Chapter 1272: Authority

Two days later, Wang Yan, alone, pedaled his bicycle directly to the Agricultural Machinery Factory, which was not very far away.

By the time he arrived, all one hundred and twenty-six workers of the Agricultural Machinery Factory, including the leadership, had already assembled in the courtyard, buzzing with conversation among themselves.

As they watched him wobble in on his bicycle, the clamor gradually faded, and over a hundred pairs of eyes fixed on his every move.

The old factory director of the Agricultural Machinery Factory led the factory's leadership forward.

"Comrade Wang Yan, hello, hello! I am Fang Qian Zhixue. Originally, I was the director of our Agricultural Machinery Factory, but now that you have come, the county has transferred my affiliation to the Textile Factory, where I have become the deputy director."

Old Fang Qian was also an elderly man nearing retirement, about the same age as the old director of the Textile Factory, yet his hair was even whiter, all from worrying about the rice bowls of the more than one hundred people in the Agricultural Machinery Factory.

Wang Yan smiled warmly as he shook his hand, then listened as he introduced the other factory leaders; basically, they had all been demoted and were waiting for Wang Yan to reassign them.

Of course, they had grievances, but there was no help for it, as the county had no placements for them. Anyone with capability had found a way to transfer away; those who remained were the workers, yet the Agricultural Machinery Factory happened to have no work to do.

After addressing the workers, conveying the spirit from above, expressing his management ideas, and painting a picture of a beautiful future to boost their morale and give them reassurance, he dismissed them to wait for work assignments.

Immediately afterward, Wang Yan accompanied the factory leadership to inspect the conditions inside the Agricultural Machinery Factory.

What the county magistrate had previously said about the Agricultural Machinery Factory being unable to produce decent machinery was actually an exaggeration. In reality, the factory did have assets; otherwise, with over a hundred workers eating idle rice, the county would have long ago employed harsh measures to solve the problem.

The Agricultural Machinery Factory had two sources of income: one was purchasing engines and other parts from the city, producing some components locally within the county, and slowly assembling an agricultural machine, which the county would then purchase with allocated funds. The other was supplying simple, cheap parts to the city's agricultural machinery station, achieving a division of labor. In this way, the city reduced its costs in this area, while the county gained some revenue.

However, like the situation at the Textile Factory, workers were retiring and newcomers were taking over; they were spending more than they earned, and their days were far harder than those at the Textile Factory. Just looking at the number of workers, one could see that the Textile Factory's strength was much greater.

The situation in each county differed, but the basic industrial configuration of the counties was largely similar: power plants, fertilizer plants, chemical plants, distilleries, sugar refineries, salt works, canneries, textile factories, pharmaceutical factories, shoe and garment factories, brick kilns, steel mills, cement plants, precast concrete factories, and so on—all essential for livelihood and production.

The main reason lay in the fact that the overall mindset at this time still focused on war. Thus, should any turmoil arise, it ensured the supply and guarantee of various materials within a certain period; thereafter, following the nation's deployment, the war machine would operate fully, and in an instant, the entire populace would become soldiers.

Therefore, grassroots units at this time sought completeness; whether they were refined or not was secondary, but they had to have everything.

Moreover, transportation was unimpeded then, lacking the terrifying operational efficiency of several decades later, so this arrangement could also safeguard local livelihoods and ensure the complete supply of various materials.

Wang Yan inspected the equipment of the Agricultural Machinery Factory; overall, it was still usable. After all, since he could hand-craft a water-jet loom himself, having even a few more usable pieces of equipment would greatly improve manufacturing efficiency.

Having thus surveyed the situation within the compound, Wang Yan and the group of Agricultural Machinery Factory leaders went to the office for a meeting.

"The lathes from the city will arrive in a few days, and the funds are already in place. The immediate priority is to tidy up the factory. We have two workshops and one large garage here. The garage has more space; move all the agricultural machinery out of it and find another place to park them, then move the equipment coming from the city in there.

Additionally, halt the workshop that produces parts for the city; we will no longer do that. Regarding the production of agricultural machinery, the county magistrate's intention is to stop it; from now on, we will manage the maintenance of the county's agricultural machinery.

However, after inspecting the site today, I feel we should retain it. We can produce them; we just cannot produce leading-edge models, but they are still usable. Producing them ourselves is cheaper than procuring them from elsewhere.

We have not yet filled our bellies; agriculture is our foundation. We must guarantee our county's agricultural production and ensure our food security. In the future, I will also lead a group of people to research and improve our agricultural machinery.

Old Fang Qian, you arrange these matters. Retain the team producing agricultural machinery; transfer the team producing parts to work on the looms here. Half of the factory's veteran masters will come to this side, while the other side continues producing agricultural machinery.

