Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1101 The Opening of a New Track: The Perfect Closed Loop
There are six students in the fourth team who are in the first year of junior high school. All six of them are going to pick cotton, so Li Jianguo, the team leader, drove the tractor and, after talking to the other parents, took all the students to school.

Li Qiang was the youngest of these students—there was no way around it; while the others started first grade at seven or even eight, he started at six.

Don't think that starting first grade at this time is easy. Nine-year compulsory education only started in 1986, and it wasn't implemented when Li Qiang started first grade.

Back then, there was a selection process for entering first grade. For example, Li Qiang's classmate, Wang Jun from the Wang family who had cleared a lot of wasteland, entered first grade a year earlier than Li Qiang from preschool. Then he repeated a year from first grade back to preschool, and after staying in preschool for another year, he finally entered first grade.

Can you believe that repeating a grade can lead to preschool?

This is true.

So, Li Qiang, who hadn't even started puberty yet, sat in front of a group of classmates who were half a head or a whole head taller than him, and he seemed to be from a different age group.

After Li Jianguo loaded everyone up in his tractor, he headed towards the middle school. When he arrived, there were already quite a few people entering the school. Some parents had come by bicycle, some by horse-drawn cart, and there were also two or three tractors.

"Qiangqiang is young, so please look after him when you have time," Li Jianguo said to Wang Jun and the others.

"Uncle, don't worry!" Wang Jun readily agreed, "If he can't pick enough, we'll help him pick more."

The others agreed as well.

Li Qiang, however, disagreed. He had a group of classmates in his class who were about the same age and height as him, and they had already decided to be in the same group.

Wang Jun and his friends who were close to each other had their own partners.

The school-rented bus arrived, and they lined up to board with their luggage. Li Qiang sat with his close friends.

Although it's only been a few days since school started, not many students are repeating a grade from elementary to middle school. Many of them are from the same class, and those who are close sit together, chattering away about their upcoming cotton-picking trip.

One of the teachers accompanying the team remarked that this year was relatively good, as the school had rented buses for them. Previously, they had to use Jiefang trucks, without even tarpaulins, and the passengers in the truck beds were literally eating dust the whole way on the dirt roads.

They all arrived after lunch, with one teacher accompanying each class. Although the bus was designed to seat over thirty people, safety awareness was low at that time, and overcrowding was common. In addition, everyone had extra luggage, making the bus packed full.

When they arrived at the company, it was already 5 p.m. The teacher told the students to come down and line up. The students formed groups of four, five, or six according to the requirements given by the company, and prepared to be assigned to the homes of the workers.

"Stand still, everyone! The company leaders are coming over soon. They'll be responsible for assigning you tasks. Don't look so dejected!" the teacher said as soon as he saw several people coming out of the company headquarters.

Li Qiang immediately straightened his back and stood with his four classmates.

Wang Jun whispered beside him:

"Li Qiang, if you don't come with us, we won't be able to take care of you. What will you do if you can't get enough to eat?"

"It's okay, I can collect enough!" Li Long replied softly and then fell silent.

Another student in the next line said:
"Let's leave it at that for now. We'll ask around later. The land shouldn't be too far. If he really can't collect enough, we can go to his field and help him out."

Now that they're in junior high, the students have developed some analytical skills. Most of the students in Team Four understand that their family's good living conditions are partly due to the Li family.

At this point, the students are quite two-dimensional. If the Li family helps their own family and makes them money, then that's good. If they can help Li Qiang, then that's what they should do.

Then Li Qiang's eyes widened. He saw that the person who came with the company leader was actually his uncle!

Li Long naturally saw Li Qiang as well. He smiled at Li Qiang, glanced around, and then smiled at the other kids in the team.

At this moment, the staff who had been waiting in the company's meeting room also came out; they had come to take the students home.

For these employees, these students are good helpers: they are young and obedient. Although they don't collect much, three or four of them together are equivalent to an adult. If one or two people from their own families help collect, and supervise, the rest can cook and make brooms to earn cash.

Yes, picking cotton doesn't earn you cash, and the Corps covers the students' picking expenses. After all the crops are sold, the money is returned to the workers after deducting all costs.

