A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Late September, Sunday.

It is auspicious to travel, take a bath, level the roads, and sweep the houses.

Avoid moving, felling trees, building beams, or placing beds.

Jiangxia's first ten-pull this morning added eight bags of sugar and two towels to his inventory.

Life is tough, so having some sweets to cleanse your palate is perfectly fine.

The system points have dropped to single digits again.

Whatever, what else can I do besides participating in a lottery?

Due to the merger, the steel rolling mill workers are all working overtime.

It's nothing really. Have you ever seen a steel mill's rolling mill stop?

Except for the truck that squad leader Wang Tiezhu went to deliver goods to the water plant, all the other trucks went to the machinery factory in the western suburbs to pick up equipment.

The steel rolling mill also prepared two workshops for the arrival of the new comrade.

One is used to produce water sprayers, and the other is prepared to produce Red Star water pumps.

As for the cooperative's two makeshift blast furnaces, Li Changfu said it was a headache. They were completely useless except for being sold as scrap metal.

"Those who are not in a position should not concern themselves with its affairs," and Jiang Xia had no knowledge of blast furnaces whatsoever.

Unfortunately, Tongzi isn't doing his job. Jiangxia has been working on mechanical engineering all his life.

He stumbled upon his master, expressing his desire to return home for a visit. He also planned to conduct a pilot experiment to promote hand-operated wells in rural areas.

Knowing that Jiang Xia was going back to his rural home, Li Changfu, feeling sorry for his beloved apprentice, stuffed a bunch of receipts into Jiang Xia's hands.

A small stack of odds and ends, including kerosene coupons, grain coupons, and match coupons.

They said things like how tough life has been in the countryside these past two years, and to bring back more things for the family. They also told us not to forget our neighbors, that the countryside is a place where relationships are strong, and that even if we live in the city, we shouldn't forget our roots.

Finally, a dozen or so large black ten-dollar bills were placed on top of the receipts. At the same time, he gestured for Jiang Xia to go and try and get some more money from Yang Youning.

Ma Weihong was speechless. This old man was really only this kind of person to his own grandson.

Oh, I forgot. Old Li doesn't have a son; he's treating Jiangxia like his own child!

Jiang Xia knew his master's personality, so he didn't hesitate to take the pile of things.

He stuffed a whole bunch of odds and ends into his military green satchel.

This satchel is practically inseparable from Jiang Xia; he carries it everywhere he goes. It's simply a way to conceal his spatial storage.

Carrying a freshly completed pilot program application, Jiang Xia found Yang Youning.

When you're looking for a leader, you can't just offer empty words, can you? You either need to provide reports or a business plan.

For more sophisticated orders, they might offer jasmine tea, with small yellow croakers placed at the bottom of the tea box.

I'm not taking anything~

Then you're the leader!

When he arrived at the office, Yang Youning was on the phone with someone, his eyebrows twitching.

"Yes, that's right! I'm here!"

His concise answer reflected the composure and magnanimity of a factory director with thousands of employees.

"Soon? Isn't today Sunday?"

These words were like stirring up a hornet's nest, and a furious rebuke came from the other end of the receiver, so loud that Jiang Xia could hear it.

Yang Youning's composure and magnanimity were also driven to the back of his mind by this roar.

She's like a bullied young wife.

Jiang Xia and Liu Shunlin exchanged a glance and slipped out of the office without saying a word.

Yang Youning was left to endure the storm alone.

"Who is it? Their language is incredibly foul!"

Liu Shunlin shrugged and didn't reply. He took out a box of peony cigarettes, and the two of them started smoking right there at the office door.

"The factory manager worked an extra shift yesterday."

Jiang Xia gestured for him to continue with her eyes.

"Li Huaide came. I don't know what they talked about, but this morning, the factory manager came humming a little tune."

Jiangxia understood.

The two didn't talk much, since the timing and place weren't right.

