Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1213 The Counterfeit Fertilizer Incident
Li Long does have his own things to do. Recently, there have been many people coming to buy pesticides, seeds, and fertilizers. It's not just Team Four that's reclaiming wasteland; some villages to the north also have large tracts of wasteland.

Some of the soil was quite good, more like marshland, and covered with reeds and other grasses. It could be cultivated directly to grow crops, which was much better than the saline-alkali land cultivated by the Li family.

There are preferential policies for reclaiming wasteland, and the use of chemical fertilizers can increase grain production, so agricultural supplies are gradually becoming scarce.

Li Long is now glad that he obtained the permits to sell agricultural supplies early on, and now the supply channels are smooth. Although Li Long has not sold much agricultural supplies each year in the past two years, he has been wholesaling every year. The quantity is not large, but the supply has never been interrupted.

Now it comes in handy.

For this reason, Li Long specially designated a large warehouse as an agricultural supplies warehouse. At present, the purchase of watermelons has basically stopped, and there are only about ten tons in the warehouse. They will be stored there for now. If someone wants to buy them, they will sell them; otherwise, they will be stored.

Then the warehouse was filled with agricultural supplies.

Selling agricultural supplies may be piecemeal, but it does make money... Of course, not as much as Li Long making from selling hides, but for Li Qingxia, this is a normal business transaction.

What Li Long did was, in modern terms, "cult," an abnormal practice. In Li Qingxia's view, although it could make money, and a lot of money, it probably wouldn't last long.

Agricultural supplies are different. As long as you operate legally, this is a steady and long-term business that will never decline.

Although the older farmers in the team often cursed the agricultural input sellers, saying that farmers couldn't control the price of agricultural products, the agricultural input sellers could control the price of agricultural inputs. Regardless of whether the price of agricultural products rose or fell, the price of agricultural inputs increased every year.

That makes some sense.

In fact, Team Four has bought quite a lot of fertilizer, seeds, and plastic film from Li Long. Now Li Long has also heard the news that even more people will be planting cotton next year.

Growing cotton requires a lot of fertilizers, pesticides, and plastic film. Some of these things are only bought when it's time to plant, but some people plan to stock up in advance, mainly because they are afraid that fertilizer prices will rise next year—because fertilizer prices are already a bit different from last year's and this year's.

So now the warehouses of the purchasing stations are full of goods, and these things can be stored for a year or two without any problems.

Li Long had also heard that some people had bought ammonium nitrate to make explosives. In his previous life, he was tempted to do so, but in this life, he had no such idea at all.

As far as he knew, within a few years, an old fisherman from Shicheng tried to make this stuff, but he got himself seriously injured and disabled.

It's very dangerous, so it's best to stay away.

Li Long not only had to keep an eye on this area, but also had to pack up the goji berries. This year, the goji berries bore fruit in their first year of planting. Li Long bought large seedlings, and although the yield wasn't high and the survival rate of the seedlings was less than 70%, the quantity was large, yielding several hundred kilograms of dried fruit.

Since he grew them himself and had so many, Li Long planned to send some to his friends as local specialties.

As for the rest, he'll leave them at the purchasing station. If someone wants to buy them, he'll buy some; if no one wants to buy them, he plans to wait until Jia Tianlong comes over and then pack them up and take them away.

The market price for goji berries at this time is seven or eight yuan. It's possible to grow them, but we haven't done this before, so it's a bit like planting and harvesting on an ad-hoc basis.

The advantage is that these things don't need to be buried in winter—in another thirty years, jujubes will also be grown in Ma County, but the people who grow them will dig ditches in the fields, plant the jujubes in the ditches, harvest the jujubes in the fall, knock off the tops, and then bury them with soil from both sides of the ditch. In the spring, they will dig out the jujube seedlings.

A single jujube tree can only produce two or three kilograms of fresh jujubes, so the management cannot allow the jujubes to grow too large... It's very troublesome.

Moreover, with the influx of business owners from other parts of China coming to southern Xinjiang to contract land and plant jujube trees, the jujubes from Ma County became "just another face in the crowd."

It's not competitive.

Li Long thought that in later generations, most saline-alkali land was reclaimed into cotton fields, and some saline-alkali land was simply impossible to reclaim and was left empty.

Some of these areas were later protected as wetlands, but some of them could actually be planted with goji berries.

This stuff is a medicinal herb, after all—soaking goji berries in a thermos instantly elevates their value.

This year is just the beginning, so the yield per mu will be lower. Once it stabilizes, at the current price of seven or eight yuan, even a low yield of thirty kilograms per mu will be enough to make money. Compared to cotton, it's just a bit more troublesome to pick.

