Chapter 926: Testing the Waters in the Mahe: Are There Any Fish?

Before nightfall, Li Long had whittled out two rocket heads, though his efficiency wasn't very high.

However, he didn't mind; there was no need to rush, and besides, the tools available now weren't as handy as those from later generations—if he were a professional carpenter, the current set of tools would actually be quite good.

But he wasn't one; he had simply grown accustomed to using those very convenient manual or electric tools in his past life, so now, handling these more traditional implements felt somewhat awkward.

Regardless, there had been some gains.

The two children were also having a wonderful time; the two sticks Li Long had given them had long been cast aside, while the two finished rocket heads had become their trophies, clutched in their arms as they swayed along beside Li Long.

When Gu Gu Xiaoxia returned from work, Mingming immediately abandoned Li Long and ran off to show Gu Gu Xiaoxia his trophy.

It was the same when Gu Gu Bo Yuan arrived; looking at the two rocket heads, Gu Gu Bo Yuan patted both children on the head in approval and then asked Li Long:

"What are you making here? Making stakes for brooms?"

Stakes for brooms required leaving a forked knot at the tail end to bind the bristles, which these clearly were not.

"I'm preparing to make a few trawl devices," Li Long said with a smile. "The fish in Little Little Haizi are getting hard to catch nowadays; smashing ice holes all day only yields a few kilograms of fish, and no big ones either. With over a month left until the New Year, we'll need a big carp on the table to celebrate."

What he said was the truth, yet not entirely the truth; catching fish was Li Li Qing Xia's lingering worry, and Li Long was merely seizing this opportunity to bring the matter to the forefront.

"Then how do you do it? Drag this net into Little Little Haizi?" Gu Gu Bo Yuan, having attended university, might have studied politics and law, but at least his logical thinking was sound.

"Install paddle blades at the rear, tighten them with chicken intestines like a spring; the elastic tension will flick the blades to push it forward, dragging the net along," Li Long explained with a simple gesture.

"Then one or two chicken intestines certainly won't suffice; they'd need to be twisted into double strands, with seven or eight linked together, right? Even the rubber bands used in hospitals might not be enough."

"Actually, I considered cutting rubber bands from waste tires, but that material tears easily; if the cut isn't perfectly even, it snaps under tension, and the longer it is, the more likely it is to break."

As the two men discussed this, Mingming and Little Haizi grew somewhat impatient; clutching their rocket heads, they headed to the kitchen, where Little Haizi, seeing the fire beneath the stove, immediately tried to stuff his rocket head into the flames—he knew wood could burn.

"Heavens, no, this can't be burned!" Although Sister Yang hadn't been outside, she knew Li Long had spent the entire afternoon making these things; if they were burned, Little Haizi's bottom would surely get a few smacks, so she hastily snatched the rocket head away.

Mingming chuckled and said to his younger brother, "Hit you."

He meant that Father would hit him; unconvinced, Little Haizi tried to snatch the rocket head back from Mingming to shove it into the stove as well, and the two children began to quarrel.

Hearing the children's clamor, Li Long hurried into the kitchen to separate the two little rascals; upon learning the cause, he spoke seriously to Little Haizi:

"This cannot be burned; the wood shavings I planed off earlier can be burned, but this cannot."

Little Haizi felt somewhat disappointed; since Father said it couldn't be burned, then it couldn't be burned.

"Alright, wash your hands and let's eat," Sister Yang said as she began setting the table, calling everyone to dinner.

At the dinner table, Gu Gu Bo Yuan ate while discussing the principles and potential improvements of this trawl device with Li Long.

Li Long felt that university students from that era truly held high value; with just a few words, they could clarify matters clearly, and Gu Gu Bo Yuan even offered Li Long reasonable suggestions.

"In a couple of days, once you've finished making it, I'll take a day off from the procurement station and go over to see it myself," Gu Gu Bo Yuan said, growing increasingly enthusiastic until he firmly made his decision.

Li Long reflected that this made sense; the procurement station had been open for so many days, and according to the original plan, it should have closed for four or five days a month, but because business was quite good and Gu Gu Bo Yuan himself had little else to do, typically they only rested one or two days a month.

Since his father-in-law had this idea, Li Long naturally supported it.

"Mm, tell those middlemen in advance that we're taking two days off," Li Long said. "Little Sun didn't get any leave for his wedding either; let the young couple rest for a bit as well."

