Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1093 Wucheng Station, an Unexpected Person

When Yang Bo and Jiang Zhiyu returned, they both had made a great haul.

Yang Bo didn't find any jade, but he was quite happy with the wild boar leg he was carrying. Jiang Zhiyu not only got a wild boar leg, but also a bag of black tiger paw mushrooms, and more importantly, she got a lot of first-hand materials.

She had originally planned to interview Li Long about the pesticide spraying machine, but now she had enough material to write three news articles.

Moreover, in Jiang Zhiyu's view, at least two of these three news articles could be published in the state daily or even the autonomous region daily.

A win-win situation!
So she decided to keep in touch with Li Long more often in the future, otherwise, how could she have made such a great gain?
Li Long drove his jeep to take Yang Bo to the Water Resources Bureau first, and then took Jiang Zhiyu to the township. It wasn't yet closing time, so they could report back to their superiors.

After dropping off the people, Li Long drove to the Fourth Team and delivered part of the wild boar to his elder brother and the rest to Old Ma's place.

Just like Yang Bo said, it's not that it's particularly delicious, but it's a wild game, and I haven't had it for a while, so I wanted to try it out.

He didn't stay any longer and hurriedly returned to the courtyard.

Right now, Sister Yang is busy with the meat jerky processing workshop, so he has to process this little wild boar.

Fortunately, it wasn't very big to begin with, weighing only 20 to 30 kilograms. After skinning and removing the internal organs, it still weighed about 10 kilograms.

Li Long first put away the two wild boar bellies that he had washed clean by the river in the mountains, and then went to the kitchen to break up the small wild boar meat and bones.

Mingming and Haohao were watching, and Han Fang, worried that they might get hurt, took them outside.

I chopped up some spare ribs to braise. The wild boar ribs were very thin, with little fat, and had meat attached, making them easy to cook.

The others will be boiled to remove the gamey smell, and then air-dried for later use.

Both pots were used for cooking. By the time Sister Yang returned early to prepare a meal, Li Long had almost finished braising the wild boar meat.

"Did you hunt this in the mountains today?" Sister Yang was also a little surprised. "A wild boar cub? It's been a while since we've had one..."

“Yes,” Li Long said with a smile as he worked, “I was busy for a while and didn’t have time to hunt.”

He's kneading dough now, preparing to steam buns. Since both pots in the kitchen are occupied, he plans to set up the stove in the master bedroom; it's quick anyway.

Sister Yang wasn't idle either. While Li Long was steaming buns, she watched the braised wild boar. After the meat was cooked, she scooped it out, washed the pot, and added water to prepare rice porridge.

The two children got hungry quickly, and when they smelled the aroma, they ran to the kitchen to see what was going on. Sister Yang then scooped out some meat for them to eat first.

"Xiao Fang, let's eat together." Li Long invited Han Fang to join him, but Han Fang blushed and refused.

"What's there to be embarrassed about? You're just a child." Li Long handed her a pair of chopsticks, telling her not to worry about it. Sister Yang was unwilling, but Li Long deliberately blocked her view from the kitchen and said:

"Xiaofang is still growing, so eat first. Taking care of a child is not easy."

Sister Yang smiled helplessly and said, "Eat up, eat up. Your uncle already said so, how can I not let you eat?"

Han Fang then picked up her chopsticks and started eating with Mingming and Haohao, making sure the two children didn't choke on bones while eating.

Li Long put the steamed buns into the steamer, checked the time, and then came out to tidy up the car.

There's been progress on the sluice gate and bridge, now all that's left is to wait. I don't have any major work on hand right now, the purchasing station is operating normally, and they'll probably be mainly buying dried mushrooms lately. I imagine Huang Lei will be here soon.

Jiang Zhiyu carried the mushrooms and wild boar meat back home, gave them to her parents, ate dinner, and then went inside to start writing.

Her family is quite well-off. She and her younger brother each have their own rooms, and both her parents have jobs. Although she works in the countryside, her future looks promising, and her parents are satisfied.

Working overtime like today is quite normal, so her parents didn't interfere much.

