Chapter 205

The joining of Director Pan opened the door to a new world for Shuguang Factory.

Under normal circumstances, Shuguang Factory could only accept three or four college students each year. They never dared to hope for high-level intellectuals like the department heads of provincial universities.

However, ever since Director Pan was invited, Ye Manzhi's sights have become higher and higher. For three consecutive years, he went to the Municipal Education Commission to request the admission of college graduates.

"Director Ye, why are you here again?"

Ye Manzhi took out a handful of pine nuts and placed them on her desk. She smiled and said, "Section Chief Sun, I heard that the placement process for the Class of 1970 has begun. I'm here to submit an application."

"It's useless to submit your factory's application. We've already assigned over 20 college graduates to Shuguang Factory in the past two years. We can't assign you any more this year!"

Ye Manzhi sat on the chair opposite her, peeling pine nuts.

"From 1966 to 1969, our superiors assigned a total of 28 college graduates to our factory, an average of only seven per year. This is the normal number of assignments!"

Section Chief Sun ate a few pine nuts, glanced at her, and said, "What's normal about that? In 1966 and 1967, no unit was assigned any college graduates. And you accepted 28 people from 1968 to 1969, which is rare in the whole city!"

The assignment of the classes of 1966 and 1967 was delayed for two years.

At that time, Shuguang Factory transferred 22 graduates from universities to Shuguang Factory on the grounds of "grasping revolution and promoting production" and requiring intellectuals to participate in labor at the grassroots level. They worked together on revolution and labor.

When the country began to uniformly assign graduates in 1968, Shuguang Factory reported to its superiors that the work performance of these twenty or so graduates was good and they hoped that they could continue to stay in grassroots units to work.

The principle of graduation assignment proposed by the central government at that time was to let graduates go to the countryside and the frontier, work in factories and mines and at the grassroots level, and integrate with the workers and peasants.

Shuguang Factory was a factory located in the suburbs with heavy export tasks. It happened that three classes of graduates were assigned together that year, so there were a large number of people.

So it was natural for these 22 people to stay.

Including the six college students assigned last year, Shuguang Factory has assigned 28 people in two years.

Ye Manzhi discussed the matter, "Section Chief Sun, our factory's export-earning mission is too heavy, and we're in urgent need of manpower. How about this? Assign us another 7-10 people this year, and we won't apply for hiring quotas for the next three years!"

"..." Section Chief Sun said, feeling both amused and helpless, "You are really calculating..."

The 1970 graduates were five-year college students who were admitted to universities in 1965. They were basically the last batch of college students to take the college entrance examination.

Ye Manzhi pushed the application form forward and said, "Anyway, we've submitted the application, and the higher-ups should also consider our hiring needs!"

"Then please put your application here first. We will consider it when the formal assignment is made."

Ye Manzhi chatted and laughed with the other party for a while, then said goodbye and left the office.

When she reached the first floor, she saw Lin Qingmei waiting at the door. She ran over and asked, "Have you finished your business?"

"Well, just hand our factory's monthly report to the Revolutionary Committee Office." Lin Qingmei took her arm and said, "Come on, let's go have lunch!"

The two ordered two large bowls of wontons at a state-owned restaurant near the Municipal Revolutionary Committee.

Lin Qingmei placed her hands on the large bowl to keep warm and sighed, "It's been a never-ending day. I heard our factory is going to be relocated to Binjiang."

"There's nothing wrong with being transferred to Binjiang. It won't affect you."

Lin Qingmei graduated from the Department of Political Science in 1967. She gave up the idea of ​​staying in school the year she graduated and waited until 1968 before being assigned to work in the workshop office of Binjiang Steam Turbine Factory.

She is a transferred student. She is a good writer and is good at propaganda work. After joining the Workers' Propaganda Team and carrying out several large-scale propaganda activities, she was promoted to deputy chief of the Propaganda Department at the beginning of this year.

Lin Qingmei blew away the steam from her wontons and said dissatisfiedly, "How come it has no effect on me? Our factory used to be directly managed by the central government, so it was so prestigious to tell others about it. Now it's been transferred to Binjiang City. How is it any different from an ordinary state-owned factory?"

