When Gu Boyuan called the purchasing station to tell Li Long about it, Li Long had just returned from Stone City.
He had gone to Stone City Old Street mainly to buy a dragnet-catching fish at Sandaohezi in Ili at the start of spring had been so satisfying that he wanted to get a net and try it in Ma County too.
The Fourth Team didn't have suitable conditions. The net he bought was small and could only block a river-to be precise, it was a river-blocking net. After all, the dragnets he had seen people using in fishponds in later years were dozens or even a hundred meters long, while this one was only twenty or thirty meters long.
There was no helping it. The nets here all came from inland China, and the shopkeeper ran a small business, worried that a large net would sit unsold and tie up his money.
Besides the dragnet, Li Long also bought a small net that could be propped open with two poles, with a long pouch underneath. It was another blocking net, for catching fish in small canals.
That one could be used at the Fourth Team, at the floodgate, for instance. Prop it up with a pole on either side, and any fish entering would reach two consecutive pouches at the back, designed to let them in but not out.
"You certainly had yourself a good time." Listening to Gu Boyuan describe his haul from the mountains, Li Long was quite envious.
"Heh, you bet. The four of us shot two wolves that night. It wasn't very light, so we couldn't tell who'd shot them. The others got away, but at least two or three were wounded. I reckon they won't dare come back." Gu Boyuan was still rather proud.