Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 153 Approval to build a workshop, father-in-law takes a car (subscription required)
After returning to the machine tool factory, Zhou Fengnian returned the new car to the workshop and asked the workers to continue testing it.

The specific data on fuel consumption has not been measured yet. If we want to build a production line or a small factory, we must at least have complete data on new cars.

Gao Zhiyuan, the factory director, is more anxious about this matter than Zhou Fengnian.

After a round of closures of car manufacturing factories, only a few in the Northeast and South are still alive.

If they can open a new car factory or car production workshop, they can bring continuous benefits to the factory in the future.

Which department wouldn't want to have a car like this? Gao Zhiyuan felt that it was more beautiful than the Hongqi, but the Hongqi was too famous, so he was embarrassed to say it.

In order to test the performance of the new car and continue to build the car, Gao Zhiyuan assigned some more people to build at least two cars by the end of the year.

When they drive their new cars to report to the ministries, they will be so proud.

Zhou Fengnian felt relaxed again. This year, he not only completed his task perfectly, but also exceeded it.

The next step is to visit the front-line production workshops from time to time, and provide technical guidance or check for omissions.

Continue to improve machine tool technology privately, so that when the task is released next year, it will not be urgent.

A few days later, several vehicles from the First Ministry of Machine Building drove to the Hua Xia Machine Tool Factory. After showing their credentials and driving in, they stopped at the factory office building.

This time, the factory director Gao Zhiyuan came down early to greet and welcome him, and the First Ministry of Machine Building also called to notify them half an hour in advance, so it was not a surprise attack.

"Director Gao."

Minister Zhang smiled and said, "I just came back from the north, and I heard Minister Li tell me that Huaxia Machine Tool Factory has another surprise, so I rushed here without stopping.

I'm sorry to bother you today. Please take me to see the surprise."

"Look at what the leader said. This is our responsibility."

Gao Zhiyuan said quickly, and then continued as he prepared to lead the way: "I will take the two leaders to the workshop to have a look.

We are currently building the second car, but the chassis and other parts are not ready yet, but the performance test of the first car has been completed."

Under the pressure from Minister Zhang, Gao Zhiyuan had to behave himself. This is a smiling tiger.

And he is not a smiling tiger in the traditional sense. He smiles when he should, but when he doesn't smile, he is basically a tiger.

However, when Gao Zhiyuan turned around and led the way, he suddenly thought, why should he be afraid?
The factory has been developing so well recently, not only achieving new records every month, but also completing additional tasks and building a new car. Although most of the credit goes to Zhou Fengnian, his role cannot be ignored.

It's all credit, nothing wrong, there's nothing to be afraid of!
Gao Zhiyuan then felt full of confidence and walked towards the workshop while introducing and explaining things to his leader.

What they said along the way was nothing more than 30% hard work mixed with 70% hard work. Although they were able to overcome it, it was still quite hard.

Gao Zhiyuan has almost used the standard template of complaining to superiors and begging for food to his bones.

During this period, Gao Zhiyuan also studied automobile knowledge intensively and consulted Zhou Fengnian a lot, so he was able to speak very confidently in front of the leaders of the ministry.

It’s just a matter of saying that you are professional and don’t leave the task of building new cars to other factories.

When they arrived at the workshop door, they saw Zhou Fengnian and several workers studying lacquer art and did not pay much attention to the people coming behind them.

Gao Zhiyuan explained: "Leader, Deputy Director Zhou likes to be on the front line. He was not in the office when you called."

"Isn't this great? How can we understand the actual production situation without going deep into the front line? We should also go to the front line frequently. The leader also said so."

When Minister Zhang got closer, he heard Zhou Fengnian telling the workers that the paint didn't look good at all and needed to be changed.
"Mr. Zhou."

Minister Zhang shouted, interrupting the conversation between Zhou Fengnian and several workers around him.

Zhou Fengnian looked back and immediately put down what he was doing and said, "Leader, I'm sorry, I didn't notice it for a moment."

"Why should I be embarrassed? If anyone should be embarrassed, it should be me. I came here suddenly without telling you in advance."

Minister Zhang smiled and said, "Let's take a look at your new achievement. Is this the car?"

"Yes, that's the one. I've done some simple performance tests these days. The improved engine is pretty much what I expected. The fuel consumption has been reduced a lot, but the power has been improved a bit."

Zhou Fengnian quickly took Minister Zhang and Deputy Leader Li to visit the new car. Deputy Leader Li had experienced it once, but it was the first time for Minister Zhang to see it.

Even if nothing changes, Minister Zhang thinks the car body is already very good. He thinks what Zhou Fengnian and the workers just said about electroplating is a bit of a perfectionist.

