Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The next morning, the students couldn't wait to go see the crabs and shrimp.

Most of the shrimp were dead, but the six crabs were still alive and well, blowing bubbles in their respective bowls.

Actually, these crabs didn't stop all night, constantly crawling around in those basins, making a rustling sound throughout the whole house.

Fortunately, the students were exhausted. The excitement and exhilaration had depleted their last bit of energy, so the rustling sound of the crabs became a lullaby for them, and they quickly drifted off to sleep.

After getting up in the morning, six basins were carried to the yard. Many students who came to wash up saw the crabs and learned that Li Qiang had taken his classmates to catch crabs. As a result, Li Qiang received more attention.

Li Qiang is usually quite composed and not a well-known figure at school, but he believes that his name will be heard throughout the entire grade after today. This makes Li Qiang feel a little embarrassed, a little uneasy, and a little excited.

Who among us doesn't have a bit of vanity when we're young?

Of the six crabs, four were taken home by their respective owners, the extra one caught by Du Wenlong was taken by the biology teacher, and Li Qiang's crab was reserved by the class monitor, Chen Shuxia, long ago.

The students who were late to the party could only take one or two shrimp each back with them.

Fortunately, there are different varieties of shrimp here. Some people choose horse shrimp, some take river shrimp, and some want both.

The bus took the students away. At Li Qiang's instruction, Du Wenlong wrapped the crab in a damp towel, carried it onto the bus, and then waved to Li Qiang through the open window.

"See you the day after tomorrow. That bookstore probably has new books again. Let's get to school early and go check it out?"

“Okay, no problem.” Li Qiang waved to him, making the agreement.

Squad leader Chen Shuxia opened the window and waved the crab wrapped in a towel at Li Qiang: "Thank you again, I will definitely take good care of it."

"You're welcome, you're welcome," Li Qiang said hurriedly. "Be careful not to get caught in it."

Suddenly someone in the carriage screamed. It turned out that a classmate had dropped his crab on himself and was crawling around haphazardly, which startled him.

The classmates nearby rushed to help, but dared not reach out recklessly. It was Du Wenlong who reacted quickly, snatched the wet towel that the classmate had dropped, and wrapped it around the crab, thus calming down the minor incident.

Then everyone burst into laughter.

After seeing off the last batch of students, Li Qiang returned home. He was exhausted these past few days, but he had also gained a lot.

After calculating, he figured that besides the work-study assignments he gave to the school, he could probably earn nearly two hundred yuan from the extra cotton he made in the past twenty days, which was a considerable sum.

Li Qiang was already thinking about how to spend the money.

Although the teachers had organized the students to tidy up the cooperative's yard before they left, Li Long and Xie Yundong still needed to clean up the mess.

Plates used for meals, large buckets and basins for serving food, and large pots all need to be cleaned and stored away, as they will definitely be used again next year.

Although the students had cleaned their dormitories, Li Long and his team would definitely check them again to make sure nothing was missed, and then the rooms would be locked up for future use.

The temporary stove that was set up in the courtyard needs to be dismantled. It will be rebuilt when the students are brought back next year. Otherwise, leaving it in the courtyard like this will greatly affect the activities.

Li Long, Xie Yongdong, Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, and Jia Weidong are all working here. Xu Haijun is not here; he has contacted two classes of students from the local middle school, and they are currently picking cotton in the cotton field.

There are still a few of the first harvest flowers left, which is just enough for the students in these two classes to earn some class fees.

The yard was very large, and it took two or three hours to clean it all up. When Li Long saw that it was almost done, he said that everyone should go home for lunch and that they would come back here for a meeting in the afternoon.

"Why are we having another meeting?" Liang Dacheng asked curiously. "We've managed to get all the students back safely without any problems. That's great."

"This is the first time we've organized an event like this, and it's turned out quite successfully so far, but we still need to summarize it," Xie Yundong said on behalf of Li Long.
"Then let's talk about the next steps. The cotton picking season is more than halfway over, so we can't let our guard down in the remaining time. It would be best to finish it safely and harvest all our cotton."

