Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

April 3, Tuesday, sunny.

The third day of the third lunar month is a good time to start work or open a business.

Li Long drove a jeep to pick up Director Wei and Li Xiangqian first, and then went to pick up Ma Xiaoyan and Ye Laya.

Behind the jeep followed a large truck, which was pulling a box full of water pipes.

Let’s see if it’s enough first.

Director Wei decided the date and told Li Long a week in advance. Li Long thought it was about right, but he just hoped it wouldn't rain that day.

It's OK. The weather has been slightly windy and sunny these days.

The road leading to the mountains has dried up and the snow in the mountains has melted. Young grass, not very lush, has grown on the turf near Halimu and his friends' winter home, which is quite pleasing to the eye.

The pine trees in the mountains have turned green again, and clusters of new tender pine needles have just emerged, growing on the old branches. The color is obviously different from the old branches, which looks quite unique.

The first to bloom are the old garlic and dandelion, which are light yellow, light yellow, and a little bit of blood red - the middle strip of the old garlic is this color.

Li Long was driving, Director Wei was sitting in the passenger seat, and Ma Xiaoyan and Ye Laya were sitting in the back seat.

Originally, Li Long wanted to let Li Xiangqian sit in the back seat, after all, the back seat could accommodate three people, but Li Xiangqian insisted on sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, the so-called driving the car.

Li Long did not force it and drove the jeep in front to lead the way towards Halimu's winter home.

Li Long had already told Halimu about this matter yesterday, so when Director Wei and others arrived, a lot of people had already gathered in Dongwozi.

There were many men, women, young and old. When the jeep and the truck arrived at the winter den, Halimu brought these people to greet them, and they all had sincere smiles on their faces.

There are not only those pipes on the big truck, but also some daily necessities. This was not said by Li Long, but proposed by Li Xiangqian to Director Wei.

Anyway, there are a lot of things in the supply and marketing cooperatives, and it is normal to express condolences to ethnic minority people. The superiors will not only agree, but also praise it.

Rice, flour, oil, dried fruits and honey are all very popular items.

When these things were moved down, the people behind Halimu couldn't help cheering.

Ma Xiaoyan asked Ye Laya to take pictures quickly and choose a good angle to better show the image of national unity.

The people around Halimu were really happy. The fact that these people could send them supplies at this time made them feel the other party's sincerity.

Halimu also said that they would come to deliver some water pipes to connect water to the door of each winter den. What a great thing!
Under the command of Li Xiangqian, the young men unloaded the water pipes.

Today we have to bury the water pipes in Halimu's winter home, and Director Wei will follow the whole process.

Li Long has promised that it can be completed within one day so as not to delay his return home from get off work today.

Director Wei was naturally satisfied.

"Halimu, let's divide us into two groups. One group will prepare lunch, and the other group will dig holes and lay pipes according to the predetermined route." Li Long discussed with Halimu, and then told the plan to Director Wei and Ma Xiaoyan.

I told Director Wei that it was to let him know where today's project was mainly used. I told Ma Xiaoyan that it was to let her understand the project so that she could write a press release.

The most important work is still done by the young men, Halimu, Yushanjiang and Li Longlai.

As soon as Halimu spoke, the young men took shovels and started digging the turf according to the location agreed upon before Li Long and his friends arrived.

The pit that needs to be dug is only as wide as a shovel and no more than thirty centimeters deep, so the workload is not large.

Thirty centimeters may be frozen in winter, but Li Long has studied it and found that as long as there is water in the upstream source and the water continues to flow below, the middle will not freeze.

If the water stops upstream, there will be no water downstream even if it is not frozen, so there is no need to consider so much.

There were seven or eight strong men who came this time, plus Li Long, so the total digging work of each person was only a little over ten meters. The place they chose avoided rocks and was all grass. There was only some sand and gravel near the stream where they dug a water hole, and Li Long did it himself.

Director Wei and Li Xiangqian also took shovels and worked symbolically for a while, and then they were called by Yu Shanjiang to drink milk tea.

