Chapter 1048

Li Long had overthought it.

When Li Xiangqian was lifting the Beishan goat horns onto his bicycle, he told Li Long not to prepare anything, as the supply and marketing cooperative had people in charge of every aspect here.

Lunch, tools for work, contacting the publicity department, vehicles for work, personnel coordination, and so on—he only needed to be responsible for coordinating with the herdsmen.

Li Long was instantly very happy; it saved him a lot of trouble.

He didn't have the slightest thought of being sidelined or not being valued; right now, the fewer things he had to deal with, the better.

Li Xiangqian didn't know Li Long's thoughts, and perhaps worried that Li Long wouldn't understand, he specifically explained a few things while wedging the Beishan goat horns onto the back seat of his bicycle:

"It's not that we don't need you to handle these things. We have so many people in our supply and marketing cooperative, we can't just highlight you alone. Of course, everyone knows you have the ability, but everyone has their own duties. You just need to play your role as the liaison for ethnic unity well."

Li Long was naturally happy to be idle; he bid farewell to Li Xiangqian and drove the jeep back to the large courtyard.

When passing by the acquisition station, Li Long noticed that more people were coming here. He figured it must be similar to the thinking of Meng Hai and the others—now they were taking out the things they didn't need that were sitting idle in their houses to exchange for money, and then taking that money to buy agricultural supplies.

Gu Bo Yuan had mentioned this to him, so the agricultural supply store in the acquisition station had opened again. Gu Bo Yuan was specifically responsible for receiving items, while Sun Jia Qiang and Liang Shuang Cheng took turns, each working one day, standing at the counter in the agricultural supply store to sell goods and keep accounts.

For this, Gu Bo Yuan had reconnected with his old contacts and specifically had several large trucks of agricultural supplies delivered. He was now wealthy and generous, and since agricultural supplies had a long shelf life, he wasn't worried about any problems with storing them.

Those who came to sell things were also happy to save the trouble, mainly because they were from the county—after selling their goods, they would turn around and buy agricultural supplies, without needing to travel far.

Gu Bo Yuan mainly listened to Li Long's advice, aiming to increase foot traffic, so the profit on agricultural supplies was low, but it did establish the reputation of the acquisition station.

So now there was a long line for selling goods and a long line for buying agricultural supplies, and it wasn't just the people who came to sell goods who were buying agricultural supplies; others were buying them too.

Li Long just took a look and didn't go over to help; he had his own things to do—he had worked hard all morning, so he could rest now.

Two days later in the morning, when Li Long drove the jeep to the supply and marketing cooperative to assemble, he found that Ma Xiao Yan was already there.

Seeing Li Long get out of the car, Ma Xiao Yan took the initiative to step forward and greet him, asking about the situation in the mountains.

Upon learning that thirty kilometers of the road had already been repaired, Ma Xiao Yan was full of surprise; she really hadn't expected Li Long to organize people to repair the road so quickly!

After the surprise, Ma Xiao Yan asked about other things, including the supply of meat to Yanjing in the winter.

"I was studying in Wucheng at the time, so I knew about this a bit late. What a pity, such good material!" Ma Xiao Yan lamented. She thought that if she could write this up, it would inevitably make it into the North Xinjiang Daily, and perhaps even the front page.

The power of the front page was immense; if she really made it, she might even get a promotion—what a pity.

Her view of Li Long had always been changing, but she just hadn't expected that while she was away for training, Li Long could still stir up such big events.

So her previous idea was correct: staying closely connected with Li Long meant there would be no shortage of news material.

This time it was an official task, and Li Xiangqian contacted her leader directly. The leader also knew that Ma Xiao Yan had been following this matter, so he handed it over to her.

Li Long watched as some logistics personnel moved things onto the truck—tools, naan, pickled mustard greens, and the like—and some people came out to sign in. It seemed that the matter of entering the mountains was becoming more and more formal.

It was just unclear whether these people were going willingly or if they were on a mission.

Li Xiangqian asked a few questions, and after everyone arrived, he conducted a simple mobilization and then organized them to board the vehicles.

After Ma Xiao Yan took a few photos, she got into Li Long's jeep. After Li Xiangqian got into the car, Li Long drove them toward the mountains.

When entering the mountains, Li Long saw the tracks left by the Dongfanghong 75 tractor on the road. He said to himself, could Meng Hai and the others have already entered the mountains and started working?

Ha Ha Li Mu and the others were still washing sheep; this was the main thing they had been doing these past few days. When Li Long arrived there with two trucks, Ha Ha Li Mu and the others were not surprised. Yushanjiang brought people over to welcome the friends who had come from afar.

