Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1171 Finding a Courtyard for Harim and Yushanjiang

After driving that person away, the anger on Li Long's face disappeared, and he said to the others:
"Our purchasing station always prioritizes service quality and attitude, but we can't just put up with people spitting on our faces."

If this kind of thing happens once, twice, or three times, and we don't take a firm stance, these people will definitely get out of control.

Li Long glanced at the group of people. Some were familiar faces who came often, while others were strangers who either came less frequently or were visiting for the first time.

Most of the acquaintances lowered their heads, not daring to meet Li Long's gaze.

These people might have been thinking of making a fool of themselves, after all. What business is it of theirs?
"Our purchasing station will maintain its previous service attitude, but if anyone comes with malicious intent, don't blame us for being impolite."

The reputation has already been established, and Li Long believes it won't fall because of the slander from one or two people.

We don't live in an era of advanced internet technology yet, so it's really not easy for a few individuals to ruin the reputation of this purchasing station.

After all, the reputation built up over several years is there for all to see, and who would want to turn down money?
After Li Long finished speaking, he turned and went inside.

Li Qingxia smiled and looked at him, saying:
"Hey, you're starting to look like a boss."

Facing his father, Li Long naturally lost the menacing aura he had just displayed. He smiled and said:

"Dad, I'm off to get busy now."

"Okay, you go ahead with your work, leave this to me. Actually, even if you hadn't come out earlier, I was planning to kick that guy out anyway."

"Yes, that's it."

Li Long continued working in the backyard. The people in line ahead of him were initially a bit reserved, after all, Li Long's words had been quite harsh. Some of them also regretted not helping the purchasing station when that person spoke rudely.

However, these were all minor incidents for Li Long; he was now just waiting for news from Gu Boyuan.

Two days later, Gu Boyuan called to explain the situation there, saying that he had looked at several locations and was now looking for a suitable site to open a station.

Li Long was relieved to know that Gu Boyuan was alright.

Two days later, Zhao Hui came to look at the hides.

According to Li Long's idea, Zhao Hui couldn't possibly handle more than seven thousand hides all at once.

After all, the amount exceeds one million.

But to his surprise, Zhao Hui was not surprised but delighted after learning the quantity of the hides.

"Old Li, do you know what? I'm just short of these hides right now! There's a real shortage of raw materials for these hides in China. Apart from some farms that can still supply them, the Northeast, Inner Mongolia, and the Northwest are all experiencing significant shortages."

Some people have started large-scale poaching, but the crackdown on it has become more severe domestically. I'm currently competing with another boss to become a first-tier supplier for a company.

With so many of your hides now, I'm sure I can win!

Of the more than 7,000 hides, less than 3,000 were whole hides; the rest were damaged hides.

With a total price of less than 1.3 million, Zhao Hui and Li Long transferred the money directly at the bank.

He inspected this batch of pelts rather superficially, basically only looking at each individual pelt and only glancing at the entire pelt briefly, lacking the meticulousness he used to have.

Li Long guessed that raw materials for leather goods were in short supply, so much so that he was no longer too concerned about the flaws in the leather.

Because the inspection wasn't thorough, the batch of hides was taken away that same day, and Li Long went to file the taxes before leaving get off work.

Upon returning, Li Long went to the purchasing station and gave Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng each a bonus of two hundred yuan, which surprised Li Qingxia.

It wasn't that he thought the pay was too much; he could see how hard these two men had worked these past few days. He had never seen workers work so diligently and meticulously before.

Now he understood a little.

After Li and Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng left happily, Li Long took out another thousand yuan and gave it to his father.

"What would I do with this money?" Li Qingxia refused.

"Dad, don't think it's too little. You've only been here a few days, so I'll explain things to you now. Xiaoxia's dad and I run this purchasing station as partners. At first, we agreed to give him 20% of the shares, and he would stand at the counter and help me collect goods."

Later, seeing the large transaction volume, he only took 10%. Also, for the goods I brought from Kazakhstan, he didn't take a cut; it was considered a transaction I arranged myself.

