Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Just as Li Long thought, Wang Caimi was repairing a tractor outside the yard.

The Dongfanghong 75 track tractor really played a huge role in agricultural production in northern Xinjiang.

Without this kind of tractor, there would be no millions of acres of cotton fields, grain fields, rapeseed fields, etc.

At the beginning, the Corps members began to reclaim wasteland by pulling plows. At that time, they mainly reed marshes and swamps.

Later, with the advent of tractors, the speed of land reclamation increased, the efficiency of plowing increased several times, grain production increased, and more people could be fed, so large numbers of people came from the mainland.

But to be honest, this tractor has been used for a long time and naturally has many problems, with problems here or there.

When Li Long drove over in a jeep, Wang Caimi was using a grease gun to pump grease onto the tractor. This grease was of course not the kind for eating, but a kind of lubricating oil.

The worn-out work clothes that Wang Caimi was wearing were covered in grease. It was estimated that he had never washed the clothes and the original color could no longer be seen.

"Xiaolong is here, is there something wrong?" Wang Caimi asked with a smile, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"I remember your tractor has a bulldozer. Can I use it?"

"Yes, it can be used. What can it be used for?"

"I plan to raise more cattle and sheep. I have applied for land next to the old horse farm and plan to build some sheds. That place is a saline-alkali beach, which is difficult to deal with. I want your bulldozer to push away the saline-alkali layer on that piece. I will then bring sand and gravel to lay the foundation to prevent the alkali from returning after the construction is completed."

"Hey, only you can invest so much money to do this." Wang Caimi said with a smile, "Then Ma Jinbao's sheepfold is just a random one, and it can be used anyway."

"That's different. I have a lot of them, and I plan to raise them for a long time." Li Long explained, not wanting to say more, and asked for certainty, "Can I use them? How much do you want?"

"Of course it can be used. How much do you want to push? How deep do you want to push?"

"It's next to the foundation of Lao Ma Hao and goes west. It's as long as the wall of Lao Ma Hao. It should be at least five acres of land. The depth is... half a meter." Li Long had a general idea in his mind and gave a standard.

"If that's the way it's calculated..." Wang Caimi said after a calculation, "You have to give me a hundred yuan. This push is different from a plow. It consumes a lot of oil. You can't push half a meter at a time. You have to push it several times."

"Okay." Li Long knew that it would be really difficult to push it away, maybe even more difficult than Wang Caimi thought, so he didn't bargain.

"You are really good. Your application was approved right away." Wang Caimi said with a smile.

Although he doesn't keep those things, he still envies Li Long. Wang Caimi is actually quite unbalanced in his heart. He works so hard but feels that he can't make money as fast as Li Long.

Moreover, most of the hard-earned money has to be spent on this broken tractor.

Not only is it time-consuming and laborious, but it also leads to misunderstandings.

Look how good Li Long is. He just needs to talk and run back and forth a few times and the money is in his hands.

"Hey, it's not that easy. I'll let Uncle Luo help raise the animals, and I'll pay him." Li Long waved his hand. "Although there are five acres of fodder land, how can the crops grown there be enough to feed the animals?"

"Didn't your brother's five acres of feed land be taken back?" Wang Caimi asked with some confusion.

"That's my brother. He's no longer a professional pig farmer. Now I'm the one who does it." Li Long said with a smile, "I raise much more pigs than my brother. Besides, why did the team grant me a piece of land? I still need to raise hundreds of cattle and sheep in the future."

Li Long vaguely remembered that the country was going to launch a vegetable basket project in the future, the main purpose of which was to enrich the supply of non-staple food for the people.

Even if I am planning ahead, to be honest, money will become increasingly scarce in the next few years, and prices will continue to rise, so it is better to engage in industry.

Although the jade seeds, antiques, and gold nuggets in your home may make you rich in twenty or thirty years, it is hard to say whether you can grasp them if you do not have a solid physical foundation.

Therefore, Li Long felt it necessary to set up such a breeding base, which of course could also be regarded as a channel for Uncle Luo to realize his ideal.

Although Wang Caimi was envious, he knew he couldn't do it.

After all, a person only has two hands, and his brothers are also busy, so they have to help him.

So even if I envy you, there's nothing I can do about it.

So the topic turned to the main topic.

