Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1406 The Desire to Become a Developed Country Crusher

On December 22nd, after having breakfast and dropping Mingming and Haohao off at elementary school, Li Long drove onto the Urumqi-Yining Highway. He planned to visit Dushanzi Petrochemical that day to check out the market situation.

Two days after the freezing rain, the road surface has changed noticeably. Although it is still slippery, both the traffic and road maintenance departments have taken measures, so driving on the road is not as difficult as it was right after the freezing rain.

There were many vehicles on the highway. Although it was winter, the trucks were still busy. Li Long noticed that there were mostly trucks hauling coal and other goods. These days, owning a truck for transportation was quite lucrative.

The trucks Liu Gaolou brought from Kazakhstan and put on sale with Li Long, except for the four Li Long kept, were all sold within half a month of arriving. Someone in the city even started a transportation company and once bought five trucks at once – a significant purchase.

There were quite a few cars coming and going, mainly Santanas and Xiali, with Xiali being more common. Driving from the county town all the way to the intersection of Dushanzi, Kuishan, and Wusu, Li Long didn't see another Land Cruiser like his; there really weren't many of them.

It was his first time visiting Dushanzi Petrochemical, and since he had never been there before, he had to drive around looking for the main gate. Fortunately, the company's large chimney was quite noticeable, and with all the other facilities that looked enormous from a distance, he easily found it after circling around twice.

As soon as the car pulled up to the gate, a security guard came over and asked Li Long to roll down his window, inquiring what he wanted. Li Long simply said he wanted to buy petrochemical materials. The guard asked him to register, explaining that he needed to call and check if the factory sold these items.

As Li Long was registering, he heard the sound of a bicycle. Looking up, he was somewhat surprised. A familiar figure was pushing a bicycle out the gate. Wasn't that Akinbek?

Li Long instinctively called out, "Akinbek."

Akinbek stopped, turned to look at Li Long, and looked somewhat puzzled.

Li Long immediately regretted it. He thought that since they had only met once, this Ajinbek probably didn't recognize him anymore. Calling him that would probably make the other person feel awkward.

Unexpectedly, after staring at Li Long for a few seconds, Akinbek said in somewhat broken Mandarin, "You are that Comrade Li, the Comrade Li who brought me over from over there."

Li Long was surprised that Akinbek recognized him. He quickly smiled and said, "Yes, yes, it's me."

He went out of the guardhouse, shook hands with Akinbek, and then asked with some doubt, "Comrade Akinbek, with your rank, shouldn't the Petroleum Administration provide you with a car? Why are you riding a bicycle?"

Akinbek shook his head and said, "I think riding a bicycle is fine. It's better to give cars to those working on the front lines; they work much harder than me. What are you doing here?"

Li Long then explained his purpose.

Akinbek thought for a moment and said, "The factory does have what you need. But if you need a small quantity, the factory may not be able to sell it to you."

Our petrochemical company has a high output, and we usually supply directly to state-owned enterprises and large trading companies. However, what you're doing does indeed contribute to agricultural modernization; I'll give you a call and talk to you about it.

As he spoke, Ajinbek propped up his bicycle, went into the guardhouse, took off his gloves, and made a phone call. After the call rang, he said directly, "This is Ajinbek. A Comrade Li is coming to buy polyethylene granules. He runs an agricultural cooperative and is actively promoting drip irrigation water-saving projects; he's doing quite well in this area."

Agricultural modernization requires this technology, so I suggest we sell him some raw materials. As for the price, you can calculate it according to regulations.

After saying that, Ajinbek heard a reply from the other end and then hung up the phone. Li Long was about to express his gratitude when Ajinbek said, "I've heard about you from your brother. You did a great job; keep up the good work."

After saying that, he patted Li Long on the shoulder, then put on his gloves, went out, and rode away on his bicycle.

Li Long stood there stunned for a moment, his heart filled with mixed emotions: This Akinbek was a true Bolshevik. The fact that he never rode a car, but rather a bicycle, showed that he didn't consider himself special, nor did he use his status to seek any special privileges.

Of course, if he wanted to do this, he wouldn't have asked to come here to participate in organizational activities. He's such a pure person.

Moreover, he helped me not because he knew me, but because he heard from my brother that my drip irrigation project could promote agricultural modernization and that I had the spirit of early Party members who were selfless and dedicated to public service.

