The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 253 Requesting Research Support
"Comrade Zhiqiang."

After knocking on the door, Secretary Li came in and immediately saw a desk covered with technical drawings and professional books, some of which were so tall they almost blocked Zhou Zhiqiang's head.

"Secretary Li?"

Zhou Zhiqiang looked up and saw that it was Li Younian. He stood up and asked, "Secretary Li, if you had something to say, you could have just called me over. Why did you come here?"

"It's on my way. I just went to the personnel department to catch up on the list. I'll be passing by your office on my way back to my place anyway, and it was just something I mentioned casually."

After Secretary Li finished speaking, he handed the list to Zhou Zhiqiang and continued, "This is the list of cadres at level 16 and below drafted by the Personnel Department. This upgrade of the factory's administrative level has benefited many departments."

Comrade Zhiqiang, take a look at these lists. If you think there are no problems, then submit them.

"Secretary Li, please have a seat."

After greeting everyone, Zhou Zhiqiang went out to call Zhang Yaoguo to make tea, and then sat down on the sofa and started looking at the documents one by one.

He knew almost everyone on the promotion list. Zhou Zhiqiang had a good memory and knew about their performance.

"Secretary Li, who is this Chang Zhiwei, the logistics director? Is he from our factory? I don't remember Tian Wenguo recommending this person before he left."

Secretary Li shook his head and said, "No, he was previously a deputy director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Sijiu City Government. I don't know why he was transferred here. Anyway, we received the transfer order directly."

Director Tian recommended Section Chief Wu, who was acting director. At that time, everyone in our factory was busy, and we also had to send a group of people to support the branch factory, so we didn't report it immediately. As a result, the organization directly assigned someone to come over.”

To be honest, Wu Youcai was a bit wronged. He was doing a good job as the acting director and thought he would become the director of logistics, but then someone else was suddenly parachuted in.

Wu Youcai went back to work as the head of the purchasing department.

But the personnel transfer documents had already been sent to their factory, so they had no choice but to accept it; others had room for negotiation, but Chang Zhiwei was not open to any discussion.

At the time, Zhou Zhiqiang was busy visiting branch factories and researching composite machining CNC machine tools for the new year, so he didn't pay much attention to the factory's affairs. As a result, he only found out now that the logistics director had been replaced.

"Why did the people from the Civil Affairs Bureau transfer us to our factory? They don't seem to have any experience in logistics before."

Zhou Zhiqiang asked Secretary Li, but Secretary Li shook his head, indicating that he did not know either.

Everyone agreed that Wu Youcai should be the logistics director, so how could he possibly go back on his word and overturn Zhou Zhiqiang's decision?

It was simply that the personnel arrangements from above created a time gap for them.

They made it a fait accompli, leaving Secretary Li with no way to refute it.

"They didn't even give us one. Oh well."

Zhou Zhiqiang suddenly realized that what explanation could they get from their superiors? He was just a logistics director.

"What about Wu Youcai? He did a good job in procurement and didn't make any mistakes in his role as acting logistics director. Strictly speaking, it was our mistake. I had told him to do a good job before."

After hearing this, Secretary Li thought for a moment and said, "There is a deputy director position in the trade union, but I guess Comrade Wu Youcai definitely won't want to go."
"Then I'll just have to make a note of it for now, and try my best to make it up to him later; Comrade Zhiqiang, I'll talk to Comrade Wu Youcai about this."

There was no other way; both he and Zhou Zhiqiang wanted Wu Youcai to be the section chief, but then a parachuted-in general came from above.

If no one is parachuted in, then the person who has been promoted on the list now must be Wu Youcai.

After reviewing the entire list, he handed it back to Secretary Li and said, "I have no objections, just proceed with the appointments; however, it seems some section-level cadres haven't been appointed yet? Is it because it hasn't been decided yet?"

"No, these are for higher-ups. Section-level cadres aren't high enough for this level, so we can discuss it internally within the factory."

Secretary Li casually asked, "Comrade Zhiqiang, do you have any thoughts?"

"It's nothing. Regarding production, let some workers take turns doing manual labor. Secretary Li, you can arrange the rest."

There are still many production positions that could be promoted to section-level cadres. Their factory has many workers but few cadres and clerks. It would be a bad thing to put people who don't understand production in production positions.

"Okay, that's it."

After Li Younian finished speaking, he picked up his teacup, took a few sips, and then nodded and said, "Comrade Zhiqiang, the tea here is really good."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang laughed and said, "Haha, I borrowed it from the leader, but I can't borrow any more lately."

"By the way, Comrade Zhiqiang, are you researching a new machine tool?"

"Yes, semi-composite CNC machine tools can only perform two types of composite machining at present. There is still a great possibility, but there is little hope for multiple types of composite machining. But we can only take it one step at a time."

Zhou Zhiqiang explained simply: "Construction will begin around March or April after the Lunar New Year."

