Chapter 219
The two agreed to meet at Xia Zhuyun's home.
There was a knock on the door, and the first person to run out to open it was Xia Zhuyun's youngest daughter Fang Zhiran.
Ye Manzhi was surprised and asked, "Zhiran, you're back too?"
"I took two days off from the production team and just got back this morning." Fang Zhiran took her hand and said, "Sister Manzhi, come in quickly! I've made the tea!"
When he followed the other person into the room and saw Xia Zhuyun standing in the middle of the living room, Ye Manzhi's nose suddenly felt sore. He took a few quick steps and hugged her.
Xia Zhujun patted her on the back and said, "Xiaoye, you haven't changed much in these years. You're still a pretty girl."
"You haven't changed much, you're full of energy!"
In fact, Xia Zhuyun has changed a lot. There are silver threads in her hair, her skin is tanned, and her hands have become rough.
But his spirit hasn't changed much, and there's still a glimmer of wisdom in his eyes.
Xia Zhujun didn't mention her own situation. She pulled her aside and said, "Xiaoye, I have to thank you for Zhiran's matter. Lao Fang and I couldn't take care of her at the time. Fortunately, you still cared about her."
"Haha, I'm not the only one thinking about her. At the time, Zhao Guilin wanted Zhiran to work at the leather company, but considering the family situation, to be safe, he decided to send Zhiran to the Donghe Village production team to work in the countryside."
Fang Zhiran was a high school graduate of the class of 1966. Because of the movement, he stayed in school for two years and did not get his diploma until 1968.
At that time, six classes of junior and senior high school graduates were waiting for assignments, and it was very difficult to get a quota to stay in the city.
Except for students who could take over their parents' jobs in factories, almost everyone had to respond to the call and go to the countryside.
The Ye family also had two graduates from Class 1966, one was Xiaoting from the eldest sister's family, and the other was Maiduo from the fourth brother's family.
While Ye Manzhi was worrying about her niece and nephew, she thought of Xia Zhuyun's little girl again.
Xia Zhujun has been very kind to her. Now that Mr. Xia is not at home, if she doesn't help at this critical moment, then when will she help?
So she called to ask Fang Zhiran where he was going after graduation.
Fang Zhiran was standing at a crossroads in his life at a loss. When he received Ye Manyi's call, he was like a drowning man grabbing a piece of driftwood, and quickly told her about her predicament.
Her parents have left Binjiang, her sister works in a neighboring province, and her brother is a university graduate of the class of 1966 and has already reported to the frontier.
Before leaving, she entrusted her to Zhao Guilin, hoping that Zhao Guilin could find a job for her sister for the sake of her mother.
Zhao Guilin agreed.
However, the policy for mobilizing people to go to the countryside at that time was that only one child in a family with many children did not have to go to the countryside.
My eldest sister has already stayed in the city, and according to the policy, Fang Zhiran should go to the countryside.
She was worried that staying in the city would affect her parents, and she was instinctively afraid of the unknown and unfamiliar environment.
After understanding the situation, Ye Manzhi felt that given the current situation of the Fang family, it would be best for Fang Zhiran to go and join the team. This would be good for both the Xia couple and Fang Zhiran himself.
She was not familiar with the street commune where Fang's family lived, so she asked Liu Jinbao to help contact acquaintances there and arranged for Fang Zhiran to go to the Donghe Village Brigade of the Hongxing People's Commune in Tonglan County, Binjiang City.
It is Ye Manzhi’s hometown.
Her grandparents and her third uncle's family all lived in Donghe Village, and her third uncle was the custodian of the production team.
When a young girl goes to the countryside, she will be taken care of by acquaintances, so her life will not be too difficult.
After a few days back, Xia Zhujun has already understood the general situation of the past few years.
It is easy to add icing on the cake, but difficult to provide timely assistance.
She had quite a few students and former officials back then, and everyone might have had their own difficulties, but only Ye Manzhi and Zhao Guilin really came to her aid.
