Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Long and his team drove their tractor to the gate, he could clearly see that the man on the bicycle was still a little unwilling and asked the guard:
"How many skins can I sell here?"

"At least a hundred tickets, at least one." The security guard held his head high.

Li Long thought it was a close call, it was just because he had a lot of skins here, otherwise it would have been a wasted trip.

Big stores bully customers. At that time, wool spinning mills, leather factories and other light industrial enterprises were considered big taxpayers, with high output value, high tax revenue, strong local support, good welfare in the factory, and workers' self-esteem was very good.

At that time, it was a leather factory, and it was doing well for at least the next ten years. However, after that, the leather factory gradually faded out of everyone's sight. Then the rising star was the thermal power plant, and later, the cotton textile factory and various other enterprises, including the winery and so on.

They are all popular for a while, and then new alternative companies gradually emerge.

At least for quite some time, the treatment at the leather factory was quite good. No wonder the security guard was so arrogant.

At this time, people were going from street to street and village to buy leathers, and when they had accumulated a certain amount, they would come to the leather factories to sell them in bulk.

The collected hides might be worth ten yuan, and sold for eleven or twelve yuan. A trip to the countryside might earn eighty cents for each hide, so it was quite hard work.

But the price of leather was indeed not low at that time. Li Long vaguely remembered that in summer, a dead dog skin could be sold for ten yuan.

The guard ignored the man on the bicycle and shouted to Li Long who had not yet gotten off his bicycle:

"You're selling leather, right? Turn right after entering the door. The door to the purchasing department is open. The road is slippery, so be careful not to bump into anyone."

Li Long thought that there seemed to be a lot of people driving tractors and selling leather.

After entering, he realized that he was wrong. There were not many people driving tractors, and there were two horse-drawn carriages lined up in front.

The owners of the two vehicles were moving the hides down. There was more than one person collecting the hides, so there was no need to line up on both sides. Li Long had good hearing, and he heard the sound of the tractor, "This hide has a tear, it's eleven yuan..."

"Can you raise the price a little more? These eleven dollars..."

"If you're not selling it, put it aside!"

Sure enough, it’s a seller’s market, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Li Long didn't really care. He had already made back his money from buying the sheep and made a lot of money. These skins were just extras. He just wanted to inquire about the market conditions.

Li Long was still thinking about waiting when two people came out of the purchasing point. One of them was holding a ticket folder and the other was wearing gloves and asked:
"Selling leather, right? What kind of leather? How much?"

"One hundred and sixty-eight sheepskins, four cowskins, and thirty-four rabbitskins."

"Hey, that's quite a lot. Does sheepskin have small intestines?"

"All."

"Okay then, come on, move it down."

"What is the market price?" Li Long and Li Jianguo asked as they moved.

"Sheepskin is 15 dollars a piece, depending on the size, the price fluctuates. The rabbit skin you have is a little small, but other skins are plentiful, so it's OK. It's 3.5 dollars a piece, depending on the size, the price fluctuates by 0.30 cents. Cowhide is more expensive, 45 dollars a piece."

Li Long calculated and found that the price was better than he had imagined.

He thought of Niu Dajun's matter and asked again:

"If you bring rabbit skins here individually, how many do you need to buy?"

"one hundred."

As he answered, the man turned over the pile of sheepskins, looked at one and said:
"Your skinning skills are good. This leather... well, the quality is good. I'll charge you 15.50 for this one."

The person holding the ticket folder was taking notes at that moment. This person was obviously an old hand, he read very quickly and carefully, and when he had flipped through about ten tickets, he said with some surprise:
"Young man, that's great. Did you get this sheepskin from the ranch? Your skinning skills are very good. There isn't a single bad skin, and there's not much grease on it. The quality of the skin is also good. If it's like the skin you brought, we'll welcome it."

Li Long smiled, and Li Jianguo also smiled. Now thinking about it, it was a correct decision for Li Long to pull Halimu and others down from the mountain and then slaughter and skin the sheep.

According to Li Jianguo's skinning skills, at least a quarter of the sheepskins would be torn.

It took nearly half an hour just to check these skins. The people in the two carriages had already finished checking out, and only then did they start looking at the rabbit skins.

"It's just like rabbit skin." The inspector said, "It's only three dollars and a half, all for one, how about that?"

"Okay." Li Long naturally had no objection.

At the end, the sheepskin was sold for 2,570.4 yuan, the cowhide was sold for 139 yuan, and Li Long himself got 2,709.4 yuan.