However, what Minister Zhang was most concerned about was fuel consumption. After listening to the introduction of the new car, Minister Zhang hurriedly asked: "Mr. Zhou, can fuel consumption really be reduced that much?"

"Of course, we have used up seven tanks of gas in the past two days, so the data is definitely correct."

Zhou Fengnian looked serious, but in fact there were more than a dozen boxes of oil, and most of them were used by Zhao Qiangxue's new car and other leaders who experienced the consumption of their own factory's new cars.

However, the Huaxia Machine Tool Factory is also a large factory, so they can still get a few boxes of oil. Everyone can get a lot of gasoline tickets by using their connections.

Minister Zhang nodded and said, "The fuel consumption has been reduced by so much. You are not just making it for fun."

Deputy Leader Li at the side also said: "Yes, Mr. Zhou, if this is replaced nationwide, how much oil can be saved for the country?"

Although the Daqing oilfield was developed in Northeast China, the production and processing capabilities did not keep up, and the oil shortage situation across the country was only alleviated slightly.

If all the cars in the country could save that much gasoline, that would be a huge amount.

"It was just a minor change, not too much, I just changed whatever I thought was not right."

Zhou Fengnian said that if he only wanted to change the body shape of the car, he wouldn't have to build the car himself.

Minister Zhang asked again: "Can this car be driven now?"

Zhou Fengnian said, "Sure. I'll ask someone to get some gas and take you around the factory."

Minister Zhang smiled and said, "Okay, thank you for your help. Lao Li has always said that the car is good, but I haven't experienced it yet."

The machine tool factory is very large, and you can definitely drive away inside. Just don't drive too fast. If you drive slowly, you won't likely hit anyone.

After adding the oil, Zhou Fengnian took Minister Zhang for a slow walk and finally returned to the workshop.

"Yes, this car is really good and very stable to drive."

After getting off the car, Minister Zhang did not hesitate to praise, and then took Zhou Fengnian and other factory leaders to the conference room for discussions.

Arriving at the conference room, as soon as Minister Zhang and his group sat down, they got straight to the point and said, "Director Gao, Engineer Zhou, the department can approve you to build a car production line, but Engineer Zhou, how about you also help other car factories? Give them technical support."

"There is a big gap in the domestic automobile market, and your car is not much inferior to foreign cars. You can definitely try to export it to earn foreign exchange. If production cannot keep up, it will be a waste of time."

Deputy Leader Li continued, "Yes, Director Gao, Engineer Zhou, even if the ministry supports you in building a branch factory, your production will not be able to keep up with demand." When other factory leaders, including Gao Zhiyuan, heard this requirement from the ministry, they immediately lost their enthusiasm.

It would be fine if they could build a workshop for production. I’m just afraid that if all the items are taken away, they will only focus on machine tools.

They have already made some achievements in machine tools, and they also want to do more other things; besides, Gao Zhiyuan knows that their production capacity is limited, and they just need to make some profit, and it is absolutely not possible to make it their main business.

After a few seconds of silence, Zhou Fengnian asked, "Leader, technical support, which factories are there?"

"First Automobile Works, Shanghai Automobile Works and Nanjing Automobile Works, these three are all major manufacturers of automobiles; they have no shortage of technical personnel and facilities, but they lack technology."

Minister Zhang spoke up, obviously having thought this through in advance.

"Three factories? If I visit each one, it will probably take more than a year."

"I won't let you move. When the time comes, let them send people to learn. There will be about a dozen people in each factory. Engineer Zhou, you just need to teach them."

Zhou Fengnian felt a little relieved after hearing this: "That's fine, there's no problem on my side. As long as you study normally, I will teach you until you learn it."

If it doesn't work, just leave it to the technical staff and let them do it step by step.

"Okay, the ministry will notify you when the time comes, Mr. Zhou."

The smile on Minister Zhang's face grew wider. Apart from being a little bit lazy and hesitating a bit after hearing that he had to go to three places, Zhou Fengnian seemed to have no shortcomings.

He comes from a poor peasant family background. He taught himself how to reach his current level and has made many achievements.

It seems that except for his age, Zhou Fengnian is qualified enough to enter the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

But it is also a matter of age. In the eyes of others, age is largely equal to experience. When they discussed promoting Zhou Fengnian to a higher engineer level, they did not dare to raise him by two levels in one year.

Even if you are promoted one level in a year, you must inform your superiors and other departments.

".Then your factory's new workshop must also be built as soon as possible. Director Gao, come up with a plan as soon as possible and then start construction."

