The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 783 Chief Engineer An!!

In the mid-1990s, amidst a nationwide surge in economic development, the "Jingchi-100" sedan, developed by Yanjing Automobile Industry Group, officially rolled off the production line.

It was due to the successful creation of this car that Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Group Co., Ltd., which was established in 1977 or 1978, was renamed "Yanjing Automobile Industry Group Co., Ltd."

When Yanqi was first established, Liu Zhiye took time out of his busy schedule to come and write an inscription for the Yanjing Automobile Industry Group, which will be recorded in history forever.

At the grand launch event, the "Jingchi-100" gleamed under the spotlight with its silver-gray streamlined body, drawing gasps of admiration. This sedan, equipped with a domestically developed 1.6-liter engine, not only boasted a stylish exterior design but also set a new record for domestically produced cars at the time with a fuel consumption of 8.5 liters per 100 kilometers.

The eight powerful characters "驰骋九州，振兴中华" (meaning "To gallop across the nine provinces and revitalize China"), written by Liu Zhiye in master-level calligraphy, are engraved on the white marble wall in the lobby of the group's headquarters.

The veteran employees still remember that day when General Manager Liu said meaningfully after writing the inscription: "The automobile industry is the backbone of the national industry. We must make Chinese manufacturing shine all over the world."

Based on the successful trial production of the "Jingchi-100" sedan, "Yanqi" has also successfully trial-produced the "Jingchi-200C" brand luxury sedan.

Later, they trial-produced the "Yanjing Brand Warrior Off-Road Vehicle" and successfully built the Yanjing Liujiazhuang Light and Heavy Off-Road Vehicle Production Base, as well as the Yanjing Auto Street.

Over the past decade, under the leadership of Liu Jianguo, then chairman of the group, Yanqi has embarked on a glorious journey in the automotive industry.

With the launch of the "Jingchi-300E", Yanqi officially entered the high-end sedan market.

This luxury sedan, equipped with a brand-new V6 engine, features an interior made of imported leather and walnut wood trim, and boasts a rare electric sunroof and automatic air conditioning system at the time. It was immediately favored by political and business figures upon its release.

In 1998, the emergence of the "Yanjing Warrior Off-Road Vehicle" shocked the industry.

This rugged off-road vehicle features a non-unibody chassis design and is equipped with a self-developed 2.4T diesel engine, which performed excellently in extreme cold tests at -40 degrees Celsius in Mohe.

An Qingshan, the then chief engineer, led his team to overcome the power problem in the high-altitude hypoxic environment, making the "Warrior" the designated vehicle for the border defense troops.

At the dawn of the new century, Yanqi invested 150 billion yuan to build the Liujiazhuang Automobile Production Base, covering an area of ​​10000 mu.

The spectacular sight of 120 robots working simultaneously in a modern welding workshop marks China's automotive industry entering a new era of intelligent manufacturing.

The Yanqi Group has also created "Yanqi Street," which integrates R&D center, test track and employee apartments, becoming a landmark building complex in the area.

In the mid-1980s, An Qingshan graduated from the Department of Automotive Industry at Tsinghua University and stayed to work at Yanjing Gear Factory.

Later, he was hired as the chief engineer of Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Manufacturing Group, and from April 28, 1991, he began a full 10 years of work and life at Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Manufacturing Group, which is now Yanjing Automobile Manufacturing Group Co., Ltd.

On March 18, 1994, Yanqi Group decided to appoint An Qingshan as the company's vice general manager and chief engineer.

This is the common title used by "Yanqi", which is actually the general manager. An Qingshan also serves as the chief engineer of the "Warrior Series" and, of course, also begins to serve as the factory director of the "Warrior" off-road vehicle manufacturing plant.

April 28, 1991, was An Qingshan's first day working at the "Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Manufacturing Group".

An Pingshan arrived at the second floor of the office building to report for duty, and was a little at a loss when he learned that an office had not yet been arranged for him.

Surprisingly, the office was fully prepared in just half an hour – an amazing speed.

An Qingshan sat at his desk, unsure how to begin his work.

After taking a walk around the first floor, he returned to his new office and sat down. He saw some documents waiting to be approved on the desk. An Qingshan understood that the work here needed to begin, but there was no handover yet.

Of course, in the beginning, the focus is on reviewing documents, and some documents that can be approved without research can be approved quickly.

