Chapter 710: The heart to earn money is unified

The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tao Daqiang, Xie Yun Dong, Jia Weidong, Liang Dacheng, and others came to Li Jianguo's house carrying things at the same time.

Li Long was already there before they came. Not only was Li Long there, but Gu Xiaoxia was also there with two children. Today was Sunday, and Gu Xiaoxia was on holiday. According to the local custom, on the 15th of the eighth lunar month, children had to go to their maternal grandparents' house to spend the festival together, so Li Long brought his wife and children to his eldest brother's place a day early.

Although he ate with Gu Bowan every day, it was a festival, so they should eat together if they should.

Old father Li Qing Xia hadn't returned yet, but his mother and eldest brother were there, and that was enough.

Du Chunfang was also rarely seeing her two little grandsons, loving them to death. The two children were still small at this time, so she spread a reed mat under the grape trellis, then spread a mattress on it, and let the two children lie on it and play.

Li Juan and Li Qiang were also exceptionally fond of these two little brothers. One was responsible for tying the dog, and the other was responsible for chasing the chickens. From time to time, they asked Gu Xiaoxia if the two children could eat anything. Looking at the situation, as long as Gu Xiaoxia nodded, as long as it was in the courtyard, they would immediately go and get it.

Liang Yumei was also taking care of things here. The two children were three months old and had already started eating some complementary food. She was telling Gu Xiaoxia some of her experience in raising children.

Although Gu Xiaoxia was a national cadre, and many women in the team were a bit in awe when talking to her, Liang Yumei was not. She was an elder of Gu Xiaoxia, a role between "mother" and "aunt," and some life common sense still needed to be imparted by her.

At first, Li Long and Li Jianguo were chatting at the door. Li Long planned to go to Little Haizi to get some fish later. It wasn't easy to get a few big dishes in the countryside at this time. Having chicken and fish was enough. The chicken was slaughtered on the spot, and the fish needed to be caught with a net.

Li Qing Xia was not there, and Tao Jian She only thought of catching fish from time to time. Moreover, the fish needed to be eaten fresh. Li Long felt that he would bring a cast net later and cast it a few times, and it would be enough.

Just as they were chatting, Tao Daqiang and the others came over one after another carrying things.

When visiting relatives or sending gifts for festivals in the countryside at this time, the things were quite simple. In the Fourth Team, it was generally two bottles of wine, two bottles of canned food, and two bags of granulated sugar. If they were a bit richer, they would add a bag of pastries.

And usually, visiting relatives also required returning gifts. Some families took some other things to return, and some families left half of the things brought and returned half.

Tao Daqiang, Jia Weidong, and Liang Dacheng brought wine, canned food, and granulated sugar. Xie Yun Dong took a different path, bringing a lamb leg and two bottles of wine. Several people came by bicycle. Li Long felt they had made an appointment.

The courtyard suddenly became lively. Several adults praised Mingming and Haohao, while Liang Dacheng took a handful of candies and distributed them to Juanjuan and Qiangqiang.

This time, the watermelon harvest was quite good for everyone, and each family became the object of envy for others in the team. The cause lay with the Li brothers, so these people came over carrying things, mainly to express their gratitude.

Chatting and chatting, Li Long talked about the fact that watermelon seeds would definitely drop in price next year.

"When they came to buy seeds, I told every household," Li Jianguo said, "But they probably didn't listen, each of them thinking about buying more."

"It's the same on my side," Tao Daqiang nodded immediately and said, "I said don't plant too many. This watermelon picks the land; it needs sandy land. The output of ordinary land is not high, but they don't listen."

"Don't worry about it," Li Long said, "These people only think about earning money. At this time, let alone planting less, picking the land, even how to plant it, they might not necessarily think about it. When something happens next year, they will remember to come and ask."

Others were silent. They also knew that if people from other townships came to ask, it was fine not to say anything, but if people from the team came to ask, they had to say something.

"I'm not planting next year," Li Jianguo shook his head, "According to this momentum, next year there will be several thousand mu planted, right? By then, those people really might not even find a place to sell."

Although the market was now active, to tell the truth, the market for this kind of roasted food business was really limited, and ordinary people were more used to cracking sunflower seeds. After all these years, those who cracked watermelon seeds were a minority.

Just now, a few people touched the data, and it came out. The more than 10,000 kilograms of watermelon seeds produced by these families were almost all bought by rural people. This was more than 1,000 mu of land.

