Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 165: The sickle is hard to buy

The next morning, after breakfast, Li Long rode his bicycle out of the village. After taking Li Juan to the elementary school, he continued riding towards the county.

There was no sickle in the county supply and marketing cooperative’s store, which made Li Long a little disappointed.

He went to the department store again.

The hardware section of the department store only had some common tools, not even a sickle. Li Long wondered if he had been too lucky recently, so now his luck was running out?

"Comrade, what do you need to buy?"

A crisp voice rang out.

Li Long turned his head and saw a slightly familiar face. He quickly remembered that this was the salesman who sold the radio.

Huh? Today's salespeople are quite enthusiastic, not bad.

Xiao Liu saw Li Long walking around the counter twice and preparing to leave without buying anything. He guessed that he didn't find what he wanted, so he couldn't help but ask him.

"A sickle, I want to buy one..." Li Long replied. Thinking that the girl might not know what a sickle is, he explained: "It is a large sickle used by herdsmen to cut grass."

"We don't have these kinds of tools here," Xiao Liu thought for a moment and said, "The supply and marketing cooperative has a lot of hardware. Over there..."

"I've been there." Li Long smiled bitterly, "No."

"Then we can only go to the region." Xiao Liu said, "Or we can go to Shicheng. The department stores and supply and marketing cooperatives there are of higher quality and have a wider range of products than here."

Li Long actually thought so too. He said:

"Thank you, I'll go take a look now."

Buying sickles for the Dosen people in the mountains is the top priority at the moment. Li Long didn't want to waste time, so he said goodbye to Xiao Liu and left.

Xiao Liu felt a little regretful. Why didn't he ask him his name or what he did?
But girls are shy, how can they have the nerve to ask?
"Xiao Liu, next time this young man comes over, do you want me to ask for you?" The older sister next to him had seen through Xiao Liu's thoughts and said with a smile, "The young man looks good, speaks well, and seems to come from a well-off family. I don't know which unit he works for..."

At this time, the salesperson would default to finding someone who worked in a public institution. Xiao Liu was pretty and educated, so if she found someone from the countryside, she would probably be laughed at, so of course, she would not introduce anyone from the countryside to her.

When Li Long rode his bicycle to Shicheng, he was already thinking, if Shicheng didn't have it, he would go to the county to find a blacksmith shop to make it. It would take a long time to make it, and he hoped that it could be completed before Halim and his team moved to another place.

In his previous life, Li Long had seen the large-scale migration of millions of livestock in Yisai Pasture Road Guozigou in a short video. At that time, the scale of summer and winter migration was particularly large, and it was said that traffic was restricted because of the migration. Later, after the highway was built, the migration became much more convenient, and even CCTV broadcasted it live and appeared on the news broadcast.

The scale of herders' migration in Nanshan is much smaller, but they will also move earlier, after all, summer comes earlier here. The herders' summer pastures are deep in the mountains on the northern slope of Tianshan Mountain, where the water and grass are better in summer. After the migration, the grass in the winter pastures can grow quickly, making it easier for livestock to eat in winter.

Hope it's too late.

Riding to the old street, Li Long found that it was much more lively than the morning market in Ma County, and there were many more stalls than before. There were several stalls where he used to sell fish, and everyone was shouting out their wares.

Li Long didn't want to visit the stalls, so he went to the department store first.

As expected, although there were more items in the department store than in Ma County, there were no sickles.

Li Long asked the salesperson the location of the supply and marketing cooperative's store, and the salesperson actually told him.

Li Long went out and rode his bicycle to the supply and marketing cooperative. He found that there were quite a lot of people here, unlike the occasional few people in Ma County.

There was a carport on one side of the entrance to the supply and marketing cooperative store. Li Long put his bicycle in, locked it, and entered the store.

This store was much larger than the one in Ma County. There were four sales clerks at the counter. Li Long picked an older one who wore glasses. He subconsciously felt that this person looked friendly, and he was patiently introducing the use of a sprayer to an old farmer.

Li Long waited patiently behind the old farmer. The salesperson with glasses glanced at him and continued explaining.

After the old farmer finished listening, he finally said that the sprayer was a bit expensive and he didn't want to buy it. The man didn't say anything and then looked at Li Long.

"I want to buy a sickle - the big sickle that herdsmen use to cut grass." Li Long was worried that the man didn't know, so he explained.

