Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1165 Good News from the Agricultural Machinery Factory
Li Long handed the keys to Director Wei, and then he and Li Xiangqian followed Director Wei to look at the car.

All the cars were wiped clean. Director Wei had already inspected the exterior of the cars, opened all the doors with the key, and even checked the trunk.

After looking at it, he lifted the front engine to check the parts inside. He even wiped the engine with his hand and found that there was not much oil on it. Then he lowered the hood, closed the other doors, and got into the driver's seat.

Li Xiangqian said to Li Long outside:
"The two workers you hired are quite good. When we arrived, they were cleaning the car, and they cleaned it really well. Look, there aren't even any dirt marks on the wheels."

Li Long smiled and said:
"Yes, she is indeed very capable."

Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng are capable, so I certainly haven't treated them badly.

Director Wei didn't even insert the key into the car; he was carefully inspecting every part of it.

He bought the car to drive; after working for so many years, he hadn't saved much money.

Buying a car isn't difficult, but spending so much money on one means you definitely don't want any problems to arise. That's why he checked it very carefully.

Li Long and Li Xiangqian were very patient, watching Director Wei carefully inspect the car for five or six minutes before starting the car.

"Hey, it's a new car! The sound is completely different from mine," Li Xiangqian exclaimed.

“The prices are different,” Li Long said. “How about I buy your car back at the original price, and you pay to exchange it for a new one?”

"No, no, I'm used to that one. I wouldn't trade it for a new one." Li Xiangqian wasn't stupid; he half-jokingly added, "I guess I'm just in time."

"Director Wei can drive, right?" Li Long suddenly remembered the almost-accident that happened when Gu Xiaoxia first learned to drive and hurriedly asked.

"Yes, don't worry, I will be able to drive it," Li Xiangqian said. "Not only will I be able to drive it, but I'll also get the license. It's just that we had a good relationship with the relevant departments in the county back then, so it was easy to get the license."

Think about it, our company has a car, so we need to practice driving it whenever we have free time.

Director Wei drove the car slowly in circles in the yard, moving at a slow and very steady speed, which put Li Long at ease.

After driving around twice, Director Wei demonstrated his reverse parking technique to Li Long, steadily reversing the car back to its original position. He opened the door and got out of the car, but didn't turn off the engine. After getting out, he bent down in front of the car and listened carefully to the engine sound.

After listening for about ten seconds, he got into the car, turned off the engine, and then said to Li Long:
"Yes, the car is indeed new, and the engine is fine. For the price, it's not bad..."

Li Long nodded; he really wasn't lying.

"Are all the paperwork complete?" Director Wei had actually come specifically to buy a car, and now that the car had passed the test drive without any problems, he asked, "Are there proper customs clearance documents?"

"The paperwork is definitely fine." Li Long nodded. "It went through customs normally, don't worry. It wasn't a car that came through those kinds of methods."

He then pulled out the paperwork to show Director Wei.

Director Wei carefully reviewed the documents, nodded, and said:

"Alright, let's get the contract done. I'll buy this car."

Li Long didn't expect Director Wei to be so agreeable, but since the other party had already made a decision, he naturally wouldn't do anything else.

The contracts were all familiar to everyone, and they were all considered family, so Li Long simply wrote down a few clauses, and Director Wei added a few more. After both parties had no objections, they signed, paid, and handed over the car.

The matter is settled.

"It's lunchtime," Li Xiangqian said.
"Director, buying a car is a great joy for you! It's just the right time, let's go to Tuanfenglou to celebrate with you, Xiao Li will accompany us."

“Okay.” This time, Director Wei didn’t refuse. Although he lost 40,000 yuan, getting a car back was pretty good.

He did have his own ideas. After all, Li Xiangqian had gotten a car within two years of taking over his position, and as Li Xiangqian's former director, he would often be laughed at if he didn't get a car.

Director Wei was determined to get a good one. Although the Lada wasn't as good as the Volga, this one was at least a new car.

He was somewhat of an expert; Li Xiangqian's car looked nice and drove well, but he could tell from the sound that there were still some minor problems.

My car is different; it's a new car, the engine and everything are in great condition, so it doesn't look as flashy, which is perfect for keeping a low profile.

