Chapter 767: A Dust-Covered History

After chatting with Niu Dajun, I learned that just in the fourth team, like him, there were at least seven or eight people who hoarded some rabbit skins and planned to go to the acquisition station to exchange for money.

The third team also had some, but fewer people. It was mainly because there was less wasteland on the third team's side, and naturally fewer rabbits.

On the contrary, the piece near the edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert in the north had many rabbits, hedgehogs, and foxes.

Li Long had already told Niu Dajun that he had opened an acquisition station, and Niu Dajun's eyes lit up.

"When the time comes, I will take those hundred-plus sheepskins to the leather factory. When the time comes, I will take your rabbit skins and go over to see. If they can be sold, sell them; if not, then think of other ways."

Li Long's words gave Niu Dajun a reassurance, and he hurriedly said:

"Okay, then I will take the skins to Old Ma Hao after eating lunch today and hand them over to Old Luo, which will save you another trip."

Niu Dajun was very at ease with Li Long and Old Luo's side. He felt that as long as the skins were handed over, he would be at ease.

There was also an intention to be lazy. Handing things over to capable people to handle, and verbally saying "I believe in you, I recognize whatever price it sells for," was actually just shifting contradictions and difficulties to others.

However, they were all fellow villagers, and there were no contradictions, so Li Long was just doing it on the way.

After finishing this matter, the hot water was also boiled, and the pig could be slaughtered.

There was no need for Li Jianguo to mobilize. Several young men jumped into the pig pen. Two people chased, one drove the other pig into the warm pen, one held an iron hook outside, and when the pig in the open pen was driven to the door, the iron hook reached out and hooked the soft meat under the pig's mouth, and the pig screamed, involuntarily following the iron hook out.

Two people pushed from behind. After pulling the pig out, several people who were prepared outside grabbed the legs and pressed the head, then put the pig down together, tied the legs, and lifted it to the table prepared in advance.

"Hey, this pig is at least one hundred kilograms!"

"One hundred kilograms, I think it can be slaughtered at one hundred and ten!"

"Weigh it in a while and you'll know."

"Uncle Old Li, can you weigh a leg for me after slaughtering?" Someone had already started booking.

"I want a piece of pork belly!"

"Back seat, if you can weigh it, give me a piece of back seat!"

"Two pigs, one for sale and one for our own family." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "After slaughtering in a while, you can look at it and divide it."

"Then how much per kilogram?" Someone asked immediately.

"Two yuan," Li Jianguo had long inquired, the market price was like this, or it was the price in the market a month ago.

It might be a bit more expensive now, but for Li Jianguo, a mao more or a mao less didn't mean much.

Anyway, his family didn't lack meat, so keep one and divide it among a few younger siblings.

Gu Bo Yuan also came, just watching with his hands behind his back. He didn't help, and no one dared to direct him. As Li Long's father-in-law and Gu Xiaoxia's father, and now that he had opened a shop in the city, Gu Bo Yuan had a new status in the team.

Li Long came to help, but couldn't find a place. He simply went to get the borrowed teapot to prepare water to scald the pig hair.

Lu Lu Dasao took a large basin with flour and a rolling pin, preparing to catch the pig blood.

Wang Cai Mi took the pig slaughtering knife from the bag, sharpened it twice on the iron rod, and then walked towards the pig that was screaming.

The pig was pressed to death by several young men and couldn't move at all, only able to scream there.

Li Long vaguely remembered seeing on the internet in his previous life that pigs were very intelligent animals with quite high IQs. At the moment, it should already know the fate it was about to face, but besides screaming, there was no other way.

The young men now had great strength and were all people who had done heavy work, so carrying a sack was not a problem. Therefore, four or five people pressing a pig of about one hundred kilograms was quite easy.

Those videos in later generations where pigs weren't pressed and ran everywhere were very difficult to happen now.

Wang Cai Mi had a very steady hand. He made a fool of himself last year, and he didn't want such a joke this year.

Aiming at the part, he stabbed the knife in, tilted his hand slightly, and Lu Lu Dasao shouted:

"Blood, I'm catching blood... got it, got it!"

