Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After breakfast the next day, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, Sister Yang went to the market, and Li Long carried the two bags of black soil from the jeep into the glass house.

The temperature in the glass room was a little low, but not frozen. Li Long put down the bag and shoveled the soil on the ground with a shovel. He found that it was not frozen either, so he could dig it up.

He thought about it and decided that it would be better to plant the vegetables directly in the field. However, the field had been trampled down by the roe deer and needed to be turned over again.

There was nothing to do, so he just turned it over. Li Long picked up a shovel and picked up a piece of land in the middle near the north wall and started turning it over.

The glass house is actually quite large, with brick walls on the north and south sides and glass on the top. The total area is nearly 200 square meters.

Li Long couldn't do it on such a large scale, so he planned to just turn over a piece in the middle, spread the black soil and the roe deer feces stored in the southwest corner on the ground, mix them together, and then plant vegetables.

He also planned to wait until the land was turned over and then buy a stove. The temperature inside was still acceptable during the day, so he would set up a stove for charcoal during the day and another stove for charcoal at night.

The stove is placed behind the turned soil, and then a half-straight fire wall is built against the wall to warm the planted vegetables.

It’s hard to do anything else in winter, so let’s just do it this way for now.

In an hour, Li Long dug out a piece of land as big as the bedroom. It was not that he was not quick, but he had to break up the hardened soil after turning it over.

After turning the soil, Li Long was not in a hurry to plant. First, he had to buy a stove first, and second, he had to harrow the land again. Although the large pieces of soil were broken up, it was still better to plant the soil softer.

He plans to divide this piece of land into several small plots, and he still needs to think about what to plant.

There was no rake in the big yard, so he planned to go back to the team to ask his elder brother what to plant and bring back a rake.

After leaving the glass house, Li Long heard someone knocking on the gate twice.

Li Long was turning the soil in the glass room while thinking about something, and he didn't pay attention to the outside. The door of the big yard was locked. Was it Sister Yang who came back at this time?
Li Long shouted hurriedly and ran over to open the door.

Outside the door were two strangers wearing cotton coats and cotton hats.

One was about forty years old and looked a bit weathered, and the other was in his twenties and looked at Li Long with some curiosity.

"Excuse me, are you Comrade Li Long?" the older man asked directly.

"Hello, it's me." Li Long took a glance and found a tractor outside, then he understood.

After letting the two people into the yard, the older one saw that Li Long was only wearing a fleece coat and said:
"Comrade Li Long, you still have to take care of yourself. It's quite cold outside. You need to wear something thicker."

"Yeah, I was busy just now and didn't hear you knocking on the door. My yard is a bit big and I was in the backyard just now." Li Long explained.

"No wonder, we've been filming for more than ten minutes, but no one has come out. We thought they were gone." The man in his twenties couldn't help but say, "Your yard is really big. It must have been a rich man's house, right?"

The older man touched him, glared at him, and then said to Li Long:
"We are from Qitai. We read your story about harvesting wheat with a harvester in the newspaper. We were greatly inspired. Our team planted thousands of acres of wheat in Qitai. Manual harvesting is too inefficient, so we thought about whether we could buy a harvester to take back."

Logically speaking, Qitai does not belong to Li Long, but is the sales area of ​​Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory. However, since they have come to him, he shouldn't push the business away, right?

Li Long first explained:
"I bought this yard from an old man. I don't know who the original owner of the house was. The old man lived here alone, and later his son wanted to take him away, so he sold the house to me."

Then he pointed to the harvester covered with plastic sheeting and said:

"I still have a few harvesters here. If you want them, I can sell them to you. Is the tractor outside yours?"

"Yes."

"Then you'd better drive the tractor in so I can show you how to operate it. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if you just buy the harvester and don't know how to operate it. Qitai is not close to here."

Qitai is considered one of the three eastern counties in the local area and is one of the three eastern counties of Beiting Prefecture, the other two being Jimsar and Muli.

This area not only produces the very famous spring wheat, but also the famous chickpeas that only the locals know about.

