Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 952 Every year is a new beginning: April 5th
With children returning to school, the snow in the plains has mostly melted, the roads are gradually drying, and the daily annoyance of getting splashed with mud is slowly disappearing.

Li Long took some time to visit the purchasing station, and he was surprised to find that there were many more people queuing to sell their goods in the courtyard than before.

Looking around today, there are about a dozen vendors selling things in the courtyard, including middlemen and original sellers.

As the weather gets warmer, tea is set up again under the windowsill in the courtyard. Someone is carefully scooping tea into enamel bowls with a ladle, then putting the ladle back in its place before squatting down to drink.

Next to the tea barrel, on the ground, was a basin filled with water, with three or four enamel bowls either floating or submerged in it. People who finished drinking water would put their bowls in the basin for automatic rinsing.

Li Long then asked the last man who seemed to be there to sell things:

"Are there this many people these past few days? Why are you all here to sell things at this time? Aren't you preparing agricultural supplies?"

"That's why we're selling things now, to prepare for agricultural supplies," the man chuckled. "If we don't sell things, where will we get the money to prepare for agricultural supplies? I heard that in some places, credit unions are already giving farmers loans to buy agricultural supplies. When will we be able to do that too?"

Li Long understood. Now is the time to prepare agricultural supplies, but some families don't have extra money. If they want to increase their grain yield and improve the crop, they need good seeds and fertilizers, and these things cost money.

What if you don't have money? Then you'll have to use your household savings to tide you over, right?

Looking at what these people were selling, most of it was leather, a small portion was medicinal herbs and old items, and there were also melon seeds and sunflower seeds for sale. Li Long shook his head slightly.

The types of local specialties have already been fixed. Should I go to other places to explore new markets?
Of course, this is just a thought, but it's already very good.

The calligraphy and paintings sent from Yanjing have arrived. After Li Long opened and looked at them, he put them in the east room of the master bedroom. The boxes were re-stitched, and the bottom was raised to prevent moisture. They were then placed in the corner of the wall.

These things are his future security, so for now, he should honestly and steadily move forward step by step. Taking big steps might lead to trouble.

"Hey, Mr. Li's here." A middleman saw Li Long and greeted him with a smile, "What, you've come here incognito?"

Li Long thought to himself, "This 'The Legend of Emperor Qianlong' hasn't even aired yet, and you already know about traveling incognito? You probably listen to a lot of storytelling."

He smiled and said, "No, I just came to take a look."

Upon entering the room, Li Long saw Gu Boyuan explaining the quality and price of the leather to a seller, while he stood to the side.

Sun Jiaqiang saw Li Long and quickly stood up to greet him with a smile. Li Long nodded.

After Gu Boyuan finished evaluating the leather, collected the leather, and paid him, Li Long asked:
"Uncle Gu, how is it?"

"I'm doing well." Gu Boyuan understood what Li Long meant. "I'm doing normally every day, and I can keep it up for about half a month. By then, that Boss Zhao should be here too, right?"

"Okay." Li Long nodded. Since everything was alright here, he could now focus on other things.

With a telephone, many things become much easier to handle.

Li Long directly looked up the phone number for the county propaganda department through the directory assistance, dialed it, and asked for Ma Xiaoyan, the cadre.

A moment later, Ma Xiaoyan's voice came over:
"Hello, I am Ma Xiaoyan, may I ask who you are...?"

At that time, most of the places that could install telephones were government agencies, and very few private individuals installed them. That's probably why Ma Xiaoyan was so polite.

"I'm Li Long, Officer Ma. I have something to tell you. Do you have time now?"

"Comrade Li Long, yes, yes. So, what is it?"

"I plan to go to the mountains in a few days to build a road for the herders to access their wintering grounds. Last year I helped them buy a few tractors, which will allow them to access several wintering grounds on the outer side of the mountains, making their lives much more convenient."

But those winter settlements near the mountains don't have main roads, making it very difficult to carry goods on horseback. So I plan to help them build a road that can accommodate small four-wheeled tractors, making their lives easier.

