Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 533 Where are the Tigers?
On train No. 159 from Beijing to Changchun, Chen Fan was sleeping soundly wrapped in a quilt when he suddenly felt a chill and tightened the quilt around himself.

A few seconds later, he sensed something was wrong, suddenly opened his eyes, lifted the curtains and looked outside. He saw a blanket of white snow that even the night couldn't hide, and snowflakes were dancing in the lamplight. He knew then that he had arrived in Northeast China.

While the capital city is welcoming spring, it's still snowing here.

I raised my hand and rolled up my sleeves. My watch showed it was 5 a.m., and there were still two hours before the train arrived.

If it's not late!
Since he was already awake, he simply threw off the covers and got out of bed, while the other people in the bunks were still fast asleep.

The Ministry of Machine Building provided decent treatment. More than a dozen experts, along with Director Yang and his team, all bought soft sleeper tickets. Including a few administrative staff, they occupied half of the carriage.

Just like taking a ship, hard seats, hard sleepers, and soft sleepers are allocated according to rank. Ordinary people can usually only buy hard seats, while junior cadres, the elderly, or people with serious illnesses can buy hard sleepers with proof of their status, or they can also buy hard sleeper tickets by finding acquaintances in large units to pull strings.

Soft sleeper tickets are not something that ordinary people can buy. Just like airplane tickets and first-class cabins on ships, they not only require proof from one's work unit, but also require one's own rank to meet the standard. Only a deputy director like Chen Fan can barely qualify for a soft sleeper ticket. He can only travel alone and cannot bring others.

However, there is one exception: foreigners.

(A soft sleeper carriage on a train in the 70s)

Like foreign-related hotels, soft sleeper carriages on trains are places where you are most likely to encounter foreigners.

It's not for any other reason than that, just like with the current situation at Xiaopang's house, the main reason is to encourage foreign visitors to spend more so that more foreign exchange can be retained.

At this moment, the other half of the carriage was occupied by a group of foreign tourists.

However, since a travel agency representative was with them, almost no one interacted with them to avoid trouble.

Everyone was still asleep at this time. The carriage was pitch black, with only the clattering sound of the train moving along.

Chen Fan took his toothbrush and towel to the luxuriously decorated toilet in the sleeper car to relieve himself, then walked forward with his hands in his pockets.

The dining car is usually located where the hard seat and hard sleeper carriages are connected, typically carriage number 9. There are railway staff guarding the connection point, preventing people in front from entering, while sleeper passengers in the back can pass through with their tickets.

Chen Fan walked through several hard sleeper carriages to the dining car connection, waved his berth card, took out a cigarette and offered one to someone, then took out a lighter, lit it, took a puff, and said, "It's already February 11th, and it's still so cold."

The train police officer leaned against the wall, smoking and laughing, "In Northeast China, it's like this. It snows until April, and then it starts snowing again in September and October. It snows for about half the year."

Chen Fan sniffed the coal smoke, tilted his head to look at a small room in another carriage, and asked, "Is that the boiler room? It doesn't look like there's any fire?"

The train police officer followed his gaze and glanced over. "There's definitely a fire, just a small one. There's nothing we can do; the train has a limited carrying capacity, and there's a ration for how much coal we burn. We can only replenish it at major stations. Each carriage has its own small boiler, which is what keeps the carriages warm in winter."

"Judging from your berth nameplate, it's a soft sleeper carriage, right? Your soft sleeper carriage is a bit better; the quota is slightly higher than other carriages, so you can manage without a down jacket. Further along, it's not so good. Wearing a down jacket is just enough to keep you warm; you'll feel cold as soon as you take it off."

He looked at Chen Fan. "Up so early, are you going to the dining car up ahead for lunch?"

Chen Fan hummed in agreement and asked, "Is it open yet?"

