Chapter 925

Driving home, on the road, Li Long explained to Gu Xiaoxia the little thing that happened in the morning.

"Sigh." Gu Xiaoxia shook her head while managing Mingming and Haohao in the back: "Director Wang is a broad-minded person, and she does things quite well. Today, seeing her nephew and his wife, they are also very steady, how can this nephew be so petty? Such a happy event as getting married, the bride also looks good—by the way, she is also in our education system, a good teacher, how can she do things so unpleasantly?"

Li Long shook his head and didn't speak. He vaguely remembered that the one who gave the red envelope to the bride's younger brother seemed to be the groom Wang Qiyuan's mother. This matter, not to mention inheritance, at least the whole family should be like this.

So the groom could do such a thing, which had a lot to do with the family environment. Of course, this had nothing to do with him, he just helped because he was sitting in his own car, and because the bride was from the countryside, plus that teenager looked quite decent.

This is a custom. If the teenager named Xiao Quan didn't take the red envelope and got out of the car directly, the groom's side would certainly laugh at the bride's family for a long time.

This is just an interlude in life, it passed, it passed. It was already past three o'clock in the afternoon when Li Long brought Gu Xiaoxia back to the big courtyard. Gu Xiaoxia drank a few glasses of wine and was a bit dizzy, so she went to sleep.

New Year's Day only had one day off. The next day, Gu Xiaoxia went to work. Director Wang specifically called her to the office, mentioned this matter again, said her nephew was ignorant, drank too much that day, and was instigated by others, asked Gu Xiaoxia to tell Li Long not to take it to heart, and asked when Li Long was free, inviting the two of them to dinner.

Gu Xiaoxia was no longer angry at this time, feeling it was unnecessary. The sentence Li Long said when persuading her yesterday, she felt it made sense: when encountering people with heavy hostility and negative energy, just stay away, no need to harden against them. Now she has a family and children, it's not worth it.

So Director Wang said this, Gu Xiaoxia just laughed it off, and Director Wang didn't mention it again.

Li Long drove to the Fourth Team. When he arrived at his eldest brother's home, Li Long saw the old man Li Qing Xia tidying up a sledge in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long get out of the jeep, he didn't pay attention to him, but "hummed" and turned to enter the room.

Du Chunfang heard the movement outside, came out of the door, and was full of joy after seeing Li Long, hurriedly letting Li Long enter the room.

On this side, Li Jianguo and Liang Yumei also came out of the room, and after seeing Li Long, asked about the children's situation.

Li Long pointed to Li Qing Xia who entered the east room and asked his eldest brother:

"What's wrong with the old man?"

Du Chunfang curled her lips and said:

"What else could be wrong? You and your eldest brother went hunting twice without taking him, and he was unhappy. A few days ago, Daqiang's father talked about hunting, and he has been sulking these two days."

"Didn't Daqiang's father also not go?" Li Long felt it was a bit incredible. Both hunting trips were young and strong, and his eldest brother was considered the oldest, and he was not even forty. Going to the North Sand Nest to hunt involved many people together, so taking the elderly was naturally inconvenient.

"Hi!" Li Jianguo shook his head and said: "The old man went to the Little Haizi to break the ice and dig for fish these few times, but had no harvest—fish can't be dug up now, plus our hunting harvest is not small, so isn't this unbalanced?"

The voices of several people talking in the courtyard were not loud, but Li Long also understood what was going on.

There were extremely many fish in the Little Haizi before. Mainly because they couldn't eat much if they only ate, so there was no use in bringing them back, so very few people caught them.

Later, after the reform and opening up, Li Long caught fish and made money, and everyone in the village knew, so they also started catching fish. Netting in summer, breaking ice in winter, and they really made money following him.

According to the original historical trajectory, the big fish in the Little Haizi disappeared after the dam was washed away by the flood two years ago. Because of Li Long's intervention, there were still big fish in the Little Haizi now.

But these big fish had ultimately become much fewer because of the capture in these four or five years.

Before, breaking ice in winter, Li Long and Tao Daqiang could dig out dozens of kilograms of fish a day. Now breaking ice, they could only dig out a few kilograms of crucian carp—big fish were almost impossible to dig out again.

