Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

When Li Long drove back to Ma County, the sun had already set.

At this time, there were more and more buses going from Wucheng to Shicheng and Ma County, and because the Wuyi Highway crossed Ma County, even the buses going directly to Ma County stopped selling tickets at 6 pm. However, Li Jianguo and his friends bought tickets to Ke City - they just got off the bus halfway, and they also bought the ticket price for Ma County, which was good.

After Li Long dropped Gu Xiaoxia and the others off in the yard, he drove his jeep to the bus station and waited for more than half an hour before finally meeting Li Jianguo and the others.

It seems that the driver of the sports car was driving very fast in the afternoon. The main reason is that there are few cars on the road now, and passengers do not have too high requirements for the driving experience. Generally speaking, people sitting in the back feel very bumpy, but basically they think it is bad luck.

The 1980s and 1990s were probably the eras when drivers were paid the best, but after that, well, it went downhill.

Li Long took Li Jianguo and the others back to the big yard. Sister Yang had already prepared a meal - and it was a huge amount. She knew that the whole family would be hungry after returning, so she made preparations in advance.

"Sister-in-law Yang, you are really capable." Liang Yuemei said sincerely, "I think Xiaolong Xiaoxia's family can't do without you."

"Hey, that's nothing. What's this for me? Xiaolong has the ability to make money, Xiaoxia is a state cadre, and she pays me a lot. Doing this little work is nothing..." Sister Yang was praised and pulled her apron, feeling a little embarrassed.

In fact, she knew very well that in this big family, Du Chunfang was Gu Xiaoxia's mother-in-law, but she didn't care much about the affairs, and her contributions were almost invisible. Her eyes were completely on her son and grandson. Liang Yuemei was more like the actual "mother-in-law". Sister Yang was also very proud of getting her affirmation.

After dinner, it was already dark. Li Jianguo started the tractor to take the people back. Li Long wanted to drive the jeep, but Li Qingxia stopped him:
"You've been driving all day, why don't you move just this short distance? We're sitting on a tractor and feeling the wind, and it's cooler! Just don't move!"

Although they didn't drive, they knew that driving would definitely be tiring. Li Long was basically busy all day, taking care of others, how could he not be tired?
We are all family, and we are not blind, so it is impossible for us not to see it. So when Li Qingxia said this, even Gu Boyuan said:

"Xiaolong, just stay in the yard. Are you worried about your big brother driving the tractor? When he was driving the tractor, you were peeing in the mud?"

This made Li Long blush, but he couldn't refute it.

Instead, Li Qiang said loudly and seriously:

"My uncle wouldn't do that! My uncle is very capable..."

Well, Li Long has a little fan, which can be considered as saving some face - in Li Qiang's mind, Li Long would never do such a low thing. Look at what his uncle did when he came back from Wucheng that year. They were all big things, things that he wanted to do but couldn't do because of his age.

After Li Qiang said this, everyone burst into laughter, and Li Long stopped insisting. To be honest, he was really a little tired.

The two children are also tired today and have fallen asleep in bed.

Watching Li Jianguo drive away on the tractor, Gu Boyuan sat on the paddle board and was taken to his yard by Li Jianguo. When passing by the purchasing station, he saw the lights on inside, so Sun Jiaqiang should be there.

"Xiaolong said he wanted to buy a track tractor?" Gu Boyuan asked.

"Well, he said he would buy it and let me drive it. We have a lot of land in our team, and we can't let Wang Caimi make all the money from plowing the land alone." Li Jianguo said with a chuckle.

"You have a good brother, enjoy your life in the future." Gu Boyuan sighed.

"Isn't that half of yours? And you're still taking advantage of it!" Li Jianguo retorted, "Look how well-off you are now! How many people in the team envy you? How regretful Sun Xiu's mother must be now..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Gu Boyuan turned his head and looked at the people behind him, his expression a little flustered, "There is nothing between her and me..."

"I know you are fine. If you were, they would have come to the county to look for you a long time ago. Those people in the team are just regretting it. They thought you were a burden when you brought Xiaoxia with you. Now... go and regret it!"

"Hehe." Gu Boyuan knew this was the case, so he felt relieved. Seeing that they had reached the courtyard, Li Jianguo slowed down and Gu Boyuan said:

"To be honest, it feels like a dream...Okay, work hard, there are many good days ahead!"

