Xu Chengjun, dressed in reed hair, led the carriage back home.
When the horse number in the team was drawn by lot, he didn't catch it, but one family did catch it and had no money, so he bought the horse and the carriage.
In fact, with Xu Chengjun’s financial resources, it would be no problem to buy the tractor in the team, but he couldn’t buy it because he couldn’t drive it and it was too ostentatious.
Wang Tiancheng from the village came to get this reed handle this time. He was full of reluctance - because Wang Tiancheng did not give this work to the team, or did not give the team money, just gave He personally gave him fifty yuan and asked him to help shout.
Li Xiangxiang, the unit chief of the supply and marketing cooperative, also called him to look for Li Long, but Li Long was in the mountains. How could he find him so easily? Things were urgent at that time, and it was too late to go to the mountains to find him, so Wang Tiancheng had to do it.
The life belongs to others, and there is nothing Xu Chengjun can do about it. But he couldn't stop the people in the team from making money, so he followed Wang Tiancheng's wishes and called the leaders of each village group and asked Wang Tiancheng to take Hu Laoer to talk about the matter.
The price of a dime reed is actually not low, it was about the same price in previous years.
But judging from the experience of working with Li Long these two times, Xu Chengjun knew that Wang Tiancheng must have made a lot of money from it.
But there is no way, the work belongs to others, and it is impossible not to do it.
Xu Chengjun also needs to make money. Today he also cut reeds for a day and cut forty or fifty bundles. There are twenty or thirty reeds in each bundle that can be tied into reed handles, and the rest are still there. Some hairy reeds.
It requires a lot of labor to cut the reeds into bundles, then pull them back and remove the reed leaves.
The team itself is relatively small, and now most of them are joining in order to earn a bunch of money.
Drawing reeds is usually done by women and children. They sit on the ground with a bundle of freshly cut reeds placed on the left side. The reed-haired cherry blossoms are facing towards themselves. They untie the bundled reed waist and pull out a piece of reed. Weizi, with his right hand, pulled the reed-haired Yingzi forward, and with his left hand, he stroked the reed pole, and then the leaves of the reed were rubbed off, leaving the bare stem. This can be used directly to press the handle on the pressing pliers.
Pressing pliers are like large nut-cracking pliers, except they are as big as a guillotine. They are hollow in the middle and fixed with a table below. Put the ten reeds in the middle, press the upper handle, compress the ten reeds tightly, and then wrap them with thin wire. A reed handle usually needs to be wrapped with three thin wires, so the fine wire consumption is quite large.
After the reeds were removed, their main function was to build houses. When building private houses, a layer of reed handles should be placed on top of the wood for rafters and purlins. The reed handles should be spread very densely, and a layer of house mud should be placed on top to prevent rain leakage and maintain ventilation.
Xu Chengjun was cutting reeds outside, while Ma Hongmei was drawing reeds and pressing reed handles at home. At the end of the day, a family can make fifty or sixty - Ma Hongmei also has to cook, and she is not very efficient at work.
So now there are a lot of reed bundles piled outside the Xu family courtyard, which have not been untied.
Xu Chengjun knew his wife's ability, so he didn't say anything. He found a towel to pat the reed hair off his body, and then went to wash his face.
"Li Long of the Li family is back." Ma Hongmei came over and picked up the reed hair on his head and said, "Tao Daqiang was asking from house to house, asking those who did not follow Hu Laoer if they wanted to give Li Long Long Zha reed handle, a reed handle is 15 cents, we Do you want..."
"Five cents? The stupid Wang Tianguo is really dark!" Xu Chengjun threw the towel into the basin with a snap, "That Hu Laoer is nothing. Join forces with outsiders to trick our own people!”
"Then, should we send the tied reeds to Lao Ma tomorrow? Tao Daqiang said that Li Long would give us cash. As long as he is qualified, we can pay now!"
"Then... no." Xu Chengjun thought for a while, shook his head and said, "We signed a contract with Hu Laoer and the others. Although it was just a piece of paper, it said that if you don't hand over something, then You have to pay for it, this guy made such a piece of paper, it’s disgusting!”
“Then let’s get it done quickly, it’s just a few hundred reeds, work hard for a few days, and then go to Li Long to do it! , 15 cents, one is five cents more, one hundred is five yuan more...it's more than ten yuan!"
Ma Hongmei was unwilling, but there was nothing she could do.
"The same goes for Li Long. Wouldn't it be better to come back a few days earlier?"
"That's right." Xu Chengjun also sighed. If Li Long had come back a few days earlier and handed this job to the team, the team would still be able to get five cents... Oh, this Li Long, you have to have a good talk with him!
Li Long returned to Lao Mahao and handed a few sprigs of Codonopsis pilosula to Lao Luo, telling him that someone was coming to live here and asked him to help with cooking, of course for processing money.
“What’s the extra wage?” Old Uncle Luo glared, “Isn’t this Codonopsis pilosula free of charge? I want your stuff for nothing, and then I ask you for more money, so who am I? Aren’t I just getting more people? As for eating, I can also make a big pot of rice. I can’t make it well, but I can fill myself up with this food..."< br>
"I'll bring back some corn flour and white flour tomorrow, and some rice. We definitely can't just eat fine grains. Such young men can make us poor!" Li Long said with a smile, "Everything is available." Get some and mix it with it.”
