Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1274 A New Request Arrives: Li Long Goes to the Director for Help

Li Long took Xue Ping and Xue Qin to school, said goodbye to them, and then returned to the gate of his second brother Li Anguo's courtyard.

The courtyard gate was locked, and Li Long knew that Chen Lirong must have gone out to buy something and hadn't returned yet, so he waited in the car for a while.

About ten minutes later, Chen Lirong hurriedly returned on her bicycle. Li Long got off, and she got off too. After setting up the bicycle by the roadside, she brought over the several bags of pastries she had bought.

"This is for Dad and Mom, this is for my eldest brother's family, and you can take this bag and eat it. Mingming and Haohao should like sweets, and this has dates in it. It's well made. Take it back and let them try it. If they like it, we'll bring some back with us next time we go back."

Li Long thanked his second sister-in-law, then drove away to the agricultural machinery factory.

Director Du and Engineer Deng were both waiting in the factory yard. When they saw Li Long arrive, they waited for him to get out of the car and then pulled him into the meeting room without saying a word.

"Comrade Li Long, this is the information I compiled yesterday. Take a look. By the way, I made some revisions to the diagram you drew based on the opinions and suggestions of the three of us yesterday. Please take a look and see if there are any problems, and we can discuss them together."

Engineer Deng handed several sheets of paper to Li Long, and then he and Factory Director Du looked at him.

Li Long felt a little embarrassed by the gaze, and while taking the documents, he said:
"You two are experts in this field; I'm just offering some ideas..."

"Don't be modest, this is a big deal. We plan to make this a key project for the regional agricultural machinery exhibition at the end of this year. So, let's work together. If we succeed, you'll still get your share of the profits, just like before," said Factory Director Du.

"We've been cooperating for several years now, and we know each other very well. Neither of us would cheat the other. If we can make this happen, on a small scale, our factory will have a new source of revenue, and your new agricultural development will make progress."

On a grander scale, this represents a major breakthrough for our northern border region, and even for our entire country. This is a momentous and proud achievement, and we must, absolutely must, take it down!

The reason they could speak so confidently was mainly because both Director Du and Engineer Deng saw the possibility of a breakthrough in it.

If Li Long had only drawn a rough blueprint, the two of them wouldn't be so certain. After all, there would still be many problems to overcome.

However, after studying it with Li Long, the two discovered that Li Long had thought of many of the details and could recall them easily. In their view, Li Long had studied this in detail and might have even seen disassembled machine parts in the Soviet Union or Kazakhstan.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain in such detail.

Although some details are still unclear, what are they doing? Li Long has already figured out a lot of important data, parts and functions. If they are still waiting to eat ready-made food, then they are underestimating the spirit of researchers at this time.

So after Li Long left yesterday, Director Du and Engineer Deng went to work overtime to study this after dinner. They felt more and more that if they put in the effort, they could produce this complete set of equipment.

Based on the information they currently have, only a very few countries, such as the United States, Germany, and Japan, can produce such a complete set of equipment. Although China has been researching it, it still does not have a complete set of equipment, and it seems that few of the imitations have been made.

So if they succeed, it's like launching a huge satellite!
Seeing how much they valued it, Li Long stopped wasting words and began to examine Deng Gong's drawings and writings line by line, making some adjustments and modifications based on his own memory.

The equipment he saw in his previous life was produced by Beijiang Tianye. It had been tested in practice and, while not without any flaws, it was at least widely used in drip irrigation tape factories of all sizes.

It's a mature product, so you can just copy it directly.

Every time Li Long made a change, Engineer Deng would rush over to ask why. Li Long could explain some things, but for others he couldn't, he would just say that he thought it was better this way.

As for how to resolve this, if Engineer Deng can explain it to him, then he will; if he can't, then he'll leave it for now.

After all, we will definitely need to produce a trial set and then debug it, so we can see how it performs in actual production and application.

