Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Jianguo brought Han Benzhong's two families over from the Corps, only Li Anguo and Li Junshan were left cutting reeds.

The reason why there are two families is because Zheng Songlin's family went back to their hometown, and Zhang Laoshi followed them. Han Benzhong originally wanted to call more people, but Li Jianguo refused because the whole team is capable now. He called Han Benzhong and his team because he had promised before. Otherwise, the people in the team would be more than enough to fight these 30,000 reeds.

"Xingbang and Junfeng went to cut the reeds and press the reed stalks." Li Anguo put down his sickle and explained when he saw his elder brother coming. "Those two piles are the reeds they cut. Each person carried back a bundle. These two piles were cut by Junshan and me. Brother, do you think it's okay?"

"Okay." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "The bundle of reeds is not small, it's enough, it can be used. By the way, have you had lunch?"

"I ate it. Xiaolong brought it to me." Li Anguo said with a smile, "The steamed buns and vegetables were still hot when they were brought to me. He also gave me some water, which is still warm. It's great."

"Then you guys go ahead and fight. I'll pull back the reeds that Xingbang and Junfeng fought over, and then I'll come back and pull back yours."

"Yes, yes." Li Anguo certainly had no objection.

He likes to work hard and doesn't like to use his brain to do technical work. That's why he stayed to cut the reeds. Li Junshan was only because Chen Xingbang and Li Junfeng took the initiative to ask to go back to press the reeds during lunch, so he didn't dare to ask. In fact, he could do any kind of work.

He is still calculating now. He has made more than 20 bundles of reeds from morning till now. If he deducts the unqualified odds, has he earned two yuan now?
Two dollars can buy an old hen in my hometown. Even if I earn money in my hometown, it will take me several days to earn these two dollars!

He was a little nervous, wondering if Uncle Xiaolong would really pay him for pulling the reeds back at night.

It’s one thing to think about, but you still have to do it.

Li Jianguo had brought a rope with him in advance. At this time, Han Benzhong and others had already gotten off the carriage and helped count the reeds cut by Chen Xingbang and Li Junfeng and load them onto the carriage.

"The bundles that Junfeng cut are okay, but the bundles that Xingbang cut are a bit too thin." Li Jianguo commented, "Junfeng cut eleven bundles, Xingbang cut nine bundles, I'll make a note of that."

After loading the bundles of reeds onto the cart, they were "fastened" with ropes. Since there were not many bundles of reeds, there was no need to secure them with a twisting rod. So after the two ropes were fastened, Li Jianguo said hello to Li Anguo and Li Junshan, and led the carriage to the Laomahao.

What surprised Li Jianguo was that Han Benzhong and Zhang Laoshi both stayed in Weihu. One person from each family followed Li Jianguo back, and the rest started cutting reeds here.

Start making money now!
Li Junshan immediately felt a sense of crisis. There were only 30,000 reeds in total, and if others cut one more bundle, he would earn one less bundle.

He was originally very tired, but now he suddenly became energetic again and started to cut quickly.

Li Anguo did not have such a strong sense of crisis. After all, Li Long was his younger brother and Li Jianguo was his elder brother, so there was no way they would let him suffer any loss.

When Li Jianguo arrived at Laomahao, Li Long was checking the reed handles sent by the villagers, while Li Junfeng and Chen Xingbang were pulling reeds in the yard.

"Xingbang, you and Junfeng, give way. I have to unload the truck. These are the reeds you two brought back. I pulled them back for you. You have nine bundles, Junfeng eleven bundles, right?"

"Yes, yes." Chen Xingbang nodded, bent down and picked up the reeds he had picked to make way.

Li Junfeng also hurriedly gave up the position in the middle of the yard and went to the side to find a suitable position to collect reeds.

"Don't be in a hurry. Come here and help me unload the reeds you two have carried." Li Jianguo shouted when he saw that the two men had no intention of helping.

"Okay." Chen Xingbang responded quickly, but his movements were a bit slow. Li Junfeng didn't say anything, but trotted over and unloaded the reeds under the guidance of Li Jianguo.

Li Long checked the reeds that were delivered, removed the unqualified ones, and had the rest transported to the pile. Finally, after paying the money, he came over and helped unload the reeds. He asked the eldest brother:
"Brother, Brother Zheng and the others didn't come this time?"

"No." Li Jianguo unloaded the reeds and watched Zheng Xiumei and Zhang Laoshi's daughter spread out their bedding. He led the horse to the side and said as he walked:

"His whole family went back to their hometown, so I didn't ask them to call anyone else. Seeing that there are so many people in the team, if we call more people from other villages, we should let them know."

