Chapter 422: A four-wheel tractor is a necessity

Li Qing Xia wasn't particularly opposed. He felt it was a good thing that his son was capable, but the family just bought a color TV, so was this action a bit fast?

That color TV was bought for more than 2,000 yuan!

Since coming to the Northern Frontier this time, after eating and starting to watch TV, Li Qing Xia would hold the radio during the day and go to watch TV as soon as it got dark. Li Jianguo meant to move the TV to their room, but Li Qing Xia disagreed, and Du Chunfang also disagreed.

Li Qing Xia disagreed with a bit of embarrassment. After all, his old couple just came over and moved the TV over. Although it was his son's filial piety, it might also make others mistakenly think that they were greedy.

Du Chunfang's reason for disagreeing was too simple. She knew this color TV was bought by Li Long, and she also knew that Li Long was going to build a house in early spring, so she thought that after Li Long's house was built, the color TV would definitely be moved to Li Long's house. Why move it now? Troublesome!

Of course, another reason why the elderly felt it was unnecessary to buy a tractor was that it was hard to save some money, so use it on the blade in the future, and talk about it when money was needed. Saving some money wasn't easy. Thinking about how long it would take to save more than 4,000 yuan, and scattering it all at once to get back an iron lump, and it also burned oil, and had to add money to it, it felt like it wasn't worth it no matter what.

Li Jianguo's meaning was also the same. Of course, he had another reason, saying that the family had a horse-drawn carriage, and getting another tractor would make him an even more prominent rafter in the team, which would make others jealous.

Li Long's meaning was very clear: the tractor must be bought.

At the family meeting, it was like facing a trial, Li Long alone dealt with the words of others.

Of course, he could completely buy the tractor by himself without listening to others' opinions, but these were family members, and no matter which direction the reason came from, it was for his own good.

He didn't plan to be a lonely person, and what should be listened to and explained still had to be done.

In the west room of Li Jianguo's house, facing these family members, Li Long first asked his eldest brother Li Jianguo:

"Eldest brother, when you built this house, how many carriages of soil did you pull to pad the foundation?"

"Two hundred or so, right?" Li Jianguo recalled, "Two hundred horse-drawn carriages, I used a month's time, right?"

"Then how many carriages of sand and stone for the foundation were moved?"

"How to move it at that time? Just pick it up every day. There was some in the river dam, but it was too far, so I just picked it up nearby. I picked it up for two or three months, right?"

"Look, at the speed of your house building, even if I build until the end of the year, I might not be able to build the house."

"That's different." Li Jianguo naturally disagreed with Li Long's statement, "Now so many people are helping you, it's definitely faster than when I was there."

"It's fast, but the pulling of the horse-drawn carriage still takes that much time, right?" Li Long calculated.

"Why use so many carriages of soil?" Li Qing Xia was a bit puzzled, and not only him, but these people who came from the hometown in the mouth didn't understand.

"Because this place is a saline-alkali beach," Li Jianguo explained, "The two or three meters of soil on top all have saline-alkali. We have to dig the ground down half a meter, move these soils away, and then pull the yellow soil without saline-alkali to pad the foundation. The direction of the wall has to use stone and sand to build the foundation, so that the house can be built firmly."

Fifteen or sixteen years later, the whole village would unify the residential point, so Li Long didn't plan to live in this house for too long. Even so, he didn't hope that the house he built would have alkali hair growing on the ground after a period of absence.

"You used two hundred horse-drawn carriages, a month's time. Let's count it as fast, half a month's time, then it's dragged to the time of editing the lifting handle. If the supply and marketing cooperative has a task, you say I go or not?" Li Long said, "Our family also needs to earn money, right? I have to build the house before there is work, right?"

Li Jianguo was silent.

Yeah, that time was also the time for planting land. Is it building a house, planting land, or earning money?

Must have a choice.

"You guys can do yours, we'll build the house." Chen Xingbang suddenly opened his mouth.

"Right." Li Anguo was always grateful to his little brother. He felt that this time was when a few of them stood up, "We were idle at that time."

