Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 177 Not all money can be earned

The wellhead was put aside first. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming were delighted when they saw the steel bars welded together.

"Come on, come on. We haven't dug a well for a long time. Let's see if our skills have improved today." Lu Yingming untied the steel bar from the bicycle, stood it up and walked to the edge of the dug pit.

Li Long parked his bicycle and followed, and saw a small groove dug out in the corner of the pit. The groove was very deep and water had already come out of it, which looked rather turbid.

Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming held the steel bar and pushed it straight down into the small pit. One end of the steel bar was sharpened, so they went down more than half a meter in one go.

It went down very quickly at the beginning, but after going down another five or six meters, you could hear the sound of stones colliding, which meant it hit the sand and gravel layer.

"The real work has just begun." Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming stopped what they were doing, leaned against the edge of the pit, and each rolled a cigarette, smoking while recalling their previous experience of digging wells:
"The waterline here is considered high. I remember when I was digging a well at the bank, the drill had to go down about ten meters before it reached the gravel layer. The gravel layer was seven or eight meters thick, and the drill bit was blunt..."

"It's different in the city. It's easier and more common to dig wells in our countryside." Li Jianguo took a puff of his cigarette and said, "If you find a good spot, you can dig through even the gravel layer without breaking too much. Like the public well, the water outlet is so good..."

"We don't have that ability, and even if we did, it wouldn't be in the yard, so just fight here."

Li Long jumped off the earthen kang, grabbed the steel bar with some curiosity, lifted it up, and pushed it down again.

It's very hard down there, and when I push the hammer in it feels like I'm hitting a rock, making it difficult to go deeper.

"It's hard to drill, isn't it?" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "The big drill we used back then was troublesome, and it took a long time to drill a well. Ours is easy to press the well, and we can install it and get water out today!"

Looking at the confident smiles of Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming, Li Long believed it.

Liang Yuemei's sister-in-law from the Lu family was cooking. Vegetables were being fried on the stove outside, and rice was being steamed on the stove inside. Li Long could smell that a dish of fried eggs with leeks was already out of the pot, and there was another meat dish, which should be braised pork - the wild boar meat that was brought back two days ago was put to use.

After lunch, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming continued to dig the well, while Li Long rode his bicycle to look for materials - he remembered that in order to dig a good well, he would need bricks to support it, cement, sand and gravel to make it sturdier.

I remember that it was more than ten years later that Li Jianguo dug a pressure well in the yard in his previous life. At that time, they used bricks to pad it instead of applying cement. The bricks were movable and would collapse after a short period of time, so they had to be reinforced frequently, which was quite troublesome.

Li Long rode his bicycle to the county to buy two bags of cement, and then shoveled a bag of coarse sand by the commune's river. The easiest thing to find was bricks, and there were many half-broken bricks at the old horse house because they were produced by the previous team. After unloading the cement, Li Long went to pick up some.

By the time he had gathered all the bricks, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming had already started laying down the water pipes.

"Finished? In place?" Li Long was a little confused. "So fast? Water coming out from below?"

"Yes, we hit the water layer under the gravel." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "You didn't see it, when the steel bars were pulled out, the water gushed out directly. There was a lot of water underneath!"

"How does it taste?" Li Long asked again.

"Sweet and refreshing! The water is really good!" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "This water is better than the water from the public well over there, and even better than the artesian well water next to the small lake!"

"That's great." Li Long was genuinely happy. "Then I'll mix the cement and sand now and build the well base later."

Next, Liang Yuemei and Lu Dasao mixed cement and sand, while Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming filled up the dug hole, leaving only the pipe that had been driven down.

After the pit was filled, they began to build a well platform here with the pipe, and Li Long dug a ditch from the well to the yard to facilitate the flow of excess water to the vegetable garden.

After the well base is built and the wellhead is installed, the next step is to wait.

"It will be ready for use tomorrow morning," Li Jianguo said. "We will have to splash some water on it tomorrow to prevent the cement from cracking."

"What should we do with the remaining cement and sand?" Liang Yuemei asked, looking at the pile of mixed cement and sand left. "We can't waste it."

"It won't be wasted!" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "You raise pigs at home, so just build two pig troughs!"

"Beat the pig trough?" Li Long had a vague impression in his mind.

