Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The next day, Gu Xiaoxia had breakfast and went to work. Li Long cleaned up the kitchen and the yard, then drove the tractor out to the team.

He went directly to the home of Captain Xu Chengjun.

Xu Chengjun had already eaten breakfast and was smoking reeds in the yard wearing worn-out gloves.

Li Long got off the tractor and looked at some tied reed bundles piled up against the south wall of their house, half covered by snow, and shook his head.

"Hey, Xiaolong is here?" Xu Chengjun stood up with a cigarette in his mouth and said:

"How is it? Can you still do this reed-pulling work?"

"capable."

"Hey, it's good that you can do it. Everyone is waiting." Ma Hongmei came back from feeding the pigs, holding the pig feed bucket and said with a smile:

"How many do you want this year? I see there are more brooms and broom handles than last year. Do you want more reed handles? The price should be higher, right?"

Li Long waved his hand and said:

"Captain, sister-in-law, the standard of the reed handle has changed. The one you have tied at home cannot be used."

"Why can't it be used?" Xu Chengjun was a little panicked when he heard it. "Tell me quickly? What is the new standard?"

"Twenty reeds, three thin iron wires, and a length of two and a half meters."

"Twenty..." Xu Chengjun murmured.

"What about the price?" This is what Ma Hongmei cares about most.

"I charge three cents each." Li Long said.

He took a 2-cent kickback, which was fair. Last year, the market price of reed stems from villagers was 1 cent. This year, the material requirements are more, but the price has also increased, and it is much higher, so I think everyone should be satisfied.

"Okay, Sanmao is good." Ma Hongmei estimated at once that the reeds stored in her family could make less than a thousand reed bundles, and most of the reeds had been pulled out. If she just tied them, it would take less than half a month to finish.

It’s worth it to make two or three hundred dollars in this half month!

"Captain, I'll use the loudspeaker to notify everyone." Li Long said again.

"Okay, you go and notify them, you know how to do it?" Xu Chengjun was still thinking about the standardization of reed stalks. How to use the reed stalks at home?
Li Long entered the room, sat at the table, turned on the loud speaker, knocked it with his hand, felt the echo, blew it, and then the whole team heard the sound:

"Puff, puff, puff! Comrades, I am Li Long, I am Li Long! I have something to inform you..."

Li Long seemed to feel no response. He turned his head to see Ma Hongmei at the door and asked:
"Sister-in-law, is there any sound?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Ma Hongmei said hurriedly.

This conversation was also broadcast through a loud speaker, causing many people who heard it to laugh.

"This Li Long, there is still a spoon."

"It's a joke."

Li Long didn't know, and he wouldn't care if he knew. He continued:

"I have something to inform you. The job of making reed handles has been received. Twenty thousand pieces..."

As soon as the sound spread, many families who had already pulled out their reeds from the piles in their yards laughed.

Although it is snowing now, the work of harvesting reed bundles has not been completed yet, and many people are still worried.

Now when they heard Li Long say that Wei Bazi's task was next, smiles immediately appeared on everyone's faces.

Now you can make money.

To be honest, the people in Team 4 are much more confident than those in other teams, because they earn more money every year and live better than those in other teams.

This results in the young people here finding a partner more easily than young people from other teams.

After all, the number of bicycles owned is the highest in the township, as is the number of tractors.

Everyone understands that one step stronger leads to another. Even if they look down on Li Long, at this time, everyone is still very grateful to Li Long, after all, it is he who brought these profitable words to the team.

Xu Jianjun looked at the pile of tied reeds in the yard and decided not to do it. He planned to load the reeds onto a truck and take them to Li's house after Li Long finished talking. Then he could get the money back directly.

Xu Jianjun was not very friendly to Li Long, but he knew that Li Long would never have any problems with paying the bill. As long as the goods were up to standard, he would pay for them happily.

"…The standard has changed this year. Each reed bundle must have 20 reeds, three iron wires, and be 2.5 meters long…"

Twenty reeds?
Xu Jianjun's smile froze on his face!

He looked at the ten reed handles he had tied together, which contained about six or seven hundred reeds, and then turned to look at his wife.

