Chapter 462 Winter Fishing (5,000 words long chapter, please vote)

Dashu couldn't figure it out. In this weather, two months of the four-month winter have passed. Now is the coldest time. The river section near Liuyang County has long been frozen. Even if it is not three feet thick, it is more than one foot thick. Will there be fish in the river? Won't they freeze to death? Why do I feel that winter fishing is a bit unreliable.

"Of course you can fish, and it's easy to fish at this time. Gather people and start today. I have brought all the tools." Luo Chong decided immediately.

"Yes, leader, I will arrange it now." Dashu hurriedly saluted and said yes, then turned around and went out to call people.

Not long after, people appeared by the river. There were many people. Basically, everyone who had enough clothes and boots came. There were thousands of people, and there were even many carriages and horses. There were also many people carrying shoulder poles and rattan baskets. It was said that the leader asked everyone to prepare them to hold the fish. Everyone felt incredible, but since it was proposed by the omnipotent leader, they did not dare to refute.

Hundreds of people stood on the river surface, which was about 100 meters wide. The ice was very thick and covered with snow. People looked down at their feet, but they could not see anything. There was only countless solid ice. Where were the fish?

Luo Chong did not rush to start, but looked along the river surface to observe where there were more fish. For such a thing as netting and catching fish in spring, summer and autumn, the best way is to find a place to make a nest, make more bait that fish like to eat, and wait for the fish to come over, and then catch them all in one net.

But this method does not work in winter, because under the ice, the fish are not wandering around. In winter, the water is cold, and even fish know where to spend the winter, and the most suitable place is the whirlpool.

Luo Chong walked along the river and found several suspected whirlpools along the way, but he could not be sure. But it doesn't matter. Once the net is cast, there will definitely be some harvest even if it is not good.

"Leader, can you see the fish through the ice?" Dali, who was following him, asked curiously.

"Haha, no, but we can tell where it is. As long as we know the location, it will be easy. Our net is big. This is before winter. I specially ordered people to weave the strongest hemp rope to trawl nets. There will definitely be a lot of harvest. Come on, let's get the steel chisels. We are going to start drilling holes."

After saying this, Luo Chong led people to select a place, then calculated the size of the trawl net, measured the location of the holes with a rope ruler, and then started to have people take the cross pick used for mining and the 'T'-shaped steel chisel to line up and drill holes on the river surface.

It has been two months since winter, and the ice here is very thick. Even the center of the river is more than one foot thick. It is not an exaggeration to say that the area near the river is three feet thick, so there is no need to worry about the ice surface cracking significantly and causing terrible accidents of falling into the water.

In fact, the size of these ice holes is not large, only about 30 centimeters, and normal people can't fall into them at all. Only the last place used to catch fish has a large hole with a diameter of more than one meter, and it is near the river.

The tribesmen soon started to dig holes, waving their ice picks and steel chisels constantly. Ice debris splashed on the ice surface, and soon one ice hole after another appeared. Some people couldn't help but stick their heads out to look down, but they couldn't see anything. They couldn't help but doubt that the leader had chosen such a place after a long time, but it didn't look like a place with fish.

Luo Chong didn't care about these. He was only responsible for commanding. This winter fishing method relies on the strength of the group. No matter how powerful one person is, it is useless. Therefore, he asked people to get a lot of firewood, light a bonfire on the shore, and bring a big pot to boil hot water, which would be used to keep the tribesmen warm for a while.

After the rows of ice holes were dug, Luo Chong led the people to go down. A trawl net that had been prepared long ago was unfolded, with many thick ropes extending from it. Some people even brought a lot of long bamboo poles, and I don't know what they are used for.

Teams of young and strong men stood in position, and then Luo Chong instructed them to use bamboo poles to send ropes into the water. The length of the bamboo poles just extended to the next ice hole. The people in the next hole continued to extend to one side in the same way. The tribesmen used this baton method to gradually extend the ropes under the ice until they stretched out from the last ice hole in each row and were held in the hands of the tribesmen again.

In fact, this process is like sewing a quilt. The bamboo pole is the needle, the hemp rope on the support net is the thread, and the ice on the river is the quilt. The bamboo pole and the hemp rope walked under the ice one stitch at a time, and finally gradually penetrated the entire river surface, but this was just the beginning.

After unfolding several ropes under the ice, Luo Chong began to let more people go down to pull the ropes. Everyone shouted and hey, as if they were the trackers on the shore towing a boat, but what they were towing was not a boat, but a large net covering hundreds of square meters.

"Look everyone, the net is moving, and it's being pulled under the ice."

"Yes, yes, it turns out that the rope tied to the net is to pull the net down through these holes, but even if the net is stuffed under the ice, I'm afraid it won't open. If the net can't open, how can the fish get in?"

"Well, well, since the leader told us to do this, the leader must have a way."

Obviously, even the tribesman himself didn't quite believe what he said in the end. A group of people chiseled a few holes in the ice, then threaded the rope, and stuffed the net in, so they could catch fish? !

