Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 949 The mountain herders still have plenty of stock!
When Li Long left the supply and marketing cooperative, he not only carried the box of tea that Li Xiangqian had given him, but also a bag of food that Zhou Yuan had given him. This bag mainly contained fried foods such as fried dough twists and sesame leaves, as well as braised meat and other snacks.

"Your sister-in-law made a lot, and since you won't have time to come over for the New Year, she asked me to bring you some. They're not as fancy as the pastries you brought me, but they're homemade and taste pretty good. By the way, are you free these next couple of evenings? If you are, would you like to come over for a drink?"

Li Long did not refuse Zhou Yuan's invitation, and the two discussed it and arranged to meet the following evening.

……

On February 17th, the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, the People's Congress of Ma County was held. Li Long attended the meeting as a representative.

He was assigned to a group before the meeting started and submitted his proposal, but whether it was useful or not was unknown.

Each delegate attending the meeting was given a bag, a notebook, and a pencil. The bag contained a stack of meeting materials. At that time, printing technology was still relatively basic, but these materials were no longer mimeographed, which surprised Li Long.

While listening to the report at the meeting, Li Long also saw the county's work plan for this year, which included the part about developing program-controlled telephones that he had been longing for.

Because it was a county-wide work report, it was only mentioned briefly. Li Long took advantage of the meeting to find out from the representatives in the communications field and inquired about it.

"The programmable equipment has been purchased and is currently being installed and the lines are being replaced. Some units in the county have already started the adjustments. After the county's public units have completed their adjustments, we can issue notices to allow private individuals to install telephones." Since it was also a representative and this information was verifiable, the other representative did not hide anything. "The only problem is that the initial installation fee is quite expensive, four thousand yuan per unit."

Li Long already knew this, so he wasn't too surprised.

Based on the current average wage in Ma County, four thousand yuan is roughly five years' worth of wages, which is almost enough to buy a tractor.

It's not cheap!

Ordinary families couldn't afford to install such a thing at this time.

Li Long, however, did not have this problem. He was just thinking about getting the telephone installed as soon as possible so that he wouldn't have to run around for anything, and his life would also become more modern.

The meeting agenda was largely the same as what Li Long had seen in the news last time. They would study relevant documents from the autonomous region and prefecture, review the county's report, and then hold group discussions to gather opinions.

Although people at that time were somewhat formalistic and bureaucratic, there were still quite a few people who got things done. Li Long and his group, who were in the commercial system, offered their opinions on some specific aspects of the current commodity economy.

He could tell that these people were genuinely and sincerely trying to improve the county's business environment and promote industrial and commercial development.

At that time, not to mention Ma County, the entire northern Xinjiang region and even the entire northwest region were very backward in terms of attracting investment.

If one wants to develop in industry and commerce, one can only rely on self-reliance and tap into one's own potential.

As someone who has been through it all, Li Long naturally offered his own insights. These included developing distinctive industries, providing preferential tax policies, and optimizing the business environment.

The back room. By the 2020s, the one-stop service model for various industries and businesses that had been widely implemented across the country, while certainly not feasible now, could still be improved by enhancing the initiative of public officials.

After all, at this time, it's more convincing and effective to say "serving the people" in a straightforward way.

Therefore, the representatives of various industries and businesses had a deeper impression of Li Long, this young man.

Just as Li Long had expected, his proposal was not formally included in the study until the end of the meeting.

Of course, what he didn't know was that this proposal was specifically selected by the county and submitted to the state along with several other proposals for further study.

After the meeting concluded, the report was approved following review and revisions by each group. It will then be distributed to all departments to guide their work for the year.

After the meeting, Li Long drove to the mountains.

Originally, Li Xiangqian was told that they would go to the mountains two or three days after the meeting. However, due to the approaching National People's Congress, it was postponed.

When Li Long drove his jeep to Halim's winter camp, Yushanjiang was also there.

When the two men heard the car and came out of their winter shelter, Li Long had already turned off the engine and gotten out of the car.

He was somewhat surprised to see Yushanjiang here, but he was also quite happy, as this would be a good opportunity to ask about the road construction.

“A few days ago, we convened a general meeting of all the villages, bringing together all the elders—the heads of each household—to discuss the road construction. In general, everyone finally agreed.” Yu Shanjiang briefly explained the situation to Li Long.

“You wouldn’t believe it, when we first had the meeting to discuss building the road, most of the elders disagreed. They said it would disrupt the tradition. Some even said that your arrival had changed the way our tribe lived.” Halim was still quite angry when he recalled what the elders had said: “They were just talking nonsense!”

“Harim gave these people a good scolding back then,” Yushanjiang said with a smile. “I’ve known him for so many years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen him get angry at the elderly.”

Li Long was also somewhat surprised. The ethnic minorities in northern Xinjiang have always maintained a good tradition of respecting the elderly and caring for the young. They are especially respectful to the elderly. When he later visited some ethnic minority communities in Urumqi, he saw young people bowing to unfamiliar elderly people with their hands on their chests.

So Halim didn't expect to get angry at the old man.

