Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

For the next four days, Li Long went to the fields to pick cotton while also helping to look after the day laborers.

Perhaps it was because Li Long had spread the word about beating that person that day, that although he took on more odd jobs every day afterward, he picked cotton in a more orderly manner and there was no more haphazard picking and waste.

On the fifth day, Li Long still wanted to go, but he couldn't because Huang Lei came over.

Huang Lei called Li Long after arriving in Wucheng by train, asking him if he could find a few cars from Wucheng to go to Ma County to haul all the wild mushrooms.

“Three trucks, at least three,” Li Long said. “Dried wild mushrooms don’t weigh much. I have more than five tons here. You decide what to do.”

Therefore, Huang Lei brought three cars with him.

Li Long was waiting for him at the purchasing station.

"I thought you weren't coming." Huang Lei arrived at the purchasing station with his car. After getting out of the car, Li Long's first words to him were, "If you hadn't come, I was planning to sell these dried wild mushrooms to the supply and marketing cooperative."

"No, that won't do." Huang Lei said apologetically, "There's nothing I can do, something happened on our end. My sales channels, the ones that have been buying my wild mushrooms, have run into trouble."

"Something happened?" Li Long was somewhat surprised. "The market economy is already so developed, what could possibly happen? Tax evasion?"

He led Huang Lei to the reception room to rest.

"No, I have family matters to attend to. These are all people with good judgment. They started doing small business right from the beginning of the reform and opening up. They are wealthy, and their children are doing well in school. Two of their children were admitted to universities in Beijing, and two other families have good relationships with these two families. They were admitted to universities last year. Although they are not in Beijing, they have kept in touch with their childhood friends there."

Li Long then understood.

"So these companies aren't accepting the goods anymore?"

“It’s not that I don’t want to accept the goods, it’s just that I wasn’t in the mood at the time. The child is nowhere to be found now, and I can’t get in touch with him. It’s been several months. Two of my clients have simply passed on their business to others and are looking for the child.”

Huang Lei also expressed his regret, but no one can comment on this matter.

"Is everything sorted out now? Can we accept it?" Li Long then asked.

"Yes, we can start collecting them. Wild mushrooms are very popular where we live. When someone leaves, someone else has to take over. It's just that my relationship with this newcomer isn't great, and we need to build trust, which takes time."

Li Long accepted Huang Lei's explanation. However, he felt that Huang Lei might not have told the whole truth, because Huang Lei himself didn't seem so happy, and seemed to be suppressing a little melancholy.

But the two sides haven't reached the point of open communication yet, and he can't and doesn't want to get involved in this kind of thing.

This life is a little better. In my previous life, I stayed in the village. From the time the first college student left, until I was about to die, there were people leaving almost every year.

Especially those students who finished the college entrance examination in the 1990s and early 2000s, they were all very arrogant. They spoke as if they had the world under their control, and could do whatever they wanted and go to any university they wanted. After graduation, they all did great things.

At first, some people would debate with these college students, but later no one spoke up anymore. At this point, the students were very stubborn and couldn't be persuaded, which was both a good thing and a bad thing.

Only after going to university, competing with students at a higher level, and entering society and experiencing its harsh realities, will one come to a clear understanding of reality.

Young people can make mistakes, but it's wrong to look down on everyone.

There's a limit to how much one can pontificate and write passionately.

"So, are you sure you can take all five tons of wild mushrooms away this time?" Li Long brought the topic back to the main point. "I think if we don't take them away soon, I'll really have to sell them to the supply and marketing cooperative. If we leave them in the winter, they'll get damp, and if we move them to next year, some of them will break. The losses will be too great."

“Take it all away,” Huang Lei said. “Don’t worry, it’s only five tons, I can handle it.”

Five tons sounds like a lot, but in the market of a province, it's really nothing.

Of the five tons, about two tons were morels and about three tons were black tiger paw mushrooms. Li Long stopped buying other types of straw mushrooms; they were too easy for poisonous mushrooms to mix in, so it was better to be safe.

After resting for a while, Huang Lei and Li Long began to inspect the mushrooms together.

Huang Lei opened the bags of dried wild mushrooms.