"Shuguang Factory used to be a military factory, and the employees were all so arrogant. Now that it's been taken over by the local government, they're still living the same!" Ye Manzhi asked, "Are the factories transferred down to Binjiang City in batches? When Shuguang Factory was transferred from the provincial department to Binjiang City, it was transferred along with eight other companies. How many companies do you have this time?"

"There seem to be fourteen of them, including the Binjiang Boiler Factory, the Bearing Factory, the Motor Factory, and others. They have all switched from direct central management to local management."

"That's quite a lot," Ye Manzhi advised her. "Just keep calm. It doesn't matter who's in charge. The salary and benefits won't change."

Lin Qingmei chuckled softly and said, "My mom always brags to my relatives that I'm a college graduate and work in a central government-run unit. If she knew we were taken back by the local government, she'd probably be even more disappointed than I am!"

"Haha, then don't tell her yet."

They had to go to work in the afternoon, so they had lunch and returned to their respective units.

Ye Manzhi went to Lei Wanyuan's office and reported on his application to the Education Commission for college student placement.

Lei Wanyuan said, "There's no need to rush for the college students. Let's first sort out the issues concerning the children of our factory workers. This year we've started calling for educated youth to go to the countryside again. These days, many employees have been asking when the factory will recruit."

When Ye Manzhi heard the words "going to the countryside", he got a headache reflexively.

In recent years, the factory has arranged for children of factory employees to work in the factory almost every year.

Although it is not possible to allow all children to stay in the city, in order to appease employees, each unit must set aside a certain number of family workers' quotas every year.

"Our factory already has 1,700 people, and we can't hire any more," Lei Wanyuan said. "Can you see if the jam factory can accommodate 30 people?"

Ye Manzhi smiled bitterly and said, "Qi Caiyun told me before the New Year that we must not add any more people to the jam factory this year."

In fact, the jam factory is no longer just a jam factory.

Shuguang Factory crammed 170 family workers into the jam factory to ensure that all the workers had work to do.

Factory director Qi Caiyun returned to her old business - producing canned food.

However, many factories had stopped production at that time, and purchasing canning equipment became a problem.

The principle of Shuguang Factory was, "While promoting revolution, we must also promote production. No matter how society changes, we must ensure that production continues and the momentum does not slacken."

Therefore, Shuguang Factory organized its own design team and hand-rolled two simple production lines for the jam factory.

Lei Wanyuan asked, "Why don't we have the workshop customize a production line for the jam factory? And have them expand canned food production?"

Ye Manzhi disagreed, "Export orders have decreased significantly in recent years. Half of the canned goods produced by the jam factory have been converted from export to domestic sales. Canned goods are expensive, and if we expand production further, there will likely be a backlog of inventory."

"It would be great if we could just start a TV production line," Lei Wanyuan said regretfully. "Let alone 30 people, we could even recruit 300!"

“Who says it’s not?”

The two of them couldn't come up with a good solution at the moment, so the matter of hiring family workers had to be postponed.

*

Ye Manzhi worked in the workshop for an entire afternoon. When she got off work, she saw Director Pan from afar. She deliberately waited for five more minutes in the factory before rushing to the station to take a bus home.

In the evening, when the family of three gathered together to eat ice cream, she muttered to Wu Zhengrong, "I'm too embarrassed to talk to Director Pan when I see him now."

"He volunteered to work at Shuguang Factory," Wu Zhengrong raised an eyebrow and looked at her, "Why are you afraid of him?"

"Well, it's not that I'm afraid of him, but I just feel a little guilty. We agreed to let him be the director of the design studio, responsible for the development of televisions, but he led his team to tinker with a TV in just six months, and our factory refused to produce it. This is really going back on his word. Every time I see Director Pan, I'm afraid he'll ask me when we're going to start the TV project!"

Wu Yuzhuo put a spoonful of ice cream on the biscuit, took a big bite, sighed with satisfaction, and then said, "Mom, don't produce televisions anymore. The TV programs nowadays are not good at all. Who would buy a TV if the TV programs are not good?"

"That's what I'm worried about!"

Ye Manzhi and her daughter are both avid fans of TV programs.

Every time I go to the Wu family’s old house to watch TV, I have to stay overnight.

But the TV station stopped broadcasting a few years ago, and after it resumed broadcasting last year, the programs were not very good.

