Chapter 834: The benefits of fame: Collecting goods until hands are soft

"Screw it, too tired!" After sending off the last guest, Gu Bo Yuan slumped into the chair, wiped the sweat on his face, not knowing if he was mocking himself or complaining:

"Old, old, I didn't feel this tired when digging the big canal when I was young!"

"Today's work really isn't as tiring as digging the big canal." Li Long sat half on the counter and said with a smile, "Digging the big canal, especially when clearing the bottom, was tiring to the point where one didn't want to speak. Uncle, you can still speak now, which shows you're stronger than then..."

He had done canal clearing—that wasn't on the same level of ease as canal clearing. Canal clearing required going into a canal two to two and a half meters deep to clear out the silt; it was a very difficult job—requiring both technique and physical strength.

When working, everyone was divided into sections. For example, about ten meters per person in the morning—don't underestimate these ten meters. The canal banks at the beginning were just mud, without cement slabs for slope protection. After a year of use, the mud on both sides of the slope was washed down by the water, and a thick layer of silt would accumulate on the canal bottom.

The standard requirement for the canal was at least two meters deep, and no grass was allowed on both sides. In reality, after a year of use, a two-meter-deep canal might only be one and a half meters deep. To let the canal fully exert its function in agricultural production and ensure the completion of watering tasks, the silt in the canal must be cleared before spring sowing. Therefore, the first task every production team had to do at the beginning of spring was canal clearing.

Canal clearing required going down to dig mud and clearing the grass on both sides of the slope—clearing grass was the easiest, the hardest was going down to dig the mud at the bottom and slapping it on both sides of the canal. This job was a killer for many people who hadn't done it or didn't know the technique; hands and feet would blister, and it was possible not to finish by dark.

Dig, carry, swing—just three steps, which could make many people practice for a long time to touch the door.

Those who knew how to do it would borrow force and be easier; those who didn't would use brute force, then be tired.

Still the example of Xue Gang pulling the iron cart to the drill ground; those who knew how to use inertia, using an iron shovel to scoop a shovel of mud, borrowing the momentum to swing it up, firmly pasting it on the canal side, looking quite sharp.

Li Long's technique in his previous life when clearing the canal was average, Gu Bo Yuan was a master, so Li Long had this to say.

"Hey, digging the canal is just using physical strength, unlike today's scene, which not only requires physical strength but is also very tense—it's trouble if calculated wrong, and this scene is so big—who could have thought so many people would come in one day?"

"I didn't expect it either." Li Long nodded and said, "The flow of people today must be two or three times the usual."

"Two or three times? More than five times!" Gu Bo Yuan shook his head, "Let me tell you, just today alone, the money that went out was nearly twenty thousand. What kind of concept is this? Two ten-thousand-yuan households in one day, gone!"

"Then aren't we making money." Li Long smiled and said, "Alright, people are dispersed, let's go, lock the door, let's go back to eat first."

"Then I have to take the remaining money." Gu Bo Yuan hurriedly packed the account book and the remaining money into the black handbag Li Long specifically bought for him, turned around to lock the door, and then followed Li Long to sit in the jeep with the bag.

The jeep was already loaded with six or seven bags of fritillaria, which were to be pulled to the large courtyard. There were still a large amount of fritillaria and other medicinal materials, pelts, and other materials in the purchasing station warehouse, which couldn't be pulled over for a while, so they just didn't pull them.

"These people were led over by you, right?" Gu Bo Yuan had time to ask now, "How did you get them over?"

Li Long told what he had done yesterday and today while driving.

"That's also quite good." Gu Bo Yuan didn't think Li Long was wrong to do this; he nodded and said, "To tell the truth, the purchasing prices given by those places are really low. Doing this, it's cheaper for us instead. Look at how clean these fritillaria are, no need to clean at all, some even screened them... just this fritillaria, it wouldn't be a problem even if Boss Jia added a price."

"Yes, it's the first time I've seen fritillaria cleaned like this." Li Long was also moved, "I felt I did quite well before, didn't expect someone to be even more ruthless than me."

"That's not being forced by life." Gu Bo Yuan said with emotion, "Otherwise, could they have done this? Isn't it just to sell for a few more yuan."

This is rolling.

The internal environment is too rolling, and without finding a relatively good external environment, one can only continue to roll.

Those purchasing station bosses might have already united, just thinking about using the monopolized environment to suppress those selling fritillaria into accepting it, didn't expect to have an opening opened by himself, a big flood!

