In midsummer August, the sun was like fire, and the dry weather for many days made the mother river, the Yellow River, lose its temper. In the past, it was bubbling and churning up and down with mud and sand, but now only a clear stream in the middle of the river is less than 100 meters wide, and it still maintains a slow flow rate.

This is the most downstream part of the Yellow River, and the delta created by the sediment of the Yellow River is as flat as the ground that a bricklayer has leveled with a ruler. Two dams five or six meters high trap the river, and the outside of the dams are scattered villages.

Zhangjia Village is next to the outside of the dam, a low mud house is lined up along the direction of the dam, north of Zhangjia Village is Wujiazhuang, Linjiazhuang, and then there is the town middle school, the town hospital, the town ** station, the river bureau, the ferry, the Tiemushe, and then to the north is a slip village.

The villages on the banks of the Yellow River are roughly arranged in this way, standing on the dam, the foot is quite higher than the roof, and on the other side is the Yellow River channel, which is famous for the wonder of the river on the ground.

At more than 1 o'clock in the afternoon, it was the hottest time of the day, and there was not a single figure walking outside the village, and the big yellow dog lying under the wall was hanging its tongue and trying to breathe.

On the course of the Yellow River, except for the clear "stream", there is a long stretch of yellow sand, shining silver in the sun, as if to set the air on fire.

From a distance, the air is distorted. At this time, two small black dots appeared in the river, and a puff of smoke ran towards the "stream".

Two children, Zhang Muyang (9 years old) from Zhangjiazhuang and Zhang Qingguo (10 years old) from Xiaosanhe Village, are not far apart. Walking to the river, the two of them followed the river as if looking for something.

After a while, the two stripped naked, got into the water, and slowly walked towards the opposite shore.

Zhang Muyang reached out to the water and found the target, a net was lifted out of the water, and a carp that was more than a pound heavy was struggling left and right on the net. Zhang Qingguo leaned over and grabbed the fish with both hands, Zhang Muyang skillfully took out a knife, picked out the carp in three strokes and put it in the bag hanging around Qingguo's neck.

Zhang Qingguo is one year older, he looks like a tiger with a tiger head and a thick body, so he is suitable for this job. Zhang Muyang is thin, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, flexible hands and feet, and does technical work.

The two bear children became excited and continued to grope forward, and a Yellow River saury more than a foot long surfaced. The Yellow River saury is an important migratory economic fish in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and is named because of its resemblance to a sharp knife. The whole body of this fish was silvery-white, jumping back and forth in the water, and was grabbed by Zhang Muyang in his hand and in his pocket.

The Yellow River saury is generally harvested from the Yellow River estuary upstream from the beginning of April to before the wheat is ripe, which is the best season for fishing. This kind of fish has a passionate temperament, swims like a shuttle, dies when it leaves the water, the meat is delicate, the umami taste is peculiar, the strong fragrance is abnormal, the folk habit is to smear the batter or egg paste outside, fry it in the pan until golden brown, and eat it with a flatbread roll. Fragrant, so fragrant that people can't sleep at night.

The Yellow River saury is now rare, in the past, it was said that a county magistrate gave a gift, along the Yellow River all the way to find, a total of 3 boxes, each box 10 catties, but also uneven length, this thing is expensive.

The bear child doesn't know that fish is expensive, and his interest at this time is fishing, so he doesn't have to worry about how to eat it.

As long as the main channel of the Yellow River continues to flow, there will always be a very deep section, and it is easy to suffer if you are not familiar with the water conditions. If you don't take precautions in advance, the moment you step on the air and enter the water in your mouth and nose is the most dangerous moment, you must hold your breath at this time, otherwise it is easy to choke, and a mouthful of water enters the lungs, and people will not be able to do it immediately. Often people drown not because of physical exhaustion, but because of choking.

The children by the Yellow River have a lot of water and good water, and the two bear children are also familiar with it, stepping on the water under their feet, and continue to catch fish along the net, because the water has a flow rate, in fact, catching fish is really not so smooth, the two simply swim to the shallow place on the opposite bank, and the one who catches it is their own, and the one who is difficult to catch is kept by others.

