Chapter 959: The road was repaired, and the notice had arrived

When Li Xiangqian brought the people from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative into the mountains for the second time, he was surprised to find that in the week he had been away, Li Long had already led Meng Hai and the others to build a road leading to the four winter shelters.

After being leveled and compacted by the Dongfanghong-75 tractor and pressed over many times by the small four-wheeled tractors, these paths already had the appearance of proper mountain roads.

In fact, that wasn't all; in just these few days, Bieke and several other families had already used tractors to haul the wool they had sheared to the pastoral team's outpost to sell.

In the past, the road could only accommodate horses, not even horse-drawn carts; selling wool meant transporting it trip by trip on horseback, which was very troublesome. Now, things were much better.

As the tractors drove over it trip after trip, the road surface became more and more solid, looking more and more like a real road.

Li Long thought about taking some time to haul some sand and gravel to pave the road, so that even after Halimu and the others moved to the summer pastures, this road wouldn't be quickly swallowed by shrubs and grass, and of course, it wouldn't become too muddy when it rained.

This time, the truck drove deep into the winter shelters; the completed road was like a string, connecting these winter shelters like pearls.

"Hey, the scenery in the mountains is really different!" Some employees jumped off the truck and admired the natural beauty of the Tianshan Mountains. "It's too beautiful!"

"Yo, Codonopsis, and Fritillaria, wow! And mushrooms, great, great..." Someone excitedly discovered good things in the grass.

Others went over to take a look.

The people brought by Meng Hai and the others had already started working.

"Alright, alright, stop embarrassing yourselves here! We are here to work, not for a spring outing!" Li Xiangqian felt a bit embarrassed, mainly because Ma Xiao Yan was still following along. He greeted them loudly: "Alright, alright! Everyone hurry up and line up, according to the teams and tasks assigned last time, hurry up and gather with your tools!"

Everyone's initiative was still very strong, and they soon lined up. Li Xiangqian still let Li Long assign the tasks.

Li Long didn't stand on ceremony either; he divided the people from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative into two teams again, one team to load sand and gravel for the small four-wheeled tractors to pave the road, and one team to cut the shrubs along the way.

The other tasks were assigned to the people brought by Meng Hai; they were already used to working, so there was no need to change.

"I'll make it clear to you today, the last time we came back, the herdsmen welcomed us, and the food was good. But today they all have their own work to do, and they are busy now, so we will solve our own lunch." Li Xiangqian said to his people again, "Whatever our people make for lunch, we eat; don't be picky here. Do you all understand?"

"Understood!" The employees replied in unison.

He pointed out three female comrades to help with the cooking. The winter shelter point they arrived at today was Ye Erjiang's home. Ye Erjiang was over forty years old, and his sheep were being sheared. According to what Yushanjiang and Li Long had discussed, there was no need to slaughter sheep at the following winter shelters, but when Li Long and Li Xiangqian arrived and finished talking, and the three female comrades came over to help, Ye Erjiang took a knife to the sheep pen, dragged out a sheep, tied its legs, and neatly slaughtered it with one knife.

Li Long couldn't stop him in time.

Ye Erjiang's Mandarin wasn't very good; when Li Long went over to persuade him, he just smiled and didn't respond. Li Long had no choice but to let him be, but just as he turned his head, he realized something was wrong. This Duosen put the slaughtered sheep on the ground and then went back into the pen to drag out another sheep. Li Long stopped him no matter what.

"One, one is enough. We aren't eating like that day today; with this meat and rice, making a pilaf is enough."

If they weren't eating hand-grabbed meat, but just pilaf or Narin, one sheep was really enough for so many people.

Ye Erjiang wasn't as strong as Li Long. After being stopped by Li Long, he had no choice but to skin the sheep and process the internal organs first.

The three female comrades came over to help, mainly to pull the sheep's legs. After Ye Erjiang sliced open the sheep's belly, they went to wash the offal. Once the sheep offal was cleaned, stir-frying a big pot of sheep offal would be absolutely excellent.

