Chapter 811

After Li Long picked up Ma Xiao Yan in the morning, he met up with Li Xiangqian and the others at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative courtyard, and the two cars drove into the mountains one after the other.

The large truck was loaded with another truckload of supplies: bricks, wood, cement, and various tools.

Li Long had originally thought about picking up a few carrying poles as tools on the way when passing Qingshuihe Village to pick up Meng Hai and the others.

Unexpectedly, Li Xiangqian directly arranged to load the five carrying poles in stock in the Supply and Marketing Cooperative storeroom onto the truck.

Now, there was no need to prepare tools at all.

After they picked up Meng Hai and the others at Qingshuihe Village, they drove all the way into the mountains and arrived at Yushanjiang's winter pasture.

All personnel got off the car to unload the supplies together. From here to Talihar and the others' winter pasture, the large truck couldn't go anymore. Li Long led Meng Hai and the others, two people per carrying pole, carrying bricks and wood, and set off toward Talihar's winter pasture.

Li Xiangqian and the others also helped carry wood, and Ma Xiao Yan hurriedly took down her camera and started filming; this was very good material.

The distance between Talihar and Yushanjiang's two families' winter pastures was less than 1 kilometer, and the road in between was mainly in the mountain gully. When they were about to arrive, they crossed a mountain that wasn't high, and the overall journey wasn't difficult to walk.

After the first trip of supplies was transported, Li Long said to Li Xiangqian and the others:

"I feel that a tractor can walk in this mountain gully. You all transport first, and I'll go drive a tractor over."

"Sure, this mountain gully is relatively narrow, and the truck can't pass, but a tractor might actually be able to." After Li Xiangqian put down the wood, he found a place to sit down and said while resting.

Li Long stretched his long legs and quickly looked back. After rushing to Yushanjiang's place, he drove the jeep out of this gully and rushed to Little White Poplar Gully where Li Jianguo and the others were weaving carrying poles.

Little White Poplar Gully was filled with smoke. Li Long hadn't come for the past two days, and everyone's weaving of carrying poles had entered the right track, each busy with their own things.

After Li Long's jeep arrived, these people stood up one after another and surrounded him to greet him.

After all, staying in a closed mountain gully now was considered isolated from the world. Li Long could be said to be the only link between them and the outside world during this period, so they were all very happy when Li Long came over.

Even Xu Haijun, who was across that mountain, ran over after hearing the movement, looking like he wanted to ask about the situation of Professor Luo and those few college students.

Li Long chatted with these people for a while and took the opportunity to glance around, seeing that many woven carrying poles were piled up at everyone's workstation. He thought to himself that it seemed he needed to find time to call a few trucks from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to collect a batch of carrying poles.

After exchanging pleasantries with everyone, Li Long went to talk to his eldest brother Li Jianguo, left the jeep there, cranked the tractor, and drove it toward Yushanjiang's winter pasture.

Loading a truckload of bricks here and driving from the mountain gully toward the southeast, the tractor was indeed able to walk in the mountain gully. Although the tractor had to drive a bit slower to avoid those old-stump shrubs, it was still better than carrying them by manpower and walking up the mountain.

It was just that the tractor couldn't cross that last mountain head, but even so, it saved ninety percent of the manpower, which was quite good.

Yesterday, Meng Hai and the others were trying it out, and they weren't sure if the results would satisfy the leaders of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Judging from the final results, their level was recognized.

So today, Meng Hai and the others became confident. After arriving at the winter pasture, they carried out a clear division of labor: two people were at the mountain head, waiting for Li Long and the others' tractor to come over to unload the supplies. After unloading the supplies, they used carrying poles to dismantle the supplies to Talihar's winter pasture, and the remaining people started formal work.

The truck driver, plus Li Xiangqian and the others, and Li Long were loading supplies onto the tractor at Yushanjiang's winter pasture. These people weren't good at technical work, but loading supplies and doing some physical labor was no problem. All personnel were divided into three waves, each doing their own work. By the time it was almost noon, all the supplies at Yushanjiang's winter pasture had been transported away.

Before Li Long drove the tractor to transport the last truckload of supplies away, he fetched a few buckets of water from the water pipe and splashed them on the places where the cement had been plastered yesterday. These cement walls that hadn't dried through needed to be shaded, otherwise, they would easily crack under the sun.

The workload at Talihar's winter pasture was smaller than that at Yushanjiang's winter pasture, and it didn't need Li Long to participate much, so he drove the tractor to unload the last truckload of supplies, then drove the tractor back to Little White Poplar Gully, and then drove the jeep out again.

