In Qingshuihe Village, the captain and several village cadres treated Li Long as a distinguished guest.
In the team headquarters, watermelons were cut, apples were placed, and I didn’t know where I got a plate of wild strawberries that Li Long had rarely seen since he entered the mountains.
Li Long could tell that the apples must have been pulled from someone's tree temporarily, and there was another apple with leaves on it, which was quite fresh. However, local apples only become sweet after being beaten by frost, so now they taste sour.
As for wild strawberries, they are quite fresh. They are rarely seen in the mountains. It is also a skill that you can still find them here.
It is not easy to eat fruits other than watermelon these days, which shows that these team cadres are still determined.
"Comrade Li Long, you should be satisfied with the thousand big brooms earlier, right?"
"Satisfied, indeed quite satisfied." Li Long nodded, to be honest, he was really satisfied. Maybe they have never taken on such a lucrative job. Except for a few who want to get by, most of them are very standard and of very good quality. The average level is even higher than that of the fourth team.
“Look, people in our village cut more splendens and chop more poles. We also cooperate better. Comrade Li Long, do you think you can give us some more, even if Another thousand, no, five hundred will do!”
The captain was also scared of poverty. This village really has no resources, it is far away from the county seat, and the villagers are relatively conservative in their thinking. There is not a single person in the whole village who goes to the county to set up a stall, let alone do any business.
With the five acres of grain land allocated to each person and the ten or so acres of contracted land, I can have enough food, but I can’t get rich!
As the old saying goes, the people in this village have not yet matured their ideas. The county has set up a forestry team. So many people were caught in one fritillary season and passed through the village every day. So the villagers just got up and went to the mountains to collect some things. The spark of a small fortune was immediately extinguished.
Don’t say they are timid, they have just experienced those years of chaos, and no one dares to say they are not afraid now. If we really want to arrest him and lock him up, who knows when he will be released?
At least I can have enough to eat by farming at home.
Just no money.
So Li Long gave everyone the job of a thousand brooms at once, which really gave everyone a big opportunity.
The captain and the team cadres have discussed it. Li Long said that they did not want the 100 yuan given to the team. As long as they can be assigned some tasks to the team, they can also earn some money - not to mention the captain himself, the team cadres have also made dozens of dollars in the past two days by doing big brooms!
It’s so easy to make money!
Li Long calculated it and found that he really lacked more than a thousand big brooms. Yesterday, it was announced on the loudspeaker at Xu Chengjun's house that the four teams' broom acquisition mission was stopped and would no longer be collected. Villagers, stop making big brooms.
In fact, it was also my elder brother Li Jianguo who finished pruning the splendens splendens. Although there are still some poles in the yard that are not in use, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I can keep it for next year.
As for what Zhang Qiang thinks, what does it have to do with Li Long?
Yesterday, he took the last two hundred brooms collected from the fourth team back to the compound, and today he came to Qingshuihe Village.
Unexpectedly, when he arrived at the team headquarters, the team cadres were all there, waiting for him.
"Since you are so enthusiastic, I will not say polite words. Indeed, there is still a batch of workers, fifteen hundred brooms, and there will be no more." Li Long made it clear, "The requirements are still the same, the quality must be strict. The same goes for the quantity. I won't accept it if it exceeds it, because I won't be able to use it, and it can't be stored at home. Waiting for the appreciation in value?”
This joke was a bit cold. Several team cadres didn’t understand it, but they could tell that Li Long gave him a job of 1,500 brooms, and they all stood up at once. He stood up and patted his chest and promised:
“Don’t worry, Comrade Li Long, we can definitely guarantee the quality of this broom!”
"Yes! We will hold the first pass, and we will let them take back the unqualified ones!"
"It is guaranteed to be brand new splendens, poles, and red willows..."
< br>The captain saw that all the good things had been said by others, and he also stood up. To express his position:
"I don't want to check anything else...don't say it. As long as you really want 1,500 brooms, we will absolutely guarantee the quality!"
Li Long was happy. , all the previous work was for the team, so I didn’t feel deeply. Now I occasionally bake some bread and find it so delicious!
"Okay, starting from tomorrow, I will come here to collect brooms every day until I collect 1,500 brooms."
