Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1103 The cars have arrived, how should they be distributed?

The 40,000 brooms were scattered across five locations, but in the end, the two companies of Wang Mingjun and Zhao Zongming still made the most, totaling more than 29,000 brooms.

Team Four has fewer, more than five thousand, as does Meng Hai's team, and the rest were made by Liang Wenyu's team.

Liang Wenyu still organized very few people this year, and not many families were organized, but the money she earned was real.

Li Long took the large broom away in five trips. On the last trip, Li Qiang and his classmates finished their cotton-picking work-study program.

They came by shuttle bus and returned by truck, without even a tarpaulin. But the students and teachers didn't care anymore; getting home was the most important thing.

I get up at the crack of dawn every day. When I go into the field, there's still some dew on the cotton. By noon, the cotton husks are prickly, and the sun is scorching. By the afternoon, I'm exhausted and weak.

Fortunately, they were all young kids, and they were energetic again after a good night's sleep.

But as the days went by, the kids eventually couldn't take it anymore. Even though Li Qiang had always been treated differently, he was strong-willed and basically stayed with everyone. When Lao Nie suggested that he take a day off and not have to go, and that he would still be credited for completing the task, Li Qiang refused.

This made me get along well with my classmates, but the side effect was that I got tanned to a deep tan and lost a lot of weight.

On the way back, Li Long came over and, seeing that he was going to take a truck back, simply told the teacher to take him and his luggage back in a jeep. Actually, he wanted to take the other students with him, but the jeep could only fit a limited number of people, and it wouldn't be good to take some and leave others out, so he simply decided not to take any of them.

This time, Li Qiang didn't refuse; he was just too eager to go home.

As Li Long drove, he asked Li Qiang about his situation during this period.

Although he wanted to go home as soon as possible, picking cotton was the first time he had been away from home for such a long time, so Li Qiang felt it was quite novel.

So on the bus, he kept talking about his feelings, such as the extra meals he ate, how he encountered bean worms every day when picking cotton, which looked scary but didn't bite at all, or how other groups rarely ate watermelon, while they ate it every day, and so on.

Li Qiang said somewhat embarrassedly:
"Uncle Nie and Brother Xinmin help me pick up cotton every time, I feel so embarrassed, they even pay me for the extra cotton..."

“It’s nothing,” Li Long said with a smile. “They also make money from the work of making big brooms for them. Your little bit of money is nothing.”

The extra cotton that Li Qiang picked would be returned to the students by the school at a rate of 15 cents per kilogram, which would motivate the students.

As for how much the school takes from the company per kilogram, Li Long asked Wang Mingjun, and the answer was 25 cents per kilogram.

Li Qiang will eventually get about ten yuan, which isn't much.

"We even saw a snake in the cotton field, and I killed it," Li Qiang said excitedly. "It was over a meter long!"

"What about the snake?" Li Long asked.

“Xinmin took it and went back to the stove to wrap sunflower leaves and cook them. I told him to peel them, but he wouldn’t. As a result, it smelled fishy and smelly, so we ended up throwing it away.”

"Haha." Li Long laughed.

Li Qiang is experienced now.

They chatted all the way and soon returned to Team Four.

Although they knew Li Qiang was coming back today, Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei still went to work. In the countryside, there aren't so many formalities; life goes on.

Right now, we're harvesting corn and sunflowers. After cutting the sunflower heads, we need to knock the seeds off the threshing floor. There's no precedent for mechanized harvesting yet, or rather, the machines haven't been developed.

Like the scene on TV where Yang Chaoyue is hitting a sunflower head. When people are hitting, they usually pick the easiest parts to hit first, and that's what happened on TV.

Threshing corn is also quite troublesome, and it's mostly done manually. There are semi-mechanized kernel grinders available, but they can only feed in one corn cob at a time, so they're not very efficient.

There are usually two methods: one is to use a screwdriver to push down a few rows of corn kernels from the corn cob, making it easier to twist the kernels; the other method is more forceful, which is to fill the corn cob with a half-filled urea bag, tie the opening, and then beat it hard with a mallet.

After being pounded, the corn cobs are mostly broken into several pieces. After breaking them apart, pour them into a large basin, and then it will be much easier to remove the kernels by hand.

Corn is not like wheat. Wheat can be crushed by a tractor with rollers because it is hard and small, and won't be crushed. Corn, however, would be crushed in the same way.