After all, once it's planted, the subsequent investment is less.

Li Long thought this could be a backup option, and also to ask Jia Tianlong how he harvested the goji berries when he came over.

I can manage the quality of other medicinal herbs myself, but I'm really not good at it with goji berries. After all, if I sun-dry them naturally, they won't look very good.

There's nothing that can be done about it. Many of the good-looking goji berries are actually "processed," and those that are naturally sun-dried are often not very attractive.

It is also quite sticky because of its high sugar content.

This requires advanced processing technology.

Li Long didn't want to think too much about it; he just wanted to get the crops planted first. He figured that to get the goji berries in the saline-alkali soil to yield 50 kilograms of dried fruit, he would need to use chemical fertilizers and thoroughly flush out the alkali.

Of course, he has both. How about expanding production next year?
Sigh, let's wait for Lao Jia to come and see the finished product before we talk about it.

With enough casual labor available and decent wages from Li Long, they managed to clean up all the leather inventory in a week.

Li Long thought this would be the best approach from now on, to avoid Liang Shuangcheng and Sun Jiaqiang being too busy. Another point was that he now had more free time to work on this; otherwise, he simply wouldn't have had the leisure to do so before.

Since the leather was sold in bulk anyway, Zhao Hui was very eager for it.

When Zhao Hui arrived, it was already early November. Although it was already cold at this time of year, and thin ice had formed in the puddles in the canal in the morning, the temperature was still several degrees above zero by noon, which was quite high.

Before arriving, Zhao Hui called Li Long. After learning that there were nearly 10,000 more hides, he hired several trucks from Wucheng.

At the purchasing station, when Zhao Hui saw the hides that Li Long proudly showed him, he was still somewhat skeptical. He turned each hide over to examine it, and exclaimed in amazement:

"Given its condition, I'd be embarrassed not to raise the price for you."

The leather was brushed very smoothly, the bloodstains were washed away, and the grease inside the leather was scraped off, making it look shiny and smooth.

The whole hides and the remaining hides were separated, making it easy to see. Some of the odd jobs even had a bit of OCD, separating the sheepskin from the antelope hide as well.

How good!

“At the current price, I’ll give you 220 for full-grain leather and 170 for damaged leather,” Zhao Hui said. “This is the highest price I can offer. To be honest, if I took these leathers back and smeared them in the faces of those buyers, they wouldn’t say a word… They’re really good leather!”

Li Long had known Zhao Hui and Jia Tianlong for many years. To be honest, he felt that Jia Tianlong was more loyal, while Zhao Hui was more shrewd.

This was proven in later interactions.

Upon hearing Zhao Hui's words, Li Long instinctively guessed that the leather market had most likely raised prices again. Whether it was due to increased production or a shortage of raw materials, Zhao Hui's decision to raise prices must have a reason, and it certainly wasn't just because of the leather's quality. Regardless, the few cents he'd pay for cleaning by odd jobs, compared to a ten or twenty yuan increase, was definitely a worthwhile investment.

Zhao Hui also took away 500 kilograms of dried meat and a Volga truck from Li Long.

Volga Li Long asked for 100,000 yuan, but Zhao Hui didn't haggle after having a truck driver test drive the vehicle and confirming that there were no problems with it.

Li Long made a lot of money here, and he felt that Zhao Hui probably made even more.

However, regardless of the circumstances, although the year is not over yet, Li Long has roughly calculated that his net income has exceeded three million.

It mainly consists of the skin and fritillaria bulb.

Other ventures like Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, and selling cars are all considered small-scale operations.

Of course, even though it's a big deal, there's still a lot of tax to pay. After Zhao Hui left, Li Long had to go to the tax office to file his taxes.

Why were his Tengjiao Trading Company's permits processed so easily? It's simply because he pays a lot of taxes, and of course, his status as a People's Congress representative is also a major advantage.

For the next period of time, Li Long remained very steady, with little work and plenty of free time, occasionally visiting the fourth team.

The fields have been planted, and now the farmers are entering the winter dormancy period. They either stay at home doing chores—sewing shoe soles, making pot lids, or pasting paper for clothing.

They either play cards or mahjong at the store, or they gamble in private.

Of course, this wasn't the case before, but in the last two years, with more spare money, some people have become itchy to get their hands on it.

Xie Yundong and his group started taking turns treating each other to meals again, and Li Long was required to attend.

The first time was at Xie Yundong's house, and the second time was at Tao Daqiang's house.