A stream of pig blood spurted out from the knife wound. Lu Lu Dasao reacted quickly, picked up the basin, tilted her body to avoid the pig running and arching onto her, and caught the blood quickly. Wang Cai Mi poked the knife in again, and the blood came out along his hand. Lu Lu Dasao said with disgust:

"Wang Cai Mi, did you wash your hands? This blood is for steaming buns, so many people are eating..."

"Rest assured, rest assured, I washed it!" Wang Cai Mi hurriedly said.

The blood was caught, Lu Lu Dasao left with the basin, and the remaining few drops of blood flowed on the ground, soaking open. The pig's roaring went from full of breath to silent, just kicking its legs slightly. The few young men pressing the pig knew that it was dead immediately.

"Come, come, come, lift it to the grass nest, prepare to scrape the hair!" Li Jianguo commanded. Xie Yun Dong, who was preparing to slaughter the next pig, looked at the grass nest, suddenly thought of running over, pulled a piece of waste plastic cloth placed on the flower wall and spread it on it, saying while spreading:

"Get this, those grasses won't stick to the pig easily."

The dead pig was placed on the plastic cloth, two people took the hair scraping knife and prepared to scrape the hair, and Li Long was already carrying the boiling water kettle to pour on the pig.

"Little Long, pour from the pig's hoof here..."

The one scraping hair pointed to Li Long, and only at this time would Li Long, this young man who felt sharper than others, obediently listen to their command.

Of course, he would be very polite when speaking—people had skills, and even if he didn't know this, he should be respected.

Such things would not change even forty years later.

Li Long ran back and forth to pour water on the pig like this. There were three people pouring water to scrape hair. The next pig hadn't been slaughtered yet; it had to wait until this pig was opened, the belly and intestines were pulled out and washed, before the next one would start.

Li Qiang led a group of dolls to plot and discuss there. Li Long only vaguely heard the words "pig shit (sui) bubble". He thought they should be planning to get the pig's bladder out after opening the belly, pour out the urine, and then blow it up to play football.

He suddenly thought that he should buy a football for Li Qiang and the others when he had time. Now children play very simply in winter, playing with old cows is the most common, and this thing is also limited by the terrain.

But if there was a football, then it could be kicked anywhere in the wild, and kicking football in the snow wasn't afraid of falling, although it would be more wasteful, but it was just playing for fun.

Thinking about buying it after returning, and sending a football to Li Qiang, he would definitely become the most handsome boy in the village again.

Old Man Tian, the oldest in the village, also came. The old man was almost eighty, older than Li Qing Xia. Before the village was built, he was a long-term worker in the old Northern Xinjiang family here.

After Old Tian came, Li Jianguo hurriedly let him into the east room and arranged a seat in front of the stove. Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang were in the front yard, and the east and west rooms, including the kitchen, were open, hanging cotton door curtains, and there were quite a few people inside.

The kitchen was mainly women cutting sauerkraut and preparing ingredients.

The hair of the first pig was scraped, washed clean, lifted to the table, opened, the internal organs pulled out, then the pig head was cut off, the trough meat was cut down and mentioned inside to prepare for making pig slaughtering dishes.

Li Long changed a bucket of warm water and mentioned it to the front gate. At this time, Wang Cai Mi, who slaughtered the first pig, was already preparing to wash the intestines, and others were dividing the pig into two pieces, preparing to weigh it.

Li family didn't have a platform scale, only a carrying scale, the kind of fifty kilograms.

"This half piece, fifty kilograms can't press it down!" Two young men lifted the half piece of meat with a pole to weigh it, but found that fifty kilograms was still going up.

"Cut it in the middle and continue weighing." Someone came up with an idea.

Li Long didn't participate in these tasks. After supplying the water, seeing that all tasks had people doing them, and everyone was consciously going to the position where people were lacking, Li Long went to be lazy and rest.

"... I tell you, one hundred years ago, our Maxian was still called Suilai. It was miserable here at that time. The Shaan-Gan Hui Rebellion almost killed everyone here. If it weren't for our master's ancestors escaping north into the sand nest, I guess there wouldn't be that surname now..."

Shaan-Gan Hui Rebellion? Spread here?

