Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1012 The Truth Revealed: Integrity is More Important than Money

Looking at Sun Benchuan, who was smiling and greeting him, Li Long smiled and said:

"Mr. Sun, I'll say it again: I will not sell jade. If you are interested in beef and mutton, then we can talk."

Sun Benchuan hadn't expected Li Long to block his path before he could even speak. Still unwilling to give up, he paused for a moment with his smile, then asked again:
"Comrade Li Long, don't you want to hear my offer?"

"No need. Whether it's the previous $20,000 or $50,000, I won't sell it. I'll say it again: if you want beef and mutton, then we can talk. If not, then there's nothing more to discuss between us. Please leave."

When Sun Benchuan entered the room this time, Li Long didn't even offer him a seat—mainly because after receiving the phone call, Li Long deduced the reason for the incident and guessed that this guy had ill intentions and was likely to kick someone when they were down, so he didn't intend to be polite.

Sun Benchuan took a deep breath, suppressing his dissatisfaction. Reason prevailed, and he still smiled as he said:

"Alright, let's talk about the price of beef and mutton. If I buy all the beef and mutton in your stock..."

"If we buy them all, the mutton is 2.5 yuan and the beef is 3 yuan," Li Long quoted a price he would normally never have considered.

"How can it be so expensive?" Before Sun Benchuan could even speak, Luo Liwei objected. "I've inquired. Your purchase price for mutton is below 1.8 yuan and beef is 2 yuan. With such a large quantity, even if you raise the price by 0.1 yuan per kilogram, you'd still make a profit. Now that you've raised it so high, who will buy it?"

“If it were a week ago, I might have sold my mutton if the price had gone up by a dime, but things are different now.” Li Long smiled. “As for the reason—I think Mr. Sun knows better than I do, right?”

Sun Benchuan's eyes widened instantly—though they weren't as big as Li Long's, they were enough to show his shock.

Could Li Long already know about that news? No way!
Ultimately, the two sides failed to reach an agreement, or rather, Li Long simply lacked the sincerity to negotiate with Sun Benchuan. Sun Benchuan also did not want to spend a large sum of money to buy beef and mutton, even though there would still be a profit if he transported them back at that price, he felt that he was not earning enough.

The most important thing is that the original design could not be realized, and that piece of jade was truly valuable.

"Should we put pressure on them through official channels?" Luo Liwei suggested when they returned to the guesthouse.

Sun Benchuan shook his head and said:
“This Li Long has received national recognition and is also a county people’s congress representative. This is his hometown, and we don’t know many people here. If we try to get through connections, we’ll have to go through several layers of intermediaries, so we might not be able to achieve our goal.”

Clearly, Sun Benchuan had originally intended to do so, but after weighing the pros and cons, he abandoned the idea.

He needs to be careful and doesn't want to reveal too much.

Left with no other option, Sun Benchuan had to settle for second best and look for other people in Ma County who could provide beef and mutton.

However, to his surprise, not only in Ma County, but also in several surrounding counties, cities, and towns, there were no people who could provide a large amount of beef and mutton.

According to Sun Benchuan's thinking, the news wouldn't have spread this quickly originally. It seems that Li Long knows about it now, but it's only Li Long who knows.

The snow disaster affected a very large area, and in theory, a large number of herders should have been affected, and they should have slaughtered a large number of cattle and sheep to ensure their safety during the winter.

But now it seems that the nearby area is no longer viable, as Li Long's purchasing station has absorbed all the cattle and sheep slaughtered by the small herders.

Left with no other choice, he had to look for goods elsewhere.

If we can't get the jade, we should at least get some beef and mutton to make some money.

After much deliberation, Sun Benchuan decided to head west, where there were large pastures in Yili where he could likely obtain plenty of cheap beef and mutton.

After Sun Benchuan left, Li Long thought for a moment, and when Sister Yang took over the child, he drove to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Li Xiangqian's office door was locked, and he wasn't home. Li Long asked Zhou Yuan, the head of the purchasing department, who replied:

"The director went to a meeting in the county. He left this morning and should be back soon. If you don't have anything else to do, you can wait here with me."

