Chapter 97
Ye Manzhi returned to the class and conveyed the news of participating in steelmaking, and immediately received a warm response from the classmates.
Especially the boys, they were all infected by Chen Teye and became obsessed with steelmaking.
When they heard that they could also participate in steelmaking, they were all excited and wrote more than a dozen big-character posters expressing their determination overnight.
Seeing this, Ye Manzhi secretly admired Chen Ying's foresight.
According to Chen Ying, the idea of providing financial support for steelmaking is a good one, but some students are very passionate about steelmaking and may not understand the practice of only providing money without putting in any effort.
If they make decisions for everyone without authorization, they might be blamed.
Ye Manzhi glanced at the enthusiastic male classmates and silently reminded herself to pay attention to changing her working methods.
School is different from work.
When she was in the street office, she only needed to discuss with Lao Zhang to make a decision, and everyone else was responsible for implementation.
When she was a small follower, she rarely raised any objections to Director Mu and Lao Zhang's decisions.
But student leaders are not real leaders, and they cannot make decisions for their classmates without authorization.
"Team Leader Ye, how about I assign you the position of deputy furnace master?" Chen Teye walked over with a notebook and asked.
"Isn't the deputy furnace master Huang Zhiqiang from the junior year?"
"We have three majors working together to produce steel, a total of nearly 500 people. Building just one small blast furnace is too few. I suggest building two blast furnaces first."
Chen Ying brought in two other majors with fewer students to join the steelmaking effort. Both majors had long names, one was "Economics, Organization and Planning of Machinery Manufacturing Enterprises" and the other was "Economics, Organization and Planning of Power Enterprises".
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "Although we have 500 people across our three specialties, not everyone is suitable for steelmaking. When you went to the city to make steel, weren't you drafted in? Steelmaking is no small task. You should select the best and brightest."
"Team Leader Ye," Chen Teye glanced at her and said, "After all, you are the monitor of our class. Regardless of whether you can make steel or not, a monitor who rushes to the front can set an example for the other students. If you don't participate, it will be difficult for me to mobilize the other students."
Ye Manzhi nodded good-naturedly, "Okay, then please sign me up, and I'll join the others."
"That's right, leading cadres should be at the forefront."
Seeing him write down his name in the notebook, Ye Manzhi asked again, "Building two small blast furnaces will cost a lot of money, right? How much money did the department allocate to us?"
"There's no funding, but the department head has contacted a brick factory for us, so we can go there to get bricks. We need to prepare everything else on our own," Chen Teye said in a relaxed tone. "I've contacted the small blast furnace in the city, and they can lend us their excess materials and equipment. Aside from the coke, everything else is easy to arrange."
Ye Manzhi thought to himself that Chen Tie was still quite capable.
The preparatory work for building the blast furnace was completed in two or three days.
"But a small blast furnace has to operate 24 hours a day. The coke consumption is not a small amount, right?"
Chen Teye smiled confidently, and the mole on his eyebrow almost flew out.
"The Power Engineering Department just opened a coke plant. We're all from the same school, so we can buy some coke on credit from them."
Ye Manzhi felt that this was unreliable. After borrowing the coke, what would they use to pay it back?
This is just like asking for money from a poor relative. It is obviously a business where you borrow without paying back. The other party is not a sucker, so why should you lend him money?
She didn't pour cold water on everyone's high spirits. She signed up for the course and put her mind back on her textbooks, waiting for Chen Tie to notify her to go to the steelmaking plant.
However, after waiting for another three days, the boys brought back all the bricks for building the blast furnace, but the two furnace masters ran into trouble at the coke plant.
All departments of the university had to allocate personnel to steelmaking, and almost everyone was eyeing the coking plant.
Because there were too many people wanting to buy on credit, they simply blocked this loophole!
Fortunately, there were still a large number of transferred students in the Department of Industrial Economics. Everyone made full use of their personal connections, went to various units to ask for money, and borrowed some coke to meet the emergency needs.
However, Chen Teye did not dare to start work at this time.
This was his first time organizing a large-scale event at school. The progress could be slow, but failure was essential.
If the continuous supply of coke cannot be guaranteed, then steelmaking will definitely be a waste of every furnace it produces.
