After discussing it, it was decided that Lu Qiang and Mai Guangtian would go to Red River Valley City as representatives to invite Secretary Tang to Qingdao to guide the work, and make a request at the right time.

As for whether Secretary Tang is free or not, that's another matter, at least the posture should be correct.

Mai Guangtian is the deputy leader of the road construction group, and above him is the team leader and He Jiashan, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Honghe Valley Industrial Corporation.

Lu Qiang is different, he is the main person in charge of the logistics reorganization, this errand is at least four or five days, at most a week, and the relevant matters can be messed up if they are not explained clearly.

Therefore, it is scheduled to depart on April 6th, which is the day after tomorrow.

Now it is the busy time of the first sheep shearing season, after the business trip is decided, Lu Qiang took his assistant to the temporary grazing points outside the town to determine the order of who is the most important sheep shearing first.

When the horse leaves Qingdao Town, there is a low hilly area in front of him, along the way the water and grass are abundant, the streams are vertical and horizontal, and you can see a large area of sheep, like the white clouds in the sky.

These are all sheep from the surrounding private pastures, with a few thousands, many tens of thousands, each separated by a certain distance to temporarily graze to prevent the sheep from mixing together, and it looks clear from a distance.

Private ranchers outside the town are waiting for notice to queue up to shear their sheep at the Qingdao Township Wool Buying Station, rather than rushing to the site, which is a conventional process.

The cowboys live in mobile caravans on weekdays, and in their free time they can spend their free time in the town's bars and binge.

There are hundreds of private farms around Qingdao Town, which drive sheep to Qingdao during the shearing season, including the nearby inland towns of Linyi and Townsville, which are home to more than a million sheep, so order is very important.

generally speaking

According to the shearing capacity of the wool purchasing stations in various places, a group of more than 10 private ranches arrived in Qingdao Town within a certain week and took turns shearing sheep according to the order.

For example, in the first week of April, which private farms can come to shear sheep? Other private ranches cannot be arrived early or late and must be arrived within the specified time.

The whole shearing season lasts for more than 2 months, and after a month's rest, the next shearing season begins.

Sequencing the farms is a logistically important task.

This sorting work was taken care of by Lu Qiang, so he had to arrange it before leaving.

"Master Lu, our ranch is too far away from the town, the sheep have been driven all the way and have been on the road for more than 20 days, see if you can arrange for us to go in first, I'm afraid that the sheep will lose weight after a long time!"

"If your sheep lose fat, will others not lose it?"

"Master Lu, take care of me!"

As he spoke, a heavy red envelope was stuffed into his pocket, Lu Qiang touched it with his hand quietly, and immediately calculated no less than ten pounds, and his face immediately changed from serious to kind;

"Hey, it's not easy for everyone to make a living outside, I'll try to arrange it for you in advance, so let's do it, Ma Siye's sheep will be cut this evening, you told me late, it's the turn of Brother Hu's sheep to enter the field, tomorrow at noon, you will be lined up to enter at noon tomorrow, what do you think?"

"Okay, I didn't say it, thank you Lu Ye for taking care of me."

After riding a horse outside the town, it was already dark, Lu Qiang came back with a few heavy red envelopes in his arms, this kind of oily and watery thing must not be faked by others, he has always done it himself.

He had a large independent mansion in the town, not far from the house of the horseman.

Lu Qiang rode back to the mansion with two assistants, and his servants immediately opened the gate when they saw it from afar, and the three riders entered the courtyard without pause, stopped at the door of the two-story mansion, turned over and dismounted.

The concubines and servants in the house had already come out when they heard the sound of horses' hooves, and when they saw Lu Qiang handing over the reins of the horses to the groom, he commanded; "After running for half a day in the afternoon, the horse sweated a lot, so I quickly took off the saddle and fed some concentrate, salt, beat a few eggs and mixed it to strengthen nutrition, and don't forget to put a blanket on the horse to prevent it from freezing at night."

"Don't worry, master, this is all a small and familiar thing."

"Hurry up and feed it, the horse won't eat when it's dark."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Qiang strode into the house with a horsewhip in his hand, and two young and beautiful Malay concubines bowed down with three servants to greet him; "Welcome home."

