The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 113 The Factory Old Stories Team Arrives [Please Subscribe]

"Deputy Director Yue."

After knocking on the door, Zhou Zhiqiang entered the office and greeted Yue Zhengguo, the deputy director of the subdistrict office.

"You are Comrade Zhou, right? The comrade who wanted to renovate the house last time."

Yue Zhengguo felt that Zhou Zhiqiang looked familiar, and after thinking for a moment, he quickly remembered who Zhou Zhiqiang was.

In Nanluoguxiang, there was only one couple living in an entire two-courtyard house, so Yue Zhengguo had a deep impression of Zhou Zhiqiang.

"Comrade Zhou, is there anything I can help you with?"

"There's something I need to tell you. I just bought the courtyard at No. 131 Nanluoguxiang. The owner of that house has some connection with a relative of mine, and he's in a hurry to go to Shanghai, so he sold the courtyard to me."

Zhou Zhiqiang paused for a moment and then continued, "But it's enough for my wife and me to live in a two-courtyard house. I heard that the neighborhood committee is short of public rental housing now."

Therefore, I plan to have the neighborhood committee handle the rental of the house, and the rent will be charged according to regulations.

After speaking, Zhou Zhiqiang also took out the new property certificate for No. 131 compound, as well as his work permit and household registration book, and handed them to Deputy Director Yue for inspection.

"Comrade Zhou, you bought the No. 131 compound?"

After glancing at the property certificate, Yue Zhengguo gasped in surprise, but when he saw Zhou Zhiqiang's work ID, he gasped even more.

He remembered that Zhou Zhiqiang was a deputy section chief when he last came. It's only been a few months? It must have been less than a year, and he's already a section chief?
So, after another year, will we be at the same level as him? This Comrade Zhou is only twenty-four years old this year.

Deputy Director Yue felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, he was secretly amazed at how quickly Zhou Zhiqiang had been promoted, and on the other hand, he was happy for comrades like Zhou Zhiqiang who supported their work.

"Comrade Zhou, the government is actually discussing whether to ban all changes to property ownership information in stages and batches, but it has not yet been officially announced."

If it had been a year or two later, even if the homeowner was related to you, you still wouldn't have been able to change the property ownership certificate.

Director Yue continued, "But it's okay for now. Since the property rights have changed, our street office will register it for you."

Furthermore, I would like to thank you for your support of the subdistrict office's work. Recently, there has indeed been a shortage of public rental housing, and we are even considering shared dormitories.

“It is only right. My husband and I cannot live in two courtyards. It would be good if the No. 131 courtyard could solve some of the government’s problems.”

When Zhou Zhiqiang saw Yue Zhengguo extend his hand to him, he reached out and shook it as well. However, he continued, "Director Yue, I have a request, and I hope you can grant it to me."

"You said."

“I have two fellow villagers. One of them has already rented a room in Nanluoguxiang, but it's a side room. Could you please move them to the main house of the 131 Courtyard?”

The other person is planning to get married but hasn't been able to rent a place. So, with the No. 131 compound being converted into public rental housing, could you perhaps help them coordinate something?

After listening, Yue Zhengguo smiled and said, "Of course, this is Comrade Zhou's courtyard after all, and we will definitely agree to your suggestion."

He thought it was something serious, but it turned out to be just about renting two houses; after they were converted into public rental housing, they would all be rented out, so it didn't matter who they were rented to.

Moreover, Deputy Director Yue had an impression of the No. 131 compound. He remembered that it was a three-section courtyard house with more than 30 rooms.

Even if Zhou Zhiqiang's friends rent out three or four rooms, there are still more than twenty rooms left, which can solve more than twenty rental problems.

"Comrade Zhou, have they arrived yet? If they have, we can go together to complete the formalities, and someone will notify them when it's time to move in."

"They're here, they're waiting outside."

Upon hearing this, Deputy Director Yue led Zhou Zhiqiang out of the office, and then went with Zhao Tiandong and Wu Xiaojun to complete the formalities.

Although the housing information had not yet been registered, and the main house and side rooms had not been divided, Deputy Director Yue directly gave the two people a note, telling them to bring the note to sign the rental agreement later.

Zhao Tiandong chose a main house and a side room, while Wu Xiaojun rented the east wing and a side room in the front yard.

Zhou Zhiqiang's agreement to convert his house into a public rental housing unit has also been completed. The rent is very low, about one-fifth of the previous rent. The rent for a 15-square-meter house is only 80 cents a month.

After all, it's public rental housing, so the rent is practically negligible.

The tenant pays the rent annually, and Zhou Zhiqiang can collect the money from the subdistrict office with his proof of payment.

Zhou Zhiqiang had also told Deputy Director Yue that the original homeowner would take about ten days to move out.

After leaving the neighborhood office, Zhao Tiandong immediately thanked Zhou Zhiqiang, saying, "Brother Zhiqiang, thank you."

"It's nothing, no need to thank me. I'll have to rent a place eventually anyway, it's better for you to rent it than for me to not know you."

Zhou Zhiqiang waved his hand, then said with a smile, "You can come to the subdistrict office to sign the rental agreement in ten days."

"It's a bit far from the factory, so I'll have to get a monthly bus pass from now on."

The monthly pass isn't expensive either; they'll be able to afford it when they become level three or four workers.

Besides, people will eventually get married and have children, and nobody wants to live in a small house or dormitory forever.

Afterwards, Zhou Zhiqiang chatted with Wu Xiaojun and Zhao Tiandong for a while, asking about the situation at the factory.

He originally said he would spend at least ten days a month going back to the factory to teach technical skills.
But he only worked for four days, and those were the first few days. After that, Zhou Zhiqiang was so busy he was constantly on the go.