"What about the soil that is pushed?"

"Just pile it up in the north," Li Long said. "If someone wants that saline-alkali beach, it will just border my land. If no one wants it, piling it up there won't affect anything."

"Who wants that saline-alkali beach?" Wang Caimi shook his head.

I thought that only because you, Li Long, are rich and powerful, you would be able to include the saline-alkali beach in your contract name.

Everyone knows that no crops can be grown on saline-alkali beaches. Wheat cannot grow on saline-alkali beaches, corn is even more picky about the soil, and sunflowers cannot grow on saline-alkali beaches.

Of course he didn't know that ten years later, saline-alkali marshes would become popular. Who could have thought that cotton could grow on saline-alkali marshes!

Cotton is actually not afraid of salt and alkali, of course that is a later improved variety.

Li Long and Wang Caimi agreed to go there tomorrow, and he also had to contact other people.

After all, it is not enough to just push away the saline-alkali beaches, but also to bring in sand and gravel to pad them. It is not easy to hire large trucks at the moment, so Li Long thought of gathering the existing tractors in the team to bring sand and gravel for himself.

If they charge money that would be the best, if not then each family can just buy a whole wild boar.

Anyway, when harvesting wheat, the tractors in the team - except Tao Daqiang's, the other two - brought them a lot of income.

Compared to a wild boar, it is much stronger.

Li Long is not a stingy person, and a wild boar is really nothing.

Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang and Liang Dacheng all patted their chests and said it was no problem after hearing what Li Long said. After all, the autumn harvest was basically over, and they, like Xu Chengjun, were waiting to see if Li Long could get the task of harvesting reeds.

Of course it would be great if you can get it, but if you can’t, it’s no big deal, it’s just icing on the cake.

Li Jianguo listened to what Li Long said, thought about it and said:

"It's not easy to transform the saline-alkali land. I heard that the Corps built a drainage ditch, which means digging a big ditch on the edge of the saline-alkali land and then flooding the land with water to carry the salt and alkali in the land into the ditch."

The alkali drainage ditch was really useful, and all production teams implemented it later.

However, Li Long did not plan to use this. He had more direct ideas. One was to test the soil and apply fertilizer, and the other was to plant cotton directly.

He got thirty acres of land to the west of the Old Horse, five acres of which were used to build a cattle pen, and the remaining five acres might be considered as scraps, so there were at least twenty acres of land left there.

Li Long felt that it would be a waste to leave the land alone, so he might as well do an experiment. If it works, he would simply start the land contracting model in advance.

Of course, there is no need to rush this matter. Right now, the production teams are not brave enough to take too wild approaches in the land contracting work.

For example, at the beginning of the 21st century, a production team contracted out saline-alkali land to someone else for 70 years at the price of one yuan per mu per year.

Isn't it a bit crazy?
Of course, I don’t know whether this idea came from the contractor or was given by the production team, but it is indeed a bit too bold.

Of course it was eventually scrapped.

It's also a confusing account.

Now Li Long wants to contract several hundred acres of saline-alkali beach for seventy years, but the production team will not allow him to do so, and the township will not approve it.

And Li Long will be treated as a spoon.

There will be many opportunities like this in the future, so don’t rush.

Li Jianguo didn't understand what Li Long said about the soil testing formula, but when he knew that Li Long had connections at the Agricultural College, he didn't think too much about it.

The real soil testing and formula fertilization was not proposed and developed until the beginning of the 21st century. No one has thought of this yet.

Li Long thought that if he went to the Bayi Agricultural College later and talked to Professor Wu about this matter, she would definitely be interested, right?
Li Long went to Laomahao again.

Uncle Luo was not there, and neither was No. 76 or the carriage. Li Long guessed that he must have gone to cut grass.

Sure enough, not long after, Uncle Luo came back leading No. 76. The carriage was piled high with green grass, including reeds, barnyard grass, gray grass, etc.

After Li Jianguo came back with the tractor, No. 76 returned to the Lao Ma and continued to use his remaining energy. When he saw Li Long, he was quite excited and kept looking up and snorting.

Li Long went over and touched No. 76, then followed Uncle Luo into the yard. He helped unload the grass while explaining the condition of the land.