They have all developed into industries in later generations, such as Yaozhanzi flour, which seems to be almost becoming a geographical industry symbol.

But the distance is really far. These places are two or three hundred kilometers away from WLMQ, and Ma County is more than one hundred kilometers away from WLMQ. That means from Qitai to Li Long in Ma County, the two men drove a tractor for nearly four hundred kilometers.

Li Long guessed that they had been running around all day yesterday, staying in the county or somewhere else, and then came here this morning.

It’s really hard.

Therefore, when teaching, you must also teach seriously.

"Five hundred and fifty yuan for a harvester, is that acceptable?" Li Long said.

"Yes." The older man agreed straightforwardly, even with a smile on his face, "In fact, we thought it might be a little more expensive."

"If used properly, this harvester can earn as much as a tractor in one wheat season." Li Long pulled off the plastic sheet covering the harvester and said, "But if used improperly, it will be troublesome. Let me tell you now."

The young man looked at the tractor in Li Long's yard, wondering why he didn't use the one in the yard. However, when he saw the jeep, he didn't dare to say much.

"My tractor has not been used for several days. If I want to start it, I have to boil water and bake it. It's troublesome." Li Long saw what he was thinking and explained.

The young man obediently went to drive the tractor. When their tractor came over, the water was still hot.

The tractor drove into the yard, Li Long went to get a wooden block, and then demonstrated step by step how to start the harvester.

The older one is Zhang Kehu and the younger one is Li Menglong. They are the master and the apprentice. Zhang Kehu bought the tractor and took Li Menglong as his apprentice to teach him how to drive the tractor and also to train the newcomer.

So when Li Long was teaching, he watched very carefully and asked questions about every step, and Li Menglong did the same. Although he didn't ask, he kept remembering it in his mind.

Li Long taught very carefully, including some tips he had summed up. Farmers are suffering now, and those who can stand out from the farmers must be extraordinary.

He wanted to help more farmers get rich, so that there would be some group effect. After all, the amount of information farmers can get is the least, and it is basically a copycat effect. If a nearby farmer gets rich, then he will follow suit.

Until Sister Yang came back pushing the cart, Li Long was still teaching the two people how to unload the harvester.

If there are two people, it is very easy to disassemble the harvester, so Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong learned it quickly. The two of them also took turns to operate the harvester on the tractor to harvest, and after writing it down, the teaching was considered complete.

Zhang Kehu took out several thick stacks of money from the small bag he was carrying and handed them to Li Long one by one.

"One thousand and one hundred yuan." Zhang Kehu said, "Comrade Li Long, please count."

"Okay." Li Long took the money and counted it quickly.

Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong were watching Li Long's actions. At this time, Sister Yang came out of the house and brought hot tea to the three of them.

After counting the money, Li Long nodded and said:
"The amount is correct. I'm sorry that I didn't even treat you to a cup of hot tea after you came all the way here..."

"That's nothing. We are very touched that you taught us this technology." Zhang Kehu said with a smile.

Li Long went into the house and put the money away. When he came out, Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong had already lifted a harvester onto the tractor.

"There is another one, you can choose one yourself." Li Long said.

There was nothing to choose from, they were all the same. The two of them took the harvester that was placed outside and carried it onto the tractor.

"Stay until after lunch," Li Long invited.

"No, no, if we hurry now, we can still reach Hu County before lunch and have lunch there. After lunch, we can hurry up today and get back to Qitai."

Zhang Kehu was very excited. Now that he had obtained the two harvesters, he could already foresee the scene of himself harvesting wheat next year.

I can’t suppress it. I can’t suppress it.

"We have to eat lunch. Come on, I'll take you to the cafeteria to have some mixed noodles so you can warm up first." Gu Xiaoxia would come back from home later. She was feeling unwell, so Li Long said.

"No, no, we really don't need it. Comrade Li Long, we are really grateful that you can sell us the harvester and teach us in such detail. Right now we really want to get back as soon as possible."

"Okay, be careful on the road." Li Long reminded them and drove the tractor out of the yard. After leaving the county town, the tractor rumbled eastward. Zhang Kehu said:

"Menglong, you see, Comrade Li Long only has two harvesters. We got there just in time, otherwise it wouldn't be enough."