Soon, a super large trawl net was pulled underwater, but now the trawl net was still in the shape of a long snake, spreading out along a line, which could be said to be spread out horizontally, but without depth. However, Luo Chong was not in a hurry, and he quickly issued a new order.

When the threading was completed just now, the ropes in each direction were actually double-stranded, but the double-stranded ropes were different. Some people had two different ropes in their hands, and some people had two ropes in their hands, which were actually formed by folding one rope in half. In fact, it was still one rope. Now Luo Chong's new order was that those who held two ropes should loosen the rope with the mark in their hands, and then the other group holding the folded ropes began to retract the ropes. In fact, they were holding the same rope.

These ropes quickly swam under the ice and were pulled ashore from the other end, but the order to pull the ropes did not stop, so everyone had to continue to drag hard, and then everyone felt that the ropes in their hands were getting heavier and heavier, as if they were dragging something heavy.

In fact, this feeling was not wrong. They were just dragging something, but this thing was just a big net.

If the threading of the needle just now was to pull the net under the ice, then the current process was to unfold a long snake-like trawl net longitudinally, and by pulling the rope, people could spread a large net under the ice without being seen.

Not long after, the rope was pulled to the end, which also meant that the trawl net had been fully spread. Logically, there should be a lot of fish in the net now, otherwise it wouldn't have been so difficult to spread the trawl net just now.

Luo Chong did not issue any new orders, and the tribesmen were waiting. Many people were looking at Luo Chong, wondering what the leader was waiting for. Was he waiting for the fish to come up by themselves?

Sure enough, before long, many people felt something moving under the ice, as if there were many fish swimming under the ice. In fact, it was the trawl net below that had opened, catching many fish in the net. They struggled downwards, but couldn't swim out, so they naturally began to look upwards for a breakthrough.

"Look, look, there are fish, so many fish!"

With a cry of surprise, everyone's eyes were attracted, and they looked in the direction of the man's finger, and countless people couldn't help but gasp.

"There really are fish, and a lot of them."

Countless big and small fish scrambled to find a breakthrough. What's more, they really found some. But what they didn't expect was that they swam hard towards the opening, but suddenly jumped out of the water through the hole. Then they couldn't go back. Big and small fish jumped out of the rows of ice holes, and then landed on the snow on the ice and jumped back and forth. The scene was even more spectacular than Baotu Spring. After all, Baotu Spring only has three springs, but here, there are many ice holes, and almost every hole has many fish jumping out of the ice holes, just like rows of fish springs.

Everyone was excited when they saw this scene. This was all meat. For these tribesmen who only had two bowls of porridge every day, one fish was enough for their family to eat. Now, the fish here seemed to be possessed and rushed out of the ice hole. This was free meat.

The people standing on the shore were eager to try, carrying their own baskets, but at this moment, the leader suddenly roared.

"Don't move, people on the shore, don't come down, start collecting the nets now, and wait until the fish are dragged ashore."

Luo Chong looked at the chattering crowd, a layer of cold sweat seeped out of his forehead, and when the cold wind blew, he felt like his head was going to explode.

There were thousands of people standing on the shore. Most of the tribesmen were here. After all, everyone stayed at home in winter, and there was no entertainment. They were either making babies or cooking. Even if they were not here to work, there were many people watching the fun. This was human nature. People were born to like to gather together. After all, humans are social animals.

But in the current situation, if a few thousand people were spread over the entire river, it would be fine. But if thousands of people gathered on the ice, even if the ice was thicker, it would definitely break, not to mention that there were already many holes in the ice.

Hearing the leader's roar, people suppressed their excitement and started to work according to the leader's instructions.

Only the ropes at the four corners of the square trawl were on the ice. Then Luo Chong asked people to start pulling the double-strand rope, and finally gathered the ropes in the other three directions to a large hole near the river. All four ropes stretched out from a large hole with a side length of two meters, and then were held tightly in the hands of everyone. Even though the ropes soaked in ice water were freezing, no one was willing to let go, because the leader just told them that there were countless fish on the other end of the ropes.

What is fish? It's meat. Who would be willing to let go?

"Come on, come on, drag the net ashore, pull the rope quickly, don't let the fish run away."

Following Luo Chong's shout, the tribesmen carrying baskets and driving carts could no longer stand, leaving their things behind and joining the army of collecting the nets. Countless people pulled the ropes behind them, which looked like a large-scale tug-of-war, except that this time, there were people on one side and fish on the other.

"Brothers, work harder!"

"Hurry up, it's coming out, everyone, hurry up!"

As people pulled hard, the rope was also dragged out of the water one foot at a time. The fish spring that had been gushing out on the river surface also changed because of the action of collecting the net. From the farthest ice hole, fish no longer emerged from the holes one by one, which meant that the trawl net had been pulled from that position, and then the fish spring at the back hole suddenly rose because more and more fish gathered behind.