"Thirty acres, but we don't need that much." Old Uncle Luo knew the size of the land very well. "Our old horse farm only has five acres and eight fen of land."

"That's all right. I'll build a five-acre cattle pen on the west side. I'm going to plow the rest of the land first and see what I can plant later."

Regardless of whether to plant or not, or whether it can be planted or not, plowing the land first is equivalent to declaring sovereignty.

The reason why Xu Chengjun was so generous in granting Li Long 30 acres was actually largely because the saline-alkali land was worthless.

It’s not like in later generations where people can dig holes and release water to simulate the marine environment to raise shrimps.

Even if you raise them at this time, not many people can afford to eat them.

It’s better to just plant things honestly.

After the grass was unloaded, No. 76 was led into the pen and released, and then some green grass was given to it. Then Uncle Luo came out and listened to Li Long's ideas together.

"There are a lot of animals in the back, Uncle Luo, you are the manager of this farm, I will raise your salary to 40 yuan a month. If other people want to come and work, they need to get our consent, and they will get 20 yuan a month."

"Hey, why should I take so much?" Uncle Luo felt that he took too much. "You can bring me meat from time to time. My job is easy. It's my main job..."

"You are a technical talent." Li Long said half-jokingly, "How could anyone else keep these animals so obedient? Uncle Luo, don't underestimate yourself. This is settled."

"Okay, they will definitely be willing to do it." Uncle Luo didn't say anything more. He just thought that since Li Long offered them such a high salary, they had to do something to make a name for themselves.

"The team has given us another five mu of fodder land. I plan to plant alfalfa on it next year." Li Long continued, "Then we can use it whether we raise cattle or sheep."

"Okay." That's what Uncle Luo meant. Of all the grass, alfalfa is naturally more nutritious than wheat straw and is much better.

After things were discussed, Li Long rejected Uncle Luo's invitation to stay for dinner as he had to hurry back to the big yard.

If you can go home for dinner, try to go back. As children grow older, they need the company of their family members.

When Wang Caimi was repairing the tractor, his younger brother Wang Dagui came over and asked his brother to lend him some money as he planned to buy a small four-wheel tractor.

"What tractor should I buy? Just follow me and drive this Dongfanghong 75 and improve your skills. Then, the plowing and harrowing work in this team will all be done by us brothers. How useless is it to drive that small four-wheeler?"

"But that can make money." Wang Dagui was reluctant. "I heard from Xie Yundong that he made two to three thousand in one season when he was harvesting wheat! Later he went to cut grass and made a lot more!"

Wang Dagui drove a tractor with Wang Caimi and worked day and night, but at the end of the year, his elder brother only gave him a few thousand yuan.

The team has a limited amount of land, which needs to be plowed two or three times a year. In addition, the team also needs to sow, harrow and level the land. These are all done by the two Wang brothers.

After all, he could earn tens of thousands a year, but Wang Dagui was naturally unwilling to be given just over a thousand.

But his brother also said that most of the money was used to repair the car and buy gas.

Wang Dagui also admitted this point. The tractor consumed too much fuel, and the parts needed to repair or replace it after it broke down were not cheap. It was normal for it to cost dozens or even hundreds of dollars.

Every year, quite a few chain rails are broken, replaced, and sold as scrap metal.

But Wang Dagui felt that he would never be given so little, so he planned to buy a small four-wheel tractor and work on his own.

I had saved more than 3,000 yuan, but I was still short of some money to buy a tractor, so I thought about borrowing from my eldest brother.

Wang Caimi was naturally unwilling to do so. His younger brother was qualified to be his helper. He worked very hard. Although he didn't know much about the technology, he did whatever he was asked to do.

Now that he wants to work alone, Wang Caimi will definitely not let him go. He said:
"Let me tell you, the small four-wheeler will only make money this year. You see, everyone knows that it can make money, so the team will definitely buy more next year. When everyone competes, the price of harvesting wheat will go down.

That is nothing like our plowing. We are the only one in the team and no one is competing with us. Don't worry, I will give you an extra 500 yuan after I collect the money for plowing this year! How can I, as your brother, let you suffer a loss?"

After hearing his elder brother say that he would give him an extra 500 yuan this year, Wang Dagui was still a little dissatisfied, but he didn't say anything more.