So another morning was spent on fine-tuning. During this time, Director Du received several phone calls and was called out by others, but he returned shortly afterward.

Whether it was him, Engineer Deng, or now Li Long, they all realized that in the past, whether it was harvesters, snowplows, or sprayers, they were all small-scale operations for agricultural machinery factories.

After all, the mechanical principles inside are relatively simple. Once Li Long figured it out, they could basically understand it at a glance and even make some improvements.

But this drip irrigation machine is different; it's a complete set of equipment. Agricultural machinery factories used to just repair agricultural machinery; they couldn't even produce small tractors.

In other words, Li Long came and brought several designs that were popular in the market, which made the agricultural machinery factory more successful.

However, both Director Du and the technical staff in the technical department knew in their hearts that although their technical level had improved a lot compared to before, they were still far behind Wucheng Tractor Factory and Shicheng Tractor Factory.

At least it hasn't made a name for itself yet.

At this point, it's definitely not feasible to continue developing agricultural machinery by focusing on tractors; independent research and development would be too slow, and we wouldn't be able to capture the market.

Li Long's design was a unique approach, opening up a new track and increasing the factory's reputation, but it was still a second-tier factory in northern Xinjiang.

Therefore, they urgently need a product that can make a name for themselves nationwide. If they can develop one, they can definitely enter the first-tier market; if they can't, they'll just have to stay in the second tier.

Do you think Director Du and his team have this competitive spirit? They definitely do.

So, all morning, Director Du focused on watching the exchange between Li Long and Engineer Deng.

During lunch, Li Long said he had covered most of what he could say, and the rest was up to the factory to figure out.

"Alright. Let's see what our technical department can do next." Director Du didn't say much. "We've had a long-standing relationship and have been cooperating for quite some time. As before, if the complete set of products is produced, we'll split the profits according to the previous system."

Regardless of whether the factory remains under my management in the future, at least these patents represent your hard work and your shares. Our factory acknowledges this, and I will formally confirm it with our official seal.

Li Long smiled and said, "I believe what you, Lao Du, say."

After the meal, Li Long left. There wasn't much use for him staying. Some specific things required experimental data. Theoretical discussions could never fully verify anything. Besides, technicians like Engineer Deng trusted data and their own judgment more.

After he left, Director Du immediately gathered all the technical staff in the technical department and began to assign tasks.

"Comrade Li Long made a suggestion that I think is very good. Let's put up a blackboard in this technical department, list out the difficulties we encounter in this task one by one, and then divide up the tasks and eliminate these difficulties one by one."

"Let's leave aside the parts that require testing during prototype production for now. Right now, the main focus is on eliminating all the parameters for the prototype, one by one, before starting trial production," Factory Director Du said earnestly.
"It's late June now, and we still have six months to overcome this challenge. I believe we have the ability, and I also believe that you all have a strong desire to succeed."

Our agricultural machinery factory has grown and developed, but it's still not big enough. We can't compare to those other factories yet.

But if we can get this done, then we will definitely be able to compete with them. In the past, we were always competing with them, but they looked down on us, and we ourselves felt that we were too small.

But things will be different in the future. As long as we produce this and fill the gap in the domestic market, we will be a first-class factory. No one in the country can compare with us. Maybe we can not only win domestic awards, but also international awards!

So, this year, we absolutely must get it done!

His inspiring words ignited the morale of the technical staff, and they immediately went to work on the blackboard and choose topics.

Although this thing is a bit unfamiliar, in agricultural machinery, while it's not true that everything is understood once you grasp it, many mechanical things are interconnected. Some things are easy to understand at a glance, and then you can extend that understanding to figure out the general principles.

Next, Engineer Deng listed the problems one by one, and immediately some people couldn't wait to take on the problems and start studying them.

Li Long was unaware of what had happened here after he left the agricultural machinery factory. As he drove towards the military post, he was actually thinking about it.

