Chapter 523: Reporter Jiang, who couldn't catch up and was unwilling to give up

When Li Long was making the harvester, he had already taken precautions against situations like Tie Laobang's.

Among fellow villagers, if someone really wanted to welch and not pay, to be honest, if you met someone soft-hearted, it would be really hard to handle.

But Li Long wasn't. He knew that if he didn't collect the money from Tie Laobang or solve the matter, he would encounter many similar situations in the future, and he might as well not do the business of harvesting wheat to earn money.

"No money? It's fine if you have no money." Li Long smiled. "It's fine to pay me after the wheat is sold."

"But that money was already planned by our family; it's to pay off the team's debt." Tie Laobang looked bitter. "How about you slow down here, and pay you when our family has money? Rest assured, I'll write you an IOU, and I'll definitely pay it back then!"

Li Long listened and laughed.

He remembered something from his later life.

In fact, the villagers of the Fourth Team were generally quite law-abiding. Of course, the team's cadres were also basically law-abiding in their work. From Xu Chengjun now to the change of people twenty years later, generally speaking, whether it was applying for subsistence allowances or various subsidies, they basically wouldn't take advantage of the farmers.

And farmers basically associated with their own kind; if they weren't the same type of people, they usually didn't interact much.

This Tie Laobang family belonged to the type of people who looked okay on the surface, but had the cunning of a farmer without the simplicity of a farmer.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to be in-laws with someone like Ma Jinbao.

There was one thing Li Long always remembered.

Thirty years later, the village undertook a drip irrigation renovation project from the autonomous region. The villagers didn't need to pay; all the basic costs were in the project funds. All eight thousand mu of land in the village were converted into water-saving irrigation fields.

Once this project came out, the village director at the time immediately discovered the business opportunity and let his relative, a young man, open a drip irrigation tape factory. This thing was a rigid demand later on; he recovered the cost in the first year and earned quite a bit. After all, people weren't familiar with it. In the second year, he expanded production and earned over a million net in one year. In the third year, the output value was over ten million.

As for the young man, earning so much money at once, he was a bit arrogant, but he knew how to repay kindness. He thanked those who had been good to him in the village one by one. He was the type who couldn't refuse on the surface.

Whoever in the village borrowed money from him, he gave it, and it was all in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

In the last two years, there were more people opening drip irrigation tape factories, and competition was fierce, so it wasn't easy to earn money. The young man wanted to replace new equipment, capital turnover was difficult, and he wanted to recover the money he had lent out. Some people paid it back, while others dragged it out and didn't pay.

Tie Laobang's son, Tie Jinhu, was one of those who didn't pay back. He had borrowed quite a bit, three or four hundred thousand.

He didn't pay back, and the young man couldn't do anything about him, so he could only think of ways himself, such as loans, and then during a drinking session, he felt unwell, didn't recover in the hotel, and was gone.

Theoretically, in this situation, a person's death doesn't extinguish the debt. The young man's family was still there, and the owed money should be paid back to his family.

Tie Jinhu didn't mention this matter at all in the following years. At that time, the young man was soft-hearted when lending money to others and didn't take the initiative to ask for an IOU, so this matter directly had no evidence.

But everyone in the village knew about it. Sometimes when he was drunk, Tie Laobang would even talk about this matter himself, not ashamed but proud.

Can such people be trusted?

So after Li Long heard his words, he smiled and said:

"No need to be so troublesome. Since your family has no money, I don't need you to pay money. When the wheat is threshed, I'll go to your threshing ground to collect it. Either two yuan per mu, or give me fifteen kilograms of wheat. For your twenty mu of land, I'll take three hundred kilograms of wheat then, and we'll be square. Of course, if you think that's not okay, when the oil sunflowers or corn come down, I'll take those directly too."

"Xiao Long, things can't be done like this, right? I didn't say I wouldn't pay, just asked you to slow down..." Tie Laobang's face changed when he heard Li Long say this. "Is this considered forced buying and selling?"

"Hey, Old Tie, are you planning to rake me over the coals?" Tie Laobang was older than Li Jianguo and younger than Li Qing Xia. If it were usual, Li Long would still have to call him Old Brother or Uncle, but this person was old and disrespectful, so Li Long didn't give him face and said with a cold laugh:

"Yesterday, you were the one who ran over to ask me to harvest wheat, and I said two yuan, which you acknowledged. Now that the wheat is harvested, you say you have no money. If you have no money, use things to pay. You're not willing to do that either. Do you think I, Li Long, am easy to talk to?

