Chapter 971

Ma Xiao Yan brought a camera, as well as a pen and notebook. Her plan was that once she reached the place where the road was being repaired, she would first take some photos of the labor, and then interview some of the people repairing the road about their thoughts.

This matter was second nature to her, so her mindset was very relaxed when she came over today; this was a very easy task to complete. Li Long took Ma Xiao Yan to the shop selling naan, bought all twenty-some naan that had just been baked today, placed them on the car seat, and then continued forward.

Ma Xiao Yan saw Li Long and the young man selling naan chat for a few sentences, and in the car, she asked Li Long:

"Comrade Li Long, do you know each other?"

"We know each other. I often come to his place to buy naan. He just said that as soon as I come, those people who usually get up later to buy naan are disappointed because I bought out the first batch of naan from the oven this morning, so these people have to wait later for their breakfast."

"How many people are going to repair the road? Is this naan enough?" Ma Xiao Yan asked.

"There are twenty-some people. They bring their own dry rations; the naan I bought is a supplement. The labor intensity of road repair is quite high, and some people's dry rations aren't enough to eat, so the naan I bought can serve as an emergency." Li Long said while driving, "Yesterday we hit a wild boar and added a meal at noon; today I don't know if we'll have such good luck."

"You even hit a wild boar yesterday?" Ma Xiao Yan asked in surprise, "Is it big? I see you are very skilled at hunting."

"It's alright, just happened to run into it." Li Long smiled, "The Tianshan Mountains are very large. Although there are many wild animals, they are distributed quite widely. If you run into them, they are easy to hit; if you don't, then it's hard to say."

Li Long's meaning was that if he could hit one, of course, they would improve their meals; if he couldn't, they would only have dry naan to gnaw on.

Ma Xiao Yan naturally had no objections. At this time, everyone's standard of living was still relatively low, and gnawing on dry naan while out on a mission was a very normal situation. Occasionally having a packet of pickled mustard or salted vegetables was already considered quite rich.

Of course, she still hoped Li Long could hit some game; in that case, the picnic standard would be raised quite a bit.

Who doesn't want to eat a good meal?

Even thirty or forty years later, a considerable portion of the money earned by Chinese people from work is spent on eating, so the so-called Engel coefficient does not apply to Chinese people. After all, for most countries in Europe and America, food is just food and cannot be called gourmet; once assets reach a certain level of richness, they do other things.

Greater China is different. From the south to the north, how many cuisines are there? With convenient communication, every city might have more than a dozen cuisines and all kinds of gourmet shops, so after earning money, don't you have to eat a good meal?

"How long does this road repair plan to last? Is there a plan?" Ma Xiao Yan still focused on work. As the car drove into the mountains, she had already started the interview.

"The preliminary plan is to work for half a month first and repair a few kilometers of road—yesterday we could repair three or four hundred meters in one day, so we can repair one kilometer of road in three or four days. We are repairing it now, summarizing experience and lessons while repairing, and it will be easier to repair later."

"Are there any difficulties encountered at present?" Ma Xiao Yan asked while taking notes rapidly.

Because it was shorthand, the handwriting was not good-looking at this time, so she looked up to observe Li Long in front while writing, not wanting him to see her handwriting at this time.

"Not yet, but I estimate it will appear soon. Road repair, after all, cannot be all smooth sailing." Li Long smiled and said.

When they arrived at Qingshuihe Village, there were children waiting who told Li Long that Meng Hai and the others had already entered the mountains, so Li Long started the car and continued forward.

"Company Commander Meng is quite thoughtful." Ma Xiao Yan sighed with emotion, "He even knew to specifically remind you, this saves time."

"Company Commander Meng has high emotional intelligence." Li Long explained casually, and regretted it after explaining.

"Emotional intelligence?" Ma Xiao Yan caught this word as expected, "I have heard of IQ, what is this emotional intelligence?"

"It's just about how to conduct oneself in society, doing things thoroughly." Li Long explained simply, "Some people can't think of these things. Just like IQ, doing the same homework problems, some people know one method of solution, and those with high IQ know several methods."

Alright, this explanation is about the same.

The word IQ itself is foreign. Ma Xiao Yan thought about the word emotional intelligence, and later felt, does this count as "sophistication" or "slickness"?

When the jeep entered the mountain pass, Li Long looked ahead and said: "It seems like it rained in the mountains last night; the road surface is all wet."

