Chapter 585: No Rest Even in Winter

The next day, after breakfast, Gu Gu Xiaoxia left for work and Sister Yang went to the market, while Li Long carried the two sacks of black soil from the jeep into the glass house.

The temperature inside the glass house was somewhat low, but not enough to cause freezing; Li Long set down the sacks, used an iron shovel to scrape the ground, and found that the soil hadn't frozen and could indeed be dug up.

After thinking it over, he felt it would be better to plant the vegetables directly in the ground, except that this plot had been compacted by the roe deer and needed to be turned over again.

With nothing else to do, he might as well turn it over; picking up the iron shovel, Li Long began tilling a middle section of land near the north wall.

The glass house was actually quite large, with brick walls on the north and south sides and a glass roof, covering an area of nearly two hundred square meters in total.

Li Long couldn't manage such a vast expanse, so he planned to till only a central portion, spread the black soil along with the roe deer dung accumulated in the southwest corner, mix them together, and then plant vegetables.

He also intended, once the land was properly tilled, to buy a stove; since the daytime temperature here was currently acceptable, he would burn one load of charcoal during the day and another at night.

The stove would be placed behind the tilled plot, and he would construct a half-height straight-through fire wall along the side to warm the planted vegetables.

In the depths of winter, it was difficult to undertake anything more elaborate, so for now, this arrangement would have to suffice.

In one hour, Li Long had tilled a plot the size of a bedroom; this wasn't because he worked slowly, but rather because after turning the soil, he still had to break up the hardened clods he had lifted.

After finishing the tilling, Li Long didn't rush to plant; firstly, he needed to go buy a stove, and secondly, he still had to rake the land once more, for although the large clods were broken, fine, loose soil was still better for planting.

He planned to divide this single plot into several smaller sections, though he still needed to think about what to plant in each.

Since there was no rake in the large courtyard, he intended to make a trip back to the team to ask his elder brother what would be best to plant and, while he was at it, bring back a rake.

Just as Li Long stepped out of the glass house, he heard two knocks on the courtyard gate.

While tilling the land in the glass house and lost in thought, Li Long hadn't paid attention to the outside; with the main courtyard gate latched, he wondered if Sister Yang had returned.

Li Long quickly called out and ran over to open the gate.

Outside stood two strangers wearing padded cotton coats and cotton hats.

One was around forty years old with a somewhat weathered appearance, while the other, in his twenties, looked at Li Long with some curiosity.

"May I ask if this is Comrade Li Long?" the older man asked directly.

"Hello, that's me," Li Long replied; glancing past them, he spotted a tractor outside and immediately understood.

After inviting the two men into the courtyard, the older one, noticing Li Long was wearing only a fleece sweater, remarked:

"Comrade Li Long, you really should take care of your health; it's quite cold out here, and you ought to dress more warmly."

"Yes, yes, I was busy just now and didn't hear you knocking; my courtyard is a bit large, and I was in the back yard," Li Long explained.

"No wonder; we knocked for over ten minutes without anyone coming out, so we thought no one was home," the young man couldn't help but add, "Your courtyard is truly huge; was this house formerly owned by a wealthy landlord?"

The older man nudged him and shot him a glare, then turned to Li Long and said:

"The two of us have come from Qitai; we read about your deeds in the newspaper, specifically the matter of harvesting wheat with a combine harvester, which greatly inspired us; in our team in Qitai, we have planted several thousand mu of wheat, and manual harvesting is far too inefficient, so we were wondering if we could also purchase a combine harvester to take back."

Strictly speaking, Qitai did not fall under Li Long's jurisdiction but belonged to the sales territory of the Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory, yet since they had come to his door, there was no reason to turn away business, was there?

Li Long first offered an explanation:

"I purchased this courtyard from an elderly gentleman; as for who the original owner of the house was, I do not know; that old man lived here alone, and later, when his son wanted to take him away, he sold the house to me."

Then, pointing to the combine harvester covered with a plastic sheet, he said:

"I still have several combine harvesters here; if you want them, I can sell them to you; is that tractor outside yours?"

"Yes, it is."

"Then it would be best to drive the tractor inside so I can demonstrate how to operate it; otherwise, if you simply buy the harvester and don't know how to use it, that will be troublesome, and Qitai is not close to here."

Locally, Qitai was considered one of the "Eastern Three Counties," situated as one of the three eastern counties of Beiting Prefecture, the other two being Jimusaer and Mori.

This region not only produced the very famous spring wheat but also the renowned chickpeas known only to the locals.

