Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1014 Big Changes in the Mountains, Li Long Has a New Idea

"Old Gu, is the price of beef and mutton still the same today?"

At the entrance of the purchasing station, middleman Liu Yongli greeted Gu Boyuan.

"The average price of beef and mutton has increased by ten cents today." Gu Boyuan replied without looking up, while inspecting the mutton on the counter. "It depends on the quality of the meat. If your bag contains Lao Pao mutton, I'll give you a maximum of one dollar and fifty cents."

The meat of Laopao Lamb is very gamey, and most people don't eat it.

"How could that be?" Liu Yongli said with a grin. "Although it's not last year's winter lamb, judging from its teeth, it's at most two or three years old, very young."

"Okay, I'll take a look later. If it's good, I'll give you a higher price."

The purchasing stations raised the prices for beef and mutton and relaxed their inspection standards. Middlemen were most sensitive to this; the next day, their beef and mutton purchases increased by 50% compared to the first day, and doubled on the third day.

In just three days, the purchasing station had already collected the remaining quota, and in fact, it had even exceeded it.

Li Long didn't have time to come over, so he called Li Xiangqian and asked him to come and pick up the goods directly. Mainly, people kept coming to his house, and he couldn't just lock the door; he had to explain to each of them that his meat collection station had sold out.

Li Long couldn't quite understand why these people were able to find his home so precisely, instead of asking at the purchasing station.

"Do you think I've never been to the purchasing station? When I went, they said they couldn't make the decision and could only come to you. Your small county town is so small, it's easy for them to find out where you live." These were the exact words of a mutton merchant who had been rejected by Li Long.

He also told Li Long why so many people came to see him:

"We've come all this way through so much trouble, we're definitely looking to do large-scale wholesale business. Those small, piecemeal sales wouldn't even cover our travel expenses."

Wherever we go, we always inquire about the specific situation of beef and mutton. Among the surrounding counties, only your place can provide a large quantity of beef and mutton on hand.

To be honest, we could understand if you sold beef and mutton to other merchants at a high price. But selling it to your county's supply and marketing cooperative at such a low price—do you think you have too little money to make?"

The merchant offered Li Long a high price of three yuan for mutton and three yuan and fifty cents for beef. In his opinion, this price was already tempting enough.

Li Longdu believes that beef and mutton prices will not rise to this level within the next three years. How can these people make a profit by buying beef and mutton at such high prices?

Of course, some people make a profit; no one can afford to lose money.

“Nobody complains about having too much money,” Li Long explained simply. “It’s your fault for being late.”

The merchant assumed Li Long meant exactly what he said, and that he was too late; Li Long had already delivered the goods to the supply and marketing cooperative. Li Long, however, was thinking, "Before you arrived, how much benefit had the supply and marketing cooperative given me over the years?"
Is that something that can be resolved with a few dollars?

These businessmen mainly contacted people like Li Long who could buy large quantities of beef and mutton, as well as food companies in various counties and cities.

However, food companies in each county and city must first ensure the supply to the local market; the existence of state-owned enterprises is not solely for making money.

Therefore, these people are destined not to receive much goods in this area.

On the fourth day, Li Xiangqian transported the remaining beef and mutton to the prefecture. At this time, several other counties and cities also began to deliver goods to the prefecture's cooperative.

When they learned that the supply and marketing cooperative in Ma County had completed its task, they were all very surprised.

Li Xiangqian received a lot of calls, some trying to get close to him, some congratulating him, and some asking about the source of the beef and mutton.

After all, it's difficult for various counties and cities to procure large quantities of beef and mutton right now, so they're trying to curry favor with him and get some transferred from him.

Li Xiangqian, of course, would never betray Li Long, so he just laughed it off. He also knew that recently there had been people buying beef and mutton at high prices, even higher than the price the supply and marketing cooperative offered Li Long.

He had already received enough benefits from Li Long, and he didn't want to use his own favor to exchange for Li Long's income. Let Li Long sell whatever he had left at a high price; after all, no other supply and marketing cooperative could offer a higher price than the quota set by the state cooperative.

While at home, Li Long not only had to refuse offers of income, but he also received phone calls from Huang Lei and Zhao Hui.

After Li Long's reminder, Huang Lei realized that the total amount of beef and mutton in his city was decreasing while the price was rising.

However, I was initially hesitant because I had never worked in this industry before.

It wasn't until the real trend arrived, and some beef and mutton shop owners contacted him to buy up the beef and mutton he had brought in, that Huang Lei realized that beef and mutton prices were going to rise this year.

He immediately called Li Long and asked him to send him another batch of beef and mutton. This time he wanted a whole train carload, but Li Long's inventory had all been given to the supply and marketing cooperative, so he had to wait.