Li Long was a bit confused. He could hear that this voice was Old Man Tian, and he should be telling history to the younger generation.

But Li Long remembered that even if he looked at it on the internet in his previous life, he didn't see such things?

"At that time, those who believed in religion wanted to kill those who didn't. The officials in Suilai County, Manchus, and Han people were almost killed. They also killed themselves, and the factions inside were different...

Later, Wusiman came, and also killed... alas, people were miserable at that time. We Han people just wanted to honestly plant land and eat a full meal, why was it so difficult?

Later, Wang the Bearded, General Wang came, hey, that was really good! Here, it was easy to have our own troops, our own officials. At that time... hehe, those who died were replaced..."

Li Long listened to these words, and felt it was quite complicated.

"Grandpa Tian, what you said is different from what we learned in history." A voice sounded.

Hey, it was Li Juan.

Li Juan was studying well in junior high school now, and her history was also good. She dared to refute Old Man Tian's words:

"In our history class, talking about this period of Northern Xinjiang, one hundred years ago, it was either that Yaqub Beg, or the Kokand Khanate sent him to invade our Northern Xinjiang, there is no such thing as you said?"

"This is for unity." Old Man Tian didn't get angry, and said with a smile:

"Before that Yaqub Beg came, Northern and Southern Xinjiang were already chaotic, fighting into a pot of porridge, many Manchu officials, many Han people were killed, hundreds of thousands, millions..."

Li Long was listening here with the kettle, listening to the old generation's old man and the younger generation's "intellectual" debating here.

"Grandpa Tian, wasn't it said that Yaqub Beg invaded, and then the Northern Xinjiang army and civilians resisted the invasion and fought?"

"Actually, before Yaqub Beg came, Northern and Southern Xinjiang were already fighting. Don't look at those people who look kind on the surface, really launched a religious war, too cruel, just like the Japanese devils! Alas, if General Wang could have been born a few decades earlier..."

Li Juan was still arguing, Li Long didn't hear clearly what she said, only knowing that the history he knew wasn't all history.

Or rather, much history had been covered in dust.

"... It's better now, can eat full, can eat meat, Juanjuan, do you know? The landlords who planted land in this place before couldn't eat meat often, and ordinary long-term workers couldn't eat full easily..."

"Couldn't hunt at that time? Like my little uncle?" Li Juan was diverted, and asked again.

"Guns were rare at that time." Old Man Tian explained with a smile, "There were many wolves, but it wasn't easy to hit a wolf, this animal is very smart..."

"I know, I know, there are fables we learned, wolves even know how to pinch from front and back!"

The topic ran away. Li Long thought about whether to ask Old Man Tian about the truth of that dust-covered history when he had time.

This piece of land, which many people in later generations thought was a desert, had had Han people surviving since the Han Dynasty, but whenever a major war started, Han people were the first to be targeted.

Being targeted was fine, but in later generations, Li Long also saw on many internet platforms that many people equated Northern Xinjiang people with ethnic minority people.

I don't know if it's lack of common sense or lack of parents. How can such people exist? Fortunately, primary school geography and history taught that every province in our country, even an autonomous region, is a mixture of many ethnic groups, and Northern Xinjiang has nearly half of the Han population.

Li Long replied to such posts with "It's motherless to start a number like this".

Relieving, but feeling sad.

Just like the Tang soldiers guarding the city on the frontier of the late Tang Dynasty, while guarding the city for the Tang Dynasty, they were abandoned by people in the interior.

"Hey, one hundred and seven kilograms, plus the trough meat, it definitely exceeds one hundred and ten, this pig is not bad!" Someone shouted excitedly at the shed, causing the black dog to bark hard there.

Originally the black dog was tied in the courtyard, mainly to watch the house. When slaughtering the pig, to prevent biting others, it was tied to the tractor in the east, accompanying the little Mongolian gazelle. The little Mongolian gazelle's leg was already well, and it wasn't afraid of the black dog anymore, eating grass, and looking at the situation here from time to time.

A pig of one hundred and ten kilograms was not big in later generations. Pigs fed with grain and feed in later generations, even if they were lean types, were very normal to slaughter at one hundred and thirty or forty kilograms.

