Chapter 250: Only My Unique Method Chapter 250: Martial Arts Hall Apprenticeship (4)

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The top-floor decor was ordinary, but red carpet had been laid, muffling the sound of high heels. Jin Douna reached the office door, paused to compose herself, then knocked lightly three times.

"Come in." Chen Yi took the opportunity to tidy the documents, filing away the container data on weapons into a drawer.

"Chen Yi, Sister Liu."

Liu Xinyu gave a delicate laugh, her chest trembling slightly, and said with a smile: "Looking pleased with yourself — what good news?"

"My younger cousin is coming to Jiangning tomorrow, I'd like to ask for leave." Jin Douna's phrasing inevitably carried a Korean lilt; hearing it once in a while was quite charming.

"Handle the work at hand, and you can take leave whenever." Chen Yi was referring to the Research Society position Jin Douna had taken over.

Jin Douna nodded sweetly, then sat down, crossing one long leg, and said with a smile: "This time there are even more trainees. Many of the workers look like they don't have jobs; the talk of clearing out workers before seems to have come to nothing."

Liu Xinyu had long regarded the Martial Arts Hall as her own patch of turf; she spoke with a fair degree of wariness: "The halt in clearing out workers is because they're worried the trainees will object. The Hall is still expanding; once they have a free hand, the clear-out will go back on the agenda."

That last sentence was meant for Chen Yi.

Chen Yi said "Good," then added: "In this we should learn from foreigners. Liu Xinyu, after I return, you'll start grading the workers, rating them from A to E. Three criteria: first, value — capable workers get high scores, incapable ones low scores; second, loyalty — whether they can keep secrets, how far they'd go for the Hall's risks; third, controllability — how far the Hall can control them, whether they're willing to submit to the Hall's control. I figure among these three there'll always be some who score high; they can't all be low. If they're all low, then dismiss them — they'll have nothing to say."

Hearing how meticulous his thinking was, Liu Xinyu knew Chen Yi must have had a full plan long ago. Especially the three points he raised — very distinctive, clearly not really about learning from foreigners.

She seized on Chen Yi's last sentence to ask: "Should the ratings be made public?"

"The first two public — that's the only way to drive change among the workers. The third..." Chen Yi pondered a moment, then said: "Keep it secret for now, but let everyone know there's another, confidential rating."

"Understood." Liu Xinyu thought: implemented this way, the Hall's control would clearly rise a big step, but why Chen Yi needed such a tight Hall system made her secretly suspicious.

While the Hall here began preparing the ratings, Chen Yi kept hauling equipment to the West Continent truckload by truckload.

Times were different from the past. The West Continent used to be like a woman with beautiful scenery and a superb figure but no meat on her ribs — lovely to look at, but tasteless to eat. But when their conch shells contained 99% platinum, even the boniest chicken breast had to plump up, like an artificial beauty inflated in an instant.

In addition, the newly restarted Jiangjing Service Area construction was also an excellent cover.

An 80,000-square-meter storage hall — cement alone would consume who knows how many tens of thousands of tons. Through Xiong, Chen Yi casually allocated supplies, easily obtaining hundreds to thousands of tons of materials and machinery. Apart from the United Brick Machine which was purchased externally, cement, bricks, and rebar were all left-hand-to-right-hand, stuffed straight through the back door of Chen's Big Sale Building's first floor, then shipped in batches to the West Continent.

Jiangning's political and legal high officials were now visibly leaning toward the Chen Clan; the Public Security Bureau Deputy Chief in charge of public order and household registration was even a Chen Clan disciple; the Security Department was even more so, mostly in Zhu Guangliang's grip — one could say, unless Xijing formed a special high-level targeted reconnaissance team, nobody knew Chen Yi's business, and nobody dared to know.

Even so, Chen Yi was still exhausted enough to choke. Because his subordinates had no one with high enough trust to leak the Magic Subway's existence, even the moving work had to be done personally. Materials could at least be moved in batches — three to five tons at a time, hauling them with fighting spirit dragging and pulling was fine. Equipment was another matter — with modern industry's robustness, any random machine weighed ten or twenty tons; disassembled into parts he couldn't reassemble them. So he had to hire specialized manufacturers to partially disassemble and explain the equipment, then package it into easily transportable under-5-ton units, and ship them.

When they arrived at the West Continent's Shuizhai, he had to play engineer himself, assembling all the components. The several Skill Copy Scrolls he'd painstakingly accumulated — more than half were used up at once; Chen Yi felt the pinch so much he even ate less meat.

The Subway's transport volume kept increasing. At first Chen Yi limited it to 20 tons; later he loaded more and more, straight past the 50-ton limit; at most, a single run carried 120 tons of supplies — a whole set of small hydropower equipment, plus 80 tons of rebar and cement.

One could say Chen Yi was single-handedly building a county-level township industrial park... truly not easy at all.

