Chapter 43
The so-called working group for handling surplus labor actually brings together all the people in the street office and the police station to jointly mobilize surplus labor to return to their hometowns for production.
Ye Manzhi really had no interest in this kind of work. Even if it was someone like Guo Erni's father-in-law, she didn't want to go to his house to persuade him to return home.
It’s hard to say why, maybe it’s because the Ye family also comes from the countryside, anyway, she just has no motivation.
The psychological feeling is definitely different if you voluntarily return to your hometown to give birth and if you are persuaded to return.
Therefore, this was the first time that cadre Xiao Ye had shown signs of passive resistance since joining the work.
"Xiao Ye, what's wrong with you?" Liu Jinbao leaned over and asked, "I see you don't seem to be paying much attention to the repatriation work."
Ye Manzhi continued knitting her scarf with her head down, mumbling, "We can't just blindly persuade people to return. We're using a strategic approach in our compound."
"Please share your strategies with me."
"Our strategy is to allow those with better conditions to leave first. For example, those who have farmland and family in the countryside, but no stable jobs in Binjiang and haven't received approval from the police station to transfer their household registration. These people have a way out in the countryside and a weak sense of belonging to the city, so we can let them leave voluntarily first."
"Then how can people leave voluntarily?"
Ye Manzhi didn't know either, so she just said something nonsense, "Just rely on us to do the work."
Anyway, she has told the neighborhood committee director about the situation of Guo Erni's parents-in-law. Whether the mobilization can be successful depends on the neighborhood committee.
This persuasion work is a long-term task, and it must be completed at least before the Spring Festival.
Since everyone's persuasion results were not ideal, except for Liu Jinbao who asked once, no one else noticed that Ye Manzhi was slacking off.
While she was knitting a scarf and waiting for school to start, she welcomed the first snow in 56 years.
The fallen leaves on the road had not yet been cleared away when light snow began to fall from the sky.
When Ye Manzhi returned to the compound after get off work, Aunt Li from the neighborhood committee was using a loudspeaker to inform everyone to take back the clothes that were hung out to dry and close the doors and windows.
"The weather forecast says we're expecting heavy snow and strong winds later in the night. If you haven't lit your stove yet, hurry up and light it up! Saving a little coal won't make you a fortune, so don't save any more!"
Ye Manzhi listened to Aunt Li's words and smiled all the way. As soon as she entered the house, she asked Chang Yue'e: "Do we have enough coal? Director Li is shouting until her throat is broken. Let's light the stove quickly."
"It's enough to burn for two days. Tomorrow, ask your fourth brother to go to the coal station and bring back some coal."
"Our subdistrict office and the police station want to wholesale honeycomb briquettes together. How much should we buy? I'll report the number to the office tomorrow."
Chang Yue'e shook her head and said, "Forget it. Honeycomb coal is hard to burn. It's hard to control the temperature when you put it in the stove. I've been using it for a few months, but it doesn't seem to save much. I'd better stick with the old loose coal."
"That's impossible?" Ye Manzhi asked doubtfully. "This is a new product launched by the city. When I went to the Municipal Bureau of Commerce for a promotional meeting, the deputy director said that using honeycomb coal can save a lot of money."
The fourth sister-in-law interrupted, "The leader hasn't used it himself, so don't listen to his nonsense! I cook with my mother every day, and we know best whether honeycomb coal is useful or not!"
Ye Manzhi doesn't cook much and doesn't know much about honeycomb coal.
But she felt that since the city was vigorously promoting the use of honeycomb coal, there must be a scientific basis for it.
After dinner, she went to several other households in the building that used honeycomb coal to inquire about the situation.
It is generally believed that the biggest advantage of honeycomb coal is that it produces less smoke. As for whether it saves coal or money, it has not yet been seen.
There was too much negative feedback, and Ye Manzhi began to waver.
She wrote about the honeycomb coal Waterloo in her diary that day, and also complained about it when she wrote to Wu Zhengrong.
