Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 448 Mission Instructions
"Brother Xianzhe, Brother Xianrui, besides asking you about the situation, I also wanted to ask if you have any spare semi-finished plastic products."

Could you help me produce a batch of music players and phone cases? These things are really hard to find lately; several factories have stopped selling them altogether.

After clinking glasses with Zhou Xianyang, he continued, "Those bastards are really something. They'd rather pay the penalty for breach of contract than sell to me. I'm never dealing with them again."

The disbandment of the Russians this time has had a truly cascading effect.

The prices of various raw materials have risen rapidly, and even pork prices have nearly doubled. Pork that used to cost 1.9 yuan is now almost 3.2 yuan. I don't know what pork has to do with the dissolution of the Russian Federation.

Semi-finished plastic shell materials are no longer being sold; some factories are stockpiling them, planning to sell them later when prices rise further.

Zhou Xianyang offered to raise the price, but they didn't agree. They felt that Zhou Xianyang's offer was too low and planned to sell it for two or three times the price later.

As a result, Zhou Xianyang's factories are short of casings, and both MP3 players and mobile phones now use plastic casings.

“We definitely have what you need. When these raw materials rose slightly last year, Xianrui and I started stockpiling them. Now we can sell them for a whole year.”

Zhou Xianzhe grinned and said, "Otherwise, how could we dare say we've lasted this long? Now, many people are contacting us wanting to buy, and some are even using their connections to get things done with us."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xianyang quickly asked, "They didn't use any tricks, did they? Should we go and tell my dad?"

"Of course we used it, but it's already resolved. They don't even know what they're dealing with, trying to play dirty tricks on us."

Zhou Xianzhe paused for a moment and then continued, "No need to tell Third Uncle, I just spoke to the railway department over there and it was all resolved. Now all those people are locked up."

Xianrui and I didn't let the railway department do their work for nothing just because they had orders. They could make a good profit hauling a load of goods for us.

When the three brothers were young, they dominated the children's group in Nanluoguxiang. After they grew up, they started doing business and had dealings with many people.

Moreover, their transportation business was rewarded by the higher authorities, and the two brothers themselves were National People's Congress representatives with medals of merit.

They were just a few greedy local bullies. The day after they came to us and acted like big shots, they were taken away by the railway police.

Now, Zhou Xianzhe and Zhou Xianrui are no longer outsiders in Northeast China; they are local powerhouses!
"Third brother, don't worry about us. If we still have to ask our third uncle to handle this, then we're really useless."

Just send someone directly to our factory. Tell them what kind of casing you need, and we'll make the arrangements for you.

After finishing his sentence, Zhou Xianrui remembered something else and continued, "By the way, Third Brother, there are a few researchers who want to come to China through our people. It seems they are in the field of electronics or something. Do you want them?"

If you need it, I'll let you meet first; if you don't, I'll report it.

There are several channels for communication with the Russians in China, and Zhou Xianzhe and Zhou Xianrui are one of them, and they are considered to be the closest to each other.

Even though train trade has been suspended, it's still possible to bring a few people over and send a message.

Zhou Xianzhe and Zhou Xianrui also helped the country with tasks such as collecting and transmitting information.

This time, someone took the initiative to contact them, feeling that they could no longer stay there and wanted to develop their careers in China.

Even if Zhou Xianyang didn't contact them, Zhou Xianzhe and Zhou Xianrui would still come to Zhou Xianyang because of this matter.

"Let's see what he's good at in electronics. I need to meet him first and ask him. If he's a good fit, I'll hire him."

Zhou Xianyang said, "We're short of talent right now, brother. Why don't you set up an office in the New Technology Experimental Development Zone? You can recruit college students there."

He does have some ability in managing the factory and organizing work, which saves a lot of trouble.

Zhou Xianzhe asked with some interest, "Is this a good fit for us? Our factories only do semi-processing, but they need new technologies, right?"

Zhou Xianyang said, "It's definitely suitable. Right now, it's just a gimmick. The main purpose is to alleviate the pressure on college graduates to be assigned to jobs. I inquired before, and many college graduates whose majors don't match the job have been assigned to villages."

There are many universities in Beijing, but the number of jobs that can be assigned is very small, and it is decreasing year by year.

College graduates have already been assigned to factories as workers and villages as village cadres; however, the pressure will definitely be even greater in the next few years. This new technology pilot development zone is hoping that private factories can help alleviate some of the pressure.

