My 1978 Hotel

"What exactly happened?"

"How did they start fighting?" Li Feng wondered. "Didn't we agree that the two sides shouldn't be touching?"

"They say it's because Wangjiazhuang always pulls the closest stones, and that's how the two sides started fighting over them," Han Anjun said, seemingly unfazed by the situation. "It's nothing, the two captains can just go and tell them."

"However, this area of ​​the riverbank will probably need to be re-divided, otherwise there will be more fighting."

"Uncle Fuguo and Uncle Futian aren't going to demarcate the riverbanks, are they?"

Li Feng thought to himself that what he could think of, Uncle Tomita and the others probably could too.

“Yes, that’s why the two team leaders came specifically to see my dad and Uncle Futian.” Han Anjun handed a cigarette to Li Feng. “It’s normal for the two families to have a little argument, as long as it doesn’t affect the road construction.”

"That won't affect anything; the other brigades are all keeping an eye on it."

Li Feng said with a smile, "Uncle Fu Guo will definitely tell them. Captain Wang and Captain Li are afraid of that."

"Hahaha."

Han Anjun thought about it and realized it made sense. Now that Hanjiaba had money in its hands, it had a lot of confidence. If you guys don't work hard, there are others who will, especially when the drought is so severe and everyone is risking their lives for a bite to eat.

"You have money and people willing to work. Wangjiazhuang and Lijiazhai are most afraid of this. Han Fuguo and Han Futian will definitely use this to control the two brigades." "Let's go. Don't worry about this. We'll just ask Uncle Fuguo and Uncle Futian when we get back."

"By the way, Anjun, do you have any news about the county furniture factory I asked you to inquire about?"

Li Feng invited Han Anjun into the house and offered him tea and cigarettes.

"I asked a classmate in the county to inquire about it."

Han Anjun took the cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and held it in his hand, saying, "The situation at the county furniture factory isn't too good; the quality of the furniture they've made in the last two years hasn't been very good."

"why?"

Li Feng was somewhat puzzled. "That shouldn't be the case. Aren't the furniture factory workers the best in the entire county?"

"It's actually quite simple."

Han Anjun took a few puffs of his cigarette and the ash fell from the cartridge. "That's how it is. A few years ago, there was a policy that allowed educated youth who went to the countryside to return to the city early if they could take over their parents' jobs. Some of the carpenters at the furniture factory have given their jobs to their sons and daughters and retired early themselves."

“Think about it,” Han Anjun said, “even if the carpenters don’t work at the county furniture factory, they still have skills. They can make a lot of money making furniture, tables, and chairs on the side.” Li Feng nodded in agreement, finding Han Anjun’s words reasonable. “Don’t the leaders of the county furniture factory care about this?”

If this guy gets a bunch of greenhorns, what's the point of making a living? The furniture factory will go bankrupt.

"So later we even hired a few experienced craftsmen, and the county furniture factory managed to stay afloat. But compared to the past, running a furniture factory is much worse now, since many of the workers are novices who have only been learning for a year or two," Han Anjun said. "The county furniture factory hasn't been doing very well in recent years."

"No wonder, I was wondering why our furniture is so popular. It's probably much better than the furniture from the county factory," Li Feng said with a smile. "No wonder there hasn't been much response for so long. We haven't even figured out what's going on in our own factory yet."

"However, the old factory director recently retired, and the new factory director is said to be quite capable," Han Anjun said, taking a sip of tea.

"The new factory manager?"

Li Feng pondered for a moment. He was actually quite happy to hear that the county furniture factory was in such a bad state. In that case, the county furniture factory would not have time to pay attention to the Hanjiaba furniture factory, and thus would not produce any competing products.

In that case, Li Feng believed that within just six months, Hanjiaba Furniture Factory would be able to replace the county furniture factory as the largest and best furniture factory in the entire county. "How much does your classmate know about this factory manager?"

"He's not quite sure, but I've asked him to help me find out as soon as possible."

Han Anjun is definitely concerned about the furniture factory on his own estate, hoping it can be as large as possible, as it would only benefit him. "We should have news in the next couple of days."

"Hopefully, this factory manager won't be interested in our place."

Less attention is better for the Hanjiaba Furniture Factory to develop. The worst thing is to get too much attention. Although Han Anjun said that the county furniture factory is not doing well now, and is even worse than them, they have a group of experienced carpenters.

But the county furniture factory is, after all, a county furniture factory. As long as they have the guts to recruit a batch of people for proper jobs, Li Feng thinks no carpenter would be unwilling. At least in this day and age, there's no need to worry about not being able to find people.

