Chapter 128: A Suggestion Both Public and Private, Settling Uncle Uncle Lao Luo

"Is the team going to dig an irrigation channel in the next couple of days?" Li Long asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yes. Are you unwilling to work? If you don't want to go, then don't; you don't lack for those few work points anyway." Xu Chengjun knew Li Long quite well. Besides, considering that piece of meat, he wouldn't make things difficult for Li Long.

"I'm talking about something else," Li Long said. "Above our team's Little Little Haizi lies a dry gully. Every year, floodwaters rush down from the mountains here and breach the northern dike of Little Little Haizi.

Now is precisely when the student children are attending school. Once the floods hit, the path through the Reed Gully becomes impassable; everyone must detour over the dam of Little Little Haizi. The team even has to assign people to escort them, which is not only troublesome but also dangerous."

"So what do you intend to do?" Xu Chengjun felt Li Long made sense, but he absolutely did not believe Li Long was such a noble person; there must be some personal scheme behind this.

"I propose that when the team clears the main irrigation canal, we also dig through to connect the dry gully beside Little Little Haizi with that main canal. When the floods arrive, the water will flow directly from the dry gully into the main canal. Thus, the north side of Little Little Haizi won't be breached, the floods won't rush down into the Reed Gully, the children's school path won't be cut off, and the team will save itself the trouble."

In his previous life, Li Long knew this as snowmelt flooding, which occurred annually. In the past, when the floods were small, the water rushing down from the upper dry gully would follow the wash on the west side of Little Little Haizi into the lower Reed Gully, then flow all the way downstream to the Big Little Haizi.

Usually, the Reed Gully held no water, or if it did, the volume was tiny. The production team's road to the township passed through this Reed Gully, and there was no bridge here. It wasn't until four or five years later that the township built a concrete bridge here, one that lasted into the future.

The year Little Little Haizi was destroyed, the flood was exceptionally large; the water in the upper dry gully filled up and overflowed, and the breach on the side of Little Little Haizi was also completely submerged.

The water in the entire Little Little Haizi rose level with the great dam. Although the sluice gate was raised to its highest point, it still failed to drain all the floodwater. Eventually, the water accumulated more and more, collapsing the dam, and then surged downstream together with the fish from the lake.

Although the team quickly organized personnel to repair the dam after the flood, those large fish that had escaped could never grow back. Because this particular flood had not received sufficient attention, the silt it brought deposited excessively within Little Little Haizi, causing the lake to gradually become an elevated reservoir. Its water storage capacity diminished over time until it ultimately lost its function as a reservoir and was essentially abandoned.

That year, because the flood collapsed Little Little Haizi, the Reed Gully filled with water, the road was cut off, and the students missed a full week of classes.

If Li Long wanted to change this situation, he had to tackle the flood from its very origin.

As long as the upstream dry gully could be connected to the main irrigation canal, releasing the water through the main canal during the early stages of the flood to prevent accumulation, Little Little Haizi could be saved.

This main irrigation canal was over two meters deep and three to five meters wide, no different from a small river. It was responsible not only for irrigating nearly two thousand mu of land in this village but also for the irrigation tasks of several other villages downstream.

If flood discharge began right from the start at this location, the floodwater would be unable to accumulate, thereby avoiding such massive trouble.

The only troublesome part was digging from the dry gully to create an opening into the main canal; this amount of labor was relatively large.

"What you say does make sense," Xu Chengjun nodded, then shook his head. "But the others may not listen. After all, not every family has children. Furthermore, since the land was just allocated this year, everyone's enthusiasm for working on team tasks certainly won't be high; they are all thinking about working on their own plots..."

"That's easy to solve." Li Long took out forty yuan and placed it on the table. "One work day is worth eight fen; these forty yuan equal five hundred work days. It shouldn't be a problem for the whole team to work for three to five days. If we count it as double wages, I think quite a few people will be willing to do it."

"That is true, but... what are you gaining by doing this?" Xu Chengjun was somewhat puzzled; was this Li family boy so flush with cash that he was burning it?