"Hey, Mr. Li, to be honest, it's really comfortable doing business with you. Just look at the quality of these dried wild mushrooms, I'd be willing to pay more. Let me tell you, I've also bought morel mushrooms from other places in China, but none of them have been processed this clean."

Every time Huang Lei came over, he would say the same thing, and Li Long found it very helpful. He was used to it and just nodded.

Huang Lei poured out one bag of morel mushrooms—onto the plastic sheet laid out on the ground. Looking at the bottom of the bag, there was almost no residue. These morel mushrooms were all uniform, with their stems trimmed, and without a trace of mud or dirt.

He then sampled another bag of morel mushrooms, and the results were the same.

I took three bags of black tiger paw mushrooms from another warehouse and poured them onto a plastic sheet. Apart from having a little more residue in these three bags, there were no other problems.

Black tiger paw mushrooms are crisper than morel mushrooms after drying, so it's normal for them to have some crumbs, which Huang Lei didn't mind.

Because the bag of black tiger paw mushrooms was very clean; apart from the dried goods, there were no weeds or soil.

Although it looks dark brown, Huang Lei knows that's how the genuine product looks.

After taking a general look, he squatted down and rummaged through the morel mushrooms, picking up a few at random, weighing them in his hand, and even breaking them apart.

"Did you run into some inferior morel mushrooms that were mixed in?" Li Long asked with a smile when he saw his action.

"Hey, don't even mention it!" Huang Lei got angry as soon as he heard it. "When we were buying them in a certain province, we thought the people there were honest and kind. But when we inspected the goods, they put iron nails inside the morel mushrooms. Half a kilogram of iron was mixed into one kilogram of morel mushrooms. Who can stand that?"

"Didn't it cause a scene?" Li Long asked.

"No, I was on guard at the time. I went there with a gun, and I didn't take those morel mushrooms."

As he spoke, he put down the few more mushrooms and picked up some more to examine.

Li Long watched him examine the patient with a smile.

After inspecting for about half an hour, Huang Lei finally stood up, dusted off his hands, and said:

"Mr. Li, if it's all the same type of goods, then I'll take them all. Shall we load them now?"

“Okay. Same as always, weigh one bag, pack it into one bag, and record it as one bag,” Li Long said. “I’ve already called the temporary workers over, let’s go out now.”

When the two of them came out, Liang Shuangcheng and the others directed the day laborers to pack up the mushrooms that had been spilled, while Sun Jiaqiang pushed the scale to the side of the truck and began to direct the day laborers to unload the goods.

Dried wild mushrooms are very light and cannot be squeezed, so each bag is not heavy and easy to weigh. However, the quantity is too large and loading them into a vehicle is also quite troublesome.

The dried wild mushrooms here in Li Long are all top-grade. This year, morel mushrooms are 45 yuan per kilogram, and black tiger paw mushrooms are 30 yuan per kilogram.

The prices of these wild game items have fluctuated in recent years, mainly due to market instability. Moreover, the prices of wild game items are subject to market fluctuations; when there is market demand, the prices rise, and when there is no market demand, the prices fall.

The two types of wild mushrooms cost around 180,000 yuan in total, and the odd amount naturally had to be calculated. At this moment, Huang Lei truly embodied the businessman, leaving no room for ambiguity, including when peeling the mushrooms.

After all the dried wild mushrooms were inspected and loaded onto the truck, Huang Lei wrote a check, and Li Long, after receiving the check, wanted to treat Huang Lei and the others to dinner.

Huang Lei refused, saying he needed to get the dried wild mushrooms to Wucheng before tonight and then load them onto the truck overnight.

As for lunch, I can just eat some sesame cakes and bread in the car.

Li Long then packed some beef jerky for him to take on the road.

Huang Lei has stopped selling beef jerky recently, saying that there are competitors in the market there, and other brands are cheaper.

Li Long didn't press the issue. Firstly, Zhao Hui still wanted beef jerky, and secondly, after the Ethnic Affairs Commission's Beijing office continued to need beef jerky, several other units in the autonomous region called Li Long, also wanting some.

