Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1421 The Design, the Leak, and Everyone's Reactions

Meng Hai went to the courtyard of the Fourth Team Cooperative and found the work group. He volunteered that he was the manager who built the pump house and filter pool for the cooperative.

The working group had planned that some pumping stations did indeed need to be started, so they checked Meng Hai's company's information and asked some professional questions. They then entrusted Meng Hai with the construction of seven pumping stations and filter ponds that would not affect the crop harvest.

The project wasn't large, but Meng Hai was quite satisfied. What did this show? It showed that the quality of his previous projects was up to standard, so people were actively seeking him out. If he got more business like this, he wouldn't need to run around begging and pleading for projects anymore.

After leaving the cooperative's courtyard, Meng Hai went to find Li Jianguo to confirm the location of the house site so that construction could proceed.

Li Jianguo was not home. Liang Yuemei told Meng Hai that he had gone to the team leader to designate a plot of land for building houses and had not returned yet.

After finding out the location of the team leader's house, Meng Hai drove over and indeed found Xu Chengjun and Li Jianguo looking after the place in the residential area to the west.

Li Jianguo was somewhat surprised to see Meng Hai arrive. Xu Chengjun also recognized the owner of the engineering company, greeted him with a smile, and said that he had also heard from the work group that the person who originally built the pump house for the cooperative should take over the project again, and asked if Meng Hai was doing this.

Meng Hai explained that everything was settled, and now they just needed to check on the Li family's homestead. They would send people over in a few days to build the house and also confirm the requirements and design plans.

Li Jianguo said:

"I heard from Xiaolong that your company has designers, Boss Meng, could you help with the design? We're from the countryside, we don't know much about this stuff."

"Sure, I'll have our technicians produce a few design drawings for you to choose from," Meng Hai said with a smile. "In the countryside, families have many children and need many houses, preferably large spare rooms, and also a kitchen. What do you think, should we use a heated kang (traditional Chinese bed) or radiators?"

Many rural residents now use small boilers and radiators in their newly built houses, which eliminates the need for a separate stove in every room, making it more convenient.

Seeing that Meng Hai had considered things very thoroughly, and that Li Jianguo had also been to Li Long's compound and knew that radiators were indeed better than firewalls, he nodded and then asked about the small boiler.

"It's actually just a big stove," Meng Hai explained in terms that rural people could understand, "except that this big stove has a shell on the back, filled with water, which leads to the radiators, and there's a return pipe."

When the stove is used, the water is heated, then it travels through the heating pipes, circulates throughout the house, cools down, and then flows back to the stove to be heated again.

He spoke while gesturing, and Xu Chengjun and Li Jianguo quickly understood.

"Is this thing expensive? If it's not, I'll install one in my house too," Xu Chengjun said immediately. "This stove can be placed in the kitchen, and you can cook while it's burning in the winter. It's a win-win situation, very nice!"

"It's not expensive, a set costs about one or two thousand yuan," Meng Hai said. "It mainly depends on how many radiators you want to install. The troublesome thing is that if you want to do this in an old house, you have to drill holes in the corners of the walls, and you have to drill quite a few. This means you have to move things out of the house, and in winter, you have to drill several holes in each room that needs to be heated."

Upon hearing Meng Hai's words, Xu Chengjun hesitated. Rural people's houses are often cluttered with many things, and moving some old items can be quite troublesome, especially in the corners. He was unsure whether to move them or not.

Li Jianguo suddenly remembered a question and asked Xu Chengjun:

"Captain, you said that we'll be merging residential areas in the future. Does that mean we'll have to be merged as well? If so, can Xiaolong and I also get two plots of land for our own homes here?"

"Sure, you can mark it up." Xu Chengjun said nonchalantly. "Once you've marked it up, you'll have to start building it. You can't just leave it there for two or three years. By the way, Xiaolong's yard was only built a few years ago, right? It's a pity about that yard."

“What’s this?” Li Jianguo chuckled. “The Cai family’s house in the eastern residential area was only built six months ago. If you ask them to move out in the next two years, wouldn’t they be losing a fortune? Their house is entirely made of bricks and cost tens of thousands of yuan!”