Moreover, even before graduation time, Zhou Xianyang was able to recruit people at the university using official documents, which can be considered as opening doors for him.

During this period, he has recruited 43 people, 27 of whom are from the research institute, and the rest have been assigned to the Guangxun Mobile Company in a neighboring city.

The salary is high, so it doesn't really matter where they go. In addition, Zhou Xianyang also provides them with accommodation and food subsidies.

On one hand, there's the possibility of being assigned to a village or town as a clerk or village official; on the other hand, there's the option of working in a high-tech mobile phone factory with a higher salary. Anyone with common sense would know which side to choose.

"Okay, let's apply for it too. By the way, is Uncle San free these days? I'd like to ask him to help research canned food; my dad can't figure it out."

Uncle San is truly skilled at developing new dishes; this is a fact that both Zhou Xianzhe and Zhou Xianrui acknowledge.

The chili sauce factory that their grandfather took over was losing so much money, but then he asked his third uncle for a few chili sauce recipes, and now it's selling like hotcakes again.

They approached Zhou Weitian, but the canned fish he developed was mediocre; the taste was good, but it just felt so-so.

“He comes home quite late every day, but if you need him, come on Sunday; he’s the best at teaching my son, and if he’s free on Sunday, he’ll definitely teach him himself.”

Zhou Xianyang said with a smile, "When my two nephews are old enough, we can leave them with my dad. It's the same whether we take care of one or the other."

"Haha, then Uncle San might start yelling. He almost hit me when he helped me and Xianrui with our studies back then."

Zhou Xianzhe laughed when he talked about the college entrance examination ten years ago. He and Zhou Xianrui studied hard but still failed.

Fortunately, he has made it big now, got married and had children, and his net worth is among the top in the country outside of Hong Kong.

After chatting for a while, the three brothers took a car back together; now they have also moved back to Nanluoguxiang, where the families live very close to each other, only a few hundred meters away.

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Robotics Research Institute.

In just a few years, this place has become one of the more well-known research institutes in China. Many large factories have come to the robotics institute to commission projects, and even those without connections are trying to find connections.

On one occasion, he even managed to get help from the Ministry of Machine Building. An acquaintance there called Zhou Fengnian, asking the Robotics Research Institute to help design a robot-controlled unmanned production workshop.

FAW's production efficiency is the envy of many large domestic manufacturers. The difference between producing 10,000 vehicles a year and producing 30,000 vehicles a year is completely different.

They can slow down production when efficiency is high, but when orders are plentiful, they have to find ways to increase efficiency. Besides hiring a large workforce, they can only rely on advanced production technology, namely robotic production workshops.

Therefore, FAW's extremely high production efficiency quickly came into the view of most factories.

Although the robotics research institute also manufactures industrial robots, it has few technical personnel and workers in this area, totaling less than one hundred people.

They still focus on developing new projects. After all, there is a lot of government funding from above. They can just allocate some people to the research institute to earn some funds and alleviate the pressure.

Moreover, industrial robots need to be 'tailor-made', since different types of products are produced and mass production is impossible.

Our current production schedule is booked until August next year, and we also have overseas orders.

In this situation, many people who wanted to cut in line could only do so through acquaintances. In the end, after searching around, the Ministry of Machine Building found Zhou Fengnian.

In his early years, Zhou Fengnian was an engineer at the Ministry of Machine Building. Although he was always working in front-line production factories, he also frequently interacted with people from the ministry and got to know many people.

Although those acquaintances didn't get promoted as quickly as Zhou Fengnian, they still had a long-standing friendship with him. When Zhou Fengnian heard about this, he agreed to help them coordinate production.

We slightly increased production efficiency, added two more shifts of technical personnel, and also brought in a group of skilled workers from other factories to help with assembly and debugging.

After all that, the production efficiency of industrial robots was increased, so that it wouldn't take two years.

This is also good news for the Robotics Institute, as it will receive several million yuan more in funding each year, which will alleviate the pressure on the Chinese Academy of Sciences' funding and allow for bonuses to be awarded to most of the researchers.

Nowadays, very few research institutes can generate their own revenue; most rely on government funding, and even then, the results are not seen for several years.

Scientific research is a long-term endeavor; starting from scratch requires several years, and in some cases, even more than ten years.

Those like Zhou Fengnian, who can produce results in two or three years at a time, are the oddities in scientific research.

