Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1287 Guo Tiebing Takes Office and Receives a "Gift Package," Li Long Helps Eliminate the Cancer

The process of threshing cotton stalks can be simple in some ways, and complicated in others. A small four-wheeled tractor with a stalk-threshing machine can simply drive around the field.

When they decided to plant thousands of acres of cotton, Li Long told Xie Yundong that the cooperative should provide all the necessary supplies.

Although high-horsepower tractors can't be included, otherwise the Li family's share would be too high, creating an imbalance. But we can still get a few more pole-setting machines, which cost only a couple hundred yuan, making pole-setting more convenient.

Five tractors and five stalk breakers sputtered and chug across the cotton field, knocking down stalks one by one, which were then piled up by the people behind them with pitchforks.

These stalks, still bearing leaves and cotton bolls, would be gathered together and then taken to the old horse stable to serve as fodder for cattle and sheep.

At the edge of the field, Xie Yundong smiled and said to Li Long:
“Yesterday Ma Jinbao said that after we finished picking the peaches, he would drive the sheep into the field to eat them, saying that his sheep would come over to eat the first harvest. Hehe, this time there is no chance.”

"There's no chance now. After the poles are removed here, a high-powered tractor will come in and plow the land. After that, before the ground freezes, we'll water it again to wash away the alkali. Next year, there will be less salt and alkali in the soil."

What Li Long said were all technical skills, which have been effectively verified by later generations. Judging from the farming situation in recent years, there must be a reason for what he said, so Xie Yundong will definitely carry it out properly.

The scene here was so spectacular that many villagers came to watch. Ma Jinbao learned of the news relatively late, but he hurriedly drove his twenty or thirty sheep over, hoping to get a last taste of the feast.

He drove the sheep into the field, and no one paid him any attention. Anyway, five small four-wheeled tractors went into the field in sections to plow the cotton fields, quickly creating gaps and compressing the space, leaving Ma Jinbao's sheep with less and less room to move around.

There were quite a few people present, and he felt embarrassed to let the sheep eat the cotton leaves that had been knocked down by others. He could only urge the sheep to move quickly, competing with the tractor for space.

Some people laughed and joked, while others were surprised to find that there were many other things in the field after the poles were hit, such as some watermelons and cantaloupes that had escaped the net, as well as some gourds, etc. Some people went over to pick them up and take them to the edge of the field to eat.

Li Long didn't stay on the land for long before driving to his other plots of land.

In October, except for cotton, all the other crops in the fields had been harvested, and some wheat had been shoveled down after plowing. The Li family had two high-horsepower tractors, one of which was working hard in the production team, while the other was already plowing in other production teams.

To ensure safety and fairness, Li Jianguo assigned two people to each high-horsepower tractor this year, so that the difference in profits at the end of the year wouldn't be too large.

In addition, there were those who drove the combine harvester during the wheat harvest, as well as Li Junfeng, who was in charge of the whole process. As a result, when these relatives from Kou came to the village, the money they received at the end of the year would be at least much more than last year, if not more.

Chen Qianjin and his colleagues were already very skilled at driving high-horsepower tractors. When plowing in the field, they didn't need to talk about technical tasks such as ridging. They could just look at the terrain and the size of the plots before entering the field and have a general idea of ​​what to expect.

Besides cotton planted by the cooperative, the Li family mainly planted wheat and sunflowers on other land this year.

The high-powered tractor had finished plowing its own land and was now plowing the neighbor's. The landlord was watching from the edge of the field when he saw Li Long get off the tractor and came over with a smile to greet him.

"Brother Wei, what are you planning to plant on this land next year?" Li Long asked, taking the cigarette offered to him.

"What else can we grow? Let's grow cotton," Wei Zonghai said. "Look at how hard you guys work growing cotton, it's tiring, but it's profitable. This year, after deducting the amount I had to pay for my sunflowers, I didn't even make fifty yuan per mu. It's a huge loss."

In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, the prices of primary agricultural products hardly increased. So, if you really wanted to make money from farming, unless you reclaimed a large area of ​​wasteland and expanded your income through cultivated land, you could only guarantee basic needs. Making money was difficult.

