Chapter 877: There are always those who know the goods: business that comes to the door

This matter just passed like this. Li Long still felt a bit guilty toward Director Qian; after all, people helped him so much, and in the end, the matter didn't work out.

But Director Qian had seen many big storms and smiled to comfort Li Long, saying this was very normal. If things were so easy to do, they wouldn't have waited until now.

After eating lunch at the Qian family's, Li Long said goodbye and left. He wandered around Beiting City a few times, bought some odds and ends, and then left.

When he left, he also went to see the location of the "Happiness" acquisition station and found that the gate here was locked tightly; he didn't know how long it hadn't been opened. The sign for the "Happiness" acquisition station had also been taken down, looking a bit empty.

He didn't know how that boss was doing now.

Li Long returned to Maxian and went to his own acquisition station.

There were still ten or so people queuing in the courtyard of the acquisition station. During the slack season, many people went out to find some pocket money. Now that reform and opening up had started, people's thinking was becoming more and more open, and some people with active minds were looking for side jobs to make money. Some learned from others, and some slowly figured it out themselves. In any case, resources were still very abundant in these years; as long as one was willing to use their hands and brains, one could always find a way to make money.

Most came to sell mushrooms, and there were also fritillaria, Codonopsis, and licorice. To be honest, Codonopsis really wasn't very good at this time of year, but since people came to sell it, he had no reason not to collect it; he just gave a lower price.

There were also those who brought fresh snow lotus flowers, which was quite strange. Li Long looked at two of them and then said to one of them:

"When picking snow lotus, don't dig up the roots. If you dig up the roots, how will it grow next year? Won't there be fewer and fewer in the future?"

The person carrying a bundle of snow lotus flowers blushed a bit.

Yes, a bundle. This bundle of snow lotus flowers must have had twenty flowers, quite large and heavy, and they looked pretty too.

Although snow lotus flowers sounded precious, they really weren't worth much in Northern Xinjiang. At this time, the acquisition station bought them for two or three yuan a flower. Fifteen years later, one could still buy fresh snow lotus on the streets of zs County for five yuan.

They couldn't rise in price. Further on, the state would control them, and as second-class wild protected plants, they naturally couldn't be picked—although every year there were travelers who poached them and made videos, very few were caught.

After all, in the no-man's land, some people's moral bottom line was low, and one didn't know how low it went.

Gu Bo Yuan and Sun Jia Qiang cooperated extremely well. Most people who came here knew the rules, and no one caused trouble; after all, public security officers would come from time to time to maintain order.

Li Long didn't stay here long either. After looking and checking, he returned to the large courtyard.

On Monday, Li Xiangqian sent Zhou Yuan to find Li Long, wanting him to go to the county to attend a meeting; this time the representative was confirmed. Li Long not only became a representative but also actively submitted written materials applying to join the organization.

Becoming a representative, he hadn't done nothing; he directly donated desks and stools worth ten thousand yuan to the County Education Bureau. This gesture was not small in these years.

The matter was notified to Ma Xiao Yan, who came to interview him. This time, Li Long made it into the Beiting Daily—making it into the Autonomous Region Daily was still a bit of a stretch.

Li Long privately donated desks and stools worth one thousand yuan to the primary and secondary schools in his township. The Education Bureau had to consider the overall situation, and those desks and stools were basically sent to schools in remote areas.

Although the infrastructure of the schools in his township, especially the middle school, was also quite backward, it was still stronger than those in remote mountainous areas.

Thirty years later, it was the opposite; the schools in remote areas were much better than those near the county seat. One reason was state investment, and the other was that those social charity organizations and individual donations were all aimed at remote areas.

On the contrary, those closer to the county seat were in an awkward position; they were neither in the county, where leaders couldn't pay attention, so vanity projects couldn't reach them, nor were they in remote mountainous areas, so they couldn't receive social attention due to poverty.

This was Li Long's first time being a representative in two lifetimes, and his sense of mission was still quite heavy. Donating money to the education department was his first step. For the second step, he originally thought about investigating the situation of the people well and making proposals, but Li Xiangqian told him to calm down.

