Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

There was no stove in the east room of the Li family, mainly because Li Jianguo did not expect Li Long to come back so soon.

"Your second brother, brother-in-law, and Junshan just left yesterday. I drove a horse-drawn carriage to take them to the county bus station. They said there would be a train back in the evening. We could take a bus to Wucheng Railway Station and buy train tickets. By calculation, they should be able to arrive home next Wednesday."

"They brought a lot of stuff." Li Long said with a smile, "But with a few strong laborers, there shouldn't be any problem."

"What could be the problem? There won't be any."

Liang Yuemei asked:
"Xiaolong, have you eaten yet? The steamed buns are almost ready. If you are not in a hurry, wait until the buns are done. I will cook you some dishes and you can have some drinks."

"Okay." Li Long said with a smile, "Then let's wait for my sister-in-law's cooking. Let's stir-fry pickled vegetables. I haven't eaten them for a few days."

"Okay, I'll cut some meat and stir-fry some pickles." Liang Yuemei readily agreed, and then said with emotion, "Who would have thought that I could eat white flour buns every day at this time last year?"

"That's right. The food distributed by the team is 80% coarse grain and 20% fine grain. Not to mention us, even Juan and Qiangqiang can't eat fine grain every day..."

"And yet you still let Juan, Qiangqiang and I eat fine grains together!" Li Long interjected. Although he had made up for a lot in the past year, his face actually blushed when he said this. He was really ignorant at that time.

"It's all in the past. Now in our team, not to mention the team, even in the whole brigade and the whole township, how many people eat like our family?" Li Jianguo was quite proud. "Life will definitely get better and better. Xiaolong, you are smart, but you still have to be cautious. We have enough money now, so don't be too proactive in some dangerous things."

"Brother, I understand." Li Long nodded.

Liang Yuemei saw that the time was up and went to open the steamer lid. The chopping board had been cleaned up, and the layers of steamers were opened one by one, and the big, white steamed buns were spread out on the chopping board. Li Juan and Li Qiang had already gathered around.

Although their lives have improved greatly over the past year, the fragrance of freshly steamed buns still attracts them.

"Take one each and eat." Liang Yuemei told them, then dipped her hands in some cold water and separated the buns one by one to avoid destroying their integrity by waiting until they were cold.

Li Juan and Li Qiang each held a big steamed bun in their left and right hands, alternating between them, and took a deep breath from time to time.

Li Long and Li Jianguo were chatting about things happening this winter and next year.

"I plan to buy a tractor next year," Li Long said. "With this, we can go into the mountains and sell things faster. For the wheat we grow, I'm also thinking about whether we can ask the farm machinery factory to make a harvester or something. Then it won't be so troublesome to harvest the wheat."

Li Long remembered that before the popularization of combine harvesters, there was a period of time when it was more popular to use a small four-wheel tractor with a harvester for cutting wheat. The tractor would be hung in front of the small four-wheel tractor to directly cut the wheat down. In this way, workers only needed to bundle it up and then pull it away.

Although it is still necessary to thresh the wheat in the threshing floor, the process of harvesting wheat is avoided, which at least saves a large part of the labor - harvesting wheat is really a shadow.

He also remembered that this harvester was actually not complicated. It had a circle of blades like a chainsaw and was driven by a small four-wheel belt.

If I go to an agricultural machinery factory and give them some ideas, they should be able to make it, right?

Li Long thought so. After all, those people were experts, and the agricultural machinery factory also needed to sell its agricultural machinery. If a more popular agricultural machinery was developed, the profit of the agricultural machinery factory would be very high.

Not only that, Li Long still remembered a lot of convenient farm tools from later generations. He could actually take this opportunity to make them bit by bit - it's just that he didn't seem to have any connections in this area.

Should I ask Li Xiangqian or someone else? If I want to invest in stocks or something, I can provide ideas and share the profits.

Oh, I'm thinking too far.

"Buy a tractor? That's not cheap!" Li Jianguo said solemnly, "A tractor costs at least five or six thousand yuan, and a bigger carriage is even more expensive. You also need to build a house and get married next year, how much money can you afford? I still have some here..."

