Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 976 The busy farming season has arrived again: A review of the end of the fritillaria season

The goods, totaling less than ten thousand yuan, were weighed and calculated very quickly, and were finished in less than an hour.

It has to be said that Huang Lei had a reason for asking Huang Ying to come and pick up the goods. Although Huang Ying was a bit spoiled, she was very serious when inspecting the goods, and she was very familiar with all kinds of mushrooms, able to rattle off quality standards and such.

However, at this time, the goods were mostly all-natural, and Li Long handled them very well, so she didn't have much to complain about. After weighing and calculating the price, she left one person to watch the goods while the other went to hire a vehicle.

Out of respect for Huang Lei, Li Long pointed out the location of the transportation company where they could hire a car. The girl named Yuan Yuemei, who had come with Huang Ying, went to find a car, while Huang Ying waited in the courtyard. Seeing Tielan Hua washing fritillaria bulbs, she went over and chatted with her.

Li Long was happy to have someone with her. After taking the money, he locked the warehouse and went to help out at the front.

Nearly half of the people who come here to sell goods are from out of town and came because of Li Long's reputation. When they see Li Long appear, they are all quite excited.

Although Li Long doesn't stay here often, he's quite skilled at grading the quality of various goods. When he's unsure about something, he'll discuss it with Gu Boyuan, which has impressed many people.

In the backyard, Huang Ying noticed that the iron orchid was pregnant and still had to work there, so she said to her:

"Your boss is so cruel! He still makes you come to work even when you're like this... It's inhumane!"

While washing the fritillaria bulbs, Tillandsia gave her a strange look:
"Comrade, your family must be quite wealthy, right?"

"Well, we're not exactly wealthy, just a little better off than average families," Huang Ying said reservedly, then countered, "Why are you asking this? Does it have anything to do with your current situation? I think since you're pregnant, you should rest properly..."

"You can't make money if you just rest!" Tie Lanhua had witnessed Li Long's attitude towards Huang Ying almost the entire time. She had her own opinion of this woman. She was probably a spoiled woman, but she cared about her, so she wasn't a bad person. She patiently said, "I've only been a few months."
In the countryside, even when a woman is close to giving birth, she's still working in the fields!

"Huh?" Huang Ying genuinely didn't know. Although her family's life had its ups and downs, they hadn't generally mistreated the girl, so she was unaware of the hardships people faced in life.

"You don't think women can't do anything once they get pregnant, do you? I'm Hui, and it's not just our ethnic group, it's true for many ethnic groups. Pregnant women still work. In families that favor sons over daughters, if a girl is born, they can't even properly recover during postpartum confinement..."

Tillandsia felt that this person was slowing her down, but since he meant well, she continued working while saying:
“My husband works for Boss Li. Boss Li gave me this job because he saw that I was in a bad health condition and it was inconvenient for me to do other things. I can work as much as I want, and I can rest as I please. It doesn’t affect my daily salary. Boss Li is very kind. How is he exploiting me? If this kind of work were outside, my salary could hire two strong laborers. Do you believe it?”

Huang Ying was dumbfounded. She never expected that Li Long had made this pregnant woman work here out of kindness!
"A person should have a conscience! Boss Li took good care of me and gave me this job. If I don't do a good job, how can I face him?"

Tillandsia's words stung Huang Ying. Huang Ying didn't know what to say; she meant well, but her words were clearly misplaced.

It's like a college student criticizing those who ride in sedan chairs while hiking. You accuse them of exploiting others, but the sedan chair carriers need that pay.

Not knowing what to say, she wanted to make amends to the orchid for her mistake, so she squatted down to help.

"No, no, the water gets really dirty when you wash fritillaria bulbs," Tillandsia hurriedly stopped her. "You're the boss, you shouldn't be doing this."

Huang Ying felt a little embarrassed. She really couldn't bear to watch a pregnant woman work while she sat on the sidelines enjoying the cool air. After thinking for a moment, she went over to help the Tillandsia, carrying water and taking the washed fritillaria bulbs to dry.

Li Long came back occasionally to take a look and thought Huang Ying was not bad.

The car arrived quickly, and Li Long returned to help load it. After loading, he said it was almost lunchtime and he wanted to treat the two people to dinner. He was doing this out of respect for Huang Lei, since they had a certain relationship.

