Li Long asked Yang Yongqiang to think about it. This matter was a big deal after all, and it was normal for him to be unable to make a decision for a while.
Li Long left Yang Yongqiang's house and was pushing his bicycle to ride. Yang Yongqiang ran out of the house, caught up with Li Long and said:
"Brother Long, I think so. By the time the two Uncle, aren't they going to Kuitun? I'll follow them and have a look. If the situation there is good, I'll Just stay there and do it. If you don’t adapt, then I’ll come back.”
Li Long nodded and said with a smile:
“To be honest, it’s a good idea. I don’t know what the situation is like, after all, we haven’t been there.”
Li Long added in his heart that he had never been there in this life.
Kuitun is much more famous now than it was twenty or thirty years ago. In the mid-to-late 1970s, the Yili Prefecture government moved to Kuitun, and later moved back to YN City.
But in just a few years, Kuitun became the center of northern Xinjiang. Some party and government agencies in Yili Prefecture have their offices in Kuitun, and even the former Northern Xinjiang Military Region is located in Wusu near Kuitun. The reputation here is much greater than the ancient city of Ma County.
Of course, twenty or thirty years later, although Kuitun is still one of the Golden Triangles of Northern Xinjiang, the entire Northern Xinjiang is famous nationwide because of tourism. The first thing foreign tourists know about is the Nalati Grassland in the Ili Valley. Kanas Lake, Hemutuwa Village, Selim Lake and Xiata Ancient Road, little is known about Kuitun. After HYH City of the Seventh Agricultural Division was separated from Kuitun, Kuitun was shrinking in both population and economic development.
But after all, this was once the center of Northern Xinjiang - Ili Prefecture once governed the three places of Ili and Tacheng Altay, and was in charge of most of Northern Xinjiang. It is a sub-provincial unit. There are still three floors left after the broken ship collapsed. Ding, in the eyes of rural people in Ma County, this is a big city.
Being able to work here feels even more glorious than working in Shicheng.
This is also the reason why Yang Yongqiang hesitates.
Li Long remembered that he heard someone analyzing this in his last life. Since there are Eastern Xinjiang (Turpan, Hami), Northern Xinjiang (encircling the Jungar Basin to the north of the Tianshan Mountains), and Southern Xinjiang (encircling the Tarim Basin before the Tianshan Mountains), ), why can’t there be Western Xinjiang? Some people have analyzed and concluded that Western Xinjiang can have the Ili River Valley and the Outer Ili River Valley that once belonged to our country, because this large area was divided by the North Tianshan Mountains and other places in northern Xinjiang.
To go a long way, in a nutshell, Kuitun is very famous now, and it is really attractive to young farmers who want to eat commercial grain. Li Junshan and the others may not know, but Yang Yongqiang and the others know very well.
After all, Kuitun is closer to Manasbiu City. Yang Yongqiang asked about the specific time, and Li Long said that it would be just for these two days, and asked him to pack his things first. No matter whether he stayed there or not, he would still go there. Now more than a hundred kilometers can be considered a long trip. After all, this is not the era when every family in the future has a car.
Li Long rode his bicycle to his eldest brother's house.
Li Jianguo is not here, and Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang are busy in the vegetable field. This was Li Qingxia's idea - although Du Chunfang was a little unhappy, Li Qingxia gave her a good explanation.
“You live in the eldest son’s house and work for the younger son. What will your eldest daughter-in-law think? They cook for you every day, but you don’t want to eat on the table and they bring it to you. You What else do you think? Qiangqiang's mother not only has to take care of his family, but also ours, and the second child's family... Let's do whatever we can now. Isn't this better than back home? "
"That's not better than back home..." Du Chunfang picked up stones in the field and muttered, "We don't have to work back home..."
"Then you What did you eat back home?” Li Qingxia pouted, “Didn’t you eat enough glutinous rice flour and dried sweet potatoes? Or did you eat less braised pork here?”
Du Chunfang stopped talking. To be honest, she ate a lot of braised pork during this period. The stew was so good and fragrant. She really likes to eat.
Then work. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you do some work. Why don’t you still eat the vegetables you grow later?
It is not easy to have such a large vegetable plot in my hometown. The area of this vegetable plot is as large as the family's ration field in my hometown.
This place is so big! Burn any firewood you like! It’s so warm in winter! You can often eat meat! The sun is so comfortable...
