Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The next morning, Gu Xiaoxia still prepared breakfast. After the two of them finished eating, Li Long cleaned up and Gu Xiaoxia went to work.

He planned to stay in the county for a few days, but of course not too long, because there was not much fodder in the big yard. He could stay there, but No. 76 could not.

After cleaning the kitchen and feeding No. 76, Li Long put on his coat and fur hat, walked out of the yard, locked the door, and went to the seed company.

The county does not have a complete set of units yet, but a seed company focusing on agriculture was established early on. The seed company is not big, with a front house and a back yard. Unlike the front and back yards of purchasing stations and supply and marketing cooperatives, this one is a row of bungalows facing the street, with offices and seed stores.

Li Long walked into the seed store and found a man sitting behind the counter next to the stove reading a book.

The old-fashioned wooden counter is actually equivalent to the simple square cabinet of later generations. It has a panel on the outside, just like a table, and inside is a 20-centimeter square grid where things can be placed.

There is also a row of cabinets at the back, labeled with various seeds. Of course, there are not many seeds now, mainly common grains and vegetables such as wheat, rice, leeks, cabbage, etc.

The person reading the book was a woman in her fifties. After looking at Li Long, she put down the book in her hand but did not speak.

"Hello, comrade." Li Long took a quick look and didn't find what he wanted, so he took the initiative to ask:
"I want to ask if you have any melon seeds here?"

"Hitting melons? No." The female comrade shook her head. "Do you know how to hit melons?"

"Yeah, I heard about it from someone." Li Longhan said, "We have divided the land there, so I thought I'd try planting some in the spring, so I came here to ask if you have any seeds."

"No, very few people know about this crop, and not many people can grow it. We actually want to collect some of these seeds, but no one grows them, and no one sells them."

Li Long's heart moved and he asked:

"If I can find the seeds to plant, will you collect the harvested melon seeds?"

"Of course we did." The female comrade nodded. "We actually have very few seeds in stock here. Although the experimental station and the state seed company will provide us with some seeds, the gap is still quite large. We need to collect some high-quality seeds from growers."

This reminded Li Long of the time when the village accountant's wheat yielded a lot two years later. After the news spread, people from all over the place came here to buy seeds, which resulted in their family having to buy wheat from other people to pay their public grain tax.

For a long time, the seeds that people kept for farming were a combination of self-preserved seeds and purchased seeds, especially for vegetables. Li Jianguo's spare house has a special place for seeds. Every year when tomatoes are ripe, the women in the village will specially pick some large and good-looking tomatoes for seeds when making sauce.

Not only tomatoes, but also peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, etc., the seeds of these vegetables were originally kept by ourselves. I don’t know when they became purchased.

Li Long was more stubborn. Until he passed away in his previous life, the tomatoes in the vegetable garden were still old seeds. A considerable number of them did not look very good, but they tasted really good.

"If you buy melon seeds, what's the price?" Li Long asked a key question.

"One or two yuan." The woman said uncertainly, "It depends on the specific quality at that time."

The seeds of the melon are mainly used for roasting and eating, but Li Long vaguely remembers that one year the school also required the melon peel to be handed in for work-study, saying that it was used as a medicinal material. As for its specific use, he is not sure.

He remembered that one acre of land could yield 100 to 200 kilograms of melons. If calculated at one yuan per acre, one acre of land could bring in 100 to 200 yuan - this was almost a sky-high price at the moment!

You should know that now the yield of good wheat from one acre of land is only 200 kilograms, and the price of wheat is about 30 cents, so the income from one acre of land is only 60 yuan!

Of course, this is gross income!

The investment in growing melons is naturally higher than that in growing wheat, but how much higher can it be?
Of course, the difficulty in obtaining seeds for melons is also a very big hurdle. As long as you can find suitable seeds, you will most likely make money by growing melons.

Make big money!
After confirming this idea, Li Long came out of the seed company, thinking about where to find melon seeds.

