The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 129 Deputy Leader Wu: "I'd like to adjust your job" [Please Subscribe]

When Zhou Zhiqiang woke up, he found that it was already evening and his wife Guo Yuting had returned home.

Yu Zhongguo was still playing with the child, and it's unclear how long he played with him. He's not old, but he really likes Zhou Bocai.

"Zhiqiang, get up."

When Yu Zhongguo saw his eldest son get up, he greeted him with a smile and said, "They've gone to make dinner. Dinner will be served soon."

"Then I'll wash up first."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he went outside to wash his face with cold water, and only returned to the main house after he finished washing up.

Now he's fully rested. Although he only slept for six or seven hours, Zhou Zhiqiang is now full of energy and can immediately throw himself into his work.

"Zhiqiang".

Yu Zhongguo suddenly stepped forward and asked, "Should we find Yuting a different job?"

"Change jobs? What kind of jobs?"

Zhou Zhiqiang was taken aback upon hearing this, then asked, "Isn't she doing fine now? Did Yuting talk to you about this?"

"No, it's just that you two are both so busy right now. Are you planning to have your fellow villager's wife take care of you forever?"

Yu Zhongguo shook his head and said, "What if she also has children? It would be inconvenient for Bo Cai to have her take care of them. You'll have to take care of them yourselves then."

The hospital isn't a suitable place to take care of a child, so I was thinking of having Yuting work at the neighborhood office. That way, she'd be close to home and could still take care of the child on a daily basis.

"Or you can send the child to your Aunt Fang; she can help you take care of him."

Yu Zhongguo had originally intended to transfer Guo Yuting directly, but considering that his eldest son was very opinionated, it was best to discuss this matter with him first, so he did not make the decision on his own.

Moreover, Zhou Zhiqiang cannot be viewed through the lens of an ordinary young person. His ability to become a level 15 cadre at the age of 24 and participate in major national engineering projects is even more impressive than that of some older people.

This was easy for Zhongguo; he just needed to ask his old comrade-in-arms for a word.

"Let me ask Yuting. It's up to her to decide what to do."

“Her job is indeed quite easy, but she can’t take care of the child. And you’re always busy and never home. I guess Yuting will often be left alone at home in the future.”

Once Yu Zhongguo had made his point clear, he stopped talking and then began to chat with his son about other things.

Zhou Zhiqiang also started chatting with Yu Zhongguo.

He had a general memory of the future, and with the constant flow of newspapers during this period, he was also very clear about the current international situation.

The combination of future memories and present experiences made it easy for Zhou Zhiqiang to understand the current situation both domestically and internationally.

When chatting with Yu Zhongguo, you can naturally have a lot to say, and some of the things you say even make Yu Zhongguo quite agree with them.

They have something in common: they are both somewhat extreme in their nationalism, so they often find themselves agreeing on things.

Dinner was quickly prepared, and the family was able to gather together for a meal.

At first, Zhou Zhiqiang really didn't want 'strangers' to disturb his life, but after having a few meals together and chatting before meals, Zhou Zhiqiang didn't find it offensive and didn't object much.

If he's not busy, he'll agree to come over for dinner. He sees that his wife, Guo Yuting, is quite happy to chat with him like this.

Most of the food was brought by Yu Zhongguo, including a fish and a chicken. There weren't many of them, so the meal was quite sumptuous.

After dinner, when it was getting late, Zhou Zhiqiang saw the people off and then came back to talk to his wife about what Yu Zhongguo had told him that afternoon.

"Yuting, have you ever thought about changing jobs?"

"Huh? Change jobs? What kind of jobs?"

Guo Yuting had just put her child to sleep when she heard Zhou Zhiqiang talking about this. She turned around and asked, "Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"

Zhou Zhiqiang shook his head and said, "He asked me today if you wanted to change jobs, and he could ask his comrades to transfer you to the street office."

This way, I could be close to home and take good care of Bo Cai; I didn't agree immediately and said I needed to see your opinion.

The subdistrict office is naturally the Jiaodaokou Subdistrict Office, which is not far from Nanluoguxiang and about the same distance from the hospital.

But the neighborhood committee can definitely take the child there, it's not as strict as the hospital; the hospital is full of patients, it's too dangerous to take the child there.