Instead, the driver took over the shovel they were using and continued to work, digging quite quickly.

After Li Long arrived at the water source, he started digging. He wanted to dig out a water tank that was deep and large enough, and it would be best if he could clear away all the floating sand on it, so that after the water pipes were buried, it would not be easy for sand to seep in and clog the pipes.

Li Long used a shovel to search several places near the spring. Finally, he found a spot less than five meters away from the spring and started digging.

There were still some other creatures in the water, various small insects, but Li Long didn't care. After digging for a while, a puddle about half a meter deep and about half a meter in diameter appeared.

The water quickly filled up and then rushed downstream, carrying with it turbid mud and sand.

Li Long began to dig a groove for the water pipe next to the puddle.

There are rocks beneath the thin layer of soil here. Fortunately, most of them are sand and gravel, so they can be dug out. All they require is some scrap shovels.

It took more than an hour, using a shovel and a pickaxe, to dig a suitable trench in the five or six meter thick stone layer. Turning around to look at other locations, everyone had basically dug their assigned trenches.

Then they continued to deepen the digging. Li Long remembered that when he was hammering the stone layer, he vaguely heard Li Xiangqian saying to dig deeper.

So dig deeper.

Li Long didn't do that. He went over and pulled a water pipe, wrapped his head with several layers of gauze, and then buried his head at the bottom of the puddle that he had dug at the beginning.

Li Long dug a deep trench near the north side of the puddle. At this time, the water was flowing along the trench to the ditch he dug.

Li Long ignored that. He pressed the mouth of the water pipe tied with gauze to the bottom of the puddle. He first held down the water pipe with a few stones prepared in advance, and then placed some small stones at the mouth of the water pipe. The smallest one was half the size of the pipe mouth. Due to the irregular shape, they would not get into the pipe after the gauze was broken.

After burying the pipe mouth with these stones, Li Long used a few large stones to press on these small stones, and then he could not move upwards.

This pit needs to be cleaned frequently because the sand around it will slowly gather into the pit with the water flow and slowly block the pipe opening.

However, this process will not be too fast, and it may only need to be cleaned once every one or two years.

Ma Xiaoyan was interviewing the herders randomly with a small notebook, and Ye Laya translated the parts she didn't understand. When she was interviewing Director Wei and Li Xiangqian, Ye Laya ran around taking pictures.

Ye Laya took a few special photos of Li Long, all of which were when he was bending over and working. Her profile could be seen, and he looked very serious.

After Li Long buried the water pipe, he began to straighten the long pipe. The pipe was measured in advance and was three to five meters longer than the trench they dug. These were reserved.

There was already water flowing down the pipe, so Li Long began to push the pipe into the ditch from his side, pressing it up five or six meters, and then began to fill the ditch with soil.

Halimu, who was not far away, had finished digging his ditch. When he saw Li Long start to fill the soil, he immediately came over to help.

One pressed the pipe while the other shoveled the soil on both sides into the ditch, and they moved very quickly with coordinated actions.

After the two men finished burying the more than 20 meters of pipes they had dug, the people behind them also began to sort out the pipes and bury them.

The water pipe was originally coiled into a circle with a diameter of more than one meter. Now after being removed, it is still a bit twisted. If it is straightened and buried, it will rotate in circles, otherwise the pipe will not be obedient.

The person behind was turning the pipe to straighten it out while pressing it into the ditch.

Li Long and Halimu stomped down the places where they had buried the dead, and on top was still the turf that they had just dug up.

In this way, after a rain, the grass will continue to grow, and soon it will not be able to see that a ditch has been dug here.

"The water is coming!"

A young man at the end of the water pipe shouted.

The water has flowed from this side to the other side. The height difference is 20 to 30 meters, which is larger than the pressure well dug by Li Long and his team.

Therefore, the water flow is not small and the flow rate is very fast.

