Chapter Eighteen Isn't This A Dead End?

  Back from the steel mill to the agricultural machinery factory, Qin Hai returned to his single dormitory, while Ning Mo and others went directly to the workshop, starting to search for scrap steel and iron everywhere, not even letting go of the iron shavings and iron filings processed by the machine tools.

  "Fatty, what do you want this thing for?"

  The workers on the night shift in the metalworking shop were amazed to see Ningmo carefully sweeping up iron filings from around the machine tools and storing them in several different boxes. It was not uncommon for people in the factory to collect scrap steel to make various things, which was also a way of making a living by relying on the mountain. However, this kind of iron filings had always been cleared away as garbage, and no one had ever seen anyone collecting even such things.

  Ning Mo smiled silently and didn't answer, instead asking the person who asked the question: "What kind of steel did you use to process the parts just now?"

  "What steel?" The other party was puzzled, "Chromium 20 steel, it's written on the material receipt."

  "Hmm, 20 chrome steel..." Ning was writing the corresponding steel number on a paper box filled with iron filings, but no one knew what the word "chrome" had been written as.

  Don't look at Qingfeng Factory as just a county-level agricultural machinery factory. In the past 20 years, it has developed to a certain scale, with diverse product types and complex steel material specifications. For example, the small gear used in tractor manufacturing is made of chromium alloy steel No. 20, while processing cold work molds requires the use of chromium-molybdenum-vanadium steel. Ordinary workers are not concerned about the performance differences between these steels; they simply follow the process requirements to retrieve the specified steel material from the warehouse and then process it.

  Qin Hai planned to make a military dagger with outstanding performance for his nephew, but first he had to find the right steel material. This steel material must be an alloy steel that excels in toughness, strength, and wear resistance. Qin Hai's mind was filled with various alloy steel formulas, and any one of them would be far better than the common steel materials available on the market today. To smelt this alloy steel, multiple metal materials such as chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, and nickel were needed, but for Qin Hai to obtain these raw materials in his current situation was extremely difficult.

  Fortunately, Qin Hai was an unconventional person. He thought of the various alloy steels currently used in the factory, which contained these metal elements. If multiple alloy steels could be cleverly combined and smelted together, he would get the ultra-high-strength steel he needed.

  With this idea, he arranged for Ning Mo and others to collect waste steel and iron filings in the workshop, and asked them to record the steel type and model of these waste steels clearly, so as to make preparations. Ning Mo and Miao Lei went to the gold processing workshop and foundry respectively to look for waste steel, Yu Haitao was a warehouse statistician, and took advantage of his position to search for waste car knives, gears and other things in the warehouse, which also contained rare metals needed by Qin Hai.

  Qin Hai did not go with Ning Mo to collect scrap metal, which was not his forte, and he didn't need to waste his time on it. He returned alone to the single dormitory building, entered his own room, took out white paper, and began to turn the several types of firearms that had come into his mind into engineering drawings.

  "Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock." Someone was knocking on the door, followed by Wang Xiaochen's voice: "Xiao Qin, are you back?"

  Qin Hai got up and opened the door for Wang Xiao Chen, letting her in. He smiled and asked, "Is there something I can help you with, Xiao Chen?"

  Wang Xiaochen held a thermos in his hand and said, "I boiled an extra bottle of water. I'll bring it over for you to use. You left work with Ning Mo and the others right away, so you probably didn't have time to boil water."

  "Thank you, Xiaochen." Qin Hai quickly took over the thermos and thanked Wang Xiaochen.

  Wang Xiaochen said, "By the way, there's something else I need to tell you. After work today, Department Heads Xiang, Xiao, and Leng all came to find you together, not sure what it's about. Department Head Xiang said that he wants you to be on time for work at the Casting Workshop tomorrow."

  Qin Hai Dao said, "I was supposed to go to the casting workshop for work anyway, isn't this a waste of effort? However, I know what they came to find me about, it must be the high-frequency induction welding thing that Leng Ke Zhang and I talked about today."

  "They didn't say." Wang Xiaochen said, and then she lowered her voice a few degrees and asked: "Xiao Qin, have you heard that our factory is going to change production again?"

  The content of the meeting of middle-level cadres in the afternoon was already spread all over Qingfeng Factory before nightfall. There were only 200 cadres and workers in Qingfeng Factory, among whom more than 30 people belonged to middle-level cadres. Each middle-level cadre had three or five worker friends with good relations, and after the meeting, they naturally wanted to reveal some of the content to their friends. As a result of more than 30 people simultaneously revealing the information, it was naturally spread far and wide.

  "What's this about changing posts? What does it have to do with me?" Qin Hai asked, puzzled. He had been pulled away by Ning Mo and the others as soon as he got off work today, and only just returned now, so naturally he didn't know what was discussed at the middle management meeting.

