Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The villagers kept looking at the tractor and let Li Long drive it for a while before they slowly dispersed.

They were shocked not only by the first tractor, but also by its price.

Four thousand five hundred yuan is almost half a millionaire!
Some people also asked with a sour tone, "What's the point of getting this tractor?" The team used a Dongfanghong 75 tractor to plow the land, and this tractor was definitely not suitable for plowing the land because it couldn't pull such a large plow.

Pulling things? The Li family has a horse-drawn carriage, so the tractor is just a little faster.

That's a bit of an awkward position.

Of course, this is just what I said in private. After all, to be honest, it is an iron ox after all, and it is better than a horse or donkey cart.

Then the team members knew the role of the tractor.

The next day after buying the tractor, Li Long drove it with several strong laborers in his family to the lower reaches of the Mohe Canal.

Thirty years later, the county built a new Mohe Canal, which was built with cement slabs on the bottom and sides, in an inverted trapezoidal shape. The old Mohe Canal was only used occasionally. This time, it was different. Only this old canal - the locals preferred to call it a river dam.

Most sections of the Laomohe Canal have high sides, especially in areas closer to the county seat, where the canal is straight up and down, with the embankment three or four meters high.

But there is a section downstream where the canal water is only half a meter lower than the ground, where people can mine river sand and dig pebbles.

The snow here has melted now. Although the river water is cold, it cannot stop the enthusiasm of the people working.

River sand is easy to dig, and so are the Gobi stones. This time, Li Long did not call Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang, but only the men in his family. On the river dam side were Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang, and on the home side were Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo. The river sand and small Gobi stones he pulled were directly spread in the Li family's yard.

Li Jianguo's yard was not small, and the whole family worked for three consecutive days, pulling twelve carts of river sand before they managed to cover the entire yard.

From the moment the first truckload of sand was pulled, the rest of the team knew about it. Then Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang joined in. In their words, they were idle anyway, and it would be a waste if they didn't use their energy, so they might as well join in the pulling.

Some people in the team were laughing at the joke at first. The yards of all the households in the village, even the whole township, were paved with loess and no one used sand. Was this a joke?

But some people also think that Li Long naturally has his own ideas and reasons for doing this.

Xu Chengjun also asked Li Long, and Li Long said:

"I just want to avoid getting muddy on my feet when it rains. I'm tired of the rain, and my shoes are covered in mud wherever I walk. It's so uncomfortable."

Xu Chengjun believed Li Long's explanation. Since he had bought a tractor, he had to make his life better, and spreading river sand in the yard was one of the ways to do it.

The effect soon became apparent. After a few light rains in early spring, more people came to visit the Li family, especially those who came to watch TV at night. They could clearly feel that when they were in the Li family's yard, at least their feet were not covered in mud. Unlike other places, they had to stop after walking a few steps to find a place or a branch to scrape the mud off their shoes, otherwise they would not be able to walk.

It's nice to have a tractor.

Just as the people in the team were sighing at how upscale the Li family compound had become, Li Long and the Li family, including Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang, had already started another job.

Build a house and lay the foundation.

On the Dongfanghong No. 75 tractor, Wang Caimi pushed and pulled the joystick to move the soil from the residential land designated by the team for Li Long, where he planned to build a house.

There was a bulldozer hanging in front of the tractor. The hydraulic device lifted the bulldozer and then shoveled it deep, piling up the thick layer of saline-alkali soil on the surface of the earth and rolling it forward.

After more than an hour, the saline-alkali soil on the homestead had been pushed away to a depth of thirty to forty centimeters, revealing the loess underneath.

Wang Caimi drove the tractor to the side and stopped. When he came over, Li Long took out a box of cigarettes, took out one and handed it to him.

Wang Caimi took it and put it on his ear, smiling and saying:
"This is... Bai Xuelian? What a nice cigarette."

Li Long simply stuffed the box of cigarettes into his hand and said with a smile:

"You did a great job today."

Although Wang Caimi has some minor shortcomings, to be honest, he is really good at driving a tractor.

