Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1202 Li Qiang's Filial Piety

Back home, Li Long and his family handed the big fish to their sister-in-law, quickly finished their meal, and then rushed off to Dongdagou.

"These fish are really big... We can't finish them all." Looking at so many large fish, Du Chunfang was a little worried. "It would be fine in winter, we can freeze them, but in the middle of summer, even with a refrigerator, we can't freeze much."

Yes, both Li Jianguo's and Li Long's families have bought refrigerators now. However, the refrigerators are already full of frozen meat, and there's no room for fish anymore.

The main reason was that whenever we slaughtered a sheep, we would freeze any meat we couldn't finish. We didn't lack meat at home, and the refrigerator was just the right size—at that time, refrigerators weren't very big, so the freezer compartment couldn't hold much.

"Let's scrape off the scales and peel them first," Liang Yuemei said. "When Xiaolong and the others come back this afternoon, we'll take some of them to the county. That way, we can put them down. If we still can't put them down, we'll air-dry them."

“We need to pick two to send to your family,” Du Chunfang said. “There are no fish in the water there, and it’s not easy to find fish this big.”

As she spoke, Du Chunfang sighed again:

"It's so strange, there's only a ditch between the two sides, there are no fish above, but there are fish in a puddle below."

Liang Yuemei smiled but didn't say anything. Everyone naturally knew why there were no fish in the irrigation ditch in Liang's village. It was just that Du Chunfang was showing off her superior conditions here.

When Li Long and his group walked towards Dongdagou, they found that some people had already moved from Dongdagou to the branch canal Maoqu on this side.

In reality, many people stay in Dongdagou just to watch the excitement. There are quite a lot of fish here, but without tools, you can't catch them at all, so you can only watch them.

Do you really think those people with landing nets are willing to fish in the water? Fishing in knee-deep water is not as easy as catching fish at the crest of the wave in later generations. It is common for nine out of ten nets to be empty. Fish in that deep water are very clever.

Therefore, once the floodwaters entered the branch canals and irrigation ditches, those who only had dip nets, or even no dip nets at all, immediately moved to another location.

Then Li Long saw a man, who looked like Xu Feihu? He hadn't even rolled up his pants and was walking in a makeshift ditch by the roadside. This ditch had just been washed away by a flood; the banks were wet, but there was only half a ditch of water, indicating that the flood had passed.

Xu Feihu saw Li Long's car approaching and waved to Li Long, who was driving, before continuing his patrol of the canal. He had only walked a few steps when he saw Li Long suddenly jump into the canal and then quickly wade forward a few steps—it seemed as if he was deliberately stirring up the water.

Then they saw a silver carp weighing two or three kilograms jump up and leap out of the water, landing on the bank of the canal. The silver carp struggled to get back into the water, but Xu Feihu lunged forward and caught it in his arms. He wrapped it in his shirt and carried it ashore. Then he pulled some reeds, threaded the fish onto them, and carried it on his way.

There were many people like Xu Feihu fishing by the canal, including adults and children. Some people caught nothing, some already had several fish in their hands, and some were still hunting in the canal. Three or four people were wading through the water, obviously having spotted their prey, but had not yet chased the fish out.

Silver carp are the most restless of freshwater fish. At the slightest disturbance, they rush forward recklessly, often leaping out of the water to become targets.

When Li Long and his group arrived at the Dongdagou River, there were far fewer people on the bank. Some had gone to the Maoqu Canal to catch fish, while others had taken their nets to the north.

The floodwaters flowed northward from the East Ditch, eventually reaching the Dahai Lake. Besides the three reservoirs along the way, they also had to cross a dam. This dam was actually a road connecting the four teams to Yan'erwo.

Yan'erwo was a company of the Production and Construction Corps. Originally, there was also a Fifth Company here. Later, the Fifth Company and Yan'erwo were merged into the Fifth Company. So, for Li Long and his men, although there was a large canal for the Fifth Company running through the village, the Fifth Company no longer existed.

Younger people don't understand why this is called the Fifth Team Canal.

The dam leading to Yan'erwo has been breached, creating a drop in water level as it flows down. This forces fish that want to swim upstream to leap over the Dragon Gate.