"Brother, I should have enough money. There are still a few months left, so I can still earn some." Li Long waved his hand hurriedly, "Don't worry about the money, but you need a license to drive a tractor. When the time comes, you can learn it. I won't go into the mountains, so you can drive the tractor at home. For farm work, a tractor is better than a horse-drawn carriage."

"That's right." Li Jianguo naturally understood this truth. "If we really had a tractor, threshing would be much easier. A horse-drawn carriage pulling rollers is much slower than a tractor, and it consumes more fuel."

"How much will it cost?" Li Long smiled, "The price of oil is not expensive now."

Nowadays, people who buy tractors will buy an oil drum, a large iron drum of 180 liters. Rich people will also buy an oil pump, while poor people will just get a hose. Then they will also need a small oil drum to pump the oil out of the large drum and pour it into the tractor.

There are few tractor drivers these days who haven’t drunk diesel. The taste – haha.

However, diesel is indeed cheap these days, less than one yuan per liter, but you need a letter of introduction to buy it, and private individuals generally cannot buy it. However, next year, it will be different. Once the production team's tractors are distributed to private individuals, private individuals will be allowed to buy diesel.

So Li Long was not worried about not being able to buy oil or tractors - with reform and opening up, both state-owned enterprises and government agencies had to slowly adapt to this process.

"Next year, the team's land may also be contracted out to private individuals." Li Long continued, "If we really buy a tractor and make a harvester, our family can contract more land."

The first round of land contracting for the production team here was for fifteen years, from 1983 to 1997. The second round of land contracting will be from 1998 to 2027, lasting for thirty years. In fact, the land during the first round of land contracting will remain unchanged for the next thirty years. The land will not increase if the population increases, and the land will not decrease if the population decreases.

The production team where Li Long worked had a large area of ​​wasteland, which was later developed, so each person's food-grain land plus contracted land averaged about 15 mu. This laid the foundation for large-scale land to enter the cooperative in 2010, and dividends would be tens of thousands or even more.

By that time, if land was to be contracted out, it could only be done once a year. Almost no collective or individual would be willing to contract out their land for several years at once.

After all, from the early 2000s to around 2020, land prices rose every year, from a few hundred yuan per mu to a maximum of 1,800 yuan per mu. If you contracted the land for ten or twenty years, you would lose a lot of money.

"Can we grow all the crops we have contracted?" At this time, Liang Yuemei had already skillfully fried some pickled vegetables and meat, and she was planning to cook another dish.

Li Jianguo took out a bottle of wine and shouted towards the kitchen while taking out the wine glass:
"Are you drinking?"

"I don't want to drink." Liang Yuemei knew that he was calling her, so she responded, "I'll cook another dish, you guys drink first!"

Li Jianguo took two cups, rinsed them with water, and then poured a cup for himself and Li Long.

"As for the land, it's right to contract more." Li Long said, "We are farmers. What else can farmers have besides land? With land, we are invincible. At least we don't have to worry about food and drink. As for whether we can eat and drink well, it depends on how we operate it."

He hasn't come up with a good idea yet. He was too lazy in his previous life. Before his eldest brother's family was separated, he didn't pay much attention to farm work and the agricultural industry, and knew very little. Some things in his memory need key information to trigger. But he believes that he will remember it eventually. When the time comes, he can do some special planting or follow the trend, and maybe he can make a fortune with his eldest brother's family.

People like Li Jianguo and Gu Boyuan are more cautious. After all, they have experienced a lot and have some guesses about the household contract responsibility system. Li Long knows the direction of history clearly, so he doesn't worry about any changes in the future.

Changes will only get better, at least that's the general trend for the next few decades.

"Come, have a drink." Li Jianguo is quite good at persuading outsiders to drink, but he has nothing to say to his family members.

"Have a drink!" Li Long was also very happy. Was this considered a summary of the year? It had been a year since his rebirth. In the past year, he had truly brought tremendous changes to his family, everyone's family, his parents, and the entire production team.

