Chapter 629: Good things are not worried about selling

The one intercepting Li Long was the big brother who had just come out of the agricultural machinery factory and told Li Long that he couldn't buy a harvester.

This big brother was in his thirties, wearing a half-old cotton hat, and was parked at an intersection where he turned out of the agricultural machinery factory. Seeing Li Long drive the tractor over, he was shocked.

He hurriedly got off the tractor and intercepted Li Long.

"Heh, little brother, I thought you would come out soon, so I intercepted you to go find that Li Long from Ma County together, but you're good, you pulled so many out. Tell me, how did that agricultural machinery factory sell to you?"

This big brother also took out a box of Red Mountain cigarettes, pulled one out, and handed it to Li Long.

Li Long turned off the engine and got off the tractor. At this time, it didn't matter if he blocked the road or not. To be honest, no one really cared, and there was no one on the road.

"Because I am Li Long." Li Long took the cigarette, lit it, took a puff like a donkey burning incense, and said with a smile.

"What did you say?" That old brother had an expression of disbelief.

"Because I am Li Long." Li Long said with amusement, "So they sell to me!"

"Then... then why?" This old brother still had a spirit of perseverance, breaking the casserole and asking to the end.

"Let me tell you this, old brother, where are you from?"

"Shicheng," the old brother said, "But I'm not from the Corps, just from Shicheng Township, and I also farm. I only knew there was such a good thing when I read the newspaper before the New Year, and I thought about getting one."

"Then that's right." Li Long took a puff, the smoke didn't smell good, so he didn't smoke it, just held it, "Because I set up a cooperative here, and we thought about slowly taking down the wheat harvesting in the nearby wheat fields."

"That means I can't buy it anymore?" That big brother's tone turned bad.

"Why can't you buy it, you can." Li Long waved his hand and said, "Our meaning is, it's best to unify the harvesting price. Otherwise, it will lead to malicious price suppression.

In addition, we also need to roughly understand the harvesting range. For example, if you harvest in Shicheng Township, that's no problem. Later, if others from Shicheng Township come to buy, I have to ask clearly which villages they are in, and tell them that someone has already harvested in certain villages in Shicheng Township, so let's not overlap."

"This... is not bad, quite good." That big brother understood, and his complexion eased, "Then how do you set the price?"

"Two yuan per mu."

"Two yuan? This price..."

"Think about it, a strong laborer, harvesting one mu of land in the hot summer takes three hours, maybe even more. You finish harvesting in five minutes, how much trouble is saved." Li Long explained, "I also considered these two yuan well. Thousands of mu of land were harvested last year, and everyone could accept it."

"Then... okay." That big brother pointed to the harvester on the tractor and said:

"Then sell me one, I'll unload it and load it on the car now."

"Okay, by the way, you don't ask the price?"

"Yes, yes, yes, how much?" This big brother was also stunned for a moment before reacting, "If it's expensive, I can't afford it."

"Six hundred per unit." Li Long said, "The first-generation machine last year was five hundred and fifty. This year it's the second-generation machine. Some small problems I tried out when harvesting have been handled. Take it back and try it. If there's a problem, come find me."

"Six hundred per unit, right? Sure? Not bad, not bad." That big brother was happy, "I thought it was at least one thousand!"

The two threw away the cigarettes, untied the rope together, unloaded a harvester, and lifted it to the front of the big brother's tractor.

Li Long showed the big brother how to install it and how to start it.

This big brother was also prepared, took out a pencil and a notebook, and wrote down what Li Long said bit by bit.

"After going home, you can put the harvester on and try it idling," Li Long said, "If there's any problem, come to Ma County to find me."

"Okay, okay, okay." The big brother left Li Long's address, paid happily, and drove the tractor away.

Li Long also shook his tractor, preparing to continue back, and then reacted, turned a corner, and ran to the agricultural machinery factory again, buying another one from Factory Director Du.

"Comrade Li, you are good, you sold one before even leaving Kuitun. It seems the prospect of this harvester is truly not bad!"

"It should be about ten years." Li Long said, "Within ten years, the market for harvesters will still be very good."

