After breakfast the next day, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, Sister Yang went to the market, and Li Long carried the two bags of black soil in the jeep into the glass house.
The temperature in the glass room is a bit low, but not freezing. Li Long put down the bag and shoveled the soil on the ground with a shovel. He found that it was not frozen and could be dug up.
He thought for a while and felt that it would be better to plant the vegetables directly in the ground. It's just that the ground has been trampled by those roe deer and needs to be plowed again.
If there is nothing to do, just turn it over. Picking up the shovel, Li Long picked up a piece of land in the middle near the north wall and turned it over.
The glass house is actually quite big, with brick walls on the north and south and glass on the top. The overall area must be nearly two hundred square meters.
Li Long couldn't make it so big, so he planned to dig up a piece in the middle, sprinkle the black soil and the roe deer dung in the southwest corner, mix it, and then plant vegetables.
He also planned to buy a stove after the land was plowed. The temperature inside during the day was still acceptable, so he would set up a stove of charcoal during the day and a stove of charcoal at night.
The stove is placed on the back shelf of the dug-out ground, and a half-through fire wall is built against the wall to warm the vegetables.
It’s hard to do anything else in the winter, so let’s do this for the time being.
In one hour, Li Long dug out a piece of land as big as his bedroom. It's not that the turning over was not fast, the main reason was that after turning it over, he had to smash the hard clods of soil that he had turned over.
After plowing, Li Long was not in a hurry to plant. First, he wanted to buy a stove, and second, he had to rake the land again. Although large pieces of soil have been smashed, it is still better to use soft soil for farming.
He planned to divide such a piece of land into several small plots, and he still had to think about what to plant.
There is no rake in the big yard. He plans to go back to the team to ask his elder brother what kind of planting is better, and bring back a rake by the way.
After exiting the glass room, Li Long heard the courtyard door being tapped twice.
Thinking about things while digging on the ground in the glass room, Li Long didn't care about the outside. The door to the big courtyard is locked. Is Sister Yang back at this time?
Li Long shouted hurriedly and ran over to open the door.
Outside the door were two strangers wearing cotton coats and cotton hats.
One is about forty years old and has a sense of vicissitudes of life, and the other is in his twenties, looking at Li Long with some curiosity.
"Is this Comrade Li Long?" the older man asked directly.
"Hello, this is me." Li Long glanced at it and found a tractor outside, and he understood.
After letting the two people into the yard, the older one saw that Li Long was only wearing a fleece jacket and said:
"Comrade Li Long, you still have to pay attention to your health. It's quite cold outside. You have to Wear something thicker."
"Yeah, I was busy just now, so I didn't hear you knocking on the door. My yard is a bit big, I was in the backyard just now," Li Long explained.
“No wonder, we have been filming for more than ten minutes and no one has come out. We thought no one was there.” The man in his twenties couldn’t help but said, “You still have this yard? It’s really big. It used to be a rich man’s house, right?”
The older man touched him, glared at him, and then said to Li Long:
"The two of us came from Qitai and saw your deeds in the newspaper, which was about using a harvester to cut wheat. We were greatly inspired. In Qitai, our team planted thousands of acres of wheat and harvested it manually. The wheat efficiency is too low, so I thought about buying a harvester."
Ordinarily, Qitai is not owned by Li Long and is the sales area of Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory, but now that they have come to visit, You didn’t push the business out, right?
Li Long first explained:
“I bought this yard from an old man. I don’t know who the original owner of the house was. The old man lived here alone, and later My son wants to take him away and sell the house to me.”
Then he pointed to the harvester covered with plastic sheet and said:
"I still have a few harvesters here. If you want them, I can sell them to you. The tractor outside belongs to you, right?"
"Yes."
"That's best. Bring the tractor in and I'll show you how How to operate it, otherwise it will be troublesome if you just buy the harvester and you don’t know how to operate it. Qitai is not close to here.”
Qitai is considered to be the third county in the east of Beiting Prefecture. One of three counties, the other two being Jimsar and Mulei.
This area not only produces the very famous spring wheat, but also the famous chickpeas that are known to locals.
Later generations have developed into industries, such as Yaozhanzi flour, which feels like it has almost become a geographical industry indicator.