Xiaoxia's father called to say that he's decided to open a purchasing station in Yili, so he won't have any more shares here. We'll cooperate there in another way.

"Let's get this straight, father and son. I can't just ask you to come help me; that wouldn't be fair to my older brothers and sister. We're partners, and as you can see, my purchasing station is doing quite well. So, like Xiaoxia's father, I'll give you a 20% stake."

“That won’t do.” Li Qingxia waved her hand. “I know my own capabilities. Xiaoxia’s father is much more powerful than me. If he only wants 10%, it means that the purchasing station came here because of you.”

In that case, I'll take 10%. You can give Sun and Liang the bonuses they deserve for the goods you brought in from abroad, and I won't take any.

You know what, I actually quite like this job, so I'll definitely continue. But don't pay me that much; it's unnecessary. You're all my children; in the end, won't all that money still go to you?

But I need to give you one of your GAZ-69 trucks; I need to drive it back to the fourth team to see your mother when I'm resting.”

"You can drive whichever one you like," Li Long said with a smile. "I'm off work the day after tomorrow, so you're going back tomorrow afternoon?"

"Of course, I'll buy some things at noon tomorrow and go back in the afternoon."

Once things were out in the open, things became easier. Li Qingxia eventually accepted the thousand yuan. According to Li Long, he was, after all, a boss now, and he had to buy something for his family when he got back. Not only his mother, but also Juan and Qiangqiang were there, so he had to buy them things too.

“Then I’ll just drive Juan back, won’t that be better?” Li Qingxia slapped her thigh. “She won’t have to bother riding her bike. I go back every week anyway, so I can just take her with me. Hey, I’ll go talk to her about it tomorrow at noon.”

Li Long thought about it and realized that Li Juan had to spend more than half an hour riding her bike back to the team every weekend, which was quite a waste of time.

Now that the old man wants to drive back, isn't that perfect?

As for the old man's driving skills, there's no need to mention them. After the older brother drove the car back, the old man would practice from time to time, so he's quite skilled at driving.

This was Li Long's largest single income. With so much money in the bank, Li Long started thinking about how to spend it.

Several years later, he thought of high-horsepower tractors again.

This matter needs to be addressed with Liu Shanmin.

Even if the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic is used to Soviet-style tracked tractors, they can definitely get their hands on high-horsepower wheeled tractors and buy one or a few.

It's still better than the current slow-moving Dongfanghong-75.

Before, I didn't have money, so I couldn't even dream of it. Now that I have money, I not only dream of it, but I also want it.

High-horsepower tractors, self-propelled combine harvesters, and other agricultural equipment are all things Li Long needs.

The fourth team, and the surrounding area, have a large amount of uncultivated wasteland. In later generations, these places would be good for growing cotton, but now they are just wastelands and saline-alkali land.

With a larger land area, plowing and sowing naturally become more troublesome, so Li Longhui thought of getting a high-horsepower wheeled tractor to improve efficiency and accelerate the mechanization process.

Well, even though it's several years, or even nearly a decade, ahead of schedule, it's still pretty exciting to think about.

When Liu Gaolou comes over next time, I'll ask him to pass on a message to his uncle and see if he can buy two of them in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

Yes, it's best to buy two, along with matching agricultural machinery.

After the hides at the purchasing station were cleared out, although there were still hides being sold every day afterward, the volume was so small that it didn't have much of an impact.

The fritillaria season hasn't arrived yet, so Li Long watched for two days to see if Li Qingxia could handle it before going about his own business.

Both Halimu and Yushanjiang planned to transfer their children to Han schools, so Li Long thought he had to find a suitable courtyard for both families.

The county town of Ma County is not large, and there aren't many houses for sale. It's only in the last two years that privately owned properties have started to be registered and certified, and their buying and selling has become permitted. People who want to sell their houses (or houses) will register them with the housing management department and then wait for someone to come and buy them.

Of course, there are also private transactions. Through an introduction, both parties view the property, and if they like it, they just need to go to the housing management department to change the certificate.

By this time, the price of a courtyard house had increased several times compared to when Li Long first bought it; a courtyard house would now cost at least one or two thousand yuan. Of course, courtyard houses as large as the one Li Long bought were rare.