After all, the water surface of the Little Haizi was not large, much smaller than the Big Haizi behind. The area was small, and the big fish it could carry were naturally few. Crucian carp was fine, growing up in a year or two, but like big carp, grass carp, and five-striped fish, it took two or three years to grow to more than two kilograms. This growth speed, not to mention not being able to keep up with the catching speed, ultimately became fewer and fewer as they were caught.

It was normal not to be able to dig up big fish now. After all, there were many reeds on the water surface. With fewer fish, the oxygen consumed under the water was also less. Those fish could live under the reed bushes, not necessarily having to go to the broken ice holes.

So it was normal not to be able to catch big fish now.

"Then wouldn't it be fine to take the old man hunting when you have time?" Li Long said, "North and west are both fine."

"Went," Li Jianguo shook his head, "Xu Haijun from the team went to both places, but didn't hunt anything. Turned around in the north for a day without seeing a Mongolian gazelle herd. Went west from Shicheng all the way to Kuitun, even refueled in Kuitun in the middle, and ran back, but didn't see any Mongolian gazelles either. Two whole days, frozen like a grandson, didn't hunt anything."

Li Long thought it seemed the Mongolian gazelles had also become smart.

"Don't worry about him!" Du Chunfang felt the old man was making trouble. What if he couldn't hunt or catch fish? She said, "Not lacking his food or drink, still has money in his hand, what is he being pretentious about!"

Although Du Chunfang was biased toward her youngest son, she hadn't lived for more than sixty years in vain. The life now was a life she hadn't imagined in these sixty-plus years—eating meat every day, not having to work, living comfortably, not freezing in winter and not hot in summer, what else did she want? Did the landlords and rich people in the past live like this?

Still not satisfied? God would know and strike him with lightning!

Li Qing Xia heard his old partner and son talking about him, and was a bit embarrassed, came out of the room and said: "I just don't accept it, how can I not catch fish? I just thought it's already January, it's almost New Year, I have to get a big carp before the New Year, right?"

The Spring Festival was on February 9th, 1986, more than a month away. Li Long thought for a while and said with a smile:

"Old man, this work is simple. Tomorrow you tidy up the sticky net, we can't dig up fish, can't we set a net?"

"Set a net?" Li Qing Xia was stunned for a moment, "The ice surface must be a foot thick, breaking the ice hole is hard enough, you have to break a ditch to set a net, right? When will that be broken? Too troublesome, right?"

"Go, go, go, go into the room and talk." Li Long said with a smile, "It's uncomfortable outside in the middle of winter. Go into the room and I'll tell you slowly."

Entering the west room, the west room had a large space and had a place to sit.

After entering the room, several people felt that just now, they were almost frozen through outside.

The temperature in the room was quite high, and they soon warmed up.

"Old man, you said the ice surface over at the Little Haizi is frozen a foot thick?" Li Long asked.

"Yes, it must be a little more than a foot." Li Qing Xia thought for a while and said.

A foot was more than thirty centimeters, not as thick as before, but not thin, and it was still very hard to break.

"You and Daqiang's father used steel bars and pickaxes to break the ice holes?" Li Long asked again.

"And iron shovels," Li Qing Xia said, "Breaking an ice hole takes half an hour, right? But if you want to set a net, you have to break a lot of ice holes. I don't know if a day's work is enough for two nets."

Li Long thought that he hadn't gone to the Little Haizi ice surface to get fish for a long time. There were many useful pieces of equipment in later generations, could they be brought out to try now?

Hand drills might be hard to get, but steel shovels were certainly no problem. That thing was pure steel, very heavy, and the head was like the Zen staff used by Lu Zhishen, not the crescent moon end, but the end for shoveling.

Li Long remembered that twenty or thirty years later in the previous life, some sanitation workers used this thing to chop the solid ice layer on the road surface.

Taking this to chop the ice surface of the Little Haizi, wouldn't it be much more useful than pickaxes and steel bars?

Of course, what Li Long thought of was another small toy. If this thing could be made, only one ice hole would need to be broken to get it done.

"Little Long, do you have any good ideas?" Li Jianguo knew his younger brother had many ideas and asked.

"Well," Li Long said, "I'll go back and make a few things. You prepare the nets these two days, we can try to see if we can set a net to catch some big fish."

To catch big fish, Li Long thought at least a net of four fingers or more should be used, so he added: "I'll go buy two nets."