This was something Li Long and Xie Yundong had discussed and agreed upon. Now that the cooperative had achieved initial success, to continue its success, they needed to transform the current makeshift operation into a formal, company-like small business that operated according to regulations.

They want to gradually turn some good rules into habits, so that everyone gets used to following these rules that they didn't originally care about.

If you persist gradually, the rules will be established.

One of the most important reasons for the success of our Party is its ability to summarize experiences. During the war years, whether it was a large-scale corps operation or a small squad battle, a post-battle summary was conducted after each battle.

Li Long and his colleagues learned this: after each major event, they summarize the advantages, identify the problems, and then categorize these problems to study how to improve them.

Everyone was used to listening to Li Long and Xie Yundong, and since they both agreed, the matter was basically settled.

After having lunch at his older brother's house, Li Long heard his mother grumbling that Qiangqiang had lost weight. Then he heard Li Qiang retort that he had gained weight, but he was a bit tanned because he picked cotton every day.

Li Long also told his mother that the meals the cooperative prepared for the students were quite good, with meat at every meal.

The old woman, Du Chunfang, began to mutter softly.

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei were both quite distressed that their child had gotten so tanned, and they even told Li Qiang to eat more at lunchtime.

Li Qiang, however, talked about the fun he had catching crabs yesterday, and the surprise his classmates had shown him last night and this morning. He looked very proud.

Seeing how happy he was, his family was relieved.

After finishing his meal, Li Qiang took a nap and then prepared to write a letter to his sister.

Although Li Juan calls home regularly every month, Li Qiang is at school and can't answer most of the time, so writing letters has become their usual way of communicating.

Li Qiang wrote down the process of picking cotton and catching crabs and shrimp, told his sister about it, and also mentioned that he had made a promise with his classmates that he would bring them over to play again after the college entrance examination next year.

He also inquired about his sister's life and studies, and asked where she had gone to play recently and whether she had visited any nearby attractions.

When Li Long arrived at the cooperative's courtyard, the others were already there, including Xu Haijun, who had been in the cotton field with the students.

"I delivered lunch to those students at noon, and now they've started picking up trash again, so I took some time to come back," Xu Haijun said while smoking a cigarette. "We still paid these students a bit too much."

Currently, casual cotton picking jobs typically pay 2.5 to 3 mao (0.25 to 0.3 yuan) for the first flush and 3 mao to 3.5 yuan for the second flush. We pay the students 3.5 yuan for the first flush; how do we calculate the second flush?

“If it’s a student, the second crop of cotton will be paid 40 cents; if it’s a day laborer, it will be 30 cents,” Li Long said. “Our second crop of cotton is more than the first crop of cotton in some places, so we shouldn’t raise the price for day laborers. I believe someone will come to pick it up.”

At this time, after most fields have finished picking the first crop of cotton, there is basically not much left for the second crop. If you can pick 20 or 30 kilograms a day in the second crop fields, that's considered a lot.

The cooperative has a lot of cotton bolls. With a little effort during the second crop, picking 40 to 50 kilograms a day is no problem.

So after comparing them, even a fool would know which side to work for.

"Now that the Navy is here, let's have a meeting," Xie Yundong said, tapping the table in the conference room. "Let's each of our departments talk about what we did while the students were picking cotton. After everyone has spoken, let's discuss what was good and what wasn't."

Our meetings aren't personal attacks; everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this meeting is to summarize the good and bad aspects of this entire process, to continue building on the good aspects next year, and to pay attention to the bad ones.

At this point, he looked up at everyone and said, "Who wants to go first?"

None of them spoke, either because they weren't fully prepared or because they were a little embarrassed. Xie Yundong had taken this matter quite formally, catching the members except for Li Long somewhat off guard.