In later generations, these developed into major industries; for instance, Yaozhanzi flour had nearly become a geographical indication label.

But the distance was truly great; these places were two to three hundred kilometers from Urumqi, while Manas County was another hundred-plus kilometers from Urumqi, meaning that to travel from Qitai to Manas County where Li Long lived, these two men had driven their tractor nearly four hundred kilometers.

Li Long estimated they had spent the entire day yesterday traveling, stayed overnight in the county town or somewhere else, and then arrived here this morning.

It was truly hard work.

Therefore, the teaching had to be done earnestly.

"The combine harvester is five hundred and fifty yuan per unit; is that acceptable?" Li Long asked.

"It is," the older man agreed readily, even carrying a hint of a smile on his face, "Actually, we thought it might be even more expensive."

"If used well, earning the cost of a tractor during a single wheat season with this harvester is no problem," Li Long said as he pulled off the plastic sheet covering the machine, "However, if used poorly, it can also be troublesome; let me explain it to you now."

The young man looked at the tractor in Li Long's courtyard, puzzled as to why he wasn't using that one, but upon seeing the jeep, he dared not speak further.

"My tractor hasn't been used for several days; to start it, I'd need to heat water and warm the engine, which is troublesome," Li Long said, having guessed the young man's thoughts, and offered an explanation.

The young man obediently went to start the tractor; since theirs had just arrived, the water in its engine was still warm.

Once the tractor was driven into the courtyard, Li Long fetched some wooden blocks and demonstrated step by step the procedure for mounting the combine harvester.

The older man was named Zhang Kehu, and the young man was Li Menglong; the two had a master-apprentice relationship; Zhang Kehu had bought the tractor and taken Li Menglong as his apprentice to teach him how to drive it, while also mentoring a newcomer.

Thus, while Li Long was teaching, Zhang Kehu watched with great attentiveness, asking about every step, while Li Menglong, though he did not ask questions, was constantly memorizing everything in his mind.

Li Long taught with equal care, including some small techniques he had summarized himself; farmers nowadays endured great hardship, and those who managed to stand out from among them were certainly not simple people.

He hoped to help more farmers achieve prosperity, thereby creating a group effect; after all, farmers had access to the least amount of information and mostly relied on imitation; whenever a nearby farmer found a way to get rich, others would follow and learn from them.

It was not until Sister Yang returned pushing her cart that Li Long was still teaching the two men how to dismount the combine harvester.

With two people, dismantling the combine harvester was extremely easy, so Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong learned it very quickly; the two even took turns operating the harvester on the tractor to simulate the harvesting process, and only after recording these steps did they consider the instruction session concluded.

Zhang Kehu pulled several thick stacks of money from the small bag slung over his shoulder and handed them to Li Long bundle by bundle.

"One thousand one hundred yuan," Zhang Kehu said, "Comrade Li Long, please count it."

"Alright," Li Long replied, taking the money and counting it quickly.

As Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong watched Li Long's actions, Sister Yang came out of the house carrying hot tea for the three of them.

After finishing counting the money, Li Long nodded and said:

"The amount is correct; I apologize that you traveled such a long distance, yet I haven't even offered you a cup of hot tea..."

"That is nothing; you teaching us this technique is what truly moves us," Zhang Kehu said with a smile.

Li Long went inside to secure the money, and by the time he came out, Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong had already loaded one harvester onto the tractor.

"There's one more left; you two can pick whichever you like," Li Long said.

Actually, there was nothing much to choose; they were all about the same. The two men accordingly lifted the harvester placed furthest out and loaded it onto the tractor.

"Why not stay for lunch before heading back?" Li Long invited.

"No, no, we really must be on our way; if we leave now, we can reach Hu County before noon, eat lunch there, and by pushing hard today, we can make it back to Qitai."

Zhang Kehu was brimming with excitement; with two harvesters now in hand, he could already foresee the scene of harvesting wheat next year.

He simply couldn't contain himself.

"You at least need to eat lunch. Come on, I'll take you to the canteen for some ban mian; warm yourselves up before you go." Since Gu Gu Xiaoxia would be returning home soon and, being pregnant, it was inconvenient for her to host, Li Long said this.

"No need, really no need. Comrade Li Long, we are truly grateful that you sold us the harvesters and taught us so thoroughly. Right now, we really just want to get back as quickly as possible."

