Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1205 The cotton harvest is imminent, and a series of events are about to unfold.
For the members of the Production and Construction Corps, this situation was not particularly unexpected. Along the northern border near the desert, hailstorms, while not frequent, are not uncommon each year.

Each company had anti-hail anti-aircraft guns, which later evolved into anti-hail rockets.

But there are always times when you can't prevent it.

On the contrary, in the fourth team area, hail is a rare sight, occurring only once every few years or even decades.

Team 4, Team 3, Team 2, Team 1... arranged in a line from east to west, it's a uniquely advantageous location—at least this area hasn't been hit by hail.

Of course, there are also downsides. If it rains to the south, there might only be a few raindrops here. This could also be due to the influence of reservoirs and lakes on both the north and south sides; there are many possible reasons.

Growing cotton is no problem; if it doesn't rain, then just water it.

In late August, as cotton was about to be harvested, Li Qiang and his classmates prepared to go back to school.

Mingming and Haohao finally ended their party in the fourth team and returned to the big courtyard in the county.

Gu Xiaoxia frowned as she bathed her two children, her face tanned dark as charcoal.

"Hey? Dad, look, hasn't Mingming and Haohao grown taller?" Gu Xiaoxia asked Li Long suddenly as she was bathing the children.

Actually, the two children wanted to wash themselves. They said they often washed themselves when they were in the fourth team. However, Gu Xiaoxia was not happy because the necks of the two children were as black as car tires.

“He’s just grown taller,” Li Long said after glancing at them. “He must be about 1.1 meters tall now, right? He’s still so young—Qiangqiang wasn’t even as tall as them when he was in second grade.”

The two children are well-nourished and are growing very quickly.

They are not only taller than children of the same age, but also taller than children who are two or three years older. Most people would never guess that they are only four or five years old.

The two children were also very smart, and their speech and actions were not like those of children their age. At this age, most four- or five-year-old children do not know anything and are only concerned with eating.

"Won't he grow to be 1.8 meters tall?" Gu Xiaoxia said happily with a smile.

Li Long is now 1.88 meters tall, but he hasn't grown much in a few years. It seems the two children have never lacked nutrition since childhood, so growing to 1.8 meters shouldn't be a problem.

"More or less," Li Long said, wiping down his sidecar motorcycle in the yard. He takes all the vehicles in his yard out for a spin every now and then. Gu Xiaoxia doesn't drive the new Volga, so he drives it occasionally.

The Volga he was driving was a luxury model, even better looking than Li Xiangqian's, and clearly a different level of class than the regular Volga. There were still two Volgas left in the recycling station's shed; those Volgas looked a bit like Santanas, boxy and angular.

But no matter what, it's still better than a Lada or a Jeep.

After wiping the car clean, Li Long went over and opened the gate, intending to go for a spin. He was now starting to regret having so many cars.

Just walking this car takes a lot of time.

However, right now, this three-wheeled vehicle, especially the imported one, is quite unique in Ma County.

Now, some people in the county are already buying motorcycles. After all, Jialing motorcycles aren't expensive, especially the smaller one with continuously variable transmission (CVT), which is said to cost only two or three thousand yuan.

Li Long knew that in a few years, almost every household here would have a motorcycle. It would take a few more years for it to become widespread in more remote areas, but it would be truly widespread then, with even cattle and sheep being herded using motorcycles.

It's faster than riding a horse, and it's also "obedient".

"Dad, I want to ride too!" Mingming shouted to Li Long while taking a bath in the big tub.

"Take a bath obediently, and I'll take you for a ride later. It's windy on this motorcycle, so it's not easy to take you."

The children were still young, so Li Long didn't dare take them on the motorcycle, since there were no seat belts in the back, and it would be troublesome if they fell off if they didn't hold on tight.

Driving a car eliminates this problem. Although the two children like to peer out the car window, they remember Li Long's words and don't stick their heads or hands out.

After driving around the county, Li Long took his motorcycle to the purchasing station.

Several acquaintances who were queuing at the purchasing station immediately greeted Li Long and looked at the military green motorcycle with eager eyes.

Although there are sidecar motorcycles in China, and these people have seen them in the past, they were all like the Changjiang 750, never this kind.