The benefits are countless, Du Chunfang thinks it’s better to stay here. Anyway, even in her hometown, she usually doesn't go out to visit to talk about the shortcomings of the parents in the east and west, so she feels most comfortable staying at home without thinking about anything.
It's good now.
Li Long rode his bicycle into the yard. Li Qingxia had already seen him when the bike was put away. Du Chunfang was deaf and didn't hear it, but when she saw her wife looking at the yard, she turned around and asked:
"What, the boss is back?"
"No." Li Qingxia said, "Xiaolong is here."
Du Chunfang showed a smile on his face. Although he didn't take much care of Li Long, partiality exists in any parent, but the size is different, or whether he can realize it.
"Are you coming from Ma Hao?" Li Qingxia stopped what he was doing, saw Li Long walking to the door of the vegetable garden, and asked, "Looking for your elder brother? Your elder brother went to see the land."
"No, Dad, I'm looking for you. I have to tell you As soon as I said that, I helped my second brother and the others find a job in a construction company, starting as temporary workers. They have to leave in the next two days, and they are packing their things now. "
"Is it far?" Du. Chunfang asked immediately when she heard that her second son and the others were leaving.
"No matter how far it is, how far can it be from my hometown to here?" Li Qingxia said, "I guess it is within the scope of Northern Xinjiang."
This is what he explained to Du Chunfang, but He turned around and asked Li Long:
"Xiaolong, where is the place to work? How far is it from here?"
Du Chunfang rolled his eyes after hearing this. This damn old man still talks about me! Don’t you care about this too?
Li Long smiled and said:
"It's not far, a hundred kilometers, which is about two hundred miles. It's closer than getting here from Wucheng, and you can go back and forth in one day."
"That's okay." Li Qingxia nodded, "Although working in construction is a temporary job, it is better than staying at home."
"That's hard to say." Du Chunfang retorted habitually, "This team is allocated so much land, you can make money just by farming - it just depends on how you farm."
Li Long was not involved in this. In the topic, this can be regarded as the daily habits or fun of dad and mom.
Liang Yuemei was sifting vegetable seeds in the house. She heard the noise and went out of the house. When she saw Li Long in the yard, she smiled and said:
"Xiaolong is here? Your elder brother went to see the land. How's your house going?"
"It's basically finished," Li Long said, "Now we just need to wait for the furniture to be brought in and decorate the house."
"Then it's time to get married to Xiaoxia?" Liang Yuemei said with a smile, "This is a big deal."
Li Long felt that everything happened together. Judging from the current situation, the second brother and Li Junshan are unable to attend their wedding.
This is something that can't be helped. After all, work is important and things are crowded together, so there must be priorities.
Of course, the wedding with Gu Xiaoxia does need to be held. He vaguely remembered that Gu Xiaoxia had mentioned that the street office seemed to have asked her about her relationship with the landlord.
It’s better to get the certificate as soon as possible and then announce it and give out a bunch of wedding candies, and that’s it.
I can also have a comfortable place.
Thinking of good things, Li Long rode his bicycle back to Laomahao.
The doors of the house where the second brother and sister-in-law lived, and the house where Chen Xingbang and the others lived were open. Li Long put his bicycle away and went over to look at Li Anguo first.
Chen Lirong had some sadness on her face, but when she saw Li Long coming, she still smiled reluctantly. She also knew that this was a good thing. Life was very good during this period, but whether it was the house to live in or the food to eat, it was all provided by Li Long. When Chen Lirong and Li Anguo got married, Li Long was already in Northern Xinjiang, and it was even the first time that the two met. This made her a little embarrassed, and she inevitably felt a little dependent on others.
Even though neither Li Long nor Li Jianguo and his wife would have such an attitude, people's minds are sensitive.
Now Li Anguo is about to have a job where he can make money, which makes Chen Lirong feel a little more confident psychologically - according to Li Anguo, if things go well, he may become a formal worker in the future and be equally divided into houses or After establishing a foothold there, they will pick up the mother and daughter together.
This is a beautiful vision of hope. Although Chen Lirong is a little reluctant to give up, she still wants to let her husband pass as soon as possible so that he can become a formal worker as soon as possible.
I feel quite complicated.
This brother-in-law brought all this good beginning. From this point of view, Chen Lirong sincerely thanked Li Long.