The main reason is that after the State Ethnic Affairs Commission's Beijing office sent this as a local specialty to relevant units, it was very well received. Then, when other units learned about it, they went to other Beijing offices to check and found that they did not have it.

And so the news spread, and Li's dried meat became famous, leading to a surge in demand.

Furthermore, the local market has already been cultivated. Some private shops in the county, plus the market's own shops, as well as some units in Shicheng, and even shopping malls in Beiting sometimes come to purchase goods, so there is no worry about selling them.

After Huang Lei left, Li Long settled the wages for the day laborers, then went to the bank to cash the checks and deposited them into his account. He also needed to transfer some money to Lao Gu, since Lao Gu had also shipped over some dried mushrooms.

When I got back, I habitually gave my dad 5,000 yuan. With the current 180,000 yuan, there's roughly a 100,000 yuan gross profit, so giving my dad 10,000 yuan isn't much. Then I gave Liang Shuangcheng and Sun Jiaqiang 200 yuan each as a bonus, and the two of them were beaming with joy.

Sun Jiaqiang, holding the money, said:
"Luckily he came, otherwise, we would have this warehouse full of dried mushrooms, worth almost 100,000 yuan, which would have been quite troublesome if we waited until winter."

“It’s alright. If he doesn’t come by the time winter is almost here, I’ll just sell the dried wild mushrooms to the state supply and marketing cooperative.”

Although the county cooperative also collects, it cannot collect such a large quantity, so it is not within Li Long's consideration.

The state cooperative can definitely do it. Since Director Qian took office, he has been thinking about selling some of the state's specialties to other regions, so Li Long is confident.

However, this is only a backup option at the moment, since the price offered by the state won't be high. After all, various counties and cities are also collecting dried wild mushrooms on a small scale, and the prices there are transparent.

"These past few days have been the off-season at our purchasing station, so there aren't many people selling anything, and the agricultural supply stores are in the same boat. You two are mainly responsible for tidying up the hides in the warehouse so that we can get a good price when Boss Zhao comes over."

Liu Gaolou always came after Zhao Hui had left, so every time Zhao Hui came to Li Long to buy leather goods, there was always stock available, but not much, usually no more than eight thousand pieces.

Usually, Liu Gaolou would arrive shortly after he left. The last time Liu Gaolou came, Li Long even joked with him, asking if he had arranged to come at the same time as his downstream fur dealers.

It was obviously a joke. Liu Gaolou himself was also in a passive position. He had to wait for his second uncle, Liu Shanmin, to deliver the goods before he could bring them to Li Long.

The next day, Li Long went to the fourth team and happened to find Xie Yundong organizing people to drive four hand tractors to sell cotton.

Li Long frowned as he looked at the long line; the cotton-hauling efficiency was rather low. The tractor's bed was carrying relatively few bales of cotton.

Some people originally suggested installing the wooden frame used for pulling wheat bales and straw into the cart bed, so that more cotton bales could be loaded.

But the cotton and linen company wouldn't allow it—their gate wasn't wide enough for the truck bed to fit.

Therefore, each truck bed can only hold a little over a ton at most.

It's not very efficient.

Li Long didn't go to the fields; instead, he followed Xie Yundong and the others to the cotton and linen company to check on the cotton sales.

Xie Yundong and his group got up early, so when they arrived at the cotton and linen company, there was a queue ahead of them, but only about ten vehicles – tractors, donkey carts, and horse-drawn carriages.

Their four tractors attracted a lot of attention as soon as they appeared.

Of course, Li Long's Land Cruiser was even more eye-catching.

The people in line were all carrying cotton, so Li Long parked his truck on the side and climbed onto the cotton bales in the truck bed, chatting with Li Junhai on top of him.

Each tractor had a young man on it who was responsible for unloading the bales and helping the driver lift them to the scale. The cotton and linen company wasn't that advanced back then; there were no weighbridges, just a regular scale where the cotton bales were placed on it to be weighed.

One person can't do it.

Because there was still a queue ahead of them, the gatekeepers were handing out small iron tubes for covering chimneys to those who had tractors, and then some people came over to greet them and chat.

"Brother, which township are you from? Is all this cotton from the same family? It looks like it came together."