The train police officer chuckled. "There's no fixed time on the train. From departure to the final stop, whenever a passenger wants to eat, the dining car will bring it out. But most of the time, it's prepared in advance, served in lunchboxes, and sold. Any leftovers are kept warm in the hot water dispenser. Passengers can only buy those, unless it's a high-ranking official or a foreign dignitary, in which case it will be made fresh."

He glanced at his watch. "It's almost 5:30 now. They should be making breakfast. If you go over now, you can enjoy the wok hei (wok aroma)."

Chen Fan took a deep drag of his cigarette, shoved the butt into the ashtray hanging on the wall, and waved. "Thanks, see you later."

Walk a short distance forward and you'll see the train's kitchen, which is partitioned off. Through the windows, you can see the chefs busy at work.

He glanced at it twice, then went to the service counter to order, and then found a seat with his tray.

A large bowl of noodles with soybean paste, two fried dough sticks, two pancakes, two large meat buns, five eggs, and a bowl of soy milk.

Let's just grab a quick bite for now, and then we'll get off the bus with Director Yang and the others to have a proper meal later.

Just as they were about to start their journey, they saw several exhausted train attendants walk over and sit in the seat next to Chen Fan. One of them turned around and called out, "Old Wang, is there any more food?"

A voice came from the kitchen, "I asked every day, and I knew you were changing shifts, so I calculated the time to heat it up. Come and get it."

Two young men immediately got up and went over, and soon returned with several dishes.

(Interior view of a dining car in the 70s, dining with foreigners)
Chen Fan glanced at it and thought, "Hey, the food is pretty good. There's fish, meat, and vegetables, and a big bowl of steamed buns next to us. Everyone is also taking out a cup from their pocket, and you can tell it's alcohol without even smelling it."

He looks at others, and others look at him.

An elderly railway worker in his fifties chuckled, "You're up so early? Your colleagues are still washing up?"

"No, they're still sleeping. I'll eat by myself."

Chen Fan remained calm and smiled composedly, "I'm still growing, so my appetite has increased a bit."

The group was startled, exchanged glances, but remained silent.

Only one young man in his early twenties looked at him curiously and asked, "Excuse me, how old are you?"

Chen Fan picked up his chopsticks and stirred the noodles, then smiled and said, "Eighteen."

Then, with a single chopstick, he picked up half a bowl of noodles, shoveled it into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed it.

A strange look flashed in the old railwayman's eyes. "Young man, you have a good appetite."

He then gave the young man a wink and casually invited everyone to eat.

The young man, however, was restless. He lowered his voice and asked, "Master, is there a problem?"

Old Railway glared at him fiercely, then glanced outside and saw Chen Fan looking at him with a big smile. He couldn't help but chuckle dryly, "Young man, you're too naive. I'm sorry to have made you laugh."

The young man stared wide-eyed at his master, then at the passenger next to him, feeling a strange unease.

I'm 20 and he's 18, who's the younger one?
He was about to speak when his colleague next to him subtly pulled him back. When he turned around, he saw several people staring at him, their eyes looking like they wanted to devour him.

Chen Fan chuckled twice and said to the old railwayman, "Uncle, you've seen a lot, you must have worked on the train for many years, right?"

Upon hearing this, the old railway worker breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, "That's right, and I spend most of my time on this train. I don't spend as much time at home as I do on this train."

Once the topic was started, he began to speak at length, "This train first started running on June 1, 1955, then it was number 33/34, a direct passenger express train from Beijing to Changchun. It ran for a year, then stopped for a year, and then resumed after a year. On June 1, 1959, the train number was changed to 60/59, then it stopped again, then resumed again, going back and forth like that. In 1975, it was changed to 160/159, and I don't know when it will change again."

Chen Fan kept talking and writing, taking a break to say, "That means our railways are changing fast. There will be more and more trains in the future, and they will be faster and faster. Maybe they will change every two years. That's how we develop."

The old railwayman threw his head back and laughed heartily, "Yes, yes, that's exactly how it should be."

After chatting for a while, Chen Fan finished his breakfast in a flash, waved to them, and said, "Enjoy your meal, everyone."

