Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 665: Knife-drawn incident leads to bloodshed and murder

"Look, when you see the Fritillaria plant, it's best to take a small shovel, dig a little bit downwards and outwards, and lift the plant. The round bump below is the Fritillaria plant."

Li Jianguo was teaching Liang Wenyu and several other young people how to dig Fritillaria in a nearby ditch.

Some of them didn't even know what a Fritillaria plant looked like. They stayed because they heard that Fritillaria was valuable, and a skilled person could dig seven or eight kilograms a day. If they paid Li Long's price, they could earn thirty or forty yuan a day.

Although Liang Wenyu knew what Fritillaria looked like, after all, she had it at home, but she didn't know what the Fritillaria plant looked like, nor did she know how to dig Fritillaria.

So he turned to his eldest brother-in-law for help.

Li Jianguo did not find any prey in the salt cave in the east, only some fresh feces. He knew that these things might have appeared in the morning, so he came back.

He planned to come and have another look early tomorrow morning. If he could catch any fish, he would do so. If not, he would go and dig a pond for washing the sheep after dinner.

As for digging Fritillaria the day after tomorrow, he really planned to dig for a whole day.

There's nothing to do at home anyway, so it doesn't matter whether I come back a day earlier or later.

This time he compiled more than 130 qualified porters. He was the only one among them who knew that the regular price of a porter was eight yuan. Last year, Li Long paid him the full price, and this year it was estimated to be about the same.

Li Jianguo is very content.

He believed that Li Long might give Liang Wenyu the full price in the end.

But these are all things for the future. Right now, I just need to finish the remaining two or three days.

"Let me try." Liang Wenyu quickly found a place where Fritillaria grew with a shovel. He dug it with a shovel and then picked up the Fritillaria plant.

There are many Fritillaria trees in this ditch. Even if hundreds of people come to the mountain to dig for herbs at this time, they will not be visible after they are scattered in the mountain.

There are hundreds of small ditches near Xiaobaiyanggou, not to mention other places.

The Tianshan Mountains are only 600 kilometers wide and several thousand kilometers long. Fritillaria grow in the mountains from the east to the Ili River Valley in the west, so there were really a lot of them in the early years.

As soon as Liang Wenyu saw it was dug out, he immediately reached out to pull the Fritillaria stem. Li Jianguo only came to remind him to "be gentle", but Liang Wenyu had already pulled the stem in pieces.

He smiled sheepishly, then lowered his head and started digging in the soil he had dug.

"Stop digging." Li Jianguo walked over and said, "If you want to dig Fritillaria quickly, use the shovel to pick up the tree and see if there is one. If not, move to another place. If this tree is broken, forget it and go to the next place to dig. Don't look for it. It will waste time if you look for it. If you have time, you can dig out the next one or two."

Liang Wenyu felt that the Fritillaria in her brother-in-law's hand was white and easy to find. She was a little dissatisfied and said while picking it up:

"I'll find it in a minute."

I searched for several minutes but couldn't find it.

"The mother-of-pearl is covered in a layer of black, the same color as the soil," Li Jianguo explained patiently, as he was his brother-in-law after all. "It's dark in this ditch, and if you don't look carefully, you won't be able to see it, and you'll miss it. It's better not to look for it."

Liang Wenyu suddenly realized that this was the reason.

They understood the reason, and Li Jianguo prepared to climb up the ridge to have a look. He wanted to find a ditch with more Fritillaria thunbergii so that it would be easier to dig.

After all, no matter how good your digging skills are, if there are not many Fritillaria in the ditch, you won’t be able to dig out much.

When they returned to the camp, the big pot was already on the stove and meat was cooking in it.

At this time, Li Long was unloading the wolf meat. The red deer meat could be cooked into several pots, but it was definitely not enough to cook it all at the moment, so he planned to take some to the cabin and take some back.

The same goes for wolf meat. Anyway, if these two kinds of meat are placed in the wooden house, there must be someone who wants to exchange them.

Can't waste it.

"Xiaolong, did you kill a deer? Where did you kill it?" Li Jianguo was very interested in this. He felt very sorry for not getting any prey in the salt cave, so he thought of trying his luck tomorrow morning.

Therefore, he was quite envious when he saw a deerskin and a wolfskin spread out on the grass next to Li Long.