Now, every day when Guo Yuting comes home, she washes her hands and changes her clothes first, otherwise she doesn't dare to touch the child.

"Can I be transferred to the subdistrict office? If I can, I definitely want to go to the subdistrict office."

Guo Yuting's eyes lit up as she said, "Although I know many colleagues at the hospital, we still need to consider Bocai. What will happen if he gets sick in the future?"

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Okay, I'll talk to him about it another day."

Working in a subdistrict office involves a lot of trivial matters; it's the first "gateway" to the people.

The daily tasks can be summarized into one thing: people's livelihood issues.

Guo Yuting's previous job was tedious, so the neighborhood office should be able to adapt quickly.

Yu Zhongguo had previously considered helping Zhou Zhiqiang get things done; otherwise, he wouldn't have asked Chen Junfeng, the deputy leader of the light industry department, to speak on his behalf.

However, after learning about Zhou Zhiqiang's current projects, he abandoned the idea.

He couldn't say a word about the major projects that Mr. Zhou and the top leaders were paying attention to.

------

Although it's only been a short time since spring began, the bustling production atmosphere makes many people feel like it's already summer.

Many small cooperatives in the countryside gradually merged to form a new people's commune.

Zhou Zhiqiang is a hard worker who doesn't slack off; he's fearless.

On the project team's side, Team Leader Shen has already persuaded Director Cai, and the two of them together reported to Deputy Leader Wu.

After careful consideration, Deputy Leader Wu agreed to the matter and immediately arranged for factories in Zhejiang and Shanghai to prepare construction sites.

At the end of April, Zhou Zhiqiang will be heading there to oversee the segmented welding work.

Perhaps it was the stimulation from Zhou Zhiqiang's team, or perhaps it was because the atmosphere of rapid, efficient, and cost-effective development is pervasive everywhere now.

Other teams have also made significant breakthroughs and entered the testing phase.

If Zhou Zhiqiang's team successfully welds the large columns in sections on the first try, then the other project teams will have almost finished their tests as well.

If all goes well, we can proceed directly to final manufacturing.

Once the large hydraulic press is manufactured, large forgings will no longer be dependent on foreign countries, representing a significant boost to China's heavy industry. A recent newspaper article has further fueled this already heated atmosphere of rapid development!
The Canton Fair in the spring saw foreign trade transactions reach US$21.9 million, roughly equivalent to more than RMB52 million.

This trade volume has truly given the people of the whole country a shot in the arm, with heavy industrial products accounting for almost half of it.

Moreover, of these two orders, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory secured $6.4 million in foreign trade orders.

Most people know about small tractors. The trade orders signed this time are from merchants from countries who were unable to buy some last time and are now trying to purchase some to take back with them.

The order wasn't very large, only a little over a thousand units, totaling a little over a million US dollars.

What truly made its debut was the small threshing machine, which consumes little energy, is highly efficient, and is incredibly cheap—so cheap that it's outrageous. Many Western businessmen are even considering becoming middlemen in its supply chain.

At this time, Ami also had small threshing machines, but their small ones were still quite large.

Moreover, it's expensive. It is indeed cheaper than a combined threshing machine, since it has only one function, but it still costs between $1,800 and $3,000.

The small thresher from Dafa Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory costs only $850.

When this price was announced at the Canton Fair, many foreign businessmen did not believe it and asked several times.

Once it was confirmed to be $850, someone was immediately asked to observe from the side.

Observe a series of data such as the energy consumption and working efficiency of the thresher.

Afterwards, they also had to consider the troubles of importing goods and whether it was convenient to sell to these capitalists and businessmen in China. Feeling that there was still a huge profit to be made after calculating everything, they immediately signed a trade order to buy some back.

However, since it has only just been unveiled and delivery will not be possible until next spring at the earliest, there are not many buyers, with only orders totaling more than four million US dollars.

But this was enough to excite Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory.

This is just the spring Canton Fair; they also have an autumn fair, and they can sell domestically there as well.

If we sell everything, how can we not achieve a 20% or more increase in output value next year? Impossible!

So, unsurprisingly, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory once again made it into the newspapers, becoming the agricultural machinery equipment factory that has been reported on nationwide twice in a row, making it a model for all factories to emulate.

