In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 446 The First Batch of Apprentices' Assessments Concluded
Chapter 472 Case's excavator, sold for 300,000?

“You can’t just think about eating meat. Does your captain remember that you guys read the ‘Maintenance Manual’ regularly?” Yu Dawei’s gaze swept across the boys’ faces.

Some people lowered their heads and remained silent, while others confidently met Yu Dawei's gaze.

"Look! There are some words I don't recognize, hehe." The dark-skinned boy next to him grinned.

The factory hired a lot of people, but they were all people who hadn't finished elementary school and had gone back to farm. They hadn't read books for a long time, and they no longer recognized some of the characters they used to know.

“Sigh, you all didn’t study hard when you were in school. Now that you have the chance, you should study hard, at least so that you can recognize the characters.” Yu Dawei thought for a moment, “When I have time later, I’ll find someone to give you a few lessons, so that you can at least recognize all the characters.”

He didn't have high requirements for the apprentices in the factory; as long as they could read and knew how to study, that was enough.

As for whether he can work at the repair shop for a long time or become a formal employee, Yu Dawei really hasn't thought about that.

He doesn't need many people here right now; he only needs to train one proper repairman out of ten.

But he still wanted these kids to understand the importance of learning while they were at the repair shop, so that even if they left Fanfan Repair Shop, they would still have a place to stand in the future.

A little while later, Master Liao had finished machining the crankshaft according to Yu Dawei's previous instructions, and then he took the crankshaft back step by step.

Yu Dawei gave the other party three hundred yuan, which was the price of a boring machine shaft in the city. It would only cost two hundred yuan in the town, which was what Master Liao also said.

But having gotten caught in the rain himself, Yu Dawei didn't mind holding an umbrella for others, even if it meant spending an extra hundred yuan to buy some wine.

The repair of the Case excavator went very smoothly after that. Yu Dawei and A Gui once again became engrossed in the repair work, searching for tools under the machine. Duan Xiaowu, who was handing over tools, also became more skilled after a few days of practice.

Not only are box wrenches, notched wrenches, snap ring pliers, etc. all recognized, but when looking for a wrench, you can basically tell what size it is just by looking at the same one.

In this respect, he is much better than the apprentices who have come to repair cars these past few days.

Yu Dawei felt that the difference lay in attitude. Some apprentices were forced into the job by their parents. Even if they survived the probationary period, they would be sent back because they didn't put their heart into learning and had no chance of becoming a junior repairman.

By mid-July, Yu Dawei's Case excavator had been repaired and painted yellow, largely refurbished like the 350 he had seen before.

Yu Dawei and his apprentice handled everything inside the cab—the gear shift, the windows, and all the messy exposed wires—exactly. They even went to the neighboring oil city to find a secondhand seat.

When starting the car, it was a bit sluggish, so Yu Dawei, along with A Gui and Duan Xiaowu, checked it out, and there were basically no other problems.

After it's repaired, write "For Sale" and your contact number on a piece of cardboard in front of the driver's cab, then park the vehicle at the machinery rental market and wait.

According to Yu Dawei's estimate, selling this car for 200,000 yuan should not be a problem.

The entire vehicle weighs approximately eighteen tons, making it a standard medium-sized excavator. Its bucket capacity is also quite impressive for a medium-sized excavator, being larger than that of most medium-sized excavators.

The key is that although Case excavators have expensive parts, they are very durable. As long as the machine is working properly, you can change the oil and apply grease as needed. The major parts will not have any problems for several years.

It is a rare and durable model.

If Yu Dawei weren't currently facing financial difficulties, he might actually consider keeping the Case excavator.

As for whether he could sell it for 200,000, Yu Da was quite confident.

After all, the maintenance costs alone, not counting labor costs, have already been invested in about fifteen units. If you can't even make 40,000 or 50,000 yuan a time, then there's no need to sell them. Just keep them working. Although it takes a little more effort, you can earn more.

As expected, just two days after I put my Case excavator at the gate, someone called to inquire about it.

Knowing that it was the excavator from Fanfan Repair Shop, they came directly into the yard to talk to Yu Dawei in detail.

Only two or three groups came, and they all pushed the price down very hard. One of them even offered 150,000 yuan to take away Yu Dawei's Case excavator.

Is this for real?! It would cost more to fix it than that! He was chased away by Yu Dawei with a single "Get lost!"

A few days later, Yu Dawei would occasionally receive phone calls. To make things easier, he would directly quote 250,000 yuan. If the conversation was going well, he would continue; if it was too expensive, he would not waste any more phone calls.

Yu Dawei hadn't thought about it either. First, Qi Dadu asked him to go to Helen's place to fix a car, a bulldozer engine, because it was burning oil.

After it was fixed, Zhang Baiwan, the guy from the auto parts market in the oil city, also came to him, wanting to fix a forklift, only this time it was an imported one.

After Yu Dawei got his repairs done, before returning to the factory, he made sure to visit his second uncle.

According to Qi Daduzi, the second uncle has already confronted his ex-aunt, but they are not divorced yet. He has simply fired all the miscellaneous people working on the Xueyuan New District project.

