Chapter 321: Fishing for gold in the sea of fish

The next day before dawn they had breakfast. When Li Jianguo led the horse cart over, Li Long and the others were already prepared. Li Long specifically went to the warehouse to look, and those fish were indeed frozen. It hadn't snowed these two days, otherwise he would have planned to directly cover the fish with snow. Without snow, he could only splash cold water on the fish, which was equivalent to covering the surface with a thin layer of ice to maintain quality and freshness.

Six people sat on the horse cart and walked north, soon joining Tao Daqiang and his father, and Yang Yongqiang and his father. They didn't say much, tacitly forming a convoy.

Li Long didn't ride his bicycle. At this time, he needed to go deep into the big Haizi to get fish, and the bicycle could only be left on the south bank, which was easy to lose.

When they arrived at the big Haizi, the sky was just beginning to brighten, and what was presented to everyone was a big pit.

Li Long had been here a few times before, watching the water line go down every day, so he was mentally prepared.

Li Jianguo and the other five came last night and had seen it, so they didn't feel anything.

It was just that Tao Daqiang and his father and Yang Yongqiang and his father were shocked—the big Haizi was just gone like this?

Because the bottom of this Haizi was uneven, so even if the water was almost released, there were still small amounts of water stored in some pits and bumps, and there were a few troughs flowing water to the north gate, and the rest was just mud.

And at this moment, the mud had been frozen hard, and a few people were holding bags, picking up fish.

That's right, they were just picking up fish.

There were fish in almost all those pits and bumps with water, looking over, one could see that most of them were covered with ice, and the fish were under the ice. Some big fish could still break the thin ice and flop around there.

And the place with the most fish was in the water troughs. Because there was flowing water, what could be seen in these troughs was simply not a water flow, but a "fish flow"! Some fish swam upstream along the water, couldn't swim anymore, and gathered together, patting their tails from time to time. Some swam downstream, and when they swam to shallow water, they bumped into the fish swimming upstream, forming a "traffic jam", and then gathered a large group of fish.

Those picking up fish specifically picked the big, good, alive, and valuable ones. Li Long and the others just took a look, and then immediately joined in.

"Now there are few people, let's pick up fish first, remember, carp, five-striped black fish that are about two kilograms, crucian carp try to pick the big ones, if you bump into them, ask if they sell, just one mao per kilogram, and still pick, if they don't sell, don't worry about it, ask again in a while. They can only put a few hundred kilograms of fish in their own home, and the rest will be sold—don't worry, there are not many people who can collect fish now, don't blindly raise the price..."

Li Long quickly said the words, then took a bag, held a net bag, and rushed down.

This was a sea of fish!

Encountering such a scene, it is estimated that more than 99% of the people in the country could not calm down and ignore it, right?

At the start, he saw a group of crucian carp in a water pool, the thin ice on top had been broken by the fish themselves, there were some broken ice pieces on the edge, in this group of fish, the biggest was a big crucian carp close to one kilogram, Li Long picked that big crucian carp and scooped it with a net, and scooped two other crucian carp along with it, Li Long didn't even pour the fish into the net, directly holding it and rushing towards the water trough.

This water trough was full of fresh, alive, big fish that looked beautiful, the target was here!

Others were one step slower than Li Long, but each one also moved very quickly, holding net bags and bags and running in, those who didn't have net bags late just held bags and ran in.

Left at the end were Li Jianguo who was preparing to unload the horse cart, Tao Daqiang's father who was untying the donkey, and Yang Yongqiang's father Yang Hua who put down the flatbed cart.

The three of them finished the cart together, and then walked inside.

Whether in front or behind, these people were thinking about one question while scooping fish, this Li Long was too powerful, such a thing could be predicted in advance?

Of course it wasn't predicted, when Li Long was scooping fish in a water trough, he felt his memory wake up again.

In his previous life, he liked to play, and he was indeed the first person in the whole village to discover that the water in the big Haizi here was released dry, and the fish inside could be picked up at will.

But at that time he was relatively stupid, holding a net bag and looking at the fish in the water trough, he couldn't move at all, one big fish after another was scooped up by him, at that time the excitement overwhelmed everything, this was all harvest.

However, as he scooped and scooped, he felt something was wrong, he turned his head and found that he was scooping in front, and behind him, women and children were directly picking up the fish he scooped, he ran over and said this was the fish he scooped, people didn't care about him at all.