"Very well, then drive safely on the road," Li Long cautioned, seeing them off as they drove the tractor out of the courtyard. Once out of the county town, the tractor chugged loudly as it headed east, and Zhang Kehu said:

"Menglong, did you see? At Comrade Li Long's place, there are only two harvesters left. We arrived just in time; otherwise, there wouldn't have been enough."

"Exactly, Comrade Li Long was also so enthusiastic, teaching us in such detail; honestly, I feel we could start operating them directly right now."

"Right. He said harvesting one mu of land here costs two yuan, but over in our area, we can set our own prices; I think even at one yuan, there's still a profit to be made."

"Master, I think we should keep a uniform price. If we lower it, let's make it one yuan fifty; it's not good to drop the price too much.

He also said that harvesting eighty to a hundred mu a day is no problem; since so many people grow wheat in our area, if we set the price too low, everyone will come wanting harvesting services, and we won't be able to schedule them all.

If we set it a bit higher, some people won't be willing to pay that much and will just harvest by hand..."

Zhang Kehu nodded; this indeed made some sense.

By the time the tractor reached Hu County, it was already noon; they ate a meal there, and the two men took turns driving the tractor onward. The road conditions on the Wuyi Highway were fairly decent, but once they turned toward Miquan and Fukang, they were not so good.

By the time they reached Miquan, it was already dark; gritting their teeth, they drove the tractor on to Fukang, and when they truly could drive no further, they stayed there for the night, setting off early the next day to return to Qitai.

With the harvesters acquired, both families had already begun dreaming of a wonderful life in the coming year.

!.

Having sold two more harvesters, the net income was three hundred and forty yuan. Previously, Li Long had spent nearly two thousand yuan in Kuitun to buy back these five prototype harvesters, and now three of them had already been sold.

If one added the money from selling gazelle hides, the capital invested had almost been recovered.

He believed these two harvesters would not remain at home for long either; most farmers simply followed the crowd, not knowing where to obtain information beneficial to themselves, and even among those who could read, few were able to extract such beneficial information.

But a very small minority did possess this ability, and the harvesters Li Long had brought back were intended precisely for this tiny minority.

After lunch, Li Long went out to buy an iron stove, which he returned and installed inside the glass room.

At this time, sheet-iron stoves were not particularly expensive, and most households in Northern Xinjiang had one; there were also those who could not afford one or were reluctant to buy one, in which case they would plaster together a stove using mud and prepared earth blocks, though the grate still had to be made of cast iron, as this component was impossible to fabricate on one's own.

After securing the stove, the next step was to construct a long heating facility that was half underground flue and half fire wall; both brick-built and earth-block versions had their respective advantages.

Brick structures heated up quickly but also cooled down quickly, whereas earth blocks were thicker than brick walls, heating up slowly and cooling down slowly as well.

Unfortunately, the courtyard only had bricks and no earth blocks, so Li Long could only build with bricks.

With no guests in the afternoon, Li Long made trip after trip, carrying several hundred red bricks, mixing mud directly inside the glass room, and building up the fire wall; this fire wall technology was not particularly sophisticated, requiring only a few partitioned channels with gaps in the middle to prevent the smoke and fire from rushing through too quickly.

Finally, he installed the stovepipe purchased together with the stove at the very end atop the fire wall, removed a pane of glass from the roof, threaded the sheet-iron stovepipe through, and sealed the gaps with wooden boards.

Because the smoke passed through more than three meters of fire wall filtration, what finally exited the chimney was hot smoke that could no longer ignite wood, so Li Long was not worried.

Having completed all this, Li Long prepared a stoveful of charcoal, lit the stove, and wanted to see how long one load of charcoal would last.

After all, this glass room was too large; he was considering whether to partition it into several rooms by next summer, so that by growing vegetables in only one room, the heat could be more concentrated.

Alternatively, by that time, he could make the fire wall longer and the stove larger.

In order to eat leafy green vegetables during winter, Li Long did not mind the cost of coal; coal prices were currently low, and furthermore, there was an open-pit mine in the mountains—it was just troublesome to transport, otherwise Li Long would have been hauling coal back by tractor-load after tractor-load back in autumn.

After loading the coal, Li Long went out; he had hauled several tons of coal into the courtyard this autumn, which was originally sufficient, but given his current plans, if he truly started heating this large greenhouse, the coal might not last until spring next year.

Li Long boiled water, placed it inside the tractor, and then tucked several burning coals beneath the tractor to heat the fuel tank.

After fussing around for forty to fifty minutes, he finally got the tractor started, moved the jeep to a different spot, drove the tractor out of the courtyard, and then went to buy coal.

