Chapter 752: Rest for a while and prepare for the New Year

Slaughtering red deer wasn't anything for Ha Ha Li Mu and the others, it was just that Li Long's caution in collecting deer blood surprised Ha Ha Li Mu and the others.

"Deer blood is good stuff." Li Long explained, "Great supplement, take some back for the elderly to drink."

The blood in the deer's body definitely wasn't as good as velvet antler blood, but it also had a supplementary effect. Li Long vaguely remembered the first time he saw someone drink deer blood, it seemed to be in the movie "Yuanmingyuan," freshly cutting velvet antler blood to give to the emperor to drink.

Deep impression.

There was quite a bit more blood in the red deer than sheep blood, Li Long collected a large basin, this red deer struggled desperately at first, but after the blood was released, it slowly lay flat.

Ha Ha Li Mu skinned the red deer here, Yushanjiang and the others went to handle the other red deer.

Handling two red deer wasn't anything for Yushanjiang and the others, they even had time to slaughter the remaining two cattle after handling the red deer.

Quite a few people in the team were watching here, and some children didn't leave after school, roasting by the fire on the side while watching the slaughterhouse.

"Xiao Long, how do you sell this deer meat?" The one asking was still Xu Haijun.

"This is expensive." Li Long shook his head, "Eight hundred yuan for a whole red deer."

"So expensive?" Xu Haijun was also a bit shocked, he had also eaten red deer meat before, but he didn't expect that the price of this deer was more expensive than a harvester!

"No way, things are precious because they are rare." Li Long smiled, "Even this price is a friendship price. I have a good relationship with some leaders in the sugar factory, they want to distribute welfare for the New Year and took a fancy to this deer, so I have to sell it cheaper. Of course, if someone in our team wants to buy, it's also this price."

Give people face, and also let people know and accept this favor. However, Li Long knew that people in the team probably wouldn't buy deer meat, the average price was too expensive.

Eight hundred yuan for a red deer, live weight one hundred fifty or sixty kilograms, which was five yuan per kilogram live weight, who could afford this?

Net meat calculated, it was six or seven yuan per kilogram, one kilogram of deer meat could be exchanged for four or five kilograms of mutton, although the villagers of the Fourth Team had some spare money in the past two years, but this price, everyone would probably shake their heads when they saw it.

"So expensive? Is it easy to sell? If it's easy to sell, I'll see if I can raise two next year!" Xu Haijun's thinking was different from ordinary people, he first thought of business opportunities.

"This... currently only one family is looking for me to buy." Li Long pointed to the pen in the old horse stable and said, "Look, I've raised this for two years, and this is the first time I've sold an adult deer."

"Then forget it," Xu Haijun shook his head, "Can't work, looks fierce, if it's not easy to sell, then don't raise it."

He actually wanted to taste red deer meat, but these two red deer of Li Long were specifically to be sent to the sugar factory, he thought about whether Li Long would slaughter more, if he did, weigh one or two kilograms?

Forget it, weighing so little, people would laugh at him, weighing too much, his wallet couldn't support it.

However, couldn't afford deer meat, couldn't he afford beef?

Two cattle were slaughtered, Yushanjiang and the others were skinning, Li Long was calculating sheep heads and sheep hooves for another villager.

This villager was buying sheep heads and sheep hooves for the second time—yesterday he bought one sheep head and four sheep hooves back, and burned and handled them on the same day and boiled them.

The whole family ate it in the evening—not enough!

Three yuan, quite a lot of meat, especially the large group of sheep brains inside the sheep head, which were divided by the two children.

"Old Brother Qi, when you take these sheep hooves back, pay attention, see if there are any sheep hair thorns inside the hoof armor, don't eat that stuff into your stomach."

"Rest assured, rest assured, I know." Old Brother Qi from Lunan, smiled and took the basket with two sheep heads and eight hooves, and paid Li Long a five-yuan and a one-yuan note. This money was paid to him by Li Long when he was tying large brooms, and now it returned to Li Long's hands after a circle.

Old Qi felt this money was worth it—buying a sheep head at the market, a cooked sheep head was five yuan!

Mainly because the sheep head in that market didn't have as much meat as this one.

Old Qi carried the basket and walked back with a smile. Xu Haijun hurriedly gathered over and asked Li Long again:

"Xiao Long, how do you sell that beef?"

"Beef... have to wait until tomorrow. Two yuan eight with bones, three yuan two for net meat."