"Do you think it's possible for so many people to come to sell fritillaria tomorrow or the day after?" Gu Bo Yuan asked Li Long while holding the black bag in the passenger seat.

"I think there will be tomorrow, but I don't know about the day after. Some people should still be watching. When I went to the Beiting City purchasing station yesterday, I found that the passenger flow there was still quite large."

"To tell the truth, their normal daily passenger flow there is three to five times ours, which means we had so many people today, it was just a little bit more than their normal time."

"Is the purchasing station over there that profitable?" Gu Bo Yuan was a bit surprised; he really didn't know the difference between over there and here. He originally thought that ten or twenty people coming to sell goods every day here in Maxian was quite a lot, didn't expect Beiting to have more; as expected of a prefecture capital!

"When I bought that carload of fritillaria yesterday, I also asked people. The people over there told me they had run to Beiting, Miquan, Huxian, and these places, and the prices given by the purchasing stations in these places were all about the same."

"Then why didn't they think about running to our side before?" Gu Bo Yuan was still a bit regretful, "If they had come to our side before, how much more money would we have earned in this fritillaria season."

"Huxian is relatively close to Beiting City, thirty or forty kilometers, a tractor takes an hour. But it takes two hours to get to our side, the distance is still a bit far," Li Long said his guess, "I think maybe after he ran to Huxian, Miquan, and these places, he felt the prices everywhere should be about the same, so he just didn't come to our side."

"Anyway, now they know our purchasing price here is high, I guess they will keep coming in the future." Gu Bo Yuan guessed for the better.

"Should be, who doesn't want to earn more money?" Li Long had already driven the car to the courtyard entrance. When Gu Bo Yuan was preparing to get out to open the gate, the gate had already opened, revealing Han Fang's small head.

When Li Long drove the jeep in, Han Fang said while pushing the gate: "Grandpa Gu, Uncle Li, why are you back so late? We were waiting for you to eat!"

Both jeep windows were open, so they could hear it.

"You haven't eaten yet?" Li Long stopped the jeep, turned off the engine, got out, and asked, "Why wait for us? I remember saying at noon, we might be back late tonight."

"Waiting is fine, anyway, the temperature is high in summer, the food won't get cold for a while." Sister Yang, wearing an apron, came out of the kitchen and said, "You were really busy today."

Gu Xiaoxia had already returned. She was watching Mingming and Haohao. The two little guys couldn't be hungry; they had already eaten supplementary food and finished goat milk, and were excitedly crawling and playing on the canvas at this time.

"More people came today than usual," Gu Bo Yuan explained after getting out of the car with the black bag, "Xiao Long went to Beiting to attend a meeting this time and advertised to the people over there, saying our purchasing price here was high and reasonable, so many people from over there ran over to our purchasing station to sell things."

Li Long hadn't explained in detail when he came back for lunch at noon, only saying there were many people over there and it was very busy. Gu Xiaoxia and the others didn't know the reason. While eating dinner, Li Long and Gu Bo Yuan talked about this matter while eating.

After eating, Sister Yang tidied up the kitchen, Han Fang went to help, and Gu Bo Yuan pulled Li Long into the room, planning to settle today's accounts.

Because he was busy collecting goods and paying money before, Gu Bo Yuan recorded scattered accounts in the notebook and hadn't summarized them. Now he was adding and calculating one by one in front of the desk, while Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia were there coaxing Mingming and Haohao to sleep.

After Mingming and Haohao fell asleep, Gu Bo Yuan had also finished adding, and then took the account book and said to Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia in a low voice:

"Hey! Today's situation is really a bit scary. I'll calculate for you; just this dried fritillaria alone, three hundred and eighty-two kilograms were collected, most of which are top-quality, relatively clean. For the few with average quality, I specifically asked, and basically, they were sold by people from our county."

"Today's net cash outflow was nineteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-two yuan and six cents, of which eighteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-three yuan was used to buy fritillaria. I roughly calculated that at least three hundred and fifty kilograms of fritillaria belong to top-grade goods, which is sixty-five yuan per kilogram that can be sold at Jia Tianlong's place."

"And this is the remaining cash. I originally had six thousand five hundred and fifty-three yuan there, Xiao Long brought ten thousand the first time, brought thirty thousand the second time, and now there are twenty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty yuan and four cents remaining."

"Xiao Long, come over and take a look. By the way, there's also the income and expenditure situation yesterday, you should also take a look and sign."

This was a necessary step since Gu Bo Yuan was responsible for the purchasing station. Every day, he let Li Long look at the income and expenditure situation.