So there were seven or eight people waiting with nets, ready to catch any fish that darted up.

Fish that jump into a net usually can't get out.

This is called guarding the dam and waiting for fish.

Li Long stopped the car to take a look and thought it was quite interesting, but he didn't go over because he could get more from pulling the net.

"We haven't stopped." Chen Qianjin carried a grass carp weighing over three kilograms ashore, waded through the water, and slowly placed the fish into the enclosure. He said, "Look, in the short time you've been eating, we've caught more than a dozen big fish!"

Indeed, the fishpond is now crowded with fish again, and several children are squatting in front of it, teasing the big fish. Occasionally, a grumpy fish will get angry and flick its tail, splashing water all over the children's faces, but the children laugh happily.

Li Juan and Li Qiang led Mingming and Haohao towards the net. They could see that the bags here were already half full.

Mingwa proudly opened the bag to show them:

"Look, we caught a big fish! A big silver carp!"

Li Qiang looked at the silver carp weighing over a kilogram in the bag and asked, "Was this fish also blocked?"

"Yeah, it charged at us, and we ended up chasing it into the net... It was incredibly strong!"

It's rare to catch such a big fish in shallow water, so Li Qiang was naturally very satisfied. However, he didn't think much of the fish and said, "Then you can take this fish back with you when you go back later. Your parents will definitely be very happy."

"Didn't we agree that this fish is yours?" Mingwa was actually a little reluctant. It wasn't that she liked eating silver carp, but at least this fish was big.

"It's okay, we can catch one too," Li Qiang said confidently. "It's a deal, this fish is yours."

As he spoke, he picked up the landing net. This spot wasn't far from where the others to the north were waiting for their catch with their nets. Li Qiang watched as people excitedly exclaimed that they had caught fish, and he felt quite envious.

He wanted to go and wait, but he was afraid that those people wouldn't welcome him. Also, those people were facing north, facing a huge pit that had been washed out by the flood. He didn't know how deep the pit was, and if he fell in, he wondered if he could swim out with his dog-paddling skills.

While they hesitated, Li Juan had already started to untangle the net bag behind the blockage net with Mingming and Haohao, taking out the crucian carp and small fish and pouring them into the bag.

"Fish! Big fish!" Mingming, who had just straightened up, glanced into the water and immediately shouted, "Sister, brother! Big fish!"

Li Qiang held the net and looked in the direction Mingming pointed. He saw a large silver carp swimming quickly about two meters outside the net. Was it trying to swim back into the reservoir?

Li Qiang grabbed the net and rushed over, getting ahead of the silver carp and scooping it up with the net.

The silver carp sensed the danger and suddenly accelerated, narrowly missing the net by just twenty or thirty centimeters, thus escaping its fate.

Li Qiang was not annoyed at all. He lifted the net and swung it down at the silver carp again. At this moment, the silver carp, probably because it had used up all its strength in the previous dash, paused in the water for a moment, giving Li Qiang the opportunity.

This single tug caught the big fish.

Although silver carp don't taste good, they're big! Li Qiang pressed the net down hard into the water to get the fish completely inside, then turned the net over and carried it to the shore.

Although he was very pleased with himself, he remained calm on the surface.

"Yours is bigger than mine!" Mingwa exclaimed, and Mingming and Haohao also came over.

Li Qiang said modestly:
"I had a net, and I was lucky too."

Actually, he was extremely pleased with himself.

After the first one, there was a second and a third. In less than an hour, Li Qiang, along with Li Juan and Mingwa, caught four large silver carp and a carp weighing more than two kilograms in this area.

The children were extremely excited and happy.

In Li Long's net, the number of silver carp far exceeded that of other fish.

Silver carp don't taste good, but they're big, so once we've caught them, we definitely won't let them go.

Li Long also realized that initially, when the reservoir was breached, a large number of fish swam towards the large lake with the floodwaters, and now it was time for these fish to migrate upstream. After all, fish like to swim upstream, but he didn't know why.

So now, the group, including Chen Qianjin and Li Junxian who arrived earlier, are almost constantly busy. Fish keep getting into the net, and if they can't catch them in time, the fish will struggle to escape the net and swim away.

