Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1307 Herdsmen Turn Farmers, the Tribe Is About to Disperse

After the cotton was planted, Li Long stopped paying attention to things there. He left the watering and fertilizing to the cooperative and Professor Yang, and drove himself to Qingshuihe Township.

It's not a village, it's a township.

Halim and his group eventually moved down to several villages near the mountains. The courtyards they lived in were the kind of large, settled, and pastoral courtyards that Meng Hai and his group had built for them last year.

These courtyards all have a uniform structure, with a large vegetable garden, a large greenhouse, a place to store hay, and a row of three brick-clad houses.

This is a good policy from the government for herders to settle down and develop animal husbandry, and Halim and his family are among the first to benefit from it.

Of course, settling them down and developing their herds doesn't mean they can't go to the summer pastures; they'll still go. It just means they won't have to live in the winter shelters anymore. They'll stay in this courtyard during the winter, which means they're part of the same village, making them easier to manage and handle any issues.

After all, in the mountains, if something really happens, you might not even be able to care about life or death.

Not all herders in the mountains have someone like Li Long to build them a road that is passable by vehicles.

Because they had a lot of things to move, mainly hay, Halim and his group arrived at the summer pasture a little late this year.

Fortunately, the grass in the winter pasture has already grown, and we have a lot of hay in stock, so it won't matter if we don't go up in the short term.

When Li Long arrived at the village where Halimu and his group lived, Halimu was loading yurts and other items onto a tractor. It seemed he planned to go to the summer pasture first and set up the yurts.

Seeing Li Long's car turn into the courtyard, Halim stopped what he was doing and came over to wait by the house.

When Li Long got out of the car, Halim's wife, Gulimire, also came out of the house. She and Halim greeted Li Long with smiles.

The courtyard was rather rudimentary. According to the project plan, Meng Hai and his team had only built a framework for the courtyard. The three brick-clad houses had cement plastered on their exterior walls, making them look quite nice. The foundation for the courtyard had been laid, but it was still just earth, which would turn into mud after the next rain.

There was no wainscoting between the foundation of the yard and the vegetable garden. In front of it was a vegetable garden of nearly an acre, which was already overgrown with weeds. Halim and the others certainly didn't have time to take care of it.

The courtyard wall is about 1.5 meters high, and it wasn't plastered; it was just made of bricks.

The shed was quite elaborate, with a large open pen and a large heated pen. The heated pen had several windows, some high and some low. The high windows were for ventilation and light, while the low windows were for manure disposal—none of them were very large, so the livestock wouldn't come out.

The entire plot of land in this yard alone is at least two or three acres.

At that time, no one cared so much. It was built on wasteland anyway, and although it was bigger than the yards of other people in the village, no one cared.

At that time, the policy of settling down and developing animal husbandry was not very clear, because the herders were assigned to whichever village their original pastures were located in. If they had pastures, they were no longer allocated arable land.

Traditional herders continued to graze their livestock, but they were now managed under a single system, having been reassigned from their original pastoral teams to production teams (natural villages), thus unifying management.

Now that Li Long had arrived, Halim stopped working and invited Li Long inside to have some milk tea together.

"Finish your work first." Li Long pointed to the things on the ground. "When are you planning to go to the summer ranch?"

"I was thinking of packing everything up today, setting up the yurt on the mountain tomorrow, and then coming back to see that things were settled here before driving the cattle and sheep up the mountain."

Last year, Yushanjiang handed over the remaining cattle and sheep to Halim for management. After Halim and the others came down the mountain in winter, Yushanjiang exchanged the remaining cattle and sheep with Halim and other herders, giving them the cows and ewes with lambs in exchange for animals that could be slaughtered, and then drove them down the mountain.

So, although he owns a house in Yushanjiang and used to keep some of his cattle and sheep here, he's currently busy delivering beef and mutton to the cannery. However, since his household registration is here, the yard is his; whether he lives there or when is up to him.

Because they had stayed there before, the team didn't care too much, as long as they reported it in time.

"Let's load everything first." Li Long started helping load the truck, asking as he went, "What about the others? What about them?"