Xu Haijun thought for a moment and said, "Old Xie, how about this? Let's not have everyone talk about their own situation, making it feel like a work meeting. Let's just talk about the situation at each stage, one stage at a time. Since everyone is involved at each stage, it won't be so awkward."

“That works too.” Xie Yundong glanced at Li Long and then said, “Let’s start from the very beginning of the planning stage. Although this is our first meeting, once we’ve finalized this, Xiao Long will go to the school to negotiate, and then we’ll go up the mountain together to cut wood.”

“I don’t think there’s any problem at this stage,” Tao Daqiang was the first to speak. “When we were picking cotton this time, I talked to those students. They used to pick cotton in the Production and Construction Corps, and the living conditions there were not as good as ours.”

Some slept directly on straw mats on the ground, while others slept directly on piles of cotton, getting nosebleeds from the dryness the next morning. We provided them with large communal sleeping platforms made of wooden planks, which were spacious enough and quite adequate.

“I also think this stage is fine.” Xu Haijun nodded. “Having these students pick cotton is much easier to manage than the previous odd jobs, and they do pick very cleanly. We have nothing to complain about in these two aspects, and we will definitely continue to do so next year.”

Xie Yundong looked at the others and, finding that no one had any objections, continued.

They are meeting here to discuss gains and losses, partly because they are enjoying the joy of impending success.

In the mountains, Halim looked at his old neighbor with a wry smile and said, "Are you really not going to let these cattle and sheep graze here? This pasture is so big, the road has been repaired, and it takes so much less time to catch them in the summer. If anything happens in the middle, you can go back. It's so convenient, why aren't you letting them graze?"

The old herdsman shook his head and said, "We can't herd anymore this year. It's going to snow in the mountains soon. If it were like in previous years, we could just tough it out. But now that life is better, we can't bear the hardship anymore and don't want to endure it."

The children have arrived in Yushanjiang, where they have jobs and earn wages. The production team has also allocated us land, including a vegetable garden in the yard. We feel at ease entrusting the cattle, sheep, and pasture to you.

Now we're handing these over to you, and then we'll go down the mountain, live in the big courtyard, buy some coal, and we'll be able to get through the winter comfortably. We've suffered half our lives, and all we want is to live a simpler life from now on.

We originally intended to uphold our old traditions, but those who wanted to maintain them all went to Kazakhstan. Compared to them, I think we are lucky.

Although information is not as readily available as it is in later years, it is still much better than it was in the 1980s.

Many people already know that those who sold their businesses and fled to Kazakhstan are not necessarily living a better life. Therefore, those who stayed are quite grateful to the authorities.

The old herdsman continued, "If you don't have that much money right now, you can sell the cattle and sheep after you drive them back, and then pay me. I don't want to sell these cattle and sheep to those slaughterhouse dealers; I can't bear to do that."

Halim said, “I still have enough money. If you’re determined, I’ll give you the money and then take you down the mountain to the team. It hasn’t snowed down there yet. When you get back, take the money and quickly get some charcoal, buy some vegetables, and prepare rice, flour, and oil so you can have a better winter.”

That's how it was settled.

Halim took the old herder couple back to their courtyard in Qingshuihe Township, and then drove to find Yushanjiang, but Yushanjiang was not there; he had gone to Tacheng to buy cattle and sheep.

Halim then came to find Li Long.

After finishing the meeting in the cooperative's courtyard, Li Long returned to the county.

When the meeting first started, he stumbled a bit, and the other people weren't quite used to it.

However, as the analysis of this event unfolded, they all realized that although it went smoothly overall, there were still some contradictions and problems.

For example, when weighing students, the timing varies, sometimes early and sometimes late. At the beginning, it was earlier because they were worried that it would be too dark for the students to have dinner when they got back.

However, they found that the weighing process was too fast, which led to the students complaining before it got dark when they returned to the cooperative's courtyard, saying that they could have picked up the materials a little longer.

Later, the weighing was a bit late, and some groups of students went back home after their meals had gone cold.

Therefore, this requires accumulating experience and proper coordination.