"You guys aren't idle either." Li Long looked at his second brother and said, "Before you guys came, I and eldest brother were thinking about settling you guys. At that time, we found a job in the mine, but that job was relatively dangerous, so we are still inquiring. It is estimated that we should be able to inquire about the specific job when the time comes."

Second brother, brother-in-law, and Junshan were here to earn money, and Li Long didn't plan to drag them all the time.

Chen Xingbang, Li Anguo, and Li Junshan were all a bit stunned.

Li Qing Xia smiled.

These children of his are all good children. At critical moments, they can stand up and help each other. They are all good children.

"So we have to rush the time. We have to build my house before planting land and starting work. When the snow melts, I will hire people from the team to help dig the foundation. Everyone will have to work when the time comes." Li Long had already planned this matter, and he said with full confidence:

"I will buy the tractor now, so I can pull soil when the time comes, and then hire people to expand the soil blocks. No. 76 can't be idle either, it has to help pull stones. Anyway, everything has to move. Let's strive to build the house within fifteen days. Once the house mud is up, it doesn't matter if the wall surface is dry or not. As for the furniture, put the wood in the carpenter's room and wait to pull it when the time comes."

Listening to Li Long's plan, at first, everyone felt it was a fantasy, especially Li Jianguo, who had built a house and knew that building a house here was a long process. From digging the foundation, it was always hard work, and there weren't many people who could be found to help.

This point was not as good as the hometown. In the hometown, a village was all related by blood. He shouted, and dozens of strong young men could be pulled out, and they didn't need wages, just supply a full meal.

Although there were people in the village with good relationships, it was impossible to delay other people's affairs, and it was impossible to let people work for nothing all the time.

Actually, the work of going up to the house mud, asking people to help is working for nothing, supplying a full meal, but that was just one day's matter, and no one would say anything. After all, everyone could meet, I help you, and when my family wants to go up to the house mud, you can call me the same.

But hard work like expanding soil blocks, digging foundations, and pulling soil that took many days to complete, letting others work for nothing was definitely not okay. The family was also not reasonable.

After all, they were all heavy engineering tasks, and couldn't be completed in a while. On the contrary, Li Long's words were the best and most practical. Expand soil blocks, discuss money by block, expand a soil block for three cents, the same price as a brick. The standard block expanded by an adult was much larger than a brick. A house with three big rooms needed 50,000 to 60,000 bricks, but 20,000 were enough with soil blocks.

An adult, one who is fast, can expand 300 to 500 soil blocks a day.

However, however! Expanding soil blocks has prerequisite conditions. It is impossible to expand soil blocks as soon as you come up. Need to find a piece of land first, must be yellow land, dig soil, soak mud, after the mud is soaked, turn it over, use a cut soil man to fish the mud up, pile it into a semi-sphere like a grave pile, sprinkle wheat tails on it, let it stand for a few hours, let the water evaporate a bit, and then expand the soil blocks.

The prerequisite process usually takes at least one day, and expanding soil blocks also takes one day. And the soil blocks need three to five days to dry thoroughly.

Just building the house is definitely not enough, and the courtyard wall needs to be set up. The courtyard divided by Xu Chengjun for Li Long is not small. Even if he can't use so much, the range that can be enclosed is very large.

He also plans to plant some vegetables and fruit trees inside. This is definitely to be enclosed.

The courtyards of Li Jianguo, Lu Yingming, and others are all rammed earth. Li Long thinks about using soil blocks directly, buying them together, which is also convenient.

This can be a big project, but it doesn't matter. At worst, mobilize all the people who can be mobilized in the village. After all, he pays, and doesn't let everyone work for nothing. I believe there should be quite a few people coming.

Li Long's statement is reasonable and evidence-based, and others don't say anything anymore.

Li Anguo, Chen Xingbang, and Li Junshan's minds have turned to the job Li Long said he would find for them.

This makes Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang have mixed feelings.

Originally, they all wanted to break through by themselves, and if it didn't work, follow Li Long to do odd jobs and earn money. Now suddenly there is such a message, they are a bit dazed.

The mine is indeed dangerous, but others can do it, so can't they? And listening to Li Long's meaning, it is still a formal job, a worker.

