Chapter 1342
Liu Shanmin Arrives to Settle the Situation
For a week after returning from the mountains, Zhao Shijie was in high spirits.
The two shared the mushrooms they brought back from the mountains. Zhao Shijie put his portion at Lao Ma's restaurant, where they cooked and ate them for two days straight. Everyone said the mushrooms were flavorful, fresh, and delicious.
Whenever Li Long came over, Zhao Shijie would talk about the meat they ate on the grassland that day, how tender the hand-pulled mutton was, how flavorful the roasted meat was, and how delicious the beer that Yushanjiang and the others brought was.
That day, after talking with Yushanjiang and the others, they realized that it wasn't a coincidence. It was Yushanjiang who went to the purchasing station to find Li Long and learned that he had led people into the mountains, so he simply took Talihar and Bek up the mountain with him.
The main reason is that they've been supplying meat to the cannery for a while now, and Yushanjiang and his team are very busy and have no free time.
Since Li Long had gone up the mountain to play today, they figured they might as well take a day off and go up the mountain for a stroll.
Li Long went up the mountain, and they thought that Halim would definitely slaughter a sheep for them, or at least they would have one killed when they arrived.
Zhao Shijie exclaimed from the bottom of his heart: "On such a big grassy field, with the sky as our backs, holding a piece of hand-pulled meat in one hand and a piece of roasted meat in the other, we could eat whichever we wanted, with beer in front of us. When we got tired of eating, we would take a sip. I felt that for the first time in my life, it was really awesome!"
Li Long just smiled as he listened to his lament. Look how "sophisticated" these city kids are. At this point, most of them really haven't enjoyed such treatment. Even during their school field trips, they were probably mostly budget trips.
This is what is meant by city dwellers having their own perspectives and rural people having their own perspectives.
If you were to send Li Jianguo and Li Qingxia to the mountains, they might also marvel at the beauty of the grasslands, but they would never feel the same depth of emotion as Zhao Shijie.
Zhao Shijie also told Li Long, "I feel like all the fatigue from this trip into the mountains has disappeared, and I have a lot of energy to work now."
Li Long thought to himself, "This is what later generations call 'recharging.' Wandering around the grassland, looking at the beautiful scenery, you can shake off the fatigue of your body and mind. With a little bit of numbing from alcohol, you can really restart your spirit and get back on your feet."
The workers on the construction site were very efficient. After the pump house and filter were completed, they pushed the branch canal from the edge of the field all the way to the main canal within a little over a week.
Of course, the work wasn't over yet. Ditches still needed to be dug along the edges of the entire plot, mainly to connect the three pumping stations. Fortunately, the main connection was to the pumping stations, so it didn't need to connect the entire plot, saving about one-third of the branch ditch work.
Once this 600-meter-long branch canal is completed, all that's left to do is build the road. Because cotton is still being grown in the fields, the main pipeline can't be laid, and because this is the crop's growing season, the main canal's water flow is almost continuous, so the main canal can't be repaired either.
Zhao Shijie said, "After the road paving is completed, there will be a gap in time when I don't have much to do. I'll go home and stay in Wucheng for a while. Before I go home, could I go into the mountains again to get some mushrooms and bring them home for my family to try?"
Li Long readily agreed; this was a very simple matter for him.
Zhao Shijie was very responsible, and the workers were very efficient, so Li Long didn't have to go to the construction site every day.
He still had his mind on that Jade Mountain. So after dropping Mingming and Haohao off at elementary school that day, Li Long drove back into the mountains with a gun. This time, he brought not only a gun, but also a crowbar and sacks.
After driving into the mountains, Li Long didn't look around and drove straight to the ditch where he had first discovered the yellow shadow.
When he left, he made a point of noting the location of this place, thinking he would come back and see it again next time.
He pulled the car over to the side of the road, got out, slung his gun over his shoulder, grabbed a crowbar and a sack, locked the car door, and walked down the ditch into the mountains.
This ravine is inconspicuous, and you can't see the Jade Mountain to the west from this road, so unless it's a coincidence, almost no one knows that there is a world-famous Jade Mountain less than a kilometer away.
This time, there were no yellow shadows in the ravine, but occasionally you could see the shadows of grouse moving among the bushes, accompanied by chicks.
Li Long ignored the little guys and followed the ditch all the way to the top. After climbing up, he saw Jade Mountain a few dozen meters away.
Just like last time, nothing has changed.
Li Long stood there for a while, then, carrying his gun and crowbar, went to the shacks that were about to collapse.
The shack was built against the mountain, and the wood was already rotten. The branches and grass on it had fallen off, and there was a lot of animal droppings underneath.
Li Long used a crowbar to sweep aside the messy branches at the entrance of the shack, then crawled inside to take a look.
The space inside is quite large; it could probably sleep five or six people, like a dormitory.
