Chapter 376: Ambitious young people in the village

In the afternoon, Li Long started cleaning his gun in the horse corral room.

Going hunting this time, the bullets were guaranteed, but this gun still needed to be well maintained.

The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle was still quite easy to maintain. Li Long focused on cleaning the barrel and the bolt, and oiling them. Winter gun oil was a bit different from summer's. Scientifically speaking, it should be about viscosity, solidification temperature, etc. Li Long didn't know much, just knew that winter naturally required winter gun oil.

Halfway through cleaning the gun, a knock on the door sounded. Li Long shouted to come in. The ones who pushed the door and entered were Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang.

Li Long was happy.

Now these two were like the two generals Heng and Ha, inseparable.

"Brother Long." Tao Daqiang came in, greeted him, and squatted opposite Li Long.

"Go to the side." Li Long reached out and pushed him, "Forgot again? How can you face each other when cleaning a gun?"

Tao Daqiang chuckled honestly, walked to the side and squatted down, helping Li Long pass the gun cloth.

The space for cleaning the gun was small. Yang Yongqiang looked and didn't crowd together. He sat on the bed and asked:

"Brother Long came back in the morning?"

"Mm." Li Long asked while cleaning, "Are you two idle?"

"Mm, idle." Tao Daqiang nodded, "The fish are all sold out, Brother Long, you say is there any profit in breaking the ice to sell fish now?"

"Definitely profitable. Are there many people in the team breaking the ice?"

"Not many before, today I saw quite a few people went." Yang Yongqiang said, "All young people, the two Zhao brothers, the three Liang brothers, and the three Bai father and son... there's plenty to be busy with in that small sea."

Li Long calculated, from the beginning of winter freezing to now, it had been more than a month, almost two months, he said:

"If you two want to do it, you can also do it. How about we go and take a look in the afternoon?"

"Alright." Yang Yongqiang was waiting for these words, "Actually, we two were still hesitating. Yesterday there were those who broke the ice and caught fish, and there were also those who didn't catch any, don't know if this job can be done, just heard you came back, so wanted to come over and ask."

"Alright, clean the gun in a while and go take a look." Since the two little brothers trusted him, Li Long hoped to be able to help them.

In the cold winter, rural resources were not much, wanting to earn some money was not easy. But from Yang Yongqiang's words, it could be heard that many young people in the village wanted to earn money, and didn't think about staying at home.

Maybe it was stimulated by the Li family earning money, maybe it was the idea of wanting to live a good life, in short, this was a good thing.

After cleaning the gun, Li Long went to find a net, also found an axe and a steel rod, and also told Li Junfeng and the others.

Chen Xingbang and Li Anguo didn't plan to go, the two were discussing the return trip, Li Junfeng and Li Junshan found things and followed out the door together.

They first detoured to the Li family, the Li family still had a net, this thing also had to be brought along. Li Jianguo knew they were going to Xiaohaizi to get fish, and also found them an axe and a crowbar.

A group of people went to Xiaohaizi talking and laughing, which attracted the attention of many people along the way.

Many people had stepped on the road to Xiaohaizi, and a small path had already been stepped out, and this small path was not the kind of sheep's gut, it was quite spacious, handcarts could pass, Li Long asked a sentence:

"Is it Meng Zhiqiang and the others fishing every day?"

"Not really? When it first froze, they broke the ice, but didn't catch any, later never saw them go again." Yang Yongqiang remembered quite clearly, "When we went to the county to sell fish, we didn't see them later."

That was stepped out in these two days, looks like many people in the village came.

Arriving at the north embankment of Xiaohaizi, seeing the footprints suddenly spread out, like fingers spread out, extending into Xiaohaizi.

Here one could see that there were still people guarding the places with ice holes, or continuing to pry the ice there, or holding a net and fishing in the ice hole.

Occasionally one could hear people cheering, and also people regretting, looks like there were those who caught fish and those who didn't catch any.

"Go, go take a look." Li Long said with a smile, "See how their harvest is."

Saying that, he went down the embankment and walked directly towards the nearest direction.