Back then, if we produced a few more sets of furniture from Hanjiaba, it wouldn't be too difficult to imitate them. Given the scale of the business and the reputation it had built up, it would be really difficult for Hanjiaba to compete with it.

"I'm afraid it will be difficult."

Han Anjun shook his head. "I heard that this factory manager also went to the home of a relative who bought our furniture."

"Is this happening?"

Upon hearing this, Li Feng realized that the factory manager was taking it seriously, which was troublesome. "Have you told Uncle Guofu about this?"

"Not yet, I just received the news myself."

Han Anjun put down his teacup. "I plan to talk to my dad about this tonight."

"When Uncle Fuguo and Uncle Futian return, we'll have a meeting to discuss this." Li Feng said with a serious expression.

"It's worth discussing."

Although Han Anjun didn't think that Hanjiaba Furniture Factory had to outperform the county furniture factory, he still hoped it would do better.

After Han Fuguo and Han Futian finished dealing with the fight between the two brigades, they returned and learned about the situation at the county furniture factory. "Let's have a meeting tonight, Fengzi. Call Brother Gao Jiu and let's hear their opinions on this matter."

"I understand, Uncle Fuguo."

Back home, Li Feng told Gao Jiu and Gao Cheng about it.

"The impact should be minimal in the short term."

Gao Jiu pondered for a moment.

"You mean we must first pacify the internal situation before we can fight external threats?"

Li Feng immediately understood that the county furniture factory's current situation was not enough to support them launching a major offensive from the outset.

"The county is having a tough time right now; the drought is quite severe."

Upon hearing Gao's words, Li Feng's mind began to clear. "The county probably won't increase the number of positions for the county furniture factory." Similar to the staffing system in later generations, it would be possible to wait until next year, when there's a good harvest and the county's situation improves.

The county furniture factory is a state-owned enterprise. On the one hand, it has the support of the county government, but on the other hand, it is subject to more constraints. If it wants to do anything, it needs to go through layers of approval.

"In that case, we don't need to worry too much about the year ahead."

Li Feng breathed a sigh of relief. He had been a little worried that the county furniture factory would come up with a big one. He thought that silence was golden, but now it turned out that he was powerless to care about this matter and powerless to deal with this emerging competitor.

“Let’s go to the team and share our guesses and opinions with Uncle Fuguo and the others to put their minds at ease,” Li Feng said with a smile. “Wait a minute, Second Brother, you talk to them, and I’ll assist you from the sidelines.”

Currently, the furniture factory is basically managed by the second son. Li Feng is thinking about whether he can push the second son to become the factory manager, so that he can basically have a say in the furniture factory, although Li Feng doesn't care too much about this.

If the furniture factory is run well, he will receive more dividends from the system. He may not care who is in charge of the furniture factory, but he has to care about who is doing well in the furniture factory. There is no way around it.

"I understand." Gao didn't ask any more questions. He would do whatever his boss told him to do, which would also benefit him.

After dinner, Li Feng, Gao Jiu, and Gao Cheng arrived at the team headquarters, where Han Fuguo, Han Futian, Han Fuqiang, Han Anbing, and others were already present.

“An Jun brought a letter this afternoon; you should all take a look.”

Han Fuguo handed the letter to everyone, and after they read it...

"No wonder the county furniture factory is in such a mess."

Han Anbing smiled broadly. "This is a good thing."

"That's a good thing."

Han Fuguo went on to talk about the new factory director, which made Han Anbing's smile fade. "Da, when will this new factory director take office?"

"I don't know yet."

Han Fuguo looked at everyone. "I've already asked An Jun to inquire, and we should have news in the next couple of days. Everyone, what do you all think we should do?"

“We’ve just hired so many people, and production will pick up soon. But if the county furniture factory follows suit and makes the same furniture, then we’ll be in big trouble,” Han Futian said with some concern.

“Tomita is right. The county furniture factory is located in the county, which is much better than our location. They can deliver furniture in ten or twenty minutes, while it takes us most of the day.”

"Delivering furniture is a minor matter."

Li Feng smiled and said, "Gao Jiu, what's the situation from your furniture factory?"

"Here's the thing, we've considered it, and given our current situation, our pre-orders are enough to last at least until the end of December. We don't need to worry about not being able to sell the furniture we make during this time," Gao said. "Once everyone is familiar with the process, and with the addition of the ordered equipment, our equipment should be comparable to that of the county furniture factory."