The Military Representative Office is currently collaborating with the Chief Engineer's Office on a project. Ye Manzhi hasn't seen Wu Zhengrong for two days.
When they didn't meet, they would communicate using mailbox No. 16.
Compared with other young men and women, they have extremely frequent contact.
The next morning, Ye Manyzhi put on a cotton jacket, stepped on the crunchy snow, and put the letter into mailbox No. 16.
As a result, she received a reply from the other party that night.
Wu Zhengrong said that theoretically, honeycomb coal should ignite faster and have stronger firepower than loose coal. The reason why residents feel that honeycomb coal is not energy-saving may be a problem with the coal stove.
Today's coal stoves are designed for loose coal, so they have a larger internal space. Honeycomb coal has a much smaller air contact surface than loose coal. Originally, one piece of honeycomb coal was enough to cook a meal, but because of the stove, you might need to add two or three pieces...
Balabala used the contents of a piece of manuscript paper to help her analyze the reasons why honeycomb coal suffered a Waterloo.
When Ye Manzhi asked him in a roundabout way whether he missed her, Wu Zhengrong simply wrote "yes".
Ye Manzhi turned over the manuscript paper and took a look without giving up.
Is that it?
She actually didn't really want to know why honeycomb coal was not coal-efficient.
However, since the other party had made a serious analysis, she couldn't be too indifferent. She just replied, "Then what kind of stove should be used?" and threw the note into the delivery slot.
No more sticky nonsense.
Wu Zhengrong did not reply to her letter that day, and the mailbox was empty the next morning.
Ye Manzhi thought that this man might have sensed her coldness and started to lose his temper.
However, when it was almost time to get off work, Wu Zhengrong called the street office and asked her to go to the military representative's office after get off work.
Ye Manzhi had no idea what he was up to, and as soon as the clock pointed to five, she ran to the factory with her bag on her back.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Don't you want a stove that can be used with honeycomb coal?" Wu Zhengrong led her into the office and pointed to the two coal stoves on the wall. "This is it."
Ye Manzhi walked over curiously and took a look.
There are two iron stoves, one tall and one short, and even the tallest one is smaller than an ordinary coal stove.
The space inside the furnace is very small, with a diameter only enough to hold a piece of honeycomb coal.
"Is this the stove you made?" Ye Manzhi asked, turning around.
"Well, the materials are not complete, so I'll make two simple ones first."
"The furnace is so small, you can only burn one piece of coal at a time? That might not be enough firepower for cooking."
"The small one can hold three briquettes, and the large one can hold five." Wu Zhengrong lifted the kettle from the stove and explained, "If you're just boiling water, lighting one honeycomb briquette is enough, and then transferring the burnt coal residue to the bottom to raise it. For cooking, you can light two or three honeycomb briquettes at a time, depending on the firepower you need. This stove has good heat preservation, and the residual heat after cooking can last for half a day, enough to keep you warm in your room."
Ye Manzhi took off her gloves and put her hands on the fire to feel the residual warmth.
Not scalding, but still warm.
This is the remaining temperature after a piece of coal burned from afternoon to evening and boiled two pots of water.
It seems that burning honeycomb coal is indeed more economical than burning loose coal.
Ye Manzhi lingered around the two stoves for a moment, then asked with a smile, "Have you been making this these past two days?"
She thought the other party was angry because he didn't reply.
"No, it was finished last night. We're mainly waiting for the yellow mud and insulation to dry out, which will take some time." Wu Zhengrong raised his chin. "You can take the smaller one back. The larger one isn't dry yet, so it needs to air out for a few more days."
"I didn't expect you could make a coal stove. This is like using a butcher knife to kill a chicken!" Ye Manzhi put her arm around him and praised him in a low voice, "Our brother Zhengrong is amazing!"
Wu Zhengrong looked at her and smiled. "If I just drew you a diagram and told you this is a honeycomb coal stove, I'm afraid your replies will become shorter and shorter. Anyway, you've already made a fly trap, so a coal stove won't make a difference."
