Great Power Reclamation

Chapter 2774 Toy Base
Wang Shilei has been very excited recently because his instructor has accepted his fate, although after the household contract responsibility system was implemented, even the leadership's power has been reduced a lot.

But this is not a rural area after all. They are still warriors and soldiers. Once the country needs them, they must pick up their guns and be ready to go to the battlefield at any time.

His report also became popular because of Wei Changgeng's incident, Wang Shilei had been noticed by the higher-ups.

I was just an ordinary person, but I didn't expect that opportunity would come to me like this.

In fact, he was not a person who liked to be an official. He was willing to be an instructor because he just wanted to have some authority if there were any problems in the company.

Since the company has had drip irrigation equipment, the growth of cotton has been very good, and the water consumption is less than before. How can he not be excited?
After a busy day, he suddenly received a call in the middle of the night, telling him that the company was going to launch a project to make cotton toys, called the Cotton Handmade Sculpture Project, which would be directly exported to Europe.

If it wasn't the call from the team leader himself, he would probably have cursed back.

"Have you seen that thing? And you're going to start a project without knowing anything about it. Is your head stuck in the door?"

Naturally he didn't dare to scold the team leader, but he wouldn't admit defeat either. In China there is a very normal yet very strange phenomenon, which is to make decisions on the spur of the moment.

Occasionally, a leader will come up with an idea on the spur of the moment and just do it regardless of whether it is reasonable or not.

Wang Shilei naturally thought that this matter must belong to that category.

He was just about to raise his own doubts, but the captain's next words not only made him shut up, but also made him sit up straight.

"This is the business that Mr. Ye contacted. It is mainly for Europe and the United States. I specifically asked you to give me enough shares."

"Fuck!"

Wang Shilei paced barefoot on the ground, unable to suppress the excitement in his heart. He could disbelieve anyone's words, but how could he not believe Ye Yuze's words?

Mr. Ye wants to help us again!

Since Mr. Ye came, the irrigation problem has been solved. Then Zheng Nannan and her father donated equipment. They said at the donation ceremony that they were inspired by Mr. Ye.

Nowadays, they even use large equipment, so the rental fee is negligible.

The first problem that the company needs to solve now is to develop side jobs, or to put it bluntly, to make money.

Although the price of cotton is good and enough for the soldiers to live on, it is still dependent on the weather and there is too much uncertainty.

Moreover, most of the farming nowadays is mechanized, which has caused young people to not like staying in the company, and most of them go out to work.

This matter has always made Wang Shilei uncomfortable. According to his understanding, since you are a soldier, you should stay at your post. Otherwise, what if something happens and you can't come back?
Of course, this possibility is extremely small. After all, this side of the border is very peaceful now and relations with neighboring countries have always been good.

But we are military reclamation soldiers after all. If you are not at your post, it would naturally be considered as deserting your post.

Ye Yuze's project will undoubtedly allow everyone to return to their jobs and also get paid.

The wife looked at her husband walking barefoot on the ground in confusion and could not help but scold him:
"Aren't you cold?"

Wang Shilei hung up the phone, immediately got into his wife's bed, hugged her and started chewing:

"Cold? No way, I'm all fire right now!"

Women of this age have the weakest resistance to men. She couldn't even hear what her husband said. She just collapsed...

The next morning, Wang Shilei appeared in the company meeting room with dark circles under his eyes, holding in his hand the project plan that he had prepared overnight.

About twenty soldiers sat in a circle, looking at the instructor's bloodshot eyes and excited expression, as if they were looking at a firecracker that was about to explode at any time.

"You know what's going on, right? We're going to make cotton sculptures!"

Wang Shilei slammed a stack of printed papers on the table, and the smell of ink mixed with overnight tea stains spread throughout the room.

"Mr. Ye is the one who brokered this big deal. Europeans are waiting to get our cotton toys as Christmas gifts!"

Xiao Li in the front row sneered: "Instructor, the best embroiderer in our company is Aunt Zhang from the kitchen. You want us to carve cotton? It would be better for me to drive a harvester."

This caused a burst of laughter. Wang Shilei was not annoyed. He took out a plastic bag from behind and took out a crooked cotton bear.

This was the result of what he and his wife did last night by following the online tutorial.

The soldiers stared at this guy with asymmetrical eyes and limbs of different lengths, and their laughter instantly turned into coughs.

“See? This is your future work.”

Wang Shilei poked the little bear on the table and said, "Boss Ye said that our advantage is pure natural cotton, and foreigners love the handmade taste.

