The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

As the year draws to a close, Factory 787 enters its busiest period.

Li Feng, who had just finished a meeting at the Municipal Labor Bureau, drove his red Dara, which he had not yet returned, back to the factory.

"Secretary Liu, pass on the notice: hold an impromptu meeting at noon. The top two leaders of the personnel department, as well as the heads of each workshop, should all be gathered together. The meeting is scheduled for one o'clock. Tell them to hurry up and have lunch."

After quickly taking a sip of water and not even having time to smoke a cigarette, Li Feng went to the secretary's office to give instructions.

Back in the office, I took out the data I had compiled a few days ago from the filing cabinet, sat down in the chair, looked at the data in the document, clenched my fist, and gently tapped my head.

Headache!
In October, we received a batch of more than 230 demobilized military personnel and assigned them to various workshop positions.

Now, as a large number of educated youth begin to return to the city, in order to maintain basic social order and stability and to appease them, the factory has to recruit another batch of temporary workers.

Yes, there are no formal job positions, but 380 positions must be created to accommodate these young people returning to the city, ensuring they have a basic income to make a living.

The local state-owned factories, which had been expanding in batches before this, were already overcrowded; there wasn't even room for a needle.

On the other side of the street community, even a small tea stall with large bowls of tea needs to accommodate twenty or thirty people.

Pruning, shredding, shoe repair, knitting—even the kind of work that no one used to look down on, like pasting matchboxes, were all filled up as long as it could temporarily make a living.

In the square in front of the city gate tower, people were pushing carts and selling radishes, which shows just how severe the employment situation is.

Well, many of the educated youth who went to the countryside are now approaching middle age, and their ages are basically the same as Li Feng's.

The allure of the city, compared to the countryside, still captivated many educated youth, but they didn't consider what they could do after returning to the city.

Current policies allow children to take over their parents' jobs early, but back then, every family had several children.

In families like the Liu family and the Yan family, it's common to see three or four children per family, and there are quite a few with five or six.

Parents may not be old enough to retire yet, but for the sake of their children, many are forced to retire early and give up their jobs.

As waves of people poured into Beijing, various organizations, it can be said, had squeezed every last drop of potential out of them, with calls being made for two people to do the work of one.

Unsurprisingly, the nation bore a heavy burden of pressure, which then fell squarely on factory leaders like Li Feng.

A few days ago, some educated youth who returned to the city were picky and unwilling to go to the cooperative. They felt that it would be embarrassing to sell tea on the street and hawk their wares. As more and more people poured in, there were not even enough large bowls of tea to accommodate everyone.

Even military factories like the Red Star 787 Factory have started to step up and share the burden of local employment pressure, but the placement of hundreds of temporary workers still gave Li Feng a headache.

Even if the monthly salary is only a dozen yuan, this expense is still a significant burden for the factory.

"Hey, Principal Jiang, I need to have a meeting. If you can't come over at noon, come over here too!"

"What else could it be? The resettlement of educated youth is the most important task at this stage. I've only just realized that it's better to keep the branch factory than to relocate the workers!"

Leaning back in his chair, Li Feng had no choice. No matter how much pressure he was under, once the task was assigned, he had to work hard to cooperate with the local authorities. The only thing he could hold onto was the permanent staff position, which had to be reserved for retired and demobilized soldiers.

Because the policy of streamlining and reorganizing the military is an inevitable trend, making way for economic development, the streamlined personnel return to local areas, and military industrial enterprises also serve as a large talent pool, as do the public security system.

Most obviously, you can see two traffic police officers directing traffic at every intersection.

"It's a good thing for the factory that more people are taking driving tests. We can take in as many students as possible while we still have a monopoly. Once individual business owners can open driving schools, it won't be so easy to do business here!"

"Don't disbelieve me, individual businesses have developed gradually. At least now the policy clearly supports them. In the future, people can find a company to affiliate with, and other companies will also have vehicles. You've been in this business for so many years, how could you not know how many companies are eyeing our factory's money?"

"Anyway, the bus company probably has this plan in mind, so you'd better prepare as soon as possible!"

When he's in a bad mood, can he hold back and make Principal Jiang feel good? Under the general trend, no one can stop it. If he still wants to lie in the sugar jar like before, Li Feng has to give him a good reminder.

Principal Jiang, who was on the other end of the phone, immediately threw down the nail clippers in his hand, sensing something was amiss.

Although the driving school can only accommodate a limited number of people, it collects a considerable amount of tuition. If other organizations were to start their own driving schools under these circumstances, Ping An Driving School would no longer be the only one in Beijing. Considering the current pressures faced by state-owned factories, and linking this to the rumors circulating from above that Li Feng mentioned, this isn't just a possibility; it's almost certain.