Only making large brooms could earn cash, because Li Long would pay on the spot when he collected large brooms. Although the company would take a cut, the rest would be given to the workers.

The company announced over the loudspeaker at noon today that it was time to make large brooms.

Li Long also went to Zhao Zongming's company to tell them about making the big broom. Of course, he could have just called, but since it was such a short distance, making a trip there showed more sincerity.

We brought some dried meat for Wang Mingjun and his group, and Zhao Zongming also sent some.

The gift wasn't expensive, but giving it as a gift shows your appreciation.

Li Long brought them money-making jobs and even gave them gifts when he came to visit. Given this level of respect and thoughtfulness in his gifts, Zhao Zongming felt he would be letting them down if he didn't improve his own.

So Li Long had already finished half of his important business, and now he just wanted to see Li Qiang and put his mind at ease.

"Come on, this group, Lao Nie, you take the kids back." Wang Mingjun, having received a signal from Li Long, greeted the teacher and then led Li Qiang's group out.

"Your name is Li Qiang?"

Li Qiang knew that it must have been his uncle who told the company commander, and he was still a little confused.

A twelve-year-old student's mind can't hold too many human relationships and complexities.

"Yes." He nodded somewhat shyly.

"Hey, he looks more refined than your dad, but not as bright as he was back then," Wang Mingjun laughed. "You guys go with this uncle, don't worry, he'll take good care of you."

After saying that, he turned to Old Nie and said:
"Old Nie, do you know who this is?"

"I can't tell." Although Old Nie knew it was a case of connections, he wasn't really aware of it. In fact, Li Qiang looked more like Liang Yuemei, while Li Juan resembled Li Jianguo, though of course she didn't look like a boy.

"Brother Li, Li Jianguo's son, his name is Li Qiang!" Wang Mingjun said loudly, "He used to be our company's quartermaster, you know him? You even stole some of the steamed buns he made!"

"What? Old Li's son?" Old Nie stepped forward and looked at Li Qiang. "He's so big already? Hey! That's really... really... kid, your dad's name is Li Jianguo, right? Hahaha! Come on, come on, let's go home! I'll slaughter a chicken for you!"

Li Jianguo visited the company, but he didn't meet everyone. Li Long brought the task of making large brooms to the company, but he mainly interacted with the company political instructor and Old Chen.

Many of the company's employees were unaware of the relationship between Li Long and Li Jianguo. Now that Wang Mingjun has brought up the relationship between Li Qiang and Li Jianguo, how could these former employees not be excited?

Wang Jun and his kids stared wide-eyed. "Hey, Li Qiang, looks like he doesn't need their care anymore."

“Old Nie, you don’t know this, do you? This Li Long is the boss who gives us the big broom job, and he’s Old Li’s younger brother!” Wang Mingjun continued, “It’s only because Li Qiang and his classmates came this year that you guys are still obsessed.”

Old Nie genuinely didn't know; honest people don't really like gossip, which is normal.

He was a little excited. Li Long smiled and said, "Brother Nie, my brother often talks about you guys. I'll bring him over when I have time. He also said he wants to go back to his old unit when he's free."

"Come on, come on, you have to come!" Old Nie really did steal some steamed buns from the mess hall. There was no other way; back then, they were all young and strong lads, the age where, as someone once said, they'd be hungry again by 12:30 after eating at 12:00, and they were doing such heavy physical labor.

He was caught stealing steamed buns by Li Jianguo, but there was no punishment. He was told not to waste them. At that time, the production and construction corps had plenty of food, so Li Jianguo later instructed the cooks to prepare extra food to ensure the workers had enough to eat.

Old Nie had run away from his hometown without being considered a sent-down youth or a youth sent to the border regions. Fearing he might get into trouble and be sent back, Li Jianguo didn't report it. In his view, it wasn't a big deal. Who hadn't gone hungry in those days? He could understand.

Li Jianguo had long forgotten about this, but the story actually spread throughout the company later, and it was Lao Nie who told the tale.

So he was grateful to the quartermaster. Not only him, but many employees in the company knew Li Jianguo and had a good relationship with him.

Some people even tried to snatch Li Qiang away from Lao Nie, telling Li Qiang that they were also Li Jianguo's comrade-in-arms and inviting Li Qiang to their homes so that he wouldn't have to do any work and could just complete all the tasks.

