Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

October 31st, Minor Snow.

The snow was falling earlier than it would have been twenty or thirty years later. The hedgehogs in the courtyard had already found their hibernation burrows and were now fast asleep inside.

Although Xiao Hei really wanted to let these little guys who had hurt it many times come out to play, and even shouted loudly at the cracks in their hiding places, the hedgehogs remained motionless, already fast asleep.

The snowflakes fell and hit people's faces, causing a slight pain. Li Long, who came out of the house, caught a few with his gloved hands and examined them. They were similar to salt particles, without a hexagonal shape, and of course, they were not cubic crystals; they were not well-formed.

"Let's go, hurry up and get in the car, Xue Luo isn't feeling well." He called to Mingming and Haohao in the back room, "We'll be late if we're late."

"Dad, how deep will the snow be? When we get back from kindergarten, can we build a snowman?" Mingming asked as he came out.

"Dad, shall we have a snowball fight?" Hao Hao asked, following closely behind.

"I don't know, the weather forecast didn't say how long it would last." At this time, without a mobile phone, one couldn't see the real-time weather forecast. The autonomous region's radio station only broadcast reports of light snow in Shicheng and light snow turning clear in Beiting; county-level units like Ma County weren't even qualified to broadcast such reports.

As for the weather forecast from Shicheng TV last night, it's generally not very accurate and shouldn't be taken as a reference.

The two children got into the car that Li Long had already started, and closed the car door themselves. Li Long opened the gate, got in the car, and drove off. Behind them, Sister Yang waved to the car and then closed the gate.

Gu Xiaoxia had already gone to her workplace. After dropping the child off at kindergarten, Li Long was going to the team's office for the cooperative's profit distribution today.

Although the amount of money Li Long received today is not much, it's not a drop in the ocean, but it's certainly not much either.

But this is of great significance. After his rebirth, Li Long's biggest idea was to become a landlord like in his later life, handing over his land to a cooperative so that someone could manage it and someone could share the profits.

I don't have to do any work; I can do whatever I want. Looking back now, I realize that this was already achieved ahead of schedule.

Although the cooperative is still in its initial stage, if it continues to develop in this way, the days of simply giving up are not far off.

There are many people in the county, so the car doesn't go fast. Every now and then, a cyclist passes by. Li Long is afraid that if he drives too fast, the other person will not be able to avoid him and will slip and fall.

The snowflakes melted as soon as they hit the ground, leaving a damp patch. Some children, unfazed by the cold, played and frolicked on their way to school with their backpacks on. Li Long even saw a child tilting his head back with his mouth wide open, perhaps waiting for the snow to fall into his mouth so he could taste it.

At the entrance of another courtyard, a child with a schoolbag was rushing out. His mother grabbed him from behind by the collar and made him put on his hat. The child was eager to rush out and meet his classmates, but he couldn't run because the back of his collar was being grabbed. He was so anxious that he shouted there.

As the car drove by, these scenes flashed past the window, and Li Long smiled slightly, finding them all quite beautiful.

After leaving the county town, the car picked up speed. There were still people on the roadside. They seemed to have gotten used to cars in the middle of the road, so whether they were riding bicycles or walking, they all walked on the side of the road.

There is no such thing as someone dawdling in the middle of the road and treating it like their own living room.

Therefore, Li Long quickly drove to the township. When he passed the agricultural extension school, he saw Principal Yang talking to two teachers at the entrance.

It was just a fleeting moment before we arrived at the middle school. The school gate was bustling with activity; many students were already chatting and entering in small groups, their voices quite loud, and occasionally bursts of laughter could be heard.

The same scene played out again at the elementary school, except that the students at the elementary school gate were more boisterous. The gate here wasn't as big as the middle school gate, so the students seemed more crowded. In fact, in terms of the number of students, there were really fewer students than at the middle school.

When we arrived at Xie Yundong's house, several cars were already parked in front. Sure enough, the drivers felt the same way. Although they were all in the same village, and the furthest settlement was less than a kilometer away, people who were used to driving would drive even if it was only 500 meters away.

Several cars were parked in front of the Xie family's house, making it look quite impressive.

Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang, and Xu Haijun were all smoking and chatting in the yard. Tao Daqiang, who already had two children, seemed much more composed at this moment, but after seeing Li Long get out of the car, he hurriedly stepped forward and greeted him with a smile.

"Didn't Da Cheng and Lao Jia come?" Li Long asked.

"It hasn't arrived yet," Tao Daqiang said. "Uncle Li said he's not coming, so you can collect it for him."

The way they address each other is very strange. Tao Daqiang calls Li Long "Brother Long" and Li Jianguo "Uncle Li." Even his father, Tao Jianshe, calls Li Qingxia "Uncle Li." Anyway, everyone uses their own way of addressing each other, which is very odd.

But everyone thought it was perfectly normal.

"Let's go inside," Xie Yundong said. "The snowflakes are falling more and more densely; your head will get wet soon."

Upon entering the house, Li Long discovered that the Xie family had already set up a stove, emitting a warm glow mixed with a faint smell of coal smoke and the aroma of the stove fire baking wet mud.

A quick glance revealed that the Xie family's firewall was newly built; the mud plaster had just dried, indicating that the work had likely been done within the last couple of days.

Upon entering the inner room, I smelled a strong hygienic fragrance.

Deng Guilan came over and poured water for everyone, then brought over some fried sunflower seeds, saying with a smile that they were just fried yesterday, before going to the kitchen to get busy.

They say today is for distributing dividends, so after that, shouldn't we have a meal and drinks? For the past six months, everyone in the cooperative has been busy with their own assigned tasks. Now that the year's work is over and they're getting paid, shouldn't they have a good celebration?
Li Long grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and started cracking them open, while Tao Daqiang sat beside him and said:

"This snowfall means winter is here. In about a month, the little lake will be frozen solid, the ice will be thick enough. Shall we take some time to break a hole in the ice and catch some fish?"

“Let’s modify the equipment first,” Li Long said, continuing the conversation. “It’s too tiring to use a pickaxe now. Let’s find a blacksmith to make a chisel, which is specifically for breaking ice.”

Li Long explained to Tao Daqiang the improved type of ice-breaking tool used in later generations: "Make it heavier, and it will be easier to break the ice downwards."

Li Long had previously made a similar steel shovel, which was more efficient than a pickaxe, but not as good as this sharp chisel.

In winter, there's not much to do in the village; catching rabbits and breaking ice holes to catch fish are the main activities.

Otherwise, if those people are allowed to gamble, the money they earn will disappear without them even realizing it.

In some families, one person gambles while the other tries to mediate or berates them, leading to constant conflict. If both parents gamble, the child is doomed.

Therefore, Li Long still supports Tao Daqiang's fishing in winter and even gives him advice.

Xu Haijun then joined in and asked how to make the chisel.

Over the past year, Xu Haijun has tried his best to integrate into Li Long's circle and has worked very hard at the cooperative. Because he is capable and now wants to get closer to them, everyone has accepted him.

Li Long then described the image of the two-handed weapon, resembling a cross with a short horizontal bar and a long vertical bar, with a pointed end.

Just as he was speaking, he felt the ground tremble slightly, and he knew that Liang Dacheng had arrived.

Two figures flashed past the window, then the door opened, and as a gust of cool air blew in, Liang Dacheng and Jia Weidong walked in.

The room suddenly became crowded and lively.

After exchanging greetings, Jia Weidong took a stack of papers from his bag and placed them on the table.

Xie Yundong also took out the key, opened the cabinet in the corner, took out a black bag, and placed it on the table.

Xu Haijun, who was originally sitting at the table, stood up, carried a stool, and sat down by the fire wall, clearly trying to avoid suspicion.

Liang Dacheng belatedly realized what was happening and sat down on the edge of the bed as well.

Xie Yundong went over and closed the door to the inner room, saying, "Shall we begin now?"

“Let’s begin,” Li Long said.

“Exactly, I can’t wait.” Liang Dacheng smiled and rubbed his hands together.

"Then why are you so late?" Tao Daqiang teased him. "We really couldn't wait, so we came early. Unlike you, you didn't arrive until the very end."

"Well, there was something going on at home," Liang Dacheng explained without getting angry.

Everyone laughed, and then Xie Yundong said to Jia Weidong, "Old Jia, why don't you read it to everyone?"

