Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1434 The New Seeder Enters the Field, Li Juan's Boyfriend Makes His Appearance

In mid-March, Li Long brought back a new type of planter from the Kuishi Agricultural Machinery Factory. Since it was not yet the planting season, the planter was placed in the parking space in front of the purchasing station.

Recently, many of the people who come to buy agricultural supplies are experts. When they see that Li Long has brought back a seeder, they start to comment on it.

Soon, people noticed that this seeder was different from the seeders that everyone usually used. The spacing and number of the funnels at the bottom that leaked cotton seeds were different from those of ordinary seeders.

Immediately, someone asked Li Long, "Mr. Li, is this a new type of seeder? What's the difference?"

Li Long explained, "This is a seeder specifically designed to work with cotton harvesters. Cotton harvesters have rather specific requirements; they are not suitable for the narrow-film or wide-film cotton we are currently growing, so we need a specially designed seeder to match them."

Then someone else laughed and said, "I heard that cotton harvesters produce particularly dirty cotton. The Production and Construction Corps has built a few, but it hasn't been widely adopted. What? Mr. Li, are you still planning to get your hands on this? If the harvested cotton is too dirty, the cotton and linen company won't accept it."

Li Long said, "I'm just experimenting. After all, there's a lot more cotton being planted now, which requires too much manpower. I'm just trying to see if there are any good solutions by experimenting in this direction."

You can discuss future trends with experts like Principal Yang, but you can't talk to the middlemen selling agricultural supplies or the owners of agricultural supply stores in the countryside. They wouldn't believe you anyway.

After all, although more people are planting cotton now, only after the farmland transformation of the four teams has the cotton planting area exceeded half of the farmland area.

Most of the other production teams still mainly focused on grain crops. The total number of cotton fields in the county was only about 100,000 mu, far from the scale of one million mu in later years, leaving a lot of room for development.

Now, the number of casual laborers is increasing, and the price of picking cotton by hand is not high. No one would have thought that in ten years, the price of picking cotton would reach two and a half to three yuan, but the price of cotton is still between three and five yuan.

When Li Long went to the agricultural machinery factory to pick up the seeders, Lao Du told him about another situation: the Corps had already started small-scale cotton harvester experiments and had also bought ten matching seeders from the machinery factory.

Therefore, after Li Long put the planter down, he went to the counter, picked up the phone, and dialed Wang Mingjun's number.

No one answered, so Li Long guessed that Wang Mingjun was busy and decided to call again at noon.

Just before lunchtime, Li Long called Wang Mingjun again, and this time Wang Mingjun answered. Hearing it was Li Long, Wang Mingjun was quite happy. He knew Li Long also grew a lot of cotton, so he asked if he was also preparing agricultural supplies for cotton planting.

After chatting for a bit, Li Long asked him about the cotton harvesting experiment in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Wang Mingjun wasn't surprised, because he knew that Li Long had always been interested in this issue. He had once brought leaders to Li Long's place and bought cotton cleaning equipment.

When Li Long asked this question, Wang Mingjun replied, "Our division did indeed issue a task regarding machine-harvested cotton experiments, but it's not in our company, and there aren't many experimental fields for machine-harvested cotton, only about three to five hundred acres."

As you know, the main problem with machine-harvested cotton is the cleaning process, since the harvested cotton is quite dirty. We started experimenting with it last year, and this year we've expanded the scale a bit.

Some problems were discovered last year and have been resolved this year. Of course, it's uncertain whether new problems will arise. The key is to ensure the harvest time is right. During harvest, a flowering-inducing agent should be applied beforehand; otherwise, there will be too many leaves and the cotton will be too dirty.

Li Long was naturally aware of this, having experienced too many similar processes in his previous life.

His main question now is about the technical aspects of the cotton harvesters used by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and whether they accept machine-harvested cotton there.

Wang Mingjun couldn't be sure about this; he could only say he'd look into it. After all, he wasn't at a level where he could make a decision on this matter.

Li Long asked him to help inquire about it. If it was possible to accept it, that would be best. If not, Li Long planned to ask himself later, since this matter was quite important to him.

Wang Mingjun readily agreed, and also told Li Long about other things. As far as he knew, the experimental area for machine-harvested cotton would become larger and larger in the future, and it was possible that every regiment and every company would have to plant a portion of machine-harvested cotton.

The main reason was the cotton cleaning equipment that Li Long sold them. The technical department of the Corps copied it and made targeted adjustments. Now their cotton cleaning equipment can clean the dirty cotton produced by machine-picked cotton very well.

This was not unexpected for Li Long. After all, the Corps has always attached great importance to this aspect and has made rapid progress in technology. Whether it was the high-horsepower tractors, the cotton harvesters, or even the combine harvesters, the Corps has always been at the forefront of agricultural machinery.