"What? Help them build roads? Build roads in the mountains? That's a huge project!" Ma Xiaoyan knew a bit about the situation in the mountains. She asked, "Are you doing this alone? Or is your supply and marketing cooperative involved?"

“After I took the lead, the leaders of our supply and marketing cooperative found out and said they would support my actions and provide us with some material and manpower support. In addition, the herders also raised some supplies and asked me to resell them. I added some money and bought a bulldozer. We will start working after the snow melts in the mountains and the conditions for construction are met.”

"Okay, okay, I'll report this to my supervisor. Let me know when the time comes—by the way, where did you make that call?"

"I'm at home."

"Oh, you got a phone at home? That's so convenient. By the way, could you tell me your home phone number so I can contact you later?"

Li Long gave them his home phone number and the purchasing station's phone number, meaning that if he couldn't get through to his home, he could call the purchasing station and they would be able to reach him.

After hanging up the phone, Ma Xiaoyan immediately went to report the matter to the Executive Vice Minister.

"Comrade Li Long, I never expected that he would be doing so much more and more these years, even planning to build roads for the herders—that's a good thing. You must keep a close eye on this matter and report on it as a way of supporting and supervising this work. Of course, if he does a good job and the road is actually built, we will nominate him as an advanced individual and commend him! This Li Long always surprises us, very good."

When Ma Xiaoyan returned to her desk, a colleague asked her what was wrong.

"Li Long is going to build roads for the herdsmen?" His colleague was very surprised. "Is he just trying to gain fame? Building roads is not a simple matter. It's not that easy. He won't just ask you to go and do an interview, get it in the newspaper, and that's it, will he?"

“He’s already bought a bulldozer for this, investing so much. How could it be just for fame?” Although Ma Xiaoyan knew that Li Long’s notification of this matter was also intended to gain fame, she had seen over the years that Li Long had genuinely done things for the herders. So what if he gained fame? He had at least done something, so she would definitely speak up for Li Long.

“A bulldozer isn’t cheap, it costs tens of thousands,” another colleague said. “Looks like they’re serious about this—this Li Long, now that he’s the representative, is making this a much bigger deal.”

"It's all about having money. Things are much easier when you have money," the person who first questioned Li Long said sourly. "If I had money, I'd do practical things for the people too..."

"So, we'll reserve a spot for you this year in the one-on-one support program for children in impoverished areas?" another colleague said with a smile. "The investment isn't much, at most half a month's salary a year..."

“That won’t do!” the man blurted out. “My family isn’t well-off either…”

The others laughed.

They all knew this colleague's character well. When he spoke, he was impassioned and pontificated, pointing fingers at everything. He claimed that this person was doing poverty alleviation for fame, that person was starting a business to obtain government support, and that everyone had ulterior motives, except for him, who had the most upright values.

But when it really came down to it, he immediately chickened out.

There are many such people, and in the internet age, there are even more.

After communicating with Ma Xiaoyan about this matter, Li Long went to the supply and marketing cooperative again to report to Li Xiangqian.

Before calling Ma Xiaoyan, he was thinking about whether to tell Jiang Zhiyu or the reporter from the Northern Xinjiang Daily if Ma Xiaoyan didn't go.

When we first started building houses for Halim and his group at their post, the Northern Xinjiang Daily interviewed him and left their contact information. Later, when he became an advanced individual in the autonomous region, they also interviewed him.

Li Long wondered if he should go all out, since he had bigger ambitions, and being just a propaganda officer in the county might not be enough.

But considering that I've worked with Ma Xiaoyan several times and it's always been quite pleasant, I think it's best not to look for anyone else first.

Moreover, road construction takes a long time, and once it's reported in the newspapers, people from the Beiting Daily and Beijiang Daily will definitely come.

Li Xiangqian asked him if he had found a bulldozer driver, as this was a long-term job. "I plan to look in the Qingshuihezi area, it's close and convenient to travel back and forth," Li Long said. "I know the people there, and they don't need to live in winter shelters to work, so I can pick them up and drop them off every day on my way."

He planned to ask Meng Hai to introduce him to someone, as long as he received his daily wages as usual.