Li Long thought about it and agreed, so he sat down in Zhou Yuan's office.

Zhou Yuan poured water for Li Long and asked him:

"I heard you've recently bought a lot of beef and mutton. Do you have any plans to deal with it? Would you like some sent over here? We can only give you a small amount, but every little bit helps."

"No need, no need, I can handle it." Li Long said with a smile, "Don't worry, Section Chief, if we really can't handle it, we'll definitely come to you."

Zhou Yuan could tell that Li Long was genuinely not in a hurry and that what he said was probably true, so he stopped bringing up the topic and started talking about the snow disaster situation this year.

"It's difficult to collect the goods. In some places, the snow has blocked the roads. The road maintenance departments have been clearing the snow, but every few days there is a heavy snowfall. There's no time to clear the rural roads. The national highways, provincial highways and county roads alone are enough for them to keep busy."

During this period, Zhou Yuan and his team not only stayed in various courtyards clearing snow, but also went to various towns and villages to purchase supplies, so they truly understood the situation at the grassroots level.

"Who would have thought the snow would be so heavy this year?" Li Long shook his head. "It's good for farmers because the heavy snow and good soil moisture make it more troublesome for herders. It seems like the snow is heavy all over the north of the country."

"Won't there be another major flood next summer?" Zhou Yuan was thinking ahead. "We're doing alright here in the northern border region, it's sparsely populated, so the flood won't have much of an impact. But it's a different story in other places, especially in the border region..."

Li Long nodded. Although he hadn't witnessed the nationwide flood that occurred more than ten years later, he knew about it because of the massive propaganda and movies about it.

And he later learned that it wasn't just that one year that there was a flood; in fact, there were floods every year, but that year was just bigger.

Li Long hadn't expected Zhou Yuan to have such compassionate thoughts, after all, the floods in northern Xinjiang weren't actually harmful. In the 1960s and 70s, Li Jianguo and his team participated in various water conservancy projects organized by the higher authorities. The various reservoirs, artificial waterways, and main and branch canals were enough to disperse the floodwaters. Once the pressure was distributed, the floods wouldn't cause much harm.

The flood Zhou Yuan described was truly capable of drowning people.

Even if no one is drowned, flooding farmland and causing a complete crop failure is a huge problem.

In Li Long's eyes, Zhou Yuan's abilities weren't particularly strong, not comparable to Li Xiangqian's. She always followed Li Xiangqian's lead without question, seeming to lack a backbone, completely different from when Li Xiangqian was a section chief.

But what he said today made Li Long look at him in a different light.

“Even though my hometown is in a flood-prone area, every time there’s a major flood, in order to relieve the pressure on big cities, they’ll release water into our hometown, and the crops will be ruined.” Zhou Yuan’s words carried a hint of desolation, and you could tell that he wasn’t in a good mood when he said this.

It turned out to be the case.

However, Li Long felt that Zhou Yuan was actually very capable to become a section chief, but he just hadn't realized it yet.

Anyway, I didn't plan to stay in this system, so if you can't see it, you can't see it.

"Then why not bring your family here?" Li Long asked, puzzled. He himself was an example; his hometown was not as good as the northern border region, so he should bring his family here.

“They don’t come. In their eyes, this place… is not as good as their hometown. Besides, they are getting old and don’t want to travel too far. It’s hard to leave their homeland.”

Also.

In fact, it was in this life that Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang came here, and their household registration was also transferred. In the previous life, due to various changes, the two elders' household registration was still in their hometown, and they lived out their lives in the village.

The idea that it's hard to leave one's homeland is truly a sentiment shared by their generation. It's only with the advancement of science and the increasing availability of information that later generations of young people have generally developed the idea of ​​making the world their home, drifting wherever they end up, or going wherever their ideal place is.

Li Long nodded without saying anything. The older generation's ideas are deeply ingrained and really not easy to change; people like his own parents are actually in the minority.