"Second brother, how are things going?" Li Long nodded to Chen Lirong and asked Li Anguo. "There's nothing to pack, just bring some clothes and wash up. The temperature over there should be about the same as here, right?"
"Almost." In Li Long's impression, the climate environment in Kuitun and Ma County is similar. One or two degrees higher than one or two degrees lower makes no difference to people today.
"That's okay." Li Anguo smiled, "I'm going over there. Your sister-in-law is here with Xueping and Xueqin. You can take more care of her."
"No problem." Li Anguo Long nodded and said to Chen Lirong, "Second sister-in-law, what do you need?" Just tell me, you’re welcome.”
He knew that the second sister-in-law was actually quite introverted, so he decided to take the initiative to put some daily necessities here regularly, otherwise Chen Lirong would be too embarrassed to ask for it. It’s the children who suffer.
He went over to Li Junshan's side. Li Junshan's side had already been packed. The luggage itself consisted of a bag with a bedding roll. All the things in the bag were packed away. Just roll up the bedding when leaving.
Li Long returned to his house. He was hesitating whether to let his second brother and the others go to the bus station and take a bus to Kuitun, or whether to drive the tractor there himself.
Driving a tractor may cost some gas, but it’s good to go over there and take a look at the environment there. Before you start getting busy, you can go there and see if there are any opportunities to make money.
Of course, you have to go through the certificate and license procedures before you leave. Regardless of whether it is done well or not, at least this process will be done during the inspection at the checkpoint in the middle.
Walking tractors are agricultural machinery and need to be registered with the County Agricultural Machinery Bureau and the Township Agricultural Machinery Institute, and a license and license plate must be obtained. At this time, the procedures for obtaining a driver's license and license plate were quite simple. Li Long had inquired about it, and now he only needed to do it in practice.
In the evening, Li Anguo's family, Chen Xingbang, Li Junshan and Li Long went to Li Jianguo's house together. Although it's still a little cold outside at night, it's not too cold anymore. There were so many people that couldn't fit inside the house, so they just stayed outside.
Li Long told the story again, focusing on Li Jianguo.
"When will you leave?" Li Jianguo asked.
“I’m thinking of leaving the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll go to the County Agricultural Machinery Bureau and the Township Agricultural Machinery Institute to complete the procedures,” Li Long said, “Then I’ll drive them there on a tractor and I can take a look. I can tell you about the situation there when I get back."
"Okay." Li Jianguo thought for a while and said, "If the team hadn't divided the area, I'd also like to go and have a look. .”
"What are you going to do? You're already so big, and the construction company can't even hire you." Liang Yuemei joked.
"Let's go and see what Kuitun is like." Li Jianguo explained seriously, "There is an Agricultural Science Institute in Kuitun. It is said that the fruit tree seedlings cultivated there are good..."
"Then I'll go I’ll see if I can find some and buy them. I’ve just finished the yard and plant some fruit trees to eat the fruits in the fall.”
The children all laughed when they heard the news. There are people in the team who have fruit trees at home, but they are basically relatively simple and common fruit trees such as grapes, apples, and angustifolia.
If you want to eat other fruits, you can only buy them. Li Juan Qiangqiang and the others had seen a lot of fruits in textbooks. Before last year, they had only seen them in books. In the following year, Li Long bought a lot of fruits, but supplies were relatively scarce in northern Xinjiang, and with the current transportation It’s not very convenient, so what you can eat, namely oranges, pears, persimmons and other things that are easy to preserve, are mostly just heard about or seen in pictures.
For example, red dates and apricots are found in southern Xinjiang. There is even an apricot tree in the park in Shicheng, but Ma County cannot grow it, and even if it is planted, it will not bear fruit.
Li Long plans to buy some jujube and peach trees. There are peach trees here, which are small peach trees that have not been grafted. They bear very small fruits, are not very sweet, and ripen very late. Li Long wanted to see if he could buy peach and flat peach seedlings. After all, these types of fruit trees were very commonly planted in this area in later generations, and they tasted very good.
"By the way, I heard that there are also Kuitun special songs for sale over there. Bring a few bottles back to try." Li Jianguo added.
"You might as well just go with it!" Liang Yuemei complained without waiting for Li Long's answer, "It doesn't cost money?"
Li Jianguo chuckled.
"Then I'll bring a box back." Li Jianguo knew that the Kuituntequ at this time tasted really good, and the shape of the bottle was also very good. The one with a curved bottom was different from the ordinary square and round bottles.