How to plant watermelons, I believe those who bought the seeds basically had no clue. The trouble was still behind.

"It was not easy to get a good seed that could make money, and now it's ruined again," Xie Yun Dong sighed, "Now planting grain doesn't make money either. I don't know what to plant next year."

When he said this, he looked at Li Jianguo and Li Long. It was very obvious that he wanted to find their guidance.

"Not easy to find," Li Long also shook his head, "My eldest brother and I have been thinking about this matter, but to tell the truth, it's really not easy to find something valuable and good to plant right now."

Everyone actually had their own ideas and their own channels. It was just that after Li Jianguo and Li Long planted watermelons, it was proven that they could really make money and were not very troublesome, so everyone followed the trend.

Didn't expect that after following for a year, it wouldn't work.

Li Long actually already had some ideas in his heart, but he didn't plan to say it right now. He had to verify it properly.

One bad thing about cash crops was that after planting, one had to find a sales channel oneself, unlike planting grain and sending it directly to the Grain Bureau.

The uncertainty in this made many people shrink back and dare not try easily. After all, not everyone was like Li Jianguo's family, having money to bottom out. Even if they planted and failed, at least it wouldn't bring too much impact to the family's life.

"Let's go, Daqiang, let's go to Little Haizi and cast a few nets to get some fish to stew fish soup for lunch."

"Good," Tao Daqiang responded with a smile, "It's been a long time since I went fishing with Brother Long."

Li Jianguo and Xie Yun Dong didn't go. Jia Weidong had something at home and left first. Liang Dacheng followed Li Long and the others and brought things to Little Haizi.

Li Long hadn't been here for a long time either. To be precise, it seemed he hadn't been here much this year.

The reeds in Little Haizi were more lush, the reed catkins had started to turn yellow, and some water birds were circling above Little Haizi, from time to time suddenly plunging into the water, and then when they flew up again, they would have a small fish in their mouths.

There was no one by the water at this time. Occasionally, one could see water rats pushing open a water trail and entering the water, disappearing.

"It seems there are more water rats again," Li Long said with a smile, "No one in the team is doing this yet."

"There are still some doing it," Liang Dacheng said on the side, "But the holes dug by these water rats are all in the water grass, really not easy to find. This Little Haizi is also relatively deep. Like the one just now, one can only look at it."

"In early spring, there was a water rat in the reed ditch that my younger brother saw. Several of us went over and surrounded it. There was water inside, less than waist-deep. We blocked several directions, and each person took an iron shovel. As long as that thing showed its head, we would hit it with the iron shovel. In the end, we beat it to death."

"Sold the skin, right?" Tao Daqiang asked.

"Sold it, took it to the acquisition station and sold it for 21 yuan."

Tao Daqiang smiled and looked at Li Long without speaking.

When they caught water rats at the beginning, they were all dug out nest by nest.

Later, people in the team seemed not to have dug them, all catching them when they saw them.

Although Tao Daqiang didn't want to make it so troublesome now, this "technology" seemed to be mastered by him and Li Long, and he had a little sense of superiority in his heart.

"Let's cast the net here," Li Long pointed to an open water surface and said, "The water is deep below; there should be some fish nesting."

Saying this, he took out the cast net from the urea bag, arranged the net, aimed at the water surface, turned and twisted his waist, and coordinated both hands to cast the net out.

"Swish!"

The cast net entered the water and slowly sank.

Although he hadn't cast the net for a while, once the net was in hand, the familiar feeling came back.

He could feel the slight shaking of the net in his hand. Li Long knew there were fish below.

He didn't plan to catch any big fish; crucian carp was enough. Catching three or five kilograms, stewing a big pot, it would definitely be delicious.

Slowly pulling the net up, the shaking of the net became bigger and bigger. When Li Long finally pulled the net up, he could see that the bottom of the net was constrained by lead pads, and there were many big and small crucian carp.

"Not bad, there must be two or three kilograms," Tao Daqiang said with a smile.

"Don't want the small ones," Li Long squatted down, picked the smaller crucian carp, and threw them into the water. While putting the fish in a small pit surrounded by mud on the shore, he said to Tao Daqiang, "You come and cast a net."

Tao Daqiang smiled, took the cast net, and arranged it.

Li Long surrounded the water pit well, put the lively fish into it, and watched them stir up water splashes and swim happily.

There were big crucian carp of more than two kilograms, as well as two immature five-striped black fish, and two relatively big dogfish.

