Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Xiangqian finally took the spotted dog away, leaving Li Long with a little black dog.

The two puppies were a little reluctant to leave, but Li Xiangqian didn't give them too much time to be sad. He held the dogs and pushed the bicycle and quickly left the yard.

Li Long touched his head in the yard and shook his head.

After squatting down to comfort the little black dog, Li Long continued to pack the things in the trunk of the jeep. After packing, he drove out of the yard, locked the gate and drove west.

There is no need to go to the department store to buy things for the time being. I originally planned to go and see the wooden house and make preparations, but now it seems that I still need to go to Qingshuihe Village to find someone.

Of course, he could find people in his own village, but Li Long did not plan to add any more people to Team 4.

He planned to separate the weaving of broom handles from the weaving of big broom handles and reed handles. In the team, he would bring in those who were close to him to weave the broom handles, while weaving big broom handles and reed handles was to seek some benefits for the team members.

We still need to make use of our innate conditions.

Of course, some things within the team and inside and outside the team should be distinguished.

The jeep arrived at Qingshuihe Village. Li Long slowed down. There were fewer people on both sides of the road, so he simply drove to the team leader He Yuqing's home.

There was no one at He Yuqing's home. Li Long shouted twice, but no one responded, so he turned to the home of the militia company commander Meng Hai.

These are the only two companies in the entire team that he is familiar with.

Meng Hai was sharpening a shovel handle in the yard. When he saw the jeep approaching the gate, he quickly put down his tools and stood up.

Li Long turned off the engine, got out of the car and said hello to Meng Hai.

"Comrade Li, hello." Meng Hai came over and shook hands with Li Long, saying with a smile, "How come you have time to come here today? Come, come and sit down." He turned around and asked his wife to pour him tea.

"I went to look for the captain but couldn't find him. I think the same thing applies to you." Li Long took the small stool handed over by Meng Hai, put it down and sat down while saying:
"I want to recruit a group of snipers. Is there anyone in your team who can recruit them?"

"Lifting the handle? Yes, every family can make up that thing!"

"The quantity required is large." Li Long estimated and said, "About a thousand."

"What? So many?" Meng Hai was a little surprised. He thought Li Long would collect at most a hundred or so and never expected there would be so many.

"I collected quite a lot in previous years, and this year there are more. I think the people in Qingshuihe Village are honest, and they made good brooms last year, so I plan to assign some tasks to you."

Li Long said it clearly and did not show any preferential treatment to Qingshui River, but even so, the villagers here actually made money.

Meng Hai's wife brought out a bowl of tea and handed it to Li Long. Li Long hurriedly took it and took a sip. Meng Hai's wife then took a small wooden block and put it aside, motioning Li Long to put the bowl aside.

Li Long took two sips of water and put the bowl on the stool.

"Then..." Meng Hai scratched his head. He had never taken on such a job before.

"There is a unified quality standard." Li Long said, "I was a porter in other production teams. They organized people to go into the mountains and find ravines with a large number of strips. A dozen people stayed in the mountains and kept compiling. When they compiled a hundred or so strips, I would go to inspect them and pull them out in batches.

As for you, it's up to you whether you follow this model or collect them together as a team like a big broom. I don't care."

"Then...how much is one handle?"

"Four pieces." Li Long said.

"Wow, it's really not cheap!" A smile appeared on Meng Hai's face. The money for making the handles alone was almost enough to buy a tractor.

Of course, it would be different if it were distributed to each company.

"There are time limits and quality requirements." Li Long said, "The quality requirements are very strict, otherwise the price would not be this high." Li Long earns half of the money, and he is not embarrassed at all. Whoever he works for earns money. Of course, he is not given such a job for nothing.

"Well..." Meng Hai thought for a moment and said, "We will definitely take the job, but what about the time limit?"

"May 20th, one month, one thousand strict bosses, how about that?"

"One month is definitely enough." Meng Hai breathed a sigh of relief, "Then when will you collect it?"

