Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After driving the jeep into the mountains for only two days, Li Long had to switch to a tractor.

There is no other way. There are more than 30 people in the mountains, and they can train more than 100 porters a day. Excluding a small number of unqualified novices, the number of qualified porters every day is at least over 120.

This stuff is piling up more and more. If you want to transport it back yourself, you can only use a tractor.

And there are more than one trips a day - a tractor can't pull more than a hundred handlebars.

Thinking about the two or three hundred people carrying the goods a week in Qingshuihezi, Li Long felt that he had to find a new way of transportation. Otherwise, he would have to weld on the tractor every day and would have no time to do other things.

However, judging from last year's situation, collecting Fritillaria is his largest source of income.

No, this situation must be changed.

The supply and marketing cooperative has its own cars, but now all the cars are out transporting supplies. Li Long is thinking about whether he can use these cars during the breaks between missions. It doesn't matter if he has to pay for it himself, as long as he can go and transport the supplies.

"Forget about the car, and don't ask Lao Qin." After listening to Li Long's plan, Li Xiangqian shook his head and said, "Our supply and marketing cooperative only has these three cars. Two of them are delivering supplies to the state, and one is on a business trip in Wucheng. It's hard for us to get anything else now."

Old Qin’s name is Qin Haodong. He is the head of the transportation section of the supply and marketing cooperative. He is in charge of transportation, car repairs, and fuel supply. The three drivers are also his subordinates.

The transportation stock consisted of not only three cars, but also some carts and horse-drawn carriages - transportation at that time was not so mechanized.

Li Long naturally looked down on those horse-drawn carriages, thinking they were not as good as his own tractors.

"You can go ask Lao Hong from the county transportation company." Li Xiangqian gave him an idea. "I'll call Lao Hong and you can ask him if there are any people willing to do private work after get off work. But you have to pay for it."

"That's no problem." Li Long pointed at the phone quickly, meaning you should call immediately.

Li Xiangqian glared at him and said, "You little bastard is ordering me around."

But he still picked up the phone and asked for the county transportation company's fleet.

The team leader, Lao Ma, is not there. He said he went with his car to transport supplies.

Li Xiangqian put down the phone and said to Li Long:
"You go see him this afternoon, and I'll call him later. The car should be able to work, but only after get off work."

Let’s do it after get off work. Cars go fast and it will take less than an hour to get to the mountains. It will take another half an hour to load the car, and it should be just dark when we get back.

It depends on the shipping cost, it shouldn't be too high, right?
I thought it would be fine as long as I didn’t have to drive the tractor around.

Li Long came out of the supply and marketing cooperative and went to the mountains again in the morning.

He has to check out the qualified handles first, determine the number, and pile them together so that it will be easier to pull them after get off work.

When the jeep reached the mountain, Xiaobaiyanggou was filled with a strong smell of burning wood. Li Long could even see wisps of green smoke floating about ten meters above the ground.

Like a fairyland.

But there are no cranes to decorate it.

The jeep drove to the edge of the dugout and stopped. Old Huang was making lunch. He called out to Li Long loudly:

"Xiaolong, are you here? I'm making a big stew for lunch today, and I steamed some buns for you to try this morning."

"I won't taste it now. I'll eat it later." Li Long responded, and then went to see the situation of the braiding and carrying of the band over there.

There are already quite a few piled up in front of each braider's "work station". A rough glance shows that there are as few as eight or nine and as many as ten or so.

The largest number of them are from the eldest brothers Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming.

Xie Yundong came over and asked Li Long:
"What are you..."

"I checked the handles today and will see if I can pull them all back in at night. It's too troublesome to have them piled up here."

When Li Long said this, Xie Yundong naturally agreed. He took out a small notebook to record it.

Li Jianguo's was the first one. Although he was the eldest brother, Li Long still checked it more carefully.

Li Jianguo also knew that he was a benchmark in the eyes of these people. If Li Long was lax in checking himself and strict in checking others, then others would naturally have opinions.

In the past two and a half days, Li Jianguo has compiled thirteen gang leaders, one less than Lu Yingming.