"Hmm, that's quite thoughtful," Li Xiangqian said. "We're available anytime. I'll organize about a dozen people from our commune to go and collect stones and cut down trees. Then you can talk to that Officer Ma about providing funding. Hmm, this level of support doesn't seem quite enough..."

Li Xiangqian felt that the supply and marketing cooperative was not doing enough, so he asked Li Long, "Do you think there are any other good ways to make the work done by our cooperative more solid and more tangible?"

“Then let’s organize some people to go and work every week. Just investing money won’t really show the effect, but sending people to work every now and then will have a different impact,” Li Long said after thinking for a moment. “It will also let the people in our commune see what the herders’ actual lives are like.”

“Alright.” Li Xiangqian thought for a moment and said, “These people in the office really lack exercise, and there are too many idle people. I’ll bring this up at the meeting tomorrow. Think back to when we were procuring grain, we went to every village and village in the county. Now these people are sitting in their offices, reading newspapers and drinking tea, complaining about this and that all day long… They just need more exercise!”

Li Long glanced at Li Xiangqian's protruding belly, smiled, and said nothing.

"What? You think I'm getting a big belly now? Isn't that also due to lack of exercise? I admit it, I'll personally lead a group to work there, a week of work, and I refuse to believe we can't get back in shape!"

Li Long actually believed Li Xiangqian after hearing what he said. After all, Li Xiangqian had genuinely done the work on the previous trips into the mountains, and wasn't just posing for photos.

As the road construction project in the mountains was being implemented, Li Long was both planning and thinking about whether there were any loopholes.

Factory Director Du sent over some tillers, six units, and also wired Li Long a sum of money—according to Factory Director Du, it was the patent fee for the tillers, two thousand yuan.

Li Long thought to himself that the tillers must have sold well, at least several hundred units, otherwise he wouldn't have given him two thousand yuan.

If I can get along with Director Du, I'll just go directly to him when I need something done.

When the tiller arrived, Li Long drove the tractor back to the Fourth Team. On both sides of the road, the tractors were already in operation, tilling and leveling the land in preparation for sowing.

The ground temperature hasn't risen yet, so planting is a bit early; we should wait until at least April.

Li Long planned to repair the road by April, otherwise, although the snow in the mountains had melted, the slopes were still muddy, making it difficult for tractors and people to go up.

We drove to the Fourth Squad and parked at the gate of the eldest brother's yard.

Li Jianguo was tidying up the tractor in the front yard when he heard the engine. His hands, still greasy, went to the gate and saw Li Long approaching. He called out:
"Xiaolong's here? What's that tractor carrying?"

“A cultivator,” Li Long said. “Once the seeds are sown, we can use this to weed; it’s very convenient.”

Li Jianguo had heard Li Long mention this before, so he went into the yard, wiped the oil off his hands with an old towel, washed them, and then went to the backyard.

Li Long had already unloaded the truck bed and single-handedly lifted the nearly 100-kilogram tiller off the truck bed, then used the connecting device to hang it on the back of the vehicle.

"It looks easier to assemble than a combine harvester," Li Jianguo asked.

Lu Yingming, who lived next door, was tidying up his tractor in his yard. When he saw what was happening, he came over with his oily hands. Perhaps feeling that it was inconvenient to have oily hands, he wiped the oil off his own yard wall before coming over to take a look.

"Xiaolong, what's this? A tiller? How does it till the land?" he asked curiously.

After attaching the tiller, Li Long said, "It's for weeding. You see, it can be used when the crops in the field are less than half a meter tall. The tractor drives over, enters the field, and the tiller is lowered to weed the weeds in the middle of the crops. If it can't weed them, it will turn over the soil and cover the weeds, which will slow down their growth."

After hanging it up, Li Long drove the tractor forward, saying as he went, "Let's try it in the field ahead."

The tractor has six claws. When it reached the wasteland in front of the yard, Li Long lowered the claws and started the tractor. The claws plowed deep furrows in the ground, and the grass was either pulled up or buried by the soil wherever they went.

"Not bad, not bad, but won't these claws hurt the seedlings?"

"The gripper can adjust the width and spacing. Just adjust it to the desired spacing between the seedlings."