“Besides, the drought is severe this year, and the situation in the county isn’t much better. It’ll be difficult for the county furniture factory to recruit people. They’re different from us; we have the final say. If the county furniture factory wants to recruit, it probably needs the approval of the county leaders. Right now, the county is probably hoping to reduce its permanent staff to ease the financial burden on the county, so they definitely won’t approve their applications.” Gao said, glancing at everyone. “At least before the summer harvest, we don’t need to worry about the county furniture factory making any big moves.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with Gao's analysis. They hadn't expected that Gao was not only good at managing the furniture factory, but also had a long-term vision. His analysis was indeed very reasonable.

"That's right, now that you mention it, the county furniture factory probably won't be able to make any big moves before next summer."

Han Fuguo said, “But the new factory director has taken office. As the saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean, so it’s hard for him not to make a splash.”

“I’ve considered what Captain Han said.”

Gao continued, “We’ll probably start by cleaning up the factory’s internal affairs. The county furniture factory definitely has disciplinary problems right now. The old factory director has retired and hasn’t been in charge for several years. But cleaning up the discipline won’t be a simple matter. It will probably take at least two or three months.”

"Besides, even if things are rectified, the technology can't be mastered in a short time. By then, it will be close to the Spring Festival. If we want to do anything big then, I'm afraid no one will care. Let's wait until spring."

“That’s right, now that you mention it, we don’t need to worry too much about the county furniture factory.”

"As long as we do our own thing well, and also cooperate with the steel mill, if we can succeed and see results by the end of the year, we won't have to be afraid of the county furniture factory at all." Gao Jiu's analysis made everyone think it made a lot of sense.

"If we're talking about rectification, I think our furniture factory also needs to be rectified."

Li Feng said, "Recently, I've noticed that some people have become quite lax in their furniture polishing, resulting in poor polishing quality. You, Gao, need to take charge of this."

"Oh, is that so?"

Han Fuguo understood immediately. Someone must be unhappy with the higher position, which made Han Fuguo a little angry. He knew the situation of the furniture factory. Now, almost everyone in the factory was in high-level management.

The management is excellent. Those who are dissatisfied are probably close relatives or neighbors who treat the furniture factory as their own.

"This is a serious matter," Han Fuqiang said. "Our furniture factory is thriving right now; we can't afford to ruin our brand because of these problems."

"Yes."

"Leave this to me."

Han Futian thought for a moment and stepped forward, realizing that this was a matter that Han Fuguo couldn't handle.

“Uncle Tomita, this isn’t something that can be solved simply by handling it. If we deal with this, what about the next one? We need to establish rules and regulations,” Li Feng said. “Gao Jiu, do you have any ideas?”

"There are some, but they are all immature ideas."

"You should organize this as soon as possible, and it would be best to make it a system that everyone follows. If they don't, don't blame us for being impolite." Li Feng looked at Uncle Fu Guo and Uncle Fu Tian. "Uncle Fu Guo, if we want to cooperate with that steel factory, we definitely need to set up the furniture factory structure. We can't let them think that we're not professional at all. We need to make it more professional, even more professional than the county furniture factory."

"After all, we are a small factory, so we can only show our advantages in other aspects."

After Li Feng said this, everyone fell into deep thought, and realized that it was true.

"So, are we really going to build a factory?"

"It's time to make a decision."

Li Feng said, “While the county furniture factory is busy dealing with us, we’ll get our factory up and running. Then, if the county furniture factory really wants to make a move, we won’t be afraid of them.”

"Okay, everyone, let's hear your opinions: do you agree or disagree?"

"I agree."

"I agree."

Han Fuguo nodded when he saw that everyone agreed. "Who should be the factory manager?"

"How about Fengzi? He knows a lot."

"I agree with Fengzi."

"Maple is good."

Li Feng quickly stopped him. "No, Uncle Futian, Uncle Fuqiang, I really can't be the factory manager. I have to write regularly, and I've been attending seminars recently. I really don't have that much time and energy. Besides, I don't know much about furniture factories."

"Then let someone who knows a lot about furniture factories do it."

Upon hearing this, Gao Jiu, the person who knew the furniture factory best, exchanged glances with the others. "Why don't you give it a try, Comrade Gao Jiu?"

"What do you think?"

Han Futian looked at everyone, and they nodded.

"Comrade Gao is managing things very well now, I approve."

I have nothing to say.

"Alright, second brother, just hang in there for a while. If you want to go back to the city, just let me know." Li Feng nodded. "I agree too." (End of Chapter)