Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1128: Another Supply Chain Added
After some back and forth, the two sides finally agreed that Liu Jianhua would pay 55,000 yuan, and the remaining 45,000 yuan would be converted into 300 tons of cement.

However, Li Long will purchase no less than 200 tons of cement from Liu Jianhua every year thereafter, with the price per ton set at 170 yuan next year. As for the year after next, the price will be determined according to market conditions, but Liu Jianhua guarantees it will definitely be lower than the retail price on the market.

This follow-up took five years.

However, no contract was signed; it was just a verbal agreement, with Li Xiangqian acting as guarantor.

“It’s alright, if he doesn’t have time to buy it, our supply and marketing cooperative can also get the cement,” Li Xiangqian generously assured him.

The supply and marketing cooperatives will sell the cement they get anyway, and since it's already at market price, they'll always make a profit, so the cooperatives don't mind.

Cement isn't exactly a hot commodity right now, but both Li Xiangqian and Li Long are well aware that in recent years, both official and private sectors have been expanding their infrastructure and housing construction projects on an ever-growing scale. Regardless of how much profit they make from cement, it's not like they can't sell it.

After the deal was settled, Liu Jianhua paid Li Long 55,000 yuan first, and then called someone to send over cement.

The first batch of 300 tons of cement needs to be shipped directly by Liu Jianhua, free of charge.

If Li Long needs cement again later, he will need to pay for the shipping.

Li Long naturally agreed.

After all, a truck is rated to carry about five tons. While overloading is possible, it's not strictly enforced. So, trucks transporting goods from Wucheng can sometimes carry up to ten tons.

As for whether they will pursue the matter, it's highly unlikely they will, as the distance is too close and no one will care.

"Let's depart now," Liu Jianhua said. "They'll arrive this afternoon. The first batch will carry about 100 tons, and we'll send another 200 tons tomorrow. How does that sound?"

“Okay, the cement will arrive this afternoon, then you can drive the truck away. I'll hand over the rest to the driver.” Li Long had already received the information from Li Xiangqian, who had contacted him through a deputy director of the supply and marketing cooperative in Beiting. The information was reliable, and someone could vouch for it.

"Good, good, good." Liu Jianhua stood up and looked out the window at the car. He was extremely satisfied.

"Come on, I'll treat you to lunch," Li Xiangqian said with a smile. "Xiaolong, don't drive, get in my car, let's go!"

Li Xiangqian drove his Volga and picked up Li Long and Liu Jianhua, taking them to Zhong Guoqiang's canteen. Zhong Guoqiang and Li Xiangqian were on good terms, so Zhong Guoqiang accompanied them, and the four of them ate and chatted.

Zhong Guoqiang was quite surprised to learn that Liu Jianhua had come specifically to buy a car from Li Long.

He knew that Li Long was selling off recycling stations and wastewater, but he never expected that Li Long was also selling cars.

This business is getting bigger and bigger!
Liu Jianhua was also a talkative person, and he knew a little about everything. When Li Xiangqian took the two of them to the purchasing station after they finished eating, the cement truck had already arrived.

A long line of ten trucks, some entering the yard and some parked outside, was quite a sight.

The people selling things here were all quite curious. They had seen this kind of scene several times before, and this time they were guessing what Li Long had brought in this time.

To Li Long's surprise, these drivers also had co-drivers, who also did the loading and unloading work. When they arrived at the recycling station, two trucks had already been unloaded of cement.

The cement was stored in an empty warehouse that Gu Boyuan had pointed out. Now, a corner of the warehouse was piled with cement bags, which were arranged quite neatly.

At that time, a bag of cement weighed fifty kilograms and was made of three layers of thick kraft paper. Students liked these bags the most because, after removing the outer and inner layers that were covered in cement, the middle layer of thick kraft paper was one of the best materials for covering books.

Another type is calendar paper, which is the coated paper that was more commonly used in advertising in later generations.

If someone's book cover is wrapped in this kind of paper, they'll definitely be the envy of many classmates.

The worst is to cover books with newspaper; it will rot quickly and doesn't last long.