So I'm quite busy at this time.

Li Qingxia was busy on the field with Li Jianguo and the others, along with Li Junfeng, Li Junxian, and Chen Qianjin.

The Li family owns a lot of land and grows many crops, so they need a lot of labor. Liang Yuemei was threshing sunflowers in the field, and Li Junfeng's wife was also there. Although she was pregnant, she was still eager to work and was quite diligent.

Du Chunfang lives alone in the family. She is picking chili peppers in the vegetable garden to dry in the winter for later consumption.

Li Long pulled Li Qiang back. Du Chunfang was very excited and kept asking Li Qiang if he could eat his fill, noting how thin he looked.

Li Qiang proudly said that he could pick up enough tasks every day, which he considered very worthy of pride. However, Du Chunfang only praised him for being capable and then mainly asked him about his life.

Just like many people who have achieved outstanding results while living away from home, when they tell their families about it, their families are more concerned about whether they can eat their fill or whether they will get cold.

Li Long took a stroll around the field and saw everyone working. There was tea and watermelon by the pile of tools. Knowing that the supplies here were in good condition, he didn't participate much and then left.

He went to find Xie Yundong.

Xie Yundong was in the yard tidying up the tools for making large brooms. He needed to re-tighten the stakes with wire to reinforce them, so they wouldn't be difficult to use next time. He also straightened the remaining wire, bundled it into a circle, and prepared it for later use.

"Brother Yundong, you said you wanted to buy a car before, what do you think now?" Li Long asked as he entered the yard, took the water that Deng Guilan poured for him, and drank half of it.

"What? You can get your hands on a car?" Xie Yundong laughed upon hearing this. "What kind of car?"

“I heard that Tianjin Dafa vans are already being sold in Wucheng, for over 30,000 yuan,” Li Long said.

"It's a bit expensive." Xie Yundong was actually quite wealthy. He could afford it if he gritted his teeth. He'd earned some money over the past few years working with Li Long, driving a tractor to harvest wheat, and so on.

He and his wife are both good at saving money and have accumulated quite a bit of savings.

“Someone contacted me to import a batch of used cars from the Soviet Union,” Li Long said. “But they don’t have license plates. They can be driven if we don’t go into the county.”

"Is it cheap?" That was what Xie Yundong was concerned about.

"It's cheap, I estimate it shouldn't cost more than 10,000." Although Li Long didn't ask Liu Shanmin the exact price of the car, he estimated it wouldn't be expensive.

"How's the car?" Xie Yundong asked with interest, while Deng Guilan listened from the side.

"It can definitely be driven. It's a used car, so it's bound to have some minor problems, otherwise it wouldn't be so cheap. But one advantage of Soviet cars is that they're durable; they can even be driven into the mountains without any problems."

"Then let's get one!" Xie Yundong laughed. "As long as it's cheap! Driving a car is definitely more convenient than driving a tractor. As for the county... we won't go. If all else fails, we can just drive it to the outskirts of the county town and park it in someone's yard."

At that time, there were very few traffic police, since there weren't many cars in the entire county, so there was really no need for them.

"Okay, do you want a sedan or a minivan?" Li Long asked.

"What? You can choose?" Xie Yundong asked curiously. "How many can you get?"

"I don't know, but there must be several," Li Long said vaguely.

"We need a minivan!" Deng Guilan interjected from the side. "A sedan is too conspicuous. What kind of farmer would we drive a sedan?"

Although I haven't seen many cars on the streets of Ma County, I have seen them on TV.

There will be more of these in a couple of years; a large number of Xiali cars will be available. Santana cars are also available now, but there are very few right now.

"A minivan..." Xie Yundong actually wanted a sedan, since that kind of thing is conspicuous.

“A minivan can carry everything, from things to people. If we start growing cotton next year, we’ll need to hire people, right? If we need to hire people, what’s the point of having a sedan?” Deng Guilan was very clear-headed at this moment. “We’re farmers, we’ll say whatever works best!”

Xie Yundong agreed.

His wife was telling the truth; at this point, practicality really was the priority.

"Okay, since you want a van, I'll keep an eye out for it for you. When it arrives, I'll call you over so you can use it yourself."

After leaving Xie Yundong's house, Li Long went to Tao Daqiang's house.

Unexpectedly, Tao Daqiang wanted a car.

