So far, they’ve received an order for 150 large packages, totaling 30,000 incense sticks.

If there is enough incense paste, Brother Lu Erge can manage to produce it in one day and night, or comfortably within two days.

After making the incense, drying and curing it for two days is also sufficient.

The key is to have all the materials prepared, handle the raw materials properly, grind the necessary incense powder in time, and then mix and knead the dough, which takes a lot of time.

Fortunately, the team is fully supporting them.

The team leader’s eldest son, Zhang Guiqi, goes out daily with a donkey cart to collect various materials.

They’ve brought back two carts of pine wood, cypress wood, and elm bark, enough for a while.

Wild mugwort, calamus, and wild mint are growing abundantly in the fields.

There are always new shoots after harvesting.

The team leader also had people plant mint along ditches, field edges, and riverbanks to ensure the incense factory never runs out of materials.

Lin Shu handed the packaging bags to Auntie Li, who is energetic and can organize a group of elderly people and children to assemble the bags.

The work points will be assessed by the team leader.

With six thousand bags, a dozen or so elderly people and children can complete the task in three to four days.

Even if they are given only five work points a day, they are very happy.

Soon, the wheat ripened.

As agreed, during the wheat harvest, the incense-making team members must stop working to help with the grain harvest.

For the common people, grain is crucial, and the harvest is of utmost importance.

However, Brother Lu Dage also wants to go out and secure more orders!

Moreover, it’s best if the finished incense is stored for a while to cure properly, so ideally, they should keep producing incense every day, drying it and storing it in the cellar, so that when he gets orders, he can ship it out directly!

Brother Lu Dage discussed with Lin Shu, asking her to talk to the secretary and the team leader, to avoid pulling all the workers away.

At least keep Brother Lu Erge and Fang Dihua at home to continue making incense.

Lin Shu suggested, “Brother, you should have the secretary talk to Director Qin at the commune. It wouldn’t be too much to ask the farm machinery team to help our team with one more day of wheat harvesting.”

This year, the commune purchased two more medium-sized tractors and added three small wheat harvesters.

Although the current wheat harvesters can only cut the wheat but not thresh or bundle the straw, they are still faster and less labor-intensive than using sickles.

One person working hard all day can cut two acres of wheat and still needs someone to handle bundling.

Although their harvester’s efficiency is lower than the combined harvesters at larger farms, it can still cut over twenty acres a day.

One day’s work with a tractor is equivalent to several days of work for Brother Lu Erge and his team.

The next morning at work, Lu Dage went to talk to the Party Secretary and the Brigade Leader, asking the Party Secretary to speak to Director Qin.

The Party Secretary puffed on his cigarette, “See where this cigarette came from?”

Lu Dage, who didn’t smoke, wasn’t concerned about that; he just wanted the Party Secretary to go to the commune.

The Brigade Leader chuckled, “The Party Secretary has already been there. Director Qin agreed.”

The cigarettes were naturally provided by Director Qin, and the Party Secretary hadn’t touched them.

Initially, they planned to play hardball with the commune, but Director Qin said, “The Lu Family Village Brigade has more land and more people compared to other brigades, so it’s reasonable for the reaper to work a few more days.”

See, when leaders speak, it’s different.

No need to play games; they already provided a solid reason.

With a tractor’s help, harvesting wheat is much faster and easier now.

How exhausting is it to bend over every day to cut wheat?

Even the strongest men dread it.

Every wheat harvest is endured through gritted teeth, with everyone losing a few pounds and several layers of skin.

So, while the members of the brigade were enthusiastically busy with the wheat harvest, Fang Dihua and Lu Erge didn’t go to the fields; they were busy making incense.

As the brigade accountant, Lu Dage was naturally busy too.

However, unlike Lu Shaocai, who was lazy and not progressive, Lu Dage found ways to be efficient and clever.

Since taking office, he had been focusing on improving the accounting skills of the production team accountants, holding regular competitions to train them.

Every month, they selected the most outstanding accountant, who would then be awarded a mobile red flag.

While training the accountants, he also groomed the scorekeepers from each production team to assist with bookkeeping.

If these people became competent, he would have it easier!

Furthermore, he often had Lu Ping help him with calculations.

Although the Lu Family Village Brigade had educated youths who were generally more literate than the rural folks, they were usually not involved in scoring and bookkeeping.

They were mostly asked to be elementary school teachers.

Lu Ping, though only an elementary student, was doing well in his studies.

He helped with bookkeeping and calculations quite competently according to the requirements.

Lu Dage didn’t hesitate to make full use of his son.

Originally, Lu Ping should have been picking up wheat spikes and bundling wheat with other students and teachers.

Instead, he was pulled by Lu Dage to help with bookkeeping in the brigade.

The Brigade Leader and others thought he was preparing his son to take over in the future.

However, they later realized that wasn’t the case. Lu Dage’s goal was to free himself up to secure more orders!

This was addictive.