In fact, Jiang Zhiyu had already been conceiving these articles in her mind when she rode her bicycle back to the county. As soon as she got home, she started writing. Soon, she finished one article and then began writing the second one.

After writing the three drafts and reading them from beginning to end, correcting the typos, I checked the time and it was only a little past eleven o'clock, earlier than I had expected.

So I simply copied it all over again, then took out an envelope, put the manuscripts in one by one, glued them together, and affixed a 12-cent residential stamp, ready to mail it out in the township the next day.

Before going to work the next day, Jiang Zhiyu went to the post office first and put three letters into the mailbox at the door.

If mail is delivered from the township, the township postman will collect all the mail for the day and deliver it to the county in the afternoon, or the county's vehicle will come to collect the mail in the afternoon.

That would be a day later, and Jiang Zhiyu felt it was better to leave it in the county directly.

The next step is to wait.

The wait wasn't long before Jiang Zhiyu received a call from the newspaper.

From the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Daily!
"We have received the article about Comrade Li Long repairing the bridge and sluice gate. Now we need to verify some specific details..." The editor was very polite and dedicated. Some of the content that Jiang Zhiyu had written was not very clear, and the other party asked about it one by one, adhering to the principle of seeking truth from facts in press releases.

Fortunately, Jiang Zhiyu was with them the whole time and knew all the details, so he was able to answer all the questions they asked, including the approximate cost of the bridge and the construction time.

Regarding Li Long's concern for farmland irrigation construction, Jiang Zhiyu included Li Long's own words about the Xiaohaizi Reservoir being contracted by him. The editor also emphasized whether this was true, as well as some specific issues related to flood control during the floods at the beginning of the year.

Jiang Zhiyu was sweating profusely after answering these questions.

"The articles are very good and have a strong guiding effect. Some of our exemplary individuals did practical things for the people not only before the awards ceremony, but also continued to do good deeds after the ceremony. The point you made is very meaningful. These two articles will be published in the daily newspaper the day after tomorrow and the day after that. Thank you!"

The editor's final words deeply moved Jiang Zhiyu, who thanked him repeatedly. After hanging up the phone, her palms were sweaty.

After listening for a while, the colleagues next to her finally figured it out and started teasing Jiang Zhiyu, telling her to treat them to some melon seeds. "Wow, she's been featured in the regional newspaper! That's amazing!"

Yes, at this time, when you're hosting a party, you can just go to the store and buy half a kilogram of roasted sunflower seeds for everyone to eat. At most, you can mix in some roasted peanuts or something, and everyone will be satisfied.

Jiang Zhiyu naturally had no objections. Although she said it wasn't certain until it was reported, she still brought melon seeds and peanuts to distribute to each office when she came to work in the afternoon. The township leaders were also very happy, after all, news from the township that could be published in the Autonomous Region Daily was extremely rare, if not nonexistent.

Now two news stories have appeared at once. Although neither of them are from the same hometown, Li Long and the author are both from the same hometown, so that's fine!

When they attend county meetings, they can stand up straighter.

When Jiang Zhiyu received the newspaper, she immediately kept the entire paper. Although it was only on page two and not the front page, she was already very lucky to be on it at all.

“Officer Jiang, look at the mess you’ve made…” The first person to call was surprisingly Ma Xiaoyan.

When Ma Xiaoyan saw the news in the newspaper, she was stunned for a moment, and then immediately had the idea of ​​calling Li Long.

But I gave up. Looking at the news, I realized that Li Long was building a sluice gate for the small reservoir in his village, and the township must have known about it first. He was also building a bridge for the mountain road, something I should have followed up on and asked about from time to time.

But I habitually thought that once this was done at the beginning of the year, it was over. I didn't follow up afterward, so I can't blame Li Long.

As a result, the man surnamed Jiang took advantage of the situation!
The two women actually knew each other; they had both attended county-level propaganda work meetings and were familiar with Li Long, so they shared some common characteristics.

Therefore, Ma Xiaoyan's congratulations had a slightly different meaning.

