Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After listening to what Hu Laoer said, Wang Tiancheng pondered for a while.

To be honest, he knew Li Long's background and who supported him. His cousin's husband also said that if Li Long hadn't been in the mountains this time, he wouldn't have gotten the job. After all, a temporary worker had earned so much face for the supply and marketing cooperative, so the boss felt relieved to give the job to him.

"You mean he didn't go to the people who had contracts with us, but only contacted those who didn't have contracts, and also found people from outside?"

Wang Tiancheng asked again, he wanted to confirm.

"Well, but some of those who signed the contract with us secretly sent him reeds, and he didn't refuse."

Hu Lao Er thought that Wang Tiancheng did not want to conflict with Li Long, so he immediately said:

"The most important thing is that he set the price of reed handles at 1.5 cents, so we don't have any advantage anymore."

"What advantage do we need? We just want to make money! He has set the price at 1.5 cents now. After deducting the fees and costs, how much money is left?"

Wang Tiancheng didn't know that there might be more reed stem tasks later. He thought that since he had received these 10,000 reed stems, he should make the money he deserved. In the past, each reed stem was 1 cent, so now it's 1 cent, is that okay?

"No matter how much money he has, as long as he doesn't interfere with us and doesn't pry those who have signed the papers, leave him alone." Wang Tiancheng only wants to make money and doesn't want to cause trouble. Li Long has a backer, although not a relative, but he feels that he is not worse than him. So he doesn't want to offend anyone, maybe there will be opportunities for cooperation in the future.

Hu Laoer failed to stir up trouble, so he sighed and went back. He and Li Jianguo didn't get along well in the team, and this time he got the agent of Weibazi from Wang Tiancheng, so he thought about how to suppress the other party. Everything was fine before, but now that Li Long came back, it felt like he was going to be suppressed again.

And this Wang Tiancheng, who obviously has a powerful backer, is unwilling to show his strength, which is really shameful.

Hu Laoer had no choice but to go back by himself.

This is the real situation in this era. No one has to kill others - unless you meet a fool like Gu Ermao, otherwise everyone makes their own money. As long as you don't target me, I won't target you either.

There is no deep hatred. Who would deliberately target others? Isn't it good to make money well?

Like Li Jianguo and Hu Laoer, at most they would not talk when they met and would just turn their heads away. Even if Hu Laoer wanted to target Li Jianguo, he would have to come up with a plausible reason and find someone with a backer.

Otherwise, there would be no fighting, because one knows that even if one fights, no one can do anything to anyone else, and it would only make things more uncomfortable.

The next morning, Ma Hao's breakfast consisted of cornmeal pancakes, cornmeal porridge, and fried cabbage.

Li Long knew that in ten years, one of the dishes that students hated the most would be stir-fried cabbage. This was basically one of the standard dishes when picking cotton manually in later generations, and the other was stir-fried shredded potatoes.

But at this time, Han Benzhong and others were eating happily - this dish was made with stewed wild boar fat, which contained not only animal fat but also meat. How often did Han Benzhong and his friends put meat in their dishes every day?

Uncle Luo whispered to Li Long:
"Xiaolong, these people have a huge appetite. They ate all the steamed buns in the three-layer steamer at noon yesterday. There were only a few steamed cakes left in the evening. The oil is used up very quickly..."

"But did you do your job well?" Li Long said with a smile.

"That's true!" When Uncle Luo heard Li Long ask this, he gave him a thumbs up:

"What a great worker! He cut as much reeds in half a day as a young man in our team cuts in a whole day. He works really hard! He eats a lot and works fast. But he makes so much noise at night that he scares the wild boars in our pen."

"Hahaha, it's okay. If he only eats and doesn't work, then we can't use him. Now that he can eat and work, it's okay." Li Long said with a smile, "Only when you eat well can you have the energy to work."

There is no problem in taking care of fellow villagers appropriately, at most you will earn less. The most important thing at the moment is to complete the task. After completing the task, there will be follow-up work, so that you can earn more.

Han Benzhong and the others actually knew that they had huge appetites. Especially since they were just a few young men, when they came across such delicious food, they would naturally not go hungry and would eat as much as possible.

He talked to the young men, but couldn't say too much, so he could only tell Zheng Xiumei and ask them to use less oil when cooking, otherwise the host would definitely not be happy in the end.

He felt that although he gave up five cents for the free food and accommodation, the food he ate was worth much more than that five cents.

There is no other way, so just do your best.

The young men also understood, so they worked without sparing any effort. Every day they pulled back cartloads of reeds. The women quickly pulled the reeds and then pressed them into reed bundles.

Li Long stayed in the horse shed because reed bundles were delivered every once in a while. In less than five days, there were more than 3,000 reed bundles piled up in the old horse shed, and the pile of hairy reeds next to it was also growing.

So Han Benzhong and his men sent down several young men to pick reeds in the yard to use as pressure for the reed stems.

Li Long wondered whether he should give away some of the reed stems, otherwise it would take several days to get all ten thousand of them out.

He took out fifty yuan and put it with Uncle Luo, asking someone to come and deliver some reeds. Uncle Luo checked them and accepted them.

Uncle Luo readily agreed:

"Just go about your business. I promise that all the reeds I collect will be of good quality. I've watched you collect reeds these past two days and I've learned a lot."

