Chapter 865

Liu Xinjun was still a bit dazed when he was rejected by Li Long.

To tell the truth, he had also collected some low-priced dried mushrooms these days. There were scattered goods, and there were also small batches of dozens of kilograms.

To put it bluntly, the people he encountered, in Liu Xinjun's view, had a very strong desire for money. Although the goods he got were of mixed quality, they basically sold them as long as he gave money, which made him feel very satisfied.

Precious fungi like morels and black tiger palm mushrooms were usually only found in specific mountainous areas. Morels in plains areas were different from those in mountainous areas, and the price was also slightly lower.

So, after "tricking" Huang Lei away, Liu Xinjun had actually already brought in a batch of goods, but it only added up to about the same as Huang Lei's batch.

He was not reconciled to being surpassed by Huang Lei, which was why he came to Li Long's place—finding ten scattered sellers was not as good as finding one big seller; he still knew this point.

He didn't offer a high price—or rather, he felt that the price he offered was quite high. For the one who brought dozens of kilograms of goods the day before yesterday, the highest price he offered was only twenty-eight yuan.

It was also because he saw that Li Long had a purchasing station and could continuously collect goods that he offered a high price, wanting to hold onto Li Long as a long-term partner.

It's just that he didn't expect Li Long to look down on this price!

Then how much did Huang Lei offer?

Collecting goods "inside the pass" was at most forty, and after deducting shipping costs, what he earned was just hard-earned money.

Could Huang Lei offer thirty-five?

Impossible, right? After all, when Huang Lei trusted him before, he had revealed news—Huang Lei had another partner "inside the pass," and they made money together. That is to say, this profit was split in half.

If Huang Lei offered thirty-five, he really wouldn't earn much money.

Liu Xinjun was still somewhat puzzled when he left the purchasing station.

Could it be that he had inquired wrong, and Huang Lei didn't collect them in this county?

Liu Xinjun felt that this guess should be somewhat reliable, so he didn't linger here anymore and went to the bus station, preparing to go to a few nearby counties to look around.

Since mushrooms could be collected here, maybe there were purchasing stations in the nearby counties, and mushrooms could also be collected there.

After Liu Xinjun left, Li Long began to speculate about Huang Lei's affairs. Huang Lei left yesterday, and today a person with an accent similar to his came. Li Long felt that there couldn't be no connection between these.

However, he didn't want to think too much, believing that Huang Lei should come to collect mushrooms again. Li Long planned to keep these dried mushrooms for at least half a month. But before that, he planned to make a trip to Beiting. After all, the dried mushrooms had already been sold, so the introduction fee that should be fulfilled for that Qi Zhigang had to be given to him.

Over at the Fourth Team, Li Jianguo was driving an East Is Red 75 tractor on the saline-alkali beach southwest of the residential area, practicing his technique.

The tractor was pulling a five-share plow, turning over the saline-alkali soil layer. When it encountered cogon grass or red willow bushes, the crawler tractor would emit black smoke. Li Jianguo would step on the gas, but the tractor really couldn't plow through, and he wouldn't force it, but would adjust the direction, little by little gnawing away at the hard bones.

His father, Li Qing Xia, sat on the five-share plow, adjusting the depth of the plowshare. He didn't know how to do it at first, but Li Jianguo told him to try boldly; if the tractor emitted black smoke, it should be shallower, and if the tractor plowed fast, it should be deeper.

Anyway, this area was the wasteland that he and Li Long had taken a fancy to and planned to reclaim, so they could do whatever they wanted with it.

This plot of land was about forty mu. To the east was the strip field designated by the production team that was currently being cultivated, separated by a branch canal in the middle, and to the south was the main canal.

Reclaiming this place, first, it was convenient for watering, and second, although this area had small piles of red willow shrubs and cogon grass, the difficulty of reclaiming it was smaller compared to other places, which just happened to be convenient for Li Jianguo to practice.

Moreover, there were many small areas in this place growing bitter beans. Such plots were in groups, and although each place was not large, just dozens or hundreds of square meters, they added up to quite a lot.

The soil quality where bitter beans grew was relatively good, so this area was not entirely a saline-alkali beach, which just happened to be convenient for development and utilization.

Lu Yingming and others were watching Li Jianguo plow the land when they were free, and some idlers in the village followed behind the plowshare to pick up the red willow roots and licorice roots that were plowed out.

There were even children holding canned bottles to pick up the insects turned out of the soil, claiming to be the "North, South, East, West" large insect pupae, as well as the mole crickets known locally as "gou jia jia zui."

As for the crickets called "tiao ma zi," they were even more popular—after all, chickens laid more eggs when they ate these.

So it was said.

There were also those picking Cynomorium. Now, Li Long's purchasing station collecting Cynomorium was no longer fresh news. There were young people in the team who specifically went to the alkali beach to dig up Cynomorium, dry it, and sell it to the purchasing station.

Although one kilogram of dried goods was only a few cents, digging one or two hemp bags of fresh ones a day, and drying them could produce ten or twenty kilograms of dried goods, selling for nearly ten yuan, which was not low.

