Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Qingxia actually wasn't particularly opposed to it. He thought it was a good thing for his son to be capable. However, the family had just bought a color TV. Wasn't this a bit too fast?
That color TV cost more than 2,000 yuan!

Since coming to Northern Xinjiang this time, Li Qingxia started watching TV after dinner. After that, Li Qingxia held the radio during the day and watched TV as soon as it got dark. Li Jianguo wanted to move the TV to their room, but Li Qingxia disagreed, and neither did Du Chunfang.

Li Qingxia disagreed, feeling a little embarrassed. After all, as soon as he and his wife came over, they moved the TV over. Although it was a filial act of a son, it might also make others mistakenly think that they were greedy.

The reason why Du Chunfang disagreed was very simple. She knew that the color TV was bought by Li Long and that Li Long would build a house in the spring. So she thought that after Li Long's house was built, the color TV would definitely be moved to Li Long's house. Why move it now? Trouble!
Of course, another reason why the elderly think it is unnecessary to buy a tractor is that they have finally saved some money and will use it in the future when they are short of money. Saving money is not easy. Just think about how long it takes to save more than 4,000 yuan. If you spend it all at once and get a piece of iron back, and it burns oil and you have to spend money on it, it doesn't seem worth it.

This is what Li Jianguo meant. Of course, he had another reason. He said that if he got a tractor after he already had a horse carriage at home, he would become a prominent figure in the team. Wouldn't that make others jealous?

Li Long’s meaning was very clear, the tractor must be bought.

At the family meeting, it was like facing a three-court trial, and Li Long had to deal with what others said alone.

Of course, he could have bought the tractor himself without listening to other people's opinions, but these were his family members, and no matter what the reason was, it was for his own good.

He didn't intend to be a loner, he still had to listen and explain what he needed to do.

In the west room of Li Jianguo's house, facing these family members, Li Long first asked his eldest brother Li Jianguo:
"Brother, when you built this house, how many truckloads of soil did you haul for the foundation?"

"More than 200 carriages?" Li Jianguo recalled. "More than 200 carriages, it took me a month, right?"

"How many truckloads of sand and stones did it take to build the base?"

"What did we do then? We could only pick them up every day. There were some in the river dam, but it was too far away, so we just picked them up nearby. We did that for about two or three months."

"Look, at the speed you're building the house, I may not be able to finish it even if I build it by the end of the year."

"That's different." Li Jianguo naturally disagreed with Li Long's statement, "Now that you have so many people helping you, it's definitely faster than when I was there."

"It's fast, but it will still take about the same amount of time to pull the carriage, right?" Li Long calculated.

"How can so much soil be used?" Li Qingxia was a little puzzled. Not only he was puzzled, but also the people who came from Kouli's hometown didn't understand.

"Because our land is a salt marsh," Li Jianguo explained, "the soil two or three meters thick contains salt and alkali. We have to dig half a meter down to get rid of the soil, and then use the yellow soil without salt and alkali to pad the foundation. Wherever the wall goes, we have to build a foundation with stones and sand, so that the house can be built firmly."

Fifteen or sixteen years later, the whole village will be relocated to a unified settlement, so Li Long did not plan to live in this house for too long. Even so, he did not want the floor of his house to grow alkali hairs when no one was there for a while.

"You need two hundred horse-drawn carriages, which takes a month. Let's do it faster, half a month, and then it will be time to be assigned as a leader. If the supply and marketing cooperative gives me a task, do you think I should go or not?" Li Long said, "My family also needs to make money, right? I have to finish building the house before there is any work, right?"

Li Jianguo was silent.

Yes, it was time to farm at that time. Should I build a house, farm or make money?
There has to be a choice.

"You can do your own thing, and we will build the house." Chen Xingbang suddenly spoke.

"That's right." Li Anguo was always grateful to his younger brother. He felt that it was him and his friends who stood up at this time. "We were free at that time."