“We’ve known each other for five or six years, we’re friends. You came to the mountains and brought us a lot of supplies, which helped us understand the situation outside the mountains and made our lives better.”

"Some people are just short-sighted, like marmots, only seeing what's right in front of them," Halim said bitterly. "They enjoy the benefits you've brought them, yet they say these changes are bad. This is shameful and must be stopped, otherwise our tribe will become increasingly backward."

“The young people have good ideas,” Yushanjiang added, fearing that Li Long might develop a bad impression of the tribe. “They are all very supportive of building the road. During the meeting, they all spoke highly of you. In the end, we agreed to build the road. Of course, this road is for us to build; we won’t let you do it alone.”

I've already explained it to everyone, and they all agreed—each family will contribute manpower when the road is being repaired. Although we don't have much money, we all have some savings at home. These are things we obtained from the mountains, and we'll give them to you to exchange for money to buy supplies for the road repairs.”

Yushanjiang was speaking here, gesturing for Halim to open the door to his idle house.

The abandoned house was filled with all sorts of things. Deer antlers were casually placed like tree branches; a large pile of jade stones of various sizes that looked like ordinary stones; a thick stack of hides—including those of snow leopards, bears, and lynxes; and a pile that looked like scrap metal, but Li Long, who had a collection station, could tell at a glance that these were all antiques, probably picked up from the mountains.

“Although everyone sends you some things every year, each family still has some savings in their winter homes.” Yu Shanjiang said with a smile when he saw Li Long’s surprised expression. “Some things are not taken out until the critical moment, and now is the critical moment.”

“There’s more,” Halim said, pointing to their winter hut. “Come on, let’s go inside and take a look.”

From Li Long's perspective, now that he's a quasi-expert, these things in the idle house could easily fetch ten or twenty thousand yuan right now, not even needing to be sold for decades.

At least the labor and fuel costs have definitely been covered.

Upon entering the winter quarters, Halim's sheep hut, Gulimire, had already prepared the milk tea and invited Li Long to sit down and drink it.

Several milk tea bowls were placed on the kang table, and in the middle of the table were plates of naan, jam, dried fruit, ghee and other snacks.

Nathan and Sasken were eating naan at the table when they saw Li Long come in. They immediately got up and greeted him with smiles.

"The two kids are good; they know to greet people first," Yushanjiang said with a smile.

Li Long sat down, took the milk tea, and took a sip. Meanwhile, Halimu took a cloth bag, about the size of a shoulder bag, from inside the wooden kang (heated brick bed). The bag was tied with a rope. He untied the rope, came to Li Long, moved the things in front of him aside, and then emptied the contents of the bag onto the table.

Li Long almost dropped the milk tea bowl he was holding.

Seven or eight gold nuggets, some as big as eggs and others as small as thumbs, and about ten rough gemstones of various colors were poured out of the cloth bag and spread across the table.

Li Long was genuinely startled by all the sheer number of things!
He then remarked that the people in the mountains did indeed have some resources.

It makes sense, considering these herders have lived in the mountains for generations; they should have some savings by now. "The items we ask each family to bring are of roughly the same value. It's not that the farther away you are, the more you have to bring," Yushanjiang explained. "It's roughly the value of fifty sheep."

Fifty sheep would cost around a thousand yuan, but Li Long estimated that the contents of the bag, plus the things in the spare house, were worth far more than that.

Clearly, people are undervaluing these things.

Before Li Long could speak, Yu Shanjiang said:

"Li Long, take these things. We don't know if they're enough to repair the road leading out of the winter camp, but these are all we have."

We know that when we move from the winter pastures to the summer pastures, you will build a road leading there. If there is a lot of work to be done, then the money will be spent on that. If there is a little, then our people will make up for it manually when they come down.

This is a great thing for our tribe, so we can't let you contribute money and effort alone. You can take the supplies without worry. You can let us know the specific time for road construction later, and we'll gather people to join us.

Li Long originally intended to refuse the goods, but now he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Li Xiangqian had previously told Li Long that he couldn't let the people in the tribe think that Li Long should work for them.

The actions of the people of Yushanjiang truly reflect the fine qualities of this nation. They will not accept benefits from others for nothing; they will do their best to do what they should do.

In Li Long's view, if all these things were converted into cash, the money could be used to hire machinery and manpower to build a road connecting the winter settlement to the outside world.

Of course, the road to the summer pasture would be impossible—it would be many times more difficult.

“Alright, then I won’t stand on ceremony. I’ll take these things.” Li Long nodded readily. “I came here today to check on the road construction and see how it connects to all the winter villages. I need to draw a rough map and calculate the amount of work.”

Then, when spring arrives, our supply and marketing cooperative will send people to help. They'll be working for a shorter period, but they'll bring in some supplies, so we should have enough money and supplies; the main thing is manpower.

"We'll see how things go then. You guys proceed with your plan: shearing the sheep, washing the sheep, moving them to new pastures. I can find people to do the work."

