Chapter 254: Modu

After some discussion among the ten of them, Qian Dahu gave the last two job quotas to Lao Er, Liu Tiejun, and Lao San, Zhu Dachang.

The next morning, Zhang Ping'an took the ten of them to find Liu Guangtian, and Liu Guangtian handled it immediately without a word.

To Liu Guangtian, Zhang Ping'an was practically his own uncle; Zhang Ping'an had found him his job and introduced him to his wife, and if he weren't afraid his father wouldn't allow it, he would have been willing to acknowledge Zhang Ping'an as his foster father.

Holding the household registration book belonging to the ten of them, Qian Dahu cried and laughed at the same time; in the end, everyone took turns looking at it, and they all wore the same expression as Qian Dahu.

"Alright, the rest of you go back first. Dahu, you three come with me to handle the onboarding procedures."

"Yes, okay."

With a note of approval from Li Huaide and Zhang Ping'an leading them personally, the Personnel Section quickly processed their onboarding, and they collected two sets of clothes and other items; the three of them's eighty-one yuan salary was enough to cover the expenses for all ten.

Zhang Ping'an thought for a moment, then changed back into his Public Security Uniform and took them to the local Street Office, where he had the three abandoned East Wing Rooms officially registered under Qian Dahu's name; from now on, they were people with a home and a job.

At this, Qian Dahu and the other two were truly moved to tears, and they kowtowed several times to Zhang Ping'an with loud thuds.

Zhang Ping'an originally wanted to pull them up, but the three of them were insistent; they had nothing else with which to thank Zhang Ping'an, and only in this way could they express their gratitude.

"Alright, get up, all of you. Live your lives well from now on," Zhang Ping'an said, patting the three men on the shoulders.

"Yes."

After parting ways with the three, Zhang Ping'an let out a long sigh; as someone washed by modern civilization, he truly could not bear to see such things.

In his past life, he had clearly not lived a satisfactory life himself, and while he felt sympathy when seeing others suffer, he could not help much, at most donating a hundred or eighty to ease his conscience.

Now that he had some ability, he naturally would not stand idly by when he saw it, and Zhang Ping'an became determined that after the future Reform and Opening-up, he would go into business and establish a company to help more people.

At noon, he ran into Yi Zhonghai at the canteen and told him about the arrangements he had made for Qian Dahu.

"Ping'an, thank you for being willing to trust Jiabao. When I have time, I will bring Jiabao and the others over to take a look."

"Done."

The reason Zhang Ping'an took the initiative to speak up was that he knew how much Yi Zhonghai valued his own two children and didn't want Yi Zhonghai to harbor resentment because of seeing Qian Dahu and the others; he hadn't expected this old fellow to be quite so open-minded.

At one in the afternoon, Qian Dahu and the other two finished tidying up and came to work; their main job was harvesting forage grass.

"Work hard. If you have any issues in the future, you can come find me at Logistics."

"Understood, Director Zhang."

Along the way, the three of them had heard everyone greeting Zhang Ping'an, so they followed suit quite tactfully.

"Alright, go get busy."

The three bowed to Zhang Ping'an once more before following Zhang Weixing to the grassland to get to work.

At four in the afternoon, Zhang Ping'an received another call from Li Huaide and went to the Factory Director's office.

"Ping'an, come, sit down and look at this document."

"Oh, okay."

Zhang Ping'an took it and saw it was from the Shanghai Machinery Factory; firstly, they had heard the Rolling Mill's pig farm was very successful and wanted to replicate and learn from it;

unfortunately, they had followed the Rolling Mill's methods the year before last, but the results were not satisfactory, so they wanted Zhang Ping'an to go over and provide guidance; secondly, it was to discuss the price for purchasing components.

"Factory Director, I've finished reading it."

"Mm, then go back and pack up; be ready to set off tomorrow. For the Logistics side, let Zhu Weiguo and Cao Guodong keep an eye on things for you first."

"Once you get to Modu, you will be directly responsible for the pig farm; as for the component purchasing, Factory Director Yang will send people, and you just need to sign off on it when the time comes."

"Understood, Factory Director."