But the quality is top notch.

When Li Long was inspecting, except for a few like Tao Daqiang, everyone else took a look from time to time.

"A two-meter pole is enough." Li Long looked at them one by one. "The handle is wide and has no burrs..."

Talk about each inspection item briefly, and actually you are also telling it to other people.

The standard for carrying the handle has been told to everyone, but not everyone can remember it, so Li Long is emphasizing it at this time.

In other words, it is a disguised way of telling others that if you have any minor problems with your leadership, I will check it in the same way later, and if I find anything wrong, don't argue with me.

Li Jianguo's dozen or so porters checked them one by one, and none of them failed.

Li Longxin was relieved at once. Big brother is really awesome!
Li Jianguo pointed to the open space northeast of the digout and said:

"Where should we put the handle?"

"Yeah." Li Long responded. The place for making the handles and burning the fire is in the southeast of the dugout, and the location is in the northeast, separated by the dugout, so they don't affect each other and won't get into trouble.

Li Jianguo lifted the handles in each hand and carried them over. Lu Yingming wanted to help, but Li Jianguo stopped him:

"I'll check yours next, so don't touch this."

Tao Daqiang came over hurriedly to help, and then someone else came over. Jia Weidong and his friends each took two and finished all the tasks.

We definitely need to take care of each other in this matter. After all, I will be writing it myself later, and others will also need help.

Li Long checked Lu Yingming's handles and found that two of the fourteen handles had problems. One of them had a braided strip that was sharpened but not pressed inside, so it was exposed, which made it easy for things to get caught. The root of the strip was very sharp, which could easily hurt the hand.

It was a minor problem that could be fixed in three to five minutes. Lu Yingming said he would correct it immediately.

Another problem is that the overall shape is a bit uneven and not smooth. Li Long knows that this is because the strips were not burned properly, so it needs to be reworked.

Lu Yingming could see it himself, so he put the handle aside after Li Long finished speaking. He didn't plan to dismantle it, thinking that he would take it back home when he got back and use it at home.

After checking the two people, the others also understood. In fact, these are all veterans. Even if Tao Daqiang didn't come last year, he has been with Li Long for two or three years and knows the requirements of being a leader.

But precisely because they are old men, Li Long would not relax, otherwise those young people would jump up and down.

After checking all the eleven people, Li Long roughly took note and found that there were a dozen who failed, and the remaining qualified ones added up to about one hundred.

Seeing that there was still time, he climbed over the mountain to go to Xu Haijun's side.

Here, Xu Haijun was weaving his own banner while telling the young people about his experiences in the army.

“…When we were recruits, we practiced marching at night. The squad leader didn’t tell us in advance, and he wasn’t afraid that we would get lost, so he just scattered us around the camp.

Our camp was located on the outskirts of the city. I looked for it according to the direction, but suddenly I felt something was wrong. How did I end up in a pile of graves? ... There were graves one after another, and the things I was looking for were nearby. My scalp was numb at that time..."

"Why don't you run away?" a young man couldn't help but say.

"Run away for nothing? How can you run away if you haven't completed the mission?" Xu Haijun glared at him and continued while making a joke, "At that time, you had to look for it no matter how scared you were. From time to time, you could see phosphorous flames floating up from somewhere. They were blue-green in color. It was so scary..."

"I've seen it, I've seen it!" a young man shouted. "I saw it next to the field when I went to water with my dad at night. I was so scared that my dad shoveled it over and shone a flashlight on it. It was a bone."

"That's right. Actually, it's nothing if you talk about it." Xu Haijun looked at him approvingly. "The phosphorus fire is just the phosphorus in the bones burning. It's really nothing."

"Did you find it in the end?"

"Of course I found it."

"What is it?" someone asked curiously.

"Can I tell you? After I found it, I went back to the barracks. It turned out that another kid in our class, a city soldier from the mainland, was washing clothes in the washroom. I asked him what happened, and he said he went into a cemetery and was scared to death. Hahahaha..."

Xu Haijun was very proud.

Li Long watched this scene and thought that if he wasn't so stubborn, he might have stayed in the army and become a very good soldier, right?
"Navy, I came to check, how many have you compiled?"

