Chapter 559: Everyone wants to join in the fun, no matter what they do

The next day, after Gu Xiaoxia finished breakfast and went to work, Li Long tidied up the kitchen and courtyard, then drove the tractor out to the team.

He came directly to the home of the team leader, Xu Chengjun.

Xu Chengjun had already finished breakfast and was wearing rotten gloves in the courtyard, pulling reeds.

Li Long got off the tractor, looked at some tied reed bundles piled up against the south wall of their house, covered halfway by snow, and shook his head.

"Yo, Little Long is here?" Xu Chengjun stood up with a Mohe cigarette in his mouth and said:

"How is it? Can this reed bundle job still be done?"

"It can be done."

"Hey, as long as it can be done, everyone is waiting," Ma Hongmei said, returning from feeding the pigs, carrying a pig feed bucket, and smiling:

"How many are needed this year? I see that the carrying poles and large brooms are more than last year. Is it that more reed bundles are needed too? Can the price be a bit higher?"

Li Long waved his hand and said:

"Team leader, sister-in-law, the standard for this reed bundle has changed. The ones you've tied at home can't be used."

"Why can't they be used?" Xu Chengjun was a bit panicked as soon as he heard this. "Tell me quickly? What's the new standard?"

"Twenty reeds, three thin iron wires haven't changed, and the length of two point five meters hasn't changed either."

"Twenty reeds..." Xu Chengjun muttered.

"What about the price?" Ma Hongmei was most concerned about this.

"I'll collect them for 0.3 yuan each," Li Long said.

He took a kickback of 0.2 yuan, which was standard. Last year, the market price for collecting reed bundles from villagers was 0.1 yuan. This year, the material requirements were higher, but the price had also increased, and it had increased a lot. He thought everyone should be satisfied.

"Fine, 0.3 yuan is good." Ma Hongmei immediately estimated that the reeds they had now could make less than a thousand reed bundles. Now that most of the reeds had been pulled, just tying them would take less than half a month.

Making two or three hundred yuan in these half a month was worth it!

"Team leader, I'll use the loudspeaker to notify everyone," Li Long said again.

"Fine, go notify them. Do you know how to turn it on?" Xu Chengjun was still thinking about the change in the reed bundle standard. How could they utilize those reed bundles that were already tied at home?

Li Long entered the room, sat at the table, turned on the loudspeaker switch, tapped it with his hand, felt the echo, blew some air, and then the whole team heard the sound:

"Puff, puff, puff! Puff! Comrades of the production team, I am Li Long, I am Li Long! Notifying everyone of a matter..."

Li Long felt as if there was no echo. He turned his head and saw Ma Hongmei at the door, so he asked:

"Sister-in-law, is there sound?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Ma Hongmei said hurriedly.

This conversation was also broadcast through the loudspeaker, causing many people who heard the sound to laugh.

"This Li Long is still a bit of a fool."

"He made a joke."

Li Long didn't know, and wouldn't care if he did. He continued:

"Notifying everyone of a matter, the reed bundle job has come down, twenty thousand..."

As soon as this sound came out, those families with large stacks of reeds in their courtyards, many of whom had already pulled them, all smiled.

Although it was snowing, the reed bundle job hadn't come out, so many people's hearts were still hanging in the air.

Now hearing Li Long say that the reed bundle task had come down, smiles immediately appeared on everyone's faces.

Now they could make money.

To tell the truth, the people in the Fourth Team were much more confident than those in other teams, because they earned more money than other teams every year and lived better than people in other teams.

This led to the young people here finding partners more easily than young people in other teams.

After all, the number of bicycles in the whole township was the first, and the number of tractors was too.

One step strong, step by step strong; everyone understood this truth. No matter how they looked down on Li Long, at this time, everyone was still quite grateful to Li Long. After all, it was he who brought these money-making jobs to the people in the team.

Xu Jianjun looked at the high stacks of tied reed bundles in the courtyard and simply stopped working. He planned to wait for Li Long to finish speaking, then load these onto the donkey cart and pull them to the Li family. By then, he would just take the money back.

Xu Jianjun wasn't very friendly to Li Long, but he knew that Li Long never had any problems with settling accounts and giving money. As long as the things were qualified, the money was given very quickly.

"... The standard this year has changed. Each reed bundle requires twenty reeds, three iron wires, and a length of two point five meters..."

Twenty reeds?