Finally, Li Long asked Wang Mingjun about the land contracting issue.

His idea was that most of the available wasteland around the Fourth Team had already been contracted out, and if he wanted to contract more land, he would have to target the Corps.

Originally, the land reclaimed by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps still belonged to the local government in name, and the Corps was essentially renting or borrowing the land.

However, in order to distinguish the affiliation, the land that the Corps had been cultivating was directly under the Corps' jurisdiction.

To the northeast of the fourth team, there are still large tracts of wasteland available for reclamation, but those lands are now considered the territory of the Production and Construction Corps. Even if they are lent to the Corps, the jurisdiction still belongs to the Corps.

If Li Long and his men wanted to cultivate the land, they would have to get the approval of the military corps.

When Wang Mingjun heard Li Long ask about land contracting, he told him the truth:

"Xiaolong, I'm not afraid to tell you, why are we and Lao Zhao's company so fixated on making big brooms? Isn't it because we can earn cash by making big brooms?"

The farming rules in the Production and Construction Corps are different from yours. In the early stages, the Corps pays for all the agricultural supplies, such as machinery, water, and fertilizer. After keeping enough grain for themselves, everything else must be handed over to the Corps.

In particular, all cotton had to be delivered to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Cotton and Linen Company. After the Corps verified and reimbursed the expenses for public use, the remaining funds were finally returned to the employees.

But to be honest, the process wasn't very transparent, and many employees were dissatisfied. Some didn't receive their pay at the end of the year, and some were even in debt. Therefore, many employees in our production team who cultivate land are unwilling to contract more land.

Li Long then asked, "What if we were to contract your land?"

Wang Mingjun said with a wry smile, "In name, we naturally welcome you with open arms. But you need to think carefully. If you come here to contract land to grow cotton, the cost will naturally be covered by the Corps."

However, the cotton produced must ultimately be delivered to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps' cotton and linen company for verification. Whether the verification results cover your costs is ultimately not up to you.

As soon as he said that, Li Long understood.

The reason I thought of contracting land from the Production and Construction Corps was because the last time a cooperative was established was more than ten years later. After the cooperative had "divided up" all the land in the village, it tasted the benefits and then set its sights on land outside.

Some members of the cooperative went to contract land from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. At that time, the Corps had already undergone restructuring, and the land that originally belonged to the Corps collective was contracted to individual employees. Each employee had fifty mu of land under their name. If they wanted to cultivate more, they could contract land from the company or regiment at a low price.

At that time, the scope of the reform was quite large. One very important aspect was that the crops grown were no longer required to be sold to the cotton and linen companies or grain enterprises of the Production and Construction Corps.

For this reason alone, many people would go to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to contract land, because the land area there is not small.

Li Long never expected that outsiders would face such great restrictions when contracting land with the Production and Construction Corps.

It seems I oversimplified things.

No wonder Wang Mingjun and Zhao Zongming were so enthusiastic and proactive from the very beginning in making the big broom.

And the reason they set such high standards is precisely to leave this task behind.

After all, the company and its employees receive real money for this mission.

Unlike farming, where you only get paid at the end of the year and don't even know exactly how much you'll get, this is different.

This policy is somewhat similar to the production teams before the household responsibility system, where work points were settled at the end of the year to determine whether there was a loss or not.

Of course, it's also like a certain platform where you write a book for a month and only find out how much money you can earn at the beginning of the second month.

Unlike some other platforms, where you can roughly estimate how much money you can earn simply by calculating how many subscribers you have, and you might even get some extra surprises, such as royalties.

Or rather, the income situation at this point is somewhat similar to the current situation of Li Long's production team.

The other platform is somewhat similar to the situation Wang Mingjun and his team are in now.

After learning the details from Wang Mingjun, Li Long hung up the phone. It seemed that if he wanted to further expand the cooperative's land area, he would have to look for wasteland in other production teams.

Of course, the remaining shareholders of the cooperative who have nothing to do can also find their own solutions. After all, they only have a few connections, but the other shareholders of the cooperative have relatives or friends who are scattered in more distant places.

Li Long planned to talk to these people at the next cooperative meeting, and then focused his attention on the twenty mu of experimental fields in the township.

Although those twenty acres of land were nominally part of the cooperative, they were actually a cooperative agreement between Li Long and Principal Yang, with Li Long primarily responsible for the planting.

The cooperative usually starts sowing cotton in early to mid-April, which avoids windy days and allows for earlier planting, ensuring that the cotton blooms a few days earlier.

During this period, Li Jianguo, the eldest brother, told Li Long something, asking him to see if he could get another high-horsepower tractor.

Now, most of Li's relatives work at the agricultural machinery cooperative. The cooperative's business now covers the entire township and is expanding to other townships, serving more than 30,000 to 40,000 mu of farmland.