Quite proud.

Of course, the biggest change is myself. If I hadn't been reborn, I would still be a passionate secretary at this age, with a strong sense of vanity, but I would only take things from my family to help others enthusiastically.

Bitch!

Now, my family has money, I have money, my parents have some spare money, I have found a beautiful and capable partner, bought a big house, have a good "job", and have established a good network of contacts.

Growing very fast!
Li Long himself was also very satisfied with the changes in this year. He readily poured the 50-gram, 50-proof liquor into his throat.

so spicy!

In his two lives, Li Long still couldn't find what was so good about this liquor. Not only liquor, but also red wine and beer were not very popular. However, among the three kinds of liquor, beer was barely acceptable, mainly because of its low alcohol content.

As for the rice wine recommended by a certain health guru and popular in the south, Li Long has never tasted it.

Unable to rate.

However, as soon as the wine entered his stomach, he felt his body getting hot, and then his head became a little dizzy, and he started talking more and more involuntarily.

"Brother, if there's freezing rain or something like that, don't go out." This is what Li Long is most worried about. "What? What freezing rain?" Li Jianguo poured wine for himself and Li Long. Li Long wanted the bottle, but he refused.

The wine commander is in charge of the wine bottles, and this power cannot be given to anyone casually.

"It's freezing rain!" Li Long was in mixed feelings and a little excited. Without waiting for Li Jianguo to raise his glass, he picked up the glass and drank it all in one gulp.

He's a little bit high.

Although his eldest brother was clearly sitting at the table opposite him, whenever he mentioned him, he would think of his eldest brother in his previous life who went out in the freezing rain while looking for him and ended up falling to his death.

"What's the freezing rain?" Li Jianguo still didn't understand, but he could see that Li Long was a little strange, so he only poured him half a glass of wine. "What do you want to say?"

"In winter, in this weather, if it rains, the rain will freeze on the ground, that's freezing rain." Li Long drank a lot, two glasses made him drunk, he explained with a slurred voice, "It's freezing rain, the roads are slippery, don't walk around. Juan and Qiangqiang are both on vacation now, it's going to rain, let's not go out."

"How can it rain in winter?" Li Jianguo didn't believe it. "You just drank two glasses of wine, why are you talking nonsense?"

Seeing that his elder brother didn't take it seriously, Li Long became anxious and said, pressing the table:
"Brother, you have to listen to me. You have to listen to me about this matter! You must remember it... We have to live a good life now..."

In his previous life, it was his eldest brother who died because of him, and then Li Long repented. But it was too late by then. His eldest sister-in-law, Li Juan and Li Qiang would not forgive him, and he himself did not forgive himself either.

Things have changed in this life, but Li Long is still worried until that day comes.

He had originally kept this matter to himself, but today, as soon as he drank and talked, he couldn't help but speak it out.

"Why don't you just write down what Xiaolong said?" Liang Yuemei brought over a plate of stir-fried sour cabbage and a plate of steamed buns. "Hasn't everything Xiaolong said this year been proven to be correct? Don't worry about it, just write it down. Don't just drink and eat steamed buns!"

"Okay." Li Long smiled after listening to his sister-in-law's words. He thought his brother would take his sister-in-law's words seriously.

Li Long knew that he drank too much, so he didn't drink much. He took the steamed bun and ate it with big mouthfuls, enjoying the delicious food. This was much more delicious than the offal he had fried in the wooden house.

Li Jianguo stopped drinking and started eating the steamed buns. The wine needed to be suppressed by the food. The 50-gram cup was quite big.

Li Long did not return to the Old Horse House in the end. Liang Yuemei had lit the stove in the east room while they were drinking. After drinking and late at night, Li Long was obviously a little drunk, and she was not at ease letting him go back to the Old Horse House by himself.

There is a lesson here - a drunk person didn't walk steadily on the road, slipped in the snow on the side of the road in the middle of winter, and suffocated himself to death.

This is what happened in the neighboring village. This is a lesson.