Until finally, the rope finally reached the end, and the huge trawl net wrapped with countless swimming fish emerged from the two-meter square ice hole near the shore.

Countless big and small fish kept jumping in the net, trying to break free from the net that bound their lives, stirring up countless water splashes and ice debris at the entrance of the cave. In just a moment, the ice layer at the edge of the cave bulged up. That was formed by countless ice water and ice debris accumulated at the entrance of the cave and re-frozen by the cold wind.

Seeing countless fish being dragged out of the water by the trawl net, the people who were originally exhausted did not know where they borrowed divine power from, and the speed of pulling the trawl net out of the water increased unexpectedly.

Some people who could not help began to replace those exhausted men, but the fish in the net had no companions to replace. Some fish that were dragged out of the ice lost their oxygen supply, and they were exhausted due to constant struggle. Finally, they were blown by the cold wind. Many fish were frozen into popsicles shortly after being brought out of the ice, lying hard and motionless in the snow.

The trawl net filled with fish was pulled out of the water inch by inch, bringing out thousands of fish. The small ones were only the size of a palm and weighed less than a pound, while the big ones were as thick as a person's leg, and each weighed more than ten pounds. Even the rattan baskets they brought couldn't hold them all.

All the tribesmen showed happy smiles, and their smiles were full of the joy of a good harvest. There were too many fish caught in this net.

With the joint efforts of thousands of people, the trawl net was quickly pulled out of the water. Countless frozen fish piled up on the snow on the shore. Thousands of various fish, each weighing several pounds on average, were caught in this net, and tens of thousands of pounds were caught. And this was meat, which was different from tens of thousands of pounds of grain.

People began to shout loudly to pick up frozen fish and load them onto trucks, or to carry rattan baskets on poles to transport them to the city. What's more, there were only two fish on a pole. The man was not very tall, but with two big fish hanging on the pole, the tails of the fish could still drag on the ground. The length of these two fish was comparable to the height of a half-grown child.

Not only that, the variety of aquatic products caught in this net is also amazing, there are dozens of fish species alone, and even a lot of turtles were caught.

But this is understandable, the upper reaches of this river are wetlands and swamps. As we all know, wetland lakes have the richest species. There are often 1,800 species of freshwater fish like this. However, the water in the wetland is very shallow, only one or two meters deep. If the fish want to survive the cold winter, they have to find deep water areas to spend the winter, and the deepest water around is obviously this river.

"Chief, there are so many fish here. If we cast a few more nets, we probably won't be able to eat all the fish until spring. Let's cast one more net. We're not tired at all and we have plenty of energy."

"Yes, yes, chief, let's cast one more net. We still have energy. As long as there's food, we're not afraid of getting tired."

The tribe leaders surrounded Luo Chong and chattered suggestions. They wished they could just catch all the fish in the river. But it was also true that the environment here was still very primitive. It was estimated that there had never been such large-scale fishing. It was impossible to expect those primitive people to catch a few fish with their bamboo spears. There were still so many fish here. Even if tens of thousands of people ate them every day, they might not be able to finish them in two years.

"Keep fishing, of course we have to, but we have to change the place, but we have to keep this place. You, go to the city to get two carts of corn stalks, tie the stalks into bundles and stuff them into the ice holes to prevent them from freezing again. We can spend the night here and fish again tomorrow. Everyone else, follow me to dig holes in another place. Let's go."

Luo Chong randomly pointed to a tribe leader to go back and pull the stalks, and waved his hand to lead the others to move to another place. This was a shot for a change of position.

When everyone heard the leader say that fish could still be caught in this place tomorrow, they were overjoyed. They hurried back to prepare stalks and stuffed the ice holes with stalks. One was to make a mark, and the other was to prevent the hole from freezing again. Even if the stalks were frozen on top, it would be much easier to dig holes again tomorrow.

Others followed Luo Chong to fight in all directions, constantly digging holes on the river, setting nets, and collecting nets. In one day, thousands of people took turns to work. By dark, they had already set nets five times, and the catch was more than 200,000 kilograms, which greatly solved the problem of food shortage in Liuyang County.

If they could catch fish a few more times, they might be able to transport some to Hanyang County. Although there was no shortage of food there, meat was not abundant. Although every family raised chickens and rabbits, not many people were willing to eat them. After

all, if they really ate them, that little bit of fish could feed the whole family for several meals, not to mention that there were still seeds left for reproduction. No matter how greedy they were, they couldn't kill the chickens for the eggs. That day, 30,000 people in Liuyang County were busy. Some took turns to follow Luo Chong in winter fishing on the river, and some transported fish back and forth to the city. Dashu led the clan leaders to divide the fish. According to the family unit, the fish were distributed to each household. The women and children who stayed at home were also busy killing the fish, washing them and hanging them under the eaves of their houses to be eaten slowly in the winter. The whole Liuyang County was like the New Year.

(End of this chapter)