He thought he could go to Shicheng Seed Company first. Li Long vaguely remembered that the melon planting in this area was first started by a company of the Shicheng Corps, and then gradually spread. However, due to the unstable purchase, unlike wheat, which can be directly purchased by the State Grain Bureau, there have always been few people planting it and the area is not large.

After all, apart from seed companies, only the seed mills were buying them. Later, seed companies only bought a small amount, and then they stopped buying them.

The roasted nuts factories did buy them, but their production capacity was limited after all. This phenomenon changed later when private roasted nuts factories emerged.

This is a lack of information.

Li Long felt that the melons could still be grown for a few years. At worst, he could just transform them later - for example, grow cotton in advance?

Of course, the current cotton output is still relatively low, and the price is not high. Only after the application of thin films and new technologies, especially the formation of drip irrigation technology, did the cotton output have a qualitative leap, and then it began to make money.

Otherwise, you won’t make any money, and you may even lose money for several years.

Li Long looked at the time and thought about going to Shicheng in the afternoon, so he went to the market.

The market now has a lot more people than yesterday afternoon. He also saw several fish sellers in the team, such as the Zhao father and son.

Li Long was a little surprised. Didn’t the Zhao father and son say they were going to Shicheng to sell fish? Why didn’t they go there after just one trip?
Li Long didn't ask any further questions. He just said hello to them and continued shopping.

Then he saw Yang Xiulan and Han Fang pushing a cart to sell soup rice. Li Long found that the best-selling item at this time was soup rice - that is, soup noodles. This thing has vegetables and hot soup. If the noodles are thick, they can satisfy hunger and warm the body. Tomato sauce is used, sour and spicy, and tastes good.

Yang Xiulan and Han Fang also saw Li Long. When Li Long walked over, Yang Xiulan took a bowl to scoop rice for him, but Li Long waved his hand hastily:

"No, no, no, I just had breakfast a while ago, so I don't want to eat. Just make more food for lunch - are there many people eating?"

"Not bad." Yang Xiulan smiled and said, "It's cold, and no one brought hot water. My hot soup and rice are not expensive, and most of them are happy to eat a bowl. By noon, I can sell out a whole pot."

"That's good." Li Long smiled. This was considered a formal business. Although there was no stall, the advantage was that there was business and people were willing to eat. And from now on, word of mouth had been established.

"Will Han Fang go to school later?" Li Long asked again.

"Comrade Gu said that we should enroll her in a class when school starts in the spring to see if she can keep up." Yang Xiulan said, "I want her to go to school, even if it's only to junior high school."

Li Long nodded, this idea was correct.

Why has China been able to rise up generation after generation, and why are Chinese able to quickly gain a foothold and develop their own small world no matter where they go?
Hard work is a big reason.

Another important reason is that no matter how hard or tired the parents are, they will usually support their children in going to school as long as they have the conditions.

In the past, some Westernized articles published by public intellectuals and on the Internet talked about how much Jewish people value education. In Li Long’s opinion, it would be almost the same if the protagonist of the article was a Chinese.

Because even if he is a bad guy among Chinese people, he still hopes that his children can go to school well and have the higher academic qualifications the better.

This thing is almost engraved in our genes - only a very small number of people think that learning is useless.

Li Long remembered that a few years later, some factories were built on the south side of the Wuyi Highway in May County. The factories recruited workers to broadcast commercials on TV stations. For the same job, high school students earned 50 yuan more than junior high school students - in the 1990s, that is, about ten years later, 50 yuan was not a small amount.

This is definitely academic qualification priority.

Going too far again.

"Then you guys go about your business, I'll take a look around." Li Long said.

Yang Xiulan nodded, then gently pulled Han Fang, and Han Fang said shyly:
"Uncle Li, goodbye!" Li Long smiled and nodded at her, then turned and left.

Li Long often visits Shicheng Market, but he is not very interested in the market here. Since there are not many things to buy, he simply walked out and went to the purchasing station.