The three Liang brothers were in front of the ice hole, they only had one net, the three people took turns.

The ice hole was not broken big, seems like it wasn't enough for the net to fish, simply squeezed the circular net into a long circle and went down to scoop.

A pile of broken ice scooped up on the side, mixed with a few particularly small crucian carp, already frozen hard.

"How is it? Caught any?" Li Long asked.

"Sigh, there are fish, just not many." The eldest Liang brother shook his head. Li Long's status in the village had quietly risen, the eldest Liang brother was thirty-something, but didn't treat Li Long as a young man without hair grown.

"Let me see what fish there are?" Li Long said, the second Liang brother immediately untied the bag and showed it to Li Long.

"Yo, this five-striped black is not bad, quite big, take it to the market tomorrow, can sell for two yuan anyway." Li Long looked at the bag, indeed there were not many fish, at most three or four kilograms, but there was a five-striped black, the size was not bad, about one kilogram, he said with a smile.

"Hehehe." The three brothers were quite happy hearing it.

"Then you continue, we are also going to break the ice hole." Li Long said another sentence and walked inside. Tao Daqiang followed, Yang Yongqiang greeted the third Liang brother and followed over.

A group of five people, the momentum was a bit big, people in front of other ice holes were all watching.

Li Long didn't go anywhere else, walked straight to the southernmost end of Xiaohaizi.

He remembered there were a few deep pits here, belonging to the few pits that could still store fish fry after Xiaohaizi became a ground reservoir in later generations, the silt filled the water and it was pumped dry.

Breaking the ice hole here, should there be a harvest?

"Big Brother, Li Long just looked at ours." The third Liang brother said after Li Long and the others walked far away.

"Don't worry about that much, come, take turns scooping a few more nets, see if we can scoop out a big one, if scooped out, then we will go sell fish tomorrow."

One piece is more than two yuan, if there is another one this big, going to the county tomorrow won't be a loss.

Four yuan a day, that's worth two or three days of a worker!

Li Long and the others arrived at the south side, after selecting the location, they started breaking the ice hole.

"Two, one on each side, same as we broke last year, thirty meters apart." Li Long assigned tasks, "Daqiang, you and Yongqiang are on this side. Junfeng Junshan, you are on this side. I'll get some reeds and light a fire."

Li Long was acting as a bystander this time, just came to take a look. If he could get fish, it would be best, later he would go into the mountains to hunt, Daqiang and Yongqiang would also have a way to earn money.

He just couldn't figure it out, Yang Yongqiang not married was one thing. Tao Daqiang was married, being outside every day, did his wife have no opinion?

Is it still in the honeymoon period right now?

Of course, it was just a personal guess, Li Long didn't think much. He would get married next year, and then he would be able to feel it.

Li Long gathered a large pile of reeds, then separated them at the two places where the ice holes were broken, and started a fire at each.

The snow on the ice layer was very thick, the four people on both sides were breaking the ice, Li Long was pushing the snow, clearing a path between the two ice holes.

The reeds burned very vigorously, soon those breaking the ice holes felt their backs warm up, and even had the feeling of burning hair.

Two people cooperated to work, soon a shallow pit was broken out on the ice surface. Li Long looked at it from the side, then walked to the east. He had once dug water rats with Tao Daqiang near here, now the pit had long been buried by snow, but looking further east, there were many red willows growing on the beach on the east side, and there were many rabbit prints on the red willow beach.

Don't know if setting rabbit snares here to sell in the market, would anyone collect them.

He just thought so. Turned around again, saw from afar that an eagle was circling in the sky, then suddenly pounced into the snow hundreds of meters away, and when it flew up again, it grabbed something in its claws and flew to the southeast.

These raptors are still more powerful, seeing it means catching it. Li Long was a bit envious.

Immediately he turned back to the ice surface, saw Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang were still breaking the ice hole, Li Junfeng was resting, Li Junshan was still prying, so he went over and took the axe from Li Junshan's hand and started chopping at the ice surface.

Soon, the hole on the ice surface became deeper and deeper, clearing a layer after a while, half an hour later, the two ice holes were broken out one after another.

