Chapter 157
Song Chao quickly stopped him: "Captain Hou, don't worry, I'm here for an urgent mission. I'll be leaving soon after I finish speaking. I still have to rush to Niu Village and Xigou Brigade."
When Hou Yongjun heard they were assigned a task, he felt relieved, knowing that his superiors had no intention of ignoring them. He quickly said with a smile, "Okay, okay, this is the most important task."
But after hearing the content of the task, Hou Yongjun was stunned.
He took off the faded blue hat and scratched his head uncomfortably.
Song Chao smiled and said, "Is it difficult?"
"No, it's not difficult." Hou Yongjun put his hat back on and said with a smile, "Comrade Song, don't worry. We promise to complete the task on time."
Song Chao pushed up his glasses, which still had a crack on their nose, and said with a smile, "It's good that it's not difficult. If you have stock available, you can use it as a replacement, but you have to ensure the quality and quantity."
Hou Yongjun: "There was no stock left in the village, so I immediately told them to stop what they were doing and start making baskets and sieves first."
Qiu Zeming said from the side, "Captain Hou, please go ahead and do your work. Let the comrades work hard and hurry up. We'll all come back the day after tomorrow to collect the goods."
Hou Yongjun: "Don't worry, we'll definitely get it done." He added, "Comrade Qiu, since you're here, could you spare a moment to visit the greenhouse we built in our village..."
Qiu Zeming was just trying to find a good moment to interrupt and deliver a message, but upon hearing this, he quickly apologized, "Next time. Besides the villages mentioned above, Comrade Song and I are also going to the Tianzizhuang Brigade in Donghe Commune. I heard they have ready-made bamboo baskets and wicker baskets, so we'll go get some and send them out first. This trip was really rushed. Team Leader Zhou had a big order, and they needed it urgently, so she even collected a batch from other places. We'll be fine next time. Next time, we'll schedule it according to the task schedule..."
He blew for Comrade Xiao Zhou, then left with Song Chao.
After leaving the village, Song Chao whispered, "Comrade Qiu, did the team leader really receive the goods from somewhere else?"
Qiu Zeming glanced at him, and Song Chao's heart skipped a beat. He quickly laughed, "I'll take it, I'll definitely take it." He had to take it even if it was confiscated.
Meanwhile, Hou Yongjun carefully pondered those words several times, took a deep breath, and an unconscious smile appeared on his face. He thought to himself, "Great! There's been no movement these past few days, and I thought the higher-ups were angry and didn't want to come to their village. I didn't expect that Team Leader Zhou was holding back a big move."
He locked the two bottles of wine in his desk cabinet, turned around and walked briskly to the processing workshop.
It took only about an hour for Su Chenghai to find out. His nephew, who had been following him on a spree, came over and angrily asked, "Second Master, did the commune do this on purpose?"
Su Chenghai slowly pressed the tobacco in his pipe and asked, "How many villages have been assigned this task?"
His nephew, Su Feng, stepped forward and attentively lit his second master's cigarette, saying, "That's what Hou Yongjun said. Who knows if it's true or not?"
Su Chenghai took a few sips, then said, puffing out smoke and saying, "Just now you took advantage of me, and now you're doing this. You're playing tricks on me."
Su Feng laughed: "Good fellow, you're still trying to play Sun Tzu's Art of War with me? How about I go out and find out the truth?"
Su Chenghai waved his hand and Su Feng left.
Su Chenghai sat on the doorstep all afternoon, smoking and then drinking tea from a small teapot. Just before dark, Su Feng returned. He had been busy running around several villages and was sweating. He took the palm-leaf fan handed to him by his second aunt and fanned himself with it. He said nervously, "Second Master, this is a solid order. I gave him an estimate. He needs forty or fifty baskets and about thirty large baskets. All urgent goods."
Su Chenghai became a little restless after hearing this number, but his nephew's next message was even more shocking.
"They even went to Tianzi Village and bought fifteen bamboo baskets and five baskets of bamboo baskets directly from there. They offered us a price two yuan higher than what we paid originally."
Su Chenghai's old face flushed instantly: "Two yuan higher? Damn it, before it was destroying my rice bowl, now it's my fault."