But the distance is really far. These places are two to three hundred kilometers away from WLMQ, and Ma County is more than a hundred kilometers away from WLMQ. In other words, these two people ran from Qitai to Li Long in Ma County. I drove a tractor for nearly 400 kilometers.
Li Long estimated that they traveled all day yesterday, stayed in the county or somewhere, and then came here this morning.
It’s really hard work.
So when you teach, you must teach seriously.
"A harvester costs five hundred and fifty yuan, is that acceptable?" Li Long said.
“Yes.” The older man agreed simply, even with a smile on his face, “Actually, we thought it might be more expensive.”
“Use it well. "It's no problem to use this harvester to earn a tractor in one wheat season." Li Long went to harvest. The plastic sheet covering the machine said, "But, it's troublesome to use it well. I'll tell you now."
The young man looked at the tractor in Li Long's yard and wondered why he didn't use the yard. The one inside, but seeing the jeep made him afraid to say anything.
"My tractor has not been used for several days. If I want to start it, I have to boil hot water and bake it. It's troublesome." Li Long saw what he was thinking and explained.
The young man went to drive the tractor obediently. Their tractor had just arrived and the water was still hot.
The tractor drove into the yard, Li Long went to get a wooden block, and then demonstrated step by step how to install the harvester.
The older one is called Zhang Kehu, and the young man is called Li Menglong. The two of them are master and apprentice. The tractor was bought by Zhang Kehu. He took Li Menglong as his apprentice and taught him how to drive the tractor, and also mentored new people.
So when Li Long was teaching, he looked at it very seriously and asked about every step, and so did Li Menglong over there. Although he didn't ask, he kept remembering it in his mind.
Li Long also taught very carefully, including some tips he summed up himself. Farmers are having a hard time right now, and those who can stand out among the farmers will definitely not be easy.
He wanted to help more farmers get rich, which would also have some group effects. After all, the amount of information farmers can get is the least, and it is basically an imitation effect. If there is a farmer nearby who has become rich, follow his example.
Until Sister Yang came back with the cart, Li Long was still teaching two people how to unload the harvester.
With two people, it is very easy to disassemble the harvester, so Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong learned it quickly. The two people also took turns operating the harvesting process on the tractor. After writing it down, the teaching was concluded.
Zhang Kehu took out several thick wads of money from the small bag he carried and handed them to Li Long.
“One thousand one hundred yuan.” Zhang Kehu said, “Comrade Li Long, please order a little.”
"Okay." Li Long took the money and quickly clicked it.
Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong were watching Li Long's movements. At this time, Sister Yang brought hot tea to the three of them from the room.
After counting the money, Li Long nodded and said:
"The amount is correct. I'm sorry, you guys came all the way and didn't even invite you to drink hot tea..." "
"That's nothing. You taught us this technique, which moved us very much," Zhang Kehu said with a smile.
Li Long went into the house to collect the money. When he came out, Zhang Kehu and Li Menglong had already lifted a harvester onto the tractor.
“There is another one, you can choose it yourself.” Li Long said.
Actually, there is nothing to choose from, they are all pretty much the same. The two people took advantage of the situation and lifted the harvester placed outside onto the tractor.
“Let’s go back after lunch.” Li Long invited.
"No, no, we are on the road now. We can still get to Huxian before lunch. We can have lunch there. After that, we will have to drive a lot today and we can get back to Qitai."
Zhang Kehu is very excited. After receiving the two harvesters, he can already foresee the scene of harvesting wheat next year.
I can’t hold it down. I can’t hold it down.
"You have to have lunch. Let's go, I'll take you to the cafeteria to eat some noodles, and you'll feel warm before leaving." After staying at home for a while, Gu Xiaoxia came back. It was inconvenient for her to have twins, so Li Long said.
"No, no, no, really no need. Comrade Li Long, you can sell us a harvester and teach us so carefully. We are really grateful. Now we really want to rush back as soon as possible."
< br>"Okay, pay attention to safety on the road." Li Long warned and sent them driving the tractor out of the yard. After leaving the county town, the tractor made a loud noise and ran eastward. Zhang Kehu said:
"Menglong, as you can see, there are only two harvesters left at Comrade Li Long's place. We caught up in time, otherwise it wouldn't have been enough."
