Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1157 Wu Yongbo Invited a Wolf into the House; Old Gu Wants to Go to Yili
After the meal, Li Long insisted on arranging accommodations for these people first, and then took the truck driver and a truckload of seedlings to the fourth team.

When the truck arrived at the yard of the fourth team leader, Li Long was a little surprised. Why were there so many people in the yard?
Looking at the somewhat similar faces of those people, Li Long immediately realized that his relatives from his hometown had come.

That makes sense. Although farming hasn't started in northern Xinjiang yet, back home it's already springtime and flowers are blooming, and all sorts of financial requests are popping up.

Instead of waiting idly at home, it's better to rush to northern Xinjiang first. That way, there will be one less mouth to feed back home, and we can have a surplus of food.

If you come early, you'll know what's going on here, and if it doesn't work out, you can always find another place.

That's probably what these people are thinking.

Upon seeing Li Long's GAZ truck and the truck behind it, Li Qingxia, Li Jianguo, and others stood up, and their relatives also gathered around to watch.

Li Jianguo already had a GAZ truck, which surprised and envied them. Now he has another one, and it even comes with a truck. That's really amazing!

Li Long got out of the car, and Li Jianguo asked:
"You're back from Yili? Did the trip go smoothly?"

"Everything went very smoothly," Li Long said with a smile. "I brought a truckload of goji berry seedlings. These things are salt-tolerant, just like white thorn. Do we have any new saline-alkali land at home? I was thinking of planting them directly to reserve the land first."

"There are quite a few seedlings, aren't there? How do we plant them?" Li Jianguo asked.

“That’s right, we’ve never grown this before.” Li Qingxia was also a bit at a loss.

"That's easy. The seedlings have just been dug up. Just make furrows one meter apart in the plowed land and plant them directly in the furrows. When it's time to irrigate the spring wheat, just water them. There are a lot of people now, so this is a good opportunity to find them some work to do."

“Alright then.” Li Jianguo was also worried. With these people coming, there would be no work for them, and a group of young and strong men staying at home would inevitably cause trouble.

Now Li Long has found him a job, which suits him perfectly.

“We only need to plant about 300 seedlings per mu,” Li Long said again. “It’s okay if the spacing is a little larger. The main thing is to test it out first. I’ll get seedlings from 50 mu first and plant them in the most saline-alkali areas. We’ll plant cotton on the rest of the land.”

Li Jianguo naturally had no objections.

Li Long then unloaded some of the local specialties and dried fish from the truck and placed them at his elder brother's house.

At this moment, Li Junfeng and his men had already begun unloading the goji berry seedlings. Li Long spotted Li Junxian and Chen Qianjin in the crowd, but he simply nodded without saying anything.

After the items were distributed, Li Long joined in the work. Only then did Li Junfeng take the time to introduce people to him one by one.

Besides the familiar Li Junxian and Chen Qianjin, there are also Li Junhai, Li Juntian, Li Junwei, and Li Junhan, as well as two grandsons named Li Daoming and Li Daocheng.

They were all young and strong in their twenties and thirties, but depending on how they worked, some were fast and some were slow. Some, like Li Junxian, kept their heads down and didn't say a word, while others, like Chen Qianjin, were very outgoing.

Hearing people call him Uncle Xiaolong or Grandpa Xiaolong, Li Long was completely bewildered.

In my previous life, there weren't so many problems. When I occasionally went back to my hometown, I hardly knew anyone, so these kinds of things didn't exist.

This time, things have gotten really bad. By setting up a base with my older brother, we've attracted almost half the able-bodied men from the village.

Of course, that's an exaggeration. Li Lou Village is big, and even if each family has one person, that's less than one-tenth of the total population.

Li Long observed that the younger generation wore different clothes. The cleaner ones wore jackets, while the more flamboyant ones wore leather shoes. Of course, the simpler ones had inconspicuous patches on their clothes.

However, they were all acquaintances, joking around with each other, and there was no difference in their clothing.

At this time, people have so much hair, just like in the advertisements, everyone has a head of jet-black and beautiful hair.

With more people, the work goes faster. More than 10,000 seedlings, more than 300 bundles, were unloaded in less than half an hour. Seeing that these people still seemed to want more, Li Jianguo simply had them move some of the seedlings onto the small four-wheeled vehicle.

