The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 159 The Security Work Around Us

"Comrades, when we are conducting research and development, we must consider an important issue, which is the standardization of parts and components."

This is what I need you to do your best to achieve. If the parts cannot achieve more than 30% commonality, then our research and development has failed.

Zhou Zhiqiang emphasized this point, saying that if the parts cannot be standardized, the requirements for future mass production will be too high.

The need to constantly expand manpower and build new workshops will make the factory extremely bloated.

If problems arise with the machine tools later, repairs will be very difficult; Zhou Zhiqiang also plans to export the replaced machine tools to earn foreign exchange after the machine tools are upgraded.

However, given the current situation in China, they might not even wait for the machine tools to be upgraded before they start exporting them to earn foreign exchange.

Industrial development is the most important thing in domestic development, but within industry, the development of military and defense industries comes first, followed by machinery and heavy industry.

It can be said that the development of heavy machinery industry is for the purpose of serving military and national defense.

They fought a war a few years ago. Although they achieved their war objectives, their backwardness in military industry caused considerable losses to the country.

The losses suffered were so severe that they even caused immense pain domestically.

They have an iron will, but they are lacking in military equipment.

If they had good weapons and equipment, they could definitely drive those seventeen scoundrels back.

Therefore, after the war a few years ago, the country made a decision to enhance its national defense capabilities.

Advanced defense and military factories are given priority, and several separate mechanical departments are set up to manage these military factories.

Although the high-precision machine tools developed and produced by the Second Machine Tool Plant are considered national strategic assets, it would be better if they could be exchanged for another strategic asset, such as fighter jets.

That country would definitely choose to switch without hesitation, but the chances are probably slim.

Inside the technical department, Zhou Zhiqiang explained many directions and principles for improving research to everyone.

It's actually just a series of technical improvements in several areas, such as the bed structure, spindle optimization, and feed system, but there are many more details to list.

Numerical control technology cannot be used to manufacture it yet, and the most crucial integrated circuits are still under research by the most advanced research institutes in China, according to Zhou Zhiqiang.

From now on, Zhou Zhiqiang also plans to brush up on his knowledge of semiconductors and integrated circuits.

Rather than placing his hopes on others, Zhou Zhiqiang prefers to fight for it himself.

Moreover, the rewards he has received for the results of his deductions have strengthened his mind multiple times, giving him not only a photographic memory but also exceptional comprehension skills.

For Zhou Zhiqiang, relearning a university course might only take a few months; he can learn in a few months what others take four or five years to learn.

At the Second Machine Tool Plant, the technical department is actively developing new machine tools, while the production workshop is also ramping up production of coordinate boring machines.

The propaganda department was thinking of inspiring slogans and activities to entertain the working class.

Thanks to your logistics department, you've taken even better care of the mushrooms and rabbits; the entire factory praised you for growing 8,000 jin of mushrooms.

What if he raises a rabbit weighing 8,000 jin?
Tian Wenguo, the logistics director, worked even harder, and even established an agricultural and livestock breeding section within the logistics department to specifically cultivate rabbits and mushrooms for the factory.

When Deputy Factory Director Sun learned of this great news from the radio, he specifically called Tian Wenguo over to tell him about it.

When asked why he didn't report such a big matter to the deputy factory director who was directly in charge, he was asked why.
Tian Wenguo said, half aggrieved and half self-righteous, that he had reported it, but the leader found him annoying and told him not to report such things again.

That's why he went to report to Deputy Factory Director Zhou later. Although Deputy Factory Director Zhou also found him annoying, at least he could hear his report once a week.

Upon hearing this, Deputy Factory Director Sun realized he was in the wrong, but he then changed his tune, saying that all matters concerning the factory's agricultural and sideline businesses should be reported to him from now on.

Tian Wenguo readily agreed, saying that reporting was the proper thing to do; however, he was already on Zhou, the deputy factory director's side, and that giving him credit for his ideas was the only way to have a future.

Despite the scarcity of resources, the Second Machine Tool Plant maintained an exceptionally high level of production spirit.

It must be said that having a leading cadre who takes the lead in making efforts has a similar effect on boosting morale as feeding the workers meat.

Although Zhou Zhiqiang worked overtime, he never forced other departments or production workshops to work overtime, except for the technical department.

He would even kick people out if he saw them secretly working overtime in the production workshop.

The technical department can work overtime because the factory can purchase some unplanned supplies. Although the quantity is small, it can provide the technical department with a meal.