It was very popular for a while.
Everyone expressed their thoughts in a flurry. The fire on the stove was still red. Li Long took a few salted and dried fish and grilled them by the fire. It felt almost cooked. Pass one to others to eat as a snack.
Li Juan, Li Qiang and Li Long are no strangers at all. Although Li Xueping and Li Xueqin are still a little cautious, their contacts over the past few days have made them know that this uncle is rich and generous, so they follow them obediently. Wait, wait until you get the fish, then go over and cuddle up next to your mother and eat slowly and quietly.
When Li Long finally ate by himself, he looked at this scene and thought that after a few years, everyone would miss this scene. After all, after Li Anguo and the others went to Kuitun and settled down, it would be almost impossible to imagine a happy reunion like this.
In other words, people may gather together, but it is impossible to have such a harmonious scene.
It was getting darker and darker. Li Jianguo installed a large fifty-watt light bulb in the yard. When he was going to turn on the light, Li Long and the others also stood up, preparing to go back and rest. Today, because the Li family had to talk about something, the TV was not turned on for the first time. The neighbors who wanted to come over to watch TV were also persuaded to go back. Otherwise, the house would be full of people now.
Back at Laomahao, Li Long washed up and went to bed. Tomorrow he would drive the tractor to the county to go through the formalities.
Li Junshan went to the county with Li Long the next day. The team also had a meeting on this day. Last night, when Li Long was leaving, Li Jianguo asked him if he wanted to contract the land. Li Long said that it would be good for both parties to contract a share of the land. As for the land, Li Jianguo made his own decision.
At present, before mechanization has spread, having more land is not a good thing, as it requires more labor and labor. The main reason is that crops don’t make money. At present, the only thing that can be tested is harvesting melons. If you can make money by harvesting melons, you can grow more varieties next year. Li Long believes that most of those in the team who can contract land can only contract for two to three years at most, or even one year. After all, no one has a surplus of labor now, and farming thirty to fifty acres of land is already the limit.
Only when mechanization becomes more widespread will farming become easier - this makes Li Long feel more and more that he has to find an agricultural machinery factory to cooperate. Should he go to Kuitun and give it a try?
This is possible.
After receiving Li Long’s application to prepare for the license exam, the staff of the Agricultural Machinery Bureau handed him a book:
“One dollar and fifty cents, memorize the things in it, four There will be a unified exam on the 10th of the month. Bring your books with you.”
Bring your books with you? Li Long was a little confused.
"Open book exam?" He asked subconsciously.
"Well, since many people have relatively low educational levels, our theoretical exams are open-book and allowed to be turned over." The staff explained patiently, "Of course, there is no cheating in the practical exams. You need to practice hard.”
Okay, you don’t need to cheat in this practical operation, your drilling skills are still passable. I believe that in this era, not many people can be better than me in terms of tractor operation skills, especially in assessments such as reversing gear and loading drill pipes into the warehouse.
The main thing is this centralized examination - well, it's normal when you think about it. After all, there are very few people who can afford a tractor these days, even in the entire county.
After the Agricultural Machinery Bureau has dealt with the license matter, you have to go to the rural agricultural machinery station to resolve the license matter.
The application for this license plate is simpler. After showing them the car purchase procedures, the other party registers it, and the next step is to wait. As for when it will be ready, the staff said they don't know.
Li Long is not in a hurry. After all, as long as the procedures are being processed, when he goes to Kuitun and gets checked at the checkpoint in the middle, he can openly say that he is completing the procedures.
Of course, this is also the actual situation. I believe the people who inspected it will not have any objections.
The next question is, should I bring a gun with me when I go there?
There are car gangsters and road bullies these days, but Li Long has never heard of them. It's just that this year is a relatively sensitive year. Li Long thought about it and finally decided to bring the small caliber. This gun was obtained from Li Xiangqian, and there were procedures. Even if it was found, at least there would be no problem. The origins of the other shotguns and five-six-and-a-half guns are hard to tell, and there is no formality. If they were found and confiscated, you would be considering yourself unlucky.
Well, it’s such a happy decision.
PS:
Thanks to Fengyun FLYING for the reward, and thanks to Liu Ya from Rich Butter, Laughing Pomelo, Fengwu Jiutian, Wukong Babujie, tanlan, past_eE, 20231011193134377 , 20170722044547580’s reward~! (End of this chapter)