Loose coal was available at the free market, but it was expensive; he went directly to the roadside along the Wuyi Highway, near the western edge of the county town, where low single-story houses stood, large piles of coal unloaded by big trucks were stacked, and coal-hauling vehicles were parked.

Coal sold here was cheaper, priced by the ton; currently in winter, coal was more expensive than in summer, costing thirty yuan per ton.

Li Long's tractor could carry two to three tons of coal; he bought three tons and hauled them back in one tractor-load.

"Ours is coal from Que'er Gou; it burns extremely well," the boss boasted proudly of his coal. "Take it back and burn it with confidence; if it lacks strength, come back and I'll exchange it for you!"

Que'er Gou—this was the true name Li Long only learned later during the era of information explosion; previously, he had always heard it as "Qiaoyao Gou," which was how everyone in the Fourth Squad called it, having grown accustomed to the pronunciation.

Only later did he learn that it was actually called Que'er Gou.

After hauling the coal back, Li Long immediately unloaded it beside the rear of the glass room, covered it with plastic bags, and weighed it down to prevent weathering.

As he drained the water from the tractor's radiator and walked toward the glass room, he noticed that the snow on the glass room's roof was already slowly melting.

This glass room, like ordinary houses everyone usually saw, was higher on the north side and lower on the south side; now, water droplets were already dripping down from the southern eaves.

Li Long entered the glass room and felt that the temperature inside was already several degrees above zero; although not as warm as the bedroom where the stove was installed, it was much better than outside.

At this moment, the charcoal in the stove had burned to a glowing red, with no visible flames, representing the peak temperature.

Not bad; it seemed the glass room's sealing was quite good, with little heat lost, and he detected no smell of coal smoke, only the scent of wet earth being dried out.

It appeared that the fire wall he had improvised also had good sealing and draft properties.

In that case, he could plant vegetable seeds tomorrow.

The land had been leveled, and the black water mixed and sprinkled over the field; Li Long planned to go to the squad early tomorrow morning, first to fetch a harrow, and second, to ask his eldest brother what crops would be best to plant, while also obtaining some seeds from him.

Throughout the summer, the vegetable plot on his side had been tended by his mother, his eldest sister-in-law, and his second sister-in-law, so he did not know what seeds, if any, had been saved.

Adding some more charcoal to the stove, Li Long covered it with coal dust to let it smolder slowly, then closed the glass room door; later, once vegetables were planted, a cotton curtain would need to be added here.

Currently, cotton was not as easily obtainable as it would be in later times; the Production and Construction Corps was already cultivating it, but output was not high, though new cotton batting could be purchased at both the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and the Department Store Building.

He wondered whether the family's cotton quilts could be replaced; tomorrow he would tidy up and see if the former homeowner had left any old cotton quilts that could be repurposed into a cotton curtain.

After breakfast the next day, Li Long drove the jeep to the Fourth Squad.

With the jeep, Li Long no longer wanted to drive the tractor for long distances; the freezing wind on his face was unbearable.

In his view, the slightly more than ten kilometers from the county town to the Fourth Squad counted as a long journey; of course, in later generations when cars were common, even one kilometer was considered a long trip.

"Growing vegetables in winter?" Li Jianguo, though well-traveled and knowledgeable in the Northern Frontier, was still somewhat surprised to hear Li Long say this.

"Mm, I'm thinking that by Chinese New Year, we'll be able to eat fresh leafy greens. Big Brother, do you think we should grow celery and chives, or spinach and baby bok choy?"

"Then of course we should grow some celery and chives; naturally, it would be even better to grow some green peppers, though I don't know if they'll actually grow..." Li Jianguo naturally wanted to plant them all, but upon reflection, he deemed it unlikely.

Nowadays, during winter and Chinese New Year, the "fresh" vegetables available at home, besides radishes and cabbage, were just the garlic sprouts grown on plates and the bean sprouts germinated in basins.

If they could get some fresh vegetables, that would certainly be wonderful.

Liang Yuemei also joined the discussion.

Before any conclusion could be reached, someone had already come looking for Li Long.

The one who knocked and entered was Squad Leader Xu Chengjun.

PS: Today we slaughtered two pigs, one weighing 130 kilograms and the other 148 kilograms; not counting the neck meat already made into pickled cabbage stir-fried with pork, nor the offal, these were the weights of the castrated piglets.

Truly delicious; it's just that my old back has gone out.

The group helping out averaged over sixty years of age... (End of Chapter)