"Then what about after ten years?" Factory Director Du still attached great importance to Li Long's words and asked, "After ten years, this harvester won't work?"

"At that time, there will be more new types of combines, and they will be cheaper, or some farmers will be rich and won't buy harvesters. After all, this thing still has to be threshed in the end. The combine is finally more convenient than this."

Factory Director Du nodded, that's the logic.

"It's a pity that our factory can't produce such complex agricultural machinery for a while." Factory Director Du had a bit of bitterness on his originally joyful face, "That's too complex, the technical strength and machine workshop required are not something we can bear."

Li Long smiled:

"Big has big benefits, small has small benefits. Just like this harvester, look, in these ten years, the profit of your selling harvesters might not be worse than selling tractors. Your factory can also develop toward small agricultural auxiliary machinery."

"That's the logic." Factory Director Du pondered.

Li Long didn't point it out too clearly. Today's matter made Li Long trust Factory Director Du further, but he still couldn't say some things here.

It's not the time yet.

Li Long loaded a batch of five harvesters and drove out of the agricultural machinery factory.

Not long after driving out, he was intercepted by someone else. (End of chapter)

When Li Long pulled a batch of five harvesters back to Maxian, the sun was already slanting to the west.

When Gu Bo Yuan came over for dinner, he and Li Long unloaded the harvesters together, placed them neatly against the wall, and Li Long found something to cover them with.

"I'll make two more trips to Kuitun in the next day or two to haul back a few more loads," Li Long said during dinner. "In this period alone, seven or eight people have come to me to place orders; these five aren't enough to go around. Besides, our team needs to keep a few for ourselves."

This was serious business, so naturally, no one objected.

Only Gu Bo Yuan couldn't help but ask:

"When you were going and coming back, did you run into any herds of yellow sheep on the road?"

Clearly, he still remembered the hunting trip from last time.

"No, not a single one," Li Long shook his head and said. "Maybe their migration is already over, and their range of activity is fixed now. Or maybe they won't rush from the mountains toward the northern desert Gobi until spring arrives."

Gu Bo Yuan was clearly a bit disappointed, but there was nothing to be done.

After all, things like this do not shift according to human will.

"Then be careful," even though Li Long had already made the trip many times, Gu Xiaoxia still said, "You have to pass through no-man's-land; who knows if there might be bad people."

"Alright, I know," Li Long replied.

Xiaoxia was a pregnant woman; Li Long wouldn't say things like he had a gun and was protected. As for her instructions, he just needed to promise and remember them.

The next day after breakfast, Li Long was unable to set off.

He had added hot water to the tractor, added charcoal underneath to heat the fuel tank and engine, and just as he was cranking the tractor, a knocking sound came from outside.

Someone had come to buy a harvester.

The person who came wasn't from out of town; he was from Letuyi, east of Maxian. In the eighties, this place was once the wealthiest township in the Northwest region, with a per capita income that at one point ranked first in the Northwest.

Of course, during this special period, the per capita tractor ownership was also the highest in the county.

Today, it was a farmer from this township who owned a tractor who had come to buy a harvester.

With a customer at the door, Li Long was naturally welcoming. However, this uncle, nearing fifty, was very meticulous.

After driving his tractor over and explaining his intent, he carefully inspected the harvester Li Long had lifted down for him, then had Li Long help him mount it onto his own tractor, recording every step.

This included tightening screws, putting on the belt, starting, stopping, and so on.

After these processes were finished, he also asked Li Long about parts that were prone to breaking, as well as after-sales issues.

Li Long answered them one by one, and the uncle recorded all these details in a notebook.

Only then did he ask about the price.

Upon hearing it was six hundred yuan per unit, he even tried to haggle with Li Long; Li Long didn't budge, and only then did the uncle say that six hundred was actually quite cheap.

After paying and having Li Long write a receipt, the deal was finally concluded.

Li Long checked the time; two hours had already passed.

Fortunately, since he couldn't return from Kuitun on the same day anyway, after sending the uncle off, he cranked his tractor again and drove out the gate. Just then, Sister Yang and Han Fang were pushing their bicycles over.

