Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Director Qian thought for a moment and said:
"There are currently 50 tons of melon seeds in the warehouse of the State Cooperative, but I can't give you all of them. After all, the quantity is too large. First, you definitely can't take out so much money. Second, there are risks. These melon seeds have been collected for almost a year. It's hard to say whether they can be flattened after you take them back and soak them in water.

What I mean is, you can take three or five tons back to test it out, and if it works, then do it this way, how about that? "

"Then I will pull ten tons back first." Li Long also felt that this suggestion was more reliable. "Director, I will pull ten tons back first. I think this method should be feasible. If it works after the test, it would be the best. If it doesn't work, I will come and report to you in time."

"Okay." Director Qian nodded. Since Li Long had the courage and the idea, he decided to support him.

"You need to pay close attention to this matter, but don't take it too seriously; the task of carrying the big broom is the most important to you." Director Qian reminded him again, "We have already spread out the big broom in Xinjiang, and the leaders of the autonomous region still recognize the big broom you brought.

If I have the possibility to export in the future, I will definitely focus on your market, so you better not lose the big picture while picking up sesame seeds.”

"I understand." Li Long smiled and said, "I will definitely remember this. The Achnatherum splendens has not grown yet, so there is still time. We have already organized people to start cutting poles. We should be prepared in advance so that we won't be so passive when we make the big brooms."

"Okay, okay, you're prepared for a rainy day. I'm reassured by your ideas, plans, and ability to act." Director Qian smiled and said, "Come to my house for lunch at noon."

"Director, I can't come today." Li Long stood up and shook his head. "I'm with the driver of the transportation company, so it's not very convenient. I'll come again when I have good news in two days."

"Okay." Director Qian nodded, and then called the people outside to come in and handle the handover with Li Long.

Director Qian didn't mention the specific price, and Li Long didn't ask. This matter must be discussed with the person in charge.

"Go tell the warehouse to let Xiao Li take away ten tons of melon seeds," Director Qian said to the staff, "and give it to him at our purchase price."

The staff member looked at Li Long in surprise, then said yes to Director Qian.

After saying goodbye to Director Qian, Li Long followed the staff out of the office building and went to the warehouse at the back.

As he passed by the small car team, he called the driver sitting in the shade to follow him. When he arrived at the warehouse at the back, the staff found the warehouse manager and explained what Director Qian said. He started loading the car, and then he took Li Long to the logistics department to pay.

When it came to finance, Li Long found out that the supply and marketing cooperative bought melon seeds at two yuan per kilogram.

After Li Long paid 20,000 yuan to the finance department and followed the staff out, the staff whispered to Li Long that if these things could be sold, there would be a certain subsidy from the higher authorities. Of course, in the end, this subsidy would definitely go to the cooperative instead of Li Long.

Li Long nodded. This made more sense. The supply and marketing cooperative certainly couldn't work for nothing.

Ten tons of sunflower seeds filled a whole truck, piled high and secured with ropes. After loading, Li Long drove the jeep and the truck out of the supply and marketing cooperative and went to the state-owned canteen for a meal.

Before eating, Li Long asked the driver for his opinion. The driver ordered some mixed noodles and was quite satisfied with Li Long's attitude.

After dinner, the two cars drove back to Ma County one after the other. Li Long did not stay in the county town, but drove the car directly back to Team 4 to pick up melon seeds.

It was mid-afternoon when the car arrived at Team 4. The sun was very strong and it was the slack season for farmers. Except for a few people in the shade, most people were in their own houses and yards, either enjoying the cool air or working.

There was a tractor in the front yard, so Li Long drove the truck to the backyard.

Hearing the noise, my father, mother, brother and sister-in-law all came out. Li Long's jeep was left outside the yard, and he was directing the truck to reverse.

"Xiaolong, what is this?" Li Qingxia asked, looking at the pile of sacks on the truck.

"It's melon seeds." Li Long said, "The leader of the state supply and marketing cooperative asked me to deal with this melon seeds." His words were rather vague, mainly because it was not easy to tell the truth to the villagers.