Li Long was actually still sober, but he followed his heart. Since he had drunk some wine and the east room had been cleaned up and there was a stove, he decided not to leave and should have a comfortable sleep.

The next day, Li Long got up early and felt refreshed, as if he had put down the heavy stone in his heart and felt relaxed all over.

The stove had gone out long ago, but the temperature in the room was not very low. He got dressed and opened the door. The cold outside almost knocked him back. But he became more sober. He went to the east toilet to relieve himself. When he came back, he found black smoke coming out of the chimney in the west room. Maybe someone was cooking?

Of course.

After breakfast, Li Long rode his bicycle to Gu's house and delivered the cotton-rubber shoes he bought for Gu Boyuan. He chatted with the middle-aged man for a while and had lunch there.

Li Long thought that the stretched noodles made by Gu Xiaoxia tasted pretty good.

After dinner, Li Long didn’t stay here for long and went back to Lao Ma Hao.

On the way, he met Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang who came to him.

"Didn't you go to sell fish today?" Li Long asked.

"No, I went to Mahao to look for you this morning, but I couldn't find you, so I went to your eldest brother's place. But he said you were here, so I didn't dare to come over." Yang Yongqiang said with a smile.

"Let’s go to Laomahao first." Li Long said as he pushed the cart.

The three of them arrived at the Lao Ma Hao. Uncle Luo was listening to the radio. When he heard the noise, he went out to see Li Long coming back. He then helped to set up the stove and let the young people chat.

There was a storytelling show on the radio and he didn't want to miss it.

"Are there many people buying fish?" Li Long sat down and asked, "Is it easy to sell?"

Last year, it was still a black market, and Li Long had to sell fish in the family compound or go to Shicheng to find factories to sell them. This year, there is a market, which is much more convenient.

Life was getting better day by day, Li Long sighed to himself.

"It's okay," Tao Daqiang said something that was equivalent to saying nothing.

"It's harder to sell fish than in the summer," said Yang Yongqiang. "There are only four fish sellers in our team, and they sell about 70 to 80 kilograms each. We sell more, about 20 kilograms. Not many people buy fish, so we basically don't come back until the afternoon."

"Why not collect a truckload of fish and sell them directly in Shicheng?" Li Long said. "The market in Shicheng is big, with many people and lots of buyers. We don't need to waste so much time."

"That's what we thought too."

Li Long thought for a moment and said:

"If we are going to Shicheng, we can't just take hairtail. Let's get some traps today and catch some rabbits. Then we can take them over to sell. If we can sell them, we'll sell them. If not, we can just eat them ourselves. Since we are going there, let's do something more creative."

"Okay!" Tao Daqiang was also very happy. Once Li Long came back, he felt like he had found a backbone.

"Go ask other people if they want to sell their fish to us." Li Long said, "How do you sell it in the market?"

"Same as last year, 80 cents for crucian carp and 1 dollar for carp."

"Then ask them. I buy fish here at 40 cents per kilogram. Just weigh it when you sell it to me. We can buy more fish and sell them in Shicheng at once. We can make a profit from the difference."

Everything you do must be done on a large scale. If you do small things and earn small money, you will seek stability; if you do big things, the main goal is to make big money.

"Okay, I'll go ask in the afternoon!" Yang Yongqiang is familiar with this. Wasn't it the same thing when they cleared the warehouse in Dahaizi? But the price they charge now is much higher than that time.

Li Long clearly found that his suggestions greatly increased the motivation of Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang. When he saw them selling fish in the market yesterday, their enthusiasm was not as strong as it is now.

Is it because I’m used to relying on myself that I become like this?
Do I need to let them do things on their own so that they can develop their ability to handle things?

Then Li Long smiled. He was not a big shot, so why make it so complicated?

Isn't it good now? I have strong obedience, can make money, am young, obedient, and don't have so many trivial things.

Is it necessary to create trouble?

So be it.

Li Long started to work with thin iron wires and make rabbit traps.

Most of the ones he made last year were wasted, so he has to make more this year and remember to recycle them.

After all, it is difficult to make a living. (End of this chapter)