There is still a shortage of high-horsepower tractors, and the same applies to matching implements such as seeders and reversible plows.

Therefore, Li Jianguo's idea is to bring over two more high-horsepower tractors, along with matching agricultural implements, so that the agricultural machinery cooperative's business scope can be expanded to several townships in the northern part of the county.

Previously, Li Jianguo and Li Long had similar thoughts. They both thought that as long as they did their own thing and were well-off, that was enough.

Now that they've established an agricultural machinery cooperative, they've become more ambitious and want to expand their business scope and grow stronger.

Li Long naturally supported his elder brother's idea, and he immediately contacted Liu Gaolou, asking him to bring several more high-horsepower tractors on his next trip.

Liu Gaolou naturally had no objections and immediately informed Liu Shanmin of the request.

When Liu Gaolou arrived in early April, he brought with him two high-horsepower tractors and matching farm implements. According to Liu Gaolou, these two high-horsepower tractors were brought directly from a farm near Almaty.

The farm originally intended to use the goods themselves, but Liu Shanmin provided a lot of things, so the other party sold the high-horsepower tractor.

Li Long thought this was normal, since it was a relatively difficult time, even worse than the lean season. When private ownership reforms were implemented and prices soared, people had less money and couldn't even afford agricultural supplies.

Li Long wasn't particularly knowledgeable about high-horsepower tractors, so as soon as the goods arrived, he immediately called his older brother to have someone come and receive them.

This time, Li Jianguo came in person with his men. After inspecting the two high-horsepower tractors, he patted the machines and said, "They're very well maintained. With a little work at home, they'll be ready to be used for plowing."

With these two high-horsepower tractors, we can break even by the end of this year, and your dividends will definitely exceed the cost of one machine, and it will certainly be even more next year.”

Li Long didn't care how much the dividend was; he was quite happy to see his older brother's ambitious look.

After Li Jianguo and his men drove away with the two tractors and their equipment, Li Long had to supply Liu Gaolou with more canned goods and sugar.

When he took Liu Gaolou to the sugar factory to buy sugar, Section Chief Hu revealed some good news to Li Long: the sugar factory had already sensed a crisis and was planning to report to the leadership of the division and city to see if it needed to be restructured or reformed.

After all, the sugar mills are already showing signs of decline, and if they don't take proper measures, they will have to exit the market.

Although the sugar factory still appears to be thriving on the surface, its market competitiveness has declined significantly.

Although people are used to Oasis Sugar Cubes and the white sugar from Bayi Sugar Factory, when cheaper white sugar appears on the market, they still habitually calculate which one is more cost-effective.

After all, we only have so much money on hand, and we're not living extravagantly yet.

By the time Oasis Sugar Cubes become a nostalgic symbol, it will be at least twenty years from now.

Li Long was quite happy about this situation, after all, he had developed a strong bond with the sugar factory over the years.

Section Chief Hu also gave him a little inside information, saying that he was about to be promoted to deputy factory director. Li Long hurriedly congratulated the old section chief.

Section Chief Hu smiled and said, "I always thought I would stay in this position until retirement, but I didn't expect to be promoted. Well then, I'll continue to serve the overall situation."

Li Longcai didn't believe that Section Chief Hu was unaware of the promotion process, but since the leader said so, he believed him.

Moreover, Li Long knew that Section Chief Hu was inclined to reform the sugar factory. In the previous life, the sugar factory would collapse in four or five years. He wondered if this reform plan, which was suddenly launched in this life, could save the large factory.

Section Chief Hu also told Li Long that although he would be the deputy factory director in the future, Li Long could still come to him to buy sugar in the future.

After all, it's an old relationship, and they're still interested in Li Long's foreign exchange business.

Li Long has spent most of his foreign exchange reserves on buying sugar over the years. Of course, the sugar itself was also largely exchanged for the foreign exchange, so it can be considered that he has made the most of it.

He still had some left, thinking he would just spend it slowly.

In recent years, when trading with Liu Shanmin, the main method has been barter, with US dollars only going out and not coming in, and the amount is decreasing.

However, Li Long didn't think much of it, since he didn't have any other places to use US dollars. He used to be able to buy things at the Friendship Store, Antique Store, and Foreign Exchange Store in Yanjing, but now there's nothing good to buy there anymore. He's accumulated more and more things, so he no longer wants to focus on that area.

On April 10th, Li Long, along with Principal Yang and others, planted cotton on twenty mu of land in the village using a new type of planter. For the students of the Agricultural Broadcasting School, this was just an ordinary practice.

But Li Long felt that this date needed to be noted, since it was the first time in the whole township and even the whole county that machine-harvested cotton had been planted.

Even Beiting Prefecture should be experiencing this for the first time.

