The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 247 All sorts of people are coming to ask for the house
These guys...
When Zhou Zhiqiang left the First Ministry of Machine Building, he couldn't help but feel that some people really deserved it, and he felt he could fight them no matter what.

Does he have to be careful with his words and actions from now on? At this crucial time for economic recovery and industrial development, some people are still sabotaging things. If he encounters problems in the years to come, he deserves it.

Zhou Zhiqiang was not afraid. Given his background and achievements, he could be described as both politically reliable and professionally competent.

The golden statue has been cast, and even those who hate him the most can only adjust Zhou Zhiqiang's job and transfer him to a technical position.

That's the limit. What else could they do to Zhou Zhiqiang?
Perhaps as soon as he's transferred here, many other departments will be vying to contact Zhou Zhiqiang and invite him to work there. Construction doesn't matter where it is; a change of location might make him happier.

Given Zhou Zhiqiang's achievements and the major projects he has participated in, this is indeed a possibility.

Both Leader Sheng and Deputy Leader Wu recognized Zhou Zhiqiang's importance, so after suggesting that he stop receiving subsidies for technical R&D personnel, they immediately said that the ministry would provide subsidies privately.

After leaving the ministry, Zhou Zhiqiang had his driver take him home.

There's nothing urgent to deal with at the factory. It's almost the end of the year, and there are still a little over two months until the Chinese New Year holiday.

The planned production targets for the whole year can be completed by the end of next month. After that, they will produce CNC machine tools that are not part of the plan.

Although it was unplanned, it still needs to be registered and reported to the department, indicating its purpose.

Even if they wanted to sell it, they could only ask the ministry for help; their factory didn't have the authority to exchange materials.

Ordinary machine tools can be considered controlled industrial products, let alone CNC machine tools.

Their factory has a very strict security system; even taking a single screw out of the factory is considered a classified matter.

The pieceworkers in the workshop count and count all the screws used each day to ensure that not a single one is lost.

Zhou Zhiqiang had no intention of exchanging the CNC machine tools with other factories. He planned to keep them for his own use, use four-fifths at the main factory, and give the remaining one-fifth to the branch factory.

Next year's production tasks will be even heavier, so we must replace a batch of the inefficient machine tools in the factory this year.

"How about we give the branch factory 40% instead?"

While sitting in the car, Zhou Zhiqiang suddenly changed his mind. Director Wu of the Changping branch factory also frequently complained to him, the general factory director, and asked for help.

They said the main factory was both transferring intermediate and senior workers and training apprentices, and they were required to complete the production tasks.

We've been draining the branch factory's resources a bit over the past year, so it's time to give the branch factory some compensation.

These newly developed CNC machine tools are only available in their factory in China, except for a few major engineering projects and some military defense weapons factories.

The production efficiency for bearings or parts that do not require very high precision is equivalent to that of dozens or even hundreds of senior technicians.

After making his decision, Zhou Zhiqiang thought he would ask Director Wu of the Changping branch to come to the main factory in a couple of days to discuss the CNC machine tool project at the end of the year.

The jeep was parked at No. 63 Nanluoguxiang.

After getting out of the car, Zhou Zhiqiang waved to the driver, telling him to hurry home as well, and then walked towards his home.

I got home at this time just in time to find my family had prepared dinner.

Guo Yuting was carrying food out of the kitchen when she saw Zhou Zhiqiang walk in. She smiled and said, "Zhiqiang, you're back quite early today."

"I went to a meeting, and then nothing else happened, so I came back early."

As Zhou Zhiqiang spoke, he walked towards the kitchen: "I'll help you carry it."

With his help, all the food was carried to the main house in one trip.

The mother-in-law also brought the three children to the dining table. Zhou Caiwen is only a little over one year old and is sitting on the dining chair waiting to be fed.

As for Guo Chenghua and Zhou Bocai, they had already washed their hands and were sitting in chairs, ready to eat.

After Zhou Zhiqiang washed his hands and sat down, the family began to eat.

After taking a steamed bun, Zhou Bocai suddenly said, "Dad, I also want to go to school with my cousin."

“Okay, it’s good that you want to go to school. I’ll ask around for you after the New Year. You can study with the current first graders then.”

Zhou Zhiqiang said that starting school six months earlier would be fine, since his son was of school age and it wasn't good for him to stay cooped up at home all day.

"But once you start school, you'll have to keep up with your grades and do chores. Don't complain about how hard it is then."

After picking up a piece of meat, Zhou Bo said, "I'm sure I can persevere like my cousin."

"That's good. I'll take you to buy a schoolbag and stationery at the end of the year."

After Zhou Zhiqiang agreed, he continued eating. There was no such thing as being able to keep up with or not keep up with the elementary school curriculum, especially since Zhou Bo had already learned quite a few characters at home.

It's only half a year behind, it's not a big deal. If all else fails, he can tutor Zhou Bocai when he has time.

After finishing his meal, Zhou Zhiqiang did not bring back the technology research and development plan, so he will not be working from home today.

He played with his nephew, son, and daughter in the yard for a while, but soon after, the younger ones got cold, so he took them back to warm up and rest.

After a quick wash, Zhou Zhiqiang went back to his room to rest. When he entered the room, he saw his wife making the bed.

"Zhiqiang, I have a question for you."

When Zhou Zhiqiang heard his wife suddenly speak, he asked, "What is it?"

