Chapter 734: Urgently Meeting the Herdsmen's Needs

Getting off the jeep and walking over, Li Long saw that what Halimu was skinning there wasn't a domesticated sheep, but a Beishan goat.

That Beishan goat wasn't large, its horns weren't long, and it had a certain arc. Its fur was grayish-white, looking a bit like a domesticated goat from afar.

Halimu was skinning, and Talihar and Yushanjiang were watching from the side. Talihar was still leaning on a gun. Li Long guessed that this Beishan goat should have been hunted by him.

Li Long arrived, and the three people stopped their work and came over to greet Li Long.

"Was this hunted by Talihar?" After shaking hands with them, Li Long pointed to the Beishan goat and asked.

"Yeah, hunted this morning. In the past, the Beishan goats seen were all on the mountain tops, and they were in groups. This morning I saw only one, on the mountain slope south of our house, and then I hunted it down."

"This is good stuff." Li Long thought that this thing was also called blue sheep or rock sheep in other places. He had also made blood-soaked wine, but hadn't drunk it yet, and didn't know how the effect was.

The skin of this Beishan goat was almost skinned, the blood definitely couldn't be gotten, and Li Long didn't think about wanting it. To be honest, hunting this thing around here was still quite easy.

Beishan goats like high mountain tops above three thousand meters, and not the kind of mountains with trees, but the kind that were relatively steep and bare on top, only growing some weeds and low shrubs.

Southern Xinjiang also had this thing, living in several large canyons, eating shrubs and weeds.

As for whether they could use their horns to hook onto rocks to sleep, Li Long hadn't seen it.

The meat of the Beishan goat wasn't more fragrant than other animals because of the legend. This thing was also wild, but the meat of most wild animals had a fishy and mutton-like smell, so heavy ingredients needed to be used when cooking, otherwise it couldn't be suppressed.

Li Long turned and opened the jeep's door. This time what he brought were two saddles, and several floral blankets.

The main means of transportation for the herdsmen here was horses, but not every herdsman's horse had a saddle. Some herdsmen's families had only one or two saddles; the head of the family had one, and the other might be used in turns, or specifically for one person.

Then the remaining people riding horses might just be spreading a blanket on the horse's back.

Li Long had seen many five or six-year-old children in the mountains who already had their own horses, but there was only a blanket on the horse's back.

So the market opened, and there were saddles for sale. He felt that this could be bought more and brought into the mountains to give to everyone.

Sure enough, the two saddles attracted the attention of the three people. Halimu even stopped skinning, holding a knife and walking over, commenting on that saddle together with Talihar and Yushanjiang.

"The cowhide is a bit dry, not tanned very well," Yushanjiang said.

"This wood, it's carved quite well, looks quite beautiful, and the pattern is also good." Talihar liked it quite a bit.

"I feel it's a bit big." Halimu was thinking about Nasen and Sasken at home. If they returned in winter and saw that there were saddles on their little horses, they should be pleasantly surprised!

"There were only two in the shop, I bought them all," Li Long said. "I told them to make more, I want them all, of course, the quality must be good."

"Good, good." Talihar heard this and said hurriedly, "I want three sets!"

Yushanjiang couldn't help but pat him, what do you mean, you want them all alone?

"They said they can make about ten sets a month," Li Long said. "Two months should be enough for everyone to have a saddle, right?"

"Not enough, not enough." Talihar immediately shook his head. "Just our family wants three sets, my grandmother's one should also be replaced, it's been decades, the leather strap has broken several times..."

"Then come for one or two more months." Li Long said with a smile, "Rest assured, everyone will have one."

With Li Long saying this, Halimu and the others laughed.

Yushanjiang picked up the two saddles and walked toward the winter corral, saying:

"Talihar, these two saddles, one is for you, one is for Halimu. Mine, wait until Li Long comes next time to get it."

Look, this is the demeanor of an older brother.

Li Long was thinking if he could find a similar shop in Shicheng or Beiting, buying the saddles as early as possible would also be good.

After all, although Kazakh herdsmen were all grown up on horseback, there was a big difference between having a saddle and not having one. There were many hidden pits in the pastoral areas in the mountains, and sometimes it was still necessary to be careful.

