yournovel Chapter 1428 How to persuade a persistent girl; the land was redistributed.
Chapter 1428 How to persuade a persistent girl; the land was redistributed.
They pulled the person into the car, and the group squeezed together to drive to the bus station—it was only a few hundred meters away, but it didn't look good to fight over the person, so they simply drove.
Xu Haijun was still leading his men to check the cars. When he saw Li Long and his group drive into the parking lot, he knew that things were done.
He didn't bother to investigate further, gave a shout, and led his men over.
Li Long rolled down the car window and said to Xu Haijun:
"We've found him. Let's go back first."
Xu Haijun felt relieved upon hearing this. He peeked into the car and saw the young man being held down by two people with a car-wiping towel stuffed in his mouth, and the girl who was pursing her lips and stubbornly refusing to speak. He felt a bit of a headache.
"We've all been traveling and must be tired. Let's find a place to eat first," Xu Haijun said, thinking that everyone had been busy with the Xu family's affairs and they couldn't just go back like this.
"Let's drive back first, find a quiet place to ask, and then we'll go to Beiting City to eat." Li Long had already thought it through. "We made a lot of noise when we were looking for someone earlier. We don't want to attract the police and cause misunderstandings. It would be troublesome to explain later."
Xu Haijun immediately agreed. He was unfamiliar with the area, and although what he was doing wasn't illegal, it would be difficult to explain if the police were brought in.
The two cars drove out of Urumqi one after the other, and in the middle of the Urumqi-Yining Highway, they turned onto a rural road and stopped.
Xu Haijun, along with two Xu brothers, dragged the young man down to the poplar field and beat him mercilessly. The towel in the young man's mouth was knocked off, and his screams pierced the sky.
Xu Haijun picked up the towel that was covered in dirt and stuffed it back in.
Xu's younger sister tried frantically to step forward to stop him, but Xu Haijun pulled her aside and reasoned with her.
Li Long knew that it was unlikely to work. He knew a little about this Xu girl; she was the youngest in her family and quite pampered, but her grades weren't good. She didn't get into high school after graduating from junior high and stayed at home.
They don't work very hard anymore. After all, the living standards of the fourth team have improved, and parents are treating their children better. If they don't want to work, they don't work. This has become a common phenomenon.
Xu's daughter longs to go out and work, but her family won't allow it. After all, she's only seventeen or eighteen, inexperienced, and underage, so there's a high chance she'll be scammed if she goes out.
Xu Haijun once asked Li Long to try working at a cannery or a jerky processing workshop, but after looking around and seeing the workers, she said the work was too tiring and didn't want to go.
She wasn't exactly lazy, but she was certainly suspected of being that way. However, she was quite diligent at home. Although her family didn't allow her to do chores, she would usually help out. On several occasions when Li Long drove home or out of the village, he would see her with a towel tied around her head, riding a tractor to the fields.
Then I heard that he was very stubborn, not just ordinary stubborn, which may be one of the reasons for his departure.
After the wailing and howling over there ended, the interrogation began.
The young man kept begging for mercy, and later even said that the Xu family girl had invited him to run away with her.
Xu Haijun was furious and yelled at his sister, who was still tearing into the argument:
"This is the coward you picked! Look at him, he hit you a couple of times and then pushed all the blame onto you. If you really go to his hometown with him, won't he push you to the front if something happens?"
The Xu girl stopped struggling, just pursed her lips and didn't say a word.
Li Long listened for a while, but couldn't bear to listen anymore. It was mainly because the young man was good at talking and coaxing Xu's sister into taking out the money she had saved. He described to Xu's sister that their place was beautiful with clear waters and green mountains, and that the people were nice. He said that women could work if they wanted to after marriage, and if they didn't want to work, they could stay at home and do housework.
The description is very good, excellent.
Xu Haijun laughed in anger upon hearing this, and said to his sister:
"You believe what he said? If things were really that good over there, would he come here to work? If the women really didn't work, then why would they cook after picking cotton while the men went off to drink? Among the people Wang Yongcheng brought were families. Haven't you ever heard of men beating women?"
The girl from the Xu family remained silent, but the way she looked at the young man was different.
After clarifying the situation, Xu Haijun took out a rope, tied up the young man, stuffed a towel in his mouth, put him in the trunk, and the others got in the car. They drove to Beiting City for dinner.