Li Long told Ye Erjiang again not to slaughter any more sheep, and he specifically went to the jeep, took a bag of rice and a bag of flour from the car, brought them to the winter shelter, and told Ye Erjiang that this was to exchange for this sheep.

Ye Erjiang blushed and said no, but Li Long said this was the rule, and now everyone had to listen to him.

Ye Erjiang stopped talking.

According to Li Long's idea, since the families in the winter shelters had already handed over their materials to him to exchange for road construction funds, all expenses, including meals, had to come from this.

The last time the people from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative came to work, the three sheep slaughtered at that time were compensated by the rice and flour brought by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and this time was the same.

Ma Xiao Yan came this time to do a supplementary report. She had already received the transfer letter from the Autonomous Region Ethnic Affairs Committee regarding Li Long's road construction this time, and she had reported everything she knew about Li Long—when reporting to the public, the Supply and Marketing Cooperative was added, but when actually reporting upwards, Ma Xiao Yan told the truth: this matter was mainly done by Li Long.

Of course, the Supply and Marketing Cooperative provided materials, and there were indeed people who went up to work, and more than once, so she was reporting truthfully.

Ma Xiao Yan knew that this time was definitely not simple. The last time Li Long won the Autonomous Region's Advanced Individual award, the Ethnic Affairs Committee didn't ask for such detailed materials.

Now that things had changed, there was only one truth...

Ma Xiao Yan looked at Li Long, who was still on the hillside directing everyone to work, and occasionally went over to help cut trees or move stones, her eyes slightly dazed.

Was he preparing to receive a national-level commendation?

Thinking about it, it was normal. How many things had Li Long done in these few years? Just the time, money, and materials spent on these things were enough to create several ten-thousand-yuan households.

But looking at what Li Long had paid, he didn't seem to want any reward at all. He wouldn't even let the herdsmen slaughter an extra sheep.

Ma Xiao Yan could also see that these herdsmen truly regarded Li Long as a friend; the way they looked at Li Long was different from how they looked at her and the others.

When Li Long came over, Ma Xiao Yan took her camera and went over to tell him about this matter.

The Autonomous Region hadn't notified them yet, but Ma Xiao Yan's intention was to give Li Long a heads-up so he could be mentally prepared.

"What? National-level?" Li Long was also startled. One of the important reasons he built the road was for this, but he thought it would take at least a year or two, right? After all, construction started in April, so there was no way to catch up with this year's.

He didn't expect the Autonomous Region to have already reported it.

"It should be that he was reported as a candidate. As for whether he can be selected in the end, it's hard to say for now." Ma Xiao Yan said, "Maybe only after being selected will there be an official notice."

"Understood, thank you." Li Long was sincerely grateful to Ma Xiao Yan, "Regardless of whether I can be selected, at least I have to thank you for this matter. Without your reports time after time, the things I've done wouldn't be known by the higher-ups, and I wouldn't be commended."

Li Long wasn't a hypocrite; he didn't say so many big words at this time. He did these things firstly for the lives of the herdsmen friends, and secondly, he did need some titles to add a layer of protection for himself.

Now it seemed that his goal was about to be realized, so he was naturally very grateful to Ma Xiao Yan.

Ma Xiao Yan smiled and said: "This is my job, it's what I should do."

She said this from the bottom of her heart, because of this matter, the leaders of the propaganda department were very satisfied and had planned to let her serve as the deputy director of the office—although this position wasn't officially on the payroll, it was a temporary position in the department, but it had a certain amount of power.

Ma Xiao Yan was also very happy.

Was this mutual achievement?

Lunch was pilaf, and there was also stir-fried sheep offal. Although it wasn't as substantial as the hand-grabbed meat eaten last time, the people from Qingshuihe Village and the Supply and Marketing Cooperative were all very happy. After all, they were hungry from working, their bodies needed it, and with so many people together, the food itself was delicious.

