Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Captain Xu Chengjun suppressed the matter and asked Xu Haijun to give half of the Sphagnum Gramineae he had cut to Ning Dawei.

Xu Haijun felt very wronged, but Xu Chengjun had such a high prestige in the family that he had to do it.

It is impossible to apologize. Xu Haijun also said that Ji Ji could give it, but it was not because he took it, but because the captain said so. As for an apology, it is absolutely impossible. Even if he is no longer in this team, he will not apologize.

This matter caused a lot of awkwardness, but in the eyes of other people in the team, it was just gossip and a joke.

After all, the Xu and Ning families were considered relatively large families in the team, with several families with the same surname. This was considered a large family in the mixed-population production teams in northern Xinjiang.

The other surnames have only two or three relatives at most. So they just treat it as a joke, it's not a big deal anyway.

Even old village founders like Li Jianguo, who have experienced a lot, think that this is just a childish temper tantrum. It's nothing and they will probably make up in a few days. After all, they will meet again sooner or later.

Li Long didn't care and asked Li Jianguo about the situation of making the big broom.

"I told them to send the finished ones over every day. So in the past five days, we have received more than 700 bunches and returned dozens of substandard ones."

If you average it out over five days, it's not a lot, but the first two days are for drying the Sphagnum Gramineae and preparing the poles, so it actually only takes three days to tie them up. This speed is okay, and it should be no problem to make at least five or six thousand in a month.

Li Long went over to see the quality results checked by Li Jianguo.

The big brooms were piled under the shed on the east side of Li Jianguo's backyard. When Li Long came over, Li Qingxia was sorting the brooms, trying not to press down the sedge on the brooms, and placing some in an interlaced manner and some upright.

Li Long randomly checked a few of them and found that the quality was very good. He felt that his elder brother's inspection and acceptance standards were stricter than his own.

That's it.

Li Long left 15,000 yuan with Li Jianguo for his use first. Because he had to pay on the spot for collecting the brooms every day, the money was spent quickly.

The Li family won't make a big broom this year. Actually, Li Qingxia couldn't sit still, but when he rode his bike out for a spin, he gave up the idea - mainly because all the Stipa had been mowed down wherever he could see.

A big broom costs three dollars and a half, and if you can make seven or eight of them a day, that’s more than twenty dollars. That’s how fast you make money!
Some people rely on this money to do real work. This year, the number of brooms required is large, so the villagers are naturally enthusiastic about cutting Achnatherum splendens, no matter how much they can get, they will cut it first.

So when Li Qingxia realized it belatedly and went to cut the Stipa sphenanthera, it was basically gone around the village.

After looking at the big brooms that Li Jianguo collected, Li Long said:
"When Song Ming comes over with the sugar residue in the next two days, I'll have him take the broom to the supply and marketing cooperative. It'll be just right if he does it every few days."

Song Ming now brings a cart of sugar residue every week. There is a lot of sugar residue stored in the old stable, but most of it is eaten by the cattle, sheep, deer and wild boars in the stable.

After all, there are a lot of things to feed. A cart of sugar residue may seem like a lot, but with so many animals taking a bite each, it would be a lot to eat in a week.

Uncle Luo and his men were still trying to save some fodder. After all, when winter came, it was impossible to let the livestock only eat sugar residue, grass was also necessary.

Because sugar residue is also considered concentrated feed, the cattle and sheep in the stable are much fatter than those raised in other places. Once in a while, if someone in the team needs to slaughter cattle or sheep for family matters, they will go to the old stable to buy one.

In the past, Ma Jinbao would be the one to be contacted for such matters. However, this year, basically no one wanted to buy Ma Jinbao's cattle and sheep. If he wanted to spend money, he could only wait for the sheep dealers to come and buy them, or slaughter the sheep and sell them in the county market. After the county free market changed its appearance, some people in the suburbs spontaneously set up a small morning market, but it didn't last long. It was basically gone in the winter, and in the summer they sold some seasonal vegetables and the like.

Because Li Long had to go check on Liang Wenyu and the others, he didn't have lunch at his eldest brother's house.

Du Chunfang continued to nag, but she knew her youngest son had important things to do, so she didn't stop him.

When Li Long drove his jeep to Laomahao, Xu Haijun also arrived here on a tractor and stopped him.

Xu Haijun was also very depressed. He was not the one who started the Stipa incident, nor did he take the grass, but in the end Xu Chengjun sacrificed him.

He couldn't tell anyone else, so after knowing that Li Long had returned to the team, he came to find him.

This year, Xu Haijun was only looking for raw materials for making the big brooms. He led people to cut thousands of poles, and now people come to his house every day to buy them.

If the poles are needed, then so is the Achnatherum splendens, and this is what he did in advance. He thought that he could make money just by selling the raw materials.

However, he did not expect that there were many people in the team who wanted to join him. He only cut more than 100 kilograms, or 20 to 30 bundles of Stipa sphenanthera, and then he could not find it.

Now except for some "big households", each family does not have much Stipa sphenanthera. Xu Haijun knew that this was an opportunity, but because of the matter with Ning Dawei, he was in a very bad mood.