After completing his task, Li Xiangqian drove back to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Li Long watched as bags of cement were piled into the warehouse. Ten trucks were accompanied by ten apprentices. The drivers didn't carry the cement themselves; the apprentices were the ones unloading it, and the process was quite fast.

He guessed that Liu Jianhua must have given these apprentices extra compensation, but the pace was still a bit slow. After thinking for a moment, he said to Liu Jianhua:

"Mr. Liu, please have a seat. I'll go find some more people to unload the truck so you can go back sooner."

"Okay, okay." Liu Jianhua readily agreed, though his eyes were already fixed on the Volga.

Li Long simply handed him the keys; the money had already been paid, so the car was practically his now.

Li Long drove his van to the odd jobs market. It was already afternoon, and there weren't many people left. Most of them had left, since finding work in the morning was the priority. There was only so much time in the afternoon, so what kind of work could they possibly find?

Most of the remaining people were elderly or infirm, but Li Long didn't discriminate at this point. The van stopped, and after getting out, he shouted:

"Need cement loaders. One cent for each bag of cement unloaded and laid out. Anyone interested?"

"I!"

"Me! Me! I'm strong!"

"Me too! Don't let my skinny appearance fool you, I'm quite capable!"

……

At this point, it was good enough to have work, so there was no one to choose. Everyone crowded over, and Li Long simply put all nine people who were left here into the van and drove it to the purchasing station.

Two hundred bags in one truck, twenty yuan to unload one truck, really not expensive.

With the addition of these nine people, the unloading speed increased significantly. When the sun was still high in the sky, all ten truckloads of cement, totaling about one hundred tons, were piled into the warehouse.

The warehouse is quite large; these 100 tons of cement take up less than a quarter of the space, and there's still room to store more.

Liu Jianhua was quite happy to see the cement unloaded; he had been itching to get it done for a long time. He shook hands with Li Long and told him that he would deliver the remaining two hundred tons of cement tomorrow. Then he told the driver and drove off in his Volga.

Li Long paid the temporary workers he had called for loading and unloading, and after they left, he locked the warehouse door. Now it was up to Liu Gaolou to arrive.

"You need to get rid of all this cement this winter, otherwise the warehouse might not be big enough to store things next year," Gu Boyuan told Li Long.

Since the largest warehouse was vacated, and the other small and medium-sized warehouses all contained some items, Li Long wondered if he could organize the miscellaneous items from the warehouses into one warehouse, thus freeing up a few empty warehouses.

"Boss Li, if I'd known you were charging us a dime a bag of cement, I would have told you. We could have made that money too," a vendor said to Li Long. "Why go to all this trouble?"

“There are more to come. If you can unload them, then come on,” Li Long said. “I don’t mind having more people.”

"No problem at all. It may be a little dirty, but as long as we can make money, that's all that matters."

The most glorious mark of labor is that no one will look down on the sweat and mud on the workers' bodies.

The next day, the remaining two hundred tons of cement were delivered, filling the warehouse halfway. The dealers were really unloading cement for a mere cent per bag. Li Long knew that one of them spent at least half the month selling cement, earning at least two or three hundred yuan a month.

I never expected that they would go through so much trouble to move things for just a few dollars. It seems they'll do anything for money.

Great!

For the next period of time, Li Long had nothing to do and spent most of his time in the greenhouse. In mid-December, Liu Gaolou came over again.

This time, he also brought three cars to Li Long, along with a Lada sedan.

Brand new model.

“Good Volga cars are hard to find. My uncle said he’s gotten you a few used ones. Now we’re getting Ladas over to see if they sell well,” Liu Gaolou explained, actually complaining about how capricious his second uncle was.

"It's alright, whether it's a Lada or a Volga, someone should want it here." Li Long smiled. "How about a discount for this one?"

“Okay, five hundred dollars,” Liu Gaolou said. “Deducted from the six thousand dollars for sugar last time, this time I’ll give you five thousand five hundred dollars.” “I have some cement here this time. Do you still want sugar, or do you want half sugar and half cement, or all cement? Same old way, take it away and sell it, then we’ll calculate the price.” Li Long took the five thousand five hundred dollars from Liu Gaolou and said with a smile.