Huang Ying and Yuan Yuemei were indeed hungry, so Li Long led them to the state-run canteen for a meal before taking the car to Wucheng.

During the meal, Li Long asked the two women how they planned to transport the dried wild mushrooms. Huang Ying said that Huang Lei had already arranged it for them; they just needed to find an acquaintance at Wucheng Railway Station, and all they had to do was pay the fee.

Now that everything was arranged, Li Long didn't need to worry about the rest. However, after Huang Ying and the others left, Li Long still made a phone call to Huang Lei.

We still have to wait. About ten minutes after hanging up, Huang Lei called back, and Li Long told him about the situation, mainly that the dried mushrooms had been transported away.

"Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Li," Huang Lei said sincerely. "Please save the dried mushrooms for me. I don't have anything too important to do here, so I'll probably go pick up the goods myself next time..."

"Don't worry, I'll definitely save it for you." Li Long felt more at ease dealing with this kind of person. He said, "Then you go and do your thing."

Li Long didn't bother to prove that all his dried mushrooms were good; there was no need. He was confident in his abilities, and he believed Huang Lei knew that too. If Huang Lei needed him to prove it, then the business deal would probably be over.

After hanging up the phone, Li Long went to check the various warehouses and found some stock in the fritillaria warehouse. The warehouses were empty after the dried wild mushrooms were taken away, but some warehouses still had a few scattered items. For example, he had collected several hundred kilograms of copper coins. He was somewhat surprised that he could collect so much scrap copper—and that was after selling some of it.

It seems that although Northern Xinjiang is relatively remote compared to other parts of China, it still has quite a few oases and ancient cities. In particular, there are quite a few money pits like the one my brother dug up.

It's no wonder that copper has always been scarce in the Central Plains. After landlords and rich people in the surrounding areas made money and exchanged it for copper coins and silver ingots, their first choice was to bury them—and then they would either be looted in war or could not be found.

Who knows how many years it will be before it's unearthed again.

Li Long didn't have the patience to search for any rare varieties among the hundreds of kilograms of copper coins. He thought he'd just find an opportunity to sell them in Beiting, since they were just taking up space.

They also collected some silver ingots. These dark gray ones didn't look as nice as the ingots in movies and TV shows, and their shapes were all over the place. Most of them didn't have any inscriptions on the bottom, but a few were official silver. These things could be sold for a lot of money in later generations.

The older, privately minted pieces are worth some money, so let's keep them for now. Li Long isn't short of money anytime soon, and these old things basically only take up one warehouse. The purchasing station has plenty of warehouses in this large area, so one more won't make a difference.

After inspecting each warehouse, one advantage of this season is that the warehouses are relatively dry, so the goods that have been collected won't get infested with insects or mold for a short time after being dried outside. However, Li Long is still figuring out some protective measures: placing lime in the corners to prevent moisture, putting some mugwort by the windows, and placing camphor balls on the shelves to prevent insects.

The most troublesome thing is those leathers. In the summer, these things attract flies and insects. Even if you nail screens to the windows, you can't keep all the insects out.

Li Long would deliver a truckload of ordinary leather to the county leather factory every week, but for the more expensive leather, he would have to wait for Zhao Hui to come and collect it. Summer wasn't the peak season for leather, so Zhao Hui usually only came once a month, enough to empty the warehouse of leather.

After selling all the fritillaria bulbs and dried wild mushrooms, Li Long started distributing the profits. They made over 200,000 yuan, but the actual profit was less than 100,000 yuan. Normally, Gu Boyuan should have received 20,000 yuan, but he only wanted 10,000.

Li Long gave Sun Jiaqiang a bonus of 500 yuan and Tie Lanhua a bonus of 100 yuan. The couple were very happy.

Meng Hai and his men were working in the mountains, and Li Long would visit them every three to five days to check on the road construction. He would also go to pay Meng Hai and his men their wages. What made Li Long quite relieved was that after the last incident, Zhang Xingwang hadn't appeared again when Li Long went to check on the road construction. Two more floods occurred during the road construction, but Meng Hai handled them quite well, with no casualties and no tools lost.

The road construction is progressing well; by the end of June, it had extended nearly ten kilometers from the winter hut into the mountains. The roadbeds of these roads are all significantly higher than the ground level, and some gravel has been laid on them, so even on rainy days, tractors don't get completely muddy when they drive over them.

