Siheyuan: A Very Happy Era

Chapter 74 Winter Hunting
"Team One is here!"

"Team Two is here too!"

Soon, the two production team accountants who were responsible for counting the number of people responded loudly.

"Ok!"

Hearing this, Xu Guangfu nodded with satisfaction, and then continued loudly: "Today is the annual winter fishing for our Jinshanbao Production Brigade. The task given to us is 5,000 kilograms. We will try to complete the task today. Do you have confidence?"

"Have!"

When everyone heard that the workload was 500 kilograms less than last year, they instantly burst into great enthusiasm.

Because the amount of tasks is smaller, it means that more can be allocated to the villagers.

"it is good!"

Seeing how motivated everyone was, Xu Guangfu quickly struck while the iron was hot and announced loudly: "Then we will follow the rules of previous years. Each production team will be responsible for half of the task. The production team that finishes first will get to pick the fish first."

"Now, everyone, grab your gear, and head towards the river bay under the leadership of the production team leader."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone went into the warehouse to get their gear, such as fishing nets, large ropes, waterline ropes, hooks, twisting spears, piercing poles, ice picks, ice breakers, scoops, flags, wind lanterns, axes, baskets, etc.

Since the population of the village was not large, there was no alternative team leader for the production team. Basically, the team leaders were concurrently held by the top two cadres of the brigade. That is to say, the team leader of Team 1 was Xu Guangfu, and the team leader of Team 2 was Sun Maocai.

The three people, including the women's director Ma Chunmei, the militia company commander Xu Guanglu, and the brigade accountant Xu Yuliang, were responsible for their own affairs.

In addition, because the production team did not have its own warehouse, all the materials of the production team were stored together in the brigade warehouse and managed by Ma Changshun, the brigade custodian.

Usually, when Xu Guangfu and Sun Maocai were busy with the brigade's affairs, the accountant and team leader selected by the production team would manage the production team.

Among them, the accountant of Team 1 was a square-faced man in his thirties named Xu Yu'an. He was the nephew of Xu Guangfu, the cousin of Xu Yuliang, and the uncle of Xu Dani.

The accountant of the second team was a little old man in his fifties named Sun Zhongping. He was the uncle of Sun Maocai and the cousin of the driver Lao Sun.

In addition, each production team had two team leaders, a pigherd, a shepherd and a cart driver.

The above people, together with ordinary members, made up the entire production team.

With Qu Yinfeng's detailed introduction, Li Guoqiang quickly gained a more comprehensive understanding of the Jinshanbao Production Brigade.

Then, Qu Yinfeng took Xu Dani to join Team 1 and Group 2, while Li Guoqiang walked towards Xu Guangfu and Xu Yu'an who were standing at the door of the warehouse.

"Uncle Fu, Brother An!"

"Qiangzi, you came just in time. Considering that your educated youth group is not familiar with winter fishing, your educated youth group will be mainly responsible for collecting the fish. Yu'an will tell you what to do when the time comes. Now you can take others to help get the gear!"

When Xu Guangfu saw Li Guoqiang coming, he hurriedly opened his mouth to explain.

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the donkey cart on the other side.

"Go ahead! Bring your men over here and take all these things away. Once we get to the creek bay, I'll tell you what to do!"

Seeing this, Xu Yu'an immediately pointed at the buckets, ladles, baskets and other things placed at the door of the warehouse, and started talking with a chuckle.

"to make!"

Li Guoqiang didn't waste any words after hearing this. He just nodded and agreed, then turned around and waved to Shang Xiuzhen and others who were standing not far away.

When Shang Xiuzhen and others saw his actions, they hesitated for a moment, but finally walked over slowly.

"Take these things and follow us to the creek bay. Be careful not to get separated on the way!"

Li Guoqiang didn't bother to be polite with Shang Xiuzhen and the others. When they came over, he immediately gave them instructions. After that, he took the lead in picking up two wooden barrels and hurriedly caught up with the main group.

Upon seeing this, Shang Xiuzhen and the others first looked at each other silently, then hurriedly stepped forward, picked up their things, and followed Li Guoqiang.

After a while, the donkey cart pulling the capstan and the mule cart pulling the fishing net also started slowly, drove out of the village from the threshing ground, and then headed towards the small river bay in the southwest.

After more than half an hour, the group crossed a large field and successfully arrived at a river covered with ice and snow.

This river originates from the Guanbai Mountains in Jilin Province, passes through Chang County, then merges into the Liaohe River in Tieling, and finally flows into the Bohai Sea. It is the mother river on which their village depends for survival.

In addition, because the river forms a small river bay more than one thousand meters long and one hundred meters wide at the foot of the mountain when passing through their village, it can bring five to six thousand kilograms of fish to their village every winter.

These fish products can not only be exchanged with the supply and marketing cooperatives for groceries such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, soap, matches, needles and thread, and candy, but also provide every household with an extra delicacy during the Chinese New Year.

It can be said that the annual winter fishing activity is their village’s favorite activity before the New Year.

At this time, there was still a month and a half left before the Spring Festival of 1969, and many things needed for the New Year had to be purchased now.

The results of winter fishing are directly related to whether they can have a good new year.

Therefore, basically everyone who could come from every household came.

Before long, more than 200 people gathered on the river. Then, at Xu Guangfu's command, Xu Guanglu immediately took his men with some small flags and started looking for fish on the river.

Fish lying place, as the name suggests, is the place where fish lie, usually in deep water.

The person who is responsible for finding fish nests is called the fish head.

The fish boss is the commander-in-chief of the entire winter fishing activities. He has the final say on where to dig holes to set the nets and where to draw the nets. If he makes a wrong judgment, the losses will be huge.

Therefore, Xu Guanglu spent more than twenty minutes to find two fish nests and marked the entrance and exit of the net with small flags.

Immediately afterwards, Xu Guangfu and Sun Maocai led the production team members forward and started to dig at the network entrance and exit with ice picks.

After the entrance and exit were dug, they drew an oval with the entrance and exit as the two ends and the length of the fishing net as the maximum width. Then they dug a small hole every three meters on the arc of the oval.

Then, they slowly lowered the fishing net tied with a large rope and water line into the river from the lower net port. At the same time, they asked someone to tie the water line to the piercing rod, and then pass the water line through the two rows of small holes on the side, one by one, under the ice, and finally meet together at the exit.

Then, they pulled the two merged water lines up from the outlet of the net, revealing two large ribbons connected at the back.

Then, they tied the big rope tightly with a hook, and pulled it to the winch that had been installed not far away and hooked it.

At this point, the work of casting the net is completed, and the next step is to let the donkey and mule slowly pull the winch to collect the net.

During this period, Li Guoqiang mainly took Shang Xiuzhen and others to help other villagers and see some new things at the same time.

If he hadn't seen it on the spot, he wouldn't have known that this is how the nets are set and collected during winter fishing.

As the donkeys and mules continued to work hard, the capstan slowly started to turn.

At this time, an experienced person can judge how much the net can yield by observing how hard the donkeys and mules are working.

And those naughty kids had gathered early at the one-meter-wide outlet of the net, staring at the two big lines that were being pulled up without blinking, wanting to be the first to see the big fish that were caught.

The next moment, a splash suddenly appeared on the water surface, and then a fat, golden carp was seen being pulled out of the water with the fishing net.

Seeing this, the group of naughty kids cheered loudly with excitement on their faces.

"Oh! A fish!"

(End of this chapter)