"Tell me, this is obviously not my business. The captain insisted that I give half a bundle of reeds to Ning Dawei. Isn't this a slap in my face?" Xu Haijun could only tell Li Long.

"Half a bundle of Achnatherum splendens, which is only a few kilograms, costs less than ten yuan." Li Long said with a smile, "Why is it so serious?"

"As for that. Mainly because it wasn't me who did it. If I do this, so many people in the team will laugh at me!" Xu Haijun felt that money was not a big deal, the main thing was the grievance.

"Is the team so nervous about Achnatherum splendens?" Li Long asked, "Then go outside and cut some. Since you don't plan to make a big broom, go cut more Achnatherum splendens. Someone will beg you for help when the time comes."

Li Long's words were mainly to divert Xu Haijun's attention: "Think about it, there are a lot of big sweeping jobs this year. If you pull back a tractor bucket of Achnatherum splendens, will those people laugh at you? That's impossible. They will all smile and ask you to buy Achnatherum splendens!"

This is the truth, but Xu Haijun hasn't come to his senses in the past two days, mainly because he feels aggrieved.

But in Li Long's opinion, what is grievance? Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Xu Haijun is just a tool used by Xu Chengjun to balance everyone's thoughts. If this matter cannot be investigated clearly, then just suppress it. Anyway, Xu Haijun has made a lot of money with the pole, and there are definitely many people in the village who are jealous.

Then just push him out so that those jealous people can just laugh it off.

Let Xu Haijun bear with the grievance, who made him make money?

Li Long was not sure whether there was any attempt to threaten Xu Haijun.

However, in Li Long's opinion, the scale of the village is not big, and if something needs to be done, it should be done outside the village.

In fact, Li Long had told Tao Daqiang and his friends about this matter. But Tao Daqiang and his friends had been harvesting wheat for more than half a month and were exhausted. Now they felt that they had enough money to spend and didn't want to earn any more.

Their reply to Li Long was that they would do the work of making brooms, but they would not go far away to cut sedge grass and chop poles. It would be better to work leisurely in the yard, making brooms when they wanted to, and taking a break when they didn't.

Li Long didn't force it.

Although Tao Daqiang was the first to follow him, it was impossible for him to push the child all the way. Xie Yundong wanted to, but the child was not feeling well recently, so he couldn't leave.

So Li Long simply gave Xu Haijun some advice, saying that this guy was ambitious and proactive, so let him earn the money.

Of course, before Li Long gave Xu Haijun the advice, Liang Wenyu had been driving a tractor north to cut Stipa sphenanthera for several days.

They don't have this grass over there, so if they want to make big brooms to make money, they have to look for resources outside. Qingshuihe Village occupies the south, and there is a large plot of land and more Achnatherum splendens in the north, so they go there.

Li Long persuaded Xu Haijun, and Xu Haijun drove his tractor to call for help. He had been to the north last winter to hunt yellow sheep. At that time, he could see the Stipa striata grassland there. Although the road was a bit far, it was profitable. What would it cost to go a little further?

Li Long went into the old horse shed and told Uncle Luo that next time Song Ming came, he should go to his elder brother to get some Stipa.

Li Long might come by then. If he doesn't come in time, let Song Ming pull it directly. "Don't worry, Xiao Song is very active in his work. Even if you don't come, he can still pull the big broom to the county." Uncle Luo is now very familiar with Song Ming. Sometimes when Song Ming pulls sugar residue over, Uncle Luo will ask him to bring some things from Shicheng or the county.

Li Long was happy to see that Song Ming and Uncle Luo had a good relationship. Many people in the team could only go to the county town a few times a year due to distance issues, let alone Shicheng.

Because of the influence of Li Long in this life, the team now has many more tractors and bicycles than in the previous life. But even so, going to Shicheng is still a rare thing for many people in the team.

With Song Ming's frequent visits to the team, the team members are less concerned about what's happening in Shicheng.

In the words of later generations, it was a bit disenchanted.

After telling this, Li Long drove his jeep to Liang Wenyu's house.

There were several young men in Liang Wenyu's yard. He was distributing Achnatherum splendens to them. The Achnatherum splendens was weighed and given to them. Apparently, the harvested Achnatherum splendens was sold by kilogram after drying. When the jeep came over, several young men were already holding Achnatherum splendens and preparing to leave.

There seemed to be some young men who were there to make broomsticks this year. Li Long smiled and greeted them. After the young men left, he went over to greet Liang Donglou who was making a big broom, and then asked Liang Wenyu:
"How is it, how many brooms have you collected?"

"In the first two days, we mainly cut Achnatherum splendens and chopped off the grass. Now we have collected only a little over 100 grasses. These days, I have been going to the north to cut Achnatherum splendens every day. I feel that I can make a lot of money just by cutting Achnatherum splendens this month."

"How much do you sell one kilogram of Achnatherum splendens for?" Li Long asked curiously.

The amount of Sphagnum splendens used to make a large broom is just over one kilogram but less than two kilograms. Li Long guessed that this kilogram of Sphagnum splendens is worth about fifty or sixty cents.

