Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The weather wasn't so good when the cotton planting season started, or more precisely, when crops were being planted.

Early April was usually sunny, but once planting began, either sandstorms raged or dark clouds gathered and strong winds swept through.

Many people are planting cotton this year. Those who have planted it before and those who haven't already know that when sowing and covering the cotton with plastic film, you must press down several shovelfuls of soil to ensure that the film won't be blown off by strong winds.

One advantage of farming in the fourth team is that those who don't know how to do something can ask those who do.

Growing cotton, without drip irrigation, isn't a particularly delicate job, so usually, asking around at a couple of places will get you the tips and tricks.

As long as you follow these guidelines, you're unlikely to make a mistake.

Li Long would occasionally return to the team to check on the cotton growth. After all, it was the first year the cooperative was planting drip-irrigated cotton on a large scale, and he was a little worried about having someone else oversee it.

When Li Long returned, those in the team who grew cotton would usually come to the cooperative's fields or Li's house to ask him questions.

For example, the timing of watering cotton seedlings, thinning seedlings, and what kind of fertilizer to apply to which type of land.

Li Long usually answers truthfully, and he is happy to do so. He is generally very kind to people who are eager to learn.

When no one comes, he will talk to the cooperative members about field management after sowing.

"You're saying we don't need to thin the cotton seedlings this year?" Xu Haijun asked, somewhat surprised. "Really? If we don't need to thin them, wouldn't we save some money?"

Thinning cotton seedlings is a more uncomfortable task than connecting drip irrigation pipes.

Connecting the drip irrigation tape, one branch pipe connects to it, at least there's a gap in the middle where I can stand up and rest for a bit.

However, when thinning cotton seedlings, it takes time to thin out rows of cotton that are hundreds of meters long before you can take a break.

After all, resting in the middle of the ground under the blazing sun or in strong winds would be pure torture.

Thinning seedlings is similar to grafting; you need to squat down in the ground and move forward step by step. After each step, check if there are any extra seedlings in the seedbed, and if so, pull out the weakest one.

Before drip irrigation was introduced for cotton planting, the seed drill planted two to three seeds per seedling eye to ensure the seedlings could survive.

However, if two or three seedlings grow from the same seedling, the weak ones must be removed and the strong ones kept to ensure that the best fertilizer is supplied to the strongest seedlings.

Therefore, thinning seedlings is a major task every year. Not only do the people in the cooperative have to do it, but they also have to hire people from the team to do it, in order to ensure that the seedlings are kept as single seedlings before they grow up.

Xu Haijun was naturally surprised by Li Long's words, and not only him, but everyone else was also surprised.

"Because of drip irrigation for cotton, the water drips directly to the seedlings, ensuring sufficient moisture, so only one seed needs to be sown per seedling eye," Li Long said. "And basically, there's no need to replant."

"Doesn't that mean that after drip irrigation, there's no water between the rows, and the grass won't grow well?" Jia Weidong said, drawing inferences from one instance to another, "and it also saves a lot of work on weeding?"

“That’s right,” Li Long said. “That’s the benefit of drip irrigation.”

With the development of technology, there will be more and more benefits in the future. Not only will thinning no longer be necessary, but weeding will also gradually disappear, and eventually even topping will be eliminated.

As farming requires less and less manpower, villagers will become increasingly idle, leaving them with no choice but to hunt in the wild – truly hunting in the wild.

“We’re using on-demand service. I checked the weather forecast, and it’s going to rain. Plus, it rained last time. Won’t the clumps of soil smother the seedlings?” Tao Daqiang asked with some concern.

"Don't worry about it," Li Long said. "Just keep an eye on it."

Don't underestimate the power of seeds. Spot sowing is different from row sowing. You don't need to make holes in the film to let the seedlings out, so it saves a lot of trouble.

Such "teaching" sessions were held intermittently throughout April, and under Li Long's "tutelage," the people in the cooperative were constantly improving their cotton-growing skills.

In late April, as crops continued to sprout and grow, the fields were no longer a desolate expanse; the greenery became lush, and only then did the true feeling of spring arrive.

But actually, it's already summer in the traditional sense.