However, one hundred and ten kilograms was not small at this time. A family would definitely not be able to finish eating it according to the current meat-eating habit.

Someone had already started to divide the parts they needed. Li Jianguo didn't say anything, happily tidying up the venue, waiting to slaughter the other pig.

"What are you doing? Work first!" Xie Yun Dong shouted loudly, "There is still a pig not slaughtered, what's the hurry? Come over, catch the pig and tie it, finish the business and then talk about other things!"

Xu Chengjun had something to do today and didn't come. Xie Yun Dong, as the former deputy industry team leader, still had quite a lot of prestige among the young people. Once he shouted like this, those who were preparing to divide the pork all ran over with a smile and began to catch the remaining pig.

Li Long walked over to add water to the two pots on the stove in the courtyard, and also poked the charcoal fire under the stove, preparing to wait for the next pig.

Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang held Mingming and Haohao to the backyard, looking at this busy and divided scene, both felt novel, and the two children were also looking around.

The screaming of the second pig startled the two children. Li Long let them hold the children back to the front yard, and wait until the slaughter was finished before coming over, or wait until the meal was cooked before coming over.

It had to be said that the aunts and sisters-in-law of the fourth team maintained the enthusiasm for making pig slaughtering dishes as always, and it would be like this for the next forty years. Whoever slaughtered a pig and invited the women of the four neighbors to make pig slaughtering dishes, everyone would respond actively.

And some people could even run back from Wucheng specifically to taste this dish, and some people would call back from Beiting specifically to leave a piece of pig blood bun.

Significant meaning.

When the second pig was slaughtered and was being poured with boiling water to scrape hair, the fragrance of sauerkraut stewed with large meat began to drift in the courtyard.

This smell immediately excited those who were working. Some discussed the thickness of the large meat slices cut this time, and some talked about how many kilograms of trough meat were mentioned inside, enough for an ordinary family to eat for a month.

Li family didn't lack meat, so this time they invited quite a few people to slaughter the pig. The tables in the two rooms in the backyard couldn't be placed, and they had to set up another table in the front yard like last year.

The only difference was that this time there were two more children, Mingming and Haohao, as well as two "relatives", Sister Yang and Han Fang.

Han Fang and Li Juan had become good friends. At first, she was a bit cautious, but under Li Juan's leadership, she soon became familiar with this place. On the contrary, Sister Yang was not yet adapted, or rather, the atmosphere of this neighborhood relationship was different from what she was used to since childhood.

When slaughtering the pig, some aunts and sisters-in-law would come to the front yard to see Mingming and Haohao, and when they looked, they would chat a few words, and then ask about Sister Yang's situation.

Gu Xiaoxia would introduce a few words vaguely, and those aunts and sisters-in-law would chat with Sister Yang very enthusiastically, making her a bit unaccustomed.

In her hometown, Sister Yang was bullied. After arriving here, she experienced hardships, and then lived in the same courtyard with Li Long and the others. Besides Li family, she contacted city people, which was different again.

Now returning to the village team, chatting with these aunts and sisters-in-law, the feeling was familiar yet strange.

It took a long time for her to react, this was the normal rural interpersonal relationship.

Mingming and Haohao still wanted to go outside, twisting on the bed in the house, but there were

For decades, the unchanging "pig-slaughter feast" meant steamed white flour buns as the staple food, with dishes like pickled cabbage stir-fried with pork, bean sprouts stir-fried with pork liver, celery stir-fried with pork heart, and in the afternoon, steamed pig blood buns.

Everything was served in large basins, the kind that ensured everyone had enough. To make sure people ate their fill, the pork from the neck was sliced into large, fatty pieces that looked satisfying just to see.

As soon as these basins of food were brought out, the atmosphere immediately livened up.

Li Jianguo smiled and set out wine for the two tables in the north courtyard. At the women's table, everyone waved their hands, saying they wouldn't drink because steaming the pig blood buns was also quite energy-consuming.

For a moment, the sound of laughter and chatter filled the two courtyards, leaving Li Long feeling a bit dazed.

This kind of atmosphere had arrived many years earlier than in the original history.

Was it because of him?

Yes. (End of chapter)