Siheyuan: Bringing Warehouses to 1959

Two big guys came over, one to visit Zeng Wangcai, and the other to discuss with him about setting up a factory and exporting.

Because the discussion was still ongoing, Minister Ye came over personally to inquire about the following matters, including setting up the factory, production costs, production scale and so on.

Zeng Wangcai was not very clear about this matter. He could only be sure that as long as there were enough sewing machines, production could be guaranteed.

But his actual pursuit does not stop there. A rich family and a powerful country can be combined together. The family business started with clothing making, but simply producing down jackets is obviously not enough.

"My two leaders, how about this!" Zeng Wangcai thought for a moment and responded, "My father is more knowledgeable about this. I will go back and ask him, and then write a detailed document about the location of the factory... I think it would be more appropriate to be near the textile factory."

"Yes, the textile factory has skilled workers who can be transferred. Setting up a factory there can save a lot of trouble." Old Man Liu nodded, affirming Zeng Wangcai's choice of location. "I know that the textile factory has a lot of vacant land, which is perfect for building a new factory."

After finalizing this, Zeng Wangcai asked, "There is another question. How big should the new factory be? How will the factory director and other organizational personnel be selected?"

All the hard work will be in vain if the factory manager does not appoint his own people.

Old Liu obviously thought of this, and waved his hand and said, "I have learned about your father, Comrade Zeng Youqian. He is the most suitable person to be the factory director. The clothes are made by him. As for the scale, it cannot be determined for the time being. Let's see how many orders there are."

This statement is very normal and Zeng Wangcai did not force it.

After discussing the general direction, the two bosses said goodbye and left.

Zeng Wangcai leaned on the hospital bed, lost in thought.

He suddenly realized that he had overlooked a problem - fabric.

Nowadays, everyone from officials at all levels to ordinary people wears cotton fabrics. The raw material is cotton, but the output of cotton has always been low. This leads to high prices for clothes and cloth coupons are very valuable.

For example, an ordinary cadre cotton jacket now costs 38 yuan, and an ordinary person's monthly salary is not enough to buy one.

Zeng Wangcai glanced at the time and found that it was still early for him to be discharged from the hospital, so he immersed his mind in space.

It was inconvenient to use a mobile phone in the hospital, so he went directly to the office building to look up information about textiles in the country at this time.

He knew very well that manual work could not be scaled up and would never become stronger. The only way to do this was to form a scale, and for this he had to find a substitute for cotton.

In fact, he knew the substitute, which is polyester fiber, which is called polyester in China, but he was not clear about the history of this thing.

After some inquiries, Zeng Wangcai learned that polyester fiber already exists. It was produced by Shanghai Petrochemical in 1958, with a small amount produced each year.

However, polyester fiber had not yet been used to make clothes; this did not appear until 1979.

There were still eighteen years from 1961 to 1979. During these eighteen years, ordinary people had to wear less, while foreign countries took advantage of these eighteen years to develop rapidly.

After learning this, Zeng Wangcai had a direction and once again looked into the process of turning polyester fiber into fabric. This was much simpler as there were not so many chemical reactions. The main work was melting and spinning, and the technical difficulty required was greatly reduced.

He downloaded the relevant knowledge materials, printed them out in a font close to handwriting, and bound them into a book.

Then he came out, underwent examination, confirmed that he was fine, and said goodbye to Dr. Lin.

Being poor is one year, being rich is also one year.

The tailor shops near the New Year were doing good business. With so many people in the city, there were always people who saved some cloth coupons and bought two feet of cloth during the New Year to make new clothes for their children.

When Zeng Wangcai came to the tailor shop, he saw a woman with two children talking to Zhang Chunmei.

The female comrade seemed to be an acquaintance of Zhang Chunmei, and her family background was not good. The jacket she was wearing was very thin, and the cuffs and elbows were all patched.

There were two children, one big and one small. The older one was a girl. She lowered her head shyly and didn't dare to look around. The clothes she wore had few patches. The younger one's eyes were rolling around.

This woman didn't have a sewing machine at home, and because her hands were not very convenient, she couldn't make clothes, so she had to grit her teeth and spend money to make a new set of clothes for the eldest son for the New Year. She would then alter the clothes on the eldest son and give them to the second son.

Zeng Wangcai witnessed all of this and saw a microcosm of how ordinary people dress in today's society.

Zhang Chunmei sent the guests away. Seeing Zeng Wangcai's strange expression, she quickly explained: "I have a neighbor who is miserable. Her husband died in the line of duty, and she took over, raising three children by herself. She also has a strong-willed mother-in-law, so she asked me to help her alter her clothes..."

Isn’t this the same as Qin Huairu?

Zeng Wangcai didn't say anything, just laughed it off.

"Wangcai, are you going to open a factory?" Zhang Chunmei looked a little nervous, "What will happen to our shop then? If it weren't for your father, our shop would definitely go bankrupt."

"Don't worry, it won't fail!" Zeng Wangcai had already made plans for this shop. He knew his father would not give up the business left by his master. "If the factory opens, we can just change the storefront and add a clothing sales department. We still have San'er and his friends to make clothes. My father said that San'er's skills are good enough for him to be able to handle the business on his own."

"That's good, that's good!" Zhang Chunmei was pleasantly surprised. "I was afraid that this shop would fail and I would be transferred to another place. I told you, Wangcai has worked here for a long time and doesn't want to move..."

Zhang Chunmei is a nice person, otherwise Zeng Wangcai would not have given her a vest.

When the factory opens, Zeng Youqian will definitely go there. Someone must be in charge of this shop. Zeng Wangcai thinks that Zhang Chunbei is the best candidate.

After chatting with Zhang Chunmei for a while, Zeng Wangcai waited until his father was free and took him home early.

"Has the factory matter been settled?" Zeng Youqian asked on the way.

"It's settled!" Zeng Wangcai took out a cigarette and handed it to his father. "The leader came this morning and the address is tentatively set at the textile factory. Now we have two problems. One is the organizational structure of the factory, and the other is the future production of the factory. Apart from these two, the rest can be dealt with as you like."

"Who cares about the organizational structure? You are so arrogant!" Zeng Youqian said unhappily while smoking a cigarette.

Although he doesn't understand things within the system, he still has some common sense.

No matter what unit it is, there are two teams. For example, the director of a factory is only in charge of production, but there is another team whose power is above that of the director, and that is the secretary.

"Let's not talk about other things. We must find a leader." Zeng Wangcai looked around and saw that there was no one around. He whispered, "Otherwise, you will find an unreliable person riding on your head, and an amateur will command the professionals. What will you do? Don't worry, I have thought of the candidate for the leader. I will include it when I write the materials. According to the scale of the factory, the higher-ups should not refuse."

"Who?"

"The head of the personnel department of the steel mill, Chen Rong, is an acquaintance of Director Zhang of the Street Office."

Zeng Wangcai calculated that this new factory was at most a department-level unit. If Section Chief Chen was willing to come, it would be equivalent to a direct promotion, and she should not refuse.

Other candidates include Chief Wu of the Propaganda Section and Zhao Hongqing of the Security Section. That’s it for now. We still have to discuss the candidate for Sha Zhu to cook, and I’m not sure about Zeng Wangcai, but that’s not important. If he comes, he can come, and if he doesn’t, it doesn’t matter.

After talking to his father about this, Zeng Wangcai carefully took out a pile of materials: "Dad, you don't have to go to work these two days, it's time to go to class..."