The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 182 Overall Leader, Project Begins

"Hey, comrade, who are you looking for?"

As one person came out to fetch water, he happened to see Zhou Zhiqiang walking into the yard, so he asked...

Zhou Zhiqiang pointed to the Intermediate People's Court and said, "I'm here to see Zhao Tiandong from the Intermediate People's Court."

But before he could finish speaking, a woman's voice suddenly rang out behind him: "Factory Manager? What brings you here?"

Zhou Zhiqiang turned around and saw that the person who called him "factory manager" was Wu Xiaojun's wife. He smiled and greeted her, "Sister-in-law Xiaojun, I heard that Tian Dong's grandfather came, so I came to see him."

"Don't call me factory manager outside, just call me Zhiqiang."

Wu Xiaojun's wife was transferred to the kitchen of the Second Machine Tool Factory, so it was only natural for her to call him "Factory Director"; however, she didn't need to call him that in public, to avoid attracting attention.

"Okay, Zhiqiang, Grandpa Tian Dong hasn't left yet, and Xiao Jun is at Tian Dong's house too. Go and take a look."

"Okay, then, little military wife, I'll go first."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he walked into the inner room, looking around as he went.

The last time I came here was when Wu Xiaojun's child held a banquet, but he didn't stay long after having a meal.

Now, the courtyard has a much more lively atmosphere, and it's full of people.

Although Zhou Zhiqiang did not interfere with the selection of public rental housing tenants, he did tell Deputy Director Yue of the subdistrict office that it would be best to select more families of martyrs and soldiers as tenants, and that the rent for families of martyrs and soldiers could be reduced by half.

The rent for public rental housing is now over one dollar for slightly larger units, but only five or six cents for families of martyrs and soldiers, which is better than the preferential treatment given to them by the neighborhood committee.

Deputy Director Yue naturally had no objection; providing preferential treatment to the families of martyrs and soldiers was also their duty. The awareness of the families of martyrs and soldiers in this era was particularly high, and it was rare to see them tarnishing their own honor plaques.

Zhou Zhiqiang walked from the front yard to the middle yard and had already seen three signs for "Families of Honor". The efficiency of the street office is not bad.

Arriving at Zhao Tiandong's slightly ajar door, Zhou Zhiqiang knocked twice and went inside.

Hearing the knock on the door, Zhao Tiandong got up and went to look. When he saw that it was Zhou Zhiqiang, he immediately smiled and said, "Brother Zhiqiang, what brings you here?"

Zhou Zhiqiang chuckled and said, "I came back early today. I heard that the old village chief was here, so I came to see him."

"Zhiqiang is here?"

The old village chief also hurriedly got out of bed. Upon seeing Zhou Zhiqiang, he said excitedly, "Come and sit down, Zhiqiang. I know you've been very busy lately. I didn't want to bother you since you hadn't come back yet."

"It's no bother at all, but I've been really busy lately. Today is a rare opportunity to leave work early; I won't have this chance again in the future."

Zhou Zhiqiang explained that Zhao Tiandong and Wu Xiaojun both work at the same factory as him and know how busy he, as the factory manager, is.

Getting home late at night is the norm for me; getting home at six or seven o'clock like today is quite rare.

Otherwise, Guo Yuting wouldn't have been surprised to see Zhou Zhiqiang return so early.

After sitting down, Zhou Zhiqiang asked, "Village chief, how are things in the village and the commune now? Has the situation improved at all?"

"It's much better now, especially the first batch of mushrooms harvested, which has relieved a lot of pressure on our village's production team."

The old village chief said excitedly, "Tian Fu knows this method was taught to him by you, and he has implemented it very seriously in the village. The number of cellars he has prepared is the most among all the production brigades under Sanhe Commune."
Now, besides the mushrooms handed over to the commune, our village still has nearly 4,000 jin left, and each household can get about 10 jin of mushrooms.”

These mushrooms are grown and harvested continuously, which has solved half of their village's famine problem at once.

Although it's not enough to feed everyone, it's nothing like before, where people had to work on an empty stomach.

Strong laborers who earn work points can eat their fill, and whether they are working in the fields or on collective construction projects, they will not be so weak from hunger that they become dangerous.

Some production brigades didn't really believe in growing mushrooms, so they didn't prepare the necessary conditions and naturally had fewer harvests.

When the Sanhe Commune tallied the results, the production brigades that didn't believe in this method had the lowest yields, and they became very envious after seeing the harvest of the Hongqi Village production brigade.

But being envious is useless; the mushrooms they harvest are only enough for one or two meals at most, while the Hongqi Village production brigade can feed every household in the entire village for a month.

The final harvest of Sanhe Commune was more than that of the Second Machine Tool Factory.

This is normal, after all, they had seven or eight production brigades working together, while the Second Machine Tool Factory only had one agricultural and sideline products division, which was far inferior.

The old village chief came to the city today to deliver good news to Zhao Tiandong, and also to tell his eldest grandson that he no longer needs to keep sending grain home.