Xu Chengjun laughed. There was nothing he could do. This was news from the township. Although no official notice had been issued yet, it was estimated that it wouldn't be long.

The village chief often has to do work that offends people.

Of course, there are also many benefits, but these are not to be told to outsiders.

Knowing that the land for the homestead had not been fully determined, Meng Hai left first. He said he would have his technicians make a few sets of design drawings and bring them over, by which time the land would be more or less finalized.

Li Jianguo planned to go back and discuss it with his family, and also call Li Long. Although Li Long lived in the county year-round, his household registration was still with the production team, so he would definitely be allocated a plot of land for homesteading.

Then he thought of Gu Boyuan, who was far away in Yili, but whose home was here. He figured Gu Boyuan wouldn't abandon this courtyard, so he decided to include him in the deal as well.

So, if you add Li Junfeng, the Li family gets eight yuan, and if you add Gu Boyuan, it's nine yuan. Hey, this just cuts off half an alley in the western residential area.

On the way back, Li Jianguo was still calculating that if he marked the spot from where he was now, he could just avoid that big alkaline pit.

If what Xu Chengjun said is true, and all the residents move here in the future, that large alkaline pit will definitely be designated as residential land. Whoever's land next to it will be unlucky. After all, the land is designated one by one, and it's impossible to pick and choose. It will be done in order.

Thinking that he couldn't let his own family members end up in the alkali pit, Li Jianguo was a little anxious. He drove home quickly and then called Li Long.

Liang Yuemei followed him into the house and told him about Meng Hai. Li Jianguo said he had run into him.

The call connected, and Li Long answered. Li Jianguo then told Li Long about his plan to get a plot of land for building a house.

Li Long thought about it and realized it made sense. Nowadays, when choosing a house site, people usually choose the old houses they moved to. The foundation doesn't need to be built up much, and the vegetable gardens are all in fertile soil. If they move to wasteland, they'll have to build a new foundation and house, and it will be difficult to grow vegetables for three to five years.

He immediately said to Li Jianguo:

"Brother, I'll take it, let's mark it together. We can just have Lao Meng send someone to mark it later."

"Then I need to call your father-in-law. I reckon he'll be moving to a new house soon, and I'll definitely have to handle that in the end."

Li Long laughed. His older brother's tone was full of complaint, but in reality, he had taken the initiative to take responsibility, which showed the close relationship between the two.

Since Li Long had decided to move with them, the matter was settled. Li Jianguo hung up the phone and then dialed another number for Gu Boyuan.

Gu Boyuan was taken aback when he heard Li Jianguo's voice, then laughed and said, "Old Li, I'm usually the one who calls you when there's nothing wrong. Why are you calling me today? What happened?"

Li Jianguo ignored Gu Boyuan's teasing and told him about the plan to merge the residential areas, asking Gu Boyuan if he wanted to designate the homestead land.

"Yes, that's great! You should be rowing together too, right? If we row together, we can go back for a drink once the house is built, and Xiaolong won't have to travel back and forth so much. I think Mingming and Haohao won't have to wait until the second year of junior high anymore, hehe, great, great!"

I'll wire the money to you tomorrow. You can build it however you want, find a construction team, we'll build the same thing. After it's built, ask your sister-in-law to help you plant some vegetables in the garden for me, not too many, just cabbage and radishes, so we can pickle them in the fall.

"Help me pickle a whole vat of vegetables then, so when we go back for Chinese New Year, we'll be living in a new courtyard, we need at least some food... Okay, hehe!"

After listening to Gu Boyuan talk for so long, Li Jianguo couldn't help but interrupt him: "When did you become so long-winded? We can talk about planting vegetables later. The house won't be finished until June at the earliest. How can we plant anything without tidying up the yard?"

"Hey, since you already know the news, you must be one of the first batches to be allocated land. Don't you know the western settlements?"

"The old house plot we left behind when we moved out, the vegetable garden is all fertile land. We can get some well-cooked manure from Old Ma's place, apply it, and we can plant anything, right? That shouldn't be a problem for you. I'll leave this to you. When you go back, I'll bring you a few bottles of good wine, from the local distillery, at least ten years old, absolutely top-notch!"

