Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1079 Planning Ahead, Broadening Our Vision

After dropping Lü Dehai and Tao Shengli off in the county, Li Long asked them where they were going. Lü Dehai, who had already eaten, told Li Long that he was going directly to the bus station to take a bus home.

There is now a bus service from the county to Liuhudi. Although it only runs once a day, it is still quite convenient to go back.

Tao Shengli said he needed to find a place to stay, buy some daily necessities, have a meal, and then leave.

Li Long first took Lü Dehai to the bus station, and then drove the car to the county guesthouse.

"Mr. Li, do you know where I can exchange this gold dust for money?" Tao Shengli said. "I don't know if it can be done in this county."

Li Long himself didn't know. Although he had acquired quite a few gold nuggets, gold lumps, and this time's placer gold, he hadn't traded them; he kept them all as collectibles.

Moreover, it seems that private individuals are not allowed to buy or sell gold products now, at least not in a small county like Ma County.

Li Long told Tao Shengli the truth, and Tao Shengli was somewhat embarrassed. He said to Li Long:

"Mr. Li, could you please buy this placer gold? I know placer gold is definitely not as good as the gold sold in the store, and I don't need much. I know you're a good person, so how about you offer me a price? I don't have any money on me right now..."

Li Long then asked:
"How much gold dust do you want in exchange? If it's just what's in your pocket, I can exchange some for you."

Although the gold content of placer gold may not reach 90%, it is certainly 70% to 80%. Therefore, if it were priced at half the current gold price, Li Long would definitely make a profit.

Li Long had previously given a small portion of Tao Shengli's gold dust to Polati, mainly because he couldn't let Polati release the prisoners for nothing. He also believed that Tao Shengli wasn't stupid; he wouldn't let someone release prisoners without paying a cent. Li Long would owe him a favor, and what about himself?

At least for now, it seems fair, and Tao Shengli can understand that.

He took out the cloth bag he had kept for himself and said:

"That's all. How much do you think it's worth? Name your price, and I won't haggle."

Hey, Li Long laughed. Was this putting him on the back foot or showing him trust?

He took the cloth bag and weighed it in his hand. The bag weighed about 100 grams in total. Subtracting the weight of the cloth—it was old-fashioned linen, so it was quite heavy; if you removed the leather, it would probably weigh about 70 or 80 grams.

Li Long tore open the sewn seam and poured out a little bit. The gold dust was reddish-yellow in color, similar to the gold dust left by Lü Youcai, and it was very beautiful.

At that time, the domestic gold purchase price should be around thirty yuan. Placer gold has a refining process. Li Long thought for a moment, took out his black imitation leather bag containing money from the jeep, counted out eight hundred-yuan bills and handed them over:

"Here's eight hundred dollars, consider it payment for the gold dust."

"This money..." Tao Shengli had been in the mountains and was unaware that 100-yuan banknotes had been issued. He hesitated to accept it.

“Let’s go to the bank.” Li Long smiled. “These are the new hundred-yuan bills, and there are also fifty-yuan bills. Let’s go to the bank, and you can exchange these hundred-yuan bills for smaller denominations.”

Li Long drove Tao Shengli to the bank in his jeep. He told Tao Shengli to go in and exchange the money while he waited outside.

A moment later, Tao Shengli came out from inside, and the money in his hand had become a thick wad of cash. It seems that he also likes to carry ten-yuan bills.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the guesthouse. As for the rest—buying things, fixing your hair, etc.—it’s up to you,” Li Long said.

Tao Shengli was full of gratitude and waited until Li Long dropped him off at the guesthouse. After Li Long drove away in his jeep, he waved to the jeep.

He knew very well that it wasn't Li Long; he himself was now locked in the forestry team's dark room.

Tao Shengli did not go into the guesthouse immediately; he was still somewhat hesitant.

In fact, he didn't take all the gold he dug up with him; some of it was hidden in the mountains.

But at that time, he had no opportunity to take it, nor was it possible for him to take it.

Now that I'm free, should I go and get it?
Li Long was unaware of Tao Shengli's intentions. Seeing that it was still early, he went to the supply and marketing cooperative first.

