Chapter 823: The last batch, finish up and leave

Li Long came to find Li Xiangqian mainly because of the transportation matters for the carrying poles.

This year, because they had to renovate the winter shelters for the herdsmen, Li Long had handed the task of weaving the carrying poles to Xie Yun and the others, and basically didn't bother with it anymore.

Even the inspection, acceptance, and counting were completed by personnel sent by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

He only coordinated vehicles twice to accept and bring back those woven carrying poles; he didn't follow along from beginning to end himself.

Now that the renovation of the winter shelters was complete, the weaving of the carrying poles had also reached its final stage—the carrying poles brought back in the last two trips totaled nearly three thousand. With thirty people at two locations, they could weave over a hundred carrying poles a day. From the time the last batch was brought back until now, it would take less than ten days to finish the remaining ones.

Once this batch of carrying poles was finished, Li Long wouldn't need to worry about this matter anymore.

Of course, the accounts would still need to be settled with everyone afterward.

Because Li Long wanted to bring back the remaining one thousand-plus carrying poles in one go and also bring the people back from the mountains, he thought he would settle this with Li Xiangqian two days in advance and have two more vehicles dispatched then.

"No problem, you give me a precise time, and I'll have the transport section coordinate the vehicles in advance." Li Xiangqian was certainly supportive of this matter. He said, "This isn't just your business; it's also a major task for our cooperative. After bringing back this last trip, whether it's you or our cooperative, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief."

"Then I'll go into the mountains tomorrow," Li Long said. "I'll go take inventory, calculate roughly which day the carrying poles will be ready, and once I return from the mountains, I'll be able to confirm the specific transport time."

"Alright." Li Xiangqian nodded. "Don't forget to find time to thank Officer Ma and send her something. You can come to the cooperative to get reimbursed for the cost of the items later."

"Alright, alright, I'll take care of that in a little while."

After discussing the transportation, Li Long left the department store building of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, bought a bag of food and daily necessities, then went to the County Committee compound, called Ma Xiao Yan out, and gave her the bag of items.

Through these few trips into the mountains, Li Long discovered that Ma Xiao Yan's family situation was average, and rather than giving her flashy but impractical things, it was better to give her these practical items that could be used in daily life.

Sure enough, seeing the items Li Long gave her, Ma Xiao Yan was quite happy. In fact, everyone knew that the matter of interviews and newspaper reports was a win-win situation. Li Long, Li Xiangqian, and the others gained benefits, leadership attention, and unit fame; Ma Xiao Yan was the same.

With such good material, being able to get published in the Autonomous Region Daily and the Prefecture Daily meant Ma Xiao Yan could also receive commendations and rewards.

In this day and age, getting published in news media at various levels came with rewards; not only were there cash rewards, but there would also be extra points for promotions and professional titles.

Therefore, Ma Xiao Yan would also draw closer to Li Long and the others. In her view, Li Long was a treasure trove of material. Maintaining a good relationship with Li Long meant getting one or two articles published in autonomous region-level newspapers every year was no problem.

After finishing here, Li Long returned to the large courtyard to continue tinkering with the medicinal herbs.

Licorice, cynomorium, and codonopsis—these medicinal herbs couldn't be used just after being collected; like fritillaria, they also needed to be cleaned and washed. After Jia sent this batch of fritillaria away, he would come over in a few days to transport the other herbs. Li Long wanted to have these things sorted out before he arrived.

Compared to fritillaria, the quantity of these few types of herbs wasn't particularly large, but that was only relatively speaking.

The several types of herbs added together amounted to several hundred kilograms, and all in all, they were worth several thousand yuan.

It wasn't a small amount.

Li Long didn't look down on these few thousand yuan just because he had earned tens of thousands from selling fritillaria.

He had come from hard times; several thousand yuan was a huge sum for ordinary people, and it wasn't a small amount for him either.

Li Long was washing the herbs in the courtyard, keeping an eye on Mingming and Haohao, while Sister Yang tidied up the courtyard and the house, taking out some bedding to sun, and then going to buy groceries to prepare dinner.

When Li Long was around, Sister Yang would be a bit freer, going to the market for a stroll, visiting the small courtyard on Wuyi South Road, and discovering some fresh news whenever she went out.

When she returned, Sister Yang would tell Li Long:

"At the market, I saw someone arguing with the person collecting goods near the acquisition station again. They said the price of the goods they were collecting wasn't right, much lower than the price at our acquisition station.