"Okay." Jia Weidong cleared his throat, picked up the few sheets of paper in front of him, and brought them closer to his eyes.

Xu Haijun casually turned on the light—it was snowing outside today, so it wasn't bright, and with a layer of plastic sheeting on the windows for warmth, the room was a bit dark.

"Hey, that makes sense now." Jia Weidong smiled and began to read:

"This year, the cooperative's total income was 244,109.8 yuan. The first crop sold for 2.2 yuan, and the second crop sold for 1.7 yuan.

The total expenditure was 93,104 yuan; of which the cost of mechanized farming was 25,600 yuan and the water cost was 11,300 yuan..." At this point, Jia Weidong looked up and explained:
"This doesn't include the cost of last year's major flooding of the small lake and the flooding earlier this year. The main water cost is for the five cotton irrigations, which is paid to the team in charge of water, and then transferred to the Ma Management Office..."

Everyone laughed, and Xu Haijun even chimed in, "Then shouldn't we pay extra for Xiaolong's water? We'll have to water it more every year from now on!"

“No need now.” Li Long waved his hand. “The cooperative is just starting out. This water is naturally available anyway, so why not use it? We can talk about it when we have more land.”

The matter was dropped, and everyone got used to Li Long's magnanimity, so they thought it was normal.

Jia Weidong continued:
"Regarding agricultural inputs and fertilizers, Xiaolong lent the cooperative 10,000 yuan at the beginning of the year. When that wasn't enough, Xiaolong lent another 10,000 yuan. Currently, there is still 1,050 yuan left."

Labor costs are divided into two parts: routine field management expenses and harvesting costs. Harvesting costs are relatively high, costing 26,250 yuan for the first crop and 12,900 yuan for the second crop. Field labor costs are mainly used for replanting, thinning, weeding, etc.

These labor costs need to be settled in cash, especially the picking expenses. Our cooperative didn't have the money at first, so we borrowed 40,000 yuan from Xiaolong to pay for them.

In other words, the cooperative owes Li Long 60,000 yuan just for expenses.

Xu Haijun, however, was thinking about something else entirely. The cost of mechanized farming for just these thousand-plus acres of wasteland alone would be twenty to thirty thousand yuan. If all the team's land were included, it would be at least seventy to eighty thousand yuan, right?
This is just one production team; what if we include the entire brigade?
No wonder the Li family got another high-horsepower tractor; they're really making money.

But thinking about the price of over two hundred thousand, he shook his head again, saying he couldn't afford it.

This is the dilemma. You know it's an opportunity, but you can't afford to take advantage of it.

Jia Weidong continued to talk about other minor expenses, such as the fuel costs and maintenance fees for the tractors that had already been incorporated into the cooperative's shares.

Of course, there's one last major expense: the salaries of management personnel and Li Long's technical stock options.

According to Xie Yundong, Li Long, and Jia Weidong, the basic salary for each person is one thousand yuan per year.

All things considered, the total expenditure is approximately 100,000 yuan.

"One hundred thousand!" Xu Haijun was stunned. "That works out to about ninety yuan per mu, which is much higher than that of cultivated land."

“There are two main expenses,” Jia Weidong said, glancing at the paper. “One is the cost of mechanized plowing. Our land was cultivated last year, so we have to plow it once more than others. Even so, Old Li’s side gave us a discount on this.”

The second item is harvesting the costs; there's no way around it. We planted so much land, and so many flowers bloomed; we have to recoup our losses.

"No, no, no, I'm not doubting," Xu Haijun hurriedly explained, "I just didn't expect that it would cost us so much to cultivate this wasteland... But it's worth it, we've made quite a bit of money."

With an income of over 200,000 and expenses of 90,000, there's still a net income of over 100,000, which is worthwhile.

Li Long said:

"I think we should give Lao Xie a 500 yuan red envelope. Everyone's busy, but he's the busiest, being the manager. Coordinating everything is such a headache. Everyone's seen how busy we've been this year. Without him, our cooperative would fall apart..."

"How could that be?" Xie Yundong hadn't expected Li Long to suddenly bring him up, and hurriedly waved his hand. "We won't fall apart without me, but we'll fall apart without you. You're the one with the technical expertise; without the technologies and pest control methods you mentioned, our cooperative would truly be doomed..."