"Hmm!"

Lu Qiang responded, handed the horsewhip to his subordinates, took off the wide-brimmed cowboy hat on his head and threw it on the table, and sat down a little tired.

At this time, the servant woman brought a towel and water to wash his face, served him a cup of hot tea, felt warm and comfortable in his lower stomach, took off the hard cowboy boots on his feet and replaced them with loafers, and already smelled the rich smell of meat from the kitchen.

"Uncle Wu, what do you want to eat at night?" Lu Qiang sat on a chair with hot tea in his hand, and the two Malay concubines helped him beat his legs and the other helped him beat his back, which was really enjoyable.

Wu Bo is an immigrant who moved to Qingdao Town not long ago, and his family of 4 is working in Lu Qiang's mansion, and he is a native of northern Zhejiang, so he is deeply trusted.

Uncle Wu works as a housekeeper in the house, his wife works as a maid in the kitchen, his eldest son Wu Zhu'er grazes cattle and sheep in the pasture, and his younger son Wu Gou'er follows the old man to do things and run errands.

They belonged to the freedmen, and their status was higher than that of the Malay women who had been paid for in the mansion.

"Back to the master, today I will eat carrot stewed mutton, potato roasted chicken, vinegared cabbage and vegetable soup, some new Shaoxing Huadiao wine from the town's department store, I bought ten jars and put them in the cellar, you see if you can give a pot of warm."

"Oh...... There is authentic Shaoxing Huadiao wine, it is rare and rare......" Lu Qiang suddenly came to his senses, and the long-lost taste in his memories made him relish, and he patted his thigh and sat up and said; "How can ten altars be enough? If you let those guys in remote places know, how much Huadiao wine is not enough to sell, and I don't know when this kind of good thing will come next time, so I will hurry up and buy 50 jars tomorrow and put it in the cellar to drink it slowly. ”

"Got it, sir."

"Anyway, the wine and food are ready-made, and a jar will be opened first, Uncle Wu, you will accompany me to have a good drink."

"That's good, but the little old man is disrespectful."

In Australia, lamb is not valuable, and many vegetables are more expensive than lamb, so people's recipes are based on meat, supplemented by vegetables.

Australian merino sheep are rich in wool for 6~7 years, after this period, the wool production will be sharply reduced, so the old sheep must be eliminated, only this one is eliminated every year The scale of the elimination reaches more than millions.

According to the average of 100~140 kg of an adult sheep, the meat production can reach hundreds of thousands of tons.

On the other hand, millions of sheep with poor wool quality are culled every year, most of which enter the meat market.

The general wool is thicker than the hair, the texture is hard and not easy to spin, and the warmth is poor, while the Australian merino wool is only 1/10 of the hair, and the advantages are endless.

Australian merino wool is the most delicate, the softest, the wool quality is uniform and stable, the oil content is also very high, the quality of the count is generally 60~80, and has high strength, good elasticity, soft feel, white color, soft luster characteristics, with good downsizing, is an excellent raw material for worsted and high-grade woollen woollen fabrics, so it is more expensive than the general wool price.

Australian Merino sheep are the best fine-wool sheep in the world, but there are also advantages and disadvantages.

For the sake of survival of the fittest, a staggering number of sheep are culled in Red River Valley pastures each year, mostly with low wool quality.

Divided according to fiber thickness

Australian wool is also divided into four grades, the best merino wool can reach more than 80 pieces, most of them are in the range of 26~70 pieces, the finer the fiber, the higher the value.

Wool can be spun with high count and high price, soft and elastic feel, suitable for making excellent worsted fabrics, such as high-grade woolen sweaters, wool quilts.

Low-grade wool is more used in woollen products, such as woolen wool, woolen socks, wool scarves, wool gloves, etc., and the value is much lower.

As the world's largest Red River Valley ranch, while pursuing the expansion of the number of sheep, it also continues to eliminate some low-quality sheep, the lower the fiber count of sheep, the lower the value, often belong to the list of elimination, most of the inflow into the market belongs to this category.