"Haha, this is my profession. How can I not do it well?" Wang Caimi took the cigarette and played with it in his hand.

Li Long let the tractor drive this piece for him and spent 20 yuan. Wang Caimi made a lot of money. If it were an ordinary family, they would definitely not be happy, but Li Long felt that if he dug it himself, just digging the soil on top, even if he called all the close people over, it would take two or three days to finish digging.

It’s better to pay and let the tractor do the work happily.

After Wang Caimi left, Li Long had already started planning the foundation.

The design of the homestead was based on the version of the house that Li Long built in the concentrated settlement in his previous life. It was a house with three and a half rooms, and each of the large rooms was about 40 square meters. There were three doors in total. The spare room on the west was for storing things, the middle room was the master bedroom, and a small room was separated at the back. The second door was opened at the third room from west to east, and the living room was inside the house, unlike the mainstream houses nowadays where the guest room and bedroom were integrated, which was inconvenient. The living room occupied half of the third largest room, which was about 25 square meters. There was a corridor at the back, connecting the small room, and the kitchen and storage room were also connected inside - this was the last half of the room. The storage room also had an external door to facilitate going in and out to get things.

This is the main room. Li Long naturally wants to build a small room later, but that’s another matter. There’s no rush now.

Although Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo both felt that this was a bit complicated, since Li Long had made up his mind, they had no choice but to support him. The next step was to get stones, sand, and cement to build the wall foundation. Only after the wall foundation was built could they pour the soil into the grids of the room and compact it.

Of course, these two steps can be carried out simultaneously. Li Junshan will be mainly responsible for building the wall foundation, while Li Long, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang will be responsible for pulling the loess.

Li Jianguo went to Xu Chengjun's house and shouted on the loudspeaker that Li Long needed a large amount of soil to build a new house, and now he was hiring people to dig up the soil. The price was three cents for one piece, and the soil had to be of qualified quality, made of wheat tails, and solid, and the money would be paid in cash.

This news was shouted three times over the loudspeaker, and then the young men and strong laborers in the team took action!

This is a real opportunity for people to make money!
That afternoon, some people had already started soaking the mud. The wheat tails left on the threshing floor became a hot commodity. Some old wheat tails piled up in people's yards also made use of their residual heat. Earth molds also became an object of contention. There were even two brothers who shared one, and agreed that one would use it in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

After all, the young men at this time all know very well that if they want to get married, they must have a partner, and if they want their partner to agree to marry them, they must have several necessary items, and they all have to be bought with money.

There are brothers in the family, and they are all of marriageable age. It is impossible for my father to collect two sets of wedding items in a short period of time by himself.

Then just work hard on your own.

Last year, Tao Daqiang set an example for them that it is not difficult to make money. The three Liang brothers fished in one winter and each of them earned enough to buy a bicycle. So why can't they do the same?
This piece of soil became the first opportunity for the young people and strong laborers in the team to make money at the beginning of this spring.

Li Junshan arranged the stones one by one, and Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang helped him. Originally, the three brothers Li Jianguo did not want Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang to work together, but the old couple made it clear:

"We haven't taken good care of Xiaolong until now. Now he wants to get married and build a house. As parents, we can't give money, but can't we help out?"

To be honest, they were quite proud to tell others about this incident, but Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang also felt guilty. Now that they could do some work, they would feel better. So Du Chunfang, who had never worked much, also joined in moving stones.

These stones are large pieces picked out when sand was being transported. It would be a waste to use them to pave the yard and it would make the yard uneven, so they were simply piled together to form the foundation of the wall.

The team's original houses were built with stones as foundation, but the stones were mixed with mud and solidified. Now that Li Long has bought cement, the solidity is naturally different.

There had been no major earthquakes in the northern Xinjiang area for decades, and when there were, all the villagers had moved to new settlements and lived in brick houses, which could withstand earthquakes of at least magnitude 6. As for magnitude 8 or above, the area where Li Long and his team lived had never experienced an earthquake of magnitude 6 or above in history, and it was not an earthquake zone, and there was no subsidy for earthquake-resistant housing. According to experts' research, there would not be such a big earthquake here.