"That's right, Comrade Li Long is also really enthusiastic and teaches us in detail. To be honest, when I feel it, we can get started immediately. ”
“That’s right. He said it costs two yuan to harvest an acre of land here, but we can set the price ourselves. I think we can still make a profit even if it’s only one yuan.”
“ Master, I think it’s better to lower the price to just one dollar and a half. It’s not too much.
He also said that there is no problem in harvesting 180 acres in one day. There are so many wheat farmers over there, so it will be cheaper. People will come to harvest, and we will not be able to queue them up by then.
Set it higher. Some people are reluctant to spend the money, so some people will cut it by hand..."
Zhang Kehu nodded, this does make some sense.
It was already noon when the tractor arrived in Hu County. They had dinner here, and the two of them took turns driving the tractor to drive The road conditions on the Wuyi Highway were pretty good, but not so good when they turned to Miquan Fukang.
It was already dark when they arrived at Miquan, so they gritted their teeth and drove the tractor to Fukang. I couldn't drive anymore, so I stayed here for one night and drove back to Qitai early the next day.
With the harvester in hand, the two families are already looking forward to a better life next year.
Two more harvesters were sold, and the net income was 340 yuan. Li Long previously spent nearly 2,000 yuan to buy these five prototype harvesters in Kuitun, and now three of them have been sold out.
If you add in the money from selling yellow sheepskin, the capital has almost been recovered.
He believed that these two harvesters would not be kept at home for long. Most farmers follow the crowd and don't know where to get information that is beneficial to them. Even if some people can read it, they can rarely extract information that is beneficial to them.
But a very small number of people still have this ability, and the harvester Li Long brought back was sold to these very few.
After lunch, Li Long went to buy an iron stove and installed it in the glass house.
At this time, iron stoves were not expensive and most people in northern Xinjiang had them. There are also those who can't afford it or are reluctant to buy it, so they will make a paste with mud and rolled earth. Of course, the grate must still be made of pig iron. You can't do this by yourself.
After the stove is fixed, the next step is to build a long heating facility that is half floor dragon and half fire wall. Both those made of bricks and those made of earthen blocks have their own advantages.
Bricks heat up quickly and cool down quickly. The soil is thicker than the brick wall, and it heats up slowly and cools down slowly.
Unfortunately, there were only bricks and no earth in the yard, so Li Long could only lay bricks.
There were no guests in the afternoon, so Li Long brought hundreds of red bricks over and over, mixed them with mud directly in the glass room, and built a fire wall. The technical content of this fire wall is not that high. You only need to add a few gaps in the middle to prevent the fireworks from traveling so fast.
Finally, the chimney purchased with the stove was built on the last end of the fire wall, a piece of glass was removed from the top, the iron stove tube was put on, and the gap was sealed with a wooden board.
Because there is a fire wall filtering more than three meters long, the final thing that escapes from the chimney is hot smoke, which can no longer light the wood, so Li Long is not worried.
After finishing all this, Li Long went to get a stove of charcoal and set the stove up. He wanted to see how long it would take to burn a stove of charcoal.
After all, this glass house is too big. He is thinking about dividing it into several rooms next summer so that he can only grow vegetables in one room and the heat can be concentrated.
Or maybe we can make the fire wall longer and the stove bigger.
In order to be able to eat green leafy vegetables in winter, Li Long didn't care much about coal. The price of coal is not high now, not to mention that there is an open-air coal mine in the mountains, but it is troublesome to pull it up. Otherwise, Li Long would have to pull back the coal one tractor after another in the autumn.
After setting up the coal, Li Long went out. He hauled several tons of coal to the yard this fall, which was enough in itself. But according to current thinking, if this greenhouse is really burned down, the coal may not be burned until next spring.
Li Long went to boil water, put it inside the tractor, and put some charcoal under the tractor to burn the fuel tank.
After struggling for forty or fifty minutes, he started the tractor and moved the jeep. He drove the tractor out of the yard and went to buy coal.
