountain, he heard the wolf howling again. Li Long thought, howl as much as you want, you can't howl much more. (End of this chapter)