Ye Manzhi refused to admit that she had been upset. She pulled him aside and said, "I've been too busy with work these past few days, so I haven't written much. Come on, come on, I'll treat you today to reward your great contribution!"
She used the military representative's food coupons to treat guests in the cafeteria, and after dinner she took the new coal stove home.
"Why did you bring back a paint bucket?" Ye Shouxin asked with his hands behind his back.
"This is a coal stove made from a paint bucket! It's specially made for honeycomb coal!"
"Where did you buy it? Even honeycomb briquettes have special stoves these days."
Ye Manzhi said proudly, "This was made for me by Wu Zhengrong! He said this coal stove uses less coal than traditional stoves. I've tried it in his office, and it's indeed better than loose coal!"
"Tsk, it's just a coal stove, what's so great about it!" Ye Shouxin stared at the stove for a while and said, "I can make a stove like this too. I just need to leave a vent at the bottom, put a honeycomb coal liner in it, and fill the gaps with yellow mud."
Chang Yue'e retorted, "You say that so easily, but why haven't I seen you make one before? Xiao Wu made one for Lai Ya, and you're complaining again. Lai Ya, how do you use this stove? Let's boil a pot of water and try!"
Ye Manzhi lit a piece of honeycomb coal and placed it on the top of the hole, then put the kettle on it.
Just as he was about to squat down to check the vent, Lin Qingmei knocked on the door and came in.
"Qingmei is here? Have you had dinner?" Chang Yue'e greeted her warmly.
"Auntie, I've eaten," Lin Qingmei replied, then pulled Ye Manzhi aside and asked, "Have you offended anyone recently?"
"No, what's wrong?"
She didn't participate much in the persuasion work, so she shouldn't offend anyone.
"My mom said that some people in the courtyard have been talking about you and Captain Wu recently."
Ye Manzhi said indifferently, "Go ahead, we're interacting openly and not hiding from others. It's inevitable that people will talk about us if we see us."
"If that's all, I won't be in a hurry!" Lin Qingmei whispered, "I don't think something's right. You and Captain Wu should be dating, right? My mom said some people are talking about you behind your back, saying you only date cadres!"
She has a good relationship with Ye Manzhi, and most people would not say bad things about Ye Manzhi in front of her, and it is even more impossible for them to talk about these things in a tactless manner in front of the Ye family.
If her mother hadn't heard it twice, they would still be kept in the dark.
Ye Shouxin frowned and said, "Isn't this nonsense? Lai Ya has only been in two relationships. The first, Zhou Mu, was a childhood marriage, arranged by the elders, not something she found herself. The second, Captain Wu, was introduced by the organization, not someone she found herself either. How can this be interpreted as her only looking for cadres as partners?"
Ye Manzhi thought to herself that it was true that Wu Zhengrong was introduced by the organization, but she also found him herself.
But what kind of cadre is Zhou Mu? At most, he is the son of a cadre.
She actually doesn't care about such rumors. She is a high school student and a female cadre. What's wrong with finding a partner who is also a cadre?
Besides, Wu Zhengrong's conditions were there, and she had already gotten him into the pot, so it was normal for others to say a few sour words about her.
"Other people have their mouths on their bodies. They can say whatever they want, just don't whisper it to me."
Lin Qingmei said anxiously, "How can that be possible? If you give people the impression that you're trying to get close to a cadre family, it will be very detrimental to your future development!"
The Cultural Bureau holds study sessions from time to time, and the frequency of political studies is unmatched by the Street Office.
Lin Qingmei is influenced by what she sees and hears every day, and her political sensitivity is much higher than Ye Manzhi's.
"Qingmei is right. The current rumors are likely to become more and more true, and eventually become a handle for others to attack you!" Ye Shouxin snorted, "We can't let this matter go easily."
"I can't just explain to everyone that Wu Zhengrong and I were introduced by the organization, right? What's going on then?"
Chang Yue'e thanked Lin Qingmei for her prompt tip-off, and then said to her daughter, "This kind of thing shouldn't be explained by a girl like you personally. Just forget about it and let me go deal with those rude people!"