In just a day and a half, the three of them brainstormed and solved more than 60% of the main problems of the drip irrigation tape production equipment. Although most of the credit goes to him, it must be said that Director Du and Engineer Deng are truly capable.

Of course, the remaining less than 40% of the problems depend on whether the other people in the factory can solve them—actually, there aren't that many problems, the main issue is that no prototype has been produced, so some problems can't be verified.

So Director Du's words were genuine thanks to Li Long. Without him, let alone solving more than 60% of the problems, they might not even have been able to create a basic framework.

Factory Director Du made a final promise that once the prototype was produced and passed all tests, his name, Li Long, would be listed as the inventor, and he would be ranked first. Furthermore, he would receive 25% of the factory's profits.

This shows that a lot of effort has been put into it.

In recent years, from harvesters to the last two major weapons—snowplows and pesticide sprayers—the agricultural machinery factory has provided Li Long with a considerable amount of dividends, making their relationship unbreakable.

Therefore, Li Long believed in Director Du's promise and signed the agreement. Of course, this agreement was not just about profit sharing; there were also obligations he needed to fulfill. Engineer Deng and others would often call him to discuss various issues.

That's only natural.

After Li Long drove to the military post, he circled around but did not find Liu Gaolou's convoy. He then parked his car in front of a shop, got out, bought two packets of sugar cubes, and asked the shop owner if he had seen a long convoy pass by.

"That convoy mainly consists of trucks, about a dozen of them, with cars hauling them on top," Li Long emphasized.

"No, a few convoys did go today, and there were quite a few trucks, but the largest convoy I've seen was only five or six trucks together," the shop owner said with certainty.

Li Long then took the sugar cubes, went out, got into his car, turned around at another store, bought two kilograms of sesame cakes, and asked the same question again.

After receiving the same reply, he felt relieved, parked his car on the side of the road, and began to close his eyes and rest.

Less than an hour later, he felt it was too sunny and was about to adjust the car's position to find a shady spot when he saw a long convoy of cars coming from the west, kicking up dust.

Li Long got out of the car and stood by the roadside looking in that direction. When the car got closer, he confirmed that it was Liu Gaolou's car.

Liu Gaolou was in the passenger seat of the first truck. He also saw Li Long, signaled the truck to slow down, and then they both pulled over to the right.

When Li Long arrived, Liu Gaolou came down, shook hands with Li Long, and said:

Why are you waiting here?

"I figured you should be arriving around this time. I'm at the agricultural machinery factory here on business, kind of a business trip, and I was just waiting for you," Li Long said with a smile. "Have you eaten yet? If not, I'll treat you to a meal here."

"We've already eaten, we ate in Wusu. Let's rest for a bit, then we'll head over. We need to get there quickly and unload the goods before it gets dark."

"Okay, wait for me, I'll make a call." There was a public phone in the store, and it cost money. Li Long dialed the purchasing station. His father, Li Qingxia, answered. Li Long told him to tell Liang Shuangcheng that they were in Kuitun and would arrive in Ma County in about one hour and forty minutes to two hours.

Tell Liang Shuangcheng to go to the temporary labor market in a little over an hour and call some people over to prepare for unloading the truck and supplies.

The truck drivers got out of their vehicles to relieve themselves, drink water, and rest for about ten minutes. Then, Liu Gaolou got into Li Long's truck and led the way, continuing on their way.

"Small cars are more comfortable; big vehicles are too bumpy." Liu Gaolou, sitting in the passenger seat, stretched and then asked:
"Old Li, did you manage to get any canned food?"

"What? Are you in a hurry?" Li Long asked. "We haven't been able to get any yet. We have a small number of canneries in northern Xinjiang, so we can only get supplies from the supply and marketing cooperatives."

It wasn't that he hadn't looked; he had asked at food factories. Neither Ma County nor Shicheng had canneries, and most of their canned goods were imported from inland areas.