Inside the shack, there were still remnants from that time: two shovels that were rusted beyond repair, one of which had a broken wooden handle.
A tattered burlap sack, so rotten it was almost unrecognizable. Li Long used a crowbar to break the sack apart, and the contents inside were unrecognizable.
He couldn't tell whether it was animal feed or rotten grain.
The tree branches that were once used to be used for shelter were covered with animal hair, dried droppings, bird feathers, and some grayish-white bones.
It seems that over the years, this place has not only been used as a temporary home by a group of animals, but may also have been used as a bird's nest.
Using a crowbar, they turned over the branches and found several pieces of jade scattered under the branches where people had once lived.
These jade stones were so old that the cut surfaces were grayish-white. Li Long bent down, picked up a piece, spat on it, took out a piece of paper, wiped it, and found that it was just ordinary jade.
There was too much fly droppings, so Li Long didn't want it.
After discarding the jade, Li Long turned and left the shack, heading towards the gap in the jade mountain that had been mined.
Jade pieces of various sizes were scattered on the ground, some reflecting a greenish light under the sunlight.
Li Long kicked the jade pieces and found that most of them were ordinary materials mixed with fly droppings.
In later times, any one of these pieces would easily sell for several hundred dollars. But now, Li Long found them too heavy, so he picked out a few pieces that looked free of fly droppings or had very few fly droppings and put them into a sack.
Although the gap had accumulated a lot of dust from the monsoon rains over the years, Li Long could still see the vein of dark green jade when he got closer.
Those people used tools like crowbars and shovels to extract the jade, so you can still see traces left from when they extracted the jade if you look closely.
Li Long put down the sack, slung his gun over his shoulder, and examined it carefully. He was quite certain that the large gap in front of him, which was more than two meters high and one meter wide, was entirely made of jade.
It's just that the terrain structure is different, so it is divided into several layers of mineral veins, and the quality of jade in these layers of jade veins is also different.
After careful observation, Li Long discovered the vein with the best jade quality in the deepest layer.
Looking at the cross-section, there are very few fly droppings in the jadeite of this vein, so it has been mined the most.
If we want to extract jade from this vein again, we have to pry up the other veins on both sides to make room.
Li Long tried it with the crowbar. The surface of the jade had weathered a lot, and he easily pried off a lot of broken jade stones.
Going further in was not so easy, but fortunately the terrain was there, and he pried it open layer by layer. He was stronger than the average person and knew how to use his strength, so soon a pile of jade fell in front of him.
This pile of jade, weighing several hundred kilograms, could support a jade shop for a long time in later generations, but Li Long now discards it like trash.
After finally managing to pry away most of the jade material next to that good mine vein, revealing a large gap, Li Long stopped what he was doing and planned to rest for a while before continuing.
He looked around and felt that working here was quite boring.
Ten years ago, when he went into the mountains, he knew that the first few layers of mountains were earthen and rocky mountains, and further in, they were basically shrubs, grass, or densely forested green mountains, which were pleasing to the eye.
Even in winter, when you go to mine coal, the mountains are covered in snow, with occasional patches of pine forests adding a touch of color, making it anything but boring.
But the area was surrounded by rubble, the mountain in front of us was barren, and there was hardly any grass or trees on either side of the river. It felt lifeless and made one feel uncomfortable at first glance.
So after resting for a while, Li Long quickly got back to work.
After prying for a while, he had already figured out the pattern and knew how to pry the jade off with less effort.
With a crowbar, he pried off a piece of jade the size of a football.
Li Long put down the crowbar and picked up the jade stone to examine it.
The outermost layer is about seven or eight centimeters thick, and its color has turned white due to years of weathering.
Li Long tapped on the weathered parts and felt that the jade was a bit brittle; it might even break if he used too much force.
But the color deepened as he went deeper, and as he had observed earlier, there were indeed relatively few fly droppings in this large piece of jade, making it a top-grade jasper.
The only drawback is that the color isn't deep enough; it's a bit bluish.
It would be even better if it were a deep green, like the color of spinach leaves.
Overall, it is a fine piece of jade.
Li Long put the jade stone into the sack with satisfaction and continued to pry it open.
After prying off two more pieces, the gaps he had created earlier were no longer effective.
At this point, you can either continue to create the breach as before, or you can use explosives like those unruly people in later generations.
Of course, if explosives are used, the quality of the jade cannot be guaranteed, and it will most likely be unusable.
So Li Long immediately abandoned the latter idea. After resting for a while, he started creating gaps again.
Although Li Long is strong and clear-headed, he has hardly done any physical labor in recent years, so after working for a while, he felt sweaty.
By this time, the weather had already gotten hot, and there was no wind in the mountains. The sweltering heat made him want to rest in the shade for a while.
