At the dinner table, Harimu said while eating noodles:
"The grass in the pasture is very good this summer. The grass grows well, and our cattle and sheep eat well. In fact, there are also a lot of wild guys here. There are also many deer and roe deer, and you can also see groups of wild goats. These things attract wolves and foxes... Anyway, there is a lot of movement at night."
Li Long listened. Quite yearning for it. I have always been busy, otherwise, I really should have gone to Xia Ranch to have a look.
“Every house has a radio this year. When everyone has nothing to do, it is quite comfortable to ride a horse and follow the sheep. It is quite comfortable to carry a radio. I will bring some batteries when I come back this time. In fact, every house has batteries. I’m just afraid that it won’t be enough after using it.”
Li Long thought of the portable radio given as a reward by the county and said:
"I want to tell you something."
He published his house repair work in the daily newspaper of the autonomous region, and then told Harim about the fact that he was commended and rewarded for it.
"I will buy another radio for this radio. When you go back later, I will put one at your house for your mother to listen to, and the other at Yushanjiang's house."< br>
Halimu nodded. When he arrived at Li Long's house just now, he saw the TV antenna. Li Long also told him that he had a TV and radio at home. Since Li Long had no shortage of them, he could put them in his yard.
“Because of you, I was commended and went to the autonomous region to attend a meeting,” Li Long said with a smile, “So, the honor belongs to me and the reward belongs to you. We are exactly half of the same family.”
Harimu laughed when he heard this.
Li Long asked about the topography and climate conditions in Xia Ranch. Harimu told Li Long that the Xia Ranch is very high, but a large area is actually quite flat, similar to a mountain grassland. There are also rivers, pine trees, and hot springs there. There are also hot springs further away that have not melted all year round. glacier.
Li Long sighed secretly as he listened, this place must be a dream place for hikers in later generations.
After dinner, Li Long drove the tractor and took Harimu to the supply and marketing cooperative again.
He remembered that unit chief Li Xiangqian also had rifle bullets, so he asked Halimu to wait on the tractor and went to the office.
"That herdsman friend of yours wants bullets to kill wolves? That's no problem." Li Xiangqian took the manuscript paper, tore it off, wrote a note, signed his name and handed it to Li Long:
"Take it Go to the security unit and shoot two hundred rounds of ammunition, right?"
"That's enough." Li Long was overjoyed, "Commander, I should have known better. It’s so convenient, I should have contacted you a long time ago.”
“It’s not like you don’t know about our supply and marketing cooperative?” Li Xiangqian scolded with a smile, “You’re still a member of the cooperative, don’t you? Was it formerly a grain procurement team? They went out to purchase grain with guns..."
"Isn't that a grain grab?" Li Long deliberately argued with him.
"Bullshit! What about grabbing grain? There were bandits at that time! When you requisition grain, you have to buy it. When you bring it back, someone will rob it without a gun. Do you understand? You bastard!"
Li Long joked happily and went to the security unit with the note.
The Chief of the Security Unit was a middle-aged man with no smiles. He looked at the note, then at Li Long, and said slowly:
"Xiao Li, right? Two hundred rounds It's exceeded the limit assigned by your Chief Li. Ask Director Wei to sign the note - it's not that I'm making things difficult for you, but you, Chief Li, don't know the new regulations. Our department can only sign for one hundred rounds of ammunition now..."
"Okay. "Yes." Li Long took the note back and went to Director Wei to sign it.
When Director Wei knew that he was getting bullets for the herdsmen brothers in the mountains, he signed the bullet happily and asked Li Long if it was enough.
Li Long naturally said enough, and then took the note to Chief Hou.
Section Chief Hou has prepared bullets for Li Long, and also brought him a new and not old satchel:
"The satchel is a gift for you. Go back and give it to you, Chief Li. Let’s talk about it, don’t just brag about it and learn about the newly issued documents when you have time.”
Li Long nodded in agreement and went to the purchasing department with a satchel of bullets. The words were brought to Li Xiangqian.