Additionally, compile a statistic of children in our factory workers' families who are sixteen years or older, neither attending school nor employed. In the future, when we expand our workforce, we will start with these children of our workers."

Seeing Factory Director Old Fang Qian nod, Wang Yan continued, "Future work will focus on two main aspects: factory administration and production. For now, I will first resolve the production issues; let's make money first. Regarding factory administration, Old Fang Qian will be responsible; ideological education and study for the workers within the compound, including all the leaders present, must not stop.

What does building the Four Modernizations rely on? It relies on a worker-peasant mass that is educated and cultivated. We must know why we work, know how to work, and know what standard we must achieve. Therefore, our factory's night school must be established, established well, and comrades must study well.

We must build our ideological awareness and strengthen confidentiality consciousness. This is the rice bowl of all our workers and the future of our own children. No one is allowed to sabotage it; whoever destroys our achievements, we will deal with them.

That is all I have to say. Do any of you leaders have any opinions?"

The few people from the Agricultural Machinery Factory looked at each other, and one of them, quite advanced in years, tentatively asked, "Do our relatives count as well?"

Clearly, this person was also somewhat uneasy because Wang Yan had furiously scolded Old Li of the Textile Factory.

Wang Yan shook his head and smiled: "We can only first arrange placements for the children of families from our Textile Factory and Agricultural Machinery Factory workers. Only after this group is arranged can we turn to everyone's relatives. However, considering that it is not easy for you leaders, I have already discussed with Old Qi and the others: those with children will have their children arranged first; those without children may arrange for one relative.

But let me state clearly first: regardless of who it is, they must work diligently for me. Anyone who shirks duties, plays tricks, or embezzles public profits will be dealt with; we must kill one to warn a hundred and serve as a warning to others. Comrades, our Jin Ling County is poor; it is not yet time for comfort and enjoyment, and there will never be comfort. Like rowing against the current, if we do not advance, we retreat.

We must become the best in the city, the best in the province, and the best in the nation. Once we reach that point, can we relax? No! We must strive to be the best in the world. Even if we have no rivals, we must become stronger year by year, enabling all our workers to drive the people of our entire county to live good lives.

Alright, that is all I will say. Old Fang Qian, you make the arrangements. I must busy myself with production; the pressure is all on me now. You all work hard, do not drag us down; let us progress together and become prosperous together."

Having said this, Wang Yan waved his hand, stood up, and left the conference room.

Everyone stood to see Wang Yan off; once he was out of sight, they sat down again, looking left and right at each other, all wearing bitter smiles. Then they gathered together to pour out their hardships, stirred up many sighs, and discussed Wang Yan's capabilities.

Wang Yan, however, had no mind to waste words with them; they were all tool people. If they did their jobs well, he would say nothing; if they did poorly, he would see what was happening. If anyone was purely there to idle away their days waiting to die, Wang Yan would send them into retirement; no one should think they could stir up any waves...

Arriving at the workshop side, Wang Yan received a warm welcome.

"Brother Yan, you're truly awesome; you've even become a deputy factory director!"

"You kid don't know how to speak; your future is worrisome! Isn't a deputy factory director still a factory director?"

Some of the young people working there were making a racket; previously, with a bunch of leaders present, they hadn't dared to speak recklessly, but now that Wang Yan had come alone and wore such a friendly, smiling expression, their courage grew.

Seeing Wang Yan respond with a good attitude, a crowd surged over, enthusiastically talking to him.

At this moment, Wang Yan seemed like a celebrity.

And indeed he was a celebrity; after all, his track record was verifiable, and it possessed quite a legendary quality. A person who loved fighting was also an exceptional student and became a university graduate. Upon graduating, instead of going to another place assigned by the state, he willingly returned to build his hometown. Barely any time after returning, he researched and developed a new machine and was immediately promoted rapidly to deputy factory director.

The transition was huge, and the contrast was immense.

Wang Yan smiled warmly and addressed the crowd: "Alright, less idle talk; let's hurry up and work. Come on, tidy up the workshop. From now on, we won't be making parts for the city; we will make our own looms."

"Factory Director, I heard that in the future, our children can also enter the factory, and we don't even have to retire?"

"Who said that?"

"Uh... I just heard it... Anyway, that's what everyone says; these past two days, the whole county has been buzzing with it."

Wang Yan smiled: "If you want your children to enter the factory, then we must work hard right now. Only when the factory earns more money can we support more people, and only then can our children enter the factory. Do you comrades all understand this relationship?"

"Who wouldn't understand that? In the past, everyone had no hope, but now it's different. Factory Director, whatever you say to do, we will do."