"It's urgent!" Liu Gaolou became anxious as soon as he heard that Li Long hadn't made any changes. "My second uncle needs them urgently. It's good to store them in the summer, but they won't keep well in the glass jars and cans you sent over in the winter. They might freeze and spoil."

“Alright, let’s go back and unload the goods first. I’ll ask around when I get back.” Li Long reassured him not to rush. “Don’t worry, even if I have to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to get you a batch of canned goods at a fair price, I’ll still get you one.”

"Alright then." Liu Gaolou was a little relieved and then said, "The main problem is that the disaster there is quite severe, and there is a shortage of food right now. A lot of the grain in the granaries has been sent to other member states for disaster relief."

So even though it's summer, food is still scarce. I've brought over five thousand hides—that's when the doe and the gazelle are with their calves; those people can't care about that anymore, food is the priority.”

Li Long could sense what Liu Gaolou was talking about.

But in a neighboring country, he could only offer sympathy at most.

In our own country, in the northern border region, it's only been a few years since we've been able to have enough to eat. And there are still many places in the interior of China where people still don't have enough to eat.

As for supporting others, he came from a later era and didn't have the same pure feelings he had for socialist brother countries in the 1960s and 70s.

Let alone him, most people have realized now that those ingrates don't deserve sympathy. Whether it's Pakistan or North Korea in the future, they are countries that need attention. Aren't they loyal? At the national level, there are only permanent interests, not permanent friends. That's how realistic it is!

So Li Long just sighed for a moment, and then started thinking about how to get enough canned food.

"How much do you charge for canned goods?" Li Long suddenly asked, "By bottle or by case?"

“There’s no way to set a standard size for this, right? How about we sell it by the bottle?” Liu Gaolou thought for a moment and said, “Let me be frank with you, I’m definitely going to make a profit from this. Here’s the thing, we’ll have canned meat and canned fruit, and each will have a different price.”

“You’re just stating the obvious,” Li Long laughed. “Do you want to settle in US dollars or RMB?”

"RMB, I guess. My second uncle doesn't have much US dollars either," Liu Gaolou said with a smile. "How about three yuan a bottle of canned fruit and five yuan a bottle of canned meat?"

Li Longmo did the math. The current retail price of canned fruit was between 1.5 and 2 yuan, varying slightly depending on the fruit. Canned fish and meat were priced between 2.5 and 4 yuan. Liu Gaolou was making a considerable profit for himself, but he probably wouldn't be able to acquire much more in the short term.

Or perhaps the quantity he needed was too large, and the valley couldn't provide it, so he came to me?
Of course, those who have worked well with me for several years will come directly to me.

"Sure, you've given me such a big discount, how could I refuse? I'll try my best to find something for you this time. By the way, I see you've got over a dozen trucks this time. Besides five thousand hides, what else do you have?"

"Five thousand hides, two thousand pairs of antelope horns, ten cars, and three tons of fritillaria bulbs from your father-in-law's place," Liu Gaolou said. "There's a lot of stuff. Just make sure you have the money ready."

"When you get back, ask your second uncle if he has any complete sets of drip irrigation tape production equipment. I'm planning to take a look," Li Long said, remembering another purpose of his trip. "If he does, see if he can disassemble it and bring it back for me. Of course, if he can't disassemble it, then he can at least get the blueprints back."

“No problem. My uncle’s connections in Almaty are growing wider and wider.” Liu Gaolou said with no small amount of pride. “Among the cars brought over this time, there are five German cars, two of which are Mercedes-Benz and the rest are Santanas. Of the remaining five cars, two are Japanese cars, Toyota SUVs, and the rest are Volga.”

The fact that they were able to bring over a Mercedes shows that Liu Shanmin's network of connections is becoming increasingly powerful.

"Then tell your second uncle that he can get some ruble loans soon, the more the better, and then exchange them for dollars on the black market. Make sure the loan term is long enough, three or four years would be ideal..."