"Yes, there are still many good days ahead!" At this moment, Li Jianguo was full of fighting spirit. His younger brother was capable, so how could he just sit there and eat for free? It was just driving a tractor, what was so difficult about it? It was not like he had never driven one before.

After returning to Team 4, the whole family was exhausted and quickly washed up and rested, as Li Juan and Li Qiang had to go to school the next day.

In the large yard of the county town, after Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang finished cleaning up, they went into the house and took out two things.

"Sister Yang, this is a pair of sandals we bought at Tianbai for you. Xiaofang, this is a new schoolbag that your uncle Li bought for you. It also contains a pencil case, pens, and a set of colored pencils for drawing."

"Ah, her aunt, her uncle, how could you let you spend so much money?" Sister Yang said hurriedly, "I have shoes, Xiaofang also has a schoolbag..."

"Use it when you buy it. It's not the time to not buy a new one if it doesn't break." Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, "You also listened to what the elder sister-in-law said just now. She praised you and said you did a good job. You can't just talk about it. We are like a family. We went out this time and you didn't go out. Shouldn't I bring you some things back?"

Sister Yang did not refuse anymore. To be honest, she had already regarded Li Long, Gu Xiaoxia and Mingming Haohao as her own family.

Han Fang watched her mother accept the shoes, so she took the schoolbag and said thank you to Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia.

The joy in his heart can be seen from the smile on his face.

How could a child not like a new school bag and pencil case? But she knew that some things should not be accepted casually.

Wang Caimi was stunned for a long time when he heard Li Jianguo tell him that Li Long was going to buy a new tractor.

The next day, Li Jianguo did not go to work in the fields. After breakfast, he went to Wang Caimi's house. Wang Caimi and his brother had also finished their meal and were sorting parts in front of the old Dongfanghong 75 tractor.

Now there is still more than a month before the tractor is ready for use. After the last sowing, Wang Caimi put the tractor here and repair it from time to time. This tractor has major problems and minor problems all the time.

It can barely be maintained when working, and sometimes it breaks down in the field, so it can only be repaired temporarily.

Wang Caimi made a lot of money in the past two years, but most of it was invested in repairs. He also bought a lot of spare parts from nearby places. It was these parts that allowed Wang Caimi to repair and maintain the operation of the tractor.

In fact, the Dongfanghong 70-track tractor has played a great role in the vast land of northern Xinjiang in the past 20 to 30 years. When Li Jianguo and his team developed the fourth team, there were only a few dozen acres of land and three or four families.

When they first arrived, they used a primitive plow pulled by two oxen. Later, when they had horses, they used horse-drawn plows - there were relatively few oxen at that time.

The speed of land reclamation using human and animal power is extremely slow and the efficiency is very low. There is no way to change this.

Later, the Dongfanghong 75 tractor, which was improved from the Dongfanghong 54 tractor, was introduced, and the speed of land reclamation increased. Much of the original land in the vicinity was swampy or shallow swampy, so wheeled tractors were inconvenient to use. The Dongfanghong 75 tractor was track-driven, which was just right for this kind of muddy terrain.

So the land of Team 4 was reclaimed, the field area increased year by year, and finally only some saline-alkali marshes were left.

It is no exaggeration to say that this Dongfanghong No. 70 tractor is the meritorious tractor of the Fourth Squadron.

But after decades of hard work and numerous injuries, it's almost time for me to retire.

It has only been a few years since the household contract responsibility system was implemented, and currently, except for Li Long, no one in the team has the financial resources to buy a new one.

Not to mention now, even in the previous life, this tractor continued to work for nearly ten years before it completely withdrew from the stage of history and turned into scrap metal.

Tough, absolutely tough.

"Well," Li Jianguo stood beside the tractor, looking at the stunned expression on Wang Caimi's face, which was still a little confused and resentful, and nodded, "In the future, our team will have more and more land. The saline-alkali land next to the Lao Mahao contracted by Xiaolong has been improved. Xiaolong said that he would open up more saline-alkali land in the future. This tractor is usually mainly used by our family, but if other people in the team want to plow the land, sow seeds, etc., then I will definitely do it."

In fact, Li Jianguo didn't have to make this trip. There was no rule that Team 4 could only have one tractor, and no one stipulated that after the Li family bought a tractor, they couldn't plow other people's fields.

"Brother Li, are you saying that your family bought the tractor mainly for our own use?" Wang Caimi's younger brother Wang Dagui asked, putting down the track block in his hand.