In April, temperatures rise rapidly in Ma County, with daytime temperatures soaring from around ten degrees Celsius to nearly thirty degrees Celsius. However, nighttime temperatures rise more slowly, hovering almost in the single digits, resulting in a significant difference between day and night temperatures.

Li Long, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, watched Tao Daqiang pour a bag of fertilizer into the water at the pump room. The fertilizer quickly dissolved into the water, and then, with the pump's operation, flowed into the main pipe, then into the branch pipe, and was pressed onto the drip irrigation tape, dripping or spraying onto the seedling roots.

Only at this point does drip irrigation truly begin to work.

With the three pumping stations starting up simultaneously, water from the small lake flows continuously into the filter bed and is then pumped into the ground.

The team had already cleared the channels, so this flow of water didn't actually carry as much debris and garbage as the last experiment.

But there were still plenty of fish, even more than last time.

As the reservoir's water volume increases, crucian carp begin to lay their eggs in mid-April. Since they prefer flowing water, fish of all sizes are carried down the canals.

Because Li Long repaired the sluice gate, the main body of fish in Xiaohaizi was preserved. Although the number of fish is not as high as in previous years, it is still quite considerable.

Therefore, every year when the plants are watered, a large number of fish will swim downstream.

Li Long had no intention of changing these things. After all, Xiaohaizi was not a large reservoir, and the number of fish that could be maintained was not large. However, crucian carp spawned several times a year, so not many could be left behind.

Right now, everyone is too busy to pay attention to the fish; their focus is all on watering the plants.

Three pumping stations start up simultaneously. Next to each pumping station stands a utility pole with a dedicated electricity meter. Electricity for pumping is settled at the end of the year, a yearly clearing, which is quite convenient.

Seeing that Tao Daqiang was operating the pumps well, Li Long went to check on the other two pump stations, gave them some pointers, and then went to the field to check on the drip irrigation.

After touring the field, Li Long was quite grateful to Zhao Shijie. With his strict supervision, the quality of the project was impeccable. The land was very flat, so there was no issue of the drip irrigation tape getting stuck and unable to drip water.

As he watched the dripping water from the water holes under the film gradually turn into spraying water, Li Long knew that the job was done.

As he said, each seedling grows a seedling, and occasionally there are missing seedlings, but this is very rare and not a big deal.

With such a large plot of land, there's no need to replant seedlings anymore. The germination rate has reached nearly 90%, which is considered a full stand by ordinary farmers.

The watering process was quick, and Li Long could see that there were also small seedlings growing under the plastic film, but after they grew out, they pressed against the film, and these grasses would most likely remain pressed inside the film.

Before the cotton grows large enough to cover the film, sunlight will shine through the film and kill the parts of the grass that are pressed against it.

Current drip irrigation tapes cannot completely drip water onto the roots of seedlings; there will be some distance and deviation, so weeds can still survive inside the film.

After all, there is water.

However, in the rows without a plastic film, there is no other water source except for rain.

Therefore, the grass growing here will lack water, and even if it doesn't die from the sun, it will suffer from malnutrition.

This is the benefit of drip irrigation in farming.

Therefore, by late April, the advantages of this piece of land compared to other land became very clear.

The seedlings grew tall and strong, with few weeds, making them a very pleasing sight.

While Li Long and his family were watering their plants, everyone else was busy with their own work in their fields.

So when all three pumping stations had finished watering, someone finally arrived after hearing the news. Seeing the drip irrigation tape still dripping residual water in the field, they were somewhat surprised and disappointed.

I didn't see it.

It's just a bit of a disappointment, though. It's the busy farming season right now, and very few people are idle.

The township soon learned that the cooperative was progressing smoothly. After Labor Day in May, the deputy township head in charge of agriculture went to the purchasing station to find Li Long and wanted to discuss holding an on-site meeting.

"Hold a field meeting?" Li Long paused for a moment before remembering this. It seemed that the township had mentioned holding a field meeting last year, a county-level meeting, mainly about drip irrigation farming and cooperative experiences.

The last time the autonomous region held an on-site meeting, the participants were all experts from the autonomous region and various counties and cities; few people from our county participated.