The small dogfish body was slippery and drilled out of the net. The bigger ones couldn't drill out, so they were netted in—this also counted as an unexpected joy.

Then Li Long saw many sunflower seed shells in the mud by the water.

He guessed it should be the people who caught fish early in the morning cracking them before or after setting or collecting the net.

Looking at this piece of sunflower seed shells, Li Long's heart moved. It seemed that his idea should be not bad. Even these people in the team were cracking sunflower seeds, which showed that this thing was truly popular.

Thinking again about before the New Year, those people in the team, those with a little money would go and buy some white melon seeds or flower melon seeds to boil or stir-fry, and those without much money would stir-fry the oil sunflowers in their own homes to eat.

There were also some people who didn't need to buy. They just planted a few sunflowers in the fields and corners of their own homes. In autumn, they harvested them and could stir-fry them in winter to eat.

This was indeed not bad.

Of course, there were also peanuts.

Students in the 1980s should all have that memory. When the class held a party for New Year's Day or June 1st, on the table, regardless of others, melon seeds, peanuts, and fruit candies were basically essential.

The class fee to buy these things certainly couldn't be less.

Sometimes there would be sand dates—the local sand dates were not good; it was the kind of big ones sold in the store. As for red dates, at this time, the red dates in the Southern Frontier hadn't formed a scale, and they were consumed locally or transported out.

As for raisins, at this time, they were still considered relatively high-end snacks and usually wouldn't appear on such occasions.

That's it. Actually, not only should one look at what to plant, or which things were valuable, but also look at what the market needed.

(No content lost, read it all!)

Li Long had a feeling of sudden enlightenment.

"Heh, my net is okay. This five-striped black fish is not small!" Although Tao Daqiang cast this net in a semicircle, there was a five-striped black fish of more than one kilogram on the net, and he was quite happy.

The five-striped black fish was still quite beautiful. This fish was not small. When Li Long took the fish off and put it into the fish pit, he said:

"Take this fish back later and stew it for your family to eat."

Tao Daqiang didn't object either. Anyway, he could cast a few more nets; it didn't matter if it was this one.

Liang Dacheng also cast a net. His net casting technique was stronger than Tao Daqiang's, and he caught a silver carp of more than two kilograms, and then they changed places.

In less than an hour, they went back. What they brought back were five or six kilograms of crucian carp. The big fish included two five-striped black fish, one red carp, one grass carp, and one silver carp, all of which were more than one kilogram.

On this side, Xie Yun Dong helped Li Jianguo slaughter the chicken, plucked the hair, chopped it, and stewed it.

In the other eye of the stove, rice had already been steamed.

"Just waiting for your fish," Liang Yumei said with a smile.

The main dishes for lunch were chicken and fish. Liang Yumei also mixed two cold dishes. Li Jianguo took out two bottles of wine and wanted to drink a little.

Although the oil sunflowers and corn hadn't been collected yet, this harvest autumn was already a foregone conclusion.

What to plant next year was undecided, so let's celebrate this year's harvest first.

They didn't drink much. Li Long only drank two cups. After all, he had to drive back, and there were children; safety was important. Others didn't have any opinions on this, toasted each other, but didn't drink too much.

After Xie Yun Dong and the others left, when Liang Yumei and Gu Xiaoxia were cleaning up the aftermath, Li Long said to Li Jianguo:

"Eldest brother, let's plant sunflowers or peanuts next year."

"Why think of planting this?" Li Jianguo was a bit puzzled, "Peanuts... haven't planted them before..."

"Like watermelon land, sandy land, can be planted," Li Long said, "Eldest brother, you should know how to plant them, right?"

"Know how to plant them," Li Jianguo thought for a while and said, "Planted them in the old home. Saying it's difficult, it's actually not difficult. But this... is it easy to sell?"

"Eldest brother, think about the store department in our team, the store department of the big team, and the township, including the county store department, are there sunflower seeds and stir-fried peanuts?"

"That... is really true," Li Jianguo said.

"That's right," Li Long said, "What does this explain? It explains that many people buy this to eat. If we plant it, we sell it to the roasted food factory or private sellers of melon seeds. Now oil sunflowers are a few cents per kilogram, and I think sunflowers can sell for one or two yuan."

"But the output of sunflowers is less than oil sunflowers," Li Jianguo shook his head, "Even if it's 2 yuan per kilogram, it can't catch up with the harvest of watermelon seeds..."