After hanging up the phone, Li Jianguo shook his head, thinking to himself that he was destined to be a busybody, having to take care of everything.

Fortunately, young people like Li Junfeng are capable of handling things, so they can take care of the actual work.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Jianguo called Li Junfeng and Li Junhai together and drove to the western residential area to reconfirm the location of the homestead.

When Xu Chengjun heard Li Jianguo say that they also needed to finalize the homesteads for Li Long and Gu Boyuan, he smiled wryly and said:

“Brother Li, now that your family has almost finished selecting the homesteads you had before, if more people come to choose, then we’ll have to look for undeveloped land in the east.”

Li Jianguo chuckled and said, "So what? Anyway, you said the new policy is out, so there's always a first-come, first-served order, right? We were here first, so naturally we get to choose first, right?"

Xu Chengjun knew this was the logic, but he was sure he would be criticized later. However, he wasn't the one who leaked the news; rather, when he did leak it, the Li family had already decided to choose a house site.

But the other villagers certainly wouldn't think that way; they would definitely think that he had leaked the information to the Li family, and that he was bound to get scolded.

Li Jianguo didn't care about anything else. He led the Li family and started from the third house in the second alley of the western residential area, two houses per row, and selected five rows in a row. The last house in the fifth row was Li Junfeng's house, a single house with the door facing west. That's how they found out which house was next to him.

Li Long and Li Jianguo are neighbors, as are Gu Boyuan and Li Junhai. Li Jianguo arranged for his house to be built behind Li Long's house, with the same door facing east, making it convenient for them to visit each other.

Li Longjia and Li Jianguo are neighbors. Although according to tradition, each family should build a wall in the middle, Li Jianguo's idea is not to build a wall in the middle, so that the whole courtyard can be freely accessed and conveniently.

Once the land for the house was determined, wooden wedges were driven into the four corners and marked, then it was up to the construction team.

Xu Chengjun also told Li Jianguo and the others that they should dig water pipe trenches in advance, because the western residential area would need tap water, and the well in the village could supply tap water to the western residential area.

Li Jianguo wrote all of this down, and he would tell Meng Hai about it later.

Looking at this overgrown place, the Li family members were somewhat excited, because in just a few days, the construction team would come and build houses, and by autumn, once the new houses were completed, they could move in.

Xu Chengjun then said to Li Jianguo:

"Brother Li, if Boss Meng comes over, please tell him that we want to install a boiler in our house. It's too dangerous and troublesome to build fires in each house in winter. It would be much more convenient to install radiators."

“Okay, I’ll tell him when he gets here,” Li Jianguo said.

After Xu Chengjun left, Li Junfeng and the others immediately came over to ask what was going on. Li Jianguo told them, saying that he, Li Long, and Gu Boyuan's families would definitely be using the boiler, while the others would have to decide based on their own circumstances.

If population

If there aren't many people, then a stove is fine; it's simple. If there are many people and the house needs a lot of heating, then a boiler is better.

It's only a couple thousand yuan, and honestly, everyone can afford it.

"Hey, they're getting running water and heating installed. This place is just as good as the houses in the city!" Li Junhai exclaimed. "Coming to the northern frontier was definitely the right decision. Back home, I didn't want to stay even for a day in winter—it was freezing, the house was drafty, and I had to keep the doors wide open all the time, otherwise the neighbors would complain."

"Exactly, those blankets are so heavy in winter. The new cotton I brought back from northern Xinjiang with a mesh cover stopped being warm after two years. Winters here are much more comfortable. We have stoves and heated walls, so we don't get frostbite and there aren't so many problems."

"Exactly! Back home, the stoves were those honeycomb briquette stoves, which didn't keep the house warm enough. It took forever to cook a meal. Last winter, I didn't even want to go back. Now that the land for this house has been allocated, I'll hurry up and finish building it. After the autumn harvest, I'll bring my family from back home so we can have a comfortable winter. How wonderful!"

Listening to them chatter about their hopes and ideas, Li Jianguo smiled. Everything was moving in a positive direction.