There are people selling loose coal in the free market, but this coal is expensive. He went directly to the Wuyi Highway. There were low bungalows on the roadside near the west side of the county seat. There were large piles of coal unloaded by large trucks, and trucks pulling coal were parked here.
Coal is sold cheaply here by the ton. Coal is now more expensive in winter than in summer, costing thirty yuan a ton.
Li Long's tractor can hold two or three tons of coal. He bought three tons and pulled it back with one tractor.
“Our coal comes from Queergou, and it burns very well.” The boss boasted about his coal very proudly, “Take it back and burn it safely. If it doesn’t work, I’ll change it for you when you come back!”
Queergou, the place name Li Long is also the real name that later generations only learned during the information explosion. In the past, they all heard it as "Qiao Yaogou", and everyone in the fourth team called it that. Get used to it.
Later I found out that it was called Queergou.
After pulling the coal back, Li Long unloaded it directly beside the glass room at the back. He found a plastic bag to cover it and press it to prevent weathering.
He drained the water from the tractor's water tank, and when he walked toward the glass house, he saw that the snow on the roof of the glass house was slowly melting.
This glass house is tall in the north and low in the south like the houses we usually see. The south eaves are already dripping water now.
Li Long entered the glass room and felt that the temperature inside was already several degrees above zero. Although it was not hotter than the bedroom with the stove, it was much better than outside.
At this time, the charcoal in the stove has burned until it is red, and the flame is no longer visible, but the temperature is at its highest.
Not bad. It seemed that the sealing of the glass room was good, and the heat did not escape much. He did not smell soot, only the smell of wet soil being dried.
It seems that the sealing and fire-passing properties of the fire wall I created at random are quite good.
Then you can plant rapeseed tomorrow.
The ground was leveled, and the black water was mixed and sprinkled on the ground. Li Long planned to go to the team early tomorrow morning, firstly to get a rake, and secondly to ask his elder brother what is better to plant. Get some seeds from big brother too.
My mother, sister-in-law, and second sister-in-law have been taking care of the vegetable field on my side all summer, and I don’t know what seeds are left behind.
Added more charcoal to the stove, Li Long pressed it with coal foam and let it smolder slowly, then he closed the door of the glass room. Vegetables are planted in the back, so a cotton curtain is needed here.
Cotton is not as easy to obtain as it will be in later generations. The Corps is already planting it now, but the yield is not much. But you can buy new network sets at supply and marketing cooperatives and department stores.
Think about whether the quilts at home can be replaced? I'll clean it up tomorrow and see if the old landlord has left any old quilts that can be repurposed as cotton curtains.
After breakfast the next day, Li Long drove a jeep to Team Four.
With a jeep, Li Long no longer wants to drive a tractor when traveling long distances. Frozen face, uncomfortable.
In his opinion, the journey of more than ten kilometers from the county seat to the fourth team is considered a long distance. Of course, when cars were available in later generations, one kilometer was considered a long distance.
"Growing vegetables in winter?" Li Jianguo was well-informed in northern Xinjiang, but he was a little surprised to hear what Li Long said.
“Well, I thought I would be able to eat fresh green leafy vegetables during the Chinese New Year. Brother, do you think it would be better to plant celery, leeks, spinach, or cabbage?”
“ Of course, we should plant some celery and leeks. Of course, it would be better to plant some green chili seeds, but I don’t know if they can grow..." Li Jianguo naturally wanted to plant some, but it was impossible to think about it.
Now during the Chinese New Year in winter, the "fresh" vegetables that can be eaten at home, apart from radish and cabbage, are garlic sprouts planted on the plate and bean sprouts sprouted in the pot.
It would definitely be nice if we could get some fresh vegetables.
Liang Yuemei also joined the discussion.
Before the discussion even came out, someone had already come looking for Li Long.
The person who knocked on the door and came in was captain Xu Chengjun.
PS: Two pigs were killed today, one weighing 130 kilograms and the other 148 kilograms. Not counting the pork belly that has been made into stir-fried pork with pickled cabbage, nor the offal, it is the weight of a Kelangzi pig.
It’s so delicious. It's just my old back that's flashing.
The average number of people helping out in a group is over sixty...(End of Chapter)