In addition to being purchased by private ranches to expand the flock, a large part of the eliminated sheep go to the meat market, where they are used for roasting whole sheep and steaming lambs.

After the thirty or forty pounds of sheep cubs are skinned and the internal organs are removed, there is more than half of the meat left, and the roast whole sheep is just right for five or six men to eat, the meat is charred and crispy, fat but not greasy.

Night covers the land

After a day of hustle and bustle, Qingdao Town was quiet, and occasionally the neighing of horses could be heard, and it was time for dinner in Lu Qiang's mansion, when a dozen or so people were divided into two tables, and the cook, the servant woman and the groom maid ate in the kitchen.

In the middle of the hall there are large pots of dishes, the variety is small and the quantity is large enough, and the large pots of stewed lamb with carrots are piled high, and the staple food is bread. Lu Qiang is at the top, on the left hand side is the old housekeeper Wu Bo, and on the right hand side are two beautiful concubines, chatting while eating and drinking.

The Malay concubines couldn't understand Chinese, and they generally just lowered their heads to eat when they saw gourds on the table, and they would only say "yes, master", "welcome the master" and "send off the master", and the rest could only stare at the big eyes.

Uncle Wu put down his chopsticks and said; "Sir, there's news from the ranch that we're going to shear the sheep in the last week of April, and you have to take that to heart."

"It's a trivial matter, you let Wu Zhu'er have more snacks on the ranch, and the cowboy's work is learned with heart, I think this young man is still very down-to-earth, and when he can take charge of himself, I can rest assured that I will leave things to him." Lu Qiang held a large piece of lamb backbone in his hand and gnawed it fragrantly, the juice dripping onto the table and not caring about it, his mouth was stuffed with mutton and said vaguely.

"Thank you, sir."

"Uncle Wu, where is there a foreign language in this, we are all folks in the township, and if we don't hold a group in Australia, which is thousands of miles away from home, do we show jokes to outsiders?"

Lu Qiang said and picked up the wine bowl and touched it with Uncle Wu, raised his head and took a big sip, and shouted happily; "Cool!"

In this part of Australia

Anyone who comes out of the mix will generally write back to their hometown to summon fellow villagers to help take care of the business ranch, and nostalgic slang is the best emotional bond, almost irreplaceable.

People in northern Guangdong look for fellow villagers in northern Guangdong, Chaoshan people look for fellow villagers in Chaoshan, people in Fujian Province look for fellow villagers in Fujian Province, and people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang look for fellow villagers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, thus forming a small circle.

Ordinary people don't have the abundant financial resources of Lord Earl, at most, they can attract more than a dozen or dozens of fellow villagers, this situation is very common in private ranches near Qingdao Town, but unfortunately they are not in the climate, and people everywhere have them.

"What the master said is yes, this place in Australia is good, but the people from all over the world are too mixed, and sometimes they can't understand what they say." Uncle Wu sighed, picked up the wine bowl and took a sip of stuffy wine.

Lu Qiang threw the meat and bones in his hand on the ground, and the shepherd dog immediately came up and took it away, and fell to the side and gnawed it with relish.

He took the towel handed by the concubine and wiped his hands, and said with a smile; "This matter of the Red Fort has been policyd, will be in the school to fully promote the "Mandarin Zhengyin" education, I heard that it is based on the accent of the Imperial City of Beiping, children go to school to learn Beiping dialect, other places can not count. ”

"Oh, what about the local dialect handed down by our ancestors?"

"I still say it at home, but in the future, when I go to the government to do things, all I teach in school is "Mandarin Zhengyin", and if I don't understand it, I can't even do things! After all, our place in Australia is different from the Manchu Tatars, and the communication of the local accent in the southern and northern accents is too troublesome, or "Mandarin Zhengyin", if you want to speak the local dialect, you can say it at home, and no one will stop you. ”

"Alas......"

Uncle Wu sighed, he couldn't intervene in this kind of big thing, even the old man and those big people in the town.

The family has been in Australia for half a year, and they know that on this one-third of an acre of land, the words of the earl are true, and no one dares to violate them.

While drinking and chatting, a jar of Huadiao wine quickly went down most of it.