"Haha, thank you, Officer Ma." Jiang Zhiyu's laughter was genuine. "I just stumbled upon this by sheer luck; I really didn't expect to get on. By the way, I only realized how hard they work building roads in the mountains after I went with Comrade Li Long. Of course, there are also a lot of resources in the mountains. We even watched Comrade Li Long hunt two wild boars! If I had known the mountains were so fun, I should have gone with Comrade Li Long a long time ago, since he's from our township..."

Ma Xiaoyan felt an urge to bite someone; this was blatant provocation!
“Then I hope you can get more news leads from Li Long,” Ma Xiaoyan said with a smile. “I also hope we will have the opportunity to cooperate in the future.”

After hanging up the phone, Ma Xiaoyan immediately called Li Long's purchasing station, but the station said Li Long was not there.

Ma Xiaoyan then remembered that Li Long was usually not at the purchasing station, so she decided to go to Li Long's house to look for him.

Li Long is a treasure trove of news stories, she's thought that more than once, but she usually forgets when she's busy. Otherwise, at least one of these two news stories would be hers!
But before she even left the house, the deputy minister assigned her a task: to bring a camera and come with him on a trip to a company that was about to open, which involved some investments and construction in the county, and he needed to conduct interviews and take photos.

Ma Xiaoyan had no choice but to go out with the deputy minister.

When she finally had some free time to go find Li Long after finishing her busy work the next day, Han Fang told her that Li Long had gone to Wucheng.

Jiang Zhiyu was writing an article, Ma Xiaoyan was busy organizing various publicity activities in the county, and Li Long was naturally not idle either.

The next day, Yang Bo called the purchasing station to tell Li Long that the drawings were ready and that he could pick them up when he had time.

Li Long drove to the Water Resources Bureau, where Yang Bo was alone in the office. He said that his other colleagues had gone out on business.

“Water conservancy construction is an important task for the county now,” Yang Bo said while holding the blueprints. “We need to go to various places to provide guidance, and at the same time, we also need to inspect the existing water conservancy facilities.”

Actually, I did contribute something to the sluice gate project at that small lake in your village. To be honest, many small reservoirs and irrigation canals built in the 1960s have been damaged by floods in the past two years.

If your little lake were to experience another major flood like the one at the beginning of this year, frankly, the current dam structure would be very difficult to save. Our county's farmland is all irrigated; if a small reservoir has a problem, although it won't have a huge impact on us, it will still be a loss of face.

Now that you've taken the initiative to repair this gate, it saves us time and money, and we can even add a point to our year-end summary. To be honest, it's beneficial for me too.

The two drawings not only had annotations but also clearly stated all the precautions. Whether it was for installing a sluice gate or carrying out construction, everything was very clear.

"I'll give you another address where you can buy sluice gates. We don't have these around here; you'll have to go to Beiting to get them. As for the cement and steel bars for the bridge, I don't need to tell you. But your construction team is a makeshift operation. If you want to improve, you need to find someone who studied civil engineering, or at least someone who truly understands the technology."

These were heartfelt words, and Li Long was naturally very grateful.

"Don't think this hundred yuan is too little, senior brother." Li Long took out the money. "I know this blueprint must have taken you a lot of effort..."

"Hey, a hundred yuan!" Yang Bo exclaimed, but didn't take the money. "I've accepted the credit, but I can't take this money. Otherwise, it'll be troublesome if they investigate."

He spoke with great conviction. Li Long thought for a moment, then took out a piece of fine jade pebble from his pocket, placed it on the table, and said:

"I found this when I was repairing the road a while ago. You can keep it for fun."

Yang Bo's lips moved, but in the end he didn't refuse.

He thought to himself, "I'll just stay and play around with it. If they really investigate, I can just return it. This stuff isn't like money. Once you take money, you'll most likely spend it, and a hundred yuan is no small amount."

Li Long took the blueprints back; he wanted to study them carefully.

Of course, he only studied it for two days, and from his current perspective, it's really not difficult.

Of course, when it comes to taking on official projects, we'll definitely need to find civil engineering technicians.

He put the blueprints away, knowing he would have to wait until the busy farming season was over before he could discuss this matter with Meng Hai.

Next, we'll go to Wucheng. One reason is to thank Yang Bo's teacher, the professor who teaches farmland irrigation, and the other is to retrieve the framed painting from Wucheng.