The machinery factory near Lao Du's place has cotton harvesters that have been tested around the Seventh Agricultural Division in Kui City, and then some improvements have been made.

Li Long plans to borrow the cotton harvester when he harvests cotton in the fall.

Of course, as a prophet, he was aware of some precautions regarding machine-harvested cotton.

The key is to apply catalysts and defoliants in August and September.

Throughout April, everyone was quite busy. The cooperative was busy planting thousands of acres of cotton. The shareholders who had already invested were also busy, as even picking up cotton bollards from the trucks was a lucrative job.

By joining the cooperative, one receives a share of the profits, and by working alongside the cooperative, one can also earn some extra money—a win-win situation, and everyone is very happy with their work.

The agricultural machinery cooperative mobilized all its tractors to plow, cut, level, and harrow the land before planting could begin.

High-horsepower tractors are very efficient at plowing the land, and of course, they are also very efficient at making money.

Sowing was basically completed by the end of April, and the next tasks were watering, weeding, and cultivating, which was relatively less demanding.

During the May Day holiday, the Li family had some good news: Li Juan brought her boyfriend, Wang Yusheng, over.

Li Juan had communicated with her family beforehand, and Li Jianguo called Li Long, who had met Wang Yusheng before and knew his basic information.

After meeting in Yanjing, I told my older brother about it when I got back. Of course, Li Juan is a woman of her own mind and wouldn't bring someone home if the relationship wasn't certain.

Therefore, the Li family was very busy during the two days of the May Day holiday. Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei cleaned the yard and leashed the dogs so as not to disturb the guests.

Li Qingxia, the old man, also returned to the village a day early. He and his mother, Du Chunfang, both changed into new clothes, showing that they were taking it quite seriously.

When Li Long arrived at his elder brother's house on the first day, he saw that everyone in the family was quite serious, so he joked, "Look how nervous you all are. Actually, the young man should be the one who's nervous, right?"

Our Juan is a woman of her own mind. The fact that she brought the young man to our home means she approves of him. You're making things too formal; won't the young man be worried?"

Li Jianguo waved his hand and said, "No matter what, if it works out in the future, Juan will be marrying into the family. We can't be too casual. Being too casual will leave a bad impression and affect their relationship."

Li Long's original intention was to say that although the young man's family was from the city and his family was from the countryside, his family was not bad off, and there was no need to make such a big deal out of it.

But the eldest brother, as Juan's father, considered things more thoroughly.

Li Juan and Wang Yusheng arrived at the county bus station by bus, and then Li Long picked them up and took them directly to the team.

This was Wang Yusheng's second meeting with Li Long. He respectfully addressed Li Long as "Uncle" at the bus station, and they chatted about some things after boarding the bus.

He had heard about Li Long's background from Li Juan and knew that Li Long was quite capable, so he was careful when he spoke.

Wang Yusheng brought a lot of gifts on this trip, including cigarettes, alcohol, and canned snacks, which shows that he had considered Li Juan's elders.

Upon arriving at the Li family home, after getting out of the car, Li Juan first introduced Wang Yusheng's name to her family members, and then introduced each of her family members to Wang Yusheng.

Wang Yusheng was also very respectful and polite, addressing each person individually and presenting the gifts he had brought.

Although Li Juan had told him about her family's situation, Wang Yusheng was still somewhat surprised to see the brand-new yard and the cars and farm tools inside. His family had lived in Urumqi for so many years and had never been able to afford a car. It seemed that the Li family was quite wealthy.

Deep down, he still felt a little superior, after all, he lived in the city while Li Juan lived in the countryside. Among Li's relatives, Li Long was capable, but he was still just an uncle.

Now it seems that the Li family's situation is not quite what I expected.

Li Jianguo inquired about the Wang family's situation, and Wang Yusheng answered respectfully.

Just as Li Long said, he was indeed a little nervous.

According to him, he and Li Juan both worked in the autonomous region's government agencies, but in different departments at the provincial level.

Wang Yusheng graduated a year earlier than Li Juan and was more familiar with government work. He also gave Li Juan a lot of guidance when she entered the industry. Of course, in his opinion, Li Juan herself was also excellent enough.

When the Li family's new son-in-law arrived, many villagers gathered to watch the spectacle. Whether someone was coming to visit or not only made Wang Yusheng even more nervous.

Seeing that this was not a good situation, Li Long asked Li Juan to take Wang Yusheng out for a walk.

Li Juan thought the same way. She took the car keys from her father and drove Wang Yusheng out for a drive.

From Xiaohaizi to the cooperative, then to the drip irrigation tape factory, and also to Lao Mahao.

When Wang Yusheng returned after going around in circles, he was even more surprised.

I never imagined the Li family's fortune was so vast! Am I planning to marry a young millionaire? (End of Chapter)