"Director, I won't hide anything from you." Li Long knew Xu Chengjun was extremely shrewd; if he didn't explain clearly, the man would never feel at ease, so he patiently explained, "As you know, I broke ice holes and sold fish all winter, earning some money.

To be honest, all this money came from Little Little Haizi. I just fear that one day, a massive flood will directly collapse Little Little Haizi, and then I won't be able to earn this money anymore. So, if we divert the floodwaters in advance, won't that put my mind at ease?" Hearing this, Xu Chengjun understood.

He could understand Li Long's thinking and said with a smile:

"Alright, when assigning labor, I will include that section to dig through and connect the dry gully with the main canal. Anyway, the dry gully is upstream and the terrain there is high, so there is no fear of water from the main canal flowing anywhere undesirable."

From these forty yuan, he could personally pocket at least twenty. However, thinking that Li Long could produce forty yuan to fund this labor meant the boy must have earned over a hundred just this winter—fish really sold well!

It was a pity that ordinary people couldn't do this kind of work. But now that sideline businesses had been liberalized, once the farming slack season arrived, should he let his few cousin-brothers give it a try?

Li Long left the Xu residence and went to the Horse Station.

The Horse Station now belonged to Li Long, but Uncle Uncle Lao Luo was still living inside. However, there were no horses in the Horse Station anymore; it was empty and relatively quiet. The original dry grass inside the Horse Station had also been distributed during the team's asset division, so the place now looked somewhat dilapidated.

As Li Long approached, Uncle Uncle Lao Luo was squatting by the outer wall of the Horse Station; seeing Li Long arrive, he stood up.

"Little Long, have you come to take back the Horse Station?" Uncle Uncle Lao Luo asked, sounding somewhat nervous.

Although he had a home and a courtyard, to be honest, having grown accustomed to living in the Horse Station, moving back felt somewhat ill-fitting/uncomfortable.

"Take back what? I came over to check on you," Li Long said with a smile. "Uncle Uncle Lao Luo, just stay here living as you are. I want to discuss something with you: will you be farming later on?"

!.

"No farming for me. I am one of the team's 'Five Guarantees' households. The Team Leader said someone else would farm the land for me, and they would just give me the grain when the time comes." Uncle Uncle Lao Luo sighed. "I've raised livestock for over ten years; I don't know how to do anything else."

"Then if I bring things down from the mountains—for example, young wild boars like Jun Wa Zi and such—could you help me raise them?" Li Long asked. "I'll pay you wages for it. How about that?"

"Really? That would be excellent!" Uncle Uncle Lao Luo grinned. "If that's truly the case, rest assured, I will raise the livestock extremely well—just give me a little money! You can also bring over your horse, Number Seventy-Six, which is currently idle, and let me raise it. I'm so used to it that now, if I don't hear the sound of horses every day, I can't sleep."

Li Long smiled too; wasn't this a win-win situation, killing two birds with one stone!

"Alright, once the work is finished, I'll lead it over."

Returning from the Horse Station to his home, Li Long told Li Jianshe about the matter concerning Uncle Uncle Lao Luo.

"This arrangement will certainly work. Uncle Uncle Lao Luo... he fought in wars before. Although he wasn't a combat soldier but served in logistics, he still earned merit. The township had long said they wanted to send him to a Home for the Aged to be cared for, but he wouldn't stay. He insisted on remaining with the team, saying he wasn't accustomed to the Home for the Aged, so the township let him return."

Li Long knew this from his previous life. In his last life, after the Horse Station was demolished, Uncle Uncle Lao Luo ultimately went to the Home for the Aged. Because one couldn't go out often there, although food and lodging were provided, there was nothing to do all day long. Uncle Uncle Lao Luo ultimately stayed there for less than ten years before passing away.

In this life, perhaps things would change?

Thanks to readers Dongli Gezhua and Wukong Babujie for their donations. I recommend a new book by a 'tentacle monster' (prolific author): "Era: Starting with Divorcing a Female College Student." The author types extremely fast and is an old hand; you can go take a look.

(End of Chapter)