"Then what are we waiting for? Get moving! Masters with good skills and leaders of production groups, come over to me. Everyone else, clean up this entire workshop; take anything useless outside and pile it up somewhere for now. Do some cleaning and wipe down those oil-blackened areas."

Clapping his hands, Wang Yan urged everyone to get moving quickly.

Holding the design blueprints, he worked with several highly skilled masters to study manufacturing methods, and together with the group leaders, assigned production tasks for various parts.

As everyone knows, the assembly line model is an excellent method for improving production efficiency. Although there are no fully automated equipment varieties at present, the division of labor and cooperation of human resources is still the most appropriate approach.

Therefore, over the past two days, Wang Yan had already disassembled the entire water-jet loom. For the parts the county could produce, such as the screws and nuts mentioned earlier by the county magistrate, as well as other components, Wang Yan had already visited various factories to inspect production quality.

He had also placed some orders. Of course, none had been paid for yet; circulation within the county was easy to resolve. For now, priority was given to loom production; debts would be repaid after earning money, with the county providing a safety net.

However, what the county could produce on contract was only one-third of the entire loom; the remaining two-thirds still had to be produced by ourselves.

Actually, there were alternative methods; after all, Wang Yan had modified the loom based on the original shuttle loom. He could purchase from loom manufacturing factories in other regions and bring them back for modification. The cost would be somewhat higher, but the speed would be greatly increased.

It was just that, considering the people in the county still hadn't eaten their fill, this opportunity should be used to let more people earn money. Therefore, this plan—whether discussed by the county leadership or the factory staff—was never raised; the intention was to keep everyone within the county.

The cadres might be somewhat wild, but they certainly knew how to get promoted...

So, over the course of that day, Wang Yan and the Agricultural Machinery Factory personnel completed the detailed grouping of various parts and, based on the skilled workers and team leaders, determined the approximate number of workers required.

On that same day, purchased raw metal materials such as iron, steel, aluminum, and copper, along with some alloy materials, arrived; these were already refined and die-cast into sheets, metal blocks, and the like.

By the second day, Wang Yan personally led fifty-seven employees to begin trial production. After half a month, they successfully assembled a water-jet loom from scratch. Testing showed its parameters differed little from Wang Yan's initial estimates.

This did not represent the full productivity of the fifty-seven people; after all, the production cycles for various parts had time differences. For those taking longer, more people were assigned; for those taking less time, fewer people were assigned. As production advanced and experience accumulated, the workers became more skilled, and output naturally increased.

This first unit was solely for testing purposes: first, to let the workers understand each stage of the process, and second, to discover and resolve problems within it.

For instance, during manufacturing, the workshop was not large enough; after half a month, a massive new workshop had already been erected on the vacant land beside the Agricultural Machinery Factory. For instance, because material strength was insufficient, some secondary processing was conducted, laminating plates to increase thickness, and corresponding details in the blueprints were modified; there were countless such issues.

Subsequently, the City Textile Factory sent a vehicle to pick up this machine, collecting it directly from the source. One day later, they remitted the full payment for the remaining nine ordered units to the County Textile Factory.

This greatly invigorated the entire Textile Factory; overall, the Textile Factory had achieved success.

On this day, the factory leadership held a meeting. Between the two factories, there were five hundred people, and more than ten leaders qualified to attend the meeting.

In the seat of honor sat Old Factory Director Qi, sipping tea from a large enamel mug; in the seat below him was Wang Yan.

Without Old Factory Director Qi saying a word, he directly commenced the meeting: "Everyone already knows that our first loom has been sold to the City Textile Factory, and the payment for the remaining nine looms has also been remitted to our account. This makes for a good start. Old Zhang, you speak: in this past half-month, how many orders have been placed? How much money has been paid?"

Old Zhang said: "I made a trip around our province; the textile factories in various cities are quite interested. However, we currently have nothing but empty words, and we are famously from a poor region; even after showing them the parameters, they didn't believe me, so I invited them to come here for an on-site inspection. Wang Yan, when will formal production begin? I'll call them and have them all come over to see."

"Old Zhang, your brain needs to be more flexible. We've already delivered one machine to the city, not to mention the one I made earlier that's still in our factory. They are coming to see the machine, not to watch how we produce it. You call them and tell them to go to the city to see it.

You leaders who are out running around should spread out a bit; what's the use of several people running to the same place? If you run around like this, by the time you've covered enough ground, the foreigners' machines will have dropped in price. Tell me, by that time, who will still buy our machines? Everyone thinks foreign goods are better.

Old Factory Director, approve higher travel expenses; they are all older than me. Let the comrades eat and drink well while out there, don't let them suffer too much; the body is the capital of revolution, after all."

Old Qi nodded and continued drinking his tea.

