The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 135 Factory Director Zhao: "Leaving?" [Please Subscribe]

More than 3,000 kilograms of scrap steel were delivered to the warehouse. Afterwards, Zhou Zhiqiang went to the logistics director and asked him to arrange a meal for the Sandaokou Commune.

There wasn't much meat today, but there was a dish of minced meat and vegetables, though the members of the Sandaokou Commune didn't seem to like it.

Zhou Zhiqiang overheard that they could eat braised pork and similar dishes in the commune.

This left him speechless. He had initially thought the members of Sandaokou Commune were just being shy, but he hadn't expected them to actually eat so well after they went back.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang didn't say anything. After Vice President Niu and his group finished their meal, he gave them a pack of cigarettes and told them to go back first.

Furthermore, they were instructed to always obey the orders of their superiors.

The Ministry of Metallurgical Industry's notice should be issued to all areas around Beijing in a few days. It's not that it opposes farmers making steel, but it should be done in a reasonable manner.

Even the most ordinary steel produced can be used to manufacture industrial products, which can then be used to benefit rural areas.

Instead of neglecting farm work and ending up with a batch of scrap steel, and then failing to do a good job on the farm work, no one wants the steel that was produced.

With just a few words, Zhou Zhiqiang learned about the situation in Sandaokou Commune from the commune members.

More than a dozen communes completed their tasks ahead of schedule and filled all the warehouses set up in Haidian.

If one commune could produce so much, the other communes must have done even more.

After that, there was no place to store them in Haidian, and there were no extra warehouses in Sandaokou Commune. Someone suggested sending them directly to the factories in the city, which was immediately agreed upon by everyone.

However, they didn't know many factories in Beijing. The only one they knew was Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, which had been featured in the newspapers twice recently and had been praised by a high-ranking leader.

So they put their heads together and sent over the scrap steel.

That's how it happened, and they couldn't refuse the farmers' kindness because it was the 'fruit' of their enthusiasm for production, even though they couldn't use it.

However, the top leaders have repeatedly emphasized in meetings that the passion for production should not be extinguished; passion is a good thing, and they must maintain this passion.
Therefore, they cannot stifle this passion for production; they can only allow him to refine steel in a suitable and reasonable way, but they cannot refuse him.

The newly arrived deputy factory director, Li, is a shrewd man. He has to refuse the farmers' warm invitations, but he can't just arrange for them to be put into storage, as that would also be a problem for him.

Zhou Zhiqiang was less afraid. He would wait for the factory director to return and then discuss it with the others. However, he couldn't let such a large group of farmers go back disappointed.

Otherwise, at this crucial moment, their factory cannot afford the charge of undermining production enthusiasm.

As the members of Sandaokou Commune were about to leave, the deputy head of the commune, Niu, pleaded with Zhou Zhiqiang, "Leader, you're a good person, could you... could you help our commune a little more..."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang did not immediately agree, but said, "Comrade Niu, tell us first. If there's anything I can do, we'll definitely help you."

"Our commune has only been established for a short time, and we want to work together on the farm, but we lack the tools, especially some mechanical farm implements."

Zhou Zhiqiang quickly understood what Vice President Niu meant, but even after understanding, he still looked sullen.

The issue of warehousing was not his responsibility in the first place, but this Vice President Niu wanted to buy a small tractor.

"Comrade Niu, tractors are really difficult to handle. You've read the newspapers, so you should know that tractors are being sold to foreigners right now, otherwise we won't be able to complete the task, and there will be big problems."
However, I will note that your commune lacks production tools. I will report this to the factory manager and contact your commune in a few days. Is that acceptable to you?

After hearing Zhou Zhiqiang's words, Deputy Director Niu felt it was unlikely that he could buy a small tractor immediately, so he had no choice but to agree to come back first and then wait for them to contact him at the commune.

However, before leaving, Zhou Zhiqiang repeatedly instructed that this matter must not be mentioned to any other communes, not even a little bit.

That clever guy from their commune who suggested coming to Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory really made their commune rich, but then swindled Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory.

Now, Dafeng Factory is in a dilemma: accepting the order is one thing, but not accepting it is another.

After the people from Sandaokou Commune left, Wang Guoping from the Materials Section came over and said to Zhou Zhiqiang, "Section Chief Zhou, I'll temporarily store them in Warehouse No. 1, but it's quite troublesome to keep so many large steel ingots."

"And I just glanced at them, and it seems a large portion of them are up to standard. Even if they were sent to the steel rolling mill, they'd probably be rejected."

"It's not just a large portion, it's all of them that are substandard; they're all scrap steel."

