The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 254 The Logistics Director Reports

"Okay, you can discuss the exact number of people needed with the people at Factory 190. Once you all agree, have Factory 190 report it to their leaders."

Not long after, Deputy Leader Wu called Zhou Zhiqiang's office to tell him the good news.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang immediately said happily, "A leader is a leader when it comes to getting things done. His efficiency is a hundred times that of mine. I'll go contact Factory 190 right away."

"You've got me cornered. I'll call the Academy of Sciences for you later and ask if they can send some people over."

However, please tell me what kind of talent you need and what requirements you have, and I will try my best to coordinate and arrange for two people to come to you.

"Okay, thank you for your help, boss. I just need someone who understands hardware architecture and programming methods. Someone with those two skills should be able to understand the tasks I assign."

However, given the current conditions in China, anyone who knows both is a treasure, and it's uncertain whether the computer research institute will release them.

Although the First Ministry of Machine Building was the top-ranked ministry in the industrial machinery sector, it should have some influence with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhou Zhiqiang also took the opportunity to ask for more people, up to ten, but at least three or four, so that he could save himself some tedious calculation and verification work.

Deputy Leader Wu was equally accommodating, helping with all the work-related requests he could.

The main person who made the request was Zhou Zhiqiang, someone who dared to guarantee that he could definitely produce research results.

If someone else were so 'arrogant,' Deputy Leader Wu would definitely have warned them to be down-to-earth and not to make any promises or pledges all the time.

Although he doesn't understand scientific research, he knows that scientific research is influenced by many factors, and sometimes luck is also a part of scientific research.

But Zhou Zhiqiang always kept his promises, which deepened his trust in Zhou Zhiqiang time and time again. Moreover, Zhou Zhiqiang was very cautious in his speech and would never agree to anything he wasn't sure about.

While it is true that excessive support is needed for domestic industrial development, the emergence of a unicorn factory is not good for the overall industrial development.

However, the development of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory can be attributed to 70% of the factory's own efforts, while the remaining 30% is due to the support and investment from the Ministry of Machine Building to expand production.

Of these 70% achievements, Zhou Zhiqiang, the leader who spearheaded the development of various machine tools, deserves half the credit.

Although he kept deflecting the credit by saying that it belonged to everyone, the leaders and workers of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory knew perfectly well who had helped it develop to where it was today.

There are factories with tens of thousands of employees in China, and the workers in other factories are not necessarily less hardworking than the workers in Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory. So why didn't their factory achieve such good results?
They still haven't found the right direction, and that's not their fault.

If everyone could be like Zhou Zhiqiang, China could surpass the US and Russia within thirty years and become number one in the world.

After hanging up the phone with Deputy Leader Wu, Zhou Zhiqiang picked up the phone again and called Factory 190.

Some things are more effective when said face-to-face; it's easy to be misled over the phone. Besides, Factory 190 is also in Beijing; it wouldn't take long to drive there.

However, when they first called Zhao Chenghui, no one answered the phone.

Zhou Zhiqiang then hung up the phone and called Director Liu of Factory 190. After the call connected, he asked, "Director Liu, this is Zhou Zhiqiang. I just called your factory's Deputy Director Zhao, but no one answered. He's not at the factory today."

"Comrade Chenghui is here. He's probably in a meeting in the technical department, so he's not in his office."

Liu Ruiguang asked, "Director Zhou, is there something you need to see Comrade Chenghui about? If it's urgent, I can have my assistant run over and pass on a message, asking him to call you back immediately."

Zhou Zhiqiang quickly said, "No need, no need. I'll go to your factory. I just want to confirm whether Deputy Director Zhao is there. There are some things that need to be discussed in person."

"Director Zhou, you're not here to poach our employees, are you?"

"Oh, how could that be? Director Liu, you're overthinking it. How could you possibly poach someone from Deputy Director Zhao in private?"