The person collecting the goods said the goods were different, so the price must be different. The person selling the goods cursed them as unscrupulous merchants, and they ended up arguing."

Li Long smiled and didn't say anything.

When there's competition for this kind of thing, there's bound to be comparison. Gu Bo Yuan had high emotional intelligence in this regard. Besides, he had been to university and had rich experience; he wouldn't take the initiative to argue with people, and he could certainly talk sense into those people, make them understand, and resolve things.

Therefore, Li Long was at ease leaving the acquisition station in his hands.

The next day after breakfast, Li Long waited for Sister Yang to finish cleaning the kitchen and take over watching Mingming and Haohao, then he drove the jeep to the naan shop first, swept up the twenty-plus naans that had just been baked that morning and hadn't been sold yet, and then went to the department store to buy daily necessities.

Not long after Li Long left, several Adashis came to buy naan. Seeing the naan pit was empty, they couldn't help but complain to the young man baking the naan:

"Where's the naan? Hasn't it been baked yet? Did you get up late today?"

"You came late; someone bought them all," the young man baking the naan said with a smile.

"Wait a little longer; the next batch of naan will be ready to bake in a while."

These people were very unhappy but had no other choice, so they could only stand by the naan pit and wait—those who came to buy naan at this time didn't have to rush to work. Those who were in a hurry to work usually bought the next morning's naan the day before.

After buying the items, Li Long drove out of the county town and headed west on the Wuyi Highway. When he reached Qingshuihe Village, he drove the car to the threshing floor and chatted with the team leader, He Yuqing, for a few sentences.

"Right now, we have three or four hundred finished carrying poles here, and the pass rate is guaranteed to be over ninety percent." He Yuqing was very confident in this regard. "After Old Meng and the others finished renovating the winter shelters, they didn't come over to weave more; otherwise, there could have been even more."

Li Long didn't ask why Meng Hai didn't come. Besides wanting to count the number of carrying poles, he also wanted to settle the payment for the last two trips with He Yuqing.

When bringing the carrying poles the last two times, Li Long just led the vehicles over and then left. Both here and at the cooperative, only the total number was recorded. He Yuqing kept a record of the specific number of carrying poles woven by each person, and the people weaving the carrying poles also kept records.

Li Long didn't worry about so much; he finished checking the total with He Yuqing and then paid him the money.

How the money was divided was He Yuqing's business; he didn't participate.

He Yuqing was quite happy after receiving the money. He had been under some pressure during this period. Last year, the money for weaving carrying poles was given once they were collected.

This year, they had been collected twice without any money being given. He and Meng Hai trusted Li Long and knew Li Long wouldn't pocket their money. But it was hard to say for the others in the village; when it involved money, and the amount wasn't small, it was impossible for these people not to have second thoughts.

Now that the money was in hand, they could rest easy. After seeing Li Long off, He Yuqing went over to the people weaving the carrying poles and said:

"Everyone slow down, come over to divide the money!"

As he spoke, he took a notebook out of his inner jacket pocket, which recorded the number woven by each person, as well as the signatures of these people.

After leaving Qingshuihe Village, Li Long stepped on the gas and drove toward Hongshanzui.

After entering the mountains, he drove familiarly toward the direction of Xiaobaiyang Gou. When he was about to reach the mouth of the gully, he saw something moving on the hillside to his right in front. He slowed down, leaned out to look carefully, and discovered a group of over a dozen wild boars rooting for something to eat.

Li Long hurriedly stopped the car, reached out to grab the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle from the passenger seat, opened the car door, got out, and prepared to aim.

But when the jeep came over, the engine noise had already startled the group of wild boars. By the time Li Long got out of the car, the group of wild boars had already spread their legs and run toward the mountain.

By the time he aimed, there wasn't a single wild boar in his field of vision.

Li Long hurriedly carried the gun and rushed toward the mountain. When he rushed up the hillside, he discovered a forest on the opposite side, and the last small wild boar already had half its body inside the forest.

Li Long shouldered the gun and fired. "Bang, bang!" Two shots. The small wild boar's body swayed and it fell into the forest.

Li Long hurriedly carried the gun and rushed over. Going down the mountain and then up again, he ran to the edge of the forest and saw the small wild boar that had been shot down.