On Sunday, Li Long gave Gu Xiaoxia a good driving practice session. Because Gu Xiaoxia's driving skills improved very quickly, in the afternoon, he had Gu Xiaoxia shift gears and drive for a while. Gu Xiaoxia was a little nervous, but she still meticulously went through the whole process.

On the way back, Li Long said to Gu Xiaoxia:

"Practice like this for another week, and you'll be able to drive on the road."

Gu Xiaoxia nodded without saying anything.

The new Lada has already been sold, and the older Volga has been taken away by her father. She doesn't dare drive the new Volga at home yet, for fear of scratching it.

On Monday, after having breakfast, Li Long took Mingming and Haohao to kindergarten and then went to the housing management department.

"If you're looking to buy a yard, take a look at these." The housing management staff still remembered Li Long. Li Long was buying another yard because he wanted to build a jerky processing workshop.

Right now, he hopes that Halim and Yushanjiang can buy two houses near his big courtyard, but after looking around, he found that there are no vacant courtyards near where he lives.

Then let's settle for second best and look for school district housing.

In those days, the concept of school district housing didn't exist in Ma County. After searching through the properties, Li Long actually found two courtyards.

The courtyards weren't very big; one was next to the No. 2 Primary School in the county, near the Grain Bureau; the other was north of the No. 2 Middle School in the county, almost out of town.

Although the location is a bit remote, it is close to the school and the artillery regiment is nearby.

The courtyards near the Second Primary School are slightly more expensive. According to the information, although the space is small, the interior decoration is better and the courtyard is well-maintained, with grape trellises, vegetable gardens, and so on. It is roughly the same as the courtyard of Sister Yang and her family.

The asking price for this courtyard is 1,500 yuan. According to the housing management department, the price is non-negotiable. If you want to buy it, you can do so here.

The other courtyard is larger, but because it's in a slightly out-of-the-way location, it can be bought for 800 yuan.

Li Long wrote down the two places and told the other party that he wanted to take a look.

The housing management official naturally understood that this courtyard couldn't be decided all at once, and he asked, half-jokingly:
"Comrade Li Long, you already have three courtyards, right? Are you still going to buy more?"

"I bought it for someone else," Li Long said with a smile. "My friend in the mountains wanted to buy a house in the county so it would be convenient for his child to go to school."

"That's true." Upon hearing that it was for the children's schooling, the housing management department staff immediately understood that such a thing should definitely be supported.

After leaving, Li Long drove to check out the courtyards. Both courtyards were currently empty. He went to look at the one for the second primary school and found that its location was quite good, just a short distance away in an alley less than 100 meters from the school.

Although the alley is not very wide, the second row inside is where you need to buy a courtyard.

Just as the description said, the wooden gate to the courtyard was very well-made, at least 80% new. The courtyard wall was also intact, with nothing messy on it, and there were traces of flowers that had been planted along the ditch by the entrance.

The door was locked. Li Long peered over the wall. The yard was quite tidy, although there were some fallen leaves on the ground, which must have fallen while the owner was away.

The walls are painted white lime, and the layout of Sister Yang's yard is the opposite. The house is built closer to the east side, and there's a wall on the outside, below which is a vegetable garden with fruit trees. The garden was turned over after last year's harvest. There's also a patch of chives, which are now growing.

From here, we can see that the main house has three rooms, but according to the introduction, Li Long said there are four rooms, one open and one closed. This should be enough for Halimu's family.

Although he hadn't seen inside the house, Li Long thought it was pretty good.

Then we drove to see the other large courtyard.

This is a detached courtyard, located behind the winery, on the west side of the road. It's surrounded by earthen walls, and the enclosed area is slightly smaller than Li Jianguo's courtyard, probably about one acre including the house.

It takes about 20 meters to walk west from Tuanjie Road to reach the gate of the courtyard. This 20-meter area is an open space, and it is unknown what it will be used for in the future.