Last year, Li Long judged that if too many melon seeds were planted this year, the price would drop or even be unsaleable. He also advised many people not to plant this, but many people did not listen.

Now Li Long has taken the melon seeds back for processing, which is a bit inconsistent. So he said that it was the leader of the state supply and marketing cooperative who asked him to take them back for processing.

"Oh, how to deal with this?" Mother Du Chunfang asked a key question.

"It's just soaking it in water to soften it and then flattening it, just like what we did two years ago." Li Long said with a smile: "The quantity this time is relatively large, so we need to find someone to help. I will just pay the labor."

"It just so happens that everyone is free right now," Li Jianguo saw the car stop, opened the rear compartment panel, got on the car and started unloading the sunflower seeds, saying as he unloaded:

"It's relatively easy to find people, but it's only for a few days. After that, it's time to harvest the wheat."

"It's okay. Ten days will be enough." Li Long had also calculated this time. The State Supply and Marketing Cooperative still had forty tons.

If he could handle these ten tons smoothly, he would wait for someone from the mouth to take them away, and then he would pull the remaining forty tons back all at once.

Of course, it also depends on the price.

"Then how do you calculate this money?" asked sister-in-law Liang Yuemei.

"Just work in this yard, eight dollars a day." Li Long said, "You have to find someone who doesn't cheat or play dirty tricks."

"Eight dollars is a lot of money." Liang Yuemei nodded, "There must be someone willing to do it."

"Let's not look for it today. Let's find something to soak these melon seeds first," Li Long said, "and then we can start looking for someone to do it tomorrow."

"Where can we get so much stuff to soak?" Du Chunfang was worried. "We don't have enough basins at home."

"Why not try another approach?" Li Jianguo thought for a moment and said, "Find people who are willing to work, have them take the sunflower seeds away, soak them in water, flatten them at home, and then send them back.

This sack of melon seeds weighs about 80 kilograms. Can't we just pay them by the sack? "

Li Long thought this method was quite good. He just needed to pick some reliable people, and not worry about the melon seeds being taken away. He only needed to weigh and register them before taking them away. He only needed to be responsible for the inspection, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Although it's a bit risky, it's worth a try.

The eldest brother is indeed the eldest brother. His social experience and life experience are richer than mine, even though he has lived two lives.

"More than 80 kilograms per bag, 10 tons means more than 100 bags." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Ten yuan for each sack, and I'll flatten it and send it over. Is that enough?"

"Why not? Of course it will work!" Liang Yuemei smiled, "Soak it in water for half a day, press it with a board, flatten it and dry it in the sun. It will take two days at most."

"That's settled then." Li Long said, "Let's unload the truck now, and then I'll go find someone."

"Why not use a loud speaker?" Du Chunfang said, "It would be much more convenient to just shout."

"You can't tell everyone." Qing Xia waved his hand, "I'm worried that someone might do something bad."

Yes, you should be on guard against others. Some people take the sunflower seeds back and send you half a bag, or just take all of them. How do you compensate them?
Even if you make an agreement in advance, when the time comes for compensation, it is difficult to ask for the money and disputes may easily arise.

Human nature is complicated, so it’s better not to try.

There were more than a hundred bags. It took the three men of the Li family and the driver more than half an hour to unload them. After the driver left, Li Jianguo went to get the scale, and then Li Long and Li Jianguo went to look for people separately.

It’s not too late yet. The days are long in summer and it’s still several hours before dark.

Mrs. Lu from the opposite door heard the noise and rushed over. Looking at the pile of sacks in the yard, she asked curiously:

"What good stuff did this little dragon bring back again?"

"Punch the melon seeds." Liang Yuemei said, "The task given to Xiaolong by the state supply and marketing cooperative is to flatten all the melon seeds. Now they are pulled back. People in our team have experience. He plans to hire someone to help flatten them..." "How do we flatten them after we've done it?" Mrs. Lu was a little worried, "Soak them in water?"

"Yes, soak it in water." Liang Yuemei said with a smile, "Soak it for half a day and it will become soft. After it is softened, you can press it."

"That's a good idea," Mrs. Lu looked at the sacks and asked tentatively, "Did Xiaolong say anything? How do we calculate the money?"