For example, every day after breakfast, when we took the students to work in the fields, four large buses weren't enough, and the students who stayed behind would complain. Although later on, they started taking turns leaving first, we could have easily requisitioned a few tractors to take the rest of the students.

At this time, students were not so spoiled. There was not much difference between riding a bus and riding a tractor. As long as they could get to the field to pick cotton earlier, they were happy to do so.

In addition, Xu Haijun and Jia Weidong suggested that the price they calculated for the students was much higher than the current mainstream price for picking cotton.

This is the first time this year that students have been collectively invited to pick cotton. It's acceptable to raise prices to attract people. Next year, the prices can be adjusted appropriately.

Because they picked more than 300 tons of cotton, even if the price was reduced by five cents, it would save the cooperative more than 10,000 yuan.

Even though having 10,000 yuan is no longer a rare thing, this amount is still a considerable sum for farmers today.

Let's save money where we can.

Li Long agreed to the suggestion, saying that it could be mentioned when signing the contract next year, and that the price could be determined according to market conditions.

Of course, this is just a preliminary intention. If the negotiations with the school fail next year, the price will still have to be raised. This is a point that can be agreed upon, since after dealing with the school, nobody really wants to take on those odd jobs again.

I jotted down seven or eight suggestions in total. Some were problems that really needed to be rectified, while others were just icing on the cake. We'll see how things go next year.

After they finished, everyone dispersed. There were still students picking cotton in the cotton field, and these people still had other things to do.

When Li Long returned to the courtyard, he saw Halim waiting anxiously. He led Halim to the reception room, poured him a cup of tea, and told him to speak slowly.

Halim then explained the situation on the mountain, saying that the summer pasture, which originally had more than a dozen households, now only had two or three households left. Most of the pasture had been subcontracted to him, and he now needed to graze more than two thousand cattle and sheep, which he and his wife simply couldn't manage.

“It’s simple. Just like Yushanjiang, you can hire some people to do the work. One person’s salary is enough to sell two sheep. You’re a big rancher now, you can’t do it all by yourself.”

"Where am I supposed to find people?" This was what Halim was so anxious about. "All the young men I know have been recruited by Yushanjiang. The rest of them need to herd livestock themselves, and there's simply not enough people to recruit."

“That’s easy,” Li Long said after thinking for a moment. “Don’t we have a high school in our county? Go there and ask around. Those students who graduated from junior high this year or last year but didn’t get into high school, they were originally herders, especially those with several children. You can talk to them.”

Jobs are hard to find now, and these students' Chinese proficiency is poor, making it difficult for them to develop their careers in the county. But they're not the only children in their families, so earning money is also difficult for them. After graduating from junior high, some of these young men will be sixteen or seventeen years old; you could take them herding livestock then.

Halim said with some skepticism, "Are they really willing to herd livestock with me? They're all students."

Li Long laughed: "Don't overestimate those students from Harbin and Weihai schools. If they don't get into high school, they can only go home and work."

Those in the county, relying on their parents, might be able to find work. Those in rural and pastoral areas, however, would only be able to help their parents herd sheep and farm, and there's no guarantee they'd earn any money. If you hire these people and pay them wages, they'll definitely be happy to do so.

Having gotten an idea from Li Long, Halim hurriedly left, deciding to give it a try regardless of whether it would work or not.

Although I've never dealt with schools like this before, I can't worry about that now.

Halim first went to the Ha School in the county. Seeing that he had arrived by car, the teachers at the Ha School still took him quite seriously.

They were all of the same ethnicity, and once they started speaking their own language, they quickly became familiar with each other. They learned that Halim was now a large rancher, raising many cattle and sheep, and wanted to find some honest children to help herd the sheep. The school teachers were very enthusiastic and helped him find them by bringing the roster.

"This Blatt family is from Liangzhou. They own land, but not much. He's an honest young man, seventeen years old this year. His home is on the outskirts of the county town, so it's easy to find."