They don't care what kind of fish swim in; they just catch them. Even if they don't eat them themselves, they can sell them to fishmongers.

Two more fishmongers have arrived on the west bank of the Dongda Ditch, and one of them is already asking Li Long about the price of his fish.

Li Long quoted the price given by the seller, but the seller tried to lower the price, so Li Long stopped responding.

The other party wasn't in a hurry; there were plenty of people catching fish there, and he felt the price he was offering was quite high.

Li Long was waiting for Xiaopingtou, whom he thought was a decent guy.

When Li Long and his group had already filled the pond with fish, the man with the crew cut arrived in his single-cab pickup truck.

"Hey, Mr. Li, you've caught a lot of fish!" the crew-cut shopkeeper greeted him with a smile. "Want to sell?"

"Sell it," Li Long said. "We can't finish it all, and we can't put it away."

"How was the price this morning?" the crew-cut man asked. "If you think it's acceptable, then go with this price."

“Sure, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Li Long nodded.

The fishmonger was a little uncomfortable seeing Pingtou and Li Long finalize the deal in just a few words. He had originally planned to let Li Long carry the load for a while, wait a bit, and then slightly raise the price, thinking that the deal would be done.

After all, Li Long and his team probably have hundreds of kilograms of fish in their pond, and they're all big fish. They could make a fortune if they took them over.

As a result, it fell through.

Li Long ignored the man's expression and waved to Li Qiang again:
"Qiangqiang, are you selling those fish?"

"Sell it!" Li Qiang hurried over with a net and said to Li Long.

"But I won't sell them all. I want to send a few to my maternal grandfather and his family—Uncle, Grandpa can't eat the fish you left behind, can he?"

"Sure, you'll definitely be able to eat it. Hey, not bad, not bad at all. You're quite filial." Li Long laughed.

"Uncle, could I trade you two silver carp for one carp? It wouldn't be right for me to only give silver carp to Grandpa..."

Even Li Qiang knew that it wasn't good to only take silver carp, since they have a lot of bones and don't taste good.

"What do you want? You choose," Li Long said, pointing to the fish in the pond. "Take whichever one you want."

Li Qiang didn't take the biggest one, but instead picked out a carp weighing over two kilograms, carried it over, and then took two silver carp he had caught and put them into the pond, saying, "I caught these silver carp myself."

Kid, you're pretty good at distinguishing between them!

"Your student is quite good," the crew-cut man said with a smile while weighing the fish. "He's especially filial. To still think of his elders at a time like this, not bad at all."

Li Long smiled smugly.

He believed that Li Juan and Li Qiang would set a good example for the next generation of the Li family.

This applies to both academic studies and character.

Almost all the fish had been sold. Li Long thought that there were still nearly two hours before dark, so he could catch quite a few more fish.

The fish were being caught a little slowly, and Li Qiang finally couldn't resist. He took the landing net to the gap on the north side and became one of the "waiting fish".

Li Juan, along with Mingming and Haohao, continued to guard the besieging net.

Although Mingming and Haohao had been guarding the area all day, they weren't annoyed at all. They got excited whenever fish came in.

Li Long guessed that the skin on the two boys' feet was chapped from being soaked, but they didn't seem to mind at all. They ran around by the water and were very well-behaved, not going into the deep water.

Li Long estimated that they would be able to get a good night's sleep.

Looking up to the north, I saw Li Qiang carrying a landing net. There was already a silver carp weighing one or two kilograms in the net. He didn't care much. He casually took the fish out and handed it to a child next to him. The child carefully removed the fish's gills, lifted it out, and then ran over here.

Haha, Li Qiang is pretty good. He's not that old, but he already has quite a few fans.

Li Qiang was also a little hesitant at this point. He waited there for half an hour and caught three silver carp.

It has to be said that silver carp are the most mischievous of all these fish. As soon as there is any movement, the half-grown silver carp will jump up. He has already seen several groups of them rush into the big pit from the north side of the dam.

Li Qiang's goal is to catch a carp, but if that's not ideal, a grass carp or silver carp would also be fine.

However, most of the people guarding this spot were catching silver carp. After Li Qiang arrived, two more people joined the line of people waiting for fish, and there was no more room for anyone else.