“They’ve been assigned to three villages,” Halim said. “This year we’ll take turns sending people without tractors up there to see what they plan to do next year. Some people are already planning to buy tractors, while others are still observing.”

Li Long nodded, knowing that this was inevitable. After all, they used to live together, with a few families like Halim, Yushanjiang, and Talihar owning tractors, while the other families basically just followed suit and enjoyed the benefits.

These families would move up the mountain together with other herders, since they were all from the same tribe.

But now that they're scattered across several production teams, living far apart, there's a barrier between them if they want to help each other.

When the body transforms, many things change.

So this year, those of Halim and his family who have cars and tractors will help other herders. What about next year? Not to mention next year, even in early autumn this year when they are cutting grass, those of Halim and his family who have harvesters can help cut grass, but the grass cannot be transported to the winter pastures. It has to be transported to the yard. How can that be done?
We'll see. Li Long thought he'd bring a big truck when it came time to haul the hay, since it would be too much trouble to use a tractor.

Seeing that Li Long didn't intend to come inside for tea, Halim didn't stand on ceremony and started loading the car with him.

This trip mainly involves hauling yurt components, as well as some daily necessities, such as stoves, coal—if it rains in the summer pastures, the cow dung cakes will get wet and won't light, so we'll have to burn coal, along with rice, flour, and other supplies.

Halim went up the mountain first to set up the yurt and get everything ready before driving the cattle and sheep back. Otherwise, it would be too much trouble for just the two of them.

In reality, most herders still use the old methods, bringing their goods and livestock up the mountain together, building structures while grazing. It's very busy, but they're used to it.

With Li Long's help, the supplies were quickly loaded onto the tractor, filling it to the brim, and then tied tightly with ropes.

"Drive slowly when you're going up the mountain with the tractor," Li Long cautioned. "Some of the mountain roads aren't very smooth, and they haven't been repaired yet this year, so don't turn off the road."

“I know,” Halim smiled. “It’s already very good. Being able to drive a tractor up is much faster than riding a horse.”

"Are there any other teams that were originally with you in this group?" Li Long clapped his hands, took a few steps back, and asked.

“Two families, Talihar and Yushanjiang,” Halim said. “Our three families are relatively close, and our pastures are all within the management area of ​​this village. The other families are assigned to different villages.”

“Then it will be more troublesome for them to go into the mountains this year, and it will also be troublesome to cut grass,” Li Long said.

“So they’re also thinking about buying tractors,” Halim said. “They sold a batch of cattle and sheep to Yushanjiang in the spring and have some money on hand. These days they’ve been looking at tractors; some want to buy one, while others think they should wait until the summer pastures are ready and find something to sell for some money.”

It turned out that the herders already had their own plans, so Li Long stopped thinking about it.

He also brought some daily necessities with him on this trip. Although Halim had a tractor and often went down the mountain to the county to buy things, it was more convenient for him to go. However, Li Long's car was more convenient, so Li Long bought more.

After unloading the things he had brought, Li Long went inside to drink the milk tea that Gulimire had already heated.

It was clear that the wooden kang (heated brick bed) in the room was a temporary structure and not very stable. Li Longtou looked around with some curiosity as he entered the room for the first time.

"We've only been here a few days, and some places haven't been tidied up yet," Halim explained. "But it's bigger than the winter shelter, so we can store more things."

The three main rooms are quite spacious, one of them even larger than the original two rooms, but now they seem rather empty. Even if all the furniture from the winter quarters were moved over, it wouldn't be enough to fill one room.

"So, everyone's cattle and sheep have decreased significantly, right?" Li Long asked.

"Yes. But now, there are quite a few more lambs. They'll stay on the summer pasture for half a year, and then they'll grow up again. As for cattle and sheep, they'll increase in number in a few years. Now that Yushanjiang is helping us sell cattle and sheep, we feel at ease."

Halim is quite at ease now. He focuses on herding and is even thinking about expanding his cattle and sheep herds. Every year, he moves his flocks to different pastures to sell a batch and make some money. Then, when the lambs are born in winter, the herds grow back. So, as long as there is no major snow disaster, the herders don't have to worry about the number of their cattle and sheep.