At this time, the ice surface was not as thick as last year, about thirty or forty centimeters, after breaking it open, some water flooded up, and there was also some broken ice.

Li Junfeng took the net and scooped away the broken ice, then excitedly scooped down.

Li Long didn't hold much hope, this ice hole was just formed, it was unlikely that fish would gather here for a while, the possibility of scooping big fish was almost zero, unless there just happened to be fish here.

Sure enough, this first net came out, there were only a few very small crucian carp in the net, which were thrown on the snow by Li Junfeng.

!.

The next two nets were the same.

"This has to wait a while, at first the fish can't feel that there is an ice hole here, there is air coming over, wait for half an hour or an hour, the fish can feel it."

On that side, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang had also opened the ice hole and started digging there.

"Wait a while." Li Long said, "Now the ice is just opened, the fish haven't felt it yet, there won't be that many fish for a while—from last year to this winter and summer, the fish in this sea have been caught quite a lot, it's impossible to have so many fish coming out all at once like last year."

"That's true." Tao Daqiang was the first to follow Li Long to fish, he had the most right to speak, said, "This year, the fish in this small sea must have been caught seven or eight tons. Even if the fish can reproduce, it can't be made up all at once."

"Then just wait now?" Li Junfeng asked, "A bit cold."

"If you feel cold, go, let's go to the east beach and take a look, see if we can pry a rabbit." Li Long joked, "I see there are quite a few rabbit prints over there, maybe we can run into a rabbit!"

He was joking, the others took it seriously, a group of people walked out together.

The east side is a flat beach, usually there will be water leaking from the reservoir in some places, at this time it had long been frozen into ice. Three-corner grass (Cyperus rotundus) grew quite high, already dry at this moment, some were called joint grass, and then there were patches of red willows growing quite high.

The snow was very thick, there were paths for rabbits to run between one clump of red willows and another, some new and some old.

"Uncle Xiao Long, you say how about getting some thin iron wire and setting a snare here?"

"Alright. When coming over to fish through the ice hole tomorrow, you can come over and set a snare." Li Long said, "Can see the situation after one night. Look at these prints, there are quite a few wild rabbits!"

A group of five people walked for a while in the snow, circled a few times, actually Li Long felt it was unlikely to run into a rabbit, others thought so too, just walking around and wasting time, however, when passing a clump of red willows, a rabbit suddenly darted out from inside, and rushed forward along the rabbit prints!

A few people were stunned for a moment, Yang Yongqiang reacted the fastest, shouted and chased after it, the four people behind suddenly surrounded it.

Their shouting directly shocked those who were still fishing in the small sea, didn't know what they were doing, just felt a bit strange.

Li's area was generally relatively flat, but the rabbit didn't run in a straight line all the time—actually Li Long felt if this rabbit had long-distance running ability, running in a straight line would be easier to run away.

But it kept turning, wasting the advantage of short-distance acceleration, after all, there were people on both sides, no matter where it turned, it would run into enemies.

Of course, the rabbit's hind legs are long and front legs are short, also not suitable for long-term running on flat ground, after turning back and forth a few times, just when it jumped up preparing to turn back again, it was kicked over by Li Junshan, and then pressed into the snow by Li Junfeng.

"Be careful," Li Long reminded, "This thing is quite fierce, the claws are hard, kill it now, otherwise it won't feel good if it scratches you!"

"Not afraid, not afraid!" Li Junfeng hadn't caught a live wild rabbit, a bit curious, seeing the rabbit didn't react, he pulled the rabbit's long ears and lifted it up.

"Sigh..." Li Long sighed, another one deceived by picture books (comic books). This wild rabbit looked like it was four or five kilograms, considered a big size, how could it be subdued by ears so easily?

Li Long's sigh just finished, Li Junfeng screamed, the rabbit directly arched its body and claws fiercely kicked on Li Junfeng's palm and arm—Li Long saw it, the rabbit's horny claw tips were two or three centimeters long!

