Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 436 Operation 425
After Liang Weimin finished speaking, Li Weizhong looked at the leaders of the First Branch Factory present.

The leaders of the first factory looked at each other, none of them willing to speak first. They remained silent for about four or five minutes until Liang Weimin tapped his fingers on the table, making a 'bang bang' sound. Only then did Li Weizhong speak:

"Secretary Liang, I have no objection."

Upon hearing Li Weizhong's words, Liang Weimin frowned. It seemed that his old subordinate had not yet fully grasped the power of the branch factory!
While thinking to himself, Liang Weimin's gaze swept back and forth across the faces of the other leaders in the branch factory.

The leaders of the branch factory who were targeted by Liang Weimin did not last long before they all expressed their agreement, and the deputy secretary of the factory committee even raised questions.

"Secretary Liang, I agree in principle to implement Deputy Director He's plan, but with six or seven hundred people in the factory, some are at work and some are off work, so it will be difficult to get everyone together in a short time."

Furthermore, under what pretext should we conduct this preliminary investigation and obtain the signatures? What if it causes discontent among the workers and leads to unrest? How will we explain this to our superiors then?

Liang Weimin was very unhappy to see that someone was still dragging his feet at this time, but after all, he had been the top leader for several years and was very experienced, so he could easily deal with this kind of small situation.

"I'll use the pretext of reorganizing the files to get the preliminary approval, and I'll explain to my superiors if anything goes wrong."

After saying this, Liang Weimin looked calmly at the deputy secretary of the first factory, seemingly waiting for him to continue shirking responsibility.

At this moment, everyone's eyes in the conference room were on the two of them.

The deputy secretary of the first branch factory felt somewhat embarrassed and angry, but seeing Liang Weimin's expression, he couldn't bring himself to say the rebuttal he had prepared. Instead, he put on a relieved look and said:

"Since Secretary Liang has come up with a solution, then I have no objections."

Seeing that the deputy secretary had backed down, Liang Weimin ignored him, as he had important matters to attend to that day. He then turned to look at the union chairman, who had remained silent.

"Even bringing up higher-level leaders didn't work for the deputy secretary, and it's pointless for him to try and stop them himself."

After muttering something to himself, the union chairman stopped being so insistent: "Secretary Liang, I have no objection either. If needed, I will immediately arrange for someone to go find the workers who have finished their shifts."

Seeing the union chairman's attitude, Liang Weimin nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. His gaze swept across the faces of everyone in the room, finally settling on He Yuanchao.

"Yuanchao, it's almost noon now. Can you finish the investigation before you leave work?"

Since 1949, Kyoto has launched a large-scale literacy campaign. Factories have also organized workers to learn to read and write by establishing employee schools, night schools, and crash courses. However, a large number of older workers and women have found various reasons to refuse to learn.

He Yuanchao took a puff of his cigarette, asked Li Weizhong about the literacy rate of the workers in the No. 1 factory, carefully considered it for a moment, and then showed a slightly troubled expression on his face, not giving a definitive answer.

"Secretary Liang, the general investigation should be fine, but I'm not sure about the detailed investigation. You'll have to ask my friend who specializes in handwriting analysis for this."

Fortunately, it was the early days of the People's Republic of China, and there were quite a few illiterate and semi-literate people in the factory. Otherwise, it would have taken an afternoon to complete a general screening of six or seven hundred people.

Liang Weimin knew it would be difficult to investigate nearly 400 people in one afternoon, but the matter was urgent. If he didn't quickly produce something concrete, how could he explain to his superiors why he hadn't reported the issue?

Thinking of this, he could only place the burden on He Yuanchao.

“I don’t care if you’re doing a general investigation or a detailed investigation, and I don’t care how you do it, I need to get a result before 6 p.m..”

Seeing Liang Weimin's serious expression, He Yuanchao neither complained nor disagreed, but said firmly:
"Yes, Secretary Liang, I guarantee the mission will be completed." Having received He Yuanchao's assurance, Liang Weimin nodded in satisfaction.

After the matter was discussed and decided, Liang Weimin didn't dawdle any longer and immediately organized a team to form the 425 Working Group. In order to give his old subordinate a helping hand, he specially appointed Li Weizhong as the deputy leader of the working group.

After the specific tasks were assigned, the people in the meeting room did not dare to slack off and all got up and went out to carry out the assigned tasks.

The security department of the first factory has a total of 36 staff members, which is far from enough to complete the investigation task.

While the leaders and cadres of the No. 1 factory were organizing the workers, He Yuanchao followed Ding Liangcai to the security department to make phone calls to gather manpower and also to arrange the security work of the No. 1 factory.

Wang Jibin, from the Chengxi branch of the Public Security Bureau, was surprised to receive a call from He Yuanchao: "Master, why did you suddenly decide to call me?"

He Yuanchao was in a hurry, so he didn't beat around the bush and explained the situation directly.

Upon hearing this, Wang Jibin immediately became interested and agreed without hesitation. He Yuanchao instructed him to "change into civilian clothes and keep it confidential" before ending the call. He then called the security department of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill.

After making the call, He Yuanchao didn't rest. He inquired about the security situation at the No. 1 factory while arranging the specific tasks for the security guards.

While He Yuanchao was busy, other leaders and cadres of the First Branch Factory also began to take action, with the factory's broadcasting station being the first to get moving.

"Attention all workers, this is an important announcement. Due to the need for factory record management, we need to complete and verify everyone's personal file information. All workers on duty, please proceed to the factory's main conference room for registration under the guidance of your respective team leaders."

The broadcast was repeated three times in a row, and the workers in the workshop of the first factory immediately started talking about it.

Some said wages were going to increase, others said the factory was planning to recruit workers from among the factory's children, and some troublemakers even said the factory was improving its information system to act as matchmakers for bachelors and widows.

These words excited the old bachelors and some widows in their thirties and forties in the factory. Their eyes were filled with excitement, and some of the more impatient ones couldn't help but stop what they were doing and start fussing over their clothes.

While the workers in the workshop were noisily discussing the matter of improving the archives, Wang Jibin, who lived relatively close to the branch factory, had already rushed to the factory on his bicycle at breakneck speed.

After exchanging a few polite words with Wang Jibin, He Yuanchao took out a letter from his jacket pocket and handed it to him.

“Ji Bin, take a look. This letter was written with the left hand. If you let this person write it again, are you confident that you can tell the difference?”

Wang Jibin opened the letter, glanced at it, and said confidently:
"Don't worry, Master. The person who wrote the letter is probably not a very skilled writer. If he writes it again, I'm 80% confident I can find him."

Hearing his 'eldest disciple' say this, He Yuanchao immediately felt reassured.

"Ji Bin, this time I'm counting on you for everything."

"Just hold it up, Master."

……

The two exchanged only a few words in the guardhouse at the entrance of the No. 1 factory when a somewhat dilapidated military green truck chugged up to the guardhouse.

(End of this chapter)