Chapter 625: The enthusiasm of the Corps people for buying harvesters

The next day after breakfast, Gu Xiaoxia went to work. By February, the weather wasn't that cold anymore, and the snow on the road had been swept away, so it wasn't that slippery to walk on.

Although Li Long still didn't let Gu Xiaoxia ride a bicycle, Gu Xiaoxia didn't let Li Long take her either; she went to work by herself.

She said that in this day and age, how could one be so delicate—her colleague at the unit, that Sister Wang, had been laughing at her behind her back.

Li Long didn't force it, just urged her to pay attention to safety.

After Gu Xiaoxia went to work, Li Long first went to set up the stove in the glass room. During the three days of the New Year, the vegetables in the ground had been cleared out, and the chives were slightly frozen but not seriously. Once the stove was set up and the temperature rose, they could be seen growing again with the naked eye.

There was still a month and a half until the snow melted, and Li Long didn't plan to plant anything else; just bok choy, coriander, and celery were growing slowly.

Just consider it an adjustment to the food. To be honest, bringing the green vegetables back for the New Year, the happiest one was the eldest sister-in-law, Liang Wenyu. It was really rare to be able to eat green vegetables in the middle of winter.

Even the sister Li Xia and the second sister-in-law Chen Li Rong curiously asked where these vegetables came from.

After hearing Li Long's planting process, they were only disappointed; it was impossible to replicate for the time being.

After heating up the glass room side, Li Long came back and cleaned the kitchen, and by the way, prepared the materials for cooking at noon.

He had to go to the furniture factory in the morning and would be back quite late, so preparing things first made it easy to cook whether he or Gu Xiaoxia returned first.

Gu Bo Yuan was comfortable staying in the team and planned to return to the county to open the shop after the fifteenth.

In the simple concepts of rural people, only after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the New Year truly over. At the moment, it was still the New Year period, and it was estimated that some people in the team of similar age, or those who had come together to conquer the world, were drinking with Old Gu at this moment.

After preparing in the kitchen, Li Long locked all the doors and then started the jeep, preparing to go out.

The agreement with the furniture factory was before the fifteenth of the first lunar month. Going today was just to see the progress. He guessed that they had just finished the holiday and probably couldn't do much.

Li Long opened the main gate and saw Sister Yang and Han Fang leaning against the door frame, which gave him a fright. He hurriedly greeted them inside:

"Big sister, why didn't you push the door? The door wasn't locked either." Li Long looked at Han Fang, whose face was frozen pale, and complained, "Look at how frozen little Fang is."

"The New Year is over, and I didn't know if we could enter..." Yang Xiulan had already recovered and held Han Fang's hand, saying: "Uncle Li, we..."

"Come in, come in, why couldn't you enter?" Li Long hurriedly went to unlock the doors and said:

"Have you eaten breakfast? Come in quickly and warm up by the fire."

"We've eaten." Sister Yang said while walking, her expression still a bit reserved, "Can we still live here?"

"Of course you can live here." Li Long was also moved in his heart, "Just like before. Cook during the day, take time to sell food, little Fang, do your homework well... same as before, you can live here!"

Yang Xiulan felt relieved, and a smile appeared on her face.

She was already considered a widow, and Gu Xiaoxia was pregnant. According to the customs of her hometown, her status would be shunned.

Afraid of bringing bad luck to the host family.

He didn't expect Li Long not to mind at all.

"Then should we discuss it with her aunt...?" Yang Xiulan was still thinking about Gu Xiaoxia.

"Discuss what? She agreed too. The two of us were still wondering last night when you would be back." Li Long smiled, "It's just right now, it saves us trouble. Alright, I have to go out to handle affairs now, you two tidy up first.

Little Fang, you go set up the stove in your room; I haven't lit the fire yet, then help your mother."

"Hey! Alright, Uncle Li!" Han Fang was very happy.

She actually didn't want to live in that small courtyard to the south; this place was so good.

With Yang Xiulan at home, Li Long was even more at ease. At least even if he was delayed at the furniture factory, Gu Xiaoxia would have ready-made food to eat at noon.