Either they broadcast the eight model operas, or they played the "Three Old Warfares" - "Tunnel Warfare", "Landmine Warfare" and "The Battle of South and North".

It's the same content over and over again, and the broadcast time is not fixed.

Neither of them cares much for watching TV now.

In this case, who would be willing to spend hundreds of dollars to buy a TV!

Therefore, the Shuguang Factory's plan to switch to producing televisions was postponed again and again. If the TV station could not return to normal, they would not dare to easily invest millions to produce televisions.

"I just think it's a bit of a waste of talent," Ye Manzhi quickly snatched half of her daughter's ice cream cone. "Director Pan, Teacher Cui, Teacher Chen, and Teacher Guo are all rare scientific research talents. It's a bit of a waste to have them developing electric fans in the factory."

In the past, their Shuguang brand electric fans only had an oscillating function, but since these teachers and college students came, the fans not only have speed adjustment and timing functions, but also remote control functions.

In addition to table fans, floor fans have also been added.

There are as many as seven product specifications.

Stable, noiseless and feature-rich, Shuguang brand electric fans are undoubtedly advanced products at the Canton Fair.

Although priced high, it is very popular in the export market.

Wu Zhengrong put down his spoon and pushed the uneaten ice cream to Youyan. He said in a flat tone, "Compared to Director Jiang, Director Pan and those teachers are already treated quite well."

Hearing this, Ye Manzhi quickly asked, "You went to the farm to see Jiang Suo today. How was the situation?"

“No.”

"They won't let you see it?"

Wu Zhengrong shook his head. "No, maybe because he was afraid of the impact on me, Chief Jiang didn't come to see me. I left the things behind and left."

Ye Manzhi was silent for a moment and said, "Tomorrow I will ask Youyan to go to Jiang Suo's house to check on the situation."

After Jiang left last year, Wu Zhengrong was promoted to the director of Institute 1062, but he was arrogant and did not want such a promotion, so he always acted rather indifferent.

As the deputy secretary of the factory party committee, deputy director of the factory revolutionary committee, and deputy factory director, Ye Manzhi pulled Director Wu into bed and had a heart-to-heart talk for most of the night, correcting his wrong ideas.

"Youyan, I'm going to give your Aunt Sun something after school tomorrow. Did you hear me?"

"Hmm," Wu Yuzhuo asked, holding a biscuit in his mouth, "Can I go and deliver it tomorrow?"

"Don't want to go to school again?" Ye Manzhi objected, "No, your Aunt Sun is not at home during the day, who are you going to send it to?"

This child has been studying with her great-grandfather, and her course progress is far ahead of her peers. When she goes to school, she seems to have a spring on her butt and can never sit still.

In order to temper her temper, Wu Zhengrong insisted that she go to school every day.

Fortunately, she and Yi Yi were deskmates, and the two girls went to and from school together, so Wu Yuzhuo lived a happy life every day.

Wu Zhengrong glanced at his daughter's actions and said disdainfully, "The ice cream has melted. If you want to eat it, eat it quickly and don't smear it on the cookies."

"Hey, Chen Weixing said that Shanghai kids all eat it this way!" Wu Yuzhuo still remembers his childhood. "I remember that time when I went to Shanghai with my mom, I think I also ate this kind of ice cream."

Ye Manzhi took the biscuit with ice cream and hummed, saying, "We did eat it in Shanghai, but theirs was sandwiched between two biscuits."

She thought this way of eating was quite delicious, so she smeared another piece of biscuit and stuffed it into Wu Zhengrong's mouth, who was frowning and looking disgusted.

*

The next day, before going to work, Ye Manzhi took a detour to the popsicle factory under Shuguang Factory.

Seeing her suddenly appear at the workshop door, Zhao Jianmin greeted her enthusiastically and asked, "Why are you here, Director Ye?"

Ye Manzhi got straight to the point: "Director Zhao, can our popsicle factory accept 30 family workers this year?"

"That's unacceptable," Zhao Jianmin waved his hands repeatedly. "There are only 21 employees in the popsicle factory, and those 30 family members are more than we already have!"

Their popsicle factory is a welfare factory of Shuguang Factory.

The products produced daily are supplied to the factory employees, and any surplus is sold to nearby residents.