Fortunately, the technical training group had Chen Li, the deputy section chief, overseeing things. Zhou Zhiqiang valued her personality traits highly: she was decisive and didn't care about saving face.

This kind of person is best suited to be a deputy. As long as there is a strong person to help her withstand the pressure, Chen Li can perform freely.

Whenever Zhou Zhiqiang was away from the factory, the technical training group faced resistance from the experienced workers.

When he was around, no one dared to cause trouble, because their skills were inferior to Zhou Zhiqiang's, their ranks were inferior to Zhou Zhiqiang's, and they were only older than Zhou Zhiqiang, so they didn't dare to stand out at all.

But with Zhou Zhiqiang gone, Chen Li, a young woman, couldn't command respect, so some people resorted to underhanded tactics. Today they threatened the apprentices, tomorrow they'd have a "heart-to-heart talk" with the three mentors in the technical training group—they just didn't want the technical training group to continue.

As a result, when Chen Li learned of this situation, she went to the broadcasting station the next morning and openly warned those people using the factory's loudspeakers.

He reprimanded Zhou Zhiqiang rudely over the loudspeaker for a long time, and finally said that if a similar situation occurred again, he would report it to Zhou Zhiqiang when he returned.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't some high-ranking leader, yet Chen Li was using his name to scare the workers.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang does have a knack for dealing with senior technicians, which is to compete with them in terms of skills.

These highly skilled and proud master craftsmen value their skills above all else, but if they are outshone by Zhou Zhiqiang, it will be a significant blow to them.

Master Hua from the Second Machinery Factory was discouraged after comparing himself to Zhou Zhiqiang, but Zhou Zhiqiang persuaded him to come back with a cigarette.

Otherwise, it's uncertain whether Huagongtian will be able to operate a lathe in the future.

Apart from this incident, nothing else major happened at the factory.

Right now, we're busy rushing to produce small tractors to meet our foreign exchange earnings targets. Anyone who tries to obstruct this is truly making an enemy of the factory.

The fact that Chen Li's behavior of grabbing the loudspeaker and broadcasting at will, without being punished in the factory, is enough to illustrate the problem.

Neither the factory director nor the party secretary wanted to punish him; it was the senior technicians who went too far.

Zhou Zhiqiang plans to take some time to write a booklet out of the first three levels of technical training for fitters, machinists, and welders, and then give a copy to every apprentice in the factory.

He wrote in more detail so that people could learn and follow along, and thus roughly master the skills of these jobs.

Let's see how these experienced workers will stop training apprentices then.

After discussing matters at the factory, Zhou Zhiqiang parted ways with Wu Xiaojun and Zhao Tiandong. He was taking advantage of his rare break to go home and spend time with his family.

------

"Zhiqiang, your team has arrived today."

After the meeting, Shen Changlin returned to his office and asked, "How's your research on the improved welding machine equipment drawings coming along?"

If there are production problems in Shanghai, you might need to make a trip there to find the issue. However, the welding machine factory there is quite capable, so there shouldn't be any problems.

"Almost there, just a little more. It should be finished in three days at most."

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "However, this is only for the welding machine. We also need transformers, rolling mills, and many other pieces of equipment. It will take at least a month to fully prepare the design drawings."

"It's alright, someone will come to help you this afternoon, and we'll deal with it together then."

Shen Changlin glanced at the plan and asked, "Where do you plan to get these equipment?"

"The First Steel Rolling Mill?"

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "This is the only factory that produces rolling mills. It has the foundation and the technology. The technology isn't really needed. I can solve the technical problems. As long as we have the foundation to produce rolling mills, that's enough."

If even the First Steel Rolling Mill can't do it, then I'll have to take a trip to Northeast China.

Shen Changlin nodded and said, "Okay, you're the team leader, so you can decide these things. Just submit an application to Director Cai and have him make the contact. But before that, you need to meet with your team members first."

Zhou Zhiqiang laughed and said, "Alright, it's a rare time to relax, where have they arranged for us to be?"

"It's near the Ministry of Machine Building. Have Miao Hong take you there. He'll also arrange where those people will stay and where you'll work."

"Then I'll take the blueprints and go talk to them first."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he began to organize the drawings and prepared to meet with his team—or rather, the entire electroslag welding team.

Once the team's project and goals are clearly explained, we can immediately move on to the next stage.

The most difficult and time-consuming technical theoretical research and development work has been completed by Zhou Zhiqiang and others.

It was mainly Zhou Zhiqiang who contributed, and the other members of the research team also helped a lot.

Now we need to manufacture and improve the equipment, perfect the basic infrastructure for experiments, and then conduct process experiments to ensure that the modified electroslag welding process is fully qualified and that the basic equipment is fully adapted. Then we can officially weld the columns.

Other teams will likely have completed their projects by then, which means the development time for large hydraulic presses has been significantly shortened.

It was estimated to take four years, planned for three or even two and a half years, but in reality it only takes one and a half years or even one year.

This is thanks to collective coordination, working overtime together, and Zhou Zhiqiang quietly overcoming the most difficult step.

After organizing all the documents, Zhou Zhiqiang called two people to help him carry the things; otherwise, he would have had to put the four briefcases under his armpits to take them with him.

With Assistant Miao leading the way, Zhou Zhiqiang quickly arrived at another office location.

"Zhou, this is where Director Cai arranged things for you. From now on, Lu Mancang and I will be responsible for your communication, travel and other needs. Just call us if you need anything."

After leading Zhou Zhiqiang to the door of an office, Miao Hong pointed to a nearby room and said, "One of us, Lu Mancang or I, will definitely be there. Even if we change people, we will notify you in advance."

"Okay, thank you."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he pushed open the door and went into the office.

　Third update, please vote for me!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)