The train driver in the courtyard

Pakistan has clearly been bullied terribly by India.

A week after the agreement was signed, a large quantity of cotton and iron ore was delivered here by truck.

After the relevant departments counted the quantity, they also began urging the Qianmen Locomotive Depot to speed up the production of motorcycles.

Section Chief Xing was in a bit of a predicament. The current monthly output of the motorcycle workshop was only a little over a thousand vehicles, and they also had to help manufacture the four-cylinder Hongxing ShuangR motorcycles.

The production from a while ago was first sent to the front lines in South Asia, and then transported to the port city; there is no stock at all.

"Patriotism, what are we going to do? We have to complete the task assigned by our superiors." Section Chief Xing was both excited and troubled.

"We have no choice but to expand production. We still have a piece of land over there, so let's build a few warehouses to use as workshops and increase our production capacity."

Li Aiguo hadn't expected that Pakistan would need motorcycles, let alone be in such a hurry.

Fortunately, the studio now has mastered all the production technology for motorcycles.

We only need to have the machinery factory order some more production equipment to expand production capacity.

The only problem is that it requires at least five hundred skilled workers.

When the employees at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot learned that the motorcycle workshop needed workers for expansion, they immediately volunteered.

However, they lacked assembly skills and mechanical manufacturing experience, and therefore needed training.

"How about we send a few experienced workers to the workshop to guide these workers? We can train them while they start production?" Section Chief Xing suggested a win-win solution.

"Then the yield rate cannot be guaranteed."

"That's true." Section Chief Xing also felt it was inappropriate.

"I think we should provide centralized training first, find some experienced workers from the workshop to serve as instructors, and only trainees can start working after they pass the assessment."

"The Education Office is in charge?"

"Let's do it ourselves in our studio."

Li Aiguo thought for a moment and then added, "This training course is long-term. Aren't there some young people on our railway who can't take over their jobs and didn't finish high school? We can let them receive training, learn various mechanical knowledge, and be used as a reserve of skilled workers. The training period is three years."

Hearing this, Section Chief Xing took a puff of his cigarette and pondered for a moment before looking up: "Aiguo, this isn't a training course, is it?"

That's true. Training courses last from three to five days to no more than a month. How can you study for three years?

"Section Chief, I've come up with a name for this training program: Railway Industry University." Li Aiguo didn't intend to hide it from Section Chief Xing, so he simply revealed his idea.

Compared to general universities, industrial universities place more emphasis on cultivating practical skills.

The entrance requirements were relatively low; all that was needed was a junior high school diploma, similar to a vocational school in later times.

In later generations, technical schools had a bad reputation, so much so that people's expectation of technical schools was that they should neither lose a student nor gain a student.

The fundamental reason why this model failed was that workers had low social status and insufficient welfare benefits.

Nobody wants to study hard for years only to end up toiling away on the production line.

This leads to a problem.

Without qualified skilled workers, factories can only produce low-value-added products, cannot obtain high profits, workers' wages will be low, and no young people will be willing to go to technical schools to learn.

This cycle continues, eventually leading to nothing but chaos and mess.

The situation is different now.

Needless to say, the status of workers was very low. Even the lowest-ranking worker earned seventeen yuan a month, which was enough to feed and clothe a family.

If a group of qualified skilled workers can transport high-profit industrial products to the world, workers' wages can be further increased, thus creating a virtuous cycle.

Actually, our situation is quite similar to that of San Dezi's family. It's the perfect time to establish a training system for skilled workers.

However, this concerns the overall situation and cannot be accomplished by Li Aiguo alone. He did not intend to accomplish it, but only started to do so within his own small area, the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

At first, Section Chief Xing thought Li Aiguo was just playing around, but after hearing all this, he was deeply shocked.

He only needed a few hundred qualified technical workers, but Li Aiguo came up with a technical worker training model.

The key point is that he couldn't find a single fault with it.

If this training model is successfully implemented, the technical level of the Qianmen Locomotive Depot will be greatly improved.

"I think we should take this opportunity to get started. I'll go to the ministry right now to pull strings." Section Chief Xing realized the significance of the Industrial University and, without further ado, immediately contacted the relevant leaders in the ministry.

At this moment, the advantage of the railway sector being an independent little kingdom becomes apparent.

The industrial university is essentially a school, and it does not currently enroll students from outside the university. It is perfectly reasonable and legal for the subordinate locomotive depot to run a school.

However, some leaders still had reservations: "I object! The workshop expansion is in dire need of 20 milling machines, but the money is being used to repair classrooms? Is training apprentices more important than production tasks?!"

