Chapter 127 Do your own work and eat your own food
In the past two days, the Li family, along with the Tao family, has become the center of discussion in the team. The Li family first bought a horse number, and after the land was divided, they brought in several carts of manure. Then, when the team was divided into production, they paid off the money and bought the best red horse number 76 in the team. They also bought the carriage from the Qin family who drew the carriage for 48 yuan.
Now that we have both the horse and the cart, we will be able to work so efficiently in the future. I’m so envious just thinking about it!
The Tao family also bought a donkey. Although they didn't buy a car, Tao Jianshe had already given the order. Now they could use the wood at home to find a carpenter to make a car. After two days, they could go to the supply and marketing cooperative's Wujiaohua store to buy a wheel and everything would be done.
Everyone knows that the Tao family benefited from the Li family, but it's too late to say anything now.
In the team, or in other words, other families in the village who drew big items, if they wanted them, most of them owed money or borrowed money. Some, like Li Jianguo in his previous life, gave up reluctantly or settled for the next best thing.
However, this division of the team's property also revealed some people in the team who were actually quite wealthy. In addition to the Li family, Wang Caimi's family bought the things they received with their own money, and two other families also bought the team's horses and carriages, including the Bai family, an old resident here.
With these people as a backdrop, the Li family is not so conspicuous.
Next, Li Long went to the mountains to pull manure twice. After the snow melted, the team started to plow the land with a tractor. The Li family began to pull the manure into the land, sprinkling it on the land while pulling. After sprinkling it, the tractor turned the manure over when plowing the land, and the manure fell to the ground.
When the Li family entered the field, they found that everyone in the village was working in their own fields. It was not yet time for the public labor, and everyone was busy in their own fields.
Everyone knows that they should be busy now to clean the fields and harvest more grain in the fall. After paying the public grain tax and levies, everything else is theirs!
Even if it is just for the children to eat more fine grains, we have to work harder now.
The land had not been plowed yet, and these people were basically picking up reeds that had been turned over the previous year, and some were picking up licorice roots. If the reeds were not picked up and turned over, they would grow again and were extremely difficult to remove.
Licorice root is a medicinal herb that the purchasing station collects. Although it is cheap, if you pick it up now, it will add up to a lot and it will be a sum of extra money.
Wang Caimi drove the tractor into the field and stopped at the edge of the field.
Li Long stepped forward and handed a pack of cigarettes to Wang Caimi in the cab amid the rumbling sound of the Dongfanghong No. 75 track tractor.
"Brother Wang, when we plow the field later, please help me turn the plowshare outwards." Li Long said as he took out his lighter and lit Wang Caimi's cigarette. "The ground here is relatively flat, and there are no reeds and sedges, so it shouldn't be difficult to turn the ground."
"Oh, so that's it..." Wang Caimi frowned as he looked at the edge of Li's land while smoking.
If there is one more plowshare in a 500-meter-long strip of land, the land can be expanded by half an acre. Li Jia Xiaolong is really smart in his calculations.
Li Long looked at his expression and said with a smile:
"Brother Wang, I won't let you suffer any loss. I'll cut you two pounds of meat tonight. How about that?"
"Okay." Wang Caimi put the snow lotus cigarettes into his pocket and said, "Since you are honest, I will take the risk and plow through for you."
In fact, there was a risk of getting hurt. The oil was provided by the team, and the tractor also belonged to the team. If Wang Caimi moved the plowshare a little bit to the outside, no one would say anything - after all, the boundary stakes were driven in the middle of the two fields, and for families like the Li family who were on the periphery of the strip field, there was no boundary at all, and no one would care.
It was not until the first round of land contracting that the fields were greened and a long green belt was dug out and poplar trees were planted. Only then was the field considered to have a boundary.
The Li family had already spread all the manure on the ground. Seeing Wang Caimi driving the tractor and rumbling to plow the land, Li Jianguo came over and asked:
"Xiaolong, what did you say to Wang Caimi?"
"I told him to tilt the plowshare outwards when plowing, so that he could get half an acre more land." "He agreed?" Li Jianguo looked at Li Long in surprise. He had not expected this.
"I gave him a pack of cigarettes and promised to get him two pounds of meat in the evening, and he agreed."
"What a coward!" Li Jianguo cursed, but after thinking about it, he said, "Xiaolong, an extra half acre of land can yield an extra 100 kilograms of wheat! This is a good thing!"
"Well, I'll go pick up licorice roots." Li Long said with a smile, "There's licorice all over the beach outside our field. We can plow up a lot of licorice roots with this plow."
Licorice root can not only be sold, but many villagers suffer from pharyngitis. They will leave some licorice root and cut a small piece and hold it in their mouth when their throat is uncomfortable, which will have some effect.
After Wang Caimi finished plowing the field, Li Long and Liang Yuemei returned to the cart at the end of the field with a large bundle of licorice roots. Li Jianguo walked through the field again and picked up the reed roots that had been plowed out. At this time, there was no room for sloppiness.
In the evening, before Li Long went to deliver meat to Wang Caimi, he had already arrived at Li's house. Liang Yuemei brought him a three-kilogram piece of wild boar bacon, and he left happily with the meat amid Li Jianguo's laughter and scolding.
The next step is harrowing, leveling, cutting and sowing. The land in northern Xinjiang is large, and the advantage is that these processes are mechanized and require very little manpower.
At this time, the team also needs to work and earn work points.
The first work at the beginning of the year was to dig a large canal.
The construction of farmland water conservancy in northern Xinjiang has been going on since the 1950s and 1960s. Relying on the geographical advantages, many wetlands and small lakes have been transformed into reservoirs, spider-web-like canals have been dug, and then a lot of arable land has been reclaimed relying on the canals.
These canals were completely dug out of the flat ground. Because there was no cement slab reinforcement like in later times, the mud on both sides and the sand brought by the water would clog the canals every year. Therefore, the first thing to do in spring is to clean the canals. The sides of the canals should be raised, the grass inside should be removed, and the clogged areas should be dug through.
Small canals are not so bad, but large canals require a lot of strength and skills. The people below have to dig out the silt and throw it up, and the people above have to reinforce the mud to the edge of the canal. Large canals are one or two meters deep, and people who don't know how to dig out the mud with a shovel will get seven or eight blisters on their hands in a day.
Li Long had no intention of doing it. He earned one work point per day, which he had enough of, and he really didn't want to do this job anymore.
You can say you are lazy, or you can say you look down on it.
So Li Long plans to become a gangster in the village next.
But before leaving, Li Long still took a piece of wild boar bacon and went to the home of the village director Xu Chengjun.
Because the weather was hot, the meat could not be preserved without processing. The Li family had no habit of smoking meat, so they simply cut the meat into strips and rubbed salt on it to make bacon. Of course, this was also Li Long's suggestion, mainly to deal with people like Wang Caimi.
More meat is directly cut and stewed into bacon, which is pressed with a layer of oil and can be kept for half a year without going bad. Bacon is mainly given as gifts.
"Oh, Xiaolong is here, why are you carrying meat?" Ma Hongmei looked at Li Long coming over, poured him a glass of water enthusiastically, then happily carried the meat to the inner room.
Xu Chengjun looked at Li Long and asked:
"What's the matter? Tell me."
(End of this chapter)