Li Long didn't go into the mountains immediately, but first went to the little wooden cabin.

Sun Jia Qiang was washing fritillaria at the spring, and fritillaria was spread out to dry on the wooden floor and the case in front of the wooden cabin. It seemed his harvest over the past two days was quite good.

Seeing the jeep come over, a smile appeared on Sun Jia Qiang's face.

After Li Long got off the car, Sun Jia Qiang shook the water droplets off his hands and came over to greet him: "Boss, you finally came. If you didn't come, the supplies here wouldn't be enough."

"How much fritillaria did you trade for, for the supplies to be gone so quickly?" Li Long felt it was unlikely; how could it be so fast?

"More than one hundred kilograms." Sun Jia Qiang said, "Yesterday, quite a few people brought bags over to trade for things. I don't know if it's because Bolati and the others are patrolling strictly, but I feel that these people in the mountains are short of all kinds of supplies: rice, flour, oil, matches, clothes, shoes, knives, anyway, they want everything."

No wonder.

"Then let's collect these fritillaria. I'll take them back directly. It's not safe to put them here; it'll be troublesome if they get snatched by others. After I take them back, I'll bring the supplies when I come back."

Li Long could only take time to do these things. After all, his main job now was still renovating houses for the herdsmen together with Li Xiangqian and the others. Fortunately, with Meng Hai and the others there, plus the supplies had already been transported over, there was no shortage of him at the house renovation site. All he had to do was bag a few heads of game and share them with everyone before leaving at night.

Sun Jia Qiang listened to Li Long's words and immediately began to separate and bag the fritillaria that was being dried and washed, and then put them on the jeep.

The fritillaria filled six and a half bags, and the jeep was packed full. Li Long didn't stay either and drove the car directly to rush back.

Rushing back to the large courtyard, it was already noon. Gu Bo Yuan had transported all the things from the procurement station back and then went to work again. Gu Xiaoxia wasn't there either. Sister Yang was looking after Mingming and Haohao who were already asleep. Seeing Li Long return, she wanted to get him food, but Li Long stopped her.

After Li Long unloaded the fritillaria, he drove to the department store, then to the market, and then turned to the medicine company.

Besides grain, rice, flour, oil, shoes, clothes, and various supplies that needed to be purchased, the most important thing was medicine.

These people in the mountains easily got sick, especially those who were entering the mountains for the first time. They didn't know how to protect themselves, the humidity in the mountains at night was heavy, and without a suitable shelter, they easily caught a cold.

After buying these supplies, Li Long went to the winery to buy some wine. His stomach was a bit hungry, so he drove to the canteen and ordered a bowl of oil-splashed noodles with meat, and also ordered an extra portion of noodles. After paying, he poured himself a bowl of noodle soup. After the noodles were served, he mixed the extra noodles in, mixed them with the vegetables, and then ate them in big mouthfuls, wolfing them down like a starving person. He finished in less than ten minutes, then wiped his mouth and left.

Time was too tight; he didn't even go to the procurement station and drove into the mountains again.

When transporting the supplies to the little wooden cabin, not only was Sun Jia Qiang there, but Bolati was also there.

Seeing the jeep come over, Bolati, who was riding a horse, got down, shook hands with Li Long who got off the car, and said with a smile:

"This guy surnamed Sun said there were no things left, and I didn't believe it. Once you came over, I believed it. You must have gone back to pull things, right?"

"That's right." Li Long smiled and said, "You've gotten quite a lot of fritillaria this time. Tell me, what are you trading for?"

"What else can I trade for? This isn't just mine alone; three bags, for the three of us. One bag for wine, one bag for two pieces of clothing, and another bag for some meat."

"There's no meat suitable for you to eat for the time being." Li Long shook his head and said, "In two days. How about trading for canned food, or other food?"

"That works too." Bolati said reluctantly, "Do you have other things this year? I feel like you aren't as active in hunting as last year."

"Yeah, I'm currently renovating winter pastures for Yushanjiang and those people with our leaders, so hunting has to be slowed down. I'll put the things down later and go see if I can bag something. Don't be in a hurry, there's still a long time."

"Good." Bolati agreed. He waited for Li Long to open the trunk and began to take down the things he needed.

Both were honest people. Bolati didn't take much, and Li Long didn't say anything. After pouring out the fritillaria he brought, he and Sun Jia Qiang used bags to pack the things he needed. The wine was wrapped in the traded clothes to avoid breaking.