When Xie Yundong discussed salary with Li Long, Li Long didn't mention increasing the manager's salary and bonus. He knew that Xie Yundong wouldn't agree to it anyway, and he had to consider everyone's opinions.

But it's different now that it's brought up. His own technical stock salary was originally converted into shares, but he was afraid people would say it was unfair, so he converted it into a fixed salary. No one had any objections to this, after all, without the technology, the cotton simply couldn't be grown.

Moreover, given Li Long's authority, if he were to offer Xie Yundong a bonus, others, whether they liked it or not, would likely not object out of respect for him.

Moreover, Xie Yundong really did a lot more work, much harder than others.

Therefore, upon hearing Xie Yundong's words, he laughed and said, "Let's stop flattering each other. I provided the technology and received a salary based on my technical shares. You guys did the work, so you should get paid."

"Your salary needs to be increased; this will be the rule from now on. Otherwise, if a manager does a lot of work, suffers a lot of mistreatment, and manages a lot of things, but still gets the same pay, who would want to work there? What if you suddenly decide you don't want to work there anymore? Who will we turn to?"

When Li Long said this, everyone laughed and cheered, saying, "Add it! Add it!"

Xie Yundong smiled and remained silent. Li Long's words resonated with him. To be honest, he had put in a lot of effort for the cooperative this year, much more so than he had for his own land.

Five hundred yuan isn't much to him, but it's an attitude, showing that the manager holds an important position and is a form of recognition.

This recognition is enough.

With an income of over 240,000, after deducting expenses of 100,000, there was still over 140,000 left. Jia Weidong continued:

"As we agreed when the cooperative was established, we should reserve enough agricultural supplies for next spring and other expenses in the middle of the year. So we kept 40,000 yuan as a small amount and distributed the remaining 100,000 yuan as dividends."

Everyone except Li Long was excited to receive 100,000 yuan at once.

Although Li Long may receive the largest share of the dividends, the others will still get at least ten thousand yuan.

This was wasteland reclaimed last year, so it's no surprise that it was busy this year. But as farmers, who isn't busy in the summer?
Therefore, excitement is inevitable.

“Based on the shareholding, we averaged it out, and the total number of shares here is 61500. Each share is worth 1.63 yuan. Brother Li and Xiaolong have 24500 shares, which is 39,995 yuan. Let’s round it up to 40,000 yuan. The remaining 60,000 yuan will be split among the five of us.”

Actually, the shareholding structure wasn't like this when we first invested.

The two Li brothers invested in 280 mu of wasteland, and later added 70 mu of cultivated land.

The other four families each had 100 mu of wasteland, while Jia Weidong had 50 mu. Because of the need to calculate shares, Jia Weidong plowed out another 50 mu, making it a total of 100 mu.

When spring came, Li Jianguo noticed that the plot of land was not square enough, so he simply went to the edge of his own 280 mu of wasteland and cleared another 200 mu of wasteland, bringing the total to 550 mu (including the wasteland).

These wastelands are all registered and can be contracted for fifteen years. Even if you join the cooperative, you don't have to pay management fees for the first few years, but you still have to pay your own management fees after that.

Because others didn't have as much confidence in the cooperative as the Li brothers, they didn't follow suit. Furthermore, since the Li family flooded the wasteland with water without charging for it, the matter was tacitly approved.

The shares of wasteland are calculated based on yield. Newly cultivated wasteland yields 50 kilograms per mu, which translates to 25 yuan per mu – that is, 25 shares per mu of wasteland. The cultivated land belonging to the Li family yields 200 kilograms per mu, which translates to 100 shares per mu.

Everyone agrees on this point.

The money that the Li family divided was split among the remaining five families because the other five families had invested in the same amount of land, agricultural machinery, and so on.

This way, the division is clear, and everyone is satisfied.

Of course, there were also regulations when the cooperative was established. In the first year, the yield of wasteland was 50 kilograms, which was 25 shares per mu. In the second year, it was 100 kilograms, which was 50 shares. In the third year, it was 150 kilograms, which was 75 shares.

From the third year onwards, shares were no longer calculated based on grain yield, but rather on average cotton yield, because no matter how much the saline-alkali wasteland was adjusted, it was impossible for it to catch up with high-yield cultivated land in a short period of time. Reaching 150 kilograms was already considered very good.

