The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

As dusk settles, darkness falls early in Beijing during winter.

By the time I got off work, the streetlights had already lit up the streets.

Under the warm glow of the streetlights, workers wrapped in overcoats and wearing Lei Feng hats happily walked out of the factory gate.

It can be seen that their mental state when they leave work is similar to that when they go to work, except that they are a little tired, but they still have smiles on their faces.

The workers who had finished their day shift surged out of the gate like a tide. Those who worked the night shift were noticeably more energetic than those on the day shift, and their eyes were full of envy as they watched others leave work.

The two are switched when it comes time to receive wages, because the night shift has a night shift allowance, which, when added to the salary, will be about a quarter more than the day shift allowance.

"Come on, let's have a meal together. Who knows when we'll be back next time!"

In Li Feng's office, Jiang Defu glanced at the time on his watch, stood up, and waved his arm. They had worked together for so many years, weathered many storms together, and their bond was almost that of comrades-in-arms.

"It's already dark at this hour, and the state-run restaurants should have closed early too. Forget it, I won't go looking for trouble."

Li Xuewen, who was later joining the discussion on current policies and trends, stood up from the sofa with his hands on his knees, but he waved his hand.

The main problem is in winter. If you go late, you'll find the chairs upside down on the tables when you open the restaurant door, and the waiters are already cleaning up. Not only will you be treated badly, but the chefs, who are in a hurry to leave, might even add extra "seasoning" to the dishes.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. It's no trouble to make a phone call to your partner. Come to my place, have some hot pot. After that, I won't have time to come over. I'm taking Anjie and the kids to Qingdao to spend the New Year with her brother!"

Jiang Defu thought Li Xuewen was henpecked (afraid of his wife). His wife was indeed quite strict; if it was past ten o'clock, she would complain when he got home.

"The factory is on night shift, so we need someone to stay. You guys go ahead, Xuewu, have a good drink with your old boss, and include me in the bill too!"

In the end, Li Xuewen still did not attend the gathering. He also needed to think about what Li Feng had said during the group discussion earlier. It was as if he had seen a vision of the future, transcending time and space.

"Come on, hop in my car!"

"By the time you come back next time, there will probably be restaurants run by individual business owners in Beijing!"

Along with Ouyang Yi and Ran Qilin, the car was full of five people. The tall and burly Jiang Defu sat in the passenger seat. Li Feng turned the steering wheel, pointed to the restaurant outside, and pronounced their "death sentence".

Through the window, you could see that the room was brightly lit, but the table wasn't set with dishes; instead, it was set with chair legs. Guests who pushed open the door, lifted the curtain, and walked out grumbling and looking disappointed.

The people in the car all saw the scene in the direction Li Feng was pointing, and they laughed out loud in unison. It seemed that the people in the car had all suffered the same humiliation at the restaurant closest to the Red Star Factory.

Once individual businesses start to grow explosively, in order to make a profit, they can squeeze out these government-funded restaurants and drive them out of business.

"I've seen some hole-in-the-wall restaurants open up, but they're not allowed to operate openly yet. They're all hiding in secluded courtyards. The food is actually pretty good. If they open up now, the tide will go out and we'll see who's been swimming naked!"

"You're really that optimistic about the development of individual businesses?"

Jiang Defu scratched his cheek. Although Li Feng's description in the office gave him a lot of hope, he still found it hard to believe, or rather, the life he had lived for the past few decades had completely brainwashed him.

"You're in the military, so you don't know how dire the current employment situation is. Even if only 10 million of the 20 million educated youth return to the cities, it would take 500 factories the size of Hongxing Factory to accommodate them. That's an average of one factory per city, which is difficult for the country to manage at this stage."

"Resuming university admissions is about selecting the best students. Those who can't get in will have to rely on themselves. Opening up individual businesses is also a way out for these people."

"The iron rice bowl is no longer viable...!"

Looking at the scenery outside the car window, Ouyang Yi, who had been abroad and studied overseas and had seen the Western world, was able to discern the signs of future development from Li Feng's words.