"That's right." Li Long nodded and said, "Today, the team has delivered more than a thousand reeds, and this is without any preparation. The number of reeds delivered every day will only increase. However, there are also many unqualified ones. In the future, the team will have a lot of unqualified reeds piled up."

"What are they doing?" Li Jianguo turned his head to look at Chen Xingbang and Li Junfeng who were pulling reeds, and asked in a low voice.

"You are being clever." Li Long said with a smile, "I'll be frank with you. Pulling out reeds and pressing reed stalks are easy jobs, so they are naturally cheap. It's okay if you want to make money, as long as the reed stalks are up to standard. The standards are there, and they have the same standards as others. If they are not up to standard, I will definitely not accept them."

"Aren't they mad?"

"Anyway, I'm a little unhappy. But I've made it clear that I have to be responsible to the higher-ups, otherwise I won't get paid, and I can't lose myself, right? I said that this was the standard when my dad worked here. If you want to work, then follow this. If you don't want to work, then I won't force you. I can still provide a few meals, but if you want money, then that's out of the question."

"Yes, that's what I said." Li Jianguo now had a preliminary feeling about several relatives. "But don't worry, the money earned in my hometown is not much. When you settle the bill in the evening, I'm sure everyone will be very happy."

What Li Jianguo said was right. By the time he had pulled over Li Anguo and Li Junshan's reed bundles for the third time, Chen Xingbang and Li Junfeng had also each pulled out more than ten or twenty reed bundles.

"Brother-in-law, Junfeng, don't be anxious, the first step in pressing reed stems is to pull out the reeds. Although you pressed fewer reed stems today, you pulled out quite a lot. Looking at the number of reeds, at least one person can press thirty or forty reed stems. Tomorrow will be different."

While calculating the accounts, Li Long was trying to comfort Chen Xingbang and Li Junfeng, who were a little dejected.

"Of course, if you think that pulling and pressing the reeds is difficult, you can go cut the reeds yourself tomorrow. But you can only choose once, and you can't change it, otherwise the yard will be in chaos."

"No, I won't change it." Chen Xingbang spoke first, but Li Junfeng thought about it and decided not to change it either.

"Finally, the calculation came out. Junshan cut 34 bundles of reeds, which equaled 3.4 yuan. Second brother cut 29 bundles of reeds, and one bundle was not up to standard, which was counted as 5 cents, which equaled 2.85 yuan. Brother-in-law cut 9 bundles of reeds, and 2 bundles were not up to standard. He also made 18 reed handles, which equaled 1.7 yuan in total. Brother-in-law, the quality of these reed handles is not good, so I won't count them as unqualified today. Starting tomorrow, such reed handles will not be acceptable."

"Okay." Chen Xingbang took the one dollar and seventy cents, feeling a little excited. Although it was only half of Junshan's, he was confident that he could crush more reeds tomorrow and earn at least three dollars a day!

"Junfeng had eleven reed bundles, two of which were unqualified, leaving twenty-three reed bundles. Among them, two were too bad to count."

"Okay, Uncle Xiaolong, no problem. I'll try to pass tomorrow." Li Junfeng didn't think about competing with anyone, as long as he could make money.

If you go out and work as a laborer with others, you will only earn one dollar a day at most, and it’s so hard!

"Then that's two dollars and five cents. Okay, come here and get the money." The four people took the money and were all very happy.

In the past, when I worked as a laborer, I would not get paid until I finished the work. Although it is a bit embarrassing to work for relatives now, the money is paid generously. It feels so good!
After Li Jianguo unloaded the reeds, he went to pull the reeds that Han Benzhong and his men had collected. When he came back, Li Anguo realized the difference.

Although it only took them two or three hours to collect reeds, the amount they finally brought back was 17 bundles for one family and 15 bundles for another.

And there wasn't a single unqualified bundle.

Han Benzhong and Zhang Laoshi were still a little dissatisfied, saying that they were inexperienced and were cutting too slowly.

Fortunately, now there will be work to pull reeds tomorrow.

Li Long did not settle the bill with the two families. Li Anguo asked and found out that the two families worked together and were finally settled by the bundles of reeds.

This way I feel that others are really different from me.

The four people earned money, but also felt tired and had their own thoughts.