It's not that his hometown is completely useless, but this winter, it's really not as comfortable to stay there as it is in Xinjiang. He also remembers that many of his older relatives and elders back home suffer from pulmonary heart disease, bronchitis, and the like, which are largely related to the climate.

He and Li Long have gotten used to staying here. Even their parents haven't talked about their hometown for the past two years. Since there are many relatives from their hometown visiting here, their parents tend to talk more about the advantages of living in northern Xinjiang.

Ultimately, you know best which side is better and which is worse, and you'll have to bear it yourself.

After everyone had their say, they all agreed on a unified house design and that the boilers should all be installed uniformly to save trouble. As for burning a few tons of coal each winter, it would only cost a few hundred yuan more.

For their current annual income of around ten thousand yuan, this really isn't much.

Moreover, the relatives of the Li family who did the work all ate and lived with Li Jianguo and his family, without spending any money, and they brought back a considerable amount of money every year. As far as Li Jianguo knew, they had also saved some money, which was for the purpose of settling down and building a house here.

Therefore, in terms of wealth index, it may be higher than that of some villagers in other villages.

Each family has determined their own homestead, and some have already started tidying up, clearing away stones, pulling weeds, or drawing lines with a stick.

Li Jianguo couldn't help but say, "You can do it now if you want, but to be honest, I think it's better to wait until Manager Meng and his construction team come and start building the wall. Then you can do the work in the yard. Maybe they'll clear all this stuff away by then, and you won't have to lift a finger."

That makes sense, but knowing that this piece of land now belongs to them, how could these young men resist taking action?

Li Jianguo didn't interfere much, simply leaving a car for them to do their thing while he drove home.

The next morning, Meng Hai took several design drawings to Li Long at the purchasing station and asked him to take a look at them to see if they were acceptable.

Upon hearing that Meng Hai had brought the design blueprints for the new house, even Li Qingxia couldn't sit still. He instructed Sun Jiaqiang to look at them at the counter while he went to the reception room to look at the blueprints with Li Long.

When Li Long came over early in the morning, he had already told the old man about it. Li Qingxia was just as excited to know that her two sons were moving to a new house.

He said regretfully, "Your house was only built a few years ago, and it's still in good condition, so why do you have to give it up? Your older brother's house, on the other hand, has been built for quite a few years. The courtyard walls, the house, the roof tiles and everything else have been renovated quite a bit, so it's fine to build a new one."

Li Long laughed and said, "What's this? I've lived here for over ten years. Some people in the residential area behind here have only built their houses for less than six months. They'll live here for another two years at most before they have to be demolished. Those tens of thousands of yuan are not worth it."

As the saying goes, when people are suffering, they feel much better if they find someone who is suffering even more than themselves.

Upon hearing this, Li Qingxia nodded and said, "That's a real loss! You spent several thousand yuan to build that yard, right? It's worth it even if you live there for ten years. He won't be able to recoup his tens of thousands of yuan no matter how long he lives there!"

When I'm in a calm mood, I find the house designs on the blueprints quite novel.

Li Long first abandoned the courtyard house, as it was unsuitable for the countryside.

Seeing Li Long toss one of the papers away, Li Qingxia was somewhat surprised. He picked it up, glanced at it, then shook his head, put it aside, and said:

“Such a house would be fine to build in our hometown, but it’s not practical here in northern Xinjiang. In the rural areas of northern Xinjiang, the land is large, and the house plots have huge yards. We can’t use so many houses; we need to save the space for growing vegetables.”

Li Long thought to himself that his father was now a native of northern Xinjiang and was familiar with the situation here.

Meng Hai laughed and said, "Our technicians have drawn up all the possible designs for building structures, so it's up to you to choose."

After looking at several pictures, Li Long settled on one: the main house had three large rooms divided into smaller rooms, and there were three side rooms that were not connected. The empty spaces were covered with corrugated steel roof sheds for storing tractors and other farm implements.

The yard was paved with cement, then a decorative wall was installed, and the area in front was all for growing vegetables.

Next to the three side rooms, build a chicken coop and a pigsty, and in the southeast or southwest corner, build a toilet. That way, you'll have everything you need.

The entire building is L-shaped, but it is not completely connected.

