Chapter 1021: It

When it was almost dark, Li Long drove the jeep back to the county.

Gu Bo Yuan told Li Long during dinner that the number of sheep carcasses received all day today was less than one hundred, and there were only five cattle.

Li Long was also a bit puzzled by this cliff-like drop in quantity. He didn't know if someone else had purchased them from the herdsmen, cutting off his business, or if the culling of sheep by the herdsmen had indeed been mostly completed recently.

After all, cattle and sheep were the foundation of the herdsmen's survival. As long as the grass harvested in autumn was enough for the cattle and sheep to eat, they wouldn't slaughter their livestock meaninglessly.

However, even if no one came to sell cattle and sheep now, it didn't matter. The task of the supply and marketing cooperative had been completed, and the cattle and sheep Li Long put in the old horse corral were enough for the needs of the sugar factory and the agricultural machinery factory, so there was no need to think of other ways.

As for the "stones" left in the jeep, Li Long picked a few better ones and put them in the cellar, and piled the rest against the wall.

When Gu Bo Yuan left, he joked with him: "You better watch these 'stones' well. Don't let any neighbors take one from you to press their pickle jar when they don't have a stone, then the loss will be huge."

Li Long smiled and didn't say anything. He vaguely remembered reading in an online post in his previous life that someone took a very high-quality jade raw stone out of a pickle jar. It was just that the person didn't know it was jade and felt it was suitable for pressing pickles, so they used it directly.

The next day after breakfast, Li Long first went to the naan shop and bought all twenty-plus naans that had just been baked.

He drove into the mountains and saw quite a few horses tied at the entrance of Halimu's winter quarters, gathered together to eat grass. Nasen was outside, sprinkling salt on the grass in front of the horses.

Hearing the jeep's movement, Nasen looked up, a smile appeared on his face, and then he shouted loudly into the winter quarters. By the time Li Long's jeep stopped, Halimu and the others had already come out of the winter quarters.

Six people came to the jeep. Nasen also hurriedly ran over, followed by Sasken, who was wiping his nose with his sleeve while looking at the jeep.

Li Long could see that Nasen and the others actually wanted to go too. But the jeep couldn't seat so many people, so they could only focus on the main business.

"Li Long, do you want to go into the winter quarters first and drink some milk tea to warm up?" Halimu asked.

"No need, it's not cold in the car, let's go directly."

To slaughter so many cattle and sheep, Li Long didn't want to drag it out for so long. Finishing early was easy, and the rest would be hunting and the New Year.

There were quite a few people in the car, so Li Long drove relatively slowly. After all, some parts of the mountain road were still quite dangerous.

After the jeep drove to the county town, Li Long went to the naan shop again and bought all twenty-plus new naans again. Thinking about it, this should be enough.

Not long after his jeep left, someone came to the shop. Seeing that there wasn't a single naan on the wooden board where naans were originally placed, he complained: "Hey, Adashi! Hasn't it been baked for so long? There were none when I came just now, and still none now?"

"Someone else came and bought them all." The young man baking naan smiled and said, "If you want to eat, you have to wait for another pit. It'll be fast, very fast."

"Bought them all? Is someone having a Nazier?" The person couldn't help but ask.

"No, a Han person drove a car over to buy them, loaded a car full of Kazakhs, don't know where they went."

The person who came to buy naan left empty-handed, muttering. The young man was quite happy. If business were like this every day, that would be quite good.

He already had an impression of Li Long. Every time this person came to buy naan, he bought all of them clean, didn't bargain, and was very easy to deal with.

When the jeep drove to the old horse corral and Li Long and the others got off, they saw that the people here had already started to get busy, and the scene was very lively.

Cattle and sheep were slaughtered here every year. When it was time to slaughter, the old horse corral became a lively place for the children in the village.

The people Li Jianguo had greeted in advance and Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu and the others in the old horse corral had already made various preparations.

In the courtyard, on two high stoves, a large pot was boiling mutton, and another large pot was boiling water.

On the two stoves in the room, there were also two large pots placed there to boil water.

Liang Yue-mei, leading a group of aunts and sisters-in-law, had already set up the site for slaughtering sheep. Later, when Halimu and the others started slaughtering sheep, Liang Yue-mei and the others would prepare to clean the sheep offal.

Xie Yun Dong and the others had also come over. Although these few people weren't fast at slaughtering sheep and skinning, they had been practicing for a few years and could at least do this work. One more person meant one more helper and one more strength.

At this time, three sheep had already been slaughtered. Xie Yun Dong, Tao Daqiang, and Jia Weidong were skinning the sheep. Liang Dacheng was pulling the sheep legs on Xie Yun Dong's side with his left hand and Jia Weidong's side with his right hand. On Tao Daqiang's side, Li Qiang was pulling the legs to help.

Because they were skinning the sheep on the ground, if the sheep legs weren't pulled, the sheepskin wouldn't be tight and it wouldn't be easy to skin well.

After all, these few people weren't skilled hands like Halimu. Kazakh herdsmen could even operate to skin the sheep without a knife.