Li Long recalled some anecdotes from later generations and casually remarked, "When there's inflation over there, the ruble will become worthless. We can then use the ruble to pay off our debts and make a fortune in the process."

He doesn't have the status to do it, but he can help Liu Shanmin out.

He had made a lot of money using Liu Shanmin's identity, so giving this advice now was just a favor, a free gift.

Liu Shanmin is a grateful and honest person. He will probably find it easier to sell things to others in the future after receiving the benefits.

Liu Gaolou paused for a moment after hearing Li Long's words. He was good at doing business, but not at resorting to crooked tricks. That was also why Liu Shanmin had brought him over... following the proper procedures would at least prevent him from making mistakes.

He could understand it, but he couldn't put it into practice. Once he did understand, he immediately felt he had to talk to his second uncle about it—it was feasible!

My second uncle didn't have enough connections before, so he couldn't borrow too much money. But it's different now. Judging from his tone, he can talk to those ministers. So borrowing money shouldn't be a problem, right?

When the car arrived in Ma County and turned into the purchasing station, Liu Gaolou noticed that the line had thinned out and asked:
"What's going on? There seem to be fewer people here than last time."

“That’s normal,” Li Long said as he turned the car toward the purchasing station. “Last time you came, it was peak season for fritillaria, so there were a lot of people selling fritillaria. Now it’s almost the end of June, the wheat harvest season is approaching, the busy farming season is starting, and everyone is preparing the threshing ground, so naturally there are fewer people coming.” Liu Gaolou nodded as if he understood. After the car reached the backyard, the two of them got out and immediately directed the convoy to split up. Some cars were parked in the front yard to unload, while others were driven to the back yard for handling.

Liang Shuangcheng had already led the day laborers in two groups and prepared to unload the truck.

Both he and Sun Jiaqiang were very skilled at doing these things, so they didn't need Li Long to give them any instructions; they were very adept at directing them.

Li Long told Liu Gaolou to rest in the reception room first, while he called Li Xiangqian. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he began to ask about the canned goods.

"You want a large quantity of canned goods? Are you selling them to the Soviet Union?" Li Xiangqian understood immediately from Li Long's words. "How much? Do you want it all at once or continuously?"

"The more the better. I need canned meat and canned fruit, but not just for one time. The price they're offering is good, so I'm thinking of making this a long-term business."

Li Xiangqian said:
“Currently, our supply and marketing cooperative doesn’t have much stock of canned goods. After deducting the daily supply, we can only give you no more than two tons. This stuff is mostly bought when visiting relatives during holidays; sales are very poor at other times.”

Li Long was aware of this situation, so he asked:

"Director, do you know where there are canneries in northern Xinjiang? I mean, the kind that produce both fruit and meat cans."

"The Corps has them. But I advise you not to even think about it. Our canneries here have limited production capacity, and more importantly, the fruits in northern Xinjiang are too seasonal, unlike in the south."

So even if you go to a cannery now, it's probably either in the off-season with reduced or halted production. If you really want a large quantity, listen to me, go find Director Qian.”

"Does the state commune have a lot in its warehouse?" Li Long actually had this thought as well.

"The state-level cooperative definitely has more than the county-level cooperative. It's the off-season for canned goods now, so they can give you all the canned goods in their warehouses without any problem."

"And there's another thing, the state cooperative has a sales line with the canneries in the border area. You can contact the factories directly through them, so wouldn't it be more convenient to have canned goods shipped directly from the border area?"

Li Long also thought this was a good idea. After thanking Li Xiangqian, he returned to the reception room.

Seeing that Liu Gaolou was not there, he went out to the backyard and saw Liu Gaolou watching the people unload the goods in the shade.

"These foreigners are handling the leather too roughly," Liu Gaolou complained. "Look at these leathers, they're full of blood streaks and have a strong smell. The leather is good, but they've made it look terrible."