"I'll come and collect them every week or ten days. I don't care how you do it. To be honest, I see there are quite a few trees around here, including red willows, poplars, and sand willows. There are quite a few strips that can be used to weave handles. I don't care what kind of strips you use, as long as the quality is up to standard."

"Then Comrade Li, please tell me the quality requirements."

Li Long was well prepared and took out a piece of paper and handed it to Meng Hai, on which were written the quality requirements for the handles, such as the length of the handles and the length and width of the braided strips in the middle.

If there are still people who don't know what a stretcher is, just imagine it as a stretcher made of softened strips - the kind with a bend in the middle.

After reading the requirements on the paper, Meng Hai carefully folded the paper and put it away.

"Thank you so much." Meng Hai said sincerely, "Comrade Li, you have to stay and have dinner before you leave today."

Li Long waved his hand and said, "No, I have to go into the mountains again. This time I have more than a thousand bearers, and there are also tasks in other villages. I have to find a suitable place for them..."

As he was speaking, He Yuqing came over from outside.

Seeing Meng Hai pulling Li Long's arm, he didn't say anything and joined Meng Hai in pulling Li Long and pressing him onto the bench.

"My neighbor just said that a jeep entered my yard, but left without finding anyone and came in this direction, so I hurried over here." He Yuqing explained:
"I didn't expect Comrade Li to come. It's only an hour before dinner. You definitely can't leave!"

Li Long didn't know whether to laugh or cry. These two men held him down tightly, as if they were afraid that he would run away.

"Don't leave, don't leave. Let go." Li Long said helplessly, "Captain He, why are you interfering?"

"Hey, our Captain He is aware and knows that I must have a reason for keeping you here." Meng Hai smiled and let go of his hand, handed a bench to He Yuqing, and went into the house to get another bench. At this time, Meng Hai's wife came out with a bowl of tea and handed it to He Yuqing.

"Hey, Old Meng, what's going on?" He Yuqing took the water with a smile. He saw the joy on Meng Hai's face and knew it was a good thing.

"Comrade Li has arranged a thousand jobs for our team, each paying four yuan!" Meng Hai held up four fingers of his right hand and gestured in front of He Yuqing.

"What? Four? One thousand?" He Yuqing stood up suddenly, shook the bowl in his hand, and the water spilled on his clothes. He didn't care and asked:

"Really that many?"

Li Long smiled and nodded.

"Then..." He Yuqing didn't know what to say.

"Complete it in one month and deliver the goods every seven days. This is the standard requirement." Meng Hai took out the paper from his pocket and handed it to He Yuqing.

He Yuqing put the tea bowl in his hand on the wooden block next to him, took the paper and started reading.

"This quality requirement...isn't that difficult!"

Meng Hai explained the two modes that Li Long mentioned. He Yuqing thought deeply and said:
"Let's choose someone too."

Meng Hai nodded.

"Comrade Li Long, thank you so much!" He Yuqing stretched out both hands and held Li Long's hands, and said seriously: "Thank you for thinking of our Qingshuihe Village at this time... Don't worry, we will complete these 1,000 bearers according to the standards and on time!"

"I come here once a week to collect the goods, and I pay in cash when I collect them." Li Long also said, "After last year's cooperation, we have a better understanding of each other, and I hope to have more cooperation in the future."

Before he could finish his polite words, Meng Hai's wife had already started catching chickens.

Li Long hurried to stop them, but was pinned down on the bench by He Yuqing and Meng Hai again.

"Comrade Li Long, don't worry, you can eat the chicken with peace of mind. This is a public account and our team will not let Lao Meng pay for it himself." He Yuqing said half-jokingly.

"What? What do you mean? I can't afford this guest?" Meng Hai stared, "Old He, what you said is a bit off the mark."

"No, no, I don't mean that this is an official reception." He Yuqing explained hurriedly, "Anyway, I'm going to eat here today, so you can do whatever you want."

It can be seen that the two people have a good relationship, and such quarrels and bickering are habitual actions.

