Chapter 423

In early spring, the tractor's body, engine oil, and water are cold, so it is usually very difficult to start. The technology at this time, or rather, the tractor technology at this time, had not yet reached the level of later generations.

The middle-aged man brought over a bucket of hot water and poured it into the water tank opening on top of the tractor. He smiled and said:

"When it's cold, you have to use hot water; it's the same principle as needing to drink hot water when a person is cold. Come, come, young man, give me a hand, let's start it together."

"Let me try first." Li Long said with a smile, "Crank it a few more times; it's just right to stir up the oil."

"Alright, then you try first; if it doesn't work, we'll do it together." The middle-aged man didn't refuse. In front of a young girl, young men usually hope to show off their masculine strength, and he thought Li Long was the same. Of course, he also laid the groundwork, because it really wasn't easy for one person to start a tractor at this time; they were often two people. One person presses the decompression lever with their left hand and places their right hand on the handle of the crank, while the other person either places one hand on the shoulder of the person on the left and also grips the handle of the crank, or the person behind can grip the crank with both hands, and the three hands work together to crank it.

Li Long had even seen ten-year-old children who, because their arms weren't long enough, would step on the decompression lever with their feet when starting, and hold the crank with both hands to turn it. Feeling that it had turned enough, they would release their foot and give it a forceful swing, turning it another half-circle, and the tractor would start.

The crank was equivalent to the car key of this era, but it was universal. At this time, not to mention tractors, even cars used cranks, only the car's crank was long and didn't require as many turns as a tractor. When starting a car with a crank, it might only need half a turn, while a small four-wheeled tractor usually needs at least three turns or more.

Li Long took the crank from the space under the tractor's clutch, inserted it into the crank hole, then pressed down on the decompression lever with his left hand and began to exert force with his right hand—huh?

It was lighter than he imagined.

It seems his strength had indeed increased quite a bit; there should be hope of starting it.

Although he was pressing the decompression lever, it was early spring, and the ice and snow hadn't completely melted yet; it was still below zero at night, so the tractor's rotor was still quite heavy to turn.

But for Li Long, it was very easy.

He began to exert force, and the rotation speed became faster and faster. When he felt it was about right, he released the decompression lever with his left hand, and at the same time exerted force with his arm. Feeling a heaviness in his hand, he pulled up fiercely, took advantage of the momentum to turn it another half-circle, and by this time he could already hear the "putt-putt-putt" sound of the engine, and the rotor began to rotate on its own.

"It started?" The girl's mouth hung open.

The middle-aged man was also somewhat incredulous. They sold tractors here and often asked people to start the vehicles. There were many young and strong men in the workshop, but none of them could say they could start a tractor by themselves in this season.

Summer would naturally be fine, but it wasn't summer now!

"Then let me try?" Li Long put the crank back into the space under the clutch and asked with a smile: "Believe I can drive it?"

"Alright, you drive it... you know how to shift gears, right?"

"I do, watch." Li Long adjusted the throttle down a bit, pulled the steering wheel, stepped on the floorboard, and got on the tractor.

This was about to be his own tractor.

Li Long was still quite fond of it; before coming over, he had already wiped the mud off his shoes. After getting on the tractor, that familiar feeling returned.

Looking straight ahead, he stepped on the clutch with his left foot, gripped the steering wheel with his left hand, shifted gears with his right hand, and when he added a little throttle with his right foot, he slowly released the clutch with his left foot, and the tractor left its original position and drove forward.

The tractor's entire body vibrated quite intensely. Li Long felt his body shaking slightly along with the tractor, but this didn't affect the excitement in his heart—after riding in a horse-drawn carriage for more than a year, he could finally sit on a tractor!

Although there was still a big gap compared to the car he sat in before the end of his previous life, at least this step had been taken!

When Li Long drove the tractor to Li Anguo, Chen Xingbang, and the others, their eyes widened even more!

Li Long had just driven the tractor over like that?

The middle-aged man and the girl followed quickly behind. When Li Long parked the vehicle and pulled the brake, the middle-aged man gave a thumbs up:

"Young man, your technique is good. Where are you from?"

"Maxian, Hongqi Township in Maxian." Li Long said, taking out the certificate issued by the village; nowadays, one still had to bring these procedures to buy a tractor.