When the gatekeeper saw that Li Long knew Ajinbek, he said with emotion, "Comrade Ajinbek is really dedicated. He comes to check on the operation of the equipment every day. He doesn't need the factory to pick him up or drop him off; he just rides his bicycle there."

He refused most of the benefits the factory offered him, and we all admired him for that.

Then the gatekeeper asked Li Long, "How do you know Akinbek?"

Li Long jokingly said, "I brought him over from Kazakhstan."

The gatekeeper's gaze towards Li Long changed: "Did you really bring him here? You've done something big."

After saying that, the security guard enthusiastically pointed Li Long in the direction of the sales department and said, "The sales department is all here now. Akinbek just called. When you go there, they will definitely give you a warm welcome. Let me tell you, Akinbek is very famous around here. Everyone admires him."

This time, Li Long truly understood what it meant to have connections in high places. He drove in the direction the gatekeeper pointed and arrived at the sales department. There were already people waiting there.

After Li Long got out of the car, standing at the door was a middle-aged man with a side-parted hairstyle, wearing a yellow military uniform but without rank insignia. The man smiled and extended his hand, saying:

"Is this Comrade Li? Hello, hello. Ajinbek just told us that you need polyethylene raw materials, right? How much? Normally, we don't sell less than 10 tons here; we mainly do wholesale. But since Ajinbek said so, we'll make an exception."

Li Long shook hands with him and then asked, "How much is this per ton?"

The raw materials that he asked Factory Director Du to buy from outside the province were not cheap, costing tens of thousands of yuan per ton, so he planned to ask about the price first.

The raw materials for drip irrigation tape account for 70% of the cost; the rest is for factory buildings, machinery, electricity, labor, and so on. He estimates that the price of polyethylene material will definitely drop after Dushanzi Petrochemical goes into production, but it's unclear by how much.

As the comrade led Li Long inside, he said, "Now that we've started mass production here, the market price has dropped significantly. If you want it, we'll give you the wholesale price, 9500 per ton."

"9500?" Li Long was stunned. "So cheap? It's only been a little over a year, less than two years, and the price has dropped so much?"

The comrade smiled and said, "In the past, there were no companies in our autonomous region that produced these raw materials. They were transported from the border, so the price was naturally high."

Furthermore, the price of polyethylene raw materials is closely related to the price of oil. When oil prices fall, the price of these products refined from oil naturally falls as well.

The comrade led Li Long to the office and poured him some water. After Li Long sat down, he began to calculate silently.

Drip irrigation tape is almost entirely made from plastic granules, which account for a large portion of its cost. Currently, drip irrigation tape produced using improved equipment weighs approximately 80 meters, less than 100 meters, per kilogram.

One mu (approximately 0.16 acres) requires 12-15 kg of drip irrigation tape. If we calculate based on this price, then the current cost per mu for drip irrigation tape can be controlled at around 200 yuan.

This price is much lower than I originally estimated. If we calculate based on this price, then anyone who wants to grow drip-irrigated cotton can do so, at least the cost will be within a controllable range.

Moreover, even if the drip irrigation tape sells for 200 yuan per mu (unit of land area), there's still a profit of 60-70 yuan. In other words, if you actually sold drip irrigation tape for 20,000 mu, you could really earn 1.3-1.4 million yuan!

Li Long thought this was really feasible, so he immediately said, "I want 150 tons. Comrade, what's your name?"

The man placed a glass of water in front of Li Long and said with a smile, "I'm Hou Guangming, the deputy head of the sales department. You can just call me Lao Hou. 150 tons? That's quite a large investment. Can you even sell all that stuff?"

Li Long smiled and said, "I mainly deal in agricultural drip irrigation tape. The price of cotton has been pretty good these past two years. If you use drip irrigation to grow cotton, you can earn seven or eight hundred yuan per mu, and in some cases, nearly 1000 yuan."

The cost of this drip irrigation tape is around 200 yuan. Adding in miscellaneous expenses, after deducting everything, you can still earn two to three hundred yuan per mu (approximately 0.16 acres), which is a considerable profit. Therefore, many people are inquiring about this method this year. My preliminary estimate is 20,000 mu (approximately 3,333 acres), but I'll discount it to 10,000 mu. Including raw material losses, 150 tons of raw material is roughly enough to produce enough for over 10,000 mu. Moreover, this product won't spoil after production. As long as it's stored in a warehouse, protected from wind and sun, and doesn't weather, it will last for several years without any problems.”