Beef was more expensive than mutton and pork, mainly because the quantity was small.

Don't look at Northern Xinjiang as a large cattle and sheep meat area, the price had always been lower than inside the pass, but the production of this beef itself was lower than mutton, it was considered large livestock, and it was quite troublesome to raise.

From now until forty years later, except for the sudden rise in the price of mutton in the first ten years of the twenty-first century, which once was on par with beef, and later fell, the price of beef had always been at the top of the three main types of meat.

So the villagers of the Fourth Team, some even didn't eat beef properly all year round until the end of the century—that is, buying beef to eat at home.

Li Long raising ten or so yellow cattle and brown cattle here was another change in the historical process—actually in the previous life, until the ten years of the twenty-first century, there was only one household in the village raising yellow cattle, and that yellow cattle wasn't raised to eat meat, but to drink milk for their own grandson.

Until the policy of settling down and prospering animal husbandry came out in the county, moving all the herdsmen in the mountains out and dispersing them to various village teams, the cattle in the team became more numerous.

People in the Fourth Team had a relatively special habit. If they ate meat for the New Year, at least within twenty years, they basically wouldn't go to the market to buy, they would digest it within their own team.

In winter, those raising pigs would slaughter New Year pigs, those who didn't raise pigs wanted to eat pork, so they would agree with families with good relationships in advance, weigh some when slaughtering New Year pigs, or want a leg, or half a rack of ribs.

To eat mutton, go to Ma Jinbao's house, and a few families pool together to buy a sheep.

Now there was one more option, Li Long—Ma Jinbao's sheep would be hard to sell.

Even without Li Long, because Ma Jinbao's mutton wasn't good, in two years, there would be several more households raising sheep in the team, anyway, there was a lot of grass in the large wasteland, and it was fine to cut it back or let them out, the sheep would have something to eat.

Beef wasn't cheap either, but after calculating, Xu Haijun felt he could still afford it, so he said:

"Then when you slaughter cattle tomorrow, weigh five or six kilograms of ribs for me."

This was to eat meat with bones.

"Fine."

"How do you sell the offal?" Xu Haijun asked again.

"Two yuan five." Li Long quoted the price.

Actually, he didn't really want to sell beef offal, this stuff braised with some dipping sauce, especially the beef stomach, was delicious.

In Northern Xinjiang in later generations, there were also places popular for beef head feasts, all of which were relatively high in fat, but the fragrance was really fragrant.

Stewed until soft, pulled into strips, dipped in sauce, stuffed into the mouth, that softness...

Alright, can't say anymore, drooling.

During the ten years of the twenty-first century, many people in the Fourth Team earned money by farming, at this time buying meat was relatively casual, buying beef offal was more common, and they didn't buy by weighing, if they wanted to buy, they bought a whole set of offal, or bought a beef head.

Li Long suddenly thought, it seemed that people in the Fourth Team had a special preference for eating beef and mutton offal, especially the stomach.

Is it a regional feature? Anyway, cardiovascular diseases in Northern Xinjiang are relatively high, it's a high-incidence area, it should have a lot to do with diet.

Xu Haijun actually wanted to get a set of offal to eat, but thought about it and forgot it. A set of beef offal would be tens of kilograms, he couldn't afford it this year, he had to work hard next year.

Because he already knew that Tao Daqiang, Xie Yun, and these were all buying a whole sheep to eat. Following Li Long, they really got rich, and could even buy a whole sheep to eat.

He was still a bit behind, had to work hard to catch up.

Two red deer and two cattle were slaughtered here, and Li Long sent Ha Ha Li Mu and the others to the county seat. The time spent shopping today wasn't long, they only bought some things like eggs, the focus was still on shopping in the department store, and those ethnic shops in the market.

Li Long could clearly feel that Ha Ha Li Mu and the others were more relaxed than the first two days, their expressions and states were no longer so constrained, and they started to learn how to bargain when buying things.

This was a good thing. After all, they would communicate more and more with people outside in the future, and now was a good beginning.

The next day Li Long took Ha Ha Li Mu and the others to the old horse stable again—today they still had to slaughter two cattle, two red deer, and slaughter some sheep in the remaining time to prepare.

After Li Long took them over, waited for Song Ming to come, he greeted Tao Daqiang and the others to load the slaughtered sheep, red deer, cattle, etc., onto the car, and then drove the jeep with Song Ming to send the goods to Shicheng.