After finishing his cigarette, Yang Youning rushed out of the office, looking disheveled.

"Xia, how many sets of hand pump wells did you build?"

"Three sets! One set will be placed in the transportation team, and the other two sets are planned to be used as a pilot project in the village!"

What is a pilot program?

Yang Youning was somewhat confused by the endless stream of new words emerging from Jiangxia.

Jiang Xia was too lazy to explain further, so he decided to just speak plainly.

"Let's bring two sets back to the village, install them, and test them out. Let's see how practical they are!"

"Yes, that's it!" Yang Youning's voice rose eight octaves.

"Field testing, huh? Great! But you can't let me down. You absolutely have to guarantee success. Can you do that?"

These words made Jiang Xia serious, and he puffed out his chest: "I guarantee I will complete the mission!"

Yang Youning nodded solemnly as well.

"Okay! Here's a truck for you. Make sure you have all the equipment. Also, take a few workers with you. Get everything set up today. A high-ranking leader will be coming to inspect tomorrow."

Jiang Xia pondered for a moment: "Okay, I already talked to Wang Tiezhu from the transport team yesterday. We'll set off as soon as he gets back. As for the workers, I'll just bring five pillars; it'll be convenient for one village!"

"Five pillars?"

"Oh, you mean Jiang Dazhu and his group?"

"Hey, this name is so easy to remember."

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and returned to his office.

He took out a stamp and stamped it a few times.

"Xiao Liu! Take this to HR. Tell them to post it publicly immediately!"

"Hehe, I was bothered by that bastard Li Huaide all night yesterday and I completely forgot about you!"

Yang Youning proudly showed the seal to Jiang Xia, "This is the spoils of war from last night. Now that I have both seals, let's see if that bastard can trip me up again!"

Jiang Xia didn't understand what was so special about these two seals. Did they mean that collecting them would summon a dragon?

I'm too lazy to get involved; as long as I know I have a powerful backer, that's enough for me.

In fact, Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill, as a key enterprise of the First Ministry of Machine Building, also had some peculiarities in its personnel management.

First, its management team lacks a Party Secretary. This is simply unimaginable for a state-owned enterprise in China.

But it exists now. If you have to explain it, then the entire First Ministry of Machine Building is essentially the Party Secretary of the steel rolling mill!

There's no way around it; China is currently facing a severe shortage of steel, especially rolled steel.

Not to mention the thick steel plates needed by tractor factories in the north, construction sites across the country are also eagerly awaiting the rebar they roll.

The Russians originally provided support for five steel rolling mills, but they later withdrew them.

The comrades are using their experience to complete the remaining four.

The 300-type steel mill at Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill was practically the only one of its kind.

The First Ministry of Machine Building is treating Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill like its own son!

Now, Yang Youning manages both production and personnel, effectively becoming the local tyrant of the steel rolling mill.

Jiangxia's thigh is undeniably thick.

Having received the task, Jiang Xia hurriedly found five pillars.

I used a scanner to inspect all the parts of the hand pump well.

Pick out a few with excessively large size deviations and have Jiang Dazhu process them again.

Then they sent the third, fourth, and fifth pillars to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some things, along with the ration coupons and the large black ten-yuan coupons. Among these items was a batch of cloth coupons contributed by Yang Youning.

Note that it is "批" (pī), not "张" (zhāng).

In the countryside, everything else is manageable, but kerosene coupons and cloth coupons are the most precious. You can see that everyone's clothes in the village are patched upon patched.

There's no source! That's the most tragic thing.

Back then, if a family could provide a foot of floral fabric for their bride, it would be the talk of the village for a long time.

Wuzhu also wants to ask how much to buy.

Jiang Xia waved his hand and said, "Buy it all! Buy it all in floral fabric! Let all the aunts and maids have new clothes! They've suffered so much these past years."

"Oh, and don't forget to buy plenty of red hair ties too!"

"Today, let's return home in glory!"