Chapter 1033: Heavy Snow Requires Flood Prevention

Li Long sat in Huang Yang's winter shelter, sipping milk tea as he said:

"I don't need much this time. If it's convenient, just give me five sheep and one cow per household. I can pay you in cash, or provide supplies for your seasonal migration. But you have to help me slaughter the cattle and sheep; I only want the meat. Also, it would be best if you could debone and trim the meat after slaughtering."

Facing Huang Yang and the others, Li Long could state all his requirements quite frankly without feeling embarrassed.

Just as when he watched Huang Yang and the others make requests of him—asking Li Long to bring rice, flour, oil, salt, and other supplies—they would also speak quite frankly.

Between friends, there is no need for concealment. I need you to help me buy these things, and I will give you whatever I can. I need to take some things from you, and whatever you need, I will bring it over to trade directly.

That's how it is.

"We'll scrape together a hundred sheep for you, that's enough, right?" Huang Yang, who was nearby, said. "Add ten cows, that should be about right, shouldn't it?"

"That's enough, that's enough," Li Long said with a smile. "Maybe I won't even use it all."

"Hmm, two days, let's say. Today I'll go notify each household, and then we'll start the slaughter. Tomorrow... we'll slaughter tomorrow, and by tomorrow afternoon or the morning after, it will be ready."

Li Long asked each household to contribute cattle and sheep because he didn't want any single family to suffer a major blow.

After all, the number of cattle and sheep each household has now isn't particularly large; this is just a small pasture and a small tribe that cannot withstand a major upheaval.

Li Long was confident enough to come and organize this because the tribe's cattle and sheep hadn't frozen or starved to death this winter; otherwise, he wouldn't have come to suggest this.

When Li Long arrived, he first looked for Huang Yang. It just so happened that Huang Yang had come to find Huang Yang to discuss the recent situation at the winter shelter.

The snow outside was heavy, and it had already fallen in the mountains, even heavier than outside. Huang Yang had come to find Huang Yang to discuss whether they needed to use the snowplow to clear the road again.

As it turned out, he ran into Li Long. According to Li Long, there was no need to clear it specifically; if the tractor ran back and forth a few times, the snow would be flattened.

After all, the current situation is not like before the New Year, when it could snow three times in ten days; now, it would be good if it snowed once in ten days.

After all, it is already mid-to-late February, and in a few days, the snow outside the mountains will melt.

"Yes, we must prevent floods." After finishing the serious business, Li Long remembered Huang Yang's purpose for coming and also thought of one thing.

The team's Little Haizi also needed flood prevention.

In the past two years, using money and reasoning, he had the team leader Xu Chengjun lead the people in the team to build a flood-prevention main canal in the spring. At the very least, for the next few years, if floods came down from the mountains, Little Haizi would basically not be affected.

But what about this year?

Needless to say, the volume of this year's flood will definitely be the largest in the last decade, so can Little Haizi still be preserved?

Although Little Haizi has experienced continuous fishing in recent years, the number of large fish in it has decreased sharply. Even this winter, no one has broken the ice to catch fish to sell; at most, they broke the ice to scoop up some small fish to make fish soup for the New Year.

But Li Long knows that there are still large fish in Little Haizi; this is the foundation.

If the flood really washes away Little Haizi, then there will be no possibility of large fish in the future.

So he thought about whether he should find Xu Chengjun again after returning, or just let his eldest brother drive the tractor to quickly widen the flood-prevention canals on both sides of Little Haizi after the snow melts. In this way, at least when the flood comes, it can flow from the flood-prevention canals on both sides into the reed ditch below, and then be carried to the Big Haizi.

Firstly, in name, Little Haizi is contracted by him and counts as his own. Secondly, he really doesn't want Little Haizi to turn into a mere pond just like that.

The major flood in his historical memory was avoided, but given the situation this year, it feels significantly more dangerous than that time. After that flood in history, the silt brought down by the flood almost filled Little Haizi, and it later became an above-ground reservoir.

And even if the team dug it out later, it was just a minor effort and didn't thoroughly improve it. Later on, Little Haizi couldn't store much water and turned into a reed pond.

Although there were always fish, there were never any large ones again—because it couldn't store water in winter, and if the fish grew slightly larger, they would freeze to death in winter.

So Li Long thought he must preserve Little Haizi, at least not let it become like it was in later generations, which was heartbreaking to watch.

Since things were settled with Huang Yang, Li Long agreed. His plan was to drive a truck up the day after tomorrow, pull a truckload of supplies, unload the supplies, and load the cattle and sheep to take them away directly.