Normally, I don’t feel it when riding a bicycle, but now when walking, the market is still some distance away from the purchasing station.

Today is Wednesday, so Chen Hongjun should be there. Li Long arrived at the purchasing station and saw that the snow in the yard was clear and it was quite clean. Half of it was closed, but there was smoke coming out of the chimney on the roof, so it should be there.

Li Long knocked on the door and then pushed it open - usually people who came to sell things would just push the door open and rarely knock.

Chen Hongjun was squatting beside the counter sorting something. He looked up and saw that it was Li Long. He smiled and said:

"Hey, Comrade Xiao Li, are you free to come over? I heard you got a big one this time!"

"Comrade Chen, you are so well-informed." Li Long turned around and closed the door, pulled over a chair by the stove and sat down, watching Chen Hongjun busying around there. He guessed that it must be the information that Li Xiangqian revealed.

Anyway, I came here to ask this, so I'm not afraid of Chen Hongjun knowing it.

"Hey, Old Li is so cocky," Chen Hongjun was using a piece of wood to prop up the corner of the counter. The counter must have been there for a long time, and one of its legs was a little loose and unstable. Chen Hongjun found a piece of wood to prop up the leg so that it would be convenient to use.

"I came here just to ask about the situation." Li Long saw Chen Hongjun stand up, dust off his hands, and wash his hands at the washbasin stand in the corner. When he was done, he asked:
"How much is this brown bear gall worth?"

"If you go to a place where there are more bears, such as the Northeast, this thing is really not as valuable as you might think. A normal-sized black bear gallbladder is only about 500 or 600 yuan. Of course, if the gallbladder is bigger, the price can be higher. Brown bear gallbladder is slightly worse, but 500 yuan is not a small amount."

"It's about the same as I guessed." Li Long said with a smile.

"But that's where it's produced." Chen Hongjun waved his hand. "It's not here. We rarely see black bears here, only brown bears, which are called brown bears by herders. It's a great skill to be able to get brown bears. After all, they are rare, and there are few or almost no professional hunters here. So the gallbladder of a brown bear, even an ordinary one, is worth at least seven or eight hundred yuan. If it's a bigger one, it's worth thousands."

Chen Hongjun sighed when he said this:

"Comrade Xiao Li, it's hard to say whether you are lucky or not. I have worked at this purchasing station for more than ten years, and I haven't seen a single bear skin, let alone a bear gallbladder..."

"Is that bear skin valuable?" Li Long asked hurriedly.

"It depends on the size. If it's a whole piece of leather, the price is about the same as a bear gall. If it's torn, the price will be much higher."

Li Long calculated that the price offered by Li Xiangqian's leader, Director Wu, was about the same, neither higher nor lower.

After all, the bear is not big and its skin is damaged. But considering the meat, it is hard to say who will gain and who will lose here.

"The bear I shot was less than two meters tall and weighed less than 200 kilograms. It weighed more than 100 kilograms, so it must have been a young bear."

"Yes, that's true. It's normal for an adult bear to weigh three to five hundred kilograms and be over two meters tall. However, bears this big usually live in deep mountains and cannot be seen near the mountains." Although Chen Hongjun had never seen a bear, he was familiar with its habits. "The bear you shot was indeed a young bear, about three or four years old. How big is the bear's gall?"

Li Long gestured.

"Such a big courage is worth about 700 to 800 yuan. The leather should be damaged, right?"

"Yeah, there are about five, six, seven or eight bullet holes." Li Long was not sure. "The distance was close at that time, and I was scared. Five or six semi-rifle bullets all hit me."

"The leather is ruined." Chen Hongjun shook his head. "It would be more than three or five hundred if it can be sold."

Li Long nodded, "Not bad. At least this trip is not a loss."

"You are really lucky to have encountered a hibernating bear."

"I even encountered a live bear in the summer," Li Long said, recalling the bear he encountered at the hot springs. "It ran away when it saw me."