Now that every household can get mushrooms, the famine has been alleviated a lot, and they no longer need the support of their eldest grandson in the city. Besides, the old village chief still misses his great-grandson quite a bit.

Zhou Zhiqiang asked the old village chief a lot of questions and learned that Sanhe Commune seemed to have reported the matter to the county, which put his mind at ease.

Their factory's logistics department also reported the results of the planting and promotion to the Ministry of Agriculture.

If carefully tended, mushroom cultivation can indeed alleviate food shortages.

But the premise is to always be careful. Don't take great care of it at the beginning, only to become too lazy to take care of it after harvesting two crops.

Mushrooms have a short harvesting cycle, and it's really tiring to take care of them all the time. Plus, one person has to take care of a lot of them. The agricultural and sideline products section of the Second Machine Tool Factory only has about ten people, and each person is assigned a lot of tasks.

Everyone was doing this for a good harvest, but things were different in the production brigade. Before, when there were no work points and everyone ate at the communal kitchen, if someone slacked off, it could ruin the hopes of the whole village.

After chatting with the old village chief for a while and learning that the situation in Hongqi Village and Sanhe Commune had greatly improved, Zhou Zhiqiang felt somewhat relieved.

However, upon hearing that Sanhe Commune was planning to raise rabbits, Zhou Zhiqiang still offered a word of advice.

Rabbits are animals that reproduce quickly and have many offspring, but they are more troublesome than mushrooms; one wrong move and you can lose money, and if you fail to raise them well, all your previous investment will be lost.

Their factory raises rabbits, so Zhou Zhiqiang knows a fair bit about rabbit farming.

The old village chief was simply asked to go back and persuade Secretary Liu to think things through carefully and make thorough preparations before deciding whether or not to raise the animals.

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The next morning, Zhou Zhiqiang arrived at the factory first, picked up some things, and then took a car directly to the First Ministry of Machine Building.

This morning, I first met with the lead researchers and coordinators from other units to confirm our respective responsibilities and finalize the research and development goals.

After arriving at the Ministry of Machine Building, Zhou Zhiqiang was taken to the conference room.

Soon after, the others arrived one after another.

After Deputy Leader Wu arrived and saw that everyone was present, he did not waste any time and directly took out a document and announced: "Comrades, with the approval of the China Ocean Engineering Institute, the CNC Machine Tool Engineering Project Team is established today."

Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang serves as the chief project leader, responsible for the overall coordination of the CNC machine tool project. Comrades Zhao Chenghui and Yu Hongye serve as deputy team leaders, assisting Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang in technical implementation.

The appointment announcement didn't take long. After everything was announced, Deputy Leader Wu put away the documents and asked, "Does anyone have any objections to the appointment? If so, please raise your hand and let me know. I will immediately pass it on to the General Office of the China Ocean Engineering Institute." Everyone else had no objections, but the most conspicuous one was Zhou Zhiqiang, who had become the chief person in charge of a major national engineering project in his twenties.

If Zhou Zhiqiang were suddenly appointed as the person in charge, Zhao Chenghui and his team would definitely not be happy.

Who are you? Suddenly you're leading us! Do you even know anything about technology?

But now they have no objections, because Zhou Zhiqiang had already convinced them a few days ago with his profound theoretical research and technical expertise.

He has a deep understanding of various fields and can connect them with the research and development of CNC machine tools, making him the most suitable person to be the chief person in charge.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Deputy Leader Wu said, "Then Comrade Zhiqiang will tell you some things."

Comrade Zhiqiang, do we still need Comrade Licheng?

"This afternoon, I'll talk to Deputy Factory Director Zhao, Professor Yu, and Engineer Zhong first."

Zhou Zhiqiang began by saying that other matters were not very important, and everything that needed to be said had been said yesterday. The next step was to finalize the details with other units.

He didn't need to be involved in these matters; Director Ren could make the decisions on his own. He trusted the director completely.

“Alright, Comrade Licheng, Comrade Qingfeng, let’s go to another room to talk. We’ll leave this room to Comrade Zhiqiang and the others.”

After Vice Leader Wu finished speaking, he left with Ren Licheng and the others.

After Zhou Zhiqiang and other personnel specifically responsible for technology research and development remained in the room, a new meeting began.

Zhou Zhiqiang, as the chief engineer, chaired the meeting. Without any formalities, he directly distributed the R&D roadmap that had been prepared day and night:
"Comrades, the project timeline is tight, so I'll get straight to the point regarding the research and development goals and division of labor."

"The goal is clear: within a year and a half, or preferably a year, we need to produce a CNC machine tool prototype that can be put into actual production and has stable and reliable performance."

This isn't a prototype; it needs to be ready for immediate use on the production line.

Zhao Chenghui and the others looked surprised upon hearing this, and then couldn't help but raise their hands and say, "Comrade Zhiqiang, isn't a year a bit too short?"

