Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1224 Polati has arrived; someone was caught hunting.

This area of ​​water isn't actually very large, which is why it's so easy to catch fish here—mainly because the location is secluded and no one comes here, plus the water isn't very deep. In winter, shallow-water fish have a hard time surviving, so as soon as the ice hole breaks, the fish come over.

Easy to catch. Anyway, if they're not caught, these fish will most likely be dead or frozen together with the ice by tomorrow when spring arrives. As the temperature continues to drop, the ice will get thicker and thicker, and eventually most of this puddle will be covered in ice, except for the deepest small area, where there will be no water anywhere else.

The fish froze to death—of course, a small number of fish might remain in the deepest parts of the water, but even so, not all of them could survive. With less water, there would be less oxygen, and the temperature would be too low; not all fish could survive at that temperature.

"Sigh, if only Dahai Lake could be cleaned up again," Tao Daqiang sighed. "Those two times Dahai Lake was cleaned up, there were so many fish..."

The Dahaizi Reservoir will be drained of water, and then the reservoir will be teeming with fish. You won't need to catch them; you can just pick them up directly.

However, the timing of the reservoir's cleaning is irregular; it is not cleaned every year. There was a three-year gap between the last two cleanings, and it has been several years since it was last cleaned.

"Let's wait and see, maybe next year." Li Long couldn't quite remember when the reservoir was cleared. More importantly, his presence had already changed a lot, and he wondered if it would indirectly affect the clearing of the Dahaizi Reservoir.

In one morning, the four of them caught about ten kilograms of fish. The largest one was a silver carp, weighing more than five kilograms. Most of the rest were crucian carp, and there were a few carp, grass carp, and silver carp.

"How about we have hot pot again?" Xie Yundong said. "After having hot pot at your place, Xiaolong, I bought one too. Shall we have it at my place for lunch today?"

"Sure," Li Long said with a smile. "I have no objection."

In winter, there's not much to do anyway, so in the countryside it's mostly about eating and drinking. Playing cards is risky these days, so they don't usually play much. Even when they do, it's usually before meals when they're drinking and playing cards.

No gambling—Li Long was adamant about this, and the others followed suit.

When Xie Yundong returned to the team, he passed by Jia Weidong's house and saw that their car had returned. Xie Yundong stopped the car, stood on the road, and shouted a couple of times.

Jia Weidong came out of the house and, seeing that all four of them were there, immediately explained:

"I went out this morning and bought some things. Perfect timing, would you like to have lunch here?"

"No, no, we went to catch fish. We were looking for you but you weren't there... I was at my place at noon. We caught a big silver carp, and we're having hot pot for lunch. Are you getting on the bus now, or coming over later?"

"Wait a minute, I'll go inside and tell them," Jia Weidong said. "Wait a minute."

After saying that, he jogged into the house. When he opened the door, a wave of heat rushed out of the house, and Li Long guessed that they were probably preparing to cook.

Soon, Jia Weidong came out wearing a cotton-padded coat and carrying a bag.

After getting in the car, he put the package on the seat next to him and said, "I went to the department store and bought some cloth and some frozen shrimp. Perfect timing, I'll take the shrimp to your house, thaw them, and stir-fry them into a dish."

"How do you eat that stuff?" Xie Yundong had never really eaten frozen shrimp before, and asked while driving.

"Just stir-fry it, what else can you do? With ready-made ingredients, why worry about not having anything to eat?"

Li Long suddenly thought of the crabs and shrimp in the small lake, wondering how many of them would survive the winter.

When they arrived at Xie Yundong's house, Xie Yundong took the fish to cook for his wife, and then found a bottle to keep the carp alive. He divided the remaining fish among the families.

“We don’t want it anymore,” Tao Daqiang said. “We haven’t finished eating the ones that Brother Long and I caught last time.”

"I'll just have some crucian carp," Li Long said. "Other fish are fine, I don't think they taste as good as crucian carp."

“Alright, take all the rest of the crucian carp except the ones stewed today,” Xie Yundong said. “We’re in the team, so if we want to eat them, we can just step on the gas and get them. It’s not so convenient for you people in the county.”

