Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

The two met by the pool in the central courtyard.

"Old Yi..." Liu Haizhong lowered his voice, his voice dry.

"Don't speak." Yi Zhonghai glanced warily at the guard who was wiping the car and gestured to Liu Haizhong to be quiet.

Just then, the door to the main room was pushed open.

Lin Yang was dressed neatly in a sharp Zhongshan suit, his hair combed meticulously. Although he wasn't wearing a military uniform, his aura of someone who had long held a high position and was decisive and ruthless was still intimidating.

Tian Yu stood at the door and gently straightened his collar.

"Today is your first day reporting to the factory, don't lose your temper. The local area is not like the military, the relationships are complicated, you need to listen and observe more," Tian Yu gently advised.

Lin Yang held his wife's hand, smiled and nodded: "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. You stay home with your brother today, and if he needs anything, just have Xiao Wang buy it."

After saying that, Lin Yang turned around and strode towards the jeep.

Upon seeing this, Yi Zhonghai quickly put on a fawning smile, bent down slightly, and stepped forward to greet him.

"Yangzi, you're up? Is today your first day at the steel rolling mill? Um... I know the area well, how about I ride my bike and show you the way?"

Yi Zhonghai attempted to ease the tension of last night by adopting this low-key approach.

Liu Haizhong quickly joined in, his face crinkling with smiles: "Yes, Chief Lin, our factory is huge. I'll take you there, I promise you won't get lost."

Lin Yang stopped and gave the two of them a cold glance.

That look was like looking at two piles of foul-smelling garbage.

There were no words spoken, not even a superfluous expression.

Lin Yang ignored them and walked straight to the jeep, opened the door, and got in.

Xiao Li quickly started the car, and the engine roared loudly.

"Sir, shall we go to the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill?"

"Okay, let's go."

The jeep executed a beautiful drift and drove out of the courtyard gate, leaving behind only a pungent exhaust fumes that sprayed Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong's faces.

Watching the taillights of the departing car, Yi Zhonghai's face turned pale and then red, his hands gripping the enamel mug tightly until his knuckles turned white.

"Old Yi, he... he's really taking us too seriously!" Liu Haizhong trembled with anger. "We're senior technicians in the factory, and he's just a newcomer. Even if he's an official, he can't be this arrogant!"

Yi Zhonghai took a deep breath, his eyes turning gloomy.

"Let's go! To the factory! I don't believe he's just a greenhorn. Even if he won a few battles in the army, he can't possibly cause trouble in this massive factory with thousands of employees. When he runs into technical problems and the machines stop working, let's see if he'll be begging us for help!"

The two men gritted their teeth and pushed their bicycles toward the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill.

……

Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill.

This is a leading heavy industry enterprise in North China and even the whole country!

It covers an area as vast as a small city. Towering chimneys spew thick smoke day and night, and molten steel boils in the huge blast furnaces, like red fire dragons.

Inside the factory, the roar of machinery and the clanging of forging hammers were deafening. A dedicated railway line was built directly into the factory, with trains loaded with ore and coal coming and going day and night.

More than 10,000 workers toiled here, forging the strongest steel skeleton for the newly born China.

This place not only has steelmaking workshops, rolling mills, and machine repair workshops, but also a factory-run hospital, a school for employees' children, a staff canteen, and even its own security department and police station.

It can be said that the director of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill is of a much higher rank than a typical local county magistrate!

Eight o'clock in the morning.

Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong had just changed into their oil-stained work clothes and were preparing to enter the workshop to start their day's work.

Suddenly, the announcer's impassioned voice came from the factory's loudspeakers.

"Attention all staff! Attention all staff!"

"Today, our Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill welcomes a very important leader!"

"As decided by higher authorities, Comrade Lin Yang, former deputy division commander of a division of the Fourth Field Army and a combat hero, has been appointed as the new Party Secretary of our Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill! A warm welcome to him!"

The broadcast echoed throughout the vast factory area, instantly drowning out the roar of the machines.

In the workshop, all the workers stopped what they were doing and burst into thunderous applause and cheers.

Combat hero! Deputy division commander!

In this age that idolizes heroes, this kind of identity is practically a god in everyone's eyes!

However, when Yi Zhonghai, who was standing in the fitter's workshop, heard the words "Party Secretary," the wrench in his hand clattered to the ground and hit his foot, but he was completely unaware of it.

His face turned deathly pale at that moment, devoid of any color.

Meanwhile, in the forging workshop, Liu Haizhong, who was holding a sledgehammer and preparing to smash a red-hot iron block, froze in place as if he had been frozen in place, his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

"Party Secretary..." Yi Zhonghai muttered, his lips trembling, "It's over...it's completely over..."

In the early days of the People's Republic of China in 1949, large state-owned factories implemented a system of factory director responsibility under the leadership of the Party committee.

The factory manager is in charge of both production and administration.

But the Party Secretary is in charge of the overall direction, personnel appointments and removals, the ideological and political work of the workers, and even the factory's security force is directly under his command!

The Party Secretary is the true leader and the true master of this massive factory with tens of thousands of employees!

Last night, Yi Zhonghai was still fantasizing that even if Lin Yang were an official, he would at most be a deputy factory director or a logistics director. As long as he mastered the technology, he could counter Lin Yang.

But now, that illusion has been ruthlessly shattered.

He's the Party Secretary!

If someone wanted to mess with him, an eighth-level fitter, they wouldn't need to make things difficult for him technically. They could just investigate his conduct or dig up his past misdeeds and he would be dead without a burial place!

"Master, what's wrong? You look so pale?" The apprentice, Jia Dongxu, came over and asked ingratiatingly, his face bruised and swollen from being beaten by Sha Zhu.

Jia Dongxu also heard about Lin Yang becoming an official in the factory this morning.

Just now, while washing clothes at home, Jia Zhangshi was grumbling sourly, "What's so great about being an official? It's just a job with a fixed salary! With Yi Zhonghai protecting us at Dongxu, we'll become cadres sooner or later! Then we'll trample that little beast from the Lin family under our feet!"

Yi Zhonghai slowly turned his head, looked at Jia Dongxu's foolish face, and suddenly felt a strong sense of regret.

How could I have been so blind as to offend the two Lin brothers in order to have this good-for-nothing take care of me in my old age?

"Get back to work!" Yi Zhonghai suddenly roared angrily, startling Jia Dongxu, who quickly slipped back to his workstation.

……