From today on, the entire company will stop doing other things and follow the video tutorial to learn body shaping! "

The first week of training was a disaster. The soldiers' hands were stiffer when holding tweezers and needles than when holding guns. Some people stuffed the cotton balls too full, and the bear cubs were swollen like inflated tires.

Some people's hands were shaking so badly that the stitches they made were crooked, like a drunken centipede.

The most amazing thing was Xiao Zhao, who used too much force when stuffing the cotton into the mold, and it exploded with a "bang" and a ball of white fluff covered his face.

"Report! This cotton is more difficult to deal with than the enemy!" Xiao Zhao wailed while wiping the fluff off his face.

Wang Shilei was walking through the crowd with a pair of scissors in his hand when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the work of clerk Xiao Wang - a rabbit with six legs.

"Are you a mutant?"

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Come, let me show you how to handle it."

As he spoke, he pulled out the excess cotton and adjusted it to its normal shape in a few seconds:
"Shaping is like fighting a war. You have to understand the structure first and then defeat it piece by piece."

A turning point came on the seventh day. Aunt Zhang from the kitchen staff couldn't stand the clumsy appearance of these rough guys and volunteered to be the technical instructor.

She wore reading glasses, and her hands holding the cotton were steadier than holding a spatula. She taught everyone how to use a comb to comb the cotton fibers and use thin iron wire to make the skeleton.

The soldiers then discovered that body shaping requires a balance between the real and the fake. The fluffy parts should be like clouds, and the tight parts should have muscles and bones.

As their skills improved, the soldiers' creativity was also ignited. Some dyed cotton into rainbow colors and made unicorns from fairy tales.

Someone embroidered the company badge on the little bear, saying it was a "military reclamation limited edition."

What surprised Wang Shilei the most was the retired veteran Lao Zhou, who used cotton to restore the company's first generation of tractors. Even the "black smoke" coming out of the exhaust pipe was carefully made of dark gray cotton.

But problems also followed. During a quality inspection, Wang Shilei found that the joints of several toys were easy to fall off.

The whole company sat together to hold a "Zhuge Liang meeting". In the end, it was the mechanic Lao Wu who came up with a solution - using the sealing rubber rings of military water bottles as joints, which are both flexible and strong. The most lively part was naming the toys. Some people suggested calling it "Kenghuang Bear", some insisted on using "Silk Road Yunbao", and some joked that it should be called "Director Wang's Crooked Melon and Cracked Date".

Finally, the "Wool Frontier Guard" was voted for, which not only embodies the characteristics of military reclamation, but also has the soft texture of cotton.

When their samples were brought to the group, the group leader looked bewildered at these things of various shapes.

You can ask him to fight or farm, but what opinions can you ask him to give on these things? It would be better to ask him to fight with bayonets.

However, the professionals sent by Ye Yuze arrived soon, and they also brought some equipment and samples.

Because we were planning to use the company as a pilot, we came here directly.

What they didn't expect was that they could actually make so many things in a row. Although they were strange, they had to admit that they seemed pretty good!
So, they worked with the company members, and because they had professional equipment, the speed was much faster...

The samples were quickly sent to the United States. Ye Yuze naturally didn't understand what was going on, so he asked Erhong and the others to be responsible for the inspection, and called Kelly over as well.

As a result, several women went crazy when they saw the toy, and they held it tightly and refused to let go. It's so cute...

The result is naturally necessary, the more the better.

The quality of the long-staple cotton in northern Xinjiang is world-famous, and most of it is exported. How could the toys made from it be of poor quality?
Ye Yuze looked at these excited women with satisfaction, and his heart was full of a sense of accomplishment. If this thing was done, the lives of the people in the Corps would definitely be completely different in the future.

Late at night a month later, Wang Shilei stood at the door of the warehouse, looking at the warehouse full of toys, feeling complicated and excited.

The moonlight shone in through the window, and the carefully crafted bears, horses, and flowers seemed to be swaying gently.

My phone suddenly vibrated, and Mr. Ye sent me a message: "The samples are completely qualified, and the order has been sent, but you must pay attention to the quality and hygiene requirements."

Wang Shilei stood at attention as usual: "Yes, I will complete the task!"

After shouting this, he realized that it was a cell phone and couldn't help laughing.

Then he touched the wrinkled cotton bear in his pocket - it was the "failed product" he had made on the first day of training.

Now this crooked little guy has become his most precious souvenir.