Li Long didn't bother locking the gate; he signaled to them and then drove the tractor westward.

When he arrived at the Kuitun Farm Machinery Factory, Li Long found that there were a few more harvesters in the storage area, just enough to make five. When Factory Director Du saw Li Long, he complained a bit:

"I was originally thinking of calling the customers who had placed orders these past two days to have them come pick up their goods, but you—you just emptied out my stock."

"Then when should I come next time?" Li Long asked with a grin.

Factory Director Du couldn't do anything about him either, and said:

"At least until the end of February. You have to let some of the customers here who placed orders long ago get their harvesters first; after all, some customers have already paid a deposit."

"Alright, then after I haul this load away, I'll come back at the end of February."

Li Long felt that coming once every half month would basically be enough. The production level of the farm machinery factory should be two to three units per day, which for the current market, could only be described as barely enough.

Factory Director Du also said that they would hire temporary workers after spring began to expand production capacity. The harvester was a product already proven to have broad market prospects; they had no reason not to occupy this market as quickly as possible.

Li Long was also quite happy; by bringing this harvester out early, it was convenient for himself, the people around him would soon follow suit and make money, and at the same time, it solved trouble in advance for many large-scale farmers.

After loading the harvesters, Li Long didn't go to find his second brother, Li Anguo, but went to the KT City guesthouse instead; there was a courtyard here, and it was safer to leave the tractor inside.

After checking one by one/p>

The next day after eating breakfast at the guesthouse, Li Long drove the tractor back to Maxian.

In the latter half of February, in less than ten days, Li Long's ten harvesters were all sold out.

A net profit of over two thousand.

This income speed was a bit fast.

On February 28th, with middle school already in session and elementary school waiting another two days, Li Long went to the Kuitun Farm Machinery Factory again and hauled back five harvesters.

Two days later, he made another trip and hauled back five more.

Even with this, he still didn't feel secure.

By this time, the snow on the road surface had already begun to melt. It was better in the city, at least there were paved roads, or at worst, gravel roads.

But in the countryside, for example, the stretch of road from the Fourth Team to the township was entirely a dirt road.

With the snow melting, the road was just mud.

Li Long didn't remember when this road was paved with gravel, but at least on a gravel road, your shoes wouldn't get covered in so much mud on a melting or rainy day.

During times like this, Li Juan and Li Qiang couldn't ride their bicycles to school because the mud would quickly clog the bicycle fenders, and then they wouldn't be able to ride.

They could only walk.

And the floodwaters were also about to come down.

Li Long went into the mountains again and hauled the furniture he had ordered last time to Halimu's place.

To tell the truth, the trip his tractor made was about the same as the people from the Fourth Team riding their bicycles to the township.

It was better from the county seat across the Wuyi Road to the Qingshuihe Township intersection, but from the intersection upward, it was a mud road. When the tractor passed, mud splattered everywhere; the fenders couldn't completely block these mud spots, and they were flung all over the tractor, and Li Long himself didn't escape unscathed.

Fortunately, he had anticipated this and had covered the furniture with plastic sheets beforehand; otherwise, the furniture would have been covered too.

The tractor kept driving until past Qingshuihe, and as it was about to enter the mountains, it actually got better.

The snow on the side of the mountains hadn't melted much, so when the tractor drove past, there were no more mud splatters, and the snow on the road slowly scraped the mud off the tractor tires. By the time Li Long drove the tractor to Halimu's winter camp, the tractor tires were already clean.

But the trailer, the front of the tractor, and even the mud spots on Li Long's body were all there, and some had already dried.

Halimu was grazing cattle and sheep near the winter camp; seeing Li Long's appearance, he couldn't help but burst into loud laughter.

Li Long also knew that his head, face, and body must be covered in mud spots. He smiled, got out of the car, took off his hat first, wiped his face, and with the help of Nasen and Sasken, moved the furniture down.

The furniture was covered by plastic sheets and was intact. After Li Long unloaded the furniture, he went to the small stream at the bottom of the slope and started washing his face.