Li Long's small four-wheeled vehicle also drove over here. He uses a van to haul goods over there now, so his small four-wheeled vehicle is basically idle. It's better to drive it over here than leave it idle there.

The two small four-wheeled tractors were piled high with slack. According to Li Jianguo, some of it would be taken to the field this afternoon and planted first.

Although the ground temperature hasn't risen yet, making it unsuitable for planting crops like cotton and corn, planting shrubs like goji berries is perfectly fine.

After finishing the work, his sister-in-law Liang Yuemei and his mother returned a while later. To Li Long's surprise, his sister-in-law was riding a bicycle with his mother on the back, and there were two fertilizer bags tied to the sides of the bicycle.

"Xiaolong is back?" Liang Yuemei greeted Li Long as she parked the car.

Du Chunfang was short and probably not used to riding a bicycle. She didn't know how to get off by herself, so Liang Yuemei used two bricks in the yard to step on and stop, and only got off after Du Chunfang got off.

"Yes, I'm back. Mom, sister-in-law, where have you been?"

"I went to pick alfalfa." Du Chunfang was still in high spirits. "I also wanted to see if I could dig up any mushrooms, but I didn't. I even saw a snake, which scared me."

She said she was scared, but actually she was quite excited and even gestured, "It's so long."

Li Long smiled and asked, "You weren't bitten, were you?"

"No, your sister-in-law threw a clod of dirt at it and scared it away. We picked a lot of alfalfa today. Are you going to save some for dinner later? If so, I'll steam it for you."

"I'm not staying any longer. I need to hurry back; there's a group of people over there I need to settle down."

"Alright then." Du Chunfang sounded a little disappointed. "I'll take this with you, but you'll have to clean it yourself before you eat it when you get back."

“I understand,” Li Long said.

Driving the GAZ truck and taking the cargo truck back to the county, Li Long discovered that the cargo in the truck had not yet been unloaded.

The main problem is that the three GAZ trucks need to be unloaded slowly, as we're afraid of damaging the paint.

After Li Long returned, Liu Gaolou came over to talk to him about the goods.

Liu Shanmin and Li Long had previously mentioned the quantity of goods: five thousand hides, at an average price of eighty, which would amount to four hundred thousand.

There are more antelope horns this time, four thousand pairs and thirty-one pairs, totaling one hundred and twenty thousand.

Three GAZ trucks, in US dollars, this is $1,500.

The sugar that Li Long was going to supply to Liu Gaolou was also settled in US dollars. Fifty tons of sugar, according to the price Liu Shanmin gave him, would cost fifty thousand US dollars. Li Long guessed that he hadn't made much money.

Because of the cost of the GAZ truck, Liu Gaolou paid Li Long $48,500, while Li Long had to pay him 520,000 RMB.

Li Long couldn't come up with the money right away; he had to go to the bank to withdraw it.

"No rush, you can give it to me when we take the sugar away tomorrow." Liu Gaolou made it clear when he was talking to Li Long in the meeting room, "Even if you're short on cash and don't have that much right now, you can give it to me next time."

Anyway, the money I earn isn't of much use to me right now, so it's about the same whether it's with you or with me.

Of course they are different. For example, he said that, but actually gave Li Long the amount of dollars when he spoke.

After collecting the US dollars, Li Long first took the truck to his home to unload the antelope horns, and then drove his GAZ truck to the bank to withdraw the money.

His savings had already exceeded one million last year, and he still had a lot of cash at home. However, he didn't have that much cash, so he planned to leave the cash untouched and withdraw money directly from the bank.

At that time, there were not so many restrictions. Li Long was also a major customer of the bank. He withdrew the money before leaving get off work, drove back, and the two of them counted the money in the meeting room.

Of course, you don't count them one by one. There are bank paper bundles, stacks of ten thousand, which are easy to count.

While Li Long and Liu Gaolou were counting the money, Wu Yongbo was wandering around the purchasing station, mostly observing Old Gu's operations when he was receiving goods.

Knowing that this was a guest brought by Li Long from Yili, Lao Gu was quite interested. When there were fewer people selling things, he would chat with Wu Yongbo for a few minutes. After learning that the other party was in the foreign trade business, he stopped asking about business matters and mainly asked about the local customs and culture of Yili.

Revolutionary Buick and Mia also came over to watch. It was a bit crowded inside, so Wu Yongbo went out. Revolutionary Buick listened for a while and learned that Old Gu was Li Long's father-in-law, so he inquired about the jade.