Moreover, the development of new machine tools takes time and involves a lot of calculations and experiments. Working overtime is essential, as development cannot be completed simply by leaving get off work on time. Therefore, it is necessary to race against time.

However, workers on the front lines can't work overtime easily these days. They don't eat much to begin with, and their family's food rations have probably been adjusted. If they work overtime and exhaust themselves, something bad will happen if they do it for too long.

No matter how heavy the production is, it cannot result in a death. If a death occurs, no matter how much merit Zhou Zhiqiang has made, he will be punished and criticized.

Who told him to be the deputy factory director in charge of production?

"Wow, there are so many specializations and processes involved in semiconductors and integrated circuits."

Zhou Zhiqiang let out a long sigh of relief, then put down a professional book related to electronic circuits.

As August began, the sweltering heat and the difficulties in developing semiconductor and integrated circuit processes made Zhou Zhiqiang feel irritable.

For the past month or so, whenever he finished his R&D and factory production inspection tasks, Zhou Zhiqiang would study semiconductor and electronic circuit-related knowledge on his own.

He asked the Ministry of Machine Building to help him find relevant books and materials, both domestic and foreign, as long as they were related to these two fields.

If Zhou Zhiqiang were to ask for them himself, it might be difficult, and he might encounter excuses or other difficulties, since these materials and books are quite valuable.

But if the Ministry of Machine Building intervenes, then there will be no problem at all.

It was the most important of the several Ministry of Machinery Industry, as the other few were mostly separated from the First Ministry of Machinery Industry.

It's just backing up some data and professional books in related fields. Since the Ministry of Machine Building is involved, they will definitely give us face.

Over the course of this month, Zhou Zhiqiang not only studied on his own, but also used the deduction and data collection assistant to deduce one of the technologies and received the results.

But it feels like a drop in the ocean.

Even with continuous learning and simulation, it would take him about two years to master the process technology required for the entire manufacturing chain for a single integrated circuit process.

This still requires Zhou Zhiqiang to put in a lot of effort, and he even has to put the factory aside for a while.

"Focus on learning and mastering the more difficult processes for now. As for the others, we can find others to help us solve them later."

Zhou Zhiqiang then began to rethink his plans, realizing he couldn't accomplish this alone due to limited energy and time. If he were to spend ten years, Zhou Zhiqiang was confident he could single-handedly master all the processes involved in integrated circuits.

After all, you can learn it almost by just studying it, not to mention he has a deduction and data collection assistant.

But there isn't enough time. We not only have to compete with foreigners for development time, but we also have to compete with domestic companies for development time.

There are only eight years left before the wind blows, who can give him ten years?
After relaxing his mind, Zhou Zhiqiang got up and made himself a cup of tea before sitting back down at his desk.

Just as he picked up the report submitted by the technical department to take a look, there was a knock on the door.

"come in."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, Zhao Wenshan, the deputy head of the security department, walked in.

This is another deputy section chief sent by the Armed Forces Department when they were replenishing the members of the Security Section.

The security section has not yet been upgraded to a security department. The staff has just been increased to 180 people, with the addition of a deputy section chief.

When Zhao Wenshan first arrived, he met with Zhou Zhiqiang. After that, he was busy with security patrols at the factory. I heard that he replaced about 70-80% of the previous patrol and security work.

"Deputy Section Chief Zhao, is there anything I can help you with?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wenshan stepped forward and handed a document to Zhou Zhiqiang, then said, "Deputy Factory Director Zhou, this is the security patrol plan for the factory, divided according to several important areas of the factory."

I discussed the matter with Section Chief Kong and Deputy Section Chief Chen, and we made some adjustments to the previous security arrangements. Deputy Factory Director Zhou, do you have any comments on this?

“I have no objection. Leave professional matters to professionals. Deputy Section Chief Zhao, you have more experience in this area than I do. Your security department can discuss and decide on your own.”

Zhou Zhiqiang glanced at it casually, then signed his name, stamped it, and handed it back.

"And one more thing."

Deputy Section Chief Zhao said to Zhou Zhiqiang with a rather solemn expression, "Before I came here, the ministry gave me an important task, which is to ensure your safety, Deputy Factory Director Zhou."

The department's advice to me was to assign a security guard to protect me.

Zhou Zhiqiang's rank was not high enough, otherwise he could have been assigned a bodyguard; at that time, there were strict requirements for the assignment of bodyguards, and only leaders like Sheng, a senior official in the Ministry of Machine Building, were allowed to do so.