The water was ice-cold, even a bit bone-chilling, but what surprised Li Long was that he saw small fish at the bottom of the water.

These small fish were truly tenacious.

Right now, the ice on the side of the small lake hadn't melted completely, so he couldn't catch fish yet, and the water pipe laying work here couldn't proceed either.

Looking at the ice melting situation here, it would be at least the latter half of March.

Li Long wasn't in a hurry; anyway, the supplies (water pipes) at the supply and marketing cooperative were complete, just waiting for the right time. After the ice and snow melted, he had to wait for the ground to dry before construction could begin.

For the time being, Halimu and the others couldn't immediately migrate to the summer pasture, so there was still plenty of time.

He could wash the mud off his face and hands, but he could only pick the mud out of his hair; he couldn't wash his hair here in such cold water.

Fortunately, Li Long was used to a crew cut, and his hair wasn't long. Picking out the hard, caked mud from his hair counted as cleaning it.

There was no way to deal with the clothes; he'd wash them when he got back.

Halimu called Nasen and Sasken to go herd the sheep. He rode his horse back to the winter camp, and after shaking hands with Li Long, he brought him into the house.

As usual, they drank milk tea, and the milk skin on top was very fragrant.

There is a saying that it's not cold when it snows, but cold when it melts. The temperature wasn't low at this time, but everyone was slowly taking off their clothes. The sunlight looked very stimulating; the sun was much higher than in the dead of winter, and one could feel the warmth of the sun leaning against the wall.

But with hands stretched out, there was a slight breeze in the air, and it was very cold—that kind of damp, chilly feeling.

"Talihaer is much better," Halimu told Li Long a piece of good news. "He ran into a wolf while herding sheep a few days ago, and he shot it down. After he shot it, he felt much better."

"Good news, good news," Li Long smiled. "As long as he's better, that's good."

Li Long had actually been quite worried about this young man, so hearing that he was better now, he was naturally happy.

"Tomorrow I will call people to take this furniture away. Are you coming over tomorrow or not?"

"Not coming," Li Long shook his head. "Look at me, I've almost become a mud man just coming here once; it's too hard to travel. I'll come again when the road opens."

"Alright. By the way, the leaders of our pastoral team said that last year you helped us mow grass, and that harvester was very good. He was thinking if it's possible to buy one, so when autumn comes and it's time to mow grass, we can mow the grass for all these small tribes of ours."

"Sure," Li Long said. "That harvester isn't expensive either, a few hundred yuan."

"Hmm, then I'll tell them, and when we want to buy it..."

"Just find me. In Shicheng and Maxian, only I can buy it," Li Long smiled. "I've taken on the job of selling harvesters for that factory in this area."

"Good, good, good."

The matter was settled just like that.

Li Long thought to himself that the leaders of their pastoral team had quite good foresight. He just didn't know if it was the one he knew.

Halimu's mother said some things, and Halimu translated, meaning that Li Long should take off his coat and let her wash it for him.

Li Long hurriedly refused. Just kidding, if he washed it, he'd probably have to stay in the mountains tonight. He smiled and said:

"It's easier to wash when I get back. I'll be heading back in a little while. Besides, I have to go through the mud splatters again on the way back; washing it now is worse than not washing it."

This was true, and everyone laughed and let it pass.

It was already afternoon when he returned to the county seat. Li Long had originally planned to go to the county seat to find the propaganda officer, Ma Xiao Yan, but the mud spots on his body made him give up the idea.

The next day, after sending Gu Xiaoxia to the Education Bureau, Li Long went to the county seat.

When he found Ma Xiao Yan, she was writing materials related to a meeting.

As a propaganda officer, she not only had to write news articles but also had to write some propaganda and educational materials.

Li Long explained his intent, and after Ma Xiao Yan understood the process in detail, she readily agreed and told Li Long to let her know in advance before he went.

The matter was settled just like that.

Coming out of the compound, some of the mystery Li Long originally felt in his heart had slightly disappeared.

It was about the same as ordinary government units.

Returning to the large courtyard, he ran into a stranger waiting.

Li Long guessed it was someone else coming to buy a harvester. (End of chapter)