Recaps

Li Long expanded village work through broom and reed-bundle orders while building his livestock operation and exploring new agricultural and trading plans. As the purchasing station faced closure, he considered buying villagers’ wild products himself, then survived a nighttime encounter with wolves and a black bear at the mountain cabin.

• Li Long organized production of eight thousand quality big brooms across several villages, rejected defective work, and earned a substantial profit.
• Li Long helped Li Jianguo’s family harvest and sell watermelon seeds, then warned that oversupply could collapse prices and considered other crops.
• Li Long leased land and Little Haizi, built a new stable, and led a hunt that supplied wild-boar meat to local households.
• Li Qingxia returned with the updated family genealogies, while Li Long helped arrange a ten-thousand-bundle reed order and delivered the accepted bundles to the cooperative.
• Li Long bought five storefronts, gave one to Sister Yang, and rented out the others as the county restricted street stalls.
• Li Long met Professor Luo to discuss soil testing and saline-alkali crops, bought jade from Yusufu, and declined Jia Tianlong’s offer for the large jade from Qingshui River Village.
• After Chen Hongjun introduced Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui as potential buyers, Li Long showed them his herbs and snow leopard pelt and considered purchasing villagers’ wild products when the station closed.
• At the mountain cabin, Li Long traded with Bolati, then shot a black bear during its fight with wolves, killed an injured wolf, and began skinning the bear for Zhao Hui.

Li Long bought and fattened livestock, sold hides and jade, and joined winter hunts that supplied meat to his family, acquaintances, and the Fourth Team. With help from Harimu and other herders, he began filling a large Sugar Factory order and arranged to go ice fishing next.

• Li Long distributed bear meat, bought sheep and cattle, and arranged to fatten them at Old Ma's Place.
• Li Long sold a bear gallbladder, codonopsis, and jade to Jia Tianlong for ten thousand yuan, then sold pelts to Zhao Hui for 10,700 yuan.
• Li Long urged the villagers to use more chemical fertilizer, warned against relying on seed watermelons, and delivered eight saddle sets to Harimu.
• Li Long hunted west of Shawan, shared game with Li Anguo and other acquaintances, and later took Li Xiangqian on an overnight deer hunt.
• Li Long joined Xu Chengjun’s militia hunt, which brought back more than thirty gazelles before changes to weapons access threatened future team hunts.
• Li Long secured a Sugar Factory livestock order and recruited Harimu, Jade Mountain River, and other herders to help slaughter and process his sheep.
• Li Long sold mutton to local buyers, explained his fattening methods to the herders, and offered to buy red deer and roe deer fawns from them.
• Li Long delivered fifty sheep to Section Chief Hu toward an expanded order of a hundred sheep, two red deer, and a tonne of fish, while the herders slaughtered two stags and he arranged ice fishing with Tao Daqiang.

Li Long expanded his livestock and fish sales, reopened the County Seat Purchasing Station, and built new ties with local sellers while caring for injured Talihaal. A hunt with Li Jianguo reunited him with old colleagues and brought in a large supply of hides, as the families prepared to celebrate New Year.

• Li Long sold livestock and fish, supplied factories and the Sugar Factory, and helped his family attend Li Junshan’s wedding, where he gave money to Junshan and offered Li Anguo a loan for a larger home.
• Li Long hunted gazelles with his family, sold sheep and cattle through the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and local factories, and arranged for Harimu and the other workers to help slaughter more livestock.
• Li Long bought saddles and hides, rented the former Purchasing Station, and secured an Agricultural and Sideline Products Business License with Li Xiangqian’s help.
• Li Long reopened the Purchasing Station and bought hides, herbs, and other goods, then sold a large lot of skins at the Leather Factory and paid Niu Dajun for his rabbit skins.
• Li Long found Talihaal badly injured, took him to Stone City No. 2 Hospital with Harimu, and brought him chicken soup until the doctors discharged him about a week later.
• Li Long, Li Jianguo, and Li Qingxia drove north to hunt gazelles, reunited with Wang Mingjun and Big Old Chen at the Company, and Li Long bought more than fifty gazelle hides, nine wolf pelts, and two wild donkey hides.
• Li Long brought gifts and a gazelle to the Li Family Courtyard, then returned to the Big Courtyard and told Gu Xiaoxia about the trip.
• Sister Yang chose to spend New Year’s Eve at the family’s former courtyard with Han Fang, where they cleared snow, cleaned, and set up an offering for Han Fang’s late father.

Li Long expanded his purchasing business, survived a brown bear attack, and brought Professor Luo’s team to study the saline-alkali land. As spring work shifted to the mountains, Li Long’s group was confronted by armed robbers, whom he subdued before Bolati arrived to take them away.

• Li Long hosted Li Anguo’s family for New Year, agreed to supply Jia Tianlong with snow lotuses, and saw Xu Haijun’s hunting group earn money from gazelle hides.
• Li Long bought animal products from herders and hunters, established his Purchasing Station, and caught men dumping rubbish there before selling valuable hides to Zhao Hui.
• Li Long killed a brown bear that attacked him at Hot Spring Ravine, then delivered its meat and paws to people in the County Seat.
• Li Long took Ma Xiaoyan to Harimu’s sheep-washing pool, where she interviewed herders who praised Li Long’s work and heard about nearby bears.
• Li Long arranged lodging and a welcome feast for Professor Luo and five students, who began investigating how to improve the saline-alkali land.
• Li Long accepted a Cooperative order for four thousand Taibazi and recruited workers from the Fourth Team and nearby villages to weave them in the mountains.
• Li Long met Sun Jiaqiang at the Wooden Cabin and offered to help him find paid work if he performed well at the mountain exchange point.
• Li Long found seven armed men confronting Li Jianguo’s group at Small White Poplar Gully, shot their leader in the leg, and helped free an abducted woman before Bolati took the robbers away.