Chapter 760: Good Meat Never Lacks Buyers

After the ninth nine-day period of winter passed, Northern Frontier grew colder day by day. Even Li Long was reluctant to venture outside.

But staying in was not an option; that yellow sheep still needed processing, its hide had to be skinned, tanned by someone, and made into a fur coat for his mother.

There were many other tasks as well. At Old Ma's compound, numerous sheep remained unslaughtered; according to plan, they would be fed for another half-month, slaughtered when the twelfth lunar month arrived, and then sold at the market.

This winter, there would be no idleness.

After rising and eating breakfast, Gu Gu Xiaoxia saw Li Long had nothing urgent to do, yet she still admonished him:

"If you're tired, rest for a few days and don't run around anymore. I saw how deeply you slept yesterday; you must have been exhausted."

"It's fine," Li Long said with a smile. "One night's sleep has fully restored me. Not much remains to be done; I mainly need to make a few trips. The actual labor is handled by others."

Gu Gu Xiaoxia nodded and left for work.

Li Long watched the two children until Sister Yang finished her chores and took over. Then he went to the side room, carried the yellow sheep into the main house's eastern chamber, set up the stove, and once the carcass softened, slowly skinned it. He didn't want to bother cleaning the stomach and intestines, so he simply squeezed out the dung, chopped everything into chunks, and stored it to feed the dog.

Little Black, living in Li Long's home, primarily ate leftovers. His diet was better than most dogs of his age, but being fed raw meat directly happened rarely, so he was quite excited.

Li Long butchered the yellow sheep meat and hung it in the storage room. Next came handling the hide. This yellow sheep skin was indeed excellent; aside from the leather itself, the fur—especially the fine, dense undercoat—felt incredibly soft to the touch.

After salting the hide, stretching it out, and hanging it up, Li Long told Sister Yang, then drove his jeep to the Fourth Squad.

The meat previously slaughtered was stored at Old Ma's compound; Li Long needed to retrieve some to deliver to those "connected households."

In the county, the main recipients were Li Xiang Qian and Wei Zhuren. The Acquisition Station had already closed, and Chen Hongjun had returned to Huizhou. Li Long planned to deliver Director Qian's share while dropping off meat for him.

Just based on Old Chen introducing Jia Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui to him, it was clear this man truly considered Li Long a friend.

He also intended to make a trip to Wucheng to deliver some meat to Professor Wu and Professor Luo, considering it a pre-New Year gift.

Uncle Old Luo, Yang Laoliu, and others were mixing sugar residue in the courtyard. The fat-tailed sheep not yet sold still needed further fattening. According to Li Long's plan, they would be fattened for another half-month, then fed ordinary fodder for the remaining time before slaughter and sale.

"Xiao Long has arrived," Uncle Old Luo greeted with a smile. "Having a vehicle sure is convenient; you zip to the county in no time. Unlike us, walking takes two or three hours."

"If you want to go to the county, that's fine too. Once you're done here, I'll drive you all there for a stroll."

"That was just talk; we're not going now," Uncle Old Luo hurriedly waved his hand. "In deep winter, there's nothing worth seeing in the county. It's far more comfortable for us old fellows to stay indoors and play chess."

These old men hadn't yet become addicted to playing cards. In another twenty or thirty years, when they reached their seventies or eighties, they would gather in small shops, playing cards, drinking beer, or gambling with one-yuan stakes, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

"I'm getting some meat to deliver to my leaders and friends," Li Long said. "One trip before the New Year; after delivering these, I won't go again."

Uncle Old Luo knew Li Long secured all those jobs for the squad solely thanks to those leaders' support, so he smiled and said:

"That's only right." He then went over to help Li Long select the meat.

The venison and beef were already portioned; they only needed to choose specific cuts and mark which piece was destined for whom.

After packing the meat separately into bags, Li Long loaded them onto the vehicle one by one, then drove the jeep back to the county.

In the afternoon, he went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Li Xiang Qian was in his office, while Wei Zhuren had gone to Huizhou for a meeting.

Li Long asked Li Xiang Qian to accept the meat intended for the director on his behalf.

"Not bad, Xiao Li," Li Xiang Qian said with a smile. "This meat looks very fatty. Did you fatten these cattle and sheep yourself? How many more do you have?"