"Okay, then we'll tidy up the nets and wait for you." Li Qing Xia didn't ask for specifics either. Since Li Long said so, he should be sure.

"Not angry anymore?" Du Chunfang glared at him, "What? Little Long can help you catch fish, so you don't make trouble anymore?" "How can that be called making trouble?" Li Qing Xia was also a bit embarrassed, "Wasn't I anxious?"

He turned his head and asked Li Long: "Little Long, how many days will that take?"

"Two or three days at most." Li Long said, "Mainly because I have to make something, which takes some time. You wait for me to finish it and then come over."

The matter was settled like this.

Li Long asked about other situations in the team. At present, the militia training in the team had ended, and Xu Chengjun had handed over the guns to the township armed forces department. The township received meat sent by the Fourth Team last year, and this year they were thinking if there would be more, but didn't expect there wouldn't be this year.

In fact, Xu Chengjun certainly wanted to hunt, and he was naturally happy to have a better relationship with the township armed forces minister. After all, the township armed forces minister was also a committee member and had a vote. But Xu Haijun took people to the no-man's land in the west and suffered a lot, and waited for a long time, but didn't see anything.

This was a risk, so Xu Chengjun didn't take people over. He also wanted face. Taking a carload of people over without hunting anything would lower his prestige.

Li Long thought this was highly likely related to the large-scale Mongolian gazelle hunting recently. The purchasing station sold more than a thousand hides a while ago, and in this short period of less than a month, it had received two or three hundred Mongolian gazelle hides again.

Those scattered households on the north side had scattered the Mongolian gazelles, and these Mongolian gazelles had become frightened birds, and there was no way to form herds at all. And they were scared of being hunted. The Mongolian gazelles that hadn't been hunted either returned to the depths of the sand nest or took advantage of the night to cross the Wuyi Highway. So Xu Haijun and the others naturally couldn't encounter them when they went over—of course, if they guarded on the road for a whole day, it was still possible to encounter them.

But after all, they were not locals, and going over from a distance, they could only stay for those few hours. Those Mongolian gazelles were scared of being hunted, and naturally were not stupid. Seeing big guys on the road, how could they dare to come over?

Li Long's guess was just like this, and he felt this was highly likely the fact.

But it didn't matter, if you can't hunt, you can't hunt, anyway he didn't rely on this for food, it was completely a hobby.

Now that the old man was angry and spoke, let's settle the fish catching matter first.

After eating lunch at his eldest brother's home, Li Long brought back a few pieces of wood as thick as an arm when he returned.

On the way back, he passed by the blacksmith shop in the township, went in and customized four of those shovels.

Seeing Li Long draw the picture, the blacksmith master understood as soon as he saw it, and asked: "Use a wooden handle or an iron handle? If it's a wooden handle, I'll make the head like an iron shovel, and the wood will be inserted. If it's a direct iron handle, I'll forge the iron rod and this shovel head into one."

"Wooden handle." The iron handle was too heavy, Li Long felt it was unnecessary, as long as the shovel head was heavy and sharp, the effect of chopping down would be very good.

"Five yuan for one." The blacksmith knew Li Long, knew he wasn't short of money, and the price wasn't low, then said, "Rest assured, I will certainly use good materials."

"Okay." Li Long took out ten yuan as a deposit, said he would come to get the goods in two days, and then left.

Being so straightforward, the blacksmith was also happy. The material cost was at most ten yuan, and four could actually be finished in one day. Earning ten yuan a day, he was naturally happy.

Li Long was also quite happy. He drove the jeep into the county, but didn't return to the big courtyard, but instead went to Shicheng.

There were more things in the shop over at Shicheng, and he needed to buy sticky nets, four fingers or more, only then could he catch big fish.

If he broke an ice hole or made such a big formation, only to catch small crucian carp, that was unnecessary.

After all, small crucian carp could also be dug up from the ice hole at present, although the quantity was not large, it was enough to eat.

The old street in Shicheng was becoming more and more lively. Li Long went to Ke Ke Ke Youmu's milk tea shop to drink a bowl of milk tea. This guy was still making naan and pouring milk tea himself, occasionally scolding his waiter.

Although they were old acquaintances, seeing Ke Ke Ke Youmu with a minority face speaking Yudong dialect, Li Long felt it was still quite humorous.