The approved documents were placed in a folder on the desk, but they disappeared after lunch. Someone in the office must have taken them, but it was clear that work had already begun here.

On his first day in office, An Qingshan was the deputy director and chief engineer of the No. 1 branch factory, which was in charge of technology. Of course, he needed to meet with the leaders of the various technical departments under his supervision and several deputy chief engineers. He asked the office to help notify them by phone, and soon everyone was basically there.

The meeting arranged in the conference room was simple; everyone got to know each other and would start working together from now on. Everyone was very enthusiastic.

There was only one exception: Deputy Chief Engineer Li did not attend the meeting, citing that he was too busy and could not get away. This was clearly a small challenge to An Qingshan.

Actually, it wasn't difficult at all. After the meeting, An Qingshan immediately went to visit Deputy Chief Engineer Li alone.

Li, the deputy chief engineer, is a veteran of Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Factory. He was an engineer there when the factory was built seven or eight years ago. With his qualifications, he thought he could take over as chief engineer, but An Qingshan was parachuted in, which dashed his hopes.

After An Qingshan arrived, he had to wait for Deputy Chief Engineer Li to take a long time on the phone before they could start talking. Everything is difficult at the beginning.

The deputy chief engineer, Mr. Li, asked, "I heard you introduced yourself as being from Huaqing. What's so great about being from Huaqing?" Although he did not attend the meeting, he still paid close attention to it and had contact with the attendees.

An Qingshan said that it was normal for him to introduce himself to everyone since he was new here.

His resume is that simple: he graduated from Tsinghua University, worked at Beijing Motorcycle Manufacturing Group for six years, and then came to Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Manufacturing Group. Is there anything wrong with that?

The deputy chief engineer, Li, couldn't say anything either.

Fortunately, in the following years, An Qingshan cooperated well with him in his work; people have to be dealt with.

In fact, behind this small incident lies the resistance from some people at the Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Factory No. 1 against the head office; the test has always been there.

The first day at the No. 1 factory was spent there, and from that day on, Anqingshan's dream of building an automobile industry began to come true.

When An Qingshan was the chief engineer at the North Gear Factory, he had one deputy chief engineer under him. But when he went to the Motorcycle Branch Factory, he had to lead six deputy chief engineers, each of whom must have been highly capable.

"Liu Family Motorcycle Manufacturing Group" is a large manufacturing enterprise in Yanjing, but the organizational structure of a single branch factory is very complete, with six deputy chief engineers: Deputy Chief Engineer Lao Li is responsible for overall coordination of the technical department and also serves as the director of the chief engineer's office.
Deputy Chief Engineer Zhang is responsible for the company's overall quality management; Deputy Chief Engineer Song is responsible for product design and development testing.
Deputy Chief Engineer Feng is responsible for manufacturing process management; Deputy Chief Engineer Ma is responsible for the company's power system operation and management; Deputy Chief Engineer Ren is responsible for the company's planning, covering all categories.

These people are all highly skilled and capable, and they work very hard. These veteran comrades still respect An Qingshan, and of course, it's not easy for them to lead.

Later, when Lao Li visited An Qingshan's home, he bluntly asked, "Why did you come all the way from Beijing? If you hadn't come, I would be the chief engineer."

An Qingshan's only response was: "Old Li, I'm sorry, this was arranged by head office..."

On his second day in office, he began working normally, and someone knocked on his door to see him in the morning.

An Qingshan asked around, and the other party introduced himself as Chen Daohua, saying he was a stamping engineer in the design department of the first branch factory.

Chen Daoming came to An Qingshan because the High-tech Zone had arranged a spot for him to go to Japan for professional training in stamping die design, with all expenses to be borne by the Japanese side, but he required the company's approval.

He submitted his application, which was approved by the department, but the company's human resources department refused to approve it, so he couldn't go. He hoped that An Qingshan could help resolve the issue.

An Qingshan found it strange and called over a director from the personnel department to ask him why.
Director Sun was very frank and polite.

Old Sun said that if he agreed to let Chen Daoming go to Japan, there was no guarantee that no problems would arise, and who would be responsible if problems did arise?

An Qingshan immediately replied to Lao Sun, "Then I'll take responsibility."