He thought he had heard it wrong and wanted to confirm it with his wife.

However, the daughter-in-law was also incredulous:

"How come there are now twenty reeds? What's going on here? Why is it so tiring? What should I do with all the reeds I have tied together at home?"

These complaints were not made by just one or two people, but by many people. After all, they wanted to be the first to make the reeds and earn more money.

But their mistake was betting on the wrong thing. This was not something they could decide.

Farmers have been like this since ancient times. In ancient times, they could not decide their own land rent, nor could they decide the prices of rice and wheat. Now, they cannot decide the prices of agricultural inputs, and ultimately, they cannot decide the pricing of grain either.

Li Long had no choice because the standard setter for this thing was above, not him.

He remembered very clearly that in his previous life, one year before his death, the international cotton price was very good. Until mid-September, the cotton ginning mills did not dare to offer a price for purchasing cotton.

A cotton ginning factory in southern Xinjiang couldn't wait any longer and offered a purchase price of 9.7 yuan, which made the cotton farmers very happy. Although this is not the highest price in history, it is also a rare high price.

Although this price is lower than the international cotton price, it is still higher than the subsidized price given by the state, so farmers can earn more money than in previous years.

However, the cotton ginning mill removed the price quote sign the next day, and then news came out that the cotton ginning mill had suspended operations for rectification and the bank had stopped lending.

Then more cotton ginning factories offered prices of eight dollars and fifty cents.

Although this price is profitable, it is much lower than the psychological expectation.

Then many people on the live broadcast called on cotton farmers to leave the cotton in the fields and not sell it, and wait for high prices, saying that prices will definitely increase after the double holidays.

However, the price did not go up until heavy snow fell.

Many people suffered heavy losses.

As to why the cotton ginning mill that started quoting prices was shut down for rectification and the bank refused to provide loans to purchase cotton, we dare not say and we dare not ask.

Anyway, that's the situation. It's very difficult for farmers to make money.

Li Long didn't know that many people in the team had already started to complain and even curse. He continued to speak into the loud speaker:
"A new reed handle costs thirty cents each! Thirty cents each! High quality and strict standards are required. When you have it done, come to my yard and I will pay you after it passes the on-site inspection!

Okay, I’ll let you know again…”

After Li Long notified them twice, most of those who had been making a fuss stopped.

Although they had guessed that the price would go up a bit, they didn't expect it to actually go up, and the increase was quite a lot!
This immediately dispelled the resentment of many people.

After all, most people don’t do what Xu Jianjun does and directly tie most of the picked reeds into reed handles.

I feel lucky that I have fewer acupunctures, and I am even happier that I have none. After all, it is much better to have work now than to have no work at all.

The sound from the loudspeaker passed through the reed ditch and reached the ears of Team Three. Most of the people in Team Three were envious.

Team Four has produced a capable person who can lead everyone to prosperity. How can we not be envious?
Yang Pingping's brother was picking reeds in the yard of his brother-in-law's house. Team Three did not have a reed lake, and although the lake separated the two teams, the ownership of the lake belonged to Team Four.

This is generally acknowledged. It is fine for the three teams to occasionally cut some reeds for home use, but it is not acceptable to cut reeds on such a large scale as they are doing now.

In two years, when Wei Lake is contracted out, this kind of thing will happen even less frequently.

So Yang Pingping's younger brother Yang Yun picked reeds in Tao Daqiang's yard. Tao Daqiang told him that he would give him some money after all the reeds were sold.

Yang Yun was a few years younger than Tao Daqiang, a 17 or 18-year-old boy who needed money. If his family didn't have any and he couldn't get any, he would just earn it himself.

After Li Long finished shouting, he said something to Xu Chengjun, then drove the tractor towards his own yard.

It's cold now, and it's hard to crank the tractor. You have to heat the water, wait two days, and then use fire to heat the water tank and the engine base because the oil will also freeze.

Fortunately, Li Long is very strong and is not afraid of shaking the tractor.

On the way, several people stopped Li Long and asked him about the specific situation. Li Long gave them a brief explanation and there was no need to say more.