After visiting Liuhudi and chatting with Lü Dehai, Li Long realized that relying solely on his memories from his previous life might not be entirely accurate.

Therefore, he wanted to learn more from Li Xiangqian to see if he could correct his own biases.

Li Xiangqian was reading the newspaper in his office when he heard Li Long's jeep enter the yard.

"Sit down." Seeing Li Long knock on the door, Li Xiangqian pointed to the sofa. "Pour yourself some tea. What brings you here today?"

"Director, it's like you're making it sound like I can't come unless there's something wrong," Li Long said with a smile as he poured himself some water and took a sip.

“Tell me yourself, when have you ever come here without a problem?” Li Xiangqian glared at him. “You’re busier than me now.”

"Everyone needs to find something to do," Li Long chuckled, offering an explanation. "Director, I've come to ask you about something. Do you know how much cotton is currently planted in our county?"

"This? I don't know." Li Xiangqian shook his head. "The cotton and linen harvest is the business of the county cotton and linen company. Our supply and marketing cooperative doesn't handle this."

Li Long was slightly disappointed. Did he really have to go to the cotton and linen company to ask about this himself? It wouldn't be easy to ask.

“However, I have a statistical bulletin from the county last year here,” Li Xiangqian said after thinking for a moment. “You can take a look; it should have what you need.”

As he spoke, he stood up, rummaged through the old-fashioned wooden office cabinet, and found a document.

Last year's statistical bulletin, after the county statistics bureau compiles the statistics, will be sent to each unit. It contains data on various industries such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production and fishery.

Li Long took the document and began to read it.

Li Xiangqian smiled, returned to his desk, and continued doing his work.

Li Long quickly flipped to the cotton and linen category.

In 1986, the cotton production in Ma County was over 200 tons. The specific cotton planting area was not specified, but Li Long knew that at that time most of the cotton fields were upland cotton, and a small portion were film-grown cotton, with a maximum yield of only over 100 kilograms.

By analogy, the total cotton planting area in the county is roughly two to three thousand mu.

It's not actually that much, considering that a township now has around 100,000 mu of arable land.

However, at present, agriculture in Ma County is mainly based on grain. Farmers' grain quota is about 10%, which means that if they grow five mu of land, they have to hand over half a mu of grain as public grain.

The grain harvesting task must be completed, and then there's feeding the whole family before engaging in sideline farming.

At that time, farmers generally did not have the concept of paying money to replace grain taxes. In addition, they had experienced a period of food shortages and poor food quality, so growing grain became a spontaneous and proactive behavior.

Only after that can we plant cotton and watermelons.

The communique briefly mentioned that cotton cultivation in the county was concentrated in Beiwucha and Liuhudi, with scattered cultivation in other townships, and then in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps farms.

Currently, the farms of the Eighth Agricultural Division and the farms of the Sixth Agricultural Division are nominally "borrowing" land from Ma County. In other words, the land belongs to Ma County, but the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has assigned it to the autonomous region for use.

In another thirty or forty years, when the divisions of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps establish cities, these places will officially be considered part of the Corps.

More than 20,000 mu, but there is a growth rate on it. Li Long saw that the growth rate of cotton planting was very fast.

In other words, although cotton cultivation is currently limited to these two townships, the annual growth rate has been 20% to 30% in recent years because cotton cultivation is quite profitable.

He knew that once cotton cultivation expanded to other townships in two years, the growth rate would be even faster.

"Why are you looking for this cotton planting area?" Li Xiangqian asked after Li Long handed the document back to him.

"I guess cotton cultivation in our county will expand to more than half of the arable land in the future," Li Long said half-jokingly. "I'm thinking about whether we should build a machine specifically for cotton."

Li Xiangqian knew that Li Long had partnered with an agricultural machinery factory in Kuitun to produce several machines, especially the snow removal machine, which had made them a good profit this year.

Therefore, he felt that Li Long's line of thinking was correct, but he had doubts about what Li Long was saying now.

“More than half? How is that possible?” Li Xiangqian said. “We are an agricultural county, that’s true, but the main arable land is still used for growing grain. Grain is the bulk of the crop, how could half of it be used for cotton?”

