1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 232: The First Spring Flood Money
We withdrew at noon today, so when we arrived at the purchasing point at the big pier, there were not many villagers coming to sell fish. They were almost the first to arrive.

Zheng Liu was chatting with his two helpers about something. Seeing them coming so early to sell fish, and bringing baskets of fish in on a cart, he was surprised and said,
"You made a fortune so soon? You caught so many fish in the early spring. I'm afraid you'll be even more prosperous this year than last year!"

Since it was the first opening, of course we had to say a few nice words to each other.

"Uncle Zheng will be even richer this year, and he will be richer in every way than last year!" Li Liang's words sounded very auspicious.

Zheng Liu's helpers laughed wickedly and started to weigh the fish for them.

Zheng Liu seemed to be particularly warm to Liang Ziqiang, and came over to carry the fish basket for him and weigh the fish. Zhu Tianpeng was a little confused and thought that Zheng Liu and Liang Ziqiang had a very good relationship.

Only Li Liang, Deng Zhaocai and others understood what was going on just by looking at Zheng Liu's face.

Zheng Liu's face, which had barely any obvious scars when he saw the sun again, looked quite radiant. It seemed that the rainbow trout had some effect on him. For this reason, the profiteer had been particularly friendly to Liang Ziqiang recently.

The most common fish Liang Ziqiang caught this time was herring.

"This fish is more expensive than sea bass and yellow croaker. You got so many!"

Zheng Liu weighed all the herrings, and the total weight was 463 catties. Herrings cost 50 cents per catty, so this kind of fish alone cost 231.5 yuan.

"There aren't many squids, only 92.6 jin. This kind of squid costs 1.8 yuan. Let me calculate it for you. It's 16.668 yuan. That's 16.67 yuan for you!"

Out of gratitude for the rainbow trout he got last year, Zheng Liu repaid Liang Ziqiang two cents.

"One hundred and eighty-seven and a half pounds of six-line fish, seventy cents per pound..."

"Wait a minute, Uncle Zheng, the price of snapper has increased a bit this year. I heard that the prices in the neighboring villages have also increased. Why is yours still only 70 cents?" Liang Ziqiang interrupted.

"Have they increased the price? I don't know. Then I'll make a small loss and give you the extra amount, 80 cents!"

It was clearly already 80 cents, but Zheng Liu was still thinking that he could hold off for a while and keep it at 70 cents for a while. The price of the most common fish, such as pomfret and sea bass, would spread quickly among the villages if there was any slight change in the price, so it was considered the most transparent, and he couldn't hide it even if he wanted to.

He thought that the six-line fish was relatively niche and he could keep it secret for ten days or half a month. Now that it was exposed by Liang Ziqiang, it was naturally difficult to keep it secret.

One hundred and eighty-seven jin and five liang, calculated at 0.80 yuan, is still a large integer, exactly one hundred and fifty yuan.

The total amount of fish caught, including herring, squid, and bigeye salmon, was $398.17.

Zheng Liu had long been accustomed to Liang Ziqiang's ability to catch so many fish at one time and didn't feel anything about it. However, Zhu Tianpeng, who was helping behind him, was shocked for a long time.

After coming out of the acquisition point, he was still sighing:
"When my grandfather was still alive, I followed him to the sea, but I never made so much money in a single day! When the flood season came, I only made a dozen or twenty dollars, not to mention when there was no flood season. I only made a few dollars a day, which was not much better than what I earned from working outside later!"

"We just found a special place, and we can't go there many times before the flood season ends!" Liang Ziqiang said as he took out five dollars from the several hundred dollars. "It's a rare opportunity to catch a large amount of fish, so I'll charge you a higher fee. I told you that at the beginning!"

Zhu Tianpeng waved his hands twice: "It's a lot, I don't think it's that hard..."

"What's there to persuade? It's not like we can catch so many fish every time!" Liang Ziqiang stuffed five dollars into his hand.

"That's too much. It's equivalent to two and a half days of brick making!"

Zhu Tianpeng was still calculating the income ratio of his brick kiln, but Liang Ziqiang ignored him.

