Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

"One mu of land is one dollar and fifty cents," Li Long said. "Of course, you can also exchange it with leather, deer antlers, jade and the like. You see, we work so hard to drive the tractor up the mountain to cut grass, and we use up manpower and fuel. Look over there..."

Li Long pointed to the diesel barrel still on the truck bed and said:
"We use a lot of oil every day. A barrel of oil costs more than 100 yuan. It takes a barrel of oil to mow the grasslands of two or three households..."

These words not only shocked Tursun, but also surprised Halimu.

It turns out that it costs so much money for Li Long to cut grass with a tractor.

Of course, he didn't know that Li Long had actually exaggerated by at least twice. And it also blurred the concept. There was no fixed number for how big the pasture of two or three households was. It could be thousands of acres or even hundreds of acres. After all, the pasture of each household was not strictly demarcated according to a certain number.

After he said that, Tursun felt that one yuan and a half per mu was not expensive at all - but the herders could not afford it anyway.

But Tursun couldn't bring himself to ask them to cut grass according to the original plan. He had a drink with his tribesmen two days ago and promised them that he would be able to pull a tractor over to cut grass, which would save effort and trouble.

It's embarrassing right now.

At this time, the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance, and everyone looked over, which just eased the embarrassment.

Two horses came running from the mountain. Li Long saw that the one riding on the horse was Talihar and the other one was his good brother Zat.

The two men were galloping towards this side, one in front and one behind. Li Long could see that there was something on Talihar's horse's back, which looked like a wild goat or a roe deer.

There was also one on Zat's horse, who looked a little smaller.

Two horses came over, and Halim said with a smile:

"It seems that Talihar is getting better and better at fighting. He has been hitting things for three consecutive days. He is amazing."

"Zat is not bad either." Li Long also praised.

Zat is a little shorter than Talihar, but has a sturdier build and looks a little silly.

Adili and Tuersun looked a little confused. How could they have time to hunt?
But if you think about it, it's normal to park Li Long's tractor here to cut grass.

Two horsemen came up and saw Li Long, Tursun and Adili.

After they got off their horses, they did not go to look for Adili and Tursun, but greeted Li Long enthusiastically.

"You two are awesome." Li Long said with a smile, "Where did you get this?"

He could already see that both men were hunting roe deer, Talihar was hunting a male and Zat was hunting a female.

"In the mountains south of our winter den," Talihar said as he carried the roe deer down, "you can often see these things in that ditch."

The two men put the roe deer down and began to skin it skillfully.

Tuersun and Adili were a little embarrassed. They were a little unhappy that the herders in their team did not greet them but got along well with a Han Chinese.

Tuerxun didn't want to stay here anymore, so he said to Li Long:
"I think that one dollar and fifty cents is still too expensive..."

"Forget it then. The guys on our team are pretty busy anyway." Li Long could see that Tursun actually felt that the price was OK. After all, he had already said that it could be replaced with something else, and if it really needed to be replaced, it wasn't actually that expensive.

One advantage of cutting grass for herders is that you can harvest hundreds of acres at a time without having to move frequently.

The downside is that most of the land is sloping, which is challenging for driving skills. Going uphill consumes more fuel, and if the grassland is not cleaned properly, the harvester blades can easily be damaged.

When all these things are combined, it becomes quite troublesome.

Although Li Long wanted to help his people make money, he didn't want to cause trouble for them. After all, those people were not like Halimu and his men. It was impossible for them to clean up the things in the grassland so diligently. The risk was not small.

Otherwise, Li Long would have asked for one dollar - in fact, with so much grassland, even one dollar per acre for haying would be worthwhile, after all, haying is not as delicate as cutting wheat.

Now the initiative was in his hands, and he was not at all nervous. So while Tursun and Adili were hesitating and discussing, he took the time to go and see the two roe deer that had just been shot.

The two roe deer looked quite young, weighing about 30 to 40 kilograms, and their skins were easy to peel, or perhaps both Talihar and Zat were very good at skinning, so they quickly peeled the skins and started to eat.

"Are you going to eat?" Tursun asked.

"Take it back to Li Long." Zat opened the chest without even raising his head. A stream of foul air gushed out, which smoked Tursun.

"They gave me what they beat," Li Long said, "and I taught them how to drive a tractor. It's a win-win situation."