"It's mainly for our own use," Li Jianguo said. "But if someone wants my family to plow the land, then there's no way I won't do it, right? I'm not stupid if I don't make money."

The two families have a relationship, which is why Li Jianguo came to tell Wang Caimi. But this relationship is not enough to make him give up the benefits he has obtained. If there is really money to be made, and it is fair and aboveboard, why not make it?

Most of the land in rural areas is collectively owned. According to the regulations of the Fourth Team, the decision to reclaim more than 50 mu of wasteland is made by the township, while the decision to reclaim less than 50 mu is made by the village.

Therefore, Li Jianguo and Li Long had already discussed that they would reclaim those small pieces of saline-alkali land along the main canal and convert them into their own contracted land. After all, there is no need to pay agricultural tax for the first three years of reclaiming wasteland, which means no need to pay public grain, and the full amount will not be paid after three years. After these lands are reclaimed and improved, they will become cultivated land in three to five years.

As far as Li Long knew, five years after the previous life, Team 4 had already started growing cotton - and even in the previous life, the first family in Team 4 to grow cotton had a yield of only a little over 100 kilograms per mu, but the price of cotton seed was two yuan, which was more profitable than growing grain at the beginning.

Wang Caimi may not be so desperate, but he definitely feels regretful.

It was in 1982 when the household contract responsibility system was implemented. At that time, the money for the tractors on credit fell on him. From 1985 to now, the gross profit he had earned in the past few years must have been tens of thousands.

But most of the money was spent on repairing tractors.

If I grit my teeth, save some money, and buy a new tractor, can I compete with the Li family?

However, he only had a little over 10,000 yuan on hand right now, which was saved for a fixed period of time. Even if he took it out now and borrowed some more from the bank, he could buy a new one, but he couldn't bear to pay the interest.

In 1985, the interest on bank deposits was quite high, and Wang Caimi was really reluctant to give it up!

This interest money is much higher than the income from farming for a family in a year. If you withdraw it early, it will be gone.

While he was hesitating, Li Jianguo had already started chatting with Wang Dagui, mainly about the use and repair of tractors.

In just a few words, Li Jianguo understood that Wang Caimi's tractor really made money and spent money.

In the past few years, not only has Wang Caimi's family bought several big items, but even though the outside of the house is still a shabby earthen house, the inside has changed a lot.

Even Wang Dagui's family has seen new changes. "My brother gives me a thousand a year!" Wang Dagui said proudly - in the past, his brother gave him little money, and he was dissatisfied. In the past two years, Wang Dagui has become proficient in driving a tractor and can work with Wang Caimi, so his brother pays him more.

A net income of one thousand is much better than most of the farmers in the team.

So Wang Dagui is very content.

"Then... you bought that tractor, can't you just use it to work on your own land? Your family has made a lot of money in the past two years, right?" Although Wang Caimi was a little embarrassed, he still had to say it. Originally, his family plowed the land and sowed for the team, so others had to beg him.

After all, there is only one tractor in the team. Isn't it up to him to decide who plows first and who plants later?

Planting in the spring is not possible at any time. "If you miss a day, you miss a year." The time of sowing is really critical. Not to mention a day, even half a day, the seedlings will be different when they emerge, and there may be differences when they are harvested.

His broken tractor might have been left in the field halfway through sowing the crops, and he would have to spend half the night repairing it.

Others could only wait. But Wang Caimi was not in a hurry at all, because the whole team had to beg him anyway - even if Xu Chengjun came, he would have to wait in line.

Now that the Li family suddenly wants to buy a tractor, he knows very well that his good days are about to end.

Is it okay not to struggle?

"Look at what you said. If someone comes to you and asks me to plow the land, will you do it or not? That's just pushing the money out. Besides, we are all from the same village, and I am just sharing your burden. Every spring and autumn when you plant, how many people curse you for being slow behind your back? Now my family wants to buy a tractor, and those two families plowing the land and planting are much slower?"

Li Jianguo came to inform Wang Caimi, not to seek his opinion, and then went back.

After Li Jianguo walked away, Wang Caimi glared at his brother and said, "Why did you say so much just now? He will rob us of the money we earn from plowing the land in the future, and you are still being so polite to him?"

