Siheyuan: I am different He Yuzhu

The steelmaking workshop delivered satisfactory results in the first month of production to Director Yang. When production began in the second month, He Yuzhu summarized and rectified the problems exposed in the first month, so the production capacity of the steelmaking workshop quickly reached 1500 tons per day. The leaders of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry, the superior department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, were very happy that the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill could reach full capacity production so quickly, and personally called Director Yang to give him verbal praise.

"Xiao Yang, I was right about you. I didn't expect that you would be able to produce 1500 tons of steel per day in less than a year at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. This is a great achievement."

"Old leader, thank you for your praise. My achievements today are inseparable from your support."

"Xiao Yang, I won't say much about the rest. I only have one request for your factory: don't be proud, keep working hard, and strive to make greater contributions."

"Old leader, don't worry, I will continue to work hard and live up to your expectations."

"By the way, Xiao Yang, based on the current situation, your factory should be able to produce 40 tons of steel by the end of the year. Can you think of a way to increase the production capacity to 60 tons?"

"Old leader, are you encountering any difficulties? Why are you suddenly so concerned about production?" Director Yang asked cautiously.

"Xiao Yang, since you have noticed something, I will not hide it from you. The top leaders may ask for the steel production capacity to be doubled this year. At that time, the task can only be shared by the lower levels, so I suggest you make preparations early."

"Thank you for the reminder, old leader. I will call a meeting of our factory cadres to discuss how to increase the production to 60 tons."

"Please pay more attention. Okay, I'm hanging up now."

Director Yang put down the phone and thought about it. The old leader must have known something that was inconvenient to tell him. It seemed that he had made preparations in advance. So Director Yang called He Yuzhu's office and said, "Hello, is this Director He? This is Yang Zixing. Please come to my office as soon as possible."

After He Yuzhu received the call from Director Yang, he hurried to Director Yang's office. "Director Yang, I'm here. What do you want to talk to me about?" He Yuzhu asked directly after seeing Director Yang.

"Director He, I want to ask you something. You have to tell me honestly. Based on the production capacity of our factory's steelmaking workshop, can we complete the production task of 60 tons by the end of the year?" Director Yang stared at He Yuzhu and asked.

"How is it possible? Director Yang, you know the situation of the blast furnace in our factory's steelmaking workshop. 1500 tons a day is almost reaching its limit. If we maintain this until the end of the year, we can only produce a maximum of 40 tons of steel. It is impossible to produce 60 tons of steel." He Yuzhu said in surprise after hearing Director Yang's words.

“So is there any way to produce 60 tons by the end of the year?”

"It's probably going to be tough this year. Even if we build another 800-cubic-meter blast furnace from now on, it will not be ready for production until the end of the year at the earliest. It's too late. Besides, if we want to build another 800-cubic-meter blast furnace, we don't have the funds to build one without the approval of the higher authorities."

"Director He, let me ask you, if the higher authorities agree to let us build another 800 cubic meter blast furnace, how long will it take you to complete it?"

"Based on the experience of the last construction, the fastest it will take is about 7 months." He Yuzhu thought for a moment and replied.

After listening to this, Director Yang fell into deep thought. After a while, Director Yang said, "Okay, I understand. You go back first. I'll think about it. I'll find you when I've figured it out."

He Yuzhu left Director Yang's office in confusion. He was very curious about why Director Yang was so anxious to ask him whether he could complete the 60 tons of steel production task. Something important must have happened in the middle, otherwise Director Yang would not ask such an unprofessional question. On the way back to his office, He Yuzhu began to recall what major event in 1958 related to steel that he remembered later.

Suddenly He Yuzhu slapped his forehead and said, "How could I forget about this? In 1958, during the mass steel production campaign, when the campaign was at its craziest, many people, in order to complete the tasks assigned by their superiors, smashed their iron pots and other iron utensils used for cooking at home and used them as raw materials for iron and steel making." Thinking of this, He Yuzhu instantly understood why Director Yang cared so much about steel production. It seemed that the signs of the mass steel production campaign had already appeared. Could he do something to change this campaign? After all, later generations proved that the mass steel production campaign did not achieve the desired effect at all, but instead caused a huge waste of resources.

He Yuzhu hurried back to the big office of the logistics department, found Wei Zixing and said, "Xiao Wei, please find me the People's Daily from December last year and send it to my office when you find it."

After a while, Wei Zixing knocked on He Yuzhu's office door with a stack of newspapers, "Director He, these are the newspapers you asked me to find for you."

"Okay, just put it on my desk. It's okay now, go do your thing."

He Yuzhu was flipping through the December issue of the Masses Daily. He remembered that at the end of last year, a leader made a report at the conference. The report pointed out that it would take 12 years to catch up with John Bull, the troublemaker in Europe. When he read what was written in the newspaper, he felt that the leader's statement was too conservative. He did not think too much about it at the time. He did not expect that there would be a big leap forward this year.