The tribe truly felt that this was better, saving them the trouble of having to buy supplies again after getting the money, which would mean another trip.

"After I left last time, have there been any wolf packs or other wild animals appearing around your winter shelter?" Li Long refilled a bowl of milk tea and asked while drinking.

He likes drinking milk tea more and more now. This stuff requires milk skin. Although the milk from the dairy goats at home can also be used to make milk tea, the taste is that of goat milk, which is a bit different.

Of course, it is also quite fragrant.

But it just feels like it's not as authentic as the one drunk at the winter shelter.

After finishing the milk tea, Li Long didn't stay for a meal; he had to go back quickly.

Since the meat here had been arranged, he had to go back quickly to prepare the seasonings and other things. Although there were some at home, they were only enough for household use. To make several hundred kilograms of dried meat, the amount of seasoning is not a small number.

Fresh meat is marinated, using beef as a base. It's good if one kilogram of beef can yield half a kilogram of meat—unlike later generations that have water-locking agents and such, this is purely natural craftsmanship, which is about half a kilogram.

If it's made into meat jerky, it will be about two or three hundred grams left.

Li Long got a hundred sheep and ten cows from Huang Yang and the others. It sounds like a lot—the meat from a hundred sheep can weigh two thousand kilograms, and ten cows can weigh about two or three tons.

But the problem is that this includes bones.

Fortunately, Li Long intends to make two types: one is the air-dried meat style, which includes bones, so it has weight; the other is pure meat, just like the beef jerky of later generations. Of course, it's not really made that dry; if it's too dry, it can't be chewed, which affects the taste.

Regardless of which type, a lot of seasoning is needed. Salt is easy to buy, but for other seasonings, Li Long still has to see if he can buy them all.

Returning from the mountains to the county, Li Long saw that all units were still clearing snow at this time. This snow was very heavy, and although it was less than half a month until the snow melted, the weather had become a few degrees colder once the snow fell.

In order to keep the roads and units clean, everyone was clearing snow.

Many units had snowplows, and the sounds of "tut-tut-tut" rose one after another, and the air was filled with the smell of gasoline and diesel exhaust.

Li Long drove to the department store to buy seasonings such as cumin, salt, chili powder, and star anise.

In the department store, Xiao Liu had just sent a family away and breathed a sigh of relief—the child just now was too naughty, wanting this one moment and that the next, and even reaching out to grab things on the counter, stuffing them into his mouth as soon as he reached them.

His parents not only didn't care but also protected the child, saying "he's just a child," but in the end, they only bought half a kilogram of sesame cakes and left. When the child left, he was still clutching a fruit candy tightly in his hand, making faces at Xiao Liu.

Every day he encounters all kinds of customers; sometimes it's quite happy, and sometimes it's truly physically and mentally exhausting.

"Xiao Liu, you should have been stricter with that family just now!" Sister Zhang, who was nearby, said in hindsight. "Look at how stingy they were... and that child really has no upbringing!"

Xiao Liu smiled and didn't speak. When that family came just now, it should have been Sister Zhang's responsibility, but as soon as she saw them coming, she immediately turned around to find water, so Xiao Liu had no choice but to step in.

Now she was saying such things again—the staff in the department store are not all very united. Xiao Liu knows why—he is young and won an advanced award at the end of last year, so some people are jealous.

After Li Long came in, he looked left and right, and then walked directly toward Xiao Liu—a familiar face, in his opinion, should be easy to talk to:

"Hello, comrade, where can I buy seasonings?"

"Right here, right here." Sister Zhang, who was nearby, rushed to say, "Comrade, what do you want?"

The old employees in the department store all have a deep impression of Li Long. From the beginning when he came to buy candy and sesame cakes by horse-drawn carriage or bicycle, to later buying many radios, and then later driving a jeep.

By the time they knew Li Long's identity, it was already from watching TV and reading telegrams. This is a legendary figure, and the process of his growth and change is something they witnessed with their own eyes.

Li Long didn't know this. Seeing Xiao Liu stunned and silent, he smiled and followed Sister Zhang to look at the seasonings.

Does this person not want to talk to him? He vaguely remembers it wasn't like this before, right?

By the time Li Long followed Sister Zhang to weigh the things, Xiao Liu reacted and felt a bit regretful, but it would seem a bit too eager to go over now, so he struggled with it.

"... Ten kilograms of iodized salt? Why do you need so much? Three kilograms of cumin? Are you wholesaling? We don't have much cumin in stock here... Five kilograms of chili powder? We do have that..." ===== CHAPTER 1034 =====