Chapter 1009: It's not easy in the mountains this year

The road from Qingshuihe to the mountains was almost completely covered by snow. It was better in high places where there were no shrubs, as the wind would blow the snow away. It was more troublesome in the low valleys, where the snow in some places even reached a depth of nearly one meter.

The tractor had great horsepower, and pushing snow was relatively effortless. It could easily push open a road, but the snow was too thick, and soon it submerged the snow-pushing blade in front of the tractor, so it had to stop after pushing for a while to clear the snow piled in front.

Li Long used a small four-wheeled tractor with a snow-clearing machine to help scoop the snow accumulated in the middle of the road to both sides every once in a while, and after a few trips back and forth, the accumulated snow was cleared.

In this way, the small four-wheeled tractor combined with the Dongfanghong 75 tractor, and on the first day, they worked directly from Qingshuihe Village to the mountain pass, and couldn't work anymore.

It was already afternoon, and lunch was still eaten at Meng Hai's house.

"Comrade Li Long, let's just do this today, how about we continue tomorrow? Today we just relied on machinery. I'll call more people back, and we'll work together tomorrow. The road in the mountains will soon be cleared." Meng Hai said, "Everyone earned quite a bit of money from you by repairing the road. Tomorrow, clearing snow won't cost money. Our villagers have this much awareness."

The road in the mountains was not short. Li Long thought about it and said:

"Let's see the situation tomorrow. Let's clear it with the tractor first. If it doesn't work, then call people. The snow this year is obviously much heavier than last year. If this continues, I guess the mountains will be closed, and the herdsmen brothers in the mountains won't be able to come out."

"Yes. Who could have thought that it's only early December, and the snow could fall so heavily!" Meng Hai also sighed on the tractor, "In previous years, it was around New Year's Day that the gazelles and such nearby became numerous. This year, they have already appeared in quite a few numbers at this time, and many people in our village have run out to chase rabbits and get gazelles."

"How is the harvest? Did you get any?" Li Long asked while packing up things.

"Hey, got seven or eight rabbits." Meng Hai said with a smile.

The two drove the tractor back to the village, and Li Long rested at Meng Hai's house.

"Comrade Li Long, your snow-clearing machine is not bad." Meng Hai praised, "Unlike ordinary snow-pushing blades, it directly scoops the snow away, there is no snow accumulation in front, and it can be used all the way, as long as the snow thickness doesn't exceed one meter, it seems it can work."

"Hmm, it was made to overcome the shortcomings of the snow-pushing blade," Li Long said, "It seems it's used quite well."

Wang Cailing brought tea, and then prepared to cook dinner. Li Long just left after drinking tea. Meng Hai and Wang Cailing wanted to keep the guest, but Li Long said that the distance to the county was quite far, and the tractor was not as comfortable as a jeep, and the speed was slow, so he was afraid that it would be dark when he got back and it wouldn't be easy to walk.

Meng Hai didn't keep him, and asked when Li Long would come over tomorrow.

"Tomorrow will be about the same as today." Li Long said, "We are not in a hurry, we can work slowly."

Although he said he was not in a hurry, he was actually quite anxious. Halimu and the others didn't come out of the mountains, it must be because the snow on the road from the mountains to the outside was too thick. However, now that it had been cleared to the mountain pass, it would probably be cleared in two or three days.

Li Long didn't feel it strongly when he came, but when he returned, he obviously felt that the comfort of this tractor was far worse than the jeep. If he hadn't worn a big leather coat inside out, his knees would probably have been numb from the cold.

Comparing like this, he felt more and more that large-horsepower wheeled tractors were the prospect of agricultural tractors in the countryside, and this small four-wheeler would be less and less useful—in thirty or forty years.

Driving back to the county, when he arrived at the main compound, it was just dark. Sister Yang had already finished the meal, sour soup with dough pieces, the taste was very strong, and Li Long felt that eating this meal was just right.

After Li Long left, Meng Hai thought that relying on two people and two cars simply wouldn't work, so he went door-to-door to notify people. Those who had worked on repairing the road and received money, especially those who had two or three people from their family working after autumn, were all notified by him.

What made Meng Hai relatively gratified was that every household was willing to send people to clear snow, and just as he said, they didn't want money.