"Thank you for your hard work, Comrade Zhiqiang."

After Secretary Li finished speaking, he stood up and said with a smile, "Alright, that's all for this little matter. I won't bother you any longer." "How can official business be considered a bother? You can just have someone call me next time."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he saw Li Younian off and sat back down at his desk. He originally wanted to continue studying the cumulative error problem caused by reloading, but then he remembered what had just happened and called Zhang Yaoguo in again.

"Yaoguo, have you met the new logistics director? When did he arrive?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yaoguo immediately said, "Factory Director, Director Chang arrived six days ago, just two days before we announced that our factory would be renamed Jiuzhou Machine Tool General Factory. He came to the factory to report for duty."

It seems that Secretary Li met with him, and then Director Chang went to report to Deputy Factory Directors Hou and Sun. After that, he was busy with factory affairs.

Zhang Yaoguo thought that Director Chang would come to report to the factory manager, but he never came.

He had originally planned to bring it up even if the factory manager hadn't asked, but now that the factory manager already knows, that's fine.

"He's really lucky; he got promoted right after he arrived."

Zhou Zhiqiang found this kind of person annoying; they didn't rely on their own efforts and only thought about speculation.

But now that it's a done deal, he can't very well tell the organization to send people back.

"Alright, that's fine then. You can go ahead and get busy."

After Zhou Zhiqiang roughly guessed what was going on, he asked Zhang Yaoguo to leave, and then focused on continuing to study the machine tool that he planned to develop and manufacture next year.

The current integrated circuits have an insufficient number of logic gates, and the photolithography process is also somewhat outdated. These two factors restrict the CNC system from carrying out multi-process coordinated calculations.

Integrated circuits must be redesigned
"There's also the algorithm. To solve the vector synthesis of dual spindles, it's best to use a new type of spatial surface interpolation algorithm. No one in the current CNC branch can help with that."

After thinking about the workload ahead, Zhou Zhiqiang felt a pang of nostalgia for the people at Factory 190.

With the help of some professional technical research and development personnel, he was able to solve many problems.

However, Zhao Chenghui was the deputy director of Factory 190, so it was absolutely impossible to bring him over.

It's impossible for the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building to release him.

However, without anyone's help, given the scale of CNC machine tools after the new year, he can at most achieve training and start production; there is no hope in terms of research and development.

Technical personnel need to be recruited year after year, not to mention that most of the semiconductor and electronics-related technical personnel were transferred away by the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry.

"Ask the manager."

After much deliberation, Zhou Zhiqiang decided to call his supervisor. Otherwise, it would be too time-consuming for him to do all the research and development calculations by himself.

Even the technical department of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant couldn't help. Zhou Zhiqiang could assign mechanical tasks to the technical department of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant at will, but they really had no connection with semiconductor and photolithography processes.

After the call connected, Zhou Zhiqiang heard Deputy Leader Wu's voice on the other end and said, "Leader, this is Zhou Zhiqiang. I need your help with something."

"After the New Year, our factory has a new R&D project that may require the help of Comrade Zhao Chenghui from Factory 190, as well as some of their technical staff."

"Ideally, you could borrow a few people from the Computer Research Institute. Boss, do you think that's possible?"

"Do I look like someone from the Computer Research Institute? I'm telling you, Zhiqiang, you're really good at borrowing. It's okay if it's the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry, but I'm not very familiar with the people from the Computer Research Institute."

Computer research institutes within Beijing typically had two superior units: the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The leaders of these two departments are at a very high level; if they don't take responsibility, then they really don't care.

The First Ministry of Machine Building usually served the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, and rarely did the other way around.

"People from the Computer Research Institute are hard to transfer, but what about people from Factory 190?"

Zhou Zhiqiang immediately said, "Boss, I already have a target for the new research and development direction, but I need help. If I rely on myself alone, it will probably take more than half a year."

If Factory 190 doesn't have any important research tasks, they should talk to the people at the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building and ask Comrade Zhao Chenghui to come and help out at our branch factory.

"Perhaps the results of our research and development will eventually be used by Factory 90; and leader, I am very confident this time, I can basically give you a pledge."

When Zhou Zhiqiang said this, he was basically reassuring his superiors; he guaranteed that the research and development would be successful, but they needed help, and that with help, the project could be completed ahead of schedule.

When Deputy Leader Wu on the other end of the phone heard Zhou Zhiqiang's last sentence, he was somewhat persuaded and said helplessly, "Okay, wait for my news, I will try my best to persuade the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building."

After hanging up the phone, Deputy Leader Wu thought for a moment, mentally rehearsing his response before dialing the number again.

"Hey, Comrade Jinjun. It's been a long time since we last met. We used to be in the same department. Why do you keep thinking about me?"
But you're so smart, you guessed my intentions right away; you have to help me this time, I need some men.”

(End of this chapter)