Chapter 954: The telephone is connected, one step closer to modernization

When Li Long was preparing to pay, he asked casually:

"Am I the first to pay?"

"Mm, yes." The staff said with a smile, "There really aren't many comrades as active as you."

"Then can you give some discount? Like choosing a number or something?" Li Long knew that pulling telephone lines and installing telephones were all assigned numbers by the Post and Telecommunications Bureau (later Telecom), and whatever number they gave was whatever number it was, without autonomy.

"We can't do anything about this." The staff shook their head, "The distribution right of the number is not in our hands; this depends on the leaders."

Li Long knew what the situation was.

He asked about some business situations again, and after knowing that long-distance business could be opened here, he opened it. After paying, the staff verified the address information and asked him to go home and wait.

Li Long didn't go home; he drove the jeep to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

When he arrived at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Li Long came directly to Li Xiangqian's office.

"Without Xiao Long, you're back from the mountains?" Li Xiangqian asked this the first time he saw Li Long, "This time I went to the prefecture for a meeting, but I reported this matter and boasted to the leaders. Have you communicated over there? Can it be repaired? Don't leave me hanging."

"It can be repaired." Li Long said, "I went into the mountains, and the tribe held a meeting and communicated. They agreed to repair the road, and they even collected quite a lot of supplies for me, worth twenty or thirty thousand. I plan to add a little to buy a bulldozer, specifically for repairing the road."

"Hey, you're planning to do something big." Li Xiangqian's face bloomed with a smile as soon as he heard that repairing the road was no problem, "Alright, alright, rest assured, I said it, we will definitely guarantee the supplies. The funds for the Supply and Marketing Cooperative in this regard are not much, but it's no problem to add three or five thousand yuan for you.

By the way, have you planned when to start repairing? Do you need to contact reporters and the county's propaganda officers in advance?"

"Mm, I'll handle this matter in the next two days." Li Long said, "At that time, I should be able to call Officer Ma over."

"Alright, alright, I'm at ease with you handling things." With the matters he was concerned about settled, Li Xiangqian relaxed, "What's the matter with you coming here this time?"

"Isn't it that the county has opened program-controlled telephones and private families can install telephones? I was thinking about installing them at my house, the purchasing station, and the village where my elder brother lives. I paid, but they told me I couldn't choose the number, and the right to choose the number is with the leaders. Isn't that why I found you?"

"I knew you wouldn't come to the temple without a reason." Li Xiangqian smiled, "It's not a big deal, isn't it just choosing a telephone number... you're something, installing three telephones; one unit must cost several thousand, right?"

"Business needs. I earned some money from this purchasing station last year, and this year I want to do business with factories in the interior, so this telephone must be installed."

"Rest assured, I'm not jealous of you. We all know you earned that money with hard work. This time Director Qian even specially praised our side, saying that you have courage and ideas, and can sell our local specialties to the interior, which is a great achievement and also gives face to our Beiting Prefecture.

The number thing is simple. I'll call Old Liu now—Old Liu is in logistics at the Post and Telecommunications Bureau, and we often deal with each other; he should be able to handle this matter there. By the way, have you thought about what number you want? Don't even think about particularly good numbers; you can't hold onto them."

"I know that too. So I was thinking, the two numbers in the county seem to start with 666, so 6661666 and 6662666. The one in the village starts with 661, so 6616688?"

"This number isn't small, right? But... it's okay, it's not a four-digit or five-digit sequence anyway, so that's fine." Li Xiangqian didn't have too many thoughts about this.

This number looked good, but actually, it was just like that. In later generations, many enterprises in the county used five-digit or six-digit sequences. Why? Because some numbers were held by Post and Telecommunications (later Telecom), and you could only get them by spending money.

Leaders at this time were afraid of influence, so they wouldn't take numbers that were too smooth.

The area code for Beiting Prefecture was 0994, the number for Beiting City was 0994, starting with 2, and Maxian started with 6. At first, because there were few telephone users in the county, every account started with 666, and the following four digits were random.