"Just work for these two or three days, what money do we want? People gave us money so readily in summer and autumn, now what money do we want for clearing snow? We are not all looking at money, anyway, there is nothing to do in winter, just treat it as exercise."

"Exactly, Comrade Li Long thinks of us whenever there is any good thing or any work to earn money. We can't just think of money and forget about human feelings."

Meng Hai was relieved. After He Yuqing knew about this matter, he also said with a smile that although this production team had been contracted to households, the spirit of the people in our team hadn't scattered, and they could do big things!

The next day, after Li Long finished breakfast, he drove the tractor and carried the snow-clearing machine to Qingshuihe Village again.

Meng Hai was not there, the tractor had been driven to the mountain pass, and only Wang Cailing was waiting for Li Long at the edge of the village. After Li Long arrived, she told Li Long:

"Comrade Li Long, my Old Meng has already taken people into the mountains to clear snow. He said you can go directly when you come."

Li Long didn't expect Meng Hai to really gather people, so he asked: "Sister-in-law, how many people went?"

"There must be seventy or eighty people, right?" Wang Cailing said, "Quite a few families sent two people."

"Hey, then I have to hurry and see."

When Li Long drove the tractor to the mountain pass, he found that the snow on the road here had been cleared for two or three kilometers, and the snow on the road from Qingshuihe Village to the mountain pass had also been trimmed.

These people were distributed on average, each person had dozens of meters of snow, the tractor pushed it all at once, and where the snow was thick, several people gathered together to push the snow into the road ditch. Where the snow was thin, it was directly pushed by the tractor, and people were responsible for leveling the remaining snow behind.

Seeing Li Long's snow-clearing machine coming, everyone on the road greeted him.

Li Long was quite moved; everyone's enthusiasm was very high.

As someone who truly needed to work, he naturally couldn't fall behind. After greeting everyone, he drove the tractor to the front, met with Meng Hai, chatted for two sentences, and started clearing snow.

The road in the mountains was relatively narrower than outside the mountains, but the snow was easier to clear. After all, there was mountain cover here, the snow wasn't that thick, and the scooping snow-clearing machine of the small four-wheeled tractor came in handy. Although the speed was not as fast as the Dongfanghong 75 tractor, it was truly clean.

"Comrade Li Long's snow-clearing machine is showing its power, we can't fall behind either!" Someone shouted loudly, "Go, let's go to the front, open the distance, shovel away some snow on the road first, and reduce the pressure on the snow-clearing machine!"

In this way, people worked on a section, the snow-clearing machine worked on a section, the tractor with the bulldozer blade worked on a section, and the speed of advancement was very fast. By noon, they had basically worked to the valley where Halimu and the others were.

The terrain here became flat, and the snow on the road became thick instead, and the speed of work slowed down.

Of course, there was another main reason: the small four-wheeled tractor and the Dongfanghong 75 tractor didn't know fatigue, but people would get tired.

The sound of a tractor came from behind, and the people who were working cheered. It turned out that people from the team drove a tractor and came to deliver food.

The one driving the tractor was actually team leader He Yuqing. Two people sat in the tractor bucket, carrying baskets, buckets, and other things, and then wrapped them with quilts.

Obviously, it was to keep the hot food from getting cold when taken out, using this for insulation.

Of course, even though it was wrapped like this, when everyone gathered around, the steamed buns that were just steamed and brought over were only warm.

Fortunately, the tea was still hot, and the dishes in the basin were also hot—lunch was steamed buns with dishes—and the dishes were pickles stir-fried with meat, which was paid for by the team.

Li Long also stopped the tractor and prepared to eat together.

Just at this moment, the neighing of a horse came from the valley. Li Long turned his head and looked over. It turned out that Halimu had ridden a horse over.

Li Long hurriedly greeted him.

Halimu's horse was moving extremely difficultly in this thick snow. Every step it took, the horse's legs sank into the deep snow. Finally, Halimu had to leave the horse in place, got off the horse himself, waded through the snow to his thighs, and walked forward. When he met Li Long, the two hugged and then shook hands.

"Is it quite difficult in the mountains?" Li Long asked.

"It's okay." Halimu smiled, pointed to these people and said, "You brought people to open the road?" ===== CHAPTER 1010 =====