Section Chief Xing argued forcefully: "Director Zhang, we're currently short of 500 skilled workers, which is causing a bottleneck in production capacity. In three years, when these trainees are on the job, monthly production capacity will triple! Do you want short-term milling machines or long-term capacity?"

“Workers only need two or three weeks of training. Besides, experienced workers can also train apprentices. There’s no need to set up schools. Equipment is more important.”

"With money and technology, the equipment can be manufactured. But qualified skilled workers cannot be trained overnight."

The opinions of the ministry leaders were also divided, but in the end, Leader Teng made the decision: "We need to develop equipment and train personnel, and we can't slack off on either. The Industrial University will be approved first. But Lao Xing, the funding will have to be raised by your Qianmen Locomotive Depot yourself."

"of course."

Section Chief Xing knew that Leader Teng was still on his side, after all, the Qianmen Locomotive Depot was not short of money at all.

You should know that now, thanks to Hextech, the Qianmen Locomotive Depot's pockets are already overflowing.

Upon returning to the locomotive depot, Section Chief Xing convened a meeting and announced the establishment of the Industrial University.

“It’s really time to open a school. My three sons are always loafing around, hanging out with those hooligans and chasing after girls. Something’s bound to happen.”

“The experienced workers in the workshop can become teachers and earn double the salary.”

Most leaders agreed.

Some leaders were puzzled: "Why is it called a university and not a vocational school? It's clearly a vocational school."

"Don't you think the university's reputation is more prestigious?" Li Aiguo sat up straight.

lead:"."

Ultimately, the resolution to establish an industrial university was passed unanimously in the section.

The university is located next to the motorcycle workshop and behind the studio, so we took advantage of the workshop expansion to build classrooms.

The establishment of the industrial university was overseen by Director She of the Education Office.

Li Aiguo was appointed as the principal.

The funding required by the Industrial University was raised by the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

Actually, it doesn't cost much money. The academic teachers are the staff in the education department, and the skills teachers are the master craftsmen in each workshop.

Thus, a makeshift university was established.

Just as Li Aiguo had predicted, once the news of the university's enrollment spread, many railway workers immediately enrolled their children.

"I heard that graduates from industrial universities can get jobs in motorcycle workshops, and their salaries are higher than those of railway workers."

"Yes, last month each worker in the workshop received five jin of refined wheat flour."

"It's been reported, it's been reported."

The news spread quickly, and even young people in society wanted to sign up, and even the old man had an idea.

After Li Aiguo led Zong Xianfeng to experiment with the electrical wiring, he rode his motorcycle back to the courtyard house. As soon as he entered, he was stopped by the Third Uncle.

"Aiguo, off work?" the old man greeted him, pointing to the small crucian carp in the bucket. "These crucian carp are very fresh. Why don't you take a few home?"

Without saying a word, Li Aiguo reached out and grabbed the water bucket.

This completely baffled the third uncle.

Most people would probably decline, right?

"You really want it?"

"Didn't you give it to me? If I don't take it, wouldn't that be disrespectful to you?"

"."

The old man looked at Li Aiguo with a pained expression as he carried the bucket of water to the backyard.

The three older women chuckled to themselves, "What happened? You tried to steal a chicken but ended up losing the rice instead?"

"I didn't expect this kid to act so unpredictably." The third uncle suddenly slapped his forehead. "That's right, how could I forget the important matter?"

He rushed over from behind in a panic and stopped Li Aiguo.

"Patriotism, that..."

"Uncle, I'm very busy. I have to go back and clean the fish. These fish are too small. If you need anything, please tell me quickly."

"."

The old man took a deep breath, rubbed his hands together, and said, "I heard that your locomotive depot has established an industrial university."

"Yes."

"Only children of railway workers are accepted."

"Yes."

"Isn't my son Yan Jiecheng a railway worker?"

"Yes."

"No tuition fees, and room and board included?"

"Yes."

“That’s perfect. I have a nephew who just graduated from junior high school this year. I’ll have him register tomorrow.”

"Your eldest nephew is Yan Jiecheng's son?"

"No."

"That settles it then." Li Aiguo carried the water bucket and hummed a little tune as he entered the house.

Only the third uncle was left standing outside.

After pondering for a long time, he muttered to himself, "How about we have my nephew become Yan Jiecheng's godfather? But wouldn't that mess up the family hierarchy?"

The compound seems quite lively today.

After the third uncle left, Xu Damao came to the door with a bag of pastries.