Even the top leaders were so pleased that they inscribed a plaque for Dafa Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, praising them as "Stars of Heavy Industry".

The implication is that in the eyes of foreign capitalists, they are also a valuable star, representing the shining brilliance of China's heavy industry.

The inscription from the top leader really energized Director Zhao and Secretary Yan—no, they were practically injected with adrenaline.

After announcing this at the factory, Secretary Yan decided to hang the words "Star of Heavy Industry" under the factory signboard of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory.

The effects of being featured in the newspaper and having a high-ranking leader write an inscription are chain reactions, not just a matter of honor.

Representatives from several provinces in Northeast China, North China, and Central China came to Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory to purchase tractors and threshers.

All the representatives who came were from the county level.

As small rural cooperatives merged into people's communes, production tools and tasks were standardized, naturally creating a need for mechanized agricultural equipment.

Because some people's communes reported to the county, the county then sent people to Sijiucheng to purchase from Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory.

Actually, there is still a YTO factory, where you can buy tractors.

But with such excellent examples already available, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, which has foreign trade orders and inscriptions from high-ranking officials, will definitely choose the best.

Some were organized by the county level, while others were called directly from the city level. Regardless of the level, they would all call first.

According to the factory's statistics, there are more than 1,240 tractors and threshers that people in China want to buy.

Moreover, Deputy Factory Director Liu instructed that whoever wanted to buy must be informed in advance, and they could only be served after their overseas trade orders were fulfilled.

Even so, many people still want to get in line first.

After all, tractors are agricultural machinery that can last for more than ten years, so if you're going to buy one, you should buy a good one.

When Zhou Zhiqiang heard about this, he was quite happy for the factory, but at that time he was preparing to leave, so he did not participate in the factory's celebration.

The departure time was quickly finalized.

The factories in Shanghai and Zhejiang have already been arranged; once they arrive there, they can prepare the machinery and equipment for electroslag welding technology.

On the day of departure, Guo Yuting also took leave and brought her son to see Zhou Zhiqiang off; and it wasn't just Guo Yuting, but also the families of other people came.

They'll be gone for several months, so I definitely need to personally deliver it to them to put my mind at ease.

Guo Yuting said with a reluctant expression, "Make sure you eat on time when you get there. You never pay attention to that, and don't stay up too late again."

Zhou Zhiqiang pinched his son's cheek while listening to Guo Yuting's instructions.

After Guo Yuting finished speaking, Zhou Zhiqiang smiled and said, "Don't worry, it'll only be a few months. I'll be back soon, and I'll definitely write to you in the meantime."

After saying that, Zhou Zhiqiang looked at Fang Mengjie and said, "Aunt Fang, thank you for coming here. I'll also trouble you to go back with Yuting later."

Only Fang Mengjie came today. Yu Zhongguo also really wanted to come, but he had already started training there, which was as strict as the military, so it was impossible for him to ask for leave.

So he asked Fang Mengjie to come over and bring some things for Zhou Zhiqiang.

Upon hearing the address "Aunt Fang," Fang Mengjie smiled happily and said, "Don't worry, Zhiqiang, I'll definitely take them home first."

"Ah."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he saw that Deputy Leader Wu was also walking over, so he gave Guo Yuting and the others a nod, and then walked towards Deputy Leader Wu.

"lead."

Deputy Leader Wu nodded and said, "Yes, Comrade Zhiqiang, thank you for your hard work over there; Team Leader Shen still has some things to do here, he will be there in two months."

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Boss, don't worry, I will definitely not let the project go wrong."

"I believe in you. Director Cai and others speak highly of you, and I strongly agree with some of your insights on industrial development."

Deputy Leader Wu paused for a moment at this point, then quickly made a decision and continued, "After this project is completed, I would like to adjust your work."

"Ok?"

Zhou Zhiqiang was taken aback. Why were they suddenly talking about this?
However, he still asked out of curiosity, "Boss, where do you want me to go?"

Deputy Leader Wu shook his head and laughed, "Hehe, we'll talk about it when you get back. For now, let's focus on completing this project."

Let me tell you something: if the large hydraulic press is successfully installed, the top leader will be going to visit it.

　First update.

　　Please vote for me, dear readers!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)