Old Gu didn't answer directly. He first inquired about Revolutionary Bek's identity. After learning he was a township armed forces cadre, he jokingly said, "That thing is just for comfort, right? Of course, he doesn't know if it works or not, and he's never prayed to it." Revolutionary Bek then asked if anyone had actually had a child after praying to it. Old Gu clarified that someone had indeed prayed to it, and the child had indeed been born. As for whether the child was born after praying to the stone, he couldn't be sure. After all, we talk about science now and oppose superstition.

Revolutionary Buick said he knew. Then Old Gu continued to ask about the situation over there, and Revolutionary Buick knew more about that.

The sellers seemed quite interested in what they were saying, asking them questions one after another.

After Wu Yongbo went to the back, he followed Liang Shuangcheng in sorting out the leather while asking about the purchasing station.

Liang Shuangcheng was quite wary. Although this was a guest brought by Li Long, he only talked about the general things and said he didn't know the specifics, saying that the boss was handling everything.

Wu Yongbo knew that the young man was wary of him, but instead of being angry, he felt that Li Long's employees were quite loyal.

However, he could also see that Li Long's purchasing station was indeed a large-scale business. He could buy up five thousand hides so easily; he wanted to buy them too, but he simply couldn't come up with that much capital.

As for loans, haha, is it something you can just get a loan on?
Of course, he thought that Li Long's purchasing station model was worth learning from, but it didn't need to be so large; one station in a township would suffice.

To be honest, some of the counties in Yili are not very big to begin with, such as Zhaosu and Nileke. At this time, they are only a small area, about the size of a large town.

If we set up a purchasing station to collect the goods from farmers and herders in remote areas and sell them here, we're sure to make money.

On the way, he heard from Gemingbek that Li Long was buying hides in their village for 120 yuan for a whole hide and 80 yuan for a damaged one. That was a very high price. Actually, if he really wanted to buy them, he could sell a whole hide for 80 yuan. After all, there are many mountainous areas there, or rather, the entire Ili region is in the mountains, so farmers and herders have a much higher chance of encountering wild animals.

As for protection, protect what? Protect my ass! If that wild animal hurts someone, who should be protected?

Or rather, in Wu Yongbo's eyes, and in the eyes of most people at that time, there was no concept of animal protection.

Of course, this is just his current thought, and he still needs to go back and think about the specifics of what to do.

Where does the capital come from? Of course, it comes from becoming a middleman, buying up goods in bulk and selling them, making money, and doing this a few times, until it's enough to open a small purchasing station.

If you build a good relationship with Liu Gaolou, you can borrow his car when the goods are delivered, and you won't even have to pay for the transportation. At worst, you can just treat Liu Gaolou better when he visits Yining again.

The big boss wouldn't care about a few shipping fees.

After Li Long and Liu Gaolou settled the money matters, Liu Gaolou was about to leave.

It was already quite late, and the GAZ truck had already been unloaded.

Revolutionary Buick left a large bag of dried meat for Li Long, saying it was a gift for him and that Li Long shouldn't have worked so hard for nothing.

Li Long declined at first, but eventually accepted it.

After everyone left, he opened it and found that not only was there beef, but there was also horse meat.

pretty good.

The meat from Revolutionary Bekti weighed over twenty kilograms. He left some for Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng, and together they put away the hides. Then he went back to the courtyard with Gu Boyuan.

Only then did I have time to chat with Lao Gu.

Old Gu also mainly asked Li Long about the local customs and culture of Yili, as well as the climate there.

"What do you think about me opening a purchasing station over there?" Old Gu suddenly asked. "From what that guy surnamed Wu said today, it seems there aren't any private purchasing stations there yet. This is an opportunity."

"You're going alone?" Li Long glanced at him, shook his head, and said, "This is indeed an opportunity, and it can be very profitable. If you open a business there and run it well, you can make more money than here."

Yili is also located in the Tianshan Mountains, and it has almost everything that's available here. Fritillaria bulbs, animal hides, dried wild mushrooms—the resources there are even more abundant than here.

Moreover, prices are lower over there, and the cost of acquiring goods is lower than here..."

"Now that you mention it, I really want to go and open one." Old Gu was genuinely showing some ambition; he was somewhat unwilling to just be a collaborator with Li Long. "Such a good opportunity, this guy surnamed Wu seems to have something in mind."