Then Wang Caimi told him about the job that Li Long would do tomorrow. He didn't say how much money Li Long would give him, but only said that he and his brother would take turns to do it tomorrow and try to finish the job in three to five days. He also told him that Li Long wanted to be a professional breeder and that the team had given him feed land, as gossip.

Wang Dagui went back after hearing this. Anyway, it was almost the end of the year, so he would wait until his elder brother collected the money.

On the way, Wang Dagui met Ma Jinbao herding sheep back. He remembered what his elder brother had said before, and half-jokingly asked Ma Jinbao if he had any land for feed and whether the team had approved land for him to build sheds and enclosures.

Ma Jinbao said no, so Wang Dagui told him about Li Long building a new shed and purchasing feed land.

"Li Longcai has so many animals that he already has a piece of land for feeding. You have forty or fifty sheep, but you don't have any piece of land for feeding. It's not justified." Wang Dagui said, seemingly dissatisfied with Ma Jinbao.

Actually, I just want to see a joke.

Ma Jinbao drove the sheep back with a gloomy face.

After driving the sheep back into the pen, Ma Jinbao hurried to Xu Chengjun's house without waiting for his family to call him for dinner.

Xu Chengjun had already returned from Xu Haijun's house. Ma Hongmei had prepared the meal, and the two of them were going to have lunch.

"Hey, the shepherd from our team is here," Xu Chengjun joked, "What's up?"

"Something happened." Ma Jinbao asked with a dark face:
"Did you give the Li Long of the Li family the fodder land?"

"Well, you figured it out quickly," Xu Chengjun nodded, "What's wrong?"

"Then why don't you give it to me? He only has a few animals? I have forty-seven sheep!"

"Hey, you also know that you raise sheep." Xu Chengjun put away his smile, "Do you know what Li Long raises?"

"I have seen roe deer, red deer, and wild boars. There are less than thirty of them in total."

"Yes, you know that he raises roe deer, red deer and wild boars. But do you know that the animals he raises are all registered in the county and township, and have been reported in the state newspaper. They are considered special breeds, don't you know?"

"I don't know." Ma Jinbao's momentum weakened a little when he heard about special breeding. The ones he raised were a bit ordinary, but he still couldn't help but say:

"Then I raise a lot!"

"A lot? Are forty or fifty considered a lot?" Xu Chengjun sneered. "Li Long wants to expand the shed and is planning to get two hundred cattle and sheep for feeding next year. Can you compete with him? If you can raise two hundred, I will also grant you feed land!"

"Two hundred?" Ma Jinbao was stunned. "Can you really get that much?"

"Didn't you see the straw piled up at the old horse farm? They are preparing now. In the fall, the livestock will be moved to the mountains. They will buy cattle and sheep for fattening."

"Then how can he have a shed and a piece of land?" Ma Jinbao thought of another thing, "I want to raise more animals, so I need a place to do it."

"Do you think he wants it for free? He promised to give the team 800 yuan, will you give it to him? If you do, I will also grant you a piece of saline-alkali land!"

"Then I don't want it!" Ma Jinbao turned around and left. Whoever spends 800 yuan to buy a piece of saline-alkali land will really become a spoon.

Watching Ma Jinbao leave in a hurry, Xu Chengjun spat and despised this coward.

You always think about comparing your salary with others, but why don't you think about whether others are more capable than you? When others come to ask for salary, think about what you can do for the team first.

This guy is so good, he only thinks about what he wants first! People like this deserve to live a worse life than others.

Although Li Long only promised the meat and not the money, Xu Chengjun didn't want to elaborate.

If we calculate the 10 kilograms of meat that Li Long promised to each household, that would be more than 400 kilograms of meat, which would cost about 800 yuan based on the current price.

That’s a lot!
In the big yard, Li Long told his family about this while eating.

"Eight hundred kilograms is a lot." Gu Boyuan was a little worried. "It's not easy. Even if you put all the wild boars in your stable in, it may not be enough."

"I plan to get some from the mountains," Li Long said. "There are a lot of things in the mountains anyway. If I get a herd of wild boars or wild goats, that would be enough."

In the afternoon, the opportunity came - He Yuqing and Meng Hai drove a horse-drawn carriage with a load of things.

On the car, there is something big and heavy. (End of this chapter)