Fortunately, considering the difficulty of the journey, Li Long decided to make another breakthrough, pry off two pieces of jade, stuff them into a sack, hoist the sack onto his back, and, carrying a crowbar and a gun, head back. Li Long planned to carry the sack back, rest in the car for a while, eat some dry rations, and drink some water before coming back.
After taking two breaks, he carried the sack to the car and didn't want to go any further.
He has plenty of money and a lot of jade in his home, and the quality of the jade is generally above average.
The reason they came to pry open the jade was actually to fulfill a certain wish from their previous life.
Now that I've seen the Jade Mountain and pried off the jade, my wish has been fulfilled, so I've become complacent and don't want to continue.
He took out a piece of naan bread and a pot of water from the car, and while eating it, he rested and thought about his next plan.
Suddenly, two red deer, one large and one small, darted out of the bushes on the east bank of the stream on the east side of the road, seemingly preparing to drink water.
Then they saw Li Long.
Li Long also saw them, and instinctively reached for his gun, putting down the naan bread.
The two deer were startled when they suddenly saw people, then turned around and ran uphill in a panic—the riverbank was a bit steep, and they had slid down from it, so turning around and going uphill was a bit difficult.
In the midst of the panic, the smaller deer darted into the bushes and struggled desperately, but its body became entangled in the branches and it couldn't free itself for a while, crying out anxiously.
The larger red deer had already darted back into the bushes along the same path, but did not flee far, anxiously calling out to their companions.
Li Long carried his gun to the riverbank, but instead of aiming at the small red deer that was half a body larger than the roe deer in his own yard, he just stared at it.
The baby deer finally struggled to get out of the bushes, but because it used too much force, it fell into the water. It then frantically scrambled ashore and ran into the woods following the calls of its companions, disappearing from sight.
Throughout the entire ordeal, Li Long had several opportunities to fire, but he did not actually do so.
He did hesitate for a moment, wanting to give it a shot, but ultimately gave up.
The family has plenty of deer and pelts, so it's not appropriate for such a large animal to be a playmate for their children. It's purely for satisfying their hunting addiction, which is also unsuitable here.
Then forget it.
With no further movement from the other side, Li Long picked up his gun and returned to his original seat. He put down the gun, picked up the naan bread, dusted it off, and continued eating.
After eating half a naan, I felt no longer hungry, so I put the remaining half back in the car and drove home.
After returning home, Li Long unloaded the sack of jade stones, piled it against the wall of his house, mixed it with the original jade stones, covered it with a canvas, and left it there.
With one wish fulfilled, Li Long felt relieved. Seeing that no one was in the yard, he began to tidy up the vegetable garden, planning to cook in another hour.
Before he could even finish tending the vegetable garden, the phone rang in his room, so he went to answer it. As he walked, he wondered who could be calling at this hour.
When Li Long answered the phone, he heard several voices on the other end. His father, Li Qingxia, said, "The call is connected. Xiao Long is definitely there."
Another voice said, "Since the person is here, I will speak."
The voice sounded familiar, and then a face flashed through Li Long's mind: Liu Shanmin.
Liu Shanmin's voice became clearer: "Boss Li? I am Liu Shanmin."
Li Long said with a smile, "Boss Liu, you're back from your trip? How was your trip these past six months?"
Liu Shanmin also laughed and said, "We had a great time, but this matter is a bit annoying. Otherwise, I would like to stay in Yanjing for a couple more days and then go to Northeast China."
Li Long said, "Wait a moment, I'll go to the purchasing station now, and we'll meet and talk in detail."
After hanging up the phone, Li Long changed his clothes, locked the door, and hurriedly headed to the purchasing station.
Liu Shanmin was drinking tea in the reception room when Li Long arrived. He stood up, shook hands with him, and said, "I'm so ashamed to have made you laugh at me. But thanks to you, Gao Lou would have suffered a great loss this time."
Li Long waved his hand, gesturing for the two to sit down, and then said, "Don't be so polite. We are strategic partners. We share the same fate, and if something happens to you, I will suffer too."
By the way, where are your wife and kids?
Liu Shanmin said, "They're at the guesthouse."
Li Long asked with some surprise, "What, are you planning to bring them back with you this time?"
Liu Shanmin shook his head and said, "No, no, no, I plan to let them live in Yili."
Li Long nodded. That area was the Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, and many people there were of the same ethnicity as Liu Shanmin's wife, making communication easier.
So he asked again, "So what do you plan to do about this? Go directly over there to resolve it? What if something goes wrong over there?"
Liu Shanmin said, "It should be true, there have indeed been some changes, some people have become greedy. But it's still within our control, after all, some people have been with me for quite some time, and their hearts are still with me."
"Once I get there, I'll gather those loyal to me first, and then we'll deal with them one by one. The situation over there is gradually becoming clearer, so I'm not worried about going there."