Just when the two of them were immersed in the boundless joy of catching fish, one of them quietly came to the river, took off his clothes and swam to the other side. Zhang Muyang, who was vigilant, heard the sound of water, and immediately reacted, pulled Qingguo, ran to the shore, and ran away. As he ran, he grabbed a handful of mud and smeared it on the faces of the two of them.

The person who came was in his 20s, and Zhang Muyang knew that his name was May, a gangster from Linjiazhuang Village. May swam over while scolding.

The silt by the river is so soft that it is very laborious to step on it and pull it out, and there is no way to trot all the way. On the first day of May, adults couldn't outrun children, and kept a distance from front and back.

Zhang Qingguo's little face was already frightened and yellow, and he couldn't breathe. "Mu Yang, we can't afford to mess with that May, let him know that it's the two of us, and it will be miserable. ”

"Don't think about the usefulness of the wood, hurry up and go into the water, go down the river, he can't catch up with us. As they spoke, the two jumped into the river, and a fierce man jumped out more than 20 meters.

May did not chase again. Smoking and drinking every day, staying up late to play cards, he hollowed out his body at a young age, and he couldn't even find a daughter-in-law, so he could only stand by the river and scold: "The horses are horses, and the monks can't run away from the temple, and when I find your home, see that I don't pick your skin and smoke your tendons." ”

The two bear children don't look back, you are not afraid of being tired and scolding, anyway, I can't hear it, the fish is also in hand, as long as it is far away, it doesn't matter if he doesn't recognize it.

The bear child happily went down the river, turned his head and swam to the other side, and while May had not yet come, he hurriedly grabbed his clothes and walked aisle.

This May father and mother are gone, two brothers, the eldest is called October, the duty person, the second is called May, most of the father and mother have no culture, and the month of birth is called a few months. It was normal for each family to have five or six children in those days. There are two brothers in May, otherwise there may be brothers and sisters in January, February, and March, so it is easy to distinguish.

May is lazy to eat, playful, obviously thin like a monkey, and there is not a few catties of strength in his hands, but he is alone, he is full of food, the family is not hungry and panicked, and a few half-grown children are gathered around him, and he is called the overlord in the surrounding villages.

The combat power of this May is average, and the self-proclaimed Yellow River Little White Dragon, the hateful thing is that it harms the township, no matter who you are with, you will be able to bully it, you will rely on it, roll and splash, do everything, it is nothing more than to change the way to blackmail two money, and the fox friends and dog friends ate and drank.

Let's just say that this river fishing, in May, out of nowhere extorted two sticky nets, about 50 meters long, put in the Yellow River every day, others want to put the nets can't do it, usually find a few people to watch, every day the catch eats and drinks, and can be sold for money, the nearby villages want to fish and can't afford to entangle with him, he feels that the whole Yellow River is his own.

Not to mention how much these fish are worth, in 1982, just after the joint production contract responsibility system, the saline-alkali land by the Yellow River is not much crops, ordinary people will buy two catties of meat for the New Year, wrap a dumpling, usually do not see meat all year round, the fish in the Yellow River catch a big one, a family to improve the life, it is also very rare.

Zhang Muyang and Zhang Qingguo are not the same village, but they are very good. The two were met while herding sheep, and then they were inseparable. Speaking of fate, some people grew up together, but they hate each other so much that they don't get along with each other. Some people tend to just take one more look at the crowd and fall in love for life. Zhang Muyang and Zhang Qingguo are this kind, and the old saying that people divide into groups obviously has his own truth.

occupied the Yellow River in May, Zhang Muyang and Zhang Qingguo were very annoyed, they grew up in the Yellow River all day long, but they were not allowed to catch fish, what the hell is this. The two had the same mind, so they privately figured out the location of the net in May, and took advantage of the hot weather at noon to grab a ready-made one on the Internet.

It's been half a month since the two of them stole fish, and today is nothing, at least May doesn't know who it is, and the fish in this bag are brought back, so they don't care about anything else.

After all, the bear child is still a child, and they themselves didn't expect how much trouble they would get into because of stealing fish this time.