The Cynomorium plowed out didn't need to be dug, which was even more convenient.

Li Jianguo didn't care. After plowing back and forth twice, he parked the tractor at the north end of the land where Lu Yingming was, turned off the engine, and got off the tractor.

Li Qing Xia also got off the plowshare. He went into the land to pick up licorice roots—since they were plowed out by their own family, they couldn't let others take all the advantage.

"Hey, the sound in this cab is really loud, it makes my ears ache." Li Jianguo went to Lu Yingming, took the cigarette he handed over, lit it, took a puff, and then dug his ears and said.

Now, Lu Yingming and Li Jianguo no longer smoked Mohe tobacco. It was mainly because Li Long often said that smoking this Mohe tobacco was not good and was not conducive to health—although smoking any cigarette was not good, this unroasted Mohe tobacco was more harmful.

Now, Li Long's words were still quite authoritative. Both Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming felt it was necessary to listen. Anyway, he didn't ask them to quit smoking, just to switch to boxed cigarettes, and now they couldn't afford not to smoke, so they just smoked.

"Then don't you have to work harder if you want to make money?" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "Look, in just this short while, you've plowed at least ten mu of land, right? If you go by Wang Cai Mi's price, that's eighty yuan in hand!"

"How could it be that fast? Don't you have to deduct the oil money?" Li Jianguo retorted, but the smile on the corner of his mouth couldn't be suppressed.

That's right, it had only been a short while, and it was already ten mu of land. A small four-wheeled tractor had to collect forty mu of land to get eighty yuan. This tractor plowing the land didn't even need to leave the team—even if it was a bit far, the Third Team was also nearby, not exceeding two or three kilometers of road.

The two villages added up to over four thousand mu of land, and this summer alone, just planting wheat would require two thousand mu. And Wang Cai Mi, Xu Lingshan, plus that broken tractor of the Third Team, dividing these two thousand mu, he could at least get half—mainly because now many people had already come to make appointments.

Li Jianguo was very popular, and the people he knew were all over the brigade. After all, he had attended junior high school, and when this place was first reclaimed, he was considered a talent. When counting the fields, he had walked through every team in this area, and he knew quite a lot of people.

So, after knowing that the Li family had bought a new tractor, those who knew him all came to find him, wanting him to plow the land for them—no one wanted to plow the land halfway and have the tractor break down in their own land.

This kind of thing had happened in almost every family, so it wasn't anything rare.

But with a new tractor, who wouldn't want to use it?

Even Liang Wenyu came to see the eldest brother-in-law's tractor and said that there were people in their team who wanted Li Jianguo to go over and plow the land when the time came.

Fortunately, the distance wasn't far. The horse-drawn carriage still needed to take a detour, but the tractor could go directly from the land.

With such an estimate, the wheat fields of the families who had directly come to find him already added up to nearly a thousand mu.

"This wheat is already turning yellow, and it's only about a month away from harvesting." Lu Yingming said, "I also have to prepare to get a tractor harvester. This year I plan to go to Huxian to harvest wheat, earn a sum first."

"Then our two families' wheat will be left to the women." Li Jianguo was also going to harvest wheat when the time came. Although he was going to drive the tractor to plow the land everywhere after harvesting the wheat, he didn't plan to give up the several thousand yuan from this season of harvesting wheat.

His younger brother was capable, which gave Li Jianguo a great sense of pressure. He didn't want to be left too far behind by Li Long.

Although Li Long gave Li Jianguo many opportunities, to tell the truth, he could just lie flat and not work hard, and he could still live a good life forever.

But this was not Li Jianguo's style.

A few people walked into the plowed saline-alkali land, looked at the effect of Li Jianguo's plowing, and after watching, came to Li Jianguo's side.

"Daqiang's dad, how is it?" Li Jianguo said to Tao Jian She, "Is it qualified?"

"Qualified, qualified, it's much deeper than Wang Cai Mi's plowing." Tao Jian She smoked the tobacco pipe he brought, refused the cigarette Lu Yingming handed over, and said with emotion: "Plowing so deep, the grass roots and insects in the land are all exposed to the sun. If it's wheat stubble, the wheat stubble is pressed deep, and it doesn't affect the growth of the seeds, how good!"

Everyone knew this was talking about Wang Cai Mi, but without naming names, even if Wang Cai Mi was right there, he couldn't say anything.

These two days, Wang Cai Mi had been ruthless, heavily repairing his own tractor. He had known before that his tractor had various problems, but he just dragged it out when he could, and slowed it down when he could.

After all, a major repair required replacing many parts. The parts he had scavenged weren't necessarily usable, and some had to be replaced with new ones.

He couldn't bear it.

But now, if he didn't replace them, most of the people in the team would find the Li family to plow the land. His status couldn't be maintained, and he couldn't earn money. How could he be reconciled?

If he wanted to win back the hearts of others, he had to make some changes when the tractor plowed the land. It couldn't break down from time to time. If it did, even those who had a good relationship with him wouldn't be willing to choose him.