"Okay, okay, Comrade Li Long, can you collect them today? There are many people in our village. There are still some big brooms left. If they want to collect them today, I will call them over with the loudspeaker."
"Okay." Li Long smiled, these people are really flexible.
"Comrade Li Long, finish collecting the brooms today and have lunch before leaving. I will let my wife kill the chicken now..." the captain said.
"Captain, I can't let you entertain today. Comrade Li Long is here. We all have to express our feelings. Come to my house today! I have geese at home! I will kill a goose today..." said the militia company commander.
"Go to my house, go to my house, my children lassoed two rabbits in the field yesterday, and they were eating rabbit meat..."
"What's so delicious about rabbit meat? It's so skinny, but it's still ugly." It’s the bones, my family slaughtered the chicken!”
……
There was a quarrel just to entertain Li Long!
Li Long quickly raised his hand and said:
"Everyone, please don't argue. I think this will work. I'll pay for it. Let's buy two chickens. We can eat at whose house the chef is good at cooking. You and I didn't chat together. We just wanted to chat while eating to deepen our understanding. Feelings..."
"No, where can I?" the captain said directly. He said, "How can I ask you to pay for it? Captain Meng, your yard is big, so I will go to your house. I will pick up a chicken, and Accountant Liu will pick up a chicken. Your wife is good at cooking, let her do it." How about my wife going over to help?"
"Okay." Captain Meng naturally had no objection.
"Then I'll give you some wine. I have two bottles of Gucheng at home. I'll pick them up later."
"Okay, I've been craving for your bottle of wine for a long time. If Comrade Li Long hadn't come here , you haven’t taken it out yet.”
Such a flurry of talk settled the matter. The captain turned on the microphone and the loudspeaker began to announce that broomsticks could be sent to the army today.
Next he asked the militia company commander to take charge here, and he had to go home to catch chickens.
Every household raises a lot of chickens these days. Firstly, it provides nutrition for children and the elderly, and secondly, people often come to the countryside to collect eggs for a few cents each. If you raise a lot of chickens, you can collect about 70 or 80 eggs a day. If you save a basket and sell them once, you can have enough pocket money for the family for almost a month.
So it is normal for relatives to come and slaughter a chicken. Qingshuihe Township is close to a mountainous area and is bordered by a river. The more water there is, the more grass there will be. It is quite convenient to feed the chickens.
As soon as the loudspeaker announced, within a few minutes someone came with a cart to deliver the broom. Here, Captain Meng and Li Long conducted strict inspections. Everyone was really enthusiastic and took it very seriously.
Of the fifty-five brooms brought by this group of seven or eight people, none of them were unqualified!
Li Long is very happy.
The captain came back and asked Captain Meng to go back. Captain Meng asked clearly that the captain had sent the chickens, and her wife also went to help, and said:
"What should I do when I go back?" It’s business to help Comrade Li Long check the broom!”
“Why don’t you go back and do it yourself? Do you still have a lot of splendens left at home?”
Captain Meng hesitated when he heard his tone. He thought about saying hello to Li Long and went back.
Making money is also important.
The captain’s surname is He, and his name is He Yuqing. He said in his heart that I can’t cure you anymore.
He had the 100 yuan given by Li Long twice as a starting point, and he had the confidence. Naturally, he did not need to hurry up and make a big broom, so he accompanied Li Long here for the acceptance inspection.
Li Long also wanted to charge He Yuqing for the inspection, but He Yuqing refused. When no one came to deliver the broom, he said seriously:
"Comrade Li Long, I didn't feel comfortable holding the money I collected earlier. You later gave us fifteen hundred broom jobs, and I felt relieved.
I As the captain, I can't lead the team members to get rich. In fact, I am quite anxious. With your job now, at least this year The people in our team can live a more relaxed life.
So I won’t take the money. I just hope that if you still have such a job next year, I will be very grateful to you! br>
These days, at least in the boundaries of Ma County, the village cadres Li Long saw were really serious and responsible. There may also be some individuals who have relatively strong authority, but their hearts are still oriented towards the collective and the villagers.
Some of them may not be able to lead the villagers to get rich, but they manage the team very well and there will be no trouble.