This was also why so many people were keen on picnics. After finishing work in the afternoon, the Supply and Marketing Cooperative people went back first, and Li Long still had to pay Meng Hai and the others their wages before leaving. Although Ma Xiao Yan didn't really want to take the truck, Li Long still had things to do, so she had to leave first.

Li Long himself took a long time to calm down. Although it was hard to say whether he could be selected this year, at least this was a good start.

By the time he returned to the county, it was almost dark, but Li Long was still quite excited. In any case, the things he had done had been recognized, and there was positive feedback, which was a good thing.

At night, after Mingming and Haohao fell asleep, Li Long couldn't help but tell Gu Gu Xiaoxia about this. Gu Gu Xiaoxia was also a bit surprised. She knew Li Long's plan, but she didn't expect that it had only just started to be implemented, and there was already a possibility of achieving the goal?

That shouldn't be right?

But thinking about it, the higher-ups should have been paying attention to the things Li Long had done over the years, which was why there was the current result.

"No matter how good it is, this is a good thing." Gu Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, "It seems that the road was built correctly."

"Yes. In less than ten days, all the roads to the winter shelters will be opened up. By then, the road construction here will come to an end, and the next step will be to build the road to the summer pastures. This is a long-term job, it won't be finished in a short while, let's do it slowly."

Building the road to the winter shelters was easier, after all, the main roads were those that the herdsmen often used for horses. Now all that needed to be done was to widen them and make some steep slopes flat or gentler.

But the road to the summer pastures wasn't that easy; it required cutting trees, building water-crossing road surfaces, and the length of the widened road was dozens or hundreds of times longer.

After all, Li Long roughly calculated that the actual distance of building these roads to the winter shelters didn't exceed ten kilometers.

But the road to the summer pastures was at least over one hundred kilometers, and the terrain in the mountains was complex; the further in, the harder it was to walk, which was very troublesome.

Even if it was the same as the current road to the winter shelters, it would take ten months to build.

But Meng Hai and the others only repaired it during the slack farming season. If it was really the busy farming season, Li Long couldn't let them put down the work in the fields to work here; there was no need for that.

So Li Long's plan was that it would be a good thing if it could be finished within three years.

Now it was almost the busy farming season, so Li Long's plan was to wait until the road to the winter shelters was finished, pause the road construction plan, and let each family go back to finish the work in the fields first.

He himself also needed to rest, and Halimu and the others would most likely be preparing to move pastures too.

In mid-April, the Fritillaria in the mountains had already grown. When Gu Bo Yuan came over for lunch at noon, he said that some people had already started selling fresh Fritillaria to the purchasing station, but the size of the Fritillaria was generally still a bit small and hadn't fully grown.

"Now these people are starting to use unscrupulous means to make money." Gu Bo Yuan sighed and said, "In the past, they all picked the big Fritillaria to dig, but now they dig both big and small ones. This is planning to clear the mountain."

Li Long couldn't say anything about this matter. When there are a hundred people, there are all kinds of people. Draining the pond to catch all the fish happens at any time. Digging all the big and small Fritillaria here, going to Yili to pick snow lotuses and digging out the roots, going to Aletai to pick wood ears and turning the mountain over...

It was all a one-time thing, that feeling of "after I die, let the flood come." Anyway, they might not come again, or anyway, leaving it behind would be cheap for others, so it's better to make it extinct...

The inferior roots of human nature were clearly revealed in these aspects.

Just like the livestock mentioned before that dragged the potatoes left in the herdsmen's grazing circle back to feed their own livestock.

A few days later, Li Xiangqian from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative organized another group of employees to go into the mountains to work. Just on this day, the remaining road to the winter shelters was all opened up.

The work was done quickly, and it was finished in the mid-afternoon. Meng Hai and the others were still a bit dissatisfied, as they wouldn't be able to get a full day's wages this way.

Li Long directly told Meng Hai to tell the others that today was still a full day's wages, and then they would have a holiday. After this busy farming season, when the herdsmen in the mountains started to move pastures, they would repair the next road.