Li Xiangqian and Ma Xiao Yan both knew where they should be at this time, taking photos when they should, and speaking when they should.

Because the road had already been repaired thirty kilometers into the mountains, Li Xiangqian and the others only made a brief stop here before continuing inward.

And before they set off, Yushanjiang had already told Li Long:

"That Meng Hai has already taken people to repair the road, bringing thirty or forty people with him."

"Then we'll slaughter more sheep today," Li Long said. "Let's slaughter four sheep."

We couldn't have the people from the supply and marketing cooperative eating mutton while the people from Qingshuihe Village gnawed on dry naan during lunch, could we?

"Good." Yushanjiang naturally had no objections and said with a smile: "The place where you are working is too far away. Later, I'll ride a horse and take people to the work site to slaughter the sheep and cook the meat."

"That's fine. This time, Director Li and the others brought large pots, so they can cook the meat directly at the road construction site," Li Long said. "Do you need me to take the sheep over there when I go back?"

"Better not. Your car still needs to carry people; if you carry sheep, the smell will be too strong!" Yushanjiang waved his hand. "We'll ride horses over later!"

As the convoy drove into the mountains, Li Long saw that some places along the way had indeed been washed out by floods and then repaired by people.

Clearly, Meng Hai and the others were very fast.

When they caught up with Meng Hai and the others, twenty kilometers away from the winter shelter, Meng Hai and the others collectively got out of the cars and were repairing a section of the road that had been directly washed away by the flood—this section of the roadbed was on the river beach, and although it had been raised and thickened, because it was located at a river bend, the flood's momentum was great, directly washing the repaired roadbed down to less than a meter in width.

This project was quite large, so Meng Hai and the others hadn't finished it yet.

Li Long looked at the two small four-wheeled tractors parked in front, and he knew why they could bring so many people and move so fast.

The Dongfanghong 70 should have arrived even earlier; right now, it was hanging a bulldozer blade on the dry river beach that had been washed by water, pushing Gobi stones.

"Alright, alright, everyone get down and work!" After getting out of the car, Li Xiangqian looked at the scene and knew that this work couldn't be finished in a short while, so he simply shouted to the cadres and staff of the supply and marketing cooperative who were still waiting on the truck, "Move faster! We didn't come here for a vacation!"

At his shout, these people immediately got down, each holding a tool, ready to work.

This section of the washed-out roadbed was thirty or forty meters long; the tractor could push the stones and sand from the river beach over, but the leveling and repairing still had to be done by people.

Li Xiangqian's organizational and coordination ability was certainly no problem. Seeing that the villagers of Qingshuihe Village were working section by section, he immediately directed his own people to start from the other direction, with both sides working toward the middle.

The Dongfanghong 75 tractor stopped for a moment, and Meng Hai revealed half his body from the driver's door. Li Long waved his hand at him and shouted:

"Work first, we'll talk later!"

Meng Hai heard him, nodded, shrank back, and continued to drive the tractor.

With the tractor pushing stones and sand, the main manual work was leveling and shaping the road.

There were also twenty or thirty people on the supply and marketing cooperative side. Although there was no lack of office workers, these people had basically been tempered in the countryside. Not to mention going up to the mountains and down to the countryside, Maxian itself was a small county, and many departments dealt with the countryside a lot.

So these people were not unfamiliar with this kind of work. Although their movements were not as skilled as those of the people from Qingshuihe Village, at least they looked the part.

In less than an hour, the roadbed was repaired, and everyone put down their tools one after another. At this time, Meng Hai got off the tractor and greeted Li Xiangqian and the others.

They had cooperated last year, so some of the cadres, staff, and villagers knew each other. Those who knew each other greeted each other and started chatting.

Some female staff went to the river to wash their hands; at this time, they were still quite concerned about their image.

Ma Xiao Yan was still busy at this time; she had to photograph the scene of Meng Hai, Li Xiangqian, and Li Long talking—this was all material.

Whether it could be used or not was another matter; she would just take the photos and save them first.

What if it could be used?

"Further ahead, there are a few more sections like this that were washed out, but none are as serious as this one," Meng Hai said. "You go ahead first later; I need to use the tractor to press back and forth here to flatten and compact the road, and then I'll follow."

"Then let's focus on repairing these roadbeds today," Li Long said. "We don't demand speed; we must ensure quality. But don't have any pressure; this road is built on the river beach, so it's inevitable that such situations will occur."