"I tell you, it's because you drive a small car, otherwise I would have persuaded you to open a shop here anyway." Ke Ke Ke Youmu saw there were not many guests, so he sat opposite Li Long and said, "There are really many people here, especially on Sunday morning, there are too many people, doing any business is good."

Li Long knew this point. The prosperity of the old street continued until thirty or forty years later. After all, those who came here were not only Shicheng people, but also more than 300,000 people from the two counties of Shawan and Bima.

Even if one out of a thousand people came, there were not few people here. However, he was already busy enough with that purchasing station, and didn't have the energy to open another copy—the storefront in the county market couldn't be taken care of.

Drank a bowl of milk tea at Ke Ke Ke Youmu's place, warmed up his body, and afterwards Li Long went to buy two four-finger nets, two five-finger nets, bought some bicycle valve rubber called chicken intestines, and bought a few woodworking tools, and then drove back.

Because there were still things to do, he didn't go to his sister's house. Thinking that Li Xia shouldn't be very busy now, right?

After returning to the big courtyard, Li Long parked the jeep, greeted Sister Yang, and then took out the woodworking tools and those few pieces of wood to start processing.

Mingming and Haohao were very curious and surrounded Li Long. They could see that their father had new toys again, and the two children urgently wanted to join in, so Li Long gave each of them a piece of wood and let them toss it themselves.

The thing Li Long wanted to make was actually the net-dragging device he often saw in short videos in later generations.

At present, there was no small electric motor, and he couldn't make that insulated thing, so he simply used the mechanical elasticity of chicken intestine valve rubber.

Last time he brushed short videos, he brushed someone who manually rubbed out such a thing. The principle was quite simple, Li Long felt he should be able to make it.

Actually, it would be fine if there was a relatively large clockwork. But the clockwork in those toys sold on the market at present was too small and couldn't be wound a few times. Now the bought net was twenty-five meters short, and fifty to one hundred meters long, that kind of clockwork on toys couldn't drag that far at all.

Then he could only use this chicken intestine valve rubber.

Making it was actually quite simple. Use wood to carve out a one-foot-long, rocket-head-like sharp head, open a slot and drill a hole horizontally at the tail, insert two vertical sticks on both sides, open slots on the edge of the sticks, and insert the carved wooden pieces as paddles.

Nail the chicken intestine rubber on the vertical sticks on both sides, and fix the other end of the chicken intestine rubber on the rocket head. Rotate the vertical sticks on both sides, let the chicken intestine rubber wrap around this stick, wrap it around seventy or eighty times, and after loosening, the elasticity of the rubber band recovers, and the elastic force can make the paddle pieces rotate, then paddle the water, pushing this rocket head to rush forward fiercely.

It was just that simple.

Making it manually was a bit more troublesome. One was carving this sharp head, carving the stick head sharp, so that it was easy to divide the water, and the resistance of the water would be smaller. Another was the paddle piece. This paddle piece needed to be both thin and strong. Li Long thought about whether to use iron or aluminum pieces to make it.

He was making two-handed preparations. If this net-dragging device could directly drag the net from the water to the end, not to mention dragging fifty meters, if it could drag forty meters one day, that would be enough.

If it couldn't drag forty or fifty meters, dragging twenty or thirty meters would also be fine, at most just break two more ice holes. That is to say, drag the net from one ice hole to the mouth of another ice hole, and then drag it again.

Li Long's plan was to set at least four nets. Then at least four such net-dragging devices needed to be made. If the performance was good, break one ice hole, and drag four nets in four directions.

If the performance was not good, at most break five ice holes. A foot-thick ice layer was not a big problem.

To speak big, he could handle it alone.

Of course, the most important thing at present was to see how the net-dragging device was made. If it was made, it would be fine to go to the Mahe to try it out.

Thinking about how much water the Mahe had now? Forty years later, it dried up in winter... who could have thought that the environmental change would be so fast?

He was thinking while doing it on this side. Mingming secretly hugged away a piece of wood again, Haohao was unwilling, ran over and hugged Li Long's leg to complain to him.

Li Long seriously criticized Mingming, appeased the two, and then continued to be a carpenter.

Soon a wooden rocket head took shape. (End of chapter)