Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1214 nipping all potential problems in the bud

After much persuasion, Li Long finally agreed to have dinner at the Yang family's house after everything was finished. When Li Long and Tao Daqiang came out, Yang Pingping's mother had already gone to slaughter a chicken.

It’s hard to refuse such kindness.

Li Long understood what they meant. They simply felt they had to thank Li Long for Tao Daqiang's transformation; otherwise, Tao Daqiang would probably still be stuck in the team.

Yang Pingping's younger brother, Yang Yong, originally wanted to come out with Li Long and the others, but Li Long stopped him.

"Brother Long, shall we go find that Wang family kid next?" Tao Daqiang asked in the car.

"Why would we need to find him? As long as he's here, that's enough," Li Long said. "Should we go find him and beat him up? That's definitely not going to work. Given his personality, if we beat him up, he might become even worse and disgust me even more."

"Then what should we do?" Tao Daqiang had always been involved in small-scale scrambles with Li Long before, and whenever trouble arose, he would immediately take matters into his own hands.

The kind who takes action instead of just talking.

Why is it different now?
"Back then, we were both single, so we fought. If we didn't fight back against those tough guys, they would think we were weak and would bully us even more. Now that we both have families, let's avoid physical fights unless absolutely necessary."

Li Long didn't say the rest. Wang Jiawa is currently on the team. If a fight breaks out, they are playing away, and the other team's players will definitely side with their own.

In addition, Li Long felt that the fake fertilizer issue was not so simple, so he decided to use the most legal method.

Call the police!
The two drove to the police station, and Li Long called the police directly.

The police officers at the local station recognized Li Long and took his report very seriously. After asking him about the details, Li Long added:
"I suspect they've been gambling in the village these past two days."

In winter, cracking down on gambling is a serious task for the police station, and it must be done in advance to avoid headaches before the New Year.

After the fourth team became wealthy, some professional gamblers started eyeing the area and would come to organize gambling sessions. Ordinary people were no match for them, and many lost their bets.

Things are a bit better right now. I don't have much money on hand, so I'll stop after losing a hundred or two hundred.

In another twenty or thirty years, even if you lose two or three hundred thousand, you might not be able to stop.

Someone at the police station suggested calling the captain of the third team, but the veteran officer immediately rejected the idea.

“Calling about this? Can you guarantee the news won’t leak? Not all village secretaries want to take over the scum in their teams,” the old policeman said. “Try contacting someone you know.”

Li Long and his colleagues didn't concern themselves with that matter. He mainly came to report cases involving counterfeit fertilizers and rumors; as a People's Congress representative, the police station naturally had to take it seriously.

However, things might not be resolved in a short time, so after leaving the police station, Li Long went to find Jiang Zhiyu again.

Jiang Zhiyu is the deputy secretary, and propaganda is her supervisor. Li Long's initiative to come to her was somewhat unexpected.

"You mean it might be a major case involving the sale of counterfeit and substandard fertilizers?" Jiang Zhiyu was also startled when she heard this.

It's only in the last two years that farmers have increased their use of chemical fertilizers, and naturally, grain production has followed suit.

This township is a traditional agricultural area, which is its core strength. Jiang Zhiyu's publicity work mainly focuses on agriculture.

Now that this has suddenly happened, she's a little worried.

“That’s good news.” Li Long knew what she was thinking and said, “I suggest you communicate with the police station. This time, our township took the initiative, so there won’t be any negative impact. On the contrary, it may even enhance our influence.”

Some people are used to covering things up as soon as they happen, and then admitting it in a nonchalant way when they can no longer cover it up.

The public's trust in the government is limited; if you take it all in advance, there's nothing left to give.

“If you don’t report it now, and the police station investigates the case later, and the public gets the news from other channels, then it’s hard to say how it will end up. Now everyone trusts you, so they will believe what you say is true.”

If you don't report it, and the news gets out, people might start believing the rumors as accurate information. Then you might be in a difficult position.

After Li Long said that, Jiang Zhiyu made up her mind. However, she knew she would definitely have to ask her superiors for instructions, which Li Long understood.

