Chapter 586: The Fourth Squad

Xu Chengjun had actually taken a good look at that jeep while in the courtyard.

He had seen this contraption in the military; it was what the division-level leaders rode in, and the regimental headquarters had one too, reserved for the two top regimental officers.

Logically, regimental officers should be allotted two, which is normal in later times. But right now, there was only one, and it was an old one at that.

Having one at all was good enough.

Right now, the Li family had one, and it looked even newer than the one the regimental leaders rode in.

Had times changed, or was smoke rising from the Li family's ancestral grave?

The Li family's ancestral grave was back in their hometown; he couldn't see it. But right now, he had to beg a favor from the Li family.

Hearing the Li family talking inside, Xu Chengjun knocked on the window.

These days, few people knocked on doors; whether familiar or not, people basically just pushed the door open and walked in. Knocking on the window was actually to let the hosts know someone had arrived, a reminder.

"Yo, the Captain is here." Li Long was the first to greet him. As the youngest in the family, this form of address was best. Because for the rest of those present, Xu Chengjun would have to be the one to greet them first.

"Little Long, you're back." Xu Chengjun responded first, then greeted Li Qing Xia, Li Jianguo, and Liang Yuemei who were in the room.

After seeing Li Long return, Du Chunfang sat for a while before returning to her own room. She had been a bit mysterious lately, and no one knew what she was up to.

Li Long invited Xu Chengjun to sit down, and Liang Yuemei poured tea.

"Captain, aren't you organizing militia training lately?" Li Jianguo asked. "How come you have time to come over?"

"Heh, it's because I have a little matter to discuss with Little Long," Xu Chengjun said with a smile. "I've handed the militia over to Old Xie; he's leading the training, and I'm here to handle some official business."

"Captain, tell me what it is." Li Long said. The Captain was righteous and fair in his dealings, and he had put in quite a bit of effort for the things Li Long needed to do. If he could come here to ask for help, as long as it wasn't too difficult, Li Long felt it could be done.

"Little Long, you hunted a few Mongolian gazelles a few days ago, right? I heard there's a herd of Mongolian gazelles in the no-man's-land to the west?"

"There is." Li Long nodded. "And quite a few, too. I reckon the food in the sand dunes to the north is hard to find these days, so the gazelles have all run south."

"I'm planning to take the militia who perform well in the training assessment to the no-man's-land to hunt some gazelles after the assessment ends, so everyone can have some gazelle meat before the New Year. Do you think you could lead everyone?"

"How are we going?" Li Jianguo asked the most fundamental question.

He didn't even ask about guns or bullets; at this time, the militia company commander had great freedom in managing firearms and ammunition, so there was no need to ask.

"I want your family to provide the tractors, and the squad will provide the diesel, how about that?" Xu Chengjun said. "The militia will dress warmly and ride the tractors over.

If Little Long is free, and Brother Old Li is free, both of your tractors can go. The squad will provide double the diesel, how about that?"

Li Long looked at Li Jianguo.

He naturally had no problem with it; it mainly depended on his older brother.

Seeing Li Long looking at him, Li Jianguo smiled. He knew Li Long was respecting him, and he was quite happy inside.

Xu Chengjun had come to ask Li Long, and in fact, Li Long could make the decision himself. But Li Long had handed the decision-making power to him, right in front of the Captain, and Li Jianguo knew this was his younger brother giving him face.

"Fine." Li Jianguo nodded. "Since the land was divided, it's rare for the squad to organize a collective activity, so we definitely have to participate."

"Fine, then it's settled." Xu Chengjun was very happy. "It might take a while, maybe ten days or so."

"No problem, just give us a heads-up two days in advance." Li Jianguo said.

Li Long suddenly remembered something, and he hurriedly said:

"Captain, I want to contract the squad's Little Haizi, what do you think..."

"Contract Little Haizi?" Xu Chengjun was a bit surprised. "Are you planning to raise fish?"

"No, no, I'm worried that someone in the township might set their sights on Little Haizi. Little Haizi is our squad's, after all, so I'll contract it first. That way, if the township has any ideas later, you can refuse them."

"Then after you contract it, will you be catching the fish yourself?" Xu Chengjun asked again.

"No, just like now, everyone can catch them. But the contract price should be lower then." Li Long joked with a smile.