“So, after we get this hide back, we still need to scrub and scrape it properly, otherwise it won’t look good and won’t fetch a good price,” Li Long continued. “Fortunately, with the current animal protection efforts in China, it’s not allowed to hunt wild animals, so there’s a place for this hide.”

"They say they're protecting them, but they can't protect them all in a short time, can they?" Liu Gaolou thought of the people back in his hometown, shook his head and said, "If they really fight in the mountains, who can stop them?"

“Restrictions on civilians’ use of guns are being tightened now. In the future, there will be no guns left, so it will be difficult to fight,” Li Long said. “The guns of the forest rangers in our mountains have all been confiscated.”

"It's good that they can be sold. I think the Soviet Union and the Kazakh republics will continue to fight these gazelles and antelopes for a while. I don't know what will happen if this continues?"

"What else could happen? Just like we said, it might collapse suddenly in the next year or two. Then each member state will have to take care of itself." Li Long spoke without any hesitation, and apart from him and Liu Gaolou, no one else cared.

Few people would believe that the great empire next door would collapse. It was the world's largest socialist country and one of the most powerful countries in the world!

After unloading the truck and the leather goods, the sun was almost setting. Liu Gaolou and Li Long didn't rush to settle the bill this time; they simply counted the quantities and wrote a note.

Li Long told Liu Gaolou that he would go to collect canned goods tomorrow and asked him to wait a day or two.

Liu Gaolou naturally had no objections.

After treating Liu Gaolou and the drivers to dinner that evening, Li Long returned home when it was almost dark.

Even though Hao Hao was already asleep, Li Long quickly washed up and went to the bedroom to tell Gu Xiaoxia about his plans for tomorrow.

“Go to Beiting? Sure,” Gu Xiaoxia knew that her husband’s career was like this, requiring him to travel all over the place. Fortunately, the places he went to were generally not far away, and he would usually be back in a day or two, at most three to five days, which counted as a business trip.

Li Long thought that once he brought the canned goods back, he would mention it to Liu Gaolou and see if they could get some valuable hides from over there. A considerable area over there shared a section of the Tianshan Mountains with this valley; it would be impossible for them not to have good hides.

Given the current economic situation there, the fact that they were able to sell their Mercedes-Benz shows that some of the previously wealthy families are now finding it difficult to continue their businesses.

Not all wealthy individuals will be able to seize the opportunity to achieve a new social class at this time; some will become victims of institutional changes.

If you can sell a Mercedes, then selling your treasured leather collection isn't a big deal.

The next day, after dropping Mingming and Haohao off at school, Li Long went to Sister Yang's dried meat processing workshop, picked up a few kilograms of dried meat, packed them into four packages, and then drove to Beiting.

Upon arriving at the state commune, Li Long took out his work ID, which Director Qian had given him many years ago, and surprisingly went inside.

He didn't go directly to the office building, but went to the car rental company to find Xiao Si first.

Xiao Si had been driving for Director Qian for several years, and that status hadn't changed. When Li Long's car pulled up in front of the motor pool, Xiao Si was chatting with someone in the motor pool's dormitory.

The door was open. Li Long knocked, and Xiao Si looked up and saw him, exclaiming in surprise:
"Hey, Comrade Li Long, come in, come in quickly." Li Long walked in with a smile and said, "Are you resting?"

"Consider it a break. Wait for the leader's instructions." Xiao Si pulled out a stool for Li Long and said, "Do you need to see the director? The director is in a meeting and it might take a while."

"Then I'll sit here for a while," Li Long said. "It's been a while since I've been here. How's it going?"

"It's alright," Xiao Si said with a smile. "At our company, the benefits are good, to say the least. All my old friends envy me."

Xiao Si got married last year. Her husband is also a salesperson in the supply and marketing system, and his family is also in Beiting City. The two are considered a good match, and they seem to be living a happy and fulfilling life.