"That's right. Comrade Li Long is really enthusiastic. He taught us in such detail. To be honest, I feel like we can get started right away."

"Yes. He said that the price here is two dollars per mu, but we can set the price ourselves. I think we can make a profit even if we make one dollar."

"Master, I think we should keep the price the same. If we lower it, it'll be 1.5 yuan, but it's not a good idea to lower it too much.

He also said that it would be no problem to harvest one hundred or eighty acres a day. We have so much wheat planted there, so it must be cheap. If so, people will come to harvest it, and we won't be able to keep up with the queue.

If the price is set high, some people will not be willing to spend the money, so some people will cut it by hand..."

Zhang Kehu nodded, this does make some sense.

It was already noon when the tractor arrived in Hu County. They had lunch here and took turns driving the tractor. The road condition of Wuyi Highway was pretty good, but it was not so good when turning to Miquan Fukang.

It was already dark when they arrived at Miquan. They gritted their teeth and drove the tractor to Fukang. However, they could not drive any further, so they stayed there for one night and drove back to Qitai early the next day.

With the harvester, the two families have begun to look forward to a better life next year.

Two more harvesters were sold, with a net income of 340 yuan. Li Long had previously spent nearly 2,000 yuan to buy these five prototype harvesters in Kuitun, and three of them had already been sold.

If you add the money from selling yellow sheepskin, the capital has almost been recovered.

He believed that the two harvesters would not be kept at home for long. Most farmers just followed the crowd and did not know where to get information that was beneficial to them. Even if some people could read it, they could rarely extract information that was beneficial to them.

But only a very small number of people have this ability, and the harvester that Li Long brought back was sold to this very small number of people.

After lunch, Li Long went to buy an iron stove and installed it in the glass house.

At that time, iron stoves were not expensive, and most families in northern Xinjiang had one. Some people could not afford it or were reluctant to buy one, so they would make one with mud and soil blocks. Of course, the grate still had to be made of pig iron. You couldn't make this thing yourself.

After the stove is fixed, the next step is to build a long strip of heating facilities that is half ground dragon and half fire wall. Brick and earth block have their own advantages.

Brickwork heats up quickly and cools down quickly. Soil is thicker than brick walls, so it heats up slowly and cools down slowly.

Unfortunately, there were only bricks but no soil in the yard, so Li Long could only lay bricks.

There were no guests in the afternoon, so Li Long brought in hundreds of red bricks and mixed them with mud in the glass room to build a fire wall. The technology of this fire wall was not that high, and it only required a few gaps in the middle to prevent the fireworks from spreading so quickly.

Finally, build the chimney that was bought together with the stove on the last end of the fire wall, remove a piece of glass from the top, put the iron stove chimney on it, and then seal the gap with a wooden board.

Because there is a fire wall more than three meters long to filter, what finally runs out of the chimney is hot smoke, which can no longer ignite the wood, so Li Long is not worried.

After finishing all this, Li Long went to get a stove of charcoal and set up the stove. He wanted to see how long the charcoal could stay hot.

After all, this glass house is too big, so he is thinking about dividing it into several rooms next summer. This way, he can grow vegetables in only one room and the heat can be concentrated.

Or you can make the fire wall longer and the stove bigger.

In order to eat green leafy vegetables in winter, Li Long didn't feel bad about coal. The price of coal was not high now, and there was an open-air pit in the mountain. It was just troublesome to pull it up, otherwise Li Long would have used a tractor to pull coal back in the fall.

After setting up the coal, Li Long went out. He had pulled several tons of coal into the yard this fall, which was enough for use. But according to his current thinking, if he really wanted to burn the greenhouse, the coal might not last until the beginning of next spring.

Li Long went to boil some water, put it inside the tractor, and then placed some charcoal under the tractor to burn the fuel tank.

After struggling for forty or fifty minutes, he finally started the tractor and moved the jeep. He drove the tractor out of the yard and went to buy coal.