"You guys are busy too." Li Long glanced at his second brother and said, "Before you came, my eldest brother and I were thinking about how to settle you. At that time, we found a job in a mine, but it's a dangerous job, so we're still asking around. I guess we should be able to find out the specific job by then."

My second brother, brother-in-law and Junshan came here to make money, and Li Long had no intention of dragging them along forever.

Chen Xingbang, Li Anguo and Li Junshan were all a little confused.

Li Qingxia smiled.

All of my children are good children. They are good children who can stand up and help each other at critical moments.

"So we have to hurry up and build my house before we start planting and construction. Once the snow melts, I will hire people from the team to help dig out the foundation, and everyone will have to work on it." Li Long had already planned this matter a long time ago, and he said confidently:

"I'll buy a tractor now, and I'll use it to haul dirt. Then I'll hire people to build blocks. Number 76 can't sit idle either, he'll have to help haul stones. Anyway, we'll have to get moving. We'll try to build the house within 15 days. Once the mud is up, we don't care whether the walls are dry or not. As for furniture, we can just put the wood in the carpenter's room and wait for it to be hauled when the time comes."

Listening to Li Long's plan, everyone thought it was a fantasy at first, especially Li Jianguo. He had built a house before and knew that building a house here was a long process. It was hard work from the moment the foundation was laid, and there were not many people who could be found to help.

This is not as good as in my hometown. In my hometown, everyone in a village is related to each other. If he wants to build a house, he can call out and dozens of good young men will come out. He doesn't need to pay them, just provide them with a full meal.

Although there are some people with good connections in the village, it is impossible for them to delay other people's work, and it is even more impossible to let people work for nothing.

In fact, if you ask someone for help with work like plastering the roof, it's free work. You'll get a full meal, but it's only a one-day job and no one will say anything. After all, everyone can do it. I'll help you, and when my house needs plastering, I can also call you.

But it is definitely not acceptable to let others do the heavy work of expanding soil blocks, digging foundations, and hauling soil for free, which takes several days. The family can't justify it either.

After all, it was a large-scale project and could not be completed in a short time. Li Long's words were the best and most practical. The cost of expanding the earth blocks was calculated by the block. It cost three cents to expand one block, the same as bricks. The standard blocks expanded by the adults were much larger than bricks. A three-room house required 50,000 to 60,000 bricks, but if using earth blocks, 20,000 would be enough.

An adult who works quickly can make three to five hundred clods of earth a day.

But, but! There are prerequisites for expanding the soil block. You can't just expand the soil block right away. You need to find a place first, it must be yellow soil, dig the soil, soak the mud, turn the mud over, use a mudcutter to scoop up the mud, pile it into a hemisphere like a grave, sprinkle wheat tails on it, let it stand for a few hours to let the water evaporate, and then you can expand the soil block.

The preparation process usually takes at least one day, and it takes another day to expand the soil. It also takes three to five days for the soil to dry out.

It is definitely not enough to just build a house, you also need to build a wall. The yard that Xu Chengjun has allocated for Li Long is not small. Even if he doesn't need that much, the area that can be enclosed is still very large.

He also planned to plant some vegetables and fruit trees in it. This must be fenced off.

The yards of Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming are all built with rammed earth. Li Long thought of using earth blocks directly and bought them all at once, which would be convenient.

This is a big project, but it doesn't matter. At most, we can mobilize everyone in the village. After all, we are paying for it, and we are not asking everyone to work for nothing. I believe that many people will come.

Li Long's words were well-reasoned, so the others stopped talking.

Li Anguo, Chen Xingbang and Li Junshan have already turned their attention to finding them jobs as Li Long suggested.

This made Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang feel mixed emotions.

They had originally thought of trying their luck here, and then working odd jobs with Li Long to earn some money. Now that they had suddenly heard this news, they were a little confused.

It is indeed dangerous in the mine, but if others can do it, I can't. And from what Li Long said, he is still a formal employee, a worker.

