Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1237 We're going to take a plane to Yanjing!

When Li Long found a courtyard for Talihar's family through the housing management bureau, Meng Hai also came to see Li Long.

"I didn't go through the housing management bureau. Instead, I found a fellow villager from Lounan Village and rented a large courtyard in the urban-rural fringe area. This courtyard used to be their village's warehouse, where they stored farm tools and livestock."

This courtyard was previously rented out to someone who ran a business. Later, the business didn't do well, so the tenant returned the courtyard.

Meng Hai felt he had gotten a bargain. Renting such a courtyard would only cost a hundred or so yuan a year, and he rented it for five years!
Li Long frowned and asked:

"This courtyard... is it feasible? It belongs to the collective, right? Did you sign the agreement with the village or the township?"

"It's a contract signed with the village collective," Meng Hai said. "The village has the right to dispose of these assets. I heard that Lounan Village might be merged into the county, and those people might start receiving government-subsidized grain rations."

The courtyard might be available for sale then. I think it's a bit far from the county town, so the price shouldn't be too high; it'll be just right to buy it then.

At first, I thought about renting a yard in the county, but then I realized we have quite a lot of machinery. If we rented a yard in the county, wouldn't the movement of the machinery disrupt people's lives? So, we decided to rent somewhere around the county town.

Meng Hai lowered his voice and chuckled as he said this:

“The militia company commander in this village and I were recruited in the same year; we came back together. If he becomes successful, he'll still have to give me this much face.”

Li Long felt relieved. Meng Hai was right; choosing a location for the company in the urban-rural fringe was better than in the county town. Firstly, it would be difficult to find a suitable yard of that size in the county town, and secondly, it would indeed be inconvenient.

Seeing that Li Long had no objections, Meng Hai said:

“After we rented that yard, I plan to bring the company’s people over in the next few days, clean it up, and leave two people here on duty, with the others taking turns. When someone is on duty, we can drive the truck and forklift over.”

"Renovating the yard is no problem, but sending someone to stand guard... shouldn't this be done after spring?"

There's nothing much to do here on duty right now, and it's easy for something to go wrong, right? It would be better to remind them during the renovations, so they're mentally prepared.

Li Long reasoned that farmers transitioning to workers involves a mindset shift. Suddenly assigning them to duty shifts in the compound would inevitably breed resistance.

"Of course, I'm just offering suggestions, because I don't know you guys well. You can handle it yourself," Li Long said. "There's no work right now, so it's okay to get everyone on the same page."

Meng Hai nodded and said, "That's right. While we're working, I'll explain some of the regulations to everyone so they're mentally prepared. From now on, we'll be a formal company, and we can't act like a makeshift operation like before."

"Make sure the reward and punishment system is in place. We can't be too arbitrary just because we have shares," Li Long said. "You need to handle this well."

"Okay." Meng Hai nodded.

Meng Hai came mainly to discuss and finalize the courtyard with Li Long. Since Li Long had no objections, they could proceed.

Li Long handed Meng Hai the gifts his wife, Gu Xiaoxia, had bought for his child. Meng Hai was overjoyed, saying with a smile, "This won't do, this won't do," as he took the gifts, adding, "My child will definitely love this!"

After seeing Meng Hai off, Li Long drove to the mountains to pick up Talihar and his grandmother.

Whether or not they can keep the courtyard depends on their situation.

“This courtyard is two alleys away from Halimu’s courtyard, only a hundred or two meters away.” Li Long led them to the courtyard, opened the gate and said, “The structure of the courtyard is similar to theirs, but it was originally inhabited by Han people, so it needs to be renovated, and it will have to wait until spring.”

The snow in the yard hadn't been cleared yet, but that didn't stop Talihar's grandmother and him from striding inside. As they looked around the yard, Li Long went over and opened the door.

"Because no one lives here, the heating is off. So it's a bit cold inside." Li Long invited them in to take a look. "The owner moved out about six months ago and didn't tidy up much, but the inside is in pretty good condition."

