Siheyuan, Me and the Yu Sisters

After returning from his second uncle's house, Zhang Renkang began to devote himself to his work. After all, every day when he saw the poems hanging in the living room, he felt safe. Even Yu Haitang, who had never understood what was going on, was so shocked that she couldn't open her mouth after seeing the signature. She didn't dare to hold the red flag close to him at home, for fear that the red flag would be damaged by accident.

In November, the weather was getting colder and colder. Even when sitting in the jeep, Zhang Renkang felt that if it weren't for his military coat, he would have frozen to death on the road.

Tang Qi said with a breath

"Secretary, can't we open the factory's No. 1 tomorrow?"

“Although it’s not very nice, at least it’s airtight.”

Zhang Renkang laughed and said

"If you drive away the No. 1 model car, Director Xue, Professor Chen, and Professor Hua will chase me all over the place to ask for the car."

"It's almost there. If we progress quickly, we might be able to test the car for them next month."

"Then we won't have to endure the cold like this."

As he spoke, Zhang Renkang pulled his dog-skin hat down. The wind was blowing on his face and it hurt. The journey from the old city to the factory in the northern suburbs was more than a dozen miles long. Zhang Renkang felt like he had spent more than half a century. He wanted to hide by the stove in the office and warm himself.

Xinxing Automobile Manufacturing Plant

Zhang Renkang strode towards the second workshop, followed by Liu Feng and Liu Haitao holding notebooks.

Zhang Renkang laughed and said

"Old Liu, do you think the workshop is much cleaner now?"

Liu Feng nodded and smiled

"Compared to before, the work in the entire workshop is indeed much more orderly"

“Workers take whatever materials they need from the tool racks and material storage racks at that location.”

"All mechanical equipment that needs to be connected to electricity is placed on both sides, and cable ducts are opened on the ground to guide the wires. These inconspicuous small changes have greatly improved production efficiency compared to the previous tests in the past few days."

Zhang Renkang nodded, then looked at the production process points arranged according to the assembly line plan in the workshop and said

"What is the current situation of production process allocation?"

Liu Haitao hurried forward and said

"Based on the current Red Star tricycle drawings, we have divided the production process into six parts, namely the body, cargo box, body load-bearing frame, engine installation, traction motorcycle assembly, and parts debugging."

"After this week, skilled workers can increase their production efficiency by 20%."

"The assembly line production method has been promoted throughout the factory. We have also changed the training program for apprentices. We start with training in a main process and rotate one-third of the apprentices every three months to ensure that they can fully master all the production processes of tricycles within two years and reach the technical level of junior workers."

Zhang Renkang nodded. The apprentice training at Xinxing Automobile Manufacturing Plant is different from the usual shift-based training. An apprentice needs to learn one process. He may learn to be a welder and weld the car body, but in the next quarter he may learn to be a fitter and assemble and splice the car body structure. Then he can rotate to different positions at least two or three times in a year.

Once the apprentice decides which process is suitable for him/her, he/she can apply for focused study until he/she has mastered the technical level.

At Xinxing Automobile Manufacturing Plant, as long as you pass the first-level technical level, the factory will assign fifth-level or sixth-level workers to teach you the subsequent level tests and skills learning. Only after you pass the fourth-level technical level can you become an apprentice to the seventh-level or eighth-level workers in the factory for further training.

Of course, the factory does not let the masters teach in vain. Every year, the advanced honors and welfare benefits of the factory are ranked and rewarded to senior technicians according to the number of apprentices they have taught and their technical level.

There are only eleven eighth-level technicians in all positions in the factory. Zhang Renkang has already said that whoever can train five sixth-level workers will be rewarded with a free Red Star tricycle. The factory will provide the fuel needed for the tricycle at the cost price allocated by the superior.

This really motivated the eleven of them, and they all worked hard to spur on the fourth- and fifth-level workers. Some of those who did not have enough apprentices even began to look for suitable second- and third-level technicians to take in as apprentices.

After Zhang Renkang and his companions finished inspecting the workshop, they headed to the test site in the north of the factory. Just as they crossed the closed site surrounded by barbed wire, they saw an ugly truck with the front of the truck removed testing its muddy ground passability and body structure stability.

This is the predecessor of the No. 2203 car that Tang Qi has been thinking about, the No. test car. The general style is very similar to the "Latvian RAF" van that was put into production in . Later, the domestic Soviet-made van was introduced.

It's just that the rear of the car is a little bit shorter, and it is more like the Dongfeng Xiaokang series vans around 10 years later.

The car is 4.2 meters long, 2 meters wide, and has a wheelbase of 2.4 meters. It adopts a front mid-engine and rear-wheel drive. The several test cars currently produced use the newly introduced three-cylinder gasoline engine of the Citroen Group and the relatively mature and stable diesel engine in China.

The test vehicle now uses a Citroen three-cylinder gasoline engine that was just brought back from Hong Kong Island. It has a horsepower of 65. This is the most advanced gasoline engine technology that can be introduced into China. It is more than two generations more advanced than any other gasoline engine in China in terms of stability and airtightness.

Seeing Zhang Renkang coming in, Professor Hua, who was testing in the car, quickly asked the driver to drive the car out of the test muddy road section and slowly stopped next to Zhang Renkang.

Professor Hua quickly got out of the car, opened the door and said

"Secretary Zhang, how did you get in?"

Professor Hua is a master in the field of mechanics in China. It was Zhang Renkang who, with the recommendation of Chen Huayi, came from a rural area in Taihang to the Xinxing Automobile Manufacturing Plant to serve as the chief designer of new transport vehicles.

After a few months in the countryside, this old man who was only good at academic research learned to read people's expressions without any guidance. When he learned that Zhang Renkang had guaranteed him to return to the city to continue his research on mechanical work and to study the manufacture of domestic automobiles,

This old man, who was almost sixty, burst into tears and bowed to express his gratitude when he saw Zhang Renkang for the first time.

Zhang Renkang didn't know how to comfort him. But Chen Huayi understood his old friends. After two or three days of counseling, Professor Hua finally calmed down and devoted himself to the research and development of the new star van, which Zhang Renkang named "Tandu Project".

Zhang Renkang said with a smile

"Professor Hua, does this Citroen gasoline engine meet our requirements?"

Professor Hua nodded and said carefully:

"This newly introduced Citroen gasoline engine has a stable structure and a smooth and powerful power output. Compared with a diesel engine, it is quieter and easier to maintain."

"Of course, diesel engines are also good, although they are a bit noisy, but after all, we have basically mastered this technology and it is easier for us to obtain finished products."