The old railway worker quickly waved and said, "Take care."

After Chen Fan's figure disappeared, he turned around and glared fiercely at his disciple, "Don't talk nonsense in the future. Luckily, you met someone with a good temper. If it were someone with a bad temper, they might slap you and you wouldn't even know how you died."

The apprentice looked incredulous. "That's too much! He would dare to commit violence in public? Besides, I didn't offend him."

A middle-aged man next to him glared at him irritably. "You'd better remember what your master said. Didn't you see that he's not physically strong, yet he can eat so much? Let me tell you, this kind of person is very likely a martial arts expert. And look at his hands; there are no calluses, which means he has mastered the art to the bone."

You think you're safe as long as you haven't offended him? Martial arts practitioners have all sorts of unpredictable tempers; they're impossible to fathom. If you happen to encounter one with a bad temper, you could easily make enemies over a single word.

He could casually slap you, and nothing would seem amiss on the surface, but after a while, he'd suddenly vomit blood and die. How long that would last depends on his skill level; it could be as short as half a day or a day, or as long as three or four days. With so much time passing, where would you even find him? And what makes you think he was the one who did it?!

The young man was stunned. "Really?"

His colleague picked up a steamed bun and chuckled, "In our line of work, we may not be able to say much else, but being well-informed is definitely the most important thing. Things change, and we encounter all sorts of people and situations, so the most important thing is to be careful with your words and actions."

It's okay if you don't believe it now, but remember your master's words: know who you can mess with and who you can't, and avoid bringing trouble upon yourself. When you encounter such people in the future, you'll know whether this is true or not.

……

After another three hours of clattering and clanging, at 8:3 a.m., just over an hour late, the train finally stopped at Changchun Station.

FAW (First Automobile Works) certainly didn't lack cars, and being a local company, it had no shortage of connections. They actually sent six cars directly to the platform to pick up the entire "expert team" sent by the Ministry of Machinery Industry.

More than half an hour later, the convoy drove into the FAW factory.

The factory leaders personally received them, arranged for them to stay at the company's guesthouse, and had breakfast with them. Afterwards, at the urging of the expert group, they went to see the prototype vehicle.

In a factory, Chen Fan finally saw the car he designed.

Well, I have mixed feelings about this.

First of all, seeing your design transform from blueprints into a physical object is definitely a very happy thing.

However, the texture of this actual object has an indescribable feel to it.

It's like comparing the pictures you see on Pinduoduo (a Chinese e-commerce platform) with the actual product you receive.

Chen Fan covered half of his face and paced back and forth in front of the car, wondering to himself... If this was a product made by Yunhu Machinery Factory, he could accept it.

This is FAW (First Automobile Works)!

Looking at those cars again, apart from the exterior of the Hongqi Guoya, everything else—paint, tires, body shell, headlights, glass—was filled with a strong sense of "era".

If this were a mass-produced car, that would be one thing, but this is a "handcrafted" prototype!

Is this the result?

At this moment, a leader from the FAW factory walked over and smiled at him, "Comrade Chen, I heard from Director Yang that you can drive. You designed this car, why don't you come and try it out yourself?"

Chen Fan looked up and smiled, "Thank you, Director Jia. Then I won't stand on ceremony."

He then got into a car, picked up the key from the center console, inserted it, started the engine, and pressed the clutch.
It snowed heavily today, and the roads were difficult to travel on. Fortunately, the snow on the outer yard of the workshop had been cleared, so he didn't go far. He just drove around the entrance twice and then drove the car back to its original position.

Then he got into the van next to him and drove the same route again.

After returning and parking the car, he got out and asked, "Have you done the tests yourselves?"

Director Jia immediately replied, "We did it, but the test vehicle isn't here. We conducted rigorous testing for half a month, referring to the standard procedures of advanced countries, including low-temperature testing, high-temperature resistance testing, fuel, engine, brakes, and so on. So far, all tests have met the design standards, and we can even say they are excellent."