"Scythes," the man thought for a moment and said, "I remember buying a batch of them before, but they were not selling well, so I lowered the price and sold them. I think there are still a few left. How many do you want?"

When he heard that there was stock, Li Long was immediately overjoyed and said:
"I want fifteen."

There were seven or eight guys building the winter nest, plus Yushan Jiang Halimu, making it ten in total. Li Long planned to prepare a few more so that it would be easier to divide the weapons.

"I'll go take a look. Wait a minute. We may not have this much." The salesperson said, "There are not many herdsmen here, so few want this stuff."

After waiting for a while, the salesperson brought a bundle of things and placed it on the counter with a wooden frame and glass top, and the counter made a crisp sound.

"Come and have a look. This is the sickle you want." The salesperson said with a smile.

These things were wrapped in kraft paper and tied together with ropes, and they were tied quite tightly.

The salesperson untied the rope and opened the brown paper, revealing a metal object inside.

It was indeed a sickle, with a blade about seventy to eighty centimeters long. Li Long touched the edge of the blade, which had been sharpened and felt very sharp.

"You need to add a wooden handle yourself," the salesperson said. "I remember that you need to nail a small shelf diagonally on the wooden handle. I've never used it, I've only seen it."

This guy is quite knowledgeable. Li Long looked at him and counted: fifteen.

"Comrade, do you have any more?" He felt that if he gave this thing to Halimu and the others, they would definitely like it.

"No more. These fifteen are the last ones we have in stock." The salesperson said with a smile, "We are clearing out the stocks. If you don't want them, they will probably be returned in a few days."

"Okay, how much is that one?" Li Long knew that he couldn't ask for more. It was already a surprise that he could find it.

"We are clearing out our inventory. The original price is four dollars and seventy cents. These sickles are given to you at cost price, three dollars a piece."

"Okay." Li Long counted out forty-five yuan and handed it over:

"Please pack it for me." "No problem, please go over and get a ticket."

Holding the packaged sickles, Li Long felt relieved. At least he could deliver the sickles.

He originally thought of going to the mountains to give the sickle to Halim and the others, but then he thought better of it. He decided to harness the horse cart and go again, bring back the fawn, and also bring back a cart of manure, as he also wanted to plant vegetables in the yard.

After finishing his business, Li Long returned to the old street again, and now he could take a good look. He saw someone selling fish, so he paid special attention to it.

There were three stalls selling fish. One specialized in selling big silver carp, and the remaining two were the same as before, selling all kinds of fish. However, the number of fish was not large. I don’t know if it was because time had passed and most of the fish had already been sold.

The price of fish has become cheaper, which surprised Li Long. Although the small crucian carp is not as beautiful as the ones he caught in the small lake, the price is only 70 to 80 cents. The big carp and grass carp are both 90 to one yuan. There are still many people buying fish.

Li Long guessed that the price had dropped because the weather was getting warmer and fish were easier to catch.

Ninety percent of the stalls on the old street sell handicrafts and agricultural and sideline products, and the prices are not low.

Li Long thought of the suggestion he had made to Qin Hongyan, that is, to weave baskets and sell them.

There were several stalls selling baskets, both large and small, as well as pot racks made of sorghum stalks (broom millet), hexagonal steamed bun plates, etc., most of which cost one or two yuan.

XJ is a vast land with few people, and labor has always been more expensive than in foreign countries. Especially at this time, the country's light industry has not yet developed, and many tools and utensils are made by hand. The same thing sells for 50 cents in foreign countries, but it may sell for one dollar here. After all, there are few people, but there are many things needed.

So in the following years, a large number of people came from Kou Nei to find work here.

Li Long remembered that there was a very famous question on the Internet in later generations, which was why there were relatively few people from Inner Mongolia who went to the mainland to work - naturally, it was because there were more job opportunities locally.

Of course, if you are talking about channels to the upper echelons and those jobs with extremely high salaries, then naturally we cannot compare with those in the mainland, after all, the development is slower.

From Li Long's perspective, he couldn't think that high. He only knew that until he had his cerebral hemorrhage, the rural areas, especially the Military Region, still needed people from the mainland to come and work.

Li Long saw someone selling vegetable seeds, so he bought some. The foreign tomatoes at that time tasted much better than the so-called fruit tomatoes of later generations. He decided to save the seeds in the future, so that he would not have to buy seeds from seed companies when he grew vegetables in the 1920s. Although the fruits were long and beautiful, they would not taste as good as those in the 1980s.