So the county's agricultural bureau thought that since this thing was already in the county, and the cooperative was a new thing that seemed to be developing quite well, they could hold a field meeting in the county.

Although Ma County also wants to develop industry, after so many years of development, it is still better to focus on agriculture.

Li Long told the deputy township head, "Okay, no problem."

"Your people will mainly introduce drip irrigation farming and the development experience of cooperatives," the deputy township head immediately assigned the task. "When would be a good time to do it?"

"The best time is when drip irrigation is in progress, so you can see the watering and fertilization process being integrated, which is very intuitive."

"When is the next watering?" the deputy township head asked. "How many days until then?"

"Ten days, I guess," Li Long said after calculating. "It'll be quick. We'll water it about once every two weeks."

"Ten days? Okay, I'll go back and report to the township head and secretary right now." The deputy township head thought for a moment and said, "If there are no problems, we'll send people in tomorrow to set up your field."

The deputy township head told Li Long to quickly return to the team and discuss it with the other members of the cooperative, since he couldn't be the only one involved in this matter. He himself would go back to the township to report.

The deputy township head didn't expect things to go so smoothly. He was in charge of this matter, so he thought ten days should be fine.

Li Long didn't delay and immediately rushed back to the team to gather the cooperative members and arrange these matters.

In the cooperative's main office, Li Long said to Xie Yundong, "Old Xie, here's the thing. You've handled the most things in this cooperative, so the job of introducing the cooperative is assigned to you."

Xie Yundong said modestly, "I just did some odd jobs. Actually, you know the cooperative best, so you should be the one to do the introduction. Of course, the others in our cooperative are fine too; they've all been here for more than three years and should be familiar with it."

Li Long shook his head and said, "There are two topics at this meeting: cooperatives and drip irrigation farming. You will introduce the cooperatives, and I will introduce drip irrigation farming."

Then the rest of the staff in our group have to cooperate in doing these things. For example, the time I've agreed on is right when it's time to water the cotton next time. Haijun Daqiang will also have to help with watering and fertilizing. If there are bugs in the cotton field, he'll have to spray pesticides.

"Alright, I'll do it then." Xie Yundong was quite confident in introducing the cooperative. After all, the cooperative had been operating for over three years, and he had been in charge of all the major and minor matters.

Although we initially listened to Li Long and went through the process of outlining each regulation, he was the one who mainly implemented it.

From being completely clueless and cautious at the beginning to being confident now, Xie Yundong feels that even without a script, he can describe the entire operation process of the cooperative.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Li Long continued, "Old Xie, this part about the cooperative mainly concerns the overall framework and operation of our cooperative. I think you can handle it; you can even do it without a script."

If you're worried about going off-topic, we've prepared a script that you can use as a guide.

Xie Yundong waved his hand and said, "No need for a script! You just need to decide for me what I can and can't say. I'll just talk about what I can say. By the way, how do we set the time? How long will it take?"

"Apart from the specific shareholding structure of our own cooperative, including the cooperative's share conversion, the annual distribution of shares in our saline-alkali land, and the year-end dividends, we can talk about everything else."

I think it can be roughly divided into several parts. The first is the framework of the cooperative, then the procedures for its formation, the operating rules, which are our terms and conditions, and how the workers get paid, etc. It's just a general overview of the common things that the other two cooperatives in our village can use. I'll just explain it to everyone.” Li Long said:
"Keep the time to ten to fifteen minutes. Interested people will ask you specific questions directly. If they are not interested, they will have learned everything they need to know in ten minutes and will not ask any more questions."

After Li Long explained it to Xie Yundong, Xie Yundong understood.

Because Li Long had participated in an on-site meeting at the autonomous region level, he had the experience to arrange these matters with confidence and in an orderly manner.

Everyone has their own responsibilities, so that everyone can perform their duties, which will prevent chaos and ensure that everyone can bear certain responsibilities.

The next day, the township sent people down to organize the matter, but the situation changed, and what Li Long and Xie Yundong said had to be written down.

Li Long was doing a bit better; he remembered everything he was told.