  In addition, he had only arrived at the Qingfeng factory yesterday to report for duty. The past grievances and grudges of the Qingfeng factory were also quite distant things for him. In his view, what the Qingfeng factory was willing to produce was something for the factory director to ponder, and it had nothing to do with him? He indeed had a lot of knowledge about materials and craftsmanship, but this also depended on whether the factory needed it or not. If the factory didn't need his knowledge, then he might as well go with Ning Mo and others to do private work for money.

  Wang Xiaochen obviously intended to have a good chat with Qin Hai about the transfer of production, because from her perspective, she believed that the rise and fall of Qingfeng Factory was directly related to her own interests, so she had been worried about this matter. She thought Qin Hai was a cultured person who didn't put on airs and was willing to communicate with her, an ordinary inspector, so she wanted to hear his views on this matter.

  "Little Qin, you have no idea." Wang Xiaochen sat down on Qin Hai's bed and said: "This time our factory is changing production, it's a big change. Manager Wei means to completely abandon the production of agricultural machinery and switch to producing washing machines."

  "Switch to washing machines?" Qin Hai saw Wang Xiaochen sit down and knew she was going to have a long talk with him, so he also sat down in the chair and listened patiently to Wang Xiaochen's account. When he heard that Qingfeng Factory was planning to switch to washing machines, Qin Hai couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Has Wei Baolin's head been kicked by a donkey? What era is this? Still switching to washing machines, isn't this looking for death?"

  "Really?" Wang Xiaochen stared at Qin Hai with wide eyes and asked in confusion: "Isn't switching to washing machines a good thing?"

  Qin Hai said: "If we had switched to producing washing machines three years ago, it would have been a good choice. Of course, the premise is that our factory can solve the supply problem of motors, plastics and other raw materials. Now that washing machines are so popular, if we switch to produce them at this time, it will be a dead end. Do you know how many cities across the country are building their own washing machine factories now?"

  "Ah!" Wang Xiaochen was stunned by Qin Hai's words. "You're saying that if our factory switches to producing washing machines, we'll definitely fail, right?"

  "Whether it will fail or not, no one can say for sure, but this is indeed not a good decision. From my impression, in the past two years, all over the country, various home appliance enterprises have been launched on a large scale, including TVs, washing machines, refrigerators, etc., and soon there will be an oversupply phenomenon. Our factory has no advantage in this regard, if the market is oversupplied, the first to collapse will naturally be factories like ours."

  "Is that so?" Wang Xiaochen thought for a moment, "Today we heard from the middle-level cadres after the meeting that they were talking about switching to producing washing machines. Everyone had different opinions. Some people think making washing machines is more profitable than making agricultural machinery, and some people think our factory may not be able to produce washing machines, but no one thinks like you do."

  Qin Hai smiled slightly and didn't explain. In that era, China was still a country with material shortages, people's minds were only thinking about whether they could make things, never considering whether they could sell them out. Until later generations, when material wealth was abundant, selling things became more important than making things.

  Qin Hai was able to anticipate the crisis of overproduction in the washing machine market, precisely because he was a transmigrator from a later generation. If he hadn't had such foresight, he would probably have been like the cadres and workers at Qingfeng Factory, limiting his thinking only to production capacity issues.

  "Qin Hai, you'd better tell these ideas to Wei Changzhang and let him stop making washing machines." Wang Xiaochen implored, she was really worried about the future of the factory. Qin Hai's reasons were something she could understand, and she thought that if Qin Hai explained them to Wei Baolin, he would definitely recognize the risks of switching to washing machine production and change this wrong decision.

  Qin Hai thought to himself: Wang Xiaochen is, after all, just a 20-year-old girl, and her thinking is really too simple. Wei Baolin and the others are not unaware of the risks involved in producing washing machines; they insist on pushing this idea forward, probably because they are blinded by profit - it's not something that can be changed by just anyone saying so.

  At the thought of this, Qin Hai shook his head and said: "I'm a minor figure with little to say, going to find the factory director to talk about this kind of thing doesn't seem quite right. Item Section Chief, Xiao Section Chief, they are all experienced people, can't they think of this point?"

  Wang Xiaochen said, "I don't know if they thought of this point either, but I talked to several masters about this today, and none of them mentioned this point, only you Xiao Qin thought of it. Oh dear, if things are really like what you said, then our factory is in trouble."

  Qin Hai Dao said: "Let those who eat meat worry about it, this kind of thing is not something that we small workers can concern ourselves with."

  Wang Xiaochen also felt a bit depressed, she stood up and walked out, saying: "Hmm, okay... Little Qin you go rest early."

  "Alright, Xiaochen slow down." Qin Hai said.

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  Yesterday, I had a meeting all day and didn't get home until very late. A usually reliable friend recommended on Q a new book by You Xiaomu called "The Birth of an Entertainment Empire", saying it's similar to my book.

  After reading it, I think it's really well-written. Many entertaining themes start with a big killing spree, supporting characters have zero IQ, and the main character is full of arrogant air. This book writes about the normal world, human relationships are all normal, suitable for orange flavor.

  Actually I wanted to say that I got lost in reading... and forgot to post today's update. Classmates who are anxious about the book can click on the link below.