The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 284 The news of the cooperation between the two factories spreads.
When it comes to serious matters, Zhou Zhiqiang also needs to consider things from the perspective of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory.

It is estimated that Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory is in good financial condition, so it also wants to build a residential community for employees along with Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory, but there are very few places to build a residential community near the factory.

They might have inquired about the company shuttle bus benefits at Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory and wanted to come and take advantage of them.

"Uncle Liu, I had thought about this before. The workers' families live so far away. Going to the suburbs is closer than going to the city center. So I thought about having the factory buses run a few more trips."

In addition to commuting hours for the workers, we'll make a couple more trips during the day to make it easier for their families to come to the city.

Zhou Zhiqiang shared his previous thoughts with Liu Fuhua: "Our two factories can cooperate on this point, and the investment ratio can be continuously adjusted according to the number of workers living near the community."

This way, workers can commute to and from get off work, and their families can also benefit; if they pick up other passengers along the way, they can even recoup some of the costs.

Liu Fuhua nodded after hearing this, and then asked, "Then why not just have the Transportation Bureau arrange a route directly?"

"Of course they're willing to do that. Adding another route means adding another money-losing route. Who expects the bus service to break even and make a profit?"

Zhou Zhiqiang shook his head and said, "The first thing we did when building the family residential area was to have someone go to the Transportation Bureau to ask for a new bus route, but they refused on the grounds that there were too few residents and the area to benefit was too small."

If you gave them a hundred houses, they'd definitely be willing to add a bus route, but they're dreaming.

"I'd rather the factory operate its own shuttle buses at a loss than do this kind of deal with them!"

Since the construction of the workers' family welfare community, many people have tried to use their connections to get a share, but Zhou Zhiqiang has turned them all down.

As many households were built, that many households were allocated to them; in this respect, Zhou Zhiqiang's temperament was as hard as steel.

Upon hearing this, Liu Fuhua's expression turned slightly strange. He then sighed and said, "Zhiqiang, sometimes I really envy your temperament and personality. It would be great if our country had more people like you."

Zhou Zhiqiang was taken aback, then asked, "The residential buildings near your factory?"

Liu Fuhua waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about the bus routes we're cooperating on."

Their factory did compromise; some even approached the factory director and the party secretary. Liu Fuhua made countless attempts, but in the end, the project was expected to build 290 houses.

Eighty households were lost, leaving only two hundred and ten households to be allocated to the factory.

"Okay, let's talk about this then. But it's almost lunchtime, so let's eat and chat at the same time."

After checking the time, Zhou Zhiqiang stood up and greeted Liu Fuhua and Chen Li.

Liu Fuhua laughed and said, "Okay, let's eat and chat then. I happen to like Sichuan cuisine too."

After saying that, Zhou Zhiqiang led the way and chatted with Chen Li, discussing the research and development plans of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory.

Now that Chen Li has become the deputy factory director, she is in charge of departments such as the technical department and production scheduling.

Zhou Zhiqiang mainly instructed Chen Li that there was no need to develop large-scale agricultural machinery before it was widely adopted in state-owned large farms.

The large combine harvester he developed earlier was purely for the purpose of capturing the Russian market, and it is still being sold, albeit exported to neighboring fraternal countries near Russia.

There are many large farms in America, and these large agricultural machines have a large market there, but they don't do so well in Asia.

After listening, Chen Li almost nodded in agreement. She believed Zhou Zhiqiang's words wholeheartedly and planned to do the same when she got back.

After seeing Liu Fuhua and Chen Li off, Zhou Zhiqiang returned to his office.

After organizing what he had discussed with Liu Fuhua and Chen Li at noon, he called Zhang Yaoguo over and said to him...

"Yaoguo, take this to Deputy Factory Director Sun and have him coordinate with Dafeng Factory. I only discussed the general direction with him at noon, but we didn't finalize the details."

Then I told Deputy Factory Director Sun that we could cooperate and achieve a win-win situation, and that we could even make a slight concession, but we couldn't suffer a major loss. I asked him to find the right balance.

After glancing at it, Zhang Yaoguo nodded and said, "I understand, Factory Director."

"Oh, right, call Chief Ding from the Technical Section over as well. I need to talk to him about something. That's all."

"Ok."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yaoguo turned around and went to get busy.

A short while later, Ding Zhixue knocked on the door and came in, asking, "Factory Manager, is there any task?"

"What tasks has your technical department been busy with lately? Could you spare three people for me?"

As Zhou Zhiqiang asked questions, he handed Ding Zhixue the parts plan that needed to be organized according to the six systems of car manufacturing that he had compiled that morning.

"I've been busy with other things lately and need a few helpers to do some work. They need to know how to organize and classify parts."

"Factory manager, is this for building cars? Is our factory going to build cars too?"

After glancing at it for a few minutes, Ding Zhixue asked, "There was indeed a car manufacturing craze a few years ago. At that time, some places even spontaneously built car factories, wanting to produce domestically made cars."

However, few of them survived. Most went bankrupt within two years of opening, or were acquired by other factories.

"It's not about opening a factory. First, tell me how many people the technical department can spare?"

“Three people are definitely no problem, Factory Manager. I’ll go back and pick out three people for you.”

Ding Zhixue began by saying, "The technical department currently has these tasks: production guidance and planning, technical training, maintenance and inspection, and training on the production of composite CNC machine tools."

The first three tasks were all handled by the technicians in each group, so the workload wasn't too heavy.