The one leading the group was Xie Yundong, driving a tractor. He got off the tractor, shook hands with the other person, and said:

"It's our own land, a plot we've leased together. Where are you from?"

"Our family has six plots of land. We planted twenty mu of cotton, and this is the second time we've sold it. The price is pretty good this year. The cotton and linen company is giving us 2.3 yuan per jin, which is even higher than last year."

Although they were a bit far away, Li Long had good hearing and could hear their conversation.

The first batch of flowers is the most expensive because of its good down, and the price increases as you go further back in time. Of course, if the flowers were opened with a flower-opening agent, they won't be good, as the down length and garment weight will be insufficient.

I want the kind that opens naturally.

When the second crop of cotton bolls arrives, the price will be lower. In some fields, there are more cotton bolls that bloom later, so a third crop of cotton bolls can be harvested, and the price will be even lower.

According to Li Long's recollection, from that time until the end of the 1990s, the price of cotton basically hovered between one and two yuan, with only one year exceeding three yuan, and that year it suddenly jumped to six yuan.

Li Long plans to test this method first, and then expand the planting area in a certain year, planting enough at once so that everyone in the cooperative can make a fortune.

It's normal that prices are higher this year than last year. Prices are rising across the board, and cotton textile mills are starting to open in various places, which may be one of the reasons.

The man was shocked when Xie Yundong told him that his family had jointly planted over a thousand acres of cotton. He was even more shocked when Xie Yundong told him that the cotton was grown on saline-alkali land.

He was somewhat skeptical when Xie Yundong told him that 60-70% of the seedlings could be grown in the saline-alkali land, so he came over and opened the cotton bales on the tractor to see the cotton inside.

The cotton plants turned out to be growing very well.

The man was about to say something when his son shouted from the front:

"Dad, move forward!"

He rushed over there.

When the car in front moves, everyone else moves too, and cars behind follow suit.

After waiting for about half an hour, it was Li Long's turn with his four cars. The gatekeeper, upon hearing that they were from the same family, let them all in.

Of course, the chimney still needs to be covered with a bucket to prevent sparks from coming out.

After going inside, they lifted the cotton bales down and put them together, then the inspector came over to conduct random checks.

I've already gone through the process, so I won't go into details. In the end, I graded the cotton as Grade 1, but the price wasn't as high as the guy I mentioned before; I bought it for 2.2 yuan.

There's no room for negotiation here, so that's how it is.

Li Long took some time to go to the gate and asked the gatekeeper if it would be okay to modify his cotton-hauling cart.
They said it's possible, but there's no weighbridge right now. If you modify the truck bed, how will you weigh it?

Li Long slapped his forehead, realizing he'd forgotten about that. He actually wanted to find a blacksmith to weld a long, tall cart bucket, the kind used for hauling cotton in later generations. This kind of cart bucket could not only haul cotton but also corn, carrying several tons at a time.

However, this improvement came about because weighbridges were invented, allowing for weighing. Now, cotton is weighed using traditional scales, which is no longer feasible.

Xie Yundong finally got the receipt from the finance department, and the four tractors drove off—at this point, there was no cash to settle the accounts; they would wait for the payment later.

Seeing that it was almost noon, Li Long took everyone to eat big plate chicken and then sent them home.

For the next few days, they worked until the end of September, selling cotton almost every two or three days. Fortunately, the group consisted of several families, so they had enough people to help with picking cotton and loading it onto trucks every day. By the end of September, they had finished picking the first batch of cotton, harvesting over 100 tons from more than 1,000 mu of land, and earning over 200,000 yuan.

Because they found enough odd jobs every day, the cotton picking was very timely. At this time, many people in the team who had planted tens of acres of cotton had not yet finished picking the first batch of cotton.

However, the average purchase price of cotton by cotton and linen companies has fallen below two yuan.

After all, the quality of cotton gets worse as time goes on.

The second crop of cotton has already grown in some plots, but seeing that there are still bolls on the cotton plants, the leaders of the cooperative discussed it and decided to wait a few more days before picking.

Their point is to make sure to pick as many flowers as possible the second time, rather than waiting for a third round of picking, which wouldn't be worthwhile.

