Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Wang Tiancheng would come over every day to urge Hu Laoer to collect reeds properly. His requirements were much higher than Hu Laoer's. Those that did not meet the standards would not be collected, even if they relied on connections. This made people like Tao Dayong who wanted to take advantage of loopholes feel helpless. If others did not collect them and he could not count them, he could not do what he did before, sending the good quality ones to Li Long and the poor quality ones to Hu Laoer.

However, the number of qualified reeds received by Li Long every day did not decrease, but increased. After some people who worked overtime completed the tasks on Hu Laoer's side, they immediately began to supply reeds to Li Long.

The people brought by Han Benzhong were still very motivated at work, and the number of reed bundles they pressed was increasing every day, which surprised Li Long a little.

But it's normal to think about it. On average, each of Han Benzhong's three families earns more than ten yuan a day. How could they not work hard?
Sometimes the Corps was even poorer than the local areas at this time. Their crops were arranged by the higher authorities, because agricultural materials and seeds were distributed by the higher authorities, so the crops grown in the fall also needed to be collected by the higher authorities, and the expenses were deducted. The remaining amount after deducting the amount that should be handed over was distributed to the employees.

As a result, each household of workers received very little at the end of the year. Some even had to default on their debts, just like the farmers in the past, and their lives were not easy.

The Corps’ management of its employees is quite strict during the busy farming season, but it is not so troublesome during the slack farming season, so Han Benzhong and others were able to come out.

Now that they can earn some cash here, their lives will be more comfortable during the winter, so they especially cherish this opportunity.

A week later, Li Xiangqian again sent a vehicle to pull the reed bundles. This time he came in person, and Chen Zhenming came with him. The two vehicles came together in an effort to pull all the reed bundles in one go - of course, one trip was obviously not enough.

"You finished 10,000 reeds many days ahead of schedule. That's great." Li Xiangqian said approvingly, "Okay, you made us proud."

"Let's inspect them first." Li Long said, "In order to prevent the possibility of unqualified ones, we have prepared more than 500. Let's take them away together when the time comes."

What he meant was that it was a gift and it didn’t count as money.

Chen Zhenming waved his hand:

"No, no, no, it's the amount that should be given. I'll take the extra reeds too. Wang Tiancheng still has quite a lot of vacancies. The extra ones you have here can just fill in his vacancies, so that the overall task can be completed ahead of schedule."

Chen Zhenming first looked at the tall pile of reeds from the thin end to see if there were any impurities on the thin stems. He also picked out a few and asked Li Long to open them to see if there were any stale or broken reeds inside, which would affect the quality of the reeds.

After a rough inspection, when loading onto the truck, someone counted the reeds, while Chen Zhenming randomly picked out reeds for inspection. He had already checked them when they were stacked, and they were all good, whether from the side length, the thickness of the reeds at both ends, or the overall appearance.

What we are doing now is random inspection to see if there are any defective products.

It took more than three hours to check and load more than 5,500 reeds. After finishing, Chen Zhenming dusted off his hands and said seriously:
"Okay, the quality of these reed handles is up to standard. I'll sign and you can take them away."

Li Xiangqian smiled and said proudly:

"That's what I told you. You can rest assured about this young man's work. Once he passes the quality test, you don't have to worry about the rest. There will definitely be no problem."

"Then I have to check it, too." Chen Zhenming said as he signed, "I can't just look at our relationship, I also have to be accountable to my superiors. Okay, come on, Xiao Li, sign and take the money."

Li Long was very happy to receive more than 1,100 yuan. Before leaving, Li Xiangqian said to him:

"There should be more to come, but let's take a break first and see what happens later."

"Okay." Li Long said he understood.

Han Benzhong and his friends are taking a rest today as they have been tired after working for so long. After several of them knew yesterday that they would be taking a rest today, they did not get up in the morning and fell into a deep sleep.

The women were better off, as pulling out and pressing the reeds did not require that much physical strength, so the three women got up early to make breakfast and then helped clean up the yard.

Because the reeds were counted and paid every night, they were now even with Li Long. They had already agreed that after lunch, they would go home.

After all, I've been away for so many days, so I definitely have to go back and visit my family.

At noon, Li Long took out a lot of dried meat and cooked it in two large pots at the same time. He made two large pots of pilaf and treated the fellow villagers to a delicious meal.

"Xiaolong, how can we eat after we go back?" Han Dachun joked. After getting familiar with people, he spoke less stutteringly. "The food is so good. I won't be used to it when I go back."

"That's easy. Find more jobs that can earn you money. Then you can buy rice and flour. Then you can eat whatever you want."

"Hey, how can there be such an easy way to make money?" Han Benzhong shook his head and said, "If I hadn't followed you this time, how could I have made so much money? It only happens once a year, right?"

"Alright, alright," Zheng Xiumei said with a smile, "It's only a few hundred dollars this time, once a year, and you're not satisfied?"

Each of the three families basically earned two to three hundred yuan, which is quite a lot.