"Brother Da Mao, what's up?" Li Aiguo stood up and greeted him.

"This was a gift from my apprentice," Xu Damao said, opening the pastry.

"Lotus flower pastry?" Chen Xueru came over when she heard the noise, looking curious. "These must be from the south, right?"

Li Aiguo looked at Xu Damao and smiled, "Damao, you've taken on an apprentice?"

Xu Damao was waiting for these words, so he straightened up and said somewhat reservedly, "The department saw that I was good at showing movies, so they specially arranged an apprentice for me."

This kid is a bit simple-minded, but he's very respectful to me, his master. He just came back from his hometown and brought me gifts to visit.

I don't want it, but he insists on giving it to me. Tell me why.

"Oh my, congratulations, Da Mao, you've taken on an apprentice." Chen Xueru then realized the purpose of Xu Da Mao's visit.

Li Aiguo also offered his congratulations.

"Ahem, keep it low-key. As master craftsmen, we should pass on our skills."

Xu Damao said he wanted to keep a low profile, but in no time, the whole compound knew that he had taken on an apprentice.

In this day and age, taking on apprentices means becoming a master craftsman and a pillar of the workplace, which makes many people envious.

Xu Damao even went to the Jia family's door and shouted, "You little bastard, Grandpa has an apprentice now, and you're still being someone else's apprentice? Aren't you ashamed?" Unexpectedly, Jia Dongxu didn't seem to care about this matter and just nodded lightly.

"So what if we accept it? It's no big deal."

Xu Damao was surprised that Jia Dongxu didn't retaliate, and scratched his head in disappointment before leaving.

"That's right. We're all neighbors, there's no need to be jealous of others." Qin Huairu thought Jia Dongxu had become more magnanimous and praised him a couple of times.

Jia Dongxu grunted and turned to look in the direction of Yi Zhonghai's house, his eyes cold.

"Xu Damao is indeed getting a bit cocky," Yan Jiecheng commented from the sidelines.

"The real bragging goes on," Li Aiguo chuckled, then turned and went back into the house.

This kind of melon is considered small in the courtyard, and it's not interesting to eat at all.

The next day, when Li Aiguo returned home from get off work, he indeed saw a young man carrying coal briquettes from the cellar to Xu Damao's house.

Xu Damao stood to the side, hands behind his back, smoking a cigarette, displaying the demeanor of a master chef to the fullest.

"Aiguo, you're back! Come on, let me introduce you." Xu Damao called out to Li Aiguo, then yelled at the young man, "Xiao Lu, don't you have any manners? Your master told you, we're not just showing movies, come over and say hello."

"This is Comrade Li Aiguo, a train driver at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot, and a good friend of my master."

The young man was sweating profusely from exhaustion, but upon hearing Xu Damao's call, he obediently ran over.

"Hello, Driver Li." He rubbed his dark hands together, appearing particularly reserved.

“This is my apprentice, Lu Shichang.”

"Comrade Lu Shichang, hello. Are you from the South?"

Li Aiguo looked the young man up and down.

He was probably in his early twenties, with fair skin, spoke with a Fujian accent, and looked very shy and honest.

“I’m from Fujian Province. Life was tough there, so I came to Beijing to stay with relatives. The steel mill was hiring temporary workers, and since I’m somewhat educated, I was assigned to the propaganda department and worked with my mentor showing movies.”

"Is that so?" Li Aiguo nodded at him, then turned and went back into the house.

This person talks too much. Who reveals all their secrets the moment they meet someone? It's as if they're afraid of arousing suspicion.

Li Aiguo was thinking when Chen Xueru suddenly clutched her stomach and cried out in pain, interrupting his train of thought.

Li Aiguo quickly rode his motorcycle to take Chen Xueru to the hospital. After examination, there was nothing wrong; she had just been overworked and had a miscarriage.

Indeed, in dealing with the late spring cold snap a while ago, Chen Xueru basically worked eighteen or nineteen hours a day, running around like those young people.

After hearing the news, Aunt Liu and several other women rushed over and advised Chen Xueru to rest at home.

Chen Xueru wanted to continue, so the next day Li Aiguo went directly to the Zhengyangmen Subdistrict Office to ask for leave for her. With Aunt Liu taking care of things at home every day, she could feel more at ease.

Time passed day by day, and things were relatively peaceful in the compound. Lu Shichang often went to Xu Damao's house to do chores.

The young man did everything – grocery shopping, sweeping, and taking care of the children – which made the older workers in the compound extremely envious, and even Liu Haizhong was envious.

