Chapter Twelve: The Intelligent Person Takes Charge of the Household

  "Haha, Leng, you can't do this, whenever you see someone with talent, you snatch them away. Our workshop won't need any talented people anymore?" Miao Funan joked with Leng Yuming.

  Leng Yueming was a person with little sense of humor, and when he heard Miao Funan's words, he became impatient: "Old Miao, why do you keep Qin Hai in your workshop? Let him be a sanding worker, isn't this a waste of talent? Send him to our technical department, I'll let him work on craftsmanship. If things go wrong, the fate of our factory will depend on him."

  "Uh... Director Leng is being too serious, I don't have such great abilities." Qin Hai hurriedly showed humility, although in his heart he was quite in agreement with Leng Yuming's assertion.

  Leng Yueming turned to Qin Hai and said seriously: "Of course, I'm not saying that you alone can change our fate, but you have a broad perspective, ideas, and with the joint efforts of all technical comrades in our department, we can comprehensively improve the product quality of Qingfeng Factory. At that time, our factory's passive situation will be changed."

  "But Labour Department arranged for me to come to the workshop, if I go to Technical Department, I'll have to let Labour Department re-arrange it, right?" Qin Hai reminded.

  "Hmm, this is indeed a trouble." Leng Yuming's head cooled down. To transfer a worker to the technical department for work was not something he could decide on his own. Of course, he could say that Qin Hai was a talent, but if any middle-level cadre could transfer workers to departments in the name of talent, then the management of the factory would be completely chaotic.

  "As for this matter, Lao Leng will go back and report to the Labor Capital Department to see if Xiao Qin can be transferred to work in the Technical Department. Before that, however, Old Miao must agree. Xiao Qin is Old Miao's person, as long as he agrees to send Xiao Qin to the Technical Department for help, who can say anything?" Xiang Ji Yong knew the rules and was helping Leng Yu Ming make a decision.

  Miao Funan burst out laughing and said, "Right, Old Leng, if you want Xiao Qin to go help you, you have to get past me first. How about this, tonight at Weimin Restaurant, treat me to a meal?"

  "What the hell, you asked me for help but didn't even invite me to dinner?" Leng Yuming scolded. "Besides, I sent Xiao Qin to the technical department, not for my personal business, why should I treat you to a meal?"

  Two middle-aged men started arguing with each other, and unexpectedly, Qin Hai's arrangement was implemented. Xiang Jiayong listened to them quarrel for two sentences, smiled, and said to Qin Hai: "Xiao Qin, let's do this, you go to the workshop first to understand the equipment situation, also consider that high-frequency welding thing you mentioned, I and Director Miao, Section Chief Leng still have some things to discuss."

  "Uh-huh." Qin Hai nodded and said to Miao Funan, "Director Miao, I'm new here and not familiar with the situation. Can you find a senior colleague to introduce me to the workshop?"

  "Alright." Miao Funan nodded in response and immediately shouted towards the office door: "Wang Xiaochen, Wang Xiaochen!"

  Wang Xiaochen arrived on cue, walking in the door to see several mid-level cadres. She hastily greeted each of them one by one, and when she finally saw Qin Hai, a smile broke out on her face: "Qin Hai, what are you doing here too?"

  "Do you know each other?" Miao Funan asked strangely.

  "As it happens, my dormitory is opposite Xiaochen's, so we got to know each other."

  "That's even better." Miao Funan said, "Wang Xiaochen is our workshop's troubleshooter and is also quite familiar with the situation in the workshop. Let her take you around to get a feel for the workshop. Whatever you want to see, just have Wang Xiaochen take you there... Wang Xiaochen, Qin Hai has been assigned to work in our workshop now, and Director Leng hopes he can do some technical work. You don't have much on your hands right now, do you? Just take Little Qin around the workshop and get him familiar with the equipment."

  "Alright, Director Miao." Wang Xiaochen replied readily.

  Qin Hai followed Wang Xiao Chen out of the office, Xiang Ji Yong peeked to see them walk far away, then carefully closed the office door.

  "Lao Xiang, what are you up to?" asked Leng Yuming with a frown.

  Xiang Ji Yong pulled over a chair and sat down, then said: "Lao Leng, do you really think this Qin Hai can save our factory?"

  Leng Yueming said, "What's the point of saying this? Relying on just one young man, of course, can't save our factory. However, his vision is indeed quite broad, and with good training, he might be a good technical seedling."

  Xiang Jiyong said, "That's it. This morning I was in a hurry and didn't tell you yet, Wei Baolin has come up with another new idea, the things we're working on now may all have to be thrown away."

  "What? Throw them all away!" Miao Funan and Leng Yuming were clearly not mentally prepared, and Xiang Jiyong's words left them speechless.