Seeing the water flowing out of the pipe, which was a little turbid at first and then became clear, the people in front of the winter nest cheered spontaneously. Especially the women, thinking that they would not have to go down the mountain to fetch water every day, how great it was!
They looked at Director Wei, Li Xiangqian, and Li Long on the hillside, and their gazes changed again.

They bring us good days.

The sheep had been slaughtered and the experienced old man was cutting it up, some for boiling and some for roasting.

Before coming, the young people had already cut red willow branches and dug a barbecue trough on the ground.

But I haven't added charcoal yet.

At present, the water supply project is going so smoothly that it didn't even take a whole day. It was completed in less than half a day, and the water was also brought down. The next step is to dig a big hole at the end of the water pipe, mainly to hold water for easy use.

As for the puddle that is full, the water will naturally flow down the mountain and slowly form a ditch without people having to do anything.

Seeing that the workload was gradually decreasing, Yushanjiang called a few young men to dig troughs for the barbecue.

Ma Xiaoyan and Ye Laya also filmed this scene and specifically asked the young man why he did this.

In fact, Yelaya could explain it herself, but she didn't say much and faithfully translated the conversation between the two parties.

It seems that life has taught her a lot.

Li Long and Halimu came from the top of the mountain along the dug ditch to check and bury them all the way. When all the water pipes were buried, the barbecue trough on this side had been dug. Someone had poured all the red charcoal into the trough and spread it evenly with a stick.

Over there, the women who came to help were stringing the cut pieces of meat together with red willow branches. The young men took the skewers and put them on the trough to start grilling.

The trench was dug quite long, with the excavated soil piled and compacted on both sides, so the string would fit perfectly on top.

There were two experienced people sprinkling salt, spicy flour and cumin powder on the skewers.

Li Long and Halimu walked to the end of the water pipe, looked at the extra section of pipe about three to five meters long, and asked Halimu:
“Do you want to cut this off?”

"Harimu hesitated."

Li Long helped him make the decision:
"It's better to cut it off. It's inconvenient to leave the pipe exposed outside. Just leave a small section. Otherwise, it will freeze easily in winter. And if someone finds you after you move to another location, it will be troublesome if they pull the pipe away."

Halimu thought it was right, so he took his knife and slowly cut the water pipe.

Li Xiangqian walked up to Li Long and said with a smile:

"After hearing what you said, I was thinking of staying here all day. It looks like I can go back after lunch."

"Yeah." Li Long smiled. "I thought this ditch would be difficult to dig, but I didn't expect it to be all soft soil. Only my section was rocky. If the rest was like this, it would be much easier."

There are nearly twenty herdsmen in this small tribe. Li Long's plan is to install water pipes in front of all the herdsmen's winter homes so that they can use water nearby.

According to the previous plan, this work would continue until Halimu and his team moved to another location.

It now appears that this time point can be brought forward.

This would be much more convenient for Li Long. After all, it would be inconvenient for him to stay in the mountains every day, and there were also jobs to be found down the mountain.

Besides, Gu Xiaoxia is already seven or eight months pregnant, which is a critical period, and he doesn't want to stay outside.

The aroma of the barbecue soon spread, and the lamb cooked in the big pot also spread its faint smell and rich aroma.

Director Wei drank two bowls of milk tea and talked with Secretary Ma Xiaoyan about the original intention of the supply and marketing cooperative to do this activity, the materials provided, and the follow-up plans. When Ma Xiaoyan promised to include all these contents in the manuscript, he nodded with satisfaction.

Then he stood up and walked around on the grass.

There were some small mushrooms on the grass. Director Wei went to the pine forest to drain water and picked up some mushrooms.

He knew straw mushrooms, and after picking them up, he couldn't hold them all in his hands.

I thought it would be nice to stir-fry these wild mushrooms.

Li Xiangqian had already seen Director Wei picking mushrooms, and he talked to Li Long about it. Then Li Long took out a bag from the trunk of the jeep and gave it to him. Li Xiangqian took the bag and gave it to Director Wei.