People decades later will not be able to imagine the appeal of a worker's system to someone who comes from the mouth.

Even if this job would be very dangerous.

At least he's a worker!

Li Junshan didn't think so much about it. He didn't even think about staying in Northern Xinjiang until now. He just wanted to work for another year and earn some money. Even if it wasn't as much as last year, he could earn a few hundred and go back to marry a wife.

The matter was settled just like that.

Li Long did not delay and rode his bicycle to the county the next day. This time he went with Tao Daqiang, Yang Yongqiang and Li Junshan.

According to Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo, if there were more people, at least they wouldn't have to worry about not being able to get the things they wanted. But the real worry was that it was unsafe to carry so much money. Four young men, anyone who saw them would probably think twice.

In fact, they forgot the most important thing: after buying the tractor, how to drive it back?

Perhaps everyone tacitly accepted that Li Long could drive a tractor.

It was also after Li Long left, at noon, at the dinner table that Li Jianguo suddenly remembered that he should let Wang Cai pass away!

It was too late to say anything at this time. Li Qingxia was not anxious at all after hearing this. He waved his hand and said, "Xiaolong will find a way."

That’s all I can think of.

Li Long and his three companions arrived at the county, parked their bicycles in the big yard, and then went to the bus station.

As he walked, Yang Yongqiang said:

"We really need a tractor. Look at this bicycle. Most of it was pushed from the team to the village. The road is full of mud and can't be used."

If it is a tractor, it can rumble through the mud, and at most you will get some mud spots on your body.

Li Junshan was the first to think of that question. He whispered to Li Long in the car:

"Uncle Xiaolong, how do we get that tractor back?"

"I'll drive it back." Li Long smiled, "Don't worry, it's easy to drive, but it's cold when you drive fast."

"Then we won't be afraid of the cold." Now everyone was very excited. Although the tractor was bought by Li Long, it was also very exciting to witness the first private small four-wheel tractor in the village being bought and driven back.

The four of them took a car to the old street, and after getting off the car, Li Long took them to the tractor factory. Most of the streets in Shicheng are gravel roads, and there is mud when the snow melts, but because there is a layer of gravel on top, the water permeability is better, and the feet will not stick to the mud.

It was already noon when the four people arrived at the tractor factory. They didn't care about anything else and went directly to the guard and said they wanted to buy a small four-wheel tractor.

Although the tractor factory had closed for lunch at that time, when the guard heard that they wanted to buy a tractor, he immediately pointed them to the sales area.

In the past, Shicheng Tractor Factory mainly sold tractors to collectives. Although some individuals bought tractors a year or two ago, the number of such individuals is very small every year. After all, not many people can come up with so much money at once. Those who can come up with the money do not necessarily need the tractors, and those who need the tractors may not be able to come up with the money.

There are already various tractors on display at the sales point.

The most eye-catching thing is naturally a Dongfanghong 70 tractor that the team had. It was a track-type tractor, or crawler-type tractor, and was the most commonly used tractor for cultivating land during that period.

Then there is the Dongfanghong No. 28, a large wheeled tractor.

This type of tractor is rare and expensive, but it is also very useful. In fact, a few years later, some people in the village used tires as boats to catch fish. The tires were from this type of 28-ton tractor. This type of tractor has a cab (enclosed cab), which is much more impressive than a small four-wheeler.

Then there was the small four-wheel tractor, with twelve horsepower, painted red and black. Although it looked the smallest among the three tractors, Li Long and his companions came over and took a liking to it at first sight.

Four people surrounded the tractor and looked at it carefully.

Although Li Long owned three tractors in his previous life, ranging from twelve horsepower to fifteen horsepower to the last twenty horsepower.

From the initial hand-cranked start to the later electric ignition, from the small trailer in front of you to the larger bucket that is five meters long and two meters high and is specially welded for loading cotton, as well as a yard full of pesticide sprayers, cotton planters, pole beaters, cultivators and other machines.