On the second day of National Day, Li Long treated everyone to a meal in his own yard in the fourth team. He slaughtered two sheep and invited members of the cooperative and relatives like Li Junhai to celebrate the victory of the first phase.

"Based on current estimates, one mu (unit of land area) can yield 120 to 150 kilograms of cotton, which exceeds our plan." Xie Yundong, his face flushed from drinking, said, "This cooperative's first success is truly remarkable!"

Although there is still one batch of cotton to be harvested, the money from the cotton we have already received is enough to cover this year's input and next year's expenses.

After the second crop of flowers is harvested and sold, the rest is just a matter of dividing the profits.

“We might receive less money at the end of this year, but we’ve already saved on next year’s investment. If we continue farming like this next year, we’ll receive more,” Li Long said at the table. “As long as the cooperative enters a virtuous cycle, things will only get better for us.”

"Yes, yes, it's getting better and better!" Tao Daqiang echoed, then whispered, "Following Brother Long, I've never suffered a loss."

Although Li Junhai and his colleagues only earn money for their work, this year is different from previous years. In addition to Li Jianguo and Li Long giving these relatives a share of the money, they will also receive a share of the cooperative's wages for each day they work.

People like Li Junxian, who drive high-horsepower tractors and harvesters, earn less money but already make a lot, so they don't care. But people like Li Junhai, who don't drive machines, care. They think about how they can earn a few hundred yuan more than last year, which means they can buy their families more clothes or a big new item.

Everyone was exhausted in the past few days, getting up early and going to bed late. Now that the first batch of cotton has been picked, we can finally relax a bit.

With plenty of meat and large bottles of wine available today, everyone had a great time. At first, they drank together at their own tables, but later they started playing drinking games across the tables, making the courtyard very lively.

After drinking a few glasses of wine, Li Long went to his elder brother's courtyard.

My elder brother was in the front yard, and my mother and sister-in-law were in the back yard. They had already eaten. Seeing Li Long come over, my mother, Du Chunfang, asked:

"What? Are you full or did you not eat well? Those people were drinking and making a lot of noise, weren't they? There's still some food at home, do you want to eat something here?"

"No need, no need. I've already eaten. Let me see if you've eaten yet," Li Long said. "I've been so busy lately, Mom. How are you?"

"That's great! I don't have to do any field work every day. When I'm free, I just stroll around the vegetable garden. Look at the cabbages I planted this year, they're almost ready to form heads!" Du Chunfang said with a grin.

"When winter comes, we cut down the cabbages, put one pile in the cellar and another pile to pickle into sauerkraut, which we'll stir-fry when we slaughter the pig."

Stir-fried pickled cabbage with pork is not actually a popular dish in my hometown. It's a dish from the area around here, and I don't know which local specialties it incorporated, but it eventually became the standard dish.

Anyway, now that each family in the four teams has some spare money, when they slaughter pigs for the New Year in winter, it's basically the same routine: stir-fried pork with pickled cabbage, stir-fried bean sprouts with pig liver, dry-fried pig offal, and steamed pig blood buns.

No matter where your hometown is, you'll still make pork stew here the same way.

So every autumn, after the Mid-Autumn Festival, a crop of cabbages is planted in the empty spaces of the vegetable garden to make winter vegetables.

Some people also plant a crop of cabbage in the winter wheat field, watering it while watering the winter wheat, and then they can sell the cabbage.

Of course, not many people do this. Right now, the team only has one well, mainly used to provide drinking water for those who don't have their own wells. Irrigating the fields is almost impossible. Without many wells, irrigation is done on a fixed schedule, unless someone like Li Long has contracted a small pond, in which case the water can be used as needed.

The meal lasted from noon until evening. Li Long drank a few glasses of wine at the beginning, but by the afternoon, the effects of the alcohol had worn off. He went over and sat for a while longer, intending to chat for a bit and then leave. However, he was grabbed by a few people who were drunk and asked to clink glasses. So, he decided to stay and stay the night.

The drinking continued until almost dark, and the lights in the courtyard were about to be turned on before people gradually dispersed.