Jiang Zhiyu went about her business, while Li Long and Tao Daqiang left the village and headed back.

Tao Daqiang was still a little annoyed, so Li Long told him to bear with it for now and go over there to teach that guy a lesson, which would be satisfying and would also alert the enemy.

"Let me tell you, he's made money, and now he's going to gamble. Who knows how disrespectful he'll be at the card table. When the police get there, they might be able to uncover a huge gambling den. They'll beat him up and fine him, and he'll be in big trouble. Isn't that better than us beating him up?"

Li Long said with a smile:
“To deal with someone like that, if you beat him up, he'll be in pain for a couple of days at most. But if you confiscate all his money, he'll be heartbroken for years—and might even end up in jail for a few days.”

People nowadays don't have a strong concept of going to a detention center, but Li Long is different.

He earnestly advised Tao Daqiang:
“We have to think about our children. In the past, if we got into a fight, the police would come and detain us, taking us to the detention center for a couple of days to keep a record. What if, when our children grow up and take the college entrance exam, someone reports that their parents had been detained and they can't go to college? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?”

As soon as he said that, Tao Daqiang immediately became obedient.

Putting everything else aside, Tao Daqiang is definitely a good father when it comes to his children. He doesn't favor boys over girls, and while he might not grant every request, he at least provides for them in every way they need.

Li Juan and Li Qiang are now considered "other people's children" by other parents in the team. Everyone knows that these two children are going to take the college entrance exam, and judging from their current grades, they might even get in.

You're saying Tao Daqiang didn't have this idea? Of course he did.

If a child gets into university but can't attend because of their past, they might regret it for the rest of their life.

The two returned to the third team and had a meal at Yang's house. This time, Tao Daqiang didn't drink much, but Li Long drank quite a bit—Old Yang was, after all, an elder, and given the hospitality at his home, Li Long felt embarrassed not to drink.

Three days later, Tao Daqiang drove to the county and found Li Long, saying that the police station had arrested people. Wang Erwa was arrested at the gambling table, along with seven others who were gambling with him.

"The gambling money is said to be over ten thousand!" Tao Daqiang said confidently. "The four were outsiders from the west of Shicheng, I don't know if they were from Shawan or Wusu. Then they also found more than ten tons of fertilizer in Wang Erwa's house, saying that the fertilizer was problematic."

"That's about it then," Li Long said with a smile. "This matter can no longer be pinned on me."

"You're saying fertilizer can be faked... How can you fake that stuff?"

Li Long thought to himself, "I don't know either. Maybe they'll just fill up the salt lake with salt and pass it off as fertilizer? Anyway, it's all white stuff, and the common people won't be able to tell the difference."

Of course, he was just imagining things; he genuinely didn't know.

Tao Daqiang drove to the county not only to tell Li Long about this matter, but also to the department store to buy some things for his family. Now that he has a car, traveling to and from the county town is much more convenient.

If it weren't for the fact that it was early winter and Yang Pingping and her family were too lazy to move, there would probably be a whole family in his car right now.

After all, driving a car on the street is much more comfortable than riding a tractor.

The day after Tao Daqiang arrived in the county, Jiang Zhiyu called from the township and gave Li Long a brief overview of the situation—she knew the phone number of Li Long's purchasing station.

"It's a huge case. The fake fertilizer case involves more than 100,000 yuan, and the gambling case involves about 15,000 yuan." Jiang Zhiyu was also surprised after receiving the information. "The fake fertilizer was sold in three counties and cities, and more than 100 families were cheated."

The case has now been taken over by the county government, and the local police station is mainly responsible for handling gambling dens. The criminal surnamed Wang will definitely go to jail.

"Can you follow up with interviews and publish the results?" Li Long asked. "By the way, are they spreading rumors that they bought fertilizer from me?"

"Yes. Beiting TV may broadcast this in a while and clear your name."

Li Long felt that this had been dragging on for a while, and that there were fewer people buying fertilizer here in the last two days, which he subjectively thought might be due to the impact on the market.

Only by quickly dispelling the rumors can the business of agricultural supply stores here return to normal.