"That's really convenient."

"The gripper can also adjust the depth, depending on how deep you need to plow," Li Long said as he got off the tractor. "It's faster than weeding by hand, though. After all, a family cultivates dozens or even hundreds of acres of land. If you weed by hand, the weeds will grow back before you finish weeding in one go. This tractor is fast; it can plow dozens of acres a day without any problem. Once the crops grow, you won't have to worry about weeds anymore."

Of the six tillers, Li Long planned to keep one for his eldest brother, one for each of Tao Daqiang, Xie Yundong, Liang Dacheng, and Jia Weidong, and one for his sister-in-law's family.

It's clear that Lu Yingming also wants it, but since he hasn't said so explicitly, Li Long hasn't paid much attention to it.

Anyway, he can buy them at the Shicheng tractor factory now. If he really wants them, he can buy them there, or have them sent over when he needs another batch, or he can borrow them from his older brother's family.

Back in the yard, the group unloaded the tiller and placed it against the wall. Li Long then asked Li Jianguo about the telephone installation.

"People from the township post office came over and said they're installing telephone poles in our team. It might not be installed until the end of April. Our family is the first in the whole township to get a private telephone. They said they didn't expect anyone in the team to get a telephone at this time."

"Hey, now that it's installed, my parents can call people back home," Li Long said with a smile. "I wonder if anyone back home has installed a phone."

With the installation of these program-controlled telephones, the old lines were removed, and the telephones in each village and brigade were gone. It became difficult for the old man to call his hometown. Fortunately, he had made a group of new friends here, so Li Qingxia wasn't in a hurry. When he had nothing to do, he would go fishing or something, and life was pretty good.

Li Long then informed Xie Yundong and the others, asking them to take the cultivator away so they could use it when the crops grew.

These people offered Li Long money, but he refused. A single tiller costs less than a hundred yuan to produce and sells for two hundred. Li Long doesn't need the money; these people are genuinely helpful in the village, always ready to lend a hand whenever needed.

Knowing Li Long's temperament, the others stopped arguing and took the cultivator back to study it carefully, planning to use it once the crops grew.

Next, Li Long bought more supplies and sent them up the mountain, including shovels, baskets, crowbars, ropes, and so on.

When everything was almost ready, Li Long went to inform everyone that the plan was to go up the mountain on April 5th. That day was a Saturday, which was also Qingming Festival but not a public holiday. At that time, Saturdays were still workdays, so finishing the work today wouldn't affect the normal weekend rest of the people at the supply and marketing cooperative.

Everyone just treated it as going to work in the mountains.

The tractor driver had been found. Li Long took some time to go to Qingshuihezi and asked Meng Hai to find someone. Meng Hai volunteered, saying that he could drive the Dongfanghong 75 tractor himself, which surprised Li Long.

Li Long was a little skeptical, so he took Meng Hai to the Halim winter pasture. Meng Hai skillfully started the tractor and drove it around the grassland, and it really looked quite good. Li Long simply let him drive the tractor to the vicinity of Talihar's winter pasture, because the actual road construction would have to start from there.

The agreement with Meng Hai was that driving a tractor would cost twenty yuan a day. To be honest, this thing is quite damaging to the ears and vibrates a lot. Meng Hai suggested that ten yuan would be enough, since driving a tractor is much less strenuous than moving stones.

Li Long felt it was better to raise the price, treating it as a payment for technical services.

He had also arranged with Yushanjiang and the others that on April 4th, the able-bodied men from the tribe would come to work together, and they could be called upon when needed. After all, the snow in the mountains had melted and the grass was growing, so each family needed to shear their sheep, wash them, and prepare for the migration.

Li Long was originally supposed to be taking care of the meals for the people who had come from the supply and marketing cooperative, but Li Xiangqian told him that he didn't need to worry about anything at the supply and marketing cooperative; he only needed to lead the way and assign work.

"If such a large supply and marketing cooperative can't even provide this much organizational support, it's bound to fall apart."

These were Li Xiangqian's exact words, and Li Long wholeheartedly agreed.

(End of this chapter)