She didn't say too many words of thanks to Ye Manzhi, but instead asked about her recent work and life.
Ye Manzhi said: "Shuguang Factory has been relatively stable in recent years. Thanks to continuous export orders, production has hardly stopped. For three consecutive years, it has been the number one exporter and foreign exchange earner among the light industries in the province. Air guns are exported to the Middle East every year, and the Middle East market has been saturated. Electric fans are also very popular in the export market and are now a major foreign exchange earner."
"However, considering that both products have their own limitations, we launched the black and white TV project last year..."
Xia Zhujun put down her teacup and asked, "You've lost a lot of money on the TVs, haven't you? Are you being subsidized by the provincial or municipal finances?"
"It's subsidized by the Binjiang Municipal Government, but our factory has set up a TV design studio, established a workers' university, and hired many experts and professors to diagnose TVs. This has greatly reduced costs. Now we only lose 9 yuan on each black-and-white tube TV."
Ye Manzhi introduced the situation of Shuguang Factory and also mentioned the situation in the province and the city.
Xia Zhujun listened very carefully.
In the cadre school, she had to study and do farm work at the same time.
Although she has a fixed time every day to read books and newspapers to improve her ideological understanding and theoretical level, she has not been active in the agency for a long time and still needs to slowly familiarize herself with some situations.
Ye Manzhi was so thirsty from talking that after drinking a whole pot of tea, she hesitated for a moment and asked about her concerns.
"Did the province arrange a job for you when you came back this time?"
The former Provincial Department of Industry has been abolished, and the province's industrial work is now coordinated by the Revolutionary Committee's Production Command.
After Xia Zhuyun returned from the cadre school, it was impossible for her to return to her original unit to work.
"The Provincial Revolutionary Committee is going to set up a new department," Xia Zhuyun said. "It will merge the existing Provincial Chemical and Light Industry Corporation and the Provincial Machinery Bureau to form the Provincial Industrial Bureau. I will temporarily serve as the head of the preparatory group for the Industrial Bureau."
Ye Manzhi asked in surprise, "After the Industrial Bureau is officially established, can you become the director?"
"If nothing unexpected happens, it should be."
Ye Manzhi looked at Fang Zhiran beside her, and both of them could not hide the joy in their eyes.
"However, revolutionary work still requires a down-to-earth approach and careful attention," Xia Zhuyun said to the two. "After our meeting today, you should all return to your hard work and labor, and proceed as usual."
Both of them solemnly agreed.
Xia Zhuyun wanted to invite her to dinner at her home, but Ye Manzhi declined.
She works in Binjiang, and we can have dinner together anytime she wants.
Fang Zhiran only took two days off and had to go back to the production team to work tomorrow.
Let's leave some time for this mother and daughter to have a private conversation.
*
Xia Zhuyun's return made Ye Manzhi feel that the world seemed different.
The sky is bluer, the air is fresher, and life seems more promising.
She went home and shared the good news with Wu Zhengrong, and asked her daughter to send some things to Jiang's home.
Maybe Chief Jiang will be able to return to the team soon!
The couple closed the shop and had a drink of soju to celebrate, and their good mood lasted until Ye Manzhi was interviewed by reporters.
Director Ye started working at the street office at the age of 18 and has been engaged in revolutionary work for more than ten years. This is her first time to accept an exclusive interview with a reporter.
For this interview, Ye Manzhi took her daughter to dress up at home and changed into several sets of cadre uniforms.
It was difficult to give up any one of them, and finally, at Wu Zhengrong's suggestion, I chose workwear.
After all, she usually wears work clothes for a long time in the factory. In Chief Wu's words, she should look the same this time as she usually does, so don't be so conceited.
Ye Manzhi had no choice but to put away those sets of cadre uniforms and wear his daily blue work clothes to receive the reporter from the provincial newspaper.
Sun Jie is a young reporter from the provincial daily newspaper. This time she came to Shuguang Machinery Factory mainly to see the operation of the Workers' University.
