Chapter 1007: Rabbit is not delicious, let's go get some sandgrouse!

The first thing served was a pot of braised rabbit.

Li Long felt it was quite fresh, but Xie Yun Dong, Tao Daqiang, and others were full of complaints: "Eating rabbit every day, I'm sick of it."

Li Long was a bit curious, and Tao Daqiang explained with a smile:

"It's because of the heavy snow. The rabbits in the wasteland and the red willow beach have all been driven out. Everyone in the team who can run has gone to chase rabbits. Those who catch a lot can catch forty or fifty, and those who catch few still have to have ten or more.

During this period, every family eats rabbit. Some people even throw the wild rabbits into the pen to raise them, saying they will wait until the New Year to eat them.

This rabbit is not very delicious either. Eating it for one or two meals is fine, but eating it for several meals makes it feel just like that."

Li Long thought to himself that it wasn't that it wasn't delicious, but mainly in the rural countryside, at this time, the known methods were just those few. Repeating the same method over and over, eating it for several days, definitely made one sick of it.

After all, information dissemination was very slow at this time, and methods from other regions hadn't spread. Ordinary people just knew braising or stewing soup; there were only those few home-style methods.

In later generations, search online, and you can get seven or eight methods in minutes, like spicy rabbit head, cold-eaten rabbit, etc., which didn't exist now.

Not only rabbit, but also crab. In the early 2000s, someone raised crabs in the Great Haizi for the first time. When the crabs grew up, they bit the crab cages, and there were crabs everywhere in the Great Haizi, catching several kilograms in one night.

People in the village started catching them at first—after all, the Great Haizi was a public reservoir, and catching fish was allowed, and they didn't steal from the cages.

It was just that after making a few meals, no one ate them anymore—people in the village didn't know the various methods of crab at that time, only knowing how to steam or deep-fry, and after eating a few meals, they would feel it was troublesome.

After all, the meat of this thing was troublesome to eat, more troublesome than rabbit.

"Not only rabbit, but also foxes. During this period, quite a few foxes have come out, and there are also some pheasants." Xie Yun Dong followed up, "Just what I know, there are more than ten foxes caught in our team, all skinned and sold."

Li Long didn't know much about this. He didn't specifically ask when he went to the purchasing station, just knew that there were indeed more rabbit skins coming to be sold recently.

"There are also quite a few wild pigeons. At the old house of the vegetable and sideline group, some time ago, Xu Fei Hu and a few guys went over in the middle of the night with sacks, blocked the doors and windows of that house, and directly dug out a sack of more than two hundred wild pigeons, took them back, marinated them, and ate them."

Li Long thought these people were bold. In later years, it was said that the bird flu and other avian diseases in a certain place were transmitted across borders by wild pigeons and other flying birds.

"By the way, the sandgrouse haven't eaten during this period either. It is said that Ma Jinbao picked up quite a few."

"Pigeons have nothing to eat. It would be good if we could get a sack of sandgrouse." Liang Dacheng sighed, "Just don't know where to get these things. Ma Jinbao, that old thing, knows, but he bites to death and won't say. No one knows."

Dish after dish was served. Jia Weidong came over, sat down, opened the wine bottle, and said with a smile:

"Alright, heard your family got thirty or forty rabbits? That's quite a lot, not bad. Just the skins can sell for more than two hundred yuan, right?"

"Hmm, about that." Liang Dacheng smiled, "This is just the beginning. This winter has only been here for a month, and there's still a long way to go. Who knows when we can get better things."

"What better things can there be in this territory? The badgers are hibernating," Xie Yun Dong shook his head and said, "Water rats are the same. There are quite a few fish in the Small Haizi, but the ice is not solid yet. Our team only has these few kinds of things..."

"Alright, it's already quite good. The Third Team and Second Team want to catch rabbits but can't find a place." Li Long smiled, "Our Fourth Team occupies such a large wasteland, it's already very good. By the way, drink less later. If you want, I'll take you to see if we can catch sandgrouse."

"Right, Brother Long, you know where there are sandgrouse." Tao Daqiang suddenly remembered that when Li Long first returned from Urumqi, he had gotten sandgrouse.

"Hmm, know two places, but now the snow is thick, don't know if the sandgrouse are still there." Li Long smiled, "Not necessarily can catch them."

"We'll know when we go. Anyway, there's nothing to do now. Even if we don't catch them, just treat it as a walk to sober up." Didn't expect Xie Yun Dong to be the first to agree to this matter.

The matter was settled like this.

Because there was something to do in the evening, the wine was drunk slowly. Jia Weidong made a pass, and then everyone drank at will. Although Li Long was still treated as the main target, everyone knew Li Long had a good capacity for liquor, and his reaction to finger-guessing was fast, so they didn't feel it was bullying him.

Who let him be the richest and the one leading everyone to make money?