At that time, there were people from the villages below the big Haizi everywhere, he knew that even if he moved his hands, he couldn't beat them, so he had to scoop the fish into the net bag—and continue to scoop forward with the net bag, scooping a net bag of fish, at most it was only ten or twenty kilograms. And at this time, people from the villages below were all moved by the news, there were more and more people here, Li Long had no choice but to go back in the end.

By the time he returned home, it was already afternoon. After Li Jianguo heard about this, he scolded him, if he had gone home to tell his family when he saw the fish situation, and the whole family came over together, the situation where he scooped fish and was taken by others would definitely not have happened.

It can only be said that at that time, he was blinded by pig oil, no, fish oil.

Now Li Long could never make such a stupid and low-level mistake again. He specifically scooped big carp, crucian carp, and five-striped black fish, of course, those plateau loaches were not let go either. After scooping, he directly put them into the bag, and in less than fifteen minutes, a bag of fish was full, Li Long carried the bag and ran to the shore.

There were too many fish, not just him, Li Anguo and others also scooped a bag in a while, when Li Long returned, he said to Li Jianguo:

"Big Brother, either you just watch by the cart on the shore, the fish we scooped are put here, otherwise someone will steal them later, what to do?"

"Fine." Although he also wanted to have a fish addiction, the overall situation was important, so he carried the bag and returned to the cart, sat on the horse cart side, took out the Mohe cigarette box from his clothes pocket, and took out paper to roll a cigarette.

Growing up so big, this was the first time seeing so many fish!

This winter, there would be no shortage of fish to eat.

The sky gradually brightened, and the fish piled up by the horse cart became more and more, in a while there were ten or twenty bags of fish, and the speed at which they sent fish over later slowed down.

Because they had already gone deep into the big Haizi, close to the north side.

When Li Long carried another bag of fish over, panting, the sun had already risen, and the sunlight shone on his face, feeling a bit dazzling.

"Big Brother, look, have you seen such a big clam?" Li Long was still holding a black guy in his hand, "Too big, don't know if there are pearls inside..."

"This river clam is so big?" Li Jianguo called the river clam a river clam in his hometown, "Pearls might not be there, but this guy must be at least twenty or thirty years old, the size is really not small!"

"Might have parasites." Li Long threw the river clam to the side of the horse cart, planning to rest and catch his breath, "Big Brother, is there a ton of fish here now?"

"Adding the three families together, it should be about the same. Just on our side, it should be six or seven hundred kilograms." Li Jianguo had already estimated it before, "Wait until we get some more, a horse cart can pull it away."

"Then let's pull it away later, unload it at the horse station and home, and then come back to pull."

"Then the people in the team will all know."

"The news definitely can't be hidden, let them know, anyway there are many fish in this big Haizi, come early and get more, come late and get less. We have already gotten the big head and occupied the first opportunity."

"That's true. It's just that next year and the year after, there won't be many fish in the big Haizi." Li Jianguo sighed and said.

"That won't happen." Li Long pointed to the gate with a smile, "Big Brother, there is no intercepting net at the gate, the fish in the reservoir below can come up along the water when releasing water. There will also be fish washed down from the Mohe Canal above. There will definitely not be as many fish inside here next year as this year, but it won't be few." Li Jianguo thought that was true too.

Then continue scooping fish. After the sun rose, there were more people from the villages on the north side coming to scoop fish, Li Jianguo drove the horse cart back with a cart of fish, and when he arrived in the village, many people saw it.

"Old Li brother, where did so many fish come from? Big Haizi?" Those with good relationships directly asked.

"The water in the big Haizi is dry, it's full of fish inside." Li Jianguo didn't hide it either, directly saying, "Now many people are scooping?"

"Really or fake?" Those who heard were immediately shocked, this was not a small matter.

"Really, look at the fish on the cart, they were all scooped by us."

"Then thank you, we'll also go get some fish!"

Fish can be sold for money, this was the experience village people got from Li Long. Although fish are expensive in oil, they are delicious, this was the experience passed down for many years. Now there are fish that don't need money to pick up at will, who doesn't want them?

So, calling friends and companions, suddenly many people in the village knew.

By the time Li Jianguo unloaded a cart of fish at the warehouse of the Old Ma Hao and pulled the horse cart to the big Haizi, many people in the village were walking towards that side.

When he arrived at the big Haizi, Li Jianguo found that the people in the Haizi didn't look many before, just twenty or thirty years. Now there were almost a hundred people, and people entering from the north bank were still increasing.

Li Long carried a bag of fish over and said to Li Jianguo:

!.