The tractor drove to the edge of his eldest brother's yard. He saw his eldest brother and his wife were pulling reeds, his father was helping, and his mother was sitting at the pot cooking pig food. "Xiaolong is back." Liang Yuemei smiled and greeted him, "The reeds are coming down so soon? Fortunately, we didn't pull the reeds in advance, otherwise we would regret it to death."

"That's right." Mrs. Lu, who came over after hearing the sound of the tractor, also said, "Three cents, I can make a lot more this time!"

Lu Yingming made over 300 yuan from making a handlebar and bought a bicycle. His family also made 200 to 300 yuan from making brooms, and he should be able to make about the same amount from making reed handles.

In a year, the income from these alone is a thousand yuan, which is much more than that of a formal worker!

Moreover, rice, flour and oil are all produced in the fields, and even vegetables can basically be supplied from one's own vegetable garden.

What else do you want?

The Lu family had a lot of reeds, so they could easily make a few hundred reed bundles. The Li family had even more reeds, so Liang Yuemei estimated that her own reeds would be enough to make a thousand reed bundles, and maybe even more.

Li Long came back and greeted his family, then went to light the stove in his room, and then came over to help his eldest brother and others collect reeds.

He still lacks the skill to tie the reed bundles, but pulling the reeds is not a technical job, so he can still do it.

Seeing him sitting on a wooden stool, Du Chunfang found an old cushion and asked him to put it under his butt.

Li Long smiled and did as he was told. It was indeed a bit cold to be outside picking reeds. Fortunately, he was wearing thick clothes. Northern Xinjiang itself produces cotton, so if nothing else, at least cotton was used to make a cotton jacket.

Li Long has already changed into cloth cotton shoes. The soles are thick and the hems are filled with cotton, so they are warm.

Of course, young men have strong internal heat, and they eat a lot of venison, roe deer meat and wolf meat all year round, so their internal heat is much stronger than that of ordinary people.

So I’m not that afraid of the cold.

Li Long was pulling reeds at his eldest brother's house, but people still kept coming here to ask about the situation. Mainly because they were still unwilling to give up and wanted to ask if there was any solution to the problem of the tied reed bundles.

Li Long answered uniformly, no.

He couldn't say yes. If he said yes, these cunning peasant-like people would definitely lower the standard of his ideas. If he didn't accept them, they would say that he taught them.

Not all people in rural areas are simple, just like not all people in cities are well-educated.

After all, people are complicated.

It wasn't until after lunch and when I started working in the afternoon that things started to calm down a bit.

Those people probably knew that there was no good solution, so most of them untied the tied reed bundles, put the reeds of the two original reed bundles together, and then tied them together again with thin iron wire.

Of course, you need to use tools, and you definitely can’t do it by hand.

Xu Jianjun didn't do that. He thought it was too troublesome.

Isn’t it just that ten reeds become twenty reeds?

simple!
Why not just take ten loose reeds and wrap up the original reed handles? There are only ten reeds anyway.

However, he found that there were still problems in this practice. Some reeds were thick, and ten of them could wrap the original small reeds, but some reeds were thin, so the wrapping was not tight.

There will be a gap.

He was too embarrassed to ask Li Long, so he thought of just doing it this way first. After he had made dozens of them, he would send them over in the afternoon. Of course it would be best if they passed the test, but if not, he could think of another way later.

The main reason is that his family has too many reeds tied together, and if they are all removed, a lot of thin wires will be lost. After all, thin wires need to be bought now.

Last year, Li Long provided us with thin iron wire and gloves, but this year there is nothing.

But everyone still has to remember his love.

Before Li Long started to collect reeds in the afternoon, someone came to look for him.

He came on a bicycle, wearing a Zhongshan suit and the popular 3:7 hairstyle. He was not wearing a cotton hat, and his hair was quite long, covering his ears.

"Comrade Li Long, right? Then this is Comrade Li Jianguo, right? Hello, hello! My name is Wang Dongsheng, and I'm the director of the Fuqiang Roasted Nuts Factory in our county..."

"County roasted nuts factory?" Li Long was stunned for a moment, then reacted, "You run your own business?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Wang Dongsheng took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it for Li Jianguo and Li Long. Li Long pointed at the reed leaves around him and waved his hand:

"It's better not to smoke. May I ask Director Wang if I can help you?"

