Chapter 950

After Halimu confirmed that Li Long wanted to build a road, he decided to take him to see Yushanjiang.

Li Long thought that since he had already made the trip and brought gifts for Yushanjiang, he might as well go.

Yushanjiang was in the middle of scattering fodder for the cattle and sheep. Hearing the sound of the jeep, he quickened his pace, spread out the remaining two bundles of hay at his feet, tossed them into the sheep pen, put away his wooden pitchfork, and waited for the jeep to approach.

Li Long drove the jeep onto the flat ground in front of the winter quarters—when they were repairing the winter quarters last year, they had specifically cleared a flat area here to make parking convenient.

Now the tractor was parked on the flat ground; the space was quite large and could still accommodate the jeep.

Li Long and Halimu got out, and Yushanjiang walked over, shook hands to greet them, and then led the two of them into the house to drink milk tea.

"You said you want to build a road? A road leading to the summer pasture?" Upon hearing Li Long's words, Yushanjiang not only failed to show surprise but instead looked somewhat troubled.

Li Long was very puzzled. Previously, when Halimu heard his proposal, although he felt it would be difficult, he at least thought building this road was a very good thing; he just thought the logistics of building the road would be hard to manage.

Li Long assumed Yushanjiang also felt that building the road was too difficult to achieve, so he explained again:

"We will build this road slowly. I will mobilize as much machinery as I can when the time comes. Moreover, we can first clear the road from the winter quarters to the outside world, at least allowing tractors to reach every winter quarter. This way, on one hand, we accumulate experience, and on the other, we make life more convenient for everyone."

"That's not what I mean." Yushanjiang shook his head and said, "There are still some elders in the tribe who cannot fully accept new things. Take this tractor, for example. Our three families bought tractors; Halimu and I are fine because we make the decisions at home. As for Talihar, his grandmother is also okay, but someone has already gone to tell her that this thing destroys our traditions, that it's bad, and that it shouldn't be driven into the mountains."

Li Long was stunned. He suddenly understood what Yushanjiang meant; he had been a bit wishful in his thinking.

"To get rich, first build a road," or "To get rich, have fewer children and plant more trees"—such slogans had been painted everywhere in rural areas for decades, leading to the impression in Li Long's mind that to get rich and live a good life, building roads was the top priority. Only when the roads were cleared could the good things in the mountains get out. Even for a people like the Kazakhs, who would maintain their nomadic habits for the next forty years, good roads would make seasonal migrations more convenient.

However, he had overlooked one thing: he was willing to build the road for them, but were they willing to accept it?

Doing good deeds is a duty, but doing them under the guise of being good for others while disregarding their wishes is not doing good—it might just be grandstanding.

Li Long felt a bit depressed and somewhat disappointed.

This situation had occurred once before, two years ago, when he brought radios for the people in the tribe. Fortunately, the matter wasn't serious then, and since they could hear Kazakh-language broadcasts on the radios, the elders in the tribe slowly accepted them.

Now, talking about the road and the tractors, Li Long's plan was actually the same. First, build the road to the winter quarters, then slowly buy tractors for every household; at the very least, hauling hay, coal, and supplies would be much more convenient than relying solely on horses.

But what if they just wanted to keep things the way they were and preferred using horses?

Although looking back forty years later, the elders eventually chose to accept it. For example, in his previous life, Li Long had seen a vlogger named "Adaxi," a Uyghur young man whose content consisted of doing farm work every day with his partner, Tair, and his grandfather.

The farm work he did was similar to what Li Long was doing now in the eighties, and many people loved watching it.

There was even a Uyghur girl named Xiao Ta who imitated this content.

The grandfather in those videos was very open-minded; he could ride a motorcycle and drive a tractor.

So Li Long subconsciously felt that once the elders felt the convenience in their lives, they should accept new things.

But just as it was discussed in "My Altay," if everything changed, would the tradition be gone?

This was a quite contradictory situation; how could one balance both?

Li Long suddenly realized that the grandfather in those videos was only in his seventies; subtracting forty years, wouldn't that make him the same age as Yushanjiang?

In other words, the older generation of herdsmen might not accept it, and it wouldn't be until their generation passed that the people after them would slowly accept it?

Having finally come up with a project that could both make life convenient for the herdsmen and realize his own plan, only to be stuck here, Li Long truly felt some regret.