After chatting with Li Long for a while, Xiao Si made a phone call. After a few words, Xiao Si hung up and said to Li Long:

"The director's meeting might end in a few minutes. If you need to go, you'd better hurry over. A lot of people are waiting for the director to finish the meeting and sign documents."

"Then come out with me for a moment. I have some things to bring to the director, but it's inconvenient to take them to the office," Li Long said.

Xiao Si smiled and went out with Li Long.

Li Long handed the two bags of dried meat to Xiao Si:

"One bag is yours, and the other is the director's."

"Your jerky packaging is getting better and better these days," Xiao Si exclaimed. "Great! Don't worry, I'll bring it over when I take the director home this afternoon."

Li Long believed this, and after greeting Xiao Si, he headed towards the office building.

When Li Long arrived at the director's office, there was no one there. Then someone came over and asked him what he wanted. After Li Long explained his purpose, the person told him to line up, saying that there were two people ahead of him. Then they called him into the office next door.

Sure enough, there were two people inside. One was holding documents, which Li Long guessed were from the state-level organization. The other was smoking by the window and looked a bit anxious. Li Long guessed that he was probably from another unit, like himself, looking for the director.

After Li Long entered, the two men glanced at him and then continued with their own business.

After waiting for five or six minutes, footsteps and voices were heard in the corridor. The man who was smoking by the window immediately put out his cigarette, threw the butt on the windowsill, and strode outside.

They seem to be in a hurry.

Li Long didn't move. He saw the other person who had taken the documents stand up, grab the documents, and dash out, saying, "Me first, I came first!"

The person who had brought Li Long over earlier rushed over to "maintain order," and then we heard Director Qian's voice, not loud, but quite authoritative:
"What's the rush? Get to the point—which unit are you from?"

The man who had been smoking earlier quickly said:

"I came from Ji County. There's a problem with the goods I bought from the supply and marketing cooperative there. I contacted them, but they ignored me and said that's how the state cooperative provides them... I had no choice but to come to you. It's worth over a thousand yuan..."

Director Qian then led his men into the office to learn more about the situation.

Li Long thought to himself that the fact that this person was able to get in showed that things were still handled with flexibility at this time, and that he was probably more concerned about the people.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to get in—to be honest, given the matter he's asking, it's not certain he'll be able to see Director Qian again in a few years.

Half an hour later, Li Long saw Director Qian.

"Little Li is here," Director Qian said with a smile. "Come, come, sit down. I'm sorry to have made you laugh—sigh, some people in the supply and marketing cooperatives in the counties and cities below are really outrageous."

Li Long had heard the whole story from the man from Ji County. He had a receipt, which he showed, so what he said should be true.

The final outcome was good. Director Qian directly called the director of the Jixian Supply and Marketing Cooperative, confirmed the matter, and asked him to go back and get a refund.

According to Director Qian, it's not easy for ordinary people to earn money, and the supply and marketing cooperative is a large and well-established organization. We can't lose our credibility and hurt the feelings of ordinary people because of this.

The director on the other end explained for a while, and then hung up the phone.

“With such a large business, it’s natural that small problems will arise; it’s unavoidable,” Li Long said with a smile. “Director, I’ve come to you for help this time.”

"Ask for help? Okay, tell me what you're planning to do, I'll hear it." Director Qian felt that Li Long shouldn't have said that. Since he'd known this young man, he'd always been quite ambitious and capable, and his business was growing bigger and bigger, which was quite impressive.

“I have a partner in a former Soviet republic, and they need a lot of canned goods. I asked our Director Li, and he said our county supply and marketing cooperative doesn't have much stock. My partner needs a lot, and it's a long-term need, so…”

"Understood." Director Qian thought for a moment and said:

"Wait a minute." Then he called out loudly towards the door:

"Xiao Zhang, come here."

The person who brought Li Long in earlier strode in.

"director."