The sentence was quite standard and I finally earned 119 dollars.

"Young man, this isn't the skin you collected, is it?"

"No." Li Long signed and said, "They are sheep I raise myself."

"Amazing! I've never seen Han people slaughter so many sheep at once. If you have skins like this in the future, please send them here. I don't want to say a hundred, but fifty will be fine. Then tell the guard that it was Lao Zhang from the purchasing department who said so. He will definitely let you in."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Zhang." Li Long smiled, thought about it and asked again:
"Brother Zhang, I want to ask you something. Do you accept other kinds of leather?"

"What other leather?" Old Zhang had nothing to do at the moment and was willing to chat with Li Long.

He could see that Li Long should be a potential big client, so he was willing to build a relationship with such a client and have a few nice words with him.

"I mean the skins of wild animals, such as wolf, goat, red deer, and roe deer."

"Take it. These leathers are not cheap." Lao Zhang said with a smile, "Young comrade, can you get them?"

"Well, a friend of mine is in the mountains, so he asked me to ask."

"Okay, you're so young, but I didn't expect you have such a wide range of options." Old Zhang glanced at Li Long, then at Li Jianguo who had been silent, and nodded.

"Since we are a leather factory, we will definitely collect good leather. For example, wolf skins, if they are not torn, are basically 50 to 60 pieces. Red deer skins are more expensive, ranging from 60 to 70 or 70 to 80. If there are bear skins, they are even more expensive, several hundred pieces, and a larger bear skin can cost thousands! Of course, the more expensive snow leopard skin is almost enough to replace a tractor!"

"What about yellow sheepskin and roe deer skin?" Li Long felt that the purchase price of this high-end leather was a bit vague, so he asked about how often he could get it.

"Yellow sheep skin is more common than wolf skin, and the price is about the same, around fifty or sixty. Of course, the skin must be intact. If it is damaged, peeled, or has bullet holes, it will be downgraded. All skins are the same. Roe deer skin is not as good as red deer skin, but it is also good, and the price is about the same."

It was pretty much what Li Long expected. He could make about ten dollars for each of the skins he received.

Li Long knew what was going on, so he stopped asking questions.

After signing, under Lao Zhang's instructions, he took the ticket and went to collect the money.

After Li Long and his friends left, the ticket collector said to Lao Zhang:

"Master Zhang, why are you so polite to that young man?" "This young man is not simple." Old Zhang said as he asked people to transport the sheepskins to the warehouse: "He can ask so many questions, which means he has seen these skins before.

Didn’t you see me mention bear skin and snow leopard skin at the back? The young man looked a little disdainful after hearing that. I guess he must have had bear skin and even snow leopard skin! The price we offered was not within his expectations, so he asked about yellow sheep skin and roe deer skin. "

"Impossible, isn't it? How could such a young guy have so much experience?"

"Hehe, believe my eyes. Now that we have a market economy, maybe he really has a group of friends in the mountains. These things are hard to find in our plains, and some people have never even heard of them, but people in the mountains have seen a lot of them. Those things live in the mountains. I was polite to him because I wanted to make friends with him. If he really wants to sell leather in the future, we can also find a way here."

The ticket collector nodded. So that's how relationships are established.

"Brother, shall we have dinner in the county?" After leaving the leather factory, Li Long saw the security guard still explaining to people that they would not accept less leather. He ignored him and turned around to ask Li Jianguo loudly.

"Let's go back. I told your sister-in-law when I left that we should go back and eat at noon." Li Jianguo was not stingy with the money. After eating out several times, he always felt that it was more convenient and comfortable to eat at home.

Then go back.

The tractor rumbled back to Team 4. It was already 2:30 in the afternoon.

Li Long looked at the open space on the south side of the yard. The children were still playing football, but there were no more children walking around.

Seeing the tractor rumbling back, the children reluctantly dispersed. Li Qiang came back with a football, and with him was the young boy Tietou.

"Qiangqiang, do you want to play football this afternoon?" a child shouted from a distance.

"Kick!" Li Qiang answered loudly.

He wore his hat askew, and sweat was steaming in the gap between his hair and the hat.

Walking into the gate and looking at his father and Li Long getting off the car, Li Qiang wiped his nose with his sleeve and shouted:

"Dad, uncle, my mom has prepared the meal and is waiting for you!"