"Big Brother, we are starting not to scoop fish, but to collect fish. Now some people are already thinking about selling fish, look at this bag of mine, they were all picked from his pile, evenly, they are all carp and five-striped black fish."

"You don't have a scale, how do you buy?" Li Jianguo was a bit puzzled.

"Two mao per fish." Li Long said with a smile, "Two mao for the big ones, one mao for the small ones, that family of three are all picking fish, they picked more than two hundred kilograms, they are also worried about the pile there, I said I wanted to buy, and he immediately agreed."

This feeling of buying goods openly is truly great. It reminds Li Long of when he went traveling in Yili and passed by Provincial Highway 315, where he ran into two Kazakh herdsmen selling mushrooms. A woven bag full of those large white reed mushrooms, probably weighing forty-five kilograms, and the guy asked for a hundred. He bargained down to fifty, and they finally settled on sixty... That was quite a big bargain he picked up in his previous life.

Later, when he went back, ordinary Bachu mushrooms were already selling for a hundred yuan per kilogram—one can only say that as more people come, prices are also rising.

Now is the time to pick up big bargains, or rather, a win-win situation.

As Li Long wanders through the crowd, he occasionally scoops up a big fish, but most of the time he is still scouting for target individuals.

Those who came earlier are mostly in groups of a few, with one person guarding a pile of fish while the others pick up fish and place them there.

Li Long walks up to a woman of twenty-six or twenty-seven and asks:

"Big sister, how did your inquiry go? Are you selling these fish? If you are, I'll collect them right now and pay you right now."

The woman says in a dilemma:

"My man said, if we sell, we sell the whole lot together; he won't let anyone pick through them..."

"If I can't pick through them, I'll offer at most three yuan for this pile of fish." Li Long shakes his head. "There are too many small crucian carp..."

"These crucian carp aren't small!" The woman feels Li Long is wrong and argues, "They're this big; we didn't even pick up the really small ones."

"But compared to those big fish, your fish are small. You have forty or fifty kilograms in this pile, right? A small half of them are crucian carp. If that's the case, it's not worth it for me to buy."

"That's too cheap. It works out to less than a mao per kilogram... Fish at the market are seven or eight mao per kilogram."

"That's different. Right now, the whole Great Haizi is full of fish. Before, you needed nets to catch fish, but now you just bend over and pick them up..." Li Long waves his hand and says, "I'm going to collect fish elsewhere first; you guys take another look."

Saying this, he goes to the others.

Before long, he closes another deal, collects a bag of big fish, and carries it on his back toward the south shore.

By this time, most of the people he brought along have also started collecting fish.

Unlike Li Long, these people aren't picky about quantity; they collect ten or eight, or even just one or two. Chen Xingbang, in particular, focuses on greeting young people and lads, especially teenagers around ten years old, and starts buying as soon as he sees them catch a big fish.

These teenagers basically have no money in their hands, so when they first catch the fish, they think about taking them home for the family to eat, but once they have a lot, if someone offers money—even if it's just a mao per fish—they are very happy.

A mao can be exchanged for several candies at the supply and marketing store, or two chicken intestines (the rubber tubes for valve cores, used as elastic bands) to make a slingshot.

That is why Chen Xingbang brings back the most fish every time.

"Xingbang, later ask Xiao Long to give you more of a bonus; you've bought quite a lot of fish!" Li Jianguo sees it clearly; in no time, Chen Xingbang can bring back a sack of fish, and they are all big ones—this shows his business acumen.

"It's still Xiao Long's method that's good. If we just caught them ourselves, we'd catch at most a quarter in this time. Buying fish is really fast!" Chen Xingbang is sincerely impressed by Li Long's idea. "Just these fish, if taken to the market, would trade for a lot of fish. I asked at the market that day; fish at the market are seven or eight mao per kilogram. This back-and-forth, we're making quite a bit."

"Haha, this only happens once a year; otherwise, why would Xiao Long dare to say he'd get you all a bicycle each when the time comes?" Li Jianguo says with a smile.

"For the sake of this bicycle, I have to hurry and collect some more; now is exactly the time when the fish are biting."

Bag after bag of fish is transported over. Li Jianguo pulls another horse cart back, and when he returns, he brings the meal directly here.

A large basket of steamed buns, two thermoses of boiling water, and two basins of vegetables: stir-fried potato shreds and stir-fried pickled vegetables with meat.

Seeing Li Junshan come over with a sack of fish at this time, Li Jianguo tells him to put the fish down and calls the others over to eat.

Having hot food to eat while working—this really made all the others envious. (End of chapter)