Chen Fan couldn't help but grit his teeth slightly. Half a month of rigorous testing?

In the future, a car will undergo at least six months of extreme testing from design to mass production, including high temperature, low temperature, high pressure, low pressure, wind resistance, safety, power, collision, exhaust emissions, hill climbing, top speed, low speed, acceleration, exposure to sunlight, and driving on ice...

Okay, it's still 78, so we can't expect too much.

He turned to the head of the expert group, a professor in his seventies, and said, "Professor Zhu, I just got a feel for it, and the handling is quite good, better than any car I've ever driven." Professor Zhu took two steps forward and said seriously, "I've read their report, and the content is similar to your experience. It's not just this sedan; even the driving experience of that minivan, which can be used for both passenger and cargo transport, is better than that of ordinary sedans and jeeps."

However, for safety reasons, we still need to conduct another rigorous inspection of the entire vehicle. If everything is fine, we'll need you to discuss production-related issues with us and the FAW team.

Chen Fan frowned slightly. "I'm afraid I can't be of much help in the production process, can I?"

Professor Zhu looked at Factory Director Yang, then at Director Jia, and asked, "Old Jia, shall we speak or you?"

Director Jia gave a wry smile, sighed deeply, and said wistfully, "There are no outsiders here, so I'm not afraid of being laughed at."

He turned to Chen Fan and said, "Everyone knows that the Hongqi cars produced by our FAW are the pride of the national automobile industry, but what outsiders don't know is the hardship and toil of our FAW employees."

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow slightly. "What do you mean?"

Director Jia gestured, "Come on, I'll take you on a tour of the workshop and tell you about the real situation of our factory."

A group of people followed him forward, with Chen Fan and Professor Zhu walking at the front, listening to his story.

"From 1958 to now, in 20 years, Comrade Chen, can you guess how many Hongqi sedans of all models have been produced in total?"

Chen Fan shook his head blankly, "I don't know."

Director Jia hummed twice and laughed self-deprecatingly, "Don't laugh at me, but in the past 20 years, we've produced a total of 1400 vehicles, averaging 70 vehicles a year."

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. 70 cars a year? A limited edition?

These days, it's practically impossible for cars not to sell. Every unit, from top to bottom, has a need for vehicles, so low production can only mean that there's a problem with FAW itself.

Seeing his expression, Director Jia's bitter smile deepened. "To build a car, our calculated minimum cost is 6 yuan and the maximum cost is 22 yuan, but we can only sell it for 4 yuan. Just for a single Hongqi sedan, the company loses several million yuan every year!"

Chen Fan's mouth was slightly open, but he could no longer speak.

In an era where the average wage was 35 yuan, what does it mean to lose millions of yuan a year?
And this is just one Hongqi sedan; what other products are there?
No wonder Hongqi later stopped production altogether, producing only a small number of cars for high-ranking leaders.

With high fuel consumption, and gasoline being in limited supply, various organizations are naturally reluctant to use it; quality is difficult to guarantee, so maintenance costs naturally increase; and with such a large annual loss, how can such a car be competitive?
Instead of losing millions a year to produce a few dozen cars, they might as well just buy imported luxury cars.

It's even cheaper!

The various car-using units below are also more willing.

Therefore, the cessation of Hongqi's production is not simply a matter of a production halt order, but rather a result of multiple factors, from changes in the social environment to problems within FAW itself.

After listening to Director Jia's explanation and taking a tour of the car production workshop, Chen Fan finally understood where the problem lay.

The main problem is that the design is flawed and the quality is poor.

Director Jia just gave two examples. One was when General Manager Chen was test-driving the Hongqi CA72, he couldn't open the car door. In the end, the windshield had to be removed before he could climb out of the car.

Another incident occurred in 70 when a car carrying foreign dignitaries was returning from Badaling. There was a long downhill section when the brakes failed.