For lunch, we ordered soup rice for the Xu family's younger sister, while the others had noodles with braised pork. Everyone asked for extra noodles first.
Xu's sister ate slowly, which reassured Li Long. At least she could eat, which meant she wasn't planning on taking a desperate path.
Nobody mentioned the young man in the trunk; he deserved to be punished.
After finishing their meal, they rushed back home. When they arrived home in the afternoon, Xu Haijun told Li Long not to go home yet, but to come with him to find Wang Yongcheng.
"The man is his subordinate, he has to give an explanation!" That's what Xu Haijun said.
Sending Li Long was mainly to keep things under control. Li Long was the most influential person in the team, and Wang Yongcheng, who made money as a middleman, valued this aspect quite a bit; he was afraid of Li Long's influence.
The two cars went to the courtyard that Wang Yongcheng had rented, and he was indeed there.
Seeing the two cars arrive at the door and several people get out, Wang Yongcheng breathed a sigh of relief.
If we don't bring the person back, then things will get really serious.
Xu Haijun took the young man out of the trunk. Wang Yongcheng's lips twitched as he looked at him. Although they weren't relatives, just fellow villagers, he felt sorry for the young man in such a condition.
But at this point, all he could do was step forward and kick the young man twice, saying resentfully:
"I knew I shouldn't have brought you out! Your dad begged me so many times before I finally agreed, and who knew you'd cause such a huge mess! Instead of doing a proper job to earn money, you insist on doing those immoral things, do you want to die?!"
At this point, he angrily kicked the young man twice more; this time he was truly furious.
This was my first time setting up a stall, and I was hoping to make some money, but who knew I'd run into such a coward?
Before Xu Haijun could speak, he immediately said:
"Gentlemen, to be honest, we were in the wrong. This guy I brought is a piece of trash. We'll take whatever punishment we want!"
Upon hearing this, Li Long immediately began to look at Wang Yongcheng with new respect.
He's no ordinary person.
This attitude was very humble. Xu Haijun was not an aggressive person. He originally wanted to confront them, but after hearing what they said, he couldn't say anything.
Li Long then said:
"Luckily, we found her and there wasn't much loss, otherwise we would have crippled him today. We're handing her over to you; keep a close eye on her. We don't want to make a big deal out of this and involve the authorities, otherwise we'd be guilty of human trafficking—our girl is only seventeen, not even an adult yet!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Yongcheng's mouth twitched twice more. He was only in his early twenties, but he had been working so hard these past few days that he looked almost thirty. Hearing Li Long say this, the bitter look on his face made him look like he was approaching forty.
This wouldn't be a big deal in their area, but it's different here. He's been to northern Xinjiang more than once or twice, and the customs in Ma County are clearly different from those in the harsh northwest. They take the law very seriously and don't have many outdated customs and bad habits, which makes things more difficult.
"You can discuss the compensation with the girl's parents. What we want is an attitude," Xu Haijun finally said. "You keep an eye on this bastard. If anything happens again, I'll break his legs, or I'm not Xu!"
Looking at the creature lying on the ground, Li Long figured its legs were almost healed too.
The three Xu brothers were exceptionally ruthless.
The young man kept his mouth covered and could only groan; the pain on his face was obvious to everyone.
But no one pleaded for him. Not even Wang Yongcheng, nor the few of his fellow villagers in the courtyard.
Upon hearing Xu Haijun's words, Wang Yongcheng hurriedly agreed, saying he was willing to compensate and that he would go to Xu's family to discuss the matter with Xu's parents.
Li Long nodded, agreeing that he was a responsible person.
Since Wang Yongcheng is taking responsibility, this matter is easy to resolve. The person has been found, and there was no loss, so things are much simpler. The people in Team Four have been living comfortably these past few years and are quite open-minded; there's basically no gossip about them.
Li Long and the others then went back.
When Li Long arrived home, his elder brother and sister-in-law were both there. Seeing him return, they asked what had happened. Li Long gave a brief explanation, and his sister-in-law, Liang Yuemei, sighed and said:
"That girl from the Xu family is very stubborn, and her parents don't know how to persuade her, so it's no wonder. Their eldest son is more docile, and I don't know who the second son takes after—it's good that they've found him. What would they be doing back in that poor mountain village?"
Li Long asked curiously, "Sister-in-law, do you know about that place?"