The three of them drove to Tuanfenglou together. Although Li Long wanted to go to the livestock team's post as soon as possible to see Li Junfeng and the others working, he felt it wouldn't be right not to accompany them after they had just done a 40,000 yuan business deal.

Besides, it's rare for Director Wei to come here, so naturally I should spend some time with him.

Because he had to drive, Li Xiangqian said he wanted to drink, but the cautious Director Wei refused, so they ate and chatted instead.

So when Li Long saw Director Wei off in the afternoon and drove to the livestock team, Li Junfeng and his team had already finished drilling the well and were building the well platform.

"The water quality is so-so." After Li Long arrived, Li Junfeng handed the squeegee to Li Junhai beside him and then said in a low voice:
"The water from the well in front isn't as good as that one."

"How many meters did you fire?" Li Long asked.

“More than seven meters,” Li Junfeng said. “The steel bars are nine meters long when joined together, and it will be difficult to drive any further down.”

"What did the old lady say?" Li Long asked, noticing the old lady smiling.

“She was overjoyed. She even cried when the water from the well came out,” Li Junfeng said. “We suggested drilling a little deeper, but she wouldn’t let us. She said that as long as there was water, that was enough, since they didn’t use much water at home anyway.”

"Alright then," Li Long thought about it and realized it was the truth. As long as the water wasn't saline, it would be fine. As for the quality, having water at all was better than running to the front or the river to get water.

People from the front yard and the right front yard came over to watch, their faces beaming with smiles.

The old lady was happy that the well was finally drilled, as it would make it much easier for them to get water.

After Li Long and his team finished digging the well and building the well platform, they told the old lady not to rush to use it, but to wait until the cement on the well platform dried before using it.

The old lady kept nodding, and Adil said he would keep an eye on things too.

It was almost dinnertime, and Adil and the others made pilaf with the leftover meat from yesterday. Li Long and the others didn't stand on ceremony and ate it before going back.

Of course, the yard was tidied up nicely. Yesterday, Li Xiangqian and the others had already paved the yard with gravel and filled in all the pits.

Today, after Li Junfeng and his team finished digging the well and backfilling the soil, they leveled and compacted the ground, and then dug a waterway to connect it to the yard, so that the residual water from the well wouldn't turn the yard into a mud pit.

While Li Long and his team were drilling the well, Gu Xiaoxia was also simulating driving in her office.

As a key member of the company, Gu Xiaoxia is always efficient and quick in her work, completing tasks assigned by her superiors well in advance.

At this time of year, she would usually be reading books and preparing for her academic advancement, but today she wasn't reading; instead, she was thinking about the steps and actions of driving.

As I was thinking, my hands unconsciously began to move.

"Hey, Xiao Gu, what are you doing?" The older woman next to him noticed and teased him with a smile.

"Has she learned some new kind of qigong? Her movements look pretty strange."

"No, it's not qigong, I don't know how to do that." Gu Xiaoxia quickly shook her head. "I was just mimicking the movements."

"Imitating movements? What movements?" another colleague asked. "It doesn't look like dancing at all."

"I'm practicing driving." Gu Xiaoxia thought that since she had already decided to learn, there was no point in hiding it, since everyone knew that her family owned a car anyway. "My husband told me to practice driving whenever I had free time, so that I could handle things in case of an emergency."

"Is that a driving maneuver?" the woman asked in surprise. "How's your practice going?"

"So-so," Gu Xiaoxia said modestly. "It will take a long time to practice. My husband says we need to start with the basic movements and can't rush it."

“That makes sense. Driving is a serious matter and cannot be taken lightly,” the other colleague said.

Once these words were spoken, Gu Xiaoxia felt embarrassed to continue practicing, so she picked up a pen and pretended to write something, while her mind went through the steps of those movements.

Once the well was drilled, the official procedures for promoting ethnic unity were complete. The next day, Ma Xiaoyan called Li Long's purchasing station to say that the article had been written and submitted, and they were now waiting for Li Long to tell them when to start building the road in the mountains.

Yesterday, after Li Long took Li Junfeng home, he heard from his older brother Li Jianguo that Xie Yundong had come over and left a message. He wanted to buy a pesticide sprayer and asked Li Long to help him make some contact.