Planting cash crops is feasible at first, but with the rise in agricultural input prices and the increase in farming costs, it is also necessary to increase profits through large-scale planting.

However, large-scale planting will also increase costs, which are not affordable for ordinary families.

Li Long looked at another plot of land not far away, where an old Dongfanghong 75 tractor was parked. Wang Caimi was standing on the tracks, bending over and repairing it. After a while, he got off and started the engine. The Dongfanghong 75 started up with black smoke, and then slowly and groaned as it began to plow the land.

Wang Caimi has been in the team for a long time and has a certain manpower base, so some people ask him to plow the fields, accounting for about a quarter to a third of the team.

After all, even high-horsepower tractors need to wait in line to plow the fields. If there's no rush to plant, what difference does it make who plows?
However, Li Long also realized that the person driving the tractor wasn't Wang Caimi, but probably his brother. Wang Caimi walked out of the field, took off his gloves, which were covered in butter, and clipped them to the back of his bicycle. Then he rode his bicycle over to Li Long and stopped.

"Little Long's here?" Wang Caimi greeted him with a smile. "What brings you here to watch the plowing?"

"I was watching the cotton stalks being threshed at the cooperative, and I saw they'd threshed quite a few, so I came over to check on how this big-horsepower tractor was doing. After we finish plowing here, we'll go over there to plow the cotton fields," Li Long explained. "Brother Wang, did you hand the machine over to Brother Da Gui?"

“Yeah, he’s been running it for a few years now, so I’m in charge of the repairs,” Wang the money-grubber said. “Your cooperative is doing well. I heard they’ll be distributing a lot of money this year. I asked your brother to let me join, but he said I couldn’t.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Seeing that the cooperative is making a lot of money, I also thought about making some money along with them, but Xie Yundong said he doesn’t take anyone.” Old Wei chimed in.

Many people in the team had the same idea, but they all ran into obstacles in the end. Seeing that the cooperative treated everyone equally, even refusing to accept money from Lu Yingming, who lived across the street from Old Li, no one complained. They felt that the cooperative was doing a very fair job.

"We won't add any new members for now," Li Long said. "This is the first year of the cooperative, and we don't know what the higher-ups will say yet. Besides, making money in the first year might just be luck; it's hard to say whether we can continue to make money in the future."

Everyone wants to join the cooperative because they want to get rich. If we don't pave the way properly and suddenly stop making money or even lose money next year, won't everyone blame us?

Li Long's explanation made a lot of sense, and Wang Caimi and Wei Zonghai both nodded in agreement; it was the truth. Everyone wanted to join the cooperative to make money; if they didn't make money and even lost money, who would join?
So everyone can understand.

"Do you still get high-horsepower tractors at your recycling station?" Wang Caimi took the cigarette Wei Zongwan offered, lit it with him, took a puff, and asked, "I heard from your brother that your family is planning to buy one?"

"Yes, I have that idea." Li Long nodded. This matter couldn't be kept secret; after all, if Da Li were to be brought back in time, it would be known.

"How much does a high-horsepower tractor cost now? I mean, including all the accessories?"

“I’m selling it for 250,000,” Li Long said. “There’s no other way. This thing isn’t made in China, so we have to import it. Although I’m importing second-hand goods, they’ve basically been used for two or three years. They’re not brand new, but practically new.”

Add in the cost of the supporting equipment and customs duties, and it comes to about the same. The farm gets brand new American-made equipment, the same model as mine, denominated in US dollars. Converted, each unit costs three to four hundred thousand yuan, and they don't even sell to individuals.”

At that time, many domestic units imported high-horsepower John Deere tractors from the United States. However, they were only sold to state-owned farms and production and construction corps. Collective units could import them, but I have never heard of individuals importing them.

Li Long's goods are second-hand, so this restriction does not apply.

"It's so expensive." Wang Caimi clearly wanted to buy it, but backed down after hearing the price. He frankly said, "I would like to buy one, but it's too expensive. I can't even scrape together half the money."