After Bolati left, Li Long and Sun Jia Qiang unloaded the things and set them up in the little wooden cabin. Li Long then drove the jeep away again.

To bag something at the fastest speed, he could only take a shortcut—he drove the car to that mountain gully with the salt mine cave.

Leaving the jeep outside the gully, Li Long carried his 56-type semi-automatic rifle into the gully, opened the safety, pushed a bullet into the chamber, and observed the direction of the mine cave.

Hey, just in time!

Li Long had only walked twenty or thirty meters into the gully when he saw a few yellow sheep walking toward the northeast. It looked like they had just eaten salt in the mine cave and were now fifty or sixty meters away.

And from the other side, a few roe deer were walking and stopping, heading toward the mine cave.

Obviously, he hadn't come for a long time, and this place had become a paradise for wild animals.

Of course, no one came mainly because there were no local specialties in this mountain gully; it didn't grow fritillaria, it didn't grow codonopsis because there were many stones, and it didn't even grow wild strawberries, so it had no value.

No one came, there was a salt mine, and wild animals would come more often; no problem.

Li Long immediately ran forward, wanting to close the distance before the yellow sheep disappeared. Although he ran fast, the movement wasn't big. The four roe deer didn't notice and crawled into the salt mine cave. Those few yellow sheep jumped, looking like they were going to cross the north mountain and leave here, returning to the Gobi Desert in the north.

Those yellow sheep were already about to run away. Li Long looked at the distance, which was about one hundred and thirty or forty meters. He knew it would be too late if he didn't fire again, so he didn't hesitate anymore, raised his gun, breathed steadily for a moment, aimed roughly, and fired "bang, bang, bang!"

As soon as the gunshot rang out, those few yellow sheep suddenly accelerated. Except for one that tilted its body and fell to the ground, the others all crossed the mountain at an extremely fast speed and disappeared.

Li Long said to himself that it was fortunate he had bagged one, otherwise it would be embarrassing—however, as soon as this thought arose in his heart, that yellow sheep that had fallen to the ground actually struggled to climb up and limped toward the north!

Li Long didn't rush to chase; he raised his gun again, walking upward while raising the gun.

Those roe deer in the salt mine cave heard the gunshot and quickly crawled out of the mine cave, running back the way they came.

Li Long had already run up thirty or forty meters when the roe deer crawled out. At this time, the distance to the roe deer was less than eighty meters. At this distance, Li Long was relatively steady. When the roe deer appeared in his field of vision, running horizontally to the left, he estimated the lead and fired "bang, bang, bang!"

All the remaining bullets in the gun were fired, two roe deer fell to the ground, and the remaining ones were too fast, scurrying into the back of the mountain under the cover of scattered stones.

Only then did Li Long put away his gun and quickly chased in the direction of the yellow sheep—he didn't want the things that had reached his mouth to run away.

Li Long ran while taking the loaded stripper clip from his backpack to press bullets into the gun.

Ten bullets were pressed in at once. After Li Long tucked the empty stripper clip into his pocket, he quickly went up the mountain.

Standing on the top of the mountain and looking down, the north side was a slightly lower rocky mountain, and further north were two rows of red sandy soil mountains. Those few yellow sheep that hadn't been hit were already nowhere to be seen.

What about the injured yellow sheep?

There were some shrubs growing on the shady slope of the mountain. Li Long found bloodstains, followed the bloodstains to find hoof prints, and then followed the hoof prints down the mountain—the hoof prints of a yellow sheep with a lame leg were different from ordinary yellow sheep, so they were easy to find.

Soon, Li Long found that dying yellow sheep under a large patch of red willow bushes.

The bullet hit from the front leg. He didn't know if it had injured the lungs. When the yellow sheep saw Li Long, its body only moved slightly, and it couldn't even struggle to get up.

A lot of blood had flowed, which was also the reason Li Long easily found it.

Carrying the gun on his back and carrying this yellow sheep, Li Long went back to find those two roe deer.

The roe deer were dead through and through.

The three added together were even heavier than the three wild goats yesterday.

Fortunately, the jeep was just outside the gully. Li Long carried the three pieces of game to the gully entrance, put them on the jeep, drove out, found a place with water nearby, and began to skin and gut them.

The yellow sheep looked a bit older in age, three or four years, and was a ewe. The two roe deer looked to be within two years old by their teeth.

Li Long's ability to skin had grown. In over an hour, all three pieces of game were gutted, skinned, and dismembered.

He didn't have time to wash the stomachs and intestines. After squeezing out the feces inside, he specifically put them in a bag, planning to take them back.