"Under normal circumstances, bears don't want to provoke people." Chen Hongjun said, "Except in special circumstances, such as when they are extremely hungry. Of course, since you often go into the mountains, it's right to carry a gun with you. There are too many dangers in the mountains... By the way, didn't you get anything good this time?"

Li Long thought of the leather Halimu gave him when he delivered food last time, but he still needed to save some things, so he said:
"Not this time, wait until next time."

"That's fine... Mainly because I'm always surprised every time I see you, so I'm used to it." Chen Hongjun said with a smile, "Then you should have a good rest next time, right? Can you have a peaceful year?"

"It should be okay. I'll go to the county to inquire about some matters these two days, and then I'll go back to the team to celebrate the New Year in two days." Li Long said.

Chen Hongjun stood up and poured water for Li Long, and asked:

"What do you want to ask? Tell me, I want to see if I know the answer."

Li Long took the enamel pot with the words "Serve the People" written on it, drank two sips of water and said:
"I plan to plant some melons next year, and I want to get some melon seeds. The seed company in our county doesn't have this stuff, so I have to go to Shicheng to ask. The seed company in our county does buy it, but I don't think they buy much, so I want to ask where to sell it."

"Pumpkin seeds - you've come up with a good project." Chen Hongjun thought for a moment, "I can get some pumpkin seeds, but not a lot, only about a dozen kilograms. But you can only plant one or two thousand per acre, so you don't need a lot of seeds - 300 grams is a lot. A dozen kilograms means 40 to 50 acres of land - do you have that much land?"

"The land will be contracted out next year, and there is no problem contracting dozens of acres of land." Li Long said, "I'm just worried that I won't be able to grow enough crops. And for the first year, I plan to plant only ten acres. More than that won't be enough to support the bottom. Of course, I can save more seeds, and I raise pigs at home, so the pigs can eat that stuff when it comes out."

"That's right, we can kill two birds with one stone." Chen Hongjun said, "The seed company told you they don't have any, how much do you want for it?"

"Two pieces? They are not sure yet." Li Long said.

"I can also collect some here," Chen Hongjun said, "because not many people have grown this before, and I haven't collected it before. I will have to ask the state government when the time comes. I estimate it should be more than two yuan."

"It's okay. I heard that the yield of this thing is only about 100 kilograms of melon seeds per mu. If it doesn't work, I can find a snack factory to sell it to."

Li Long doesn't think there is a problem with sales. This thing has always been a niche agricultural product. There have always been people who grow it, but not many. There have always been companies that buy it, especially those roasted nuts factories, including small roasted nuts shops.

After chatting for a while, Li Long left. Chen Hongjun saw him to the door. Looking at the young man's back, he felt that Li Long was even more different.

Dare to think and act, and have some whimsical skills. I have never heard of anyone planting melons. Is this what it means to give it a try?
After chatting at the purchasing station for nearly an hour, Li Long came out and found that during this hour, no one came to the purchasing station to sell things.

Is there nothing good to sell in this winter?

Li Long thought about it and it seemed that there really wasn't any. If he hadn't gone hunting in the mountains to get some wild animals and come here occasionally, he probably wouldn't have visited this place much in winter.

This was just a thought. As Li Long walked towards the yard where Yang Xiulan lived, he was planning to go to the bus station to Shicheng after dinner to see what the situation was like at the Shicheng Seed Company.

There is a roasted nuts factory in Shicheng, you can go and ask if they accept them.

By the time he had thought this through, Li Long had already crossed the Wuyi Highway and was approaching the yard where Yang Xiulan lived.

The snow on both sides of the courtyard gate was cleared very cleanly, including the snow on the road outside the courtyard, and the snow on the roof was also shoveled. Li Long nodded, this is someone who can live a normal life.

But I have to remind Yang Xiulan that you have to sweep the snow off the roof slowly to avoid slipping. Every few years, there are people who fall off the roof - most of them are fine, but if there is, it's a big deal.

Gu Xiaoxia came over happily on her bicycle. (End of this chapter)