If it weren't for the fact that there happened to be a pile of lime for road repairs by the roadside, and the driver drove the car into the pile of lime, thus ensuring the safety of the foreign dignitary, no one could have borne the consequences!
Such frequent problems are due to both design flaws and issues in the manufacturing process.

Even if FAW has a large number of highly skilled technicians, how could they possibly build a car without problems if the design is flawed?

Of course, this cannot be blamed on FAW's engineers. Cars are not something that can be made well overnight; they require a long period of technological accumulation and even advanced industrial design.

These are things that our country does not possess.

It wasn't until 56, with the help of Russia, that my country had its first automobile production line, but it was interrupted after only a few years, and afterwards we had to figure it out on our own.

It is already remarkable that the older generation of automotive engineers were able to design and produce high-end cars like Hongqi and Shanghai under such difficult conditions; there is no need to nitpick.

Given the current environment, there's no point in discussing the industrial design of automobile production lines.

Therefore, even today, FAW is still using the traditional handcraft workshop model to produce Hongqi cars.

It's quite normal that the quality of Hongqi cars produced under such conditions cannot be guaranteed.

Director Jia led them on a tour, finally returning to the workshop where the prototype vehicles were parked. He then said to Chen Fan in a serious tone, "So far, we haven't found any design flaws in your two vehicles. This is the primary reason why we insisted on inviting you to participate in the evaluation."

The second reason is the automobile production line you designed for Yunhu Machinery Factory.

He turned to look at Director Yang, "Yunhu Machinery Factory itself does not have the capacity for mass production of automobiles. Although it can manually manufacture automobiles by relying on factory machinery and equipment and senior technicians, the efficiency is very low."

So your advice to them was to organize a highly skilled workforce to produce cars by hand. Then, build their own car production line to manufacture vans.

He looked directly at Chen Fan, his eyes filled with curiosity and hope. "Although the way we produce cars is by hand, it is very different from how we produce Hongqi cars. Every step you designed has very high requirements for quality control."

On another note, the concept of the van production line is also quite unique. It is different from the domestic and foreign automobile production lines I was familiar with before. Instead, it was tailor-made based on the existing resources of Yunhu Machinery Factory.

One is a car design, and the other is a production line design. It is for these two reasons that I strongly requested the ministry to invite you to participate in the review and production design of these two cars.

I hope you can use your wisdom to give a boost to our country's automotive industry!

Chen Fan quickly waved his hand, "No, no, actually many of these are my father's ideas. I'm just reciting the information he recorded. I don't deserve your praise."

He secretly rejoiced that he hadn't asked anyone to come to his house to pick up those notebooks, so that when he got back, he could add some more content to them.

Actually, he only has a superficial understanding of car production lines. He's not a professional in this field, so how could he possibly know so much?!
He could only offer some ideas based on the fragmented information he had, in the form of "guesses".

Even so, it's enough for domestic car manufacturers to take a big step forward.

my country’s first automobile production line was the Jiefang truck production line built by FAW in 56. However, the first “modern” production line was the Santana automobile production line, which was built more than 30 years later through the cooperation between SAIC and Volkswagen.

Therefore, even the slightest improvement is a valuable step forward for automobile production.

Upon hearing Chen Fan's words, Director Jia was somewhat surprised and immediately turned to look at Professor Zhu.

Professor Zhu nodded, confirming Chen Fan's statement, and then smiled and said, "Although it was Comrade Chen's father's idea, Comrade Chen himself is also an automotive expert, and he is absolutely qualified to participate in our discussion."

He looked at Chen Fan with some regret in his eyes, "It's a pity that Comrade Chen is a polymath. He not only has profound knowledge in medicine, but is also a writer who is famous throughout the country. Otherwise, I would definitely invite you to our Ministry of Machine Building so that we can work together for the development of the automobile industry."

Hearing this, Director Jia was even more surprised. He pointed at Chen Fan in disbelief, "A writer who is famous throughout the country? You wouldn't happen to be Chen Fan from Luwan, Jiang Tiantian's literature teacher, who has published many articles in 'Jiangnan Literature'?"

