Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 116 Walkman Success, Some Precautions (Subscription Request)
After being fired as a temporary worker, Xiong Weijie was taken to the security department to be held accountable.

After finding out how many lunch boxes he brought, he was fined three times as much, several dozen yuan, and was detained for three days.

The severity of the punishment stunned Xiong Weijie. It was not enough to pay back his two months' temporary worker salary, and he had to pay more.

He was also locked up in a cold and damp cell in the security department for three days. If his master had not sent him bedding, he would have been seriously ill after being released after three days.

Now Xiong Weijie also knew who he had offended. The person he had stirred the pot for was an engineer in the factory, and the person he wanted to treat to a special meal was the engineer's wife.

After hearing this, Master Lu wanted to scold Xiong Weijie. If he wasn't his distant nephew, he wouldn't have cared at all.

However, one time when the security department was delivering food, they heard Xiong Weijie saying something dirty, so they took out their gun and knocked on the door, scaring the guy so much that he almost peed his pants.

They took him out and interrogated him several times, and even suspected him of being an enemy spy. Xiong Weijie was frightened to the point of being incoherent, so they gave him a warning and released him.

If anyone dares to have any thoughts that harm their factory engineers, they will shoot them directly after discovering it.

There is no civilized law enforcement these days. If you find someone suspected of being an enemy spy and he resists during arrest, you should shoot him.

Director Xie from the cafeteria was also in trouble. Although the flipping of the wok had nothing to do with him, he could not shirk the blame for negligent management.

I wrote a self-criticism and posted it at the entrance of the cafeteria, and promised that there would be no more incidents of overturning the pot in the future.

Now the people in the second canteen no longer dared to flip the wok, but they would never flip the wok at their leaders before.

The old employees in the kitchen all know Zhou Fengnian. They know that Zhou Fengnian has good cooking skills. Last year, when the leader came to the factory, it was Zhou Fengnian who borrowed the kitchen to cook.

Further ahead, Zhou Fengnian would often come to the kitchen and borrow the stove to provide meals for the students and technicians who came to the factory to provide assistance.

In other words, it was because he was a newcomer and didn't know the person that he would foolishly tip the spoon onto Zhou Fengnian.

After this incident, Zhou Fengnian began to train his eldest brother Zhou Weitian seriously, and asked his second brother Zhou Jiaan if he wanted to learn cooking together.

If you want to learn it, it will be convenient to arrange it when the time comes. There are several canteens in the machinery factory, so it will definitely be enough to accommodate you.

However, Zhou Jiaan refused. He really didn't like cooking and found it difficult to learn. Instead, his second sister-in-law Zhang Fangfang watched by the side when Zhou Fengnian was teaching his eldest brother.

Zhou Fengnian's teaching method was entirely dependent on Zhou Weitian memorizing it through physical memory.

Get a small accurate scale and let Zhou Weitian scoop the salt with a large spoon, only a few grams at a time, and then put it on the scale to check the weight.

By practicing like this tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times, Zhou Weitian will definitely be able to develop the ability to scoop seasonings with a large spoon with great precision.

The eldest brother loves to eat and wants to learn cooking. In the past two years, there was a food shortage and we couldn’t get enough to eat, so we had no ingredients to teach him. Now that we have the conditions, we will try to train Zhou Weitian into a level 6 cook.

------

Day after day passed.

The machinery factory is working hard to complete its production tasks every day. By the end of summer, the entire city of Sijiu and even other surrounding provinces and cities need a lot of machinery products.

The Second Machinery Factory is very busy, with endless orders almost every day.

In the factory director's office, Li Zhengyang looked surprised soon after receiving a call from the ministry.

"Second? Minister, if we second Engineer Zhou out at this time, will our factory still be able to carry out its tasks? This won't work! Absolutely not!"

Director Li quickly said: "My boss, the machine tool workshop has an order that you need, and we can't delay it."

[Don't fool me with this. I've already asked Engineer Zhou. He just needs to check every morning to make sure there are no production problems. He can go to the Second Electrical Factory in the afternoon.]

[And the ministry has already agreed with them after discussion. It will only take ten days. After Zhou Fengnian has finished guiding the production process, he will be back.]

Li Zhengyang asked quickly, "Leader, are you sure it will take ten days? Don't let me detain you. And why do we need to look for Zhou Fengnian for the problem of the Electric Factory? He is an engineer majoring in mechanics."

[Comrade Zhengyang, don't be so useless. Mr. Zhou will go there at noon and come back in the afternoon. If you really can't do it, send a car to pick him up. Okay, the secondment letter will be sent to your factory later. That's it.]