Yu Weichao was equally exhausted. Moving that much material over muddy ground — just thinking about it made one's heart go cold. Fortunately the transport beasts had good leg strength, also locally produced giant monsters; in the words of the unwilling Transport Battalion Captain She Lei: "Just treat it like riding a donkey in Afghanistan."

A 30-ton donkey — ordinary mountains really can't bear it.

Without Chen Yi saying anything, after a week She Lei and Yu Weichao couldn't take it first.

When Chen Yi sent another batch of heavy machine guns, Yu Weichao hesitated: "Mr. Chen, if you don't send people soon, we don't mind the hardship, but the work can't go on."

His tone had the flavor of a lower-level cadre reporting to a superior leader — still rather pleasant to hear.

Chen Yi thought: finding people who are thoroughly known, sending them from Jiangning to the West Continent, then not letting them go back — where is it that simple? Even the Hall's trainees have a series of prerequisites to handle, let alone professional talent.

But these complicated matters he could only shoulder himself, merely replying: "Adding people is in the plan."

Yu Weichao knew deployment was troublesome, but he really couldn't hold on from exhaustion; he huffed for half a day: "The natives don't understand machinery; now not to mention installation and maintenance needing us to figure it out, even operating machinery has to be done by us. That United Brick Machine is okay, but the design speed of 10,000 bricks a day is nowhere near reached; the small hydropower — whatever state it was when you left, it's still that state now. The other two tractors, one crane — we drive them all ourselves; She Lei's now at tractor-racing-driver level."

He wanted to crack a joke to ease the atmosphere, but did a truly poor job of it.

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow: "Small hydropower not installed successfully yet, still running on diesel lately?"

He'd sent 20 tons of diesel over; this stuff was easier to transport — oil tanker drives into the mall's back door, then straight onto the Subway to unload the oil tank, then drive the truck back, problem solved. As for whether the West Continent transported it whole or in batches, he didn't care at all. But convenient as diesel was, the West Continent couldn't produce it itself, while the rivers near Shuizhai were numerous — dam any one of them and the power would be enough for a small stockade.

Yu Weichao nodded and shook his head: "Not enough workers; right now we mainly just mounted the heavy machine guns; the rest have low utilization, bricks aren't needed that much, power consumption isn't high."

This amounted to a semi-shutdown state, but Yu Weichao's problem was also very real.

Never mind that She Lei fundamentally lacks mechanical knowledge — even if they both understood clearly, two people aren't enough; that small hydropower project even more so — no matter how simple, it needs several tens of people helping out.

This is a problem that must be solved.

Chen Yi said "I know," then swept away more than half a bag of conch shells, and under the hopeful gazes of Yu Weichao and the others, set off on the return journey.

Without those conch shells, he wouldn't be this motivated.

But just having conch shells doesn't seem to work either.

……

Jiangning's political arena was in constant turmoil, like a fish pond being fought over — there were always one or two restless fellows jumping out, either snatching a bait or getting hooked and that was that.

The Chen Family people instead slowly began watching with cold eyes, letting the various factions clash in Jiangning. Having been away for a long time, it was hard to pull suitable people into suitable positions all at once; rather than let others profit, better to lower the banners and muffle the drums, accumulate strength.

However, although they hadn't gained more important posts, at least three or four officials were preparing to transfer to Jiangning — among them Chen Lao's former secretary, and Chen Family classmates and relatives. Jiangning's rank was higher than an ordinary prefecture-level city; the only ones worth absorbing were Party and government principal leaders, or ministry/bureau department-level leaders. They all had ongoing affairs; a transfer order would not only draw backlash from all sides but also hinder their own development.

But clans like the He Family, though they had the strength to contend with the Chen Family in Jiangning, if you really looked at the whole country, their foundation was inferior; with chaos erupting now, they couldn't avoid fighting even if they wanted to.

Chen Yi saw it all, rejoiced in his heart. Toward He Fuhan, he'd long been displeased; all-night meetings weren't a fun thing.

At the same time, the Hall's ratings proceeded vigorously. Liu Xinyu first did preliminary ratings through government files and the workers' various qualification documents, then revised them one by one through talks. As for loyalty evaluation, it was mainly based on family situation and ideological stability.

This assessment method naturally cut off the trainees' resistance, but Chen Yi held the Hall — he didn't give them any qualification to discuss, just one sentence: those unwilling to continue studying and working in the Hall may leave freely.

And per the agreement signed before entering the Hall, leaving the Hall meant they could neither teach Body Technique nor use Body Technique; otherwise they'd owe massive compensation. Clearly, with the Hall's capability, whether they legitimately demanded compensation or illegitimately, it was something the trainees and workers couldn't resist.

Such a hardline stance, though making people very unhappy, was undeniable — the Hall truly had no obligation to discuss with trainees — more accurately, Chen Yi never regarded trainees who couldn't meet targets as trainees at all.

Those who can't keep up the pace aren't falling behind; they're being eliminated — so it has been from ancient times to now.

……(To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log in to www. qidian. com for more chapters. Support the author, support genuine reading!)