Because they drank slowly, they chatted a lot. In the past, Li Long stayed in the village for a short time and didn't know much when he occasionally came back. This time, he heard quite a bit of gossip during the drinking process, such as whose field ran water and flooded someone else's wheat, and the two families hadn't reconciled until now. For example, whose young man and whose girl were in love and kissing, were seen by elementary school students, and after the adults heard it, the whole village knew.

And there was the fact that more people were reclaiming wasteland in the team, mainly the Li family reclaiming wasteland, using relatively good fertilizer, which could press down the saline-alkali, and the sugar beets planted looked quite good, so many people wanted to reclaim wasteland after autumn.

Reclaiming wasteland not exceeding fifty mu, the village could decide, so Xu Chengjun approved this matter.

The country had regulations that public grain didn't need to be paid for the first three years of reclaiming wasteland. A big advantage of Northern Xinjiang was that the overall retention and the like were relatively small, and there was a lot of land. These proportions were small, and the more planted, the more harvested, plus some sideline businesses, making it easy to get rich.

"Quite a few families bought small four-wheeled tractors this year. Harvesters don't sell much, but everyone wants to buy cultivators. This thing is truly useful." Tao Daqiang said, "Regardless, it's better than several people working."

"Old Zhao's family brought a strong young man from his hometown to be a long-term worker, helping to farm. That young man doesn't talk much, but he works okay." Xie Yun Dong said, "Our team has more land per capita than other villages, and Old Zhao's family reclaimed another twenty mu of wasteland, and they can't farm it all.

This long-term worker is said to be Old Zhao's cousin from his hometown, working all year round, including food and housing, buying round-trip train tickets, and finally giving five hundred yuan. When that young man left, Old Zhao's family even bought him a new set of clothes, and he was very happy."

Five hundred yuan, which was almost a year's salary for a junior worker in 1986, was not small. After all, he only worked for six or seven months, and earning so much in half a year was also quite good.

All in all, there were quite a few fresh things in the village. In the past, Li Long wasn't in the village, and he didn't pay much attention to these things in his previous life, and some were not deep in his memory. Now that they were all told, it was quite nostalgic.

After eating and drinking, the leftovers on the table were cleared. Several people didn't leave immediately, changed to tea and melon seeds, and continued to chat. After the wine dispersed for a while, Li Long drove back to the front courtyard.

Everyone rode their bicycles, no need to send them off, and agreed to gather at Li Long's place around eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening.

When Li Long drove the jeep to his eldest brother's courtyard, it was still around five or six in the afternoon, and the sun could vaguely be seen as a red head in the west.

Hearing the car, Li Qing Xia came out of the east room first, saw Li Long, and asked:

"How much did you drink? Is it okay?"

"It's okay, didn't drink much. Going to cover sandgrouse tonight, so didn't make many passes." Li Long explained, "I'll find two bags and take the landing net."

"You going alone?" Li Qing Xia asked.

At this time, Li Jianguo also came out, and Du Chunfang poked her head out and told Li Long to hurry into the house.

"Me, Daqiang, Brother Xie Yun Dong, Dacheng, and Jia Weidong are all going." Li Long said, "I'm going to the front courtyard to sleep for a while and rest."

"Okay, you go over. The stove is set up there." Li Jianguo saw Li Long was fine, spoke clearly, and had a clear train of thought, so he didn't care much, "I'll prepare the things for you."

Li Long didn't drive the jeep parked in the backyard again, and then walked to the front courtyard. Li Jianguo carried a broken basin over and drained the water from the car for him.

The fire in the stove in the front courtyard was pressed, the room wasn't very hot, and the temperature was just right. Li Long took off his outer cotton clothes, lay on the bed, and squinted, falling asleep in a while.

After a while, Du Chunfang pushed the door and came in. Seeing Li Long asleep, she poured him a cup of water, saw the temperature in the room was okay, added some crushed coal to the stove, and then went out again.

Li Long slept for more than three hours and woke up, feeling his head was still slightly stuffy, but he was awake. He knew this was the alcohol already dispersed to all parts of the body having a negative effect. This wasn't anything, after all, he didn't drink much today.

Seeing the water on the bedside table, he took it, drank a mouthful, and then poured it all down.

Feeling much better after drinking the water, he got up, put on his clothes, saw it was already dark outside, went to the stove, added some coal blocks, poked it with a stove poker, poked all the charcoal ash down, and after the fire started, shoveled a shovel of coal dust on it, let it burn slowly, and opened the door to come out, arriving at the backyard.

"There is fish soup left for you in the kitchen," eldest sister-in-law Liang Yuemei said, "I'll serve it for you."

So Li Long drank fish soup, ate steamed bun slices roasted to a golden yellow, and had pickles, feeling very comfortable.

It would be a long time before Tao Daqiang and the others came, so Li Long chatted with his family, and in the middle, he called Gu Xiaoxia, telling her he wouldn't return tonight. Gu Xiaoxia said she guessed it, told him not to worry, and that there was nothing at home. ===== CHAPTER 1008 =====