"Ten yuan for a sack." Liang Yuemei pointed to the scale and said, "But it has to be dried. It will be as heavy when it is taken away as it is when it comes back. As long as it is flattened, I'll give you ten yuan for a sack."

"Hey, this job is doable!" Mrs. Lu had pressed melons at home last year and was familiar with this job. "Can I make ten sacks?"

"Why not? But it has to be done as soon as possible, in two or three days, because the task is urgent. Otherwise, he will find someone in the county..." Liang Yuemei also said, "Also, the quality must be up to standard, and the quantity cannot be less, otherwise the state will not be able to deliver and will have to investigate."

"I definitely understand." Mrs. Lu listened attentively and said with a smile, "We just earn some money for our labor. Xiaolong said that we may not be able to sell the melon seeds this year. There is no use for them at home. They are not as good as oil sunflowers."

So he went over and called Lu Yingming. Ten sacks were not easy to carry, so he simply drove the tractor into the Li family's yard and weighed them. The total weight was 833 kilograms.

Liang Yuemei found a small notebook to write it down and asked Lu Yingming to sign it.

"Hey, Juan's mom, you're still awesome. These two brothers haven't come back yet, so you should take care of ten sacks first!" Du Chunfang said to Liang Yuemei with a smile.

Although she had some opinions about Liang Yuemei at the beginning, after getting along for a long time, Du Chunfang could see, no matter how dumb she was, that her eldest daughter-in-law was a really good person, and their relationship improved.

"Since the man is not at home, we have to take care of everything." Liang Yuemei smiled, "Mom, just wait and see, our family will get better and better..."

"It's good enough now. When I was in my hometown, I never thought that I could have enough meat every day..." Du Chunfang sighed, "At that time, I thought that if I could eat meat five times a month, no, three times a month, I would be very blessed. Now, I can't enjoy it anymore, hehehe..."

Yes, life is getting better and better, so better that we could never have imagined before.

Thinking about how pitiful Juan looked when she ate that bowl of sliced ​​meat, and then thinking about the present, Liang Yuemei suddenly realized that things started to change when her brother-in-law came back from Wucheng.

Now she has become the envy of the team. She takes the initiative to say hello to everyone she meets when she goes out. This is due to her own efforts, but she knows that the key lies in Li Long.

Just as I was thinking about it, someone came over to ask again. This time it was a neighbor in the backyard, with whom I had an average relationship. However, the other party obviously didn't know what was going on in the yard. Mrs. Lu didn't spread gossip. Making money was more important. She was now pouring water into a large basin in the yard to soak melon seeds.

Although they are neighbors, the relationship is there. Liang Yuemei didn't say it directly this time, but just said that there is a mission for the things Li Long brought back.

The other party was obviously looking for an opportunity to make money, but Liang Yuemei didn't say it. If it was her own business, she might have really let it go, but the main reason was that she couldn't lose face, and they would meet again and again.

But Liang Yuemei felt that Li Long's matter should be taken seriously. Although Li Long did not say how much compensation he would have to pay if there was a problem with the sack of melon seeds, she exchanged it for more than 200 yuan at last year's price.

What if all ten sacks go wrong?
It didn't work. I couldn't believe it, so I refused.

After the neighbor left, Du Chunfang praised again:

"Hey, it's just you. If it were me, it would be hard to refuse. Juan's mother, you are a capable person."

Liang Yuemei knew that her neighbor would curse her in secret when he found out about what happened, so she smiled bitterly and said, "What should I do? This is what Xiaolong got, and his elder brother and he are not here, so I have to keep it for him."

"Let his father come, I'll go get him!" Du Chunfang felt that she couldn't always make things difficult for her daughter-in-law, so she stood up and walked to the front yard. Li Qingxia had just finished unloading the melon seeds and went to the front yard to tidy up the vegetable garden, so Du Chunfang went to find him.

Not long after, the rumbling sound of a tractor was heard outside.

Li Long looked for Tao Daqiang, Xie Yundong, Liang Dacheng and others whom he could trust.