"Of course there is something." Wang Dongsheng said with a smile, "I just heard that you planted melons this year and harvested a lot of melon seeds, right?"

"Yes." Li Jianguo said.

Liang Yuemei brought tea. After all, the visitors were guests, so they couldn't be too shabby.

In order to save face, Wang Dongsheng wore something a little thin. It was really cold at the moment, so he took the hot tea and took a sip.

"Let's talk inside." Li Jianguo said, "It's cold outside."

"Okay, okay." Wang Dongsheng said with a bit of gratitude.

"This is what happened." After entering the house and sitting down to finish the tea, Wang Dongsheng offered a cigarette again, but Li Long refused and Li Jianguo took it.

Li Long took a look and saw the Daqian Gate.

"My roasted nuts factory was opened only this year. At the beginning, we only roasted sunflowers and some peanuts and soybeans. We originally supplied them to county stores and some small businesses.

We received an order this fall. The Corps knew that our roasted nuts factory had good products, so they wanted us to supply them with some roasted nuts on a monthly basis, which they would distribute to each company in the Corps. "

Li Long and Li Jianguo looked at each other and felt that this had nothing to do with them.

Wang Dongsheng continued:

"Later, I heard that you planted melons and harvested a lot of melon seeds. I wanted to come here to discuss cooperation, but I didn't expect that you sold the melon seeds to the Shicheng Roasted Nuts Factory."

"The price they offered is too high." Li Long smiled.

He didn't believe that Director Wang had been thinking about cooperating with him for a long time. He guessed that he probably had the idea after reading the newspaper.

But it doesn’t matter. There are no more melon seeds left. No matter what he says now, it’s useless.

"I won't give you a low price either." Wang Dongsheng said, "We are from the same county. I am also a farmer. I know how hard it is to be a farmer. How can I let you down?"

Li Long curled his lips. It was like talking for a long time without mentioning the price, which was in vain.

"We have stopped harvesting melon seeds this year." Li Jianguo felt that there was no need to drag out the conversation, so he said, "We can no longer cooperate."

"I know, I know. Actually, I came here to see if we can cooperate next year. You will definitely grow melons next year? You will definitely expand the scale, right?

How about this? Next year I will buy all your melon seeds. As long as the quality is up to standard, I will sell them for 2.5 yuan per kilogram. If the quality is especially good, 3 yuan per kilogram is not a problem!"

Wang Dongsheng spoke very proudly, but Li Long shook his head slightly.

It's just empty talk.

Li Jianguo was somewhat tempted. He planted more melon seeds next year, and many people in the team also planted them. He was worried that the Shicheng Roasted Nuts Factory might not be able to consume so many melon seeds.

It would be better to keep in touch with Director Wang. If he really wants to collect it, two dollars and fifty cents would not be a bad idea.

Seeing that his eldest brother was interested, Li Long did not say anything and let his eldest brother talk to the other party.

All Wang Dongsheng said was a promise, nothing else.

Li Jianguo asked in detail about the location and scale of their roasted nuts factory, and whether they sold anything else besides melon seeds, peanuts and soybeans.

Director Wang was very happy to see that Li Jianguo had some opinions. He had a good chat with him about the details of the cooperation before leaving.

Both parties actually know that this cooperation is just preliminary discussion.

Everything will have to wait until next year's melon harvest. If we can really cooperate then, it will be considered the first real step.

In fact, Li Long is quite supportive of this kind of order-based planting, but it is obvious that Director Wang is trying to get something for nothing.

So he did not make this happen, but instead thought that he could give his eldest brother an appropriate reminder when the time comes.

For the farmers, more words are not as real as a pile of money. They will wait until Wang Dongsheng actually collects the money. If he doesn't, then everything will be out of the question.

Of course, the most important thing at the moment is the reed handle.

Someone has come to deliver some reeds.

To Li Long's surprise, the first person to deliver the reed handle was Xu Jianjun.

Li Long frowned when he saw the reeds Xu Jianjun brought. (End of this chapter)