"When you are free in the summer, dig some Cynomorium songaricum and send them to me. I will buy them here too." Li Long said, "There will be more and more opportunities to make money. When there is a chance, I will ask my eldest brother to find you."

"That's great." Han Dachun was very happy. "It's a deal. If there's a good job, you must think of our fellow villagers!" After lunch, Han Benzhong and others refused Li Long's kindness to take a rest here, and left the Lao Ma Hao with their bedding contentedly and walked towards the northeast.

Li Jianguo was driving a carriage halfway on the road, ready to give them a ride, after all, it was inconvenient to carry so many beddings.

"Lao Li, please don't send us off. I feel embarrassed if you do. We have earned so much money here, and now you want to send us back. That won't do. Come on, it's only ten miles away. We can walk fast, so just leave it alone."

Since Han Benzhong said so, Li Jianguo decided not to send him off.

In two days, his second brother came with that group of people. Although he agreed to let Li Long take charge, he would still have to intervene himself.

After Li Long handed over the reeds, there were still a lot of reeds piled up in the yard, which were cut by Han Benzhong and his men. At that time, Li Long said that he would also pay them for these, which made Han Benzhong scold him.

The original words are:
"The food we have eaten these days is much more valuable than this reed. Xiaolong, you are slapping me in the face by saying this. Okay, let's put this reed here. If you need work later, we will come back. If not, just keep this reed for burning firewood or something. Is that okay?"

Li Long stopped being so pretentious.

Han Benzhong and his colleagues spent half a day before lunch moving adobe bricks into the house and assembling the boards that Li Long had processed from the sawmill to ensure that the top was flat. These would be used as beds.

What Li Long meant was that no matter whether there was another batch of reed bundles behind, the house here needed to be made more formal.

If there are reeds, Old Han and his people will come over. If there are no reeds, my second brother Li Anguo and his people will come over. In short, we have to live here.

Not only did Li Long build plank beds in the two houses, he also cleaned out the warehouse and took the Cynomorium to the county to sell it. He also built wooden boards here to store some things first, so that if there is no room later, they can live here.

Although Li Long had completed his task, other members of the team were still working on beating reeds and pressing reed stalks. Hu Laoer had not yet completed his task, and it would take another three to five days to reach 10,000 reed stalks.

Li Long didn't make much money this time, but he didn't care. He took on some jobs not just for the money - making money was one of them, but more importantly, he wanted to lead those in the team who were willing to make money with him.

At least the Li family became prosperous later, so others would not be jealous - the rich will help the poor, that's what the country says.

For the next two days, Li Long did not go out fishing. He also wanted to rest for two days.

Now in the morning, there is a thin layer of ice in some shallow waters. Although some people like Yang Yongqiang and Meng Zhiqiang in the team are still casting nets to catch fish, there are only two of them left.

After all, this year, every household in the team has made some money through various means. When money is not so scarce, everyone will not be too hard on themselves - getting up early in the morning, breaking the ice to get the net and choose the fish is not an easy job.

This is why there is a question on some forums in the future: "No local people in XJ, Inner Mongolia, XZ go out to work." Of course, it is impossible that no one goes out to work, but because there are more people and more land here, and the resources are relatively abundant, it may be difficult to get rich quickly, but it is still not easy to have enough food.

In addition, since the area is located in a remote area, their knowledge and horizons are not broad. Some of them have never left the county in their entire lives, so they have naturally never seen or heard of some ways to make money.

Therefore, people from the mainland will discover many business opportunities when they come here - the so-called business opportunities are actually mostly industries that exist in the mainland but not here, so they just develop this blue ocean market.

The locals looked at him in surprise.

Li Long didn't want to join in the fun. He was thinking that the thing he had been speculating about should be coming soon, and he didn't know if it would be combined with the next batch of reed handles. If they were combined, it would be quite troublesome.

But he couldn't care less. Now that his second brother and brother-in-law were coming over, it was already a lot of trouble. So Li Long thought that it was okay. He didn't care about this one.

Tao Daqiang also came over and asked Li Long if he wanted to go fishing again. Li Long refused. He told Tao Daqiang that if Tao Daqiang wanted to go fishing himself, he could get the net from him. If not, he could take a rest for two days.

"That's fine. I'll just clean up the house." Tao Daqiang said with a smile, "My father said he would pick a good day at the end of the year to do it for me. The house is hard to clean in winter, and it's a good opportunity to have some free time now."

"Okay, do you want some help?"

"No, no!" Tao Daqiang said with a smile, "No need. There is no work in the fields now, so my father and I will do it."

He asked Li Long to get a bicycle ticket and bought a 28-inch bicycle. He took good care of it and cleaned it every day. He was one of the top five in the team.

The people in the team looked at Tao Daqiang with complicated eyes. In the past, they thought he was stupid and didn't know how to survive. But after following Li Long, his life got better and better. Now he even bought a bicycle and I heard he was going to buy a radio.

Those young people who once laughed at Tao Daqiang behind his back felt even more complicated. Tao Daqiang was getting married!
They haven't even started dating yet!

Li Long couldn't care less, because his second brother came. (End of this chapter)