The Purchasing Station grew even busier in May. Li Long thought back and compared the figures: they had bought over thirty percent more fritillaria and dried wild mushrooms than during the same period last year.
He did not know whether news had leaked about the Forestry Bureau's reorganization and the transfer of the forest rangers' authority to Public Security. In any case, both the herb gatherers and the Forestry Team were going wild this year.
By just mid-May, Li Long had already visited the Forestry Team twice, bringing back the equivalent of nearly two tonnes of fritillaria from Aili and Abulaiti.
This is crazy, Li Long thought. Are there really that many fritillaria in the mountains? Converted into fresh weight, this was Ma County's entire annual output three or four years ago.
The Forestry Team had plenty, and the Purchasing Station was buying no small amount either. People like Fan Mingcheng came at intervals of no more than five days, each time bringing at least a hundred kilograms in dry-weight equivalent-roughly six or seven hundred kilograms fresh.
So by mid-May, Jia Tianlong made another trip, taking away three tonnes of dried fritillaria and leaving Li Long over five hundred thousand yuan.
On May 19, Liu Gaolou arrived with his truck, once again leading a long convoy.
The interval since his last visit had been rather long.
"Couldn't help it. These Kangmaiyins move too slowly. It took me three days to bring the convoy here from Ili. I'd originally planned to let the drivers bring them over at their own pace, but then I thought, forget it. You specifically asked for these, so I'd better bring them myself." Standing before a Kangmaiyin, Liu Gaolou explained the credit he deserved.
To Li Long's surprise, Liu Gaolou had brought two.
One was a