Li Jianguo was looking for those old friends who had helped him build the village. He and Li Long agreed that each of them would look for five families, which would be enough.

Each family takes away ten sacks, which is less than a ton. It is not a large quantity and the work can be completed in three or four days.

There is not much rain in northern Xinjiang at this time of year, and it is hot during the day, so as long as you flatten it, it can be dried in half a day.

The first to arrive were the Liang Dacheng brothers. Their family had a lot of labor, so they took away 20 sacks directly. Li Long followed in a jeep, and Li Qingxia also came back from the front yard, where there was a scale. Liang Yuemei handed the book to Li Long, who wrote down the numbers and asked Liang Dacheng to sign.

In this way, you have ten bags and I have twenty bags. We are all experienced and know the processing process. Before long, the mountain of more than one hundred sacks of melon seeds were all pulled out.

There was nothing left of the Li family.

In fact, at the beginning Li Long was a little worried that the people he found had families that made a lot of money, and whether they would be interested in a sack worth ten dollars.

Thinking about it later, I realized I was worrying too much.

Not to mention that every household had money to spend at that time, even in another thirty or forty years, when each family handed over their land to a cooperative and only had to wait for dividends at the end of each year, those "landlords" would still be looking for opportunities to make money everywhere in the summer.

Cutting Sedge, cutting bitter beans, picking corn, picking potatoes, picking peanuts... the team's work such as connecting hair pipes and clearing ditches only earns about a hundred yuan a day or even less, but everyone is happy to do it.

Therefore, the ten dollars from this sack is an unexpected gain for them, and they must be very happy to earn it.

Now workers don’t even get ten yuan for a day’s work, not to mention five yuan. They are all experienced, and it doesn’t take them more than half a day to beat a sack of melon seeds. For a family like the Liang family with many laborers, it’s just that soaking the melon seeds is more troublesome, and there’s no way to save time on this, but everything else can be done quickly.

So after all the melon seeds in the yard were pulled out, when Li Jiazheng was sighing, other people who heard the news ran over, such as Xu Haijun, and found that there were no more melon seeds. They were all very regretful.

"Don't worry, this is just the beginning." Li Long said to Xu Haijun who drove the tractor over, and Xu Dejun and others on the tractor bucket, "If this batch is done, there will be more. It will take less than a week to get news. So don't worry, you'd better find the tools now, otherwise if more melon seed thieves come, you will have no tools and can only worry."

You need a basin to soak the melon seeds, and a roller to flatten them. You also need to use a very flat place, which requires a board. People who grew melons last year had them at home, but those who grew melons this year may not have them. So after hearing what Li Long said, some people actually went to prepare them.

"You go back. Mingming Haohao is still young, and you still have a purchasing station," Li Jianguo said to Li Long, "Go and do your thing. By the way, bring some vegetables back. I'll call you when I'm done here. Don't worry, I'll weigh them when someone comes over, and I'll make sure they're all in good condition."

Li Jianguo has become familiar with the tractor these days, and has also opened up the 40 acres of saline-alkali land that his family needs. He plans to soak the land while watering the corn field in a few days.

As for the application of fertilizers, there is no rush for now.

So he has plenty of time.

Li Long naturally believed his elder brother, so he went to the vegetable garden to pick some vegetables, put them in the jeep and went back.

When he left, he also went to see the old people in the Lao Ma Hao and the animals they raised.

Seeing Li Long coming, Uncle Luo and his friends were also very happy and told Li Long that the antlers had been harvested. This year's antlers would weigh about ten kilograms after drying and could be sold for a lot of money.

Come to think of it, Jia Tianlong's purchase price for first-grade red deer antlers has reached nearly two hundred yuan per kilogram, so these ten or so kilograms are worth two to three thousand yuan, which is a lot.

Red deer antlers can be harvested twice a year. Although the number of autumn antlers is small, if you harvest them like this, you can get back almost enough to fill a tractor in a year, which is a lot.

Li Long put the velvet antlers into the jeep, and then pulled out some sugar residue - the female goats in the yard also had to be fed well.

When we returned to the big courtyard in the county town, the sun was still high in the sky.

Today was quite fulfilling. (End of this chapter)