"Don't be discouraged." Halimu patted Li Long and said, "Most people in the tribe will still accept new things. Especially the young people. Think about it, the young and strong men who come over to help with the hay in the autumn, who among them doesn't hope that the tribe could have more tractors and hay mowers?

In the past, mowing hay was so tiring. Not only was mowing tiring, but bundling the hay and using horses to haul it to the winter quarters was also troublesome. Now, with harvesters and tractors, mowing hay is like child's play; it's so convenient!

Take our three families, for example; with tractors, hauling coal, things, and people is much faster than with horses! Although the elders have opinions, the ones doing the work are the young and strong; everyone is still willing to build the road and willing to buy tractors."

After Halimu said this, Yushanjiang also noticed Li Long's mood. He smiled and said, "I only said it was difficult, but I didn't say this difficulty couldn't be overcome. Let me put it this way: everything you've done, the people in our tribe have seen it all.

Regarding this road-building matter, we won't let you put in the effort alone; every family in our tribe will definitely contribute. As for whether we can build it, I will gather everyone to explain the situation. We will build it; we definitely will. Everyone knows that once the road is built, it will be convenient for everyone. There will be some elders who oppose it, but I will talk to them."

When Yushanjiang said this, Li Long felt a bit better. He also knew that Yushanjiang must be under a lot of pressure, so he said, "Let's see how it goes first. If it really doesn't work..."

"Even if it really doesn't work, we still have to build it!" Halimu, as a representative of the young and strong faction, said firmly, "The road to the summer pasture is so terrible. It was one thing when we didn't have the conditions before. Now that we have the conditions, we support you in building it! Of course, you shouldn't be the only one building the road; our tribe must also contribute money and labor. Although we don't have bulldozers, we have people. Getting the young and strong together to cut trees and move stones is still doable."

Li Long smiled and said, "Don't worry, there will definitely be no shortage of work for you all when the time comes."

Returning from the mountains, Li Long's mood was somewhat complicated; he had been a bit presumptuous.

Right now, the priority was the New Year, then the meetings. There was still more than a month until the start of spring; let's see how things look then. If it doesn't work, he'll just put the plan aside for now.

A notice was posted outside the procurement station: the holiday would start on February 4th, which happened to be the Beginning of Spring. In other words, this Lunar Year of the Tiger had no spring at either end.

The sound of firecrackers could be heard from time to time on the street, along with the screams or laughter of children; it was unclear whether it was mischief or if they had been startled by the firecrackers.

On the night before the Beginning of Spring, Gu Bo Yuan couldn't wait to return to the team, but Li Long persuaded him to stay, saying that if he went back today, even if the stove was set up, it wouldn't heat the room, and he would freeze.

Gu Bo Yuan reluctantly agreed after hearing this. Worried that he might sneak off, Li Long even specifically escorted him back to the procurement station to stay before returning.

"You're such a grown man and still not worry-free." Gu Xiaoxia complained.

"Your dad has been wanting to go back for a long time. Think about it, he earned quite a bit of money last year, but he couldn't talk to us about it. Sun Jia Qiang knows, but who else can he brag to? Doesn't he have to go back to the team and have a good talk with others?"

"My dad can't go telling everyone about our family's savings, right?" Gu Xiaoxia couldn't sit still anymore. "We have to remind him..."

"Don't worry about that. Your dad will probably just tell others about how many things he collected and how much more he's seen. He knows how much money he earned; he won't mention the specific amount." Li Long smiled. "Right now, he just needs to find people of his own age to chat with, and we don't have anyone here."

Gu Xiaoxia nodded, thinking that made sense.

She had colleagues at work every day, and Li Long ran around everywhere, so he wasn't anxious at all. But her father had stayed in the village for nearly twenty years; now that he was out, he only chatted with Sun Jia Qiang occasionally, so he must be anxious.

Early the next morning, Gu Bo Yuan rode his bicycle to the courtyard, knocked on the door, and after seeing Li Long, only said, "I'm leaving," without even entering the door, and then pedaled away on his bicycle.

Li Long looked at his bicycle, which was packed full; clearly, he had also prepared plenty of New Year goods.

Sun Jia Qiang also had these few days off and was peacefully preparing for the New Year in his own small courtyard. Tie Lanhua didn't celebrate this New Year before, but now she was actively preparing for it with Sun Jia Qiang.