After all, there needs to be some space between the two people, otherwise the net can't even be set up.

Then some people took nets and, unable to join in, went to the north side of the dam, hoping to catch fish there as well.

Li Qiang followed the others and stared at the water. The water here was not as clear as the section with the dam in the middle. You had to look carefully to see if any fish were coming up.

"Ouch!" someone exclaimed. It wasn't that there were fish in front of him, but that one after another, silver carp were leaping up from the north side of the dam, each leaping more than a meter high, which looked quite spectacular.

There must be forty or fifty!

I've seen silver carp jumping like this before, but there were only about seventy or eighty of them, and they would just dart into the water. Now they're jumping continuously. What's going on?
Just as Li Qiang was marveling at the sight, he heard a "splash" and someone jumped into the water from the west bank. The person was holding a net and had his eyes on several silver carp that were jumping up. When he fell into the water, he actually caught one of the silver carp in the net.

Then the man went into the water, but quickly floated back up. He was then swept downstream by the current while holding onto the net. When he was swept to the shallow water and walked back to the shore, he was completely soaked.

He wiped the water off his face, looked at the silver carp in the net, and was quite satisfied.

Hey, that's crazy!
As Li Qiang was thinking, he suddenly felt movement in the water in front of him. He instinctively grabbed the net and poked it into the water!

"thump!"

A fish is caught in the net!

Li Qiang was overjoyed and was about to pick up the net when the fish suddenly swung its big tail. It felt like the net had been hit by something, and it shook violently in the water. Knowing something was wrong, Li Qiang turned around, grabbed the net, and ran!

When he pulled the net ashore, he discovered that inside was a large, fat carp weighing two or three kilograms, with a yellow-red head and tail, struggling fiercely.

However, there was hardly any water left on the shore for him to use for leverage, so his struggles were very weak.

Li Qiang finally felt relieved, panting heavily as he calmed himself down.

He just wanted to catch a really good big fish, and now he's got it.

"Uncle Qiangqiang, your fish is huge! Huh? Why is this net torn?" A little boy ran over to look at the fish, and his words startled Li Qiang, who hurriedly got up to check the fish and the net.

The reason I took a break was because the fish were in the net and I thought there wouldn't be any problems. I never expected the net to break!

Sure enough, he noticed that at the edge of the landing net, where the wire loops were originally wrapped, a third of the net had broken off. If the opening had been any bigger, the fish would have definitely escaped!

Li Qiang clearly remembered that the net was still intact when he caught that silver carp.

That's the result of what this carp caused.

Li Qiang smiled wryly, looking at the empty seats left for him there; there was no way he could catch him now.

Thinking that his uncle probably still had a net, Li Qiang felt content after catching this carp.

He held the carp in his arms, while his friend carried the tattered net as they walked toward the netting area.

"Qiangqiang, aren't you catching fish over there?" someone asked loudly from behind.

"No, thank you," Li Qiang replied, turning around. The one who asked the question was the eldest of the Zhao brothers.

At that time, no one treated Li Qiang like a child.

"Then I'll take it." Old Zhao took the net and went to Li Qiang's spot.

Li Qiang smiled, turned around and continued walking forward.

At this time, everyone was still very polite and followed the rules.

Seeing Li Long return carrying the big carp, both Li Juan and Mingming and Haohao were very surprised. Seeing such a big fish, they came over to touch and examine it.

The fish's mouth opened and closed repeatedly, and Mingming hurriedly said:
"Quickly put it in the water, it's still alive."

Although they didn't make the arrest, it was Brother Qiang who did, so we are proud of it.

Li Long and the others didn't return until sunset. But as soon as they got home, Li Qiang asked Li Jianguo, who had also returned home, to take him to his maternal grandfather's house—if he weren't so young, he would have driven there himself.

Li Qiang already knows how to drive both cars in the family.

Li Jianguo had no objection. Anyway, they had a car, and the round trip would take less than an hour. Since they had caught live fish, it was normal to let his father-in-law and the others have a taste.

Li Long and his group were preparing to eat fish—the fish they brought back at noon was already stewed.

Not only was there food, but Liang Yuemei also prepared things to take back with her.

Fresh, live fish is always the best when cooked!
(End of this chapter)