"There is still such a rule?" Li Xiangqian was also surprised, "Then I really have to take a look. Lao Hou also gave you a satchel? Yes, it's quite interesting. Okay, you can go about your business. I'll look through the documents to avoid unnecessary trouble. I made him laugh when I met him..."
Li Long blindly guessed that the relationship between Chief Hou and Li Xiangqian should be good, but Chief Hou is not good at joking, talks less, and has a different personality from Chief Li.
He went out with a satchel, went to the tractor, and gave it to Harimu together with the satchel.
“So many?” Harimu was surprised as he held the bullet, “Did you get it from here or buy it? How much did it cost?”
“No money. I just told you. Well, I got a reward, and our unit also got a reward. Now the leaders are more supportive of me and you, and these bullets are considered to support the brothers in the pastoral area." Li Long started the tractor and got on it and said:
"You deserve this too, don't think so much."
Harimu smiled, he didn't think this was what he deserved. In any case, Brother Li Long helped him find so many bullets. At least for the dozen or so yurts in Xia Ranch, everyone will have enough bullets for this summer.
After all, he is not a hunter. He only needs to kill and drive away the malicious wolves and other wild beasts.
More than enough.
Li Long drove the tractor to the department store again. He asked Halimu if he needed to buy anything. Halimu shook his head. Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car. He first bought a portable radio, five large boxes of batteries, and some salt, sugar cubes, and brick tea. It doesn’t matter if you have more necessities, but it will be more troublesome if you have less.
After buying these things, Li Long drove his tractor to the medicinal material company and bought some commonly used medicines.
Li Long had bought these things before when Harimu and the others left, but almost two months have passed. Li Long probably has used a large part of them and needs to make some replenishment.
Putting the medicinal materials in the car, Harimu thought that Li Long should go back to the big yard this time, but he guessed wrong again.
Li Long drove a tractor to the butcher shop of the County Food Company. There are two groups of butcher shops in the county, one selling large meat and the other selling beef and mutton. Big butchers sell meat faster, but beef and mutton are sold a little slower, and there are less items.
“Here are three sheep.” Li Long got off the tractor and said directly to the clerk after entering.
The clerk was a Uighur. He didn't say anything when he saw Li Long. But after hearing Li Long's words, he was stunned for a moment and asked:
"How many do you want?"
"Three. "Li Long repeated Repeatedly, "Crown sheep, three, are there any?"
"Yes, but do you have enough money? Do you have enough tickets?"
Li Long took out a stack of big unity and put it on the On the counter, he took out another stack of meat tickets. He had a lot of meat tickets, but he never used them much. Most of the meat we eat at home comes from the mountains, and no tickets or money are required.
Today is different.
When the clerk looked at the money and tickets, he visually judged that they were enough. He immediately turned around and went to pick up the sheep from the iron hook. He has a scale and a bench scale here, and now he needs to get on the scale. The three Crozier sheep were placed on the scale. Li Long watched the clerk slowly add weight to the scale, and finally calculated it, sixty-eight kilograms.
The small blackboard says that mutton is one dollar and fifteen cents per kilogram, which is cheaper than the market, but it requires a ticket. Li Long was counting money and tickets here, while the clerk over there put the mutton on the counter. When he saw that Li Long didn't take anything, he found a bag to put it in.
If you can buy three sheep, a gift bag is nothing.
It was seventy-eight yuan and two cents. Li Long counted eighty and handed it over. The clerk gave him one yuan and eighty cents, which still smelled of mutton.
Li Long didn't mind it and put this in his pocket together with other money. The clerk also asked:
"Do you want to pick it off?"
"No." Li Long waved his hand, "I took it away directly."
The three sheep were packed. Two bags, the bags are usually larger at this time, one holds two sheep and the other holds one sheep.
Harimu saw Li Long carrying the sheep out directly. He was not sure whether the sheep was bought for him, so he didn't stop it before.
"You can take these two sheep back later and put one at your mother's house. The elderly and children need to replenish their health. Put the other at Yushanjiang's house for the same reason."