"What is a win-win situation?" Tursun was a little confused.

"It means that I and they all won." Li Long explained, and then went to help. After the disembowelment, the heart, liver, lungs, etc. were not important, and the stomach and intestines had to be washed.

At this time, it may be impossible to collect only blood, but the others cannot be wasted.

After all, although the Li family can eat meat every meal, other people don’t have this treatment.

Tuersun originally wanted to get close to Li Long, but seeing that Li Long was not interested, he had no choice.

Since he had already made an agreement with his own people, he gritted his teeth and decided to agree to it.

Even if it is impossible to pay with money, we can let the tribesmen pay with leather or other things.

Anyway, although I have bought most of the leather, antlers and other things at low prices in the past two years, those I bought were all of good quality. I didn't like those of average quality, and this time I can use them to exchange for the cost of a tractor to cut grass.

Now that he had made up his mind, Tuerxun no longer hesitated. He walked over and squatted beside Li Long, not caring about the foul smell coming out of his stomach and intestines, and said:
"How about this, Comrade Li Long? In principle, I agree with your idea. We can use mountain products, leather, deer antlers and jade in exchange for your people using tractors to cut grass. But the price of these things..."

"Let's negotiate it." Li Long said, "After all, the market price is changing, and the grade of things is not up to us. Fortunately, I have some experience, and I think those herdsmen have a good idea of ​​it. By the way, Captain Tuersun, are you sure you want my people to use tractors to cut grass?"

"Sure, sure." Tursun was very decisive in this regard.

"Well, let's talk about cooperation next." Li Long said, "We have to agree on these things in advance. Once we agree on them, we should do them later. Otherwise, it will be troublesome if we argue later."

"Okay, go ahead." Tuerxun knew this was the main topic, and he didn't think Li Long was troublesome. He had experienced a lot, and he knew that the present was the most important thing.

"When my people go to your pasture to collect grass, you have to provide them with lunch. If they can't come back on the same day because the pasture is too big, you have to provide them with meals for the whole day."

"That's no problem." It's no problem to provide a few meals. Even if Li Long didn't say it, Tursun knew that the herdsmen would not stop the driver from eating.

"The second, and most important, rule is that herders need to go through the pastures in advance and remove the large rocks and bushes, otherwise the harvester will be damaged."

"What if some rocks are too big to move?" Adili knew that some places in the mountain pastures had a lot of large rocks. "Then mark them out, at least let the driver know where the rocks are. Let's talk about it in advance so that they can go around them when mowing the grass."

"Okay, that's no problem." Tuerxun knew that what Li Long said was all for the convenience of mowing. If the harvester was really broken, the driver would suffer a loss, and the owner of the grassland would have to mow the grass himself, which would be a lose-lose situation.

"Also, the money needs to be paid in advance. That means the money or things collected from harvesting a piece of grassland cannot be settled together at the end."

"Okay, that's no problem. I'll tell them about these things when I go back today." As the captain, Tursun has the ability to take action once he decides on something.

The main reason is that the grass-cutting season has arrived. If we cannot cut grass as soon as possible, there will not be enough grass for the livestock to eat when they return from the pastures, which will result in great losses.

If the loss is too great, even he, as the captain, cannot afford it.

"Okay, then shall we start cutting grass tomorrow? Where should I take people?" Li Long asked.

"Do you know the mountain pass over the Tasi River?" The herders of the animal husbandry team were scattered, and Tursun's own people were in that area, so he naturally wanted to focus on his people first. "How many harvesters can you bring?"

"About three, not sure, maybe more, maybe less. How many do you want?" Li Long was thinking about the harvesters that were still available, including Xie Yundong's, Tao Daqiang's, and Liang Dacheng's. Of course, Liang Wenyu could also be counted.

"Let me think about it..." Tuerxun originally thought that Li Long could just get another harvester, but he didn't expect there would be more? Three? That would take some thought.

"Then let's have three." Tursun actually wanted to order one more, but he decided to see the situation first.

Li Long nodded and asked:
"Are we all heading to the Tashi River Pass tomorrow?"

"Well, there's a big pasture over there."

"Okay." Li Long knew that he might have to stay for a few days, but since he could earn money, he thought Xie Yundong and the others would be willing to do it.