Hou Guangming nodded and said, "Not bad, not bad, you've thought it through quite thoroughly. By the way, how do you know Ajinbek?"

Li Long then explained to him again: "I brought Akinbek from Kazakhstan."

Hou Guangming was also extremely surprised. He thought for a moment and said, "You are Li Long, right? Did you set up an oil refinery for your brother? And you can even get crude oil from Kazakhstan, right?"

Li Long was also surprised this time: "How did you know?"

Hou Guangming said with a smile, "Akinbek told us about it, and we've also inquired about it. Actually, your brother's oil refinery is, strictly speaking, illegal."

However, Akinbek said that since we have developed a commodity economy here, and the country has not stipulated that private oil refining is not allowed, and your brother's factory has a relatively legitimate source of oil, so we did not make a fuss about it.

Actually, you could trade these plastic pellets for oil. Do you have access to imported oil? Our factory also needs a lot of oil, but our supply from oil cities is limited. If you can also get good quality oil, we can directly convert it into plastic pellets for you. Of course, we can also buy your crude oil directly.”

Li Long had worked in a supply and marketing cooperative before, so he knew the ins and outs. He thought for a moment and asked, "Then how is this price calculated? If you get crude oil from the oil city, you'll definitely use the allocation price, right? If I get crude oil from Kazakhstan, then it'll be the CIF price. The price difference is quite large."

Section Chief Hou smiled and said, "Hey, you know quite a lot. Don't worry, if I want to get oil from you, I definitely won't let you calculate it at the allocation price. Of course, I can't calculate it entirely at the CIF price either. I know you have connections, so you definitely won't calculate the price of this crude oil based on the CIF price."

The government's current allocation price is 20 cents per kilogram, while the landed price for crude oil imported from other countries is 70 cents per kilogram. If you can really transport the crude oil here, I'll give you a discount to 50 cents per kilogram, how about that? That way, your 150 tons of raw materials would require 300 tons of crude oil, which is easier to calculate.”

Li Long silently calculated: Liu Gaolou only charged him for the transportation fee of the crude oil he brought over. Because he had shares in the oil fields in Kazakhstan, the oil was produced from his shares, and Liu Shanmin would definitely give him dividends later.

He needs to pay the chemical plant 1.3 to 1.4 million yuan to haul 150 tons of raw materials, but in terms of crude oil, he doesn't have to pay out of pocket. As for whether he'll make a profit or not, that depends on how much his second brother, Li Anguo, makes from selling the refined crude oil.

After thinking for a moment, he said to Hou Guangming, "I'll buy the first batch of raw materials with money. As for the rest, I'll inquire about it. If they can transport this much crude oil to you, then I'll come and exchange it."

Hou Guangming nodded and said, "Sure, sure. We're doing this for the long term, no need to rush this once or twice."

Next, Hou Guangming showed Li Long the raw materials for polyethylene plastic granules. To be honest, Li Long couldn't figure it out either. He trusted that such a large chemical plant wouldn't lie to him, so he signed a contract with Hou Guangming.

Because Li Long wanted a considerable amount, Hou Guangming, to show his sincerity, said that he would send a truck to deliver the 150 tons to the place designated by Li Long, since it wasn't far, only a little over 100 kilometers away.

Li Long was naturally quite happy about it. He understood that this was partly due to Akinbek's connections, and of course, also because Hou Guangming wanted to retain him as a client to pave the way for direct oil transactions in the future.

Hou Guangming and Li Long agreed to start delivering the goods tomorrow. Li Long wasn't in a hurry because he would be heading back tonight. Once back, he planned to call his second brother to ask about the profit margin of converting crude oil into finished products. If it exceeded 50 cents per kilogram, he wouldn't proceed with the deal with Hou Guangming.

Li Long hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. After signing the contract, Hou Guangming invited Li Long to stay for dinner. After eating at the chemical plant's canteen, Li Long said goodbye and left. However, he didn't go back immediately but went to the machinery factory in Kui City, intending to talk to Lao Du.

When Li Long arrived at the machinery factory, before his car even entered the gate, he saw the two cotton harvesters parked next to the operating area. He recognized the cotton harvesters that had been brought from Kazakhstan.