"No no. No, Li Long, there is no shortage of meat at home..." Harimu felt that the matter was a bit big this time. "You listen to me." Li Long was more insistent this time, "You brought the other things to the mountains. You can eat meat there, but it is different at home. If there is too little meat, the elderly will be reluctant to eat it, which is harmful to the body. Not good.”
Harimu stopped talking. He knew that Li Long was telling the truth. There was indeed meat at home, and the meat was what Li Long brought there last time. The old man made dried meat and ate it every few days. When I went back yesterday, my mother told me that Li Long slaughtered a sheep when he came to repair the yard. The finger meat they ate that day was very delicious to Nathan and Sasken.
Although the old man just expressed how happy the children were that day, Harimu also knew that part of the reason why the old man and the children were happy was indeed eating meat.
Big chunks of meat.
He said no more.
"That sheep is mine. You see, it's fair. We have three families, one sheep per family." Li Long pointed to the separate bag and said with a smile.
"Okay." Harimu answered briefly.
The tractor drove back to the big yard, and Li Long and Halimu put things on the horse's back together.
"If you can't put it down, I'll drive the tractor to deliver it to you." Li Long watched Harimu put the things on the horse and was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to put them down.
"No. You can put it down." Harry was an expert in this area. He first put the bags containing the two sheep behind the saddle and tied them up, and put the other things in the pockets on both sides of the saddle. The radio was considered a relatively expensive item, so he finally took the box and put it in front of the saddle after getting on the horse.
Watching Halimu put everything together, Li Long also admired it. Not everyone can handle this stuff. But considering that they move around twice a year, they have to put so many things away and take them away immediately. It’s really impossible without this little effort.
After Harimu put away his things, he said goodbye to Li Long and left the big yard on horseback.
It was more than an hour before we returned to the holding point of the animal husbandry team. Harimu first went to Yushanjiang's house to put down the sheep, and made it clear that Li Long had brought them. Yushanjiang's wife had no way to refuse and silently accepted them.
The woman took a knife and started to pack the mutton - in this summer, if the mutton wants to be preserved, it can only be dried.
As for the radio, she had used it before the transition in Yushanjiang and knew how to use it, so she was actually quite happy to see the radio. When unloading the sheep, I turned on the radio and listened to the program. It felt very good.
Halimu returned to his yard, unloaded the things on the horse's back, led the horse to the side and tied it up, got some fodder for it to eat, and then began to process the mutton.
The radio was given to the old lady for her to play with.
After the old lady knew that the sheep and the radio were given by Li Long, she asked Harimu to remember to give Li Long a few more sheep after the sheep came back from the farm. Kazakhs do not have beggars and will help each other. They received help from Li Long and should return it when they are able.
As for the leather and antlers that Harimu brought to Li Long, in their opinion, they were nothing, far less useful than sheep and radios.
This is the difference in values.
Halimu unloaded the sheep silently. He picked off part of the bones, set up a pot in the yard to cook them, and the rest was made into air-dried meat.
Nathan and Susken ran back from school. Yesterday, when Harim came back, he said he would not leave today. The two of them were very happy. They ran back today because they were worried that their father would leave.
Smelling the meat in the pot, both children screamed in surprise. Harimu looked at the two children's happy faces, and he also smiled.
Early the next morning, after Harimu sent Nathan and Susken to school, he rode a horse and took his things to the mountains.
Three days later, he arrived at his yurt in Xia Ranch. His wife was not there and had gone to herd the sheep on horseback. After putting some things in the yurt, he rode to find Yushanjiang.
The Yushanjiang family’s yurt is not far from Harimu’s family. At this time, Yushanjiang is not in the yurt either, and is herding sheep on the grassland.
Halimu told Yushanjiang about the matter, especially the two families’ yards and water conditions, as well as the children’s schoolbags and sheep.
Yu Shanjiang pulled a blade of grass, thought for a while and said:
"Li Long, the real Duosen. In fact, this matter is also very easy to handle. He takes care of us His family gave him so many things, so why don’t we give him something too?