When everyone was worried about coke, Ye Manzhi proposed the idea of separate actions to the Steelmaking Committee.
Some people are responsible for steelmaking in small blast furnaces, while others are responsible for logistical support.
Since "logistics" did not sound impressive and did not reflect her importance, she named the team "Material Supply Vanguard Team", which echoed the "Steelmaking Commando Team".
Chen Ying strongly supported her proposal and took charge as the captain of the vanguard team.
Ye Manzhi and sophomore Su Rui served as vice-captains.
Since sophomores and juniors had technical course assignments, the blowers and teaching models in the warehouse were all made by them. As freshmen, they had almost no contribution in this area, so Ye Manzhi took on the task of helping to cash in on the blowers.
"Squad leader, we are unfamiliar with this place. Who should we sell the blower to?" Du Ranran asked.
"These blowers are made of iron and wood, and their power levels vary." Ye Manzhi strolled around the warehouse with his hands behind his back. "Small blast furnaces all need blowers. First, send the high-power blowers to other blast furnaces and see if you can exchange them for some coke. I'll find another way to get the low-power blowers."
Most of the first-year students followed Chen Teye to make steel, and only 9 people joined the "Material Supply Vanguard Team".
There are eight girls and one boy, and the only boy is the study committee member of their class.
"Shen Mo, are you okay?" Ye Manyi asked.
Shen Mo has a delicate appearance and speaks politely. "No problem, I'll try it with everyone. Captain, how much do you charge for these blowers?"
Ye Manzhi had never been with such a delicate man before, so she tried to speak in a low voice.
"These high-power blowers cost around 20-35 yuan. As long as there's a 15%-20% profit margin, we'll sell them. Everyone, be prepared and don't be afraid of rejection. Start by selling them to small blast furnaces inside and outside the school."
She assigned tasks to everyone, and after finishing the last class of the day, she returned to Guangming Street carrying a blower that looked pretty good.
Guo Erni was still working overtime at the coal furnace factory. Seeing her suddenly appear in the factory, she asked in surprise, "Director Xiao Ye, didn't you go to college? Why are you back?"
"The university is right here, so it's not easy for me to come back!" Ye Manzhi sat down across from her and asked, "How's it going? Isn't it almost peak season for honeycomb coal stoves?"
"Haha, autumn is the peak season. Director Li and I are telling the workers to hurry up and stock up!"
"Our factory is doing well, so it's easier for me to talk about this." Ye Manzhi took a sip of hot tea, pointed at the hand-cranked blower on the ground and asked, "Deputy Director Guo, what do you think of this blower I brought?"
Guo Erni had already seen the blower and joked, "Director Ye, after you go to college, you won't still be working in supply and marketing, right?"
Ye Manzhi explained the situation at school. "We don't have the funds to buy coke, so we can only use the students' work to raise some funds. The quality of these blowers is excellent. If there are any problems, we will repair or replace them."
Guo Erni picked up the blower and fiddled with it for a few times before asking in a businesslike manner, "Director Ye, are the specifications of your blowers consistent?"
"There are 62 units in this batch, and the specifications are definitely not consistent. However, if the factory is willing to place an order with our Provincial University Industrial Economics Department, we can produce blowers of uniform specifications according to your requirements."
The colors, sizes, and specifications of student homework are all over the place. Not to mention sending it to a supply and marketing cooperative, even an ordinary handicraft cooperative may not accept it.
Otherwise, the department would have found a way to sell it long ago, and there wouldn’t be so much backlog of student assignments.
Ye Manzhi thought about it and felt that only Guangming Coal Furnace Factory would give her the face and take over this batch of goods.
When they first started producing honeycomb coal stoves, they even used paint buckets, and some of their products are still made with paint buckets today.
Coal furnace plants are relatively less picky in this regard.
After Guo Erni asked about the general situation, she said readily, "Director Ye, as long as the quality of the products can be guaranteed, the factory will accept these 62 blowers. We will charge them according to our purchase price of 2.3 yuan."
She was promoted by Ye Manzhi as the deputy factory director. This was the first time Director Ye asked her to do something, and she couldn't refuse no matter what. Besides, these blowers were made by college students, so the quality should be up to standard.
*
Ye Manzhi went back to Guangming Street and sold 62 blowers in the warehouse. He also brought in an order for 150 blowers for the sophomores and juniors.