So that's all for now.

Truckloads of loess were poured into the foundation built by Li Junshan, and the pile finally reached a height of more than one meter. Li Junshan and his men then flattened the soil and compacted it with a roller.

When the foundation was ready, cartloads of adobe were delivered. Li Long counted and paid for the adobe in person. On the sixth day, he had to go to the villagers to tell them that there were enough adobes.

Everyone’s enthusiasm for making money is really high.

When Li Long went to talk to him, some people wanted him to postpone the time by one or two days.

Li Long smiled bitterly and said:
"The soil I have collected now is enough to build a house and a courtyard wall. There are too many and I can't use so much."

In view of this, Li Long went to Xu Chengjun's house again that night and shouted three times through a loud speaker:
"I'm Li Long, I'm Li Long! I have enough soil at home. I will accept any soil delivered before tomorrow night, but I don't want any after tomorrow night."

It's really useless. After all, building a house requires not only soil blocks, but also bricks. At this time, it's hard to say whether the cement floor in the house is level, but it's no problem to lay a layer of bricks. However, it still needs to be cleaned regularly, otherwise, if it's not occupied for a long time, it will still be alkaline.

Next, the most important task of building a house begins: building the walls.

Li Junshan was not enough, the team also had people who could build walls. This time, Li Long directly brought a wild boar from the old horse and killed it. He also called people with whom he had good relations. Tao Daqiang and his father, and his wife; Yang Yongqiang and his parents, the three brothers of the Liang family, and the team leader Xu Chengjun must be called, as well as Lu Yingming and his wife, and Tietou.

Gu Boyuan also came, as well as Lao Luotou and several other families in the team who had a good relationship with Li Jianguo.

These people, plus the Li family's own people, totaled more than 20 people. The women prepared meals in Li Jianguo's yard, while the men started to build a wall at Li Long's homestead.

Although Li Long is an expert at hunting and driving, he can only help out as a laborer at this time. He is responsible for shoveling mud and passing soil blocks to Li Junshan. In order to facilitate the construction of the wall, the soil blocks are piled on both sides of the wall foundation, which will be much more convenient to use. Both Li Junshan and other workers in the team have basic skills such as hanging hammers and hanging wires. The wall is also two blocks thick. Such a thick wall will keep warm in winter and cool in summer. After all, the thickness of the house is usually one and a half blocks.

It’s nothing, just a lot of dirt!

The thicker the wall, the greater the workload and the greater the physical exertion. You can eat at noon. The Li family still has sauerkraut. At noon, you can eat hot steamed buns and stir-fried pork with sauerkraut and pork. In this day and age, it is normal for one person to eat two or three bowls of steamed buns. There is oil and water, recovery is fast, and work is also efficient.

In one day, half of the wall of the entire house was built. It was really fast!

Of course, the further you go, the slower it gets. After all, the altitude has increased, and it will be slower to shave off the soil and transfer the mud.

Fortunately, there were many people and the work was done quickly. The next day, as usual, more people came to help. Li Long did not refuse them. Since they came, they were all welcome. Then the work speed increased again.

In less than four days, the walls of the house were built. It was cloudy for three days, and then the weather got good. After the soil was dry, they put up the beams and laid the reed bundles. These reed bundles were leftovers from last year's sale. They had been piled up at Lao Ma Hao and were now ready to use.

The reeds were laid densely to prevent leaks, and then the roof was covered with mud. Li Long missed the iron roof of the house behind him in his previous life. At least he didn't have to worry about leaks when it rained, nor did he have to worry about sweeping the roof when it snowed.

Of course, this technology did not exist at that time, so wait and see. Now this kind of reed roof is more likely to attract rats, and once the rats make a hole in the roof, it is easy for rain to leak.

There is a chimney with three fire walls on the roof, which is a must in these days. There is a flue in the middle of the wall, and a hole for the stove in the room. If a room needs a stove, just poke open the hole covered with mud.