Ye Manzhi first took her to the classroom to sit in on half a class, and then to the workshop to watch another professional practical class.
Before returning to the office, Sun Jie couldn't wait to ask, "Director Ye, I heard that the 721st Workers' University at Shuguang Factory was established with the consent of all the workers in the factory?"
Ye Manzhi shook his head and spoke frankly, "We have nearly 2,000 employees in our factory, so organizing a vote was a huge undertaking. So, we selected worker representatives from each workshop, along with several teams within the factory, to vote together. 87 people voted, and it passed unanimously."
Sun Jie took notes as she walked, then continued, "The Shuguang Workers' University was the first 721 Workers' University in the province. How did you come up with the idea of establishing a university?"
Of course there are no graduates in the university, so we have no one to use!
But that's not the case.
Ye Manzhi said seriously, "Initially, it was because we had just launched a television project and were short of relevant technical talent. We were practically blank in this area. After failing to transfer personnel from other units, Shuguang Factory decided to cultivate its own team of highly skilled and dedicated technicians. Coincidentally, newspapers were publicizing Chairman Mao's July 21st Directive and the advanced experience of the Shanghai Machine Tool Factory. It was like a sudden enlightenment for us, like we had found a treasure. We immediately responded to the directive and established the university in less than a month!"
Sun Jie said, "I just visited the classrooms at the Workers' University. They're set up in a workshop, with very simple blackboards, desks, and chairs. Has anyone commented that this doesn't look like a university? Actually, some factories in other provinces have partnered with universities to run workers' universities, with classes held on the university campus."
"Running a university in a factory means that the material living conditions are somewhat worse, but our direction of running a university is to integrate production and serve production. Placing the university in a factory allows us to combine teaching, scientific research and production."
The two entered Ye Manzhi's office. After they sat down, Sun Jie continued, "Some people now think that Workers' University only offers one or two specialized classes, and is more like a technical secondary school, not a university. What do you think, Director Ye?"
Ye Manzhi asked, "Can the technical secondary school invite university faculty to teach our students? We offer classes based on business needs. Currently, we're most in need of talent in electronics and mechanics, so we only offer these two full-time classes. If we need talent in chemistry or optics in the future, we can always open classes."
"In fact, we have more than just these two specialized classes. Our employees are particularly eager to go to university, so we've added two full-time and part-time classes. They work during the week and attend classes all day on weekends. The program lasts four years, and after graduation, the students will also enrich our technical workforce!"
"In addition, the factory Party Committee has utilized existing resources to open political night schools and women's training classes for employees, making full use of their spare time to improve their political theory and professional skills. If the July 21st Workers' University can do so much, how can it not be a university?"
Sun Jie quickly wrote down the details in her notebook and asked, "Some factories are worried that full-time study will affect normal production. Shuguang Factory has transferred 60 employees to university and set up two part-time classes. Are there any concerns about this?"
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "When we select trainees, we first assess their political literacy. Only those with strong political qualities can enter the next round of written examinations. Therefore, these 60 trainees have a high level of ideological awareness. When the workshop is too busy, everyone often returns to their original posts to participate in labor during their spare time."
Sun Jie seized on her question and continued, "The reason workers are required to take time off from work to study is to ensure effective learning. Students at the Workers' University have to attend school and also find time to work. Can the quality of their learning be guaranteed?"
"If I told you I could guarantee it, newspaper readers would probably be skeptical, right?" Ye Manzhi said with a smile. "The teaching at the Workers' University is very closely integrated with actual production, and the learning effect is very significant. I can give you a few examples."
"Less than a month after classes began at the Workers' University, a student named Lv Fangfang improved the factory's television casing, directly reducing the cost by one-third."
"In addition, there was a comrade named Wei Aihua, the oldest of all the students at 39. She came from a poor peasant family and was a mother of three. She had heavy family and academic burdens, but after six months of university study, she invented a semi-automatic deflection coil winding and packaging equipment based on the production needs of the television workshop, greatly improving the production efficiency of the deflection coils."