However, he couldn't rush things. The case wasn't finished yet, and Li Long couldn't reveal the details while he was here, otherwise he wouldn't know if it would be considered a leak.

Fortunately, there are fewer cases in winter, and given the significant impact of this case, the investigation was relatively quick—of course, it's also possible that Wang Erwa and his accomplices didn't persist much and confessed immediately after being arrested. Therefore, television and newspapers quickly broadcast the news. This was major news—for ordinary farmers, buying counterfeit fertilizer was like adding insult to injury!

So many people applauded and cheered, while also angrily cursing those who produced fake fertilizers.

Counterfeit agricultural supplies will continue to exist for many years to come; they won't be endless, but they will certainly appear from time to time.

Why? Because farmers are easy to swindle. There's no way around it; agricultural input prices will only continue to rise, and established agricultural input companies and stores wield significant power.

Not many farmers have spare cash—even twenty years from now, taking out loans to farm will still be quite normal. Every year at the beginning of the year, rural credit cooperatives will approach farmers to issue loans, and then deduct the money directly from the farmers' accounts at harvest time.

So if there were a batch of cheaper agricultural supplies, and it was brought over by an acquaintance who said it was directly from the factory, would you buy it or not?
Some people are more cautious, while others will buy it just to save a hundred or two dollars.

You might get scammed.

However, the prices of agricultural supplies at Li Long's place have always been low, only slightly higher than the wholesale price, so he earns a meager living.

His main goal is to retain his qualification to sell agricultural supplies; he doesn't currently rely on that for profit.

In the future, my eldest brother Li Jianguo might cultivate hundreds, thousands, or even several thousand acres of land in the fourth team. The agricultural supplies he'll need will be a huge sum. Xie Yundong and Tao Daqiang, who are also on good terms with him, will be doing the same.

Rather than letting others benefit from it later, it's better to keep it in our own hands.

In the future, whether it's seeds, fertilizers, or pesticides, they will only develop in a more and more professional direction. Li Long thinks it's better to pave the way now.

"Mr. Li, you've been slandered! No wonder some people were buying agricultural supplies elsewhere recently." A middleman showed Li Qingxia and his group a newspaper. "Hey, counterfeit fertilizer? They can counterfeit this stuff?"

This person only collects hides and doesn't know anything about farming.

"They'll make any fake stuff as long as they can make money!" Li Qingxia, who had already learned about this from Li Long, cursed, "Those bastards, all they know is how to rip off farmers..."

So all the middlemen cursed the fake fertilizer makers.

Li Long didn't care too much. There was less and less work at the purchasing station these days, and when he came by occasionally, it was mostly just to see if there was anything he could help with, like it was just a routine matter.

A few days later, Jiang Zhiyu called and said that Wang Erwa had been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for manufacturing and selling counterfeit goods and gambling. The main reason for the sentence was that the impact of the crime was extremely bad.

His accomplices have been sentenced to more than ten years in prison because the fake fertilizer they sold caused a crop failure at a farm in the west, resulting in serious adverse consequences.

It's just that the rumors hadn't spread back then, otherwise the Li family's purchasing station would probably have been in a bad situation.

Of course, if the rumors had spread back then, the case might have been solved much faster.

Meng Hai arrived on November 9th.

"It's snowing in the mountains, and we've finished repairing the road," he said to Li Long while drinking tea in the reception room. "It's still more than 20 kilometers away from Halimu's summer pasture."

We met Halim, and he said they plan to move their livestock back earlier this year. When they come back, they need to come here first to drive the tractor over, then haul the goods to the road construction site, load them onto the tractor, and then drive the remaining cattle and sheep back later… Well, having a road will make things much easier.”

Meng Hai spoke with considerable pride. Although he received payment for the road construction, he felt that building such a road for the herders in the mountains was a great act of kindness and something to be proud of.

"Is there enough money?"

"That's enough. The brothers on the construction team are all very happy now. They've had a fulfilling year, and they plan to take a couple of days off and then bring their families to the county to buy some things. They've earned some money this year and want to make their lives a little better."