Halimu went back to start skinning and processing the Beishan goat. Soon the goat skin was skinned, the belly opened, some internal organs were left, and some were thrown to the dogs raised at home.

Li Long and the others entered the house, got on the wooden kang, and after Halimu's wife served them milk tea, she started changing the pot, preparing to boil meat.

Actually, Halimu and the others had carried out winter slaughter not long after returning, and there was meat at home. However, Talihar sent this Beishan goat today, and he came over with Yushanjiang, plus Li Long happened to come over, so they naturally had to treat them well.

"I came over to ask if you have any extra bullets," Talihar said about the main business with some embarrassment. "Since returning from the summer pasture, I've been turning around on the mountains when I have nothing to do, and I've hunted some things, but the bullets are almost gone now."

Li Long smiled and said:

"I happened to bring some, I'll get them for you later."

Every time he entered the mountains, he carried the backpack he had confiscated from those three people. The backpack was quite sturdy. This time he put two packs of fifty bullets in it, intending to leave one pack for Talihar.

"I don't have many there either," Yushanjiang shook his head and said, "I still plan to hunt wolves in winter, so I won't give them to you."

"One pack of bullets is enough, enough," Talihar said hurriedly. "Enough to hunt for a month, I will use them carefully later."

Li Long thought and said:

"Don't worry, in a while we are going to the no-man's land in the west to hunt yellow sheep. When the time comes, I will get some more bullets for you."

Hearing that Li Long could continue to get bullets, Talihar laughed happily. He sat on the wooden kang and hugged his rifle, which he had kept very clean, without seeing a bit of rust.

Li Long was thinking if he should get some gun oil or something, to avoid them cleaning the guns in a non-standard mode.

Drinking a bowl of milk tea, Li Long saw Talihar looking at him several times, and when he turned his head to look at him, his gaze avoided him again. Li Long knew what he meant.

"Wait, I'll get the bullets for you," Li Long stood up and went to the edge of the kang to put on his shoes, saying while putting them on, "Are there many wild animals in the mountains at present?"

"There are many wolves," Yushanjiang said. "As soon as it's night, those wolves run near the sheep corral and howl, very annoying."

Li Long understood. Yushanjiang and these people were herdsmen themselves, and they wouldn't easily change their identity; this was a kind of inheritance and inertia.

Talihar was a young man, his thinking was active, so there would be changes, but Yushanjiang and these people were used to the life of herding. They might allow their children to have a new life in the city, but they themselves wouldn't go out, wouldn't easily change their identity.

Li Long went to his jeep, opened the backpack, and took out a pack of bullets.

Talihar had followed him out with his gun on his back, so Li Long handed the bullets to him. Talihar took the bullets and excitedly opened the paper pack to look at them.

Yushanjiang was also there, so Li Long divided the remaining pack of bullets, giving ten to Yushanjiang, ten to Halimu, and keeping five for himself.

Anyway, there wouldn't be any danger on the way back and forth, and even if there were, the ten bullets in the gun, plus these five outside, were enough.

At noon, they ate boiled Beishan goat meat at Halimu's place. Although Halimu and the others had been with Li Long for a long time, and had seen some other cooking methods, most of the time, treating guests was just eating hand-grabbed meat like this.

It wasn't easy to make roasted meat in winter, otherwise they would dig a groove outside to roast it.

Halimu let Li Long take that skin away. When leaving, he quietly told Li Long to urge that saddle shop when he had time, Halimu wanted to give Nasen and Sasken a surprise before they went on vacation.

Li Long naturally understood.

Driving the jeep back to Wuyi road, Li Long thought that anyway he had nothing to do in the afternoon, so he simply went to Shicheng.

Parking the jeep in the car shed, Li Long strolled through the old street.

Although it was afternoon, although it was already winter, there were still many stalls on the old street, and there were quite a few people coming and going.

Li Long strolled from beginning to end and saw that there were quite a few people surrounding Chen Xingbang's meat stall.

When he passed by, Chen Xingbang was cutting meat for customers, so Li Long didn't disturb him and continued walking forward.

After strolling around, Li Long didn't find a stall selling saddles.

Clearly, the pedestrian flow here was much larger than the market in Maxian, but Li Long only saw two stalls selling daggers and short knives, and one stall selling ethnic local soap.

