The road from Qingshui River into the mountains was almost completely covered in snow. The higher stretches without shrubs around them were better off, since the wind blew the snow away, but the low valleys were more troublesome. In some places, the snow was nearly a meter deep.
The tractor had plenty of horsepower and pushed snow aside with little effort, easily clearing a path. But the snow was so deep that it soon rose above the snow pusher at the front, forcing them to stop every so often to clear the snow piled up ahead.
Li Long drove the small four-wheel tractor with the snow-clearing machine attached, helping at intervals to throw the snow accumulated in the middle of the road off to either side. A few passes cleared it away.
Working together like this, the small four-wheel tractor and the Dongfanghong 75 tractor made it all the way from Qingshui River Village to the Mountain Pass on the first day before they could go no farther.
It was already afternoon. They had eaten lunch at Meng Hai's house.
"Comrade Li Long, how about we call it a day and carry on tomorrow? We relied entirely on machinery today. When I get back, I'll round up more people to help tomorrow, and we'll soon get this mountain road open," Meng Hai said. "Everyone earned quite a bit from you building the road. There'll be no need to pay them for clearing snow tomorrow. The people in our village have at least that much public spirit."
The mountain road was no short stretch either. Li Long thought for a moment and said:
"Let's see how things go tomorrow. We'll try clearing it with the tractors first and get people in if that doesn't work. There's clearly a lot more snow