In fact, Li Long also saw it. The most edited ones had about ten in total. However, it was obvious that the quality of the ones here were not as good as those over there.

"Almost everyone has ten." Xu Haijun was quite proud.

The number is no less than the veterans over there.

After looking around, Li Long frowned and said:
"Let me put it bluntly: at least one-third of you who are in charge are unqualified."

"What?" Several young people were immediately thrown cold water. "Don't think I'm strict. Take the qualified ones over there and put them away, then take a look at what they wrote."

The smile on Xu Haijun's face disappeared. He felt a little frustrated and a little unconvinced.

How could there be so many unqualified ones?
"One by one... Let's see your navy first..."

Li Long asked Xu Haijun to take out his notebook and said:

"It's normal for you to edit it for the first time. It was the same situation when I brought people here two years ago. At the beginning, everyone thought that their editing of the leader was fine and good. But this standard was not established by me, nor is it controlled by me.

Even if I give you a pass, and then you take it to the supply and marketing cooperative, and people return it, and my money is deducted, I will have to come after you in the end. So I might as well be strict now, it will be good for both you and me.”

Li Long made the ugly remarks clear in advance, and the young men felt more at ease.

But I still feel dissatisfied. I think that the quality of the braids made by others when I eat every day is almost the same as my own?
"You... are wrong. Did you see it? It might be right when it was being edited, but the strips were not burned properly, so it went back when it cooled down, and the handle was wrong."

Li Long said to Xu Haijun.

Xu Haijun blushed.

"There are too many burrs on this handle, so it needs to be cut back. The big one is fine, so just rework it, but the broken one needs to be readjusted, either fix it as is and bake it again, or take it apart and redo it."

Among the ten people who were selected by Xu Haijun, seven were qualified, which is considered pretty good.

The quality of the other guys was terrible, with an average pass rate of 50% to 60%.

"This one is wrong, and this one is wrong too...if you lay them flat, they are not on the same plane."

"This one is too shallow. There's an arc in the middle of the handle. You made it flat, so you save on the strips, but people have to lift less!"

"This pole won't work. One end is thick and the other end is thin. The difference is too big. Of course, one end is thick and the other end is thin, but the difference can't be that big. If you lift something heavy with it, the thin end will break..."

Li Long pointed out questions one by one, and those people wanted to make some explanations, but were stopped by Xu Haijun with a glare.

If there are problems, they must be solved; if there are defects, they must be corrected. Although Xu Haijun was a little frustrated, he accepted what Li Long said as there was nothing wrong with it.

"Okay, that's all. If we calculate that five people pass on average, that's 20 yuan." Li Long said, "I figured out what was wrong later. I can earn 20 yuan a day, and 400 yuan in 20 days. Not bad."

Li Long's last few words brought smiles back to everyone's faces.

That's the truth. Even if you catch fish in the small lake now, you can't earn 20 yuan a day.

There is only this small market in the county, and you have to go to Shicheng. Without a bicycle, the fish will be rotten by the time you get there.

Therefore, making up a story is actually the fastest way for them to make money in the short term.

"Okay, the Navy has taken note of everything, right?"

"I've got it." Xu Haijun showed the notebook to Li Long.

Li Long read it, signed it, and asked him to write another one for him. Then he said to the others:
"Now, take the qualified bearers and carry them to the other side of the mountain. Take a look at what the bearers they make look like."

After he said this, the young men couldn't wait to take the handles and go over.

Four or five young men carried the handles, not minding the tiredness or the dirt, they just put them together, put them on their heads and went over.

"There haven't been any animals coming here these past two days, have they?" Li Long asked Xu Haijun, "You haven't encountered any snakes, have you?"

"No." Xu Haijun shook his head. "But we saw wild rabbits and pheasants on the opposite side of the mountain. They are very smart. Oh, over there," he pointed to the head of the ravine, "we saw a few roe deer there yesterday. We wanted to catch them, but they ran away before we could run a few steps."

"Don't worry, there are still a few days left, so you can definitely run into some. Just be careful with snakes, most of the snakes here are poisonous."

