Chapter 1008: The snow is getting heavier, and the road in the mountains must also be opened

Looking at the direction of the footprints, Li Long said:

"It's very likely that they walked these two days, and they are also going to the place where the sandgrouse stay."

"Then are we still going?" Tao Daqiang was a bit disappointed.

"Not going?" Jia Weidong's health wasn't very good, and walking for a while in such thick snow, he was already a bit out of breath.

"Go, why not go? Since we're here..." Liang Dacheng, who discovered the footprints first, felt it was necessary to go.

Xie Yun Dong asked Li Long:

"Little Long, how much further?"

"Three or four hundred meters, I guess." Li Long said, "Walk a bit and we'll be there."

"Then what do you say?" Xie Yun Dong didn't express his opinion and asked Li Long back.

"Let's go, it's not far. Since we're here, it's always uncomfortable not to go over." Li Long also felt it was necessary to see, "Weidong, walk slower, follow behind us, don't wade in the snow in front."

"Okay." Jia Weidong saw that everyone else was going, so he went.

The four walked in front, wading the snow open, and it was easier for him to walk behind.

The combined thickness of the three snowfalls exceeded one meter, but in fact, the snow couldn't be this thick when accumulated, because snow is fluffy. After falling, snowflakes would slowly turn into snow particles, the volume would become smaller, and the weight would become larger.

So the thickness of this snow layer didn't exceed fifty centimeters.

But because the upper layer was exposed to the sun during the day and melted a little, and then froze at night, it formed a snow crust, which was very hard, and the bottom turned into scattered snow particles, which was more troublesome to walk on.

When they were about to reach the area where the sandgrouse were, Li Long, who was in the lead, slowed down and reminded them in a low voice:

"Almost there. Regardless of whether there is anything or not, let's keep the noise down."

This time, everyone stopped talking.

This area was a region where white thorn, alkali grass, red willow, and wild rye grew together. Because of these shrubs and tall grass clumps, the snow couldn't press them down, and clumps of grass were scattered, which could block the wind and snow.

So not only did sandgrouse like to stay here, but rabbits and other small animals would also come over.

This area was much larger than the wild rye just now. Li Long knew there was no way to surround it, so he said in a low voice:

"We're here. Let's spread out, line up in a row, walk forward slowly, catch if we can see, and continue if we can't. If we really can't see, flash the flashlight to see."

He himself had strong eyesight and didn't need a flashlight, but others were different.

Although life had improved in the past two years, the other few people would often eat animal internal organs and were not deficient in vitamins, and their eyesight was better than before, but they still had to recover slowly.

Hearing Li Long say this, the others immediately spread out, stayed on both sides of Li Long, and held up the landing nets, ready to buckle them down at any time.

Li Long walked forward slowly, staring ahead. Entering the shrub area, there was nothing at first.

Looking into the distance, he couldn't see clearly. Even if his eyesight was good, he couldn't see thirty or fifty meters away in the middle of the night.

But he always felt there should be some.

Sure enough, when walking seven or eight meters forward, he saw two black guys leaning against the grass and sleeping there on the edge of a clump of alkali grass.

This kind of alkali grass looked quite like tumbleweed. As long as given enough time, it could naturally grow into a rolling grass ball, almost without pruning. Looking from a distance, it was a clump of cyan-green round grass balls.

People in the village who burned firewood and alkali grass liked this thing best, because you only needed to cut the root, and a large clump of firewood (alkali grass raw material) was in hand.

And this thing was very easy to burn after it dried. Local people like Yang Laoliu and Ma Jinbao, who herded sheep in the wild in winter, liked to trample this thing down directly, remove the gaps, and then find some paper to start the fire, stuff it in, and it would catch fire as soon as it was lit, and the fire would be very vigorous.

Because this thing could burn alkali grass, local old Northern Xinjiang people liked to burn it, plus reclaiming wasteland, leading to less and less every year. By the 2020s, this kind of plant could no longer be seen around the Fourth Team.

Li Long withdrew his thoughts, took the landing net, and buckled it down gently.