After saying goodbye to Yang Xiulan and Han Fang, Li Long drove the jeep out of the door and headed toward the furniture factory.

Yang Xiulan closed the main gate and first went to the kitchen. Seeing that Li Long had prepared almost everything, she took out some chili peppers to soak, prepared some detailed work, and then came out to start tidying up the food cart.

Han Fang set up the stove, came out of the room, and seeing Yang Xiulan organizing the cart there, she also went over to help.

Life seemed to have returned to its original track.

When Li Long drove the jeep to the furniture factory, work had already started, but it was obvious that not many people were working. The inside was still a bit cold and quiet, the machines weren't turned on, and there was no sound.

Li Long got out of the jeep, and Factory Director He Changming came out of the office. When he saw Li Long, he was obviously relieved.

"Heh, Comrade Li, I thought that after the holiday, some leader had come to inspect." He joked, "You gave me a fright, it's good I didn't skip work today."

"Factory Director He, you've worked hard. I just wanted to come over and see how my furniture is coming along."

"I knew you came for this. Come, follow me." He Changming took Li Long to a warehouse, where all the finished products were placed.

"Knowing this furniture is yours, our workers were all very happy and have been rushing the work. Those sheep offal you sent, they all liked them very much. Look at these pieces of furniture, they're made well, right?"

The furniture factory in Ma County didn't have any particularly advanced machines. Besides tools like saws and planes, most processes were chiseled or shaved by hand.

Placed in the warehouse for Li Long to see were two long kang tables, a cabinet, and a chest.

The lacquer surface had already been completed, and on top were obvious Kazakh patterns.

"This was drawn by our retired master craftsman specifically," He Changming said with some pride, "It's their own ethnic pattern. How is it? Looks beautiful, right?"

"Beautiful, really beautiful." Li Long nodded. The base color of these pieces of furniture wasn't the walnut color; it was bright yellow, and the pattern colors carried brown and black. Li Long had a familiar feeling.

"Currently, only this much is made. You should be able to understand; after all, it was before the New Year, and everyone was thinking about the New Year. Don't worry, once everyone is here in the next day or two, we will finish the rest at the fastest speed. Before the fifteenth, the things will definitely be complete!"

He Changming didn't boast. After the New Year, it was equivalent to the work for this year officially starting. Everyone had this psychological preparation.

The job Li Long brought could earn quite a bit and allowed their workers to have a good New Year, so naturally, they would be more active in working.

Besides, being able to drive a jeep, could he be an ordinary person?

Li Long nodded, quite approving of He Changming's explanation.

Li Long shook hands with He Changming to say goodbye, drove the jeep out of the factory, and headed back.

He Changming watched the jeep run fast and was very envious, but he shook his head and went into the office.

The freshly brewed tea was getting cold; he had to hurry over and taste it.

Li Long originally thought about going to the supply and marketing cooperative to take a look; after all, it was the first day of work, and not going wouldn't be very appropriate. However, since he was driving a jeep, it would be better not to be too flamboyant.

So he planned to leave the jeep and ride a bicycle to the supply and marketing cooperative.

As a result, when he arrived at the large courtyard, Li Long found two men at the gate outside, one about thirty-four or thirty-five years old, and another twenty-two or twenty-three, both dressed quite thickly.

Seeing the jeep, these two people immediately flashed to both sides of the gate against the wall.

Li Long parked the jeep at the gate, got out, and asked:

"Who are you looking for?"

"You are Comrade Li Long, right?" The man in his thirties immediately took off his leather gloves and took the initiative to reach out his hand:

"We are from the x Company of the 150th Regiment of the Eighth Agricultural Division. I am the company commander, and this is our company's agricultural machine operator."

"Hello, hello." Li Long shook hands with the two, having already guessed their intention.

"Come inside, come inside to talk." Li Long stepped forward and knocked on the courtyard gate. Han Fang shouted from inside the courtyard: "Who is it?"

"It's me, I'm here." Li Long said.

Han Fang ran over to open the door. She must have been doing homework in the room and didn't hear the sound of the jeep.

Han Fang opened the gate, Li Long drove the jeep in, and after getting out, he invited the two inside.

"Uncle Li, they knocked on the door just now, and I said you weren't here, so they didn't come in." Han Fang explained.