"We walked about five or six kilometers further in." Li Long pointed in the direction. "There were several mountains connected together. I encountered a few wolves chasing two red deer, so I killed them."

He shook the blood off the knife and said with a smile:

"Actually, I wanted to hunt the argali and ibex in the mountains, but I ran into them before I even climbed over."

"The northern goat is also a good thing, its horns are so long and majestic!" Li Jianguo has seen it, but has never beaten or eaten it.

Li Long took back the heads of the northern goats, all of which were from seven or eight year old sheep. Their horns grew two sections a year, and most of them had 17 or 18 sections.

The Siberian Goat is considered rare or even endangered in other places at this time, but it can still be often seen on the peaks of the Tianshan Mountains, sometimes even in groups of more than a dozen or twenty individuals.

Later, with the Wildlife Protection Law, this animal was designated as a first-class protected animal in China. When Li Long traveled to Yili in his previous life, he heard that someone there had killed two northern goats and was fined 220,000 yuan and sentenced to five years in prison.

It is said that there is a black market for wild animals somewhere over there. There was a time when you could buy mutton, northern goat, wild goat, roe deer, red deer, etc. there.

Why was the man arrested? It was because he climbed up the mountain to hunt, and then left a piece of skin on the sheep to prove to the buyer that it was a mountain goat.

In fact, the sheep's head and the remaining sheepskin were thrown away. If it weren't for the sharp-eyed people from the Public Security Bureau of the Reclamation Area, the man would have fooled them by saying that the sheep were raised at home in the mountains.

Why is the Northern Goat so expensive? Because it is also called hanging goat.

But Li Long felt that this thing was not that difficult to fight at this time.

After Gu Xiaoxia gives birth, I will climb to the top of the mountain one day and see if I can catch one and bring it back.

Isn’t it said that the blood and flesh of that thing are good?

Just right for replenishing.

People came back one after another. Li Long watched the sun set, and the venison was almost cooked. Li Long washed his hands, took a basin and scooped out a piece to eat.

Grilled meat tastes good, but if you really want to eat meat, you have to cook it.

The hand-pulled meat is so delicious, and your mouth is full of meat when you take a bite.

This is just like telling people how to enjoy hotpot mutton. Some gourmets say that you should eat it slice by slice, and eat something else in between to relieve the greasiness. But when everyone became rich, and studied the lives of the rich, they realized that hotpot mutton should be eaten all on a plate, not slice by slice. You have to pick up the food with big mouthfuls of chopsticks.

Why did we eat it piece by piece in the past? Because we were poor and couldn’t afford it.

Others also started to get the meat, but no one rushed to get it, and everyone took it in order.

Li Long ate two pieces of meat, drank a bowl of soup, and felt full, so he left with two bags of meat.

Today's harvest also includes the two golden circles and a golden statue.

He planned to put the statue in the car instead of in the room. He didn't know who was worshipping it and was worried it would not be a good idea to put it in the room.

After eating, Li Long saw that the sun was about to set, so he left with some cut meat rubbed with salt.

Lao Huang will process the remaining meat and continue to do it tomorrow.

Xie Yundong also said that he would bring the person over after breakfast tomorrow.

"You don't have to come too early." Li Jianguo said to his brother, "You can come tomorrow or not. I know how to make the sheep-washing pool. Just dig it and make sure it's complete. I guarantee they can wash the sheep well."

Li Jianguo also knew that his younger brother must be tired from running around so he told him not to worry and that there was no need to rush this matter.

Li Long nodded and agreed.

None of these people asked to go back, which made him very happy.

Whether it was because he was worried that he would not be able to come next year if he asked to go back, or he really wanted to stay and help Li Long, anyway, this matter was settled.

That's pretty good.

Driving the jeep, Li Long accelerated towards the wooden house. He wanted to put the meat there as soon as possible for Sun Jiaqiang to process it, and then drive home.

Although the meat from the elk and the wolf was not much to bring home, it still needed to be processed when we got back.

Driving westwards towards the sunshine, Li Long suddenly noticed two figures struggling in front of him. He drove forward a little and saw that the one in front was the woman who bought a knife from him at the beginning, and the one behind seemed to be a herbalist he had met before.

Never spoke.

Two people were arguing. The man was pulling the woman. The woman was holding a bag and trying to get rid of the man. The man didn't let go, so the woman had to put down the bag and started fighting with the man.