Li Long once thought that it was because he just missed the taste of his childhood. After all, the food was not rich back then.

Until one day when he was traveling in the mountains, he saw a tomato field in a farmyard. There were a few mediocre but already red tomatoes. He picked one and tasted it, and then he knew - this was the taste of his childhood.

Unfortunately, after he ate them, the other people who came with him on the trip followed suit and quickly picked and ate the ripe tomatoes, thus ruining his plan to save seeds.

I regretted it for a year afterwards!
Why was I so greedy at that time?
After buying rapeseed and taking a look around and finding nothing else he needed, Li Long rode his bicycle to the Maha River Bridge and stopped.

The water level in the Ma River had risen sharply, and the flood was surging. The waves hit the bridge pillars, making a loud noise.

What surprised Li Long was that he actually saw people looking down for something on both sides of the upstream river.

Looking for jade?

Did some people start dealing with jade at this time?
Obviously, I am not the only smart person at this time. There are many opportunities, and many people seize them.

After resting for a while, he continued riding towards the county. He came to the big yard, put down his sickle, and then planned to see if he could grow some vegetables in the yard.

There are two small plots in the yard, each less than 100 square meters, and Li Long thought about growing tomatoes and chili peppers. Tomatoes, chili peppers and eggplants are the most common stir-fried dishes for eating la tiaozi in rural areas of northern Xinjiang - if there is meat at home, add some braised meat, the taste is amazing.

There were tools standing by the courtyard wall. Li Long took a plow hook and dug trenches in the two plots of land. Then he buried seeds in the trenches and filled the trenches with soil and stepped on them to make them firm.

While he was planting, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Li Long called out and continued to work on the land. Who would come at this time? Someone to collect the water and electricity bills?

The person who came in was Police Officer Guo Tiebing, which surprised Li Long a little.

"Comrade Xiao Li, are you planting vegetables?" Guo Tiebing was a little surprised to see Li Long holding a hoe hook. "What kind of vegetables are you planting?"

"Tomatoes and chili peppers." Li Long put down his tools and said with a smile:

"Officer Guo, are you breaking into a house?"

"Enter a household?" Guo Tiebing was a little unfamiliar with this term. He shook his head and said, "No, I'm here to tell you about the handling of the thief last time. We've already found out that he came all the way from Kou Nei, stole from seven households, and also stole some supplies on the train, injuring three people. After we contacted our colleagues in Kou Nei, we confirmed that he had another case of wounding people there. Now he has been taken away by our colleagues in Kou Nei. Conservative estimates suggest that he will be sentenced to more than ten years."

"That's fine." Li Long didn't expect that he would meet a serious criminal, and he was a little scared. If he hadn't had a gun that day, he would have probably been injured twice.

"You don't live here often." Guo Tiebing asked after reporting the situation, "I haven't seen you for several days."

"I work part-time as a buyer for the supply and marketing cooperative, running around everywhere." Li Long explained, "I just purchased a batch of supplies from Shicheng and have to send them to the mountains. Then I have to pick up a batch of supplies from the mountains. There are also tasks over there to organize the carrying bags, and I often have to keep an eye on them."

In fact, Guo Tiebing already knew that Li Long had been reported for speculation and profiteering, and he also knew that Li Long was a part-time purchaser for the supply and marketing cooperative. He just felt that this person was not a simple person.

After Guo Tiebing left, Li Long finished planting the vegetables, watered them, and then, with nothing to do, started wandering around the yard again.

This yard is definitely more "luxurious" than the winter nest, but it always feels less intimate than that one.

He walked along the wall and found that there was something in the cracks of the blue brick wall!

The crack in the wall was a bit small, so Li Long went to find a small knife and slowly took out the tiny thing from the crack.

Money!

Looking at the words "Bank of Communications" written from right to left on it, as well as the traditional Chinese characters "National Currency of the Republic of China", Li Long immediately confirmed that this thing was "legal tender"!

No wonder it's stuffed in the cracks in the wall.

Li Long immediately became interested and searched through the cracks in the wall one by one. Soon he had a stack of French currency and gold yuan notes in his hand. What surprised him was that he even found a Yuan Datou!

What an unexpected surprise!

(End of this chapter)