I'll tell you the truth: there are only two choices. Either pay the money, or give the wheat. Don't say anything more; it's useless. Alright, put away that set of thoughts of yours. My young age doesn't mean I'm stupid. If you really want to welch, fine. I'll drive the tractor and turn a circle in your field right now. I don't want the wheat, and I don't want the money. Do you dare let me turn?"

When Li Long said this, Tie Laobang stopped talking. Now that the wheat was harvested, if Li Long really drove the tractor and turned a circle in the field, pressing over the wheat ears, at least several hundred kilograms of wheat grains would fall into the field and couldn't be picked up!

He didn't dare!

Seeing Tie Laobang shrink back, Li Long sneered and drove the tractor away. Earning money was important; staying here to say so much was really a waste of saliva.

Tie Laobang was quite angry. This Li family kid didn't play by the rules!

Of course, he was looking at Li Long with old eyes. If it were Li Long two years ago, letting him tangle and stir like this, he might really have fallen into the trap, but now Li Long was no longer the warm-hearted person he used to be.

Fortunately, there was only one person like Tie Laobang. For the rest of the day, those who wanted Li Long to harvest wheat with the harvester all had the money ready and paid as soon as they finished harvesting.

The team's wheat had only been harvested for two days, and Li Long received work from outside the team. This time it was an acquaintance. Tao Daqiang came to find Li Long, wanting him to help go to the Third Team to harvest the wheat for Yang Pingping's maiden family.

"Their family planted a lot of wheat this year, forty mu contracted, plus their own ten mu of ration fields, all planted with wheat. They only planted a little oil sunflower and corn. With just those few people in the family, they can't harvest it at all." Tao Daqiang said:

"I don't have time to go help because I have to thresh here. Long Ge, if you have time, go harvest it, and I'll give you the money directly."

"Alright." With business coming to his door, Li Long naturally wouldn't refuse. Harvesting fifty mu in half a day, a hundred yuan in hand—earning money like this was still quite happy.

Now the team's wheat was scheduled for three days later, and Li Long didn't insert any more queues. He recorded it in his small notebook and said to Tao Daqiang:

"Tomorrow afternoon, then. I originally planned to finish harvesting tomorrow afternoon and see about threshing for the family. Since it's like this, I'll go harvest for your father-in-law's family.

Still the same sentence: have them flatten the stubble in the field in advance. Otherwise, if my harvester enters the field and can't harvest halfway, it will be bad if it delays time."

Such things had happened in the past two days. Some people in the team asked Li Long to harvest wheat, and Li Long would say in advance to let the other party flatten the stubble in the field. Otherwise, when the harvester passed over the stubble, it wouldn't be able to harvest, and it would press the wheat down.

As a result, some people took this as wind in their ears and didn't care. Li Long encountered two stubbles in a row while harvesting, which made him so angry that he directly lost his temper, and the other party could only accompany him with smiles and hurry to flatten the stubble.

Some people were bad, some were lazy, and others belonged to the type often mentioned on the internet in the previous life: not smart enough, but thanks to socialism, they were born safely and grew up safely.

In the old society, they wouldn't have survived.

They couldn't understand human speech.

Tao Daqiang naturally knew what should be done and what shouldn't be done, so he hurriedly agreed and then rode his bicycle to tell his father-in-law's family.

Li Long followed the routine and drove the tractor to harvest wheat every day. Many families in the team simply didn't harvest and just waited for Li Long to harvest and then bundle it.

Everyone knew that harvesting wheat was hard work. Because of the several big jobs Li Long had done last year and this year, plus the relatively large amount of land, the people in the team were relatively wealthier than people in other villages.

Therefore, the harvesting fee of two yuan per mu didn't seem expensive to them. It could save a lot of time and avoid so much hard work, so why not do it?

Only some old people scolded the children and relatives who used the harvester as spendthrifts, saying they started thinking about being lazy after only eating their fill for a few days, and thought about how hard they had worked back then.

After such words reached Li Jianguo's ears, Li Jianguo scolded on the threshing ground:

"Hard work my foot! Back then, this team was built by us, the land was opened by us, and the wells were dug by us. The initial dugouts were also dug by us, and even the strip field stubble and agricultural canals were organized by us to be dug.