"Several dozen left," Li Long replied. "Why? Does the section chief have an interest?"

"Our cooperative plans to distribute year-end benefits. Let's get ten of your sheep so we can issue some meat. Seeing how fatty this meat is, our workers will surely like it."

"Sure," Li Long said smiling. "Should I also bring an ox? I have quite a few of those too."

"That works too; bring one ox. Beef is harder to obtain. If we distribute beef this year, our cooperative's benefits will rank first in the entire county." Li Xiang Qian considered the cooperative's welfare fund; it seemed adequate, so there should be no problem.

"Then I'll bring it over tomorrow," Li Long said with a smile. "As for the price..."

"Don't worry; we'll pay the market rate. Your meat is so good; I dare say it's unique in the whole county. We certainly won't shortchange you on the price."

Li Long chuckled.

Originally planning to visit Beiting and Wucheng the next day, Li Long postponed the trip.

The next morning, he rose early, boiled water, poured it into the tractor, piled red charcoal beneath the engine, and after quite some effort, finally started the tractor. Then, with a put-put-put sound, he drove off toward the Fourth Squad.

At Old Ma's compound, many slaughtered sheep remained, their internal organs preserved intact, but there were no whole cattle left.

So upon arriving at Old Ma's compound with the tractor, Li Long's first task was to gather Uncle Old Luo and the others to discuss slaughtering an ox.

"Slaughter an ox? None of us have ever done that," Uncle Old Luo said with some difficulty. "Helping out is fine, but when your friends slaughtered that ox the other day, I watched; it wasn't easy."

"Don't worry; I'll handle it," Li Long said with a smile. "I watched that day too. Slaughtering one ox is something people like us can manage."

In his previous life, Li Long had watched numerous videos, and recently, when Ha Li Mu and others came to slaughter an ox, he had observed the entire process firsthand. It didn't require much technical skill.

It mainly depended on whether one dared to do it.

As the saying goes: "When killing a pig, some cut the throat, others the anus; everyone has their own method."

Cattle are mammals too; severing the two major arteries in the neck to drain the blood will kill them once the blood is fully drained.

Of course, Li Long had also seen another method of killing an ox: striking the head with a wooden mallet, causing the ox to drop dead instantly.

But he didn't know the precise spot, nor could he randomly experiment. Moreover, killing an ox that way seemed to make draining blood difficult, so tying it up and slaughtering it conventionally was better.

Just like slaughtering a sheep.

The cattle and sheep in the pen were still leisurely grazing, unaware that the fate of one among them was about to end.

There were brown cattle in the pen, but Li Long guessed Li Xiang Qian wouldn't want one so large. The Supply and Marketing Cooperative didn't have that many people; one brown cow weighed nearly a ton, yielding hundreds of kilograms of meat. The cooperative's welfare fund probably couldn't cover that.

The Sugar Factory might have the capacity to absorb it, but they primarily preferred mutton and weren't very fond of beef.

Li Long took a rope, jumped into the pen, spotted a two-year-old yellow ox, and while it lowered its head to graze, he crouched, grabbed one of its legs. As the ox struggled desperately, Li Long seized another leg, lifted and twisted, throwing the yellow ox to the ground!

The last time an ox was slaughtered, several young men had caught it together, so Li Long hadn't done much himself. This time, only he was available; Uncle Old Luo and the others were too old, and Li Long dared not let them enter the pen. If an ox gored someone, it would cause serious trouble.

So he prepared to tackle it alone—and it worked; at least he managed to bring the ox down.

After tying the ox's legs with rope, Li Long called for Uncle Old Luo and the others to enter, and together they carried the ox out.

Actually, he could have moved this nearly two-hundred-kilogram ox out by himself, but that would have been too astonishing. He thought it better to remain low-key.

"Xiao Long, you're impressive," Yang Laoliu exclaimed while looking up. "Taking down an ox alone! In ancient times, you could have competed as a strongman or even become a martial arts champion!"

"That certainly wouldn't work. There's technique involved in applying force. Since it wasn't guarding against me, it was naturally easy to bring down," Li Long said with a smile. "Come, I'll slaughter the ox. Who will bring a basin to catch the blood?"

At this time, blood from various animals was considered valuable; or rather, except for the bladder, nothing on an animal's body went to waste.