"Doesn't the credit union offer loans? Someone like you with savings should be able to get a decent loan, right?" Li Long asked.

"Hey, wouldn't that incur interest?" Wang the money-grubber shook his head. "Can you offer credit?"

Li Long laughed, shook his head, and said, "No. I have to pay taxes every time I sell a batch of goods. If I buy on credit, I'll have to pay taxes for nothing. Besides, it's just a small business..."

Small business, no credit allowed.

This is a joke from later generations; I wonder if Wang Caimi can understand its meaning.

However, when Li Long said it was a "small business," Wang Caimi curled his lip and said, "You call that a small business? That's too modest. We're not going to borrow money from you."

Li Long smiled but didn't reply.

If someone in the team is in trouble and goes to the eldest brother to borrow money, he usually lends it to them. But if someone asks for several thousand or tens of thousands of yuan at once, saying they're going to do business or something big, he always refuses.

Fortunately, such people are currently in the minority. It will only be when cotton prices suddenly skyrocket for a few years in another twenty years, and some people in the team suddenly become wealthy, that borrowing money will become common – that is, people will become arrogant.

Seeing that he couldn't get the goods on credit and didn't want to take on debt, Wang finished the cigarette, got on his bicycle, and left.

Li Long didn't try to persuade him. That's just how he is; he can't make up his mind, and he misses opportunities time and time again. In fact, given the current situation, his Dongfanghong 75 won't last much longer.

Last time he couldn't bring himself to buy the nearly new 75-inch tractor from the Li family, and this time he couldn't bring himself to take out a loan to buy a high-horsepower tractor. After a while, when the Li family's third high-horsepower tractor comes back, there will be less and less space for him to plow the land.

There's no way around it. Just like how drip irrigation replaced traditional farming methods in later generations, if you don't change, you'll be eliminated by the times.

In the new workshop of the agricultural machinery factory, Engineer Deng and a group of technicians, including experts invited from outside who specialize in raw material supply, watched as workers added recycled plastic waste into the feed inlet.

The complete set of drip irrigation tape equipment includes a plastic crusher, which can crush recycled waste plastic into plastic pellets (polyethylene granules, not rice), and then heat and stretch the plastic pellets to process them into drip irrigation tape.

After a period of research and imitation, the agricultural machinery factory has successfully produced the first-generation machine. Today, they are adding raw materials to see if they can produce finished drip irrigation tape.

The experiment was divided into several parts: one part used all recycled plastic as raw material, another part used 50% new plastic pellets, and the third part used 30% plastic pellets.

Using only waste materials results in relatively lower costs, but the quality is difficult to guarantee. Using only virgin materials ensures product quality, but the cost is very high, and currently there are no polyethylene chemical plants in northern Xinjiang, so they can only be imported.

Of course, the Soviet Union should also have finished products in this area, but it's unknown how much it would cost to import them—Li Long has this idea, but Engineer Deng and his team certainly don't.

With the roar of the machines, the first set of data was soon produced.

"If the raw materials are all recycled plastics, the extensibility is too poor, and the quality of the drip irrigation tapes produced is inconsistent, with a high scrap rate."

"The second option is to recycle plastic and add 30% new raw materials." This result was expected, said Engineer Deng.

The second experiment went well, but the machine malfunctioned and emitted black smoke during the third experiment.

The technicians immediately stopped the machine and then gathered around to investigate where the problem was.

Such situations frequently occur during experiments and are not a major issue. Everyone involved in scientific research knows that such machines cannot be perfectly successfully produced on the first attempt; failure is the norm.

Therefore, we began to analyze and evaluate the current situation.

Factory Director Du was also watching. After exchanging a few words with Engineer Deng, he left. He had other things to do. Winter was approaching, and they needed to ramp up production of snowplows. The market demand for these machines was huge, and he couldn't focus all his energy on this experimental machine.

Now, the snow removal machines produced by the agricultural machinery factory have been sold to provinces in the northwest, mainly in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, but at least they have been sold.

