Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1005 The Snow Removal Machine Shows Its Prowess! (Congratulations to reader "Crocodile Tears" L for becoming the Alliance Leader!)

Because Li Long only brought the tractor with the snowplow but not the bucket, Halimu and Yushanjiang didn't ask him to bring anything back. They just told him not to come over tomorrow, as they would ride horses down the mountain to drive the tractor.

Li Long planned to take them down the mountain, stay overnight in the county, and then drive the tractor up the mountain the next morning.

But Yushan Jiang's family only has him, his wife and children are still at the herding team's post, while Halimu's family only has two people, and there are still quite a few wolves at night, so they can't leave yet.

So, according to Yushanjiang, tomorrow morning, he will feed the sheep hay and ride down the mountain with Halimu, and then drive the tractor back into the mountains.

Li Long said no need, riding a horse is too slow, the road has already been opened, he will drive a jeep to pick them up tomorrow morning, and after picking them up, they will go down the mountain, and then Halimu and Yushanjiang can drive the tractor directly back.

"Then we can just drive the tractors and haul the supplies up the mountain," Halim thought, which made sense. "You won't need to hire any more trucks."

Li Long thought that made sense; it would actually be more convenient this way, as he wouldn't have to make so many trips.

Li Long then drove the tractor back, and when he arrived at Qingshuihezi, Meng Hai was still waiting by the roadside.

Li Long told him that he didn't need to work tomorrow. Since everyone was doing voluntary work, he wouldn't pay them. He would organize everyone to repair the road again next spring.

Meng Hai watched Li Long leave, then strode home himself.

He also needed to clean up the Dongfanghong 75 tractor; it had been used and a lot of ice had formed on it, so he had to deal with it properly.

When Li Long returned to the county, he saw that it was getting late, so he decided to do the work tomorrow.

The tractors belonging to Halim and his group were parked at the purchasing station. Li Long went over to Liang Shuangcheng and said that they should get up together tomorrow to boil a big pot of water for later use.

Liang Shuangcheng nodded in agreement.

"Are the mountain people coming down the mountain?" Gu Boyuan understood what was going on as soon as he heard Li Long say that.

"Yes, it's time to go down the mountain." Li Long explained the situation in the mountains. "Tomorrow morning I'll go buy some supplies, and when they come down and drive their tractors, I'll have them haul the supplies up."

"We should prepare more supplies," Gu Boyuan said. "The snow this year is too heavy, even in the mountains than in our plains. It could really turn into a snow disaster."

"That's right. I heard on the news that it's not just here that we've had continuous heavy snowfall. It's the same in Inner Mongolia and Northeast China. This year's snowfall is heavier than in previous years. Even in Ili and Altay in northern Xinjiang, the snowfall is even heavier than here."

Liang Shuangcheng's words surprised Li Long, who asked, "How did you know?"

“I listen to the news,” Liang Shuangcheng said with a smile. “I bought a radio, and I listen to the news and storytelling whenever I have free time. That’s how I found out.”

Li Long nodded. It seemed it really was a snow disaster.

Regardless of what others are like, Halim and his group are in a better situation this year, so Li Long thought it best to at least maintain this good situation.

Back in the courtyard, Li Long began to list the supplies he planned to buy the next day; he wanted to make a list.

Rice, flour, and oil are essential; brick tea, salt, and sugar cubes are also necessary. Potatoes, onions, and dried chili peppers can be purchased. Each household should buy at least a bag of coarse salt for livestock, and the sugar residue I promised also needs to be discussed with Song Ming.

So we need to get tomorrow's itinerary sorted out.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long arrived at the purchasing station. Sun Jiaqiang was already there, and Liang Shuangcheng had also eaten breakfast. Li Long had Sun Jiaqiang accompany Gu Boyuan to collect the goods, while Liang Shuangcheng went to add hot water to the two tractors and heat the bottoms of the tractors.

"It would be best if the engine could start, or at least the tractor should be able to be cranked," Li Long said. "Boil more water."

"Don't worry, Brother Long," Liang Shuangcheng said with a smile. "We often work with tractors in the winter; I'm good at it!"