The small wild boar was only about twenty or thirty kilograms. There was a pool of blood beside it, and it had been shot in the head and was already dead.

Li Long shouldered the gun and looked left and right. There was no movement in the forest now, and the other wild boars had long since run far away.

He then carried the gun in one hand and the wild boar in the other and walked back.

Returning to the place where the wild boars had rooted, Li Long looked carefully. A patch of codonopsis seedlings was growing here, along with a patch of wild strawberries that had just borne fruit.

The wild strawberries were still green buds. Were the wild boars eating this stuff?

He wasn't sure if they were, but in any case, he saw that many of those green wild strawberry buds had been chewed up.

He was almost at Xiaobaiyang Gou, and Li Long didn't clean the wild boar here. He carried the wild boar and the gun, got into the car, and continued driving forward.

When he arrived at Xiaobaiyang Gou, he immediately smelled the familiar scent of burning branches. The air was also filled with smoke, like fog.

The jeep drove up to the dugout, and after Li Long got out of the car, he dragged the small wild boar down.

Most of the people were by the dugout weaving carrying poles. A few people were missing; they must have gone to cut branches.

Xie Yun came over to greet Li Long, and Old Huang, who was busy in front of the stove, also walked over and said with a smile:

"Hey, Xiao Long, did you bag something again? The gunshot I heard just now was you, right?"

"Yeah, I saw a group of wild boars before I entered the gully. By the time I got out of the car, most of them had run away, so I just bagged this little guy. You clean it up, and we'll have an extra dish at noon."

"Good, good, good. Your big brother bagged a roe deer two days ago; it wasn't big, and we've almost eaten it these past two days. This small wild boar you bagged is just right to keep the meat supply going."

Old Huang happily carried the wild boar away to clean it, and Li Long followed Xie Yun to see the situation with the carrying pole weaving.

"Right now, everyone has woven thirty or forty carrying poles," Xie Yun said as they walked. "The pass rate is getting higher and higher. Mainly because everyone is experienced now, and the problems that didn't pass before are easy to avoid."

In front of each person's workstation, carrying poles were piled high. Seeing Li Long come over, they all took the initiative to greet him.

Li Long finished looking over here, chatted with his big brother for a few sentences, and then went to see the situation with Xu Haijun and Liang Wenyu. He discovered that the progress of the three groups was roughly the same.

After looking, Li Long estimated that there were about one thousand one or two hundred qualified carrying poles right now. He planned to wait for them to weave for one more day tomorrow and come directly to transport them the day after tomorrow.

At that time, if there were extra carrying poles and the cooperative wanted to collect them, he would let them take them. If they didn't, Li Long was prepared to transport them to the large courtyard of the acquisition station and put them down; they could be sold or used by himself.

That was the plan. When Li Long turned back, Xie Yun pulled him aside and said in a low voice:

"These past two days, after some people finished weaving the carrying poles, they ran to the nearby gullies to dig for fritillaria. No forest rangers from the forestry team came over, so they got bolder."

"Is it the people from Xu Haijun's group?" Li Long also asked in a low voice. "We have old hands here; they should all understand."

"Yeah, it is. I see Haijun is also a bit indulgent. This matter..."

"Don't worry about it. I'll tell everyone in a while. We'll weave for one more day tomorrow, and the morning after tomorrow we'll pack up and prepare to return. They won't have much opportunity to do other things..."

"Then I suggest you'd better not say anything." Xie Yun thought for a moment and said, "If you say it, some of them will definitely think about taking advantage of the last day to do something."

"It would be better if you bring the vehicles over early the morning after tomorrow. While everyone is eating breakfast, announce the matter, then inspect and accept. After inspecting and loading, take the people home directly. Even if some people want to do something, they won't have the time."

Li Long thought that made sense, so he agreed.

Lunch was very sumptuous. After Old Huang skinned the small wild boar and dismantled the meat, he stewed a large dish with pickled cabbage, and boiled the remaining bones into soup.

The small wild boar itself wasn't big, so the two dishes were made directly. The staple food was a portion of naan Li Long brought. Li Long planned to take the remaining few naans and put them with Sun Jia Qiang.

Sun Jia Qiang wasn't good at steaming buns, so Li Long had to bring him this kind of leavened food from time to time, so he wouldn't eat poorly.