In their previous lives, people in the fourth squad who were their age, even in their sixties or seventies, would occasionally go back to their hometowns to take care of their elderly parents who were in their eighties or nineties. This was normal.

After chatting for a while, Li Xiangqian's voice came from outside. Li Long stood up and walked to the door to greet him. When he got to the gate, he saw Li Xiangqian carrying a black bag and walking towards him. He had just greeted the gatekeeper—the old man Li had already retired.

"Little Li is here too. I have something important to discuss with you." Li Xiangqian said as soon as he saw Li Long. "Come on, let's go to my office. This is something only you can handle."

Li Long followed Li Xiangqian to the office. As Li Xiangqian took off his coat, he said:
How's the harvest of your cattle and sheep going?

"What, did someone from above send a message?" Li Long held the cup, shook the thermos, and felt that it was quite heavy. He knew that it must be freshly filled with water. He first put some tea leaves into Li Xiangqian's cup, made a cup of tea, and then poured himself a cup.

"What? You knew?" Li Xiangqian looked puzzled. "I received a phone call from the state cooperative this morning, and then the county held a meeting about it. You found out about it?"

"Hehe, I received a call from Yanjing yesterday morning and they already know." Li Long chuckled. "Yesterday, a businessman from out of town tried to use this to lure me into buying my beef and mutton at a low price. He also wanted to buy a piece of jade from me, but I found out about it beforehand and chased him away."

"You mean, the information you received from Yanjing? It was... from that person?"

"Yes, his secretary told me." Li Long smiled and said, "He called me and said that several state-owned ranches in Inner Mongolia were hit by snow disasters, and a large number of cattle and sheep froze to death and are still buried under the snow."

This caused a problem with the supply of beef and mutton in Yanjing, and they need some help from here. I've been keeping an eye on things here. You know my background information officer, right? He mainly has a good relationship with the herders. The leadership's idea is to use this opportunity to let those herders prepare in advance.”

Li Long didn't know whether the call came from the leader or the secretary, but in any case, because of this call, Li Long immediately guessed that Sun Benchuan must have received this information, which was why he came here to buy beef and mutton.

Of course, acquiring beef and mutton might be one of the purposes, another being to get rid of his jade.

The leader's secretary called him yesterday, but Sun Benchuan had decided to come here several days ago, so he received the news even earlier.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the leaders received the information late; it's just that the leaders' secretaries have to consider various factors and can't possibly pass on the information to them immediately upon receiving it, as that would violate their principles.

If we extrapolate, this news should have already reached the autonomous region, and possibly even the prefecture level, by yesterday morning. Therefore, it wouldn't be considered a leak if the leader's secretary then revealed the news to him.

It strikes the perfect balance, providing me with useful information without giving me any unrealistic expectations.

Of course, it was a lucky accident; this news helped me solidify my principles and confidence, and I must thank them.

Li Xiangqian was naturally unaware of the intricacies of the situation. He simply hadn't expected that the other side would proactively call Li Long to reveal this information. What did this mean? It meant that Li Long had a very good impression on them.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have taken the initiative to call and bring this up!
"So what are your thoughts?" Li Xiangqian asked after silently reflecting on the matter.

"Then we'll see what tasks the state and county governments assign to our commune," Li Long said with a smile.

"What? Since you know this news, you should know that this is not just a government operation, but also something that businessmen are doing. It's just a matter of who can get away with it the fastest. Moreover, due to the meat shortage, the price of meat in Yanjing has already gone up."

If you press up your meat and sell it to vendors at the right time, you should be able to get a higher price.

"What is the purchase price that our company receives from the state?" Li Long asked.

"Two yuan and fifty cents for mutton, three yuan for beef," Li Xiangqian quoted a price that surprised even Li Long.

"so tall?"

"High? Heh, this is considered a fair price. Moreover, the railway department has adjusted its transport capacity, so this price does not include the freight cost to Yanjing."

If those resourceful dealers come, they'll offer higher prices. After all, we need to allocate and consolidate resources. They're different; they buy the goods and just rent railcars to transport them, making the round trip very efficient, so…”

"That'll definitely be handled by our commune," Li Long smiled. "But can our commune handle it? What's the quota the prefecture assigned to us?"