"Don't worry, I'm here." Xu Haijun took his own carrying handle, and Li Long also helped to take two and went over to the other side of the mountain.

Next we have to see what happens with Liang Wenyu.

Old Huang had almost finished cooking and began to turn off the stove. Li Long hurriedly drove his jeep to Liang Wenyu's place, as he was worried that the young men there would not be able to bear the hunger and come back early, which would prevent him from checking.

Fortunately, when he ran over there, Liang Wenyu was shouting at these people to get ready to leave.

Seeing the jeep arrive, Liang Wenyu waited for Li Long to get off the car and asked:
"Why are you here at this time?"

"We will inspect and accept the handles today, and those that pass will be taken first."

"Okay." Liang Wenyu naturally had no objection.

The other guys were also very excited. Liang Wenyu had told them more than once that the money for carrying the banners was not counted, only the qualified ones who were registered in the book would be counted.

They also want to know how much their own carrying handle is worth.

"Okay, let's check it now." Liang Wenyu said, "Mine first?"

"Let's do the others first. Check one by one and take the qualified ones over. They're also getting ready for dinner over there." Li Long said.

"Okay." Liang Wenyu had no objection.

After checking them one by one, the biggest problem is still the lack of confidence.

Li Long could understand that young people were not yet mature enough and thought that they could use the braided handles after burning them until they became soft. It was fine to use this thing at home, but if you took it to someone else, the supply and marketing society would block it.

But to Li Long's surprise, the pass rate here was higher than that of Xu Haijun, at about 70%.

Finally, it was Liang Wenyu's turn. The pass rate reached 80%. Out of ten people, only two failed.

It’s really amazing.

Li Long asked him to take a few of them forward, and he put the rest on the jeep. Liang Wenyu refused, saying that there was dust on the handle and it had damaged the tarpaulin on the roof of the jeep.

"Not really. This is a car, not a toy car." Li Long smiled. "Okay, go ahead. I got here before you."

In fact, Li Long was also walking slowly, mainly because he was shaking off the roof of the car due to the slow road.

When we arrived at Xiaobaiyanggou, some people had already started eating.

Li Long counted and found that there were about one hundred and eighty guards here.

One car might not be able to load all the goods, but he planned to drive a tractor along with the car in the afternoon and load what he could, and if not, use the tractor to pull it back.

Unloading the car might be a little more troublesome.

This quantity is not worth taking to the supply and marketing cooperative. Li Long plans to unload the goods to his own yard first, and then accumulate some before taking them to the supply and marketing cooperative.

You have to have at least a thousand of them, otherwise it won’t be worth it.

After having lunch here, Li Long drove the jeep back.

Li Long originally wanted to stop when passing Qingshuihe Village, but then he thought better of it.

Stopping won't change anything, so let's just clean up the mountains first.

The jeep returned to the county and he went to the transportation company first.

The transportation company has also been restructured. It was formerly the county's transportation team. In the beginning, it had horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts and everything else. There was only one truck at the beginning, and then gradually more and more of them were added, and then the horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts were eliminated.

When Li Long drove the jeep into the transportation company, many drivers were startled.

County leaders basically don't come here to inspect, but when a car suddenly came over, they were immediately in a panic. Captain Ma, who had just rushed back, put on his coat, buttoned it up, and ran out in a hurry.

But I was happy when I saw the jeep, it must be this guy!

Li Long got his driver's license from him, and his driving skills were also taught by him, so he was very clear about this.

"Everyone, go away. You are not a leader." Ma Chunlei called out to the others, "Go do your own thing."

Then he complained to Li Long who came down:

"Xiao Li, you should have told us in advance that you were coming. Look how scared our driver was."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Li Long apologized hastily, "I'm just in a hurry."

"To transport things, right? Your section chief asked how many vehicles you need?"

"One, maybe two more. One hundred and seventy or eighty porters, should one car be enough?"

"Forget it, you should still take two." Ma Chunlei advised, "Don't rush into the work after get off work. Let's go to the office and discuss the price." (End of this chapter)