"Good, good, you go do your work." Li Long smiled and greeted the two into the living room of the main house.

After pouring tea for the two, Li Long sat down and asked:

"Are you here to ask about the harvesters?"

"Yes, yes, yes." The company commander said hurriedly, "Yes, we just want to buy a harvester." "Then you have to wait. The five harvesters I had on hand were sold just before the New Year, and the next batch of harvesters won't arrive for a while. Fortunately, it's still a long way from harvesting wheat, so there's no rush."

"About... how long will it take?"

"One or two months." Li Long said, "It's not convenient to go to the manufacturer's side now, and they haven't started production there either."

"They've started production, but they won't sell to us." The young man beside him whispered.

"They've already started production?" Li Long wasn't surprised that the young man knew the manufacturer; it was all in the newspapers, "Then do you know how many units they've produced?"

"I saw there were three units." The young man was quite honest.

"That's not enough. I pull at least five units at a time, so you have to wait. And even if you had them this time, you couldn't buy them; you didn't bring a tractor, you can't carry them back, right?"

"Hmm, we're just here to place an order." The company commander said, "My name is Shen Fei, and he is Cheng Xingquan. Could you please see if you can register us first? I can pay a deposit here. When the goods arrive, please save one for us, or tell us the specific arrival time, and we'll come to pull it."

Li Long thought and said:

"It's early February now, and I'll go pull them in early March. If you come in mid-March, you'll be able to pull them."

"Good, good." Shen Fei stood up with a smile and said: "Then we won't delay your time, we'll leave first. We're here to attend a meeting in Shicheng, and the meeting hasn't started yet, so we hurried over to handle the serious business."

This made Li Long quite moved; in their eyes, buying a harvester was the serious business.

After sending the two away, Li Long saw that Sister Yang had already started cooking, and Han Fang was still doing homework.

I don't know if it was stimulated by Han Bin's matter, but Yang Xiulan rejected Han Fang's idea of coming to help and directly told her to study hard.

Compared to Han Fang, Li Juan and Li Qiang's learning attitudes were slightly worse.

However, Li Juan's academic performance was quite good, and Li Qiang's was gradually getting better.

I think Han Fang's performance shouldn't be bad either.

Seeing that there was about an hour left before dinner, Li Long pushed out the bicycle, greeted Sister Yang, and went out to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Li Xiangqian was flipping through the newspapers of this period in the office. Seeing Li Long enter with a smile, he pointed to a chair.

"Section Chief, Happy New Year." Li Long said with a smile, "How was the New Year?"

"Not bad, drank for a few days." Li Xiangqian didn't stand on ceremony with Li Long and told the truth, "Have you been to the Director's place?"

"Not yet."

"Then go greet the leader first. When we had a meeting this morning, the leader was still asking about you." Li Xiangqian waved his hand, "Come back to talk after greeting."

"Alright." Li Long stood up and went to greet Wei Zhuren for the New Year.

On the first day of the New Year, several leaders were reading newspapers. It seems the habit of caring about national affairs hadn't changed much in forty years.

Wei Zhuren kindly asked Li Long how he spent the New Year, then cared about his family and the health of the elderly, and then let him return to the office.

Li Long also visited the deputy director—there were two before, now there's only one.

Returning to the office, Li Long relaxed, poured himself a cup of water, took two sips, and said casually:

"Section Chief, why doesn't our cooperative have a canteen? That way, we wouldn't have to run back to eat at noon, and running back and forth is also troublesome."

"Bachelors are of course not troublesome, but what about those with families? What about those with elderly and children at home? How would that work?" Li Xiangqian glanced at him and shook his head, "Running a canteen isn't such a simple matter. There are always some people who are dissatisfied, and it's easy to cause conflicts."

Alright, it's balance again.

Li Long chatted here for a while, and Li Xiangqian chased him away. He said he still had to go see old connections and was going to lock the door.

Li Long whispered and guessed if he was going to leave early.

Li Xiangqian also whispered back:

"Your sister-in-law made something delicious at home, and there are guests coming today, so I have to hurry back early."

