Xu Damao told the old man that he would exchange grain for tea, and the old man immediately perked up.
"The grain is on the truck, let me show it to you."
Xu Damao pointed to a car not far away, then walked over and took out a large bag. He carried the bag directly to the old man, opened it, and found it full of cornmeal.
"This is real cornmeal!" The old man tremblingly reached out and touched the flour.
After a while, the old man calmed down a bit and said directly that he did have some tea at home and was willing to exchange it with Xu Damao.
"Young man, how much grain do you have left?" The old man asked another question after the transaction was completed.
"What, old man, do you still have tea at home? If you do, then take it out and trade it with me. I still have some grain in my car." Xu Damao knew that the other party probably didn't have any at home, but he was sure that many of his relatives and friends had some.
“If you have any, then go to the house up ahead. That’s my youngest son’s house; they also have some tea. If you’d like, I can take you there. My daughter-in-law is at home taking care of the children this time.” The old man gave Xu Damao a pleasant surprise.
And so, under the old man's guidance, Xu Damao exchanged a total of 12 jin (6 kg) of tea leaves. Don't underestimate the amount; the pile was quite large. Fortunately, Xu Damao had a place to hide them, so he wasn't worried about being seen by others.
According to the old man, their tea wasn't all new tea; some was from last year. Originally, they would secretly pick some tea leaves from the tea trees near their home every year, dry them, and then secretly sell them at the city's "ghost market" for money. But for the past two years, there had been no food at the ghost market, so the tea had been stored away.
After saying goodbye to the elderly man, Xu Damao had basically achieved his goal and drove back to the city. Upon arriving in Qing'an city, Xu Damao drove directly to the largest shopping mall. After browsing around, he finally bought a few local specialties.
When Xu Damao returned to the hotel, many people had already returned. Xu Damao didn't care what everyone had bought and went straight to bed to rest.
Today the car needs to cross the river by ferry, which is nearly 200 kilometers away, so the two cars set off early in the morning, before dawn.
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After a long, bumpy drive, we finally arrived in Changnan before dark. We washed up and slept soundly through the night. The next day, during our work hours, we drove to the Hongdu Machinery Factory.
Although they had contacted each other by telegram beforehand, Xu Damao and his team had to go through multiple security checks to enter the Hongdu Factory, which produced many important military products. They were greeted by Yao Boyuan, the director of the motorcycle workshop at the Hongdu Machinery Factory, a man in his fifties with completely white hair.
After exchanging pleasantries, Director Yao first led Xu Damao and his group on a brief tour of the factory area, although of course, they couldn't enter the classified areas.
"Our sidecar production workshop is just ahead," Director Yao said, pointing to the workshop in front of him.
The crowd's eyes, which had been wandering around, immediately focused on each other; the main event of the trip had arrived.
As the group entered the workshop, they immediately smelled the odor of machine oil and metal in the air. All the machinery in the workshop was arranged in an extremely orderly manner, like soldiers in battle formation. This also reflected the military nature of the Hongdu Factory.
After a while of the tour, the group realized that most of the parts for the Hongdu factory's sidecar motorcycles were manufactured by other companies, and the factory mainly focused on assembly. Even so, watching a pile of parts eventually transform into a working vehicle was an eye-opening experience for everyone.
All morning, Xu Damao and his group followed Director Yao on the tour, while Huang Shu and his group stared at the motorcycle production workshops like children seeing candy, their eyes and mouths never stopping.
Fortunately, there was no competition in this era, so Director Yao was happy to share their history and production process with everyone, and was also happy to answer the questions from Huang Shu and the others.
Around noon, Xu Damao and his group finished their lunch at the canteen and returned to their hotel to rest. For them, being an outsider meant just watching the spectacle; they probably wouldn't learn the specific techniques and processes in their lifetime.
As for Huang Shu and the other two, they stayed behind to continue their studies. According to the plan, they needed to stay in the workshop for three days to carefully observe all aspects of the vehicle, which would make it easier for them to repair it later.
"Old Tong, we've been bored staying here these past few days. How about we go somewhere nearby to have some fun?" Xu Damao suggested, finding it really boring to stay in the hotel at night.
“I was going to say it anyway. The scenery in the south is different from ours in the north. Since we’ve come all this way, we really need to explore the area, otherwise we’ll regret it when we get back.” Tong Shuai is also from the north and hasn’t been to the south much.
“Alright, Xijiang Province has abundant tourism resources, with many famous mountains and rivers. Let’s explore the surrounding area. On our way back, we’ll take Hanwu and bring Huang Shu and the others along for a trip around there.”
And so, Xu Damao, Tong Shuai, and two truck drivers, four people in one truck, spent three days whizzing through almost all the famous scenic spots in Xijiang. Fortunately, in those days, there were no entrance fees to the scenic spots, and not many people had time to travel, so there was no issue of crowds.
Five days later, the fully loaded truck began its return journey. Besides two sidecar motorcycles, the truck also carried a large quantity of spare parts.
Director Yao was very kind this time; knowing that Xu Damao and his team lacked parts for repairs, he provided them with almost all the necessary components. However, in the future, the steel rolling mill will need to communicate separately with other parts manufacturers.
On their way back, they crossed the Yangtze River via the Hanwu Bridge and spent more than a day in the vicinity, showing Huang Shu and the others around to soothe their disappointment at not being able to travel to Xijiang.
Traveling north from Hanwu, passing through Nanhe Province, they went directly to the capital. On the way back, everyone was eager to return to the capital as soon as possible, so they traveled without stopping, taking turns driving and resting.
If it got too late at night, the group would drive to an open area and rest for two hours. Fortunately, apart from Huang Shu and his two companions who were unarmed, everyone else in the car was equipped with a handgun, so safety wasn't a major concern.
In the end, the round trip took Xu Damao and his team a total of 12 days, bringing back countless parts, two complete vehicles, and immeasurable technical reserves, which are crucial for the future development of the auto repair team and even the entire transportation department.
When Xu Damao arrived at the factory, exhausted, he handed over his duties and went home to rest. When he woke up, he was surprised to find a huge surprise waiting for him.
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