“Having ideas is useless; he doesn’t have the capital.” Li Long shook his head. “At most, he can open a township-level store. He might not even be able to open one in the county. Maybe after he does open one, he’ll end up like Lao Chen’s competitor in Beiting, directly overtaken by those selling goods.”

Without enough capital, one can only act as a middleman at best. The frequent opening and closing of the purchasing station severely damages its reputation.

If Lao Gu really goes to open a shop, Li Long won't stop him; at most, they'll just find a suitable person to manage it. It's just that it will be very hard work for Lao Gu to expand the business himself.

Although they could try to find some connections through Liu Gaolou, it would definitely be difficult at first no matter what.

But as Li Long said, the chances are really great.

Li Long didn't make the decision for Lao Gu; it was up to him.

Back in the courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia had already brought Mingming and Haohao back. When they saw Li Long, Mingming and Haohao were stunned for a moment, then laughed and called out "Dad!" and rushed over to hug Li Long's legs, one on each side tightly.

When Li Long picked up both children, they finally remembered something and burst into tears.

It seems they really want to.

In fact, Li Long's trips back and forth totaled less than five days, but for the child, who was used to his father being around every day, the occasional absence of several days made him feel very homesick and quite aggrieved.

But they were easy to coax; two pieces of chocolate that Liu Shanmin had brought from over there were enough to appease them, not to mention the dried fish and beef.

There were too many people, so Gu Xiaoxia simply asked, "Is everything going well over there? Did you encounter any difficulties?"

But her inner emotions were revealed through her eyes; she truly missed her husband.

After dinner, while Mingming and Haohao were still playing outside, Gu Xiaoxia pulled Li Long into the house, brought him a full set of clothes to change into, and put the clothes she had taken off in a basin, then took them to the water to put them in the washing machine to wash.

"I'll just leave it to wash tomorrow," Li Long said after changing his clothes.

"No need, no need. I'll wash it today and put it on, it'll be dry by tomorrow," Gu Xiaoxia said. "You've been working hard for several days, go and rest first."

Gu Boyuan, who had been teasing Mingming and Haohao, listened to their conversation, smiled, and then left with his hands behind his back.

He kept thinking about opening a purchasing station in Yili the whole way.

This was originally just a thought that arose when Wu Yongbo asked him about something. But once this thought arose and was told to Li Long, it grew wildly, like weeds after being rained on in spring, and couldn't be suppressed.

I'm only in my forties, and I have many years to live.

Are you just buying and selling agricultural supplies at this purchasing station all the time?
This kind of life means you can see the future clearly.

This is not the life I want!
Over the years, he had partnered with Li Long, and Li Long would give him a share of the profits every time they sold goods. All in all, it had added up to tens of thousands of yuan. This amount was definitely not enough as capital, but he knew that if he wanted to open his own purchasing station, Li Long would provide the capital.

Just like the current approach, we can simply partner up.

He felt that if he left, Li Long could find a suitable manager. If he set up a purchasing station in Yili, although it would be difficult, he would have complete control over the business!
As for the sales channels for the acquired goods, he wasn't worried at all. Li Long already had established sales channels, so he could simply use them.

Wu Yongbo never expected that his trip to inquire about Li Long's ability to buy and sell goods, and his visit to the purchasing station in hopes of opening his own, would lead him to invite trouble.

Although he was a local bigwig in Yili, if Lao Gu really went there to open a purchasing station, he wouldn't be able to beat him.

If you don't have enough capital, you can't win a price war; if you're not familiar with the processes, you can't compete in terms of service. So, if you want to engage in a direct confrontation, it's definitely not going to work.

Of course, he didn't know what Lao Gu was thinking at the moment. Lying on the bed in the guesthouse, his mind was full of Li Long's acquisition station model.

We need to learn!
Li Long didn't sleep well either, mainly because he hadn't seen his wife for several days and needed to spend some quality time with her.

PS: The Huocheng Court has ruled on a transnational case involving the trafficking of protected wildlife products. More than 1,400 saiga antelope horns were smuggled from Kazakhstan. The case was worth more than 100 million yuan. That is to say, the current market price of one horn, which is officially recognized (the official sale and purchase of horns is not allowed in any form, according to the 2021 list), is about 80,000 yuan.

(End of this chapter)