However, Li Long also kept the other pieces of paper besides the one for the courtyard house. The ones he chose might not be the same as the ones his elder brother chose. The other nephews and nieces should also have their own ideas.

Li Qingxia thought about the same thing as Li Long. After looking around, they decided on the one, saying that their older brother must think the same way.

So Li Long and Meng Hai drove to Team Four, one after the other, to have Li Jianguo and the others confirm the design of the new house.

Li Jianguo had been at home for the past few days. When Li Long and Meng Hai arrived, Li Jianguo was looking at a high-horsepower tractor.

Meng Hai handed the stack of design drawings to Li Jianguo, who took them and said with a smile, "Xiaolong, have you already looked at them? Which one do you think is better?"

Not wanting to influence his elder brother's judgment, Li Long said, "Take a look first, and we'll talk about it after you've finished."

Li Jianguo looked at one sheet and handed it to Liang Yuemei, who then passed it on to Du Chunfang, and so on. In the end, everyone agreed that the one Li Long had chosen was quite good, but Liang Yuemei thought the design of the small rooms in the house, especially the kitchen, should be changed.

Meng Hai smiled and said, "That's no problem. Once the main framework is set, the details are easy to modify." He took a pen out of his pocket and handed it to Liang Yuemei, saying, "Sister-in-law, you draw it yourself and see how it suits you."

Liang Yuemei looked at Li Jianguo, and Li Jianguo said, "The kitchen looks more suitable to you. Do whatever you want with it."

So Liang Yuemei added a detail to the kitchen, creating a storage room. After she finished drawing it, she said, "I just felt that it wasn't good to pile everything up in the kitchen. It would be better to put things in a partition wall."

And that's how the Li family's house was decided.

Li Long asked Li Junfeng and Li Junhai, and Li Jianguo said that they had driven the tiller to the cotton field to cultivate the soil, loosen the soil and remove weeds. Now that they have this thing up, the weeds will not grow well.

“There’s not much work to do, they’ll be back by noon. Don’t leave, have lunch here,” Li Jianguo said. “They’ll be back around noon, let them decide for themselves what kind of house they want to build.”

Liang Yuemei also smiled and said, "This is a big deal. We'll slaughter a chicken at noon today and I'll stew it for you. We need to decide on the style of the new house, so we can't be careless."

Li Long felt quite happy that his sister-in-law had decided on the kitchen design that he was in charge of.

"Then I'll go to the small lake and cast a couple of nets to catch some fish to eat," Li Long said.

Just then, Li Junfeng's father came over carrying a bucket of fish. When he saw Li Long, he smiled and said, "Little Long, you're here! Hey, I took out the net this morning and caught a few big crucian carp and two black carp. These fish are rare; I haven't seen many black carp in the nets lately, so I thought I'd bring them over for you to eat."

Li Long laughed: "Brother Anton, I was just about to cast a couple of nets to catch some fish for lunch, and what a coincidence, you just delivered the fish. Thank you so much."

“Hey, you catch fish in this little lake every day to sell. I heard from Junfeng that you contracted this little lake. It’s like I’m eating from your pot. It’s only right that I give you fish.” Li Andong said with a smile, “It’s just that you live in the city, otherwise I would give you fish every day.”

“I don’t get to eat any, and I don’t have anything else, just crucian carp and stuff. I just send some to my mom and my older brother and sister-in-law every morning.” Li Long picked up where he left off, “Fish doesn’t make you sick like beef, lamb, or pork. Eating more of it is only good for you.”

“Sure, sure, no problem at all. I’ll bring the net over as soon as I get it,” Li Andong said with a smile. “As long as you don’t mind. I see you have guests here, so I won’t keep you any longer. You two can chat.”

Liang Yuemei said with a smile, "Brother An Dong often sends fish here, so there's no need to send them every day."

Li Andong smiled and left.

Looking at the black carp and large crucian carp in the bucket, Li Long smiled and said, "These fish look pretty plump. Old Meng, we're in for a treat today."

Meng Hai chimed in, "Yes, that's right."

Liang Yuemei brought over a basin, preparing to clean the fish. Li Long lent a hand, helping out mainly with scaling and gill removal. Li Jianguo brought scissors and began peeling the fish. Meng Hai wanted to help too, but he didn't know where to start.