Nothing else was seen.

Li Long bought three kilograms of frozen persimmons, carried them in his hand, and circled back to Ke Ke Ke Youmu's milk tea shop, preparing to ask this local person.

Ke Ke Ke Youmu was making naan, his assistant was serving milk tea to customers. Li Long sat down and ordered a portion of milk tea and a portion of naan. The assistant served the milk tea and naan, and after serving jam and honey to Li Long, he went to get busy.

Ke Ke Ke Youmu used an iron hook to take the freshly made naan out of the naan pit one by one and put them in a wooden display cabinet. After turning his head and seeing Li Long, he waved his hand inside, signaling to stop taking naan embryos out for the time being. Ke Ke Ke Youmu walked into the room and sat opposite Li Long.

"Comrade Li, right? Long time no see, how is it, is everyone well?"

Still a pure Henan accent. Although Li Long hadn't known him for a short time, hearing it like this still occasionally made him feel out of place.

"Quite good, all well at home. I see your business... is it worse in the afternoon than in the morning?"

"That's right," Ke Ke Ke Youmu nodded and said, "When the stall first opened in the morning, there were a lot of people. It's cold in the early morning. Those who set up stalls were freezing watching the stalls. When there were few people, they would come over to drink a bowl of milk tea, or take a piece of hot naan to warm up. After eating at noon, they weren't that cold, so fewer came."

It could be seen that Ke Ke Ke Youmu was very satisfied with the current business. Although there weren't many people in the afternoon, the pedestrian flow in the morning was enough for his milk tea house to break even or even make a profit.

"I heard that the market on this side of the old street is going to build storefronts?" Li Long asked about the situation here.

"Yeah, they'll build next year, but the location of the building is widening to both sides. When the time comes, those who set up stalls will set up stalls, those who build houses will build houses, neither will delay the other."

"Are you going to buy a storefront when the time comes? If this storefront is built, your milk tea house might not be able to open normally, right?"

!

Ke Ke Ke Youmu's milk tea house was behind the stalls on the old street. If a storefront was built, it would block his small house.

"Then I definitely have to buy one," Ke Ke Ke Youmu said happily, "I plan to borrow money to buy one for my brother-in-law too. He specializes in selling naan, I still sell my milk tea, opening a shop that sells breakfast should be not bad."

The plan was quite good, Li Long nodded in approval.

"Why haven't I seen you selling fish for a while?" Ke Ke Ke Youmu asked, "Quite a few old men and old women come over from time to time to ask, saying that the young man who caught the fish doesn't come anymore, and they can't eat such good crucian carp."

Li Long smiled. At present, he really didn't have the mood to do those things again—originally, smashing ice holes to catch fish in freezing weather was to make money.

But now that life was better, some things could be left undone.

"Mainly because it's still a bit early to smash ice holes at present," Li Long explained, "By the way, Ke Ke Ke Youmu, do you know where there are saddles for sale?"

"Saddle?" Ke Ke Ke Youmu asked suspiciously: "What do you want this for?"

"Some of my friends are in the mountains. Some of them don't have saddles, some have old saddles, I want to buy some to give to them."

"This..." Ke Ke Ke Youmu scratched his head, grabbed the curly hair on his head and thought for a while, saying, "To be honest, I haven't heard of anyone selling this in Shicheng. You should have it in Maxian, right? Shicheng... our ethnic people are still few."

"Maxian has it, but the output is too low," Li Long said. "The shop I asked can make ten saddles a month. Anyway, I have to wait. I'm thinking of buying them for them before the snow in the mountains gets thick."

"Then you might as well go to Wucheng to take a look," Ke Ke Ke Youmu said. "There are many people there, and there are many shops selling these things."

Li Long thought it could only be like this.

After drinking the milk tea and eating the naan, Li Long paid the money, stood up, and said goodbye to Ke Ke Ke Youmu, preparing to leave.

"If you catch fish, come here to sell them," Ke Ke Ke Youmu said while sending Li Long out of the shop, "When the time comes, I'll also taste how good the fish you catch is."

Li Long was originally a bit surprised, but thinking that Ke Ke Ke Youmu's accent had changed, adding a bit of eating fish to his living habits shouldn't be anything, right?

He smiled and agreed, then walked to his jeep.