Xie Yundong's side still needs some sorting out.

Li Long said to the deputy township head in charge of the township, "We are both rough men who didn't even graduate from junior high school. The content of this manuscript can only be dictated by us. You can organize it. We can't write it ourselves."

The deputy township head didn't refute this point; he considered it a fact.

So the township sent a young cadre to be in charge of writing materials for the two people.

They also attach great importance to this aspect. The materials must be compiled and submitted to the county government in the end, and they dare not be careless.

The township began to make framed banners and signs based on the template from the last autonomous region's on-site meeting.

According to the township, the presentation should be done both in the cooperative's courtyard and in the fields. To make it look more impressive, the township also wanted to bring over several of Li's high-horsepower tractors and display them in the cooperative's courtyard, but Li Long was reluctant, feeling that this was a charade.

However, the township had to be given face, so after some back and forth, a high-horsepower tractor was parked in the cooperative's courtyard.

Despite the introduction, if anyone asked, Li Long told the villagers that the high-horsepower tractor was indeed being used by the cooperative, but the machine itself did not belong to the cooperative.

After all, it's not easy to get a discount if you do it this way.

Through the preliminary preparations for the on-site meeting, the township and the cooperative (mainly Li Long's side) also went through a bumpy process of communication and coordination.

In Li Long's view, some things are formalism and bureaucracy, but these are also necessary procedures in certain situations.

Since he was to cooperate with the township in holding an on-site meeting, Li Long could fight for some things, but he could only adapt to others.

Within two days, Li Long and Xie Yundong's introductory materials were completed and submitted to the township.

Actually, Li Long's explanation could have been finished in half a day. The troublesome part was Xie Yundong's explanation. Although Li Long had already given him the key points, it was easy to go off-topic when relaying them to the cadre in the township. Some aspects were explained too much, which made it difficult to keep up with the length.

Fortunately, after several attempts and with Li Long's guidance, it was finally completed. Xie Yundong also knew where the cooperative's main focus should be.

He knew all the content, so he didn't need to memorize a script. He just needed to slightly change the focus when introducing the content, and some things didn't need to be explained in too much detail.

After Li Long and the deputy township head decided to hold an on-site meeting, and after the township's top two leaders approved it and reported it to the county, the county issued a document announcing the on-site meeting.

Therefore, all bureaus and townships in the county were aware of this matter and decided to send people to participate.

Because Li Long's focus was on this, when Halim and the others moved to the summer ranch, although they came to say goodbye to Li Long, Li Long didn't have time to see them off. He could only say that he would visit them when he had time later.

The purchasing stations have also started buying fritillaria bulbs, and the price of fritillaria bulbs this year is about the same as last year.

Now, when Li Long buys fritillaria bulbs, he always calls Jia Tianlong in advance to confirm the market wholesale price before writing the recent purchase price of fritillaria bulbs on the blackboard.

This transparent pricing method is very popular with herb gatherers and middlemen, as the prices are clear and they are less likely to be cheated.

Because Li Long had something to do, the task of collecting fritillaria bulbs mainly fell to his father, Li Qingxia.

The peak season for agricultural supplies sales has passed, and the purchasing station mainly buys fritillaria bulbs and dried mushrooms. Li Qingxia has been doing this for many years and is quite adept at it.

Therefore, Li Long was able to focus on the on-site meeting without worry.

The county and township governments were going to hold a field meeting in the village, and as soon as the banners at the cooperative and the cotton field were put up, the villagers knew about it.

Everyone was quite excited and looking forward to it.

At that time, there weren't many forms of entertainment, and movies were still shown outdoors. Although four-fifths of the households in the village owned televisions, the programming was pitifully limited.

There's no cable TV, no satellite dish, and except for Sundays, there's only television programming in the evenings. So, when the village holds a field event, everyone sees it as a lively spectacle to watch, and they eagerly anticipate it.

However, after learning what they were going to do, the people from the two cooperatives came to Li Long.

“If we were to introduce our cooperative model to the whole county, wouldn’t that be like revealing our path to wealth?” The people from these two cooperatives were quite opposed to this.