Those two sandgrouse just woke up and were preparing to struggle when Li Long had already walked to the front, pressed them with his hand, then put down the landing net with the other hand, reached down from the bottom of the net, grabbed the two sandgrouse together, stuffed them into the bag, tied the bag mouth, and then looked at the others.

Five people were separated by two or three meters. Tao Daqiang and Liang Dacheng on both sides had already seen Li Long succeed, looked over here, and continued to walk forward, their pace a bit fast.

Maybe they also found the target.

Li Long picked up the landing net and continued. After walking a few steps, he heard movement next to him. Liang Dacheng succeeded first.

Then Jia Weidong on the edge also succeeded. He held one, and another flew away.

The one that flew away was still calling, scaring away several sandgrouse nearby.

It was just that this area was relatively large, and the range of sandgrouse was also relatively wide. A sandgrouse in front of Li Long heard the movement and just called, didn't leave its "nest," and then became Li Long's trophy.

When the five people walked out of this area, there were already six sandgrouse in Li Long's bag.

"How are you all?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"I have four." Tao Daqiang responded first.

"Five." Then it was Liang Dacheng.

"Four." Xie Yun Dong's voice was neutral and peaceful.

"Five." Jia Weidong's voice carried joy; obviously, he didn't expect to catch so many himself.

"Let's go back, enough." Li Long smiled, "Enough for a meal anyway."

"Brother Long, how many do you have?" Tao Daqiang asked.

"Six." Li Long said, "Three on each side, enough to stir-fry a plate."

"That must be a big plate. I found that the sandgrouse here are much larger than those over there." Xie Yun Dong said with a smile.

With the harvest, Jia Weidong didn't seem so tired anymore, chatting together on the way back.

When they walked back home, it was already past one o'clock in the morning, and the family had all fallen asleep.

Because the sandgrouse caught were alive, Li Long didn't untie the bag, put it by the fire wall, and wanted to wait until tomorrow to process it.

Before dawn, Li Qiang ran over to knock on the window and asked Li Long if he was up.

Li Long was actually awake, just lazy to get up. The days were short and the nights were long. At this time, it was already past eight or nine in the morning, and Li Juan and Li Qiang had to get up early to eat and then go to school.

"Awake, awake, I'll open the door for you in a while." Li Long responded, put on his clothes, and went to open the door.

Li Qiang entered the door and asked excitedly:

"Uncle, did you catch any sandgrouse?"

"Caught them, by the fire wall, see?" Li Long pointed and said, "Take them to the backyard, I'll go over and clean them in a while."

"How many? Looks like quite a lot?"

"Six." Li Long said, and went out to the toilet.

When Li Long returned, Li Qiang had already taken the bag to the backyard. Li Long tidied up the quilt, poked the stove with a stove poker, saw there was still fire in the stove, added some coal, pressed it with coal dust, and then washed up. After washing up and arriving at the backyard, Li Juan and Li Qiang, along with Li Jianguo, had helped pluck the feathers of four sandgrouse.

"Make three at noon, and you take three back." Liang Yuemei said while stir-frying, "This harvest last night was not small. By the way, your eldest brother and the others chased some rabbits when it snowed, you take a few back too."

Li Long ate breakfast and rested for a while before driving the jeep back. The jeep was loaded with sandgrouse and rabbits, as well as a stack of rabbit skins from his eldest brother's family.

I guess these days, people in the Fourth Team wouldn't want to eat rabbit meat for a short time.

Returning to the main compound, Li Long handed the sandgrouse and rabbits to Sister Yang, and he himself took Mingming and Haohao to continue working in the greenhouse.

When Li Long wasn't there, the family would add coal to the greenhouse, but other things were generally done when Li Long came over.

One-third of the bok choy was given to Jia Weidong, and the rest was still growing. Li Long wondered if he should sprinkle some seeds, but thought about waiting. Now that other seedlings had grown, take care of them first.

The vegetable beds that didn't need care were chives. As long as there was light and heat, this thing grew by itself, and it was fertilized every three months or half a year. ===== CHAPTER 1009 =====