The telephone numbers issued by the county to each township also had an order. The Fourth Team where Li Long lived started with 661.

Li Xiangqian made a call, exchanged pleasantries first, and then told the other party about this matter.

The other party asked for Li Long's name, knew that he had paid and hadn't pulled the lines yet, asked for the number he wanted, smiled and said the number was good, and then agreed.

"Alright, that's settled." Li Xiangqian said with a smile, "Nothing else, go get busy."

Li Long left the Supply and Marketing Cooperative with a smile, and the next step was to wait for the lines to be pulled.

The efficiency of the Post and Telecommunications Bureau was very high at this time, perhaps because there was little work, so it was pulled quickly. Within a week, pulling lines, entering the house, installing telephones, testing machines, and issuing numbers, the two telephones at the big courtyard and the purchasing station were all done.

The telephone number at the big courtyard was 6661666, and the purchasing station was 6662666. Both Gu Bo Yuan and Gu Xiaoxia were very satisfied.

The landline was red, the most primitive kind, without an LCD panel, and the buttons were very large.

After the landline was installed, they were also issued a simple telephone directory for various public agencies in the county—there were no Yellow Pages at this time. If Li Long wanted to do it, he could actually intercept the business of a certain famous person in later generations.

Of course, there was no need; it was laborious and didn't make money.

At noon, Li Long, Gu Bo Yuan, Gu Xiaoxia, Sister Yang, Han Fang, and even Mingming and Haohao were surrounding the telephone, looking curiously.

"Who should we call?" Gu Bo Yuan suddenly suggested.

Li Long thought for a moment and said:

"In that case, let me check first."

"Check where?" Gu Xiaoxia asked.

"Our county is resting at noon now, so we can't call the Supply and Marketing Cooperative..."

"Is there one at the team leader's in the village?"

"No, the original telephone was removed." Li Long shook his head, then said: "Beijing is already at work now, but I don't know..."

"Are you trying to call Gu Xiao Yu?" Gu Bo Yuan heard it immediately, and he was immediately a little excited, then asked worriedly, "I don't know the number."

"Then let's ask." Li Long picked up the telephone and dialed 010114. If he didn't know the number, he could check.

"Hello, please check the telephone number for the xx postgraduate research room of the xx college of xx university, okay, thank you..."

After waiting a moment, the telephone number was reported over there.

After Li Long wrote it down, he pressed the telephone, and then dialed out again. After dialing, he handed the telephone to Gu Bo Yuan:

"Uncle Gu, you tell Gu Xiao Yu..."

Although he had made calls before, Gu Bo Yuan was still quite excited holding this telephone today.

A man's voice came from the other side: "Hello, hello, who are you looking for?"

"Oh, oh, I'm looking for Gu Xiao Yu." Gu Bo Yuan almost shouted Gu Xiao Yu's name, but reacted after hearing it was a man's voice, and hurriedly said, "Please call her."

"Who are you?"

"I'm her... family member." Gu Bo Yuan was worried that saying he was Gu Xiao Yu's dad would cause misunderstanding, so he said after a pause.

"Alright, then wait a moment."

Over there, Gu Xiao Yu was preparing materials in the office, and when she heard someone calling, she went over to answer the telephone.

"Hello, hello, I'm Gu Xiao Yu."

"Gu Xiao Yu, it's me." Gu Bo Yuan's voice was shaking, "I'm calling from your brother-in-law's house. We have a telephone now..."

"Dad?" Gu Xiao Yu shouted out, "Brother-in-law's house installed a telephone? That's really great. Quick, quick, tell me the telephone number, I'll write it down..."

"6661666, this is your brother-in-law's house, and the purchasing station is 6662666. I'm usually there. Your sister can only call after work and on weekends, but I'm there anytime..."

"Area code, the area code is 0994," Li Long reminded from the side, "You must add the area code."

