The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 10 Section Chief's Support

The next morning, Guo Yuting rode her bicycle to work with a smile on her face.

I had a bottle of hot sauce in my bag, and I slept really well last night.

The harmony between husband and wife mostly stemmed from the night's battle, and Zhou Zhiqiang happened to be quite confident in this regard. The only thing he didn't believe in was the creaking bed.

There's always a feeling that it might suddenly collapse.

After leaving the house, the two went their separate ways and rode their bicycles in different directions. Guo Yuting lived closer to the hospital, while Zhou Zhiqiang's factory was farther away.

The machinery factory wasn't located in the city center, so Zhou Zhiqiang had to ride his bicycle for more than half an hour every day to get there.

Upon arriving at the technical department, Zhou Zhiqiang quickly got into work mode.

Report on work progress, check production schedules, inspect finished parts, and provide technical guidance.

Every day, the technical staff have to spend at least three or four hours in the production workshop, and that's the shortest they can manage.

When it's time for technical training and knowledge explanation, you basically have to stay in the workshop except for meals.

After all, technology and processes need to be put into practice through front-line production. In order to avoid errors in new production tasks, the technical department must keep a close eye on the workshop at all times.

Iron parts and steel were also very valuable. At that time, domestic steel production was still very low, so every steel ingot was precious.

If the error rate is high, the workshop director will be the first to be scolded, followed by the head of the technical department.

The factory manager would point his finger at the two of them and start yelling at them, and then the workshop director and the head of the technical department would come back and yell at their subordinates.

To avoid being scolded, whenever a new production task comes up, the technical staff will keep a close eye on the production workshop and provide technical guidance.

Some workers are very skilled at their jobs, but their education level is slightly lower, so they need someone to explain more complex blueprints.

Otherwise, if the defect rate in the production workshop is too high, they will also be reprimanded, and in serious cases, their benefits may be deducted.

Wages are not easily deducted, but factory benefits can be deducted at will, since these are unplanned material benefits, and whether or not they are paid is up to the factory leaders.

After a busy morning, as soon as it was time to finish work, Zhou Zhiqiang took his lunchbox and went to the canteen to eat with the others.

The meal consisted of two vegetarian dishes, along with steamed buns and cornbread made from a mixture of wheat and water. Those with money ate the steamed buns, while those without bought the cornbread. The factory provided subsidies for everyone's meals, and even the cornbread was cheaper than homemade.

At Dafeng Machinery Factory, we get to eat meat twice a month. If we want to eat it again, we'll have to wait until next Wednesday.

However, today's vegetarian dishes also had a bit of lard added, which was quite good.

Zhou Zhiqiang's factory meals were not as good as those in the hospital. He heard from Guo Yuting that he could get meat dishes six or seven times a month in the hospital.

After all, it's a place with many patients, so the food needs to be nutritious, and these support staff can also benefit from it.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang brought his own homemade chili sauce today, which perfectly suited his taste—sour, spicy, and sweet. He learned it from a chef he met online before he came into this world.

"Hey, is this chili sauce? Zhiqiang, where did you buy it?"

After Section Chief Lü sat down opposite Zhou Zhiqiang with his lunchbox, he asked a question.

"I made it myself, Section Chief, please try my cooking."

Zhou Zhiqiang smiled, then pushed the bottle of chili sauce over and said, "Give me some pointers, see if it suits your taste."

"Then I'll try it. To be honest, I quite like spicy food."

After Section Chief Lü finished speaking, he picked up a piece of the two-ingredient steamed bun with his chopsticks, took a bite, chewed it, and quickly nodded and praised, "Delicious, not bad, Zhiqiang, your skills are really good, this chili sauce is really appetizing."

A fellow worker from the technical department nearby spoke up: "Zhiqiang, let me try some too?"

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Of course, try them all." Then, the colleagues at the same table all took a bite, and after eating, they all nodded and praised it.

Most people who can handle spicy food will find this appetizing hot sauce acceptable, and it's not particularly spicy, so even those who can't handle spice can try a little.

Zhou Zhiqiang smiled and said, "If you like it, I'll write down the recipe when we get back to my office, and you can make it at home."

Upon hearing this, Section Chief Lü asked in surprise, "Zhiqiang, is this alright? Your chili sauce is quite delicious; it seems to be a secret recipe, right?"

Nowadays, let alone chili sauce, even if you make good pickled vegetables, you can claim it's a secret recipe and use it to make money.

Liubiju's pickles have been passed down to this day thanks to this secret recipe.

Zhou Zhiqiang waved his hand and laughed, "What secret recipe is a bottle of chili sauce? If you like it, I'll put it in my office after I finish writing it down."

So what if he keeps the secret recipe? He can't run a business. Now that public-private partnerships are being implemented, does he expect to hold onto this chili sauce recipe for decades to come?

That would be incredibly stupid and completely unnecessary. There will be plenty of opportunities to make money decades from now.

"Graceful, resolute!"

"Thank you so much, Zhiqiang. My family loves chili sauce. With your chili sauce recipe, I bet they'll eat a few more bowls of rice from now on."

"Oh, then your family's rations aren't enough to eat."

"Hey, there's nothing we can do about it. Zhiqiang's chili sauce is just so delicious."

The people at this table were all from the technical department, so they started joking around.

As they were finishing their meal, Section Chief Lü suddenly asked, "Zhiqiang, have you been researching materials and process innovation lately?"

"Section Chief, you found out?"

Zhou Zhiqiang paused for a moment, then continued, "I feel that we can't change the production process at all. If we want to optimize it, we can only start with the materials. Although it's a bit far-fetched, I want to try it in my spare time."
"But don't worry, Section Chief, I haven't slacked off on the production tasks at all, and I guarantee that the delivery won't be delayed."

"Okay, that's fine. As long as it doesn't delay production, I'll support you."

Section Chief Lü nodded and smiled, saying, "Our technical department also has the responsibility of process innovation. If you have any ideas, go ahead and do them. If you need support, come to me, the section chief."

I'll try my best to help you coordinate anything.

"Section Chief, I'll remember that. I'll definitely come to you later."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, and after he finished speaking, he also looked at the collection and deduction assistant.

These past few days he has also been reading the books left behind by his father-in-law, Guo Linhua, a professor who was a university teacher before the founding of the People's Republic of China. One can imagine how rich his collection of books is.

There is also a considerable amount of information collected on industrial materials. Once Zhou Zhiqiang has reviewed all of these, he will have completed the first phase of collection and can begin to extrapolate the results.

The more knowledge he collects, the more advanced the results he can deduce. It's like fertilizing and watering; the more 'fertilizer' he uses now, the bigger the fruit he will reap in the future.

Once the results are deduced, Zhou Zhiqiang can go to Section Chief Lü and ask him to request the deputy factory director to communicate with the steel mill.

It won't take too long, it should be ready next week; he doesn't need particularly advanced materials and technology right now, because even if it were too advanced, it wouldn't be able to manufacture it.

The actual environment must be taken into account.

After lunch, Zhou Zhiqiang returned to the technical department to rest for a while, then wrote down the chili sauce recipe and had his colleagues copy it down.

He then went down to the workshop to continue overseeing the production tasks. The production process of each new component was the most intense time for the technical department.

(End of this chapter)