He had spent enough time with Harimu and Jade Mountain River to know a little basic Kazakh, so he spoke in Kazakh. That was the language the two men were speaking.
As soon as they heard that Li Long spoke Kazakh, the two men smiled. They were no fools, either. They could tell that Li Long and his companions had come to buy livestock directly, and they began talking.
Just as Li Long had expected, the cattle and sheep were inexpensive-cheap, even-and he could take his pick.
So Li Long bought fifteen cattle and fifty-five sheep right there. It was not that he did not want more. For one thing, they could not fit any more on their vehicles. For another, the two men said they could not sell him too many, because someone else had already reserved the rest, and they had to keep them for that buyer.
Without the racks they had fitted, the five tractors could not have held all those cattle and sheep.
Some were culled sheep, so Li Long considered them quite cheap. The cattle were not very old, either. Altogether, he bought them for less than three thousand yuan.
They went again the next day. This time, the brokers knew that Li Long and his companions understood both Kazakh and Uyghur, so they did not come over to pester them. Li Long and his companions bought eighty sheep from an elderly Uyghur man. The old man was endearingly stubborn. He refused to let the livestock brokers get involved and insisted on selling them himself. He happened to run into Li Long's group, and once Xie Yundong went up and spoke to him, they struck a deal.
On the third day, Li Long bought another fifty-odd sheep and eight cattle. That was about enough.
"Yesterday's