"Yes, yes, yes, there's an area code in front, 0994," Gu Bo Yuan hurriedly added. Because Gu Xiao Yu was still at work, she didn't say much, just saying she would call after work.

"Hey, it's fast; we can talk directly." Gu Bo Yuan reacted after hanging up the telephone, not letting Gu Xiaoxia talk to her sister, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Mm, it'll be fine when Gu Xiao Yu calls back; she will definitely call back in the evening." Li Long smiled, "It's good now; the telephone is connected. When the meal is ready here, just call the purchasing station and tell them."

"Yes, yes, yes, then I'll go over first and see the installation situation there."

Watching Gu Bo Yuan leave in a hurry, Li Long smiled.

In the previous life, after ordinary people in the village installed telephones, the biggest use was to make appointments to play cards or make appointments to catch fish with nets. It was lively for a while, but later fewer people called.

Returning to the east room, Sister Yang saw that Han Fang was still a little absent-minded, so she said: "When we move back to the south courtyard, we'll also pull a line and install a telephone. When you get into university and leave, if you miss Mom, just call home."

"Mm," Han Fang said, "When we move over, I'll help Mom sell food during the holidays, earn more money, and then we can install a telephone."

Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long stayed at home studying the telephone.

He remembered that the area code for Kuitun was 0992, so he checked the telephone number of the agricultural machinery factory, and after dialing through, he looked for Factory Director Du.

Factory Director Du heard the office say there was a telephone looking for him, and asked:

"Did they say who called?"

"Forgot to ask..." the staff member was a little embarrassed.

Factory Director Du didn't say anything either. The telephone hadn't been installed for long, and he hadn't trained the staff, so it was normal to forget to ask where it was called from.

"The person just said it was long-distance." The staff member added.

Long-distance? Who would call?

Factory Director Du answered the telephone:

"Hello, hello, I'm Du Tongzhou."

"Factory Director Du, hello, I'm Li Long." Li Long responded with a smile, "How was the New Year?"

"Comrade Li Long, hello, hello! Where are you calling from? How did you know my number here?"

"Checked with the directory assistance." Li Long said with a smile, "I'm calling from home. I pulled a telephone line at home. Isn't it, after it was opened, I hurriedly called you to see how things are over there."

"Things are pretty good here, producing harvesters while producing cultivators. This cultivator is still quite good. We have a cooperation with the tractor factory over there. When they sell tractors, they introduce our cultivators and harvesters, and we give them a certain fee for every unit sold there. This is quite useful, and now orders are constant."

Factory Director Du was in a good mood. After all, the factory had orders and good benefits, so the workers had motivation, work bonuses were constantly issued, and the factory would become more and more prosperous.

These two star products were both related to Li Long, so Factory Director Du was naturally very polite to Li Long.

"Hey, as long as there are orders, it's fine. I'll go over and pull a few cultivators back in a while. After sowing in the spring this year, this will be very useful."

"No need to come over and pull. We are going to send goods to Wucheng in a while. We'll bring them for you then, and just unload them when passing by Maxian. How many do you want?" Factory Director Du's tone was also unusually confident now.

The goods in the factory were not only sold to Wucheng, but also to Southern Xinjiang. Although there were already imitation products on the market, their factory's brand effect had already been established, and those who didn't lack money and believed in the brand would still buy their factory's products. The production scale had been expanding, so they were confident enough.

"That would be great." Li Long said with a smile, "Then I'll wait here."

"Don't just wait." Factory Director Du said with a smile, "If you have any new design ideas, you have to tell us. We are old partners; if you have any new ideas, you must remember us.

Let's put it this way, our cooperation before was relatively extensive. Later, if you have any good ideas, after the product is made, how about I give you a commission for every piece sold?"

Factory Director Du had thought about this matter long ago. The two products proposed by Li Long were very popular in the market. Their own technical personnel had also studied auxiliary agricultural machinery, but the things produced couldn't open up the market, farmers didn't recognize them, and most of them felt a bit like chicken ribs, without a market and couldn't be sold.