This motorcycle looks really cool and is sure to attract everyone's attention.

Li Long didn't pay any attention and parked his motorcycle in the front yard—it was the off-season for the purchasing station, so there weren't many people queuing in the front yard, maybe seven or eight.

Ignoring the crowd gathered around the motorcycles, Li Long went inside to greet his father and then checked on the day's acquisition progress.

The dried mushroom harvest is almost complete. Next, we'll mainly be harvesting medicinal herbs. Some people have already started digging up ginseng on the mountain. Although it's not very plump, it's still usable.

Then there are herbs like astragalus and licorice.

There's no way around it; these are the main products of Ma County, or rather, the main products of the counties and cities along the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains. Once autumn arrives, with the loss of fritillaria bulbs, dried mushrooms, and skins, skins are all that's readily available.

Oh, and jade too. I received five pieces of jade today, all of them nephrite.

“I’m not sure about this stuff. As you said, it’ll be priced by the kilogram,” said Old Man Li Qingxia. “Those with black spots, not very good color, or cracks will be about ten or twenty yuan per kilogram. If they’re not cracked but have black spots, they’ll be thirty. And if they’re even better, they’ll be fifty yuan per kilogram.”

Currently, Mahe jade is only recognized by experts; it is not well-known to ordinary people.

Therefore, if someone finds jade in the Ma River or Nanshan Mountain, the greater chance is that they won't be able to find a way to sell it. They might just keep it at home, while some people will try to find a buying station.

Earlier, Li Qingxia asked Li Long if he would accept it, and after thinking about it, Li Long decided to accept it.

He knew that Mahe jade would not really become popular until around 2010. Before that, it would be quite difficult for ordinary people to cash in on jade they found.

After all, the circle of people who collect stones was still very niche at that time.

Li Long glanced at the jade stones piled in the corner. The quality was so-so, but no matter what, it wouldn't be a loss.

Over the next few days, he drove around in different cars every day to break them in, so that they wouldn't break down when he actually needed to use them.

Of course, the one I'm most familiar with is that old 212 Jeep. I've driven it for several years, and I can tell which gear to use just by reaching out. I'm also extremely familiar with the condition of the car.

In early September, with the start of the new school year, the county town became much quieter.

Li Qiang and his group had originally planned to go to the Production and Construction Corps to pick cotton, but for some reason, the trip was suddenly canceled. Li Qiang was a little disappointed, as he had intended to continue his training.

The cotton in Team Four is also about to enter the harvest season. Some cotton bolls that suffered from insect infestation and drought have already opened.

The watermelons and cantaloupes that were replanted in the field have also borne fruit. Li Junhai and his group would bring back a few melons from time to time, and sometimes they would also bring back a hedgehog that was stealing melons.

"I also saw a fox once. I don't know if it was eating melons or trying to catch a hedgehog or a mouse that was eating melons. It just ran too fast to catch," Li Junhai said to Li Long. "There are so many wild things in this place."

"Then take a look at how big this place is. There are few people and a lot of wasteland. Wild things have room to live, so naturally there are more of them."

After driving through all his cars, Li Long took them to a transportation company for major maintenance and then drove his Jeep into the mountains.

He took a gun.

The fritillaria season is over, and the black tiger paw mushroom season is also over. Now there are fewer people in the mountains.

So the wild animals started appearing, so Li Long carried a gun, planning to get some game if he encountered any.

He first went to Harim's winter camp.

Large stacks of hay bales were piled up next to the winter hut, but no one was there.

Li Long knew that the man had probably gone to work in the winter huts further inside.

He drove his SUV along the repaired road and saw Halim and his men pulling back the dried and bundled hay from near Buick's winter hut.

When they saw Li Long's car approaching, Halim and the others were taken aback.

It's a bit of a shock – mainly because for the past period of time, or rather, for the past year, Li Long has mostly been driving a GAZ-69. This vehicle is quite spacious and has good off-road capabilities, plus the one Li Long was driving was practically brand new.

Now that the 212 has been suddenly switched to, people are still getting used to it.

But when they saw Li Long get out of the car, they laughed. This time, Li Long brought a slaughtered sheep, which he had ordered from Keyum the day before. He didn't want the meat removed; he wanted the whole sheep.