Xu Damao is now even more smug, walking around with his hands behind his back all day, acting almost like Yi Zhonghai.

At the Qianmen Locomotive Depot, the motorcycle workshop expansion has been completed, adding several hundred new workers and boosting motorcycle production capacity.

Just as the first batch of mountain motorcycles was about to be delivered to Pakistan, the personnel sent by Pakistan to learn also arrived at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

There were twelve people in total, all with very long names, and the leader was a man with a big beard.

His name was Bukhari, and he belonged to the same tribe as the chief of Pakistan. He was a big, burly man with bulging muscles.

"Comrade Buhari, welcome to the Qianmen Locomotive Depot. From today onwards, we are comrades who study together." Li Aiguo held a simple welcome banquet according to their customs.

After the banquet ended, Buhari asked impatiently, "Comrade Patriot, when do we begin training?"

"Tomorrow then." Li Aiguo knew about the situation in Pakistan and didn't say anything more.

The next day, Li Aiguo took Buhari and the others to the driving school, where Master Zhou and the motorcycle team members taught them how to drive motorcycles.

On the third day of Buhari's training, Li Aiguo was invited to the office of Section Chief Xing of the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

"Section Chief, did you need something?" Li Aiguo greeted them, then his gaze fell on the two people on the sofa.

The two men sat upright, exuding a bloody smell; they must be comrades from the team.

However, they were dressed in civilian clothes, apparently because they did not want to reveal their identities.

"These two are Comrade Wang and Comrade Zhang, the Chinese teachers that our section hired for the Pakistani trainees," Section Chief Xing introduced the two men.

The names Comrade Wang and Comrade Zhang are too casual, just like they were made up by the author of the novel.

As for learning Chinese, those Pakistani students are all fluent in Chinese, so they don't need to at all.

It seems he must be a comrade who teaches military affairs.

This kind of thing can't be done openly. We can take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to ride motorcycles to help train a group of students for Pakistan.

Realizing this, Li Aiguo extended his hand and shook hands with them, saying, "Welcome, welcome."

Considering the tight schedule of the Pakistani trainees, after discussing with the two instructors, it was decided that they would learn to drive motorcycles in the morning and study military knowledge in the afternoon.

Li Aiguo was also interested in the two instructors' teaching and would go over to listen in every time a class was held. The instructors mainly explained guerrilla warfare.

Both instructors were front-line commanders who had led troops to fight the Japanese before liberation, and what they said was very practical.

Buhari suddenly raised his hand and asked in broken Chinese, "Reporting, Instructor! Our enemies often hide in bunkers. If we launch a surprise attack using motorcycles carrying explosives, how can we ensure the explosives won't explode due to the bumpy ride? And how can we evacuate quickly?"

Instructor Zhang's eyes flashed with approval, and he immediately waved to signal the trainees to gather in a corner of the training field.

A sandbag (simulating an explosive charge) was fixed to the back seat of a mountain bike with wire, and the tires were wrapped with burlap to reduce noise.

"Watch carefully!" Instructor Wang straddled the motorcycle and twisted the throttle sharply. The motorcycle shot out like a cheetah, then suddenly braked and spun out fifty meters away, its rear end precisely aimed at the target earthen wall.

Almost simultaneously, Instructor Zhang pulled the rope connecting the back seat, and the sandbag slammed against the wall with a "thud".

The whole process took less than ten seconds.

"I never imagined a war could be fought like this. Patriotic comrades, it seems your ultimate victory wasn't just luck." Buhari, a true frontline commander, suddenly understood.

The other trainees also nodded frequently.

Li Aiguo sighed inwardly, these veterans were indeed capable; they could make an RPG-like effect with just a simple explosive charge.

Unlike those fantastical TV dramas, true victory is won with wisdom and bloodshed, not by getting hyaluronic acid injections, falling in love, or tearing apart Japanese soldiers with bare hands.

Buhari's training became more formalized, and the first batch of mountain bikes was delivered to the port city.

Unlike the sales strategy for off-road vehicles, motorcycles are not suitable for unified sales due to their lower cost, lower technical level, and heavier after-sales burden.

For this reason, Li Aiguo adopted a distributor strategy commonly used in later generations.

The company recruits dealers worldwide who purchase mountain bikes from Hextech, then sell them within their respective regions and provide after-sales service.

Simply put, it means sharing a portion of the profits with distributors, who will then be responsible for after-sales service.

This model facilitates rapid market penetration.

Over the years, Hextech has amassed a large number of distributors thanks to its range of products.