Although Li Long did not eat lymph node meat, the others did not care; that was still meat!

The ox was carried to a board outside the pen, propped up by bricks to serve as a makeshift slaughter platform; previous ox and deer slaughters had taken place here, and since it was still needed, it had not been removed.

Yang Laoliu hurried to the kitchen to fetch a basin, adding some salt and a rolling pin into it as he went.

"This one basin probably won't be enough," Old Uncle Luo remarked, watching him go fetch another basin; during the previous sheep slaughter, Yang Laoliu had collected the blood, but during the ox slaughter, he had been busy with other tasks and absent.

Seeing everyone ready, Li Long pressed down on the ox's head with one hand while drawing his knife with the other, preparing to begin.

The ox, knowing its final day had arrived, bellowed loudly while tears streamed from its eyes.

Li Long paid no heed to this; he used his knife to part the hair on the ox's neck, wiped the area, and then slashed downward in a single stroke.

This single cut severed the ox's artery, causing a gush of blood to spray out.

Yang Laoliu had positioned the blood-collection basin incorrectly, so the blood suddenly spurted onto the snowy ground; he hurriedly shifted position, getting quite a bit of blood on himself in the process.

"Lao Liu, you didn't place that basin well," the person behind helping to hold the ox said with a laugh, "Now half a kilogram of blood is lost."

While continuing to cut the ox's neck, Li Long said, "Lost is lost; it doesn't matter that little bit."

This cut also had to avoid the ox's trachea and esophagus, primarily out of concern that undigested food in the esophagus might mix with the blood, ruining it.

After one basin filled with blood, Yang Laoliu, quick-eyed and fast-handed, immediately swapped it for another; once this second basin was half full and the blood flow gradually ceased, Li Long finally said:

"Take the basin away." Once Yang Laoliu carried the blood basin off, Li Long applied fierce force with his knife, severing both the trachea and esophagus together, killing the ox completely.

To speak of it, it was quite cruel.

Next came skinning and evisceration, which posed no difficulty for Li Long; although he had skinned animals before, none had been this large, yet these tasks were all much the same.

Li Long took that small knife and went *zip-zip-zip* skinning the hide.

"Hey, look at Xiao Long's skinning speed; it's no worse than those ethnic minorities," Yang Laoliu whispered to Old Uncle Luo, "If I tried to skin that fast, the hide would already have several holes in it."

"Haha, same for me," Old Uncle Luo replied as they carried the blood back together, "Alright, let's just focus on doing our own jobs well, and that's enough."

Once the ox hide was stripped and the cavity opened to remove the internal organs, Old Uncle Luo and the others, who were experts at washing stomachs and intestines, had already prepared the warm water while Li Long was skinning.

Since Li Xiang Qian had not mentioned wanting the ox offal, Li Long decided not to load it yet; the tractor's cargo bed was not large enough, and loading ten sheep plus one ox essentially filled it.

Having finished processing the ox without disassembling it, Li Long felt transporting the whole carcass would be more impressive, and the meat color would show its freshness; unlike sheep, where one could instantly identify the cuts, if the ox were disassembled, Li Long worried people at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative might suspect him of swapping in inferior meat.

But to speak honestly, this ox was truly fat!

After loading the ten sheep and one ox onto the vehicle, Li Long drove the tractor *putt-putt* toward the county town.

By the time he reached the county town, it was already noon, so Li Long first returned to the courtyard compound to eat lunch.

"Where is this meat being delivered?" Gu Gu Bo Yuan asked curiously, looking at the freshly slaughtered ox piled on top, "Was this ox just slaughtered?"

"Mm, I just slaughtered it," Li Long said with a smile, "The Supply and Marketing Cooperative wanted it, so I slaughtered one."

"Hey, it seems this year's fattening of cattle and sheep has been done well," Gu Gu Bo Yuan said, poking the beef that was not yet completely frozen hard with his finger:

"Just looking at this fat, it must be twenty or thirty kilograms heavier than before, right?"

"This one? More than that," Li Long said with a laugh, "This ox gained at least forty kilograms!"

"Hey, then just from this one ox, you made a hundred yuan? Money comes so fast!" Gu Gu Bo Yuan laughed, "Not bad, not bad, you've taken the right path."