Li Long then took Yang Kelangzi up the mountain.

Sure enough, when the herdsmen saw Li Long with the sheep, they cheered happily.

Although they have guns and can hunt, the taste of wild game can't compare to that of domesticated cattle and sheep.

Sure enough, Li Long also saw the meat being cooked in the makeshift pot in front of Buick's house, and the skins being dried with salt on the side, which were obviously from wild goats.

Li Long not only brought sheep, but also bought half a sack of watermelons, and they ate them together with Halimu and the others.

"The grass has already been cut, and most of it has dried. Now we just need to bundle and stack the dried grass," Halim said while eating watermelon. "We'll go down the mountain in a few days to see Nathan and the others."

"They're supposedly doing alright now." Li Long came up here just to tell Harim and the others about this situation. "Nathan and Sasken are doing well and can keep up with the learning progress. The teacher said they were a little cautious at first, but the teacher spoke to the other students in the class, and the students are all quite friendly."

"That's good, that's good." Halim was quite happy.

“By the way, Yerjan and Ghana need to do some internships,” Li Long said to Yushanjiang. “Middle school classes are different from elementary school. There’s chemistry, physics, and English. They’re doing pretty well in English, but physics and chemistry are a bit difficult. My idea is to find a teacher to tutor them so they can build a solid foundation.”

"Okay, okay, we'll have to rely on you for this." Yu Shanjiang was a little nervous, but thinking that Li Long was watching over them, he said, "We don't know how to find the teacher either..."

"Just letting you guys know, leave the job of finding a teacher to me... my wife." Li Long broke off a piece of melon and ate it. "It's only been a short time since school started, so finding a teacher now is just in time to keep up with the schedule."

This was what Gu Xiaoxia told him. Gu Xiaoxia would go to the school every two days to ask about the children's situation, and it was easy for her to find out.

As for finding a teacher, that's also very easy.

Many teachers have nothing to do after retirement, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to train students and earn some extra money?

Li Long came over to ask for Yu Shanjiang's opinion. Although he knew Yu Shanjiang would definitely agree, he still needed to inform him beforehand.

After the business was settled, it was Buick and the others' turn to work, while two people stayed behind to cook the mutton. Li Long didn't participate in the work; he carried his gun up the mountain.

He remembered that Talihar once chased seventeen wild goats off a mountain and thought he would go and see if he could catch one.

After running around for a while, they still couldn't find it.

When he returned, Halim told him that over the past two days, people from their village had been taking turns going out to hunt in the vicinity, and all the wild animals in the area had been driven away.

Although Li Long wanted to curse, he was a little embarrassed and decided against it.

After eating the hand-pulled mutton, Li Long went back.

That evening, he told Gu Xiaoxia about tutoring Ghana and Yerjiang. Gu Xiaoxia nodded and said that she had already found a teacher and was just waiting for Yushanjiang to give the word.

Li Long knew that his wife was very efficient and was very satisfied with her.

The next day, Gu Xiaoxia went to see the retired teacher, while Li Long went to see Ghana and Yerjiang at noon. Knowing that their father had agreed, the two children naturally had no objections.

There's not much work to do at home right now, and the two children are focusing their energy on their studies. They've been to Beijing, and although some time has passed, they still have dreams in their minds.

On the third day, Li Long once again took his gun into the mountains, this time heading to the road construction site.

As Li Long drove along, he noticed that some roads had been washed away by floods and then repaired.

Moreover, the road surface has become smoother and more solid.

Clearly, Meng Hai and his group had built their way there.

When Li Long arrived in the mountains, he discovered that although Meng Hai and his team had not been in the mountains for long, they were very efficient. In just a few days, they had already advanced another six or seven kilometers into the mountains.

Much faster than before.

"Comrade Li Long, thank you so much for bringing us meat." Li Long didn't show favoritism; he also brought a sheep for Meng Hai and the others.

“Actually, besides the bulldozers and trucks, I also brought my car,” Meng Hai said. “Every few days I go down the mountain to pick up supplies.”

They still live in tents, which is convenient. Digging dugouts takes a lot of time, but these are very easy to set up and can be done in half an hour.