He could afford a few thousand yuan. He has a wife and children now, and his ambition has been somewhat waning lately, but to be honest, he still wants to work with Li Long.

So both Tao Daqiang and Xie Yundong were thinking of planting cotton with the Li family next year. The matter of hiring people had already been put on the agenda, and Tao Daqiang planned to tell his relatives back home in the winter so that they could come over.

Liang Dacheng wanted a minivan; he could afford to spend several thousand yuan, but he also said he wanted a cheaper one.

He also needs to think about building a new house.

“Shuangcheng said he’s not going back to the team, so we won’t ask him for a homestead then, but we still have to build a house for Lao San,” Liang Dacheng said. “We’ll see if we can get Lao San’s land closer to his home, and then we’ll build it in the next couple of years.”

He also wants to grow cotton, but he doesn't plan to hire anyone. He says his family will do it first, and if all else fails, he'll find odd jobs.

A temporary labor market has now emerged in Ma County, where unemployed people from the city bring their tools and wait there for someone to take them back to work.

However, the scale is not large, after all, there are few people in the county town.

The temporary worker market in Shicheng Old Street is larger, and the cotton-growing workers from the Production and Construction Corps would go there early to find people to help pick cotton.

That brought the total to three cars, plus one from my older brother's place, making a total of four cars.

Li Long hasn't mentioned it to Wang Mingjun and Zhao Zongming yet, but Li Long estimates that Wang Mingjun will definitely want one.

Add one more from Li Xiangqian, and that's about it.

He definitely wanted to keep one for himself. Originally, he planned to buy a Daihatsu in Wucheng, but if Liu Shanmin could bring a van, he could keep one for himself.

As for the paperwork, Li Xiangqian should be able to handle it. At that time, car paperwork was relatively easy to obtain, so I imagine they should be able to install it.

With proper customs clearance procedures in place, Li Long wasn't worried about anything else.

After finishing the big broom job, Li Long earned less this year than last year, mainly because he felt that everyone had worked hard enough, so he left most of the profits to those who did the work.

Li Long gave each of the two companies in the Production and Construction Corps, Meng Hai, and Liang Wenyu, four yuan and fifty cents a handful. How they collected the money from the lower ranks was up to them.

Meng Hai and Liang Wenyu were more generous; they kept 50 cents for themselves as an inspection fee and gave each villager 4 yuan a handful, which made the villagers even more enthusiastic.

Li Long didn't concern himself with how Wang Mingjun and Zhao Zongming allocated their resources.

Li Long didn't intend to make money from his elder brother. He asked his brother to charge the villagers four yuan each, and his brother would keep the remaining two yuan.

Li Jianguo absolutely refused, feeling he was taking too much advantage of his younger brother. He said that if they continued to calculate it this way, he, as the older brother, would lose face. So, they calculated it at four yuan and fifty cents. Li Long pleaded and begged, finally letting his older brother earn one yuan, meaning he received five yuan.

In the end, Li Long earned approximately 50,000 yuan.

He didn't make much money at the supply and marketing cooperative, so he planned to give Li Xiangqian one at a discount and also donate one to the cooperative so that everyone could share it.

In recent years, they have received many benefits from the supply and marketing cooperative, so naturally, there are many envious people.

Therefore, Li Long knew he should give the supply and marketing cooperative some benefits. Giving the car to everyone in the cooperative would at least appease some people's resentment and jealousy.

Of course, these are all just hypothetical scenarios. Whether they can be realized depends on whether Liu Shanmin can legally bring the car in.

Li Long resolutely refuses to do anything illegal. He simply wants to be a law-abiding farmer.

On Monday, September 28th, Li Long took Mingming and Haohao, who had rested for a day, to kindergarten. After returning home, he wondered if he should go to Qingshuihezi in the next couple of days, since the busy farming season was almost over and the sluice gate of Xiaohaizi and the bridge in the mountains needed to be repaired.

It's expected to snow in early November, as winter arrives relatively early.

So this work needs to be done as soon as possible.

Li Long was somewhat surprised that Liu Gaolou hadn't come over for a while. The first and second visits were only five or six days apart, so the sudden absence of half a month was a bit unusual for Li Long.

Speak of the devil, and he appears. In the morning, a convoy drove directly to the purchasing station and then called Li Long from the courtyard to come over.