Lu Dage personally carried the fifty packs of sanitary incense…

The incense went to the printing factory for delivery, and Brother Lu Dage also ordered an additional thousand large paper bags and five thousand small paper bags.

When delivering the goods, he gave Sister Wu a small basket of honey apricots.

The apricots at his home were ripe, golden yellow, and sweet.

Sister Wu, who was very appreciative, warmly introduced him to clients and took him to the textile factory.

There, he lit incense for them and placed it in each room.

Although the textile factory had just purchased a batch of Tiger Brand sanitary incense, which was more expensive and supposedly less fragrant than his, their quality seemed similar.

Sanitary incense has a high consumption rate, so the factory’s stock would only last a month.

Therefore, they ordered another hundred packs from him.

One hundred packs meant 130 yuan!

Currently, raw materials were cheap, so a hundred packs could earn him around 50 yuan!

Brother Lu Dage was so excited that he almost wanted to make Sister Wu his sworn sister.

Before leaving, he gave her a large package of incense, saying, “Sister, I’ll handle the sanitary incense for your family from now on. When our peaches are ripe, I’ll come by to give you some.”

Sister Wu was so pleased that she insisted on inviting him to a nearby state-owned restaurant, where he also sold two large bags of sanitary incense to the restaurant and one more bag to a customer.

For those who must buy sanitary incense, a product that is both cheap and of good quality is always preferred.

Brother Lu Dage’s friendly demeanor and humorous conversation naturally won people over.

Plus, his slightly older but still handsome face, and his youthful, somewhat naïve charm, endeared him to middle-aged and older women.

Not only Sister Wu, but the female staff at the state-owned restaurant were also amused by him.

One even mentioned that her uncle at the fertilizer factory would help him get orders.

He didn’t even need to push hard to sell his incense; people would buy it once they saw it and thought they needed it.

But Brother Lu Dage didn’t think he was opening up the market just with his looks.

He went home bragging about his silver tongue, his dedicated efforts to promote the incense, and his excellent selling techniques that impressed customers.

He even summarized his selling techniques and thought about training salespeople for the Lu Family Village team.

Of course, this was just a thought for now.

So, from the team leaders to the members, everyone enjoyed listening to his stories about selling incense.

They never grew tired of it.

Brother Lu Dage was amazing, going out and always coming back with orders, never empty-handed!

With orders, the incense factory could make money, and they would get dividends at the end of the year.

Those who were previously anxious were now reassured. If it was certain to make money, why hesitate?

Let’s get to work!

So, Brother Lu Erge’s incense-making team continued to comfortably stay at home, busy with incense production, instead of going to the fields.

Jiang Weidong didn’t have to exert much effort either.

In sales, pushing products oneself can be exhausting and ineffective, but having a person of status recommend the same product makes a big difference.

When Jiang Weidong returned home and noticed a damp smell, he lit a few incense sticks and took a small bundle of samples to recommend to the factory director, suggesting that the factory should start buying local incense.

Meanwhile, Old Lady Jiang, who liked Lin Shu’s rice cakes, didn’t keep them all to herself and took one to give to Han Yun.

Han Yun, with her keen nose, asked her where to buy the incense since it smelled better than the Tiger Brand.

Old Lady Jiang didn’t understand this, so she mentioned it was brought by Jiang Weidong.

Thus, Jiang Weidong didn’t have to work hard; he just distributed the sample incense he brought back.

Han Yun ordered a hundred packs for their union, and the steel factory ordered two hundred packs, deciding to purchase from Lu Family Village Brigade in the future.

The main reasons were that it was both cheap and pleasant-smelling.

The factory office director, who received half a rice cake from Old Lady Jiang, knew that the incense was from Lin Shu’s brigade and took the initiative to help spread the word, resulting in another two hundred packs being ordered from Lu Family Village.

For such a large factory, one hundred packs of sanitary incense only cost 130 yuan, which is 20 yuan cheaper than Tiger Brand.

Since they had to spend money anyway, why not buy something cheaper and of good quality?

Han Yun also asked Jiang Weidong about what Lin Shu was doing at home, whether she was busy, and sent a few yards of cloth with him, asking him to have Lin Shu make a few dresses.

The measurements were all provided, with money paid in advance at 2.2 yuan per dress.

The remaining fabric was not to be returned.

Jiang Weidong first went to Huang County and then to the Fendou Commune to pick up Lin Xia, and together they went to Lu Family Village, where he also picked up the first batch of sanitary incense.

Lin Xia had just returned from the field, and although she wore a straw hat, her face was still a couple of shades darker than before.

Jiang Weidong helped her wipe off sweat with a towel and said, “Hey, have you lost weight again?”

Lin Xia took off her hat and hung it on the office wall. “Impossible! I get a wage subsidy for working in the countryside, and I eat plenty. I’m eating a lot.”

Jiang Weidong replied, “It must be because you’re not eating enough meat. Let’s go to the village and see if anyone has a non-laying old hen for sale.”

Lin Xia said, “Chickens are all laying eggs now; don’t bother.”