However, three years later, the yield of cotton per mu in saline-alkali land will exceed that of cultivated land. At that time, it can no longer be calculated based on the price of grain, but on the price of cotton.

Of course, if drip irrigation were available, things would be different. Back then, cotton could yield three to four hundred kilograms per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.165 acres), and later, with improvements, it could even reach four to five hundred kilograms per mu. At that time, land prices were relatively high. This was also the main reason why the Li family was so eager to reclaim wasteland.

However, at this point, people didn't consider that the current approach was flawed. The higher shareholdings of other companies were mainly due to the significant depreciation of agricultural machinery like tractors.

These are original shares, and no one has any objections. Actually, when the cooperative isn't using the tractor, any member can just say so and it'll be driven away.

"This is how the accounts are. Everyone can come and take a look." Jia Weidong picked up the papers and handed them to the others, who then looked at them separately.

Besides the items that Jia Weidong mainly read aloud, there were also some miscellaneous figures, mainly the prices of labor costs, agricultural supplies, water fees, and so on. Each major expense was accompanied by a detailed table, written in great detail.

Li Long looked at the books and said with a smile, "Old Jia said he couldn't do accounting, but your accounts are very well done. They look clean and clear, isn't that great!"

He doesn't care much about numbers, while some others do, and others just glance at them and move on.

Next comes the division of money.

Xie Yundong unzipped the black handbag and took money out as he spoke, "I've already deposited the 40,000 yuan for agricultural supplies into the cooperative. It's a three-month fixed deposit. When we withdraw it, the interest will be enough for us to have a nice meal."

"Hey, you've got some serious management skills, even calculating the interest," Xu Haijun exclaimed. "Xiao Long was absolutely right about giving you extra money!"

Actually, he was also thinking about the interest on the 40,000 yuan, but he didn't expect Xie Yundong to bring it up himself, which he greatly admired.

Would I be so frank if I were in your shoes?

It's hard to say.

The visual impact of taking out ten stacks of RMB and placing them on the table is quite significant—this isn't something from later times, where people have seen countless walls covered in stacks of RMB online.

In this day and age, how many people in real life can resist the temptation to stare at it?
"Here you go, Xiaolong, take this 40,000." Xie Yundong handed Li Long the money first. "The money was withdrawn from the credit union yesterday, and it was wrapped up properly, so I didn't dare touch it. But since it's a lot of money, you should still count it."

Li Long stood up, picked up the money, and casually stuffed it into his pocket, 20,000 on each side, as if he were stuffing paper into his pocket.

"Hey, Xiaolong is so generous," Liang Dacheng said with a smile. "He spends so much money so casually, he should really put on a good show."

Li Long smiled and said, "It's your turn."

Next, the money will be split up, with each person receiving a whole stack, and then divided into two thousand.

After the dividends were distributed, Xie Yundong took out some loose change, including nine thousand yuan, which was everyone's wages.

"Old Xie, will the interest be 500 by then? If not, take out that 40,000 and deduct 500 from your own salary." Li Long knew that Xie Yundong was calculating based on his own salary of 1,000, so he made it clear in advance, "Old Jia, just keep good records. Calculate next year's dividends in advance, and you'll get 500 more than others."

Everyone agreed that Li Long earned a thousand more than the others, since without Li Long's skills, this saline-alkali land could never have yielded so much cotton.

"Okay, I understand." Xie Yundong smiled.

With the money in hand, the cooperative members were all beaming. Xie Yundong said:

"Let's call it a day now. Take your money home and keep it safe. Then come over and we'll have dinner. Your sister-in-law is preparing the dishes. We'll have a good drink later."

He meant well. If he doesn't go home to put the money away now, he might lose it later when he's drunk.

After all, this is no small amount!
Everyone agreed on this point, so they each took their money and left.

Deng Guilan poked her head out of the kitchen and called out:

"Put the money down and come over quickly, the food is almost ready."

"Okay, okay, sister-in-law, you go ahead with your work." Li Long replied and went out the door.

Everyone dispersed, and as they went outside, they found some people already on the roadside looking this way.

Seeing someone come out of the Xie family's house, he greeted them and casually asked about the profit sharing.