He put his hands behind his back and tried to leave, but after taking two quick steps, he turned back and calmly instructed his nephew, "Go get Hou Yongjun."
"Okay, uncle." Su Feng turned around and ran out.
Hou Yongjun really didn't want to come, but when he thought about the favor he owed Su Chenghai, he thought about it and followed Su Feng.
Su Chenghai was still trying to put on airs, but he didn't realize he'd just gotten the better of him. As soon as he entered, Hou Yongjun half-jokingly and half-seriously said, "Uncle, you really don't take any advantage. You supported me in the election, and you've used that favor well." He pointed to his own face and said, "You order me around like this. If you didn't know me, you'd think I was your servant. Haha."
Su Feng frowned and asked, "Hou Yongjun, what do you mean?"
Hou Yongjun pointed at Su Feng and continued to laugh with Su Chenghai, "This brat must be five years younger than me, right?"
He always calls me "Hou Yongjun" and "Hou Yongjun". Even if you don't call me captain, can you at least call me brother?
Su Chenghai's face also looked a little unhappy, but this unpleasantness was not only because he was angry at the sarcasm in Hou Yongjun's tone, but also because Hou Yongjun unilaterally put an end to their originally good relationship.
He narrowed his old eyes and looked at Hou Yongjun's face steadily, then said to his nephew in a deep voice, "Su Feng, apologize to Captain Hou."
After tasting the taste, I realized it was a bit too much.
When Hou Yongjun came the previous time, he was cautious and respectful. It was no big deal to provoke him at that time. This time, he shouldn't have asked his nephew to call for help. He should have risked his reputation and gone himself.
Su Feng turned his head away, thinking that if his uncle hadn't been there, it's uncertain whether Hou Yongjun would have become the captain. He owed the Su family a favor, so how could he apologize? He kept silent.
Hou Yongjun waved his hand and said with a smile, "No need, I'm just a follower." Then he ignored Su Feng and asked Su Chenghai with a smile, "Uncle Su, what did you want me to do?"
Su Chenghai still stared at his nephew with a solemn look, and said again in a deep voice: "Su Feng, apologize to the captain!"
Su Feng then realized that something was wrong. He was stunned for a moment before he smiled stiffly and said, "Captain, just treat it as a fart. I have a foul mouth and can't speak. Don't bother with me."
Hou Yongjun waved his hand, without saying whether he cared or not. He looked at Su Chenghai again with an inquiring look.
Su Chenghai felt a sinking feeling in his heart. With his eyelids drooping, he reached for his pipe and took a pinch of tobacco from the cloth bag hanging at his waist. He then slowly pressed it with his rough thumb and said, "Yongjun, I watched you grow up. Between us, I have nothing to ask. What's going on in the village right now?"
Hou Yongjun's words lifted the heavy stone from his heart. His tone became more polite and distant, and he smiled, "Uncle Su, are you asking about the village's staffing system? If we're talking about that, then let me tell you my thoughts. As a brigade cadre, of course I hope the brigade will do well. If the brigade does well, then the members will do well. You should have heard how much the work points in Qianjin Village have increased this year. You don't care about that little money, but the village does, and the people do. The village is poor, uncle. How many families owe the village money year after year? How many young men are still unmarried at the age of 30? How many families can't afford to send their children to school?"
"Now that there's an opportunity to make money, I have to fight for it. Even if I don't, when other brigades around here become rich, do you think our villagers will leave me alone?"
Su Chenghai: "Did they go to Tianzizhuang to buy goods? What did Yang Hong say?"
Yang Hong is the second most influential person in the cargo store.
Hou Yongjun was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "Can Yang Hong be more powerful than the commune? Can Yang Hong be more fragrant than money?" That village was eager to catch up with the weaving industry. Besides, the cost of receiving the goods was two yuan higher than Su Chenghai and his friends. Why wouldn't the village make money from it?
Yang Hong used this sentence to warn Su Chenghai, and then he stood up and left.
Su Feng was a little annoyed and said, "Uncle, what does he mean? If you hadn't said that, no one would recognize who Hou Yongjun is!"
Su Chenghai squinted his old eyes and said nothing for a long time. After a moment, he forced himself to save face and said, "Oh, your uncle, I really was thrown behind the wall."