Quite a few children were playing nearby, their eyes glancing at the high stove in the courtyard from time to time.

The aroma of mutton floated from the large pot on the stove. Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu held chopsticks and poked the mutton in the pot from time to time to check the degree of tenderness.

A small low table was placed by the side of the stove, and two large enamel plates were placed on the low table, which would be used to hold meat later.

There was also a bowl of salt on the table and half a basin of chopped green onions.

After Halimu and the others got off the car, they greeted Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu, Tao Daqiang, and the others they knew, and then very familiarly went into the sheep pen, caught a sheep nearby, and carried it outside.

The shrill cry of the sheep sounded immediately. The sheep pen became chaotic. Some sheep were fleeing, some were watching, and some were chewing the cud on their own, as if they were free from worldly disputes.

When they came, Halimu and the others had made full preparations. After dragging the sheep out, they lifted the two legs and put it down, tied the three legs together with a rope, and left one hind leg empty, leaving it for the sheep to kick and bleed.

A set of operations flowed like water. Tao Daqiang and the others hadn't finished skinning the sheep yet, and Halimu and the others had already started calling people over to catch the sheep blood.

Several sisters-in-law hurriedly carried the basin over, and then watched Halimu and the others wipe with a small knife. The sheep only had time to cry once, and then it was silent.

The remaining leg kicked hard. Every time it kicked, the wound on the neck would spurt a stream of blood. When half a basin of blood was filled, Halimu said:

"Blood, that's enough."

At this time, the sheep had no movement, and the wound on the neck stopped spurting blood and flowed slowly.

They untied the rope and began to skin it.

Although they had watched it for several years, every time they watched these Kazakh herdsmen slaughter sheep, these sisters-in-law and Tao Daqiang and the others not far away were still very impressed.

More and more children gathered here. Li Long took the two bags of naan out of the car and placed them on the small low table in the courtyard.

Then he took out a few naans from inside, broke them into pieces, and distributed them to these children.

"Eat some naan to pad your stomachs first, I'll distribute meat to you later."

Hearing that they would be distributed meat later, the children were all very happy.

Of course, they were also very happy eating the naan in their hands. After all, there was no naan baking in the whole township, so naan was also a very delicious snack for them.

Some children even broke off a large piece of naan and put it in their pockets, preparing to take it home for their family to eat, or save it for later.

The smell of blood and filth permeated the vicinity. Li Long turned his head and saw that Yushanjiang had already finished skinning the sheep. He laid the skinned sheep on the sheepskin, and with a flick of his small knife, he sliced open the sheep's belly. The wound wasn't deep, and the intestines and omentum were exposed.

Liang Yue-mei hurriedly carried a large basin over and caught these offal in the basin. The liver, which couldn't be frozen, had to be taken back to the room, and the rest of the intestines and stomach were washed and put together, coiled into a plate, either distributed or sold.

"Xiao Long, the mutton is ready." Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu shouted loudly in the courtyard.

"Ready, ready, I'm coming." Li Long walked quickly to the courtyard. Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu poked the meat with chopsticks to show him:

"It's been boiling for about an hour. The meat looks very tender. If it boils for a while longer, it will fall off the bone. I've already added salt. I'll serve them soup to drink later."

"First scoop out a plate and distribute it to these children to eat. I'll serve half a basin and take it back to my father and mother." Li Long said, "Whoever is hungry can come and scoop it to eat. Drinking half a bowl of soup from time to time to warm up is also quite good."

The children all arrived at the courtyard gate, but no one came in. Some had finished eating the naan, some were still holding a small piece of naan in their hands and gnawing slowly, looking at the mutton pot here.

"Come over, come over, line up." Li Long said with a smile, "Come over one by one to get meat, don't grab, there's enough for everyone."

What he scooped out included leg meat, ribs, and spine. The meat wasn't trimmed much, so there was a lot.

The children were also quite interesting. Older brothers and sisters would push their younger brothers and sisters to the front. If they came alone, they would line up with those they were close to. No one squeezed, and no one cut in line.

I don't know if it was because they were a bit shy or too polite or intimidated by Li Long's prestige, but in short, it was very quiet.

"Come, hold it, one piece per person. If you get one you don't want to eat, you can exchange it with others." Li Long said while distributing meat.

But the children who got the meat didn't exchange with each other, and just walked to the side to find a place to eat.

On such a cold day, the meat bones came out of the pot and cooled down quickly. The children were very sensible, huddled around the stove burning hot water, squatted down, and gnawed on the meat in their hands slowly.

Li Long found another basin, served half a basin of soup, placed it on the low table, and said to those children: "After eating, you can drink some soup, and then go play."

From time to time, children walked in from outside and joined the ranks of meat distribution. Some children were embarrassed and stood at the door looking inside.

Li Long waved at them, letting them come in to eat meat.

Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu helped with a smile, remembering the time of the big pot rice, the children weren't so polite. When the big stove in the canteen distributed snacks to the children, the children would grab them. ===== CHAPTER 1022 =====