"I know, how could I not know? Back when we were digging the well, I cooked with a few girls, and one of them was from over there—she escaped."
That place was poor, all mountain valleys, it rarely rained, water was extremely precious, and women had low social status. My friend was only sixteen when she was betrothed to a bachelor in the village. At least she had been to school and knew she couldn't live like that, so she ran away.
She told me that in that place, people go hungry for half the year, they can't get enough food, and the preference for sons over daughters is very serious..."
With just this one point, Li Long understood.
What can a naive young woman do in such a place? Wouldn't she just become a breeding machine?
孽 孽!
The matter was discussed in the village for a few days and then there was no further news. The man was brought back, and it is said that Wang Yongcheng compensated the Xu family with 500 yuan on behalf of the young man, which won the praise of some people. After all, the young man definitely had no money, and it was not certain that he could get the money back when he returned.
It seems that Wang Yongcheng is a capable person. In the first few days after the incident, no one was willing to hire him to pick cotton, but now everyone is willing to cooperate with him. It is because of his attitude that things have taken effect.
After this incident, the reputation of people from Gansu Province in the Fourth Team became rather complicated. The young man ruined his reputation, but Wang Yongcheng salvaged it.
Rational people will analyze the situation and realize that people can't be judged by their region; there are good and bad people everywhere. However, if a family has a daughter, parents will be more cautious if she continues to associate with people who pick cotton.
As the cotton harvesting came to an end, the work of the work team became increasingly busy. Xu Chengjun, from the fourth team, began to convene village representatives to discuss the land allocation.
Xu Chengjun wanted Li Long to participate as well, but Li Long didn't go. Xie Yundong was elected as a village representative a few years ago, so the cooperative only needed him to participate.
When the delegates were having a meeting, Xu Haijun came to find Li Long and told him about a troubling matter.
"My sister hasn't been interacting with people much lately. After finishing work, she just stays in her room. She's fine with eating, but she doesn't talk. It's really worrying."
Li Long was also somewhat surprised; this shouldn't have happened. Seeing the young man begging for mercy after being beaten and blaming the girl for everything, the girl should have realized what was going on, not remained so stubborn.
Now that Wang Yongcheng is going back, Xu Haijun probably feels he needs to find a way to resolve this matter, otherwise his sister might be ruined.
Li Long thought for a moment and said:
"That depends on whether you're willing to go through the trouble. I suspect your sister might still have some illusions about the place that young man mentioned. To resolve this, take her to see the young man's hometown, and she'll give up on that idea."
Xu Haijun was somewhat troubled, but he also knew that this was the best solution.
Who should go?
Xu Haijun left, but returned shortly after, bringing news that surprised even Li Long.
Among the people Wang Yongcheng brought were a pair of sisters-in-law. The woman had come last year and made some money, so she brought her sister-in-law this year.
Women in Gansu Province are truly hardworking and resilient; they even help their employers with chores while picking cotton.
Then the girl took a liking to Xu Dongfeng, one of Xu Haijun's cousins, and Xu Dongfeng also liked the girl. They were both in their early twenties, and the Xu family was happy about it—the girl was pretty, and she seemed to have a good character during their time picking cotton. She also mentioned her family background—she had two older brothers and a younger sister, and they planned for her to marry into the family.
Since the two were in love, the Xu family planned to go to Gansu Province to propose marriage. Xu Dongfeng's father, Xu Yanjun, went with Xu Dongfeng, while Xu Haijun wanted to bring his sister and his uncle along.
His uncle's family had no male members, so he, as his cousin, had to do the work.
Li Long thought it was feasible. Sending a group of people would at least ensure their safety, and since they were going to propose marriage, they shouldn't encounter any risks there.
Of course, it's possible that the young man gathered the whole village to bully the Xu family, but it's not very likely.
Xu Haijun was also full of confidence:
“I know that county. I have comrades there, but they’re in the county. I’ll contact someone when I get there. If anything happens, I don’t believe they can stop us.”
That's settled then.
Li Long didn't pay much attention. If a girl from an ordinary family acted like that, it wouldn't be so troublesome. At most, she would be locked up for a few days or sent to work in a factory, and she would get over it on her own after a while.
The Xu family was considered middle class at that time, and they doted on their two daughters, so it was normal for them to want to change their ways.