“That’s only natural. Tell them that next year will be better than this year.” Li Long took some time to deliver some goji berries to Yang Bo, who explained that the Water Resources Bureau would definitely have similar work to do next year.

Meng Hai and his team had a good working relationship with the Water Resources Bureau on two separate occasions. They might not get any big jobs, but they would definitely get plenty of smaller jobs like irrigation canals and sluice gates.

Li Long was relieved. Many of Meng Hai's group were novices, and irrigation work like this was perfect for them to practice. If you gave them a building construction job now, Li Long wouldn't dare let them do it.

Of course, I will gradually enter this industry; after all, I can't just stay on the outside forever.

Li Long shared his thoughts with Meng Hai, who was quite confident.

Li Long felt that the successful repair and completion of the two irrigation canals gave him confidence.

Of course, Li Long emphasized quality from the very beginning, insisting on maintaining quality even if it meant earning less money, which made Meng Hai take this matter very seriously.

When Meng Hai arrived, he brought Li Long two slaughtered chickens and two pheasants, saying they were caught in the mountains. There was also a basket of eggs.

Li Long then asked Meng Hai to take a bag of goji berries, which he is now giving away as a local specialty.

In addition, there was horse sausage that Lao Gu brought from Yili. He felt that horse sausage was not as delicious as horse meat.

Old Gu took a week off and then drove off to Yili. He told Xie Yundong and the others at the team to keep an eye on his yard when they had time, as he planned to come back for the Chinese New Year.

Li Long thought that Lao Gu would most likely settle down in Yili, because the climate there was indeed suitable for living.

At least in Bima County, although Li Long had lived in his hometown for a long time and was used to it, to be honest, the winters were too cold, with temperatures dropping to minus thirty degrees Celsius. Even wearing a leather coat, you would freeze to the bone if you stayed outdoors for too long.

The climate in Yili is much better; the winters aren't as cold, and the summers aren't as hot. Old Gu stayed there for half a year before coming back. What does that mean? It means he likes it there.

Li Long was thinking that he could take his wife and children to Yili for a trip next summer vacation.

After all, the photos of the sunset over the Ili River are famous, and Gu Xiaoxia had seen them in magazines.

Gu Xiaoxia was also very happy, and she said it would be best if her younger sister came over next summer vacation.

Gu Xiaoyu had mixed feelings after learning that her father had gone to Yili, but she had been too busy to come over recently, and was planning to come over during the Spring Festival.

Li Long thought that things would indeed be quite troublesome in Yanjing next year, so he might as well have her come earlier.

But this matter was hard to say, so Li Long thought he would discuss it with Lao Gu and ask Gu Xiaoyu to take leave in advance and come to Northern Xinjiang in May, preferably to stay there for a while.

As for how to get Gu Xiaoyu to take leave, Li Long still needs to think about it.

To extricate myself from this matter, I need to come up with a plausible explanation.

Li Long couldn't think of a reason yet, but he had plenty of time to think about it.

In mid-November, Jiang Zhiyu called Li Long and told him some news that surprised him—she had been transferred to the county's Communist Youth League as deputy secretary.

"Hey, you're young and promising," Li Long said with a smile after congratulating him. "After three years in the regiment, you'll be a secretary when you go back to your hometown, right?"

"That depends on how the organization arranges it." Jiang Zhiyu was also very happy. He had worked in the township for several years and had achieved a lot, and his rank was rising, but he was about to become the deputy secretary.

Therefore, if I can temporarily work in the Communist Youth League and then return to my hometown, I will definitely be given a substantive position at the grassroots level.

Although Li Long had never worked within the system in his previous life, he had some understanding of these processes.

"I may have less contact with you in the future, but I am very grateful to you for these past few years. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to write so many articles, nor would I have been able to excel in my job." Jiang Zhiyu was sincerely thanking Li Long.

After exchanging a few polite words and hanging up the phone, Li Long thought to himself that he wouldn't have many acquaintances in the village anymore.

But since the police station did the job, shouldn't he give them something in return?

Liu Gaolou brought in another batch of cars, but this time not as many—eight.

Li Long wondered if he should send a car to the township, the township police station, and the street across the street.

(End of this chapter)