"If trainees can apply what they've learned to production, the quality of their learning should be pretty good, right?"
Sun Jie's interview was very long and the questions were very detailed.
It was almost time to get off work in the afternoon when Ye Manzhi finally explained all the issues clearly.
Sun Jie said that this interview manuscript needs to be carefully polished and may not be published until after the Spring Festival.
Ye Manzhi certainly had no objection and personally escorted the person out of the factory gate.
However, the content that we thought we would have to wait until after the Chinese New Year appeared on the front page of the provincial newspaper a week later!
The title is "Implementing the spirit of the July 21st Directive - How the Binjiang Shuguang Machinery Factory established the July 21st Workers' University."
There are two photos in the lower right corner. One is a picture of worker trainees taking practical classes in the workshop, and the other is a group photo of Ye Manzhi and Miao Sufen wearing work clothes and the trainees in a simple classroom.
The first photo was taken by Sun Jie herself, and the second photo was selected by the newspaper from several photos provided by the Propaganda Department of Shuguang Factory.
The Workers' University of Shuguang Factory unexpectedly made the front page of the provincial newspaper!
Not only the outside world was surprised, even the people at Shuguang Factory themselves did not expect it!
Ye Manzhi's office phone was almost blown up by calls from acquaintances, all of whom were congratulating her as soon as they saw the news.
In fact, she herself was also confused. She thought that it would be enough to have a place in the second edition.
I totally didn’t expect it to be on the front page!
The honor of being on the front page of a provincial newspaper is second only to being on the People's Daily!
After hanging up the phone, Director Ye arranged three tasks.
One was to inform Old Ye that his little girl was in the newspaper, and it was the front page headline. He could buy a few more copies of the newspaper and show off to his neighbors and relatives.
The second is to post this report on the factory bulletin board and broadcast it three times in different time periods on the radio.
The third is to ask the factory office to keep a copy of the newspaper, which can be used as key material and included in the Shuguang Factory's annals in the future.
As for the request of others to eat meat at noon, Ye Manzhi did not agree for the time being.
She wants to wait until the other matter is settled before doing it together!
"Director Kang, how's it going? Have you figured out the cost?"
Kang Jian didn't answer, but handed over the stack of materials that the Finance Department had just given him.
Ye Manzhi's palms were sweating and he flipped through the pages quickly. The office was filled with the sound of flipping papers.
Until she turned to the last page, she fixed her eyes at the end and saw the result of "391 yuan".
"oops!"
Ye Manzhi clapped his hands and was so excited that he wanted to stamp his feet on the spot.
"Is this number correct? Is it correct?"
"No mistake! I gathered everyone from the Supply and Marketing Department, the Finance Department, and the Production Planning Department together and calculated the price seven times! Even after factoring in all the possible expenses, the total came to 391 yuan!"
"Okay, okay!" Ye Manzhi paced around the room. "We have to give Cheng Liangcai a big award this time. He's done a great job!"
She had previously contacted three military factories that could produce civilian products at a quality evaluation meeting.
But they all have production tasks above and are not very willing to accept orders.
These three factories are not in Binjiang City. Ye Manzhi originally wanted to visit each of them, but she was too busy with work at the end of the year, so she handed the task over to Cheng Liangcai, the head of the supply and marketing section.
Cheng Liangcai used to work in the transportation department of Factory 833. Due to procurement needs, he often dealt with other military factories.
This time, he personally led people to these three factories to contact sources of goods. At the cost of almost drinking so much that he had stomach bleeding, he finally got two of them to agree to supply goods to Shuguang Factory!
The quotation from the military factory is lower than the price for transporting goods from other provinces, and the transportation cost is also lower.
With the addition of these two factories, the cost price of Shuguang Factory's black-and-white TVs dropped to 391 yuan, completely reversing the situation of losing money on each unit sold.
The factory price of the TV is 402 yuan, and I can make a profit of 11 yuan this time!