Xu Chengjun bought two sheep from Li Long, slaughtered them in the cooperative's yard, cooked the meat, ate it with the work team and village representatives, and then began distributing the land.
Although some land was not harvested, the boundaries could still be drawn. Now that the working group has organized the repair of the pump house, filter pond, and irrigation canals, the land allocation will be much easier.
The distribution is still based on the yield of the plots; plots with yields of 200 kilograms, 100 kilograms, and 50 kilograms are allocated different numbers of mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.165 acres).
The original share and share of land purchased by each household will also be divided up.
In addition, the land contracted by Li Long and his cooperative will also be allocated.
Because many households had privately reclaimed land that wasn't counted in the official records, which was called "hidden land" in feudal times, the remaining land after this land distribution was all incorporated into the reserve land, which increased the team's income.
After the land was distributed, the team held a village meeting and agreed that no matter whose land it was, it had to be plowed before winter, so that no one would be left with an unplowed plot of land.
Secondly, after the land parcels are divided, each household should not leave any obstacles; they only need to leave the wedge positions for the divided land at the beginning and end of the parcel.
Leaving stems wastes too much land, which was a requirement of the working group, since large-scale drip irrigation will be implemented later, and leaving stems will affect planting.
For decades after the land was divided, ridges were left in the middle of the fields to mark the boundaries. Of course, because the land here is large, once the ridges are formed, they are basically not moved, unlike in some places where people would fight over moving the ridges.
After all, it's not worth it—you can get more land from anywhere than a bunch of idioms.
Now that there are no obstacles, it's actually better; the two families can just discuss it before planting. Of course, this also tests the plowman's skills.
When the land was distributed, the whole village was present, and the land was distributed to each family according to the original names.
To Li Long's surprise, when the land was allocated to his elder brother's family, neither Li Juan nor Li Qiang had their land rights cancelled; they still had the same amount of land as before.
Later, the eldest brother privately told Li Long that everyone actually knew the truth, but they were just pretending not to. Li Qiang's land definitely couldn't be taken away, since he was going to join the army. There's always been a rule in the Fourth Team that those who go to join the army don't get land.
As for Li Juan, she is currently working in the autonomous region. Although her household registration was moved when she went to university, she had land when the land was first allocated, so she is still living according to her original registration.
This time, the land was redistributed, and Li Junhai and Chen Qianjin, who had just settled there this year, were also allocated land. Even so, the team still had more than enough land for reserve.
However, they didn't get a share of the land they bought, since they weren't there at the time.
Li Junhai and the others didn't care much; what they did care about was regretting not bringing their elderly parents and children over.
Let's take it slow. Based on the current land holdings of the four teams, they will naturally receive land when they bring their families over later.
Even if it's only distributed once every three years, at least there will be enough land for food production by then.
Five mu of land for one person is more than the entire family's land back home. Even if they only grow grain, it's enough to feed them. So, they should be content.
After the land was divided, the Li family had work to do. They had to plow through thousands of acres of cotton fields, and some of them needed to be planted with winter wheat as soon as possible.
Every household is very happy because the work team is also busy trying to dig trenches and lay the main pipeline before winter. Once this is done, the remaining leveling work can be done next spring. In general, drip-irrigated cotton can be planted everywhere next year.
This year, besides the cooperative, many families in the team set up pump houses and filter beds to grow drip-irrigated cotton. Some pump houses were recycled, making a profit, while others could only be dismantled and the pumps recycled, barely breaking even.
Several pumping stations didn't even want the water pumps, so even though the cotton yield was 300 kilograms per mu, they still ended up losing a little money.
Fortunately, the drip irrigation tape that Li Long offered was not expensive, otherwise we would have suffered a huge loss.
In any case, once drip-irrigated cotton has yielded high yields, it is absolutely unacceptable to switch back to traditional cotton cultivation.
So, with the improvement of 10,000 mu of farmland, drip-irrigated cotton will be planted next year, aiming for high yields and profits, making every household very happy.
Even though some people had previously expanded their plots of land without permission, they were still happy to see it all revert to its original state after the land was redistributed.
Therefore, Li Zhiqiang's courtyard became lively again. After redeeming the cotton IOUs from the cotton and linen company at the credit union, he had enough money to buy agricultural supplies in the spring, and he could spend the rest here.