Halim and his people got tractors, and Talihar even got a car. The able-bodied men in the tribe would often go down the mountain with them, and they learned more about what was happening outside the mountains, which gave them more ideas.

It's normal to want to buy a tractor. After all, you'll basically have to rely on yourself in the future to cut grass, haul hay, and transport supplies to the summer pastures. Having a tractor will make things much easier.

It can be said that Halim's tribe was the first among the nearby herders to "modernize" themselves. With the road that Li Long built for them, their integration into modern society will be greatly accelerated.

Li Long stayed at Halimu's house for more than an hour before heading to Meng Hai's village.

Yesterday, he received a call from Yang Bo of the Water Resources Bureau, who asked if Li Long would take on a canal repair job and if so, he would be given the opportunity.

During this period, Li Long frequently went to the fourth team, but he didn't go to see Meng Hai and didn't know what they were doing. Today, he happened to be in the village where Halimu and the others lived, which was not far from Meng Hai's village, so he came over to take a look.

When they arrived at Meng Hai's house, they found no one there and his car was gone.

A neighbor saw Li Long get out of the car and walk to the entrance of the Meng family's courtyard, so he came over to greet him.

This man also knew Li Long and had made a large broom for him before. He told Li Long that Meng Hai had gone out half a month ago, apparently to take on a house repair job, and had taken people from the village's construction company to work on it.

As for the specific location, he didn't know.

Li Long was somewhat surprised, but since Meng Hai had work to do, he planned to ask Yang Bo to turn the matter away. After saying goodbye to the neighbor, Li Long drove back to the county, thinking of the large courtyard that Meng Hai had found in the southern suburbs, and drove there.

It was lunchtime, and when Li Long arrived at the courtyard, he found the excavator still there and a lot of people in the yard, realizing that he had gone the wrong way earlier.

When Li Long's car arrived at the gate of the compound, the workers inside had already spotted him. As Li Long got out of the car, Meng Hai came over carrying a large bowl.

"Hey, boss, you're here?" Meng Hai joked. "Here to check on our food?"

"Haha, just came over to check it out and grab a bite to eat." Li Long joked, "Did you work this morning?"

"Yeah, I took over a factory building, it's almost finished," Meng Hai said. "For lunch, we'll have rice, braised pork and cabbage with glass noodles. Want a bowl?"

"Give me a bowl," Li Long said. "It smells delicious."

"Old Chen, get Boss Li a bowl of rice, and add extra vegetables!" Meng Hai called out, turning his head. "Slices of fatty pork..."

"No fatty pork slices, give me more glass noodles!" Li Long hurriedly interrupted him, shouting towards Old Chen who was getting his food, "No fatty pork slices!"

"Alright, alright, here it comes!" Old Chen took a new enamel basin, first scooped out a spoonful of rice, then covered it with a generous amount of cabbage and vermicelli, and then added a few pieces of lean meat. After that, he put down the spoon, found a new pair of chopsticks, and brought it over.

Li Long thanked Old Chen, then took the food and sat down with Meng Hai on the cement slab in the yard to eat together.

"It tastes good." Li Long said after taking a few bites. "Food cooked in a big pot tastes the best!"

"Then you can come here and eat with us every day," Meng Hai said casually. "What, all done with work?"

"Yes, I was busy with cooperative matters the past few days. Yesterday, I received a call from Comrade Yang Bo, who said that the Water Resources Bureau had a canal repair job and asked if we would take it."

"Yes, yes, I'll definitely take it," Meng Hai said. "This factory is just finishing up, and I'm worried about what to do next. If I can't find any more work, I'll have to come to you."

Li Long smiled and said, "If you accept, I'll go back and find Yang Bo to finalize things, and we'll discuss it in detail tomorrow."

“Okay, I’ll go to the purchasing station to find you tomorrow… no, I’ll just go after get off work this afternoon. You’re going to the Water Resources Bureau later, right? Sigh, why make it so complicated? I can just go to the Water Resources Bureau with you.” Meng Hai thought to himself as he ate.

“Okay,” Li Long said. “That’s good too. I’m afraid I might mess up the message as the setter.”