"This isn't a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic. The old-fashioned closed planned economy is detrimental to the development of a large population country. With such a large population, it will inevitably face the issue of transformation sooner or later. Only by loosening the shackles can the economy become more active and drive productivity growth." What Ran Qilin found most unaccustomed to after returning to China was the service attitude of the supply and marketing cooperatives. They would beat and scold customers. Unless the boss had lost his mind, such service personnel should be fired.

Having served as the director of the research institute for so many years, he has seen a lot of people and knows exactly who in the institute is slacking off and who is truly putting in the work.

Whether you work hard or not, you get the same salary. Even those who do well will be corrupted by those who just coast along. It's time to change this system.

……

Will our factory be eliminated by this kind of market competition in the future?

At the dinner table, Jiang Defu raised his glass, drank with Li Feng, and asked a question that he was particularly concerned about.

It's been a few years since Jiang Defu left the Hongxing Factory, and he doesn't know how the factory is doing. The shifts are alternating between day and night, and it seems like there are more people now.

"Military industrial enterprises have their own unique characteristics. They are essential for maintaining national defense security, but they also have to face internal competition in the face of marketization, with the survival of the fittest. Currently, there are still too many military factories, making them too bloated!"

"In the future, those factories that lack technological accumulation and whose production relations overlap with other factories will most likely not survive and may be merged, with the big fish eating the small fish and the small fish eating the shrimp!"

"Currently, we still have our own unique product line, research institutions, and some accumulated technical talents. It is difficult to eliminate them, but we may face splitting up. The factory is located too close to the city center."

It's not that it's too close, but Dongzhimen is right in the city center, so the site area can't be expanded. This is an inherent disadvantage, and the relocation of the Hongxing Factory is something that will likely have to be faced in the next ten years.

However, if other problems arise during the relocation process, the relocation may result in the relocation being split up. Due to space limitations, the number of people kept increasing, and Li Feng sometimes felt very helpless.

For more than a decade, he has worked diligently to develop the factory, but he has repeatedly missed out on the opportunity to introduce advanced machinery, and the factory's production equipment has not been updated for more than a decade.

With no progress between Iran and Iraq, the only way forward is to sell weapons and equipment in exchange for valuable foreign exchange to purchase new production equipment.

Only through the establishment of the Red Star Factory can it continue to move forward.

"Ping An Driving School, Hongxing Construction Company, and the Materials Research Institute—these are all easy to be spun off!"

Li Feng had already prepared himself for this. In any case, his generation of the Hongxing Factory leadership team had not let the factory down.

If it weren't for the concerted efforts of everyone here, things would probably be similar to what's depicted in TV dramas—not eliminated by the environment, but not far off.

“You’re right. At least none of us have failed our jobs at the factory. Although I’ve returned to the army, I still hope that my old employer, the Red Star Factory, can find a good home.”

"I'm a straightforward person. I taught him martial arts, so he's practically my half-disciple. Even with the upcoming reforms, our relationship will remain the same."

"You, Li Xuewu, don't need to worry about Director Li's attitude towards the security department. You and I both come from the military, but your weakness is that you are not highly educated. Although you are being promoted, there is still a limit to your potential. If the factory is doing well, Director Li will not treat the security department as outsiders. If the factory is not doing well, you can actively develop your career in public security."

Li Feng nodded, smiled, and clinked glasses with the glass Li Xuewu offered. The shift from security guard to economic police was an inevitable trend, and he couldn't possibly make things difficult for Li Xuewu, because...

"If you're half an apprentice, then the other half belongs to me. I taught him to drive, and I brought him back from Chengdu. Whether at the factory or cooperating with the public security organs, as long as he does his job well, he'll be doing right by us two masters!"

Ten years have passed, and for Li Feng, the Security Department is certainly not as important as the Research and Development and Production departments.

If the opportunity is right, he wouldn't mind if Li Xuewu went to the public security department. Once Li Xuewen becomes the factory director, it won't be suitable for his own brother, Li Xuewu, to work in the same unit.

"See you in the next decade!" (End of Chapter)