"I mean in the future. In the future, with the application of new technologies and new seeds, our grain production will be much higher than it is now." Li Long certainly knows how to boast, half-jokingly and half-analytically:

“Then one acre of land will yield as much grain as three or four acres do now. We won’t need as much land to grow grain, so farmers will have to think about what to grow to make money. Even if we forget about everything else, cotton is definitely indispensable. Of the basic necessities of life—clothing, food, housing, and transportation—clothing comes first. And what’s used to make clothes? Primarily cotton, isn’t it?” “That makes sense,” Li Xiangqian smiled. “So what are you planning to do?”

"It's a sprayer," Li Long said honestly. "These days, the other crops we grow aren't so afraid of pests. You see, wheat is afraid of lodging, sunflowers are afraid of shallow roots, and corn doesn't yield much because the land is bad, and it's also afraid of drought."

Only this cotton plant, because its leaves grow so close together, becomes susceptible to highly contagious pests, such as spider mites, aphids, and bollworms…”

"You've got quite a bit to say, kid," Li Xiangqian laughed. "You mean you want to produce this insect-killing machine?"

"Well, this time when I went to the six households in the north, the cotton farmers there said that spraying pesticides was a troublesome task. I was thinking that if the cotton planting area is large enough, I would design a suitable spraying machine, a small four-wheeled tractor, which would save a lot of trouble."

For other crops, spraying pesticides is an occasional task, but for cotton, it is a very common occurrence.

Li Long vaguely remembered that in his previous life, there was a period when spraying pesticides on cotton plants was almost to the point of madness, and all kinds of medicine bottles could be seen on the edge of every field.

Because different insecticides are used for different types of insects, it's complicated to apply them; some need to be mixed together, while others need to be applied separately.

For a period of time, although there were many reservoirs and swamps around the fourth team, there were few mosquitoes in the village in the summer, and even fewer flies.

They were all killed by the drug.

Even later, when drone spraying was first promoted, a spray of pesticide drifted from the air into Li Long's yard, and his grapevines shrank immediately. That year, half of the grapevines didn't bear fruit!

We have to fight them. If we don't, the spider mites will eat all the cotton leaves and the cotton bolls will fall off, which would mean a total crop failure.

These pests spread too quickly. If left unchecked, they can infect an entire 20-30 acre plot of land in just a few days!

Human resources are finite; mechanical spraying is the only viable solution.

However, the current area of ​​cotton cultivation in the county is not enough to support what Li Long is doing.

However, he also realized that he needed to broaden his horizons. If he wanted to cooperate with the Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory, he couldn't just focus on Ma County. Actually, the Corps was the one that initially grew the most cotton.

The cotton-growing areas of the Eighth Agricultural Division in Shicheng and the Seventh Agricultural Division in Kuitun were initially much larger than those of Ma County.

So, while it's a little early to be developing cotton spraying machines now, it's not that early.

It is possible to plan ahead.

After leaving Li Xiangqian, Li Long checked the time and then went to pick up Mingming and Haohao.

This isn't something that's urgent right now; picking up the baby is the priority.

Lu Dehai bought a ticket at the bus station, waited for the bus to arrive, and then boarded the bus carrying his large black bag.

The driver didn't say anything when he saw that he hadn't put the big black bag on the luggage rack. Mainly because there weren't many people on the bus at that time, and no one was sitting according to their tickets; it was basically one person sitting in a two-seater.

Lu Dehai sat in the back, holding the black bag, looking out the window without saying a word.

He was thinking about where to bury his father's bones.

At that time, burial was still the norm in rural areas. People would find a place near their village, dig a pit, and build a grave.

This is something that can't be said to outsiders, because my father left the side business team to make money without permission and was then murdered. And the information we have so far is that the person who killed my father is also dead.

A messy account.

This is a complicated matter, and he can't very well go to the village. The team had given him compensation after his father went missing, so he can't really say anything more now. He might as well just bury him.

The car drove out of the station and headed north.

When Lü Dehai arrived home, the sun had already set. He carried his bag into the yard, and Wang Xiangyu quickly walked over, staring at the black bag in his hand.

Lü Dehai gestured for them to go inside and talk. After all, this matter couldn't be publicized. The child had already returned, and Lü Dehai had his wife take the child to study while he and his mother opened the bag in the main room and looked at the bones inside.