The laughter of soldiers could be heard in the distance. They were preparing for the next batch of orders, and a new sign "Cotton Sculpture Training Base" was hung on the wall of the company headquarters.

The evening breeze carried the unique fragrance of cotton and blew across his cheeks. Wang Shilei suddenly felt that these soft fibers contained a power more powerful than guns and cannons.

They can turn barrenness into hope and the impossible into possibility, just like the legends written by the military reclamation soldiers on this land.

All the young people in the company came back. The first thing Wang Shilei did when they came back was to ask them to carry their guns and luggage and go on a training march.

These kids are finally doing pretty well. Although many of them fell behind, they all persevered.

After that, training once a week became the norm in the company. Wang Shilei would always say:
"You are the children of the military reclamation army, and you are also soldiers!"

The first company became the training base for the entire 16th Division. The division classified various toys and distributed them to different companies.

The advantage of doing this is that product quality is guaranteed and quantity will increase.

To this end, the division also established a company as a base for export and foreign exchange earnings. Wang Shilei, as the first initiator, became the general manager of the company.

Because plush toys are handmade, we don’t have workshops or factories. They are all made at home and then sorted and sterilized.

As the morning light brightened the white walls of the company headquarters, Wang Shilei's loud voice pierced through the morning mist:
"Attention everyone! Today is the final quality inspection before export. Not a single thread can be missed!"

In the drying yard, twenty ultraviolet sterilization vehicles are humming. The soldiers, wearing masks, carefully hang the formed cotton toys on the grid racks.

The sunlight passes through the transparent protective cover, casting a flowing halo on the plush surface.

Mechanic Lao Wu squatted beside the equipment to adjust the temperature, with beads of sweat dripping from his forehead onto his oily overalls:

"These toys have to travel across the ocean, and the sterilization must meet medical-grade standards!"

In the quality inspection room, Aunt Zhang and several young girls formed a "eagle eyes and golden eyes" team.

They held magnifying glasses and checked every stitch and thread. Suddenly, the new soldier Xiao Sun raised a crooked-necked bear and exclaimed:

"Aunt Zhang! This ear is missing two stitches!"

Aunt Zhang took the toy and gently pressed the stuffing with a silver thimble:

"This is not a leak, it's a wrinkle left when shaping. It has to be handled this way."

As he spoke, he took out a thin needle and lightly poked the folds, and the originally dull ear instantly became lively.

The packaging workshop is bustling with activity. Retired female soldiers wrap toys in biodegradable corn fiber films and then pack them into paper boxes printed with the gold-stamped "Velvet Frontier Guard" logo.

In the corner, clerk Xiao Wang was writing a handwritten greeting card with a brush. His handwriting was neat and vigorous:

“May this warmth from northwest China accompany you through your wonderful time.”

"Instructor! The EU requires that all toys must be labeled with a traceability QR code!"

The technician rushed into the office holding a laptop. Wang Shilei stared at the densely packed certification terms on the screen and suddenly grinned:
"It's not that difficult! Each soldier is responsible for making a toy, and we embroider the work number in an inconspicuous place to let the foreigners know that these toys were made by the soldiers of the military reclamation army stitch by stitch!"

In the warehouse late at night, moonlight shines through the air vents onto the neatly stacked cartons.

Wang Shilei used a flashlight to check the placement of moisture-proof desiccant one by one.

Suddenly, he stopped in a corner, where there was a glass display case displaying the "crooked" bears made during training, the first-generation tractor model, and the Corps map that Aunt Zhang had pieced together using scraps.

These once "failed products" have now become medals that witness miracles.

On the day of loading, all the company members came out in force. When the crane slowly lifted the container, the soldiers spontaneously lined up to salute.

Wang Shilei looked at the box with "MADE IN CHINA" printed on it and recalled the helpless night three months ago.

Today, these cotton toys, carrying sweat and wisdom, are about to travel thousands of miles and tell the story of China's military settlers to the world.

As the whistle sounded, Wang Shilei took out his phone and sent a voice message to the cotton toy export group in the division:
"Comrades, our frontier guards are going to the battle! Remember, every stitch is a responsibility, every ball of cotton is a promise!"

As soon as the message was sent, the screen was instantly filled with replies saying “Mission completed”, just like the soldiers’ uniform shouts on the training ground back then.

The new commander Wang Keming, who was standing next to Wang Shilei, had sparkling eyes. I wonder what he was thinking?
Here I come. Thank you for your votes. Come on!