Zheng Xiumei and He Ping helped Uncle Luo prepare dinner, steamed buns and rice soup. Some were dry and some were liquid, and it was delicious. The stoves in the house were all set up, and Li Long was thinking about buying some coal. Just these few stoves would burn a lot of coal in the winter.

Han Benzhong and his companions returned after completing their mission, but his second brother Li Anguo and other relatives would definitely stay until next year. It was definitely a good idea to buy more coal.

Of course, this has to be done whenever possible, otherwise there won’t be time.

At night, Li Anguo and his friends went to bed early. Li Long checked the reeds and bundles outside, and after finding no hidden dangers, he closed the gate.

This gate was originally in the old Mahao. It should have been divided when the team was divided, but Li Long spent money to buy the old Mahao, so these two big iron gates were also kept.

In Li Long's opinion, the old horse shed was still short of a local dog, and then it would be complete. If there was any movement, the dog would be more alert than a person.

Just as he closed the door, someone else came outside. Li Long looked at the cart and knew that they were here to deliver reeds.

He opened the door and took the goods seriously. There was nothing he could do about it, he couldn't just refuse to accept the goods.

After checking the bundles of reeds with a flashlight, Li Long looked unhappy. He said to Tao Dayong, who was delivering the reeds:
"Dayong, the quality of your reeds is not very good. Among the more than 30 reeds, 11 are unqualified and I cannot accept them. For the remaining 24, I will give you 3.60 yuan..."

"Xiaolong, please don't do that. This reed handle was just made at home today. How could it be unqualified?" Tao Dayong wanted to get closer to him. "You see, I always gave you the best in the past. Don't be so strict this time..."

"Dayong, if I accept them, then the county will definitely fail to pass the inspection on these reeds, and I will have to make up the money. The problem is that if you open the door, if you can take the unqualified ones, others can take them too, and I won't be able to complete my mission."

Li Long was determined not to make this offer. Before Tao Dayong and his men arrived, Li Long had already pulled out the three unqualified reed handles that Chen Xingbang had pressed and thrown them on the roof. This could not be handed over, and it was an eyesore to put it in the yard.

He knew that if he gave in now, there would be endless troubles in the future.

Seeing that his words didn't make anyone convinced, Tao Dayong had no choice but to send those that didn't meet the standards back.

After collecting reed bundles from two more families, Li Long felt better - after all, most of the villagers were not like Tao Dayong who wanted to take advantage of loopholes, and they were basically pretty good, at least what they brought was basically up to standard.

It is normal to have one or two unqualified ones.

It was past twelve o'clock when Li Long locked the door and decided not to open it. How long would he have to endure this intermittent cycle?
Fortunately, no one brought more reeds later. He roughly estimated that he had collected more than 1,800 reeds today. Tomorrow, he might be able to collect more than 2,000 reeds. If so, the number of reeds would be enough in less than 15 days.

Fortunately, I paid the bill earlier, otherwise I might not have enough money on hand.

I don't know if Li Xiangqian will send a car to pick it up the day after tomorrow. If not, the money I have on hand will be really tight. Besides, there is no room for so many things in this yard.

Prone to fire.

As he was thinking, Li Long fell asleep. Although he didn't do any physical work, it was tiring to check and calculate all day long, and to argue with those people about the standards of passing and failing.

The next day, Li Long could clearly feel that his second brother Li Anguo, his brother-in-law Chen Xingbang, and his two cousins ​​became more motivated to work.

That's right. You come here to make money, so why bother with those little tricks? Working hard and earning money is the most important thing.

When the money was settled in the evening, all four of them received more than three yuan. Although it was not as much as the Han and Zhang families, they were acting as a group, so the four of them were not envious and talked a lot more during dinner.

The number of reeds collected that day exceeded three thousand, and Li Long was shocked!
Everyone is so enthusiastic!

Of course, I am very happy. If I continue like this, I may be able to collect enough reeds in ten days.

On the third day, when technician Chen Zhenming came with a truck to pull the reeds, he was also shocked. According to Li Xiangqian, he should be able to pull away 5,000 today, but now it seems that this is almost 10,000!
This action is too fast!

At this rate, I can come once a day. Today, I will have to work for at least half a day to complete the inspection, and the rest will require two more trips.

Fortunately, I came early, thinking that the earlier I came, the earlier I could finish the work. If I had come late, I might not have been able to finish today's work.

Chen Zhenming's arrival brought Li Long's job of collecting reeds to an end. He fully cooperated with Chen Zhenming to check and hand over the reeds in the yard.

Most of the day passed like this.

Of course, the result is not bad. (End of this chapter)