Xu Jianjun's smile froze directly on his face!

He looked at the six or seven hundred reed bundles with ten reeds each that he had tied over there, and then turned his head to look at his wife.

He felt that he had misheard and wanted to seek confirmation from his wife.

However, his wife's mouth was also filled with disbelief:

"How did it become twenty reeds? What are they doing up there? Why are they tossing people around so much? What should we do with so many tied reed bundles at home?"

This complaint wasn't just being said by one or two people; many people were saying it. After all, they wanted to take the first step to tie the reed bundles and make more money.

But the mistake was betting on the wrong thing; this stuff wasn't something they could decide.

Farmers had been like this since ancient times; they couldn't decide the land rent in ancient times, they couldn't decide the price of rice and wheat; now they couldn't decide the price of agricultural materials, and in the end, they couldn't decide the pricing power of grain.

Li Long had no way either; the standard setter was above, not him.

He remembered very clearly that in his previous life, there was a year before he passed away when the international cotton price was very good. At that time, before mid-September, no ginning factory dared to open a price to collect cotton.

A ginning factory in Southern Xinjiang couldn't wait and reported a purchase price of 9.7 yuan, and the cotton farmers were very happy. Although this wasn't the highest price in history, it was a rare high price.

Although this price was lower than the international cotton price, it was generally higher than the subsidy price given by the state, and farmers could earn more money than in previous years.

However, the next day, this ginning factory withdrew the price sign, and then news spread that this ginning factory was suspended for rectification and the bank stopped loans.

Next, more ginning factories opened prices, 8.5 yuan.

Although this price also made money, it was much lower than the psychological expectation.

Then many people who were live-streaming called on cotton farmers to put the cotton at the edge of the field and not sell it, waiting for a high price, saying that the price would definitely increase after the double festival.

However, the price didn't increase until the heavy snow fell.

Many people lost a lot.

As for why the ginning factory that started reporting the price was suspended for rectification and the bank didn't give loans to collect cotton, we dare not say, and we dare not ask.

Anyway, it was just like that; it was too difficult for farmers to make money.

Li Long didn't know that many people in the team were complaining, or even cursing. He continued to say through the loudspeaker:

"The new reed bundles, 0.3 yuan each! 0.3 yuan each! High quality and strict standards are required. Once done, go to my courtyard. If it passes the on-site inspection, I'll pay!

Alright, I'll notify one more time..."

After Li Long notified these last two times, most of the people who were originally making a fuss didn't make a fuss anymore.

Although they had guessed that the price would increase a bit, they didn't expect it to really increase, and calculating it, it increased quite a lot!

This immediately dispelled the resentment of many people.

After all, most people weren't like Xu Jianjun, who had tied most of the pulled reeds into reed bundles.

Those who tied fewer felt lucky, and those who didn't tie were even happier. After all, having work was much better than having no work.

The sound of the loudspeaker passed through the reed ditch to the ears of the people in the Third Team. Most of the people in the Third Team were still envious.

The Fourth Team produced a capable person who could lead everyone to get rich; how could they not be envious?

Yang Pingping's younger brother was pulling reeds in his brother-in-law's courtyard. The Third Team didn't have a reed lake. Although that reed lake separated the two teams, the ownership of the reed lake belonged to the Fourth Team.

This was recognized. Usually, it was fine for the Third Team to harvest a little reed for home use, but it wasn't okay to harvest reeds on such a large scale as right now.

Two years later, when the reed lake was contracted out, such things would be even fewer.

So Yang Yun, Yang Pingping's younger brother, was pulling reeds in Tao Daqiang's courtyard, and Tao Daqiang told him that he would distribute the money to him after the reed bundles were sold.

Yang Yun was a few years younger than Tao Daqiang, a young man of seventeen or eighteen, just at the age when he needed money. There was none at home, and he couldn't ask for it, so he earned it himself.

After Li Long finished shouting, he said a word to Xu Chengjun, then shook the tractor and drove towards his own courtyard.

It was cold now, and it was relatively difficult to shake the tractor. Hot water had to be added, and in two days, fire would have to be used to roast the water tank and the bottom of the engine, because the oil would also freeze.

Fortunately, Li Long was strong and wasn't afraid of shaking the tractor.

On the way, several people stopped Li Long to ask about the specific situation, and Li Long explained it, and there was no need to say more.