"Heh, then there's no point in contracting it at all." Xu Chengjun waved his hand with a smile. "I understand what you mean. I can see you care a lot about Little Haizi, but since you don't plan to fence it off to catch fish yourself, let's do it this way."

He picked up his tea bowl, took a sip, and said:

"Little Haizi will stay as it is for now, and you don't need to contract it, or rather, don't contract it now.

Whenever the township says they want to contract Little Haizi to someone else, I'll tell the township that this Little Haizi has already been contracted to you. You sign a contract with the squad, but don't pay the money yet.

I know you've earned some money, but this money didn't just blow in on the wind. The squad isn't short of this money right now.

So, whenever you need to fence it off to raise fish, or whenever the township has that idea, that's when you contract it, how about that?"

Li Long smiled: "That would be great, of course, I couldn't ask for more."

"Hahahaha, alright, Little Haizi belongs to the Fourth Squad, you care about it, and actually, we care about it too. In the last two years, Little Haizi has brought 'living money' to many families in our Fourth Squad.

Our squad has opened up more land this year, and the water allocated by the township isn't enough; it all depends on Little Haizi. If we really let outsiders contract it, everyone would feel bad.

This matter isn't just about you alone, it's about the whole squad. If I, as the Captain, don't have as much sense of responsibility as you, I might as well resign."

And so, the matter was settled.

After Xu Chengjun left, Li Long and the others continued to discuss what to plant, and the atmosphere in the house was clearly much more cheerful.

"Just plant chives and celery; if we can plant peppers, we will, if not, we'll plant more leafy vegetables, like spinach and baby bok choy. We have the seeds at home," Liang Yuemei made the final decision:

"We can plant them as soon as we take them back; once planted, step on the soil to firm it, and they'll grow fast."

The matter was settled, and when Li Long drove the jeep back, the car already contained a large bag with several smaller bags of seeds inside.

They were all vegetable seeds with short growth periods that could grow even if it was a bit cold, making them convenient to plant.

The jeep roared in and roared out; many people in the Fourth Squad were jealous, some were envious, and there were even those who were determined to get one for themselves when the time came.

Li Long had gone back after eating lunch. On his way back, he stopped by Gu Bo Yuan's agricultural supplies store to take a look. There were still people there buying seeds and fertilizer, so he didn't disturb his father-in-law and went straight back to the large courtyard.

The main thing was to plant them quickly.

When he left in the morning, he had set up a stove of charcoal. Right now, the temperature in the glass room was quite good, around ten degrees, and the snow on the roof was gone. It was mainly because after a portion melted, the water sticking to the glass underneath had directly carried the top layer of snow down.

Therefore, a long row of snow had fallen on the ground in front of the glass shed. Fortunately, it didn't affect anything, and Li Long didn't clean it up for the time being.

After he used a rake to rake the soil well, he divided the land into four plots: a slightly larger one for chives, and the remaining ones for celery, baby bok choy, and spinach, respectively.

In winter, every family had pickled vegetables, but there were definitely no green leafy vegetables at this time. It would be quite nice to eat some of these during the New Year.

This year could be considered an experiment. If they grew well, they could properly renovate it next year.

He wasn't looking to make money, just hoping to have more variety on the dinner table in winter.

Li Long's perspective could be considered to have changed somewhat.

He planted the three types of seeds and then brought some water to sprinkle on them. To plant this land, he had specifically gone to buy an iron watering can; this thing wasn't cheap, after all, it was made of iron.

After getting everything ready, Li Long added another stove of charcoal to the stove, pressed it down with coal dust, and then left.

He rummaged through the side room and found an old mattress he hadn't gotten around to throwing away; there was no need to alter it, he just nailed it directly to the door of the glass room to serve as a cotton door curtain.

After Gu Xiaoxia got off work, she followed Li Long into the glass room to take a look and felt it was quite novel.

"Like this, in a month, can we really eat green leafy vegetables?"

"We should be able to. Originally, this place was renovated by the previous owner's family in preparation for planting in a greenhouse. Later, it wasn't used, and we used it as a pen for roe deer before, which was actually a bit of a waste.

Right now, it's just making the best use of everything. Just wait and see; if the seedlings can grow out in a while, it means it's half successful."

"Why only half?" Gu Xiaoxia was a bit puzzled.

"That naturally means it's only fully successful after it's eaten," Li Long said as a matter of course.

