Chapter 1019: Big changes in the mountains, Li Long has new ideas

"Old Gu, is the price for beef and mutton still the same today?"

At the entrance of the purchasing station, middleman Liu Yongli greeted Gu Bo Yuan.

"The average price for both beef and mutton is up by one mao today." Gu Bo Yuan didn't even lift his head, checking the sheep carcasses on the counter while responding, "It depends on the meat quality. If the bag you have contains meat from an old ram, I can give you at most 1.5 yuan."

The meat of an old ram is very pungent; most people don't eat it.

"How could that be?" Liu Yongli said with a grin, "Although they aren't winter lambs from last year, looking at the teeth, they are at most two years old, not yet three. They are young."

"Fine, I'll take a look in a moment. If it's good, I'll give you a high price."

The purchasing station raised the purchase price for beef and mutton, and the inspection standards were also relaxed somewhat. The middlemen were most sensitive to this. The next day, the purchase volume of beef and mutton increased by 50% compared to the day before, and by the third day, it had doubled.

In just three days, the purchasing station had collected the remaining task volume; in fact, it had even exceeded it.

Li Long didn't have time to come over, so he called Li Jianguo and asked him to come and pick up the goods directly. The main thing was that people were coming to his house from time to time, and he couldn't keep the door locked, so he had to explain to them one by one that the meat at his purchasing station was sold out.

Li Long even found it hard to understand why these people could accurately find his house directly instead of asking at the purchasing station.

"Do you think I haven't been to the purchasing station? I went, but they said they couldn't make the decision and I had to find you. Your little county town is only this big; it's easy to find out where your house is." This was the original statement of a merchant who came from the mouth of the river to collect mutton, whom Li Long had rejected.

He also told Li Long why so many people came to find him:

"We went through the trouble of coming here; what we want to do is definitely large-scale wholesale business. The money earned from those bits and pieces isn't even enough for travel expenses."

"Every time we arrive at a place, we definitely have to inquire about the specific beef and mutton situation. Among the few counties around here, only your place can receive large quantities of beef and mutton in stock."

"To be honest, if you sold the beef and mutton at a high price to other merchants, we could understand. But selling it at such a low price to your county's supply and marketing cooperative—are you complaining that you have too little money in your hands?"

This merchant offered Li Long a high price of 3 yuan for mutton and 3.5 yuan for beef. According to his thinking, this price was already tempting enough.

Li Long felt that the price of beef and mutton wouldn't rise to this level within the next three years. Were these people making any money by collecting beef and mutton at such high prices?

Of course they were making money; no one would lose money.

"No one complains about having too much money." Li Long's explanation was also very simple, "Who told you to come late?"

The merchant thought Li Long meant it literally—that he came late and Li Long had already given the goods to the supply and marketing cooperative. Li Long, however, was thinking: before you came, how many benefits did the supply and marketing cooperative give me over these years?

Was that something that could be settled with a little money?

These merchants mainly contacted people like Li Long who could purchase large quantities of beef and mutton, as well as the food companies in various counties and cities.

However, the food companies in various counties and cities first had to guarantee the supply of the local market. The existence of state-run units was not just for making money.

Therefore, these people were destined not to collect much goods in this area.

Li Jianguo took the remaining beef and mutton to the regional level on the fourth day. At this time, other counties and cities also began to send goods to the regional cooperative.

When they learned that the supply and marketing cooperative of Ma County had already completed the task, their expressions were all very surprised.

For a time, Li Jianguo received many phone calls—some to get close, some to congratulate, and some to ask him about the source of the beef and mutton.

After all, it was difficult for various counties and cities to raise a large batch of beef and mutton now, so they wanted to get close and transfer some from him.

Li Jianguo naturally couldn't betray Li Long, so he laughed it off. He also knew that someone had been collecting beef and mutton at a high price recently, even higher than the price the supply and marketing cooperative gave Li Long.

