In early spring, a tractor's body, engine oil, and water were all cold, and it was usually very hard to start. The technology back then-or rather, tractor technology back then-was not as good as it would be in later years.
The middle-aged man brought over a bucket of hot water and poured it into the radiator opening on top of the tractor, saying with a smile:
"In cold weather, you need hot water. Same reason people need to drink hot water when they're cold. Come on, young fellow, give me a hand. Let's start it together."
"Let me try first," Li Long said with a smile. "A few extra turns will stir the oil up, too."
"All right, you try first. If it doesn't work, we'll do it together." The middle-aged man did not refuse. In front of young women, young men usually wanted to show off their masculine strength, and he assumed Li Long was the same. Of course, he had also left him a way out, because starting a tractor alone at this time of year really was difficult. They often used two people: one held down the decompression lever with his left hand and gripped the crank handle with his right, while the other either put one hand on the first man's shoulder and the other on the handle so they could crank together, or gripped the crank with both hands, bringing three hands to bear.
Li Long had even seen children of ten or so, whose arms were too short, raise a foot to hold down the decompression lever while turning the crank with both hands. Once they felt it was spinning fast enough, they took their foot off and gave it a hard swing, turning it another half revolution to start the tractor.
The crank