It's not fair to say that farmers are short-sighted; it's just that they cherish this opportunity to make money, and they don't want it to be lost.

They were all from the same village and older than Li Long, so in the cooperative's courtyard, Li Long explained to them: "First of all, this thing can't be stopped. Our village has established three cooperatives, which has already attracted the attention of the township."

The cooperative is registered in the township. Even if we don't say anything, there are elderly people in each village who participate. This form is almost identical to the cooperative from decades ago. Anyone who is interested can easily deduce that.

Secondly, making money isn't about having more people doing it, or that we'll earn less.

The amount of cotton we grow and the scale of our operation are insignificant compared to the whole county, the whole autonomous region, or even the whole country. They're like a drop of water in a small lake; it makes little difference whether they're there or not.

The fact that we're earning this much now, compared to when we weren't earning this much, won't have much of an impact on the overall situation.

Even if every village in the county establishes several cooperatives and grows cotton, it will not affect the overall cotton price.

It's not that I underestimate ourselves, but compared to the big market, we are really too small. Our own little plot of land, which we value so much, is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

So we can rest assured, don't worry, it won't affect our earning potential.

His words put the other two cooperative members at ease, and they chuckled and said that they had been too short-sighted.

After seeing the people off, Li Long wondered if the people in his cooperative had also thought of this, but were just keeping quiet because of his pride.

So before the meeting, Li Long gathered everyone together again to explain the matter.

Sure enough, everyone relaxed as soon as he finished explaining.

Xu Haijun asked another question: "Although revealing this won't harm our interests, Xiaolong, I see you're quite enthusiastic about this. Is it for fame?"

Tao Daqiang immediately denied it, saying, "Brother Long is not like that at all. Think back to when Brother Long was famous all over the country, and he was featured in the autonomous region's newspapers many times. What's a county-level meeting compared to that?"

Li Long smiled and said, "I'm really not doing this for fame. How should I put it? Last year, when cotton prices went up, our cooperative was in the limelight. Not only in the township, but many people in the county knew about it."

Being in the limelight isn't necessarily a good thing; there are more people watching, and if you make even the slightest mistake, someone will seize on it.

So when the township suggested holding an on-site meeting, I readily agreed. I felt that we should make this cooperative a common practice, so that if many people were doing it, ours would become less conspicuous.

Fewer people will be watching us, so whether we make money or something goes wrong, the impact won't be as significant.

The wood is beautiful in the forest, and the wind will destroy it.

Of course, there was one more thing Li Long didn't say: the cooperative model is not suitable for all places and all people.

Some people may try and fail, while others may try and succeed.

His idea was a bit too idealistic; it was simply to enable more farmers to earn money and get rich through practice and farming.

Having been a farmer for two lifetimes, I really don't want farmers to suffer like that anymore.

I can't say this out loud, and even if I did, people probably wouldn't believe me.

After all, from ancient times to the present, and for decades to come, the public has been accustomed to being picky about good people and finding gold in the filth of bad people.

It's one thing to let others say you're a good person, but if you claim to be a good person yourself, a whole bunch of people will scrutinize you with a magnifying glass, looking for faults.

As the on-site meeting drew closer, the people in the cooperative became increasingly nervous. The people sent by the township came to the site every day to go through the procedures, inspect the venue and signs, and even conducted a small rehearsal.

Li Long felt that this was even stricter than the one implemented by the autonomous region last year.

But no matter what, it's just a formality for him; he's just going through the motions and finishing the show.

On the day of the event, people from more than ten townships and farms across the county, along with many bureaus, local staff, villagers, and people from neighboring villages who came to watch the spectacle, numbered in the hundreds. It was quite a lively event.

The county head came directly to participate, which was a great honor.

It was very hot, so the leader's speech was short. Next came the speech from the township. With the county leader as a benchmark, the township leader simply read his own draft briefly, omitting a large portion of the text, which was quite pragmatic.

Next, Lao Xie introduced the cooperative's situation.

Because the cooperative was being introduced in the courtyard, he pointed out the rooms and facilities as he spoke, and everyone listened with great interest.