After the middle-aged man finished reading, he asked with a smile:

"How do you feel about this tractor?"

"Good, very good, although the twenty-eight is better, it has a driver's cab." Li Long joked, "It's a pity I can't afford it now."

"After buying this one, you'll be able to afford that one after earning money for two years. Not many people can afford a tractor now." The middle-aged man said, "You have already walked ahead of ninety percent of people. As long as you grasp the opportunity well, you will only get richer in the future."

Li Long took these words as a sincere blessing.

Paying the money, getting the invoice, handling the procedures, receiving the accessories, a small bucket for refueling, the lifting arm at the back, and so on.

No bargaining, no other gifts. When paying, Yang Yongqiang and Tao Daqiang guarded Li Long tightly, which made Li Long feel a bit embarrassed.

But that was 4,500 yuan! The vast majority of people present had never seen so much money in their lives!

According to some people's claims, the purchasing power of one yuan at this time is equivalent to dozens of yuan or even more in later generations in some aspects, so let's calculate... of course, it might be a bit exaggerated; after all, the degree of price increases for different items after forty years is different.

When Li Long put the documents into his satchel, the middle-aged man had also completed the transaction for this order. He finally reminded Li Long:

"Take some time to get the license plate handled soon, otherwise you might be checked if you go on the road."

Not only the license plate but also the agricultural machinery driver's license; this is easy to pass, and the checks aren't strict, but it still needs to be handled.

Even thirty or forty years later, during the busy farming season, many agricultural machines on the road are not checked, because most people in the industry know very well that since the purchase of bicycles in rural areas, there have been some vehicles that rarely go on the road: bicycles, tractors, motorcycles, agricultural tricycles, and finally electric tricycles.

Some vehicles might be used until they are scrapped without ever having a license plate, and they never leave the township.

It wasn't until Li Long drove the tractor and pulled everyone out of the tractor factory that Yang Yongqiang and Li Junshan still couldn't believe it:

"This tractor, is it Brother Long's (Uncle Xiao Long's) now?"

The spring chill was biting, and the wind blowing in their faces was cold; when the speed picked up, it made their faces ache, but no one cried out in pain.

When Li Long was driving the tractor, Yang Yongqiang and Li Junshan were scrambling to get on the fenders on both sides, and then were scolded by the middle-aged man from the tractor factory to get down, saying it wasn't safe.

But as soon as they were out of the factory gate, they immediately climbed from the rear carriage to the front and sat on the fenders again—sitting in the carriage was so boring; it was better here!

Li Junshan was better off, but Yang Yongqiang was not so good because the side he sat on was relatively higher—because there was a toolbox there. Fortunately, Yang Yongqiang reacted quite quickly, untied his overcoat and spread it on the toolbox, then sat on it, but it would be a bit cold when the tractor was driving, so he had to look at Li Long with his face turned to the side, which made Li Long feel a bit awkward.

"Xiao Long, are we going back now?" Li Anguo shouted at the top of his lungs from behind, worried that Li Long wouldn't hear him.

"No, there are still important things to do." Li Long didn't look back, saying while driving: "Let's go eat first. After eating, we need to refuel, and we have to buy a large oil drum—buy a barrel of oil."

"Right, right, right, refueling is an urgent matter." Li Anguo nodded in sudden realization from behind; this was true. Although he hadn't driven a tractor, he knew this thing drank oil. Here, Yang Yongqiang and Tao Daqiang knew even better; Wang Cai Mi's family kept several large diesel drums, and every time the tractor went out to plow the land, it had to be refueled, and quite a lot at that.

Oil was cheap at this time, only fifty or sixty cents per liter. Of course, in the eyes of Yang Yongqiang and the others, it was considered expensive, but Li Long didn't care. When he came on this trip, he brought 5,000 yuan and more than twenty ten-kilogram diesel coupons. After deducting the 4,500 yuan for the tractor, the remainder was enough to buy a 180-liter barrel of oil.

Driving the tractor to the Shicheng State-run Canteen, when Li Long and the others got off, the putt-putt-putt sound of the tractor attracted many diners to come out of the canteen to look.