On the other end of the phone, Liu Ruiguang said, "Okay, then. I'll have my assistant tell Comrade Chenghui that we welcome Director Zhou to visit our factory for inspection."

"Director Liu, you must be joking. I'm more likely going there to learn."

After exchanging a few polite words, Zhou Zhiqiang hung up the phone. Just as he was about to call Zhang Yaoguo to prepare the car, someone knocked on the door.

dong dong dong.

"Come in."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, Zhang Yaoguo pushed open the door and walked into the room. He went to the desk and said to Zhou Zhiqiang, "Sir, Director Chang of the Logistics Department has something to report to you."

He was thinking yesterday that Director Chang hadn't come to report to the factory manager yet, but he came today.

However, Zhang Yaoguo felt he was too late; the list of promotions for department leaders had already been submitted before the newcomers arrived.
It looks like they're just going through the motions.

"Now? I have to go out for a bit, I don't have time, tell him to come back later."

Zhou Zhiqiang immediately said, "Yaoguo, it's perfect that you're here. Go and call a driver for me. I need to go to Factory 190."
Then return these drawings to the technical department and tell Section Chief Ding that if he makes mistakes in calculations next time, he'll have to go back to school for another course.

"Yes, sir. I'll go right away. After arranging the driver, I'll deliver the blueprints to Section Chief Ding."

After Zhang Yaoguo finished speaking, he immediately walked outside.

After leaving the office, Zhang Yaoguo went to Director Chang, who was waiting there, and said, "Director Chang, unfortunately, the factory director has an urgent matter to attend to and needs to go out. I was just about to call the driver for him."

Upon hearing this, Chang Zhiwei nodded and smiled, saying, "Then I'll trouble Assistant Zhang. I'll come to the factory manager to report on the task next time."

After saying this, Chang Zhiwei turned and left.

Zhang Yaoguo felt that Director Chang seemed to be implying something, but his priority right now was to call a driver for Zhou Zhiqiang, so he didn't think much of it.

When the driver arrived at the factory office building, Zhou Zhiqiang was already waiting there. After getting in the car, he told the driver to head towards Factory 190. A while after leaving the vicinity of the factory director's office, Chang Zhiwei arrived at Deputy Factory Director Hou's office.

He knocked on the door and came in, saying to Hou Yufeng, "Director Hou, I just went to Director Zhou to report on the year-end awards, but I wasn't able to."

Deputy Factory Director Hou looked up and asked, "What do you mean? He didn't agree?"

"No, I didn't see anyone at all."

Chang Zhiwei shook his head and said, "When I arrived, Director Zhou was just about to leave. I thought he was deliberately avoiding me, but when I saw him actually get into his car and leave, I realized he really had something to do."

I don't know when I'll be back, but what about this report?

"Let's put it aside for now and report it when he gets back. If all else fails, we can report it to Deputy Director Sun. Anyway, the direct supervisor has agreed, so we don't have to go through the factory director for everything."

After speaking, Deputy Factory Director Hou sighed and continued, "I've been here for a while now, and I feel that this factory has a lot of problems."

The Party Secretary doesn't manage affairs, giving the factory director excessive power. Our Director Zhou manages everything, from the smallest things like the kitchen expenses to personnel appointments. He tries to control everything; he doesn't act like a factory director at all.

Chang Zhiwei nodded in agreement, saying, "Yes, and I heard that he often does scientific research, sometimes for months at a time when he's not involved in the factory's affairs, and then once he starts managing things, he never stops."

If you ask me, since you love scientific research so much, becoming a chief engineer in a factory would be just as good; becoming a factory manager is completely counterproductive.

"There's no other way. The higher-ups trust him, and this Director Zhou is indeed quite capable."

Deputy Factory Director Hou said, "But he didn't use his abilities in the right place, and he only focused on building a welfare building for factory families in his own little plot of land, which has offended almost all the surrounding units."

"Alright, let's not talk about it anymore. Director Chang, you should go back to work. He's the factory director, he has a lot of influence, we can't let them find any fault with us."

