Chapter 9 Breaking ice also requires skills When Li Long was almost reaching Xiaohaizi, he heard someone calling him. He turned his head and found that the person coming was Tao Daqiang from the village. Tao Daqiang is a big guy in the village, one year younger than Li Long. He is a bit silly and the young people in the village don't play with him much. When Li Long first came, he had a good relationship with him, but after he got together with Gu Ermao, he followed the crowd and distanced himself from him. However, every time Tao Daqiang saw Li Long, he would greet him cheerfully and seemed quite happy. He still treated Li Long as a friend. Later, after the household contract responsibility system was implemented, Tao Daqiang's father gave the family land to his brother to farm. Since he had no land to farm, he went to the mountains to start a side business with those who dug Fritillaria. At first, he came back once or twice a year, and every time he came back, he would visit Li Long. I would bring some things every time I visited Li Long. But after that, he didn't come back for several years. Later, Li Long only heard from his family that Tao Daqiang had settled down in the mountains and had his leg broken by a wild boar. After that, there was no news. This is an honest child. Li Long feels that he was really sorry for his sincerity in his previous life. "Daqiang, what are you doing here?" "I heard you were back, so I came to play with you this morning. But your family said you went to the small lake to catch fish." Tao Daqiang walked up to Li Long breathlessly, took the bag from him and said, "Give me the bag. You're a worker, and you can't do this as well as I can."
Li Long laughed, punched Tao Daqiang and said: "Okay, when we catch the fish we'll split it in half." "Hehe." Tao Daqiang laughed. With a companion, it was easier to walk to Xiaohaizi. "Look, there are quite a few rabbit footprints." Tao Daqiang said, pointing to the footprints in the red willow bushes next to him. "If we get some thin wires and put some traps on them, we might be able to find it." Li Long said as he looked at the footprints which looked quite fresh. "You can play?" Tao Daqiang looked at Li Long with some surprise. "When I was in the factory, there was a co-worker who was from Qingshui River. He told me that there were many hunters there." Li Long lied without blushing. "Try it when you have time." There is no pork at home, so if I want to eat meat, I have to find a way myself. Fortunately, there are more wild animals outside now, and most of the people in the village are farmers. At this time, there are no various videos on mobile phones to teach you how to do these things, and even if there are people with the same idea as Li Long, most of them are just starting to explore. So, there are a lot of opportunities. When they arrived at Xiaohaizi, Li Long chose a large piece of flat ice near the reeds, and he and Tao Daqiang cleared the snow off the ice first. This was mainly caused by Tao Daqiang. After he cleared the snow, he asked: "Brother Long, why did you choose this place?" "Because the water here is mainly inhabited by carp and crucian carp, these fish are timid and love grass, so when it's cold in winter, they mainly huddle together by the reeds to keep warm." "So that's how it is!" Tao Daqiang suddenly understood and looked like he had learned something new. Li Long smiled, started to use the crowbar, and smashed it down at the chosen spot. The ice was frozen very solid, and a threaded steel crowbar would only make a small hole less than the size of a fist when it was pried into it, and it would hurt my hand. "I'll do it!" Tao Daqiang took the pickaxe, raised it above his head, and smashed it hard on the small hole.
Li Long saw that when he was hammering the stone, his hands made a loose clenched motion and he nodded secretly, thinking that at least this way his hands wouldn't be damaged. The pickaxe was very powerful, and with one blow, a plate-sized piece of ice was dug out. Li Long took advantage of this gap and smashed it with another stick. The two of them took turns digging like this, and in less than ten minutes, they dug a pit that was one and a half meters square and more than twenty centimeters deep. "Try the size." Li Long stopped, put down the crowbar, took the scoop net and tried it. He found that the opening was still a little small, so Tao Daqiang took a pickaxe and began to expand the hole. In just a short while, both of them had steam coming out of their heads and sweat on their faces. Seeing this, Li Long turned around and went to the reeds. He picked up a large bundle of hairy reeds that others had cut and discarded, came to the cleared ice surface, took out a lighter from his pocket and lit a fire. Reeds were a good thing in those days. In winter, they could be used to weave reed mats and make reed bundles for covering houses. The county paper mill also collected reed bundles for making paper. There are two reed lakes around the village, and a lot of reeds grow in the small lake. However, soon after the arrival of winter, when the ice is frozen enough to withstand people, the villagers will organize people to harvest them as a side income, which can also be regarded as an income for year-end settlement. Now all the tall reeds in the small lake have been cut, leaving only some hairy reeds, which are useless and have been discarded. This is a typical example of living off the land, and at this time, every opportunity to make money will be seized. Unlike later generations, the reeds are useless except for the leaves used to make rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival. If the reeds are not harvested that year, it will affect the growth of new reeds the following year. Therefore, before Li Long was reborn, the reed lakes surrounding the village had disappeared, and the old reeds that accumulated year after year in the small lakes made the new reeds no longer as lush and green as they once were. With the heat, the two people didn't have to worry about catching a cold from sweating, but at this time, they basically felt hot on their faces and cold on their backs, so they didn't stop for long and continued working with their tools. In less than an hour, the ice hole was completed. Tao Daqiang couldn't wait to throw away the pickaxe, took the scoop net, bent down and scooped the fish into the water. I lifted the scoop net, but found nothing but half a net of broken ice. Seeing Tao Daqiang's disappointed expression, Li Long said with a smile: "Don't worry, there's a hole in the ice, you have to wait for the fish to react." Tao Daqiang said awkwardly: "Before winter, it was very convenient to eat fish. But now that the ice has frozen, I haven't tasted meat for a long time..." Li Long found it strange. Tao Daqiang's family also raised pigs, so how could he not have meat? "Has your pig also become a superstitious pig?" he couldn't help asking. "No. My family slaughtered a pig, and my dad sold half of the meat. Most of the rest is at my brother's house. We don't cook it at home on weekdays. My dad said we would eat it during the Chinese New Year..." Well, every family has its own problems. Seeing Tao Daqiang lower his head, Li Long quickly changed the subject and pointed to a place more than ten meters away and said: "While we still have time, let's make another hole there." "Okay, you have the final say." This time it was cooked, and forty minutes later, another ice hole was made. "Da Qiang, let's go and see if there are any fish in the front." Li Long said, holding the scoop net. "Okay!" Tao Daqiang followed Li Long to the previous hole with great anticipation.
A thin layer of ice had now formed on the ice hole. Li Long first went down to the half-carved foothold in the ice hole, then gently knocked on the thin ice with his fist. He saw a fish shadow flash by in the water. Feeling a little excited and expectant, Li Long slowly reached the scoop net into the water. Then, holding the net with both hands, he bent over and stirred the water vigorously with his body tilted! Feeling something moving in the scoop net, Li Long immediately pulled back, leaned his whole body on the ice behind him, and lifted the scoop net up with force! "Fish, there are fish! Big fish! Big crucian carp!" Tao Daqiang's voice changed! (End of this chapter)