As for the other offal, he also kept them, only cutting off the heads and hooves of the three pieces of game and leaving them here, and packing everything else away.

Not long after his jeep left, two wolves smelled the scent and came here. Seeing the things Li Long had left behind, they looked left and right vigilantly, and then immediately began to gnaw on them.

Before long, another yellow animal with pointed ears ran over, unexpectedly not afraid of those two wolves at all, crouching on a stone and issuing a threatening cry.

For a time, this place also became lively.

Li Long drove the jeep back to the little wooden cabin. Sun Jia Qiang was trading things with someone else. That person had come last year. After seeing Li Long's jeep arrive, he wasn't afraid. When Li Long got off the car, he even greeted Li Long.

Li Long smiled and waved at the other party, then took down the yellow sheep and a portion of the heart, liver, lungs, and other bags, and said to Sun Jia Qiang:

"This is a yellow sheep. You unload the meat, boil it, and then air-dry it. See if anyone wants to trade for it later. You can boil these offal and eat them. Alright, I'm leaving, there's still work in the mountains."

Li Long waved at Sun Jia Qiang, nodded at that person again, got in the car, made a turn, and left.

That person exclaimed in admiration:

"Hey, this boss is amazing. A yellow sheep just like that, his hunting is really amazing!"

"That's for sure," Sun Jia Qiang said with reflected glory, "The boss has even bagged a bear, he's really amazing."

"He's even bagged a bear? That's really amazing—then he can also bag wolves, right?"

"That's for sure, he's bagged wolves several times." Sun Jia Qiang said affirmatively.

"Then can he..." that person hesitated for a moment and said, "Near the gully where I am, there has always been a pack of wolves, and they won't leave. I'm still worried about whether they will ambush me at night. See if you can talk to your boss and help me bag the wolves, even scaring them away is fine. I'll pay fritillaria as a reward, how about that?"

"That... I'm not sure, I have to wait until I talk to the boss."

"Good, good, good, then I'll come again in two days, and I'll listen for your news then."

"Then what will you do recently? Is it safe?"

"What else can I do? Light a fire at night." That person sighed and said.

Sun Jia Qiang felt the same way. Before Li Long came, he also did the same.

So he felt he should help this mountain person.

After that person left, Sun Jia Qiang first went to wash the fritillaria, then set up the stove, put water in the pot, and only then began to process the yellow sheep.

The offal was relatively easy to handle; just wash them and put them in the pot, and boil them.

There were already flies crawling on the yellow sheep's carcass. Sun Jia Qiang drove the flies away, saw that there were no eggs laid on it, and then carried it into a large basin, went to the spring to wash it clean, and then unloaded it into small pieces.

This was the second time doing this thing, and it was much more skilled than the last time.

When Li Long drove the jeep to Yushanjiang's winter pasture, only the driver was left here watching the car.

After seeing Li Long come over, the driver said with a smile:

"Comrade Li Long, you've been gone for a long time this trip."

"I bagged two roe deer, and we'll share the meat with everyone later." Li Long unloaded the roe deer and said with a smile, "How about it, the Director and the others haven't returned?"

"No, lunch was simple, they said without you getting meat, the food didn't taste good." The driver joked.

"Then boil some meat tonight." Li Long asked the driver to light the stove in front of Yushanjiang's winter pasture, and he began to dismember the two roe deer.

This time, one person couldn't take much. Two roe deer, after removing the skin and internal organs, still had nearly forty kilograms of bone and meat. Boil seven or eight kilograms of meat and some offal later, have a good meal tonight, and just share the rest, letting everyone take a piece of two or three kilograms.

Over there, the driver lit the stove and, according to Li Long's request, took down the pot and filled it with water to boil the meat.

The pot was brought on the truck, and Li Long thought to himself that he wouldn't need to bring so many things tomorrow.

After he finished tidying up here, he carried his gun and rushed toward Talihar's winter pasture.

After arriving there, Li Long discovered that there was no one here, and there weren't many supplies left. After a little thought, he knew they should have gone to Bieke's winter pasture.

He also rushed over there—the direction was the one he had previously pointed out to Meng Hai, so it shouldn't be wrong.

When he arrived at Bieke's winter pasture, Li Long heard an argument.

His hearing was very good. After arriving at the place, he understood: someone had occupied Bieke's winter pasture, Meng Hai and the others asked them to leave, but the other party wouldn't leave.

Hey, this outsider, is occupying the winter pasture a habit, right? (End of chapter)