"Boss, do you know, our company is actually considered quite good in the county," Meng Hai said quietly while eating. "In the whole county, excluding state-owned enterprises, there are very few private engineering teams, construction and installation companies like ours that have several large pieces of equipment!"

"What will happen to those construction teams when they have work?" Li Long asked, somewhat surprised. "They can't do big jobs without heavy equipment, can they?"

"Rent, rent equipment from state-owned companies, or go to Shicheng or even Beiting to rent equipment." Meng Hai has become more well-informed since he started working in this industry. "Some people have asked us to rent equipment, but I haven't lent it to them."

“Yes, we can’t lend it out. If a job comes our way, we’ll be helpless without the equipment.” Li Long nodded, agreeing with Meng Hai’s approach.

After finishing the food in the enamel basin, Li Long followed Meng Hai to the tap to wash it. Meng Hai offered to help Li Long, but Li Long refused. It was just washing dishes; it wasn't like he'd never done it before.

There was lard in the food, so Old Chen boiled a pot of water, filled a basin, and placed it by the tap so everyone could wash themselves easily.

Li Long rinsed the basin and chopsticks in hot water, then washed the enamel basin clean with cold water before taking it to Old Chen to hand in. After Old Chen took the enamel basin, Li Long smiled and said:

"Old Chen, it tastes good, delicious!"

"Heh, heh heh," Old Chen chuckled.

After Li Long left, Old Chen said smugly to the workers helping in the kitchen, "Did you hear that? Boss Li said my cooking is delicious! You guys are all so picky. You've only been eating meat for a few years and you've already learned to be picky eaters!"

Meng Hai assigned the afternoon's work to several team leaders, and then drove to the Water Resources Bureau with Li Long.

Just as the Water Resources Bureau opened for the new workday, Li Long and Meng Hai got out of their car and saw Yang Bo park his bicycle in the bike shed and heading towards the office. When he saw Li Long and Meng Hai coming together, he smiled and greeted them, inviting them to come with him to the office.

Upon arriving at the office, Yang Bo poured water for Li Long and the others from a thermos, saying:
"Lao Meng did a good job last year. When the higher-ups inspected it, they said the quality was excellent. So this year, we're planning to have Lao Meng work on two of the new canals. How about it? Are you confident you can pull it off?"

"Yes, absolutely!" Meng Hai patted his chest loudly. "Comrade Yang, don't worry, we guarantee to complete the work assigned to us on time, and the quality will only be better than last year!"

“Okay, it’s good that you’re confident. I’ll go report to the leadership and explain the details of the two canals to you, then we can sign a contract,” Yang Bo said. “However, you’ll need to advance the funds for both canals this year. We’ll settle the accounts after the acceptance inspection is completed, how about that?”

Meng Hai turned to look at Li Long, but didn't speak immediately.

The company is mainly owned by Li Long; although he holds a small stake, it's a small one.

Li Long didn't agree immediately. He asked Yang Bo, "Old Yang, give me the truth. After this is done, will you be able to settle the bill? We're on the same side, you can't cheat me."

"Don't worry, the project funds are still going through the procedures and haven't been allocated yet, but the conditions for building the canal are now in place," Yang Bo explained to Li Long.

"I wouldn't dare cheat you, otherwise if you report me to the teacher, where would I hide? In our system, everyone above and below is a fellow disciple, I can't afford to lose face like that."

"Okay, I'll provide the financing. But you can discuss the specific price. I won't say how much profit you'll make, just don't rip us off."

"Actually, the funding for this canal project was quite substantial, and it definitely earned more than the canals from last year. It's just that because it required upfront investment, several construction teams with connections to the leaders couldn't secure the project; otherwise, it wouldn't have ended up in my hands," Yang Bo confessed.
"The two canals are about ten kilometers long in total, and the standards are very high. As long as they pass the inspection, we will definitely release the funds. This is the scale reported by the Water Resources Department of the Autonomous Region, so there won't be any problems."

Since Yang Bo had already said that, Li Long didn't say anything more, and the rest was up to Meng Hai and Yang Bo to talk.