Li Junfeng was scratched out three blood marks by this, his hand loosened and he threw the rabbit on the ground, the rabbit turned over after landing and was about to run, was stepped on by Li Long, and then pulled by a pair of ears and lifted up.

"Uncle Xiao Long be careful..." Li Junshan saw Li Long still pulling ears, hurriedly reminded, Li Long ignored the rabbit's struggling action, lifted the rabbit up, swung it around and fiercely threw it on the ground!

Li Long's strength was a bit big, this throw down, the rabbit twitched on the frozen soil surface on the spot!

Li Long was still afraid this guy was faking death, picked it up by the ears again and threw it once more, the rabbit was still twitching, but blood was clearly coming out of its mouth and nose, didn't know how many bones were broken.

"Alright, it's fine." Li Long turned his head to look at Li Junfeng, "You have a lesson this time."

"Sss—" The blood wound on Li Junfeng's hand was bleeding, he gasped in pain, "Yes, who could have thought this guy was still so fierce..."

Li Junshan lifted the rabbit and shook it, said:

"Almost dead."

"Alright, will fix it to eat in a while." Li Long said, "Go back now, see if we can get some fish, then cook them together."

"Walk around a bit more? Maybe can get another rabbit!" Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang didn't get a rabbit, a bit unwilling, "There should be quite a few rabbits in this red willow beach, right?"

"Alright, then take another look." Li Long felt time had only passed ten minutes, fish really shouldn't be able to come for a while, might as well walk around.

They walked southeast for a while, didn't find anything, walking east from here reached the cultivated land, had to walk north, walked two hundred meters and still didn't find anything. Yang Yongqiang was still a bit unwilling, broke a red willow stick, hit a red willow pile and hit a few sticks, considered beating the grass to scare the snake, didn't expect when almost reaching the small sea, a small red willow tree directly knocked out a rabbit!

A few people shouted and chased after it, the rabbit ran towards the small sea, was blocked by Li Long when it went halfway up the embankment, turned back and fell down, and then was stepped on by Yang Yongqiang.

In order not to follow Li Junfeng's footsteps, Yang Yongqiang learned from Li Long, grabbed the rabbit ears, and before this guy could react, threw this gray rabbit to death.

This rabbit was a bit smaller than the previous one, three kilograms-plus, not light either.

"Alright, go, see if there are fish!" This time everyone was in high spirits, feeling that even if there were no fish, it was worth it.

Young people, have energy and nowhere to use it, isn't this vented out.

Carrying two rabbits back to the ice hole, there was already a thin layer of ice on the water surface.

When Li Long poked through that layer of ice, he could even see fish swimming below.

"Scoop, definitely have fish!" Li Long smiled, took the net and started scooping, Tao Daqiang reacted quickly this time, hurriedly ran to the other ice hole, found that this side was also frozen, he didn't even knock the ice open, directly took the net and poked through the ice and scooped hard in a semicircle, scooped it up.

"Have fish!" Yang Yongqiang who was following and watching was still carrying the rabbit, at this time seeing fish flopping in the net, shouted loudly, "So big... this is a silver carp, not bad!"

The fish was thrown on the ice surface, and froze hard after a while, Tao Daqiang also scooped out the second net. This net came up with a few crucian carp the size of a palm, and a chopstick-long gudgeon, which was thrown on the ice surface by Tao Daqiang and flopped stubbornly a few times, then didn't move.

Li Long's first net also scooped out a few fish, all were palm-sized crucian carp, looking quite beautiful. The second net scooped up two small crucian carp, don't know if other fish were scared away or Li Long didn't scoop in the right place, the third net also only had two or three small crucian carp. The fourth net had a turning point, coming up with a five-striped black about half a kilogram.

Then the net was snatched away by Li Junfeng:

"Uncle Xiao Long, let me try—you rest for a while."

"Is your hand okay?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Okay, okay, not bleeding anymore." Li Junfeng replied, and poked the net under the ice.

Li Long came up, saw Li Junshan picking up fish, and then looked at other places.

In those few ice holes, others were also picking up fish—looks like, everyone had quite a harvest. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 377 =====