"Go play ball!" Wang Mingjun waved his hand. "They're here to train, so just do what they're supposed to do, and make up for what they're not doing. Don't treat them like special cases."

This was Li Long's request, because it was too special and would lead to him being isolated in class.

Li Long spoke a few words with Wang Jun and a few other students from his team, then smiled and told the staff leading them to take care of them and not to let them sleep on the cotton stacks.

At that time, there wasn't much common sense. Some employees didn't have spare rooms at home, so they made the students sleep in cotton stacks.

Freshly picked cotton actually contains a lot of dust. Sleeping on it, even with just a sheet, will result in inhaling a lot of dust overnight. In the morning, your nose will be dry and may even bleed, and of course, your lungs will feel even worse.

Li Long went to Lao Nie's house with him and saw that Li Long and the others were sleeping on a large communal bed in an empty house. It was made of seven or eight planks, and with bedding laid on top, it could comfortably sleep ten or so people.

"Xinmin's mother, slaughter the chicken!" After Li Long left, Lao Nie said directly to his wife, "Let's make chicken for the students tonight!"

"Why?" Dinner was actually planned beforehand: steamed buns with stir-fried potato shreds and white flour porridge.

"One of the students who came today is Brother Li, who used to be the quartermaster's son in our company," Old Nie said excitedly. "The company commander arranged for him to come to our family!"

"Is that the quartermaster who didn't punish you for stealing steamed buns?" Although Lao Nie's wife wasn't in this company at the time, she often heard Lao Nie talk about this incident later and was very familiar with it.

"That's him. I always thought he went back to his hometown and never came back, but I didn't expect him to have settled down in the local village so early on... The boss who makes and collects the big brooms in our village is his brother! He came to the company a couple of years ago, but we didn't know!" Old Nie was a little annoyed with Wang Mingjun at this point, wondering why he didn't say anything.

"That requires killing a chicken!" Old Nie's wife didn't have a deep impression of Li Jianguo, only having heard her husband mention him. But she knew very well about making big brooms; being able to make big brooms had improved the family's life!
We should at least thank them!
Li Qiang was clearly treated differently among his friends. When they had chicken for dinner, he got two chicken legs, one of which belonged to Lao Nie's son and the other to him.

Because everyone got to eat chicken thanks to him, the other students were actually quite grateful to him.

The next day, when picking cotton, Lao Nie listened to Wang Mingjun's advice and asked Li Qiang to pick cotton with him. However, while picking cotton, Lao Nie went along and put some of the cotton he picked into Li Qiang's bag. He also told Li Long some tips on picking cotton.

So Li Qiang picked up 27 kilograms that day, while the other students picked up the highest amount of 23 kilograms.

For a twelve or thirteen-year-old who had never picked cotton before, picking twenty kilograms on the first day was already quite an achievement.

As for the few kilograms that Lao Nie helped pick up, it was nothing. He would just make one more broom each day and come back—he didn't follow along every day. They didn't have a tractor; they used a donkey cart to pull the students to the fields. His sixteen-year-old son, Nie Xinmin, would follow behind, watching the students pick up the brooms and helping Li Qiang along the way.

After returning home that day, Li Long told Li Jianguo about Li Qiang's situation.

"Old Nie? Let me think." Li Jianguo remembered Old Nie, but he didn't really recall the incident of stealing steamed buns. There were many similar incidents back then, so he didn't have a deep impression of them.

Li Jianguo remembered Lao Nie, a young man who didn't talk much.

“Since Wang Mingjun has made the arrangements, we can rest assured. I’m going to pick up the big broom in a week, and I’ll check on Qiangqiang while I’m at it,” Li Long said.

Actually, I was most worried about Liang Yuemei, but now that I know Li Qiang was arranged to stay at a friend's house, and they killed a chicken for him to eat that very day, I'm almost at ease.

If they don't treat the child like an outsider, it means the child won't be mistreated. As for the tasks, it doesn't matter whether they pick up enough or not. The family has enough money to make up for it, so what more could they ask for?
Of course, Li Qiang is quite competitive; he picks things up like crazy every day.