After chatting with Yang Bo for a while and reminiscing about anecdotes about several professors from the College of Agriculture, Li Long took his leave, leaving Meng Hai to sign the contract.

To be honest, Li Long's relationship with Yang Bo was mainly through the professors at the College of Agriculture. Meanwhile, Li Long, unknowingly, maintained good relationships with several professors at the College of Agriculture, which was quite remarkable for someone who had never studied at the College of Agriculture.

Back at the purchasing station, Li Long saw people selling fritillaria bulbs at the entrance, clearly indicating that the new fritillaria bulb season had arrived.

Jia Tianlong hasn't come over yet this year, but he's called Li Long a few times and told him that the price of fritillaria bulbs this year will remain the same as last year for now. However, the price might drop after the fritillaria bulbs hit the market—the market is changing quite quickly right now, so it's uncertain.

Therefore, Li Long and his father, Li Qingxia, discussed it and decided to buy fritillaria bulbs at last year's price this year.

In previous years, the purchase price of fritillaria bulbs would generally increase slightly each year. When Li Long arrived, he heard the fritillaria bulb seller haggling with his father: "Boss, look at my fritillaria bulbs, they're pretty good. I'm not saying they'll get a special price, but they'll at least be grade one. Last year, grade one sold for 120 yuan per kilogram, why is it still the same price this year? Can you raise the price a little, even just 10 yuan per kilogram would be fine!"

"Prices won't go up. The big buyers haven't come yet, but the news has spread, and prices might even drop. We've already set the price for fritillaria at this level because of everyone's hard work," Li Qingxia said calmly.
"Besides, your fritillaria bulbs aren't dry enough. They might get a first-grade rating, but we'll have to dry them further after we get them. That'll take several hundred grams more per kilogram..."

"Fine, I won't sell it then." The seller of fritillaria bulbs was quite firm; he took back half a bag of fritillaria bulbs, carried it away, and left.

That's pretty tough.

Li Long parked the car and walked to the counter from the back, watching his father, Li Qingxia, talking to the next salesperson about the goods.

While Liang Shuangcheng was helping out, Li Long asked in a low voice:

"How much did you collect today?"

"Fritillaria? We've collected over 300 kilograms since we opened this morning, mostly fresh, less dried," Liang Shuangcheng said.

"How many people left because they felt the price was too high, like they did just now?"

"Two," Liang Shuangcheng said, shaking his head. "They're probably going to Shicheng or some other shop to sell."

Li Long nodded to indicate that he understood.

Whether the goods sell here or not is irrelevant. The pricing policy already in place will basically remain unchanged. There are now more competitors, and the purchasing station is no longer the sole dominant player in the fritillary bulb market.

Some middlemen will take the fritillaria bulbs they collect to multiple stores to ask for prices, and sell to whoever offers the highest price.

Now that people are more focused on making money and providing better service, there are more purchasing stations competing for customers and goods. In the past, it was rare to see people not selling their goods like we did today, but this year and beyond, it may become quite common.

Used to it.

Watching his father expertly assess the quality of the fritillaria bulbs, Li Long didn't linger. Instead, he went to the back to help Sun Jiaqiang clean the less-than-clean fritillaria bulbs they had collected.

However, he couldn't stay idle. Before long, someone came over wanting to buy a car. Li Long shook the water off his hands, wiped them with a towel, and went to the front yard to see the car buyer.

This was a woman—it was the first time Li Long had ever seen a woman come to buy a car.

The woman is around thirty years old, with wavy hair and wearing a red, fitted suit jacket. The professional attire makes her figure look great.

She was carrying a blue leather bag and looking at the cars, scanning them back and forth, but couldn't decide which one to choose.

Li Long went over to greet them and began to introduce himself.

I introduced both the Mercedes and the Volga. The woman liked the Mercedes but thought the price was too high, so she finally chose the Volga.

"Do you have a driver's license? Do you know how to drive? If you do, you can give it a try." The luxury Volga Li Long has also increased in price to 120,000 yuan a unit, which is in line with the trend, since everything has gone up in price in the past two years.

The woman didn't seem to mind the 120,000 yuan car. She said she could drive and even took out her driver's license from her bag to show Li Long. Li Long not only saw the driver's license but also the money in the bag.