With limited production capacity, how can we employ so many employees?

"Our factory has been established for six or seven years, right?" Ye Manzhi asked.

"The factory was built in 1964, so this year is exactly the sixth year."

"It's been so many years, we can actually consider expanding our production scale." Ye Manzhi said with a smile, "Our factory's popsicles and ice cream are delicious. The taste is quite good, otherwise they wouldn't be so popular with the young people in the factory. Shuguang Factory doesn't mean that it must treat the popsicle factory as a welfare factory. You can strive for profitability like the jam factory. If you can sell the popsicles to cold drink stores in the city, then the popsicle factory can become a separate accounting unit."

Zhao Jianmin's heart moved slightly, and he pondered her words without saying a word.

He actually wanted to expand the scale of the factory, but although the popsicle factory was a factory, its nature was similar to a workshop of the Shuguang Factory, and he, as the factory director, was equivalent to the workshop director.

Whether the popsicle factory makes a profit or a loss, it is all counted in the Shuguang factory's account.

Even if it makes a profit, the popsicle factory has no control.

Of course, the prices of ice cream and popsicles sold to the factory employees are very low, and there is basically no profit.

If we expand the scale and sell the products to major cold drink stores at market prices, we will definitely make a profit.

Zhao Jianmin said cautiously, "Even if we expand the scale, the popsicle factory won't need too many people. Especially now that it's the off-season for popsicle sales, the factory is only open half a day. If we expand the scale, we can just let the workers work full time."

"If there are no jobs, we'll create them," Ye Manzhi said. "Currently, our factory's products are relatively limited. If we want to sell to the entire city, we need to expand our product range."

She introduced the sandwich ice cream in Shanghai to the other party.

"Our popsicles don't come with packaging. But if we were to produce the kind of popsicles we have in Shanghai, someone would have to make the biscuits, someone would have to make the filling, and someone would have to package them. Wouldn't that require more manpower? We could even have a few people make the wrapping paper ourselves."

Zhao Jianmin was surprised and said, "Director Ye, developing this new product requires a lot of investment."

Ye Manzhi thought that adding equipment for this kind of product would only cost a few thousand yuan at most.

Some equipment can also be produced by Shuguang Factory itself.

This little money is still affordable.

She said straightforwardly, "Director Zhao, just go for it. The factory will fully support your expansion! But you have to move fast. The county has started mobilizing educated youth to go to the countryside again, and many of the factory workers are counting on you to find them jobs!"

Zhao Jianmin didn't know how the matter had turned into someone relying on him to arrange work.

However, if the popsicle factory can have relative independence in production and profit and loss accounting, it is still worth a try.

Seeing that he had promised, Ye Manzhi was very happy and decided to buy another ice cream for ten cents to take home after get off work tonight.

She eats it with cookies together with her elementary school students.

Ye Manzhi rushed back to the factory, wanting to talk to Lei Wanyuan about the popsicle factory and the 30 vacancies for family workers.

But she didn't see anyone in the workshop or the office. "Xiao Xu, isn't Director Lei in the factory?"

Lei Wanyuan's secretary stood up and said, "Director Lei received a phone call this morning and then left. I think he went to the Municipal Revolutionary Committee."

"Didn't you say when you'd be back?"

"No."

Ye Manzhi had no choice but to leave first and go back to his office to wait.

She waited for a whole day. During this time, Tian Chunshan and Huang He came to find Lao Lei for his signature, but they couldn't see him.

It was not until the end of the get off work day that Lei Wanyuan quietly returned to the factory and asked his secretary to invite Ye Manzhi over.

"Director, I heard you went to the city? Is everything okay?"

Lei Wanyuan sighed and waved his hand, telling her to find a chair to sit on.

"Nothing has been finalized yet, but we've been working together for such a long time, I won't hide it from you," Lei Wanyuan said lightly before dropping a bombshell, "The city may have to restructure my job."

Ye Manzhi was shocked and asked, "Where is he being transferred to? This is too sudden!"

"Maybe he's going to the Municipal Revolutionary Committee's production headquarters," Lei Wanyuan said. "The central government recently transferred fourteen enterprises to Binjiang, and the city wants to find someone to manage them."