A good feature of the rural areas of northern Xinjiang is that it is not easy to form village tyrants in some parts of the country - because almost all villages are formed by people who have come from the mainland in the past 20 or 30 years, so there is no way to form the kind of large-scale comparison in the mainland. Large family groups.
Then there is no way to form a village hegemon, after all, there is no such foundation.
Of course, there are also some places where ethnic issues are involved, so I won’t go into them here.
Before lunch, Li Long collected more than two hundred large brooms, and the tractor bucket was full and still high. He Yuqing helped Li Long tie it up with a rope, and said enviously:
"It is convenient to have a tractor. Tututu will arrive in the county in a short time. Unlike us, in the village except Dongfanghongqi who plows the land, At fifteen, there are no more machines. It takes two or three hours to go to the county by carriage, which is very troublesome.”
"It's coming soon. In two days, everyone will save money and someone will buy a tractor." Li Long could only comfort them. At the moment, farmers can only grow food. Once cash crops are planted, no one can guarantee that someone will harvest them or that they will get a price that will make them rich.
I just told my elder brother to plant melons, but I haven’t found a market yet.
When the big broom is finished, he still has to help find sales. Of course, it’s easy to find sales outlets. Seed companies and roasted seeds and nuts factories really can’t go to Wucheng.
The advantage of being a big city is that as long as you are willing to look for it, you will not have to worry about selling anything.
At noon, we had chicken at Captain Meng’s house. Company Commander Meng's name is Meng Hai. He is a retired volunteer. He was originally a scout. In fact, he was from the 21st Army, the predecessor of later special forces.
During the meal, we talked about things in the army. They said that as soon as the new recruits joined the company, the veterans gave them a thumbs up. When they were looking for some at night, they were asked to go to the cemetery and find some next to the tombstones. A new recruit I was so scared that I wanted to go home or not, and I didn’t want to do it anymore.
Li Long had heard of this kind of thing in his last life. At that time, the boundaries between veterans and recruits were quite strict, and the battle between the two mountains was not over yet. To be honest, it was really possible for the scouts to participate in actual combat. of.
Anything can happen on the battlefield. Not to mention going to the cemetery, it is possible to find information among the dead.
I'm afraid, if the mission is not completed, then I won't be able to be a soldier.
What do you need?
That's too far.
The chicken is stewed in a big pot. Li Long wanted the women and children to come over to eat all the time, but Meng Hai refused, saying that the women and children were eating in the back room and it would not affect the drinking here.
Li Long refused to drink, but everyone else disagreed. He said he wanted to drive a tractor, but He Yuqing gave him a compromise idea:
"Drink a little, drink honey water after drinking, and then go to the team headquarters to rest for a while. It won't be too late to leave after you wake up."< br>
Li Longbian could only drink two drinks, but he was prepared. He could only drink one drink at most, and no more.
You have to be prepared, otherwise these beasts will use all kinds of excuses to clink glasses to you. Basically, they won’t stop until they knock you off your feet.
Although Li Long was prepared, he still drank more than 100 grams, which is more than two taels, and was a little dizzy. Now the tractor will definitely not be able to drive.
Meng Hai’s daughter-in-law brought the bee water. Meng Hai smiled and said:
“Pure mountain honey, cut when the flowers are in bloom, capped and ripe. ”
Listening to the terms he said, Li Long knew that the honey would not be bad.
Take a sip, it is sweet with a little sour, a little astringent, and has a very nice fragrance.
"I'll bring you a cage when I leave. It's not much, it's just a thought." Meng Hai said when he saw that Li Long drank carefully and was still thinking about it.
“No, no, no…” Li Long waved his hand hurriedly.
“Why don’t you use it? I’m telling you, it’s not worth the money. As you can see, I’m also tying up a big broom in the yard. I do it fast. I can do it twenty or thirty times in the past few days. I have school bags, pencils, and tuition and fees for my children. This is all thanks to you..."
"Take it, take it!" He Yuqing also said, "It's what Captain Meng wants. Comrade Li Long, don't refuse."
So he took it.
Plastic cage, the all-purpose kind, packed in five liters. When Li Long finished eating and left, he stuffed five yuan under the bowl.