"I understand, Director Hou."

After finishing his sentence, Chang Zhiwei got up, said goodbye, and left to continue his work in his logistics office.

------

After the jeep slowly drove to Factory 190, the security personnel at the factory gate recognized Zhou Zhiqiang's car, but still went up to check it.

After confirming that no one else was present, the security personnel at the gate immediately allowed them to pass.

As soon as Zhou Zhiqiang got out of the car, Liu's assistant came up to him and said, "Director Zhou, Deputy Director Zhao is still in a meeting in the technical department. Director Liu asked me to pick you up."

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Okay, then I'll trouble you. Could you find me a place to wait for a while? I won't disturb Comrade Chenghui's meeting."

Assistant Factory Director Liu quickly replied, "No need to disturb. I already spoke with Deputy Factory Director Zhao beforehand, and he asked me to do this."

"Okay."

Zhou Zhiqiang had originally planned not to attend the internal meeting of Factory 190, otherwise it would involve leaks or something, but since Zhao Chenghui, the deputy factory director, had decided to do so, he decided to go and take a look.

Soon, Zhou Zhiqiang followed him to the technical department. After knocking on the door, Assistant Factory Director Liu poked half his body in and said to the people inside, "Deputy Factory Director Zhao, Factory Director Zhou from Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory has arrived."

"Comrade Zhiqiang is here? Come in quickly, what are you doing standing at the door?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Chenghui smiled and walked to the door of the technical department office. He pulled Zhou Zhiqiang in and said to him, "We are currently considering how to modify the existing photolithography process. Although it is called a meeting, it is actually an internal discussion."
After successfully developing the silicon transistor last time, our factory felt that it was still somewhat imperfect, but the material's functional direction was definitely correct, so we could only start our research from the manufacturing process.

This is a research and development discussion meeting for the next stage, and both silicon transistors and existing integrated circuits were developed and manufactured with Zhou Zhiqiang's help.

Involving him is not considered a breach of confidentiality at all.

After hearing Zhao Chenghui's words, Zhou Zhiqiang immediately smiled and said, "What a coincidence, the reason I came to see you this time is because of this matter."

Comrade Chenghui, I actually wanted you and the people from your technical department to come to our factory to help me. I plan to set our next R&D and manufacturing target as composite machining CNC machine tools, which is related to this area.”

Zhou Zhiqiang then briefly discussed with Zhao Chenghui that while the two factories' R&D directions were not entirely the same, their goals overlapped by more than 60%.

After listening, Zhao Chenghui smiled and said, "What a coincidence, Zhiqiang. You came here because of this, and you're also setting up a research and development team?"

"Yes, but this time it's not in your factory, it's in our CNC branch factory."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Actually, I had already reported this matter to the leaders before I came. As long as your factory agrees, we can form a joint research and development team."

My supervisor even inquired with the computer research institute on my behalf. Because of the previous research foundation, they expect it won't take too long this time.

"Did you talk to your boss?"

Zhao Chenghui was taken aback upon hearing this, then smiled and said, "No wonder you suddenly came to see me today; it turns out you acted first and informed me later. I was wondering why."

Since the leaders have said that they have reached an agreement and will report it directly, it means that the leaders of their factory have also agreed. Now it depends on how many people their Factory 190 can send.

"Did you talk to Director Liu?"

"Not yet, that's why I came to you first. If I asked Director Liu for people, he would definitely complain to me, so I don't dare to ask him."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile that he had been poaching people from Factory 190 recently because he was short-staffed, and he was almost afraid of them.

Although he had helped train a lot of technical personnel for Factory 190, Zhou Zhiqiang took them away one after another. As a result, whenever Director Liu heard that he was coming, he would first ask if he was here to poach people.

Although this is supposed to be a collaborative research and development project, if the deputy director of Factory 190 and most of the technical staff were to go to other places, Director Liu would definitely be furious when he found out.

(End of this chapter)