The whole county was in an uproar!

There aren't that many cars!
It's not that the county doesn't have cars, but ten cars coming all at once is a first!
Fortunately, the backyard of the purchasing station was large enough that seven out of ten vehicles could drive in, while the remaining three were in the front yard. There weren't that many people coming to sell their goods now, and there was still open space in the front yard.

The first thing Liu Gaolou said to Li Long was:

"Mr. Li, I'm exhausted and starving. Could you find a place for the drivers I hired to eat first?"

"Alright, alright, Shuangcheng, here's fifty yuan. Take them to the cafeteria for lunch, noodles, all you can eat!"

Liu Gaolou followed along; he was exhausted too.

He left the car and its contents at the recycling station. He trusted Li Long completely, so he didn't even think about whether there would be any losses.

Of the ten vehicles, three are trucks, meaning the remaining seven are the goods to be shipped.

One Volga, three Ladas, two yellow vans (larger than Daihatsu), and to Li Long's surprise, there was also a green military vehicle.

He vaguely remembered that we call that kind of car a "six-nine car" here, which is similar to an eight-seater jeep.

Li Long walked up to the car, opened the double back door, and sure enough, there were two rows of wooden benches with sponge padding in the back.

The green paint they used was different from the green paint used on domestic military vehicles.

But no matter what, they look different.

"Boss Li, why are you getting so many cars? Are you planning to open a car dealership?" a middleman joked.

"You're planning on that?" Li Long replied with a smile. "How about getting one? It's not expensive, a used car, you can sell it for ten thousand yuan."

"Never mind, I don't have that much money." The trafficker hurriedly waved his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the van, clearly interested.

New cars were expensive at the time, and used cars weren't cheap either. The price Li Long casually quoted was actually fair. After all, most people don't have access to used cars.

Why buy a used car if it's cheap?
The three trucks were the most advanced in the yard. Li Long looked around and was somewhat speechless. Liu Shanmin was very persistent; one truckload of licorice and one truckload of astragalus were always the same.

The third truck was similar to the last one, mostly filled with leather and a small portion with antelope horns.

When did antelope horns become a common commodity?
Director Qian once sought a pair but could not obtain them, so he painstakingly acquired yellow sheep horns to use.

Now this thing is being transported by truck!
While lamenting the changing times, Li Long also awaited Liu Gaolou's return.

In the reception room, Liu Gaolou burped, sipping his tea and remarking:

"I'm from the South, and after being here for over a month, I've actually gotten used to eating noodles. What's going on with me...?"

"Just tell me if it tastes good or not, and if it's filling or not!"

"It's delicious and filling, but it's too greasy. To be honest, there's so much meat in one dish..." Liu Gaolou sighed, then the conversation turned to the car.

“My uncle said these cars were imported as scrap, and the paperwork is complete and legal. How you sell them is up to you.” Liu Gaolou took out a stack of documents from his black bag. “Here you go.”

"How is the car price calculated?" Li Long asked.

“In RMB terms, it’s three thousand yuan per unit,” Liu Gaolou said. “It’s the same price for everyone, and they have to buy them together.”

Li Long nodded, "It's very cheap."

It's likely that Liu Shanmin isn't making money from this, which is why he's offering such a low price. Of course, the fact that it's secondhand also plays a role.

"My uncle had someone inspect them, and they said that of all these vehicles, the Type 69 military vehicle is in the best condition; the people at the outpost over there salvaged it from scratch," Liu Gaolou continued.

"Then there's a Lada and that Volga. The rest of the cars have some minor issues, but they don't affect drivability. Of course, if you want to drive them, you should find an experienced mechanic to give them a thorough inspection and maintenance."

Li Long nodded. He didn't need to tell him; he would definitely do the same before selling.

Li Long had a long-standing relationship with the transportation company, and he wanted to get them some lucrative work. There were plenty of jobs available from the experienced drivers.

"My uncle also said that from now on, we'll settle our transactions directly. For example, if I bring in some goods, we can trade directly. If I want to buy sugar or other things, I'll give you US dollars to buy them. What do you think?"

"Okay." Li Long nodded, finally getting back on track, which was exactly what he had in mind.

Let's keep things separate! Actually, both parties did this out of personal relationships; otherwise, who couldn't they have asked to do it?
　September 18th, never forget national humiliation! The predecessors of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army were truly great!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)