Regardless of what commotion might occur in the front two courtyards at night, Xu Damao remained perfectly well-behaved in the backyard. The reason was simple: Wang Minzhi was pregnant again, so Xu Damao could only dream about it, not actually touch her.
The current national slogan is "Get pregnant, give birth, raise, but don't abort," encouraging childbirth. Furthermore, in some communities, families with more children feel more confident in arguments, leading some families to have six or seven children.
Xu Damao hadn't planned on having so many children, but their family was well-off, so since she was pregnant, they were determined to have them. Presumably having had two previous experiences, Wang Minzhi didn't experience any problems this time, and it didn't affect her work.
Xu Damao has very little to do now. He spends his days escorting his wife to and from get off work and buying her lunch. He has been hailed as a good husband of the new era by the female comrades in the propaganda department, who are calling on other male comrades to learn from him.
There are very few things to do in the Armed Forces Department. The few things that do happen are all handled by a few deputy ministers, so Xu Damao basically never gets a chance.
"Minister, there's something I need to ask you about," said Lei Min, the office director.
Xu Damao was very curious. Although he directly managed this general office, it basically just involved organizing meetings and writing reports; there were no major issues. Xu Damao had been in office for almost a month, and this was the first time she had spoken to him so formally.
Xu Damao gestured for the other party to speak.
"Minister, here's the situation: our General Affairs Office has a total of 6 staff members, but 3 of them have been loaned out to other departments to do other things, so there are actually only 3 people on duty."
If it were just three people before, then it would be three people. But recently, the ministry and the military region have a lot of materials to submit, and we don't have enough people. I wanted to ask the personnel department to bring the people back, but the personnel department told me to go directly to the department that was temporarily assigned to us.
"I went to the seconded department, but they told me to go to the personnel department, saying it was a unified arrangement by the personnel department and they couldn't release people without an order from the personnel department. All this passing the buck, and the person never came back; we didn't even get our work done." Lei Min finished her sentence in one breath.
This is actually the normal state of affairs in factories right now: staff are seconded to each other. For example, the projectionists who were initially assigned to the projection room where Xu Damao worked were later seconded to other departments. But it's usually inter-departmental transfers; cross-departmental transfers are rare.
This is all thanks to the previous minister, who set a good example. Besides the staff of the General Affairs Office being seconded out, the General Affairs Office couldn't find anyone to borrow from the reserve force, militia battalion, or security department, which sometimes resulted in a shortage of manpower in the General Affairs Office.
Ultimately, the problem stemmed from the lack of assertiveness in the head of the General Affairs Office, which made the subordinates hesitant to speak up. This time, Lei Min was overwhelmed with work and had been thoroughly angered by others, which prompted her to report to Xu Damao.
The previous minister was a pushover, and he hoped Xu Damao could be better. If things continue like this, she plans to stop reporting anything and just work overtime if necessary.
"Which department have the three comrades been temporarily transferred to?" Xu Damao asked.
"They're all in the hospital office, just in different departments," Lei Min said.
Did the personnel department follow any procedures when they took the person away?
"No, they just gave a verbal notification and mentioned it to the former minister."
Are these people who were temporarily transferred out being evaluated by us? What are their own thoughts on this?
“Their organizational affiliation is all in our office, and they are all assessed by us. They all want to come back; outside, others treat them like menial tasks.”
In just a few words, Xu Damao understood the current situation. It's true what they say: an incompetent general can ruin an entire army; some leaders like to do good deeds, but always make their subordinates take the blame.
“Here’s what you’d like: tell a few colleagues to come back to work immediately. If they don’t, we’ll mark them as unqualified in this year’s performance review. As for the personnel department or the office, when they come looking for you, just pass the buck to me,” Xu Damao said.
You absolutely cannot go to their workplace to negotiate this kind of thing; that would put you in a very passive position. Going to their door is tantamount to begging them for a favor, and you've already lost the fight before it even begins.
Lei Min was overjoyed to hear Xu Damao's words, never expecting her current boss to be so helpful. She had originally thought that Xu Damao might go directly to the office to negotiate and try to get one or two people back.
As for any long-term consequences, that's not something a mere section chief like her cares about. Xu Damao has already said he'll take care of it if anything happens.
Lei Min acted quickly; in less than an hour, the three comrades who had been helping in the office returned to the General Office of the Armed Forces Department, and Xu Damao could hear a noticeable increase in the number of people in the office corridor.
They were happy here, but the people in the office were furious.
Zhou Fenglin, the factory office director, felt even angrier when he saw the two section chiefs who came to him to complain.
The office was under Li Xuewu's jurisdiction, so Zhou Fenglin was very familiar with Xu Damao. They used to eat and drink together and call each other brothers. He knew Xu Damao's current situation very well. He was being suppressed by several factory leaders and wouldn't see any improvement for several years. He was basically someone who would retire there for the rest of his life.
Logically, he shouldn't have been at odds with Xu Damao. The office was short-staffed, but losing one or two people wouldn't be a big problem; they could be borrowed from other departments. What angered him was that Xu Damao took the people back without even informing him.
The section chief had reported to him before when the armed forces department came to ask for people. He was prepared for Xu Damao to come and beg him. He pretended to be in a difficult position and returned one or two people to Xu Damao to save face.
To his surprise, Xu Damao showed no martial ethics and refused to meet with him, leaving him with nowhere to vent his desire to show off and humiliate him. This feeling was extremely unpleasant.
“Go and get those people back for me. Tell them that if the personnel aren’t there by tomorrow, our office will not cooperate with any of the armed forces department’s matters in the future.”
"I refuse to believe that a down-on-his-luck guy would dare to act tough with me," Zhou Fenglin said sternly to the section chief.
The section chief hadn't expected Director Zhou to take his casual report so seriously. And that down-on-his-luck guy—was he referring directly to Xu Damao?
After receiving the order, the two went outside and began to discuss it. They both knew that this was a high-level power struggle between big shots, and they, as lowly section chiefs, didn't want to offend anyone. However, they couldn't take Director Zhou's order seriously, and finally decided to send a junior staff member to deliver it.
If a problem really arises in the end, just make the clerk take the blame, saying it was a communication error.
The clerk was unaware of the dynamics at the higher levels. After hearing his section chief's instructions, he quickly went to the General Office of the Armed Forces Department to find Lei Min and explained the office's decision.
Lei Min arrived at Xu Damao's office very quickly.
"Alright, I know what happened, you don't need to worry about it."
"You should focus on your own work now, write the required documents, and prepare the necessary summaries. Make sure there are no mistakes on your end. Also, for documents related to the reserves, militia, or security department, have them sign them before sending them over," Xu Damao said.
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