Minister Zhang urged: "Apply for whatever you need as soon as possible, and build the new workshop before March next year."

Excluding the Chinese New Year holiday, it’s just over three months at most, which is enough time.

After Gao Zhiyuan calculated in his mind, he immediately said, "Don't worry, leader, I will ensure that the task is completed."

"Well, I'm not worried about your factory. The ministry is very confident in the whole factory. I know what it was like before the merger, but within less than a year after the merger, it became the factory with the highest output value in the country."

Some factories cannot even produce 5 million yuan in output value in a year, but the machine tool factory can do that in just one month.

At the beginning of this year, the company was still in the process of running in, resulting in the output value in the first few months not being very high; but if it can maintain this level throughout next year, then the Hua Xia Machine Tool Factory will undoubtedly be the largest factory in the country.

Last year, the total GDP of all aspects was only more than 140 billion yuan. If the China Machine Tool Factory could have 60 million or even 70 million yuan, it would definitely be a highlight of the country.

After finalizing the car manufacturing workshop, Minister Zhang's trip was considered a complete success, and the Ministry of First Machine Building has achieved another success this year.

Gao Zhiyuan also invited the two leaders to have a meal at the factory. Both the factory and the department benefited. Together with several car manufacturing plants far away, it was a win-win situation for all three parties.

It was almost time for dinner, so Minister Zhang and Deputy Leader Li did not refuse and agreed with a smile.

The kitchen staff quickly prepared the meal. Since there were many people, the meal was served in a canteen, but the chefs from the two canteens were called to cook together.

He Yuzhu specializes in Sichuan cuisine and his skills are really good. The Tan family dishes he boasted about were only seen a few times, and the factory could not provide the ingredients, so nothing happened.

Zhou Weitian learned from Zhou Fengnian, so he knows a little bit of everything and cooks a wide variety of dishes, but the dishes he is good at are definitely not bad.

Moreover, the dishes he knows are all Zhou Fengnian’s favorites, so he picked them out and wrote them down as recipes to teach Zhou Weitian.

A table full of sumptuous dishes was quickly prepared. There were many people at the table today, and the new car was a big surprise for him, so he didn't think the meal was too sumptuous.

Moreover, the group of people didn’t waste any food until the end and finished all of it.

After finishing their meal, Minister Zhang and Deputy Leader Li and their entourage did not stay any longer and went straight back to the First Ministry of Machine Building to continue their work.

They also had to notify people from several other automobile factories as soon as possible and ask them to organize people to come and learn.

The sooner fuel-efficient cars are produced, the less resources will be wasted.

When it was time to get off work, Zhou Fengnian drove his new car back home, saying that it was to save fuel.

If he doesn't drive the new car, he has to drive the old car, and the old car consumes more fuel, so his excuse is very reasonable.

Zhao Qiang had become familiar with the new car's gear shifting in the past few days, and the driver's seat became his. He was smiling when driving the new car, and told Zhou Fengnian that if other cars' gear shifting was also simpler, many drivers would find it much easier.

Just after leaving the factory gate, Zhou Fengnian saw an acquaintance, so he asked Zhao Qiang to slow down, then opened the window and waved to the roadside
"Dad, here."

Zhou Xiangde, who was standing by the road, looked back and smiled. He then said to the worker beside him, "My son-in-law called me!"

After saying that, he hurried over, grinned and asked, "Fengnian, what's wrong? By the way, is this the car made by our factory?"

"Well, it's still under testing. Go home now. Get in the car. I'll take you back."

"Oh, no, no, I can just walk back, there's no need for a car to take me back."

Although he refused, Zhou Xiangde kept looking at the car.

Riding a bicycle will attract the attention of passers-by, let alone riding in a car.

"Don't be polite, get in the car, we're all on the way."

Zhou Fengnian advised again that if they didn't meet him in the factory normally, it would be fine, but if they met him on the way, giving him a ride would not be a big deal at all.

Zhou Xiangde did not refuse this time. He agreed with a smile, then walked to the other side, opened the door and got in the car.

As soon as he got on the bus, Zhou Xiangde was surprised and asked, "Fengnian, this is made of leather? I hope it won't get dirty."

Zhou Fengnian smiled and said, "No, just sit down."

Then the car slowly drove away.

When the co-worker who was accompanying Zhou Xiangde home saw this scene, he was so envious that he almost put the cigarette butt into his mouth.

After a few seconds, someone spoke up: "Mr. Zhou is so lucky! Not only did he give birth to a good daughter, but he also has a good son-in-law."

"Yes, we are already in the car."

They don’t even have a bicycle, Zhou Xiangde is so lucky!
(End of this chapter)