"Good," Gu Gu Bo Yuan thought for a moment and agreed.

He hadn't returned to the brigade in quite some time and didn't even know the condition of his own courtyard.

Although he knew he would most likely live in the county town for the rest of his life and was unlikely to return, that courtyard still carried too many memories; the people he knew were still at the brigade, making it feel like an anchor point nonetheless.

His hometown counted as one too, but it was becoming increasingly blurred; indeed, Gu Gu Bo Yuan was nearly unable to recall the faces of those deceased or missing relatives.

"Then let's aim for the weekend; we'll go back too," Gu Gu Xiaoxia said. "Let's go back and see how the brigade is doing; it's been a while since Mingming and Little Haizi have seen their grandparents, their elder uncle and aunt, and their older brothers and sisters."

With the whole family planning to return, Li Long naturally had no objections and was even somewhat pleased.

The next day, he continued making rocket heads; by late morning, he had finished the remaining two rocket heads along with the vertical sticks for inserting the paddle blades and assembled them; next came the more troublesome paddle blades; Li Long first tried whittling wood to fit against the vertical sticks but found it wouldn't work, ultimately deciding to use sheet metal instead.

The advantage of sheet metal was that it could be cut into desired shapes with large shears and was easy to secure; when cutting the metal, he left extra material where it would insert into the vertical stick, then inserted the metal, wrapped it around the stick twice, and flared it out to form the paddle blades, thus securing it firmly.

Li Long went to the Hardware and Chemical Store to buy galvanized iron sheets, brought them back, and began cutting; although his hands got cut twice, he finally managed to finish.

Next came the final step: attaching the power device—the elastic mechanism made by binding chicken intestines together.

One end of the chicken intestines was nailed to the rocket head, splitting into two sides that needed to be of equal length; Li Long directly connected seven strands, and with the two-centimeter knots excluded, the bound chicken intestines were approximately one meter long.

The two strands were separated, with one end of each nailed at the one-third mark below the rocket head, and the other ends nailed to the vertical stick; the method of connecting this vertical stick to the rocket head involved drilling a horizontal hole in the tail of the rocket head to insert the vertical stick, or rather, after inserting the horizontal stick, paddle blades would be made on both ends.

The diameter of the hole at the tail of the rocket head was slightly larger than the horizontal stick, allowing the horizontal stick to rotate freely.

To ensure the horizontal stick didn't deviate when rotated by the tension of the chicken intestine rubber bands, Li Long hammered two small nails into the horizontal stick at the position touching the body of the rocket head; the nails were driven in halfway, serving as a balancing position—much like a fixed pin.

After securing the chicken intestine rubber bands, Li Long held the rocket head in one hand and turned the horizontal stick with the other to wind up the paddle blades.

The horizontal stick wasn't long, leaving a distance of fifteen centimeters on each side of the rocket head; this length was actually a bit too long, but Li Long couldn't make it smaller; he had strength and ideas, but lacked somewhat in technique.

Bigger and wider would have to do; as long as it worked, that was fine.

Once wound sufficiently, with the rubber bands extremely tight, Li Long let go, and the paddle blades, about the size of a child's fist, began spinning rapidly, generating a gust of wind.

Li Long's senses were keen; he could feel a very slight, subtle sensation of the rocket head trying to surge upward.

Ordinary people basically couldn't feel it, but he did.

Watching the paddle blades spin for over ten seconds before stopping, Li Long felt slightly dissatisfied.

The power wasn't sufficient, and the speed of the blades wasn't fast enough; considering the resistance underwater, with such speed and duration, it probably wouldn't be able to drag the net forty or fifty meters away.

Since the rocket heads and such were already fixed and couldn't be changed, the only option left was to lengthen the chicken intestine rubber bands.

However, even with the original rubber bands over a meter long, winding them onto the stick already created a large knot; lengthening them further would cause them to tangle with the pins and paddle blades, instead making malfunctions more likely.

Li Long thought for a moment and suddenly understood.

When he turned the stick again to wind the rubber bands tight, he pulled hard on the bands with one hand, so that the bands were wound on while already under tension, possessing inherent power; thus, when fully wound and released, the paddle blades spun much faster.

Previously, the winding method had been wrong, failing to fully utilize the potential of these over-one-meter-long rubber bands.

