Not long after leaving Zabaikal, the Kamaz truck loaded with onions was stopped by the policemen with guns on the side of the road, because Varoga was in the truck, so we did not let the driver stop, for fear that the police would come to check after stopping, and the police would extort 100,200,000 rubles. After driving for almost a kilometer, the driver stopped at the door of a small restaurant on the side of the road, and waited for almost half an hour before the KAMAZ truck drove over.

After the KAMAZ truck stopped at the door of the small restaurant, we entered the small restaurant together, and after asking for a pot of tea, Chao Ge asked Valroga: "Why did you check it for so long?" Varroga said angrily: "These policemen are simply bandits, they checked all the formalities and documents, and when they couldn't find a single problem, they asked us to unload all the onions in the car, saying that we were notified by our superiors that there were KAMAZ trucks carrying smuggled goods, so they had to carry out a full inspection, and I asked them how much they wanted." They asked for a million rubles when they opened their mouths, I said it wasn't that much money, and in the end they had to take away two bags of onions. "I did the math, two bags of onions for a hundred kilograms are worth almost a million rubles. If we transport onions to Ulan-Oude in the future, we will also encounter this kind of roadblock extortion, and if we Chinese escort the car, we will be extorted more money. I told Brother Chao about my worries, and Brother Chao said that he also thought of this. Brother Chao asked the driver: "Is there a lot of this kind of inspection on the road?" The driver replied: "The blackest is the police on the Zabaikal side, who always extort money in the name of checking smuggling, and after passing here, they will also encounter inspections, but the police will not be so black, and they can do it for 180,000 rubles." ”

After returning to the taxi, Brother Chao said: "The Russian police don't even let the Russians go to blackmail, so if we escort the car, I don't know what it will be like to be blackmailed along the way." I said, "Yes, this Russian police is more of a bandit than a bandit." We signed a contract with Bart, and we signed it for delivery in Trans-Baikal. Brother Chao nodded and said, "Yes, we can only sign a contract like this, and the risk of our delivery in Ulan-Ude is too great." We don't need to study the way of transporting vegetables and fruits to Novosibirsk, the road is too far, and the unpredictable risks on the road are too great. After we go back to Novosibirsk, we should wait for the experts of the agricultural cooperatives in Shandong to come and inspect them, because it is better to grow vegetables in greenhouses there than to turn them upside down like this. I said, "It seems that what Yuri said at that time was quite right, but I need to bring farmers from China to farm, I don't know if it's good or not?" Brother Chao said: "I'll wait until I go back and meet Yuri and study it carefully, I think if it weren't for a large number of farmers coming over, it shouldn't be a big problem." ”

Fortunately, there was no police inspection along the way, the road to the red stone really did not dare to ask for compliments, the road through the grassland sometimes asphalt road and sometimes dirt road, the road surface potholes and bumps, our driver cursed while driving cautiously, more than 100 kilometers of distance actually drove for almost four hours to reach Hongshi City, the road on both sides is the endless grassland, I did not see a village, I did not see cattle and sheep grazing, compared with the Hulunbuir grassland when we went to Hailar to buy onions, The grasslands here are a pristine scene. I think if you come here in the summer, the scenery here will be very beautiful.

The reason why Redstone City is called Redstone is because it is a mining city, which produced uranium mines for nuclear weapons during the Soviet era, and now the mine resources have been depleted, so many supporting industries have also closed down. I think after the collapse of the Soviet Union, although many laws and regulations have been retained, they have become useless, and the salaries of government civil servants cannot be paid on time, so who cares about these things, and the uranium mine has stopped digging.

When we entered the city, we saw a depressed scene, the whole city completely retains the appearance of the Soviet period, there are no high-rise buildings, the church in the center of the city is the only high-rise building, and there is no modern facility, there are disrepaired and tattered tofu-like Khrushchev buildings everywhere, and many buildings can still see posters of the Soviet era on the walls: sickles, hammers, working class, seeing these, it seems to have returned to the sixties and seventies of the last century. It feels a little weird to see some tank cannons placed directly on stone pedestals as urban sculptures in the square on the side of the street, I don't know if it is to commemorate the war or what? asked Varoga, who said that there had been no war here, and why these tanks and artillery were placed, he couldn't say why. The city streets are no better than the roads on the steppe, and the roads are full of old Lada. Varroga said that Hongshi is probably one of the poorest cities in the Russian Far East, and its population has decreased by half compared to the heyday of the Soviet Union.

Valroga's factory is on the edge of the mine, with large rusty iron gates locked, leaving only a guard to guard the door, and the yard is overgrown with weeds. However, from the huge factory area, the tall factory buildings and a special railway line full of weeds, you can see the glorious scene of the factory back then. Valroga asked the security guards to find a few workers living in the factory dormitory building to unload the onions, and after ten minutes, five or six middle-aged men in shabby overalls and cotton clothes came, and these people immediately danced excitedly at the sight of the onions. When the workers unloaded the truck, some workers and their families came one after another, and Varroga stood on a high platform and waved his hands and announced loudly: "Tomorrow all the workers will come to the factory to receive onions and wages, and they will have dinner in the factory in the evening to celebrate." Only one cheer of "Ullah" (long live) was heard. Seeing this scene, I suddenly remembered the clip from the movie "Lenin in 1918".