This trip, the money Li Long got was five thousand one hundred thirty-five yuan eight mao, the two red deer were one thousand six hundred yuan, as discussed before, the two cattle were also eight hundred-plus yuan, to be honest, the beef was also fat enough.

The mutton was still two thousand six hundred-plus, a bit more than yesterday.

Calculated in total, he earned a lot, mainly because the red deer had almost no cost, the cattle and sheep had some costs, but the profit almost reached half. Among them, there were factors of rising beef and mutton prices, and also that in these two-plus months, Old Man Luo and the others used Li Long's fattening method to feed the cattle and sheep quite fat, each sheep gained more than ten kilograms, and the cattle gained more weight.

Li Long and Song Ming agreed to take fish when pulling sugar dregs a week later, and then drove the jeep back to the team.

Ha Ha Li Mu and the others had already slaughtered the red deer, cattle, and sheep, and at this time were helping Tao Daqiang and the others handle those internal organs.

After these few days of contact, Ha Ha Li Mu and the others were familiar with Tao Daqiang and these few, could chat a few sentences, could crack a joke when eating meat, and could say which part of the sheep meat was delicious.

Li Long counted in the warehouse, there were twenty-one sheep carcasses, two cattle, but they were incomplete, he figured someone in the team bought beef back.

There were two red deer, the skin was skinned, and the internal organs were handled. This stuff was raised fat and strong, plus the feed was considered fine feed, the meat quality was much better than wild ones.

After looking at the things in the warehouse, Li Jianguo came to find him.

"Xiao Long, this is one hundred sixty-seven yuan from selling beef." Li Jianguo held the money in his hand, "And seventy-five yuan from selling sheep heads and sheep hooves, you count it. By the way, look if you should bring some meat to Juan's maternal grandfather's house? There's so much meat, bring more."

Li Long had this intention, but he estimated that Ha Ha Li Mu and the others definitely wouldn't want it—of course, there was also a reason, the jeep couldn't fit it.

Sure enough, when Li Long went to ask, Ha Ha Li Mu and the others refused to bring meat—of course, there was also a reason, the jeep couldn't fit it.

!

After eating lunch, Li Long sent Ha Ha Li Mu and the others back, he planned to break the ice with Tao Daqiang when he came back.

Tao Daqiang, who was doing finishing work at the slaughterhouse, told Li Long:

"Brother Long, you don't need to rush, drive slowly on the road. I and Brother Yun and the others will break the ice and test the situation first. We'll catch fish together tomorrow."

"Good." Li Long was still at ease with Tao Daqiang doing things, and this wasn't considered any technical work, what was needed was a bit of strength.

In terms of strength, besides him, it was Tao Daqiang in the Fourth Team.

Originally Li Long intended to stay in the county seat for a while, but Yushanjiang, sitting in the passenger seat, waved his hand:

"Don't stop, we have to go back, we bought what we should buy these few days, when we come again, wait until spring, it's too cold here."

Others were also of this opinion, so Li Long sent them to the mountains, and then drove back.

The speed on the road back wasn't fast, when Li Long returned to the Fourth Team, there was no one at the old horse stable.

Bloodstains could still be seen on the snow, and a dog that didn't know whose it was was licking the snow stained with blood, seeing Li Long's jeep coming, the dog barked twice and ran away.

There were also dogs in the horse stable, but they had eaten very well these two days, and there had been many people outside, so it was simply tied up by Old Man Luo and not allowed to come out.

Li Long parked the jeep on the snow that had been stepped solid, and went to look in the new horse stable.

The pen was suddenly much emptier. Li Long could see new grass in the feed trough by the wall, the cattle and sheep were eating leisurely, and for the fact that their companions had been killed these few days, they didn't seem to have any discomfort.

More than a hundred skins were collected in these few days, Li Long planned to sell them to the leather factory after he was free.

The acquisition station was really going to be withdrawn, deer skins could be kept, the leather factory collected large orders, sheep skins and cattle skins could all be sold there, but selling deer skins there might be a loss, on the contrary, selling to Zhao Hui would be better.

Li Long was calculating like this, Old Man Luo came out from the gate of the old horse stable, holding a piece of *naan* in his hand, looking at Li Long, smiled and said:

"This *naan* tastes really good, just ate and was full, but looking at this *naan* made me want to chew a bite."

"That is, the taste of roasted *naan* is good." Li Long followed up, "The work behind can be easier."