Li Long hadn't expected Liu Shanmin to have such a good grasp of the situation, so he simply told him to be careful.
"Don't worry, I value my life very much." Liu Shanmin said half-jokingly, "Wait for me to get there. Go to the other side of the valley and find Revolutionary Bek. Ask him to arrange a few people to go with me. They have connections and influence over there. I definitely need to ensure my own safety first before we talk about the operation."
After Liu Shanmin explained his plan, Li Long felt relieved.
At this moment, Liu Shanmin revealed his plan: "Boss Li, I need your help again on this trip. Last time, Gao Lou wanted to transport canned goods and sugar, but I refused. This time, I need to take them with me when I leave. But don't worry, I have the money with me, and we'll do a cash transaction."
Li Long laughed: "Even if you don't pay, you can still take it. If you just haul the building over there, it might be like throwing good money after bad. But if you haul it over there, it'll be like paving the way with supplies."
Liu Shanmin smiled too, feeling that Li Long truly understood him.
Both of them were action-oriented. Li Long drove Liu Shanmin to the transportation company to hire a truck. They agreed to pick up canned goods from the cannery the next morning and then go to the Shicheng Sugar Factory to load white sugar.
Liu Shanmin increased the price by 20% and paid for 50 tons of canned goods and 20 tons of white sugar, which Li Long did not refuse.
Although the political situation there has gradually stabilized, inflation remains high, and prices are rising as usual.
Liu Shanmin then asked Li Long what he needed after he had stabilized the situation.
Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Let's keep the same: Kamaz heavy trucks, luxury cars, leather goods, and antelope horns. That's probably all they have over there, and it's worth something, right?"
Liu Shanmin nodded and then shook his head: "Actually, there are quite a lot of talented people over there. Some of them are in a really bad situation, like scientists, professors, and professional technicians, but we don't know how to deal with them after we bring them over."
Li Long was also at a loss. He knew that some people should indeed be brought over, but where should they be put?
He was a complete novice in this area, and he didn't have enough factories to accommodate these technicians, so he decided to postpone it.
After Li Long finished these important matters, Liu Shanmin said he would treat Li Long to a drink that evening.
Li Long did not refuse. He and Liu Shanmin had been through thick and thin together, and their relationship was rather unusual. They were currently in a state of mutual trust.
Li Long believed that there were very few people in the country who could make Liu Shanmin lower his guard and drink with him.
At the dinner table, Liu Shanmin remarked with emotion, "If we're talking about money, I've earned enough to last a lifetime. I've traveled all over China in the first half of the year, and sometimes I've thought about just going back to China, buying a house, and settling down."
It's a mess over there; it's definitely not as comfortable as being back home. But, I don't know if it's just that I'm meant to be in chaotic times, but as soon as I heard there was trouble there, I got really excited and wanted to go over there as soon as possible to calm things down.
"Sigh, I'm really not destined to enjoy a life of luxury."
Li Long picked up his cup and clinked it against his, saying, "According to what I've heard, people need several kinds of satisfaction. The lower level of satisfaction is physiological, while the higher level is psychological. You've already moved beyond the lower level and are moving towards the higher level, realizing your self-worth."
Liu Shanmin smiled, finished his drink, and said, "I never expected that someone who didn't even finish junior high school could say something so profound. I think that makes sense, so I came back."
Li Long felt ashamed, realizing that it was all from scrolling through his phone in his previous life; he had no idea how much he actually knew.
The next day, Liu Shanmin led his convoy, bid farewell to Li Long, and headed towards the valley.
Li Long watched the departing convoy and sincerely hoped that it could resolve the matter satisfactorily.
In the course of one's career development, there are not many business partners who can become friends. Liu Shanmin is one of them. I hope he is safe and sound.
Although Liu Shanmin spoke casually to Li Long, these matters were actually quite dangerous to handle. A day later, he led the convoy to Khorgos, found Liu Gaolou to unload the supplies, and then sent the convoy back. Afterward, they drove to Yining to borrow people from Revolutionary Buick.
After meeting Liu Shanmin, Liu Gaolou immediately felt reassured and had no objection to his second uncle's instructions, carrying them out resolutely.
Without hesitation, Revolutionary Buick immediately gathered a few clever young men of the same ethnicity, who went with Liu Shanmin to complete the formalities, and then returned to Khorgos.
After renting a vehicle here, loading up with supplies, and clearing customs, Liu Shanmin led his convoy to Panfilov and stopped there.
Liu Gaolou originally wanted to come along, but Liu Shanmin didn't let him. He told him to settle his wife and children in the city.
The Liu family already has a house here, so the so-called "settling down" simply means providing them with supplies.
Only after Panfilov obtained the gun did Liu Shanmin feel reassured enough to continue his advance towards Almaty.
Next, it remains to be seen whether those few people he considers loyal are truly reliable. (End of Chapter)