Although the gates and bridges have not yet been repaired, Li Long believes that the project will be completed smoothly after seeing the blueprints.

He drove his jeep to Wucheng, carrying dried meat.

Just as he told Yang Bo, from now on, his dried meat will become Li Long's own specialty. Give it as a gift; it's unique, prestigious, and delicious.

The dried meat was still served to both Professor Wu and Professor Luo.

Professor Luo introduced him to Professor Fang, whose real name was Fang Yanan. She was a very capable woman with short hair, around forty years old, and quite tall, probably over 1.7 meters, which surprised Li Long.

What surprised him even more was that Professor Fang was originally from northern Xinjiang. He attended university in Yenching University and later returned to northern Xinjiang to work, teaching at the Agricultural College before and after the reform and opening up.

Professor Fang highly praised Li Long's plans to build a flood control gate for the reservoir in his hometown, as well as to build roads and bridges for the herders in the mountains, saying that these were great things that benefited the country and the people, and that she would naturally support them.

“I have taught many students in both northern and southern Xinjiang. I’m still in touch with some of them, but most of them work in the farmland irrigation department. If you have similar questions in the future, you can contact me directly.”

Although Professor Fang is a woman, she has a very forthright personality. She told Li Long, "I really like young people like you who get things done directly. There are many people who talk a lot but few who actually do things. Hmm, you're very good!"

Li Long was quite excited. He had his own personal goals in doing things, but he was a little embarrassed to receive such high praise from the professor.

Professor Fang had a lot of classes, so she hurriedly met with Li Long, accepted his dried meat, and rushed off to class. Before leaving, she gave Li Long her office phone number and told him to call her if he needed anything.

After Professor Fang left, Professor Wu asked Li Long to stay for a while. She inquired in detail about the current situation of watermelon planting, harvesting, and sales.

Li Long told him everything he knew. After thinking for a moment, he also mentioned the current situation regarding watermelon cultivation.

“The use of seeds for watermelon is indeed very limited by the market,” Professor Wu nodded. “Growing watermelons is also easy to follow trends. Agricultural planting really needs to be scientific. We need to plant scientifically and study the market scientifically. This is a big topic.”

"In the future, there may be seeded watermelons, seedless watermelons, or some special varieties of watermelons, as well as seeded pumpkins, and so on." Li Long habitually brought up some things from his memory again. "When farmers have enough grain to feed themselves, they will naturally want to grow crops that can make money."

Professor Wu nodded slowly, "That makes sense."

After Professor Wu left, Professor Luo chatted with Li Long for a while. Li Long told him about his plan to grow cotton on the saline-alkali land, and Professor Luo smiled.
"Actually, this is what I wanted to talk to you about as well. I've been to many places in northern and southern Xinjiang, and it seems that soil testing and fertilization are special cases that are treated specially and are carried out on a case-by-case basis for each piece of land."

Planting crops like cotton and sugar beets on saline-alkali land is an adaptive approach. These salt-tolerant crops can survive and be harvested on saline-alkali land, making it the most economical option for farmers.

After leaving the agricultural college, Li Long first went to Engineer Liu's place and got some jade ornaments, and then went to the train station.

Yu Sufu was here this time. He said he recently went to southern Xinjiang and went back to his hometown to collect some jadeite seeds.

"Now, some people have gone over there, and they're buying small jade pebbles, but the prices they're offering are lower than what you initially offered. So I bought some and brought them here to sell; I think I can sell them."

Jade is considered a valuable item by Han Chinese people. Even if they can't afford a large or high-quality piece, they can still buy a small one to take home.

Just then, several people came over. Some were buying dried fruit, while others had probably heard of Yu Sufu's stall and came to buy jade.

Then Li Long saw someone he hadn't seen in a long time.

He has a good memory now, so he recognized the person as soon as he appeared, but he didn't go up to greet him because he wasn't sure if the other person knew him.

The man in the Zhongshan suit who was injured in the mountains and was hiding in a wooden shed.

Liu Shanmin noticed someone watching him and his heart tightened, but when he saw Li Long, he paused for a moment and then smiled.

(End of this chapter)