Li Junfeng's wife, Liang Yuemei, helped clean up the mess.

"Xiaolong, this cooperative, this cotton, you've done a great job." Li Jianguo drank steadily until the very end, with several bottles of liquor next to him. As the oldest and most senior person in the group, everyone who came over had to drink a few with him.

Therefore, Li Jianguo was the one who drank the most.

But he still looks perfectly steady, not drunk at all, his eyes are bright, and he's praising Li Long:

"As I just said, at the beginning, no one except us was optimistic about this cooperative. In fact, many people in the team thought we might ruin it."

Now that the cooperative is up and running, I estimate that by the end of the year, quite a few people in the team will have joined. Have you considered whether you need more people?

"Not yet," Li Long waved his hand. "Now is not the time, and those people may not agree to add more money."

Besides, we've only just gotten to know each other well, so we shouldn't have any issues with splitting the profits. But if more people join, who knows what kind of conflicts might arise when it comes to dividing the money later.”

Li Jianguo nodded: "Yes, it's good that you understand. Our high-horsepower tractors have also made some money in the cooperative this year. If this continues, we should be able to recoup our costs next year."

Junxian and Qianjin might earn even more this year than last year, and Junhai and his group might be thinking about it. What do you think, should we get one or two more high-horsepower tractors?

Li Long hadn't expected his older brother to say such bold things after drinking.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. Two high-horsepower tractors could at most cover half of the land in their own brigade, but now their influence is expanding. If they could plow half, no, even a third or a quarter, of the entire township's land with high-horsepower tractors, they would make a lot more money.

Of course, this also forces those who were originally driving Dongfanghong 75 tractors to upgrade their equipment; otherwise, they will be eliminated.

“Sure,” Li Long said. “To be honest, it’s relatively easy to buy this high-horsepower tractor in the last two years, but it might not be so easy in another two years.”

“Then let’s buy two more,” Li Jianguo said, making up his mind. “You pay part of the cost, and I’ll pay the rest—I won’t pay much, but we’ll recoup our investment very quickly.”

Li Long thought that his elder brother probably also thought that Junhai and the others would want to stay in the Northern Frontier, so he made plans for them in advance.

Of course, this is also a step in the progress of agricultural mechanization, only Li Long brought it forward.

Li Long's purchasing station usually only sells one high-horsepower tractor every one or two months, or even two or three months. There's one left in the backyard, which we can take and use directly.

He plans to call Liu Gaolou again tomorrow and ask Liu Shanmin to look around and see if he can find some in good condition.

It must be said that before the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was indeed one of the world's only two superpowers, with significantly higher rates of car ownership and tractor ownership.

That evening, Li Long called Gu Xiaoxia and stayed in the courtyard.

The next morning, Li Long ate breakfast at his elder brother's house, and then went to find Xie Yundong to tell him about his brother's guess and share his own perspective.

“Even if you hadn’t said it, I think it’s about the same. That’s what I think too. Our cooperative has made a good start, but we still need to work things out. Right now, these thousand or so acres are keeping me so busy that I’m dizzy. If we add more land, I definitely won’t be able to manage it next year.”

Li Long knew very well that when it came to this kind of cotton, he was naturally the one who understood the technology best, but when it came to the busiest person in the cooperative this year, it was Xie Yundong who was the one.

After all, this was Xie Yundong's first time being a manager. Although the cooperative was established last year and meetings were held at the beginning of this year to sort things out, and each department had a person in charge, Xie Yundong was the one who really oversaw everything. He had to worry about everything and was afraid that the person in charge would not do their job properly.

It's about a thousand acres!
Fortunately, after many bumps and setbacks, the harvest time has finally arrived. Even now, Xie Yundong doesn't dare to be careless. When Li Long arrived, he was just about to go out to check on the fields.

Li Long explained the situation to him, instructing him to refuse anyone who asked other members to intercede on his behalf.

"Don't worry, it definitely won't reach you. I'll just reject it at your doorstep," Xie Yundong said.

Their discussion wasn't unfounded. Some people in the team also grew cotton, and after picking the cotton in the evenings, they would ask around when they visited each other. Most of the team knew that the cooperative had a bumper harvest from the saline-alkali land this year.