Or a small number of deputy leaders may be assigned guards, but none of the bureau-level leaders are, unless they are performing a mission that is somewhat dangerous.

Zhou Zhiqiang's technical level is Level 5 Engineer, and his position is Deputy Factory Director. He is not qualified in either aspect, so he cannot be officially assigned a position. The Security Department can only make the assignment "on its own."

"Arrange security personnel for me."

Zhou Zhiqiang thought for a moment, then said, "Deputy Section Chief Zhao, I have no objection, but in the past few months, I've stayed at home except at the factory, and I've only gone out once every two months, and that was to Beihai Park."
"Are you going to arrange security personnel to stay at my house?"

"this."

Upon hearing this, Deputy Section Chief Zhao was also taken aback. He hadn't expected that Deputy Factory Director Zhou's life was so simple, consisting of nothing but the factory and his home.

On the way to and from work

“Usually, it’s the horse-drawn carriage from the transport team that picks me up at my door. I haven’t walked outside the Nanluoguxiang street entrance in a long time.”

After finishing his sentence, Zhou Zhiqiang sighed again, and then said with some emotion, "My son really wants me to take him out to play, but I haven't had much time lately. I haven't been to the park for a month now."

After thinking for a moment, Deputy Section Chief Zhao said, "In that case, there's really no need to make any more arrangements, but I would like to change the driver."

From now on, the security department will assign you a driver, and if you have any plans to go out on Sundays, it would be best to let us know.

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Okay, don't worry, if I'm thinking of going out, I'll definitely let you know in advance."

He's not an indiscriminate person; the security department is there to protect his safety, and Zhou Zhiqiang would be more than happy to send more people to protect him.

Guns weren't banned back then.

"By the way, Deputy Section Chief Zhao, please explain to Master Ma that it's not because he made a mistake that he's not allowed to drive."

"Okay, I'll explain it to him properly."

After finishing his speech, Deputy Section Chief Zhao left the office.

However, after leaving, Deputy Section Chief Zhao felt a little emotional. This Deputy Factory Director Zhou had even considered the thoughts of those around him; he was truly thoughtful.

When he arrived at the drivers' quarters, he found Master Ma and called him out, and told him the truth about changing Zhou Zhiqiang's driver.

Master Ma's expression changed upon hearing this, and he wondered if he had done something wrong recently.

Seeing Master Ma's expression, Deputy Section Chief Zhao explained to him that it wasn't a mistake or anything, but that their security department needed to send someone to ensure the safety of Deputy Factory Director Zhou, and that he needed to be armed 24 hours a day.
He didn't have the option to carry a gun at all times, so they had to replace him with someone from their security department.

Hearing this reason, Master Ma felt a little better, although he was still somewhat regretful. Driving for Deputy Factory Director Zhou was quite easy; he only had to go out a few times a week and pick him up and drop him off on time every day.

------

"Factory manager, the factory is showing a movie tonight, want to come along?"

After Director Liu from the office knocked and entered, he smiled and handed Zhou Zhiqiang a few movie tickets, saying, "Today's showing is 'Shangganling' and 'Dong Cunrui.' Factory Director, how many tickets do you want?"

"Give me two tickets. I'll bring my wife and my son, who's only two years old. I can just hold him and him."

Zhou Zhiqiang took the movie tickets made by their factory, glanced at them, and praised, "They're pretty good. They're so exquisite that they could be sold to the public."

Director Liu laughed and said, "The propaganda department originally had this idea, but Secretary Li scolded them. What kind of talk is it to sell the benefits that we've secured for our factory workers and their families to outsiders?"

Zhou Zhiqiang agreed, saying, "That's a good scolding. Is the propaganda department really that poor that they're still thinking about selling tickets to outsiders? They can't tell the difference between being a propaganda department and a movie theater."

The production tasks in the factory are somewhat monotonous, with the same processing tasks being done day after day and year after year.

Without spiritual entertainment, slogans alone are not enough to uplift spirits.

That's why Zhou Zhiqiang gave the propaganda department a few job openings, arranged by the factory, so that they could go to the cinema to learn projection techniques and apply to or purchase projection equipment from higher authorities.

It's been almost two months, and we're starting to see some results.

After all, the Second Machine Tool Factory is a large factory directly under the ministry, with the same level as the district government. If they want to send a few people to the cinema to learn projection technology, the cinema would not dare to agree.
If they don't agree, I'll go directly to the cinema's superiors.

　Second update! Requesting monthly votes!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)