Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Xu Chengjun, covered in reeds, returned home pulling a horse-drawn carriage.

When the team's stable was divided up into different properties by drawing lots, he didn't win. However, a family did win but had no money, so he bought the horse and the carriage.

In fact, with Xu Chengjun's family background, it would have been no problem for him to buy the tractor in the team, but he couldn't, firstly because he didn't know how to drive it, and secondly because it was too ostentatious.

Wang Tiancheng from the village came over to get the reed bundles this time, but he was completely reluctant to do so - because Wang Tiancheng did not give the job to the team, or did not give the team any money. He just gave him 50 yuan and asked him to help out.

Li Xiangqian, the head of the supply and marketing cooperative, also called him to look for Li Long, but Li Long was in the mountains, so how could he find him so easily? At that time, the matter was urgent and it was too late to go directly to the mountains to look for him, so Wang Tiancheng had to do it.

The work was someone else's, and Xu Chengjun had no choice. But he couldn't stop the team members from making money, so he followed Wang Tiancheng's suggestion and called the leaders of each village group to come, and let Wang Tiancheng and Hu Laoer talk about the matter.

The price of a reed handle at one cent is actually not low. It was about the same price in previous years.

But based on the experience of working with Li Long twice, Xu Chengjun knew that Wang Tiancheng must have made a lot of money from it.

But there is no way, the work is someone else's, I have no choice but to do it.

Xu Chengjun also needed to make money, so he spent the whole day cutting reeds and cut forty or fifty bundles. Each bundle contained twenty or thirty reeds that could be used to make reed bundles, and the rest were some hairy reeds.

It takes a lot of manpower to cut the reeds, tie them into bundles, pull them back and remove the reed leaves on top.

There are relatively few people in our team to begin with, and now most of them have joined in just to earn the ten cents per bundle of reeds.

Women and children usually do the work of pulling reeds. They sit on the ground, put a bundle of freshly cut reeds on the left, with the reed hair end facing them, untie the bundled reed waist, pull a reed, pull the reed hair forward with the right hand, and use the left hand to pull the reed stem to remove the leaves, leaving the bare stem. This can be directly used to press the handle with pliers.

The press is like a large nutcracker, but it is the same size as a guillotine, with a hollow center and a platform underneath. Put ten reeds in the middle, press the upper handle to compress the ten reeds, and then wrap them with thin wire. A reed handle usually needs three layers of thin wire, so a lot of thin wire is consumed.

After the reeds were transported away, their main function was to build houses. When building houses, a layer of reeds was placed on top of the wood used for the rafters and purlins. The reeds were spread very densely, and then a layer of mud was placed on top to prevent rain from leaking and to keep ventilation.

While Xu Chengjun was outside cutting reeds, Ma Hongmei was at home pulling out the reeds and pressing the reed stalks. At the end of the day, the family could make 50 or 60 reeds - Ma Hongmei also had to cook, and she was not very efficient at work.

So now there are a lot of reed bundles piled outside Xu's yard, and they have not been untied yet.

Xu Chengjun knew his wife's ability, so he didn't say anything. He found a towel to brush off the reed hair on his body, and then went to wash his face.

"Li Long from the Li family is back." Ma Hongmei came over and picked up the reed hairs on his head while saying, "Tao Daqiang is asking every household, asking those who didn't follow Hu Laoer if they want to make reed bundles for Li Long. Each reed bundle costs 1.5 cents. Do we want to..."

"15 cents? That damn Wang Tiancheng is really evil!" Xu Chengjun threw the towel into the basin with a "smack". "That Hu Laoer is also a piece of shit. He teamed up with outsiders to cheat our own people!"

"Then should we send the tied reed bundles to the Lao Mahao tomorrow? Tao Daqiang said that Li Long will pay in cash. As long as the bundles are qualified, we will pay you right after we tie them!"

"That... won't work." Xu Chengjun thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "We signed a contract with Hu Laoer and his gang. Even though it's just a piece of paper, it says that if we don't hand over the goods, we have to pay compensation. This guy made such a piece of paper, it's really disgusting!"

"Then let's hurry up. It's just a few hundred reeds. Let's work hard for a few days and then give them to Li Long. It's 1.5 cents per piece, and 5 cents more for a hundred pieces... more than ten dollars!"

Ma Hongmei was unwilling, but there was nothing she could do.

"This Li Long too, wouldn't it be better for him to come back a few days earlier?"

"That's right." Xu Chengjun also sighed. If Li Long had come back a few days earlier and handed this work to the team, the team could have gotten five cents... Oh, this Li Long, he needs to have a good talk with him!

Li Long returned to Lao Ma's hut and gave a few stalks of Codonopsis pilosula to Lao Luo, telling him that someone was going to stay there and wanted him to help with cooking, for which he would of course be paid.

"What kind of extra wages do you want?" Old Uncle Luo glared. "This Codonopsis doesn't cost money? I take your things for free, and then ask you for more money. What am I? It's just to feed more people. I can also make big pot meals. I may not be good at it, but I can feed people! It's just this food..."