Ye Manzhi suddenly remembered what Qingmei had said before, that the turbine factory would be transferred to Binjiang City, and the fourteen enterprises that Lao Lei was going to manage should include the turbine factory where Qingmei worked.

But she only cared about one question: "Is this a promotion or a lateral transfer?"

Lao Lei has made great contributions to Shuguang Factory in recent years and can be said to have made great achievements.

If it's just a level adjustment, it would be too unfair.

"Not sure yet."

Lei Wanyuan himself couldn't explain it.

The city's structure is completely different from that of previous years. Previously, the planning and production of these factories were managed by the Municipal Planning Commission and the Industrial Bureau.

However, after the establishment of the Revolutionary Committee, the Planning Commission and the Industrial Bureau were abolished. Now the city's production work is under the responsibility of the Production Command of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee.

If he had been transferred to the former Industrial Bureau, he would have been a deputy director-level cadre, a real promotion.

However, there are various groups in the production command center, and the ranks of the group leaders are different. He really can't say whether he will be promoted or transferred horizontally after being transferred to the city.

"There's nothing else to worry about, I'm just worried about the production at the factory." Lei Wanyuan said reluctantly, "If I really get transferred, Shuguang Factory will definitely need new people."

No matter what the society has been like in recent years, Shuguang Factory has never stopped production.

There are thousands of people in the factory, and of course it is impossible for everyone to work together.

In the first two years, there were some troublemakers in the factory, causing the workshop to stop working for a period of time.

However, Shuguang Factory had a heavy export task, its own militia camp, and relatively closed management. Not many people responded to the troublemakers, and production gradually resumed.

Lei Wanyuan and Ye Manzhi tried to transfer the troublemakers to positions with heavier production tasks, or recommend these activists to work in the city.

It happened that the superiors proposed "grasping revolution and promoting production" at that time, so Lei Wanyuan asked the Propaganda Department to post revolutionary slogans and banners all over the factory, and also wrote a lot of big-character posters.

The slogans were loud, but production did not stop.

In addition, Ye Manzhi published two articles in the newspaper about Shuguang Factory's response to the highest instructions, promoting the implementation of the "Anshan Constitution" by Shuguang Factory and the "two participations, one reform, and three combinations". All members of the leadership team went to the workshop to work and integrate with the workers and peasants.

The production in the factory continued with some difficulties.

Lei Wanyuan said worriedly, "Over the past few years, we've exported over 50,000 air rifles to the Middle East, basically saturating the market there. Last year, the export volume decreased, and this year it's expected to be even lower. If air rifle exports start to decline, the factory will really have to think of other ways to switch production."

The two had worked together for more than four years, and Ye Manzhi was disturbed by the news that Lao Lei was going to be transferred.

I have no intention of changing production at all.

She still didn't quite believe it and asked, "Director, are you really going to be transferred?"

"That's about right," Lei Wanyuan said. "I've already recommended you to the Municipal Revolutionary Committee. If I'm transferred, I hope you can take over. But no one can say for sure until the last minute. Anyway, you should be prepared."

Ye Manzhi nodded helplessly and could only go back to wait for the exact news from the city.

She actually didn't want Lei Wanyuan to be transferred, because Old Lei was completely different from Niu Enjiu.

Lei Wanyuan is a leader who trusts his comrades very much and is willing to delegate power.

The two have been working together for the past few years, and Ye Manzhi has been given a lot of room to display his talents. Working in the factory is actually quite smooth.

Why.

Ye Manzhi went home and talked to Wu Zhengrong for several days, hoping that Lao Lei would be promoted to a city official.

If it was just a lateral transfer, it would be better for me to stay in Shuguang Factory and serve as the director of the Revolutionary Committee.

Perhaps it was her telekinesis that worked. In any case, Director Xiaoye himself was a firm believer. Half a month later, the city issued a notice.

The Municipal Revolutionary Committee decided to establish the First Municipal Industrial Bureau and set up a revolutionary leading group to be responsible for the leadership of fourteen enterprises transferred from the central government, including Binjiang Electric Motor Factory, Binjiang Boiler Factory, and Binjiang Wire Factory.

Lei Wanyuan was transferred from Binjiang Shuguang Machinery Factory to the city's First Industrial Bureau, where he served as director and leader of the revolutionary leadership group.