This income and expenditure wasn't just recorded by Gu Bo Yuan. Every time an item was bought, the seller had to sign; those who couldn't sign would have it read to them, and then press a thumbprint.

The father-in-law was strict, and Li Long was naturally happy to cooperate. He came over and scanned it, seeing that every item collected in the account book was clearly listed, which was really rigorous.

Then Li Long signed.

"This is the remaining cash, you count it." Gu Bo Yuan said, "It's not safe to put it there, better put it here, I'll take a portion over to collect goods tomorrow morning after eating."

"The passenger flow tomorrow should still be this large." Li Long said, "I'll also go over, let's work together to deal with the busyness of these few days first."

"If that Jia guy calls, tell him to come over quickly." Gu Bo Yuan reminded again, "At this rate, our cash won't last long."

"This situation shouldn't last long, right?" Gu Xiaoxia already knew what was going on from the side, she guessed, "How much fritillaria can there be in the mountains? How many tons have we collected? How much have other purchasing stations collected? Can there still be such a large quantity in the mountains?"

"Then you underestimate our Tianshan Mountains too much." Gu Bo Yuan said with a smile, "This is Tianshan, 'looking at the mountain and running the horse to death' is all small. Just this six hundred kilometers stretching north and south, this is just the width. The fritillaria collected by these people is at most taking a little fur from the mountains. There are still many of these things in the deep mountains—some places have never been entered by anyone—Li Long knows quite clearly."

"Exactly. Fritillaria and *dangshan* are all perennial. Think about the *dangshan* in the mountains, one can dig up decades-old ones casually. How much can fritillaria multiply? In many gullies near the mountains, they are full of fritillaria, not to mention the deep mountains; we can only guess."

Gu Bo Yuan left after calculating the accounts. Li Long took the hunting gun and gave it to him:

"Uncle, the commotion here today is too big, take this. I'm worried about thieves having designs on your place."

"Fine." Gu Bo Yuan didn't refuse either. After taking the double-barreled hunting gun, he opened it to look, took the bag of bullets from Li Long's hand, and said with a smile:

"With this thing, I'm not afraid even if seven or eight people come."

Saying this, he hung the hunting gun on his shoulder, carried the bag in one hand, the black bag in the other, and left the courtyard to return to the purchasing station.

Gu Xiaoxia was a bit worried when she saw this posture, she asked Li Long softly:

"Then is my dad in danger?"

"Might run into thieves," Li Long said truthfully, "But I don't dare to follow over. There's also some danger in our courtyard; if I leave, there are only a few women and children, that's also very dangerous."

"But don't worry, your dad has a gun in his hand, and the police station is also close. With a little movement, fire a shot, those people will either be scared away or knocked down."

Li Long said this, and Gu Xiaoxia felt relieved.

She also knew her old father was a ruthless person. At this time, she couldn't care so much; if someone really dared to come to steal or rob, protecting oneself by firing first was the first priority.

Despite this, Gu Xiaoxia and Li Long didn't sleep soundly that night.

When it was almost dawn the next day, Li Long climbed up and went out to stroll in the courtyard. Because the dog didn't bark at night, seeing Xiao Hei active there in the morning meant there was no problem.

Li Long went out to the purchasing station and shouted inside. Gu Bo Yuan opened the door and saw Li Long, understood the situation, and took the initiative to say:

"Nothing, it was very quiet all night yesterday, I slept well."

The purchasing station house was closed, with doors locked at both ends; if one wanted to enter, one could only break the window, so no movement meant no situation.

Li Long felt relieved and said: "Then Uncle, I'm going back, I'll come over for breakfast in a while."

"Good."

Li Long returned to the large courtyard and told Gu Xiaoxia, who was taking care of Mingming and Haohao, and Gu Xiaoxia smiled.

After breakfast, Li Long took the money and went to the purchasing station with Gu Bo Yuan.

They arrived early, and no one was waiting at the courtyard entrance. Gu Bo Yuan went over to open the gate, put on the chain lock, and went to open the room door, tidying up the things inside, preparing to open for business.

Li Long went to the warehouse to arrange some things collected yesterday, clearing space to prepare for today's income.

At 9:40 in the morning, the first guest came. Li Long was quite familiar with this person, a local middleman, specifically walking through villages and alleys, collecting all kinds of pelts.

"Old Qiao, what good things did you bring today?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Collected a few yellow sheep pelts near the sand ridge in the north yesterday." Old Qiao said proudly, "Authentic winter pelts, take a look, there are two without a single bullet hole, absolutely good pelts."