"I'll get some cornmeal and flour tomorrow, and some rice. We can't just eat fine grains. Those guys can eat us out of money!" Li Long said with a smile, "Get some of everything and mix them together."

"it is good."

Li Long began to clean up the house. There was a pile of unsold Cynomorium in one of the houses, so Li Long cleaned it up and put it in the storage room. This freed up two rooms. Cover them with grass, and if you just want to live in it, it can accommodate ten people, since it's just a bunk bed. I think these people come here to work, not to go to school, so they won't think too much.

Twenty years later, middle school and college students went to the Corps to pick cotton to earn money for work and study, or cotton pickers from the mainland came to pick cotton, and many of them lived in such a big bunk bed. The better conditions could spread wooden beds, while the worse conditions were to directly spread wheat straw on the ground and put bedding on it, with a distance of one meter between each person, and the beds were placed next to each other.

Basically, no one complained. After all, they got up early to eat and then worked. They ate lunch in the fields at noon and came back at night after dark. After eating, those who were energetic could walk around nearby, but most of them just took a shower and went to bed. It's almost the same now.

Li Long cleaned up the house, got some wheat straw to pave the place, and handed the rest to the young men who might come over. After all, they couldn't start working right away when they came, so cleaning up their own place was also one of their tasks.

While we were still cleaning up, we heard voices at the door of Lao Mahao.

It was already dark. When Li Long went over to take a look, he found that it was Tao Dayong. He was driving a donkey cart with a pile of reeds on it.

"Xiaolong, I heard from Daqiang that you collect reeds for 1.5 cents each?"

"Yes." Li Longxin said, it won't be delivered right away, right?
"Will you accept my car?"

"Yes." Li Long was not so obsessed with morality. He didn't care whether the reed handle was ordered by someone else. However, he had to say something in advance. He said to Tao Dayong, "Dayong, my price is high, pay now, but I have to make it clear that the quality must be guaranteed, otherwise, I won't take it."

"No problem. If you see which ones are qualified, I will unload them for you. If they are not qualified, I will take them away."

Li Long found a wooden ruler and measured the size first. It was basically two meters and a half, so there was no problem.

Then look at the thickness of the reed handle and whether there are any fine hairs. If so, the quality is unqualified.

Most of the branches were made of thick reeds, which were not bad. Li Long took out four and put them back into the donkey cart, and kept the remaining twenty-six.

"Three dollars and ninety cents, take it." Li Long said, "Dayong, pass this reed handle over here, and then Hu Laoer..."

"Xiaolong, don't worry about this, just wait for the reeds to be harvested." Tao Dayong happily spit on his fingers, counted the money, and said to Li Long with a smile, "I'm leaving. Xiaolong, you are this!"

He gave a thumbs up.

Tao Dayong drove the donkey cart and hummed "Brother" as he left. Old Uncle Luo came over and shook his head and said:

"I heard that they all signed the paper with Hu Lao Er. If they really don't follow what's written on the paper, who knows..."

"No matter." Li Long shook his head. "Most people are probably still afraid. But if most people don't believe the paper, I guess Hu Lao Er won't make a fuss. Let's see how we deal with this matter."

The legal system was not yet sound at that time. If Wang Tiancheng and Hu Laoer really wanted to make trouble, it would depend on the specific circumstances.

Li Long didn't intend to get involved in anything, just quietly collect the reeds.

He admitted that he had engaged in a price war, which was normal. He could earn less himself so that others on his team could earn more and he could also put pressure on his opponents. Why not do it?
That night, not only Tao Dayong came to deliver reeds, but seven other families also brought reeds. The last time it was after midnight, someone brought reeds.

Li Long spent more than ten dollars that night, and more than a hundred reed bundles were piled up in the yard of the stable.

Worth it.

The next morning, when Li Long and Lao Luo were having breakfast, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yong came over. Although it was not hot all day, there was no need to get up early like picking cotton to avoid the heat during the day.

But workers still like to get up early so they can get more done in a day. After all, in late autumn, the days are short and the nights are long.

"Come on, come on, get the gloves here, get the thin wire over there." Li Long shouted. He distributed gloves, three pairs per family, mainly for beating and pulling reeds. Old Uncle Luo was responsible for distributing thin wire, half a kilogram per family, of course it was estimated, after all, the thin wire used to tie the reeds was not much. A reed bundle is less than one meter long.

After receiving the goods, these people left quickly and went directly to the Reed Lake or Reed Ditch to collect reeds. This usually depends on where one's home is. In the old village in the west, they go to the Reed Ditch, in the east village they go to the Reed Lake, and in the new village they may go to the small lake, so they have to find a shallow place to go into the water.

Li Long had to wait for the people that Li Jianguo had picked up to arrive, so he stayed at the Lao Ma No.

Li Jianguo's people hadn't arrived yet, but Xu Chengjun came over.

He came to Li Long to complain.

Of course, in Li Long's opinion, what he said was not a complaint, but a relationship. (End of this chapter)