When Ma Xiaoyan called, Li Long was at the purchasing station, planning to call Director Du. "Tomorrow or the day after," Li Long said. "Meng Hai and the others have settled down in the mountains. They haven't come to see me these past two days, so the road construction should be progressing normally. I have some errands to run today, and after I finish, I'll buy some things. If all goes well, we'll go into the mountains tomorrow."

“Okay, I’ll wait for your call,” Ma Xiaoyan replied.

After hanging up with Ma Xiaoyan, Li Long quickly dialed Director Du's number.

Director Du wasn't in his office yet, so Li Long waited until almost noon before he finally got through.

"I'm in the workshop," Factory Manager Du explained as he answered the phone. "Recently, production tasks have been quite heavy, and the factory has switched to other products. Some workers are a bit careless, and the parts they produce are not up to standard."

"Switching production?" Li Long asked. "Is it switching from snowplows to harvesters?"

"Not only harvesters, but also pesticide sprayers are in mass production," Factory Director Du said with a smile. "We have a lot of orders from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, not only from the northern Xinjiang, but also from the southern Xinjiang Corps. We'll be very busy from now on!"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Li Long said with a smile. "We should be happy to have orders."

"I was indeed happy for a while, but then I started to worry. Our factory mainly produced snowplows, and some of our skilled workers were also good at producing harvesters."

This spraying machine is a bit difficult to produce, since we're new to it. But the production workload is heavy, and we can't let them slowly learn the ropes; even experienced technicians training new ones takes time.

Li Long said he understood, and then said he needed a few sprayers.

"No problem, you can just go to our sales point at the Shicheng Tractor Factory to pick them up," said Director Du. "There are dozens of them there right now."

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps hasn't placed any unified orders yet; most are individual orders, but there are still quite a few, all spread by word of mouth. This kind of machinery, which saves manpower and resources, is easiest to deploy within the Corps.

By the way, I've been quite busy lately, so I won't be able to transfer your quarterly bonus for a few days. Yeah, it's mostly for the snowplows, so there should be quite a bit of it.

Li Long was quite happy; receiving a windfall every quarter was great.

After hanging up the phone, Li Long called his older brother. His sister-in-law answered, and Li Long told her to have Xie Yundong come over that afternoon so he could take him to pick up the pesticide spraying machine.

Li Long had already placed the one he had previously brought back with his older brother; one unit was enough for his family.

That way, if anyone wants more in the future, they can just come and ask, and Li Long will take them to Shicheng to buy it.

Not long after lunch, Xie Yundong arrived in his tractor. Li Long took him to Shicheng to buy a pesticide spraying machine, then let him drive it himself while he went to the old street to buy some daily necessities.

Meng Hai and his group camped in the mountains. Although they had a car and could go out to buy things at any time, Meng Hai estimated that they wouldn't go out often.

Li Long wanted to buy as many supplies as possible to take with him.

He bought dozens of pairs of cotton gloves, rice, flour, oil, potatoes, cabbage, and so on.

The grass outside is already green, but we don't know if wild vegetables have grown in the mountains dozens of kilometers away, so we still need to buy them.

When Li Long passed by the lamb offal shop run by Keyum's wife, he bought a bowl of cooked and cooled lamb offal. Because it contained solidified oil, it could be preserved for a longer time.

After buying the items, Li Long called Ma Xiaoyan and told her that he planned to go into the mountains early the next morning.

Ma Xiaoyan naturally agreed and said she would go and ask her superiors for instructions right away.

In the afternoon, as usual, Li Long took Gu Xiaoxia to the wheat field to practice driving for more than half an hour. Li Long praised Gu Xiaoxia for her good driving skills, and Gu Xiaoxia said with a little pride:

"When I was free at work today, my mind was racing with ideas on how to do it. If I wasn't worried about the negative impact, I would have even added some physical actions to my actions..."

"Yes, that's the attitude we need for learning," Li Long said confidently. "Hey, my wife is amazing, she's learning to drive so fast!"

"You're faster than me. It feels like you learned to drive without much practice." Gu Xiaoxia suddenly remembered Li Long's driving experience. "How did you learn so fast?"