There were loose coal for sale in the free market, but it was expensive. He went directly to the Wuyi Highway, near the west side of the county town, where there were low bungalows on the roadside. There were large piles of coal unloaded by trucks, and there were also trucks carrying coal parked there.

Coal is sold cheaply here by the ton. Coal is more expensive in winter than in summer, 30 yuan per ton.

Li Long's tractor could carry two or three tons of coal. He bought three tons and pulled them back with one tractor.

"This is coal from Queergou, and it burns very well." The boss boasted proudly about his coal, "Take it back and burn it with confidence. If it doesn't burn well, I'll replace it for you when you come back!"

Queergou, this place name Li Long only knew its real name in later generations during the information explosion. It was previously heard as "Qiaoyaogou". Everyone in Team 4 called it that and they were used to it.

Later I found out that the place was called Queergou.

After pulling the coal back, Li Long unloaded it directly next to the glass house at the back and covered it with plastic bags to prevent it from weathering.

He drained the water from the tractor's water tank and walked into the glass house. He saw that the snow on the roof of the glass house was slowly melting.

This glass house is like any other house you see, with the north side higher and the south side lower. Water is already dripping from the south eaves.

Li Long entered the glass house and felt that the temperature inside was several degrees above zero. Although it was not as hot as the bedroom where the stove was set up, it was much warmer than outside.

At this time, the charcoal in the stove has burned red, the flames are no longer visible, but the temperature is at its highest.

Not bad, it seemed that the glass house was well sealed, and the heat did not dissipate much. He did not smell any coal smoke, only the smell of wet soil being dried.

It seems that the fire wall I made casually has good sealing and fire permeability.

Then we can plant rapeseed tomorrow.

The ground was turned over and the black water was mixed and sprinkled on the ground. Li Long planned to go to the team early tomorrow morning, first to get a rake, and second to ask his eldest brother what to plant and get some seeds from his eldest brother.

My mother, eldest sister-in-law and second sister-in-law took care of the vegetable garden over the whole summer, and I don’t know what seeds were left.

Li Long added more charcoal to the stove, pressed it with coal foam, and let it slowly smolder. Then he closed the door of the glass house. Vegetables were planted in the back, so a cotton curtain was needed here.

Cotton is not as easy to get as it is in later times. The Corps is already planting it, but the yield is not high. However, new nets can be bought at the supply and marketing cooperatives and department stores.

Do you think the quilts in your home should be replaced? I will clean up tomorrow and see if the previous owner left any old quilts that I can use as cotton curtains.

After breakfast the next day, Li Long drove his jeep to Team 4.

With a jeep, Li Long no longer wants to drive a tractor for long distances. His face is frozen and uncomfortable.

In his opinion, the more than 10 kilometers from the county town to the fourth team was considered a long distance. Of course, in later times when there were cars, one kilometer was also considered a long distance.

"Growing vegetables in winter?" Li Jianguo was considered to be well-informed in the northern border, but he was a little surprised to hear Li Long say that.

"Well, I want to eat fresh green leafy vegetables during the Chinese New Year. Brother, do you think it's better to plant celery, leeks, spinach, or Chinese cabbage?"

"Of course I would plant some celery and leeks. Of course, it would be better to plant some green peppers, but I don't know if they can grow..." Li Jianguo naturally wanted to plant some of them, but thinking about it, it seemed unlikely.

Now during the Chinese New Year in winter, the only "fresh" vegetables we can eat at home, apart from radishes and cabbages, are the garlic sprouts grown in plates and the bean sprouts grown in pots.

It would be nice if we could get some fresh vegetables.

Liang Yuemei also joined the discussion.

Before the issue was even discussed, someone came to find Li Long.

The person who knocked on the door was Captain Xu Chengjun.

PS: Two pigs were slaughtered today, one weighing 130 kilograms and the other 148 kilograms. This does not include the trough meat that has been made into stir-fried pork with sauerkraut and cabbage, nor the internal organs. This is the weight of the pigs alone.

It was delicious. But my back hurt.

The average number of people helping out is over 60... (End of this chapter)