Chapter 1052

When Li Long arrived at the Fourth Team, the sun was already slanting west. He actually just wanted to see how the land at home was planted. After all, no matter what, his household registration was still in the countryside, he still had land under his name, and his real identity was still a farmer.

Although these lands were handed over to his eldest brother, and he hadn't managed what to plant since last year, he was still a rural person at heart and felt it was necessary to come back and take a look.

When the jeep drove into the courtyard, his mother Du Chunfang was sitting in front of the stove burning fire. Steamed buns were being steamed on the stove in the courtyard, and the steam was slowly rising from the three-layer large bamboo steamer.

Seeing the jeep return, Du Chunfang grinned and smiled.

After Li Long got out of the car, she asked:

"Without Xiao Long, why did you think of coming back at this time? Ming Ming and Hao Hao didn't come back?"

"No, I came back to see what everyone is busy with at home. Did my eldest brother go to plow the land? Where is my old dad?"

"Hmm, Juan's dad went to plow the land. Your old dad went to the small Haizi to cast a net. He also took a throwing net. If you go back later tonight, you should be able to bring some fish back."

While speaking, his sister-in-law Liang Wenyu came out of the room, holding the prepared dishes. Li Long saw that it was shredded potatoes, as well as green onions, garlic, and so on.

"Sister-in-law, are you preparing dinner?" Li Long asked.

"Hmm, your eldest brother didn't eat much at noon and rushed to plow the land. I'll steam the buns here, stir-fry the dishes, and then ride a bicycle to send it to him.

If you have nothing to do, just have dinner here."

"Then I'll just send it to my brother," Li Long smiled and said, "The jeep is definitely faster than your bicycle. Is my brother so busy now? Can't even eat well?"

"Someone urges him every day," Liang Wenyu said helplessly, "Wang Cai Mi is reluctant to buy a new machine. When his tractor plows the land, it breaks down several times a day.

The machine you bought for your brother is new and doesn't break down much. Your eldest brother plows the land very honestly, plowing as deep as people ask him to, so people in the team all come to find him. Now it's the critical time for sowing, and the whole team's two or three thousand acres of land all rely on his machine..."

"Then has our land been planted?" Li Long knew his sister-in-law was going to stir-fry dishes, so he went to light the fire under the other stove and asked while sitting in front of the stove burning fire, "Our land is not small either."

"All planted. Corn, sunflowers, melon seeds, all kinds of things. Your brother said that with you here, melon seeds should also be able to sell for a good price.

Our team has more land per capita, unlike the old home, if you farm well, you can also earn money and live a good life."

That's the logic.

Liang Wenyu stir-fried the dishes, and the steamed buns here could also be taken out of the steamer. She and Du Chunfang both let Li Long eat dinner before sending it over, but Li Long said he wasn't hungry and urged his sister-in-law to pack the food. He was going to send it to his eldest brother now.

Liang Wenyu wrapped four large steamed buns with a steamer cloth, then filled half a basin with stir-fried shredded potatoes, covered it, tied it tightly with a steamer cloth, took two pairs of chopsticks, and a plastic cage of tea, and put all these into a wicker basket. Li Long took it, put it on the back seat of the jeep, greeted his mother and sister-in-law, and drove to the field.

According to Liang Wenyu, Li Jianguo was sowing seeds in the land of the Yang canal in the east. The road to the east of the village was a dirt road, and Li Long didn't dare to drive very fast, afraid of shaking the vegetable juice out of the enamel basin.

When he arrived at the edge of the field, he could see the tractor roaring and emitting black smoke, carrying the seeder and rushing forward from afar. In early spring, the vegetation hadn't fully grown, and the dust in the field was very large, feeling like a little demon riding a demon wind in Journey to the West.

When the tractor carried the seeder and circled back to the edge of the field, Li Long saw his eldest brother Li Jianguo, who was covered in dust in the driver's cab.

It was really covered in dust. His hair, eyebrows, and beard that hadn't been shaved clean were all fine gray dust. Under his nostrils, two black spots were dust that had been inhaled and stuck to the skin when it protruded.

The landlord who operated the seeder behind was also in the same state, almost unable to distinguish the human face. Li Long looked carefully before realizing it was Old Man Qin from the team.

Li Jianguo stopped the tractor, saw Li Long raising the basket in his hand, left his seat, poked his head out of the driver's cab, and shouted:

"One more circle and it will be finished, come back to eat after finishing!"