After twelve minutes, Lao Xie finished speaking, and during the Q&A session, he was immediately surrounded by people.

As expected, many people were eager to learn about the cooperative. Li Long noticed that Lao Xie was sweating profusely from the outside.

He didn't go to help, thinking it would be a good opportunity to train Lao Xie.

However, many people who knew the truth surrounded him, which was understandable given his reputation.

Even county leaders came over and said a few words to him, and asked the county's reporters to take a photo and record a video of him.

After Lao Xie had answered most of the questions, the person in charge from the township said they needed to move on to the fields to explain drip irrigation. Lao Xie, wiping his sweat, came over to Li Long and said, "My shirt is soaked through. These people are so enthusiastic, they really ask until they get to the bottom of things. Do you know what the most frequent questions are?"

Li Long casually remarked, "They're definitely asking how much dividend we received last year..."

Xie Yundong asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

"Is this really that hard to guess?" Li Long said as he headed to get the car. "When it comes to money, everyone is always most concerned about it."

Xie Yundong suddenly realized how true that made sense; why hadn't he thought of that before?

When they arrived at the cotton field, they saw the almost endless cotton fields and the thriving cotton seedlings. Compared to the sparse cotton seedlings in the nearby fields, the benefits of drip irrigation were immediately apparent.

The water from Xiaohaizi has been released, and water is being stored in the filter pool. After everyone arrived, the introducer gave a brief introduction, and Li Long began to explain to everyone.

Xu Haijun and Tao Daqiang had already entered the pump room and started operating the pumps. As the water pumps started, Li Long's explanation began.

This explanation is more intuitive and concisely conveys the benefits of drip irrigation for farming.

It not only talks about the benefits, but also about the project process of drip irrigation farming, the overall cost, and the application prospects.

Although Lao Xie said the cooperative was performing very well, it paled in comparison to this.

Li Long spoke eloquently and logically, and those present could immediately understand which projects were suitable for drip irrigation and which were not.

Li Long's speech lasted about twelve or thirteen minutes, followed by answering questions and a site visit.

Many people couldn't wait to run to the fields to see what it was like to see water spraying from the drip irrigation tape under the plastic film.

Some people were attracted by the fish on the filter screen in front of the filter pool. After the explanation, they all ran to the filter screen, trying to catch the fish.

The scene was a bit chaotic, but the villagers immediately began to maintain order. Li Long and his men were prepared; they simply grabbed the net and removed the fish from the strainer. Knowing that some people were quite fond of these fish, Li Long handed them over to the villagers to handle.

Li Long was then surrounded by people who already knew about drip irrigation for farming, especially for cotton, where one mu (unit of land area) could yield three to four hundred kilograms.

That's why so many people ask for details.

Li Long patiently answered the questions again and again, many of which had been asked many times, but people still asked the same questions when a different group of people came around.

Li Long wasn't impatient. Anyway, once this was done, someone in the county would definitely try it, and someone in the cooperative would definitely organize it. In the future, there shouldn't be many people bothering him anymore.

Anyway, both documents have already been submitted. If you want to know the details after today, just go and look at the documents.

He's telling this to others again and again with this mindset, as if it's the last time.

Because watering takes a long time, the meeting ended at noon.

The township originally planned to have the attendees of the on-site meeting eat in the cooperative's courtyard, but Li Long refused.

Li Long's reason was that everyone from the cooperative had come to hold an on-site meeting, so no one was going to cook, mainly because they didn't want to trouble the village.

So they arranged to eat in the village, but Li Long and the others didn't go. They said the watering wasn't finished and they needed to keep an eye on things so it wouldn't stop.

Once this matter was over, Li Long and his team felt relieved, but they also felt that they had gained nothing and had worked for nothing.

But since the township has said so, we are, after all, members of the collective, and we must obey the collective's decision.

Li Long believed that the township wouldn't let the cooperative hold such an event for nothing. Even without any explicit rewards, things would definitely go more smoothly for them when they went to the township in the future.

The county radio and television station acted quickly, broadcasting the news that very evening.

The families in the cooperative were all waiting in front of the television to watch, even though it was only for a few minutes. (End of Chapter)