Li Long could not help but honk the horn. A man and a woman over there heard it and turned their heads to look over here. The woman reacted quickly and took the opportunity to leave the man, while the man came forward to pester her again. The woman waved her hand, and something reflected light in her hand. Li Long guessed it should be the knife.

The man screamed and sat on the ground, covering his arm.

The woman took the opportunity to run north with the bag.

When Li Long's jeep drove up to the man, he found that his arms were covered in blood. He didn't know if he had cut a blood vessel.

Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car. The man looked at him with some fear.

"What's wrong? What are you doing? Do you need to go to the hospital?" Li Long didn't really want to send him to the hospital, but just asked out of habit.

"No, no, no." The man shook his head immediately. "Should we call the police?" Li Long asked again.

"No, no, no... I'm fine..." When the man heard Li Long was going to call the police, he stood up, covered his injured arm, turned around and ran into the woods.

Soon, it disappeared.

Li Long looked at the man's back and was a little dumbfounded.

But thinking about what happened just now, he could probably guess what was going on.

It is estimated that the herbalist discovered the identity of the woman and might be confused or even threatening.

The woman was unwilling to leave this place. The bag she was carrying was most likely filled with the fritillaria she had dug these days.

The man chased after him and started to harass him, but unexpectedly Li Long caught him in the act, and then he was stabbed by the woman.

That knife... was really useful.

There was still half a bag of stuff left at the scene. Li Long went over to take a look and found that it was indeed Fritillaria.

When the man left, he took nothing with him, but when the woman left, she only took a bag of Fritillaria. Li Long didn't know who it belonged to.

He waited there for a while, trying to see who would come back.

As a result, when the sun was about to set, no one came back.

Li Long didn't wait any longer. He loaded the bag of Fritillaria into the car and drove it to the wooden house.

Sun Jiaqiang was still washing the Fritillaria. The sun was about to set, and when Li Long arrived, he stood up hastily.

"We collected a lot today." Li Long said with a smile.

"Not bad." Sun Jiaqiang was also quite satisfied, "There are still many people who change their knives."

Li Long and Sun Jiaqiang put away the dried Fritillaria together. As usual, Li Long gave Sun Jiaqiang money for the portion he had collected. Then he put the meat down and let him deal with it himself. Li Long then drove back with the Fritillaria.

By the time the jeep reached Qingshui River, the sun had completely set.

The sky in the west was red, and some scattered clouds were reflected as if they were burning on fire, which was very beautiful.

There is no more braided handles here, and the smell of roasted strips is gone, so Li Long is a little uncomfortable with it.

When he drove back to the county, the Education Bureau had already closed, so Li Long drove the car directly back to the big yard.

What was brought back included not only venison, deer skin, wolf skin, but also deer heads.

When the antlers on a deer's head are cut off, they come with antler blood, which is a good thing, and Li Long is reluctant to waste it.

Seeing Li Long taking out things from the jeep one by one, Gu Xiaoxia didn't have any taboos, she just stood far away and watched.

Although I can't stand the smell of blood, I'm not afraid or taboo about looking at these things.

It’s not so particular these days.

Li Long put all the things into the side room, and left the last half bag of Fritillaria without washing it. He found a large basin and poured the Fritillaria into it.

Gu Boyuan felt that he could see something new every day, and said with a smile:

“There are so many good things in this mountain.”

"That's right." Li Long took out the two gold circles, washed them, and showed them to everyone:
"There is a group of stone houses in the mountains. They have no roofs anymore. I don't know how many years ago they were built. I found this."

Gu Boyuan was quite interested in this, so he asked Li Long to explain it in detail during the meal.

We had pulled noodles for dinner. There was tomato sauce in the soup and rice. It was sour and spicy and very good.

It was just right for Li Long to talk while eating, otherwise he would definitely sweat if he snorted while eating.

After hearing what Li Long said, Gu Boyuan thought for a moment and said:

"This really doesn't look like the residential habits of our Han people. It should be the remains of some ethnic minorities in the Western Regions that moved away or became extinct for some reason."

It is very easy for a small tribe like this to relocate or become extinct in the long course of history. In the past, productivity was very low, food and clothing were a problem that had not been solved for thousands of years, and the resistance to crisis was too poor. Sometimes a disease could cause a small tribe to completely disappear.