"Fifty cents," Liang Wenyu said, "Fifty cents a kilogram. A big broom uses seventy or eighty cents of reed. I'll keep a record of it. When the big broom is made, I'll settle the bill."

That's good.

Li Long went over to check the brooms Liang Wenyu had collected. He could clearly feel that the quality of these brooms was not as good as those that Li Jianguo had checked.

The problems mainly focus on the poles. The leather is not completely peeled clean, there are small cracks, and the number of added red willow branches is a bit too little.

Among more than a hundred brooms, Li Long picked out seven or eight that had problems.

Liang Wenyu wanted to explain and her face turned red, but in the end she said nothing.

"Wenyu, I know you may be embarrassed because these people with big brooms are your friends, so you gave some of them a pass. But I tell you, these big brooms were delivered to you by the autonomous region, so the quality must be up to standard.

Of course, I may have emphasized the tightness of the Achnatherum splendens before. The Achnatherum splendens used in these brooms is indeed very tight and cannot be pulled off, which is very good. But other details must also be paid attention to. "

"Okay, I'll definitely pay attention!" Liang Wenyu was not unconvinced, as Li Long pointed out one problem after another. Ever since he started working with Li Long, Liang Wenyu knew that Li Long was a bit picky in his pursuit of quality.

But they succeeded. According to Li Long, it was all because of the quality, there is no doubt about that.

Fortunately, except for two bunches of red willow branches that were insufficient in number, the others were able to meet the qualified standards after trimming, so the loss was not too great.

As for the two unqualified ones, Liang Wenyu planned to keep them at home for his own use.

Li Long also left Liang Wenyu 10,000 yuan as the purchase fee. He thought that it would be enough if Liang Wenyu could receive 3,000 qualified brooms this month.

Liang Wenyu didn't hesitate to take the money and handed it to Chen Xiuzhu to keep.

Li Long had another trip to Qingshuihe Village, so he ate a tomato and left in a hurry.

After he left, Liang Wenyu looked at Liang Donglou with a blushing face: "Dad, you really said it."

"Every failure makes you wiser." Liang Donglou said as he was making big brooms. "Now while your people have made few, go over and tell them. Do you know who made those brooms?"

"I remembered it when you reminded me these two days." Liang Wenyu went to push his bicycle and said, "I'll go tell them now."

It turned out that when Liang Wenyu was collecting the brooms, his father Liang Donglou had already noticed that his standards were a bit low, and he felt a bit like Mr. "almost".

Liang Donglou has watched Li Long grow up in the past two years and has studied his growth process. He knows that he has very strict requirements on quality, so after Liang Wenyu collected the broom the day before, he reminded him.

Liang Wenyu was a little disapproving, thinking that it would not affect the use of the broom. Liang Donglou stopped trying to persuade him. Sometimes, the words of outsiders are more effective than those of family members.

Liang Wenyu rode his bike out of the yard, still thinking about what his father had said over the past two days.

He actually knew that his father had more life experience than himself, but when a fledgling grows up, it will always want to fly in its own way. Only when it hits a wall will it suddenly realize that the life experience that the elders talked about before is actually applicable here.

With the tiger bone wine Li Long sent, Liang Donglou was very strong and worked as efficiently as ever. When it came to making a big broom, he was much better than the young men Liang Wenyu had hired.

Of course, it is not only young people who make big brooms now. Liang Wenyu is looking for young people, but the main work is still done by the elders in these young people's families. Young people also do it, but the pass rate is not high.

Li Long returned to the courtyard just in time for lunch. After lunch, he hurried to Qingshuihe Village.

There are already many big brooms piled up in Meng Hai's house. He is piling up the big brooms that he just collected today to ensure that the brooms will not be deformed due to the pressure of piling.

Seeing Li Long getting out of the car and walking over, Meng Hai stood up and greeted him with a smile.

"How much have you collected?" Li Long asked as he looked at the brooms he had collected.

These brooms are obviously more than those of Team 4. It seems that Qingshuihe prepared early and fully.

The quality of the big broom is good, the poles are peeled and dried, and there are no cracks. The broom head is tightly tied with red willows, and the fine hemp ropes are used to tie up small strands of Achnatherum splendens, so that the Achnatherum splendens will not spread out too much and will not break easily.

"There are more than 1,300 now." Meng Hai said, "Comrade Li Long, if you can take them away, please take a batch away. The main reason is that our yard is small and we can't put too many in. If there is a spark or something, it will be troublesome."

Li Long said as he checked:

"Okay, I'll bring the car over this afternoon and take the big broom away."

The quantity is a bit small, so it’s not cost-effective to put it in the supply and marketing cooperative, so let’s put it in the purchasing station first.

He wanted to give Meng Hai a reserve fund, but Meng Hai didn't want it. He said that the brooms he collected had not been paid for yet and he was still keeping an account of them.

"We all believe in you. We'll pay you when you come and take it away." Meng Hai said with a smile, "There's no rush."

Just take your time.

There are basically no unqualified brooms here at Menghai, which makes Li Long very pleased.

It can be seen that Meng Hai has strict requirements, which makes him feel relieved. Being older means that he should be more attentive than young people like Liang Wenyu. (End of this chapter)