Many—more than 100,000.

It's quite bold of a woman to come and buy a car with cash.

"Then you can try driving it around and see if you're satisfied," Li Long said. "Our backyard is quite spacious, so you can drive around a few times."

"Can I drive it on the road?" the woman asked.

“Then I’ll have to sit in the passenger seat, otherwise I’m afraid you’ll drive off,” Li Long said honestly. This woman hadn’t left any information, unlike those who came to buy cars through connections.

"Hehe, just kidding," the woman said with a laugh. "You're so funny." She got into the car, started the engine, and turned into the backyard.

Humor? I'm telling the truth.

You can tell that the woman is a really good driver. Her skills are a little worse than Gu Xiaoxia's, but they're still pretty good, at least decent.

After driving around twice, the woman drove the car back to its parking spot, got out, and expressed her satisfaction with the car. Li Long then led her to sign the contract.

When signing the contract, Li Long learned that the woman's name was Tian Fengxiang. She ran a clothing business and had two storefronts in the market. She had made money wholesaling clothes in the past two years, so she wanted to buy a car for easier travel.

Although she was a woman, Tian Fengxiang signed and paid very decisively. After taking a copy of the contract, she paid the money and drove away.

Clearly, she had been planning this for a long time and was very satisfied with the car.

Li Long was quite happy to have closed a big deal. As usual, he gave Liang Shuangcheng and Sun Jiaqiang bonuses, then went to pay taxes and deposit money before heading back to the courtyard to cook.

During dinner that evening, Sister Yang said that someone had come to her wanting to buy a batch of dried meat.

"Did you ask? Where are they from? How many do they need?" Li Long asked.

"The person in question, judging from his voice, is from the south. He looks quite wealthy, wearing a gold watch and leather shoes that don't seem to be cheap either."

"We need 500 of those half-kilogram paper bags, you know, for a trial run," Sister Yang said. "They said if the trial run goes well, they'll want to order in larger quantities later, so they hope we can give them a discount."

Dried meat has gone up in price now. A half-kilogram packaged in paper costs seven yuan. Ordinary people don't usually buy it; those who do are people with some spare cash.

So Li Long said:

"Tell him that if he only wants 500 bags, he can get a discount of one or two cents per bag at most. As for large quantities, we'll talk about it when he needs it."

"Okay then." Sister Yang nodded. She's a successful businesswoman now, mainly in management; business isn't her forte. Although she went to Kou Li last time to discuss complete sets of canned food production equipment, that was mainly about inspecting the goods and haggling over prices.

She didn't understand much about the cutthroat world of business.

So she simply left the decision to Li Long. After all, this was the first time she had ever dealt with such an unfamiliar customer, and it was hard to say whether she should be wary or not, mainly because she had never done this before.

He used to have regular customers, introduced by people, so he was a little unsure about what to do when a new customer suddenly came.

Let's just let this go as a side issue. Li Long has taken care of everything that needed to be settled, so he said he would cook lunch and dinner tomorrow so Gu Xiaoxia could go to work without worry.

Gu Xiaoxia was a little embarrassed and said she would try to come back as soon as possible.

The next day, Li Long didn't go to the purchasing station. He tidied up the yard and also cleaned up the vegetable garden in the large yard. The vegetables that were supposed to be planted had already been planted. He had watered them more frequently these past few days, so the vegetables were growing well, and the weeds were also growing well, so he had to weed them.

While they were busy, the door opened, and Sister Yang walked in quickly, followed by Tielanhua.

Li Long was somewhat surprised. Tie Lanhua rarely came to this courtyard, but he was quite familiar with the people there. He asked, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened, it's the same thing as yesterday," Sister Yang said. "Today I handed over the meat processing workshop to Lan Hua and went to the cannery to check on production. Lan Hua just came over and said that the customer from yesterday is here again... Lan Hua, please tell Uncle Li."

“Boss, here’s what happened,” Tielanhua said. “Yesterday, a merchant from the south came and said he wanted five hundred bags. I told him to give him the discount of one cent at most, just as Sister Yang told me.”