"That's it, fewer sheep... but later, when it's the second half of January, it might still be busy, then the ewes will give birth to lambs, must pay attention at night, otherwise even in the warm pen, the lambs might freeze to death."

"Hmm, then you still have to worry more." Li Long said, "Tell me in advance if you need anything."

"Good. Then I won't resign Laoliu and the others..." Old Man Luo asked this sentence, looking a bit cautious.

"Resign what?" Li Long was stunned for a moment, then reacted, and said with a smile, "Resign what? We finally gathered people together, how can we resign? Let them live here with peace of mind, there's still a lot of work."

Old Man Luo laughed. Actually, he knew there wasn't much work, two people could finish it, but he felt that Li Long hiring a few more people was to raise these fat cattle and sheep, now that more than half of the cattle and sheep were gone, there wasn't much work, and paying those people's wages, Li Long was considered at a loss.

Now hearing Li Long say this, he felt relieved.

Xiao Long is still the same, righteous!

Of course, Old Man Luo also had his own little thoughts. He was considered a squad leader now, right? If he really resigned everyone, he would return to the state of a bare commander.

That would be too bad.

Li Long followed Old Man Luo into the courtyard, and saw Yang Laoliu and the others turning over sugar dregs in the room with a *kang*, these sugar dregs had been dried for a period of time and were half dry, this room had a ventilation window, so it wasn't too damp.

Seeing Li Long come in, Yang Laoliu and the others smiled and continued their work.

They had eaten well these few days, so they must work hard.

The stove in the courtyard was still there, the pot was also on it, the fire below hadn't gone out, and the mutton soup in the pot was steaming, there was still some meat and bones.

"Can't eat anymore." Old Man Luo smiled, "Originally thought we wouldn't get tired of eating meat every day, it's only been a few days and we feel like we can't eat anymore."

"Can't eat, then fish it out and dry it, these few days have been busy, tonight get two bottles of wine, this meat can be dipped in vinegar, chili oil, it's also not bad."

"Hmm, we also thought so, busy for three or four days, tonight relax properly."

Li Long didn't say anything more, let Old Man Luo be busy, he went to the warehouse to cut half a cow, and a set of beef offal, and pulled a sheep, and two deer legs, and went to his eldest brother's house.

Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu had been busy these few days, and the family affairs were basically handed over to Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang, the old couple. They also knew that the younger son's matter was relatively important, so they had no objections, cooking for the children, cleaning the courtyard, setting up the stove to feed the pigs, etc., all were covered.

To be honest, Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang felt that living in the Fourth Team was almost like a fairy life.

They also had experiences, experienced the Republic of China, and also experienced the Land Reform, Commune, Great Canteen, etc., after liberation, how to say, the bitterest days had been lived, although not to the point of eating Guanyin soil, but tree bark, tree leaves, and grass roots were really eaten.

In the Republic of China, they also saw how the big and small landlords nearby lived. To be honest, even if Du Chunfang had no knowledge, she knew that the current life was much better than the big landlords in the town at that time.

The eldest daughter-in-law was also good to them, basically didn't need to do housework, almost could be said to be fed when opening the mouth, clothes for the changing seasons were made without saying, Li Qing Xia had several thousand yuan in his hands, but couldn't find a place to spend money, everything the family wanted was there.

What else could they think of?

Wanted to contribute but couldn't, the younger son's children didn't need them to look after.

Content.

Now it was time for them to contribute, so naturally they were very dedicated. Li Jianguo didn't say, Liang Wenyu was still very satisfied.

People's hearts exchange for people's hearts, she herself was filial, and also hoped that her sincerity could be understood and accepted.

When Li Long pulled the meat over, the four people were talking in the west room, mainly talking about the things these few days for the old couple to listen to.

Hearing the movement outside, the first to come out was Li Qing Xia.

Watching Li Long get out of the car, he said with a smile:

"Tired these days, right?"

"It's fine." Li Long smiled, looking at Li Jianguo who followed out, and said:

"Eldest brother, let's move the meat down, this meat should be hung up in the idle room, don't let the mice gnaw it."

Li Long brought back a bit too much meat, Li Jianguo asked with some surprise:

"Why get so much meat?"

"Then eat slowly." Li Long said with a smile, "If you are free, braise some, I'll bring some back later."

"Fine, fine." Du Chunfang beamed with joy, the two sons were so harmonious, she was also happy.

Partial to the younger son was true, she also knew the two sons had a good relationship, this was the greatest blessing of the family. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 753 =====