"Did your mother say that you would come back for dinner when we get back?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Yeah." Li Qiang smiled, quite proud of himself.

Li Jianguo went to drain the water from the tractor, while Li Long went to get a basin to collect the water. It would be fine if this thing was placed on the ground, but there were elderly people at home. The water would become a pool of ice after being poured on the ground for more than ten minutes, which could easily cause people to fall.

As soon as the door opened, Li Long smelled the aroma of food: rice, two meat dishes, and leftover sauerkraut stewed with meat.

Li Juan and Han Fang no longer had time to work, and were helping Liang Yuemei clean up the dishes in the kitchen.

"The leather has been sold?" Li Qingxia, who was sitting on the sofa, asked, "How is it?"

"The price is not bad, sheepskin is more than 15 yuan." Li Long said, "cowhide is more than 40 yuan."

"Okay." Li Qingxia nodded. Du Chunfang grinned and asked, "Are you very cold? I see there is frost on your clothes."

"It's very cold." Li Long and Li Jianguo took off their coats and prepared to eat.

After dinner, Han Fang reluctantly said goodbye to Li Juan. Li Long drove the jeep to Niu Dajun's house to give him the 119 yuan.

When the jeep arrived at Niu Dajun's house, Niu Dajun was already in the yard.

Li Long didn't drive the car into the yard. He parked it on the side of the road, got out of the car and went over to say hello:

"Brother Dajun, have you eaten?"

"Just finished eating? Have you eaten yet? If not, come in and have something to eat?"

"I've eaten. I sold the rabbit skins. This time I'm giving you the money." Li Long took out the 119 yuan and handed it over. "The leather factory buys rabbit skins. They're 3.5 yuan each, a little more expensive than the purchasing station. You have 34 skins, so this is 119 yuan."

"Hey, this is all thanks to you!" Niu Dajun said with a smile, "It's my fault. If I had known you were selling leather today, I should have followed you. I can still help unload the leather."

"Okay, I'll call you next time when there's a chance. By the way, the leather factory said that they'll buy rabbit skins for a minimum of 100 yuan, and they won't accept less." Li Long reminded him, "If you still have some, save some and sell them later."

"Okay, I got it. Thank you for your help, Xiaolong."

"No trouble, it's on the way."

The matter was settled, and Li Long got in the jeep and drove away.

Niu Dajun would not give Li Long a commission either. They were all from the same village, and it would be a bit awkward to give him money. This was different from Li Long collecting brooms.

So Niu Dajun decided to catch some wild animals and send them directly to Li Jianguo’s home.

That's how human relationships work.

After selling the leather, Li Long finally put his mind at ease. Now that he had enough leather, he could sell it at the leather factory, or wait for Zhao Hui to come and buy it. There were many options.

In the next two days, he did not go to the yard of the purchasing station. He passed by occasionally, or when Gu Xiaoxia passed by after get off work at noon, she said that there were always people waiting there.

Li Long knew that no one was there and didn't go there, so he stayed at home with his two children. Occasionally, he would bring them out to endure the cold, feel the breath of winter, touch the snow and get in touch with the ground.

The sunlight in winter is not strong, but you can bask in the sun by leaning against the wall, which is better than staying in the house in the shade every day.

Mingming and Haohao both like being outside, and you can obviously feel that they are in a much better mood outside.

After resting for more than a week, Li Long felt like moving around. He said something to Gu Xiaoxia, then drove his jeep to the department store to buy some daily necessities, went to the market to buy some potato sprouts to load into the car, and then went to the mountains to visit Halimu and the others.

The sheepskins sold so well this time and at a high price, in large part because of the good craftsmanship of Halimu and his colleagues. Li Long wanted to thank them.

Smoke was floating above Halimu's winter den. When Li Long's jeep drove across the ditch, dogs ran over barking, as if to say hello.

Halimu came out of his winter den and smiled when he saw Li Long getting off the car.

The two men shook hands and greeted each other, then Li Long started moving things under the car. Halimu didn't say anything polite and followed him to move.

After moving all the things, Li Long went into the house to drink milk tea when he saw someone who surprised him.

Talihar's arm was wrapped in thick gauze, blood was oozing out, there were also wounds on his face, and the corners of his mouth were swollen.

"What's wrong?" Li Long asked hurriedly, "Did you fall or..."

"They were chased by a group of wild boars..." Talihar's mouth was swollen and his words were unclear, but Li Long could barely understand him.

His condition is quite serious! (End of this chapter)