Everyone in the factory leadership team immediately learned of this great news. When Miao Sufen came up to verify it, Ye Manzhi held her in an extremely unstable manner, causing her to jump several times.
Miao Sufen was infected by her joy and asked with a smile, "Director Ye, can we eat meat this time?"
"Eat, eat, eat!" Ye Manzhi announced with a cheerful face, "We'll have meat in the cafeteria for three days straight! Let's celebrate this happy event that's been in the newspapers!"
The televisions would soon be profitable, and everyone was delighted.
The next day, when we went to the cafeteria to eat meat, a worker asked, "Director Ye, our factory's televisions are profitable now, so can we buy one too?"
"A TV costs 430 yuan, are you willing to buy it?"
An ordinary worker can only save 430 yuan if he does not eat or drink for a year.
Anyway, Ye Manzhi was reluctant to spend the money. She was the director of Shuguang Factory, but she didn't even have a TV at home.
Of course, it also has something to do with the fact that there is no TV signal at her house.
Cough cough.
"I definitely can't come up with that much money on my own!" the man said, "but our building can pool our money and buy one, and watch TV together every night!"
Ye Manzhi apologized, "The factory has a production target this year, and every TV set has a place to go."
This time is different from the initial production of electric fans. At that time, there was no production task, and the factory had to find sales channels on its own to sell the electric fans to its employees.
Televisions are in high demand, and the managers of department stores are waiting tantalizingly for the goods. It is definitely not possible to sell them privately to employees.
However, Anyang County already had television signals, and everyone was an employee of the Shuguang Factory. It seemed a bit unreasonable that they had not even watched the televisions produced by their own company.
After lunch, Ye Manzhi went to discuss with several deputy directors.
"We previously trial-produced several televisions with wooden casings, but now we've switched to metal casings. We can't sell those wooden ones, and it would be a waste to just keep them around. We might as well lend them to the union."
Huang He said, "We have an activity room in our factory, so we can put one there first. We can also put one in the Workers' Cultural Palace, and then we can set up two TV rooms in the family housing complex for employees to watch TV programs in their spare time."
Generally, no one objects to this kind of welfare benefit that all factory employees can enjoy.
Even Wang Zaofu, who loved to play the devil's advocate, readily raised his hand in agreement.
His mother, wife and children all live in the family compound. With the TV room built, his family can also enjoy the benefits.
Therefore, during the Spring Festival of 1972, two TV rooms were added to the Shuguang Factory staff housing compound, with two additional 14-inch black-and-white TVs and two TV custodians.
On the first day the TV was turned on, the TV room was packed with family members who came to see the TV in person.
Some children even ride on their father or brother's shoulders and look towards the front row.
"Old Liu, are you a good enough custodian? Didn't you say we can watch it at 7 o'clock? Why is there still no sound?"
"Yeah, there's someone in the TV room next door!"
"Don't rush me!" said the custodian, Old Liu, sweating profusely as he adjusted the TV antenna. "I'm trying to find a signal."
As soon as he finished speaking, the black and white TV screen flashed and several figures appeared!
"Hey, there's someone up there! What's going on?"
[Forward~Forward~ Soldiers bear a heavy responsibility~Women's grievances run deep~]
Hearing the familiar melody, someone immediately replied: "This is the model opera 'The Red Detachment of Women'!"
The TV room gradually became quiet. The person sitting in the front row stared at the TV screen, while the people in the back couldn't see the small screen clearly, so they listened to the sound from the TV.
At the end of the song, an old lady shouted, "One more!"
"Haha, Auntie, do you think this is a folk art troupe performance? The TV station only plays it once, who can give you another one?"
A young worker sat on the ground, resting his chin on his hand, and asked, "Comrades, has our Shuguang Factory achieved the Four Modernizations ahead of schedule?"
"Of course. We now have electric lights, telephones, washing machines, and televisions. Aren't these the four modernizations?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
There was a burst of laughter in the TV room.
"I heard that the TV in our factory can tune into five channels. Lao Liu, can you tune into other programs for everyone?"