During this period, Zhou Fengnian came to the Robotics Research Institute almost every day. With the addition of this research expert, the development of the 'swarm' drone was accelerated considerably.

After all, there are very important military exercises next year, and they need to come up with mature exercise and combat plans in the first half of the year.
"How was your communication link designed? This is a cluster operation. How can you issue commands with this design? Take it back and rethink it."

"That last meeting with you guys was a waste of time; didn't you listen to a single thing I said?"

Zhou Fengnian gave the researchers who were giving their report a scathing critique, and then dismissed them.

This latest type of swarm unmanned combat aircraft is divided into several groups, each responsible for its own part, with Zhou Fengnian overseeing the overall situation.

However, due to the recent tight research and development schedule, Zhou Fengnian has also become somewhat frustrated, and he can't help but scold people when he sees some mistakes.

After working at the Academy of Sciences for two hours in the morning, I would go to the research institute to oversee things, and I usually wouldn't go back until around nine or ten o'clock in the evening.

Because of this project, he has reduced his weekly classes for his grandson from three to one, and only has time to teach Zhou Zeqian on Sundays when he has time off.

Although he couldn't teach his own grandson normally, Zhou Fengnian still had ways to ensure that Zhou Zeqian's studies weren't disrupted.

After discussing it with Zhou Yan, he decided to let Zhou Zeqian start first grade early, but only for half a day, as a way to help him get used to the new environment.

It's extremely rare in China, almost unheard of, for someone to be just a few months shy of four years old and start first grade; however, Zhou Yan managed to get it sorted out after some maneuvering.

After all, she is the deputy head of Dongcheng District, in charge of education, so it would be too easy for her own grandson to get in.

It's just that I started school two years earlier, and I only attended half a day each day, so I didn't cause any trouble for the school.

Zhou Fengnian wasn't worried about Zhou Zeqian's learning ability. He had already taught Zhou Zeqian common characters and basic arithmetic. Sending Zhou Zeqian to school was a way to make sure that Zhou Zeqian's studies didn't fall behind during his busy period.

I had dinner at the research institute again today. The food here is pretty good. The meal allowance for ordinary researchers is 2.5 yuan, which is enough for two meat dishes.

At the research institute's canteen, you can buy seven or eight ounces of meat for two yuan and fifty cents, based solely on cost price.

If it weren't for the relentless research day and night, which takes a toll on both their physical and mental energy, they would have gained weight long ago from this kind of nutritional supplement.

After finishing his meal, Zhou Fengnian worked at the research institute until a little after ten o'clock before deciding to go home to rest.

Before leaving, Zhou Fengnian called Lu Junfeng over and said to him, "Director Lu, I will reduce the number of times I come here next week. I took a look today and all the groups are on the right track. Next, I will supervise the research and development experiments. There shouldn't be any major problems."

Make a record after each experiment, and report to me after each one is completed. I have other things to keep an eye on.

Holding multiple positions means being busy. Zhou Fengnian also has a bunch of research projects to keep an eye on, so it's already quite remarkable that he can squeeze out so much time for the Robotics Institute.

"I understand, sir. I will keep a close eye on it from now on."

"Yes, keep an eye on the progress. There are only a few days left until the New Year. We definitely need to finish before the New Year, and we have other plans after the New Year."

Zhou Fengnian reiterated, "This is for next year's military exercise. If you embarrass yourselves, I'll write a self-criticism with you."

If there are any problems, report them to me immediately, even if you have to call my personal phone.

Lu Junfeng quickly replied, "I understand, sir. There won't be any problems."

After giving these instructions, Zhou Fengnian took a car home to rest.

When he was young, he could stay up until one or two in the morning without any pressure, and he didn't feel tired at that time.

But that's not possible now. Even with the physical enhancements from level eight kung fu, it's impossible for him to work for fifteen or sixteen hours without feeling tired.

However, he will feel much better after receiving the Cell Evolution Serum next year.

Upon arriving at his doorstep, Zhou Fengnian quietly opened the door and walked into the backyard.

The entire courtyard was pitch black, except for a faint light shining from the doorway of the master bedroom in the backyard.

Zhou Yan had gotten used to Zhou Fengnian coming home so late. It had been like this for a long time since they got married. When she was younger, Zhou Yan could read a book while waiting for Zhou Fengnian to come home.

But now that they're an old married couple, they only leave one light on so that Zhou Fengnian won't be unable to see the steps when he comes back and trip over them.

(End of this chapter)