After saying this, Minister Zhang hung up the phone.

If the Ministry of Light Industry wanted people, the Ministry of First Machine Building would definitely not agree, but if they just wanted to borrow people to guide the production process, the Ministry of First Machine Building could not just reject them so coldly.

The reasons they gave were very sufficient. The new product they were preparing to manufacture was developed by Zhou Fengnian.

They also found many professional talents, but the portable recorder they managed to make always had some problems, and Zhou Fengnian had to come over to guide and solve them.

After Li Zhengyang hung up the phone, he still felt a little unwilling. The machinery factory still had a lot of things that needed Zhou Fengnian to do, and lending him out for ten days would delay things.

However, Li Zhengyang had to obey the minister's order and the formal secondment letter no matter how unwilling he was.

After the secondment letter was sent, Li Zhengyang asked his assistant to go to the machine tool workshop or technical department to find Zhou Fengnian.

When Zhou Fengnian arrived, he asked, "Director, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"It's true that there is something wrong, but it's from Mr. Zhou from another factory. Take a look at this first."

While Li Zhengyang was speaking, he handed the secondment letter to Zhou Fengnian.

The latter took it and looked at it, and immediately knew what was going on: "Electrical Appliance Factory No. 1, I didn't expect them to make one so quickly.
But it seems that there are some differences in the finished product, maybe there is a problem with the production process or something else. "

Li Zhengyang asked: "Mr. Zhou, do you know this?"

"Director, have you forgotten that I was the one who invented the heating pad and electric blanket? I also gave them this. Deputy Director Bai Kang also came from our factory."

Zhou Fengnian explained it and quickly reminded Li Zhengyang of the incident.

At the same time, Li Zhengyang was also depressed. How could Zhou Fengnian know everything? And that Electrical Appliance Factory No. 1 seemed to have become a key factory directly under the Ministry of Light Industry.

Although the scale is not very large, it has expanded to more than 3,000 people in just two years.

This first electrical appliance factory relied entirely on the research conducted by Zhou Fengnian. Doesn't it mean that Zhou Fengnian "built" a huge factory by himself?
"I didn't think of it for a moment, Mr. Zhou, you are a little too outstanding"

But fortunately, he was from their machinery factory. Thinking of this, Li Zhengyang was no longer depressed.

"By the way, Mr. Zhou, your boss told you to take a car. Can I arrange a driver for you?"

"That's not necessary. It's such a short distance, it only takes about ten minutes to ride a bicycle."

Zhou Fengnian shook his head and said that the Electric Factory No. 1 was originally separated from the Machinery Factory. It was not far away and could be reached quickly by bicycle.

In the next ten days or so, he will have to change his daily schedule.

I come to the machinery factory in the morning, go to the electrical appliance factory at noon, and come back to pick up my wife after work in the afternoon.

But sometimes they might be too busy, so Zhou Yan had to go back by herself. Fortunately, her belly was not too big and the machinery factory was not far from her home.

------

"Hey, it worked!" After the black shell was fixed with tiny screws, the onlookers immediately shouted with joy.

"Where's the tape? Bring it over and try to see if it can record and play back sound."

“If we can record and play it back, that’s a real success.”

"But this thing is really small, much smaller than the radio we have at home. It's so impressive to be able to carry it with you wherever you go!"

When the technicians and workers saw the portable tape recorder placed in front of them, their faces were filled with joy and happiness.

The smooth black plastic shell is only 15 centimeters long and can be held in one hand.

There are not many buttons, and there are only two functions: recording and playback.

The experiment was corrected more than twenty times in the past half month, and Zhou Fengnian kept reminding himself and making continuous improvements. Finally, he made a portable recorder that was almost the same as the one he remembered.

After the tape was brought over, Bai Kang also rushed over after hearing the news.

"Mr. Zhou, here are the tapes. They were just made a few days ago."

A worker handed over the tape and said that tapes were simpler than portable recorders, but they required more sophisticated craftsmanship.

Zhou Fengnian only guided the improvements for a long time, and with the help of other technicians, he finally enabled the Electric Factory No. 1 to have the technology to produce magnetic tapes.

After taking the tape, Zhou Fengnian carefully put it in. After installing the battery, he made a gesture to the people around him to keep quiet.

Then he pressed the start recording button, waited for a second, and said to the recording port: "Long live the new China."

After saying that, he waited for a second before pressing stop.

Zhou Fengnian then rewound the tape, put on his headphones and pressed the play button, and suddenly heard a clear voice from inside: "Long live the new China."

"Okay, come and listen!"