The brand-new tractor by the side of the canteen made envious light appear in the eyes of many diners. Before Li Long could speak, Yang Yongqiang had already stepped forward, grabbed the crank, and walked into the room.

Li Long went to order food, as usual, oil-splashed noodles with meat, plus extra noodles. Just like some southerners who feel they can't get full eating noodles when they arrive in the north, Li Long and the others also felt that rice didn't keep them full when doing heavy work.

So noodles were more substantial.

Six people sat around a round table, and Yang Yongqiang said excitedly:

"When we get to the team, it will definitely shock quite a few people! This is our whole team's... no, it should be the first private tractor in the whole township!" Li Long smiled and didn't speak.

What's the first tractor? Just driving this short distance, he felt his face aching from the wind. He had said earlier at the tractor factory that it would be better to buy a twenty-eight horsepower tractor, and that thought was true. After all, that thing had a driver's cab, and his didn't. There was no need for a twelve-horsepower tractor to have this—although some people did add it a few years later, that counted as modification, and you would be caught if you drove it to the urban-rural fringe.

Just endure it for now. The tractor is only the first step; sidecar motorcycles and cars are the real phased goals.

The tractor... just make do with it for now. There's no way around it; this is all that can be done for now.

After eating, when Li Long and the others came out, they found that quite a few people were still surrounding the tractor, pointing and gesturing.

Just as Li Long and the others were about to get on the vehicle, someone came over and asked:

"Is this your tractor?"

Before Li Long could speak, Yang Yongqiang said loudly:

"Yes, it's Brother Long's."

As he spoke, he looked at Li Long.

The middle-aged man in the Zhongshan suit also shifted his gaze to Li Long.

!.

"Being able to afford a tractor, not bad, not bad. I'm from our city's paper mill. Do you want to do a job? Hauling raw materials, five yuan per load, how about it? The distance is twenty kilometers, and you can run ten or so trips a day, which is sixty or seventy yuan..."

As soon as he said this, before Li Long or Yang Yongqiang could speak, the others nearby were shocked first: Is it that profitable?

"Really? Five yuan per load?" Someone doubted.

"Of course, I'm from the transport section of the factory." The middle-aged man said somewhat proudly, "Our factory doesn't have enough transport vehicles now, and horse-drawn carriages are too slow. Seeing that this brother has a tractor, naturally I thought of introducing a good job to him. Of course, it's also easy for us to transport raw materials here."

"Do you need flatbed carts?" Someone asked, "My family has a flatbed cart."

"Too slow, and they haul too little." That person shook his head, "We don't want animal-drawn vehicles, let alone flatbed carts. The minimum requirement is a tractor."

As he spoke, he looked at Li Long.

"Sorry, my family is from Maxian, so I can't do it. And this vehicle is useful after being bought back." Li Long waved his hand and said: "You'll need to find someone else for this. Alright, we have to go buy oil. There isn't much oil in the vehicle we just bought, so it might not be able to drive back."

"Smart!" Although Li Long didn't agree to haul raw materials, the middle-aged man wasn't disappointed. He gave a thumbs up, "Not many people can think like this. I've heard of people who bought tractors and were so excited to drive them back that they didn't know to add water or oil, and they just drove them until they ran out of fuel..."

Li Long thought to himself, in my previous life, I was that kind of person, and I almost didn't make it home.

At this time, gasoline and diesel gas stations had them for sale. If the quantity was small, the Five-Handed Chemical Company and some retail departments also had them for sale. Li Long went directly to the Shicheng East Suburb Gas Station and bought a barrel of diesel there. They even included a piece of siphon tube.

Li Long originally wanted to buy a siphon pump, but Yang Yongqiang blocked him.

"Brother Long, why buy that? Just use your mouth to suck it. I've seen Wang Cai Mi always use his mouth to suck it. Put one end in the oil drum, and one suck, and the oil comes out. Buying this is such a waste of money!"

Alright, people at this time were all like this. In the eighties, there were really not many people who bought tractors who hadn't drunk gasoline or diesel because of siphoning oil.

Yang Yongqiang demonstrated it to Li Long on the spot, siphoned out a barrel of oil, and Li Long added it to the fuel tank.

He heard from later generations that tractors come from the factory with one liter of oil, which can run for a few kilometers. It might not even be able to drive from Shicheng to Maxian. This barrel had five or six liters, which was enough to run home.