"There are quite a lot of wild mushrooms here." Director Wei said casually, "Life in the mountains is not as boring as imagined."

Li Xiangqian thought to himself, it’s just one day. If you stay here for three months, you will know whether it is boring or not.

Why do people want to move to cities or big cities? Not only because cities have good conditions, but also because there are many people there.

By this time the mutton had been roasted. Halimu came over with a bunch of skewers and shared them with Director Wei, Li Xiangqian and Li Long.

"This meat is really well grilled!" Li Xiangqian took a bite and praised, "Hey, I haven't eaten such delicious grilled meat in a long time."

"That's right," Li Long said as he ate, smiling, "Fresh mutton, freshly slaughtered and freshly grilled, it has ethnic flavor and original taste, so of course it tastes good."

"If it tastes good, eat more." Director Wei had already finished one string of rice and threw away the red willow branches. He was eating another string when he uttered a slogan that later became an advertising slogan.

Li Long also ate two skewers and thought they were good, but he still planned to eat some hand-pulled meat and drink a bowl of mutton soup.

Li Long threw away the red willow branches, picked some wild onions, took them to the puddle he had just dug, washed them, and prepared to put them in the mutton soup later.

The chopped green onions need to be sprinkled on the broth when it is out of the pot, otherwise it will have no taste.

Seeing what Li Long was doing, Li Xiangqian also went to pick some wild onions. Li Long reminded him:
"Chief, you are a little fat, so you should drink less of this broth."

Li Xiangqian shook his head and said with a smile:
"What do you mean by drinking less? The good days are only a few days away. How can I drink less? This delicious mutton soup can only be drunk a few times a year. I'm not like you. You will come here often in the future. I must drink to my heart's content today..."

At this point, Li Xiangqian whispered to Li Long:
"Director Qian called me yesterday and asked me what I mainly do in the supply and marketing cooperative. I told him that I mainly take on tasks in our cooperative, organizing people to make handles, big brooms, reed handles, etc. He said he knew."

Li Long nodded without thinking too much.

Li Xiangqian looked at his expression and shook his head, feeling a little disappointed with his friend.

This kid is usually so smart, why doesn't he get it now?

To be honest, Li Long is now moving towards his goal step by step, and for the time being he is quite satisfied with his situation. In his plan, some things can only be done when the time comes, otherwise they cannot be carried out.

And now the focus of his life is Gu Xiaoxia and his unborn child, so he really doesn't care about anything else.

Halimu and his friends were different. Today, they really saw the convenience of the water pipes. Water was right in front of the winter nest, which made everything much more convenient. The most convenient thing was the water for daily use. They didn't have to run so far to wash anything.

Halimu was happy, and so were the others. Everyone knew how to install such a large roll of water pipe, and some people thought of cutting a section now and digging it at home.

However, Yu Shanjiang stopped them. He told everyone that they had to work together, otherwise if the route was not found well and the water pipe opening was not properly opened, it might be blocked, and all the previous efforts would be wasted and cause a lot of trouble.

Yushanjiang has a very high prestige in the army, and everyone still listens to what he says.

The work is completed and the results are obvious. Now everyone has happy expressions on their faces. Some people have started singing and some are dancing to the songs.

Ma Xiaoyan was eating barbecue. Seeing this scene, she immediately handed the skewers to Ye Laya and took out her notebook to record it. Ye Laya looked around, called a young man over, asked him to help hold the skewers, and then raised her camera to take pictures.

Watching them dancing happily, Li Long felt his mood become as cheerful as theirs.

Director Wei and Li Xiangqian truly felt that the water pipes they brought today helped these people and made them so happy.

They were also infected, and although they did not dance along, the smiles on their faces became obviously more sincere.

Li Long looked at the herdsmen, then at Director Wei, and thought that today's goal had really been achieved.

Although relying on one's own strength can improve the living standards of this tribe, how can it be as effective as bringing everyone together? (End of this chapter)