In terms of being a person, Li Jianguo and Li Long were much more successful than him. Before, everyone had no choice, so they could only choose him. Now that the Li family had a new tractor, Wang Cai Mi also had self-knowledge. The Li family's pork hadn't been eaten in vain these years—every winter when they slaughtered the year-end pig, the Li family's slaughtered pig dish had the most oil.

And for those in the team who borrowed money from Li Jianguo, under thirty or fifty, people had never hesitated.

As a founding member of the village, Li Jianguo himself had an extraordinary appeal in the village. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't want to at the beginning, it wouldn't have been impossible to fight for the team leader position.

Now with a tractor, although Li Jianguo didn't say it clearly, those who had a good relationship with him, and those who were afraid of trouble, naturally hoped to use the Li family's new tractor to plow the land.

Wang Cai Mi hadn't been unaware of his image in the hearts of the team members before.

It's just that there was no threat, and he also knew that the team members had to find him—Xu Lingshan wasn't a threat at all; that guy couldn't even figure out the engine.

Of course, Li Jianguo couldn't figure it out either, but the one he bought was a new tractor, which wouldn't break down for a while. By the time there were problems, Li Jianguo would probably have become an old hand.

Wang Cai Mi hadn't expected the Li family to be willing to spend money to buy a large tractor, and a complete set at that. Now it was too late to regret—these days he was also releasing goodwill to the team members, and for this, he didn't hesitate to go to the old horse number in the middle of summer to buy a sheep, slaughtered it, and invited people with good relationships to eat a meal of mutton soup.

This was really a rare thing for Wang Cai Mi.

Wang Cai Mi also ran to the Li family several times, ostensibly pointing out some small tips to Li Jianguo about driving the tractor, including how to save oil—plowing the land shallower would save oil.

Of course, it wasn't pointed out in vain. Openly and secretly, he hoped that Li Jianguo wouldn't be too active in pulling those people to plow the land. He and Li Jianguo could completely discuss it. The land in the team was divided into several large pieces, and the two families could discuss which piece belonged to whom to plow, without interfering with each other.

He was rejected by Li Jianguo—just kidding, at this time, refusing those who came to the door to find the Li family to plow the land, was his brain kicked by a donkey?

Li Jianguo had only one sentence: whoever in this team came to find him, he would plow for them. If they didn't find him, Li Jianguo wouldn't take the initiative to ask.

This was already the greatest concession. As for other production teams, Wang Cai Mi couldn't control them.

Wang Cai Mi also knew that Li Jianguo had this promise, which could be considered as having done his best. But he also knew that those people in the team had no choice before, so when it was time to plow the land, they would come to find him one by one, hoping to plow first so they could tidy up after plowing.

But now that there was a choice, they would inevitably take the initiative to find the Li family—Li Jianguo made a promise, and it seemed like nothing at all.

He still had to owe people a favor!

Bitterness, he could only eat it himself. If he had known today, why bother in the beginning?

Li Qing Xia held a handful of licorice roots that still had some mud on them and came to the edge of the land, saying to Li Jianguo:

"Do you want to plow some more? I see this plowing is fast, the land over there seems to be better, stronger than this piece."

"Hmm, Dad, you rest for a while, let's plow another piece." Li Jianguo was also not satisfied. This thing was like his big toy. Although it shook his ears, it felt really good to drive!

Actually, Li Qing Xia also wanted to drive, but right now there were quite a few people. Li Qing Xia thought that it would be lunch time in a while, and when those people left, he would change, let the eldest son sit on the plowshare behind, and he would drive the tractor!

This big iron bull, it must be majestic to drive!

Anyway, the eldest son also said that in this large piece of saline-alkali land, no matter how you drive, it's impossible to have an accident, just drive as you please.

When the old man got interested, it was really hard to say. When the father and son were called by Liang Wenyu to eat, other families had already eaten.

Of course, the results were also very good. Nearly thirty mu of land had been reclaimed, and this was still the result of stopping and driving. If he had driven all the time, he could have plowed fifty mu of land in this morning.

In the afternoon, Liu Xinjun came to the Huxian purchasing station.

When he knew that there was also a purchasing station in Huxian, Liu Xinjun was overjoyed, but after going to the purchasing station, he found that although this place was large, there were not two or three people who came to sell things.

And after going in to ask, he found that although this family collected dried mushrooms, it was very mixed and collected them mixed in.

Looking at the mushrooms mixed with seven or eight kinds in that bag, Liu Xinjun frowned:

"Haven't they been picked and sorted? So mixed, aren't you afraid of poisonous mushrooms?"

"If you're afraid, don't buy!" The person in charge of the purchasing station spoke quite rudely, "You don't even recognize the types of mushrooms, and you're still coming to collect goods?"

Liu Xinjun's nose was almost crooked with anger. The people he collected from before were all respectful to him. At Li Long's place in the morning, although people didn't sell, the attitude was at least okay. Why was this one like this?

Of course, he didn't know that the other party was considered to be "lying flat," and this purchasing station itself didn't rely on dried mushrooms to make money, so the attitude naturally couldn't be called good.

What was collected was what it was, and what was sold was what it was. They wouldn't take the initiative to pick and sort out the high-quality ones.

Service consciousness, not everyone could have it. (End of chapter)