This Bailan family lives in Qingshuihe. He has four siblings. After finishing junior high school last year, he seems to have been staying at home idle. Does he want to work? He can't find a job. The young man is very capable; if you want him to help you herd sheep, he'll definitely have no problem.

And then there's this Sack, he lives in Baojiadian. His father, well, he really likes to drink, and he sold all the family's cattle and sheep. Now he can only work as a shepherd for other people. But, according to his neighbor who's currently in school, the family he's working for treats him very badly. If you can treat him well, you'll be helping him out.”

Another teacher asked Harim how much he could pay the dolls a month. "At the beginning, it'll be 120," Harim said. "It depends. If they do well, there will be bonuses."

In 1992, the average wage in Ma County was already over 200, but if these kids were to herd sheep, they would definitely need to be provided with food and lodging. So, 120 was not a low wage.

Hearing this, the teachers were quite satisfied. After registering Halim's contact information, they gave him the addresses of the students they had introduced and asked him to drive there.

At that time, trust between people was still quite basic; they believed what Halim said.

Halim drove off to look for them and found two before sunset. The other one, Sak, had gone to herd cattle and sheep and hadn't returned yet.

Moreover, the family that herded the sheep in Sak didn't want to release the children, and Halim didn't want to get entangled with them. The two young men, however, readily agreed. They were looking for work, and now they could earn some money; their families were quite happy too.

Halim then took the two men back into the mountains.

He plans to make do tonight and drive the tractor down the mountain tomorrow to bring back a cotton tent and some supplies.

Halim was busy recruiting people, buying supplies, and arranging accommodations; Li Long and his team, on the other hand, continued to work picking cotton.

Relying solely on middle school students who come temporarily for two days is not enough; we will inevitably need to bring in day laborers.

Emboldened by their previous success in recruiting students and the strategy devised during the meeting, Xu Haijun and Tao Daqiang confidently declared as they went to solicit casual labor:

"If you are capable of picking cotton in our cotton fields now, and you can't pick 50 kilograms a day, then we'll pay you 35 cents. If you can pick more than 50 kilograms a day, then we'll pay you 30 cents."

Instead of picking less than twenty or thirty kilograms of second-crop cotton a day, you'd be better off picking fifty kilograms or more of cotton from our fields.

Because the cooperative often hired odd jobs during the work period, they were quite well-known. In addition, Xu Haijun and Tao Daqiang would occasionally mention that they had been on TV when they were picking people up, so even though half of the people didn't believe it, the other half got on the bus with a try-it-and-see attitude.

This immediately attracted fifty or sixty temporary workers.

Although there are still not enough people, the members of the cooperative believe that as long as word of mouth is built up, more and more people will be willing to come.

When Xu Haijun and Tao Daqiang arrived at the field, they discovered that in addition to the students, there were also many adults picking cotton.

I asked Xie Yundong and found out that many people from this village and the neighboring village who have some free time want to earn some extra money, so they come here to pick cotton.

After all, apart from a few families who started planting cotton relatively late, most other cotton-growing households, including those two cooperatives, didn't have much cotton left from the second crop.

On the contrary, the cooperative of Li Long and Xie Yundong still has a lot of cotton in the second crop, which feels similar to the first crop grown by some families.

Everyone wants to make money, so they'll flock to whichever place offers the highest earnings. These people, who used to just watch from the sidelines, are now joining in to pick cotton.

The cooperative will still provide these people with lunch and enough water.

Li Long and Xie Yundong were generous, and there was still plenty of watermelon.

Watermelons are still very cheap now, costing between 10 and 15 cents. They are relatively large, juicy, and sweet, and although they are not seedless, they are delicious.

With such guarantees, people are very enthusiastic about picking cotton. Apart from odd jobs, the other adults are all acquaintances and won't try anything funny, so they pick the cotton relatively cleanly.

This continued until late October, when the weather turned cold, and the cooperative had barely finished picking all the cotton.