Sure enough, after winding tight and releasing this time, the paddle blades spun like wind-and-fire wheels, the wind they generated lifting scattered snow from the ground; this speed should be sufficient, and Li Long felt quite satisfied.

Next came the testing phase.

Of course, the work wasn't finished yet; Li Long hammered another nail into the tail of the rocket head, not driving it all the way in, then used pliers to bend the nail, so that the end of the net line could be tied there later.

Checking the time, he saw it was nearly dinner time, so Li Long decided to test it after eating; he first prepared some ropes, then thought better of it and directly brought two of the nets he had bought; whether testing with ropes or nets, both methods could determine the durability of this trawl device.

After finishing lunch, Li Long told Sister Yang a few words, then drove the jeep to the banks of the Mahe.

The Mahe's current was still quite strong; the area near the bridge was unsuitable, mainly because there was no accessible water on either side beneath the bridge.

So he drove the jeep downstream along the river—there were tire tracks by the riverside, indicating someone had been here, though he didn't know for what purpose.

After driving over two hundred meters downstream from the east bank, the tire tracks vanished, and Li Long stopped.

He got out of the vehicle, looked at the riverside, and saw it was now a gravel beach, marked with footprints of people who had walked down through the snow.

In winter, the Mahe's water volume was much smaller than in summer; one had to walk twenty or thirty meters across the gravel beach from the bank to reach the water. Originally, the gravel beach was covered in snow, but now it bore many footprints leading all the way to the river's edge; he couldn't tell whether these people had come to view the river or to collect stones.

Carrying his gear and walking toward the water, Li Long thought about how, in his previous life, someone had collected seed jade by the Yulong River, saying that every flood was the best time to find jade.

Here at the Mahe, the period of receding water each winter was also an excellent time for collecting jade—as the water retreated, stones on the riverbed were exposed, allowing those with a keen eye to distinguish jade from ordinary rock.

When he reached the riverside, he saw ice forming in some places; between the bank and the water lay a strip one or two meters wide devoid of snow, showing signs of being dug up—this must be where people had been collecting.

Li Long looked left and right, found a slightly calm backwater bend, and decided to try his luck there.

Although it was the low-water season, this section of the Mahe was still two or three hundred meters wide, only the water was somewhat shallower.

First, he tied a rope to the nail at the rear of the rocket head, then attached a stone to the other end of the rope. The rope was over thirty meters long; he worried that if the rocket head dragged too fast and with too much force beyond his expectations, it might pull the entire rope away, making recovery impossible.

After securing the knots, he began winding the rubber band made from chicken intestines to build up tension.

Li Long silently counted, winding at least thirty turns, which should be sufficient; holding the rocket head in one hand and pressing down the crossbar with the other, he approached the water's edge, carefully aligned the direction, and released it—the direction had to be precise, otherwise the rocket head would run backward.

The moment he let go, the rocket head shot forward violently, its rear paddles spinning wildly, dragging the rope as it swiftly crossed the river and surged ahead with tremendous force.

Li Long quickly grabbed the stone tied to the rope; soon, after more than ten seconds, the rope reached its limit, and he felt a strong pulling force transmit through his hand—quite substantial.

The rocket head's forward momentum abruptly stalled, then slowly began drifting downstream with the current.

It seemed setting a net here wouldn't work. Li Long had brought two nets intending to see if large fish could be caught in the Mahe, but since the river was flowing, his homemade simple towing device clearly couldn't drag the net directly to the opposite bank; without anything to anchor it midway, the net would simply drift with the water, making the chance of catching fish slim.

Li Long pulled the rope to retrieve the towing device, swapped it for another, and tried again.

Apart from one tendency to veer off course—likely because the crossbar wasn't perfectly even on both sides, or the paddles differed in size, resulting in inconsistent water propulsion efficiency—it could be fixed with some adjustments back home.

After testing all four rocket heads, Li Long still felt somewhat unwilling to give up. He piled three rocket heads together, took the remaining one with a net, and walked further downstream. Continuing on, he found a section where the river was shallower, with a gravel beach emerging from the water in the middle, splitting the river into two branches.

Where that gravel beach extended eastward, some ice had formed; Li Long thought he could set the net there—not necessarily blocking the entire river, but at least angling the net across so it wouldn't just be swept straight downstream by the current.