Beekeeping is not easy for others. It is easier to make money yourself. It is better not to take advantage of others.
After Li Long and the others left, Meng Hai and the others went to bed - Li Long drank less among the whole table, and everyone else drank a lot. Fortunately, there were no drunkards, and everyone went. sleep.
When Meng Hai's wife was clearing the table, she found the five yuan. From the seat, she could see that it was left by Li Long. She didn't know what to do. Meng Hai couldn't wake up at this time, so she had to keep it and wait for her husband. Let’s talk after you wake up.
Li Long squinted for a while at the team headquarters, and the drunkenness quickly passed. More than an hour later, he drove the tractor toward the county.
Go back to the courtyard, unload the broom, put the honey in the storage room, and start counting the accounts.
The days when Jiaotong University will have brooms are still far away, but now they are almost ready.
He no longer considers Zhang Qiang’s more than two thousand brooms. Whoever wants them wants them.
As for Qingshuihe, he really wants to have a job there next year and see if he can take care of it.
It is much better than those swinging goods in the team.
I am really grateful.
Zhang Qiang is really anxious.
Li Long won’t accept it if he doesn’t accept it. He inquired and found out that someone sent a large broom to the Li family the next day, but the Li family didn't want it, saying that Li Long had promised not to accept it anymore.
Zhang Qiang is actually thinking about the second way, that is, if Li Long really doesn't accept his broom and his broom cannot be sold, then he can secretly transfer it to other people's homes and then deliver it to Li Long.
At least this way some brooms can be digested.
Even if the original price is paid back, that’s fine.
But Li Longzhen won’t accept it!
He has been asking around in nearby villages in the past two days, but he has not heard of which village Li Long went to collect the big brooms.
When people heard him ask this question, some people said angrily:
"Your team has cut all the splendens nearby. Even if someone gives us a living, we still have to have something to stab it with!"
Since it’s not from a nearby village, where could it be?
He calculated very clearly that the large brooms Li Long received in the village must be less than three thousand.
After all, Li Long pulled back countless poles, and there are still many poles stored in the Li family.
So where does he get the big broom to complete the task?
Zhang Qiang actually understands that it is not important where to find Li Long to complete the task at the moment. What is important is the more than two thousand large brooms piled at home. If Li Long does not accept them, it will really hurt his own hands. It’s in!
Do you really want to go to the market with a big broom and sell it?
He really doesn’t necessarily have such a face!
Zhang Qiang had no choice but to go to Xu Chengjun. Xu Chengjun didn't care about this matter. After hearing what Zhang Qiang said, he shook his head:
"I wanted to adjust this matter two days ago, and I went to Li's house to ask. I also handed you the conditions they offered. If you didn't accept it at that time, who is to blame?
Let me tell you, this matter It's your fault, you were too greedy. If you say this, Li Long will definitely give you some money for your hard work afterwards. It’s better for you, because you just want to make a lot of money from others. If you don’t make any money now, you are offended, so you can sell the things yourself!”
"Then you have to No matter what, you are the captain..."
"I am the captain, not your father!" Xu Chengjun's temper also rose, and he cursed: "I originally planned to adjust it for you, but you were so stupid at that time. Coaxing, now you want to Come to me if you suffer a loss, I can’t help you!”
He is a militia captain. Although he has never been on the battlefield, he was really trained in the army with real swords and guns. This glare made him lose his temper. Zhang Qiang was immediately scared away.
Xu Chengjun has a gun hanging at home!
This is hopeless.
It’s not that Zhang Qiang never thought of making peace with the elders in the village.
But his brother Zhang Carpenter left very resolutely. If his brother went to find the old man in the village, he might still have some face. He used to follow Carpenter Zhang and had no feeling for the villagers. Now, for a while I didn’t know who to look for for a while.
I tried to find two people, and even found Old Uncle Luo, and asked Old Uncle Luo to blast him out.
"You're a coward, you don't do human affairs! Now that you've suffered a loss, you want to find someone else. What did you do at that time?" Old Uncle Luo chased Zhang Qiang to the gate with a stick, cursing:
"Don't you dare? Come here and break your legs!”
This time, Zhang Qiang was completely blinded.
This matter is difficult to handle! (End of this chapter)