Zhou Zhiqiang clicked his tongue and shook his head, explaining, "If we don't accept it, they'll go back and spread the word, and it might end up being said that we look down on our farmers."

Wang Guoping sighed and said, "Well, that's true. But we don't need these steel ingots."

"I'll talk to the factory manager when he gets back."

Zhou Zhiqiang then told Wang Guoping to go back first. He had only used the warehouse space briefly and hadn't filled out an inbound form, so it wasn't a big deal for the materials department.

After a whole morning of work, Zhou Zhiqiang wanted to take a break, but he couldn't.

When Zhou Zhiqiang returned to the technical department, it was already time for work, so he continued working.

In the afternoon, after the factory director and the party secretary returned, Zhou Zhiqiang went to Director Zhao's office and told him about the matter.

At that time, as the head of the technical department, he was the highest-ranking person in the factory besides Deputy Director Li, so only he could make the necessary arrangements.

Upon hearing this, Factory Director Zhao's eyes widened, and he asked, "How come our factory has run into this again?"

"again?"

"The Dafeng Machinery Factory in Changping has already been given this once. Comrade Lü Yi just mentioned it. It's hard to refuse, there's no way to refuse."

Factory Director Zhao shook his head and said, "It's one thing for the branch factory to be given away, but our main factory couldn't escape it either, even in Beijing."

"It's good that you told them not to talk about it, hopefully they'll listen to you; compared to that, the meal is a small matter, it's the steel that's stuck with us."

After a pause, Director Zhao continued, "And it's not just our factory; several other factories have also been sent. There's a sudden overproduction of steel, but most of us are machinery factories, and the steel we need requires rough processing."

The people in the commune didn't know that since the storage areas were full and there was no more room, they just sent the goods directly to the factory.

Originally, the plan was to send the steel to a rolling mill, but there were only so many rolling mills and steel mills in Beijing.

But how many communes were there?
Now it's communal cooking; the production brigade eats together, and one pot is enough.

Other households donated iron for steelmaking; how much could a production team donate? When it was pooled together at the commune, the amount became enormous.

Moreover, both the rolling mills and steel mills are operating at full capacity, so if we send more to them, they simply won't be able to keep up with the demand.

The Ministry of Machine Building also discovered that there were too many such cases, so it convened a meeting with various factories to discuss the matter.

“That’s true. If it were qualified steel, we could just have the transport team make a trip to deliver it to the steel rolling mill. But now it’s not so easy to deliver.”

After thinking for a while, Zhou Zhiqiang suddenly remembered that scrap steel could be recycled and there were quite a few technologies that could achieve this.

However, the most suitable technology for the current situation is probably the converter scrap smelting technology.

Only this technology can currently manufacture the corresponding equipment, and it can be recycled on a large scale.

However, the steel produced can only be used in low- to mid-range sectors, producing household and industrial goods, or building steel. As for tanks and airplanes, it is not suitable for those applications.

"Factory manager, I remember that scrap steel can also be recycled, but it requires a lot of technical equipment, and some of our factories can do it now."

Zhou Zhiqiang shared his ideas with Factory Director Zhao. Currently, a small portion of scrap steel can be recycled domestically. However, for the majority to be recycled, the converter technology needs to be redeveloped to recover a significant amount of scrap steel.
However, after listening to this, Director Zhao looked at Zhou Zhiqiang for a few seconds, then sighed and said, "Section Chief Zhou, what I fear most now is that the leaders will suddenly tell me that they want to transfer you."

"Factory manager, you know?"

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Factory Director Zhao was taken aback, and a bad feeling immediately arose in his heart. He quickly asked, "What do I know? Zhiqiang, you're not really going to be transferred, are you?"

He had just made a casual remark, so why did Zhou Zhiqiang suddenly give him that "how did you know?" look?
"Factory manager, you don't know? I must have misheard you."

Factory Director Zhao hurriedly asked, "Don't tell me you heard me right, is the leadership going to transfer you?"

This is what he's most anxious about right now.

Zhou Zhiqiang is a pioneer and key figure in their factory's technological innovation. If they transfer him away, who will they turn to for research on new equipment in the future?

"I'm not entirely sure either. Many people have told me about this, but they haven't explained it clearly."

Zhou Zhiqiang briefly mentioned that Deputy Leader Wu might be adjusting his job, but he didn't specify how.

Deputy Leader Wu is not in the department right now, so he can't find anyone to ask him.

"You, you, this."

Factory Director Zhao was unwilling, but there was nothing he could do. In the end, he could only sigh helplessly.

He was also thinking that he and Zhou Zhiqiang would work together for another ten years, and that after ten years, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory might become the number one agricultural machinery heavy industry in the country.