There are still many unopened cotton bolls in the cotton plants in the field, and the cooperative still allows all villagers to take bags and pick the bolls themselves, whoever picks them can take them away.

Of course, each member of the cooperative has dozens or even hundreds of bags of peaches piled up in their yard, so they'll have plenty to do this winter.

The next period will be for exchanging accounts. The cooperative received a lot of IOUs this year. The cotton harvesting season of the cotton and linen company ends on October 25th. After that, cotton farmers can take the IOUs to exchange for cash.

This IOU will not be owed; the cotton and linen company will apply to its superiors for special funds to directly pay out the debt, and this is generally the case every year.

The cooperative's drip-irrigated cotton this year has truly been amazing. Everyone in and around the village, whether they grow cotton or not, knows that they must have made a lot of money, and the amount of cotton harvested is simply astounding.

The village store has been discussing this matter for over a month.

"Do you think this drip irrigation farming is really as expensive as Li Long and the others said?" Huang Xinping was always skeptical, mainly because he couldn't help but wonder. Others could harvest 370 to 400 kilograms per mu, while he, even with good land, only harvested 170 to 200 kilograms per mu, more than half the yield.

I can't find peace of mind.

"What good would it do him to lie to you?" Wang Caimi said, holding a handful of roasted peanuts in his hand. "You can try it if you don't believe me, but I don't recommend it. Our cooperative doesn't have the capital to do this right now."

"I was just saying," Huang Xinping said hastily. "But to be honest, I'm really envious. I've been to their fields several times, and the cotton there is so white, from top to bottom. It's so beautiful to see, but it's a pity it's not from my own land."

"Then just do it! Building a pump house and digging a filter bed is a piece of cake, isn't it?" Ma Jinbao said, slightly drunk, as he drank his cheap liquor.

"Can't you do what they do? You've seen it done, haven't you? Li Long started a drip irrigation tape factory, right? Just buy drip irrigation tape from him. If he can do it, you definitely can too!"

I think they just don't want you guys to make money, that's why the costs are so high. How much does it cost to build a pumping station these days? The extra cotton from his two or three acres of land would be enough to build a pumping station, right?

Ma Jinbao voiced the thoughts of many people; some people simply feel the same way.

But since he said it so bluntly, these people couldn't respond.

Can I do it myself? Although I've seen what Li Long and his cooperative did in their fields, and I think I could do it too, I'm still not really sure.

The Li family was still quite lively, with Lu Mingyuan and others who were close to Li Jianguo all present.

Now Li Jianguo no longer needs to plow the fields himself; Li Junfeng and Li Junhai can handle it on their own. This autumn, 90% of the village's land was plowed by the Li family's tractors, and 100% of the winter wheat was sown by the Li family's seeders.

In the entire township's four production brigades, more than half of the land in each brigade was plowed by the Li family's tractors. Just for this reason, the Li family's high-horsepower tractors have made a name for themselves.

The most frequent topic of conversation among Lu Yingming and his fellow old folks at the Li family's house was the feasibility of drip irrigation farming.

They were talking to Li Jianguo about the cost of drip irrigation farming. Li Jianguo didn't talk about the cost directly to them, but instead talked about the initial investment, such as the support project that Li Long applied for from the autonomous region, which had funding of several hundred thousand yuan.

The area to be dealt with is about 1,500 mu (approximately 100 hectares).

Even if it's just 500 mu of land, it would still require nearly 100,000 yuan in funding. Of course, if the branch canals and main canals don't need repair, the funding could be reduced a bit, but not by much.

“One family definitely can’t afford it. The only family in our team that can afford it is your Li family,” an old man said. “Several families can chip in, right? Or maybe we can form a cooperative?”

“I definitely won’t do it.” Lu Yingming immediately stated his position. “I’m going to wait until the cooperative at Lao Li’s place starts recruiting people before I join. I don’t care about other cooperatives.”

"Hey, you've got really high standards," someone said with a laugh. "You think we don't want to join? Well, they just won't take us."