At that time, when building things with cement and sand, due to financial constraints, less cement was used and more sand and gravel were used, so it was hard to say whether the things were strong or not.

Later, when production conditions improved, cement troughs were applied directly. However, at this time, cement needed to be mixed with a large amount of sand and gravel. A pit was dug on the spot, the trough was applied in the pit, and then the soil was filled. It did not need to be filled compactly. After a period of time, the cement and gravel dried in the shade and then dug up to see the complete situation.

Because less cement is used and there is no steel reinforcement, pig troughs are easy to rot, usually one out of three will rot.

"When applying the glue, use a few reeds as reinforcements, it shouldn't rot easily." Li Long suddenly thought of the shoddy construction he had heard about in his previous life, which used bamboo poles instead of steel bars, and it was naturally not suitable for building a building. But now if reeds were used as reinforcements to apply the glue to the pig trough, there would be no problem at all.

"Will it work?" Lu Yingming was a little confused.

"Why not?" Li Long smiled. "Just like using wheat tails and mud to build a soil block, the wheat tails are just like the reeds in the cement."

"Then let's give it a try!" Li Jianguo felt that what Li Long said made sense, "It doesn't cost much anyway."

There was nothing to do and it would take some time before dark, so they divided the work. Li Long went to find suitable reeds, while Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming carried the rough concrete to find a suitable place outside the settlement.

Dry reeds are easy to find, and any family can pull out two bundles - because during the winter when farmers are idle, pulling reeds is a very important source of income for a side job (the specific method will be explained later).

Li Long found suitable reeds and went to the south with a shovel. At this time, Li Jianguo and his team had already dug out a suitable pit and began to level it.

To make a suitable pig trough, the surface of the soil must be at least very flat, so Li Jianguo and his colleagues used shovels to flatten the surface of the soil.

Li Long measured the pit and began to chop the reeds into pieces of corresponding lengths with a shovel. While Li Jianguo and others were applying cement, sand and gravel, he put the reeds on the ground.

After the two pig troughs were plastered, the sun had already set. After letting the cement dry for a while and feeling that it had begun to solidify, they slowly added soil into it, trying their best to prevent the soil from causing a big impact on the cement surface.

When all this was done, it was already dark. Liang Yuemei cooked soup for the Li family, and the two families chatted and laughed while having a midnight snack, and did not leave until very late.

The next morning, Li Long went to check the wellhead. The cement felt hard but not dry yet.

The family didn't dare to use it. Li Long went to check the pig trough in the south of the settlement. No one came to touch it, but it must be not broken either.

Until noon, Li Long saw that the cement on the surface had dried, so he tried to put some water in the wellhead and then started to pump. Soon, the pressure came, and after a few strong pressures, a stream of water flowed out of the wellhead. At first, the water was a little turbid, but it soon became clear. The amount of water was indeed large. After two pressures, a large stream of water came out. Li Long took a sip from the wellhead. It was really sweet and cool!
Well, this big project is completed.

I think within two days, everyone in the settlement will know that the Li family has dug a pressure well, and people living nearby will also come here to fetch water. After all, the water is so clean!

After lunch, Li Long rolled up the small-caliber rifle in a sack and tied it to the beam. He got on his bicycle and rode out of the village. He had to go into the mountains.

After riding all the way to the county town, Li Long first went to the big yard. Some of the Fritillaria in the wing room had already dried, and Li Long put them away. He came to see them mainly because he was worried that the Fritillaria would go bad. After all, there were a lot of Fritillaria, and he was rather rough in drying them. If they really went bad, there was nothing he could do.

Fortunately, the quality of the Fritillaria is good, the temperature and humidity in the house are also okay, and the weather has been good these days, so there have been no problems.

When leaving the compound, Li Long took some more bullets with him, hoping that he could catch some prey.

Li Long went to Xiaobaiyanggou first. Seeing Li Long's arrival, Xie Yundong and his friends were very happy and chatted for a while. Li Long checked the newly made handles and was very satisfied with the quality.

"Those people never came back." Xie Yundong said, "We have compiled more than 200 people to carry the banners. We can finish the work in ten days at most."

"Then let's work harder. I see that everyone's hair and beards have grown longer, and their clothes are dirty. It's time to go back."