The news of the cooperative's profit-sharing arrangements had already spread throughout the village, and many people were paying attention. Xie Yundong and Jia Weidong were especially focused on it. However, the two were tight-lipped, constantly claiming they were still calculating and hadn't figured it out yet.

The cooperative's income is easy to calculate, but the expenses are more complicated. No one knows how many shares each member holds, so these people are waiting anxiously.

Nobody asked Li Long—Li Long isn't often on the team these days, and besides, he's a big boss now, unlike the others whom you see all the time, so you have to give him some face.

Li Long got into the Land Cruiser and drove to his older brother's house.

Li Jianguo was inside the house talking to Lu Yingming about the cooperative.

Lu Yingming has always regretted not having the audacity to join at the beginning of the year, like Xu Haijun.

Now it's impossible to join.

Hearing the car outside, they both knew it was Li Long returning. Lu Yingming then said:

"Is it all done? That was fast!"

"The shares and everything else have been calculated. We just need to calculate the expenses, publish the accounts, and if everyone has no objections, the money distribution will definitely be quick," Li Jianguo said with a smile.

Actually, he was quite looking forward to seeing how much money his family would get, but on the surface, he remained calm and composed, still putting on an air of leisure.

“It seems this cooperative can still be successful,” Lu Yingming said. “Whenever your cooperative recruits new members, I’ll invest.”

“I heard that many people in the team are planning to set up a cooperative, and quite a few have approached you, right? Aren’t you going to join any others?” Li Jianguo asked.

“If I don’t join, I’ll wait for you guys.” Lu Yingming was determined this time. “I’ll stick with what I know. I’ve had two people listen to their presentations these past few days, and what were they even talking about? They don’t understand the rules and regulations at all, yet they want to start a cooperative. They can explain clearly how to distribute the money, but they’re completely clueless about how to farm. If they just do it that way, they’ll only lose money…”

Li Long got out of the car, carrying a bag of chicken cakes, and went to his mother's place to check on Du Chunfang, who was leaning against the fireplace.

The fire in the stove wasn't strong; it was just glowing embers. There was an aluminum grate on the stove lid, and four or five slices of steamed buns were baking on it.

Seeing Li Long come in, Du Chunfang grinned and then stood up, bent over to pick up the browned bread slices, saying as she did so, "After breakfast this morning, I noticed the fire in this stove was pretty good, so I thought I'd roast something."

"Those potatoes are a hassle to cut. Your sister-in-law still had some leftover sliced ​​steamed buns from this morning, so I started baking some. Try some, they're delicious!"

Li Long had already smelled the aroma. Seeing his mother reach out to him, he hurriedly said, "Mom, don't move. I'll do it myself. Don't burn yourself."

Du Chunfang laughed and said, "How could I get burned... I'm a grown woman... You take over, you take over."

Li Long handed the sponge cake in his hand to Du Chunfang:
"Mom, Xiaoxia bought this for you. She told you that your teeth aren't good, so you should eat more soft foods."

"Okay, okay." Du Chunfang took the sponge cake, but didn't eat it. She put it aside and then pointed to the slices of steamed bread, saying, "Try it, try it."

Li Long picked up a piece of golden-brown toasted bread, broke off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth while asking, "Mom, have you eaten?"

"I ate. I had cornmeal porridge for breakfast, with yams and sweet potatoes chopped up by your sister-in-law, stir-fried potato salad, and mixed bean sprouts. I've almost lost all my teeth, but I like to eat things that are a little burnt..."

Seeing that his mother had misunderstood him, Li Long picked up another piece of burnt steamed bun, blew on it to cool it down, and handed it to his mother: "Mom, eat slowly."

"Alright, I'll eat slowly. If you have anything to say, go talk to your older brother. I heard your cooperative distributed profits, so you should talk to him about it. Go on now."

Du Chunfang was always pleased that her youngest son would come to her first whenever he came over. But she wasn't unreasonable; her youngest son had important business to attend to, and that couldn't be delayed. Anyway, he came often, so she could see him, which was better than the other two.

As for the sponge cake Gu Xiaoxia bought, we can eat it slowly. My daughter-in-law meant well, so I won't let her down.