However, many people with ideas are still busy in the fields. The drip irrigation tape laid at the beginning of the year can be recycled. These people roll up the drip irrigation tape, take it back, and register it at the drip irrigation factory. With the registration slip, they can get a 30% discount when buying drip irrigation tape the following year.
Because of this, many people went to the fields to install drip irrigation tape. The cooperative also hired people to do this, since every little bit counts. The cooperative planted 2,000 mu of drip irrigation in the team this year, and next year it will be 4,000 mu, which requires a lot of materials.
Li Long ignored this; Xu Haijun had already returned with his sister.
Upon returning, he immediately went to find Li Long and told him what had happened.
"It's actually simple. When we arrived at the county where Wang Yongcheng and his group lived, the county town was dilapidated and small, with only two small buildings in the entire town. Although our county is not big, it has twenty or thirty buildings, including a department store, Xinhua Bookstore, schools, and so on."
As Xu Haijun spoke, he revealed a look of disdain: "That young man even praised their county... is he just lying?"
Li Long poured him a glass of water and asked with a smile, "And then?"
"My sister thought this place was no good at the time, but she still wanted to visit the hometown to see if it was a beautiful place with clear waters and green mountains."
As a result, there was no bus from the county to the township; we had to take a tractor. The tractor was hired by my father-in-law's family, a hand-operated one with a leg like a grasshopper's leg—we didn't even have one that bad in our team. And it was all mountain roads; the bumpy ride almost made us throw up.”
Li Long laughed; he had heard of similar cases before.
"When we got to the township, my sister regretted it and refused to go to the village. Dongfeng's father-in-law said that there were still more than ten miles of mountain road from the township to the village, so we could only walk there and the tractor couldn't get in."
If Dongfeng and his group wanted to arrange a marriage, they had to go and bring gifts for the other party—they said the best gift was noodles. The wine, cigarettes, canned goods, and clothes that Dongfeng and his group prepared were deemed impractical.
So he bought all the dozen or so kilograms of noodles that the local shop had in stock, spending less than ten yuan, and the man's father-in-law was very happy.
"Did you go to the village too?" Li Long asked.
“No, my sister didn’t want to go any further, so we went back to the county. I paid the tractor to take us back,” Xu Haijun said. “That way, my sister gave up. She knew that the young man was a big liar, and she also knew that some places outside were even worse than here, so she stopped being so dramatic.”
See? The matter was resolved so simply.
Xu Haijun added, "Since we're here, we figured we might as well do some sightseeing. While Dongfeng and his family were discussing marriage, we went to Lanzhou, ate some authentic beef noodles, and saw the Yellow River. Then, after Dongfeng and his family returned with their bride, we went back together."
"You brought it back?" Li Long was somewhat surprised. "So easily?"
"It's not easy. Several of the girl's cousins wanted to come along, but Dongfeng wasn't willing, saying there was no way to settle them in. Actually, there's no problem with settling them in; to be honest, they're very poor there, really very poor."
It's true that the family doesn't have many pairs of pants, but noodles are definitely the best gift because they're easy to store and use for cooking.
When Dongfeng refused, those people refused to leave, insisting on coming with them and their luggage.
"Did you bring the person back?" Li Long asked.
In fact, the fourth team has a large area, so it wouldn't be a problem to support more households. However, it is clear that Xu Dongfeng's relatives have not yet gained his trust.
"No, it was Wang Yongcheng who solved the problem. He said that going there now would just mean eating and drinking for free, without taking advantage of the guests. If his cousins really wanted to go and make money, they could go with him to pick cotton next year. You know what, Wang Yongcheng has a lot of prestige in their village. Although he's young, people still listen to him. That's why Dongfeng brought his wife back."
Xu Haijun also said that Xu Dongfeng's father-in-law held a banquet in their village, and Xu Dongfeng paid for most of the money. Actually, it wasn't much, just a few hundred yuan, but it was considered a very good banquet in the village.
Of course, a ceremony will also be held here. However, the bride's family didn't come; they've lived in that village for generations and are too afraid to come out. Although Wang Yongcheng said that Xu Dongfeng's village is on the plains, not near the mountains, even in Gansu Province, the rumors about northern Xinjiang aren't very positive.
So she entrusted Wang Yongcheng to represent her family at the wedding.
Although Dongfeng's wife was somewhat displeased, people in their village believed in the traditional virtue of a woman following her husband wherever he went, and this feudal tradition placed great importance on women's conduct.