White on top and blue on the bottom—this is a color that Talihar and his people prefer.

There was no furniture in the house; it had all been taken away, and the stove was gone too.

The ground was a bit messy, with scraps of paper, old magazines, and pieces of cloth.

This courtyard is slightly larger than Halim's. The main house has three doors and seven rooms inside. Two rooms are one bright and two dark, and one room is one bright and three dark.

The kitchen and toilet on the side have a similar layout. Between the kitchen and toilet is a relatively large coal shed, which contains some unused coal dust and wood.

The vegetable garden was also a mess, with dried vegetable stalks not completely buried by the snow, sticking out in the snow in a lonely way.

"This yard is nice, it's big!" Talihar's grandmother said, quite pleased. "It must be very expensive, right? Is the price of that snow leopard skin enough? If not, I have other options."

"That's enough, that's enough. The rest is enough for the renovation and furniture purchase. I think there will be some left over. I'll give you the remaining money after we've finished everything."

"No need, no need, you've worked hard." Talihar's grandmother waved her hand. "You're a friend, you've helped us, we should thank you."

The matter was complicated, so Li Long didn't say much. Talihar's grandmother and he started looking for tools to clear the snow. However, they didn't have any tools, so Li Long told them that the snow would melt in the spring anyway. The house was made of brick, and the roof wouldn't leak, so they shouldn't bother clearing it.

The two watched for a while longer before reluctantly leaving.

Li Long locked the door and led them to complete the formalities.

After completing the formalities, Talihar's grandmother insisted on going back quickly to tell her family the good news, so Li Long took them into the mountains.

When they left the mountain, Li Long had two more wolf skins, two pairs of deer antlers, and a piece of jade in his car.

The jade weighs seven or eight kilograms and has some black spots, but not many, so it's considered to be of pretty good quality.

Li Long estimated that all of these could fetch around five or six hundred yuan, enough to buy plenty of furniture.

Li Long was thinking of bringing in a few tons of coal to the yard, building a tandoor oven, and doing something like that—basically, getting everything done.

Back in the courtyard, it was almost dark. He felt that the day had been busy and fulfilling.

Li Qingxia returned from the purchasing station with her hands behind her back and saw Li Long clearing snow from the wheels of his GAZ truck in the yard. She said:

"Secretary Zhang from Yanjing called and asked you to call him back at 10:30 tomorrow."

"Did he say what it was about?" Li Long stopped what he was doing and asked.

A while ago, Secretary Zhang contacted him, mainly to ask about the draft of the speech on ethnic unity and the cooperative, but then nothing came of it.

What do you need to do by making a phone call now?

“They didn’t say what it was about,” Li Qingxia said. “They wouldn’t tell me. They heard you weren’t here, so they asked you to call back tomorrow.”

"Okay, I got it." Li Long continued clearing away the snow chunks.

After dinner, Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia talked about Talihar's family's plan to move to the county town.

"That's great! Didn't you say several old ladies came over last time? Only one family is willing to move here?" Gu Xiaoxia asked while soaking her feet.

"No, I guess the old men from those families don't want to come." Li Long waved his hand. "The old ladies are happy because they saw how Halim's mother lives here. The old men stick to tradition and most of them don't want to come out."

Indeed, as Li Long said, after the old ladies went back, two of them told their families what they had seen outside. Before they could even express any intention to move out, the old men refuted them.

Clearly, in the old man's eyes, living as a herder and being with his cattle and sheep is what they should be doing. Having lived in the mountains for so many years, generation after generation, is it still acceptable for them to suddenly consider city life?

Without cattle and sheep, are Kazakhs still Kazakhs?
Of course, there were strong oppositions and also hesitations.

After all, life is better in the county. The son is able to support the family now, so it's normal for him to want a better life in his old age.

These are all things that happened in the mountains this winter; some things happened and then passed, while others happened and left traces.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long went to the purchasing station and called Secretary Zhang at 10:30.