Right now, everyone was focusing on development. He just needed to work hard to figure out his own business and then use the tasks he got from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to lead the fellow villagers to get rich. Don't think about this and that; otherwise, he would lose the watermelon and pick up the sesame.

Li Long immediately understood.

A big reason he could be this representative was that he did a good job in ethnic unity and was a benchmark; the second was that he was a leader in rural wealth. These two things couldn't be lost.

So he understood and stayed at home with peace of mind. The time wasn't right, and he couldn't do anything right now.

Subsequently, Gu Bo Yuan found him a job—the harvesters were sold out, and people were still coming to order goods. The wheat season was coming soon, so Gu Bo Yuan told him to hurry and pull some more harvesters back.

To pull harvesters, one had to go to Kuitun, a round trip of over two hundred kilometers, so one had to prepare in advance.

Li Long went to the transport company to find a car. After negotiating, they agreed to set off early the next morning, and then he returned to the large courtyard.

"I plan to go to Kuitun and visit my second brother's family." In the evening, Li Long said to Gu Xiaoxia, "I'll bring them some things. My second brother's family relies only on his salary, so I estimate their life is quite tight."

"That's as it should be." Gu Xiaoxia nodded. "Bring some money too. In this midsummer, some things are not easy to store for a long time. Bring some money to the second brother and the others; if they need anything, they can buy it directly."

Their own family life was quite well-off, and Gu Xiaoxia wasn't a stingy person either. She didn't have any relatives on her own side, but she felt the warmth of relatives from Li Long's side.

Whether it was these from the Li family or those from Liang Yuemei's side, Gu Xiaoxia felt they were all quite good.

If Li Long knew her thoughts, he would definitely say, you're amazing, everyone around you is a good person.

Gu Xiaoxia didn't think so much; if she lived well, she couldn't watch her relatives live barely.

After all, she had already donated ten thousand to the Education Bureau, so she didn't care about this little bit of pocket money.

Li Long thought it was better to bring some things. He would drive the Jeep over this time. When the truck pulled the harvesters back, he would drive the Jeep himself and discuss the next production plan with Factory Manager Du, and then go to his second brother's house.

As for the things to buy, rice and flour were all prepared; these were what Li Anguo's family needed most and were also their biggest expense. Li Long pulled two bags of rice and two bags of flour, enough for his second brother's family to eat for two or three months.

Rice and flour alone were definitely not enough, so Li Long also prepared quite a lot of air-dried meat for Li Anguo's family.

Li Long's storage room had a large amount of air-dried meat all year round, mostly brought back from the mountains, and some were sheep slaughtered by their own family and air-dried.

Currently, he hadn't bought a refrigerator back, so the meat he brought back was basically air-dried.

It was easy to store, and it had a unique flavor when eaten.

The next day after breakfast, Sister Yang took over Mingming and Haohao early. Li Long waited for the truck to arrive, then drove the Jeep out and headed west.

It was very hot, but fortunately, there was wind. From Maxian, all the way to the 143rd Regiment Farm west of Shicheng, there were many trees on both sides of the road. Further west, there were fewer trees, and slowly they reached the no-man's land, where there were only shrubs.

Having not come for a while, Li Long could clearly feel that there were more cars on the road. There were fewer yellow sheep to be seen in the Gobi Desert on both sides. Passing through Wulanwusu and Shawan all the way, it wasn't until they were close to Anjihai that they saw a group of yellow sheep, far away on the northern Gobi. When the car passed by, the yellow sheep were very vigilant and ran away as soon as there was any movement.

When the Jeep and the truck entered Kuitun one after another, it was still early, not yet time for dinner, so they went directly to the farm machinery factory.

Factory Manager Du was working on production with the workers in the workshop. The sound of a horn rang at the door. The guard knew that someone had come to buy harvesters by the posture of the car, and with a Jeep leading the way, he immediately ran to notify Factory Manager Du.

"Brother Li, you've finally come." Factory Manager Du had oil on both hands and said with a smile when he greeted him, "I won't shake hands with you, let's go, let's go, let's go to the office."

Saying this, he let the guard take the driver to rest.

He led Li Long to the conference room. After someone poured water, Factory Manager Du said: "You sit first, I'll come over after washing my hands."