After they got married last year, Tie Lanhua rode her bicycle everywhere to collect goods during the winter. Gu Bo Yuan had told Li Long that in just these three-plus months, Tie Lanhua had collected over a hundred, nearly two hundred hides, earning at least over a thousand yuan.

The Tie family really lost out by cutting ties with this daughter.

Of course, for Sun Jia Qiang, it was a huge gain.

Before the procurement station closed, Li Long took inventory and gave Sun Jia Qiang a red envelope with three hundred yuan as a year-end bonus.

Sun Jia Qiang was also very grateful. He told Li Long that Tie Lanhua was pregnant and that by the autumn of '86, they would be a family of three. Li Long offered his congratulations.

In this day and age, although the country had a family planning policy, it seemed very easy for young couples to conceive after marriage.

Watching the people around him start their own families, Li Long thought to himself that time was passing too quickly. He himself already had two sons!

It was a pity about Gu Xiaoxia's status; otherwise, even if it meant paying a fine, he would have to have one or two more.

Next, Li Long began running around preparing New Year goods. For the New Year, their family naturally had to go to the village. Sister Yang and Han Fang had taken time these past two days to go to the courtyard in front of Wuyi Road to clean and heat the house. They would be spending the New Year there.

Because Mingming and Haohao could already walk, taking care of the children wasn't as troublesome as before. Although they needed someone to follow them, Li Long didn't have that much to do now, so he just brought them along.

He and Gu Xiaoxia had also discussed that when Mingming and Haohao were a bit older and could be sent to daycare, they would have to let Sister Yang pursue her own career.

Although having such a big sister at home made life very convenient, they couldn't tie her down for a lifetime.

So these past few days, Li Long spent most of his time bringing the children to buy things. Fortunately, there weren't many people on the street now, and Mingming and Haohao were quite well-behaved in the car and didn't move around recklessly.

As the smell of gunpowder in the air grew stronger, the New Year was getting closer and closer.

In the mountains, Yushanjiang also began to gather people, preparing to hold a big meeting.

Because this road-building matter concerned the entire tribe, Yushanjiang asked as many people from each family as possible to come and participate. He thought that if he only let the heads of the families come, those elders would most likely not agree.

So he had to pull more people in, at least let those who went down the mountain to mow hay every year participate; these people would definitely support building the road. Only they knew that once the road was cleared and tractors could be used, mowing and hauling hay would be much easier in the future.

He and Halimu notified each family one by one. The meeting was set for February 9th, which was the day the Han people celebrated the New Year... Yushanjiang didn't know that this day was the Han New Year; he just picked the date randomly. When he notified each family, he also mentioned this, letting everyone have some mental preparation.

Although the tribe held meetings every year, most were gatherings for Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, or Nowruz, mainly to celebrate the festivals together.

Meetings like this in the winter were rare, so the herdsmen in the tribe were quite happy.

After all, there really were no entertainment activities in the middle of winter, and it was very boring. Although there were radios, humans were social animals after all; just facing the few people at home every day would really get annoying.

Once the meeting was announced, young and old alike dug out their decent clothes, preparing to attend this big meeting.

The location of the meeting was outside Yushanjiang's house; his winter quarters couldn't hold so many people. So Yushanjiang had long ago called Halimu, Talihar, and a few other young and strong men to his home to shovel away the snow, fetch firewood, light a bonfire, and set up a stove. The sheep needed to be slaughtered that day and put directly into the pot after slaughtering so it would taste delicious.

While Li Long was tidying up here, someone came to pay an early New Year visit.

Meng Hai.

"I know you go back to the village every year, so we came early." Meng Hai arrived in a tractor the day before New Year's Eve. "I came by to pick up some New Year goods while I was at it."

Meng Hai brought Li Long a skinned wild boar, a basket of eggs, and four large roosters that had been plucked and cleaned.

"The wild boar was hunted at the end of last month. A group broke into the fields; I guess they couldn't find food in the mountains, so I led some men to hunt them, and we kept one. These chickens and eggs are from my own home; don't look down on them."

"How could I look down on them?" Li Long invited Meng Hai into the house, but Meng Hai wouldn't stay, saying he was in a hurry to buy New Year goods and that there were still people in the village waiting at the department store.

Li Long took a box of pastries from the room and stuffed it into his hands, then went to the greenhouse in the back to pick some peppers and eggplants, wrapped them up, and told him to take them.