Li Jianguo laughed and said, "It's like cursing a bald monk in front of a monk. Whether or not to take people in is a decision made by those young people. I don't care about that. I only care about the year-end bonuses."

"You'll get a lot by the end of this year, right?" someone asked. "I heard you picked over 400 tons of cotton and made over a million just from selling it."

“The costs are high too,” Li Jianguo said. “The drip irrigation tape alone costs four or five hundred yuan per mu. Adding up the other costs, it costs more than seven hundred yuan per mu. It’s only because the price of cotton is high this year that we can’t even cover the costs.”

Although Li Jianguo said this, others might not believe it. Some people said that Li Long had set up a drip irrigation tape factory and wanted to buy some drip irrigation tape from Li Jianguo. Li Jianguo said that the drip irrigation tape factory was not under his management; it was run by his younger brother Li Long. He told them to contact him if they wanted to buy some.

It wasn't just the Li family; the other households were experiencing similar situations. These people were all inquiring about how much profit they would receive this year, when the cooperative would recruit more people, and whether the costs were really that high.

Lu Yingming and his family actually made money. Li Jianguo explained to them, "Your family planted 30 mu of cotton. Each mu should yield at least 180 kilograms this year. 30 mu is 5.4 tons. Even if we lower the price to an average of 2.5 yuan per kilogram, that's still a gross income of 16,000 yuan. After deducting costs, you can still earn 10,000 yuan, right?"

"How could that be? The price of cotton has gone up this year, but the costs have also gone up. Add in all the fertilizers, plastic film, seeds, and other miscellaneous things, plus the cost of machine farming and water. It would be good if you could earn six thousand yuan from thirty acres of land."

Everyone else said that was the truth. Cotton prices are rising, everything else is rising, there's no comparison.

"But even this is more profitable than growing other crops." Someone's words revealed the truth: "Growing grain really doesn't make money. If it weren't for food and paying taxes, I really wouldn't want to grow it."

Li Jianguo also spoke the truth: "The main thing is that this cotton is not picky about the land, and it is not afraid of continuous planting. It can also be grown in saline-alkali land with a good harvest and a good price, so we should plant more if we can."

"How much wasteland did you clear for the team this year?" Lu Yingming asked. "You're doing quite well. You have several high-horsepower machines. Just plowing, sowing, leveling, and damming the land, you can earn hundreds of thousands a year."

"Make money my ass! We haven't even recouped our investment yet," Li Jianguo cursed. "You think those high-horsepower machines are cheap? They cost two or three hundred thousand each, and it will take us several years to break even."

Upon hearing that high-horsepower tractors were so expensive, some people who were initially envious felt a sense of relief. They realized that Li Jianguo was still burdened with debt, which wasn't so bad after all.

Li Jianguo, having lived here for so many years, was not as flamboyant as Li Long. He knew that revealing his family's situation might not earn him genuine happiness, so he spoke only a mix of truth and falsehood.

However, given the current situation, he has already recouped the cost of these high-horsepower machines, but he remains relatively conservative and has no intention of purchasing any more advanced machines.

There was undercurrent of unrest within the production team, and Li Long was also having a hard time at the purchasing station. Officials from the county agricultural bureau came to him to inquire about the situation.

The main reason is that this year's drip irrigation farming has caused quite a stir, and the county leaders have been paying close attention. The agricultural bureau also wants to know how profitable Li Long and his team's drip irrigation farming is.

Li Long used the same old approach: first, he talked about the investment in basic infrastructure, then he calculated the cost of drip irrigation tape for them. After that, the people from the Agriculture Bureau fell silent.

Of course, we still need to give them hope, so Li Long mentioned the investment in the petrochemical plant in Dushanzi.

Drip irrigation is a major trend in farming; the sooner the pipelines are laid, the sooner farmers can become wealthy.

Therefore, Li Long also hopes that the authorities can pay attention to this matter sooner and promote it from the top down, which is easier than farmers doing it on their own.