He seemed a bit annoyed and kept pestering us to lower the price. I insisted on not lowering it. Finally, he said he wanted 5,000 bags and asked if we could lower the price by one yuan per bag. I said no, if it was 5,000 bags, the most I could offer was a discount of 50 cents…

There was precedent for this, so Li Long didn't say anything.

"Then he took out his company's certificates, letters of introduction, and so on, saying that we should pay a deposit first, and the rest after the goods were delivered to their glass bottle supplier. I said that was impossible. He said that if it didn't work, he could leave the goods there and reassure us..."

He added that if people didn't believe him, they could call his company directly; his contact number was listed in his file.

As she spoke, Tielanhua handed a stack of documents she was holding to Li Long.

Li Long glanced at it briefly and said with a smile, "It's fake. This official seal... you can get it engraved over there for just a few dollars now."

Go back and tell him directly, "We don't lack buyers. If you want to buy something, just bring the money in full. We'll supply the goods according to the amount you have. There's no such thing as a deposit."

Looking at the documents and then at Li Long, Sister Yang hesitated. She couldn't quite believe that someone could forge such a red seal.
Besides, they said they made a phone call, so how can a phone call be faked?
People in the Northwest are simple and honest, or you could say they haven't seen much of the world. The tricks scammers use are well-established in the South and coastal areas, but they are relatively rare in the Northwest.

After all, the economy here isn't that developed, so the chances of scammers coming are small, but it's not impossible.

Regardless of whether they are scammers or not, Li Long would never let someone take away goods worth tens of thousands of yuan with just a few pieces of information.

Tielanhua and Sister Yang had the same expression; she never expected there to be such a swindler—of course, in her opinion, this was probably not a swindler.

Falsifying documents can land you in jail.

See? Honest people think first that if they do it, it will be illegal and there will be serious consequences.

These "shrewd" people were thinking that if they weren't caught, the successful scam would give them a substantial amount of goods that they could sell for money at any time.

The difference.

Although still somewhat confused, neither Sister Yang nor Tielanhua could refute what Li Long said, and the two left together. Sister Yang, still worried, went with Tielanhua to the jerky processing workshop and turned down the customer.

This time, the other party didn't even want the 500 packages, and even said that they would regret it.

To be honest, at this point, Tielanhua and Sister Yang were actually a little regretful, but since Li Long was the boss, they were just thinking about it.

Over the next few days, Li Long mainly focused on tidying up the yard. The yard was large; it didn't seem like much normally, but once you started cleaning, there was work to be done everywhere. In just two or three days, he cleared out a huge pile of trash, and also managed to remove a large amount of hedgehog droppings.

The hedgehogs were a little annoyed that Li Long was disturbing their hiding, but they didn't dare to fight back. They sneaked to other cracks in the wall, and finally crawled into the old cabinet that Li Long had prepared for them. It was lined with straw and rotten cotton, which was just right for them to live in.

The yard wasn't as lively as last year, so Li Long planned to take some time to go to the mountains to see if he could get a few fawns from Bolati to put in the yard. Right now, there were only two little goat lambs. They were lively, but they left droppings everywhere, which was really annoying.

During lunch that day, Sister Yang told Li Long and the others that it was fortunate she had listened to Li Long last time and hadn't cooperated with that businessman from the south.

The news has spread throughout the market: a leather merchant had stockpiled hundreds of hides, and a merchant from the south came to him to cooperate, bought all the hides, paid a large deposit, left behind his company's business license and other documents, and then disappeared without a trace.

By the time they realized what was happening and tried to call back, the phone number was fake; it was a public phone from that location.

Sister Yang said:

"The scammers had found a partner long ago. The owner of the public phone shop said that the call that day was pre-arranged. The person was just waiting at that time to answer the phone, and he just needed to collect the money. He didn't care who it was."

The scammers' tactics are actually quite simple to expose, but the high prices they offer make the merchants think they've gotten a bargain, which naturally makes them happy.

Unexpectedly, the person used a public phone to steal the items. Although the police were notified, the investigation has been very difficult.

"According to the police investigating the case, the goods were sold immediately after arriving in Wucheng and were not even put on the train. Now, it's impossible to trace them back to their source."