"The expected timeframe is two years, but I hope everyone sets a goal of one year for themselves, at least that's the goal I set for myself."

Zhou Zhiqiang paused for a moment before continuing, "Give me some time to explain the project's development progress. If there are still any objections, we can discuss them further."

"This is the core challenge we face and the initial direction for a solution."

Zhou Zhiqiang pulled over a blackboard that had been prepared in advance, and then quickly wrote and spoke on it:

"Miniaturized and highly reliable CNC systems are the responsibility of Deputy Factory Director Zhao. We must break free from the limitations of vacuum tubes and existing germanium transistors and move towards silicon-based integrated circuits."

The size needs to be reduced to less than one-tenth of the existing system, while maintaining stability to meet the requirements of continuous factory operation.

"There is also servo drive and precision control, which requires high-precision, fast-response servo motors and feedback systems."

Professor Yu's team already had relevant experience two years ago. The next step is to continue in-depth research on the mechanical transmission system, combining it with electronic control, to achieve our target of micron-level positioning.

"Finally, there's the supporting hardware and software for CNC machine tools, including the simple programming panel, basic machining programs, and so on. I'm quite familiar with these, so I can take care of them all."

While listing the goals that the CNC machine tool project team needed to overcome on the blackboard, Zhou Zhiqiang assigned tasks.

At the same time, the research and development roadmap document he sent to everyone in the room also included more precise directions for basic theoretical research and technological processes.

This made everyone in the room, except Zhao Chenghui, ponder for a while. It didn't seem impossible to complete it within a year!
They have a chance, but they can't guarantee that the research and development experiments will go as smoothly as expected.

After all, ideas are ideas, and reality is reality.

Zhao Chenghui pointed to the first problem he was responsible for on the blackboard and said, "Comrade Zhiqiang, the miniaturization of the CNC system and the shift to silicon-based integrated circuits are the most critical parts of the entire project."

While the theoretical directions discussed earlier are feasible, each step—silicon purification, wafer fabrication, and photolithography—requires a significant amount of time.

At this point, Zhao Chenghui paused, then shook his head with a troubled expression and said, "A year? I really can't guarantee that to you!"

They know their factory conditions best; even if they were just copying others' work, a year would still be a bit rushed.

"Deputy Factory Director Zhao, your concerns are understandable. The CNC system is indeed crucial to the success or failure of the project."

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded in understanding, then continued, "Initially, I plan to have your group take the lead, working with you to overcome the challenges of silicon material purification and the expected parameters for early-stage integrated circuit processes."
The project team's equipment resources will be prioritized to ensure the needs of your group, and our final expected timeframe is two years.

"Deputy Factory Director Zhao, the one-year period is a verbal agreement between us. We won't make any written record of it, and we don't need to worry too much about the timeframe."

Zhou Zhiqiang didn't want to put too much pressure on the project team, and besides, his joining Zhao Chenghui's team would definitely speed up the research and development process.

He was responsible for reducing trial and error and correcting the R&D path to strive for success on the first try, which would definitely be enough time in a year.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Chenghui reluctantly nodded in agreement and said, "Alright then."

Professor Yu then continued, "Comrade Zhiqiang, servo drive and interpolation algorithm are the research and development directions of our mission."

Although our Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Automatic Control have some prior experience, there is still a considerable gap between our current capabilities and the goal of practical application. The Second Machine Tool Factory needs to provide stable, high-precision machinery for experimental testing.

"no problem."

Zhou Zhiqiang immediately agreed and said to Hongye, "The Second Machine Tool Plant recently expanded a precision workshop, and the equipment was all recently applied for by me from the Ministry."

Professor Yu, please bring your team directly when the time comes. This workshop is for your group only, and the factory will prioritize your needs.

Afterwards, Zhou Zhiqiang discussed the engineering challenges they were each responsible for with Zhong Gong and others.

He'll make a promise if he can solve it, but if he can't, he'll go to Director Ren or Deputy Leader Wu.

After finishing his conversation with all the comrades in the room, Zhou Zhiqiang looked around and said, "Comrades, we have set a target of two years for reporting to the leadership, but privately I hope that you can all push yourselves to speed things up!"
After the task development process was detailed and distributed, the leaders and departments above had high hopes for us, even diverting resources from other projects to support us. We are determined to succeed!

After a brief silence, Zhao Chenghui was the first to respond, saying, "With direction and support, Factory 190 will give it our all!"

Yu Hongye also said in a deep voice, "There's no problem with Tsinghua University. We'll go all out."

Zhong, the engineer from Factory 130, and another person nodded and said, "No problem either, we will definitely succeed."

"Okay, here are the specific requirements. I'll report them to Director Ren later."

Zhou Zhiqiang picked up his pen, preparing to write down everything the others said next.

"I have attached the equipment list in the document, but this is only a preliminary draft. If you have any other needs, please list them and the ministry will coordinate the allocation."

(End of this chapter)