After Tuersun finalized these matters, he and Adili rode away on horseback. Li Long pointed at the meat in the pot and asked:

"You won't save the meat for later use?"

"No more eating." Tuerxun waved his hand. "I still have things to do when I get back. I have to talk to the herdsmen and prepare in advance."

Come to think of it, their horses are not as fast as Li Long's jeep, so naturally they have to go back and prepare first.

Li Long originally planned to stay in the mountains for a while, but now that he has taken this job, he won't be able to stay for long.

After Tursun and the others left, Halimu walked up to Li Long and said:
“I didn’t expect that mowing grass with a tractor would cost so much.”

"No, no." Li Long waved his hands hurriedly. He knew Halim had misunderstood, and said with a smile, "It's not that high. We cut grass, and that's the cost of oil. Just like cutting a piece of grassland for you, the cost is only one or two skins.

I have to say more to them. We are friends, we are family, they are different.”

Only then did Halimu feel relieved.

At noon, the meat was cooked and the herders on Yushanjiang grassland came back to eat the meat. Yushanjiang himself also drove over on a tractor and stopped by to refuel.

After eating, Li Long demonstrated the refueling process to them, then looked at the tractor and harvester. There was no problem. It seemed that Yushanjiang was quite careful when driving the tractor.

After saying some more precautions, Li Long left with some roe deer meat. He originally didn't plan to take any, but Talihar insisted that he take at least one roe deer with him, saying that there was no way to keep them in the mountains. There were only two of them, and eating too much would not taste good.

Anyway, there are a lot of excuses.

Li Long took away the meat of one of them. He was in a hurry to go to the fourth team to confirm the tractor for mowing the grass.

After the jeep drove out of the mountains, Li Long first went to the county yard, put down some of the meat, then told Gu Xiaoxia, and then drove to the fourth team.

Sister Yang looked at the meat in the kitchen and said to Gu Xiaoxia with a smile:

"Her uncle is really powerful. He can bring back meat every day. In this day and age, he can eat meat every day. He is much more powerful than the landlords in the past."

Gu Xiaoxia smiled, looked at the two children babbling there, shook her head and said:

“I’m just busy all day long…”

"Men are money-grabbers, so they have to go out and earn money. Women are money-saving boxes, so they just need to save the money and keep the house tidy." Sister Yang added.

"Hey, Sister Yang, you know a lot, a lot."

"That's what I heard from the old ladies in the village when I was a child."

Li Long first went to Tao Daqiang's house. He thought Tao Daqiang should be interested in cutting grass.

"Do we want to live outside?" Tao Daqiang asked.

"Well, it's quite possible. People's pastures are usually three to five hundred acres. It's impossible to fertilize them all in one day, and it takes a lot of time to go back and forth." Li Long said.

"Then I'd rather not go. There's a lot of work to do at home, and I have children." Li Long was a little surprised by Tao Daqiang's refusal.

"Okay, then I'll go ask Brother Yundong and Dacheng." Li Long didn't think there was anything wrong. It was normal for Tao Daqiang to have concerns, and there was nothing wrong in putting family first.

When Xie Yundong heard that he could earn RMB 1.5 per mu of land and that it was a large grassland, he immediately agreed.

There isn't much work at home right now, so this is a good opportunity to earn some extra money.

There was no problem with Liang Dacheng, so Li Long drove the jeep back to his eldest brother's house.

He thought that since Tao Daqiang was not going, he might as well let his elder brother go. His elder brother's harvester was taken away by him, so he could use Tao Daqiang's harvester.

"One mu of land costs one dollar and five cents, just for weeding?" Li Jianguo thought for a moment and said, "How long does it take to weed?"

"Maybe half a month at most." Li Long thought for a while and said, "The herders' grass-cutting season is just that long. Last year I gave them half a month to cut grass."

"Okay then." Li Jianguo felt that if he didn't make the money right now, he would be wasting the opportunity his younger brother had found. He turned to Li Qingxia who had just returned from the small lake and said, "Dad, you have to come back a little later. I'm going to the mountains to cut grass during this time, so you have to stay at home."

"Okay." Li Qingxia said cheerfully, "That's OK. Just go ahead and cut grass. This is a job that pays well. We didn't get it easily. We must do it."

The matter was settled.

Li Long plans to tell them some precautions when he takes them to the Tasi River tomorrow morning. (End of this chapter)