But there's nothing that can be done about his inherent weaknesses. In reality, his actual ability each day hovers around the passing mark, and if he's not in a good state, it might not be enough.

Fortunately, with Nie Xinmin's help, we exceeded our quota every day.

Now, Li Juan lives at school, and Li Qiang goes to pick cotton. The house has suddenly become quiet, and everyone is a little unaccustomed to it.

Over the next few days, Li Long traveled back and forth between several places to collect the bundled brooms, inspect them, and pay for them.

Each location has a designated person in charge, and his inspections are done through random sampling. Because Li Long had already stated when assigning the task that quality needed to be improved, to be honest, he didn't encounter a single substandard item during his random inspections this year.

Once he had enough for 10,000 large brooms, Li Long would deliver them directly to the supply and marketing cooperative. This year, he and Li Xiangqian would make a trip to the state supply and marketing cooperative together, and also visit Director Qian.

Both Li Xiangqian and Director Qian were very confident in the quality of the large broom that Li Long had made. They conducted a spot check on the spot and found no problems. They left the whole truck behind and took it directly to the autonomous region to complete the task that afternoon.

Now, the brooms of Ma County have become a golden brand. Everyone knows that this is not only a solid strength of the Ma County Supply and Marketing Cooperative, but also a calling card of the State Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives.

Li Long didn't stay long. After having lunch with his superiors, he returned to the county.

Liu Gaolou arrived the next day, bringing three truckloads of supplies with him once again.

The two carts of medicinal herbs remained the same, while the other cart contained half antelope horns and half antelope hides.

However, after driving the car into the supply and marketing cooperative, Liu Gaolou, who got out of the car, gave Long not those customs clearance documents, but a black bag.

There was always a mystery gift, which made Li Long quite curious.

As soon as he opened it, he smelled something – and there it was: ten wrapped bear bile packets!
It's one thing if antelope horns are transported by the cartload, but Li Long knows how many of these things there are in that country, in herds and herds, since there are few people and lots of grassland there.

But bears are inherently unlikely to appear in groups—well, let's not count the Tibetan bears scavenging in the garbage.

There were ten at once—and they all looked quite big. I wonder if people didn't want the smaller ones.

Liu Gaolou explained:

“My uncle said that people over there like furs, and a lot of good furs are sent north. It’s cold up north, and they value furs very much. But they don’t know that bear bile is a valuable commodity. Some hunters don’t even want it. My uncle had to find someone to get it for him. Actually, he could have gotten much more. It’s worthless over there…”

Even if it's worthless, it will become valuable once it passes through customs; the tariffs are there for all to see.

However, unlike people over there, there aren't many critics of traditional Chinese medicine here yet. Although we are currently in one of the times when the worship of foreign things is at its most serious, ordinary people still believe in traditional Chinese medicine, so there is no market for critics of traditional Chinese medicine.

Ordinary people generally know that Chinese medicinal herbs such as ginseng and bear bile are very precious, so when Liu Gaolou brought them over, it was as if he was showing them off.

These bear bile are all dried, each one weighing only a few hundred grams, less than a kilogram.

But all of it adds up to quite a lot.

By this time, the technology for extracting bile from live bears had been developed, and the price of bear bile was not as high as before, but it was still not cheap for ordinary people.

"What price do you think is appropriate?" Li Long asked Liu Gaolou. "Ten at a time."

"Anything over a thousand yuan would be fine." Liu Gaolou didn't have such high expectations. "My uncle also said that this thing isn't available every day, and we don't know if the technology is up to standard when we retrieve it, so it might not sell for a high price."

“Okay, deal.” Li Long nodded. “I’ll give you 1200.”

The price was low, of course, but Li Long didn't think it was a problem. The main thing was that he owed Liu Gaolou a favor regarding the sugar, and he didn't know if Liu Gaolou had managed to get it done.

"The hides are all wolf, deer, and antelope skins, and there's one snow leopard skin. They value hides quite a bit over there, so not many were shipped over." Liu Gaolou gave Li Long a list. "Three truckloads of white sugar. My uncle asked me to send six thousand US dollars, and said he'd use the goods from my side to offset the rest."

Well, it's better than Li Long expected. He thinks Liu Shanmin is quite reliable.

(End of this chapter)