Meng Hai and the others were also very diligent in repairing the road during this period. There were one or two who were lazy or wanted to go into the mountains to dig Fritillaria and find mushrooms during breaks, but they were also scolded by Meng Hai, and the next day they were replaced, so the people who came to work next had no extra actions.

After working for more than half a month, everyone had saved a lot of money, but to be honest, it was really tiring, after all, it was all moving stones and digging soil.

Even if farmers work in the fields, they don't work like this. Some work in the fields isn't physical labor; it takes time to grind.

Working on road construction here was strenuous and grinding; earning this was hard-earned money.

Yushanjiang slaughtered two sheep this time to entertain everyone. During the lunch break, he said to Li Long:

"The wool is almost all sheared and sold. These two days we are all washing the sheep. After washing the sheep, it's almost time to prepare for moving pastures. To be honest, building the road this year saved us a lot of trouble, because the road is repaired, and each family's materials are almost ready. The next step is to tidy up the winter shelters, and then we will walk into the mountains."

"After the road is repaired, there is also a trouble, which is that it will be easier for others to find the winter shelters." Li Long had thought about this problem before, but this was like opening a window for ventilation and inevitably letting flies in; there was no way to avoid it.

"It's okay," Yushanjiang said with a smile, "The winter shelters are in the mountains. Even if the road wasn't widened, those people would still find them. If they have nowhere to go during their usual evening rest, we welcome them to stay in the winter shelters, as long as they don't cause damage.

Besides, after you reinforced these winter shelters last year, they aren't easy to damage, so we aren't worried."

Li Long thought that he could only think this way. Kazakh herdsmen are usually relatively optimistic and hospitable. Even decades later, when tourism developed greatly and some traditions changed, they were also adapting to change, but the major aspects didn't change much.

Yushanjiang said while drinking meat soup: "In the past, we lived according to the living habits of the older generation, and we didn't think about how to change. After meeting you, our lives in these few years have really had very unusual changes, and we even drove tractors to haul things.

In the past, I really didn't even think about it! Now you are helping us build the road to the summer pastures. I told you before that some elders didn't agree, but once this road to the winter shelters was built, it became convenient for everyone to sell wool and haul materials, and the thinking of these elders changed one by one.

We are now looking forward to you being able to build the road to the summer pastures. In this way, moving pastures will be much more convenient. In the past, it took three or five days to arrive, but maybe after the road is built, it will take one or two days. And if there is anything, driving a tractor back is also very fast!"

"Well, don't worry, at most three years, this road will be built!" Li Long said confidently. He was also looking forward to seeing the scenery inside and those cute animals after this road was built and he went into the inner mountains to take a look.

"Don't worry, I can't just let you build it. After we move pastures into the summer pastures, we will hunt well and look for those valuable things. We can't put in effort to build the road, but it's also fine to find good things to exchange for money. This is a road that truly makes us convenient, and we will definitely work hard!"

When herdsmen move pastures, the help Li Long can provide is to prepare materials for them, but this time Li Long led people to work, and Yushanjiang and the others drove tractors themselves to the pastoral team's outpost to send wool, and then prepared food and other things there.

The people at the outpost were also much more polite this year, taking the initiative to help the herdsmen. I don't know why their temperament changed.

After the work was finished, the Dongfanghong-75 tractor was also let Meng Hai drive back to Qingshuihe Village first. If it was left here, after Yushanjiang and the others left, I don't know if the people entering the mountains would damage it.

Li Long still didn't want to take risks with things worth more than forty thousand yuan.

A few days later, Yushanjiang and the others drove the three tractors to the county and put them in the purchasing station for Li Long to watch. They were already prepared to move pastures.

Li Long originally intended to see them off, but Yushanjiang and the others didn't let him, and plus Li Long also received news here, so he didn't have time to see them off.

In late April, the Autonomous Region sent an official notice that Li Long, as an advanced individual in ethnic unity, would go to Yanjing in May to participate in the national commendation, and the notice asked him to make various preparations.

Hey, it's done! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 960 =====