After confirming the old injury, Wang Xiangyu covered her mouth and cried.

“Actually, there are gold mines in those mountains,” Lü Dehai said after his mother calmed down. “My dad must have panned for a lot of placer gold. If I hadn’t seen a gold panner being arrested by the forestry team, I would have been thinking of taking some time to go into the mountains to take a look.”

"No way!" Wang Xiangyu's face changed as she said, "Now our family can eat our fill, and Comrade Li gave us another two thousand yuan. Things are pretty good now, so don't do anything reckless!"

Lü Dehai nodded and said he understood.

He didn't mention how much gold his father had. Li Long had already shown great kindness by sending money and pointing out the location of his father's remains. Someone less considerate might not have mentioned it at all; what could you do then?

So he didn't even think about how much his father had left behind. That stuff was the culprit, even a disgrace, so it was best not to mention it.

After putting the black bag away, the three adults discussed where to bury the remains during dinner.

Finally, it was decided that he would be buried in the wasteland on his own land, as a way of guarding his own land.

Then they discussed using the two thousand yuan to buy a tractor. Lü Dehai said that Li Long had agreed to get him a harvester.

"The wheat harvesting season is almost here. Once we have a combine harvester, I can operate it and make money harvesting wheat too!" Lü Dehai said excitedly. "Look how much money the people in the next team are making harvesting wheat! I don't have to say a lot, but making one or two thousand a season would be great!"

At that time, the average income per person in the six households was six hundred yuan. If they could earn the net income of two people in one wheat season, that would be quite a lot.

After Li Long picked up Mingming and Haohao and brought them home, he handed the children over to Gu Xiaoxia to put them to sleep. He then sat down at the writing desk in the master bedroom, which was unusual for him, and began to write and draw.

He had used pesticide sprayers before, knew their principles, and was familiar with their main components, so "designing" one would actually be quite simple.

In later generations, he used two types of sprayers. One type was simply a frame with two wheels underneath and a large plastic bucket on top—the kind that lay vertically, about 1.2 to 1.3 meters long and 50 to 60 centimeters wide.

Behind the bucket is a vertical frame that folds up and is three or four meters wide when unfolded. The frame is covered with flexible hoses, which are divided into upper and lower sections, with the spray nozzle at the end.

The hose connects to the container filled with the medicine, and it also connects to the air pump nozzle. The air pump is used for pressurization. With the manual sprayer, the left hand continuously presses the handle to force air into the water tank, while the right hand controls the switch and nozzle.

Another type of water tank is installed directly in the tractor's trailer, essentially converting the trailer into a sprayer, which works on a similar principle to the first type.

Li Long wanted to design a sprayer that uses an air pump for pressurization, with three rows of nozzles arranged vertically, and the frame adjustable up and down. This way, the frame could be adjusted to the height of the cotton, making the spraying more accurate.

Li Long drew out the bucket, water pump, control switch, and overall structure.

After drawing it, you should also provide a general explanation so that it is easy to understand when restoring it.

While Li Long was drawing, Gu Xiaoxia came over and stood behind him watching.

"Is Minghao Haohao asleep?" Li Long asked, putting down his pen.

"He's asleep." Gu Xiaoxia reached out and gently massaged Li Long's shoulders. "What are you planning to design?"

"What does it look like?" Li Long picked up his drawing and showed it to Gu Xiaoxia.

"It looks like a large sprayer." Gu Xiaoxia, who had also done farm work, recognized it immediately.

"Yes, that's the one with the small four-wheel drive."

"What's this for? To spray pesticides? We don't need it when working in the field, do we?" Gu Xiaoxia didn't know anything about cotton fields at the moment.

"It's for spraying pesticides on cotton," Li Long explained. "Our team doesn't grow cotton, but many production and construction corps and towns to the north do. I think cotton will be a major cash crop in the future, so we're getting this out to see if we can use it."

"You're amazing!" Gu Xiaoxia exclaimed. "You came up with this after just looking at the cotton field?"

Li Long was delighted to be praised by his woman, and a surge of pride rose within him. He smiled and said:

"I have many strengths!"

(End of this chapter)