Li Long's original intention in making this arrangement was also this. Sun Jiaqiang's family didn't own a tractor, and he had never used one before, so he definitely wouldn't know how to operate it. What if he damaged the oil pipes or something?
Liang Shuangcheng must have done it before, but even so, Li Long repeatedly reminded him to be careful when grilling and not to put the fire in the wrong place.

Liang Shuangcheng pointed out the areas where the food shouldn't be grilled, which reassured Li Long.

He drove his jeep into the mountains, and when he arrived at Halim's winter hut, he saw that Yushanjiang's horses were already tied up next to Halim's stable.

Upon hearing the jeep, Halim and Yushanjiang came out one after the other, greeted Li Long, and then carried out leather and other items from the spare house.

“After we got back this time, I spent a few days hunting. The wild animals near my pastures had all gone far away, so I made a special trip to the deep mountains,” Halim said as he carried the bag. “I shot two snow leopards and a big brown bear. That brown bear was huge, over two meters tall. If it weren’t for this good gun, I would have killed it.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a huge bear skin from the spare room.

The hide was slightly damaged, with several tears and bullet holes, but even so, one could tell how big the beast in front of him was.

“Don’t do such dangerous things in the future,” Li Long said. “The money you took before is enough for the road repair. We all have families to support, so your own safety is the most important thing.”

"Don't worry, we know what we're doing," Yu Shanjiang said with a smile. "We have guns, and we know we're safe."

These hides weren't just from Halimu; some were brought by Yushanjiang as well. There were several deer antlers, but Li Long's car couldn't hold them all, so he planned to get more next time he came.

There were a few pieces of jade, as usual; the quality wasn't exceptional, but it was still quite good.

After moving everything, Halimu and Yushanjiang got into the jeep, and Li Long drove the jeep down the mountain.

“The weather forecast says there might be more snow in a few days. Now that you’re driving back in your tractors today, you need to hurry up and clear the roads to the other winter settlements,” Li Long said as he drove. “When we get back later, I’ll take you to load up the supplies. We’ll distribute some to each family first, and then I’ll get some more and bring them up later.”

“Yes, now that the road is open, it’s convenient to buy things. Even if it snows again, it won’t be this heavy. We have three tractors, so whenever it snows, we can just use your snowplow to clear the snow off the road. That way, things will be much easier later on.” Yu Shanjiang had already planned ahead.

Looking back now, it's fortunate that we agreed to let Li Long repair the road last year, and this year we also got tractors, and Li Long got a snowplow.

Otherwise, with the heavy snow blocking the mountains and no roads, it would be a huge effort to get supplies out on horseback with such thick snow.

As soon as the jeep arrived at the purchasing station, Li Long could hear the sputtering sound of a tractor in the backyard, indicating that Liang Shuangcheng had already started the tractor.

There were only five or six people waiting to sell things in the front yard, but each of them had a large bag full of stuff, so they must have made quite a haul.

The jeep drove to the backyard, and Li Long saw Liang Shuangcheng adjusting the throttle of the tractor and checking the fuel level in the tank.

He saw Li Long get out of the car and said with a smile:

"Brother Long, it's running!"

"Good, good, not bad!" Li Long nodded approvingly as he saw that all three tractors were running and the snow in the trailers had been cleared.
"Okay, turn off that machine inside first." Talihar didn't come over; he wouldn't start his tractor for now.

After Liang Shuangcheng turned off the machine, he went into the front yard to help. Li Long, on the other hand, told Halimu and Yushanjiang to go into the reception room to rest, as he needed to remove the leather first.

“We won’t rest. Let’s quickly buy the supplies and bring them back to the mountains.” Yushanjiang was quite anxious. “We’ve been sitting in the car the whole time without doing any work, so we don’t need to rest.”

“Alright, let’s go, I’ll take you to get the supplies,” Li Long said. “Let’s get two truckloads of supplies up the mountain today.”

Li Long took Yushan Jiang first to the grain store, where they bought a large quantity of rice, flour, oil, and other daily necessities. Then they went to the supply and marketing cooperative, where they bought ten bags of coarse salt. Next, they went to the food company, and finally to the department store.

After passing through these places, both tractors were fully loaded.