"Mom, please don't fight with anyone!"
"I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice, so don't worry!"
Ye Manzhi was not at all relieved, and secretly observed Chang Yue'e's movements for the next two days.
When she just broke off the engagement with Zhou Mu, Chang Yue'e quarreled with many people and became a famous shrew in the courtyard.
She has recently cleared some of her reputation as a shrew, so she must not make the same mistake again.
However, before Chang Yue'e could take any action, she heard that Chairman Yao of the Factory Women's Federation had criticized some comrades at the production mobilization meeting yesterday for not focusing on production tasks but instead spending all day gossiping about other people.
Chairman Yao cited the problems encountered by military representative Comrade Wu Zhengrong as an example.
Comrade Wu Zhengrong met his partner through an introduction from the organization and a blind date. However, some people deliberately distorted the facts and fabricated rumors, which had a very bad influence on employees and their families.
Chairman Yao did not mention Ye Manzhi's name directly, but those who understand will understand, and those who don't understand don't need to understand.
This action helped Ye Manzhi clear his name in front of all the employees in the factory.
The young people met through the organization!
After hearing the news, Ye Manzhi immediately ran to find Wu Zhengrong.
"Did you ask Chairman Yao to help clarify this?"
"No," Wu Zhengrong's expression was not very good. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"
"You can't fight for me, and telling you will only cause more trouble."
Wu Zhengrong frowned, obviously disagreeing with her argument.
However, before he could start preaching, Ye Manzhi changed the subject and asked, "Then why did Chairman Yao suddenly bring up our story at the conference? The timing is too coincidental!"
"It was my aunt who went to the Women's Federation to ask Chairman Yao for help."
It took Ye Manzhi a while to realize that the aunt he was talking about might be Chang Yue'e.
"My mother went to see Chairman Yao?"
"Well, after Chairman Yao understood the situation, he came to confirm it with me."
This was also the first time Wu Zhengrong heard such a rumor. In order to prevent the rumor from spreading further, he asked Chairman Yao to come forward and help refute the rumor in public.
"My mother has actually learned to complain?" Ye Manzhi looked at Chang Yue'e with admiration.
Seeing her indignant look, I thought she was going to go to the yard to fight!
"Auntie is pretty awesome."
Wu Zhengrong thought to himself that it seemed that the person who could really make the decisions in the Ye family was his future mother-in-law.
When her daughter returned to question her, the mother-in-law calmly replied, "When you were dating, it was the comrades from the Women's Federation who set you up. They acted like matchmakers. As long as you're not married, you can always turn to the matchmakers to resolve any issues. Of course, I can't go door to door to argue about this kind of rumor. It's best to ask the matchmakers to clarify it."
Ye Manzhi admired her and said, "Mom, you are so amazing! You are brave and resourceful, and you are both wise and courageous!"
"Hmph, stop flattering me! Aren't you supposed to go to the Party School this weekend? Just focus on your studies! Become an official higher than Xiao Wu in the future! Let's see who dares to criticize you!"
All right.
With her old mother's earnest expectations, Ye Manzhi went to the grassroots cadre training class.
*
The Municipal Party School has a good reputation, but the school building is not very large, with only a two-story brick building in the city center.
The students in this study session were divided into two classes.
Class B where Ye Manzhi is located is almost entirely composed of grassroots cadres from various streets and towns. Half of them are without official positions like her, and the rest are mostly deputy directors, deputy township heads, deputy town heads, and a few hold full-time positions.
Among the middle-aged comrades, Ye Manzhi is considered quite young. Not only does he have little experience, but he also has few connections in the city.
Looking around, she didn't recognize any of the classmates in the classroom.
I didn't even have a chance to chat with anyone.
According to her experience, if you want to quickly join a conversation in an unfamiliar situation, you should either find comrades from the same district or county, or comrades of the same gender.
It was difficult to find someone from the same district or county, so she went straight to the first row and sat among a group of female comrades.
When grassroots cadres get together, the best topic to talk about is definitely work.