Zhou Fengnian took off his headphones and said, and then there was a burst of enthusiastic cheers of celebration in the workshop.

But after celebrating for a while, Bai Kang and other technicians came forward to listen to the sound, and recorded many other sounds and played them one by one.

It is small, convenient, and easy to use, much better than a radio, which makes everyone love it and want to try it out for a while.

"Don't grab it! Don't grab it! Come one by one, and be quiet. What if you break something?"

Bai Kang watched the scramble getting more and more intense, and quickly shouted to calm the people in the workshop down.

Then he gave them instructions and asked them to listen carefully. After everyone in the workshop quieted down, Bai Kang wiped his sweat and came to Zhou Fengnian and asked,

"Brother, thank you so much this time. I'm sorry for taking up so much time with you. Minister Su has already prepared a reward for you."

After hearing this, Zhou Fengnian immediately said, "Brother Bai, what kind of compensation is normally required for a secondment? Forget it, I don't need anything."

"That won't do. It was originally supposed to be a ten-day secondment, but it ended up being dragged to almost twenty days. That's as it should be, as it should be."

Bai Kang said with a smile: "Brother, I remember that your family is still short of a sewing machine. I will give you one when the time comes."

He had visited Zhou Fengnian's home these days and knew some of the situation there.

Zhou Fengnian had a sewing ticket before, but Zhou Yan also had a job and seldom sewed her own clothes. She always bought ready-made clothes outside, so Zhou Fengnian exchanged the sewing ticket.

Exchanged for some industrial coupons and tickets for milk, candy, cigarettes and alcohol.

But apart from the sewing machine, Bai Kang didn't know what else to give him. Zhou Fengnian already had a bicycle, a radio and a watch.

Money can't show your true feelings. I have never heard of an eighth-level engineer being short of money.

Bai Kang smiled and said, "If refrigerators weren't so difficult to get, and the electricity used by residents in Sijiu City wasn't suitable for refrigerators, Minister Su would have planned to give you a refrigerator."

This helped them a lot, streamlining the production process. With the first portable tape player, they could continue to manufacture portable tape players.

Doesn’t my sister-in-law have a watch yet?

Bai Kang suddenly thought that he knew Zhou Fengnian had a watch, but his sister-in-law didn't seem to have one. Forget it, let's buy one together, it's not expensive.

"Haha, Minister Su is so polite."

After Zhou Fengnian finished speaking, he pulled Bai Kang a little further away and asked about the business: "Brother Bai, how are you going to produce next?"

"Well, most of the workers are new to the factory. It will take at least two months of training to get started. I'm afraid we won't be able to start production until the third month. The maximum we can make is a few hundred units a month."

Bai Kang thought for a while and said that although the manufacturing technology already existed, the first portable recorder was made by Zhou Fengnian and other technicians.

If other workers who have just entered the factory want to acquire such skilled techniques, they need at least two months of training.

"Then we can sell them at the autumn Canton Fair."

"Yes, although we won't produce a lot at that time, as long as we can get orders, we can produce for a whole year next year."

Bai Kang said confidently that he was not afraid that foreigners would not like such a beautiful and useful thing. Even if one or two did not like it, there would definitely be others who would buy it.

"But something is likely to happen then."

"Hmm? What's up, Mr. Zhou?"

"That is, when foreigners see that we have made such a useful product, they will probably take it back and copy it, and then snatch our orders."

After Zhou Fengnian changed the topic to this aspect, he reminded him indirectly.

Bai Kang said unsurely: "No way? The electric blanket didn't heat up quickly before."

"Brother Bai, how can these two things be compared with a portable tape recorder? The profit margins of those two things are extremely low. Even if you make them for others, they are too lazy to open a factory to produce them.

But it’s hard to say for sure. I think you’d better discuss it with Minister Su to see if the foreigners have any way to prevent others from copying and imitating.”

Zhou Fengnian pretended to look down on foreigners, and his words revealed that foreigners would most likely do the same thing.
"Otherwise, we work so hard to produce it, but they use it to make a lot of money. That would be a big loss."

Bai Kang was also persuaded at this time, and nodded in agreement: "Brother Zhou, you are right, this is indeed possible."

Seeing that he had almost finished talking, Zhou Fengnian decided to add fuel to the fire and whispered in Bai Kang's ear, "Brother Bai, I'm not just guessing. Think about it, what is the Eight-Nation Alliance?
That's a robber. Do you expect the robber not to copy us? Is that possible?"

"That's right, brother Zhou!"

Bai Kang clenched his fist slightly and said, "I will definitely talk to Minister Su about this matter."

(End of this chapter)