The tractor drove to the side of his eldest brother's courtyard. He saw his eldest brother and sister-in-law were both pulling reeds, and his old man was also helping on the side. His old mother was sitting at the stove cooking pig feed. "Little Long is back," Liang Yuemei greeted with a smile. "Is the reed bundle job down? Fortunately, our family didn't tie reed bundles in advance, otherwise wouldn't we regret it to death?"

"Exactly, exactly." Sister-in-law Lu, who rushed over after hearing the tractor sound, also said the same thing, "0.3 yuan, this time we can earn quite a bit more!"

Lu Yingming earned more than three hundred by tying carrying poles, and bought a bicycle after turning around. His family also earned two or three hundred by tying large brooms, and this reed bundle, it should also be able to earn about the same amount of money.

In a year, just these incomes alone were one thousand yuan, which was much more than a formal worker!

And rice, flour, and oil were all produced from the land, and even vegetables could basically be supplied from their own vegetable garden.

What else did they want?

The Lu family harvested quite a few reeds, and tying several hundred reed bundles was no problem. Li Long's family had even more reeds. Liang Yuemei estimated that their family's reeds were definitely enough to tie one thousand reed bundles, maybe even more.

Li Long returned and greeted his family, first went to set up the stove in his own room, and then came over to help them pull reeds.

His technique for tying reed bundles was still a bit lacking, but pulling reeds wasn't a technical job, so he could still do it.

Seeing him sitting on a wooden pier, Du Chunfang found an old cushion and brought it over, letting him put it under his butt.

Li Long smiled and did as he was told. It was indeed a bit cold to pull reeds outside. Fortunately, they were dressed thickly. Northern Xinjiang itself produced cotton, and making cotton-padded jackets, if nothing else, at least they were willing to use cotton.

!.

Li Long had already changed into cloth cotton-padded shoes. The soles were thick, and the soles were also padded with cotton, which was warm.

Of course, young men had strong vitality, plus they ate plenty of deer meat, roe deer meat, and wolf meat all year round, so their fire was much stronger than ordinary people.

So they weren't very afraid of the cold.

Li Long was pulling reeds at his eldest brother's house, and people still kept coming here to ask about the situation, mainly because they weren't willing to give up, wanting to ask if there was any solution for those reed bundles that were already tied.

Li Long gave a unified answer: no.

He couldn't say yes. If he said yes, these people with peasant-like cunning would inevitably lower his ideas to a standard. If he didn't collect them then, they would still say he was the one who taught them.

People in the countryside weren't all simple, and people in the city weren't all high-quality, it was the same truth.

After all, people were complex.

It wasn't until after lunch, when they started working in the afternoon, that it calmed down a bit.

Those people probably also knew there was no good solution. Most people untied the tied reed bundles, put the reeds of the original two reed bundles together, and then retied them with thin iron wires.

Of course, tools were needed; hand tying definitely wouldn't work.

Xu Jianjun didn't do it this way. He felt it was too troublesome.

Wasn't it just ten reeds becoming twenty reeds?

Simple!

Just take ten pulled loose reeds and wrap the original reed bundle, wouldn't that be it? Anyway, they were all ten reeds.

But as soon as he practiced this, he found there was still a problem. Some reeds were thick, and ten reeds could wrap the original small reed bundle, but some reeds were thin, and it wouldn't be tight when wrapped.

There would be a gap.

He was embarrassed to ask Li Long, so he thought about tying them this way first, tie a few dozen, and send them over in the afternoon. If they were qualified, of course it would be best; if not, then they would talk.

Mainly because his family had tied too many reed bundles, and untying them all would really lose quite a few thin iron wires. After all, thin iron wires had to be bought right now.

Last year, Li Long even provided thin iron wires and gloves; this year, there was nothing.

But everyone still had to remember his kindness.

Before Li Long started collecting reed bundles in the afternoon, someone came to find him.

Riding a bicycle, wearing a Zhongshan suit, with the popular three-seven parting hair, not wearing a cotton hat, the hair was quite long, covering his ears.

"Comrade Li Long, right? And this is Comrade Li Jianguo, right? Hello, hello! My name is Wang Dongsheng, I am the factory director of our county's Fuqiang Roasted Goods Factory..."

