Back in his office, Sun Zhengguo immediately called Minister Li to report the good news.
Minister Li was equally delighted to hear this good news.
He couldn't even remember the last time he received good news from the research institute. He had been planning to visit them soon, but he didn't expect to receive this news today.
Therefore, he immediately said that he would definitely come over in person the next morning to express his appreciation to these meritorious individuals.
After finishing the call, Sun Zhengguo made himself a cup of tea to relax.
Then he sent someone to notify Section Chief Cai of the Publicity Department to come over.
Shortly after, Section Chief Cai arrived at the office.
"Chief, you wanted to see me."
"Oh! Section Chief Cai is here, please have a seat."
"Thank you, Director."
Sun Zhengguo spoke after Section Chief Cai sat down.
"Section Chief Cai, the ministry leaders will be coming to inspect tomorrow. We hope you will make preparations in advance."
"Yes, Director."
The two then discussed some specific matters before Section Chief Cai returned to the Publicity Department.
After seeing Section Chief Cai off, Sun Zhengguo called his cousin over and told him to pick up pork and eggs at the usual place the next day.
He provided the pork and eggs himself, though this was only an occasional occurrence, and he never shortchanged himself on the money due.
As for having his cousin run errands, Sun Zhengguo didn't mistreat him; he would give him a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes each time.
After explaining everything, Sun Zhengguo finally had some peace and quiet, so he simply sat there drinking tea and waiting to get off work.
You might ask again, didn't we leave work early?
Don't forget, those are workers; all cadres and administrative staff are not included in this scope.
...
The next morning, as soon as the workers arrived at work, they saw the banner hanging at the gate and the slogans posted inside the courtyard, and realized that leaders would be coming to inspect the area later.
But the workers didn't care about any of that; all they cared about was when the pork and eggs the foreman had promised would arrive.
Not long after, Sun Zhengguo arrived at his workplace by car, and as soon as he got out of the car, he gave instructions.
"Zhengnan, I'll have to trouble you to go and bring the pork and eggs over. The workers are watching!"
"Alright! Big brother, hehehe! It's not hard work at all."
Sun Zhengnan chuckled slyly, stepped on the gas, and the car sped off.
Soon, when he returned, the trunk of the car was already full.
The whole pig's head, skin, blood, and offal—it was supposed to be a whole pig, not a single hair missing.
In addition to eggs, we also prepared some fish, chicken, duck, beef and other ingredients, all of which were prepared for the leaders to have a meal during their inspection.
In the cafeteria, after all the ingredients were unloaded, He Yushui looked worried.
"Sister Zhang, the staff are getting better meals, and the leaders are also having stir-fries. I, as a cook, simply can't handle it all."
"Don't worry, Master He, all of this has been arranged. The machinery factory will send a chef and two assistant chefs over in a little while. You just need to prepare the stir-fries."
Hearing what Sister Zhang said, He Yushui felt relieved and began to prepare the ingredients at a leisurely pace.
At 9:30 a.m., a group of leaders from the research institute had already arrived at the main gate, ready to welcome the department leaders.
Also coming to greet us were two factory directors from the machinery plant.
After all, the CNC machine tools will be transferred to their factory for production in the future, so they need to come and learn about them in advance.
Meanwhile, since the department leaders had not yet arrived, Sun Zhengguo and Factory Director Li were exchanging words in hushed tones.
"Mr. Sun, I heard that your six-roll rolling mill is in its final stages of development. I wonder where you plan to put it in production?"
What did Factory Director Li mean? Sun Zhengguo understood immediately.
But that's obviously unrealistic. With so many subordinate units under the Ministry of Metallurgy, surely they can find a manufacturer?
"Director Li, you'd better not have any illusions. I can tell you clearly that it's completely impossible."
After hearing Sun Zhengguo's words, Director Li was not discouraged.
Because he's killing two birds with one stone; if he catches it, great, but if he doesn't, there's no real loss.
So he continued, "Engineer Sun, since that's the case, let's not argue about it anymore. What about your next project? Like an engine?"
"Hahaha!"
Sun Zhengguo was delighted; this Factory Director Li was always dreaming.
"Director Li, is your factory still small? Let me put it this way: apart from machine tools, your factory will not be able to undertake any other production tasks in the future."
"Why?"
"Why don't you know?"
Sun Zhengguo was completely speechless. This Factory Director Li was really pretending to be ignorant when he knew the truth.
The machinery factory is such a behemoth that it has expanded to the point where it can't expand any further. Don't you have any self-awareness?
Just as the two were talking, several cars slowly drove towards them.
The people greeting the leader at the door immediately perked up when they saw him arrive.
Soon, the car arrived at the gate and stopped, and then a group of bigwigs got out of the car.
Upon seeing this, Sun Zhengguo immediately took the lead and went to greet them.
"Minister Li, Deputy Secretary Zhou, Deputy Minister Liu... welcome to our inspection and guidance."
"Comrade Zhengguo, we are not here to guide our work, but to express our appreciation to you meritorious individuals. Why bother with all this formality!"
After Minister Li finished speaking, he smiled and extended his hand to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with everyone.
After a brief welcome, the group walked to the workshop.
Several bigwigs were ready to see for themselves what the CNC machine tool, which foreigners had been praising so highly, actually looked like.
Inside the workshop, a group of bigwigs circled the machine tool twice, whispering among themselves.
Minister Li had read some foreign materials before coming, so he had some understanding of CNC machine tools.
However, after seeing the actual product, he found that there was nothing special about it, so he asked out of curiosity.
"Comrade Zhengguo, it doesn't seem like the legendary three heads and six arms to me. Can you tell everyone what's so good about it?"
"Okay, Minister Li, then I will speak with the leaders."
Sun Zhengguo then began to speak eloquently.
"In essence, this CNC machine tool is still a machine tool, except that it adopts a digital control system. Its main features are high precision, high efficiency, and strong stability..."
Upon hearing Sun Zhengguo's introduction, the leaders nodded frequently.
However, no matter how well you talk, it's useless; we still need to see the actual results.
Next, Sun Zhengguo arranged for people to start the actual operation, striving to let the leaders see the real results.
The result speaks for itself; the effect was excellent.
Although the workers are not yet proficient, the leaders can already see that this machine tool is indeed excellent.
Given time, if it can be widely adopted, it will surely become another powerful tool.
An hour later, the leaders left the workshop satisfied. Afterwards, everyone went to the conference room to hold a small symposium.
At the very beginning of the meeting, Minister Li raised a question that everyone wanted to know.
"Comrade Zhengguo, we've seen the CNC machine tool. Now I want to know, how big is the gap between this machine tool and those from abroad?"
"Minister Li, esteemed leaders, although we started developing CNC machine tools relatively late, we skipped the first step in our research and development. We may now be at the second step, or even more."
"If I really have to make a comparison, then I can only say..."
Sun Zhengguo paused at this point before shyly uttering four words.
"Far ahead!!!"
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