After Guo Yuting laid out the bedding, she turned around and said, "Is your factory planning to build apartments and distribute them to residents? And it's located in the southeast part of your factory."
"And I heard the tenement buildings they're going to build are quite large; are they planning to build a whole residential complex?" Zhou Zhiqiang asked in surprise, "How did you know that?"

Only the factory's top management knew about this; the workers knew about the housing allocation, but they had no idea about the planning.

Building tenement buildings is a three-year plan; it won't be completed all at once.

"The district leaders came to our subdistrict office for inspection today, and that's what they were implying."

Guo Yuting said helplessly, "They said your factory applied for a huge piece of land, and they've really been making some big moves lately. As the factory manager's wife, I've been keeping a very low profile."

"Your district leaders must have a lot of free time; they must have been asking around in the city."

Zhou Zhiqiang quickly realized that the dormitory-style residential complex that their factory planned to build was located on the outskirts of Beijing, not in this district at all.

"Yes, they talked to me in a very vague way. I thought about it for a long time, and it was only after Deputy Director Yue gave me a hint that I finally understood."

The district wants to ask you through me if you could allocate some housing to them, as their staff housing situation is also somewhat tight.”

After Guo Yuting finished speaking, she immediately added, "Zhiqiang, don't change your mind just because I said it. I didn't want to pass on the message at first, but it wouldn't be right not to tell you."

"I understand you, but the house really can't be divided."

Zhou Zhiqiang put his arm around his wife Guo Yuting and continued, "Now that I'm in a pretty good position, there are a lot of bastards watching me, so I don't want to do anything that skirts the rules. Giving them houses is not illegal or against regulations, and I can get it done by finding a pretext for cooperation."

But doing this isn't right, and it would be a betrayal of the production workers who are waiting to be allocated housing. I'm still the factory manager."

Upon hearing this, Guo Yuting laughed and said, "Then I'll just ignore them. I'm not thinking about getting promoted anyway. At worst, they won't even let me be a staff member anymore."

What they were saying was so confusing; if Deputy Director Yue hadn't helped me analyze it, I wouldn't have understood a word they were saying. It's so annoying.

“Zhiqiang, I still prefer the previous job of collecting statistics on residents’ conditions. Although it was a bit tedious, at least it wasn’t troublesome, and being a staff member sounded good.”

The power has increased slightly, but the responsibility has increased significantly, and the compensation has not increased at all.

However, nowadays everyone is serving the people and emphasizing hard work and dedication, so Guo Yuting has nothing to complain about. She just hates what the leader said today.

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Just ignore them. From now on, your man won't be someone a district chief can touch. Don't worry about him."

Their ranks might be similar, but their importance is vastly different. One is a factory director who was specifically named by state leaders and included in the planning commission's list of key investment enterprises, while the other is just an ordinary district head or district official.
It's obvious which is more important, especially since we are currently in a crucial period of industrial development.

Their factory built dormitory-style apartments, like throwing a piece of bloody flesh into the sea. I guess this is the first wave, and it certainly won't be the last.

Several years ago, the population of Beijing began to increase. At that time, the sale of houses was strictly prohibited, public rental housing was promoted, and people with multiple houses were encouraged to donate their houses to be converted into public rental housing.

Later, the per capita living space was introduced, stipulating how many square meters each person should live in, and public rental housing cannot exceed this stipulation.

Private properties, on the other hand, haven't been regulated much.

This also shows how tight the housing situation is in Beijing, so much so that even district government leaders came out to inquire. It's as if they thought that by pulling strings, they could get Zhou Zhiqiang to allocate houses to them.

Zhou Zhiqiang lay on the bed and said, "Go to sleep. If anyone asks you again, just say that we had a fight about this. Only we know whether we had a fight or not. If outsiders hear you say that, they definitely won't ask any more questions."

Upon hearing this, Guo Yuting immediately smiled and said, "Great idea! I'll say that from now on. How about I add that you slapped me twice when you were angry?"

"Give me a break, or do you want the Women's Federation to summon me for a talk?"

After pulling his wife into his arms, Zhou Zhiqiang laughed and said, "I shouldn't have given you that terrible idea."

"Hahaha"

------

A few days passed.

Zhou Zhiqiang was in his office researching the technical direction of integrated circuit composite function programming when Zhang Yaoguo knocked on the door, poked his head in, and asked, "Factory Director, Factory Director Wu from the Changping branch has arrived."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang put down his work and immediately said, "Quickly let Director Wu in and make him a cup of tea, Yaoguo."

"Okay, director."

After welcoming Factory Director Wu Jun into his office, Zhang Yaoguo immediately went to make tea.

Wu Jun smiled and said, "Factory manager, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, our factory received a lot more CNC machine tools at the end of the year than planned. These CNC machine tools can help the factory produce many of the bearings, gears, and parts we need."

After a brief explanation, Zhou Zhiqiang continued, "This is much more efficient than many old machine tools, and it eliminates the need for mid- to high-level workers."

“Our factory will replace a batch of old machine tools with CNC machine tools this year. I plan to allocate 60 units to your factory, and they can all be taken away before the end of the year.”

Upon hearing this, Wu Jun exclaimed excitedly, "Such a good thing! No, Director, I thought the main factory would only transfer workers from the branch factories, it doesn't mean that..."

In his haste, he said some things that were inappropriate for the occasion.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang didn't care. Anyway, that's what he did. So he smiled and said to Wu Jun, "Director Wu, there's no need to explain. I was just doing it for the production tasks of our Second Machine Tool Plant."

The purpose of allocating CNC machine tools to your factory now is the same; we hope that production will continue to improve.

(End of this chapter)