“Alright, Li Long, we’re going back to the mountains now. We’ll come down to find you when we have time. If you have time, you should also go up the mountain and take a look,” Yu Shanjiang and Halimu said together. “And we should bring those things back from the mountains.”

"I forgot to mention something. You all need to come back with me and bring the snowplow. Otherwise, it will be difficult to clear the snow on the other winter roads."

Li Long brought Yu Shanjiang and the others back, loaded the two snowplows directly onto the tractor, and let them drive away.

With this major task completed, Li Long was left with only three push-type snowplows. Since it might snow in the next couple of days, he called Factory Director Du to ask if he had any plans to deliver any more snow, and if so, to send one over directly.

“We have sales staff in Shicheng giving demonstrations to government agencies and enterprises. You can just go to the Shicheng Tractor Factory and pick one up. I’ll give them a call.”

Li Long thought this was pretty good; at least he wouldn't have to make another trip to Kuitun.

Li Long took a trip to Shicheng and found that there were quite a few people watching the demonstration. Judging from their attire, they were mostly officials, commenting on the two machines that were clearing snow from an open area that hadn't been cleared.

Li Long had good hearing and could tell that the people were mostly praising the machine. After all, once this snow-clearing machine was available to various units, it would save a lot of manpower. After the demonstration, Li Long went to find the person in charge.

The person in charge had already answered Li Long's call and directly assigned him two snowplows mounted on tractors.

This saved Li Long a lot of trouble—he didn't even have to pay; he could just sign and accept it.

After hauling the snow back, the next day, under a cloudy sky, Li Long drove the jeep up the mountain again. The jeep was loaded with some supplies. Li Long was worried that it would snow again soon, and the supplies Halim and his group had brought up the mountain a few days earlier might not be enough, considering there were about ten families.

When Li Long arrived in the mountains, he discovered that it had already started snowing.

Halim was not in the winter camp; Li Long only saw his wife.

The woman, who could now speak a few words of Mandarin, told Li Long that Halim had driven a tractor and gone with Yushanjiang to clear snow from other winter settlements. She said that if Li Long came, he would take away the supplies from the vacant houses.

After a few days' absence, Halim's spare room had accumulated quite a few more pelts. There were two more snow leopard pelts, no bear pelts this time, but there was a lynx pelt. There were also quite a few wolf pelts, more than a dozen, and the rest were thirty or forty deer and wild goat pelts, along with a dozen or so deer antlers.

Li Long couldn't finish pulling it all at once; he also saw more than a dozen pieces of jade haphazardly piled up in the corner.

He unloaded all the supplies he had brought, and then loaded the leather and jade from the spare house onto the truck.

Finally, he said goodbye to Halim's wife and drove down the mountain.

The snow in the mountains was falling heavily, and Li Long could tell that it wouldn't stop anytime soon.

Fortunately, the snow on the road has been cleared. The wind has been blowing at night these past few days, which has blown some more snow from the side onto the road, but overall it doesn't have much of an impact on driving.

Li Long's jeep drove out of the mountains, and the snow gradually subsided when they were almost at Qingshuihe Village, but the sky was still overcast, and it looked like it would snow soon in the plains as well.

When he drove back to the county, he unloaded the hides at the purchasing station and the courtyard, and unloaded the jade behind the wall of the courtyard. Snowflakes began to fall in the county.

This snowfall looks like it will be quite heavy.

It seems this snowplow will soon be put to use in the county.

Snowflakes fell all night and didn't stop the next morning. The snow in the yard was a thick layer, more than 20 centimeters deep. Li Long was using a hand-pushed snowplow to sweep the yard, and in no time, he had swirled the snow into clumps and carried them to the wall.

After getting up and taking care of Mingming and Haohao, Gu Xiaoxia smiled and said, seeing the situation:

"That's incredibly efficient!"

“This is better for the unit’s yard, and it’s faster.” Li Long turned off the snowplow’s engine and said, “I’ll borrow one for your unit, and I’ll take the other one to the supply and marketing cooperative later. This one will also be taken to the purchasing station later.”

“Okay,” Gu Xiaoxia said. “Now our colleagues are all relieved. Oh, right, I need to tell them that it’s just a loan.”

"Okay, I'll take it over later and teach your colleagues how to use it too."