So I didn't object.
Of course, this girl is very brave to have the courage to be with Xu Dongfeng.
"There were quite a few women who came to pick cotton this time, and a few of them were unmarried. Some of them envied Dongfeng's wife for daring to stand up and be with Dongfeng," Xu Haijun said with emotion. "But there's no use in being envious. The young men in our team these days have high standards. They can't just take a liking to anyone."
Li Long laughed.
There's a saying that even the most virtuous woman can be won over by a persistent suitor, but in reality, if a woman takes the initiative, very few young men can stick to their principles.
Xu Dongfeng's wedding was held quickly. At the end of October, when the winter wheat in the fields had grown to about a hand's breadth tall, the Xu family held the wedding.
Invitations were sent to everyone in the team, as Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia both attended over the weekend.
At this time, the bride and groom were dressed a bit outdated—at least in Li Long's eyes.
But young people always have youthful energy, and none of them are ugly. The bride has a generous air about her and is quite pretty. You can tell she has a strong personality and isn't petty.
This family should be able to live a good life.
The Xu family also invited members of the working group to their wedding. They sat at a separate table and chatted with acquaintances.
Li Long was originally sitting at a table with the Li family, but Tao Daqiang and the others pulled him to the cooperative's table to play drinking games.
Gu Xiaoxia sat at a table with Liang Yuemei, listening to the women at the table chatting about everyday matters, which she found quite novel.
I'm used to hearing other teachers gossip in the office, but now that I'm listening to the news from the village, I think it's not so bad.
Someone told her about Wu Shufen's situation, saying that she now stays at home taking care of her children and growing a vegetable garden. Apart from the different location, she is not much different from the women in their team.
Gu Xiaoxia nodded in agreement. Since arriving in the county, she had rarely contacted Wu Shufen, only occasionally returning to the village to exchange a few words if they bumped into each other.
Later, Gu Xiaoxia learned to drive a car. One time, Wu Shufen saw her driving back and forth in the village. Gu Xiaoxia originally wanted to chat with her for a few words, but Wu Shufen turned around and left. Gu Xiaoxia knew that this friendship had come to an end.
On the journey of life, you will meet many people along the way, and you will also lose touch with many of them; this is normal.
After the banquet, Li Long and his wife returned home. On his way back, he overheard the young people discussing the wedding night pranks, and realized that he was getting too old to participate in such things.
Three days after the wedding, the work team withdrew. Now all the work is complete, except for leveling the ground next spring. This work can begin as soon as the snow melts; it doesn't need to wait for the ground to warm up, so it's actually quite easy to do.
Two days after the work group left, Liu Gaolou led a convoy to the purchasing station—the first convoy sent by them after Liu Shanmin left.
Li Long was somewhat surprised.
In the reception room, Liu Gaolou said:
"There was heavy snow in Guozigou, which caused a traffic jam for a day. What should have been a two-day journey took us three days to reach. We brought quite a lot of stuff this time, mainly because my second uncle had a lot of things to take care of after his last trip."
"Is the matter completely resolved?" Li Long asked. "Let's have some tea to relax."
“No, how could it be completely resolved?” Liu Gaolou shook his head and said, “My second uncle’s identity means it’s impossible to completely resolve this.”
There's a compromise here: my second uncle is in the background, but someone else is in the foreground. It has to be someone on their side; otherwise, they won't be happy if a Han Chinese controls a significant portion of their power.
A fig leaf, indeed!
“It’s fine if your second uncle has the initiative,” Li Long said. “It’s better than having your second uncle running around everywhere.”
“That’s true,” Liu Gaolou nodded and said. “So my second uncle said that the transactions will continue as usual, but the quantity of canned sugar to be transported will be determined by him. Although they can now produce cement over there, the workers are controlled by my second uncle.”
Moreover, the sugar and cement produced there still can't make up for the shortage. As long as my second uncle controls these resources, he will be invincible there.
Li Long said he understood.
Actually, sugar beets can be grown in Kazakhstan, and there are sugar factories there.
However, the sugar factories there are relatively small and cannot meet the needs of the entire Kazakh population.
In the past, during the Soviet era, with the planned economy, we could obtain supplies such as sugar from other countries. Now, we can only rely on ourselves.
"Since your second uncle is alright, let's continue our transaction." Li Long then asked, "Is the cement equipment that was transported there functioning properly?"