Saline-alkali land is newly reclaimed land. Although it requires more investment to improve, there are no management fees, so the cost is not high.

If you harvest more than 100 kilograms of cotton per mu (unit of land area), that's a gross income of 200 to 300 yuan. After deducting costs, you'll still have at least 100 yuan in revenue. If you have 1,000 mu, that's 100,000 yuan!
Although the profits are distributed according to the investment, the Li family alone takes half of it, so the remaining families can still get ten or twenty thousand yuan!
This is income in addition to the land allocated to the team. One or two people can earn 10,000 yuan a year. How can this be enough!

Xu Haijun is right. Some people have already started eyeing other saline-alkali land. In the past two days, Captain Xu Chengjun's house has had a lot of guests, mostly people who want to claim a piece of saline-alkali land for their own use.

Some people are more careful and fence off 30 or 40 acres, which is easier to do under the team's approval authority.

Some are more ruthless and take on seventy or eighty acres, or even a hundred acres.

Xu Chengjun received many applications, and he was very fair, approving them in the order they came in. If they exceeded the 50-mu limit, he would collect them and wait to report them to the township.

Xu Chengjun also realized that most of these people were opening up land near the cooperative's more than 1,000 mu of saline-alkali land. He didn't know if they wanted to ride on the cooperative's success or if they were planning to join the cooperative.

That same noon, someone went to Xie Yundong's house to inquire whether he could join the cooperative.

Everyone in the village knows that Xie Yundong is the manager of the cooperative. Some people have even worked for Xie Yundong and earned money while weeding and cultivating the land.

"No, our cooperative is still in the trial operation phase and we don't plan to hire anyone for the time being." Xie Yundong's refusal was very clear. "Let's talk about it later."

It wasn't just Xie Yundong; several members of the cooperative were approached by others. For example, Tao Daqiang's brother, Tao Dayong, approached his younger brother, wanting to join.

For example, Lao Lu Yingming approached Li Jianguo, also wanting to join.

For example, some of Xu Haijun's uncles came to him, but he said he couldn't make the decision himself, so he went to ask Xie Yundong, and then refused.

He had to shamelessly ask several people to join him back then, so he wouldn't dare to make promises to others now.

On the contrary, no one contacted Liang Dacheng and Jia Weidong, as they didn't have many good relationships with people in the team.

Xie Yundong rejected all those who wanted to join the cooperative, making those who were rejected feel a little better.

However, the rumors were a bit unpleasant within the team's retail outlets. Some people said that since Li Long and his team were making money, they should naturally be careful with their cash, and how could they just add people like that?

Some people said they looked down on others, thinking that farming wasteland was more profitable than farming others, which is why they didn't recruit more people.

Some people say they got lucky this year because of sheer luck, and they might lose money next year. Nobody can predict farming; that's a possibility.

Some people are also secretly making plans to establish a second cooperative within the team.

After all, older generations have experience with cotton farming, and while some details may differ, the general process is similar. Therefore, many in the team felt they could also establish a cooperative and replicate Li Long's success.

However, establishing a cooperative requires setting clear rules from the very beginning. These people lack Li Long's experience and Xie Yundong's patience. They simply get together, discuss what kind of charter to follow, and that's it.

In just a few days, about ten families in the team have already prepared to establish three cooperatives.

Whether it will ultimately come to fruition is still uncertain.

Li Long didn't have time to deal with team matters at the moment; he was having lunch with Guo Tiebing in Zhong Guoqiang's canteen.

Guo Tiebing was promoted because of his meritorious service in the last mountain search operation, and now he is to be transferred to the township to serve as the head of the police station.

Yes, that's the township where Li Long and his group live.

"The township police station is only five kilometers from the county seat, about a ten-minute bike ride away," Li Long said with a smile. "Although the conditions may not be as good as in the town, this promotion makes all the difference."

Everyone knows this; people strive for higher positions, just as water flows downhill.

“As you know, I was in the town when I was a police officer, and I was here when I was promoted to deputy director. Now I’m suddenly going to the countryside, and I’m not familiar with it.”