Li Long didn't stand on ceremony. Xie Yundong went to the kitchen to help, while Li Long and the other three started playing cards in the inner room, and Li Long also told Jia Weidong about what they had talked about while fishing.

Jia Weidong naturally had no objections.

He said:
"I think the cooperative is something that only the five of us can handle. As for the specific details, I think we should have Lao Xie write them down one by one these days, and then we can all sit down together and discuss them one by one when we have time. We can keep what is suitable and change what is not. We can also add anything that is missing. That way, we should be able to get it almost done by this winter."

As for the accountant, no one has any ideas yet, so let's wait and see.

Li Long didn't say much; in fact, he didn't have many good candidates.

You need to have some financial knowledge, and you also need to have a good relationship with all of them and gain their approval.

Choosing this person was not easy.

Li Long didn't drink much that day. After dinner, Xie Yundong drove him back to the bungalow. Li Long rested for a few hours and then rushed back to the county with some of the fish before dark—he left the other half of the crucian carp at his elder brother's house.

The next day, after inspecting all the vehicles at the purchasing station, Li Long returned to the reception room.

There were five or six people queuing outside selling things, which Li Long saw when he arrived. They mainly sold hides and medicinal herbs.

I don't know where these people got the hides from. Of course, some of them might be old pelts that they're now selling for money.

There are quite a few hides in the warehouse now. Zhao Hui won't be able to come for a while, so Li Long is thinking of checking if there are any people at the odd jobs market. If there are, he might hire some to clean up the hides.

However, there are probably not many people in the gig market right now, because in the dead of winter, probably no one would want to wait outside.

It turns out that people from the county who have nothing to do in the fall won't come at this time, and those who come to work in the countryside should have all gone back by now, right?

As he hesitated, he heard a familiar voice coming from the counter outside.

Polati?
"I'm Li Long's friend, I've come here to sell something to him!"

Li Long hurriedly stood up and went to the counter, where he saw Polati explaining to his father, Li Qingxia.

He was carrying a large bag, his hat and face were covered in frost, and his eyebrows were almost completely obscured.

“Come, come, Bolati, let’s talk inside.” Li Long smiled and pulled him in. “Dad, this is my friend from the mountains. I’ll talk to him.”

"Okay." Li Qingxia smiled and beckoned to the next person.

Polati followed Li Long into the reception room, took off his leather hat and leather coat, and a strong smell of mutton filled the air.

"What are you doing here?" Li Long asked after pouring him a cup of tea.

"Something happened. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come out. Wouldn't it have been better to stay inside and drink?" Polati took the tea and drank it all in one gulp, then picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup, drank it, and let out a long sigh.
"A friend of mine was wandering around in the mountains the other day when he encountered a ibex and shot it. He skinned it and was taking the hide out of the mountains when the forest police caught him, arrested him, and confiscated his gun..."

"This is really bad luck," Li Long thought to himself, realizing he needed to tell Halim and the others about it as soon as possible.

Halim and his group left Lishan in mid-November. After returning from their migration, Halim came down a few times. After all, he and Yushanjiang's children were studying in the county, and they would occasionally come to Lilong's place. Overall, they were quite satisfied with the situation here.

Halimu even occasionally expressed the idea that he wanted to live here and not go into the mountains.

Of course, that's impossible, since their profession is herding, and there isn't much room for them to make a living in the county.

Of course, Halim and the others were just talking, and then they went into the mountains.

"So how did you handle it?" Li Long asked.

“A fine of three thousand yuan and half a month of detention. If the fine isn’t paid, he’ll have to stay in jail for a longer period of time.” Polati sighed and said, “That’s why his sheep hide came to me. These are the hides they left behind at home, from when they were made. Now I just want to see how much they’re worth, and if I can sell them to get him out.”

Li Long immediately understood that this person wasn't just going to the mountains for a stroll; he was there to hunt.

However, he didn't say anything, and looking at the large bag, he said:
What did you bring?

“A snow leopard pelt,” Polati said with a hint of pride. “That guy was unlucky, but he was good at hunting. He shot this snow leopard last year while he was wandering in the mountains. They say the snow leopard was catching a wild goat when he shot it down…” As he spoke, Polati unfolded the sheet covering the pelt and took out the snow leopard pelt.

