The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 273 Director Ren Comes to Visit
The patient had heart surgery and needs to recover gradually.

Li Younian has just woken up and his family is watching over him. Although he has been saved, the doctor no longer recommends that he continue to work overtime and stay up late.

There's so much going on at the beginning of the year at the factory. It's a large factory with tens of thousands of employees. Even if there's just production going on, there's probably a lot going on every day.

Moreover, Zhou Zhiqiang was not at the main factory during this period; he was busy with research and development tasks at the CNC branch factory. The matters that should have been handled by the factory director were all dumped on Secretary Li Younian by Zhou Zhiqiang.

After listening, Zhou Zhiqiang said somewhat embarrassedly, "Oh, Secretary Nian, this is also my fault. Recently, the branch factory..."

"Zhiqiang, let's not talk about who's to blame for this. I'm also the Party Secretary of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory, and I have to take responsibility for what I'm supposed to do. Otherwise, I'll just be getting paid for nothing, cough cough."

After coughing and having his chest patted, Li Younian continued, "It's just that recently, I might not be able to return to my post. I don't know what the higher-ups plan to do."

"I've already contacted Director Ren, and Deputy Leader Wu should know about this by now. Let's wait for them to contact us. I estimate that there will be arrangements tonight, or at the latest tomorrow."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished talking about the department's affairs, he said to Li Younian, "The research at the branch factory has been successful. We just received Director Guo from the Computer Research Institute a few days ago."

That old rascal, fine, he came to visit, but he immediately demanded half of our CNC division's production capacity. I had to send him straight to the Ministry of Machine Building and the State Planning Commission.”

"In the end, it was Deputy Director Zhao of Factory 190 who persuaded Director Guo to leave, telling them that Factory 190 would also produce the most advanced semiconductor components in the future. However, if our CNC branch had excess capacity in the future, we could also produce some other things."

Something like a semiconductor radio will definitely be better than the radios we have now. We'll send you one when they're produced, and you'll get one too, Deputy Factory Director Liu.”

Zhou Zhiqiang talked a lot with Li Younian, who was in the hospital bed, mainly about the recent project achievements of the CNC branch.

One of the latest proximity lithography machines has been manufactured, and a second one is under construction.

They agreed with Factory 190 that the first three machines would be given to the CNC division, the next two to Factory 190, and then one machine would be distributed to each division.

The CNC division has a heavy workload, involving tasks such as foreign trade orders, but Factory 190 also has a heavy workload.

They supply the Computer Research Institute and several major national engineering projects, which are all quite important. However, the new proximity lithography equipment was developed using a research and development plan provided by Zhou Zhiqiang, and he also helped solve most of the difficulties encountered.

He contributed the most, so he won the first three units.

A rough design for the new integrated CNC system has been developed, and it should be ready for manufacturing by the end of the month.

By the end of June, composite machining CNC machine tools should be available, and at the latest by July.

"Okay, that's good."

Hearing this series of news from Zhou Zhiqiang, Li Younian's smile broadened considerably.

He simply enjoys working with people like Zhou Zhiqiang. Over the past few years, he has consistently heard good news from Zhou Zhiqiang, and each piece of news has ultimately come true.

He never imagined that today, the Second Machine Tool Plant, which was almost thrown to the city of Sijiu by the Ministry of Machine Building, would gradually become the number one machine tool plant in Asia.

"It's a pity. I said I would persevere for another two years, but I didn't expect to have to retire this year. Comrade Zhiqiang, I know my own body. Even if this surgery is successful, I'm afraid I won't be able to work at such a high intensity again."

Secretary Li paused for a moment when he said this, and then continued, "But the factory is in a stage of rapid development, and we can't let me, who is recuperating, hold it back."

Even if I wanted to persist, I doubt my superiors would allow it.

His superiors obtained his medical report with ease, and once they knew his condition, there was absolutely no way they would allow him to return to his post.

It would have been one thing if we hadn't known about Li Younian's condition before, but if we had known that his health was in such a terrible state, then sending him back to his post would have been tantamount to killing him.