Old Liu ran over and turned the channel knob. Soon, a scene of leaders holding a meeting appeared on the screen.
"I've never seen a leader hold a meeting before! Whose leader is this?"
"From Beijing!" Old Liu said, "This is the news from Beijing Television, relayed by Binjiang Station!"
"I've really made it big. I've even met the leaders in Beijing!"
In fact, through this small fluorescent screen, the residents of the Shuguang Factory staff housing estate not only saw the leaders from Beijing.
As winter turned to spring and the years passed, they witnessed the American president visiting China and also saw the Japanese prime minister who was unpopular with the people.
The children sit in front of the TV on time every day and become witnesses of important historical moments.
*
"Director Ye, my Director Ye! Televisions are such a hot commodity, how can you not organize workers to work in three shifts to rush production?"
The director of the Revolutionary Committee of the Zhongjiang District Department Store was blocking the door of Ye Manzhi's office.
"Director Jiang, I have no choice. Working two shifts is already the limit!"
Of course Ye Manzhi also wants to make money, but the factory does not have enough staff!
After no longer needing city financial subsidies to cover its losses, Shuguang Factory began to work hard and increase production.
In just five months, the annual production task of 12,000 televisions was completed.
However, arranging workers into two shifts is already the limit. If another 8-hour shift is added, additional workers will undoubtedly need to be recruited.
Moreover, the whole machine workshop, cathode ray tube workshop, deflection coil workshop and high-frequency head workshop are recruiting people together.
Then labor costs will inevitably go up.
The profit of a black and white TV is only a dozen yuan, how dare she increase the labor cost at will!
"Director Ye!" Jiang He pleaded, "Our Zhongjiang District's TV station is newly built, and the people are waiting to watch TV. This time, you must at least allocate 1,000 stations to us, right?"
Ye Manzhi said in embarrassment: "Director Jiang, Dehua District has also built a TV station. This month's goods have been ordered by them. You should wait until next month!"
"Then why don't you add another production shift?" Jiang He shouted. "Aren't you holding a meeting these days to mobilize educated youth to go to the countryside? There are so many children of factory workers waiting to work in your factory. You should give them a chance!"
Ye Manzhi was getting a headache from his pestering. She pointed at her watch and said, "The provincial leaders have summoned me. I have to be there before three o'clock. Director Jiang, go talk to Director Wang or Director Kang at our factory. I have to leave!"
Without saying any more words to him, Ye Manzhi put on her backpack and ran down the stairs swiftly.
She drove to the Provincial Industrial Bureau, which had just been established half a year ago, went straight to the director's office, and called out "Director Xia."
Xia Zhujun had just come out of the conference room and was about to attend another meeting, so she stated the purpose of looking for her directly.
"The central government intends to import a batch of urgently needed complete sets of technology and equipment from the West. This may cost over four billion US dollars. This will be the largest-scale technology import since the 156 projects imported from the Soviet Union 20 years ago."
Ye Manzhi held his breath and listened attentively, his little heart beating wildly.
Xia Zhujun sighed and whispered, "In recent years, our province's industry has hardly made any significant progress. I plan to try my best to persuade the central government to introduce some advanced equipment for the province."
"Director Xia, what kind of equipment do you want to import?"
"Cold rolling mills, thermal power plants, and agricultural equipment—just try to get whatever you can," Xia Zhujun asked. "I remember your factory was involved in the development of color televisions. How's that progress now?"
Ye Manzhi thought to himself, it’s not that great. Pan Kunlun went to the Tianjin War Zone just to assist in the research and development. The main force is still the comrades in Tianjin.
The Shuguang Factory's focus is still on black and white televisions.
But she thought about it and plucked up the courage to say, "The design studio is studying it."
"Well, this time the central government wants to import a color TV production line from abroad. Bring the technicians with you and go to Beijing with me to try to get it!"
Ye Manzhi suppressed her throbbing heart and promised repeatedly: "I'll go back and gather the troops right away!"
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