The snow leopard pelt is in decent condition, with no damage or insects. It has a strong odor, hasn't been tanned, and is very stiff.

The hide was quite large. Li Long fully unfolded it and laid it on the table. He inspected it thoroughly and found three holes on the hide: two on the body and one on the neck.

I don't know if the bullet got stuck in the bone or if the other hole was cut open when they were peeling off the skin.

“A damaged hide,” Li Long said, “is not as valuable as a whole hide. And this is a spring hide, which is even cheaper than a winter hide.”

"So you mean it won't sell for three thousand?" Polati asked nervously. "That Yang Gangzi also said that someone else offered two thousand five hundred for this pelt... but that coward said it was too cheap and didn't sell it."

“Three thousand five,” Li Long said with a smile. “Snow leopard pelts can still fetch a good price now because they’re relatively rare. But in two years, we won’t dare sell them anymore; the forest police will be cracking down hard.”

“It’s illegal, we know that.” Upon hearing that it could sell for three thousand five hundred dollars, Polati immediately smiled. “Okay, okay, three thousand five… not bad.”

Li Long went to the counter, took the money, handed it to Polati, and then put the leather away.

This pelt could fetch five thousand yuan from Zhao Hui. Snow leopard pelts are considered rare now, and their prices keep rising. Don't be fooled by the thousands of pelts Liu Gaolou and his group are shipping pelts from Kazakhstan to this region; rare pelts are extremely scarce, practically nonexistent.

Things are valued for their scarcity; fewer items mean higher prices.

Polati left in a hurry after a short while, as he had to quickly take the money back to the family of the arrested person to pay the fine.

Li Long recalled that after that, the fines for hunting wild animals in the mountains were consistently high, much higher than those for economic crimes, fraud, and food safety offenses. And now it was just detention; in a few years, he'd be sentenced directly.

This has actually curbed the trend of hunting protected animals.

If the law could increase the fines and penalties for those crimes, especially in dealing with things like staged accidents to extort money, the social atmosphere would probably improve a lot.

After Polati left, Li Long put the snow leopard skin into the warehouse and locked it up. He then told his father and drove off.

He went to Halim's yard first. The old lady was there, but Halim wasn't. Li Long chatted with him for a few minutes and learned that Halim had just returned two days ago and had already gone back to the mountains.

He then went to the Jiang family's courtyard in Yushan, and the situation was the same.

Li Long then returned to the courtyard, had lunch, told his family, and drove his GAZ truck into the mountains.

Halim is grazing his sheep on the winter pasture. This year the snow wasn't as heavy as last year, so the cattle and sheep can kick the snow away and eat the grass underneath.

Seeing Li Long's car approaching, Halim rode his horse to the winter hut, dismounted, tied up his horse, shook hands with Li Long, and exchanged greetings.

“I have something to tell you. The forest police have started cracking down on hunting. Someone has already been arrested for hunting ibex, fined 3,000 yuan, and has to spend 15 days in the police station.” Li Long told Halim this outside the winter camp. “I’m worried that you’ll be in trouble if you get caught hunting in the mountains.”

"Yushanjiang and I are fine. We haven't had time to hunt, so we'll only fight when wolves come to ambush us. That should be fine. But Talihar might be a bit more troublesome. I'll go tell him to stay put this winter. If he wants to hunt in the future, we can go to the summer pasture."

Halim didn't think the animal couldn't be fought. Since there were people in charge, he figured he could fight it somewhere no one was in charge.

Li Long went inside, drank some milk tea for a while, and then left. He didn't follow Harim inside. Mainly because it was already afternoon, and the sun set early; he wanted to tell Harim what had happened, and then Harim and the others would tell the other tribespeople.

He doesn't need to notify me separately.

On his way back from the mountains, when he passed by the Qingshui River, he saw that there was no activity on the river, so Li Long thought for a moment and decided not to go to Meng Hai's house.