In late June and early July, Meng Hai and his team stopped road construction because the wheat harvest season was approaching, which is a major event for the rural people in northern Xinjiang.

Many villagers involved in the road construction said that the work could still be done, and the women in their families could then harvest the wheat. However, Li Long disagreed. The road construction wasn't urgent for him, but harvesting the grain was a much bigger deal and couldn't be delayed.

Li Long also promised these people that if the task of making large brooms hadn't started by the time the wheat harvest and grain tax was paid, he could continue to organize people to repair the road.

The fritillaria season was finally over – in fact, the fritillaria in the mountains had already flowered by early June and were no longer ready for harvesting. However, the fritillaria dug up by the herbalists needed processing, so they were sold to Li Long almost a month late.

Jia Tianlong came again and swept the remaining fritillaria bulbs from the warehouse, along with some fresh snow lotus, licorice root, and even some deer antlers and velvet. This trip cost Jia Tianlong over 150,000 yuan. He told Li Long that he would return at the end of the year and wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, as the medicinal herbs harvest here was almost complete.

Although there will be another batch of Codonopsis pilosula at the end of the year, the quantity will be small, so there's no need to rush.

Zhao Hui also came over and took away more than two hundred spring and summer pelts stored in the warehouse. He said it was a pity there weren't any valuable pelts. The lynx pelt that Li Long had hunted last time was still in the yard. He planned to save it up a bit more, since the protection law hadn't been passed yet, and the value of these pelts hadn't reached its peak.

At the end of June, Li Long distributed money again. This time, Gu Boyuan received five thousand yuan, and Sun Jiaqiang and his wife received two hundred yuan.

Tielanhua was genuinely grateful to Li Long—Sun Jiaqiang was used to it and didn't think much of it. But Tielanhua, having grown up in that kind of environment, knew how to be grateful. She knew that anyone could do this job, and that Sun Jiaqiang only benefited from it because he followed Li Long.

So every now and then, she would make some fried dough twists and other snacks and bring them to the courtyard. Over time, she became familiar with Sister Yang and Gu Xiaoxia.

Even Gu Boyuan praised her, saying she was a woman who knew how to handle people. How could her family be so foolish as to push her away?

On July 2nd, Li Long drove his Jeep to the village to visit his older brother and the others.

Li Jianguo was tidying up his combine harvester. He planned to participate in the wheat harvest this year. When Li Long came over, Li Jianguo took the initiative to chat with him. Most of the other villagers who had combine harvesters also came over to chat with him, and everyone went to their own harvesting area.

Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, and even Xu Haijun all went to other villages to harvest wheat.

“I’ve harvested the wheat in the village, and I still have to go to the Production and Construction Corps,” Li Jianguo said with a smile. “Han Dachun and his team have some companies that don’t have combine harvesters, so they asked me to go and harvest the wheat there.”

This surprised Li Long. In fact, most of the production and construction corps companies had mechanized farm workers, so it was really strange that they hadn't bought harvesters.

“Those two companies only have big tractors, no small four-wheelers. We have no idea what the company commanders and political instructors are thinking,” Li Jianguo explained Han Dachun’s explanation.

“That’s good. The small four-wheeled vehicle is fast and won’t interfere with work,” Li Long said. “At least it can cover the cost of gas and my usual pocket money.”

"That's more than that. I'm thinking I should earn enough to buy a tractor this harvest season," Li Jianguo said, still quite ambitious. "How's the road repair going?"

“We’ve gone about ten kilometers into the mountains,” Li Long said. “We’ll stop here for now. It’s time to harvest the wheat; we can’t delay the wheat harvest in other villages. I plan to wait until autumn to start.”

"Yes, yes, we can't miss the farming season," Li Jianguo said.

Not only was Li Jianguo busy, but Li Qingxia was also busy, mainly preparing tools, repairing wooden shovels, and preparing tools for threshing.

"Brother, if you go to harvest wheat, will you be able to manage things at home?"

"Why not? I'll harvest our wheat the day before and bring it back later when I have time. Then Tie Tou's dad across the street can thresh it."

“Then I’ll drive my little four-wheeler back,” Li Long said. “It’s just sitting in the yard anyway, so I might as well drive it back and use it.”