The quality inspection of reed stems is open to the public. They just need to be long enough, have enough number, and not be adulterated. Sometimes people will put one or two extra stems in, but that's not a big deal.

Li Long ran to Xu Chengjun's house. Xu Chengjun was not there. Ma Hongmei was cutting reeds in the yard. Seeing Li Long coming, she stood up and called out, "Xiaolong, you're here. Mingwa's father is not here. He's out cutting reeds. Look..."

"Sister-in-law, let me make a phone call," Li Long said, "to ask something at the county supply and marketing cooperative."

"Okay, okay, go ahead and call," Ma Hongmei said. "The phone is on the table."

Li Long walked into the room, picked up the phone and started calling.

The call was connected to the supply and marketing cooperative and then transferred to Li Xiangqian's office. Li Xiangqian answered the phone two seconds later.

There was also a sound of electricity in the voice.

"Hello, Chief, this is Li Long. I already have more than 3,000 reeds here. Do you think we should send a truck over to take some away?"

"More than 3,000? Can it reach 5,000 in those days?"

"Three or four days."

"Then call me when you get 5,000 and I'll send a car to pick it up. Otherwise it's too little and it's meaningless." Li Xiangqian said, "I'll gather everyone and pay you on the spot after the inspection is passed."

"Okay, okay, I'll call you when I get there." Li Long said and hung up the phone.

Li Xiangqian was very satisfied. At this speed, the task could be completed ahead of schedule. Li Long was a good guy. It was reassuring to give such a job to him.

Li Long hung up the phone, left the room, saw Ma Hongmei standing in the yard, and said:
"Sister-in-law, I've finished my call and am leaving now."

After Li Long left, Ma Hongmei was still mumbling what Li Long had said. She planned to wait for Xu Chengjun to come back and then tell her husband what he had said to see if it would be of any use.

Before Li Long returned to Laomahao, he ran into Li Jianguo who was rushing over from Li's house.

"Brother, what happened?" Li Long asked when he saw that Li Jianguo's expression seemed a little strange.

"I received a telegram from my hometown." Li Jianguo's expression was a little complicated.

"There's a telegram from my hometown... Are my parents okay?" Li Long was shocked. A telegram came at this time. Could anything have happened?
"It's okay. Dad sent me a telegram saying that Mom is fine. But...but your second brother, your brother-in-law, and a few cousins ​​are coming over to make money."

Li Long was stunned for a moment and then laughed:

"Then just come over. My stable has a place to stay and food. They can just stay there."

"They think making money is so easy." Li Jianguo sighed, "I'm sure my dad will show off again when he goes back, and then those cousins ​​at home will become restless."

"Brother, it's okay, just come if you want. Anyway, since they dare to come here, they must have finished planting the land in their hometown. There is no work in the land, so they come here to make money. After all, it is too difficult to make money in their hometown. Here, even if we take them to catch fish and sell them, we can earn some money for the New Year.

Don't worry about this. Everyone who comes, including my second brother, should go to my place and listen to me. If they can work, I will make them money. If they can't work and are cunning and treacherous, then don't even think about making money."

"Okay." Li Jianguo was helpless. He had to take responsibility for what his father had done. Now that he thought about making money, it was really Li Long who had to do it.

They were right. After Li Qingxia returned, he bought a bicycle. He went to the market three times a month and took Du Chunfang with him on the bicycle to join in the fun.

Not only when going to the market, but also when playing cards in the village, if anyone has an urgent need, they will give one or two dollars generously.

He is of a higher generation and has bigger money, so some people guessed that the old man’s two sons in XJ must have made money, otherwise how could he afford a bicycle?

The old man was naturally not happy when asked about it at the poker table, so he told others about his fishing and hunting in the mountains. After hearing this, others didn't believe it - you said that two catties of fish can be sold for one dollar, that's just robbery?

You said that if you cast a sticky net in the puddle over there, you can catch dozens of kilograms of fish. Isn't that a dream? This village is next to a big river. If you cast a river-blocking net, can you catch ten kilograms of fish in a day?

How many kilograms of fish can an experienced fisherman cast with a casting net in a day?

The old man said a few more words, and I won’t say any more after that. Believe it or not, it’s a few hundred dollars in your hand, so it’s your business how you want to spend it.

People from the same clan, including his son, knew that although the old man liked to brag, he would not talk nonsense about important matters, so they gathered together and guided the old man to talk about what was happening here, and some people became interested.

Since it’s so easy to make money in Northern Xinjiang, why not go there?

This matter did not spread widely. Several close families, including Li Long's second brother Li Anguo, brother-in-law Chen Xingbang, and several cousins ​​who were about the same age, discussed it together, and then found Li Qingxia and asked him to telegraph Li Jianguo to say that they and others wanted to go to the northern border to join him.

Li Qingxia regretted it at this time. Why was he showing off here? Wouldn't this cause trouble for his two sons in Beijiang?
But we are all human beings. The two sons in Beijiang are sons, and Li Anguo here is also a son. Besides, we can't just watch our grandsons here wearing patched clothes in the middle of winter, so we should send a telegram.

Fortunately, he knew that Li Long had many ideas, so he was not too worried. He thought that Li Long would be able to discipline these fellow clansmen when they arrived. Of course, Li Jianguo was not a pushover. If these people went over, it would be normal for them to be suppressed in minutes if they were disobedient. (End of this chapter)