Such a big matter is no longer something Chen Ying can decide on her own.
She took Ye Manzhi to the department head's office.
After listening to her explanation, Director Miao was silent for a moment and said, "We don't produce on a factory scale. The hand-cranked blowers in the warehouse cost about 2.5 yuan."
Ye Manzhi: “…”
She sold it for two dollars and thirty cents, so she still lost money?
Director Miao paused for a moment and then said, "The school is not a business and cannot issue invoices for the other party. Is there a risk of tax evasion?"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
This was something she hadn't thought of.
Ye Manzhi and Chen Ying stood in the office, listening to the department head finding four or five problems with the blower transaction, and thought the deal was going to fail.
But Director Miao continued, "However, your approach is very worthy of encouragement. Two dollars and three cents is fine. Many teachers and students in our department are always too obsessed with textbooks and lack a practical spirit."
Chen Ying confirmed with him, "Director, then all 62 hand-cranked blowers in our warehouse will be sold at 2.30 yuan?"
"Sell it." Director Miao nodded.
"What about the order for the next 150 units? Are you still accepting them at 2.30?"
"Yes, why not? But you're in the finance department. If you make two losing deals in a row, you can no longer be called a student of the Department of Industrial Economics."
Director Miao immediately made arrangements, "This is a rare practical opportunity. You will need to organize and plan the procurement of raw materials, production, and sales. After the event, all students who participated in it must submit a paper."
Ye Manzhi and Chen Ying: "::::::"
"You can just find any worker to run production, but you're students at a provincial university. While organizing production, you also have to address key issues and weak links in accounting. For example, accounting for materials, reforming accounting tools and methods, and applying and implementing certain new accounting systems. As for the content of your paper, focus on production management, labor organization, and technological innovation."
Ye Manzhi and Chen Ying: "::::::"
Director Miao asked, "Ye Manzhi is still a freshman, right?"
It seems like I just remembered it.
Ye Manzhi nodded quickly, "Ten of our first-year students have joined the 'Material Supply Vanguard Team'."
"Well, you might not be very good at writing papers in your first year, but you'll get better as you go along," Director Miao said, waving his hand. "You should go find Mr. Luo as your paper advisor. If you have any questions, just ask him."
Teacher Luo is the teacher of the course "Industrial Enterprise Organization and Planning" and is considered a young teacher in the department.
After walking out of the department head's office, Chen Ying and Ye Manzhi looked at each other.
Chen Ying said with a bitter face, "I knew that Lao Miao would never do business at a loss. Whenever he gets the chance, he will let his students participate in practice and write papers."
Ye Manzhi asked: "Will this activity delay your internship at the company?"
"It's okay. I haven't found an internship yet. If I can't go this year, I'll have to arrange it for next semester. Other departments have internships in their fourth and fifth years, but Lao Miao focuses more on integrating theory with practice and requires students in our department to go out for internships in their third year."
The freshman technical class had not yet made a blower, so the task of producing 150 blowers had to be organized by the sophomores and juniors.
Apart from writing a paper, freshmen are not required to participate in other work.
Ye Manzhi told her the order requirements for the blower, and then he felt relieved and went to the teaching building for class.
*
After the coke arrived, the small blast furnace of the Industrial Economics Department officially began steelmaking.
Because someone needs to be guarding the furnace all day long, the students in the steelmaking team are extremely busy. They run to the small blast furnace to take over their shifts after class.
This makes it seem like the members of the "Material Supply Vanguard" have a lot of free time.
In order to avoid being criticized, Ye Manzhi ran out after class.
The external explanation is that we go out to build relationships and find orders.
In fact, she took a bus straight home.
"You're back just in time. Please help your sister-in-law keep an eye on the taxi," Chang Yue'e handed the baby to her daughter. "Your third sister-in-law and fourth brother and I will go to the grain station to buy some food."
"Do we need three people to go buy food?" Ye Manzhi took the swaddling clothes in a hurry. "Why don't you let my third sister-in-law look after the child while I go buy food with you guys."
Huang Li had just finished her confinement and just wanted to go out for some fresh air. She waved her hand and said, "It's okay. This kid is easy to take care of. I just fed him. Just make sure you change his diaper."