Therefore, the agricultural machinery factory has a good reputation and is a key enterprise that receives attention from the autonomous region. In fact, Director Du has even planned to change the name, since the main products are no longer limited to agricultural machinery.

The name "machinery factory" is more in line with reality.

According to rumors, his rank may be promoted, but it's hard to say whether he will ultimately become the factory director.

However, Director Du will definitely fight for it, as he believes no one is more suitable to be the factory director than him.

However, these things are not suitable to discuss with Li Long over the phone. They call each other from time to time, mainly to talk about the research and development progress of the drip irrigation equipment, the current production situation, and finally Li Long's profit sharing.

The agricultural machinery factory still pays him his dividends quarterly, and the amount increases each time, which makes Li Long very satisfied.

There were complaints at the agricultural machinery factory. Li Long alone took more money than all the employees in the entire factory combined. But Director Du shut him down with a single sentence:

Agricultural machinery factories now have very generous reward policies. As long as a product is developed that is market-suited and popular, even just a concept will be rewarded handsomely. If someone can propose a mature product design like Li Long, they can also enjoy profit sharing.

This policy naturally motivated many people, but when these people actually put forward their designs and ideas, they either couldn't be implemented or simply didn't have a market.

This policy was established before the relevant higher-level departments paid attention to the development of agricultural machinery factories. By the time the higher-level departments realized this and wanted to make adjustments, it was already unlikely.

So the policy is still there, it's been hanging there, but no one has been able to win the grand prize.

The cooperative finished removing the cotton stalks from the fields in two days, and then hauled them all to Old Ma's place in one day. Next, two high-horsepower tractors plowed all the fields in a little over two days.

Next comes watering.

On the day the plowing was finished, the cooperative members had another meal together, this time at Xie Yundong's home. He thanked everyone for their support and cooperation, and although he hadn't received all the money from selling the cotton this year, the figures were clear.

Xie Yundong also stated that after calculating the current and next year's expenses, dividends will be distributed before the end of the year.

The meal lasted very late, and Li Long stayed in the courtyard of the fourth team again.

Because Gu Xiaoxia had something to do the next day, Li Long got up at the crack of dawn the next day, went to tell his sister-in-law who was making breakfast that he hadn't eaten breakfast, and drove his Land Cruiser towards the county.

After driving through the reed ditch, less than a kilometer from the fourth team, Li Long saw a person pushing two bicycles towards the third and fourth teams. As he passed by, the person gave him a wary look and pushed the bicycles down the roadside.

Li Long has a sharp eye and excellent eyesight. Although it wasn't very bright, he could already see that the locks on the two bicycles had been pried off!

One is a 26-inch bicycle, and the other is a 24-inch bicycle. They are both small and look at least 90% new. These kinds of bicycles would sell for a little over 200 yuan brand new. Nowadays, most families have more money, so they usually have one 28-inch bicycle for carrying loads, ridden by the men, and one 26-inch or 24-inch bicycle for the women.

In that instant, Li Long remembered something from his previous life.

During this period, a group of bicycle thieves appeared in the county, the kind who stole bicycles on a crazy scale. Before dawn, they would pry open the locked bicycles in various residential compounds and workplaces, and then take them to the rural areas near the county town under the cover of darkness. A bicycle worth one or two hundred yuan would be sold for sixty, seventy, or eighty yuan.

Some people who wanted a bargain bought them; some rode them themselves, while others gave them to students.

At first, the police had difficulty making arrests, but the thefts became so rampant that the police coordinated with other agencies, starting by checking various schools. After all, nowadays, after purchasing a bicycle, you have to go to the police station to get a serial number (stamp). As long as they check the first few digits of the stamp, if it's not from the local area, they can simply confiscate and register it.

If it was a legitimate purchase, the adult should take the receipt to the police station to retrieve it. If it was a stolen bicycle, it should be confiscated and returned to the original owner according to the identification number.

It is said that more than 40 bicycles were confiscated at a rural middle school once, and it was later confirmed that more than 30 of them were stolen.