"You have cement? Then let's load cement. They're short of it over there too." Liu Gaolou now knows a bit about the situation there. They're short of everything in light industry; it seems like there's nothing they don't need.

"Okay, then let's unload the sewage and load the cement." Li Long thought to himself that this time he wouldn't have to go to the sugar factory to give them foreign exchange, and he could save more money on his own.

No matter how dissatisfied he is with the United States, he does not deny that the purchasing power of the US dollar is very strong and resilient these days.

Moreover, the purchasing power of the dollar will continue to rise after the collapse of that neighboring superpower.

It's a good thing to save more now and then buy some suitable assets to preserve value later.

Li Long remembered what Li Xiangqian had jokingly said, and then said to Liu Gaolou:

"I have two bosses here who want to go hunting at your uncle's place next door. Is your uncle's company ready yet? See if there's any way to send out an invitation or something."

"I'm not clear on that yet, but my uncle's company is already set up. I heard that the procedures used to be really difficult to get, but now it's pretty chaotic there, and you can get it done as long as you have money. So the company has been established, and the recent shipments have all been charged to the company. However, the company doesn't show off much, so it won't attract the attention of anyone with ulterior motives."

"Yes, yes, it's good to make money discreetly." Li Long nodded, because being high-profile makes it easy to get taken advantage of.

That was settled. After the sewage that Liu Gaolou had brought was unloaded, the truck was loaded with cement.

Liu Gaolou was quite concerned about the condition of the trucks and didn't dare to load too much. Each truck carried about six or seven tons, and the three trucks carried twenty tons, which was equivalent to the weight of the trucks being launched into the water.

Liu Gaolou didn't care about anything else. He told the driver to drive to the guesthouse as soon as the car was loaded, because he wanted to get there to rest.

Only a very small portion of the 300 tons of cement was removed.

If the neighboring republic really needs cement, Liu Gaolou will have to make many trips to haul it all away.

Of course, he might bring more vehicles and more goods next time, which would probably be faster.

Li Long's guess was correct. Ten days later, Liu Gaolou returned. It can be said that he basically didn't stop along the way. After delivering the cement to Khorgos, he was pulled across the border by Liu Shanmin, and then he rushed back.

This time he only hauled three cartloads of wastewater, but brought ten cartloads with him!

Of the remaining seven trucks, six were empty; they were brought over specifically to load cement.

This time, Liu Gaolou didn't drive. He came in the passenger seat of a truck, which contained a No. 69 truck.

"This No. 69 truck was obtained from their border guards. It was taken out of service by a logistics supervisor and scrapped. Actually, it wasn't used for many years. It's much newer than the last one," Liu Gaolou said with a smile as he talked with Li Long in the meeting room. "Cement isn't as expensive as sugar, but the demand is quite large."

Last time, we delivered 20 tons of cement and received $4,000 in exchange. Although it's not construction season now, there's a shortage there, and it seems like the cement needs to be transported to other places, so a large quantity is required. However, my uncle isn't sure about this trip and didn't bring enough money.

So I'll settle the $4,000 with you now, that's for the cement from last time. This time I plan to haul back 80 to 100 tons, so I'll give you $10,000 first, and the remaining $10,000 will be settled with you next time I come. Oh, and I'll give you the truck.

Also, regarding the invitation letters, my second uncle said that's easy to get; it should be ready before the Spring Festival, probably around January. However, I doubt I'll be staying there for long; I'll probably just go hunting and have some fun before coming back.”

Li Long thought it was pretty good. The other side was less stable than this place, so it was better to stay for a shorter time; too long a trip would be counterproductive.

It was already afternoon when Liu Gaolou arrived, so it seemed he had been on the road the whole time. Therefore, Li Long told him to leave the car there and wait until he found a temporary worker to load it up the next day.

Liu Gaolou was also exhausted. He and his driver drove the cars to the recycling station, where there was room for ten cars in the front and back yards.

Li Long figured that he would need at least twenty people to load the 100 tons of cement, but with $15,000 in hand, it was a good deal no matter what.

The most urgent task is to unload that car number 69.