“Yes, it’s possible. The mine was found first, and then the factory was built. It’s already in full production, although the output isn’t as much as designed, but it’s still acceptable,” Liu Gaolou said. “My second uncle handed the factory over to a reliable person to manage, which is another good move for him.”
Li Long sighed with emotion; Liu Shanmin had it tough over there too. He went there alone to make a living, gathered a group of Kazakhs and built up a force, but he was constantly being watched.
I guess at the beginning he was just like me, thinking about making some money and having a place to settle down. It was the tide of the times that gradually pushed him to where he is now.
"I brought ten used cars and two new cars with me on this trip," Liu Gaolou said. "They're brand new luxury Volga cars. They were bought up before they could even be sold after they came out of the factory. This trip is also a way of compensating my second uncle, who gave them to us in Almaty."
Li Long asked with some curiosity, "A new car? Why isn't your second uncle driving it?"
“My second uncle said it would be better to exchange supplies. He drives a Land Cruiser, which is fast and safer than a sedan. Besides, if he wants to be behind the scenes, he will basically have to stay in the suburbs, where an off-road vehicle is more useful than a sedan.”
"Then let's exchange it. I want to get more money for this car. As long as the paperwork is complete, a new car will naturally fetch a higher price than a used car," Li Long said with a smile. "Have you been itching to get back to work lately? You don't look as well as you did last time you came. Have you been too lazy to exercise?"
Liu Gaolou blushed slightly and said, "I was just worried about my second uncle. After he went back from your place, he went straight to Kazakhstan, and I haven't heard from him for quite some time. How could I not be worried?"
Seeing that he looked noticeably weak, Li Long didn't expose him and asked, "So how many canned goods and sugar did you haul this time?"
"This shipment is larger, a hundred tons of canned goods and a hundred tons of white sugar," Liu Gaolou said. "No rush, load slowly. By the way, could you give me some more of that wine these next couple of days? I'm out of stock."
Li Long teased him on purpose: "What kind of wine is it?"
"It's that wine," Liu Gaolou said urgently. "I feel like mine isn't as effective as yours... Don't play dumb, it's tiger penis wine."
Li Long laughed and said, "Okay, I'll get you some tiger penis and deer penis, but take it easy. There are a lot of young people over there, and your body can't take their abuse."
Liu Gaolou's face turned even redder.
Li Long stopped teasing him and went out to watch the people unload their things.
Sure enough, I saw two brand-new Volga tankers, and they were even the luxury models.
It seems that Liu Gaolou's main purpose for this trip was to pick up the wine. He didn't pay much attention to loading the canned goods and sugar into the truck, but after getting the wine, he was all smiles and couldn't wait to leave with it.
The original cars at the purchasing station had been almost sold out in the past two months, but now new cars have arrived, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volga, as well as two Land Cruisers. The middlemen watching here were all excited.
For the past two months, no cars have come, and people have been saying all sorts of things. Although my father, Li Qingxia, has explained, they don't really believe him.
After all, they like to believe what they see.
Now that the cars have arrived, they believe that the purchasing station is still very powerful.
After seeing Liu Gaolou off, Li Long called Chen Yan. A while ago, she brought customers to buy cars, but they were out of stock, causing the customers to complain for a long time.
Chen Yan later told Li Long that she would call ahead to confirm if she brought guests over in the future.
Li Long immediately called Chen Yan to tell her that he had stock available, all kinds, and asked her to tell him what she needed.
When Chen Yan heard that Li Long had a car, she was immediately delighted and said that she would bring the customer over as soon as possible. Recently, the customer wanted to buy a Mercedes-Benz, and she knew that Li Long did not have one, so she was contacting suppliers.
Li Long put down the phone, returned to the reception room, picked up a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and began to read it.
Having read too many martial arts novels, I felt they weren't very interesting anymore, so I started reading these semi-classical books that I used to find troublesome.
Li Long can now slowly read books like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Investiture of the Gods, and even vertical versions of The Voyages of Zheng He.
That can be considered progress.
P.S.: Thank you all for your concern. My dizziness is mostly due to looking at my phone. After the surgery, I got used to typing by voice, so I use my phone quite frequently. I get dizzy after using my phone for a long time, but I don't get dizzy when using a computer—that's a kind of ailment too.
The situation has improved today. (End of Chapter)