Moreover, it's early autumn now, so it's quite hot during the day and cool at night, but with ten people sharing a tent, the temperature is still manageable at night.

"With trucks and bulldozers, plus the work on irrigation ditches and livestock sheds, we've also set up a company. Now everyone sees themselves as workers, so their enthusiasm is naturally very high."

Meng Hai's words explained why these people were so efficient at their work.

"Why don't you just pay for a set of work clothes for them too?" Li Long said after thinking for a moment. "Give each person a set; that way they'll be more motivated to work. Are there any private tailors in our county who can do this kind of work?"

"I don't know. Do labor protection stores sell them ready-made?" Meng Hai thought for a moment and said, "That's certainly possible. We can give them to everyone as a benefit and make these brothers happy."

A set of clothes costs tens of yuan; if you ask these people to buy it themselves, they definitely won't be willing to spend the money.

But if the construction team gave it to the workers as a benefit, they would definitely be very happy.

After the company was established, they became workers. They are all so proactive. If they were given uniforms and had a uniform, wouldn't their enthusiasm and sense of belonging be even stronger?

Meng Hai instructed the engineer in charge of cooking to butcher the sheep that Li Long brought. According to Meng Hai, since there was meat, carrots, rice, and onions in the tent, they should make pilaf.

It's enough to fill you up. As for the leftover meat, you can add some mutton fat and fry it up; it'll last you a long time.

Li Long didn't care about anything else. He looked at the road construction procedures and saw that everyone was paying attention to safety and moving quickly, so he felt reassured and headed into the mountains with his gun on his back.

The deep mountains were places he had never been before, sparsely populated, and without even herding livestock—Harim and his group had only passed through, so there weren't even any narrow mountain paths, let alone any signs of human habitation.

Li Long climbed up a mountain ridge, looked around carefully, and then found a ravine with few shrubs, many pine trees, and not much grass and went in.

He took the gun off his back, released the safety, and chambered a round, hoping to find something useful today.

Gu Boyuan called him. After finishing his recent work, he went hunting twice with Revolutionary Buick and caught wolves and wild boars. At that time, the ethnic minorities in the mountains didn't care much about wild boars and the like, so they just hunted them.

Unlike in twenty or thirty years, when people will be too embarrassed to even mention this thing.

Gu Boyuan said they had also caught badgers in the mountains. Gu Boyuan and his team also caught badgers in the fourth team, but there were more hog badgers in the fourth team, while there were more Eurasian badgers on the edge of the forest in Yili.

"So much oil, so fatty!" Gu Boyuan said—it was clear he had eaten some.

Li Long felt an itch to hunt, but he couldn't go all the way to Yili to hunt, so he had no choice but to stay in the mountains here.

Fortunately, there are fewer people active in the mountains now, and some wild animals are daring to come out—otherwise they would have long since retreated to the deep mountains.

Li Long traversed the forest and soon spotted a red fox. Unfortunately, the creature darted away too quickly, leaping over the ridge and disappearing into the dense bushes, never to be found again.

Li Long didn't dwell on it. He believed there would be plenty of things in the mountains, and it was still early.

At least here it won't be like Harim's place, where the shooting made a big commotion, so the wild animals don't dare to come close.

The only sounds here are construction machinery, and they are far away and in a relatively fixed area, so the wild animals aren't too afraid.

Meng Hai was quite strict, so the construction team members worked diligently. At most, they would go to the stream to check for jade during their breaks, but they had no way to hunt.

Carrying his gun, Li Long walked for about four hundred meters through the not-so-dense pine forest. When he came out of the forest, he saw a river running north-south ahead. It was more than ten meters wide and he couldn't tell how deep it was. However, there was a dark-skinned guy eating fish by the river. Li Long's eyes lit up immediately.

Logically speaking, the Tianshan Mountains are full of brown bears, ranging from large brown bears that can grow to two or three meters tall to small brown bears that are only one and a half meters tall. But why does this guy look so much like a black bear?

PS: I don't understand why people drive without their lights on, not even brake lights, late at night. Some roads don't even have very bright streetlights, and yet these cars drive so fast... I've encountered this for three days in a row.

Annoying.

(End of this chapter)