Li Long immediately realized that he had encountered a thief!
He didn't speed up, but continued to drive at the original speed, recalling the thief's clothes and appearance as he drove.

When the car arrived in the village, he turned into the village police station, got out of the car, and knocked on the door.

The on-duty police officer came out, saw Li Long, and asked:

"Comrade Li Long? Is something wrong? Should we call the police?"

"More or less. Is Guo's place there?" Li Long asked.

"Yes, he was on duty yesterday and he's in the duty room now."

“That’s great, I’ll go find him,” Li Long said. “Hurry up, there’s a case.”

Upon hearing this, the on-duty police officer immediately went in to call Guo Tiebing. Guo Tiebing came out wearing a coat, and after seeing Li Long, he regained his composure and asked what was wrong.

“Didn’t you say you wanted me to give you a tip? There’s a pretty big case,” Li Long said. “I just came out of the fourth team and saw someone stealing bicycles. He grabbed two at once. I heard it’s been a gang doing this lately. Do you think we should go and pin him down?”

"Bike theft? Really?" Guo Tiebing was overjoyed. "The county bureau even reported on it at a meeting the day before yesterday, saying that bicycle theft has been rampant lately, and they told us to inquire from various sources and investigate as soon as possible. Your tip is excellent!"

Li Long still had to take his child to school, so he told Guo Tiebing about the man's appearance and clothing. As for how to arrest him, that was their business.

After declining Guo Tiebing's invitation to breakfast, Li Long hurriedly drove his Land Cruiser home.

When they arrived at the courtyard, Sister Yang had just finished preparing breakfast, and Gu Xiaoxia was already getting ready to go out.

Just the right time.

After having breakfast and dropping Mingming and Haohao off at kindergarten, with nothing else to do, I went straight to the recycling station to scrub hides with Sun Jiaqiang and the others.

Right now, the main thing the purchasing station is collecting Codonopsis pilosula (a type of ginseng). Occasionally, they can also get the skin, but not much.

However, the hides that Liu Gaolou brought over need to be properly processed, and after that, we'll wait for Zhao Hui to come and collect them.

After lunch, Li Long had just arrived at the purchasing station when he received a call from Guo Tiebing.

"Comrade Li Long, thank you so much this time!" Guo Tiebing's voice was filled with excitement. "We've caught a big fish!"

After Li Long told Guo Tiebing about the situation in the morning, Guo Tiebing immediately gathered the people on duty and drove to chase after the thief. At the intersection between the third and fourth teams, they caught the thief red-handed while he was haggling with someone.

When the man was taken to the police station for questioning, he initially denied it, saying that he was a first-time offender.

But Guo Tiebing didn't believe it, and neither did the police officer in charge of the interrogation. They used various methods, and the other party quickly confessed.

This gang consisted of more than twenty people, mainly habitual thieves and thugs. The thief who was caught had already stolen seventeen bicycles this year. They were very careful, each dividing up their own areas. Sometimes they committed crimes as a group, cooperating with each other, and sometimes they acted alone.

The crimes were usually committed in the middle of the night or early morning. After stealing, they would take the stolen goods to the countryside or Shicheng and sell them overnight, usually within the next day.

Moreover, they generally do not commit crimes in the same area at the same time within a short period of time, so although they have been committing crimes for a long time, they have never been caught.

Moreover, there are many people who are greedy for bargains. At this time, bicycles are relatively expensive, but when they suddenly become two-thirds cheaper, many people will buy them because of the bargain, and then they will be sold off quickly.

After finishing his interrogation, Guo Tiebing immediately reported to the bureau and, together with the other officers already on duty, apprehended several bicycle thieves who had already committed their crimes at their homes.

As more and more thieves were caught, the clues they provided also became more extensive. This time, it wasn't just one police station investigating the case; with the coordination of the county public security bureau, several police stations involved joined in.

As more and more thieves were uncovered and more and more cases were cleared up, Guo Tiebing spent the whole morning arranging things in their township before calling Li Long.

"Our township is a bit better off, mainly because it's closer to the county seat and serves as a place to sell stolen goods. Not many bicycles were stolen from our township, only four in total. However, more than thirty bicycles were sold to various villages in the township."