"Well, then it's up to you to arrange it." Yu Shanjiang nodded. Since Li Long had a plan, they would listen to him. Over the years, Li Long had been their friend and partner more than once, and he had always handled things perfectly. They had become accustomed to trusting Li Long's work.

It was still early, so after drinking milk tea and eating a few bites of naan, Li Long, Halimu, and Yushanjiang went into the mountains together, heading up the road to their winter nest.

Li Long walked these roads while helping the herders rebuild their winter huts, but he was mainly doing the work for Meng Hai and his team, so he didn't remember much about them. At the time, he was mainly thinking about hunting.

Having retraced the route, I now have a new understanding of road construction.

The road to the winter pastures is generally much better than the road to the summer pastures. This area is actually a main gully with many branch gullies, and the winter pastures are scattered along these gullies, connected to each other to some extent.

The road that can be tractor-friendly mostly passes through ditches. Only when you reach the head of the ditch is it difficult to go uphill. Here, a bulldozer is needed to create a gap and a gentle slope.

The remaining tasks involved cutting down the shrubs and lone trees growing in the ditches. There were basically no large areas of forest along these roads, so even though manual labor was required, the project wasn't too large.

Li Long made a plan: he might need to manually collect some stones to pave a gentle slope across the water in the ditch. Even if there is water, the path would make the water shallower, allowing the tractor to pass through.

As for the bulldozing work, Li Long initially thought of bringing over his older brother's Dongfanghong 70 tractor. Now, with the supplies collected by Yushanjiang and the others, Li Long had a bold idea: why not just buy another Dongfanghong 70 tractor, complete with bulldozer blades and a plowshare?

Other road repairs are unnecessary; just buy extra diesel and keep it here as a reserve.

Then you can just hire a tractor driver to drive it.

These ideas formed a preliminary plan in Li Long's mind; all that remained was to implement it.

I rode a horse through the mountains. The snow was still very thick at this time. The meeting had just been held two days ago, and the herders had already cleared the way when they came to the meeting, so it was easy to travel back and forth.

Even so, it had been nearly five hours since they returned on horseback. Yushanjiang decided not to go to Halimu's house. On his way back, he passed by his own winter quarters, invited Li Long and the others in for milk tea, and then rested.

He was exhausted from running back and forth these past few days. When Li Long left, Yu Shanjiang said that there were still a few households that hadn't brought their things over yet, and that Li Long would come back again when he had time to take the rest.

Li Long felt a little numb, so he readily agreed.

Back at Halim's house, Gulimire had already prepared pilaf, which the rest of the family had already eaten, leaving some for Halim and his family in the pot. As Gulimire served them the pilaf, she asked Yushanjiang, and Halim said he had gone home.

After enjoying a steaming bowl of pilaf and drinking a bowl of strong tea to cleanse his palate, Li Long drove his jeep home, his haul fully loaded.

The purchasing station wasn't open yet; a notice at the entrance said it wouldn't open until the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. Li Long then hauled his things back to the courtyard.

By the time everything was put away, it was already dark.

While moving and tidying up, Li Long calculated the approximate value of these items. Based on the current gold price, the gold nuggets and raw gemstones were worth nearly 30,000 yuan.

With a little more money, buying a tractor shouldn't be a problem.

Then let's buy it.

Of course, he didn't plan to sell the gold nuggets and raw gemstones; he was even thinking of storing the snow leopard and lynx pelts for later.

After all, once the animal protection law comes into effect in a couple of days, it will be impossible to fight against these things. The prices of these items will rise in the short term, and then by the end of the century, when buying and selling will be basically prohibited, there will be no price and no market.

Since he doesn't lack money now, let's put it aside for now.

Including the raw jade stones, many of which were of very high quality, Li Long habitually stored them away. The deer antlers, however, could be sold; their price would likely drop once large-scale sika deer farming became possible.

In two or three years, the price of deer antlers will rise to a very high level, and then gradually drop.

After resting for two days, Li Long started running to the post office as soon as the purchasing station opened.

The news that private individuals could make phone calls had slowly spread, but the post office had not yet issued an official notice. Li Long went there just to reserve a number.

Because he was a representative of the National People's Congress, he went there every day to keep in touch with the staff, and they got to know him. One day when he went there, they asked him to fill out a form, which meant they were preparing to install a telephone line.

"What? You're installing three telephones?" The staff member was startled by Li Long's request. "Where are they?"

“I have one at home, one at my recycling station, and I’m going to open one at my older brother’s place in the countryside,” Li Long said.

"Which township and village? Telephone service in rural areas is a bit slower, but it will definitely be available this year. After all, program-controlled extensions can be installed in townships, and to make calls to villages, the main thing is to run the line over there," the staff member explained.

"Since we're going to do it anyway, let's register together. When do we pay?"

Li Long was thinking of quickly securing a spot. Aside from government departments and important leaders, it was basically first-come, first-served for everyone else.

"Then register first, write down your address clearly, and you can pay today—once you pay, we'll install the cable for you." The staff had only heard complaints about the high prices these days, and this was the first time they had seen someone so eager to pay.

That's considered unconventional.

(End of this chapter)