It's normal for Guo Tiebing to have such thoughts. After all, he's going to a new job in a different environment, so he'll be a little nervous.

"Don't worry, with your abilities, you'll definitely be fine there," Li Long said with a smile.

“That’s your territory, so I’ll have to rely on you to provide me with more clues.” Guo Tiebing pointed to the chicken on the plate with his chopsticks and said, “Consider this my advance payment for the intelligence.”

"Okay, okay," Li Long said with a smile. "I'll definitely let you know if I have any news."

With Guo Tiebing at the township police station, Li Long thought it would be easier for him to handle any issues in the future. Especially in the past two years, the living standards of the fourth team have improved, and they are doing better than other villages. Some people have come here because of the smell, and gambling has also started to appear in winter.

This unhealthy trend must be stopped!
The meal didn't last long; Li Long then mainly introduced the situation in the township. He wasn't very familiar with the other three brigades, but he knew the situation in the villages of his own brigade, so he explained it in more detail.

Guo Tiebing was already very grateful for this. After all, as the head of the police station, he was responsible for the security situation in more than a dozen villages in the township. Once he arrived, he would definitely have to conduct visits and investigations to understand the situation and to keep track of key personnel and informants.

Li Long has essentially paved the way for him in advance.

Because most of the rural areas in northern Xinjiang were newly built in the 1960s and 70s, or even if they are villages, the people in them are all people who moved there during that time. Therefore, there is no clan power or anything like that, and the villagers generally have a higher awareness of the rule of law.

Although there are occasional public security incidents, people generally listen to the police as long as the police station is present.

Of course, people in the village usually have a set of simple values ​​for dealing with the world. At this time, morality still has a high limit on most people, and under normal circumstances, it will not go to the legal level.

After the two parted ways, Li Long thought back to the situation in this era of his previous life, and then thought that if Guo Tiebing really investigated properly, he might actually be able to make a name for himself in the township police station during this period.

The second batch of flowers was picked on October 6th, but Li Long didn't participate this time. Zhao Hui and Liu Gaolou had been coming over in the past few days, so he had to focus his main energy on that.

Li Long called a little late, so Liu Gaolou didn't bring a high-horsepower tractor this time. However, he assured Li Long that he would definitely bring one next time. The main reason was that Liu Shanmin arrived at the port with a convoy of goods shortly after Li Long made the call.

Liu Gaolou then told Liu Shanmin about Li Long's needs, and Liu Shanmin said no problem.

Liu Gaolou also told Li Long that his uncle had already pulled some strings and borrowed two million US dollars worth of rubles, and that he planned to continue borrowing from other banks.

So this time, Liu Gaolou still had to bring back sugar, canned goods, and clothes.

In other words, the original purchasing station was built with a long-term vision, occupying a large area and having many warehouses; otherwise, it would have been difficult to store all these things.

After finishing these tasks, Xie Yundong and his odd jobs had almost finished harvesting the second crop of flowers. He went to the purchasing station to report the data to Li Long.

"We harvested over 40 tons of the second crop of flowers, at an average price of 1.7 yuan per ton, and sold them for nearly 70,000 yuan."

"Not bad, there aren't many flowers left in the field that can bloom, are there?" Li Long said. "Should we pick the third batch of flowers or bring back the peaches and peel them?"

"There aren't many peaches left. What I mean is to tell everyone that if they want to pick them, they can, and if they don't want to, they can just leave them alone. Then we'll knock down the poles. Anyway, there aren't many left. Once the poles are down, we can take them to Old Ma's place, where your cattle and sheep can eat them too."

“Okay.” Since Xie Yundong had made his decision, Li Long didn’t say anything more and instead talked about the costs: “This 1,000-plus acres of land will yield nearly 300,000 yuan in revenue, but the costs are not low either.”

"It's not all calculated yet, but if you really want to calculate it, the investment per acre would be close to 100 yuan."

Nowadays, the cost of planting other grain crops per acre, even with more fertilizer, is at most thirty or forty yuan, and rarely more than fifty yuan.

Li Long and his team's investment turned out to be quite large.

However, high investment also brings high returns, and for saline-alkali land, it's still quite worthwhile. (End of Chapter)