The agricultural bureau officials took this mixed report back to the county, but Li Long had no idea how the county would proceed with it.

However, as a representative, he plans to submit a proposal at next year's meeting regarding supporting some regions to implement drip irrigation farming first.

Just like the support provided by the autonomous region, the county can also allocate some funds to support a few pilot projects, at least to let more people know that this technology exists.

Whether it will work out or not is another matter, but let's bring it up first and make an appearance.

There was speculation from the outside world. The cooperative did not delay. After Xie Yundong and Jia Weidong collected the money from selling cotton, they convened a meeting of the cooperative members.

Li Jianguo never participates; Li Long represents him on his behalf.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Xie Yundong habitually tapped the table and said, "Before we start the meeting, let's discuss a difficult issue. We've settled the accounts, but there's an awkward situation. After deducting this year's farming costs, if we want to leave enough for next year's farming costs, then we won't have any dividends."

If we take a share of the profits, we might face a problem of not having enough money for farming next year. In fact, by the second half of this year, the money we had set aside last year was already insufficient. It was Xiaolong who lent some money to our cooperative; otherwise, we wouldn't even have enough to pay the students for picking cotton.

When this difficult problem was presented to them, everyone except Li Long was a bit at a loss.

So, will we receive dividends or not?
When everyone came to the meeting, they were all very happy, thinking that with such a good cotton harvest this year, the dividends should be more than last year.

But now that we've calculated it this way, it's possible we won't get any money. What should we do then?
Xie Yundong raised the issue, and none of the people present wanted to say no dividends.

Everyone has worked hard all year, and with the year drawing to a close, everyone wants a good new year. If we don't distribute dividends, how will we get through this winter?
It's not that we can't get through it, but having gotten used to a good life, nobody wants to go back to the days of tightening their belts.

At the crucial moment, Li Long spoke up: "We will definitely still distribute dividends. We've already figured out the way to make progress with the land we've cultivated."

Although it was the first time that drip irrigation had been used on such a large scale, the year went relatively smoothly thanks to everyone's joint efforts, and there were no major problems.

Then we can't treat ourselves unfairly, after all, we've worked hard all year. I think if things continue like this, there definitely won't be any problems with farming next year; in fact, things will only get better. Everyone's confident about that, right?

"Of course!" Xu Haijun said confidently. "I think if the weather cooperates next year, we can increase our harvest even more. We did neglect some areas this year."

“That’s right, I’m confident too!” Tao Daqiang quickly added.

"I have one too!"

"How could we not have it!"

Everyone said so, and Li Long smiled.

“We are a cooperative, a small economic entity, or a small business,” Li Long continued. “We need to learn to use other people’s money to make money for ourselves, instead of always thinking about tightening our belts.”

So what I mean is that we should still distribute dividends, deduct some of this year's expenses, and set aside some funds for purchasing agricultural supplies next year. As for the shortfall in farming expenses next year, we can borrow from the rural credit cooperative.

Given the current profitability of our cooperative, I'm sure the rural credit cooperative will be willing to lend us money!

Borrow money to farm?

No one else in the cooperative had ever thought of this approach.

But Li Long knew that in the next few years, this path would become the common way of farming in the whole village, even the whole township and the whole county.

One advantage of cooperatives is that once this year's cycle is over, a virtuous cycle can be formed from next year onwards, eliminating the need for borrowing money.

The main reason is that drip irrigation was not used for farming last year, resulting in relatively low profitability. The reserved funds for agricultural supplies cannot cover this year's costs.

Next year will be different.

Li Long's suggestion quickly gained widespread approval, mainly because people hadn't quite grasped the concept.

The cooperative has over a thousand acres of improved farmland and a cotton harvest of four hundred tons this year. If they want to borrow money, the rural credit cooperative will definitely be willing to lend it to them.

This difficulty was thus easily resolved.

Next, let's split the money!

PS:

There are so many water birds
The pump house was built more than a decade ago; the filter beds are inside the wire mesh. (End of Chapter)