Back on the boat, Zhu Tianpeng helped him wash the boat. The squids didn't bring much income, only a dozen yuan, but they stained a large area of ​​the boat with ink.

After washing, Zhu Tianpeng went back to Xiaolang Village alone, while Liang Ziqiang pushed the cart back to Juzipo.

"Are there really a lot of spring fish?" Chen Xiangbei saw him take out so much money from his pocket and knew that he must have had a big spring catch today. "The income is about the same as the winter catch, but after this one, I may have to try a different method next time!"

Liang Ziqiang did not elaborate on how the danger there would increase with rising temperatures, so as not to worry her, and just spoke in general terms.

This time he left the whole three hundred yuan at home and carried the remaining ninety yuan with him. He had to go to the town as soon as possible to buy large floating barbed nets and various materials for making iron anchor wires for seabed gangways.

"Is it possible to buy fishing nets tomorrow? Can I use the ones I made at home?"

Chen Xiangbei thought he needed a regular fishing net, so she asked. The fishing nets he usually cast at sea were all woven by his family.

"It needs to be more than 70 meters long. It's too late to weave it by myself!"

Since the width of the channel was more than 60 meters, he had to leave some room when buying the net. He would rather buy a wider one, a 70-meter-long floating thorn net. If it was longer, it would not have any effect, but if it was shorter, things would be ruined, and the island would not be reachable at both ends unless piles were driven into the sea.

Besides, the length of such super-long and super-large nets is also an integer, either 60 meters or 70 meters, with no length in between.

Chen Xiangbei smacked her lips and said, "A net that long? Who can make one in such a short time? Even if I buy it, it will cost dozens of dollars!"

Put the three hundred into the box. Now there are eight hundred in the box.

The next day, I went to the town and bought a 70-meter-long floating thorn net. Not only was it extra long, but it was also much higher than ordinary fishing nets. After all, it had to hang down from the sea surface and try to intercept the upper layer and part of the middle layer of the sea water.

And you can't just buy one floating gill net, you need at least two to rotate. In fact, this fishing method is more wasteful and easy to break. In theory, two nets are not enough. If they break, you have to buy a new one. That will wait for later.

I bought all the materials including wire, anchor, and net cable, and spent almost all the 90 yuan I had. The main reason was the two large floating barbed nets, which were very expensive.

After returning, the floating lancet net was placed at home until cloudy days came. The wire and anchor were immediately used to make seabed traps.

His wife is not able to bend over too much now, so she can only help as much as she can.

The next day was a sunny day, and the temperature remained close to that of early summer. Liang Ziqiang stayed at home and made two underwater dives.

Adding the four we had at home last year, there are six in total.

I didn't continue because it rained in the middle of the night, and the next day was cloudy, and the temperature dropped significantly.

This is a rare good weather suitable for visiting Longjuling. The temperature is not high and there are no winds or waves.

Since we had already made an appointment beforehand with Zhu Tianpeng that we would go to Longjuling together to install the floating barbed net once the sky was overcast, Zhu Tianpeng came over in the morning.

One floating lancet net was left at home until it was needed next time, and the other was taken aboard. The other six seafloor nets, plus the two brought by Zhu Tianpeng, were all loaded onto a cart and pushed to the beach.

Li Liang seized this rare opportunity today and called Deng Zhaocai, and they went to the beach at the same time.

They didn't have any floating gillnets on their boat, only a bunch of bottom gropers stacked up there. It was obvious that in addition to the ten bottom gropers Deng Zhaocai had bought last year, Li Liang probably made two or three more on the spur of the moment.

The two boats appeared again at Longju Ridge.

Liang Ziqiang couldn't guarantee whether this method, which he was forced to come up with, would be effective.

As soon as we arrived at Longjuling by boat, we immediately looked for the best tying and setting position and began to try to use floating gillnets to deal with spring fish.

(For pictures of floating barbed wire nets, see the comments section below)
The second chapter came out this morning. Happy reading, fellow readers!
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(End of this chapter)