Once the snow in the yard was cleared, Li Long quickly boiled water to heat the engine block and started the tractor.

By the time the tractor started, breakfast was ready.

After breakfast, Li Long drove his tractor, loaded several snowplows onto it, and delivered them one by one.

Gu Xiaoxia went to her workplace first. When Li Long arrived in his tractor, her supervisor and colleagues were waiting at the door.

Gu Xiaoxia said that her husband would bring a snowplow to clear the snow, so the yard would be so big that no one would have to sweep it, saving a lot of time.

Everyone waited with a curious and eager-to-see attitude for the arrival of the push-type snowplow.

After Li Long unloaded the snowplow and started the engine, listening to the sputtering sound, everyone gathered around and began to comment on the snowplow.

"Alright, move aside, or the snow will splash all over you," Li Long said helplessly. "I'll demonstrate, and then someone else can take over. By the way, you can see the fuel level here; it's for gasoline."

After saying that, he waited for everyone to disperse before preparing to clear the snow.

These people were unaware of the power of the snowplow's winch, and they didn't scatter over a wide area.

“A little further away,” Li Long said, pointing to a few people to his right. “This machine can churn up snow, and it wouldn’t be good if it got all over you.”

"Make way, make way! If you don't move aside, and when Xiao Li starts clearing the snow later, he might get you all dirty. Don't blame him then!" Director Wang said.

Those people then walked a few steps away, clearly not very convinced.

Li Long decided to ignore it all; fortune or misfortune was his own doing. He pushed the machine forward.

"Put-put-put-put..." The snow was suddenly swirled up, like a winch at a grain depot, sending it flying high into the air. Several people couldn't dodge in time and were sprayed with snow all over their bodies, looking quite disheveled.

"Hahahaha." The others who were standing further away laughed.

Li Long ignored it and pushed the snowplow all the way to the end, sweeping all the snow in that lane into the tree field to the right.

Using snowplows will mostly push the snow to the sides, which is extremely inefficient.

One of the great advantages of a winch is that it doesn't accumulate snow, and each pass is more efficient than the last.

When he returned, the snow was flying in another direction, so Li Long went around to the other side of the small square, essentially making a circle, and cleared the snow from the other side into the tree field opposite.

After circling back, Li Long stopped and asked:

Who will take over?

"I'll do it, I'll do it!" Someone immediately came over to take over.

Li Long greeted Director Wang and the others, then hurriedly drove away in his tractor.

He's going to the supply and marketing cooperative; they're probably bustling with activity there right now.

Li Xiangqian and his team were clearing snow in the yard when they saw Li Long driving over in a tractor. Li Xiangqian smiled and said, "I knew you'd come. Come on, let's try out the snowplow you mentioned."

Li Long followed suit, which greatly surprised his colleagues at the supply and marketing cooperative.

“This machine will be used by our company from now on,” Li Long said. “You guys can use it, but I also need to go to my purchasing station, where I need one too.”

“We have quite a few supply and marketing cooperative locations, one machine isn’t enough,” Li Xiangqian said with a smile.

“Then there’s nothing I can do. I can give this one to our commune, but if we need more, the commune will have to buy them.” Li Long said, “The snowplows are being demonstrated at the Shicheng Tractor Factory, so we should be able to buy them in stock.”

"Alright, alright, I understand," Li Xiangqian said with a smile. "But this matter has to be left to you. Think about it, our prefectural branch doesn't have any either, right? You need to get a couple so we can send them to the prefectural branch, right?"

Li Long sighed, realizing that he was far inferior to Li Xiangqian in terms of being an official.

While he was only thinking about his own small plot of land in Ma County, Li Xiangqian had already set his sights on the state commune.

You'd be right to say he's qualified to be a director!

However, since Li Xiangqian has already said so, it is necessary to send it.

Li Long drove the tractor straight to Shicheng—he was afraid that if he arrived too late, there would be no more goods left.

After all, snowplows are a hot-selling tool when it snows, and there may be a shortage of supply.

Sure enough, when Li Long arrived at the tractor factory, there were already quite a few people surrounding the sales staff wanting to place orders.

Li Long himself was not sure if he could get two more units.
(End of this chapter)