Disappeared without a splash.

Everyone who listened sighed.

Li Long felt that the golden circle and the statue should not be placed in the main house, so he planned to pack them up and put them in the wing room where the tiger bones were kept.

The door is always locked and no one goes in.

Gu Boyuan went home after dinner. Gu Xiaoxia sat in the yard. It was not dark yet and she didn't want to go into the house and watch TV alone.

Li Long was washing the Fritillaria, and Han Fang went over to help, but Li Long refused.

This matter was quickly settled.

After hanging up all the washed Fritillaria, Li Long collected the Fritillaria that were drying in another room and planned to buy a batch at the purchasing station tomorrow.

During this period, he has to sell a batch of Fritillaria every day. The Fritillaria season has not yet ended, but Li Long has already collected more Fritillaria than last year.

More than 500 kilograms of dried goods have been sold, and there are still 70 to 80 kilograms of Fritillaria stored at home.

He estimated that there was still some to be harvested in the mountains. This year, many people went into the mountains to dig for Fritillaria, and the production of Fritillaria in the mountains was also high.

I just don’t know whether the production of Fritillaria will decrease next year.

But it's unlikely. The Tianshan Mountains are too big. At present, these people are digging for Fritillaria near the mountains, and at most they go less than ten kilometers into the mountains, maybe less than seven or eight kilometers.

Li Long knew that there were also Fritillaria in the mountains 20 kilometers away, not to mention 10 kilometers. Currently, apart from herders like Halimu, very few people enter the mountains.

No worries about not being able to dig.

Of course, it will probably be harder for those who go into the mountains to dig Fritillaria in the next few years.

Sometimes Li Long even wondered if there were any Codonopsis pilosula that were hundreds of years old in the mountains?

After all, very few people dig for the traditional Chinese medicine here.

It's possible, but the chances of encountering it are relatively small.

very few.

Put the Fritillaria to be sold tomorrow into bags, then take the antlers off the sika deer's head, process them before it gets dark and put them in the shade to dry.

He still has a few antlers in his room, none of which he has sold yet. He plans to keep them for now, just in case he needs them.
Anyway, I can get them every year. When I have fresh ones, I can sell the old ones.

By the time they were done, it was already dark. Gu Xiaoxia and Han Fang had gone into the house to watch TV. Sister Yang was still in the kitchen preparing the meat.

Li Long went over to take a look and asked Sister Yang to leave. Li Long then went into the house, changed his clothes in the inner room on the east side, and then went to the master bedroom on the west side.

Han Fang saw Li Long coming over, stood up, said hello to him and was about to leave. Gu Xiaoxia told her to finish watching this half of the TV show before leaving.

"Go ahead, it's a rare opportunity to watch TV." Li Long said, then turned and went to the living room and poured himself a glass of water.

The next day, after selling more than 30 kilograms of dried scallops at the purchasing station, Li Long went to the department store to buy things and then went to the mountains.

Since his elder brother Li Jianguo said there was no need to rush to Xiaobaiyanggou, Li Long went to the wooden house and planned to put his things down.

Bolati and Sun Jiaqiang were both at the wooden house.

Seeing Li Long coming over, Bolati came over with a serious look and told Li Long something:
"Someone from our area found a body while patrolling the forest this morning."

"Where was it found?" Li Long was a little surprised. He immediately thought of the man whose arm was scratched yesterday.

"In the Elm Valley west of Xiaobaiyang Valley. The body was gnawed to pieces by wolves - the man was digging for medicinal herbs, and there were still some Fritillaria in the cave, and the other things were in a mess. The wolves dragged the man outside the cave and gnawed him, otherwise they wouldn't have been found."

Li Long understood immediately.

It was most likely the man I met yesterday. His arm was injured and not properly treated, and there was a bloody smell. He went back home to sleep at night and was discovered by wolves. Several wolves attacked him together and bit him to death.

This was the first time that Li Long encountered such a situation in the mountains, and he felt a little complicated.

"I came here to give you a warning. You are fine, you have a car and a gun. The people in your team are fine too, at least there are so many of them. You have to be careful here."

He glanced at Sun Jiaqiang, obviously having given him a reminder.

Li Long knew that among the medicine diggers, some had been bitten by wolves over the years, but they might not have been discovered.

You're really risking your life to make money.

(End of this chapter)