While cooking, He Yuqing took Li Long for a walk around the village, mainly to look at the nearby shrubs, the red willows on the south slope, and other shrubs and trees that could be used as handles for weaving.

Li Long knew that this was He Yuqing showing him that he had enough strength to compile a qualified leader. Li Long also said the ugly words in advance, if the things were not up to standard, he would definitely fight back. He Yuqing also made a guarantee.

When we returned to Meng Hai's house, a large plate of chicken and a plate of river fish had already been served on the table, and the staple food was rice.

Because Li Long had eaten here twice, they knew that Li Long did not drink while driving, so there was no wine on the table.

Li Long now knows that rice is not grown in Qingshuihe Village, so rice is usually used to entertain guests. Unlike the Fourth Team, which grows rice itself, although the area is smaller now, it is still normal for every household to eat rice.

At this time, there were no shrimps or even frogs in the river here, and the fish in the river were the same as those of Team 4, cold-water pike.

The stew is very fragrant and the smell makes you hungry.

There were four plates of vegetables and two vegetarian dishes. One plate was wild mushrooms under red willow roots, and the other was scrambled eggs with leeks.

The plates were so big that they filled up the table in the yard.

The women and children ate in the house. Qingshui River was close to Nanshan Mountain, and it was cooler than the Fourth Squad. There were no flies at this time, and it was brighter to eat outside than in the house.

As a distinguished guest, Li Long was asked to sit down. Two people placed a chicken leg, a large egg and the largest pike on the empty plate in front of him.

The meal was delicious and Li Long praised it repeatedly. Meng Hai's wife in the room was also happy to hear it.

She already knew that Li Long was here to do a job for her, which was equivalent to giving her money, so she cooked the meal very willingly.

Not every family member of a village cadre is willing to cook for their leaders or guests.

After dinner, Li Long chatted with He Yuqing and Meng Hai in the yard for a while, then said goodbye and drove his jeep to the mountains.

Only then did He Yuqing and Meng Hai start discussing serious matters.

The two men did not have much doubt about the job of carrying the handle. Li Long often went into the mountains and was well-known in the county. There was no need to deceive everyone and make up a handle - there was no benefit in that.

The main thing they discussed was the candidate.

"Since Comrade Li Long has proposed a model, we cannot copy it, but we also have to select people. We cannot have the entire village join together. If there are any quality problems, it will be a big trouble." He Yuqing set the tone first.

"Yeah, that's what I think." Meng Hai had no objection.

"Well, Lao Meng, since this is our first time doing this, we need to find more people," He Yuqing thought for a moment and said:
"Counting you and me, if you find five and I find five, that's twelve people. In a month, there are only about thirty people who carry the banners a day. There are twelve of us, so it will be no problem for each of us to make up three a day."

"Okay, I also think it would be bad if there were more." Meng Hai smiled, "Then I'll go find someone later. We have to prepare early. Cutting the strips, digging the pits, burning the strips, and chopping the poles will all take time."

"Okay, I'll go find someone too. It's the off-season right now. Comrade Li Long really knows how to pick the right time."

"What a capable person he is." Meng Hai sighed.

After the household contract responsibility system was implemented, the team leader was different from the previous team leaders. When looking for people to do the work, he would naturally find whoever he wanted. The other people in the team who were not found could not say anything even if they were jealous.

After all, everyone is looking out for themselves right now, and if others can't find the problem with you, it only means that you either don't have the connections or the skills.

That afternoon, the whole Qingshuihe Village knew that there was a good job of weaving handles.

The people who were found suppressed their excitement and began to make preparations. Some people couldn't wait any longer and went to the red willow beach with sickles to cut strips and chop poles. On the one hand, they wanted to weave more, after all, there was no limit on the number for each person, and on the other hand, they were worried that others had finished cutting all the nearby areas and they had to run far away.

After leaving Qingshuihe Village, Li Long drove his jeep into the mountains and then turned towards the wooden house.

This is the first time I've been to the cabin this year.