While having dinner at Tao Daqiang's house, Tao Daqiang, after drinking some alcohol, told Li Long that news had spread from the third team that someone had bought fertilizer from his purchasing station, but it had no effect and was being called fake fertilizer.

"Nonsense! I bought the fertilizer from Xiaolong's place too, how could it be fake?" Liang Dacheng, who was listening nearby, was the first to retort. "You guys use pretty much the same stuff, right? Doesn't using fertilizer make the crops grow better than not using it?"

"I was just saying it," Tao Daqiang said with a wry smile. "I didn't say it was true. I just said there was such a saying, and Pingping's younger brother heard it and told Pingping about it."

"Don't pay attention to those gossips." Xie Yundong, already tipsy, waved his hand and said, "These people are masters at gossiping. There's not much to do in winter, so maybe they're just jealous of Xiaolong's high earnings."

Li Long didn't pay much attention at first; everyone talks about others behind their backs.

But after finishing his meal and returning home, lying in bed and falling asleep, when he woke up in the middle of the night to sober up, Li Long suddenly felt that this matter couldn't be left like this.

He is different now than he was in his previous life. In his previous life, he was unknown, and even if someone spoke ill of him, it was only on a small scale, and some people didn't even bother to say anything, since he hadn't accomplished anything.

But this life is different. He's not only a People's Congress representative, but he also owns a trading company, so his reputation carries some weight. If someone were to speak ill of him, it would be one thing if they were simply jealous of his money-making methods, or if they said he was just lucky.

However, agricultural inputs are a relatively important area of ​​his future development, and the news that there are problems in this area could really affect a large number of potential customers.

Therefore, Li Long felt that they couldn't just let it go like this.

The next day, after sobering up, Li Long had breakfast at his elder brother's house and then went to Tao Daqiang's house to ask Yang Pingping in detail about the problems with the fertilizer.

Yang Pingping had only overheard the conversation when she went back to her parents' home. Knowing that her husband and Li Long had a good relationship, she mentioned it briefly upon returning home, but she didn't expect Li Long to take it to heart.

“I don’t know the details either. How about I have Daqiang take you to my dad’s place and you can hear what my dad and brother heard about this?” Yang Pingping said.

Since it wasn't far, Li Long and Tao Daqiang went to the third team together.

Yang Pingping's father warmly welcomed Li Long and Tao Daqiang and then planned to slaughter a chicken to treat the two of them.

The Yang family is very satisfied with their son-in-law, Tao Daqiang. He is honest, wealthy, and good to their daughter. They are content.

Li Longtou had drunk quite a bit that day, so he hurriedly declined and explained his purpose.

"Actually, it's like this. In the spring, Wang Erwazi from our team brought over a truckload of fertilizer," Yang's father said after thinking for a moment. "He said it was wholesale and he'd sell it cheaply. Since everyone in the team thought it was cheap, they all bought some, more or less."

As it turned out, after spreading the fertilizer on the ground, they found that it didn't seem to work very well.

At that time, each household also bought various other fertilizers. Farming was the priority, so they mixed all sorts of fertilizers together. After selling all the fertilizer that time, Wang's second son went out to do business and only returned a few days ago. Some people in the team started giving him trouble, and he said the fertilizer was bought from their store…

Li Long understood.

He's being used as a pawn.

A bit dumbfounded.

"Uncle Yang, is Wang Erwazi home right now?"

"He's here. I saw him playing cards at the store yesterday. I guess he made a lot of money. He's very generous," said Mr. Yang.

How much fertilizer did he bring in at the beginning of spring?

"It must take several truckloads, tens of tons, right?" Mr. Yang said after thinking for a moment.

"I understand." Li Long nodded, stood up, and prepared to take his leave.

"You should at least have a meal before you leave," Yang's father stopped him. "Otherwise, won't your Uncle Tao scold me?"

"Uncle Yang, it's urgent. I have something to tell you. This Wang family's second son from your team might be involved in selling counterfeit fertilizer..."

At this moment, Li Long remembered that something like this had happened in his previous life, in the vicinity: someone had bought a batch of fake fertilizer and sold it cheaply to the villagers, causing some people's crops to be significantly reduced.

When the police arrested this group of fertilizer dealers, they discovered that they had been selling counterfeit fertilizer for several years. At first, they mixed it with other products, but later, as they became bolder and more greedy, they sold only fake fertilizer, causing losses exceeding one million yuan!
It was around this time that people started to pin the blame on Li Long because of his existence.

Li Long won't take the blame!
It might be a little bit now, but the trouble could be much bigger later!
P.S.: I'll try to mail the monthly pass lottery tickets when I have some free time in the next day or two.

(End of this chapter)