Yang Yongqiang wasn't satisfied and siphoned another barrel. Li Long added it in, didn't let him suck any more, put on the fuel tank cap, put the tractor's cover back in place, fastened the buckle, and then started the tractor with the crank and drove out.

The sun was between the middle and the west. At this time, the sunlight was just right, shining warmly on Li Long's back. He shifted all the way to the fifth gear, the tractor puffed out a wisp of light smoke, and putt-putt-putt, it ran forward briskly.

At this time, the wind wasn't that cold anymore. Li Long actually had a feeling of riding in a convertible. Although the road wasn't that good, there weren't so many formalities when sitting on a tractor. He ran out of the city suburbs all the way, passed the Mahe Bridge, didn't even stop when passing Maxian, passed the township, passed the Mohe Canal, passed the nursing home and the primary and middle school, and drove all the way back to the Li family.

The putt-putt-putt sound of the tractor broke the tranquility of early spring, attracting many people's gazes along the way. Especially after arriving at the team, those villagers who were still outside saw that it was Li Long driving the tractor, and one by one they opened their mouths wide, then flew home to report the news, and then many people walked quickly or even ran toward the Li family.

Many children screamed and followed the tractor, running all the way to the Li family.

It was a sensation.

If it was a small sensation after the villagers knew Li Long bought a color TV, then this time, buying a tractor back absolutely caused a huge sensation.

Even Xu Chengjun, after hearing the news, rushed to the Li family to see what this new tractor looked like.

Wang Cai Mi also came.

To be precise, the first person in the team to have a tractor should be considered him, but he still owed the team money for the tractor. Looking at this brand-new tractor, his mouth was somewhat disdainful:

"Sigh, it looks good, but the horsepower is a bit small, only twelve horsepower..." That's what he said, but his eyes were full of envy.

This tractor touched everyone's heart more than that color TV.

It was like this for Li Long, and it was like this for everyone.

For Li Long, the color TV was more like an obsession. After buying it and watching a few episodes of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," he actually didn't want to watch it anymore. After being bombarded by short videos and various commentaries in later generations, Li Long actually felt that the martial arts world written by Mr. Jin was too small in scale, or rather, it wasn't suitable for him, who always valued orthodoxy and unification, to watch. After all, although the protagonist is Han Chinese, he didn't pass the Wumu Legacy to the Han people to restore the occupied land after obtaining it. The protagonist is a great hero, but he didn't even avenge his father's death. The book says "the greatest hero is for the country and the people," but the protagonist had so many strategies for the country and the people to kill the enemy that he didn't use. Maybe the values are different.

In some interpretations, in Mr. Jin's novels, all the content he wants to convey is that being content with the status quo is best; anyone who wants to change is either a villain or dies in the end. This is similar to the environment he was in—otherwise, he wouldn't have said such shocking things.

Of course, achievements are achievements. Being able to write so many excellent martial arts novels, everyone is still worthy of praise, but Li Long felt there was no need to watch them. It's better to study "Liehuo Jingang."

And the villagers in the village also felt differently about the color TV and the tractor. A few days after Li Long bought the color TV, someone went to the county to inquire, and a black-and-white TV set only cost a few hundred yuan. It turned out that they could afford it too!

Quite a few people had this thought. If they couldn't afford a color TV, couldn't they afford a black-and-white one? Isn't it just an extra color?

But the tractor is different. This thing is such a big iron lump; this is not something that can be obtained for a few hundred yuan. The Li family bought a four-wheeled tractor, which was a piece of news no less than a bombshell for the others in the village!

So, as soon as the Li family's tractor arrived, within half an hour, the yard was crowded with people, all of whom had run over to see the tractor.

Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang looked at the tractor, also full of joy and curiosity. Li Jianguo was sitting in the driver's seat at this time, and Li Qiang climbed up beside him, sitting on the fender, looking very proud and boastful.

The diesel drum had already been unloaded and placed by the side of the house. There were mud spots on the tractor, and Liang Yuemei and Chen Li Rong were holding rags and wiping off those dirty mud spots.

This is a new vehicle, it must not be damaged, it must be taken good care of!

(End of chapter)