The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 157: Staff Arrival and Factory Welfare Distribution

"Okay, okay, Director, don't worry. I graduated from the Industrial University, how could I not take good care of my juniors?"

Zhou Zhiqiang made many assurances to Director Ren over the phone before hanging up.

The person the department promised to send has finally arrived.

Four university students and eight vocational school students, all majoring in mechanical design, mechanical structure, and mechatronics, will be of great help in the subsequent machine tool research and development.

Putting everything else aside, the addition of these people can make the rest of the original technical department a little more relaxed.

Moreover, it can also help Zhou Zhiqiang share the R&D work. He can focus on the overall direction, while the detailed drawing can be completely handed over to his subordinates.

It's almost the end of July now, and I imagine Director Ren must have had a lot of trouble getting people detained from the ministry.

"Finally, the person has arrived. Let's arrange for them to get used to their work as soon as possible this afternoon."

Zhou Zhiqiang got up and walked towards the door. Just as he opened the door to call Zhang Yaoguo, he saw Zhang Yaoguo leading Tian Wenguo toward his office.

"Yaoguo, you've come at the right time. I was just about to look for you. Could you go and call Section Chief Ding from the Technical Department and tell him I need to speak with him?"

After speaking, Zhou Zhiqiang turned to Tian Wenguo and asked, "Director Tian, ​​is there something you need from me?"

"Yes, it's about our factory's agricultural and sideline products."

Tian Wenguo said with a happy expression, "Deputy Factory Director Zhou, we've made a fortune! A huge fortune!"

"Come in first and then talk."

Zhou Zhiqiang waved his hand to indicate this, and then reminded Zhang Yaoguo, "Yaoguo, Director Tian and I will talk for a while. Go find Section Chief Ding in ten minutes and ask him to come over."

Zhang Yaoguo said, "I understand, leader."

Zhou Zhiqiang then led Tian Wenguo to his office, pointed to the kettle and water cup on the cabinet by the wall, and said, "Director Tian, ​​please pour yourself some water."

"I'm not really thirsty. Factory manager, which drawer is the tea in?"

Tian Wenguo's words and actions were completely different. After opening the cabinet and not seeing any tea leaves, he turned to ask.

Having spent so much time with Zhou Zhiqiang, Tian Wenguo had a fairly good understanding of the young leader's personality.

If the task is to be completed, then joking around with him and taking advantage of him is acceptable.

But if he fails to complete the task, he will face a ruthless leader.

Tian Wenguo has come to deliver good news, so he thinks it's understandable that he might want to get some of the leader's good tea; besides, Deputy Factory Director Zhou's tea was all smuggled from the ministry.

"Just report what you need to report. Isn't plain water enough to quench your thirst?"

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he glanced at Tian Wenguo, then took out a small packet of tea from the drawer, handed it over, and said...
"Hurry up and tell me, I have something to do later."

After stuffing the tea leaves into his pocket, Tian Wenguo said without even pouring water, "Factory manager, our factory's mushrooms can be officially harvested starting yesterday."

We picked mushrooms for an afternoon and a morning, harvesting a total of 8,435 jin (approximately 4,285 kg).

"How much? More than 8,400 jin?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang said with some surprise, "I could guess that the harvest would be quite good, but four or five thousand catties would be good enough. How did you harvest so much?"

“Our shed has six floors in total. Professor Liu initially suggested we build four floors, but I thought, wouldn't we harvest more if we built more?”

Tian Wenguo explained, "Although taking care of the sixth floor is quite troublesome, the temporary workers we hired this time are all very meticulous."

Moreover, they only take care of the mushrooms and don't do anything else. We take very good care of the mushrooms in this workshop.

"Factory manager, although we spent a lot of money at the beginning, we made back a quarter of our investment with this harvest. If we plant four times, we will not lose money at all."

They applied directly to the Ministry of Finance for nearly 10,000 yuan for the agricultural products from their mushroom cultivation workshop.

The costs include purchasing mycelium seeds, setting up greenhouse frames, spraying to promote growth, and the mushroom growing environment.
If it weren't for Zhou Zhiqiang's approval slip, the head of the finance department would have already started scolding Tian Wenguo.

But we've had a good harvest so far. At the current price of mushrooms, even with a ticket, they cost 16 cents a pound.

Without tickets, it costs almost 30 cents per pound. Their factory harvests mushrooms worth about 2,500 yuan each time they grow them.

Tian Wenguo sighed, "It's just a hassle. Such a big workshop requires twelve people to go around it four or five times a day, and storing it after it's harvested is also a hassle."

"What are you trying to preserve? Our factory doesn't have the facilities for that."

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "The factory will reserve enough for three meals, and then give each person five jin (2.5 kg) to take home and eat."

It's almost the end of July, and the temperature has risen quite a bit. The factory doesn't have the good conditions to preserve so many mushrooms.

It would be a shame if it broke.

"By the way, send a thousand catties to the Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture, saying that they are agricultural products from our factory, and let the Ministry have a taste."
The Ministry of Agriculture expressed their gratitude, saying that without their hard work and guidance, we wouldn't have had such a good harvest.