"Hey, Comrade Li Long, this stuff is rare! To be able to eat fresh vegetables in the middle of winter... Hey, I really hit the jackpot this time!" Meng Hai was very excited to see the fresh peppers and eggplants.

"We set up a greenhouse at home and harvested some." Li Long explained. "Those pastries were brought back from Yanjing; take them back for the children to eat."

"Yanjing? Comrade Li Long, you went to Yanjing?" Meng Hai was greatly surprised. "When was this?"

"I went in mid-to-late January to take the kids to see Tiananmen."

"Hey, I'll have to find time to come over and hear you talk about it." Meng Hai was in a hurry today, so he said, "Then I'll wish your family a Happy New Year in advance. I'm leaving."

After saying that, he wrapped the things up well with a cloth, especially the peppers, which couldn't be allowed to freeze.

As the tractor drove away, Li Long let Mingming and Haohao play in the courtyard while he moved these things into the storage room.

Gu Xiaoxia was off for New Year's Eve; this was work, but actually, there was basically nothing to do. Once the morning was over, everyone left.

Sister Yang and Han Fang had already gone to the southern courtyard, so Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia loaded the things into the car, drove out, locked the gate, and went to the Fourth Team.

The sound of firecrackers, one after another, announced that the New Year was coming. Now the lives of the common people were getting better and better, and the New Year was becoming more and more lively. Passing through villages on the road, he saw some children who had already put on new clothes. Hearing the sound of firecrackers, small firecrackers were rare; there were more electric flash crackers and sky-rockets, and occasionally a loud "thunder" cracker would attract quite a few people.

Li Long and the others rushed from the county town to the Fourth Team amidst the sound of firecrackers all the way.

The firecracker sound in the Fourth Team was especially loud. Last year, the people in the village earned quite a bit of money, so they were quite generous when buying firecrackers for the New Year. At this time, it wasn't just boys setting off firecrackers; some girls followed the boys to watch, and some simply lit them themselves.

On the main road of several residential areas, there were groups of children playing. Today was special; there were no children playing with spinning tops or sliding horses anymore; everyone was setting off firecrackers.

When Li Long and the others arrived at the Li family courtyard, they happened to see a few children coming out of the courtyard with somewhat unhappy expressions.

"Mingwa, what's wrong? Where's Qiangqiang? Why isn't he playing with you?" Li Long parked the jeep and got out to ask.

"Qiangqiang said he wants to study hard to get into university and won't come out to play." Mingwa's voice was quite loud. "His dad told him to come out and play today since it's a holiday, but he won't come out..."

Every year, the Li Qiang family's firecrackers were the most numerous and varied. Every time, Li Long could bring back many new fireworks from Wucheng. In the eyes of these children, Li Qiang was unrivaled, at least in terms of toys and firecrackers.

Today, Li Qiang wouldn't come out, and their interest was immediately halved.

"I'll go talk to him; he should have a good time today." Li Long didn't expect Li Qiang's persistence in studying wasn't just a three-minute heat; it had been at least ten days by now, and he was still studying!

He was quite impressed by this nephew.

He wondered if Li Juan was also studying together?

Hearing Li Long's words, Mingwa and the others immediately became happy.

Looking at these children, their pockets were all bulging; clearly, they had quite a harvest today.

Hearing Li Long's voice, Li Jianguo opened the door first, followed by Liang Yuemei, who was wearing an apron. Then she hurriedly held Haohao, who had gotten out of the car, while Gu Xiaoxia held Mingming, and the two of them entered the house one after another.

Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang also came out of the east room. After greeting them, Li Long asked his eldest brother:

"Juan and Qiangqiang are still studying? It's New Year's Eve, and they're not relaxing? Let them go play."

"Those two won't go." Li Jianguo smiled. "One is pushing the other; they're both very capable!"

"I'll go talk to them; studying also requires a balance of work and rest." Li Long entered the house and saw Li Juan and Li Qiang studying.

"I told Qiangqiang to go play, but he insists on not going!" Li Juan spoke first.

"You two go together, change into new clothes, and go play." Li Long said commandingly. "Studying doesn't depend on this little while; there's plenty of time in the future."

The two children really listened to Li Long and changed their clothes to go play.

"I'm the father, but I'm not as effective as you, the uncle." Li Jianguo joked.

Li Long just smiled. (End of chapter)