"Some cases have already been solved, some haven't, and we need to investigate further." Guo Tiebing's tone was still excited. "Although each township is responsible for its own area, our contribution is indispensable."

"Then congratulations," Li Long said with a smile. "Now you've got the first three kicks down, haven't you?"

"Haha, that's right. I really have to thank you this time. Without your intelligence, I would still be going from village to village to find out what's going on."

"It's nothing, it's nothing. Cooperating with you is the duty of every citizen," Li Long said in an official tone. "I just happened to run into you."

The two chatted for a few more minutes, then Guo Tiebing received a report from someone on his end, and he hung up the phone.

Li Qingxia overheard Li Long's conversation with the other party and asked:
"What, is there another case?"

Li Long then explained the situation, and Li Qingxia shook his head and said, "Life is much better now than before, but there are more thieves now. Not only are there thieves, but there are also quite a few fighting with knives."

A few days ago, when I went to pick Juan up from school, I saw several young men at the market, each holding a knife, waving it around menacingly. I didn't dare stab them; it was quite frightening.

"Where's the back?"

"Two policemen came later, and these guys threw down their knives and ran away," Li Qingxia said. "Sigh, I don't know what they were thinking. Why did they have to cause such a scene when they could have just lived a peaceful life?"

Li Long didn't respond. This matter was relatively strictly controlled in Ma County, since there were more Han Chinese people here, and they had a strong sense of right and wrong and the rule of law, so they wouldn't be influenced by other ethnic groups or religions.

The intelligence leads given to Guo Tiebing were useful, and it also helped rid the local area of ​​a menace. Li Long was in a good mood, humming a tune as he went to the back to continue processing the leather.

A moment later, the phone rang again. Li Qingxia called him, saying it was Liu Gaolou calling.

Li Long answered the phone. Liu Gaolou said he had received a call from his second uncle and that they had found two high-horsepower tractors, complete sets. One set was similar to the first one; it was a research project from a mechanical research institute and had basically never been used.

The other one belonged to a state-owned farm and had been in use for two years. According to the price Liu Shanmin gave Li Long, one was $20,000 and the other $15,000.

It's more expensive than last time, mainly because they're starting to control these things more strictly now, while cars are more lenient.

Is it because of the disaster that they've started to pay more attention to agriculture again?
Li Long didn't understand, but it didn't matter, since he would make a profit after buying them anyway.

He agreed.

Liu Gaolou then said that he would bring it over when the next trip came, and it wouldn't take more than ten days.

Three days later, the county's advertising radio station reported on this long-term, scattered bicycle theft case. A total of 31 thieves were arrested, more than 6,530 yuan in stolen money was recovered, 16 bicycles were seized on site, and the whereabouts of nearly 100 other bicycles have been discovered.

The broadcast also stated that the public who purchased the stolen bicycles were encouraged to return them, and the police would return the bicycles to their owners in batches in the coming days.

This incident had a significant impact on the county. Bicycles were considered a major purchase in those days, and the theft of one's bike affected the livelihood of some families. However, because thieves were very cunning, and there was no comprehensive surveillance system or cameras at the time, thieves rarely operated in the vicinity, making the bikes very difficult to recover.

Now that the police have solved the case, everyone is naturally applauding.

A week later, Guo Tiebing arrived at the purchasing station in the police station's car. He arrived in the afternoon and still smelled of alcohol.

Li Long ushered him into the reception room and said with a smile:

"Officer Guo, your safety awareness is not strong enough. How can you drive after drinking?"

"I didn't drink much," Guo Tiebing said with a smile. "At the bureau's commendation meeting this morning, I received a collective third-class merit award on behalf of our institute. At the bureau's celebration at noon, I had two drinks with the leaders, not much at all, and I was perfectly sober."

"Hey, collectively, you're really showing great integrity." Li Long understood what Guo Tiebing meant. If he really wanted to claim credit, getting a third-class merit award wouldn't be a problem at all. After all, Li Long was the one who gave him the clue, and he was the one who arrested the person. He didn't need to involve the other people from the police station in this.

