Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 19 Weaving Baskets to Catch Fish
"Everyone, pay attention. There is a Heigou sentry ahead. Be alert, hold the rudder, and watch the clear and muddy water."

The raft was drifting in the river, and the sound of a water crow on the fore row came from the front row.

Upon hearing this, the guys in the platoon perked up, tightened their oars, and stared at the water ahead.

"Look ahead, what is that? Is it clouds or fog, coming towards us in a dark way?" Suddenly, someone exclaimed.

The sky was originally clear, but suddenly black clouds rose from the northwest horizon. In an instant, the sky became dark, and strong winds carrying water vapor came over.

As the saying goes, "Dragons walk in the clouds, tigers walk in the wind; when dragons and tigers travel, wind and rain follow them."

This scene before them made the trees feel panic and inexplicably fearful.

The raft had not yet reached Heigoumen when we saw a huge mountain pressing down from the front, which made people feel even more nervous.

The water in Heigoumen turned black, and the strong wind blew up huge waves, which kept hitting the rocks at the sentry mouth.

At this time, raindrops as big as beans began to fall down with a crackling sound.

Everyone hurriedly put on their hats and raincoats. Cold raindrops mixed with yellow mud and fine sand fell down, making crackling sounds.

There are generally three things that the rafting gang won't do when it's dark, when there's heavy rain or fog, or when there's strong wind. This is the most basic rule.

The main reason was that the bad weather affected the vision, and if the waterline could not be seen clearly, it was easy to get into trouble. At the moment, all the three no-go rules were met, but the raft could not stop at will. No matter what, we had to grit our teeth and wait until we passed the whistle.

"The cat's tooth has bitten you, row to the left and don't let go." The water crow shouted loudly in the front.

The crowd responded from behind. Although the wind and waves were loud, they could not scare the man who was going to Guandong.

Everyone gritted their teeth and held on to the oars tightly with both arms. As the wind and waves tossed them up and down, they finally made it out of the Heigoumen checkpoint.

"Oh my god, is this Bald Tail Old Li returning home to visit his mother? Is he passing by here?"

Li Yongfu, the second clerk, came out of the flower shed, looked at the layer of mud and sand on the shed, and couldn't help but say.

There are many versions of the story of Bald-Tailed Old Li, but the basic content is similar.

Legend has it that in an ordinary Li family in Shandong, the daughter-in-law became pregnant for unknown reasons and gave birth to a little dragon.

As a result, his father chopped off a piece of his tail and he was called "Bald-tailed Old Li".

Bald-tailed Lao Li went to Guandong, defeated the little white dragon, and became the water god of Heilongjiang.

Old Li with a bald tail misses his biological mother and goes back to his hometown once a year, and every time he goes back he brings a storm.

The legend of Bald-Tailed Old Li is very widespread, and almost everyone who has traveled to Guandong has heard of it, so the second cabinet said so.

After the second cabinet member said this, everyone started laughing. They were all frightened just now, but now they all calmed down.

Although the raft left the sentry post and entered a stable section of the river, the heavy rain still did not stop.

In such weather, it was impossible to move forward, so Shui Laowu ordered everyone to row the boat and stop to rest at the river bay ahead.

In the rain, the crowd pulled the raft ashore and tied it to a big tree on the shore.

There was no village or shop nearby, so it was impossible to stay in a shop to rest. It was still raining heavily, so everyone had no choice but to hide in the flower shed.

Qu Shaoyang looked at the rain outside and suddenly thought of something, so he found a sharp axe and got off the raft with it.

"Lenghu'er, where are you doing? It's raining so hard, why are you going out to get wet?" Eryao Wang Changliang saw him and shouted.

"I'll go cut some willow branches and weave some furniture, and then I'll catch some fish for you to eat." Qu Shaoyang responded casually.

"Hurry up, Dazhuzi and Ermaozi, you two should come with us. Don't leave Lenghuer alone."

Erzhao quickly called the two young men and sent them to help Qu Shaoyang. Dazhuzi and Ermaozi put on their raincoats and bamboo hats and followed Qu Shaoyang to cut willow branches.

There are many willow trees by the river, growing in clusters, and each one is more than one meter tall.

It didn't take the three of them much effort to cut down several arms of willow branches.

Qu Shaoyang worked on weaving baskets on the raft in the rain.

This thing is just for temporary use, it doesn't need to be sophisticated, just simply weave it.

Qu Shaoyang started weaving, while Dazhuzi and Ermaozi were collecting leaves and passing willow twigs beside him. The three of them worked together and soon weaved a large basket.

Just as the baskets were being woven, the rain gradually subsided.

After a heavy rain, the river water had long lost its emerald green color like the top of a drake's head. Now the surging river water was filled with yellow mud and was extremely turbid.

There are many willow trees by the river. Most of them grow in the water, with their trunks leaning toward the river and some branches hanging over the water.

Dazhuizi was upstream, kicking and stomping as he walked downstream. The river water was already muddy, and now it became even muddier.

Qu Shaoyang and Ermaozi bent down and each lowered the large basket into the water.

When Dazhuzi came closer, the two men suddenly lifted the basket up.

"Oh my god, so many fish, and they are all quite big." When the basket was lifted out of the water, Dazhuzi and Ermaozi couldn't help but exclaimed.

I saw seven or eight lively fish in the basket. The small ones were as long as a palm, and the big ones were as long as one foot.

In fact, there were more fish in the basket right after it was taken out of water. This was mainly because the basket was woven roughly and had large holes, so the smaller fish leaked out.

It rained heavily just now, the river water is turbid, and there is a lack of oxygen in the water, so the big fish in the deep water will swim to the shallow water near the shore to breathe.

This is also the reason why Qu Shaoyang made a basket to catch fish.

As expected, the harvest was quite good.

"First rower, second rower, we caught a fish." Dazhuzi reached out and grabbed a big crucian carp and shouted towards the other end of the raft.

Originally, the people on the raft didn't care much about Qu Shaoyang making baskets and catching fish, and just thought it was just some young man fooling around out of boredom.

I didn't expect that Qu Shaoyang and the others were so capable. Now, everyone became interested and several of them came over.

"Don't come here empty-handed. Bring a wooden bucket, or you can pick up some willow branches to collect these fish. We will try somewhere else."

Qu Shaoyang shouted to those people, and sure enough, someone returned to the platoon and brought down a wooden barrel.

All the fish in the basket were put into the bucket, and Qu Shaoyang and the other two went somewhere else and continued to operate as before.

As expected, the harvest this time was also very good.

Catching fish and shrimps is easy to get addicted to. The three of them became more and more excited as they caught more and more, and they moved to several places in one breath.

You know what, there are so many fish in the river. If you put a few baskets of them in, the wooden barrel will be full.

There was no other choice but to use willow twigs and thread them along the fish's gills.

"Lenghu, that's enough. Just catch enough fish for one meal. It will be hard to clean up if you catch too much." Erzhao took a look and hurriedly persuaded Qu Shaoyang and the others to stop.

"That's all right. We'll make a pot of it tonight and eat it. I'll stir-fry the rest with fish hair and save it for porridge in the morning. It's better than pickled cabbage anyway."

Qu Shaoyang ignored Wang Changliang and led Da Zhuzi and the others to fish again.

(End of this chapter)