The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 7 Factory Task Assignment
"Good morning, have you eaten yet, Zhiqiang?"

"I've had some. Good morning, Brother Zhang. I got married yesterday, so I'm taking some wedding candy to share in the joy."

"Oh, congratulations on having a son soon, Zhiqiang."

"Section Chief Lü, good morning. These are wedding candies from my wedding. Please share in the joy."

"Hey, Zhiqiang, that's impressive. The responsibilities will be even greater after marriage. Keep it up, young man."

"I know, Section Chief, don't worry."

After handing out wedding candies to the head of the technical department, Zhou Zhiqiang then gave a bag to each of the other members of the technical department.

There wasn't much sugar in it, since the milk candy weighed only one pound and was divided into more than a dozen small packets. Each paper packet contained only two milk candies, and the rest were fruit candies.

However, in the era of ration coupons, this was already quite rare. If Zhou Zhiqiang hadn't had a teacher and father-in-law who was a fourth-level professor, he wouldn't have dared to give out such treats.

Everyone in the technical department took a piece of candy. Some people opened their candies and found two milk candies inside, which made their smiles even wider.

Although there's no saying that seven candies equal a cup of milk yet, everyone knows that milk candy is similar to milk and is a rare commodity.

Zhou Zhiqiang put two milk candies in the brown paper package, which was extremely generous. Everyone else in the technical department was all smiles.

The technical department has a total of fifteen people, one department head and the rest are technicians.

However, apart from Zhou Zhiqiang, most of the others graduated from vocational high schools, and were among the first batch of vocational high school graduates.

There is also a maintenance team of five repairmen in the same technical department, but they don't usually work together; they live in the next room.

At the beginning of the year, when Dafeng Machinery Factory carried out localization modifications on the old equipment provided by the Russians, the technical department provided design guidance, and the maintenance team followed instructions to get started.

Thirty percent of the factory's machinery and equipment have undergone localization modifications, mainly to reduce energy consumption. The Russian equipment is characterized by its "roughness".

Zhou Zhiqiang, a college graduate, stood out from the crowd in the technical department. At that time, there were very few college graduates, and even if there were, most of them were assigned to large factories directly under the Ministry of Machinery.

Those large factories were all at the bureau-level. After a factory expanded several times, it became the same level as the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry.

He also knew why Guo Linhua had transferred him here. One reason was that it was a good fit for his major; Zhou Zhiqiang had been frequently involved in agricultural machinery during his university years.

Another advantage is that he stands out from the crowd. In the entire technical department, he is the only college graduate. If he makes achievements, he will be given priority for promotion in the future.

If Zhou Zhiqiang had gone to a large factory directly under a ministry, he wouldn't be the only college graduate there, and promotion wouldn't have been so easy.

Besides, the benefits at Dafeng Machinery Factory are pretty good.

"Everyone's here? Let's have a meeting and discuss today's tasks."

When Section Chief Lü arrived at the office, he saw that everyone in the technical department was present, so he clapped his hands to signal them.

"Our factory has received another batch of production orders, among which cast steel gears and cylinder liners are quite important. We need to make sure every piece of data on the drawings is correct; there can't be a single mistake."
Zhiqiang, you'll take the lead in handling this matter.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang stood up and nodded, saying, "I understand, Section Chief. I guarantee I will complete the task."

"Okay, I trust you to handle things. As for the equipment upgrades in the factory, I'll continue to lead Group Two, and Group One will be your responsibility."

After finishing speaking, Section Chief Lü paused, looked around, and continued, "There's one more thing. The agricultural machinery in three townships of Changping County has broken down. The task has been assigned to us from above. See who's willing to go."

Upon hearing this, the other members of the technical department exchanged glances, but no one spoke.

Finally, Zhou Zhiqiang raised his hand and said, "Section Chief, weren't our section members just assigned a task? Are we going to have to send some people?"

"Let's send two people from Group One and Group Two, and bring two maintenance workers with them." Section Chief Lü scratched his head and said, "There's no other way. This morning, the deputy factory director received a call from the bureau and assigned this task to me. I can only send two people."

Fortunately, the broken equipment is all agricultural equipment that we handled last year, so you should all be fine with it. Okay, I'm calling on you two: Zhao Jiabao and Li Shun, you two will take Liu Tian and Tian Weiguo from the repair team with you.”

"I'll write you a note later. After you collect your stuff, head out as soon as possible. Come back early after you finish repairing it. The factory has a lot of work to do too."

In production and construction, technology comes first. Their technical department is responsible for ensuring that the small-scale aspects of production and construction are not wrong, and that no technical problems arise during the production process.

"Yes, Section Chief, I understand."

Zhao Jiabao and Li Shun agreed, though somewhat reluctantly.

Although there are subsidies for rural assistance, the roads in rural areas are difficult to travel and sometimes dangerous.

Nobody wants to go to the countryside if they can stay in the city.

But once a task is assigned, no matter how unwilling they are, they have to accept it obediently.

After assigning the tasks, Section Chief Lü let the others get to work, but he called Zhou Zhiqiang to his office.

"Sit down, let's talk while we're sitting down."

Section Chief Lü waved his hand in acknowledgment, then took out several file folders from the drawer, handed them over, and said, "Zhiqiang, take a look at these, and try to thoroughly understand these components in the shortest possible time."

This will likely become our factory's main production task in the future, as the demand for agricultural machinery parts in our country will continue to grow.

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Don't worry, Section Chief, I guarantee I'll complete the task."

Section Chief Lü nodded and said, "Yes, I know your abilities. After you complete this task, I will submit a report to the factory to recommend you for a permanent position."

Significant meritorious service can lead to early promotion. Your previous merit earned praise from factory leaders; if you do well this time, their impression of you will be even stronger, making your promotion process smoother.

"I understand, Section Chief. There will be absolutely no mistakes in this mission."

Zhou Zhiqiang was fully confident in this task. If he couldn't accomplish this even with his superhuman abilities, he might as well apply to guard the warehouse.

Back in the technical department, Zhou Zhiqiang opened the file folder and began to read.

These are part diagrams of agricultural machinery and equipment. The complete parts will not be given to the factory, for confidentiality reasons and other reasons as well.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang quickly mastered these component diagrams.

The accumulation of the original owner's memories is one aspect, and the other aspect is the work of the data collection and deduction assistant, which automatically collects all the information he sees and performs in-depth analysis.

"The components of this cylinder are all so large, the agricultural machinery produced will have to be even larger. There aren't many places where it can be used."

Zhou Zhiqiang thought to himself, the original owner of this body came from the countryside and had farmed during his holidays, so he naturally knew something about farming.

Given the current situation in the township, even if this large agricultural tractor is manufactured, very few villages will actually need it.

Unless the villages are united to form a commune, production plans can be coordinated in a unified manner.

That's how it is in Russia, so their agricultural machinery is relatively 'rough and unrefined'.

Such important matters were not something a junior technician like him could worry about, so Zhou Zhiqiang then began to refer to the blueprints and production requirements.

Only after each item has been confirmed to be correct and all problems have been eliminated will tasks be assigned to the production workshop.

(End of this chapter)