"Of course, now that I'm the director, I have to consider the other colleagues in the institute." Guo Tiebing was starting to sound like a leader.

"I'm a little embarrassed for you. Although I highlighted your situation in the report, the bureau also said that the main clues you reported will be rewarded by our station according to regulations. For each clue, I'll give you the maximum reward of one hundred yuan."

"What a load of rubbish! Do you think I need that hundred yuan?" Li Long laughed and scolded Guo Tiebing as he pulled out a blue hundred-yuan bill from his briefcase and handed it to him. "Keep it yourself. I'm a good citizen and a good member of the public. I don't want this money."

“Knowing you have a lot of money, I won’t force you to give it to me,” Guo Tiebing said with a smile. “This time, everyone in our unit is very happy. They are usually very proactive and obedient.”

"Then you can put your ideas to good use later," Li Long said. "The peace of our village depends on you."

"Of course. But if you have any clues, I need them too. We usually have a small number of people, so there aren't many places we can cover."

“Then I’ll give you another lead,” Li Long said casually. “When it snows heavily in winter, take a look around, and you’ll make a big discovery.”

"What discovery?" Guo Tiebing asked immediately.

“When winter comes, those families who have made money will be targeted. Some people will organize gambling dens to lure these people into gambling,” Li Long said. “If you keep a close eye on the gamblers in each village, you’ll definitely make a big discovery. Anyway, since our village got rich in the last two years, people from other places have come to organize gambling dens, and the stakes are quite high.”

This situation hasn't really shown any major signs yet, but Li Long estimates it should be happening soon.

After all, the fourth team was obviously too rich. He even suspected that someone would definitely come to Xie Yundong and the others this winter, because the cooperative was about to distribute the money.

Guo Tiebing took this matter to heart and planned to organize a group of people to visit each village before the winter and the new year to crack down on gambling and also make some money for the police station.

After chatting with Li Long and drinking some strong tea to sober up, Guo Tiebing said goodbye and left, while Li Long continued with his work.

A few days later, Liu Gaolou arrived with a convoy, bringing two high-horsepower tractors and matching farm implements.

Because they needed to transport these farm tools, they brought fewer trucks this time, only five. The rest were hides, and they didn't bring antelope horns this time.

"There's nothing we can do. My second uncle has been busy with loan matters lately and hasn't had time to collect the antelope horns. As a result, some people in China went there and bought them from there at a higher price, so the antelope horns were taken by those people, and we can only collect the hides now."

However, my second uncle also said he promised to bring you more antelope horns next time; he didn't do a good job on that.

Li Long was initially surprised, but then felt it made sense.

Since the animal protection law was enacted, antelopes in China have been protected. Therefore, if people want to use antelope horns, they have to go through overseas channels. The Soviet Union and Kazakhstan have large herds of antelopes, with a total population of several million. With such a large population, wouldn't it be easy to obtain some antelope horns?

The price of antelope horns in China has been rising. They are imported cheaply from there, subject to some tariffs, and then brought back to China to be sold to pharmaceutical companies at high prices. It's a profitable business, so naturally many people want to do it.

Moreover, Li Long was also aware that Liu Shanmin was not the only one who could lower customs duties through special connections; there were many people more capable than Liu Shanmin in this regard.

Therefore, it is quite normal for antelope horns to be bought by others.

"If we don't have any, then we don't have any. We can have the leather too." Li Long smiled. "We can't keep all the good things for ourselves. This is good enough."

Seeing that Li Long understood, Liu Gaolou was quite happy. He handed over the supplies to Li Long and then went to rest—he hadn't been paying attention to the loading and unloading, mainly because this trip required two tractors, the journey was slow, and there had been snow in Guozigou, causing traffic jams for a while, which was quite tiring.

Li Long then organized people to unload the farm implements. His elder brother, Li Jianguo, also came over with Li Junfeng. They drove away with the high-horsepower tractor and the reversible plow, and not only did they take the tractor, but they also took the truck carrying the farm implements back with them.