Two days later, Zhao Hui called, saying he also wanted a batch of beef and mutton. However, Zhao Hui wasn't in a hurry. He knew that Li Long also bought a lot of hides, and planned to take the beef and mutton with him when he came to buy hides, just like last time.

After gathering all the goods from the supply and marketing cooperative, the beef and mutton collected by Li Long's purchasing station would mainly be supplied to Huang Lei and Zhao Hui. He planned to get about ten tons for Huang Lei, and a maximum of five tons for Zhao Hui.

Of course, the price offered by these two people was high enough, even higher than the price set by the supply and marketing cooperative, so selling the beef and mutton to them was not a loss.

In fact, the fattened cattle and sheep that Li Long's own farm can slaughter this year will add up to nearly ten tons of roe.

However, Li Long had no intention of distributing this beef and mutton. Section Chief Hu from the sugar factory called, clearly offering assistance before the supply and marketing cooperative assigned the task.

Therefore, Li Long plans to send a batch of fattened cattle and sheep to the sugar factory. Some will be kept in the village, and a batch will also be sent to Director Du of the agricultural machinery factory.

In early January, while Li Long was busy with beef and mutton, he received a phone call from Factory Director Du. He told Li Long:

"So far, our agricultural machinery factory has produced and assembled nearly 8,000 snowplows of two different models. Although we are still shipping them, we don't have as many orders coming in."

Let me tell you, our workers are really working in three shifts, and of course, I'm paying their wages and bonuses in full.

Imitation snow removal machines have started appearing on the market. However, based on our understanding of the three types of imitation snow removal machines so far, none of them are as efficient as ours. We have also studied the main problem, which is the arrangement of the steel wires on the roller.

To be honest, Comrade Li Long, when you emphasized the arrangement of the steel wires in your design, we were a little skeptical. But it turns out this detail was really important.

Eight thousand snow removal machines brought Li Long a net income of over 100,000 yuan.

Director Du's agricultural machinery factory has hired many more workers this year, and the profit from snowplows is quite large, so he plans to give the factory workers a batch of welfare before the Chinese New Year. Knowing that Li Long has beef and mutton, he purchased a batch.

Li Long planned to send him a hundred sheep and twenty cows, all of which would be slaughtered, of course.

Take all the frozen offal with you, and sell it for the price of a whole sheep.

As for the sugar factory, there are two hundred sheep, thirty cows, and two deer.

With so many cattle and sheep to slaughter, the team would definitely be overwhelmed, so Li Long would have to go into the mountains to call Halim and the others.

Li Long has been busy with beef and mutton business lately and hasn't had time to visit the mountains. He doesn't know how his friends in the mountains are doing now.

Li Longdian asked Lao Ma Hao and Uncle Luo to set up the stove outside and clean the area first. He also asked his elder brother to find some people from the village to help clean the drainage system. Then, he drove his jeep with some supplies into the mountains. The snow in the mountains was still very thick, much thicker than in the plains.

It turns out that Li Long and the people from Qingshuihe had cleared the snow from the road leading into the mountains, and now there was another 20 to 30 centimeters of snow on the cleared road that the jeep had driven over.

Fortunately, it's easy to drive in; it's not too troublesome.

When the jeep entered the mountain pass, Li Long suddenly noticed that the road leading from the pass into the mountains was cleared of snow.

There are occasional traces of snow, but they are just blizzards blown by strong winds.

It has almost no impact on driving.

Li Long was puzzled. He stopped the car, opened the door, and got out to take a look. The snow had been cleared three or four days ago.

He remembered that it had snowed just three or four days ago. Could it be that someone shoveled the snow here right after it snowed?

At first, he thought it was Meng Hai and his men who did it, but then he realized that didn't seem likely. If it were Meng Hai who led the men, the snow along the section from the mountain pass to Qingshuihezi should have been cleared by then, but it wasn't.

Looking at it this way now, there's only one possibility: it was Halimta, who cleared the snow with his small four-wheeled tractor.

This is a huge project for the dozen or so herding families in the mountains.

Is this what they've been doing most of the time?

Li Long got into the jeep and started driving. When the car reached the fork in the road leading to the cabin, he was surprised to find that the snow on the path leading from the main road to the cabin had also been cleared. A road just big enough to tow a tractor was right in front of him.

Looking at the snow on both sides of the road, some areas were more than a meter thick, while others were still thirty or forty centimeters thick. This work is not easy.

Li Long resisted the urge to go and take a look at the cabin, and continued driving the jeep into the mountains. When he got to the Halimu winter nest, he was shocked again.