The yard is situated on higher ground, with an iron gate that allows direct access inside. The yard is relatively messy; half of the front vegetable garden is cultivated, while the other half is overgrown with weeds.

Upon entering the main gate, there is a shed with some miscellaneous items piled up underneath. Further west from the shed is the main building, which also appears to have three doors. However, this row of buildings is quite long, though it is older and looks somewhat worn, even though it is made of brick.

Further west of the three main rooms, there was a slightly smaller bungalow connected to the main house. Li Long remembered that in the house description, this bungalow was the kitchen.

There are three main rooms. The first room has two rooms, one bright and one dark. The middle room has three rooms, one bright and one dark. The innermost room is a single room. In other words, this row of main rooms has six rooms.

It's quite big.

It's quite cheap too.

If we weren't almost out of the county seat, the price probably wouldn't be this high. This courtyard is less than 200 meters north of Mohe Canal; the locals generally agree that north of Mohe Canal, it's no longer part of the county.

To get to No. 2 Middle School from here, you need to cross an intersection, it's about 300 meters away. Li Long vaguely remembers that the teaching quality of No. 2 Middle School is quite good, so studying here would be a good option.

Both courtyards seemed nice, and Li Long thought it best to settle on one.

However, this was a matter for Halimu and Yushanjiang, so he simply drove directly into the mountains, thinking of bringing the two of them over so they could take a look before making a decision.

When Li Long drove to the mountains, Halim and his family had already prepared dinner. It was just the couple at home, so the meal was simple: sliced ​​dried meat stir-fried with potato chips, semi-dried naan bread, and milk tea.

Naan and milk tea are on hand almost every day, all year round, so there's never a shortage.

When Li Long arrived, Harim hurriedly invited him to eat with him. There was no way to order more food at this point, but Li Long didn't mind and ate with them, explaining his experience of guarding the yard as he ate.

"If I want to transfer schools in the fall, I need to secure a place now, otherwise it will be inconvenient later. I may not be able to find a suitable place even if I look for one at the last minute."

Li Long only mentioned the locations of the two courtyards, without mentioning the cost. Halim nodded and said:

"If you say it's okay, then it's okay."

"It would be best to go and take a look. I mean, after we finish eating, I'll call Yushanjiang, and we'll go take a look together. I'll then bring you back in the afternoon. After all, this back courtyard is where you'll be living, so you'll have to decide if it's suitable for you."

Harim agreed.

Li Long quickly finished his meal and went with Halimu to find Yushanjiang and tell him about the matter.

On the Yushan River side, his wife and children are at the livestock team's post. If he were to leave, the cattle and sheep at home would have to be looked after by someone else.

Halim had also considered it and told Yushanjiang to let the cattle and sheep graze near the winter pasture, and his wife could come and check on them from time to time.

“I’ll go find Talihar and have him keep an eye on things. He’s closer. He has a large family, and you’re the only one left at home; it’s not good for you to keep running back and forth,” Yushanjiang said.

He then rode off to find Talihar, and in less than half an hour, the two of them rode back together.

Talihar greeted Li Long and then went to herd the sheep of Yushanjiang.

“Let’s go,” Yushanjiang said.

Li Long pulled them back to the county town quickly and first looked at the small courtyard.

"Okay." Halim liked the exquisite courtyard at first sight, but he simply said "okay" and then asked about the price.

"I'll pay you 1,500 yuan first, and then you can give it to me when you find or kill something," Li Long said.

"Okay." Halim did the math and realized he really didn't have enough money, so he stopped worrying about it.

The courtyard in Yushanjiang was a bit old, so Li Long explained it to me when we looked at it, mainly because of the school's situation.

“It’s fine, much better than my winter hut and the one from the herding team.” Yushanjiang didn’t complain at all. “It’s also quite big. We can tidy it up properly when we move in.”

Li Long told them the location of the school on his way. Classes were in session at the school. Both the Second Middle School and the Second Primary School were much better than the pastoral team's school.

So at this point, the two parents were actually more concerned about the school than the yard.

It's worth spending any amount of money to send my child to a school like this!

Kazakhs also value education, so this is a common ground.

(End of this chapter)