Li Long went out while munching on a slice of steamed bun, and then went to his older brother's room.

Liang Yuemei was tidying up in the kitchen when Li Long came in and called out "Sister-in-law." After exchanging a few words, he went into the inner room.

"You split the money?" Lu Yingming said with a smile. "Quite a bit, wasn't it?"

“My older brother and I each received 40,000 yuan,” Li Long said without hiding anything. “The first year was alright.”

“It’s not good at all, it’s as good as it gets. Your cooperative is all wasteland.” Lu Yingming sighed repeatedly. “Saline-alkali land, in the first year, the income was 100 yuan per mu. Our cultivated land can’t compare at all.”

“Hey, it’s not that exaggerated. Large-scale farming, unified planting and management, plus fertilizer, it’s easy to manage.” Li Long smiled, then took out the money, put it on the table, and pushed it towards his older brother: “Brother, you take it, I’ll leave it here for you first.”

"Are we going to drink later?" Li Jianguo asked. "Are we going to Yun Dong's house again?"

“Yes,” Li Long said, “your wife is cooking over there.”

"Then I'll take it for you first. The stove is on in your front yard. Come back after you've finished drinking. We'll see how it goes. If you can drive, then drive. If you can't drive, then walk back, or have someone give you a ride, or I can pick you up."

"No need, no need, you know I can't drink much," Li Long hurriedly said. "I'll be back after I finish drinking."

"How do you handle profit sharing?" Lu Yingming still wanted to know more about the profit sharing process. "How are the shares calculated?"

“The land will be valued based on the harvest, and the first year’s wasteland will be valued based on 50 kilograms of grain per mu,” Li Long said. “We previously agreed to calculate it based on cotton production, but the first year is uncertain, so let’s calculate it based on grain for now.”

For the first three years, the figures will be based on grain production. Starting in the fourth year, they will be based on cotton production, by which time cotton production should have stabilized, and the figures will be adjusted accordingly.

“Hmm, that makes sense.” Lu Yingming nodded. “Then the farm tools…”

"Same, converted to shares at a discounted price," Li Long explained simply.

There's no need to hide this kind of thing; he could even copy the cooperative's rules and give them to others.

But rules alone are useless; we have to see how they are implemented. Students use the same textbook to attend school, yet their final exam scores vary greatly.

Lu Yingming asked several more questions before letting Li Long leave.

The same situation is playing out in every company. What everyone wants to know most is how much dividend they received, and then how the cooperative operates.

When they returned to the Xie family, many people in the team already knew about the cooperative's profit-sharing arrangements.

Some people scoffed: "I thought a cooperative could make a lot of money. Each family only gets a little over 10,000 yuan... You could make just that much money growing watermelons before."

"Did you drop your spoon? What kind of land do you use to grow watermelons?" someone immediately retorted. "The cooperative's land is basically saline-alkali wasteland, the kind of land that doesn't even grow wheat. Now they can harvest 100 yuan per mu, that's amazing!"

"Exactly! Look at Old Wang, he cleared three or four hundred acres of land to grow wheat, right? And it's not even saline-alkali land. I heard that the net income per acre is less than forty yuan!"

"That's right, that's right. It seems that this saline-alkali land is suitable for growing cotton. But the cooperative is no longer accepting people, otherwise I would definitely have joined."

"Hey, cooperatives need contiguous plots of land. Your land isn't even adjacent to theirs, so how can you join?"

"Aren't there some people in the team who want to start a cooperative? Why not join another cooperative?"

It's no longer news that other members of the team are secretly plotting to form a new cooperative.

However, many people are not optimistic about them. In this kind of thing, there will inevitably be followers, but as for whether they can succeed, well, it's hard to say.

Of course, some people still have confidence. When it comes to farming, look at the people in the cooperative—aside from Li Jianguo, which of the others has been farming for more than twenty years?

On the contrary, those who plan to establish new cooperatives are mostly in their forties and have a wealth of experience. They may not be as good as Li Long in business, but when it comes to farming, they are second to none.

So when they learned that everyone in Li Long's cooperative had received more than 10,000 yuan in dividends this year, they couldn't suppress their already tempted hearts even more.

On the same day, two cooperatives were privately announced to have been established, and they had already begun to copy the articles of association of Li Long's cooperative—of course, they had found out about them.