The production of harvesters and the cooperation with Li Long was to define the sales scope, and both sides were quite satisfied with this. Li Long didn't make any requests for the cultivator, but Factory Director Du didn't think about earning Li Long's design for nothing. He planned to send the cultivator Li Long wanted over for free and give Li Long a design fee.

After these two products, he already knew the importance of design—it could also be said that this agricultural machinery factory could develop and grow, all relying on this harvester to support it, and now the cultivator had also continued. Although the price was not high, with the reclamation of wasteland in various places, the demand for this cultivator was very large, even larger than the harvester, and almost every small four-wheel tractor could be equipped with one.

Accumulating small amounts into large ones, the quantity was not small.

Of course, Factory Director Du also knew that the technical content of this cultivator was much smaller than that of the harvester, and imitation was also easy, so he was now trying to find ways to quickly establish the brand and occupy the market.

"Okay. I have some ideas for the time being, and I'm perfecting them. After they are perfected, I'll go to Kuitun and talk to you specifically." After Li Long learned about the cotton production situation in the Corps last year, he knew that the thing that was even more popular than the harvester and cultivator and lasted for a particularly long time could be put on the market in advance in two years.

After chatting with Factory Director Du for a few more sentences, Li Long hung up the telephone.

It felt very good; there was no need to run around for everything, and everything could be settled with one telephone call.

It saved a lot of trouble.

Li Long spent the whole afternoon calling his "connections" and at the same time perfecting his own telephone directory. There were no mobile phones at this time, and almost every family's telephone, besides the telephone directory issued by the county, had a handwritten telephone directory, which would record the telephone numbers of important people.

Li Long not only called Factory Director Du, Section Chief Hu, Director Qian, and others to send greetings, but also contacted Jia Tianlong, Zhao Hui, Huang Lei, Bai Xiu Ming, Dong Zhi Chao, and others in the interior. Jia would come to find him after spring, and Zhao Hui asked him how the skins collected during this period were after knowing it was Li Long calling.

Zhao Hui's family was in the south, where the importance attached to the New Year was much stronger than Li Long's side, so he hadn't finished celebrating the New Year and didn't plan to come out.

Li Long also told him that he had accumulated some skins here, and if Zhao Hui came after the New Year, it would be enough to pull a truckload.

As for Jia Tianlong, he was at ease bringing up his children at home, very happy.

Calling Huang Lei, Bai Xiu Ming, and Dong Zhi Chao was just to maintain a relationship, telling them his telephone number so that they could notify him in time when there was a purchasing plan over there.

Don't underestimate this call. At this time, many people were still very hesitant about the four-thousand-yuan installation fee, and some lost business opportunities because they didn't install telephones.

After all, when these speculative factories needed raw materials, they naturally hoped to be able to ask clearly if there were goods here without leaving the factory, saving a wasted trip.

Of course, later on, everyone attached importance to it, and it was different.

Unknowingly, Li Long's circle of connections had already become very large. This made him a little proud; relying on this circle, he could easily earn hundreds of thousands a year by reselling various materials collected from the county.

For example, last year, not to mention the small aspects, the big head of fritillaria earned more than two hundred thousand; but because he collected the payment before collecting the goods, the principal wasn't that much, so the actual money earned was less than two hundred thousand, but not much less.

But throughout the year, the net money earned from scattered skins was also more than one hundred thousand, and there was also melon seeds, earning less than two hundred thousand.

Plus things like big brooms, the final combined net profit was about five or six hundred thousand.

With this purchasing station, the money earned in a year suddenly increased more than tenfold compared to the previous year.

This speed of making money suddenly made Li Long a little unaccustomed.

Of course, he also knew clearly that it was largely because he had made a name for himself in the entire Beiting region and established a brand.

So even though it was still winter, there were people coming from other counties to sell things every day.

This was the brand effect.

While sighing, the telephone rang.

Li Long looked at the time and guessed that it was highly likely to be a call from Gu Xiao Yu. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 955 =====