He had already received enough benefits from Li Long, and he didn't want to trade his personal favors for Li Long's income. Let Li Long sell whatever was left at a high price; after all, other supply and marketing cooperatives couldn't offer a higher price than the task assigned by the regional cooperative.

Li Long, at his home, not only had to reject those who came to collect one after another, but he also received calls from Huang Lei and Zhao Hui.

After Li Long's reminder, Huang Lei really discovered that the total amount of beef and mutton in the city where his family lived was decreasing, and the price was rising.

But because he hadn't done this line of work before, he was still a bit hesitant.

It wasn't until the real trend came and a beef and mutton shop owner took the initiative to contact him, wanting to collect the beef and mutton he brought, that Huang Lei understood that the price of beef and mutton this year was going to rise.

He immediately called Li Long and asked Li Long to send him another batch of beef and mutton. This time he wanted a whole train car, but Li Long's inventory was all given to the supply and marketing cooperative, so he could only ask him to wait.

A couple of days later, Zhao Hui called, saying he also wanted a batch of beef and mutton. However, Zhao Hui wasn't in a hurry; he knew Li Long had collected quite a few skins here, and planned to do the same as last time—when he came to collect the skins, he would take the beef and mutton away.

After gathering the goods for the supply and marketing cooperative, the beef and mutton collected by Li Long's purchasing station mainly supplied Huang Lei and Zhao Hui. He planned to give Huang Lei ten tons of goods, which was about enough, and could provide at most five tons to Zhao Hui.

Of course, the prices given by these two people were also high enough, even a bit higher than the task price of the supply and marketing cooperative, so selling the beef and mutton to them wasn't a loss.

In fact, in Li Long's own old horse corral, the fattened cattle and sheep that could be slaughtered this year, when added together, amounted to nearly ten tons of carcasses.

But Li Long didn't plan to release these beef and mutton. Section Chief Hu from the sugar factory had called, clearly with the intention of asking for help, before the supply and marketing cooperative's task was assigned.

So Li Long planned to send a batch of fattened cattle and sheep to the sugar factory. Some would be left in the village, and some would be sent to Factory Director Du of the agricultural machinery factory.

In early January, while Li Long was busy with beef and mutton, Factory Director Du called. He told Li Long:

"Up to now, our agricultural machinery factory has produced, processed, and assembled nearly eight thousand snow blowers. Although we are still shipping, there aren't that many orders coming in."

"I tell you, our workers are really working in three shifts. Of course, I am also paying the full wages and bonuses."

"Now there are already imitation snow blowers appearing on the market. However, from the three types of imitation snow blowers we've learned about, the efficiency is not as good as ours. The main problem we've studied is the arrangement of the steel wires on the roller."

"To be honest, Comrade Li Long, when you emphasized this arrangement of steel wires in the design, we were a bit skeptical. Facts have proven that this detail is really important."

Eight thousand snow blowers brought Li Long a net income of over one hundred thousand yuan.

Factory Director Du's agricultural machinery factory had recruited quite a few people this year, and with the considerable profit from the snow blowers, he prepared to issue a batch of benefits to the workers in the factory before the New Year. Knowing Li Long had beef and mutton, he purchased a batch.

Li Long planned to send him one hundred sheep and twenty cattle, all slaughtered, of course.

The offal that could be frozen would also be taken over, selling for the price of a whole sheep.

As for the sugar factory, two hundred sheep, thirty cattle, and two red deer.

To slaughter so many cattle and sheep, the people in the team definitely couldn't handle it, so Li Long had to go into the mountains to call Halimu and the others.

He had been busy with beef and mutton for a while and hadn't had time to go into the mountains, so he didn't know how his friends in the mountains were doing now.

Li Long let Old Luo Shu at the old horse corral set up the stoves outside first, clear the site, and let his eldest brother find some people from the village to help clean the offal, and then he drove the jeep into the mountains with some supplies. ===== CHAPTER 1020 =====