Chapter Seventy-Four: Boasting in the Streets

  Back to the oil field, Su Cheng was picked up by a flower car.

  The workers of Dahua Industrial Corporation, with pliers and wrenches, transformed a male Liberation truck into a female tourist bus. If not for Su Cheng's firm opposition, they might have even added big red flowers.

  On both sides of the flower car, plastic flowers were replaced by newspaper and slogans. Phrases such as "Daqing Spirit" and "Passing on the Torch" were pasted on white cloth with red paper, making them quite eye-catching.

  The workers on the train and under the car shouted "Daqing Huozhong" with a mixture of laughter and tears, thinking to themselves: In fact, Chinese people are not lacking in humor cells. No matter how harsh the conditions are, they always maintain an optimistic spirit, which may be the secret to passing down the fire for 5,000 years.

  The car went for four or five miles, and a crowd of onlookers began to gather at the side of the road.

  The worker rolled up his sleeves and shouted: "Su Cheng, you have won us honor!"

  There are also jokes: "Director Su, you brought back the fire from Daqing, what will others do in the future?"

  Su Cheng was relieved, for the majority of victorious workers, the praise from leaders and media is just an incentive, "technological innovation" is just a fleeting cloud, they care more about Su Cheng's "victory" over Daqing. In their eyes, this is like a Chinese person going abroad to sell goods, only to receive warm praise from foreign leaders... The shout of "Uphold the prestige of our factory, love our victory!" has always accompanied them.

  Su Cheng laughed very sincerely, with several hundred million orders given to Dahua, and also received praise from a city, which was somewhat embarrassing.

  A Liberation truck, accompanied by a small team of forty or fifty people, surprisingly beating gongs and drums to travel through the city, Su Cheng glanced down and rushed straight to the headquarters building.

  The joyful crowd doesn't care if the protagonist is there or not, and continues to make a ruckus with their flower cars.

  Slipping into the headquarters building, Su Cheng had just lightly wiped his forehead.

  Many people in the building knew him, but administrative personnel were emotionally reserved, only greeting each other more frequently, and some couldn't help asking questions.

  As the second-largest oil field in Daqing for thousands of years, whenever there is a slight opportunity, it will not forget to pierce Daqing's chrysanthemum.

  The hero of the explosion chrysanthemum is the default square.

  The people waiting outside Lin Yonggui's office were still numerous, mostly heads of secondary departments in the oil field.

  The secretary of the Dongguan Command Center was also among them, pulling Su Cheng's hand and saying a few words, smiling on his own initiative: "Considering that you have inherited the Daqing spirit, let you cut in line and stand in front of me."

  The director of the No. 4 Oil Extraction Plant in front of him also smiled: "Old Mao, my army is small, Xiao Su, come and give you a boost."

  The leaders of these secondary units were mostly old deputy halls, and they expressed great kindness. Su Cheng had to thank them one by one, and finally stood at the front of the team.

  A moment later, he entered the deputy secretary's office.

  Passing by the screen, you can see Lin Yonggui holding a teacup with an extremely stable posture. Seeing that it was Su Cheng, his serious expression suddenly changed to one of joy: "Little Su, went on a trip to Northeast China and brought honor back to Daqing."

  He joked and stood up, saying: "Two days ago, I saw your name in the newspaper at a meeting in Beijing. I told Old Liu that you people from Daqing should thank us people from Shengli, otherwise, I wouldn't lend 'zhong' to you... That guy's face turned as black as charcoal."

  Su Cheng's face turned as black as coal, thinking: Comrade Lao Lin, you must be very bored to play this kind of game.

  Secretary Lin rarely smiled with abandon.

  More than 1,000 kilometers away on the Songnen Plain, someone suddenly let out a hissing sound as if they had been punched in the gut.

  After laughing enough, Lin Yonggui patted Su Cheng's shoulder and said: "We discussed it at the meeting and decided to increase the procurement quantity of anti-bias grinding system. It was 5000 sets before, now add to 15,000 sets. We can't be less than Daqing."

  The last sentence reveals the main reason for adding an order.

  This brings the total order to nearly 29,000 units.

  Su Cheng quickly calculated: each set of system 1660 yuan gross profit margin, as high as 83% ... total profit of up to 480 million.

  That was a huge sum of money in any era.

  Su Cheng suddenly burst out laughing.

  "Are you happy now?" Lin Yonggui blew on his tea cup, calmed down and said: "After going back, be sure to organize production well, don't take orders that can't be completed, or else, don't expect Daqing to let you off the hook."

  "Don't worry. The whole team will work together for 100 days to complete the company's production, operation and construction quickly and efficiently." Su Cheng recited a propaganda slogan fluently.

  After leaving the office, Su Cheng walked back along the street after thanking a group of old leaders.

  Dahua Industrial Estate was also decorated with lanterns and streamers, but there were no people in sight in the factory area.

  Until the factory office building, I saw the trade union chairman Chen Liang, with his "big woman don't move team" writing a blackboard newspaper. The fist-sized chalk characters were the eight big words "sharp intention to make progress, independent innovation".

  Su Cheng greeted them and asked with a smile: "Chairman Chen, why are there only a few of you busy? Where are those little helpers?"

  "Director Lin ordered that all men under 40 years old must go to the production line, those who don't are not men." Chen Liang stretched out his arms and legs and laughed.