After the phone rang twice, Secretary Zhang answered it. Hearing Li Long's voice, he said:

"Comrade Li Long, are you free recently? If you are, the leader thinks it would be best if you came to Yanjing to explain your idea in detail."

"What are your thoughts?" Li Long asked.

Li Long was somewhat reluctant to go to Yanjing, as the round trip by train would take a week.

Although he had three courtyards in Yanjing, Li Long only went twice before he became too lazy to go there during the winter.

"It's mainly about cooperatives. Of course, it would be best to also compile a summary of the situation in your rural areas, as the leaders might ask about it. Also, you can prepare some ideas about ethnic unity that you mentioned."

"When should I leave?" "Call me when you're ready, and I'll make the arrangements for you. You can fly over."

"Flying on an airplane? That's great!" Li Long thought to himself, he had never flown on an airplane in this lifetime!
Currently, you need to be at the county or regimental level to fly, and you also need to provide documentation, which is quite troublesome.

"Yes, it's by plane. Contact me when you're ready, preferably before New Year's Day."

“Okay, I’ll do it as soon as possible,” Li Long said.

Before Li Long could even get excited after hanging up the phone, his father, Li Qingxia, asked:

"What? Are you getting on a plane?"

"Yes, I'm flying to Yanjing in a few days. My boss said he has something to ask me."

"Hey, you've finally gotten to the point where you can fly!" Li Qingxia rarely joked with her son. "That's not something just anyone can do!"

Li Long smiled and said, "It's because I'm benefiting from the leader's influence."

After saying that, he went to the reception room at the back, poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, leaned back in his chair, tilted his head back, and closed his eyes.

I need to sort out the things Secretary Zhang said in my mind.

Last time I told the leader the main points, and now the leader wants to hear a report, so it must be about the details.

The leader probably didn't ask such detailed questions just out of interest; they likely needed it for reference.

Recalling what he had seen about southern Xinjiang in his previous life, and thinking about the next steps for rural development in the northwest and northeast, Li Long felt he had a clear direction.

He's just an ordinary citizen who says what he knows. He doesn't need to be as organized as those leaders. He just needs to say what he wants to say, one, two, three.

Of course, since Secretary Zhang asked us to prepare, we should try to prepare as much as possible.

I have a good grasp of things like cotton development in northern and southern Xinjiang, the mechanization of cooperatives, and the structure of cooperatives. I wouldn't say I know them by heart, but I at least remember them.

Li Long thought for a moment, finished the tea in his cup, got up and went outside. He told his father and then returned to the courtyard.

He felt it would be better to write down what he wanted to say in a notebook.

Otherwise, if you only think about what feels right, what you actually say might not be the case at all.

Sure enough, while writing, he realized that when he talked about the cooperative, he had focused too much on its structure and too little on its application in mechanization and its future prospects.

The specific circumstances in northern Xinjiang dictate that agriculture must be mechanized and centralized.

But Li Long took the idea of ​​planting cotton for granted. He was applying the situation of the future to his current plans, but while he knew it was inevitable, others might not.

So it's better to be conservative and not be so radical, as if it's something you're born to do. It's easy to expose yourself and be perceived as too arrogant or conceited.

Li Long spent the whole morning writing and drawing in the notebook, occasionally erasing and crossing out some parts. He had almost finalized the content, and the next step was to rewrite it.

When lunchtime arrived, Li Long hadn't finished copying it yet, but he wasn't in a hurry anymore.

He has already taken care of all the things Secretary Zhang mentioned; the rest are just minor details.

During lunch, Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia about his upcoming trip to Yanjing and asked her:

"Xiaoxia, could you please take some time off? If so, let's go together."

"I can't ask them." Gu Xiaoxia immediately rejected the idea. "There are so many things to do at the end of the year, like inspections and assessments. Plus, Mingming and Haohao are starting kindergarten, you can't exactly take them with you, can you? You're going there on business, not for a vacation."

Gu Xiaoxia was right, and Li Long thought about it and agreed.