After Factory Manager Du came over after washing his hands, Li Long asked with a smile:

"How have things been recently? Are the harvesters selling okay?"

"Very okay." Factory Manager Du said with a smile, "At least a few hundred units are sold every month. Now our production is on three shifts, and the orders are already lined up for a few months."

"Then I have to cut in line." Li Long said with a smile, "I didn't pull many this time, just ten units."

"Since you've come, there's definitely no problem." Factory Manager Du smiled, "By the way, do you have any new ideas?"

"You don't say, I really do." Li Long nodded, "I've been pondering during this time. It's a bit of a loss if the small four-wheel tractor only does transport. It's only used for a month with the harvester, so I've been thinking about whether it can have other uses." "Then have you thought of it?"

"I have." Li Long said, "Inter-tillage machine. It's the one carried behind for weeding crops; it can open furrows and weed. Now the small four-wheel tractors all have hanging racks behind them, so just hang it directly on the rack... It's even more convenient to use than the harvester."

Saying this, he gestured.

Factory Manager Du understood as he listened.

This thing actually wasn't complicated, and it was really useful.

Now farming, technological power wasn't that developed. Although herbicides had been developing, to be honest, the effect wasn't very good.

It was mainly because there were too many types of weeds, especially things like reeds, which had too strong vitality and were very difficult to eradicate.

So in the process of planting crops, one needed to weed again and again.

The existence of the inter-tillage machine solved this problem well—not to say solved, at least in the specific environment of Northern Xinjiang where land plots were large, it was very useful.

After all, now each family had dozens of mu of land. If one had to weed by hand, by the time you finished weeding the grass in your own land, the grass in the place you first weeded would be full again.

Using a tractor was different. After the inter-tillage machine passed once, dozens of mu of land only needed half a day.

Although the machine couldn't be as careful as a person after passing once, and the grass intertwined with the crops couldn't be weeded out, it could still do sixty or seventy percent. Then manual labor could check for leaks and fill gaps, and that was it.

So when Li Long said this, Factory Manager Du understood. This could be done, but it definitely wouldn't sell as well as the harvester.

Had anyone in the factory thought of this plan?

There must have been similar ones, but because everyone was holding their breath and always wanted to make a "hit farm machine" similar to the harvester, this point was ignored.

Now Li Long had brought it up, and explained it fully, so Factory Manager Du felt it could be done.

Maybe it wouldn't be as hot as the harvester, but one couldn't rely on the harvester for a lifetime—now other factories had started to imitate the harvester, so the dividends of this harvester couldn't be eaten for too long.

One must frequently have new products that could be brought out; otherwise, one would always be eliminated.

Factory Manager Du still had this sense of crisis.

So as soon as Li Long said it, he agreed.

"I won't talk to you about the agency matter this time." Factory Manager Du said with a smile, "Just follow what you mentioned before: produce it, and for every unit sold, I'll give you a commission, how about that? Let's cooperate like this in the future."

He felt that there should be quite a few things in Li Long's mind, just that he hadn't brought them out. Now this harvester had been sold for more than two years and was still hot; it could be said that it supported their factory and made their factory's efficiency improve day by day, and this was inseparable from Li Long.

After reform and opening up, state-owned enterprises were also becoming active. His autonomy as a factory manager was expanding. Factory Manager Du felt that Li Long's ideas were very good, and maybe he could produce a hit in the future. If he didn't bring out something attractive enough, he was afraid he couldn't keep him.

If he just found another factory to make something good, wouldn't he be at a huge loss?

"That would be too great." Factory Manager Du's decision was both unexpected and reasonable for Li Long. It had already been two years, and the harvester was still hot. If he couldn't acknowledge his value at this time, then the cooperation in the future could slowly fade.

But that medicine jar design couldn't be released yet. After all, cotton was only planted in some places in the Corps now and hadn't expanded to the whole of Northern Xinjiang.

The crop that needed pest prevention most was cotton, and only when the planting area of cotton expanded to be large enough could the role of the medicine jar be reflected.

Right now, it wasn't possible.

Li Long drew the blueprint of the inter-tillage machine for Factory Manager Du. Factory Manager Du was an expert; he understood as soon as he saw it. This thing wasn't complicated to produce, and it could even be said to be much simpler than the harvester. The technical content wasn't high, and it was very easy to imitate.