Ye Manzhi coaxed her nephew with an "oh oh oh" and asked hurriedly, "I heard from my classmates that there's no limit on the amount of food you can buy now. Is that true?"
"Really?" Chang Yue'e pulled out two flour bags and pointed at her rice jar. "Otherwise, how could we buy so much food?"
Fourth Brother had been ordered to run to the grain station four times. He slumped down on a chair and said, "Mom, we bought two large jars of grain. How can we finish all this food in a short time? It will definitely attract insects!"
"I'm really scared of the rationing. This time the harvest is good, I'm going to eat as much rice as I want. Let's steam a pot of rice tonight!" Chang Yue'e hit him with the flour bag. "I won't buy another 20 kilograms of flour. Hurry up!"
Ye Manzhi has always been worried about Wong Tai Sin's food hoarding and the bumper harvest.
When he saw his third sister-in-law, he looked at her forehead intentionally or unintentionally.
However, this time, Wong Tai Sin spoke directly from his heart.
"We may have a good harvest, but it's not likely to yield tens of thousands of kilograms per mu, is it? As long as we don't reach that, it's only a matter of time before we have to reinstate rationing. We have a large family, and at the end of every month, we don't have enough food to eat. We might as well save some food now while there are no rations! If bugs can eat it, humans can eat it too, and it doesn't matter if it gets infested with bugs."
These days, the grain is full of stones, sand, insects and everything else. Huang Li, who was used to eating refined rice, has gradually gotten used to the rice of today.
When washing rice, if you encounter small black bugs, you can pick them out without batting an eyelid.
However, Huang Li did not expect that there would be an unlimited supply of food in the city. If she had known this, she would not have to stock up on food so early.
The first batch of grain she stockpiled has become stale.
After hearing what the third brother's wife said, Chang Yue'e, who had originally planned to buy another bag of flour and stop, began to hesitate again.
She didn't want to buy so much grain at first. It was only after Old Ye said that the grain yield of 10,000 kilograms per mu was nonsense that she started to stockpile.
Ye Shouxin is a typical rural kid. He has been farming in the countryside with his family since he was a child. He knows best how much harvest can be obtained from the land.
After hearing the report on the radio, he cursed those people for bragging and even went back to his hometown on the weekend to ask his third brother what kind of fertilizer he used in the fields and how he could produce thousands of kilograms per mu.
Ye Laosan said that this year's harvest is indeed much better than in previous years, but it is definitely not a yield of 1,000 kilograms per mu.
They didn't know how the other party got the thousand kilograms of grain. Everyone was very happy about the good harvest and even reported the good news to the commune.
As a result, other people's harvests were higher than theirs.
The team leader has taken people to learn from the commune that produces 1,000 kilograms per mu.
Chang Yue'e had never farmed before, so she didn't know who to listen to, but she had money and space at home, so it didn't matter if she bought some extra food and ate it slowly.
"Fourth brother, when you buy food, can you buy some for me?" Ye Manzhi handed him ten yuan. "Buy two hundred kilograms of rice first, and I'll give you the money later."
In the past, coarse grains and fine grains were in limited supply, but now there is no limit, so she must eat fine grains!
She likes to eat rice.
"Sister-in-law, can the taxi go out to bask in the sun?" Ye Manyi asked.
"able."
Huang Li was speechless about his son's nickname. The couple had already named the child Qixiang.
But everyone got used to calling him that, and except for his parents, everyone called him Taxi.
"Then I'll take him back to my place for a while. There's still sunshine at my house now."
Ye Manzhi went out with them and asked her fourth brother to push her family's bicycle to buy food.
Then she carried the baby back to the house and placed the child on the two-meter bed to bask in the sun.
When Taxi was just born, she was looking forward to the college entrance examination results and didn't pay much attention to her nephew.
Now if you look closely, this child's facial features are quite similar to Wong Tai Sin's.
She subconsciously glanced at the child's forehead, wondering if her nephew could inherit his mother's magical powers.
While staring at his nephew's forehead, Kuihua barked happily twice in the yard. He knew from the noise that Wu Zhengrong had returned.
Ye Manzhi's eyes rolled, she wrapped a piece of cloth around her forehead, and then held the taxi in her arms.
