Siheyuan: The Qing Dynasty is back

Early the next morning, He Daqing and Sha Zhu rode their bicycles to the steel mill.

The New Year atmosphere had not yet dissipated, and everyone was walking slowly towards the factory while greeting people they knew.

He Daqing rode his bicycle and quickly arrived at the factory.

He went to clean up his office first. He hadn't been in for a few days. The desk was already covered with dust.

After a while, the factory's loudspeaker notified everyone to gather in the square for a meeting.

It is an old tradition of the steel mill to hold a factory-wide meeting on the first day of work every year.

There wasn't much to talk about, except for the leader talking about production to boost everyone's morale.

In previous years, employees might have been a little bit enthusiastic. But in the past two years, no one can even get enough to eat. No matter how good the pie the leaders paint is, it’s not enough to satisfy hunger.

He Daqing followed the crowd to a particularly large square behind the office building.

This is usually the venue for holding conferences, showing movies and hosting various activities.

When He Daqing arrived, many people had already come to the square.

Everyone is basically grouped according to the workshops.

He Daqing found his place in the cafeteria and walked straight over.

Director Huang saw He Daqing and waved to him cheerfully. He Daqing saw this and pushed through the crowd to come to Director Huang's side.

There were only a few long wooden benches at the front, which were reserved for the leaders. People at the back had to stand during the meeting.

He Daqing sat down next to Director Huang and said with a smile: "Director Huang, I didn't expect you to be here earlier than me."

Director Huang handed He Daqing a cigarette, and the two lit it up and started chatting.

"I came early to see if there are enough people in our cafeteria. This matter will be under your charge from now on. I am here to help you this time."

"Director Huang, stop it! Don't say that. I haven't taken over yet. Are you talking as if I owe you a favor? You guys are dishonest!"

Director Huang laughed and said, "I see you are becoming more and more slippery. I was thinking of going to your place to eat some good food in the future, but it seems there is no hope."

He Daqing also smiled and said, "If you want to eat good food, just say so. Why bother with all this? When have I ever failed to give you good food as long as the leader entertains you? You people always like to play these empty tricks."

The two were talking when Sha Zhu and three others came over from behind.

When they saw Director Huang and He Daqing, they came to greet them one by one.

"Happy New Year, Director Huang! Happy New Year, Director He!"

Director Huang and He Daqing also smiled and nodded.

Then everyone came over and reported the number of people in their team.

Today is the first day of work and almost everyone is here.

Director Huang nodded and said, "Since everyone is here, you can sit here and have the meeting. Pay attention to your own team and don't let everyone talk or walk around randomly. Pay attention to the discipline of the meeting."

After instructing the four squad leaders, Director Huang turned around and continued to talk to He Daqing.

"Master He, those four guys will be your subordinates from now on.

I won’t introduce the monitor of the Second Canteen. He is your son, and I guess no one knows him better than you.”

"The squad leader of the cafeteria is the one who spoke first. He is the tallest. He is a retired soldier and his name is Zhang Tieshao."

"It is said that this kid couldn't stand being hungry at home since he was a child, so he followed the army. After joining the army, in order to have enough food, he followed the kitchen team. I don't know what his original name was? Anyway, the army always called him Zhang Tieshao."

He Daqing nodded. He knew a little about Zhang Tieshao. Although his skills were not as good as Sha Zhu's, after all, he was not a proper apprentice.

But he is upright and manages the first canteen in an orderly manner. It is much better than the second canteen run by Shazhu.

Director Huang pointed to a short, fat man at the back and said, "That's the monitor of the third canteen, Feng Dazhuang. He was recruited a few years ago."

He Daqing had also heard of Feng Dazhuang. He had no special abilities, but was said to have some connections in the factory. He Daqing had been here for too short a time, so he didn't know much about him.

"The last one is Zhao Tiezhu, the monitor of the fourth canteen. They also have a deputy monitor named Wang Changshun. One of them is responsible for the day shift and the other is responsible for the night shift. They usually switch shifts every half a month."

Director Huang introduced several canteen squad leaders to He Daqing so that he could have an idea of ​​what was going on.

After all, after today, these people will be managed by He Daqing. This can be regarded as reducing his workload.

The two chatted for a while, and then it was nine o'clock. The leaders came one after another.

After a while, Director Yang and seven or eight leaders sat on the podium.

Sitting in the middle were Director Yang and Secretary Cao, and next to them were two deputy directors, the logistics director Li Huaide, and Engineer Zou from the technical department, and so on.

He Daqing heard that Secretary Cao was injured in the battlefield and was old, so he didn't pay much attention to the trivial matters of the steel mill and spent most of his time recuperating in the hospital.