These people are all old and new money from various places, quite powerful, and have made a fortune with Hextech products.

Now that I've heard Hextech is planning to sell mountain bikes, I immediately rushed to the port city to try and secure the dealership.

A big slice of cake was shared, one piece for you, one piece for me, and everyone got their share and was very happy.

"Mr. Yang, could you make a new type of motorcycle? To be honest, our current mountain motorcycle product line is a bit limited." A British businessman from the John Bull family raised his glass.

“I had the same idea. Motorcycle sales are quite high right now, and those guys in Japan are making a killing off motorcycles.” The businessman from Xiao Mei’s family was furious.

This loser, Xiaobenzi, actually managed to sell his products to their home and do quite well, taking money out of their pockets. How could they tolerate this?

"That's right, aren't we still going to compete with the little notebook? We can take care of him in the market first."

"Yes, yes, yes, that Little Wolf motorcycle now sells 1000 million units a year. It's a huge piece of meat."

"Eat meat, eat meat, eat meat!"

The atmosphere at the scene instantly became lively.

If you didn't know better, you'd think these big businessmen were a pack of wolves.

Yang Jizong was not surprised at all by this situation, as the interests of these distributors had long been tied to Hextech.

Now that we've secured the distribution rights, we're mortal enemies with the small notebook motorcycles. It wouldn't be unreasonable to completely devour them.

Yang Jizong also had ideas to expand the product line, but he didn't know if Li Aiguo had the time, nor did he know what the distributors thought.

Seeing this situation, he said, "Don't worry, I'll report this to higher authorities. Come on, everyone, raise your glasses!"

"A new type of motorcycle?" In the end, this request was relayed to the Qianmen Locomotive Depot. Li Aiguo was also somewhat surprised when he heard Yang Jizong's request.

"Aiguo, motorcycles are so profitable, our dealers are practically green with envy. As for sales, you don't need to worry about that." Yang Jizong was a little embarrassed; he had also heard that Li Aiguo had been quite busy lately.

Li Aiguo also had this idea.

In his later years, he saw many scooter motorcycles of all styles, which were not technically difficult to manufacture.

"This can be done, but it will take some time." Li Aiguo felt that they should first send the goods that Pakistan needed.

“There’s no rush. We need to reorganize the export channels here. As you know, the distributors in South America are too unconventional, so I have to keep an eye on them,” Yang Jizong said.

Li Aiguo was aware of the situation; Hextech was doing business in a law-abiding manner and had paid all the taxes and fees due.

The South American dealers preferred to skip the import/export tax process and simply sail their ships ashore, using machine guns to deal with the tax collectors.

Hextech can't care about all that.

But you can't cause a major incident. If you kill hundreds of people just to transport a ship of goods, how will you do business in the future?
"Tell them to be careful and not to make a fuss," Li Aiguo instructed, then added, "How's the acquisition of the ocean-going fleet going?"

The Yang family's boats are all small, only able to travel inshore. In the future, when they need to transport minerals to the open ocean, they will need large ships that can travel at sea.

"It's in the planning stages. As you know, there aren't many reliable fleets, and we also need to have ocean-going cargo ships, which makes the fleet even smaller."

"The cargo ship isn't important; we just need an empty shell."

Upon hearing this, Yang Jizong understood Li Aiguo's plan.

There are experienced retired marines on the mainland. If we can find a way to build some ocean-going freighters, we'll have everything we need.

"I know what to do." Yang Jizong accepted the task.

After hanging up the phone, Li Aiguo spent half a day drawing several blueprints and designed a small-emission single-cylinder engine.

Emissions range from 50cc to 250cc.

The engine is made entirely of forged aluminum, similar to that of a mountain bike engine, except that it has four valves and is equipped with water cooling.

Its horsepower is in no way inferior to that of a twin-cylinder engine, and it can save more than half of the cost.

With the previous technological reserves, a single-cylinder, air-cooled, four-stroke engine can be easily manufactured.

The most crucial element is the motorcycle's body design, which determines its popularity.

Before leaving get off work, Li Aiguo drew a few more sketches.

There are underbone motorcycles suitable for men to commute, and scooters suitable for women to ride.

In particular, there are four types of scooter motorcycles, among which the most beautiful is the Little Fat Goose scooter.

The rear has rounded curves, the front is cute and cartoonish, the body is made of engineering plastic, and the body is dark blue.

When Chen Xueru returned home in the evening, she saw the motorcycle sketch and fell in love with it at first sight.

"Brother Aiguo, this is really beautiful. When will it be completed?"

(End of this chapter)