After contacting the driving school, Li Feng counted on his fingers: he could arrange for about twenty temporary workers for car repair and maintenance, a dozen or so instructors for the theory test, and help with cleaning the toilets and general chores. That would solve about one-sixth of the problem.

Li Feng picked up the phone again and called Lao Ge directly.

"How's it going lately? A group of construction workers were pulled out from the grain bureau's staff quarters. Hopefully, there aren't any major problems."

“I remember that the hydraulic parts factory in Miyun also contacted you, wanting to build staff housing in Miyun, right? If it doesn’t work out, we’ll split into two teams. There’s no other way. The instructions from above are that we need to take care of several hundred people. You’ll have to lead at least a hundred people. At least the factory can provide food and lodging, which will lighten the factory’s burden considerably.”

"Okay, that's settled then. You contact their factory and project department, and transfer Song Yicheng there as the project manager. You oversee things and make the arrangements as soon as possible!"

Although the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 factories were gone, the Red Star Factory still had some foundation.

Li Feng's crooked ideas come to him whenever they come up. Now, various units are starting to build large-scale housing projects and welfare housing, but in terms of construction projects, Hongxing Factory was the first to start.

Not only were construction workers and engineers brought out in batches, but the trucks that were replaced by the transportation department were also sent to construction companies.

While not exactly a household name in Beijing, Red Star Construction Company remains the top choice for organizations looking to build houses.

In any case, for these educated youth who returned to the city, learning to build houses was much more practical than learning to trim thorns and cleavers.

After a quick lunch, the heads of each workshop and the personnel from the personnel department gathered in the conference room on the first floor of the office building. Upon seeing the arrival of Section Chief Yao from the personnel department, everyone could roughly guess the content of the meeting at noon.

When Li Feng arrived, the heads of all departments extinguished their cigarettes and turned their gazes toward him.

To be honest, the factory doesn't have much resistance to accepting retired officers and soldiers. Having been trained in the military, they are at least able to obey orders, which can increase production.

But upon hearing that they were educated youth returning to the city, they couldn't help but frown. It wasn't a matter of discrimination; those who had retired from the military were at least clean and there was no need to worry about leaks.

The Red Star Factory is no longer the state-owned factory it once was. Each workshop has a secret production mission, such as the missile workshop, the modification workshop, and the final assembly workshop. It is not suitable to let people in without screening.

"I won't say much more, but the good news is that out of the 380 people, Ping An Driving School will take in 60, the construction company will take in 100, and there are still 220 people left to be taken in."

"No, I haven't even...!"

Principal Jiang was a little confused. Before he could even sort things out, Director Li had already forced sixty people on him. As for the construction company and the construction workers building houses, he could easily handle two hundred, let alone a hundred.

"Principal Jiang, this is good news. Would you like to hear it? What's the bad news?"

Old Jiang, whose attention had been drawn by Director Li's words, was now completely stunned. Sixty people! How many students did the driving school currently have? For him, this was already bad news.

"The bad news is that this is only the first batch for us. There will be a second and third large-scale return of educated youth after the New Year. Other units can't hold on any longer!"

Li Feng's words caused an uproar in the conference room. Every department head felt a chill run down their spine, and Section Chief Yao from the personnel department was speechless.

"Director Jin, we'll add twenty people to the sewing workshop, another twenty to the bulletproof vest production line, and thirty to the security department. Subtracting seventy from two hundred and twenty leaves us with one hundred and fifty. The rest can be distributed among the workshops."

"Isn't there the supplies department and the freight station? They can also handle some of it...!"

The missile workshop was somewhat reluctant, so the number of people was reduced on average, but there were still about ten people. Their workshop was too secretive, so they didn't really want this group of educated youth.

Li Xuewen waved his hand and spoke up for Li Feng. As the former head of the logistics department, he was still in charge of logistics work when he was promoted to deputy factory director.

"Let's arrange it like this for now. I'll select those who pass the political vetting to go to the workshop. As for logistics, I'll take care of it when the second batch of personnel arrives, no matter how many there are. Your production department won't have to worry about that!"

Li Feng, who is in charge of production, has already forced the first batch of people to work on the production line. As for the second batch, it will be up to him to handle the logistics. But the thought that there might be a third batch makes him feel uneasy.

Next year, the number of personnel streamlined by the military will undoubtedly be even greater, and the Hongxing Factory will gradually expand, and no one can escape it.

"I have to go to a meeting at the General Logistics Department this afternoon. You can discuss it yourselves. Section Chief Yao can go to the Labor Bureau to pick up the list. I won't do anything else this afternoon; just get these things sorted out. There's always next year's business!" (End of Chapter)