The thick snow covering the grass in the winter pasture in front of the winter pasture has now been mostly cleared away. The snow that used to be very thick is now only 20 to 30 centimeters thick, and cattle and sheep are eating the grass that is exposed on the snow.

Clearly, Halim and his team knew that without a snow cover, the grass would likely freeze to death. So when they cleared the snow, they deliberately left a layer.

Nathan, the shepherd, saw Li Long's jeep, shouted, and rode his horse towards the winter pasture. By the time Li Long's jeep had gone down the ditch and up the slope, Halim had already come out of the winter pasture.

After getting out of the car and greeting Halim, Li Long pointed to the playground and asked:

"Is this what you were doing a while ago? Wow, you managed to clear away such deep snow."

"You have that snowplow you gave us, right? We've been using it a lot lately since we've had some free time," Halim said with a smile. "The stuff you brought is good, but we've had a lot of lambs lately, so we've been feeding that stuff to the ewes."

Although there's plenty of grass in autumn, the cattle and sheep still need to come out and graze; they can't just be kept in enclosures.

Well, having the tools and free time means you can do whatever you want. While other herders are still worrying about not having enough pasture and having to slaughter their sheep, Halim and his group have the leisure to clear the snow from the winter pastures.

The two of them carried the supplies that Li Long had brought into the spare house, and then loaded some of the hides and deer antlers from the spare house into the car.

"I've been busy clearing snow all this time, otherwise I would have sent these things down to you." Halim said, pointing to the many hides, antlers and jade that were still left in the spare house. "We know we owe you a lot this time."

The herding team came and told us about the snow disaster. Many herders have been affected, and there will be far fewer cattle and sheep on the pastures next year.

Li Long remained silent in the face of Halim's lament. Most of the lost cattle and sheep ended up with him, and he converted them into money.

There's no good or bad in this; broadly speaking, Li Long did a good thing.

Halim led Li Long into the winter camp to drink milk tea, saying:
"Recently, due to the snow disaster, the wolf packs in the mountains have started to gather. Many wild animals have frozen to death, and without food, the wolves have begun to prepare to attack their wintering dens. In just this short period of time, Yushanjiang and I have killed seven wolves!"

In previous years, after killing so many wolves, the remaining ones would flee deep into the mountains, too afraid to come out. This year, however, the wolf pack is still circling around every night.

"Do you have enough bullets?" Li Long asked.

"That's enough, that's enough to catch wolves. Not only wolves, but also lynxes. Those things didn't used to eat sheep, but recently they've started lurking around the sheepfold, trying to catch lambs."

Lynxes are small and usually eat things like wild rabbits, so they probably have their eyes on the sheepfold at this time of year.

It seems the snow disaster has had a significant impact.

"I need to slaughter the cattle and sheep in my sheepfold. I'd like to ask you to come down the mountain and help me slaughter the sheep. What do you say?"

"Of course, no problem." Halim smiled and took a sip of his milk tea. "When are you coming down the mountain?"

"Of course, the sooner the better. You two take care of things at home, and then I'll come pick you up."

“Okay.” Alim didn’t stand on ceremony with Li Long. “Riding in your car is more comfortable than riding in a tractor.”

Halim and Yushanjiang have brought their families back from the pastoral team's post, so the winter camp is quite lively.

Nathan and Sasken, the two dolls, were quite enthusiastic towards Li Long, mainly because Li Long would give them things and toys in the summer.

The old woman mumbled something in a language Li Long couldn't understand, but a smile remained on her face. Kazakhs are naturally hospitable, and in winter, when heavy snow blocks the mountains, having guests is a very good thing.

The family invited Li Long to stay for lunch, and he accepted. For lunch, they made mutton stew with noodles. They asked Li Long about his eating habits and specially served him a bowl of noodles topped with plenty of mutton. There was also a plate of onions on the kang table for him to eat with.

Perhaps influenced by Li Long's habits, Alim's family no longer uses their hands to eat mutton naren; instead, they use chopsticks to pick it up and eat it from a small bowl.

It tasted great, and Li Long enjoyed his meal very much.

Then he heard the howling of wolves outside.

"These wolves are getting more and more arrogant. They're on the mountain in broad daylight, clearly targeting me!" Halim put down his chopsticks, grabbed his gun, and went outside.

Li Long hurriedly followed. He was thinking that after he finished dealing with the beef and mutton, should he go to the mountains for a few days and go hunting?

I haven't played in a while, my hands are itching to play.

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2. I'm currently in Shanghai participating in an event on Qidian.com, so I didn't bring my computer. I'm typing on my phone using voice commands, so please forgive any mistakes. I'll revise it gradually. Until I return to XJ after the event, I can only post one chapter at a time, please understand.

(End of this chapter)