"Yes, looking at the dew on the shrub leaves, it should be the raindrops left over from yesterday, right?" Ma Xiao Yan also discovered this point.

"Then we must hurry over and take a look to see if the road has been affected." Li Long stepped on the accelerator and increased the speed.

When the jeep drove to the road repair site, he found that Meng Hai had already brought people to repair the road.

The method of road repair was the same as yesterday, still cutting trees in front, dragging trees behind, and the tractor widening and compacting the road surface.

Because it rained last night, the road surface was a bit wet and muddy, and stepping on it would bring up a foot of mud.

Although those who came to work complained, none of them looked angry; most were just joking, and the work that needed to be done still had to be done. Meng Hai didn't drive the tractor, coordinating back and forth, and shouting from time to time for everyone to pay attention to safety.

After Li Long's jeep stopped, Meng Hai walked over with a stick in his hand and said:

"Comrade Li Long is here... Clerk Ma is also here?"

"You guys came early." Li Long took the stick from Meng Hai's hand, and while poking the mud rolled into the four wheels of the jeep, he said, "It's been over an hour since you started, right?"

"It rained yesterday, so we must come early. Once it rains, the efficiency of work drops. If we don't come early, today's task won't be completed." Meng Hai explained, "Just like this, if it continues like this, it seems we won't be able to reach yesterday's engineering volume today." As he spoke, he also found a stick from the side to help Li Long poke the mud stuck on the jeep's wheels.

"It's okay, weather reasons, no need to rush especially." Li Long smiled and said, "We don't need to be so mechanical in our work; we must be flexible when we should be flexible."

After poking the mud rolled on one wheel clean, he looked around and said: "In a while, when the sun rises, the mud on the road surface will soon dry out, and work will be fine. However, looking at the south, it is still raining; there might be a flood. The road we are repairing is on the river beach, so we must pay attention to flood prevention. If water comes down, we must hurry to call people to the side."

"Understood." Meng Hai said, "This river beach is flat, so we really must pay attention."

The road chosen by the herdsmen for transhumance has been tested for hundreds of years. Every year when transhumance happens, the snow just begins to melt and has not yet formed snowmelt floods, so this road is very safe.

Moreover, the chosen road is as flat and spacious as possible, and the terrain is conducive to the passage of a large number of livestock, so at least when resting in the middle, it won't let hundreds or thousands of livestock crowd into a narrow mountain gully.

Such places are usually flat river gullies.

After the transhumance is finished, by June, when the snowmelt flood comes and washes this place, this matter will not have much impact on the transhumance.

But it has a great impact on road repair.

In the eighties, information and news were very underdeveloped. The floods everyone saw were nothing more than the water rising in the river and the reservoir discharging floodwater.

Li Long had seen the scenes of people camping by the river being washed away by suddenly appearing floods in short videos; he knew the power of this flood.

But Meng Hai and the others didn't know, so Li Long was still quite concerned.

Not to mention those short videos, just at the beginning of the next century, a flood in the southern mountain gully of Wucheng washed away several relatively important people at that time—if the awareness of prevention is not strong, it is easy for accidents to happen.

So Li Long originally planned to go to the wooden cabin to take a look, but at this time he let Ma Xiao Yan interview by herself, while he carried his gun and walked upstream along the river beach, wanting to see the situation upstream and if there were any signs of a flood.

Walking a few kilometers upstream, he didn't see a single hair of wild animals, and of course, there were no signs of a flood. The further upstream, the smaller the water flow. This transhumance road is a large gully, and from time to time, a small stream of water would converge from the side branch gullies, adding a little momentum to the water in this gully.

The sound of all the converging water flows was not loud, and it was also very calm. The color of the water was also clear, without any signs of a flood.

Li Long's heart was put down a little, and then he began to expand his exploration range, but after expanding the range, he still didn't find any wild animals.

He guessed it should be that yesterday's gunshots scared those guys away. Helpless, Li Long had no choice but to run back.

Just now, seeing Li Long carrying a gun and walking forward, many people repairing the road were in a pretty good mood. They felt Li Long should have gone hunting. Thinking that there should be something good to eat at noon, but after more than an hour, Li Long came back, still carrying a gun in his hand, and his backpack didn't look much more bloated; obviously, there was no harvest.