"Fine, then I'll take a look." Li Long was looking at these two pelts when people started coming one after another.

Old Qiao looked at the new people coming one by one from the side, looking and feeling that something was wrong; what was the situation? Why were these new faces never seen before?

And seeing more and more people, he felt even more wrong.

Getting closer to Li Long, Old Qiao asked in a low voice:

"Is there something wrong with your purchasing station? Look at how many people came today? Usually, there are at most one or two or three at this time, there are more than ten queuing up..."

"From other counties." Li Long explained, "These two pelts of yours are indeed winter pelts, the quality of the full yellow sheep pelts is fine, forty-six each. These three pelts are residual pelts, thirty-five each, how about that?"

"Fine, fine, definitely fine." Old Qiao knew the market price, and it was about the same as his psychological price. He smiled and said, "If I don't believe others, don't I believe you?"

Gu Bo Yuan recorded the accounts, Li Long gave the money. After Old Qiao counted the money, signed, and carefully tucked the money into his inner pocket, he went out and pushed his bicycle to walk out.

Just as he reached the entrance, someone carrying a large bag came in. Old Qiao was an insider and smelled that what was in the other person's bag should be pelts. He pulled this person and asked:

"Old brother, what you have here is pelts, right? Smells like red deer pelt?"

"Hey, brother, you're an insider!" That person was surprised after hearing it, first queued to the end, put down the large bag, and said with a smile, "There are a few red deer pelts in this bag, and a few other pelts."

"Then this bag of things is worth quite a bit of money." Old Qiao said with a smile, "Where are you from? You look like a new face!"

"Huxian Southern Mountain Slope, the purchasing station over there gives a low price, pelts were sold, didn't earn much," the other party smiled and said, "Yesterday the purchasing station here gave a high price, so we came over."

Really from another county!

Old Qiao immediately had a sense of crisis. People from other counties had come over; with so many pelts, would the purchasing station lower the price in the future?

Of course, he also discovered that, in fact, there was a business opportunity here. He only collected pelts by turning around in his own county, why didn't he think about going to the neighboring county to take a look?

This old brother said the purchasing price in the neighboring county was relatively low, so if he went to the side of the neighboring county near the mountains and the Gobi to collect pelts, there would definitely be a price advantage.

Mm, just do it like this!

Old Qiao remembered he had a fellow villager in Dafeng, neighboring county, and was going to take a bus over today to ask! If he could collect some pelts and establish a long-term stable cooperative relationship, he could earn another sum this year!

The purchasing station started to have more people around ten o'clock. At first, those who came were all from Huxian. By twelve o'clock in the morning, people from Miquan in Beiting City also came, and at noon, people from Fukang also came. Li Long was thinking, don't wait until the afternoon, people from Dongsan County will also come, right? Then I've become famous! The several counties and cities in Beiting Prefecture have all been influenced.

Lunch was sent by Gu Xiaoxia. When eating breakfast in the morning, Li Long and Gu Bo Yuan had anticipated the situation at noon today and told Gu Xiaoxia that if it was mealtime and they hadn't gone back, she should send it over.

Even if eating, the two of them were one eating, one collecting things, taking turns. The purchasing process continued, and this professionalism was unanimously praised by those selling things.

"Look at this attitude, even eating lunch is continuing. Think about the purchasing station over there, not even at the time point, the gate is locked and they leave, not considering us who ran tens of kilometers specifically to sell goods."

"Exactly, our purchasing station is also like this, leaving work early, arriving late, and our home is far, arriving at the purchasing station just at noon, and it's not open when we go, waiting for more than an hour. Sunning under the big sun, I don't dare to eat, otherwise, the queue I finally lined up will be gone."

"Exactly, just for this point, in the future when I sell things, even if I pay a few more travel expenses, I'll come here."

"Those travel expenses of yours count for what? The purchasing price here is high, one round trip, your travel expenses won't come out?"

"Hehe, I'm just saying my attitude."

At this time, Sun Jia Qiang was still in front of the wooden house, looking east, the materials in the wooden house were not much, and several had already appeared empty. Some people came to exchange fritillaria for materials, complaining when they couldn't exchange for things.

Why hasn't Li Long come yet?

Mainly because the fritillaria he collected here was not small, and it wasn't safe to put it here! Not only were wolves active nearby from time to time at night, but those who exchanged fritillaria, in Sun Jia Qiang's view, were also restless.

If it weren't for Bolati coming to take a look every day, some people might have already had bad intentions and caused trouble! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 835 =====