  "Is the production task heavy?" Su Cheng didn't expect that Lin Changzhang, who had been silent all along, would have such courage. However, if it weren't for the heavy workload, this kind of courage wouldn't be necessary either.

  Chen Liang said with a nonchalant tone: "We can get by. With three shifts and some people even volunteering for overtime, who still has the energy to cause trouble? Our labor union plans to take advantage of this momentum and organize an activity over the weekend, so everyone can have fun."

  "How is everyone's mood?"

  Chen Liang gave Su Cheng a strange look and said, "Of course they're happy. Those who used to earn 60 yuan now get 90, those who earned 70 or 80 now get over 100. If it weren't for the rule that work hours can't exceed 12 hours, I think some people would dare not sleep."

  Su City was silent.

  His thinking has transcended again. Placed 20 years later, continuous three shifts or 12 hours of work would inevitably lead to countless complaints and protests, but in the context of widespread underemployment in state-owned enterprises in the 1980s, being able to work overtime and produce was simply enviable.

  Against the backdrop of farmers' annual income being only 300-400 yuan, with less than 100 yuan in cash, Dahua Industry's salary level is comparable to that of foreign companies in later generations. Overtime work under such circumstances is often more easily accepted.

  Su Cheng suddenly thought of Shu Lan's words that day, saying that lard was hard to buy when making spring rolls. He turned his head and asked, "Can the workers afford to buy goods with their wages?"

  Chen Liang smiled slyly and said, "Let's rush in."

  Several old ladies around me also started talking at random.

  In the 10 years since reform and opening up, inflation and commodity shortages have appeared alternately, sometimes together. Clothes, bedding, matches, non-staple foods, or refrigerators, color TVs, washing machines... Whether it's durable goods or daily necessities, they are all within the scope of panic buying.

  Su city also experienced a wave of panic buying, but after having US dollars, they went to overseas Chinese stores to buy goods - the most exquisite products produced by Chinese people, which were used for foreign exchange during this period. Under the premise of not pursuing high technology, the quality of life has not decreased much.

  "What did we used to do when we encountered a shortage of materials?" Su Cheng asked as he walked towards the office. There were many ways to get around it, and each state-owned enterprise had its own tricks.

  Chen Liang smiled complacently: "We used to exchange. We have a good relationship with the chemical plant, so we give them more materials and then contact the fertilizer factory, synthetic fiber factory, local material bureau, food processing factory and textile factory through them. In recent years, the oil field has been profitable, and we can also get things from above."

  Su Cheng also smiled, this industrial chain is really not short. To say that in the 80s and 90s, even until the early 21st century, the life of upstream enterprises was not very good.

  Entering the office, Chen Liang pointed upwards with his index finger and said: "The most important thing is that the oil field has foreign exchange."

  Su Cheng nodded. When he first came to Dongying, he had seen the imported luxury cars in the oil field and deeply felt the foreign exchange value of the oil field.

  But in Su Cheng's eyes, being unable to afford meat makes talking about happiness somewhat embarrassing.

  Su Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Chairman Chen, can you get us some good meat? Everyone's working so hard, with just plain congee to eat, I'm afraid our bodies won't be able to hold up."

  Dongying has butcher shops, and there are quite a few of them. But workers on the one hand can't bear to buy meat, and on the other hand have to scramble to buy fatty cuts. Nobody is willing to spend their limited money on spare ribs and shank meat.

  Su City's so-called good meat has a figurative standard at this time "four fingers thick of fat".

  In the past when feed was not widely used, a fat and sturdy pig was truly rare, and its taste was also quite good - it's not that the breed of pig is healthy and has good genes, otherwise it can't grow four fingers thick of lard.

  Chen Liang thought Su Cheng wanted to add a meal for the staff canteen, and patted his chest: "You tell me the number, I'll get it for you."

  Su Cheng stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "We have over a thousand people, each with 30 kilograms...".

  "Stop, stop." Chen Liang was frightened and stared with wide eyes: "My heavens! Director Su, the Double Ninth Festival has just passed, and you're already preparing for the New Year's goods. At this time of year, where can I find several tens of thousands of catties of pork to go? And it must be good meat, it's simply impossible."

  "10,000 catties of meat would be just 50 or 60 pigs." Su Cheng looked at him skeptically.

  "Director Su! 50 or 60 pigs, ask the oil field headquarters if they dare to boast about this during the annual distribution. Chen Liang shook his head and said: "Now the supply of goods is a bit sufficient, but there are also more buyers. It's like sprinkling chili powder - no one can take too much. Moreover, it's not festive at all, distributing 30 kilograms of pork, what about during the holidays?"

  "We workers are on a three-shift rotation, which is more tiring than other factories." Su Cheng nodded and said, "Alright, I'll finish the call first and ask about it."

  Chen Liang just thought Su Cheng had a good heart, but he didn't take his words too seriously. Now, pork that costs 3 yuan per kilogram in the market requires ration coupons, while black market meat without coupons costs 4 yuan. With a difference of 1 yuan for every kilogram bought and sold, a profit of 10,000 yuan can be made from just 10,000 kilograms. Those "official profiteers" who could get their hands on ration coupons, how would they give up the opportunity to make an easy 10,000 yuan?

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