Because this set of farm tools needs to be unloaded at the fourth team, so there's no need to make another trip. As for the people to unload the truck, the Li family has plenty of people over there.

Li Jianguo arrived early; it was Li Long who made the call.

There's no way around it; even though it's October, which is considered the end of the year, the plowing task is heavier than in previous years.

The main reason is that the cooperative had a bumper cotton harvest and made money, so many people approached Xu Chengjun to ask to contract the saline-alkali wasteland.

The cooperative provided them with a model on how to improve saline-alkali land, so they knew very well that they needed to plow the land before the New Year and then flood it with water while watering the winter wheat to wash away the salinity.

Even if we can't water it again next spring like the cooperative did, we can still use the snowmelt from winter to melt some of the salt and alkali, which will then seep into the ground with the snowmelt.

In this way, the germination rate will be higher when sowing in the spring.

So Li Jianguo was in a hurry to drive the high-horsepower tractor back not to compete with others for plowing, but because there was too much land that needed to be plowed before the snow.

These wastelands are quite hard, and Wang Caimi's Dongfanghong 75 tractor might not be able to plow them. In addition, these people who are reclaiming the land all want to dig drainage ditches along the edge of the land, which also requires a high-horsepower tractor.

Another high-powered tractor was parked directly in the backyard, waiting for someone destined to buy it.

After unloading, Li Long had the day laborers load the canned goods and clothes onto the truck. These were all for Liu Gaolou to take back.

I'll go load more sugar tomorrow, then Liu Gaolou has to rush back to the border. It'll probably be a month before he comes back.

Li Jianguo drove his high-powered tractor back to the team, ate a quick lunch, and then began plowing the fields. Meanwhile, the cotton fields that the cooperative had finished plowing were already being watered to flush away the saline-alkali soil.

There aren't many fish in the water flowing from the small lake. As the weather gets cooler, the fish gather under the reeds and become less active.

Several people watering the fields wore rubber boots and moved back and forth in the field. When they saw a higher spot that hadn't been watered yet, they would quickly go over and build a barrier behind it to block the water until the higher ground was watered.

At the edge of the saline-alkali land, the landowners who had contracted the land were already waiting. Seeing Li Jianguo drive over in his tractor, they smiled. After Li Jianguo got off and exchanged a few pleasantries with them, they watched as the high-powered tractor arrived at the edge of the field, the plowshare was lowered, and it cut into the soil.

As the diesel engine roared to life, the plow turned over the saline-alkali land, and a wave of soil stretched forward with the tractor, quickly transforming the white saline-alkali land into brown soil.

The white thorn and red willow trees that had grown in the saline-alkali land for more than ten or even decades were turned up by the roots. The landlords would pick them up behind the plow, haul them to the edge of the field and pile them up, or take them back to use as firewood, or dry them directly on the edge of the field and then burn them.

By this time, no household was short of firewood.

The Li family's other two tractors were used for plowing fields in other parts of the team and in other production teams, earning them the last bit of money for the year.

At Xie Yundong's home, he and Jia Weidong were doing their accounts. They had already received one payment for the cotton sale, and the second payment would arrive soon.

Now we need to calculate the expenses. The money spent at the beginning of the year was a loan from Li Long, and that money needs to be repaid. Growing cotton for the past six months has incurred considerable expenses. Not to mention the cost of agricultural supplies, there are also labor costs, pesticide costs, machine farming costs, and so on. All these normal expenses need to be accounted for.

Then, based on the agricultural input preparation and usage this year, the money for next year's agricultural inputs needs to be set aside. The remaining amount is for the cooperative members' wages and dividends.

So, although I made a lot of money selling cotton this year, after deducting all the miscellaneous expenses, there wasn't much left to distribute as dividends.

Of course, this amount is relative to the money earned; in reality, it is much higher than that of ordinary villagers.

This is why so many people want to join the cooperative now. Even if they can't become a founding member, joining early means reaping the benefits sooner—everyone can see that clearly.

(End of this chapter)