Wang Yan said: "Old Factory Director, if you're bored, you should also go out and walk around; spending your whole life spinning in circles within the county isn't great; going out to see things is quite good, just treat it as a publicly-funded tour."

"Would I do such a thing? You brat, your insults are truly filthy." The Old Factory Director snorted, speaking in a bad mood, "Let's continue the meeting, stop saying useless things."

Wang Yan smiled slightly, then said: "Through this trial production, many deficiencies were discovered. One of them is insufficient manpower. Because I retained agricultural machinery production, more than eighty people cannot be moved. Only fifty-eight are actually working. After calculation, these current personnel can achieve an assembly rate of one unit per day after working for half a month.

However, I believe this is too slow, and the efficiency is too low. Regarding efficiency issues, I will gradually add and improve equipment and optimize the manufacturing process during subsequent production. But currently, if we want to increase manufacturing capacity and make money as quickly as possible, we can only increase manpower.

According to statistics, among the families of the original Textile Factory employees, there are one hundred and twenty-six suitable individuals. Of these, seventy-two are male and fifty-four are female. My suggestion is that we can have these people come to work at the factory immediately. All males should go to manufacture machines; regarding the females, we still need to consider carefully.

Manufacturing machines is harder, more tiring, and dirtier than weaving; we ought to take care of our female comrades. Therefore, for these fifty-two women, I believe we should make some adjustments with the weaving staff. First, respect their autonomous choices; second, vacate some lighter posts currently occupied by men; third, have the parents of these women take over those positions.

What is everyone's opinion? Old Factory Director?"

Old Qi nodded: "I have no objection. Although it is said that women hold up half the sky, we indeed must consider different circumstances. Do any of you have thoughts?"

Everyone shook their heads, so Wang Yan nodded: "Then it's settled. Issue the notice today; tomorrow they come to the factory to register. There are no established quotas, but they will all receive treatment equal to formal employees. Old Factory Director, don't forget to contact the Shoe and Garment Factory over there to make a batch of work uniforms for us."

"Do you really think I'm senile? I've been a factory director for twelve years!" Old Qi snorted, displaying a touch of tsundere pride.

Smiling gently, Wang Yan looked at Fang Qian Zhixue, the former Agricultural Machinery Factory Director, who had several times seemed about to speak but stopped himself.

"Old Fang Qian, there is an order of precedence in matters; the original Agricultural Machinery Factory employees have already received improved benefits, which is quite good. In the end, it wasn't the Textile Factory that merged into the Agricultural Machinery Factory. They don't need to rush; production has already begun. If we work overtime and around the clock, within a month our factory will be completely different.

The money is right there; if we don't earn it, the foreigners will take it all. Moreover, we must be fast; just as I said earlier, once the foreigners react and lower their prices, we will have no competitiveness. So, at most, it will be two months later; by then, we will definitely need to expand the manufacturing scale again, and these people will certainly not be enough; we will need to absorb even more talent.

Put your minds at ease, but also do a good job of soothing feelings; at this time, production comes first, do not let small emotions cause trouble."

"I understand, I will do a good job with the work..." Old Fang Qian sighed melancholically.

The logic is sound, but people are always this dissatisfied; the former employees of the Agricultural Machinery Factory will surely have complaints.

Wang Yan paid no attention to the others and pointed out several other issues.

Mainly, standardizing the safe production system, worker study and ideological education, and meeting the spiritual and entertainment needs of the staff, such as buying a few projectors to regularly screen movies within the factory, installing loudspeakers to play music at scheduled times, and so on.

At the same time, Wang Yan emphasized propaganda work, deliberated on various factory honors, and took the opportunity to propose buying a few good cameras and assigning a propaganda officer to record the tremendous changes in the factory, for future generations to recall past hardships and reflect on present sweetness...

Additionally, they deliberated on wastewater treatment for textile operations; this is a necessary task, especially since we are also producing machines; our own factory must certainly implement this as well.

Whether it will be eliminated in the future is a matter for the future to decide. What must be done now is to let more people eat their fill...

This internal factory leadership meeting was also very meaningful, because this meeting formally established Wang Yan's leadership authority over the entire factory following the merger with the Agricultural Machinery Factory.

Previously established leadership authority was virtual; people were uncertain and wanted to see what Wang Yan could accomplish.

This time it was substantial, and attempting to seize power from Wang Yan's hands is now impossible. If anyone truly tried, the factory employees would absolutely not agree.

Because Wang Yan improved their benefits, gave their children jobs, made their lives suddenly better, and gave them greater hope for the future. It's not that they had no hope before, but the future is better. The employees are not fools; they know whose merit this is.

In the future New Textile Factory, Wang Yan will be the absolute authority, unshakable...