He Yuzhu found the article in the newspaper and read it carefully. He began to think about how to write an article based on this report. Finally, He Yuzhu racked his brains and finally came up with a solution. He Yuzhu wrote a big title "Surpassing John Bull is actually very simple. It doesn't take 15 years, only 3 years is enough." As a small director of the logistics department, He Yuzhu has no ability to change the development trend of the country, but he can still write an article to try to guide it.

In the article, He Yuzhu first analyzed the differences between the national conditions of Dongda and John Bull. After analyzing the national conditions of the two parties, He Yuzhu emphasized: According to the steel production currently announced by John Bull, John Bull's national steel production this year will probably exceed 1000 million tons, while Dongda's annual steel production this year is expected to be around 600 million tons. John Bull will definitely slow down the growth of steel production because of its small land area and small population; on the contrary, Dongda has a large land area and a large population, and needs a lot of steel, so it will make large-scale investments in the steel industry for a long time. As long as the annual new production capacity is 300 million tons, it will catch up with John Bull in at most 3 years.

Then He Yuzhu analyzed how to achieve 300 million tons. It only needed to build five 1000 cubic meter blast furnaces, which meant building a new steel plant every year. Finally, He Yuzhu wrote at the end of the article that the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill applied to build three new 5 cubic meter blast furnaces to achieve the goal of an annual output of 3 million tons of steel by 1000. After He Yuzhu finished writing, he checked it and confirmed that there was no problem. Then he took the article to Director Yang's office.

"Director Yang, after I went back, I thought about it carefully. I wrote an article about the conversation you just had with me. Can you help me take a look at it?" After saying that, He Yuzhu handed the written article to Director Yang.

Director Yang took the article written by He Yuzhu and read it carefully. After reading it, Director Yang slapped the table and said excitedly: "Xiao He, your article is so well written. I really want to open your head to see how your head is built and how you can write such a good article."

"Director Yang, thank you for the compliment. This is inspired by the report from the leaders above. If you feel good about it, why don't you send it to the higher-ups?" He Yuzhu said with a smile.

"I'll ask Secretary Gao to take a look later. If Secretary Gao says there's no problem, we'll sign our names on your article and send it directly to the department." Director Yang said readily.

After reading the report written by He Yuzhu, Secretary Gao signed his name with a wave of his hand, and then handed the report to Director Yang. "Director Yang, I'll have to trouble you to go to the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry and deliver this application report to the leaders of the ministry."

"Okay, okay. Secretary Gao, I'll go deliver the report to the leaders right away." After saying that, Director Yang walked out of Secretary Gao's office.

Director Yang came to the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry in his own car and handed the application report written by He Yuzhu to his old leader.

After reading the report written by He Yuzhu, the old leader held up his glasses and said with a smile: "This comrade named He Yuzhu is really bold. The commander said it would take 15 years to surpass John Bull, but it became 3 years for him. But after reading his report, I can see that it is indeed very feasible. Judging from the report he wrote, he should have a good understanding of the steel industry. Comrade He Yuzhu's understanding of the steel industry is amazing. He can write such a professional report, almost reaching the level of some experts. But why haven't I heard of him before? Is he a master hidden behind the scenes?" After saying this, the old leader looked thoughtful.

"Old Chief, he is not an expert in the steel industry. He only started working in the steel industry last year. Do you remember Q355 steel? It was developed by the Dodge truck imitation team he led."

"Xiao Yang, now that you mention that, I remember that Comrade He Yuzhu was in logistics. I didn't expect that he knew so much about the steel industry." The old leader said with emotion.

"He was in charge of the construction of our factory's steelmaking workshop. Under his management and command, the construction period of our factory's steelmaking workshop was nearly three months ahead of the department's estimate. After the steelmaking workshop was built, it was also under his management that our factory was able to complete full-load production so quickly."

"It seems that Comrade He Yuzhu is a rare talent in the steel industry. If you have the chance, please bring him to my house. I want to meet him." When the old leader heard Director Yang introduce He Yuzhu in this way, he immediately became interested in his talent, so he asked Director Yang to bring He Yuzhu to meet him if he had the chance.

"Okay, old leader." Director Yang quickly agreed, "By the way, old leader, Comrade He Yuzhu is also a top Sichuan cuisine master. You can ask him to cook some authentic Sichuan cuisine for you when the time comes."

"Really? This He Yuzhu is so amazing. If that's the case, you can bring him to my house this weekend." The old leader thought for a moment and made the arrangements directly.

"I will bring He Yuzhu to your house on time this weekend." Director Yang said respectfully.