This allowed Director Yang to develop very smoothly in the factory. He was in charge of both major and minor matters.

As for the two deputy factory directors, they were no match for Director Yang. One of the deputy factory directors was said to be retiring next year at the latest. Li Huaide's current goal was to take the position of deputy factory director.

After the leaders were seated, Director Yang looked at the densely packed crowd below and nodded to the host on the side.

This host is a broadcaster in the Propaganda Department. Although she is almost 30 years old and has been married and has children, she is still well-fed.

Especially her nice voice. She was the broadcaster on the radio every noon. It was said that she was the dream lover of many people in the steel mill.

She cleared her throat, picked up the microphone and said, "Comrades, leaders, happy new year! Today is the first day of the new year. First of all, we welcome the leaders to speak to us. Welcome everyone!"

As soon as the clear voice finished, the workers below clapped enthusiastically. I don't know whether they were welcoming the leader or excited to see the lover of their dreams.

Facing everyone's enthusiastic applause, Director Yang looked at Secretary Cao.

On such an occasion, Secretary Cao would definitely go up and say a few words on behalf of everyone.

After Secretary Cao finished his few meaningless remarks, everyone still gave him sparse applause.

He didn't mention any key points, just the same old stuff, like focusing on everyone's ideological work, letting everyone learn more about the country's policies, and so on.

Now everyone is hungry and is more concerned about their own food and clothing.

After Secretary Cao finished speaking, Director Yang started speaking.

Director Yang was quite pragmatic. He told everyone about the production targets and promised to improve everyone's lives and get more daily necessities for everyone.

Anyway, I don’t know whether we can get the supplies, but it sounds good anyway. At least there is a little hope.

In the end, Director Yang received a lot of applause from everyone.

The factory meeting ended in more than an hour.

Everyone still had their own work to do, so the morning meeting ended early.

On the way back, Director Huang said, "Master He, after dinner, remember to go to the meeting room. Don't be late."

He Daqing nodded.

"Got it, Director Huang. I'll be there after dinner."

In the morning, there is a meeting for the factory staff. In the afternoon, there is a leadership meeting for the entire factory. Later, there are meetings for various departments.

It can be said that the first two or three days of work every year are basically spent on meetings, work arrangements, and planning.

Factory-wide meetings are just formalities; the real issues will only be discussed and resolved when the leaders hold a meeting at the end.

This is what people often say: "Hold a big meeting to solve small problems, and hold a small meeting to solve big problems."

Today's lunch is the first meal of the Chinese New Year. The leaders also put in some effort and got a lot of supplies.

He Daqing went to the kitchen and looked around. There were all kinds of grains mixed together, looking a bit black, and some potatoes, cabbage and so on.

It must have taken a lot of effort to get these things now.

I heard that some units would chop up the few vegetable leaves they had, mix them with whole grains and put them in a pot to cook. There was no dry food at all.

Today, the steel mill at least has steamed buns made of mixed grains and shredded cabbage and potatoes to eat.

With these foods, the factory employees praised the food at lunch, saying it was better than what they ate at home.

Seeing everyone eating with gusto, He Daqing shook his head helplessly. He didn't know how many meals he could finish with such food.

He knew that the situation would not improve until at least the second half of next year. Who knows how many people would starve to death by then?

Back in the kitchen, Sha Zhu brought out the food that had been prepared for him.

"Dad, I've served it to you, take it and eat it."

As soon as He Daqing took the lunch box, Sha Zhu came over and said, "Dad, Director Yang and his friends are having a special lunch at noon, so I served you some. You can take it back to the office and eat it."

He Daqing was stunned after hearing what Sha Zhu said. He asked why there was no movement today. It turned out that Director Yang and his friends had eaten secretly.

If it follows the custom of previous years, there will definitely be meat in the factory staff meal today.

The leadership will also prepare their own meals and have a good meal.

But this year, He Daqing thought that the leaders had cancelled the special meal arrangement, so he didn't care.

Unexpectedly, they actually secretly asked the kitchen to prepare a special meal for them.

It was probably only Secretary Cao and Director Yang. Otherwise, He Daqing would not be completely unaware of it.

He Daqing nodded, took the lunch box and returned to his office.

I opened the lunch box and found a few slices of twice-cooked pork, a few pieces of braised chicken, and some other vegetables.

It seems that there are not many ingredients for today's special meal. Otherwise, with Sha Zhu's personality, it is impossible for him to make only such a small amount of food.

It's better to have something than nothing. He Daqing is not a saint. He should fill his stomach first.

After lunch, he took a short break in the office before going to the conference room for a meeting.