"Alright, then I'll wait to eat them." Gu Xiaoxia was already a bit greedy. Chives back then were very thin and would only become thicker after growing for two years, but there was no need to consider so much at this time. Chive seeds were generally soaked to germinate before being planted. Li Long used an enamel plate to soak the seeds, then covered them with a towel, waiting for them to sprout.

Over the next few days, Li Long paid attention to the seeds in the ground while also monitoring the germination of the chive seeds.

On the fifth day, over ninety percent of the chive seeds had sprouted, so he planted them in the ground.

Two days later, the seeds planted earlier also had sprouts poking out of the soil, which made Li Long very happy, and he specifically called Gu Xiaoxia into the glass room to see.

There was no help for it; there really wasn't much to do in the middle of winter. Li Long had the heart to go into the mountains again, but Gu Xiaoxia was pregnant, and if he went into the mountains, he wouldn't be able to do anything if he went and came back the same day.

It was better to just stay in the courtyard.

Then let's just do things like this.

A few more days passed, and when the thin vegetable seedlings had grown to the height of a finger, Li Jianguo rode his bicycle to the county courtyard.

Seeing his older brother come over, Li Long was a bit surprised.

"I came to see how the vegetables you planted are doing." Li Jianguo entered the room, took the water Li Long handed him, and drank while saying:

!.

"Also, the militia assessment led by the Captain is over, so he asked me to ask you when you have time so we can go hunting."

"Anyway, it's going and coming back the same day, so I have time whenever." Li Long was idle right now, with plenty of time.

"Alright then, let's make it tomorrow." Li Jianguo made the decision on the spot. "Let's go, let's go see the vegetables you planted."

Li Long led Li Jianguo to the glass room.

It was a stove of charcoal set up in the morning, with the fire pressed down. At this time, the temperature in the glass room was still quite high, and the sunlight could also shine in. Although it couldn't shine directly on the vegetables, only on the wall, the light in the room was also quite good.

Looking at such a small plot of land divided into four small sections, Li Jianguo frowned and said:

"Why didn't you plant them all?"

"Let's experiment first. If we can grow them well this year, we'll plant them everywhere later. I'm thinking of bringing over more black soil from the mountains next summer; that should make the soil more fertile."

"That works too." Li Jianguo nodded, then squatted down to look at the seedlings.

The seedlings of the leafy vegetables had unfolded, but they weren't tall or sturdy.

"The fertility is a bit lacking, and the main thing is that the temperature isn't high enough." Li Jianguo pointed out the main reason. "The area of this house of yours is too large; one stove can't raise the temperature. When the temperature drops at night, the vegetables grow slowly."

Li Long also knew this principle, but there was no help for it. It was winter right now, and it wasn't easy to partition this glass house. If it could be partitioned, the heat could be more concentrated.

"How about using plastic sheeting?" Li Jianguo suddenly said. "Pull some wide plastic sheeting and seal both sides. Even if it's not sealed tightly, it's still better than being wide open like this."

"This... that actually works." Li Long thought that the supply and marketing cooperative did indeed have wide plastic sheeting. Although it wasn't that high, two meters or so was already enough. If he pulled a few more meters to enclose both sides of this plot, or rather, both sides of the stove, the area where the heat dissipated wouldn't be that large.

Let's just make do like this for now. If he plans to plant more next year, the fire wall can be built longer, the stove can be made larger, or he can get two stoves.

He couldn't burn two tons of coal in a winter, but the output, at winter prices, would definitely exceed that.

Hmm, let's do that.

No sooner said than done, the two brothers went to the supply and marketing cooperative on the spot, spent over ten yuan to buy a large roll of plastic sheeting, and after returning, nailed the plastic sheeting to the walls on both sides. The bottom hung down to the ground, and bricks were rolled up and pressed on the four corners.

Although there was still some distance at the top that could let air in, the heat was gathered together, and it was clearly noticeable that the space where the vegetables were planted had warmed up.

Quite good.

Watering here every day, plus the house itself had good sealing, the water vapor evaporated and eventually fell back down, so the humidity in the air was quite high.

Li Jianguo ate lunch in the large courtyard, chatted with Gu Bo Yuan for a while, and rode his bicycle back after the meal.

After the meal, Li Long began to prepare the things he would need for tomorrow. The tractor needed to be filled with oil, and bags needed to be placed in the tractor bucket. The guns needed to be maintained; it was getting colder, so the cotton-padded coats and knee pads needed to be prepared.