"Ask the logistics department to check how many canned goods we have in stock. Also, ask the purchasing department how often the canned goods we get from the port are shipped, how much they are each time, and how long it takes from ordering by phone to receiving the goods."

"Okay," Xiao Zhang replied, turning and leaving.

"Is there a food shortage over there?" Director Qian asked after Xiao Zhang left. "Logically, they shouldn't be short of canned food, right?"

"There was a disaster, a large-scale disaster," Li Long said truthfully. "The Kazakh republics themselves produce grain, but after last year's harvest, a large portion of it was allocated to other Soviet republics, leaving very little for themselves."

This has led to some people not even having enough to eat, so they have no choice but to slaughter large numbers of wild animals. I receive a large batch of pelts every two to twenty days.

Director Qian nodded, indicating that he understood.

"It's quite chaotic over there right now. Everyone's on edge, both at the top and bottom. My business partner brought over some things, including a high-end car like a Mercedes. Even some of the wealthy businessmen there are having a hard time now."

Director Qian nodded, then shook his head.

Clearly, he was paying attention to the situation over there, but he didn't know as much as Li Long did.

"Actually, this is quite good." Director Qian suddenly smiled. "It gives you an opportunity, since everything you're doing is legal. They need food, and you need other supplies from their side."

"I definitely won't sell any grains or anything like that," Li Long said hastily. "It's just sugar, canned goods, and cement, oh right. These things won't have much of an impact, so they'll be easy to get through customs."

"Yes, grain is a strategic material, and it is strictly controlled. While sugar is also a strategic material, the impact is relatively small. As for light industrial foods like canned goods, they can be moved over there without much trouble."

Soon, Xiao Zhang came over with his notebook to report.

After hearing the numbers he mentioned, Li Long had a better understanding of the situation—the state commune's warehouse had dozens of tons of canned goods, some of which were for reserves, while the majority were intended to be allocated to various counties and cities.

However, it is currently the off-season for canned food consumption, so the supply department has consulted with various counties and cities and found that there is not much need for canned food at the moment.

In addition, the purchasing department also said that the canned goods they purchase come from four factories in the area: two fruit canneries, one fish cannery, and one pork and beef cannery.

If you're ordering and shipping goods directly from the sea, the longest delivery time is to the fish cannery, which is located by the sea and takes about ten days. The shortest delivery time is to the fruit cannery, which takes about a week.

After listening to the report, Director Qian asked Xiao Zhang to leave, and then said to Li Long:

"You heard it too. We still have quite a lot of stock here, and the counties and cities don't need it. If you want some, you can take some away first—but I definitely can't give you the price at cost."

“No problem, I’ll give you the retail price.” As long as Li Long has the goods, he’s fine with it. As for the price, he can make a profit anyway, so he doesn’t care about a few cents.

"No need for that, I'll just give it to you at the price I give to the counties and cities." Director Qian smiled, then teased him, "Looks like you're quite wealthy now, able to buy at the retail price."

"No, it's mainly because their purchase price is slightly higher than our retail price. They need a large quantity, so they offer this price—most people really can't get that much stock."

"Also, you said you need more people, so I'll treat your place as a point in the county or city. Here's what we'll do: tell me what goods you need for your next batch, and I'll have our purchasing department order them for you at the current price, and then deliver them to your purchasing station."

"Of course, no problem, thank you, Director." Li Long was naturally very happy.

"Haha, actually I should thank you too. You've essentially expanded my canned food sales by an entire county. Our purchasing department will be very happy too."

This is a win-win situation.

"This is how it's going to be now. If I'm not here in a while, I'll send you the contact information for those canneries in advance. With our local state cooperative as a guarantor, they'll still ship the goods to you as usual."

This is where the sourcing channels come in.

Li Long understood that Director Qian still appreciated him, but he was also aware that Director Qian's position was based on considerations of his status as a government employee.

That's pretty good.

P.S.: The instructor's birthday deserves a special commemoration.

(End of this chapter)