At an intersection in the county, Bai Yonghui was sitting in his van waiting for someone.
He is 40 years old, with dark skin and rough facial features. At first glance, he looks like a farmer digging for food in the fields, but this farmer is happily watching videos on his mobile phone.
The brush was still made by Li Ziqi.
Li Ziqi has received strong support this year. She posts an average of 3-4 videos per month. She brews peach blossom wine, makes snail noodles, pickles bacon, and boils autumn pear paste. They are all handicrafts. Now she has more than one million fans, and she also has many videos on YouTube.
It has accumulated more and more attention.
Of course, Bai Yonghui didn't know what a tubing was. He just saw Li Ziqi making persimmon cakes with skillful techniques and neat procedures. He couldn't help but say, "This girl is so awesome, she can do anything!"
He wasn't very interested in other content. After watching the video for a while, he put down his phone, lit a cigarette and continued waiting for someone.
If you could still see shabby county towns in China ten years ago, you can no longer see them now. Regardless of whether the counties are poor or rich, at least the main urban areas are in a decent state.
Fuping's GDP last year was 13 billion, ranking in the middle or upper half of the province's districts and counties, and it was also bustling with traffic.
The persimmon industry here is divided into three types:
One is a retail investor who has some fruit trees at home and makes some persimmons, but the output is small and the quality is average.
One is a factory run by an individual, who hires people from the village to do the work, finds his own sales, and also collects fruits from retail households.
The other most common type is farmers' professional cooperatives. Cooperatives are not companies, but are economic mutual aid organizations. They also need to be registered and have a legal representative.
Bai Yonghui is the legal representative of a cooperative.
"Didi!"
When he smoked his second cigarette, a taxi approached and a man in his 30s got out and looked over.
Bai Yonghui quickly got out of the car, touched his pocket first, and shouted: "I'll give it, I'll give it, don't move!"
"How can I ask customers to pay? I'll give it to you!"
He rushed to pay the fare, and the visitor smiled and said: "I've given it to you, how can I ask you to pay for it?"
"That's nonsense, I didn't even see you take the money, why did you just give it to me?"
“Pay by mobile phone!”
The visitor shook his cell phone. Bai Yonghui was stunned and said, "Why, can you call a taxi with your cell phone now?"
"QR code, it's easy!"
"Okay, don't talk about this, let's get in the car."
"Oh, yes, get in the car quickly, it's cold today!"
Bai Yonghui greeted the person into the van, started the ignition, and drove towards Caocun Town. He looked at the person from time to time along the way and made various clichés, as if he wanted to find out the person's personality and preferences.
This person's name is Wang Jun, a representative of Yuetuan, who is responsible for connecting with the local area.
A lot of changes have taken place in Fuping this year, including laying nets and wiring, starting classes, learning about new farmers, new e-commerce, and talking about selling persimmons online...
Bai Yonghui listened to it a few times and seemed to understand it, but the video was very smooth.
In fact, from the perspective of farmers, it is quite vain. What kind of e-commerce helps farmers, isn't it just to sell it in another place?
He entertains Korean buyers every year. Those talented people are nothing but good people. They all want to eat and drink well, and brag loudly. As a result, they lower the prices when they raise prices.
"..."
He glanced sideways at Wang Juan again, wondering which restaurant to go to for dinner.
Wang Juan didn't seem to notice Bai Yonghui's mood swings. He just looked at the winter scenery in the countryside. It was either on the plateau or in the valley. Persimmon trees with scattered fruits filled the field of vision. Occasionally, farmers drove three donkeys and jumped around.
delivering the last wave of persimmons on a dirt road...
The sky is vast and the sky is high, and the northwest is desolate.
The two arrived at Caocun Town. When they passed a place, Wang Jun suddenly said: "Hey, is there a thousand-year-old persimmon tree in front of you?"
"yes!"
"Is it convenient to go down and have a look?"
"Of course it's convenient, what's there to say?"
Bai Yonghui immediately parked the car, and Wang Juan went downstairs and looked up.
This is a dirt slope on the roadside, repaired with stones and cement. There are inscriptions on the bottom of the slope, such as "Persimmon Longevity Star" and "Persimmon Zhongzhen Rui".
"Go up and have a look!"
Wang Jun raised his feet and walked up. A small square was built on it, with the words "Thousand-year-old Tree" and "Prayer Square" written on it. At the top of the slope was a tall persimmon tree that had not lost all its branches and leaves and was still somewhat lush.
The tree is tied with a lot of red silk.
"Every year during fruit picking, we come to put red on the trees to pray for a good harvest. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In recent years, it hasn't worked so well."
Bai Yonghui said this, but his body was honest. He clasped his hands together and bowed to the old tree like a Bodhisattva.
Wang Jun took a look at it, then he also bowed and asked, "I heard that this tree is 1,200 years old?"
"They say they are trees from the Tang Dynasty, but I don't understand. Anyway, the government protects them and they are not allowed to be picked. Look at those persimmons. If you look at the ground, they have either been eaten by birds or fallen and rotted. We won't eat them."
"..."
Wang Jun took a look, and sure enough, the puddles on the ground, like traces of dried excrement, were all left by rotten persimmons. There were still a few fruits hanging on the crown of the tree. When the wind blew, they swayed, and you couldn't tell where they were.
The sky also fell.
"No one has eaten it in all these years?"
"I don't remember it anyway!"
Wang Jun was very interested in this tree and took a lot of photos. He said with a smile: "This place can be used as a tourist attraction. If the folks have nothing to do, take a video. If we promote it, tourists will come."
"Who would travel here if there is no place for birds to poop?"
Bai Yonghui curled his lips, got back in the car, and continued driving to the village. After this little episode, the two of them talked more and naturally started chatting.
"Fuping is actually a good place. A few decades ago, there were persimmon trees everywhere. There would be a shortage of food. People couldn't have enough to eat, so they cut them down to plant food.
Later, when I had enough to eat, I talked about withdrawing from the forest, withdrawing from the forest..."
“Return farmland to forests!”
"Oh, yes, the persimmons were planted again, but they were planted and they couldn't be sold! At that time, people in the village rode bicycles and motorcycles to Xi'an and Tongchuan to sell their goods.
About ten years ago..."
Bai Yonghui recalled for a while and said: "The Koreans have been here since. They like to eat persimmons. They are so developed. I heard that they also have persimmon vinegar, persimmon tea, skin care products and so on. I heard that persimmons can also be used to make dyes for clothes."
, we don’t know how it was dyed.
When it was over, I bought it for 2 yuan at first and then it went up to 6 yuan.
It was really profitable then, with a profit of 2 yuan per catty. When the villagers looked at it, they said, "Hey guys, what are you waiting for if you don't plant persimmons?"
Every household makes persimmons, and the output is getting bigger and bigger. Koreans come every year, but the prices are gradually getting lower and lower. Now the profit is only a few cents per catty. Our cooperative can produce more than 100 tons of persimmons this year. According to their prices
, just earn some hard-earned money.”
"Can I have 100,000 yuan?"
"Roughly the same!"
Wang Jun looked at his aggrieved look and said: "This is an economic method. To put it simply, I will give you profits first, but the channels will always be in their hands. When your output increases and there are more processing households, we will treat them more and more."
We are becoming more and more dependent on them, and the prices are being lowered so much that you can’t even fight.”
"Raise pigs and then kill them when they become fat?"