We must take care of both the general public and the cadres. Given our organization's consistent style of care, this situation would never occur.

After pausing for about ten seconds, Li Younian continued, "If the leadership asks for my opinion, I will definitely do my best to recommend you as a Party official at Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant. Besides you, Zhou Zhiqiang, no one else can guarantee that they will lead Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant to continue its development."

Liu Wenzhou, who was standing to the side, was shocked when he heard Secretary Li's words.

Seeing Secretary Li's situation, he guessed that Secretary Li might not be able to return to his post, but he didn't expect that Secretary Li would think of recommending Factory Director Zhou to become the secretary.

"Director Zhou is qualified, but if he steps down, who will lead the factory's production and development? The current system dictates that the factory director leads production and development. While the Party Secretary can use his power to seize control, he certainly isn't in the right."

Liu Wenzhou was thinking about the situation he had dealt with at the supporting branch factory in the past two days, which was that the factory director and the party secretary were not getting along.

He could foresee that when these two groups of people came to the factory for a meeting tomorrow, the Party Secretary would definitely be the first one to be scolded by Director Zhou.

The current system is that the factory director manages production, and the Party Secretary can only intervene when the factory director does something wrong; but if the factory director does nothing and you try to seize or take things, the Party Secretary will definitely be the first to be scolded.

Therefore, when Liu Wenzhou heard that Secretary Li wanted to recommend Zhou Zhiqiang as the factory director, his first thought was to worry, fearing that other factory directors would ruin the current excellent situation.

However, Liu Wenzhou's worries quickly disappeared, and he then heard Secretary Li speak.

"Zhiqiang, you're going to be both the factory director and the party secretary, which might keep you very busy. Don't end up like me, ruining your health."

Zhou Zhiqiang smiled and shook his head, saying, "Actually, I'm not worried about my health. Overtime has never been a problem for me. It's just that the position of Party Secretary might not be so easy to obtain."

Even Zhou Zhiqiang himself is unsure about his current physical condition. He looks neither fat nor thin, but he weighs nearly 200 pounds and has astonishing strength.

Zhou Zhiqiang felt he could live to be a hundred years old without any problem, and he had actually done the secretary's job for a while after he first came to the Second Machine Tool Factory.

At that time, Li Younian had been warned by his superiors, and Zhou Zhiqiang had to manage everything he disapproved of, so Zhou Zhiqiang was practically the head of the factory at that time.

However, things got too busy later on. Zhou Zhiqiang was busy with project research and development, as well as production tasks, and he was too busy to handle everything else, so he asked Secretary Li to take care of some of the work as well.

dong dong!

There was a sudden knock on the ward door. Everyone inside turned around and saw Director Ren walk in, carrying some fruit and gifts.

"Comrade Younian, how are you feeling?"

After Director Ren entered, he nodded to Zhou Zhiqiang, then placed the gifts he had brought on the cabinet and continued, "Deputy Leader Wu also wanted to see you, but he had a meeting to attend near the end of the workday, so he instructed me to make sure you get a good rest."

The gifts that Director Ren brought were not cheap either, including fruit and some milk powder. Nowadays, milk powder is not just for babies; people of all ages can drink it, but babies need it the most.

Director Ren picked out some highly nutritious items and brought them over after buying them.

Li Younian quickly replied, "Thank you for your concern, leaders and the organization. It's just a minor ailment. I've already had surgery, and I just need to rest for a while."

"I see. Then you should get some rest. Don't worry about work. The factory will be fine."

Director Ren wanted to say more, but he noticed that Li Younian's expression was really bad.

Considering that the other person had also just undergone surgery and might have chatted with Zhou Zhiqiang and the others for a long time before, it wouldn't be good for me to keep bothering them.

So Director Ren said, "Comrade Younian, you should rest well these few days. I'll come see you again after you've recovered a bit."

Then Director Ren said to Li Younian's family, "Comrades, please take good care of Comrade Younian. If you need anything, go to Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory and find Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang."

(End of this chapter)