People decades later cannot imagine the attraction of a worker's establishment to someone who came from the mouth.

Even if this worker position has great danger.

At least it's a worker!

Li Junshan didn't think so much. He didn't even think that he would stay in the Northern Frontier until now, just thinking about working for another year, earning some money, even if it wasn't as much as last year, but earning a few hundred, he could go back and marry a wife.

This matter was settled like this.

Li Long didn't delay either. The next day, he rode a bike to the county. This time he went with Tao Daqiang, Yang Yongqiang, and Li Junshan.

According to Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo, going with more people at least doesn't worry about not being able to get things if there are many things. Actually, what they are really worried about is carrying so much money, which is not safe. Four big young men, I am afraid anyone who sees it has to weigh it.

Actually, they forgot one most important thing: after buying the tractor, how to drive it back?

Perhaps everyone defaulted that Li Long would drive a tractor.

It was also after Li Long left, at noon, that Li Jianguo suddenly remembered on the dinner table that he should have let Wang Cai Mi go!

It was too late to say anything now. Li Qing Xia listened but wasn't in a hurry at all, waving his hand: "Xiao Long will find a way."

That was the only way to think.

Li Long and the four arrived at the county. After putting the bike in the big courtyard, they went to the bus station.

While walking, Yang Yongqiang said:

"It's really necessary to get a tractor. Look at this bike, from the team to the township, most of it was pushed. The road is all mud, can't walk."

If it were a tractor, even mud could be driven over with a toot-toot-toot, at most it would just be covered in mud.

Li Junshan thought of that question first. He asked Li Long in a low voice in the carriage:

"Little uncle Xiao Long, then that tractor, how to drive it back?"

"I drive it back." Li Long smiled, "Don't worry, it's very easy to drive, it's just that the speed is fast when driving, and it's cold."

"That cold is not afraid." Now several people's hearts are burning. Although the tractor was bought by Li Long, being able to witness the first private small four-wheel tractor in the whole team being bought and driven back was also very exciting.

The four people took the carriage to the old street. After getting off, Li Long took people to the tractor factory. Most of the streets in Shicheng were also sand and stone roads, and there was mud when the snow melted, but because a layer of sand and stone was paved on it, the water permeability was relatively good, and mud couldn't stick to the feet.

!.

When the four people arrived at the tractor factory, it was already noon. They didn't care so much, directly went to the guard room, saying they wanted to buy a small four-wheel tractor.

At this time, the tractor factory was off work at noon, but hearing that they wanted to buy a tractor, the guard immediately pointed them to the place of sale.

The Shicheng Tractor Factory had previously focused mainly on sales to collectives. Although individuals had begun purchasing tractors a year or two ago, the number was extremely small each year. After all, not many people could come up with so much money all at once. Those who could might not necessarily need a tractor, and the farmers who needed a tractor might not necessarily be able to afford one.

There were already tractors of various kinds placed at the sales point.

The most conspicuous was naturally the Dongfanghong 70 tractor that the team had once. This was chain-track type, which was crawler type, and was the most commonly used for plowing land in this period.

Then there was Dongfanghong 28, a wheeled large tractor.

This kind of tractor was small in number and expensive in price, but its use wasn't small. Actually, in the next few years, there were people in the village who used tires to catch fish as small boats, and those tires were from this kind of 28 large tractor. This kind of tractor had a driving building (enclosed driving cabin), which was much more imposing than a small four-wheel one.

Then there was the small four-wheel tractor, 12 horsepower, red paint, black machine. Although it looked the smallest among the three tractors, Li Long and the others came over and took a fancy to it

Four people surrounded the tractor, looking at it carefully.

Although in his previous life, Li Long himself had owned three tractors in succession, ranging from twelve horsepower to fifteen horsepower, and finally twenty horsepower.

From the initial hand-cranked ignition to the later electric start, from the small trailer in front of him to the later specially welded large trailer for cotton, five meters long and two meters high, as well as a yard full of sprayers, cotton seeders, stalk choppers, cultivators, and other machines.