"That's right. Although I work to earn money, I still miss home after not going home for a while." Xie Yundong said with a smile, "Then let me tell you about it."

Seeing that the sun had set behind the top of the mountain, Li Long rode his bicycle towards his wooden house.

I didn't see any prey along the way, but I did hear a few wolf howls in the distant mountains.

After returning to the wooden house, Li Long saw that it was not dark yet, so he lit a simple stove outside and made some food. After eating, he put out the fire and went back to the house to sleep.

The next morning, the sun had already risen. This time, Li Long went out slowly to wash and then cook porridge.

After eating, he originally planned to pack up and go to Xiaobaiyanggou. As he was packing, he saw someone walking towards him from the other side of the ditch with a bag on his back.

Li Long suddenly became alert, turned around and went into the house to get the small-caliber rifle.

Seeing Li Long holding a gun, the man also became nervous and immediately shouted loudly:

"I was introduced by the forestry team. They said you were collecting Fritillaria here... I'm the one digging Fritillaria... Don't be nervous, don't shoot!"

When he heard that the other party was digging for Fritillaria, Li Long breathed a sigh of relief and shouted loudly:

"Then come over here, how many Fritillaria do you want?"

"More than eight kilograms, dug in just the past two days." The man walked slowly towards this side, saying, "I'm not alone, others are waiting for me to take the money back..."

"Why don't you go down the mountain to the county and sell it to the purchasing station?" Li Long asked, the price he got was much lower than that of the purchasing station.

"We... came from the inland areas without a household registration. We were afraid that we would be arrested and assigned to work in the military corps. We heard that if we were arrested, we would either be sent to work in the desert or sent back. We didn't want to go back. We wanted to earn some money first and then find a job..."

Well, Li Long felt that this rumor was a bit outdated.

He waited for the man to come over and said:
"There is no talk of repatriation now. Everywhere there is a shortage of people. Once you join the Corps, you are considered an employee, and you will receive a pension when you get old. But now there are small farmers, and you won't be arrested for doing small business. You... the news you heard was from more than ten years ago, right?"

"But I dare not." After the man came closer, Li Long found that he could not tell his exact age. He could be twenty, thirty or forty. He had a big beard and messy hair. His clothes were covered with patches, his cloth shoes were torn, and even his pockets were cloth bags.

"Pour the Fritillaria on the ground and let me see it. Have you weighed it? How much does it weigh?" Li Long asked.

Although the other party explained it very clearly, Li Long still had basic vigilance.

"I weighed it, it's eight kilograms." The man said, "We actually have more, but those people said... we should sell it once first."

As he said that, he poured the Fritillaria onto the wooden floor in front of Li Long's wooden house.

The Fritillaria are very clean, and come in all sizes, but there are no dirty leaves or mud, so they must have been picked carefully.

"This Fritillaria is pretty good. You should have asked about my price, right?"

"I've asked around. Actually, the forestry team confiscated our gold once. After they left, we moved to another place to start digging again." The man was honest and said, "Three yuan for one kilogram..."

"I'll take three pieces of this Fritillaria." Li Long could see that it had been a while since the Fritillaria was dug out. It must have been dried every day, so it was half dry and not rotten or moldy.

Well preserved.

"Here's twenty-five yuan." Li Long took out some money, counted out two big unity notes and a five-yuan note and handed them over. "If there's more, come find me sooner or later."

"Okay, okay." The man took the money. Although there were only three bills, he still counted them carefully. Then he bowed to Li Long excitedly, turned around and left quickly with the bag.

Li Long looked at the man's back and felt a little emotional.

In this era, in the eyes of many mainlanders, they can have enough food to eat and there are job opportunities here, but after coming here, they find that unless there is an opportunity, the most basic thing is to dig for food in the fields.

These people don't want to be farmers, so they will think of various ways. Most of them still do small business, and some work. Later, many of them will go from street to street to collect rags and wine bottles, or go to construction sites with a bag of tools. Later, they will pick cotton, work as long-term laborers, etc.

Although there are many people who really want to immigrate to the Corps, there are also many who regret it.

While sighing, Li Long packed up the Fritillarias into a sack and put it in the small room, intending to take them away when he left.

Although the forestry team members left, these stragglers gave Li Long a good opportunity to make money.

Who doesn’t want to make money?

(End of this chapter)