While eating, Li Long looked at the people weaving the carrying poles. Most of them were unshaven with long hair. On the contrary, the old hands who had been here several times were all quite attentive. Their beards were shaved, their hair was trimmed, and their faces were washed. Although they were a bit smoke-stained, they looked basically clean.

The young people were relatively sloppier by comparison, and most didn't care much about their image.

After eating, Li Long greeted them and then drove the car toward the wooden house.

On the way, Li Long deliberately slowed down, wanting to see if he could bag any more prey on the mountain by the roadside.

However, until he reached the wooden house, he didn't bag anything.

Sun Jia Qiang was washing fritillaria there as usual. Seeing Li Long come over, he shook his hands and stood up.

"Have you eaten? I brought naan." After Li Long got out of the car and saw there was no fire under the stove, he asked Sun Jia Qiang, who was smiling.

"Haven't eaten yet. I ate quite late this morning, so I'm not very hungry right now. But once you mentioned naan, I really felt like eating some."

"I'll unload the things. Here, you go eat." Li Long handed the bag of naan to Sun Jia Qiang.

"No rush, no rush, let's unload everything together and then eat." Seeing Li Long open the trunk, Sun Jia Qiang put the naan on the counter and then helped move things, saying as he moved:

"There are a few people coming to exchange fritillaria these past two days. I wonder what's going on?"

"Maybe the forestry team has increased the intensity of their patrols, and some people don't dare to come out of the mountains," Li Long said.

After going to the forestry team twice to transport fritillaria, Li Long heard it from Bolati. Team Leader Aili asked them, these forest rangers, to increase the intensity of their patrols. If they ran into people digging for fritillaria, they would confiscate their fritillaria, which would allow them to share more money.

Some ruthless ones even directly escorted those digging for fritillaria to their dugouts and confiscated their inventory as well.

In this way, these people digging for fritillaria were all hiding and didn't dare to come out easily.

This thing had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was naturally that they could collect large quantities of fritillaria from the Forestry Bureau. The disadvantage was that business here at the wooden house wasn't good.

Either way, it all rotted in the pot. No matter which side collected it, it eventually ended up in Li Long's pocket, so he didn't care.

After unloading all the supplies into Sun Jia Qiang's wooden house, Li Long and Sun Jia Qiang packed the fritillaria he had collected and washed into bags and put them into the jeep.

The fritillaria that had already been washed amounted to sixty or seventy kilograms, of which less than ten kilograms were completely dry. The rest were all varying degrees of fresh and dry and needed continued drying.

Li Long drove the jeep back to the county and went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative first.

"The morning after tomorrow, right? No problem. I'll tell the transport section chief now and have him arrange three trucks." After hearing Li Long's report, Li Xiangqian said, "Just come over early the morning after tomorrow to lead the vehicles into the mountains."

"Director, you also need to arrange for people to inspect and accept."

"We don't need three people for inspection, right? Two should be enough?"

"Two is fine."

"That's good, let it be the two of them from last time," Li Xiangqian said. "You go do your work; I'll arrange this side. As for the extra carrying poles, as long as they pass inspection, our cooperative will collect them. Those people can also take them back by truck; I'll tell the drivers to deliver them directly to the village."

Li Long left the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and then went to the County Transport Company.

The jeep had been driven for another period and needed a good maintenance check.

The next day, Li Long rested at home. The third morning after eating, he drove the jeep, brought the people and vehicles from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and went directly to transport the carrying poles.

One vehicle was left at Qingshuihe, and two vehicles were driven directly to Bai Yang Gou.

The people weaving carrying poles at Bai Yang Gou had also just finished breakfast. Some who ate quickly were taking their tools and preparing to go cut branches.

Seeing the large trucks come over, most people thought it was the routine collection of carrying poles. Only a few old hands guessed that it was time to return.

The number of carrying poles for the last two years had been fixed, and everyone knew how many they wove each year.

So when Li Long announced that the matter of weaving carrying poles was over, most people had a look of astonishment, while a few had expressions that said "as expected."

Whether it worked or not, that was how it was.

"After inspection and acceptance, transport the carrying poles. Some people will take the trucks back, and some will take the tractor my big brother is driving back," Li Long said. "After acceptance, once the numbers are recorded, just pack up your things."

Like the first two times, he didn't participate this time either. After finishing what he had to say, he went over to chat with his big brother for a few sentences and then drove the jeep away.

Li Long could be considered to have been lazy; he planned to go into the mountains to pick some morels. (End of chapter)