Lu Qiang's face was slightly red, and after a few bowls of wine, his stomach became hot, so he unbuttoned the collar of his shirt to be more refreshing, and said;

"I will go to the Red River Valley this time to estimate that it will take a week, by the way to buy some sheep and cubs back, you have to spend more time on the pasture affairs, put out a batch of chickens that do not lay eggs, and the potatoes that have just been harvested in the field are brought to the town to sell as soon as possible, this thing can't be left for a long time, and all the buds are blind."

"I know my lord, the letter from the ranch said that there were two bulls fighting, and the horns of one cow were discounted, it seems that it is not a big success, these days I am always in good spirits, and I have to hurry up to the town to kill and sell meat, otherwise it will be a big loss to die in the ranch."

"You can do this, when I leave, tell the person in charge of the logistics team, a cow is worth a lot of money."

"I'll go back tomorrow."

The two chatted about the ranch for a while, and after they were full, Lu Qiang patted his stomach, burped, and went upstairs to rest with a beautiful concubine in his arms.

Uncle Wu glanced enviously at the back of the old man going upstairs, sat at the table and poured himself a drink, looking at the table full of meat and bones, and his heart was full of happiness.

This place in Australia is good!

Mutton is sold cheaper than vegetables, when I first came to eat meat every day, the family also ate bad stomachs, compared to the hometown where there are few people and almost starved to death, the boundless land here is really too luxurious.

I never dreamed of such a good place, lukewarm and hot all year round, with herds of cattle and sheep, and no worries about food and clothing.

Immigration to Australia is not divided into land, there is only vast pasture here and there is very little arable land, so there is not so much arable land to divide, only immigrants to Shangri-La, Sulawesi and Borneo will divide the land.

But Uncle Wu felt that it was not a loss, and the family of four worked on Lu Qiang's private farm, earning almost 40 pounds a year, and it didn't cost money for food and housing.

After working for a year, you can pay off the immigration loan, and the rest of your savings can buy land and buy a house for your son to marry a daughter-in-law.

The houses in Qingdao town are not expensive, a two-storey wooden house with a separate yard is about 70 or 80 pounds, and the larger yard is no more than 100 pounds, and you can take out a loan to buy a house and property.

Therefore, Uncle Wu plans to buy a wooden house next year, and marry his eldest son the year after tomorrow.

Let's be honest

Chinese daughters-in-law really can't afford to marry, and it often costs more than one or two hundred pounds, if it weren't for the influx of Malay indigenous women into the Australian marriage market, many low-income men would have to fight for a few more years.

Isn't a Malay woman a dozen pounds a fragrant?

For Wu Bo's family, who were still struggling on the poverty line half a year ago, it doesn't matter whether they can understand their hometown's dialect, the important thing is that they can work and give birth.

in Queensland

Chinese workers and white workers are paid equally for equal work, and the annual income of low-level workers is about 7~10 pounds, and the income of female workers is less, about 4~6 pounds.

This income level has doubled compared with six or seven years ago, on the one hand, because of the increase in income brought about by the rapid economic development, and on the other hand, because all walks of life need a large number of people, and the shortage of labor in Australia has been a long-standing problem.

But as an Australian Dominion with a total population of just over 6 million, the labor force that can be digested each year is limited, and one million immigrants is already the limit (including Shangri-La and Borneo immigrants), and any more number will only cause chaos.

Recently

The Queensland immigration department has begun to deliberately control the number of immigrants, mainly to absorb immigrants with a skill, to free immigrants, to improve the quality, and it is becoming more and more difficult for ordinary people to get tickets to Australia.

Through the way that the immigration department controls the overall situation and is determined by the market, the number of free immigrants who are up to one million per year has now become a profitable industry, not only fattening the nineteenth-century United Shipping Company, Huitong Bank and Shangri-La Bank, but also fattening many industries, expanding the Australian internal market, forming a positive virtuous circle.

Uncle Wu's family was able to obtain the approval of the immigration department because of their bamboo weaving skills, and they were able to successfully get immigration loans and come to this rich land flowing with milk and honey.

Now I want to come...... What a blessing!