Li Long waited at the edge of the field. More than ten minutes later, when the tractor circled back, this piece of land was considered settled.

The tractor stopped on the side of the road at the edge of the field. Old Man Qin gathered the remaining half bag of seeds in the seeder, tied the mouth, put it on the back seat of his bicycle, greeted Li Long and Li Jianguo, and left.

Li Long originally wanted to invite him to eat together, but didn't expect this person to run so fast, estimated that he also wanted to go back and wash up quickly.

After Li Jianguo got off the car, he pulled half a cage of clean water from the driver's cab and said to Li Long:

"Without Xiao Long, you come and pour it for me, I'll wash my face."

"It's time to wash," Li Long took the cage and said with a smile while pouring water, "If you don't wash like this, you'll be like a terracotta warrior, covered in dirt."

"What can I do, this is the work we do," Li Jianguo smiled, lowered his head to catch water, and washed the dirt on his eyebrows and face, "There's nothing else, mainly just dirt."

"In two years, we can buy large-horsepower wheeled tractors. The driver's cab has better sealing, so even if there is a sandstorm, the dust won't get in," Li Long said while slowly pouring water, "There are some now, but they are too expensive, all imported."

"This one is quite good," Li Jianguo finished washing, took the towel Li Long prepared, and wiped it casually, "Wang Cai Mi wants this tractor of ours but can't get it."

"It's not that he can't get it, it's that he's reluctant to spend money to buy it, right?" Li Long felt that the money Wang Cai Mi earned in these years was definitely enough to buy it, but being able to buy it and being willing to buy it were two different things.

The two brothers ate and chatted on the hood of the jeep.

"The team has reclaimed nearly a thousand acres of wasteland from last year to this year," Li Jianguo said while eating, "This kind of land, only with more land can you earn money. Everyone slowly understands this truth, and I want to reclaim more wasteland. Anyway, as long as it doesn't exceed fifty acres, the team can make a decision. I'm thinking that after these lands are sown, I'll also reclaim dozens of acres."

"There is so much land at home, can you plant it all?" Li Long asked with some doubt. After all, it wasn't fully mechanized now, and having so much land required a lot of manpower.

Unlike forty years later, cotton planting had basically abandoned manpower, and even herbicides were specially made. After spraying, the cotton didn't die, but all other weeds died. Spraying medicine either used large tanks or drones.

When harvesting, they used cotton pickers directly, and even hitting cotton stalks had special machines.

Those who first put their land into the cooperative could still work in the cooperative and earn double money. In the end, they could only toss about in their own vegetable plots, or raise sheep, chickens, or pigs. Otherwise, it felt like waiting for death, and there was no farm work to do.

Now, even in North Xinjiang, farming was considered a labor-intensive industry, requiring a lot of manpower to solve various problems in farming.

"Most of the time I use tractors, use small four-wheeled ones. When I'm very busy, I directly find a few short-term workers from the team or the county.

The Wang family, who has the most land in our team, has even started recruiting long-term workers in the past two years."

Li Long's attention in the past two years had been on the acquisition station, and he didn't know that reclaiming wasteland in the team had become a fashion.

The Wang family, who reclaimed the most wasteland, directly applied to the township last year and this year, each time for two or three hundred acres.

They reclaimed places far from residential areas, with no roads and no water. He used Li Jianguo's tractor to plow a ditch and transform a canal.

They built a small house directly on the wasteland, and people lived there to work.

Those plots were more than two or three kilometers away from the residential area, too far, mainly because there were no roads, so Li Long didn't like them.

Didn't expect the Wang family to be quite bold. After the land was reclaimed, they directly planted winter wheat at the end of last year.

"How is the wheat growing?" Li Long asked while eating.

"Quite good, hey," Li Jianguo was a bit envious, "Those lands originally grew bitter beans and licorice. The land is good land, just too far. It's quite troublesome for tractors to go there. When he asked me to plow the land last year, he also added money."

After the reform and opening up, many people's desire to get rich was put on the table. Rural people want to earn money and get rich, there really aren't many paths to take. The biggest advantage of the Fourth Team is that there are too many wastelands, and there are quite a few people who want to make a fuss about this.

The brothers hadn't finished their meal yet, and another family who wanted to sow seeds had already driven a donkey cart over, carrying seeds and chemical fertilizers in the cart. Li Jianguo hurriedly stuffed the steamed bun in his hand into his mouth, swallowed it, said something to Li Long, asked him to clean up here, and then went with the landlord to pour seeds and chemical fertilizers into the seeder.