“Okay.”
Li Long began to clean up the house. It turned out that there was some unsold Cynomorium cynomorium piled in a house, and Li Long also cleaned it up and put it in the sundries storage. This will free up two rooms. If you just cover it with grass, it can accommodate a dozen or so people. It's just a bunkhouse anyway. If these people come here to work, it's not like going to school, so they won't think too much about it.
Twenty years later, middle school and college students went to the Corps to pick up cotton as part of their work-study studies, or flower pickers from the mainland came to pick up cotton. Many of them lived in Datongpu like this. If the conditions are good, a wooden bed can be laid out. If the conditions are not good, a wooden bed can be laid on the ground with wheat straw, and the bunks are placed directly on top. The bunks are placed one meter apart from each other.
Basically, no one complains. After all, you get up early to eat and then work. You just eat in the fields at noon and don’t come back until dark at night. Those who are energetic after eating can still wander around nearby. Most of them just go there. Just wash up and go to sleep. It's pretty much the same now.
Li Long cleaned up the house and got some wheat straw to pave the place. The rest will be left to the young man who may come over. After all, once they come here, they can't go to work directly. Cleaning up the place where they live is also one of their tasks.
While things were still being tidied up here, there was a voice at the door of Lao Ma.
It was getting dark. When Li Long went over to look, he found that it was Tao Dayong, driving a donkey cart with a pile of reed handles on the donkey cart.
"Xiaolong, I heard from Daqiang that you can collect the reeds for fifteen cents each?"
"Yes." Li Longxin said, wouldn't you just send them over here? ?
"Will you accept my car?"
"Take it." Li Long didn't have such a strong moral obsession. He didn't care whether the reed was ordered by someone else, but he had to say ugly things first. He said to Tao Dayong, "Dayong, my price is high. , pay now, but I have to make it clear that the quality must be guaranteed, otherwise , I don’t want it here.”
“No problem, I’ll take it off if you see which ones are qualified. I’ll take away the ones that are not qualified.”
Li Long will find one. Use a wooden ruler to measure the size first. It's basically enough for two and a half meters, so that's no problem.
Then look at the thickness of the reed handle and whether there are fine-haired reeds, then the quality of that thing is not up to standard.
Most of the branches were made of thick reeds, which were not bad. Li Long took four out and put them back on the donkey cart, leaving the remaining twenty-six.
"Take the three yuan and ninety cents." Li Long said, "Dayong, please send this reed over here, and then Hu Laoer's side..."
"Xiaolong, you don't need this. Just wait and collect the reeds." Tao Dayong spat on his fingers happily and said to Li Long with a smile, "I'm leaving, Xiaolong."
< br>He gave a thumbs up.
Tao Dayong led the donkey cart and hummed and left. Old Uncle Luo came over and shook his head and said:
“I heard that they all signed the paper with Hu Laoer. Even though I came up, I didn’t know…”
"No matter." Li Long shook his head, "Most people are probably still afraid. But if most people don't believe that piece of paper, Hu Laoer probably won't be able to make a fuss. It depends on what to say."
At this time, the legal system It's not yet sound. If Wang Tiancheng and Hu Laoer really get into trouble, it depends on the specific situation.
Li Long didn't intend to participate in anything, he just collected the reeds quietly.
He admitted that he had engaged in a price war, which was normal. He earned less, so that the people on the team could earn more, and he could also oppress his opponents. Why not?
Not only did Tao Dayong come over to send reeds that night, but seven other families also sent reeds. The last time it was past twelve o'clock, someone pulled the reed handle over.
Li Long took out more than ten yuan that night, and more than a hundred reeds were piled in the horse yard.
It’s worth it.
The next morning, when Li Long and Lao Luo were having breakfast, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yong came over. Although it is not hot all day now, there is no need to get up early like picking cotton to avoid the heat during the day.
But people who work still like to go early so that they can do more in a day. After all, at this time in late autumn, the days are short and the nights are long.
"Come on, come on, get some gloves here, some thin wire over there." Li Long shouted. He gave out gloves, three pairs to each family, mainly for reed beating and reed pulling. Old Uncle Luo is responsible for sending out fine wire, which is half a kilogram for the family. Of course, this is an estimate. After all, the fine wire used to tie the reed handles is not a lot. A reed handle is less than one meter long.
After receiving the things, these people left quickly and went directly to Weihu or Weigou to collect reeds. This usually depends on where your home is. In Laozhuangzi in the west, go to Weigou, in Dongzhuangzi, go to Weihu Lake, and in Xinzhuangzi, you may also go to Xiaohaizi, so you have to find a shallow place to get into the water.
Li Long wanted to wait for the people Li Jianguo picked up, so he stayed at Lao Ma.
Li Jianguo’s people haven’t arrived yet, but Xu Chengjun came over.
He came to Li Long to complain.
Of course, what he said, in Li Long's opinion, is that complaining is false, but building relationships is true. (End of chapter)