Returning home after work in the evening, Zhang Ping'an mentioned the business trip to Modu tomorrow.

"Brother Ping'an, how long will you be gone?"

"I estimate it will take about half a month."

It was now April, the best time for sowing forage grass; waiting for the grass to sprout and emerge would take at least ten days to half a month.

"Oh."

"Xiao Ling, I'll have to trouble you to lead them in their training for this half month. Mother, please try to keep the kitchen doors and windows closed when cooking in the morning."

"Alright, I understand."

That night, thinking about not being able to see each other for the next half month, the two of them naturally couldn't avoid a round of battle.

Early the next morning, Zhang Ping'an took his packed luggage and went straight to the factory; the group didn't assemble and depart until nine o'clock.

Although Zhang Ping'an's group of five all belonged to Logistics, he really wasn't familiar with the other four.

"Hello, Director Zhang. I am Yang Guangming, Workshop Procurement Director, responsible for this component procurement; they are also workshop procurement personnel."

Although Workshop Procurement was nominally under Logistics, it concerned production and had always been managed by Factory Director Yang; this fellow's surname was Yang, and it was unclear if he had any relation to Factory Director Yang.

"Hello, Director Yang. Hello, everyone."

After the two sides exchanged greetings, they didn't speak further, and Zhang Ping'an took out his Intermediate Antique Knowledge to read.

They boarded the train at ten o'clock, and after a bumpy journey, they arrived in Modu just before noon the next day; people from the Shanghai Rolling Mill had already arranged for someone to meet them there.

"Hello, I am Jiang Zhenbei, Logistics Director of the Rolling Mill. May I ask who is Director Zhang Ping'an?"

"Hello, Director Jiang, I am Zhang Ping'an."

Jiang Zhenbei was taken aback; he had initially thought Yang Guangming was Zhang Ping'an, and hadn't expected it to be the handsome young man beside him.

The information they received was that Zhang Ping'an was twenty-eight, but people in this era generally looked older; the forty-something Yang Guangming's appearance fit just right, but Zhang Ping'an was the opposite, looking no more than twenty at twenty-eight.

"Oh, oh, welcome, Director Zhang."

Jiang Zhenbei reacted quickly; he was in charge of logistics and was naturally most concerned about Zhang Ping'an's miraculous breeding techniques, so he was naturally enthusiastic toward Zhang Ping'an, while his attitude toward the others was just average.

"Xiao Wang, take Director Yang and the others to the Reception House to rest first."

"Oh, okay, Director. Director Yang, everyone, please come this way."

"Mm."

Although Yang Guangming felt unhappy about being slighted, he didn't show it, as both Jiang Zhenbei and Zhang Ping'an were a rank above him.

"Director Zhang, let's talk as we walk."

"Alright, please."

Since the other party treated him with enthusiasm, Zhang Ping'an naturally would not give him the cold shoulder; along the way, they began to exchange professional pleasantries, and even started addressing each other as Ping'an and Brother Jiang, until finally, Zhang Ping'an asked about the current situation of the pig farm.

"Ahem, well Ping'an, it's not that Brother Jiang doesn't understand, but this was completely copied according to the model of your Rolling Mill; unfortunately, the results have been minimal."

"That shouldn't be the case, were the forage seeds and piglets not introduced from our Rolling Mill?"

"Uh, not entirely."

Subsequently, Jiang Zhenbei began to describe the current situation of the entire pig farm; it turned out to be a problem with the forage seeds.

They had been anxious to experiment at the time and only bought forage seeds in Modu, but unfortunately, the growth rate was too slow to keep up with consumption, and the key was that the forage almost withered in winter, yet they were reluctant to just plow up dozens of acres of land.

Furthermore, they had only bought a little over a hundred piglets at the time, and with poor harvests over the last two years, there was naturally no surplus grain to feed the pigs, so it just dragged on like this.

"Ping'an, look at this..."

"Let's go over and take a look this afternoon before saying anything else, but I think now is the time for planting forage, so it is better to try and plow up all the inferior forage, otherwise the losses will outweigh the gains."

"And as for the piglets, if you agree, I can have the factory arrange for another batch to be sent over."