This included the old gatekeeper who had previously stopped Yu Dawei from entering the project site, the project site's cook, and several other people introduced by his second aunt. Yu Dawei went to see his second uncle only to offer him some comfort.

To everyone's surprise, my second uncle was not sad at all. On the contrary, he became even more career-minded. His life seemed to have found meaning again. Every day he was either supervising the construction site or entertaining the leaders of the oil city.

When Dawei returned to Fanfan's repair shop with his two children, it was the day when the first batch of apprentices finished their probationary period.

Taozi and Lao Ji have already shortlisted a list of six people, but only two of them can actually meet the performance targets.

The other four, when repaired independently, resulted in one gearbox being scrapped, an engine valve being misaligned, and a few other fatal errors.

The errors all occurred on major parts, and the repair shop has zero tolerance for such issues. Even if it's just a test, unsatisfactory results are unacceptable.

As expected, only two apprentices remained, and both of them successfully advanced to junior repairmen.

This elimination assessment also put considerable pressure on the second batch of apprentices.

Everyone finally realized that the meat they ate in the factory wasn't for nothing; if it wasn't good enough, they would definitely be laid off.

In the evening, Yu Dawei sat on the kang table in the small room doing accounts, while Agui and Duan Xiaowu at the other end of the kang each held a thin notebook with grid lines and read.

The above is the daily maintenance record in the "Squad Leader's Maintenance Manual".

Across the table, Taozi and Lao Ji were drinking tea and writing their repair logs for the day, while Dafeng was helping her older brother organize the accounts.

After this assessment, Lao Ji finally understood the true status of his "Brigade Leader's Maintenance Manual" in the factory, watching all the apprentices, including Duan Xiaowu and Agui, studying what he had written.

He felt incredibly proud, and his handwriting even became neater than usual. If Da Feng wasn't busy, she would still ask him to write for her.

In addition, even the grid notebooks I bought were upgraded from the old ones that cost two cents each to the thicker lined notebooks that cost five cents each.

Taozi has now joined the ranks of those recording in the "Brigade Leader's Maintenance Manual," and he is equally excited; he had actually wanted to write it for a long time.

Unfortunately, there weren't many things to repair before, but now that the repair shop is handling more and more repairs of various types, Boss Yu called him on to continue writing the manual.

"Taozi, your handwriting is quite delicate." Yu Dawei looked up at the other person's handwriting and found that it was even more delicate than Dafeng's.

"Hehe, I used to always learn to write from my sister, but I haven't been able to change it after all these years." Taozi smiled a little embarrassedly.

"Boss, what should we do with the apprentices who failed the assessment this time?" Old Ji put down his pen, looking worried. "Originally, I was going to kick them out tomorrow, but when I went to the dormitory and saw how dejected they looked, I couldn't bear it."

"What's there to be reluctant about?" Yu Dawei continued pressing the calculator without looking up. "Didn't we already tell them about the assessment before we came here?"

“I’ve had you write evaluations of these people’s performance every week, haven’t I? And you didn’t pass the final assessment, did you?” Yu Dawei stopped what he was doing and looked at the other person. “Old Ji, to be honest, we have food and drink here, and braised pork every now and then, so it’s not bad, is it?”

Upon hearing this, Lao Ji nodded awkwardly. Boss Yu was right. If this were another factory, let alone meat, they would eat potatoes or eggplants every day, or even whatever they could get their hands on.

“Look at these people, these are the weekly summaries you gave yourselves.” Yu Dawei took out a piece of paper from under the table and began to read aloud a few paragraphs.

"Wang Haoqiang has been in a daze this week. He likes to dawdle when working and has poor execution. He doesn't read the repair manual."

"Zhang Yang eats a lot but does little, is not proactive at work, and keeps thinking about taking leave this week."

Yu Dawei put down the paper and looked at the two people: "Kids from the village do have some problems with their personality and habits, but that's no reason for us to be merciful. I've told them more than once that even if they don't achieve anything, they won't starve if they just learn to repair cars."

"It seems that these people haven't listened at all." Yu Dawei held up a piece of paper in his right hand. "Some of them complain that repairing cars is dirty, which is understandable. But if you do the job and still complain about the dirt, then it's a problem with your attitude."

"Who doesn't know what's dirty and what's clean?" Yu Dawei got angrier and angrier as he spoke, and finally slammed the paper on the table. "Send them all home before noon tomorrow, and tell each of their parents about their situation."

"Anyone who fails my assessment will not be used again."

Yu Dawei didn't have the time to help them understand things and grow up. He wasn't their father, and he couldn't even manage his own apprentices.

"Understood." Lao Ji and Taozi nodded at the same time. Taozi glanced at the captain next to him somewhat embarrassedly.

Actually, the question I just asked was what Taozi wanted to say himself. He felt a little soft-hearted when he saw how sad those people looked.

In retrospect, it seems that every pitiful person has something hateful about them. Given the same opportunity to repair a car, some people stayed while others left.

We ate, lived, and repaired cars together, and spent the same amount of time together. I can't blame anyone but myself.

(End of this chapter)