The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 81 Establishing a Branch Factory [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

The last sentence was so unclear that even Zhou Zhiqiang, let alone the factory leaders Zhao Guangzheng and Yan Juncheng, didn't quite understand what it meant.

However, Director Qiao quickly explained, "The area around Dafeng Machinery Factory is not suitable for expansion. There is too little available land. The alley where you built the collective dormitory is the last piece of usable land around Dafeng Machinery Factory."

If we consider further options, only a distance of four kilometers is worth considering, but that's too far to qualify as an expansion, and it would also make management and resource allocation difficult to guarantee.

There are many private residences around, and at least 60% of the hundred households are privately owned. Relocating these people would be a huge undertaking.

In that case, it would be easier to just move the factory away; that would save us a lot of trouble.

Although there is still vacant land inside the Dafeng Machinery Factory, the factory can expand its workforce to a maximum of three thousand people.

However, according to the production scale Zhou Zhiqiang mentioned, 3,000 people are definitely not enough. The production of diesel engines and other core components requires a lot of people, as well as assembly workshops and so on.
Expanding in place is inconvenient, and relocating the factory is even more troublesome. It takes one or two years to go back and forth, not to mention the expenses.

There was another hidden reason that Director Qiao Yong didn't mention: if Dafeng Machinery Factory expanded too much, it would be suspected of transferring profits to capitalists.

Dafeng Machinery Factory is now a joint public-private enterprise. The more it earns after its large-scale expansion, the more dividends it will give to the private party.

They also have an explanation for expanding to a scale of three thousand people. If they were to expand to six or seven thousand people or even more at once, the annual dividends generated at that scale of production would be several times higher than they are now.

The dividends given to private parties have also increased several times over.

In that case, it would be better to establish a branch factory, so that all the profits would belong to them and no private party would get involved.

Moreover, the branch factory is a supporting parts processing plant for the agricultural machinery factory. The production tasks are simple and the technical requirements are low, so it can be put into production quickly after the factory is built.

"So I discussed with Leader Sheng that it would be better to have Dafeng Machinery Factory build another branch factory."

After explaining, Qiao Yong continued, "The main factory will be Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, which specializes in producing agricultural machinery, and the branch factory will be Dafeng Machinery Processing Factory."

The address is tentative, but I think Changping is quite suitable.

When Qiao Yong said his last words, he was addressing Sheng Jianhui, a high-ranking leader.

The selection of a branch factory site needs to consider various factors such as the origin of raw materials, transportation and regional suitability. Changping is indeed a good choice overall, and it is not possible to find a more suitable place than Changping in the short term.

Sheng Jianhui nodded, but said without explicitly stating, "Include them in the candidates first, and then hold a meeting to decide after the investigation."

The subsequent events all revolved around this matter; however, in the factory's conference room, not all the leaders were present, so it was impossible to get everyone's opinions on many things.

Leader Sheng then decided to hold another meeting at the Ministry of Machine Building tomorrow to discuss and finalize this matter as soon as possible.

There's nothing in the factory that needs improvement. Logistics, allocation, and production processes are all going well. If you were to nitpick, you could find a few flaws, but there's no need to be overly critical.

If production is going well, then minor problems can be overlooked.

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When it was time to leave work, Zhou Zhiqiang said goodbye to Section Chief Lü and then got up and walked out of the office.

Lü Yi had no objection to this. He knew about Zhou Zhiqiang's family situation, and it was likely that things would continue like this for the next few months.

With a pregnant woman at home and no one else to help, Zhou Zhiqiang naturally wanted to go home early.

Now Guo Yuting's belly is also swollen. When the family was renovating and digging the cellar a while ago, Zhou Zhiqiang even took three days off to go back and supervise the street office construction team to finish digging the cellar before returning to work at the factory. That's the downside of both husband and wife working; there's no one to keep an eye on things at home, but their family happens to be relatively well-off.

They own bicycles, sewing machines, watches, and radios—the "three turns and one sound"—and the couple earns a combined monthly income of one hundred yuan. No one is home during the day.
It's basically a thief's favorite.

Zhou Zhiqiang usually keeps no more than fifty yuan at home, and deposits the rest in the bank, only withdrawing it when he needs it.

The passbook was also well hidden; even if a thief searched for three or four hours, they might not be able to find it.

"Deputy Section Chief Zhou."

Just as Zhou Zhiqiang was about to leave the factory gate with his cart, he heard someone call out to him from the side.

Looking back, he saw a car, and An Xiangjie, the deputy factory director, was waving at him from inside the car window.

"Deputy Factory Director An, do you have any instructions?"

Zhou Zhiqiang pushed the cart closer and asked, "Regardless of what will happen to capitalists in the future, we are currently in the stage of joint public-private ownership, and An Xiangjie is the private deputy director of the factory."

Even if he doesn't manage the operations or factory affairs, he is still the deputy factory director, and he deserves respect.

An Xiangjie asked with a smile in the car, "I just finished delivering some things to the factory and was about to leave when I saw Deputy Section Chief Zhou leaving get off work. Are you planning to go home?"

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Yes, Deputy Factory Director An, my wife is pregnant, and she's been going straight home after get off work lately."

"So it's because you had a cub. Well then, I must congratulate Deputy Section Chief Zhou in advance."

After An Xiangjie finished speaking, he glanced at the sky and then said, "Deputy Section Chief Zhou, let me give you a ride. It looks like it's about to rain. You might get soaked halfway there."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang glanced at the sky and saw that dark clouds were indeed gathering. Just now, the factory's loudspeaker had announced that workers should leave the factory and go home as soon as possible.

However, looking at the sky, Zhou Zhiqiang was a little worried about his wife.

"That's not a good idea. I'll just ride back quickly; I can't afford to be delayed."

"It won't cause any trouble. It's just something I can do on the way. Besides, I also have something I want to ask Deputy Section Chief Zhou. I can also take you back."

An Xiangjie interrupted Zhou Zhiqiang and then told the driver to help Zhou Zhiqiang move his things.

His driver was obedient; after getting out of the car, he moved Zhou Zhiqiang's bicycle into the trunk of the sedan.

It won't be completely stuffed in, but tying it with a rope will at least prevent the bicycle from falling off.

Zhou Zhiqiang couldn't refuse, and after struggling with the driver for a while over the bicycle, with An Xiangjie also trying to persuade him, he finally had to get into the car.

After the driver got back into the car and started the engine, An Xiangjie said, "The factory is really thriving lately. Not only have we developed new machinery, but we've also hired a lot more people."
I heard this is all thanks to you, Deputy Section Chief Zhou? I also benefited quite a bit from it, haha. I originally planned to go home and rest, but because of the large number of workers recruited, I had to participate in some of the factory's logistical work.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang asked curiously, "Deputy Factory Director An, are you in charge of logistics now?"

An Xiangjie said, "Although it's not full management, the materials allocated from above only account for 75%, and there's a significant shortfall that the factory needs to cover on its own. However, sufficient funds have been allocated to the factory."

　Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)