Don't look at these old guys being old; most of them came late. What hard work? Was there so much land back home? Was it worth working hard for that one mu and three points of land? It's not like embroidering flowers on it! One by one, they rely on their age to sell their age. Let's see if they dare to say these things to my face?" Of course, they didn't dare. After all, Li Jianguo was a true veteran of the team, and those who built the village had a good relationship with him. Knowing Li Long was doing the harvester, these people were also happy to help.

They were the true pioneers of building the village, so they knew very well how much land the team had and how much land could be reclaimed. They also understood very well that mechanized farming was the big trend in the future. Otherwise, just relying on these three hundred people in the team, if they had to use their hands to farm thousands of mu of land, wouldn't they be exhausted?

Those who couldn't see this point were old antiques. Later, they would slowly fail to keep up with the times and could only follow behind and pick up what others left behind. Anyway, if they wanted to earn big money, they definitely couldn't, after all, they didn't have that sensitivity.

The next afternoon, when Li Long went to harvest wheat for Yang Pingping's maiden family, Jiang Zhiyu, the propaganda officer of the township, rode her bicycle to the field. She first went to the Fourth Team, found the Li family, learned that Li Long had gone to the Third Team to harvest wheat for the Yang family, so she rushed to the Yang family, and then was led to the field by Yang Pingping's mother.

Yang Pingping's father, Yang Yong, and older brother, Yang Xinping, were preparing to bundle wheat in the field. Li Long had already harvested seven or eight mu here, and the tractor was harvesting back and forth in the field without stopping.

When other families in the Third Team nearby were harvesting wheat by hand in the wheat fields, they would occasionally straighten their waists to take a look at the novelty.

After all, this thing was truly a fresh thing; they had never seen it before. They had seen more advanced combine harvesters like Kang Maiying, but they basically hadn't used them much. This harvester was smaller than that and felt more approachable.

Jiang Zhiyu had taken the initiative to apply to the township to come for an interview. After Li Long's ethnic unity deeds were reported last time, she regretted it extremely. Clearly, it was someone from her own township; how could she not grasp this point and dig deeper?

After all, when she interviewed and wrote about Li Long doing special breeding, Li Long had already mentioned the relationship with the herdsman brothers in the mountains.

It was just that Jiang Zhiyu didn't pay special attention at that time—the Ethnic Unity Education Month was the first year to be carried out last year, and her emphasis wasn't enough, so she ignored this matter. It wasn't until Li Long was reported and commended by the county and the autonomous region that Jiang Zhiyu felt a bit regretful.

So as soon as the wheat harvest began, she learned that Li Long had made a harvester to harvest wheat, so she immediately applied to the township and came down for an interview.

The Yang family's fifty mu of wheat land wasn't in one piece; one piece was thirty-five mu, and the other was fifteen mu. The Third Team didn't have as much land as the Fourth Team, but it was quite a lot in the whole township. Now there were over a thousand mu, and there was still a lot that could continue to be reclaimed later.

Li Long was harvesting this fifteen-mu piece of land now. Jiang Zhiyu came and waited for less than half an hour, and Li Long finished harvesting this piece of land and prepared to transfer.

!.

Jiang Zhiyu stopped him.

Having met Jiang Zhiyu once, Li Long couldn't not give face to the township propaganda officer. It just so happened that he also let the tractor add water, add oil, and rest, so he stopped first.

At this time, someone in the nearby wheat field came over to ask about the harvesting price of the harvester.

"Two yuan per mu. Paying money is fine, and using wheat to pay when the wheat comes down is also fine." Li Long now knew how to be flexible. "Either two yuan per mu, or give fifteen kilograms of wheat, take your pick."

"Not expensive." Jiang Zhiyu nodded and recorded it in her small notebook.

"Can it be cheaper?" That person glanced at Jiang Zhiyu, then looked at Li Long. "I am a comrade-in-arms with your team leader Xu Chengjun, from the same batch of soldiers. Give a cheaper price for the sake of face."

"Sorry, it's already very cheap." Li Long waved his hand. "This Yang Uncle's son-in-law is my iron buddy, and I didn't give him a discount. Everyone has the same price, no bargaining."

That person thought and said: "Alright, I have thirty mu of land here, when can it be harvested?"

"The day after tomorrow." Li Long took out a small notebook and said, "Now people in our village are also queuing. You see if you can accept harvesting the day after tomorrow, then I'll record it. If not, you can harvest it yourself."

"The day after tomorrow..." That person looked at his own land, only harvested a head of the field, gritted his teeth and said: "Alright, the day after tomorrow is the day after tomorrow. Can you definitely come the day after tomorrow?"