"Fifty tons of mutton, fifty tons of beef," Li Xiangqian said. "Is that enough for you?"

"The mutton is almost ready, but we're still a little short on beef," Li Long said. "Fifty tons of mutton is roughly three thousand kroners—right, the higher-ups only want mutton kroners, right?"

"Yes, just the meat."

"Well, three thousand sheep bream—I have a little over two thousand now, which is a bit short. As for beef, fifty tons would require two or three hundred cow bream. I have a little over two hundred beef now, which is probably less than fifty tons."

At this point, Li Long asked again:

"What about time? Is time tight?"

"It's pretty tight, within a week."

"Alright then, at the current acquisition speed, it will definitely be enough by then." Li Long breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Then you can start preparing for transportation and receipt. However, the roe of cattle and sheep takes up a lot of space, so if you want to transport them on time, it's best to start transporting them now and transport a batch every two or three days."

"Okay, you go back and prepare first. I'll take some people to your purchasing station this afternoon and take the first batch away."

"Okay, then Director, you go ahead with your work. I'll head back now." With that, Li Long picked up his teacup, drank the now lukewarm tea in one gulp, stood up, and hurriedly left.

Zhou Yuan happened to come over to ask for instructions and bumped into Li Long. Li Long smiled and nodded at him before leaving.

After Zhou Yuan learned the content of Li Xiangqian's meeting, she paused for a moment and said:
"Director, do you think Li Long has actually benefited from this misfortune? I was worried he wouldn't be able to handle all that beef and mutton he bought, since our county can't possibly consume such a large inventory all at once. I never expected this, I really never expected this..."

"He truly turned misfortune into blessing. Of course, if he hadn't had good intentions from the start, this blessing wouldn't have fallen on him," Li Xiangqian remarked. He recalled what he had discussed with Director Qian earlier; Li Long was indeed very lucky.

“Traders will be coming to buy cattle and sheep in the next couple of days. After all, the news has reached the county, and those with good connections in Yanjing will definitely know. Then, people will come to Li Long to buy meat,” Li Xiangqian said. “It’s only because of him. If it were someone else, and the other party offered a high price, we probably wouldn’t get the meat. We have a tight schedule and a heavy task. If it weren’t for Li Long, this task would really be difficult to complete!”

Zhou Yuan then realized this and immediately asked, "Li Long said that all this meat is for us?"

"Yeah, I quoted him the purchase price. Time is tight. Without his stock of meat, we wouldn't have been able to finish the task in a week... Hehe, I'm pretty lucky too."

As Li Xiangqian laughed, he was also thinking that his colleagues in other counties must be nervously anxious right now. Beiting has nine counties and one city, and each level has its own tasks; he figured his side was probably the easiest to complete.

In the past, Li Xiangqian would have at least kept some of the acquisition funds for himself, but this time he didn't even consider keeping any. If Li Long could prioritize the overall situation and keep all the beef and mutton for himself, then it's hard to say whether he would actually profit from the price difference.

Li Long drove to the purchasing station first. There were seven or eight people selling mutton in the yard. Li Long helped Gu Boyuan collect the mutton brought by the current customer, and then asked Sun Jiaqiang next to him to weigh the next batch. He called Gu Boyuan inside and told him about the matter.

"What? You mean, all this beef and mutton can be sold now, and it's still not enough?" Gu Boyuan was also a little surprised.

Li Long had mentioned the phone call earlier, and he felt that the beef and mutton he bought should be able to be sold, even if there were some left over.

Now Li Long is saying, "It's not enough?"

"Well, there might be dealers coming to buy it at high prices, but I don't plan to sell it to them. The supply and marketing cooperative is offering a good price, and besides, I've taken a lot of work from them over the years and made a lot of money. Now that the supply and marketing cooperative needs this meat to complete its tasks, we'll sell it. We can't be obsessed with money."

“Yes, yes, we should definitely give them to them.” Gu Boyuan nodded. “That makes sense.”

(End of this chapter)