After eating and resting for a while, Li Long drove the tractor to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative; as the tractor entered the courtyard, Li Xiang Qian walked out quickly, and upon seeing Li Long, he said:

"I thought you had gone missing; I expected you this morning and had gathered the people, but you didn't come!"

"Hehe, wasn't it freshly slaughtered? This beef is fresh..." Li Long pointed to the beef in the cargo bed, saying, "Take a look, isn't this good meat? I specifically picked a two-year-old calf; the meat is neither tough nor tender, just right!"

Beef is not necessarily better the more tender it is; meat from a one-year-old calf actually does not taste very good.

Li Xiang Qian was an experienced purchaser; he stepped forward to examine the beef and could not help but smile:

"Yes, this meat is good; alright, just for this point, I won't say much more."

He beckoned for people to come over to unload the vehicle and weigh the meat.

"The sheep offal, including the stomachs, are inside the yearling sheep's bellies; if our cooperative wants them, we'll leave them like this, but if not, I'll take them out and bring them back," Li Long stated upfront, "The ox offal hasn't been processed yet, so I didn't bring it."

"Fine, fine, fine, no problem," Li Xiang Qian said with a smile, "We'll go by market price; come on, let's weigh it!"

The ten sheep totaled 287 kilograms, ignoring the fractional remainder; the one ox weighed 154 kilograms.

Li Long priced the mutton at 1.8 yuan and the beef at 2.8 yuan, totaling 947.80 yuan.

After the warehouse keeper weighed everything, Li Xiang Qian issued the invoice, signed it, and told Li Long to go collect the money.

Only after Li Long returned with the money did Li Xiang Qian say to him:

"This morning, the sugar factory called, saying they want another fifty sheep and two oxen; do you have enough there? If so, they said they'll send a truck over tomorrow to pick them up."

"Hey, that probably won't be in time," Li Long calculated; there were only a few yearling sheep left in the warehouse, and barely half an ox; if they wanted more, it would have to be slaughtered on the spot.

"Then make a call to reply," Li Xiang Qian said with a smile, "It seems next year you'll need to fatten even more."

Li Long understood Li Xiang Qian's implication; thinking his cattle and sheep were gone, he explained:

"Section Chief, I do have cattle and sheep, but they are all alive, and slaughtering them takes time."

"Oh, is that so! It seems you acquired quite a lot this year!" Li Xiang Qian nodded, "Not bad, you have brains; anyone else, after making a lot in summer, might quit in winter, but you haven't rested even in winter; you are a person who truly gets things done!"

"Then, Section Chief, regarding your position as Director..." Li Long said softly, "Should you go to the prefecture to lobby a bit?"

"Sigh." At the mention of this, Li Xiang Qian shook his head, "Director Qian told me not to rush..." Since he relied mainly on Director Qian, and Director Qian told him not to rush, he could only wait.

Fifty sheep and two oxen; Li Long, along with those from the team, certainly could not handle it alone, so Li Long planned to bring Ha Li Mu and the others over tomorrow; it was still the old plan, and they needed to be notified today.

Li Long went over and returned Director Hu's call; after the operator connected him to Director Hu's office, Li Long asked and learned that the sugar factory did not actually want the cattle and sheep.

The sugar factory had already distributed its welfare benefits, but after doing so, some workers could not resist boasting to colleagues from other factories, leading others to find out and report it to their own trade unions.

Many factories in Shicheng shared information, so when others approached Director Hu here, they learned where such fat beef and mutton came from and simply asked him to help order another batch.

Actually, the market price for beef and mutton had already risen somewhat, but Li Long had not raised his price when selling.

Calculating it this way, once this batch of meat was dealt with, only some cattle would remain in his pen, with very few fattened sheep left.

He had originally thought he would need to sell the meat retail before the New Year, but unexpectedly, wholesale sales had nearly completed the task.

This matter really can be pulled off.

He had once heard that just a few people could dictate the mutton market across the northern and southern frontier regions; back then, he thought it was a joke.

Now thinking about it, if he started fattening sheep and gradually expanded the scale, he could indeed influence market prices.

Of course, he had no intention of establishing a monopoly; earning what one ought to earn was enough. Driving the tractor back to the courtyard, Li Long immediately switched to the jeep, took his rifle, and headed up the mountain.

He would need to find people to help again! (End of Chapter)