There wasn't enough time today. Li Long planned to go to Beiting early tomorrow morning. If there were any there, he would buy them there. If there weren't, he would go to Wucheng to take a look.

He believed Wucheng definitely had saddles for sale.

Returning to the large courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia hadn't gotten off work yet, but Han Fang had already finished school. Li Long went to the kitchen, washed the frozen persimmons, cut them into pieces, and put them there. Whoever ate them could take them.

He also specifically told Han Fang that this thing couldn't be eaten much, it was cold, just tasting it was enough.

Seeing Li Long return, Sister Yang let him watch the children and went to cook herself.

Mingming and Haohao, the two children, were lying on the wooden bed, each holding a cloth doll sewn by Sister Yang and waving it. What they were wearing were clothes sewn by Li Xia, and what was spread underneath was a cotton pad padded by sister-in-law Liang Yuemei.

The two children were now active, twisting their bodies from time to time to flip over, and sitting up from time to time—at almost six months, the two children could actually sit up, but Sister Yang was relatively cautious and didn't let the two children sit for long. After sitting for a while, she pressed them down.

Seeing Li Long, the two children were quite excited, waving their arms as if wanting to be held.

Li Long first checked to see that the diapers of the two children weren't wet, then picked up the children one in each hand.

It was relatively cold outside, so they couldn't go out at this time, so they had to huddle by the window to feel some coolness.

The two children laughed "giggle, giggle," and being able to move in the room was a rare enjoyment for them.

When Gu Xiaoxia got off work, Li Long had already changed the clothes for the two children, and he had also changed his own—just now when holding the children and turning in the room, both children urinated, the amount of urine was relatively large, not only wetting the diapers but also wetting the clothes on Li Long's body.

For Li Long, this was considered a normal situation. As the children's father, who wouldn't be urinated on by children? At this time, there were no diapers as common and durable as in later generations.

The next day, Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia, then drove the car to Beiting.

There were also some small shops along the way, which had already been painted with the sign of a retail department, but Li Long didn't stop. He didn't feel that these small shops would sell those ethnic products.

Beiting City was much larger than Maxian. Li Long wasn't very familiar with this place. He had the heart to find Little Si and let him point the way for him, but after thinking about it, he gave up.

If he told Little Si, Director Qian would definitely know. Director Qian would definitely call him to his house for dinner. Li Long felt it was better to stroll around by himself first.

Not to cause so much trouble.

Li Long drove the jeep to find the Beiting Agricultural Trade Market first, strolled around inside, didn't find any saddles for sale, and then drove the car to stroll around the city.

Fortunately, Beiting was now smaller than in later generations, although it was larger than Maxian. Li Long found a shop selling horse gear in the corner of the city.

The shop wasn't large. Li Long recognized it only after seeing a horse whip hanging at the door.

He didn't know the ethnic language, and he couldn't read the shop's sign, it was just this horse whip that made him sure it should be the shop he was looking for.

When Li Long knocked on the shop door, he found that it looked quite simple outside, but it was quite large inside.

A stove was in the middle of the room, with a teapot on it.

An ethnic old grandfather was sitting by the stove, wearing a leather apron, carving a piece of wood there.

Li Long could tell that this wood was the saddle seat.

Saddles, reins, halters, horse whips, and other things were hanging on the walls of the room. He counted them, and there were eight ready-made saddles.

This made Li Long feel pleasantly surprised. He didn't expect that the thing he had been looking for was found here.

Then there was no need to go to Wucheng.

Seeing Li Long enter, the old grandfather looked at him and asked:

"Young man, what do you want to buy? These things here, maybe you don't need them, right?"

Li Long smiled, pointed to the saddles on the wall and said:

"I want to buy all these things, can you tell me the price?"

Hearing Li Long say this, the old grandfather was also a bit surprised. His Han language was quite good, and he skillfully reported the price:

"A saddle is forty-five yuan, a leather horse whip is seven yuan, a halter with reins is ten yuan, the reins are leather, so they are more expensive. As for the blanket spread on the horse's back, it's twelve yuan a piece, this is pure wool, very beautiful!"

Li Long calculated, a whole set was seventy-four yuan.

Not cheap. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 735 =====

Not cheap. (End of chapter)