Li Long told him to go to the vegetable garden to pick some scallions and some watercress to stew with the fish.

When Meng Hai entered the vegetable garden, Liang Yuemei whispered to Li Long if Meng Hai knew what artemisia was. Li Long smiled and said that there was a lot of this plant growing in the wild where they lived.

While Meng Hai was pulling up the scallions and picking the peppercorns, Li Long and the others had already cleaned the fish. Sister-in-law Liang Yuemei took the fish to the kitchen to wash it again, while elder brother Li Jianguo was picking up the fish's innards to feed the chickens.

A tabby cat ran over and meowed, probably because it smelled the fish but was too late.

Li Long quickly took the fish's innards from his older brother's basin to feed the cat, but Li Jianguo quickly said, "This cat is very picky; it won't eat anything except the gills."

Li Long was somewhat surprised. He deliberately took out all the fish gills and then placed a string of fish bellies and intestines next to the cat.

The cat really did only eat the fish gills. After finishing the gills, it smelled the fish's internal organs and then turned and left.

Du Chunfang, the old lady, said, "This cat has become picky about food. Every time Anton brings fish, it either eats the whole fish or only eats the gills of the big fish. Sometimes when there are more small fish, it will pick and choose to eat the minnows and pike, but it won't eat the small crucian carp."

Indeed, being a picky eater is in the nature of all animals; given enough food, they will definitely choose what they like to eat.

"How cunning! The gills are full of meat!" Old Mrs. Du Chunfang exclaimed. "Back in our hometown, we'd have to catch mice to eat ourselves, but here it catches mice to eat too."

Before lunch was even ready, Li Junfeng and his team returned. The sputtering sounds of tractors of all sizes grew louder as they approached, sounding like a convoy of vehicles.

After the tractor was parked, Li Jianguo called them into the yard and showed them the house design plans.

These young men immediately went into the courtyard and each took a blueprint to look at.

Li Junfeng didn't take it, and asked Li Jianguo, "Uncle Jianguo, which design paper are you using?"

Li Jianguo looked at them one by one, then pointed to the one they had chosen and said, "This one is it."

Li Junfeng glanced at it, smiled, and said, "Then I'll use this one too. Uncle Xiaolong, will you use this one as well?"

Li Long nodded and agreed, mainly because he felt this one was more reasonable.

Seeing the lively scene at the Li family's house across the street, Lu Yingming walked over. He glanced at the design drawings they were holding and asked, "Old Li, what's this? It looks like a yard."

Li Jianguo took out his cigarette case, pulled out a cigarette, and handed it to Lu Yingming, saying, "It's the courtyard. A few of us are planning to build new courtyards in the western residential area, so we asked Boss Meng to come and help with the design."

"What, you're moving?" Lu Yingming asked, somewhat surprised. "You're living perfectly fine here, why the sudden urge to move?"

“Isn’t it going to be a merger of residential areas in a couple of years?” Li Jianguo explained. “We’ll have to move sooner or later anyway, so we thought we might as well do it all at once while these younger people are just about to get their house plots. Old Meng and his team will come and provide the construction crew. Whether they build five rooms or nine, it’s all the same. If we do it all at once, we won’t have to go through all that trouble.”

Lu Yingming asked in surprise, "Are you going to merge the settlements and move them to the west? Is that confirmed?"

Li Jianguo nodded and said, "It's true. The team leader has already heard the news in the township. The meeting hasn't been held yet because the specific documents haven't been issued. Once the documents are issued, a meeting of village representatives will be held, and then we should be notified."

Lu Yingming was still a little confused, mainly because the news came too suddenly. He had lived here for more than ten years and was living comfortably. Suddenly having to move out caught him off guard.

Moreover, his situation was similar to that of the Li family. They both moved from the west at the beginning, and their old houses were all there. Later, the team allocated those houses to others, so they came here to rebuild their houses.

The foundation was built with painstaking effort, truckload after truckload of soil, and mud bricks were shed piece by piece. Every two years, the roof had to be plastered again.

Although this courtyard is old, we've developed a strong attachment to it. The sudden announcement that it will be merged into the west side is a bit hard to accept.