However, he still believed in Li Long and also believed that with the increase in the area of land reclamation, mechanized farming in Northern Xinjiang was already spreading. This kind of transitional auxiliary farm machine was really useful.

Li Long also wanted Factory Manager Du to design a flattening machine for watermelon seeds, after all, it was too troublesome to do this at home. If he could make one, an electric one, then manual labor only needed to soak the watermelon seeds until soft, and leave the rest to the machine.

He had already thought of the principle: screening, conveying, squeezing; just these three processes could get it done.

"This... I have to study it with our technical personnel." Factory Manager Du said, "If it's just one unit, we can't put this on proper business. However, since you brought it up, Little Li, we'll try our best to make it for you. It still needs testing after production..."

"Call our unit when you produce it. I'll pull a sack of watermelon seeds over to test it. If it's done well, I'll give you a bonus." Li Long said half-jokingly, "Actually, you can also do this kind of special machine design. Anyway, the technical personnel are idle, if someone has needs, you can design and produce them."

This was customized design and production service. Currently, state-owned enterprises couldn't put down this shelf to do this kind of activity.

In a few years, when production tasks were fewer and wages were hard to pay, then it would be there.

The truck was loaded with ten harvesters. After Li Long said goodbye to Factory Manager Du and left, he gave the driver five yuan and told him to solve the lunch problem on the way—the driver was so happy. Now in the state-owned canteen, a portion of mixed noodles was less than two yuan. Li Long was so generous, so he was naturally happy.

Li Long let the driver send the harvesters back to the county acquisition station. He drove the Jeep, went to the beef and mutton shop here to buy meat, and carried it to his second brother's house.

Li Anguo's family had changed to a new courtyard. When spring started, he wrote a letter to tell Li Jianguo. Li Long knew the address, and he found the place by following the address and asking people all the way.

Li Anguo hadn't finished work yet, and Chen Li Rong was just preparing to cook. Seeing Li Long drive the Jeep over, she was quite happy.

The courtyard was much larger than the original one, similar to the southern courtyard in the county seat that Li Long gave to Sister Yang, and it was cleaned very cleanly.

Li Long moved things down from the Jeep, watching the neighbors who were quite envious—the courtyard was in a similar layout all around. At this time, it was just time to cook, and the gates of each house were open, so it was easy to see.

Shaanxi Province, a certain city.

A new batch of roasted watermelon seeds on the market was very popular with customers. The weight was 250 grams. Although the packaging was the old packaging, they were very smooth to crack, and there was almost no phenomenon of cracking and breaking. The price hadn't changed either, two yuan. It wasn't much, but it wasn't little. Quite a few people were willing to crack these seeds.

So as soon as they hit the market, many people bought them in bulk, and some retail departments also discovered this point and started to import them in large quantities.

However, just when many people thought this was the new roasting process of the roasted goods factory and it would be like this in the future, the next batch of seeds suddenly became like the original one.

Many people were unhappy all of a sudden.

This wasn't hanging people, was it?

The sales side of the roasted goods factory received quite a few calls regarding shipment channels, reflecting the hope of continuing to import the kind of seeds from the previous batch.

And the competitor of the roasted goods factory also discovered this problem. After "inquiring" through many channels, they locked the matter on the import of raw materials.

At this time, commercial intelligence work was basically not valued in private enterprises newly created in the country. Except for those secret formulas, as long as one put in a little effort, one could inquire about others.

Then, someone inquired that the reason the previous batch of goods from the roasted goods factory was so good was because of the raw materials, and the raw materials came from Northern Xinjiang.

Someone immediately had thoughts.

And the first one to be inquired about was Jia Tianlong.

During this time, Jia Tianlong was in the interior. Not only did he need to acquire medicinal herbs in Northern Xinjiang, but the shipment channels in the interior also needed maintenance.

So in the off-season of medicinal herb acquisition, he would spend most of his time here, and then someone came to his door.

"You said watermelon seeds?" Jia Tianlong was really somewhat surprised that someone came to ask him about the channels for watermelon seeds. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 878 =====