Chen Fan shrugged, about to speak.

Factory Director Yang frowned slightly. "Huh? Didn't I say that?"

Director Jia glanced at Factory Director Yang, and then saw that almost everyone in the expert group had a bitter expression on their face. He finally gave up the idea of ​​poaching people and sighed, "I understand."

He then looked up at Chen Fan and said seriously, "Comrade Chen, although this prototype evaluation and production discussion meeting is being held at FAW, I still hope that you can participate wholeheartedly and make a contribution to the development of my country's automobile industry."

He then looked at Director Yang and said, “Yunhu Machinery Factory is the initiating and handling unit for these two models. According to convention, the Ministry of Machinery Industry will definitely approve your application to establish an automobile factory. At that time, as FAW, we will also try our best to provide assistance and contribute to the construction of Yunhu Automobile Factory.”

This is an exchange of benefits.

Factory Director Yang's face immediately lit up. He glanced at Chen Fan, who smiled and nodded slightly, and then grabbed Director Jia's hand, saying, "Thank you, thank you."

He went through countless hardships to travel from Yunhu to the provincial capital, then from the provincial capital to Beijing, and finally from Beijing to Kunming, all for this day.

With the support of the Ministry of Machinery Industry and the assistance of FAW in terms of technology, Yunhu Automobile Factory is now in a stable position!

……

Over the next few days, Chen Fan and the expert team conducted multiple rigorous tests on the two vehicles.

He also went into the Hongqi production workshop to gain a thorough understanding of their production situation and then offered a host of suggestions.

Frankly speaking, there are many problems, not only in production management, but even the most basic quality control of spare parts is difficult to guarantee.

The production of Hongqi cars is not entirely completed by FAW. In addition to them, there are many cooperative factories that produce spare parts, and most of the problems also come from them.

After understanding the situation, Chen Fan wrote a lengthy proposal of tens of thousands of words, which included three main aspects. One was to adopt the "Five Basic Principles of Factory Management" that Yunhu Machinery Factory was piloting and use them to renovate the production workshop.

Secondly, a strict quality control system must be established to ensure that unqualified parts do not enter the production process.

However, Chen Fan couldn't guarantee that they could do that.

The cooperating factory is also a state-owned enterprise, and we are all brother units. Whether we can handle the relationship well depends on how FAW's leaders do it.

The last part of the proposal was the "production line transformation," which was of utmost importance to Director Jia.

Based on his understanding of FAW's production line over the past few days, and incorporating some information from later generations, Chen Fan wrote a design concept that differed slightly from that of the machinery factory.

Having arrived here, his mission at FAW was essentially complete.

In the conference room, Director Jia, along with several key technical personnel from the unit and several senior professors from the expert group, conducted a preliminary evaluation of the suggestions submitted by Chen Fan and unanimously agreed that they had extremely high practical value.

After getting the results, Director Jia looked up with a big smile on his face. "Comrade Chen, you really don't plan to come to FAW?"

Chen Fan quickly waved his hand, "Thank you for your kind offer, but this is not my area of ​​interest. I'm truly sorry."

Director Jia sighed with regret, then looked up and said, "Alright, since that's the case, I won't force you. Here's what I'll do: I'll arrange a guide to accompany you around Changchun for a few days. Once the details of our cooperation with Yunhu Machinery Factory are finalized, I'll arrange to send you back."

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "Thank you very much."

He paused for a moment, then said somewhat embarrassedly, "Director Jia, I'd like to ask you something."

Director Jia's expression shifted slightly. "Go ahead and speak."

Chen Fan rubbed his hands together, his eyes shining. "That's right, where are the tigers?"

tiger?

Director Jia and several senior professors looked at each other, then turned to look at him.

Why is this child looking for a tiger?

Do you want to be Wu Song again?

(End of this chapter)