Aren't there a bunch of wolves that are very annoying these days? They often come here at night and want to steal sheep. If you get the bullet back, we can kill that pack of wolves in the next two days.
If you encounter those leopards later, shoot them down if you can. Those leathers were all given to him when we returned home. "
Halimu nodded, this is indeed a good idea. Now that we have so many bullets in our hands, if we share one share, one family can get dozens of rounds. With these bullets, we can hit A lot of things.
After Harimu left, Li Long sat in the yard. Start unloading the sheep. In fact, domestic mutton definitely tastes better than wild goats.
Li Long has another way to eat meat for free. Who doesn’t want to eat meat? Secondly, of course, it’s also a taste of the beast.
In fact, this one sheep is not enough. He plans to buy another sheep tomorrow. There are certainly not enough sheep at the moment. He planned to keep half of it for himself and take the remaining half back to his father-in-law Gu Boyuan and Uncle Luo.
And a whole sheep was placed with the eldest brother. After all, the father, mother, eldest brother, sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, and four children had to eat. Anything less would not be enough.
When Gu Xiaoxia came back, she saw Li Long untying the sheep, so she asked about the situation.
Knowing that Li Long had brought sheep to Harimu and Yushanjiang's families, Gu Xiaoxia nodded and said:
"That's right. They are both old people and children, so they need to strengthen their nutrition."
"I will buy another sheep tomorrow and deliver it to the team." Li Long said his plan, "Your father, Uncle Luo, and my mother and father will all share some of it."
< br>Gu Xiaoxia doesn't care much about this. Her husband can make money, so he has the final say on how to spend it. Besides, it felt fair and reasonable for Li Long to spend money on these aspects, so she was naturally happy.
Gu Xiaoxia went to cook, while Li Long continued to pack the meat. When the weather is hot, some meat needs to be air-dried, some meat needs to be burned, and some meat can be soaked first.
After dinner, while the two of them were watching TV, Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia intermittently about hunting in the mountains with Harimu and Yushanjiang when they first entered the mountains, including this time Harimu came to take the The leather, antlers and antlers.
"If those things were to be sold, they would be worth more than a thousand yuan. He gave them to us as he said." Li Long sighed and said:
"It's my duty to take care of their family. When I buy things for them, even if the money is deducted from this, when will it be deducted?
Do you believe it or not? When they come back from work in winter, they will definitely be there again. They will give you a bunch of skins, and they will be free of charge. If this continues, I don’t know if I will owe you anything.”
Gu Xiaoxia laughed when she heard this. She knew that Li Long was not short of money, and her family was not short of money. She also knew that if Li Long wanted to give money to Harimu and the others, they would not want it. She thought for a while and said:
"Actually, this is quite good. For them, their family is taken care of, and they feel at ease.
As for the leather antlers, I think in their opinion, Its value is not necessarily more expensive than the well pressed at home.
Don't think too much or put too much pressure on yourself. Leave the things here. Let's give them things slowly. Anyway, I think the relationship between you should be a lifelong one. Take your time and don't rush. ”
Li Long nodded, that was all.
Early the next morning, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long drove the tractor to the food company’s butcher shop, and bought another sheep. He pulled me and ran to the team. Go.
When he arrived at the team, he first delivered the meat to Gu Boyuan and Old Uncle Luo, and then went to his eldest brother’s yard.
My wife, Du Chunfang, was not there. .
"Your eldest brother and the others went to work in the fields." Du Chunfang said with a smile, "The grass in the melon field has grown again and they went to weed it. Are you okay?"
Li Long lifted the sheep down and said:
"I bought a sheep and brought it back to you to eat. They are not here, Then I'll pick the sheep first, and then I'll look at the pot and roast the meat."
"Zhongli." Du Chunfang nodded first, and then complained, "There is meat at home. What kind of sheep are you buying? It’s a waste of money.”
“Isn’t that money just spent?”
He planned to wait for his eldest brother to come back and explain the precautions for growing melons. (End of this chapter)