Because they were going and coming back the same day, and there was a tractor full of militia following, Gu Xiaoxia wasn't worried, just telling him not to get cold, and that it didn't matter if he hunted gazelles or not.

Li Long agreed.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long started the tractor and waited in the courtyard. Before long, the sound of a tractor came from outside the courtyard.

Opening the large gate, he saw Li Jianguo had already parked the tractor outside the courtyard. Seven or eight militia members were sitting on the tractor, all wearing cotton-padded coats and cotton hats; he didn't see any guns.

Xu Chengjun sat on the fender, waved at Li Long, and then waved at the militia behind the tractor.

Immediately, four militia members grabbed the guns placed in the tractor bucket, got off the tractor, came into the large courtyard, greeted Li Long, and climbed into his tractor bucket.

Li Long had padded the tractor bucket with quite a few bags, so these people simply sat down.

The tractor drove out of the courtyard, Yang Da Jie closed the gate, and the two tractors drove west, one after the other.

Two tractors running together was a rare sight in the county, and passersby looked on with interest.

Li Long's tractor was in front, and Li Jianguo's was behind. The two tractors were no more than twenty meters apart, and the militia on the tractors were quite excited.

Li Long knew everyone; the familiar ones were Xu Chengjun, Liang Shuang Cheng, and Xie Yun Dong.

What surprised Li Long a bit was that Tao Daqiang was also there.

He was the first to run over to Li Long's tractor bucket; no one was sitting on the fender.

The less familiar ones included Xu Fei Hu, and Lin He and others who had previously followed Li Long to weave carrying poles.

The sharpshooters in the militia often changed; target shooting was a matter of talent, and sometimes it also involved luck and metaphysics.

The tractor drove past the old street of Shicheng without stopping there. Li Long could hear the militia in the tractor bucket behind him loudly discussing how to hunt when they encountered a herd of gazelles later.

By this time, they were already discussing where each person would stand and how to distribute the gazelles after hitting them.

Li Long gathered a rough idea. When Xu Chengjun brought these people out, it had already been agreed that if it could be clearly determined who hit a gazelle, it would belong to that person. If it couldn't be determined, the group would split it equally.

When hunting, they would divide into several groups. If the gazelle herd was large, several groups would hunt together; if the herd was small, they would divide into groups and take turns hunting according to the size of the gazelles.

If a herd of gazelles had seven, then the first seven would come, line up and hunt in order; whoever hit one would get it. If it was chaotic after the hunt and no one remembered clearly, then it would belong to everyone.

Of course, in the end, some still had to be set aside; one portion for the tractor drivers, and one portion for the squad to keep.

The portion kept by the squad, part of it counted for the squad headquarters, after all, the squad headquarters provided the bullets, guns, and diesel. Another part was to be distributed to the Five Guarantees households in the squad; there was no argument about that.

Quite fair.

The tractor drove past Shawan and gradually reached the no-man's-land, but there were no gazelles to be seen here for the moment. The tractor speed wasn't slow, and without a cab, the view was wide and easy to see.

At this time, the militia members were no longer talking, standing up one after another to look to both sides, trying hard to find traces of gazelles.

Li Long and Li Jianguo were both focused on driving; with so many people watching, they didn't need to expend energy to look again.

Soon, the tractor drove completely into the no-man's-land area, where there were quite a few droppings on the side of the road, which should have been left by wild animals like gazelles.

The first herd of gazelles discovered was over a hundred meters away from the main road to the north. Those gazelles had originally intended to walk south, but the two tractors driving over scared them, causing them to stop and wait for the tractors to leave before moving on.

At a distance of over a hundred meters, the gazelles weren't afraid, but the militia members were eager to try.

Xu Chengjun also felt it was worth a try, so he had the tractors stop and then directed the militia to get out of the tractor bucket.

That herd of gazelles had over a dozen, and the current militia plus Li Jianguo and Li Long only totaled twelve people, so there were more gazelles than people.

It was just that the gazelles were relatively concentrated, so Xu Chengjun exhorted them, letting the few with the best shooting results, including Li Long, focus on hitting the few gazelles with more obvious targets.

Not seeking to wipe them out, just seeking to have a harvest from the first shot.

This was a safe hunting method, and Li Long agreed. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 587 =====