After unloading the car, the crowd dispersed, and the Valroga and Kamaz driver settled the freight, and the driver suddenly said: "I want onions if I can." Varroga said a little angrily: "If you don't tell me earlier, you don't have to unload it all just now, you can load it in the car yourself, but the price must be given to you according to the wholesale price here." The driver took Valroga aside and, after discussing with Valroga for a while, an agreement was reached, and finally the driver walked away with the onion satisfied. "You see, it's much safer to hold something in Russia than to hold a ruble, and this cunning guy can make a fortune by selling the onions." ”

Varroga took us around the factory, and Chao Ge found some old rails and wheelsets in the corner of the warehouse, so he asked Varroga: "Can these rails and wheelsets be sold?" Varoga nodded hurriedly and said, "Yes, you can sell anything you like." Brother Chao said, "Then we will exchange it with you." Varroga excitedly said, "That's great, I can help you find these things in redstone, and I should find some in the mines." ”

In the evening, Varroga entertained us at the best restaurant in Redstone, as business was going well and we were going to buy old rails and wheelsets that were scrap to them, so Varroga happily toasted until we were all drunk. After dinner, a rickety Valroga drove us to what is said to be the best hotel in Redstone, a dilapidated hotel that didn't look as good as a county guest house in the country. There was no telephone in the room, so we had to find a coin-operated public phone on the street and call Sasha, who said that the timber was ready to be loaded, and that he would return to Ulan-Ude in two days.

The next morning, after Valroga took us to have breakfast in the café, we went to the post office to call the country, and Brother Chao reported the situation of the old rails and wheelsets to the boss, and the boss asked us to send this batch of wood back to China, and the company immediately contacted the origin of onions in Shandong, and first purchased a batch of onions and sent them to Manchuria. Then I called Xiao Wang again, and Xiao Wang said that the plastic flower greeting card calendar toys have been arranged for loading and shipping, and the goods ordered by Ivan have also been arranged for loading and shipping. Brother Chao immediately called Ivan and told Ivan the news, and Ivan joked on the phone that during this time, he thought that we were missing, and that the chemical raw materials had been cleared in Trans-Baikal, and that he would go to Manchuria in the next two days and ask our company to prepare to receive the goods. Brother Chao called back to China and told him the news. Then Chao Ge and Lena of the Novosibirsk company talked on the phone, asking them to cooperate with Denya to collect the greeting card calendars and zodiac toys sent by the Guò packing station in a few days. After Chao arranged everything on the phone, I called Tanya and told her that she had sent a shipment in her name and asked her to contact Lena. Tanya asked me on the phone when I was going back? She misses me so much. I said, I miss her very much, but there are a lot of things here, and I won't be able to go back in a few days. Tanya asked me to take care of myself on the phone, and finally reluctantly put down the phone.

It occurred to me that I had not been in contact with Sveta for the few days since I arrived in Ulan-Ude and returned home, and that she was already on her way to China, and that she was almost in Novosibirsk. She would have been disappointed and worried if she didn't see me at the Novosibirsk station. So I called Roman and asked him to arrange for the young man who would take me to the station that day to pick me up, and to make a trip to the station when the international train passed through Novosibirsk, and I would wait for her at the Ulan-Ude station. Roman asked me to rest assured that he would arrange this matter, and told me that two of the jade carvings in the restaurant had been sold, and that I had to send some of the slimming tea and ginseng. I told him that I had already sent some ginseng and slimming tea to the past, and I would be in Novosibirsk in a few days, and I also brought him a bottle of Moutai. Roman praised me as "Marajieci"

In Valoga's office, we signed a barter contract with Valroga for onions for rails and wheelsets, and then went to the post office and faxed it back home for stamping. Valroga said apologetically that the factory had no money, and the fax had not been installed, and now that he had money, he immediately installed the fax so that he could contact us in the future. We agreed with him that after we went back to Ulan-Ude to send the timber, we would immediately come over and send these old rails and wheelsets to Manchuria, and the company had already arranged for the purchase of onions, and then we would deliver them to each other in Manchuria according to the contract. Varoga said he was looking for them again in the next few days.

Seeing that everything was arranged, we were ready to go to Chita that day to take the train back to Ulan-Ude, and Varoga kept it again and again. He said that we had onions and wages because of us, so we were their guests, and asked us to stay for the dinner tonight, and he drove us to Chita tomorrow morning, and we had to agree.

In the factory, we were very happy to watch the workers happily receive onions and their few wages. In the afternoon, after Valroga purchased a large pile of food and a few boxes of vodka, all the workers' families and female workers began to prepare dinner in the factory area, setting up a long row of tables in the open space of the factory area, and specially pulling some ribbons, as if they were going to celebrate the New Year. Valroga said that the workers had not been so happy in a long time. In the evening, all the workers and their families arrived, and everyone was jubilant in the costumes that were only worn for festivals. After Valroga took the lead in raising a glass and thanking us repeatedly, the workers began to drink merrily, many of whom came to toast us, and we had to get drunk again. When the excitement was drunk, the workers lit a bonfire in the open field, and everyone sang and danced until the second half of the night, and the dead factory became a sea of joy on this day.