Lu Yingming had originally intended to join in the conversation, but upon hearing such big news, he lost all interest in chatting and turned back home to discuss the matter with his wife.

Li Jianguo had originally wanted to persuade him to choose a house site sooner, but Lu Yingming walked away quickly, so he let him be. Fortunately, he knew that his neighbor was more thoughtful when he was calm, and he was also quite familiar with the situation of the western residential area, so he should make plans soon.

After laughing and joking around for a while, everyone surprisingly chose the same apartment type as Li Jianguo and his group.

Upon seeing this outcome, Meng Hai laughed and said, "Hey, this is great! It saves our construction workers a lot of trouble. One blueprint can build nine courtyards, which makes things much easier for the workers. Tomorrow I'll take people to buy bricks and materials. Feng Guoqing and the others should be coming down the mountain in the next day or two. After resting for a couple of days, they can come over and start work."

Upon hearing that construction would begin soon, Li Junfeng and Li Junhai were quite excited. Li Long casually asked, "How long will it take to build a courtyard?"

While thinking, Meng Hai said, "The kind that's all brick, with the help of construction machinery. Feng Guoqing has a few skilled workers under him, and we'll hire a few temporary workers. It'll take about ten days to finish one yard. It's just that the precast cement slabs need to dry completely."

Li Long waved his hand and said directly, "We won't use precast slabs for the roof, we'll use wood. We'll use the kind of roof made of reeds, that kind is breathable. Precast slabs aren't breathable, they'll be too sunny in the summer, and the house will be too hot."

There was another reason he didn't mention: precast slabs used as roofs are not earthquake-resistant, and they are prone to collapse in the event of a strong earthquake.

Freshly poured concrete is of course the best, but the geographical environment here is too hot in the summer, so direct exposure to the sun is not ideal.

Meng Hai nodded and said, "No problem, we'll buy the bricks and wood together tomorrow."

Li Jianguo remarked with emotion, "When we were building this house, we hauled 200 truckloads of soil just for the foundation, and it took us three months to build one house. Now it can be finished in 10 days. I can't believe it."

Li Long knew the situation. Back then, the Li family didn't even own a donkey. This cart was pulled by people, and the amount of dirt it could carry was less than that of a tricycle in later times. But in those days, having this was already quite good.

Building houses back then was really hard work, all done by hand, requiring sheer physical strength.

Fortunately, things are much better now.

Before they had even finished lunch, someone came to the Li family to inquire about the homestead.

Needless to say, it must have been Sister-in-law Lu's big mouth that spread this news.

Anyway, there was nothing to hide, so Li Jianguo and the others told the truth.

Some people believed it and rushed home to discuss it; others didn't believe it and wanted to confront the team leader.

Before Li Long left, Xie Yundong and his group arrived.

Xie Yundong, Liang Dacheng, and Xu Haijun's houses are in the western part of the area, so they don't need to worry about this.

However, the houses of Tao Daqiang and Jia Weidong are in the eastern part of the area, and they came here specifically to inquire about this news.

Li Long told them the truth and said to Tao Daqiang, "Daqiang, you'd better hurry up and apply for your family's homestead with the team leader."

Judging from the current situation, more people know about it, and applying in advance can get you a good plot of land. If you apply later, you might get undeveloped land, and the yard will be in disarray for two or three years.

Tao Daqiang immediately went to find Xu Chengjun. Liang Dacheng said with a bit of pride, "Our family was really farsighted. We stayed in the western area back then, and now we don't have to go through all this trouble."

Xie Yundong shook his head and said, "We probably don't need to do anything big, but it's hard to say about the smaller things. Although the residential land in our area is divided into unified plots, some people have built their yards right next to the road, and some people's irrigation ditches are not straight. If the residential area is really to be planned in a unified way, all of these things will have to be changed."

At this moment, Li Long admired Xie Yundong. Look at Xie Yundong's keen insight; he saw through the essence of the matter in an instant.

He's right. In the past two years, homesteads have needed to be rezoned. The original residents in the western area don't need to be moved, but the roads need to be straightened. Some families who want to take advantage of this will have to shrink their courtyards.