As soon as Wu Zhengrong returned home, he saw his wife, who should have been studying at school, leaning against the head of the bed like a woman who had just given birth, with a baby in her arms.
Ye Lai Ya said weakly, "Brother Zheng Rong, you're finally back! Come and see our child!"
Wu Zhengrong: “…”
He stood there for a full minute before walking to the bedside and observing the child in her arms.
In that minute, 1 second was spent in shock and the other 59 seconds were spent in reflection.
For a moment, he actually believed Ye Lai Ya's nonsense, and thought that they really had a child. He even inexplicably developed a feeling of almost joy.
Being deceived by such poor acting skills made him reflect for a long time.
He leaned forward slightly to look at the swaddled baby and asked, "Is this a taxi?"
Ye Manzhi continued to act: "This is our baby!"
Wu Zhengrong took off her headscarf, flicked it on her forehead and said, "Why did you become so stupid after going to college?"
He took off his coat and went outside to wash his hands. Then he came back and held Ye Lai Ya and the swaddling clothes in his arms.
"What does he eat? Does he want water?"
Ye Manzhi smiled: "What else can a baby eat? It can only drink milk! We don't need to feed it anything, just wait for my third sister-in-law to come back."
Wu Zhengrong placed his palm on her lower abdomen and asked in a low voice, "Is the period coming?"
"No." Ye Manzhi leaned against his chest and replied in a low voice, "However, I was probably too nervous during the months of preparing for the college entrance examination. My period wasn't very regular, sometimes it would be delayed by a week or two."
"Do you want to go to the hospital for a checkup?"
"Isn't it still early now? It's after National Day."
The two of them snuggled together for a long time under the orange sunset.
When the taxi driver's mouth opened wide and he showed signs of crying, Wu Zhengrong suddenly said, "Let me hold the child."
"Don't you dislike holding the baby?" Ye Manyi stepped out of his arms, carefully handed the swaddle to him, and helped him adjust the baby's holding posture.
Wu Zhengrong made no secret of his purpose: "First, I'll practice on other people's children."
*
From that day on, Wu Zhengrong suddenly went to his father-in-law's house more often.
And I have to hug the taxi every time.
When he came to the Ye family before, the child was still in confinement and rarely left the room.
The child is already one month old now, and the uncle's sudden liking for holding the child did not arouse too many people's suspicion.
Moreover, Wu Zhengrong is very generous and often brings things to the taxi, either milk powder or bottles.
Everyone just thought that he got along well with the child and liked the child. Both the father and mother told him not to be polite and to hold the child if he liked him.
Ye Manzhi, who was at school, didn't know that the milk powder and bottles she had saved for her own child were taken out by Wu Zhengrong to pay for tuition and given to her nephew.
The provincial university campus was bustling at this time.
After the small blast furnaces were built, the student union called on all students to launch a big debate on "how to implement the party's education policy."
Each department and class must conduct group discussions.
Not only should the discussion results be submitted to the school, but they should also be summarized and posted on a big-character poster for all students in the school to study and discuss.
Class 1 of the Department of Industrial Economics conducted group discussions based on their dormitories.
But the five people in dormitory 201 were all liberal arts students, and they were all busy preparing for physics and chemistry tests recently, so they had no time to pay attention to anything else. So, on behalf of the group, Ye Manzhi wrote a random big-character poster and submitted it.
She suggested on the big-character poster that the Industrial Economics Department should learn from the Power Engineering Department, which had used its expertise to open a coke plant, which would not only generate considerable income but also provide internship opportunities for students.
The Department of Industrial Economics should also make use of its strengths and open a machinery factory or repair shop.
Her suggestion was just a sudden thought and she wrote it casually.
Hundreds of big-character posters were posted throughout the school, but what she wrote was like a drop in the ocean and received no response at all.
However, after the Russian class that day, Chen Ying suddenly came to her and said, "Ye Manzhi, the department head wants you to come to the office!"
"What are you doing?"
Ye Manzhi was almost starving, but still wanted to go to the cafeteria to eat.
"Didn't your group write that big-character poster? After Director Miao saw it, he told us to launch a department-wide mass debate to explore the feasibility of finance majors opening a machinery factory! You know, Mr. Miao prioritizes integrating theory with practice!"
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