"Then I won't say anything. They have to buy it anyway." Wang Dagui felt aggrieved. "Brother, why don't you buy a new one too? Our old machine can't compare with others." Wang Dagui was not stupid. He knew that once the Li family bought a new machine, fewer people would come to his family to plow their fields.

He was worried that his elder brother would make less money and that he would get less money.

"Buy a new machine? That's easy to say! But it costs money. Where can I find tens of thousands of dollars? Give it to me?" Wang Caimi scolded his brother again, leaving him speechless.

Ugh.

When I got home, I saw Liang Yuemei washing clothes. The single-cylinder Power washing machine was rumbling in the yard, with two large washing basins beside it.

A single-cylinder washing machine can only wash or rinse, not spin dry, so after each wash, you need to take out the clothes and wring them out manually after the machine stops, and then add water and reuse them.

Even so, it is much more convenient than rubbing by hand. The washing basin is so big, and it is tiring to wash the sheets, quilts, and winter clothes!

Now it's ready, pour water into the washing machine, add detergent, put clothes in, plug it in, wring it, and wait.

Liang Yuemei always had a smile on her face. She fully felt the benefit of the washing machine - her hands were mostly freed.

"What's the matter? Did Wang Caimi say anything?" Liang Yuemei asked when she saw Li Jianguo coming in.

"What can he say? He wants me to stop plowing the land for others. Is that possible?" Li Jianguo smiled, helped Liang Yuemei wring out the sheets she had just fished out, and then pointed to the front yard and said:
"You wash first. I'll go to the front yard to clean up. When we get the tractor back, we'll have to park it there. Xiaolong's yard is big enough to accommodate it."

"Okay, go ahead." Liang Yuemei nodded, "I can do it myself here."

Li Jianguo went to clean up the front yard. There wasn't much debris there, but he had to plan how to park the tractor and its accessories.

Li Jianguo thought that after the wheat was harvested, the main thing to do was to plow the land. The five-share plow and tractor would definitely be placed outside, while the tools for leveling the ground would need to be placed inside. These would not be used until October when winter wheat was planted.

We also had to buy a few barrels of diesel to bring it back. The Dongfanghong No. 75 tractor was powerful and could not only be used as a tractor, but could also carry a bulldozer.

But it also consumes a lot of fuel. Burning diesel is like drinking water, so you must prepare it in advance.

Li Jianguo can drive a tractor, but after driving it back, he must familiarize himself with it. There is a large salt and alkali field in the southeast of the settlement, so he can drive the tractor there to familiarize himself with it.

In the afternoon, Lu Yingming heard the news that the Li family wanted to buy a tractor, so he immediately came to find Li Jianguo.

"Mr. Li, are you really going to buy a big tractor?" Lu Yingming was obviously a little excited. "Are you going to buy just the tractor or the whole set?"

"Then he must have bought the whole set." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "You can't just ask for the tractor head and borrow the rest from Wang Caimi, right?"

"That's right. That's not cheap!" Lu Yingming sighed, "Xiaolong buy it?"

"Well, Xiaolong made some money from the purchasing station this year, and he thought we should have a new tractor, otherwise we would miss out on farming every year."

"Well, Xiaolong is right." Lu Yingming nodded and sighed, "Xiaolong is really amazing. It's only been a few years, and look at your family, you already have a small four-wheeler, Xiaolong has a jeep, and now he's going to get a big tractor, hey!"

"Then you have a small four-wheeler, right?" Li Jianguo smiled. "With the household contract responsibility system, everyone's life has become better."

"Then when your tractor comes, you drive it and I'll plow it for you!"

"Okay." Li Jianguo had actually been thinking about it for a long time. If Lu Yingming didn't come, he would go to find him.

Li Long's partners are people like Tao Daqiang, and Li Jianguo's partners are people like Gu Boyuan and Lu Yingming.

In the 1970s and 1980s, plowing and sowing could not be done by driving a tractor. When plowing, there was a person sitting on the five-share plow at the back with a steering wheel in front of him. Turning the steering wheel was used to adjust the plowing depth.

A person also needs to stand on the seeder to adjust or stop the seeding. A seeder has five seed bins, and each bin can also stop seeding independently, which requires adjustment by the person behind.

Quite complicated.

The next day, the whole team knew that the Li family was going to buy a big tractor, and they were very excited.

Everyone came to the Li family to confirm the news - this news was even more explosive than Li Long driving a jeep! (End of this chapter)