However, for the western part of the area, these are minor matters, just small-scale repairs, unlike the eastern part and new settlements which require rebuilding houses.

But there was no need to discuss those things anymore. Li Long asked Liang Dacheng about the cotton growing on his newly reclaimed land.

"It's alright. The seeds were sown after the first round of flood irrigation, and the germination rate was 60%. Then we did some replanting, and now it's over 80%. The seedlings are growing well. It's saline-alkali land, so the growth is definitely not as good as our 2000 mu of drip-irrigated land, but it's better than other newly planted land."

Liang Dacheng was tanned dark, indicating he frequently worked in the fields and was quite familiar with the conditions, as he spoke of them with great familiarity:

“There are two large alkaline pits in the field, and the germination rate in those two areas is relatively low. Even after replanting, it's still not good. I plan to irrigate heavily again after the cotton harvest this year, level the area, fill in the pits, and then water again. The alkalinity will dissipate. This way, it should be better if we plant drip-irrigated land next year.”

Sure enough, Liang Dacheng was no ordinary person. He had already thoroughly understood the situation in the field and knew how to solve the problem, which was excellent.

Li Long thought that if the cooperative expanded in the future, he could manage five or eight thousand mu of land on his own, which shouldn't be a problem.

People who know how to think critically are always better than those who report problems and seek solutions whenever they arise.

Xu Haijun's situation is much better. Although drip irrigation farming is more troublesome at the beginning, it is much easier to manage later on.

Moreover, he has already recruited a group of people to work with him in the second team, so managing them is now much easier.

He said, "The seedling emergence rate on my land is 85%. Drip irrigation makes a difference. Since I thought it was about the same, I didn't replant any seedlings. As long as these seedlings grow well and the cotton bolls set, the yield of 300 kilograms per mu will definitely be no problem."

Seeing Xu Haijun's confidence, Li Long smiled.

Xu Haijun continued, "By the way, the captain of the second team also wanted to inquire about how this 10,000-mu farmland transformation project is going to work. He asked me to ask you."

Li Long smiled and said, "Don't you know all about this?"

Xu Haijun slapped him and said, "Don't play dumb with me. You know they want to know if they can pull some strings. You must have connections over there, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get this project done. They also want to try to pull some strings, but they don't know you. They just asked me to pass on a message to see how much money they need to spend or something."

Li Long shook his head and said, "It's impossible, even with connections it's impossible. All the land in their team combined is only about four or five thousand mu, and even if you add the land of Team 6, it's still not enough for 1 mu."

The autonomous region has a strict requirement for this project: at least 1 mu of land must be available. Without meeting this standard, everything else is out of the question.

Xu Haijun sighed and said, "It seems they'll have to pay for the renovations themselves, just like with my thousand acres of land."

“If they can wait a few years, the government might provide subsidies, but it won’t be like our team where the government pays for everything,” Li Long said. “Drip irrigation is the future trend, and the government will definitely promote it.”

"But it's impossible to put all the money in. Large-scale farming is the priority. For smaller plots, the government might cover half, and we'll cover the other half. Tell the second team leader this, and see what he thinks."

Xu Haijun nodded to indicate that he understood.

Everyone wants to save money in these situations, but sometimes the policy is just like that. If you can save money, that's great, but if you can't, you have to make a decision quickly.

The sooner the changes are made, the sooner money can be made. Even if cotton harvesters are not available yet, as long as drip irrigation farming becomes widespread, it can cover the later costs of manual cotton harvesting.

Otherwise, if the cost of farming increases in two years but the price of cotton doesn't rise, we won't even be able to afford the cotton harvesting fees.

The reality is that once cotton picking fees rise, they won't fall, but while cotton prices don't rise, agricultural input prices have never fallen.

In the end, the farmers could only watch helplessly as the cotton fell to the ground: if they hired someone to pick it, the money from selling it wouldn't be enough to cover the cost of picking it; if they didn't hire someone to pick it, it would be a waste for the cotton to fall to the ground.

But if you harvest it yourself, even if you have dozens or hundreds of acres of land, you still won't be able to finish harvesting by winter.

That's very difficult. (End of Chapter)