Sister Yang was relieved; the scammer's tactics were exactly the same as the ones used at the meat processing workshop that day. If she and Tielan Hua had believed them, would their 5,000 bags have also been swindled away?
The seller offers high prices for leather goods, using that as bait. Meanwhile, they try to lower the price on your side, making you believe the seller is genuinely interested in buying.

Regardless, it's a scam, so we should always be careful in the future.

"It's alright, as long as we stick to one principle: cash on delivery," Li Long said. "We don't lack buyers, so we won't regret losing one customer."

At that time, there were no scams like those where people use money they've swindled from one supplier to buy goods from another, so Li Long wasn't worried about receiving the goods.

This can be considered a vivid practical lesson for Sister Yang and Tielanhua.

Next, the cannery's production got on track, skilled workers were trained, and Sister Yang had more free time every day. She took over the cooking again, and Li Long was able to go to the countryside to check on things.

The cotton seedlings have been emerging for several days, and they are about ten centimeters tall. At the agricultural extension school, the cotton plants grown by drip irrigation are noticeably different from those without; they are taller and stronger.

"Indeed, drip irrigation is truly different!" Principal Yang exclaimed. "This experimental field has really demonstrated the power of drip irrigation. If drip irrigation tape were cheaper, farmers would make a fortune using it!"

“Let’s wait. Once the polyethylene project in the Dujiangyan area goes into production, the raw materials for drip irrigation tape will become cheaper here, and the price of drip irrigation tape will also come down,” Li Long said with a smile. “It won’t take more than a few years.”

This year, Kui City has already sold over ten sets of drip irrigation tape production equipment. According to Factory Director Du, they are currently working overtime to produce more, and have already received several batches of overseas orders. This gave him a significant boost at the agricultural product trade fair—from across the country, not just the autonomous region.

Upon seeing the performance of this equipment, some foreign experts and industry professionals couldn't help but marvel, saying they never expected that such advanced equipment could be developed here.

Director Du made it very clear on the phone that those foreign industry professionals, despite their respectable appearance, were all just trying to take advantage of others. When discussing cooperation, they quoted extremely low prices, as if Director Du and his team were getting a great deal.

"I'm not going to do technology transfer anyway, I'll sell the equipment first," said Factory Director Du. "We've also applied for international patents. If we find any imitations later, we'll sue them no matter what, even if we can't win, it'll still annoy them."

Li Long was quite relieved that Director Du had this mindset. He was worried that some people, seeing the rapid development abroad, would lose their confidence or become arrogant.

At least not with Director Du, that's good.

The Duqu District is going to develop a petrochemical project, specifically a polyethylene production project. This was also mentioned by Director Du. Based on his memories from his later life, Li Long knows that this is feasible, but it will take a few years.

If the experimental fields are developed well in the next few years, and the cost of drip irrigation tape is reduced, the autonomous region will probably start launching large-scale drip irrigation tape projects.

If he could secure the first batch of projects, Li Long felt that his life would be complete.

The effects of drip irrigation are already quite evident. Li Long didn't say much. Professor Yang was leading his students in experimenting with their theoretical knowledge, so it was best for him not to speak up at this time.

In the following days, news came from Shicheng that there had been other cases of people being scammed, using the same tactics. Due to issues with information dissemination, the merchants there were unaware of these cases, and the amounts they lost were substantial.

According to what Ms. Yang heard, the police in Shicheng Reclamation Area tracked down the fraudsters to Wucheng and found their accomplices.

The scammers had already escaped and were already at the border. The reclamation area police were calling the border area to assist in the investigation, but it was uncertain whether they could find them.

This time, business people in Shicheng and Ma County are on edge, and they are extremely cautious when negotiating with customers.

There's no way around it; everyone's money doesn't grow on trees. If you get scammed, you might not be able to recover for a long time.

P.S.: Thank you to readers Spring Warmth in Eleven States, Crocodile Tears L, Book Friend 110302213220025, and glodad for their generous donations. With the Laba Festival approaching, it's almost Chinese New Year, time to prepare for the holiday!

(End of this chapter)