"Do you have anything you want to bring for Xiaoyu? I'll take it to her on this trip."

“No, I just send her whatever she needs. But since you're going there, you should probably bring back some local specialties. However, you can't bring too much on a plane, so I think you can just send it to them,” Gu Xiaoxia said while eating. “They should understand.”

I can understand that.

After dinner, Li Long thought he should call his older brother to tell him about the matter.

After all, her older brother also has a courtyard over there. Maybe in two years, Li Juan will be admitted to a school in Yanjing and it will really come in handy.

After thinking about it, he still felt it would be better to drive directly to his home and talk to him there.

When Li Long drove to the fourth team, the weather was a bit overcast. According to the weather forecast, it might snow in the next couple of days.

It's better for the snow to fall heavily, because when it melts in the spring, it can remove some of the salt and alkali from the soil.

It is beneficial for farming.

When Li Long arrived at his older brother's house, he saw a GAZ truck parked outside, but he didn't know whose it was.

As soon as he got out of the car, he saw the door open and Captain Xu Chengjun came out of the house, followed by his elder brother Li Jianguo.

"Hey, Xiaolong's back!" Xu Chengjun greeted Li Long with a smile. "It's rare to see you in winter."

"It's too cold, and there's nothing else," Li Long casually made up an excuse. "Is there something wrong, Captain?"

"Yes, it's about the team. Recently, several families in the team have been applying for household registration for their relatives who came from their hometowns. Your older brother is a village representative, so I came over to give them a heads-up."

Li Long immediately thought of Li Junfeng, and then said with a smile:

"That's good, that's good. Our village just doesn't have enough people. Back home, a village has several thousand people, but we have less than three hundred..."

"Haha, it's different, it's different," Xu Chengjun said. "The northern frontier is still different from my hometown. Fortunately, our team has a lot of land, and some of the reclaimed wasteland has gradually been converted into our food rations."

Apart from the farmland for subsistence farming, the village's surplus land is all contracted out for different periods, ranging from five, ten, or fifteen years to one year at a time, all in order to facilitate land allocation for any increase in population.

Moreover, the team reclaims land every year, and what is reclaimed is considered the team's reserve land.

To allocate land to those who settle down, it will come from here; the land already allocated cannot be moved.

Others are unwilling either.

After exchanging a few words with Li Long, Xu Chengjun drove away, and Li Long followed his older brother into the house.

"Big brother, Junfeng's family's household registration..."

“I asked, and right now we can only apply for Junfeng and his wife, and their youngest daughter,” Li Jianguo said. “We’ll talk about the others later. Other families apply for parents, siblings, or brothers-in-law, but our relative is a bit too distant.”

Fortunately, the team was more lenient and provided some extra money as compensation, which they can keep. I reckon things will get tougher later.

Household registration will definitely become more and more difficult in the future. They'll process batches of registrations every few years, mainly for newborns registering their household registration and allocating land. For those seeking to register their household elsewhere, the process is generally very strict.

The Li family is a special case, or rather, the Li family has made a greater contribution, which gives Xu Chengjun something to say to the village representatives.

Li Long thought for a moment and said:

“Brother, tell the team that next year I plan to invest money and apply to the township government to build an asphalt road from our team to the township.”

"Then... it must have cost quite a bit, right?" Li Jianguo didn't expect Li Long to suddenly veer off to this topic.

"I estimate around 100,000, maybe 200,000 or 300,000 at most," Li Long said. "We need to spend all this money we've earned. I came from the Fourth Team, so I have to spend money on the Fourth Team, right?"

“Then… there’s no problem with Junfeng’s family settling down here.” Li Jianguo nodded.

"It's not just for that, it's also because I'm going to Yanjing in a few days." Li Long mentioned the phone call from Secretary Zhang. "If the leader wants to see me, I have to have something to show for it. The road in the mountains is almost finished, so I can't stop now."

"Yes, that makes sense." Li Jianguo also held that person in high esteem, and nodded. "This can be considered a gift, right?"

(End of this chapter)