It will become very famous internationally by then.

Unfortunately, the higher-ups wanted to take action against Zhou Zhiqiang, which made Director Zhao feel extremely powerless, as he couldn't possibly resist his superiors.

Seeing Factory Director Zhao sighing repeatedly, Zhou Zhiqiang couldn't help but speak up and say, "It's not certain yet, Factory Director. Besides, I'm still here at the factory."

"Sigh, forget it, there's no use thinking about it now. By the way, the factory leaders praised you in front of all the factory cadres and industrial bureau cadres today."

After finishing speaking, Director Zhao took an envelope from his briefcase, handed it to Zhou Zhiqiang, and continued...

"To be precise, the Ministry of Metallurgy sent you a letter praising you and transferred the reward that was originally intended for you to you."

"The Ministry of Metallurgy, is it really worth giving out a reward for such a trivial matter?"

However, having received all the rewards, Zhou Zhiqiang reached out and took them.

The envelope was quite thick, probably containing money or notes, but Zhou Zhiqiang really had no use for it.

His family has all the big-ticket items they need, enough money, and a huge amount of food stored in the cellar, enough to last them for three years.

Moreover, the difficult times will only begin next year. The fact that we ate too much food in the kitchen this year will become apparent next year.

"Our Ministry of Machine Building and the Ministry of Metallurgy discussed it and prepared a large warehouse. The steel delivered by various communes and streets will be inspected first and then sent there."

They're probably all substandard. That warehouse can store 100,000 tons of steel; that should last a long time."

Zhou Zhiqiang felt it was going to be tough, but he wasn't sure.

If he hadn't reminded us, there could have been millions of tons of scrap steel, and this scrap steel would have been concentrated in areas with industrial bases and large populations.

Currently, the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry has issued a notice that there should be less scrap steel.

------

After leaving Director Zhao, Zhou Zhiqiang returned to the technical department to continue his work.

A little while later, when it was time to leave work, half of the technical staff went to the cafeteria to prepare for lunch, while the other half went home.

The factory is now in a "rush to meet production deadlines" era, with workers having to work overtime for one or two hours every day to catch up on production.

The technical department also needs to keep some people on hand to oversee the production process, but now they don't need to provide training anymore, so half the staff is enough.

Zhou Zhiqiang wasn't on duty today, so as soon as it was time to leave work, he rode his bicycle home.

However, when she got home, Guo Yuting had already returned and was taking care of Bocai.

To Zhou Zhiqiang's surprise, his nominal younger brother and sister, Yu Jingyu and Yu Xunan, also came.

"Big brother!"

When the two boys and girls saw him pushing his bicycle in, they ran up to greet him.

Previously, Zhou Zhiqiang was very generous. When Yu Jingyu and Yu Xunnan came to him, he would casually give them a few cents or a dollar to buy things.

So when these two saw him, it was like seeing a god of wealth, and of course they were very obedient, doing whatever he asked.

"Zhiqiang, you're back."

Guo Yuting also came over carrying the child. Seeing the confusion on Zhou Zhiqiang's face, she smiled and explained, "Aunt Fang came today. She had nothing to do at home, so she came here for a meal."

Yu Zhongguo has already left. After completing his training, he received his assignment and set off again to Africa to serve as a military attaché.

He's only around fifty now, so he'll probably have to work for another four or five years before he can return to China and take up another position.

With him gone, Fang Mengjie felt lonely taking care of the child at home, so she often went to Zhou Zhiqiang's place.

"Aunt Fang went to buy groceries. Let Jingyu and Xunnan stay at home for a while."

After Guo Yuting finished speaking, the two little guys, Yu Jingyu and Yu Xunnan, immediately said, "Big brother, I want to ride a bicycle."

"Big brother, I want to ride a bicycle too."

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Okay, okay, let me go back to my room to put something down, and then I'll take you guys riding."

I'm not busy or tired today, so I can spend some time playing with them.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang first parked his bicycle and then went back to the inner room, intending to put away the reward issued by the Ministry of Metallurgy.

He took out the envelope, opened it, and found no money inside, but all sorts of tickets and certificates.

He was given two of the "three turns and one sound" coupons, as well as various other daily necessities coupons, and quite a few cigarette and alcohol coupons. Zhou Zhiqiang couldn't possibly use them all by himself.

When Guo Yuting came in and saw so many tickets, she asked in surprise, "Zhiqiang, did you go to Pigeon City again?"

"No, this was a reward from the Ministry of Metallurgy."

After putting the tickets in the metal box, Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Your husband has done another good deed, so I gave you so many tickets. You can just take whatever you want from here in the future, otherwise the tickets will all expire."

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(End of this chapter)