"Yes." Li Long smiled and registered it. "Old Brother, what's your name? Do you write it yourself or do I write it for you? The land is this piece here, right? Since you want to harvest, you have to say it: flatten the stubble in the field in advance. Otherwise, the tractor can't pass, and if it presses the wheat then, it will be your waste."

"Alright, I know. My name is Chai Jinbao." That person wrote down his name, then went over to call people to flatten the stubble. His family's piece of land was quite large, with only two laborers. If harvesting by hand, they wouldn't be able to finish the day after tomorrow, so it was better to wait.

After this person left, Jiang Zhiyu continued the interview.

"How did you think of making this harvester?" Jiang Zhiyu intended to start from the beginning. "Where was this harvester produced? I haven't seen it here."

"I designed it." Li Long didn't cover it up and said directly, "I told the design idea of the harvester to the Shicheng Tractor Factory, but they weren't interested, so I found another agricultural machinery factory to produce it. The factory director of that factory understands technology. After hearing my design idea, he felt it was feasible, so he produced it."

"You can even design agricultural tools?" Jiang Zhiyu felt she had dug up a new news treasure. "Besides this, what else have you designed?"

"There is a seeder, which has already been produced. This one is a bit smaller, the application range isn't wide, it's fine for home use, but it can't be popularized in large fields." Li Long described it, and Jiang Zhiyu understood immediately. After all, she had also stayed in the countryside and understood.

Jiang Zhiyu immediately threw out one question after another, mainly hoping to shape Li Long into a young man who took the lead in getting rich, with a flexible mind, accepting new ideas quickly, and having ideas about mechanized agricultural planting.

In the process of chatting, knowing that the Li family also planted economic crops like oil melons, Jiang Zhiyu felt she had really come to the right place.

Li Long still had to harvest, so she rode her bicycle to the Fourth Team. She planned not to report on the matter of planting oil melons until the harvest time. At this time, planting economic crops was still a rare thing.

After all, after the land was divided to the home and contracted to the household, after the land was contracted, the first thing everyone had to do was to plant grain, because they used to eat a lot of coarse grain, and now who didn't want everyone in the family to eat fine grain?

Planting economic crops had high risks, and there was no guarantee that anyone would collect them, and there was no experience, so not many people dared to plant them.

In the whole township, the Li family was considered the first one.

Jiang Zhiyu had already determined that when this news was released, it should be no problem to be on the Autonomous Region Daily, and it was a sure thing to be on the Prefecture Daily.

After all, now everyone is called to take economic construction as the center and strive to get rich. It is not easy for the countryside to get rich just by planting grain for a while. On the contrary, planting economic crops, if planted correctly and with suitable sales channels, it is easier to get rich.

Jiang Zhiyu originally wanted to interview Li Long and write a short report on summer harvest mechanization. Now it seems that she needs to ponder it carefully, collect more materials, and write it with the theme of farmers getting rich.

Li Long didn't care so much. He collected records for two more people here, and then went to harvest another piece of land for the Yang family.

After harvesting fifty mu, Yang Xinping gave Li Long a hundred yuan, and Li Long was a bit surprised. Yang Xinping said to Li Long:

"Did Daqiang say he would pay? Tell him that since Pingping married into his family, she is a member of his family. We all know he takes care of us, but he doesn't need to pay for this wheat harvesting money. They should just live their own lives well."

This hundred yuan wasn't ten large unity notes. There were only three large unity notes, and the rest were five-yuan, two-yuan, and one-yuan notes, and finally a stack of small change.

I don't know how long it had been saved. Li Long hesitated for a moment, but still accepted it.

It concerned a man's dignity, so it wouldn't be appropriate not to accept it. As for how Tao Daqiang subsidized his father-in-law's family, that was another matter.

By the time Li Long finished harvesting, the sun had already set. When he drove to the team, he met Jiang Zhiyu, who was riding back.

"Officer Jiang, are you going back to the township now? Is it safe or not?"

Jiang Zhiyu was actually a bit worried, but she was a bit carried away during the interview and ignored the time.

Seeing Jiang Zhiyu didn't speak, Li Long sighed secretly and said:

"Let's go, I'll drive the tractor to send you a distance, you don't need to ride too fast."

Someone came specifically to interview him, so he couldn't watch a young girl walk the night road alone after dark.

Even if there were no bad people, it was possible to encounter wolves; this thing was hard to say. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 524 =====