The other one was clearly different. The two looked somewhat alike, but there were differences in the details. Li Long knew that this must be the cotton harvester made by the machinery factory itself.

After registering at the gate, the security guard called Director Du. Li Long drove into the courtyard and parked, and Director Du had already come out of the building.

Li Long shook hands with Factory Director Du, then pointed to the cotton harvester and asked, "Is this the one you produced? How is it? Have you tested it? How is the cotton harvesting performance?"

Factory Director Du said, "There are still some differences compared to the prototype machine. Our production process is not as refined as theirs, so the cotton picking effect is not ideal. Currently, our technical team is working on overcoming these difficulties."

Li Long nodded, indicating that he understood: "That's normal. Cotton harvesters aren't something you can just copy and produce parts from elsewhere. It's a systemic issue involving many aspects. I don't know much about it, but I understand that making this kind of thing isn't easy."

Factory Director Du led Li Long toward the office building.

Li Long pointed at the cotton harvester and said, "Let me see this big machine." Director Du smiled and said, "I didn't expect you to be so interested in it. You can't wait to use it!"

Li Long walked up to the cotton harvester, looked at it, and shook his head, saying, "No, it's still a long way off. Didn't I tell you? We definitely can't use it until the cotton and linen company makes technical improvements and can effectively remove the cotton picked by the harvester. Right now, I'm just promoting drip irrigation technology for cotton planting."

Factory Director Du, who was quite familiar with this, immediately asked, "What's wrong? Can we start now? I remember you always said this stuff was too expensive and that ordinary people couldn't grow it, right?"

Li Long smiled and said, "I went to the petrochemical plant today, and they managed to lower the price of the raw materials for this drip irrigation tape. I did the math, and at the current price, ordinary people can afford to grow it."

Although they don't earn as much as we do, as long as you're willing to invest in the initial renovation costs, you'll definitely make it back later.

Director Du smiled and said, "That's fine. I never expected that once this petrochemical plant was built, it could bring the cost price down so low."

Li Long recalled a quote he had seen online in his later life and used it directly here. He said to Director Du, "Whether it's this drip irrigation tape or this cotton harvester, as long as our country can develop them, even if our technology is slightly inferior to others, then the era in which developed countries want to use patents to make exorbitant fees from us will be over."

So, our country is a crusher of developed countries. Look at this drip irrigation tape. Before we developed complete sets of drip irrigation equipment, the Japanese sold it to us for 1.5 yuan per meter.

We've developed this equipment, which is even more advanced than theirs. The cost has been reduced to five or six cents, and they immediately lowered their prices. Now the market price is seven or eight cents. And once the Dushanzi Petrochemical Plant went into production, the price of raw materials dropped again. Now, the drip irrigation tape we produce sells for two cents.

They won't be able to sell to us at high prices anymore. So keep up the good work! If you can develop this cotton harvester and mass-produce it, the days when others can sell it to us for millions will be over.

Li Long's words deeply moved Factory Director Du. He patted the outer casing of the cotton harvester and said:

"Don't worry, I'm determined to be the crusher of these developed countries. I'm determined to develop our own cotton harvester and improve our technology. Just like when we developed our drip irrigation equipment, we're determined to make our technology world-class. We'll show those Japanese devils and foreign devils that we are the best."

Li Long never expected that Factory Director Du would have such a passionate side. This is quite different from many people nowadays who fawn over foreign things and revere foreign technology.

But thinking about it, it's normal. The situation in northern Xinjiang is a bit unique, not to mention the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Self-reliance and hard work are ingrained in their bones, so everyone is used to doing things on their own.

Moreover, Director Du's experience is unique. From snowplows to harvesters, and later to government equipment, from initial agricultural machinery repair to now being a nationally renowned machinery manufacturer, he has climbed the ladder step by step, cultivating his confidence. From this perspective, the cooperation between the two parties is truly a win-win situation.

Thinking of this, Li Long smiled and said, "Then I'll wait for your good news. Once you've produced the advanced cotton harvester, it should be ready for my end to use."

Factory Director Du said with great enthusiasm, "Don't worry, you won't have to wait too long."

They both laughed.

P.S.: I'm heading back to Yili today. I was rushing the whole way, and the car was being repaired on several separate occasions. I'm very tired, so that's all for now.

Attached is an image; please refer to it yourselves. (End of Chapter)