However, Guangming Street has already shifted its focus to mobilizing surplus labor to return home, while some units are still selling government bonds.
Ye Manzhi shared her method of mobilizing residents who had won the lottery to repurchase government bonds with everyone, and received an invitation from a female village head to "sit in the first row together in the future."
The students did not spend long exchanging greetings. After the classroom was full, Vice President Qin of the Party School walked up to the podium and gave the students the first class.
The content of the lecture was not the Marxism-Leninism that Ye Manzhi had prepared in advance, but a situation report.
According to Principal Qin, grassroots cadres should read more newspapers and listen to more reports. If they cannot keep up with the situation, they will not understand the domestic situation.
In his report, Principal Qin mentioned the convening of the Eighth National Congress of the Party, introduced the significance of the Indonesian President's visit to Guangzhou, smashed the enemy's sabotage, and supported the just struggle of the Egyptian people.
Of course, the topic of mobilizing surplus labor to return to hometowns for production was also emphasized.
"In fact, the work of persuading people to return to their hometowns began on a large scale in other provinces and cities as early as last year. Binjiang was relatively late in the process. This work of persuading people to return to their hometowns is not easy, but grassroots comrades should not be discouraged. The increasing accumulation of surplus labor in cities actually reflects many problems."
"First, it shows that our health work has been good since liberation, with more births and fewer deaths, right? Second, it also shows that the government's relief efforts for poor residents are adequate, resulting in fewer deaths. Third, what does it show? It shows that our public security agencies aren't strict enough in household registration management, right? Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many rural people blindly migrating to the cities."
"Dealing with the problem of excess labor is a challenge for everyone, but it's also an opportunity. We grassroots comrades must learn to look at the problem from multiple perspectives..."
Ye Manzhi listened with great interest and felt that listening to the situation report was more interesting than attending classes.
After the report, she kept thinking about Principal Qin’s speech, wondering what opportunities she could find in the work of persuading people to return.
The first group of people returning home from Guangming Street consisted of 42 people. These people had land in the countryside but had no jobs in the city.
After comrades from the street and neighborhood committees visited these people several times to mobilize them, they agreed to return home.
They are the easiest group of people to persuade.
Director Mu specially borrowed the playground of the children's primary school to hold a farewell meeting for these 42 people who were returning to their hometown to produce. More than 200 residents came to watch the farewell.
The farewell party was quite lively, but after returning to the street office, Director Mu called Ye Manzhi over for a private talk.
"Xiao Ye, have you been lacking enthusiasm for work lately? Why has the Sixth Neighborhood Committee only mobilized two people to return home?" Mulan frowned and said, "You can't start slacking off right after attending the Party School!"
"Director, our two neighborhood committees have done their best to encourage people to return home. There are many workers in the military industrial complex, and most of the elderly who have moved from the countryside to live in the city are here to help their children with housework and childcare. We can't force them to go back, can we?"
Seeing her frown deepen, Ye Manzhi quickly said, "However, I've had an idea recently. Besides mobilizing farmers to return home, can we think of other ways to solve the labor problem?"
"Well, tell me, what new ideas do you have?"
"I think persuading people to return home is just a way to save money. Our street should also increase revenue and create more jobs for the unemployed," Ye Manzhi said with a smile. "I'm still in charge of the family handicraft industry. We can actually put more effort into the handicraft industry."
Mulan pondered, "Our neighborhood has laundry groups, paper-making groups, sewing groups, and handicraft groups. We've basically started any sideline business that can make money. These groups are already full, so we can't take on too many workers anytime soon."
Ye Manzhi went over the ideas she had come up with over the past few days and suggested, "Director, the city is vigorously promoting honeycomb briquettes, but using ordinary coal stoves can't fully utilize the advantages of honeycomb briquettes. I recently saw a coal stove specifically designed for honeycomb briquettes. The materials are simple and the production process is not complicated. Why don't we take advantage of the city's promotion of honeycomb briquettes and open a small factory to produce honeycomb briquettes?"
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