By the time the land was handed over to the cooperative, all these machines were abandoned and sold cheaply to dealers. Li Long insisted on keeping one tractor, but after keeping it for three years, he eventually sold it too.

It was useless.

It wasn't even as useful as an electric tricycle.

And he clearly remembered that the first electric tricycle he bought also cost 4,500 yuan.

A Baodao brand one.

A coincidence, I suppose.

Although in his previous life he no longer farmed in those final years, and even the work in the fields basically required no manual labor by the end, when Li Long scrolled through short videos, he would still pause to look at those small, convenient machines for sale, such as small excavators for the yard, small tillers, and small grass shredders.

Those machines weren't expensive, three to five thousand yuan, and they looked very convenient; looking at them made his hands itch.

But that was just thinking about it; after all, even if he bought them back, he really wouldn't have any use for them.

One can only say that technological development is too fast.

"Comrade, are you looking to buy a tractor?" a middle-aged man wearing sleeve protectors asked. Behind him followed a young girl with a large braid, who was looking at Li Long and the others with curiosity.

With a girl present, Yang Yongqiang, Li Junshan, and the others couldn't help but puff out their chests, whereas Tao Daqiang's focus remained on the tractor.

"Yes, I'm buying a tractor." Li Long said, seeing the others looking at him from time to time, "This is a twelve-horsepower one, right? How much is it?"

"Are you sure you want to buy it? This tractor isn't cheap." The girl kindly reminded him.

"I've inquired about the price; it's 4,500, right?" Li Long patted his satchel and said, "This price is not bad. I can't afford the twenty-eight horsepower one, but I can manage this one. Could you introduce it?"

Hearing Li Long quote the price, the other party realized that Li Long must have prepared well in advance, so the middle-aged man began to introduce it.

The introduction at this time was quite meticulous, mainly focusing on driving and operation; after all, there was no need to explain the ignition process and power principle of the diesel engine to Li Long and the others, right?

It was mainly Yang Yongqiang and the others who were listening; Li Long was a bit absent-minded, as he was very familiar with this thing.

A tractor head is easy to drive, but with a trailer attached, it's equivalent to a semi-trailer truck; moving forward is fine, but reversing is prone to problems, which is different from an ordinary car. To be able to operate this proficiently, one cannot do it without several years of driving experience.

Therefore, the middle-aged man focused on this.

However, explaining it empty-handed certainly wouldn't work, and besides, Yang Yongqiang and the others had never touched a tractor at all; listening to the theory alone left them feeling dizzy.

Li Long simply asked:

"Can I take it for a test drive?"

"Test drive?" The middle-aged man was somewhat surprised, "What is a test drive?"

"It just means trying it out first to get a feel for it." Li Long said with a smile, "Only by driving it will you know how it is; just listening to it without actual operation isn't clear, right?"

The middle-aged man was in a dilemma.

They really didn't have a test drive step, and just like with color TVs, don't look at this tractor sitting here like a display model; this is brand new. If you drive it and someone else doesn't want it, what then?

"I am sincerely planning to buy it." Li Long thought of a compromise, "Get me a new tractor, and I'll drive it around your yard here. If there's no problem, I'll pay directly and drive it away. This is fine, right?"

The middle-aged man thought about it and felt this was feasible, but he still had to report it to his superiors.

Soon, the middle-aged man returned and asked the girl to bring over a tractor.

It turned out this girl was not only in sales but also a tractor operator.

Li Long hurriedly said:

"Can I drive it first?"

He felt that sometimes one still had to use this bit of metaphysics; his own tractor, he had to be the one to drive it for the first time, right?

"Do you know how to drive?" the girl asked.

There was no sense of defiance; she was just asking.

"Brother Long knows how to drive; he can even drive a car!" This was Yang Yongqiang speaking. He naturally hadn't heard Li Long say he could drive, but the momentum couldn't be weak.

"I can drive it. I'm thinking of doing the whole process, from cranking it to driving it." Li Long said, "You should have base fuel in the tractor, right? How far can it go?"

The girl was a bit stunned; she didn't expect Li Long to know even this! (End of chapter)