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Okay, then arrange three clever people for me, with solid knowledge. Don't send me apprentices."

"No problem, but factory manager, are you really going to build cars?"

After agreeing, Ding Zhixue asked with a curious look.

Zhou Zhiqiang glanced at him and said, "We have this plan, but it's not a large-scale project. At most, we'll build two workshops to produce for the factory's own use. When the new cars come out, you can apply to ride in our own cars when you go on business trips." A few years ago, when there was a shortage of oil storage, Zhou Zhiqiang certainly wouldn't have dared to do this.

However, since the discovery of a super-large oil field in Northeast China, oil storage in China has become less of a challenge.

Previously, there was not only a shortage of oil, but also transportation difficulties. Now, only transportation difficulties remain, which means half of the problem has been solved.

Judging from the amount of fuel allocated to their factory, it is much more than a few years ago; otherwise, Zhou Zhiqiang would not have created a welfare vehicle system for the factory.

The domestic economy is actually developing better and better, but the international situation is not right, so they have to develop the military industry to arm themselves.

If they focus on developing their economy, they will definitely jump into the top three in the world within twenty years.

Their GDP has consistently ranked among the top, consistently placing fifth or seventh in recent years. Even if there are some setbacks in the future, they are unlikely to fall too far behind.

This is despite many things happening in between, and despite constant border threats, that the economy has developed to this extent.

When it was first established more than a decade ago, the country was practically in ruins, so its development to what it is today can be considered a miracle.

After assigning tasks to Ding Zhixue.

Zhou Zhiqiang then sent him back, and before he left, he instructed him not to leak this matter.

Their factory is now really under the spotlight; any small thing gets magnified to the point that it's almost heard by the highest authorities.

The last time Zhou Zhiqiang dealt with the matter of the transport team leader, it could have been resolved perfectly within the factory, but Zhou Zhiqiang gave him a beating, and he had to admit his mistake and accept the punishment.

In an era where workers are the masters of their own destiny, could Zhou Zhiqiang really have crushed them with a single blow?

If they insist on making a scene, and are provoked by others, and run into Zhou Zhiqiang's stubborn temper, one of them will die in the end.

Zhou Zhiqiang didn't plan to let too many people know until things were done properly.

Although his actions were all reasonable, the factory's retained funds could be used at will after being approved by the factory's Party Committee, and investing in the construction of two workshops was not a large expense.

But the fear is that someone might find fault with Zhou Zhiqiang and deliberately stop him from doing something, saying that he was wasting his time or not following the right path.

Not long after, three technicians from the technical department came to Zhou Zhiqiang's office to report for duty.

"Factory manager, the section chief asked us to come see you."

The three people who walked into the office were all young people who had graduated and started working at the factory in the last few years. The oldest one had just been promoted to a permanent position, but they were all doing quite well.

Upon seeing the three enter, Zhou Zhiqiang handed them the pre-prepared plan and said, "My task here is also very simple. Starting today, you will help me organize the necessary parts for these four parts of the car."

Then I'll call each car manufacturer one by one to inquire whether there's any unplanned production, and whether it's possible to order Liu Jingchuan cars. You'll be in charge; once it's all sorted out, bring it to me.

Zhou Zhiqiang knew almost half of the people in the factory, and he could name everyone in the technical department.

Upon hearing this, Liu Jingchuan took the blueprints and looked at them. Then, somewhat surprised, he asked, "Factory Manager, this doesn't look like a machine tool?"

"These are cars. You can take these teaching materials and blueprints with you. Don't lose the blueprints; I had a hard time borrowing them from the ministry. Don't damage them; this is the first batch."

Zhou Zhiqiang then added, "I asked Director Liu to arrange an empty office for you on the fourth floor. Go find Director Liu to get the key. You can work here for now."

By the way, don't tell anyone about this, not even your colleagues in the technical department.

"Understood, Factory Manager."

After Liu Jingchuan and the other two agreed, they began to move the prepared materials, drawings, and some related books and textbooks from the table.

------

However, the car manufacturing plan was not leaked, but news of building more welfare housing and increasing bus routes spread.

This matter couldn't be kept secret any longer; once the factory announced it, tens of thousands of people knew about it.

If you want all the workers in the factory to keep it a secret, not even Zhou Zhiqiang, let alone any other leader, could do it.

After discussions, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory and Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory quickly finalized an agreement to jointly operate the welfare bus route.

Four more buses will be added, with three stops along the route, and two more departures during the day, so that workers' families can also take the factory's welfare bus to the city center when they need to go into the city.

The construction of the residential complex by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory was planned in advance; the land was ready, and the construction team and materials were all prepared.

They even allocated so many housing quotas in advance.

Chen Li told him this secretly. Zhou Zhiqiang was furious when he heard it, but since he was no longer at Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, he couldn't say anything to his former boss.

Many other organizations are still eyeing the family welfare community of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory.

Although Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory was quite well-off financially, it paled in comparison to Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory.

The staff quarters of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory were large and bright, with spacious corridors, public washbasins, and toilets, just like those of municipal government staff quarters.

However, it's also a pity for other units, as Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory's attitude left no room for negotiation.

Some organizations also want to make some replacements, so they will give the green light within their capabilities and allow them to arrange some employees.

But Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory didn't budge an inch.

For a factory at the provincial level, all its material needs are allocated by order of the central government, as is its financial investment.

Moreover, local authorities basically only have the role of cooperating with Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory. Even in terms of level alone, Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory can connect with many provincial and municipal departments.

(End of this chapter)