Another cooperative is in the works, but they are hesitant about whether to contribute developed land or reclaimed land as shares.

The first two cooperatives both used wasteland as shares; they were the same people who had approached Xu Chengjun to contract wasteland some time ago.

At Xie Yundong's home, Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, Xu Haijun, and others were discussing the questions asked by the people they had just encountered.

Jia Weidong said:
"It's clear that everyone has guessed it now. This saline-alkali land is quite suitable for growing cotton. I was thinking that in the spring, should we reclaim some wasteland around here and expand the plot?"

After this initial success, even Jia Weidong, who had always been a cautious person, now had confidence. It was now clear that the more land they owned, the more money they would make.

The cotton and linen company's purchase price for cotton has been stable in recent years. As long as there are no natural disasters and the cotton is harvested normally, the more land one owns, the more dividends one will receive.

“It’s not going to work out,” Xu Haijun said, giving him a slap on the wrist. “All the wasteland around our cooperative has been contracted out to others; it’s surrounded by land on three sides.”

The cooperative's wasteland is surrounded by wasteland on three sides and arable land on one side, where the Li family's seventy mu of arable land is located.

"So ruthless?" Jia Weidong was taken aback. "These people... hey, impressive!"

Of course, that's all I can say. Those were originally unclaimed territories; whoever secured the contract first got it. If someone acted quickly, it means they had good judgment; if you acted late and missed out, that's normal too.

"What we need to do now is to stabilize this large area of ​​land," Xie Yundong said with a mature perspective. "It's certainly a good thing if the first year's harvest is good. Whether we can harvest even better next year depends on God's will."

“That’s right.” Tao Daqiang agreed with this view. “Should we flood the soil again next spring? The soil is still quite alkaline.”

As soon as he said that, everyone looked at Li Long.

“We definitely have to do this.” Li Long nodded. “We’ll do it as soon as spring arrives and the snow melts. Anyway, there’s still a lot of water left in the small lake. After we’ve watered it, the flood will come down and fill it up.”

"Brother Long has taken advantage of us by contracting this small lake. We've really gotten a great deal," Tao Daqiang exclaimed. "If it weren't for this small lake, the water level would probably have risen by several thousand more."

Li Long smiled but didn't say anything.

"Besides flood irrigation, should we do something else?" Liang Dacheng asked. "Should we apply fertilizer in advance?"

“No need,” Li Long shook his head. “We still need to ensure a good germination rate. This year’s planting has actually improved the soil quality. It would be good if the first germination rate next year could reach 80%, and even better if it could reach 90%.

As you've probably noticed this year, the replanted seedlings did have some effect, but they clearly didn't grow as well as the earlier seedlings, and they didn't produce as many peaches. Some even became stunted peaches and didn't bloom at all.

Everyone can see this. Seedlings that sprout directly are of course better than those that are replanted – a difference of one day at the beginning of the year can make a difference of half a month at the end.

Replenishing seedlings is like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted; it has some effect, but it won't achieve the best results.

They were discussing what the cooperative needed to do next spring, and they were all very excited.

Soon, Deng Guilan called Xie Yundong from the kitchen, asking him to bring up the cold dishes first, while they drank.

Li Long and the others carried the square table against the wall to the center of the room. The floor was uneven, so Tao Daqiang found some wooden blocks to prop up the table, while Liang Dacheng swept the floor with a broom. The others set up the stools and waited to sit down.

Once the cold dishes were served, the conversation shifted from farming to how to spend the money.

After taking his seat, Li Long solemnly reminded him:

"You've received dividends, you're rich now, that's all public knowledge, everyone in the team knows it. I bet next, someone will definitely try to take advantage of you, trying to get you to play cards and gamble."

I'm telling you this: anyone who gets involved in gambling will be removed from the cooperative. They'll either have to leave voluntarily or be kicked out.

In addition, the head of the local police station is probably going to investigate a batch of gamblers soon. Keep an eye on your family members; don't let them lose money and end up in detention—it's a double loss of money and face.

His words were harsh, and everyone else fell silent.

As for?
P.S.: I saw this while writing; the 8th is the 50th anniversary of the Premier's death. This great man has been gone for fifty years… (End of Chapter)