Looking around and seeing no one nearby, Li Long tied one end of a four-finger mesh net to a large stone and the other end to the nail on the towing device, then began winding up the tension.

Once sufficient tension was built, Li Long aimed at a spot two or three meters in front of the nearest ice floe to his bank, crouched down, and placed the towing device into the water.

The towing device swiftly darted across the water toward the opposite bank.

Although the current wasn't rapid, it still pushed the towing device several meters downstream; fortunately, Li Long had reserved extra positioning, otherwise the net wouldn't have reached the intended location.

The rocket head surged forward, instantly dragging the net at Li Long's feet into the water, immediately slowing the towing device's speed—clearly, towing a rope differed from towing a net.

Fortunately, this towing device had enough power; eventually, the rocket head dragged the net all the way to the ice layer, where it got stuck in the snow and ice.

From Li Long's vantage point, a small portion of the net remained above water; he smoothed out the net, threw the remainder into the water, then pushed the stone closer to the water's edge to erase any traces of the net along the bank.

Looking into the water, one could faintly discern a net line gradually disappearing beneath the surface.

Li Long surveyed his surroundings; since this spot wasn't very secluded, he walked further downstream, paced back and forth for a while to scramble his footprints, then returned to where he had tested the towing devices, collected them, and went back to his vehicle.

As he drove onto the bridge, he glanced southward and noticed someone was already collecting stones by the water on the southern bank.

He felt somewhat worried about the net he had set, but then reasoned that since he hadn't retrieved it yet, if someone else took the catch, so be it; thus, he simply drove back.

Returning to the large courtyard, he parked the car; clearly, Mingming and Haohao heard the noise and ran out from the house, with Sister Yang following behind.

The two children asked Li Long to play with them, so he accompanied them in playing around the courtyard.

At dinner, Gu Gu Bo Yuan asked Li Long how things had gone; Li Long replied while eating:

"Everything's ready. Today I went to the Mahe to test it; on the surface, the net can be dragged into position, but I don't know how it is beneath the ice. I also set a net in the Mahe; I'll go check the results first thing tomorrow morning."

"You set a net in the Mahe?" Gu Gu Bo Yuan asked with some surprise. "Want to see if there are fish inside?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I thought," Li Long explained. "I've never heard of anyone catching fish in the Mahe, but the reservoirs fed by the Mahe's tributaries and Manas Lake downstream should definitely have fish. I figured there must be fish in this river too; I just don't know what species or how abundant they are."

"Then let's see tomorrow. There used to be fishing in the Mahe area in the past, but not in recent years. For one thing, during flood season the water was too massive; later, many places along both banks became suitable for fishing, plus the population in Northern Xinjiang itself was sparse, so nobody pursued this trade anymore."

Gu Gu Bo Yuan knew slightly more about the past conditions of Ma County than Li Long did—fragmented bits, that is. Regarding systematic knowledge, Li Long actually knew more, since in later generations, short videos and online platforms had revealed much material that was originally found only in documents or legends.

The information explosion of later eras was unimaginable to people of the 1980s; many things once called secrets were, in later times, circulated quite casually.

Of course, distinguishing truth from falsehood was another matter.

The next day, before breakfast, Li Long started the car and drove to the banks of the Mahe; he wanted to check whether the net was still there and, if so, whether it had caught any fish.

It was already the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month; the Mahe banks were even colder than the large courtyard in the county town. Although Li Long had anticipated this and dressed very warmly, wearing a fur coat over his clothes, he still couldn't help shivering once he stepped out of the car.

Carrying a urea sack, he hurried to the spot where he had set the net. With no one around, Li Long immediately spotted the stone he had previously used to tie the net.

He quickly approached, lifted the stone, searched for the rope end of the net, untied it, and gave a tug; he felt something in the water struggling vigorously.

The net had caught fish!

PS: Thanks to reader Yi Suo Yan Yu Ta Shan Dian for the donation; thanks to readers 20240309205317791, E Yu De Yan Lei l, ren_cd, Li Yanpeng_db, and others for their donations; thank you all for your subscriptions. Today I went to pick up my medical checkup report; the doctor said I was malnourished and advised me to eat more lean meat. When I went to ship dried fruits, I took the opportunity to buy an oxtail, stewed it with Chinese yam for two hours, and enjoyed the meat, soup, and bones. Felt great. (The above doesn't count toward word payment) (End of chapter)