Mushrooms are delicious no matter how you cook them; even a simple grilled mushroom with a sprinkle of salt can taste like meat. In times of scarcity, this was considered a rare delicacy.

Zhou Zhiqiang suddenly remembered and said, "Wait, there are also temporary workers, right? Let the factory give each of them two jin. Never mind, you can calculate it yourself, anyway, these three places need to be delivered."

Upon hearing this, Tian Wenguo immediately agreed: "Okay, I understand, factory director. I'll make the arrangements when I get back."

"Wait a moment, and while you're at it, could you also take something to the publicity department and ask them to broadcast it over the factory loudspeaker?"

Zhou Zhiqiang called out to Tian Wenguo, then returned to his desk, tore off a piece of paper, and began to write.

After finishing writing, he stamped it with his own seal and handed it to Tian Wenguo, saying, "Have the publicity department announce it using the factory's loudspeakers."

Upon seeing this, Tian Wenguo immediately said somewhat embarrassedly, "Factory Director, this... you flatter me, you're too kind. This was your idea; I was just an errand runner."

The above words were praising him as the logistics director, expressing concern that the factory's food was too poor, and praising the logistics staff for working hard to produce agricultural products in order to ensure that the frontline production workers could eat well.

Finally, everyone in the factory was notified to bring a bag or basket to collect mushrooms after work. Zhou Zhiqiang didn't specify the exact weight (in kilograms), leaving it to Tian Wenguo to fill in.

He didn't know exactly how many kilograms would be appropriate, so he didn't get involved.

"Go ahead. Although it was my idea, you've made many trips for the mushrooms, so you deserve this praise."

Zhou Zhiqiang waved his hand and said.

Upon hearing this, Tian Wenguo left, feeling somewhat moved.

Who wouldn't want recognition and honor? Especially since this was a commendation broadcast over the factory's loudspeakers, and it was personally written and stamped by Zhou Zhiqiang.

It would be a lie to say he didn't want it, but Tian Wenguo was touched that his performance had been noticed by his superiors.

Moreover, it was Zhou Zhiqiang who came up with the idea, yet most of the credit is now going to him. Tian Wenguo thought back to how he had secretly mocked Zhou Zhiqiang in the past, and felt like he had been a beast back then.

After Tian Wenguo left, Section Chief Ding from the Technical Department happened to arrive at Zhou Zhiqiang's office and briefly met Tian Wenguo.

After entering the room, Zhou Zhiqiang made a cup of tea for Ding Zhixue and handed it to him, saying, "Section Chief Ding, the people the ministry promised to send will report to our factory this afternoon. There are four college students and eight vocational school students in total."

"When the time comes, you can take them along and see if they have any needs in their daily lives. The factory should try its best to help them with anything they can."

"Tomorrow is too rushed, let's do it the day after tomorrow. We'll officially get them into work mode and have them familiarize themselves with the technical department's production and R&D tasks within three days. Then, we'll assign those four college students to the grinding machine R&D team."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he got up and took some technical drawings, which were his compilation of the design principles of high-precision universal grinding machines.

"Take this back and discuss it with the other people in the technical department first. After six o'clock, I will work with you all to organize the technical research and development of the universal grinding machine."

Production during the day is too rushed, and there's no time to work with so many technicians to study new machine tool technology; they all have their own tasks.

We can only work a small shift after the regular workday to summarize the R&D design.

"Boss, this grinding machine has undergone significant modifications. It certainly has a lot of research and development potential, but the structural design changes must be quite challenging."

After taking a look, Section Chief Ding realized that this was no easy task, and its difficulty was no less than that of the previous high-precision coordinate boring machine.

However, Section Chief Ding quickly realized that their factory director actually enjoyed taking on challenging research projects.

He was unwilling to do simple research and development work that involved imitating Soviet machine tools and adapting them for local production.

"Okay, boss. After I finish assigning the new technicians today, I'll have a proper discussion with the others."

Before Ding Zhixue could finish speaking, the factory's loudspeaker suddenly blared.

"Distinguished leaders and dear workers, this is an announcement: After learning of the factory's shortage of supplies, Director Tian Wenguo of the Logistics Department has resolutely decided to find a solution for the factory."

"Distinguished leaders, dear fellow workers."

The broadcast was repeated three times, leaving Ding Zhixue somewhat bewildered. He then turned and asked, "Factory Director, was this Director Tian's doing? He took the initiative to come up with a solution? How come I..."

The last sentence was left unsaid; if it had been, it would have raised suspicions about the revolutionary comrades.

However, Ding Zhixue and Tian Wenguo had worked in the same factory for several years, and he didn't believe that Tian Wenguo was that kind of person.

He actually took the initiative to find a solution? Him?
"Believe it or not, you'll get a mushroom collar anyway. Go back and add a couple of dishes to your family's menu, and our factory won't lack mushrooms anymore."

Zhou Zhiqiang chuckled and said, "Besides, Director Tian has really been running around a lot for this mushroom, haven't you noticed he's lost weight? Hahaha."

"Indeed, those clothes are much looser now."

Ding Zhiqiang laughed along after recalling it. The factory director was right; no matter what, he could at least add a couple of dishes to his family's menu.

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(End of this chapter)