Li Long called Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng over. He first drove the truck so that the back of the truck was facing the snow wall piled up in the backyard. Then he found some thick boards from the purchasing station, opened the back of the truck, set up the double-layered thick boards, and then untied the ropes that tied the truck to the truck. He opened the door, pressed the clutch down with a stone, and then pushed it forward.

With his current strength, he managed to push the vehicle after a few shakes. The board was facing a snow wall that was two or three meters thick and more than a meter high. The snow had not yet frozen into ice and was not particularly solid. When pushing the vehicle down, Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng held a rope on each side of the vehicle. The rope was tied to both sides of the vehicle and mainly served to slow it down.

When the front wheels of the vehicle hit the board, the vehicle was already leaning forward. However, there was a snowdrift in front, so Li Long thought it was okay and continued to push forward. When the entire vehicle was on the board and began to accelerate downhill, the front of the vehicle hit the snow, creating resistance and stopping the acceleration. Then it was easy to proceed. The snow in front was slowly cleared away, and the vehicle was slowly lowered down.

Once they were safely on the ground, Li Long added water (which contained oil) and started the engine to test it out. It actually worked quite well.

It's certainly not as comfortable as the Volga, and it's not even as good as the 212, but its off-road capabilities are good, so it's still a decent experience.

At least it holds a lot of stuff.

Li Long thought that if he went to the mountains, driving this car or a minivan would be fine. And one advantage was that the car had all the necessary paperwork and could be registered.

After driving around in circles, Li Long drove back and parked the car at the recycling station.

We can't possibly open all the available shops; we'll sell them when we find suitable ones.

The car is in decent condition, a bit better than the one my brother drives, but it's nothing special.

Selling it for 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, so-so?

It should be possible. However, it's also possible that others wouldn't like this car and would rather have a Lada than this one.

At this time, a new Lada would only sell for around 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, right
It's not as good as a Santana, after all.

After having a general idea in mind, Li Long didn't pay much attention to it, drained the water from the car, and went back.

To his surprise, it was Sister Yang who was cooking at home, while his wife, Gu Xiaoxia, was helping in the kitchen. Seeing Li Long return, Gu Xiaoxia smiled and said:

"There wasn't much to do at work today, so I got a break early and came home first."

"Then you go ahead with your work, I'll pick up Mingming and Haohao later." It's almost the shortest time of day now, and when Mingming and Haohao are dismissed from kindergarten, the sun is setting and it's getting dark, so it'll be more convenient to pick them up by car.

When Gu Boyuan returned from the purchasing station, Li Long also picked up Mingming and Haohao. Along the way, Mingming and Haohao happily told Li Long about kindergarten, and after getting out of the car, they repeated the same things to Gu Boyuan and the others.

So happy.

At the dinner table, Gu Boyuan said:
"It looks like this cement will be all delivered soon."

“Yes,” Li Long nodded, “They lack everything over there, especially light industrial products. They also lack food, but we can’t transport food there, so let’s make money from these.”

Gu Boyuan nodded. These transactions were beyond his current understanding and management scope; they were business that Li Long had set aside separately. He was just asking about them and didn't intend to get involved.

At this rate, 300 tons can be hauled away in a month. If Liu Shanmin still wants more, then he'll have to buy it from Liu Jianhua.

Overall, it's still worth it.

The next day, Li Long first went to the temporary worker market and brought over a group of people. He could squeeze about ten people into his car, and then he called seven or eight more, making a total of twenty people. Those seven or eight people were afraid of having their jobs taken away, so they simply walked over.

Li Long was spared the need to make a second trip. After a night's rest, Liu Gaolou recovered and directed the loading of the truck. Li Long went to the front to call Li Xiangqian to report on the possibility of going abroad and to see how he would arrange a meeting with Director Qian.

Invitations can only be sent after both sides have been coordinated; otherwise, Liu Shanmin wouldn't have had the time to deal with such trivial matters.

Li Long helped him a lot. With this cement, his company's position in Almaty's underground black market would be more secure, without affecting others too much. Therefore, he was also willing to help Li Long solve some problems.

He actually hoped that Li Long would ask for something, but since Li Long didn't ask, he just gave it to him casually.

I'd like to focus on one thing.

(End of this chapter)