Li Long thought to himself, "I can't exactly tell you I learned this in my previous life, can I?" So he made up an excuse:

"I can drive a tractor, you know. It's pretty much the same as driving a car. Besides, I even practiced a lot with truck drivers before I got my license."

"That's true." Gu Xiaoxia didn't doubt anything and thought Li Long was right.

Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia that he was going to the mountains the next day and would be taking Ma with him to do some work.

Gu Xiaoxia didn't have any objection to Li Long taking a female cadre to the mountains; what she was concerned about was whether she could practice driving again tomorrow.

"It should be fine. I'm mainly going there to check on the progress of the road construction and whether they're currently facing any difficulties. I'll definitely be back soon."

“Okay, the roads in the mountains are in bad condition, so please be careful,” Gu Xiaoxia said.

As for Ma Xiaoyan, she didn't mention her at all. After so many years of marriage, she knew Li Long's temperament very well; even if a flirtatious woman tried to get close to him, he wouldn't pay any attention to her.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long picked up Ma Xiaoyan from the county committee and then drove into the mountains.

"Comrade Li Long, you have quite a few cars. Is this one from the Soviet Union?" Sitting in the passenger seat, Ma Xiaoyan was quite curious.

“Yes, this is a GAZ-69,” Li Long said as he drove. “It’s made in the Soviet Union. You see, the back space is a bit bigger than my old one, so it can carry more stuff.”

"Yes, that's true, but it doesn't look as good as the original car," Ma Xiaoyan commented.

Women, first and foremost, judge a car by its appearance.

Of course, most men are the same.

As the car drove into the mountains, the temperature dropped. Li Long asked Ma Xiaoyan to close the car windows, while he drove carefully.

Although the road has been repaired, it is still a gravel and dirt road. Rain, snow, or falling rocks from the mountain will all affect the road conditions.

Once inside the mountains, Li Long could see a few people already moving around.

This year, many people came to the mountains to collect resources much earlier than usual. At this time, the fritillaria bulbs haven't even sprouted yet, let alone mushrooms. It's unclear whether these people came to claim territory in advance or to do something else.

However, Li Long didn't care about that. He didn't go to Halimu's place, but drove along the road all the way to where Meng Hai and the others were repairing the road.

When Li Long passed the bridge, he slowed down. Seeing that the bridge surface was in good condition, he felt relieved.

The water level under the bridge is still relatively shallow, and the floodwaters have not yet receded, so the impact is minimal.

By the time they arrived at the location where Meng Hai and his team were repairing the road, it was almost midnight.

Two cotton tents were pitched on the grassy bank of the river. The grassy bank was much higher than the riverbank, so it wouldn't be affected by the water for a while.

There were some tools next to the tent, and Meng Hai's GAZ-69 truck was parked there.

In front of the tent were two stoves made of stones. There was a fire under the stoves and a pot on the stove, steaming. I don’t know if they were boiling water or preparing to cook.

There were several pieces of wood next to the stove; it was hard to tell whether they were fallen trees or large trees cut down during road construction. However, they had all been chopped into pieces, clearly intended for use as firewood.

Li Long saw that the tents had already been set up along the road and headed into the mountains, but after turning a corner, his path was blocked by a mountain peak.

He didn't stop, driving along the road that had just been repaired a few days ago. After turning over the hill, he saw the road construction site.

Meng Hai was directing the tractor to haul away the several trees that had just been cut down and tied together. Some people were unloading sand and gravel from the small four-wheeled tractor, while others were shoveling the unloaded sand and gravel to level the ground.

This section of road was paved with Dongfanghong tractors, but it's not very smooth after being paved, and some parts need to be repaired.

The GAZ truck stopped, and Ma Xiaoyan jumped out of the car before it had even come to a complete stop, grabbing her camera to take pictures—in her opinion, such a lively scene of work had to be captured!
Meng Hai turned his head and saw Li Long. He smiled and waved to him, then continued to direct the tractor to drag the logs to the side of the road. Only after the tractor stopped did he walk over to Li Long.

Seeing how tanned these people were, Li Long truly felt for their hard work.

Of course, it was worth the hard work, since the road extended several kilometers into the mountains.

Very effective!

(End of this chapter)