Hunting is rare in Qingshuihe Village, so the forestry police will definitely come to the village to conduct awareness campaigns. Generally speaking, farmers are more concerned about illegal activities, and as long as their living conditions are decent, they usually won't do anything illegal.

Back in the county, Li Long went to the purchasing station; it was almost the end of the workday. He planned to wait there until he picked up his father and they could go back for dinner together.

To his surprise, there were still seven or eight people queuing at the purchasing station. The people at the end of the line were chatting by the fire, and when they saw Li Long drive in, they quickly made way for him.

Li Long got out of the car and greeted the people. His eyes swept over them and he noticed that the bags they were carrying mostly contained medicinal herbs.

Of the seven or eight people, half were middlemen, all from the county. No wonder they weren't in a hurry so late.

Responding to their greetings, Li Long entered the house, rubbed his hands together, and said:
"Dad, how was the afternoon?"

"It's alright." Li Qingxia knew that Li Long was just asking casually, so she replied, weighed the Codonopsis pilosula in front of her, and paid according to its grade.

Liang Shuangcheng hurriedly and carefully put away the Codonopsis pilosula. Although the Codonopsis pilosula in this mountain didn't have many rootlets and didn't require special attention—it wasn't as valuable as ginseng—it's still better to be careful with medicinal herbs. A whole root is always better than half a root.

"Brother Long, Brother Yun Dong called this afternoon, saying he had something to discuss with you. They originally wanted to see if you were here, and if you were, they would come up. But since you weren't here, they said they would come tomorrow."

"Did he say what it was about?" Li Long stopped walking inside and asked, "Did he call from my older brother?"

"Ah."

Li Long thought for a moment and then dialed his older brother's number back.

"Xiaolong?" Li Jianguo answered the phone and asked, "Are you asking about Yundong's phone call?"

"Yes."

"Xu Haijun approached him and said you were planning to set up a cooperative, and he wanted to invest. How do you plan to run this cooperative?"

Li Long realized he hadn't told his older brother about this yet, but it wasn't appropriate to explain it over the phone, so he said:

"Brother, I'll go down first thing tomorrow morning and I'll explain it to you in detail then."

“Okay. This cooperative... isn't so easy to set up, you should be careful.”

Li Jianguo experienced the mutual aid group period in his hometown when he was a child, and after coming here he experienced the primary cooperative and later the commune period. He even became the leader of the production team's villagers' group. He has a wealth of experience.

Therefore, he didn't think that this cooperative was something that could be started on a whim. However, his younger brother, Li Long, had family wealth and capital, so starting this... wasn't out of the question.

However, Li Jianguo still had a say in rural affairs, so he thought that if there were any loopholes in what Li Long had done in this regard, he could help to find and fill them.

Li Long hung up the phone and waited for his father to finish collecting the goods from the people in the yard before they walked back together.

The finishing touches were naturally handled by Liang Shuangcheng.

Li Long didn't speak on the way. Li Qingxia overheard a few sentences of his phone conversation and asked as they walked:

"What, you're planning to start a cooperative? Do you think the authorities will allow that? The communes were only shut down a few years ago..."

“Cooperatives are different from communes. Cooperatives are private; a few people get together and agree on a set of rules. We can report to the team or do it privately. It’s basically just farming together, and it’s not illegal.”

"Well... as long as you know it." Although Li Qingxia had worked at the purchasing station for more than half a year and had traveled all over the country before, she was considered worldly-wise.

But in recent years of reform and opening up, there are some things he has never seen or experienced, and he feels that his youngest son is more knowledgeable than him, so he doesn't say much more.

I can help my youngest son with some of the work at the recycling station, and that's enough for me.

Li Qingxia is very content with the good life she has now. This is the peaceful and prosperous world that so many people have dreamed of for so many years. What more could she ask for?

P.S.: I write 10,000 words a day, and once I'm done, I don't feel like proofreading, so there will be some typos, sometimes even I can't spot them after reading them once—it's my fault. However, if you spot any errors, please click the "report error" button so I can correct them. Because after the VIP chapters reach chapter ten, the earlier chapters are locked, and I can't edit them myself. But if you click "report error," I can fix them.

(End of this chapter)