Li Long smiled, went out to push the bicycle, and left the courtyard with Li Xiangqian.

Besides the leaders, he was the only one who could openly be late or leave early.

And others didn't have any opinions; after all, the things Li Long had done were seen by everyone, and they weren't jealous.

Li Long rode the bicycle to the Education Bureau and waited outside for a while before Gu Xiaoxia and the others got off work.

Gu Xiaoxia was a bit surprised that Li Long picked her up with a bicycle. She first greeted her colleagues, then walked back side by side with Li Long, asking while walking:

"Is the food ready?"

"Sister Yang is back." Li Long explained, "When I planned to go out after you left, she and little Fang were outside the door. They didn't knock, saying they didn't know if we still wanted them to come back, and I said yes. She said she wanted to ask for your opinion, and I said you definitely wouldn't have an opinion."

"Hi! She's quite careful..." Gu Xiaoxia shook her head, "She was here with us when little Fang's father passed away, and she didn't know... It's good, if she can come back, the two of us can be more relaxed. They also hope to come back, right?"

"Yes."

The two chatted while walking. When they arrived at the large courtyard, they could already smell the fragrance of food.

Guo Tiebing was at the police station. He knew the situation on Li Long's side quite well and was only envious at the moment. This person was truly happy; his wife had a formal job, the courtyard was large, there was someone specifically to cook, and there were tractors and jeeps.

Life was truly better than average.

Gu Xiaoxia went directly to the kitchen and chatted with Sister Yang for a few words, while Li Long parked the bicycle and went into the main house to take off his overcoat.

When eating, Sister Yang and Han Fang were already quite normal. Li Long felt it was quite good, restoring the feeling from before, and both he and Gu Xiaoxia were saved trouble and worry.

Over the next few days, Li Long tidied up the vegetable plot at home and processed tiger bones. In the middle, he sent two pieces of the processed tiger bones to Liang Donglou's house to let the old man see if they were okay.

After Liang Donglou carefully examined the tiger bones processed by Li Long, he gave a positive opinion.

Li Long had also finished copying the medical notes and returned the original to the Liang family.

He also specifically talked to Liang Wenyu, planning to go pull back a batch of harvesters in early spring, and at the same time, buy the tractor before the ice melted and they went into the mountains to weave the lifting poles.

After the reform and opening up, the first batch of self-purchased tractor operators in rural areas basically bought the tractors and learned by themselves, or learned for two days following other tractors, or learned a few tricks at the tractor factory when buying the tractor, and then drove them back.

Specific driving techniques were all honed in actual combat, so basically, no one would ask "Do you know how to drive a tractor?" before buying a tractor.

And Liang Donglou was a quite rigorous and steady person, and Liang Wenyu followed his father, with a quite steady personality. Li Long believed that without him needing to mention it, after the tractor arrived home, Liang Wenyu would find a relatively large place to practice well.

Northern Xinjiang, if nothing else, is large. At this time, it's not difficult at all to find a place to practice tractors.

At most, it just takes a bit of effort.

Li Long vaguely remembered that in his previous life, he drove a tractor to the field. At that time, there was no suitable place to turn around, so he turned around on the country road. That tractor with a trailer turning around was really a test of technique. He would stall once every two turns, but that's how he honed his technique.

In two lifetimes, in the entire Fourth Team driving small four-wheel tractors, not many had better reversing techniques than him.

In the middle, several company commanders or agricultural machine operators from the Eighth Agricultural Division Corps came to find him, wanting to buy harvesters.

Li Long then realized that the Corps was actually the big buyer of agricultural machinery!

After all, the agricultural mechanization of Northern Xinjiang actually started from the Corps, and then reached the local areas. For a long period of time, the mechanization level of the Corps was stronger than that of the local areas.

It wasn't until later that the Corps' land also started to be divided among employees, and then it was different. The concentrated agricultural machine operators and agricultural machine teams were abolished, and the agricultural machines were sold to individuals, just like the local areas n years ago.

That's a later story.

At the moment, he really had to analyze the agricultural machinery market of the Corps well—after all, just in Shicheng's Eighth Agricultural Division, there were many regiment farms, and there must be hundreds of companies, right? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 626 =====