The jeep rolled over the sparsely dense grass and came to the wooden house. Li Long found that the main body of the wooden house had not changed much, except that the shed was knocked crooked by a wild boar or something, and there were cracks in the wood of the pillars.

But it's not a big problem, just straighten it and screw on the wire.

The door lock of the wooden house has not been broken yet. I wonder if no one has entered the mountain yet.

Someone had removed one end of the wire hanging between the two pieces of wood. It looked like it was broken violently, but I don't know why the wire was not taken away.

There was a lot of feces in front of the wooden house, including horse feces, wild boar feces, and other unknown types, scattered here and there, and even dog urine moss had grown.

The amount of water in the spring in front seems to be a little larger than last year, and the grass there is more lush and looks greener than other places.

Li Long looked around and found nothing else, so he went forward and opened both doors one by one.

A damp and musty smell filled the air.

Some of the things on the shelves in the cabin were broken.

Half a bag of rice and half a bag of noodles were inedible. One of the pieces of dried meat had grown hair.

Li Long picked up all the bad things and took them outside, planning to dig a hole and bury them later.

He went to the big room, took out all the bedding from the wooden kang and put them on the jeep first, then used tools to pull the wire and tied it to the wood again.

There was some excess left in the wire, so it would naturally hang down when used to build things, but now all we can do is pull it tighter.

After hanging the bedding on the wire and hitting it with a stick for a while, Li Long went to set up the stove in the house.

Although the sun was shining brightly outside, the room was still a little damp. Li Long set up the stove to dry out the moisture.

After finishing all these things, Li Long took out a net from the trunk of the jeep, picked up a bag, and walked towards the nearby ditch.

He had set a net in the stream nearly a kilometer away, and if he left it out for a few hours he might catch some pike.

The stewed dogfish he had at Meng Hai's place was delicious. He planned to take some back and ask Sister Yang to stew it for Gu Xiaoxia to nourish her.

After setting the net, he shook his hands, then walked back with the bag and looked around on the grass.

There weren't many straw mushrooms, maybe it hadn't rained in the past two days, so I could occasionally see a few. But the area was hundreds of meters long and was full of grass. The place was big, and Li Long had plenty of time. Gradually, he collected a lot of grass. It took him more than an hour to finish the whole area of ​​grass and picked up three or four kilograms of straw mushrooms.

There must be pine mushrooms in the pine forest in the distance, but Li Long didn't go there because he felt that was enough.

When picking mushrooms, I also picked a lot of wild onions and some Artemisia selengensis. These things can be found everywhere in the mountains, and they are all good things outside the mountains.

Li Long came with a gun, but the animals in the mountains did not give him a chance to shoot.

Originally, he planned to go to the hot spring, take a bath and see if he could gain anything, but because he had wasted some time in Qingshuihe Village, it was too late to go there now.

Let’s talk about it later.

Anyway, I will be traveling between the mountains and the county frequently in the future. With a jeep, traveling will be much more convenient.

And it is also very intimidating. Driving a tractor may make people feel rich, but it is not very intimidating. Driving a jeep is completely different. People on the road know to get out of the way first, and they look at the car differently.

What is this? People rely on their cars?

Li Long smiled, went to the spring, cleaned and washed the mushrooms one by one, and then sorted the wild onions and wormwood.

When the sun was setting, he went to the place where he had cast the net and found only a dozen or so pike in it.

This was too far away, so Li Long did not take it, wanting to wait and see if he could catch more tomorrow.

The things were loaded onto the jeep, the fire in the stove was fueled by coal dust, and the bedding was collected and piled on the wooden kang, intending to dry them again tomorrow.

After locking the door, Li Long drove the jeep out of the mountain.

When they passed Qingshui Village, the sun was still a foot high. Then Li Long saw Meng Hai waiting by the roadside. When he saw his jeep coming, he waved his hands vigorously.

There was a basin at Meng Hai's feet, tied with gauze.

Li Long slowly stopped by the roadside. (End of this chapter)