"Eldest brother, let's not think about the situation of watermelons for now," Li Long shook his head and said, "We are just eating the sweetness. It will be difficult to have such a situation again later.

Think about how much money one mu of wheat earns? This situation of watermelons is a bit too abnormal. Next year, one kilogram of watermelon seeds might not even sell for a few cents, or might not even be sold.

Fortunately, even if it's a few cents, it's still better than wheat..."

The price of wheat now is less than 2 cents, which is really not high.

If planting sunflowers, even if one mu of land harvests 150 kilograms, and can have a price of 1 yuan per kilogram, it's worth it.

He vaguely remembered that a few years later, the price of sunflowers and white sunflowers reached 10 yuan, while the price of oil sunflowers was less than 2 yuan.

The reason he knew this was also because after he had his own land, he started to learn from his eldest brother, planting a bit of everything. There were sunflowers and white sunflowers in his family's idle house—not horse-tooth melon seeds, but bigger than that.

Li Jianguo listened to Li Long's words and didn't speak.

Although he was still a bit unwilling, he knew what Li Long said was the truth.

The income from these watermelon seeds was really too high. One mu of land was equal to seven or eight mu of grain. Thinking about it, if it really continued for a long time, who would still plant grain?

When Li Long drove Gu Xiaoxia back to the big courtyard in the afternoon, Gu Xiaoxia looked at the two children in the back, and while looking, asked Li Long:

"What were you and eldest brother talking about? I saw that when you left, eldest brother was still thinking about something."

"Talking about what to plant next year," Li Long didn't lower the jeep window. He had drunk wine and was worried about being drunk after blowing the wind, "This year's watermelon planting was okay, but next year it definitely won't work."

"Why?" Gu Xiaoxia also heard Liang Yumei say that this year's watermelon income was nearly 10,000. So high, how many years of her salary was it?

She wasn't envious, but felt this was quite good.

"Think about it, the watermelon seeds produced by eldest brother's family were all bought by other farmers. Next year, the planting area will definitely be particularly large all at once. By then, the price won't even be one-third or one-fourth of what it is now."

"Then what can be planted?" Gu Xiaoxia was also a bit puzzled. She also came from the countryside and naturally knew that in the Fourth Team, just planting grain wouldn't make one rich.

"Currently considering, looking at planting sunflowers or peanuts, it's also possible to plant cotton. Sunflowers and peanuts are because many people eat them and the market is big; cotton is because the Corps has planted it, and it's easy to find experience."

"That's really true. A colleague in our office likes cracking melon seeds. Every day she doesn't buy much, just buys a paper cup, saying that cracking too much will cause internal heat, and not cracking will make her anxious. There are always melon seed shells on the ground in her office area. Fortunately, she knows how to sweep them clean herself."

"So these sunflowers are definitely still popular. The key is to find a buyer," Li Long said, "There is still time, let's ponder slowly."

This matter was not urgent to say, but to say it was not urgent, in two months it would be winter, and preparing in winter might be too late.

So, preparations had to be made in advance.

When they returned to the big courtyard, Sister Yang and Han Fang were waiting at the courtyard gate early. As soon as they heard the sound of the jeep, they immediately came to open the door. After the jeep stopped steadily, Sister Yang helped Gu Xiaoxia take the children down, loving them to death.

Obviously, they had developed feelings.

"Sister Yang, did my father come over at noon?" Gu Xiaoxia asked while holding the child.

"No. I let Let Xiao Fang go to call, but her Grandpa Gu was not in the store, and the door was locked. The neighbor said her Grandpa Gu went out."

Gu Xiaoxia didn't pay attention either. Anyway, Gu Bowan would come to eat tomorrow. She would just mention it and ask when the time came.

Such a big person, he certainly had his own freedom.

The next day, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Long and the others, including Sister Yang, cooked a good meal in the courtyard.

Originally, Gu Bowan's meaning was to go to his small courtyard according to the custom, but there was really no cooking there, and there were few things in the kitchen, so they simply spent it in the big courtyard.

On Li Jianguo's side, because Du Chunfang was there, she wouldn't go to the Liang family no matter what, so Li Jianguo drove the tractor and sent Li Juan and Li Qiang to that side, and came back to cook at home.

Anyway, a Mid-Autumn Festival was spent in a fragmented way, which made Li Jianguo a bit speechless.

Fortunately, no matter what, the life of the festival was getting better and better, and this was good no matter how you said it. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 711 =====