After the land was handed over to the cooperative, all the machines were scrapped and sold cheaply to dealers. Li Long insisted on keeping one tractor, and after three years, he finally sold it.

useless.

It’s not as useful as an electric tricycle.

He clearly remembers that the first electric tricycle he bought also cost 4,500 yuan.

Formosa brand.

It's just a coincidence.

Even though he had stopped farming in the last few years of his previous life, and even the work in the fields basically did not require manual labor in the end, when Li Long was watching short videos, he would still stop to take a look at those convenient small machines, such as small excavators for the yard, small tillage machines, small grass cutters, etc.

Those machines are not expensive, only about three to five thousand yuan, and they look very convenient. I feel itchy to try them just by looking at them.

But it's just a thought. After all, even if I buy it, I won't be able to use it anymore.

I can only say that technology is developing too fast.

"Comrade, do you want to buy a tractor?" asked a middle-aged man wearing sleeves. Behind him was a young girl with a long braid, who was looking at Li Long and the others curiously.

With the girl around, Yang Yongqiang, Li Junshan and others couldn't help but straighten their chests, but Tao Daqiang's focus was still on the tractor.

"Yes, I'm buying a tractor." Li Long saw the other people looking at him from time to time, so he said, "Is this a 12-horsepower one? How much is it?"

"Are you sure you want to buy it? This tractor is not cheap." The girl kindly reminded.

"I asked about the price. Four thousand five, right?" Li Long patted his bag and said, "This price is not bad. If you can't afford the 28 horsepower one, this one is still okay. Can you introduce it to me?"

After hearing Li Long quote the price, the other party also knew that Li Long should have made preparations long ago, so the middle-aged man began to introduce.

The introduction at this time was still very detailed, mainly focusing on driving operations. After all, there was no need to introduce the ignition process and power principle of the diesel engine to Li Long and the others, right?

The people who were listening were mainly Yang Yongqiang and his friends. Li Long was a little absent-minded because he was very familiar with this thing.

The tractor head is easy to drive, but with a trailer, it is like a semi-trailer. It is fine to drive forward, but it is easy to have problems when driving backward. It is different from ordinary cars. You can't operate it skillfully without several years of driving experience.

So this is what middle-aged people focus on.

But it is impossible to explain it with empty words, and Yang Yongqiang and his friends have never touched a tractor, so the theory alone is confusing.

Li Long simply asked:
“Can I take it for a test drive?”

"Test drive?" The middle-aged man was a little surprised. "What test drive?"

"Just try to drive it first and get a feel for it." Li Long said with a smile, "You'll know how it works only after you drive it. You won't know if you can just listen to it without actually driving it, right?"

The middle-aged man was in trouble.

They really didn't test drive it, and it was just like a color TV. Even though the tractor looked like a prototype, it was brand new. What if you drove it and others didn't want it?
"I really want to buy it." Li Long thought of a compromise. "Get me a new tractor and I'll drive it around your place. If there's no problem, I'll just pay and drive away. Is that okay?"

The middle-aged man thought about it and felt that this was feasible, but he still had to report it to his superiors.

Soon, the middle-aged man came back and asked the girl to drive a tractor over.

It turns out that this girl is not only a salesperson, but also a tractor driver.

Li Long said hurriedly:

"Can I go first?"

He felt that this metaphysics still had to be used sometimes. It was his own tractor, so he had to drive it himself for the first time, right?
"Can you drive?" the girl asked.

I don't mean to be unconvinced, I'm just asking.

"Brother Long can drive, he can drive any car!" This was said by Yang Yongqiang. Of course, he had never heard Li Long talk about driving, but his momentum could not be weak.

"It can be driven. I want to do it all from shaking to driving." Li Long said, "Your tractor should have primer oil in it, right? How far can it be driven?"

The girl was a little stunned. She didn't expect Li Long to know this! (End of this chapter)