Once the roof was plastered, the structure of the house would be fine, and the remaining doors, windows and floor bricklaying were minor matters. However, the workers did not leave, and they also built the courtyard wall. This was more convenient, after all, the courtyard wall at that time was basically 1.5 meters high, and no scaffolding was needed, just a circle would be enough.

After the courtyard wall was built, all the people who came to help in the village left, and only the family members were left to work.

Li Long did not participate. He pulled back the doors and windows made by the carpenter, then drove the tractor to Shicheng again. When he came back, there was a small three-share plow behind the tractor.

The small four-wheel tractor can also carry a plow, which really opened the eyes of the villagers. The question is what can this plow do?

Li Long let the villagers see the power of the small plow. He drove the tractor and plowed the vegetable plot in the yard which was half the size of other people's plots in less than an hour.

This land was originally planted with safflower, but it was not plowed after planting last year, and then it was allocated to Li Long as a residential land. Other people's vegetable plots need to be plowed after planting in autumn, but Li Long's was not plowed once, so now it is considered to be plowed again.

After turning the soil, the four-wheel tractor uses a small flat harrow to harrow the soil again. All that is left is to apply fertilizer and divide the soil into blocks before planting.

Of course, it's still a little early to plant now. In his house, Li Anguo, Chen Xingbang and Li Junshan were busy laying floor tiles, installing doors and windows, while Li Long himself took Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang and drove a tractor into the mountain to Halimu.

Halimu was also startled when he heard the rumbling sound of the tractor, but when he saw that it was Li Long who was driving, a surprised smile immediately appeared on his face.

He is genuinely happy when his friends live a good life, unlike the kind of people in later generations who are "afraid that their friends are suffering, and also afraid that their friends are driving a Land Rover."

"I'm here to collect sheep manure." Li Long stated his purpose. "My house is now built, and I'm going to plant vegetables in the yard, so I need a lot of manure."

The Li family has more land this year, and Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang's land has also been divided. The manure here is not enough for the large fields, so we have to focus on the vegetable garden at home first.

"Okay, I'll help you install it." Halimu said, "Come on, let's go inside and have some milk tea and take a rest, then we can work together."

Li Long found that Nathan and Susken were no longer in the winter nest, and Halim's mother was not there either, so he asked:

"Have your mother and children gone to the animal husbandry team? I originally said I would help, but I didn't expect them to leave so quickly!"

"The house over there is ready. It's not big, but it's habitable now." Halimu said directly without any pretense, "We will leave when the grass grows. You will need to visit them often then."

"No problem." Li Long said, "I'll finish building the house in the next two days and then go over."

Halimu smiled. Since Li Long said so, he was really relieved.

He believed that Li Long would take good care of his mother and children. He also believed that if his family had any difficulties, Li Long would never stand idly by.

After pulling a full cart of manure back to the team and spreading it on the vegetable fields, Li Long pulled another cart, most of which was to be distributed to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang.

By the time the manure work was done, the doors and windows of Li Long's house had been installed, and the floor tiles in the house had been laid. All that was left was to clean up the details and some things in the kitchen, such as building a stove.

Not only that, when Li Long was laying the foundation, he also dug a sewer channel near the kitchen. He bought thick pipes from the supply and marketing cooperative and buried them, then dug a large pit on the east side of the homestead, and the dirty water in the kitchen was led here through the pipes.

In the previous life, when new houses were built in the settlement, each family dug up the sewage pipes of the disused leather factory. The sewage pipes were 15 centimeters in diameter, very hard and thick, and were very suitable for household sewage pipes.

But the leather factory’s sewage pipe is still in use. Since we can’t dig it out, we might as well buy it.

Finally, after half a month, Li Long's new home was basically completed.

Although there are still some details to be completed, such as building a small house, laying sand and gravel in the yard, and the waist walls of the yard and vegetable garden have not yet been built, but these are all small things.

The new home is basically ready. (End of this chapter)