"You need to drive it?" Li Qingxia replied. "When you go back today, just give me a ride, and I'll drive the tractor back. You go about your business; we don't need you for this."

Li Qingxia had actually wanted to bring Li Long's tractor back for a long time. It was just sitting there anyway, and if Li Jianguo hadn't stopped him, he would have even considered using his own money to buy another tractor.

"Yes, it's good to bring it back." Du Chunfang also said, "When it comes to hauling wheat and threshing, it's always better to use our own machines than to ask outsiders for help."

And so the matter was settled. Not only could Li Qingxia drive the tractor, but his sister-in-law Liang Yuemei could too. Li Jianguo could then focus on harvesting wheat and earning money outside.

However, according to Li Jianguo, with the increase in combine harvesters, making money from wheat harvesting is not as easy as before. This is because Ma County has a lot of land, and farmers in various townships mainly grow grain, so combine harvesters are still widely used.

Another reason is that large tracts of land in various regions are waiting to be reclaimed. With the reclamation every year, the newly cultivated land is planted with grain crops on a large scale, which is also one of the reasons why the application of harvesters has not been overlooked.

Of course, as the land area increases to a certain extent, each family grows more than 20 mu of wheat. However, once cotton, a cash crop that requires a lot of manual labor, is planted, the limitations of harvesters become apparent. After all, the harvested wheat still needs to be threshed and winnowed manually, which is the time for cotton to be topped, watered, fertilized, and sprayed with pesticides.

This caused a conflict, so in the end they simply let combine harvesters, or combine harvesters, harvest the wheat.

At that time, combine harvesters began to be phased out of the market, and within two or three years, they disappeared altogether. Later, even the threshing grounds disappeared.

Li Long had one more thing to do upon his return: he wanted to slaughter a sheep.

"How many will you kill?" After Li Long went to Old Ma's place and told Uncle Luo about the sheep slaughter, Uncle Luo asked.

Li Long calculated that he needed to kill five.

“Alright, it just so happens that Old Yang brought the sheep back at noon. Let’s take advantage of the hot weather and the sheep will be lying down, making them easier to catch.” Uncle Luo didn’t ask why.

There wasn't really any reason; Li Long hadn't caught much while hunting in the mountains, and he figured it was time to improve their meals.

There are four sheep. Uncle Luo puts one here, the eldest brother puts one there, and we'll take one back to eat.

Then two of them were to be taken to the herding team's outpost and left there for Halimu and Yushanjiang's family.

We raise all the sheep ourselves, so we didn't choose winter lambs, since they're still too young. We chose sheep we bought last October, and they're already quite fat now.

Uncle Luo and his men were quite agile, especially Yang Laoliu. He grabbed a lamb leg, tied it with a rope, and threw it on the ground, waiting for Li Long to cut it.

Others were collecting the blood in basins or boiling water. They were all familiar with these tasks and knew exactly what they were supposed to do.

Li Long slaughtered and skinned the sheep, while the others collected the blood and mixed it with salt. Some even joined in the skinning—sheep are indeed cruel animals, devoid of emotion. Seeing their companions being killed, some ruminated on their stomachs, others rested, and some even ran over to lick the blood that had fallen from the slaughtered sheep…

One portion of the sheep's offal was kept by Lao Ma, two portions were kept by Li Jianguo, and two portions were taken back by Li Long. Li Long did not give off any offal to Halimu and Yushanjiang; they mainly gave off the meat.

Li Long also brought back half a basin of sheep's blood to his older brother's place, mainly because his sister-in-law likes to eat sheep's blood.

By the time Li Long had sorted and arranged everything, and the fourth team had finished distributing the items, it was already five or six in the afternoon when he drove the jeep back to the county with the old man. Some of the children had already finished school.

Time flies! Hao Hao is already two years old, almost old enough to go to daycare, and Sister Yang will soon be going to do her own thing too.

P.S.: Can you imagine? An old fisherman cast a net with nineteen crisscrossing channels, effectively sealing off a section of the lake—the crabs caught inside weighed two or three hundred grams, and the river clams he pulled out of the water were as big as small washbasins. The fish, weighing only five or six kilograms, couldn't be sold at the market in Ma County. What was left over after a morning's sales was only five yuan for two kilograms…that was more than the price twenty years ago! The market was simply too small.

(End of this chapter)