  "I heard it from Jia Jian-guo this morning," said Xiang Ji-yong, "The factory's notice will probably be delivered soon. This afternoon, Wei Bao-lin will preside over the factory affairs meeting, and all middle-level cadres must attend. The main topic is to discuss our factory's product transformation."

  "Your daughter sells chopsticks, what kind of transformation is this!" Miao Funan was immediately annoyed and cursed.

  In the past two years, the cadres and staff of Qingfeng Factory have heard the word "transformation" too frequently. Wei Baolin, the new factory director who replaced Ning Zhongying, is a knowledgeable person with a diploma. As soon as he took office, he threw out an ambitious business goal of tripling in three years and doubling in five years, which received strong support from the county government.

  "Understandable people" are in charge, which is the current trend. So-called "understandable people" refer to young cadres with educational background, and their counterparts are workers and peasants like Ning Zhongying who have no educational background. It has to be said that in those years, many old leaders of some units were indeed somewhat conservative in their thinking and couldn't keep up with the requirements of technology and market, which was also an important reason why many enterprises found it difficult to develop. The province proposed letting old cadres "give way" and letting "understandable people" take charge, this policy direction is not wrong, but what kind of person can be considered as an "understandable person", simply evaluating with diplomas seems a bit too hasty.

  Wei Baolin was such a person, he was originally the secretary of the factory director, because of his good writing skills and active brain, he was highly valued by Ning Zhongying and promoted to be the director of the factory. Later, he also met some leaders from the county in this position and became a red man in the eyes of the county leaders. In the wave of capable people taking charge, Ning Zhongying was asked to step down by the county and Wei Baolin became the new director of Qingfeng Factory with his excellent campaign speech, which was affirmed by County Mayor Guo Ming.

  To achieve the goal of doubling, Wei Baolin and his confidants went to various places to inspect and find high-profit products to replace the traditional low-value-added products of the agricultural machinery factory. In these two years, Wei Baolin found several products for the factory, including the rotary tiller blade. According to Wei Baolin's original idea, Qingfeng Factory's rotary tiller blades would occupy the domestic market in one year and the Asian market in three years. Calculated based on Japan's annual usage of 10 million rotary tiller blades, if they could occupy half of the Japanese market, they would have an output value of over $100 million per year...

  Unfortunately, Wei Baolin's ideas were repeatedly crushed by the cruel reality. It's not that Wei Baolin was really an idiot and found bad products, but he only considered how to make high-end, atmospheric, and upscale products, without considering whether Qingfeng Factory had the actual conditions to produce such products.

  As for the development of rotary tiller blades, it was not difficult. Leng Yueming and a group of engineers and technicians from the technical department worked hard for a month to complete the product design and process requirements. However, when it came to actual production, they encountered trouble - the source of high-quality steel materials became a problem. The local steel mill in Beixi produced steel that did not meet the design requirements, which affected the quality of Qingfeng Factory's rotary tiller blades, resulting in 20,000 pieces being stockpiled in the warehouse.

  Xiao Dongping, Leng Yuming, Xiang Jiyong and Miao Funan, a group of middle-level cadres left over from the Ning Zhongying era, had always been secretly critical of Wei Baolin's antics. At first, everyone still held some doubts and hopes, but after so many twists and turns, their doubts far exceeded their hopes. So when they heard that Wei Baolin had another new idea, their first reaction was to get angry.

  "Lao Xiang, do you know what Wei Baolin is planning to make this time?" Leng Yuming asked Xiang Jiyong.

  Xiang Ji Yong smiled self-deprecatingly and said: "Wei Bao Lin's idea this time is too big, it's a washing machine."

  "Washing machine!" Miao Funan's eyes widened, and after a long while, he cursed again: "Damn it, is he trying to make our entire factory lose all our pants?"

  "Lao Xiang, are you serious? We're a farm machinery factory, what does that have to do with washing machines? Producing washing machines... it seems like most of our original equipment can't be used at all, really need to throw them all away." Leng Yuming stood from the perspective of a technical director, first thinking of the technical problems.

  Xiang Ji Yong sneered, "As for what Wei Bao Lin is thinking, I'm not quite clear either. However, every time he proposed to switch to new products in the past, wasn't it always a case of being enthusiastic at first and then rushing into action, wasting countless equipment and materials? This time, since he dares to think this way, he must have made preparations. The meeting with middle-level cadres this afternoon will probably be to unify thoughts, and then they'll start working on it."

  "Unified thinking, unified fart!" Leng Yuming, this honest man, was also anxious, "Which time wasn't Wei Baolin the only one who decided, plus Di Jian'guo this dog leg helping to echo, our words all became farting. I don't want to attend this meeting, I'd rather go discuss high-frequency induction welding with Xiao Qin."