He stood up and walked into the house with his hands behind his back.
Just wait and see what Yang Hong will do in Tianzizhuang.
Anyway, Yang Hong, who had been very respectful to him before the New Year, has not been very obedient these days. Even on the Dragon Boat Festival, he only sent his apprentice to bring him six rice dumplings and a piece of meat, and he didn't come to visit him.
Yang Hong came to see him the next afternoon, bringing snacks and wine. He walked in and called out warmly, "Brother Su."
Su Chenghai was sitting on a mat in the yard, twisting straw ropes. He raised his eyelids at the sound and said, "Old Yang is here." He turned around and called his wife, "Old woman, go get some wine, some peanuts and broad beans. Old Yang and I will have a couple of drinks."
The goods Song Chao and his men requested from Tianzizhuang weren't actually that much, but Yang Hong was incredibly shrewd. If people from Xihe Commune were going to Tianzizhuang, Donghe Commune, to buy baskets and hoes, why wouldn't they go to other villages? This signal couldn't be more obvious.
He immediately sent his apprentice out to inquire around. After hearing the letter, he felt that it was not the case, so he quickly bought some things and came to Nanwang.
If we don’t unite, our business will be taken away by others.
After two cups of wine, Yang Hong apologized to Su Chenghai when he poured new wine. Then the two of them temporarily put aside their grudges and discussed the current situation.
Yang Hong: "I heard that the girl your commune promoted to manage this area is not even 20 years old yet? How come she is so well-connected?"
Su Chenghai really looked down on that little girl before and was very angry, but now it was really hard to deny her ability.
Then he thought of another young man who was also under 20 years old and snorted, "Young people nowadays are good at making a fuss, and they're good at it, but they just don't know how to respect the elderly and love the young."
The new generation doesn’t even know how to pay homage to the mountain master.
For example, when they go out and arrive at a certain area, if they know there is a leader of their trade in the area, especially an elderly person, they have to go to his house to pay their respects.
Similarly, they had also received visits from the headmasters of other regions at home.
He was used to such respect, and suddenly someone who was so capable of causing trouble but ignorant came along. He felt a huge gap in his heart, and there was no way around the awkwardness.
Yang Hong said: "Brother Su, we were brothers before and I was ignorant. You are magnanimous, but no matter what, we are from the same school and we should work together."
Su Chenghai picked up a peanut and put it in his mouth, saying with drooping eyelids, "It's difficult. No matter how powerful the goods store is, it can't beat the commune. Not to mention the issue of providing welfare for the people. It's hard to regain the glory of the past."
I used to be the boss of the business, but now that he has done this, he can only be the second uncle in the future. The boss belongs to someone else.
Tianzizhuang is still relatively better. I guess that girl is just giving them a warning. If she wants to, she can not only ruin their market, but also the market of Donghe Commune.
"Those who can become cadres are all smart." Su Chenghai took a sip of his wine and said depressedly.
Today's young people are really not to be messed with.
Yang Hong also sighed, still a little skeptical: "Do you think that girl can really sell so many goods in one go?"
"What? She can't have paid for it out of her own pocket, right?"
Yang Hong thought about it and realized that not everyone could afford something worth nearly a thousand yuan.
It was two yuan higher than their previous quotation, so they would make two yuan less every time they went to the team to purchase goods in the future.
The two men drank some wine in a depressed mood, and that night they went to find Hou Yongjun under the influence of alcohol and expressed their willingness to talk.
But Zhou Jiani didn't come back for three or five days, and she even bought another basket and a small wicker basket, as if she was addicted to selling goods outside.
The shape of the Dou Lu Zi is slightly different from that of the ordinary Lu Zi, and it is also very beautiful.
It was also urgent goods, so Song Chao and his team rode their bikes to various villages to search for it.
This time, not only Su Chenghai and Yang Hong were anxious, but other bosses in the cargo store were also anxious. They went to the village and gathered together with Su Chenghai, asking the boss to make the decision.
The second-in-command Yang Hong came again. His old face was so anxious that wrinkles appeared on it. He went to find Hou Yongjun again and asked Hou Yongjun to help him make connections, hoping to talk to Team Leader Zhou.
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