"County Roasted Goods Factory?" Li Long was stunned for a moment, then reacted, "Is it an enterprise you run yourself?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" That Wang Dongsheng took out a cigarette from his pocket and wanted to light it for Li Jianguo and Li Long. Li Long pointed to the reed leaves around and waved his hand:

"Better not smoke. May I ask what Director Wang has?"

"Of course there is something." Wang Dongsheng said with a smile, "I just heard that you planted watermelons this year and harvested quite a lot of watermelon seeds, right?"

"Yes," Li Jianguo said.

Liang Yuemei brought tea. No matter what, the visitor was a guest and couldn't be too shabby.

To save face, Wang Dongsheng was dressed a bit thinly. It was really cold right now, so he took the hot tea and drank a mouthful beautifully.

"Let's talk inside," Li Jianguo said. "It's cold outside."

"Good, good, good," Wang Dongsheng said with some gratitude.

"The situation is like this." After entering the room, sitting down, and finishing the tea, Wang Dongsheng handed out cigarettes again. Li Long refused, and Li Jianguo took them.

Li Long took a look: Daqian Sect.

"My roasted goods factory just opened this year. At first, I was always roasting sunflower seeds and some peanuts and soybeans. Originally, I was always supplying the county's shops and some scattered merchants.

This autumn, I received an order. The Corps side knew that our roasted goods factory's goods were good, so they wanted us to supply some roasted goods to them monthly, and they would distribute them to various companies of the Corps."

Li Long and Li Jianguo looked at each other, feeling that this had nothing to do with them?

Wang Dongsheng continued:

"Later, I heard that you planted watermelons and harvested quite a lot of watermelon seeds. I originally thought about coming to talk about cooperation, but I didn't expect you to sell the watermelon seeds to the Shicheng Roasted Goods Factory."

"People gave a higher price there," Li Long smiled.

He didn't believe that this Director Wang had thought about cooperating with them long ago. He guessed that eight out of ten times, he had an idea after reading the newspaper.

But it didn't matter. Anyway, there were no watermelon seeds left, so it was useless for him to say anything now.

"I wouldn't give a low price either," Wang Dongsheng said. "We are in the same county, and I am also from a peasant background, knowing the hardship of being a peasant. Could I treat you unfairly?"

Li Long curled his lips. He talked for a long time without mentioning the price, which was equivalent to saying nothing.

"We have no watermelon seeds this year," Li Jianguo felt it was unnecessary to drag the words on, so he said, "Cooperation is definitely not possible."

"I know, I know. Actually, I came here thinking about whether we can cooperate next year. You will definitely plant watermelons next year, right? You will definitely expand the scale, right?

How about this, I will collect all your watermelon seeds next year. As long as the quality reaches the standard, 2.5 yuan per kilogram. If the quality is particularly good, 3 yuan per kilogram is not impossible!"

Wang Dongsheng said it very heroically, but Li Long shook his head slightly.

Empty words.

Li Jianguo was a bit moved. They would plant more watermelons next year, and quite a few people in the team would also plant them. He was worried that the Shicheng Roasted Goods Factory might not be able to eat so many watermelon seeds.

It would be better to keep in touch with this Director Wang. If he really collected them then, 2.5 yuan wouldn't be impossible.

Seeing his eldest brother had an intention, Li Long didn't speak and let his eldest brother talk to the other party.

Wang Dongsheng talked and talked, but it was just a promise, nothing else.

Li Jianguo asked in detail about the location and scale of their roasted goods factory, and whether there were others besides sunflower seeds, peanuts, and soybeans.

Director Wang saw Li Jianguo had opinions and was very happy, chatting with him well about the details of the cooperation before leaving.

Both sides actually knew that this cooperation was just an initial talk.

Everything had to wait until next year's watermelons were harvested before talking. If they could really cooperate then, that would count as taking the first real step.

Actually, Li Long was quite supportive of this kind of order-based planting, but it was obvious that this Director Wang had the intention of trying to get something for nothing.

So he didn't promote this matter, but instead felt that he could appropriately remind his eldest brother then.

For farmers, more words weren't as real as a stack of money. Wait until Wang Dongsheng really collected them before talking. If he didn't collect them, then everything was really out of the question.

Of course, the most important thing right now was the reed bundles.

Someone had already come to send reed bundles.

What made Li Long a bit surprised was that the first one to send reed bundles was actually Xu Jianjun.

Just seeing the reed bundles pulled by Xu Jianjun, Li Long frowned. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 560 =====