Director Sun said, "Okay, then I'll follow the leader's arrangements..." Chen Daoming's problem was solved so simply.

A year later, after returning from his training, Engineer Chen Daohua became a key technical member of the company, an expert in stamping process design and mold design, and a rare talent. An Qingshan's choice of plate was correct.

There are quite a few stories about the motorcycle factory.

On the third day of An Qingshan’s work at the factory, another employee knocked on the door.

An Qingshan asked him what was wrong.

The employee introduced himself as Guo Daming, the director of the research institute's laboratory, who was in charge of road and bench testing of the company's products. He hoped that An Qingshan would approve his application to take the driving test.

An Qingshan was speechless after hearing this. How could the director of a professional laboratory make a decision on the driving and operation performance of a product if he didn't even have a driver's license?

An Qingshan immediately instructed the factory office to arrange for Guo Daming to take a driver's license test and to study how to improve the relevant system in the future.

Not long after, the "Liujiazhuang Motorcycle Manufacturing Group" changed its first branch factory to "Yanjing Automobile Manufacturing Plant".

An Qingshan's management work at "Beijing Automobile" thus began.

Whether it was the chief engineer or later the group's vice president, everyone was very busy every day.

It is necessary to frequently conduct on-site investigations in the workshop, check the quality of new cars produced each day, and approve documents. In particular, a management office meeting should be held at least once a week to study the company's operations and resolve related issues. In order to understand the company's situation and solve some of its problems, it is also necessary to talk to some managers.

There are many major issues involving planning and development, as well as numerous minor issues directly related to the company's operations. Of course, the long-term development and reform of "Beijing Automotive Group" must also be considered.

At the beginning, the only product manufactured by "Jingcheng Automobile" Company was the "Jingchi-100", and the production volume was not large enough.

The automotive industry is all about scale, so how to expand the product range and scale, and how to seek greater development for "Yanjing Automobile" are issues that the company's leaders must address.

Therefore, product innovation, carrying out technological transformation to expand the company's strength, and exploring various forms of joint ventures and cooperation became the top priorities.

Anqingshan has always worked with everyone to focus on product innovation, and has made great efforts to develop the "Jingcheng-200C" and other new products, which has yielded considerable results.

They also actively explored cooperation with foreign companies to develop technologically advanced SUVs, paving the way and laying the foundation for the company's next stage of development.

In order to support product innovation and put it into practice, An Qingshan immediately began discussing the company's development and the decision-making process for the company's technological transformation projects after arriving at "Jingyanjing Automobile".

After the establishment of the Yanjing Automobile Group, Liu Jianguo, the former chairman of the group, led the employees of the car manufacturing plant to carry out a brilliant second entrepreneurial venture using the funds left over from the joint venture. They independently developed the "Jingchi Series," which was well received by the market and ushered in another period of great development for the company. This also added new impetus to the later development of the Yanjing automobile industry.

Chairman Liu Jianguo also proposed developing complete vehicles in the High-tech Zone at that time, and put forward the goal of "100,000 vehicles in three steps".

As the company's operations became more streamlined and product development progressed, the existing assembly line was no longer adequate and urgently needed to be upgraded.

After discussion, Yanjing Automobile Group decided to renovate the assembly line of the final assembly plant. It didn't cost much, but it ensured the quality and efficiency of the new products. Everyone was very happy when the new final assembly line was completed.

Later, the "Warrior Off-Road" vehicle, which became a sensation in the market, was produced on this new production line, and the modification did have an effect.

At An Qingshan's suggestion, the company also decided to fully support Dr. Xie Xiaojuan and others, graduates of the Automotive Industry University, in carrying out computer projects, which they have done very well.

In March 1994, the "Computer-Aided Design of Automobile Products (Automotive CAD)" project of Yanjing Automobile Manufacturing Group won the first prize of Yanjing Science and Technology Progress Award.

The "Yanqi" headquarters supported the tool branch to spend 1500 million yuan to purchase CNC milling machines, which greatly improved the manufacturing level of stamping dies.

The construction of the third general assembly plant and other projects were all investments made by "Yanqi Group" with the strong financial resources of "Jingxi Capital" during those years.

In April 1997, the third assembly plant officially went into production, with the capacity to produce 4 "Warrior" cars per year.

These projects have enhanced the strength of the Yanqi Group and cultivated a large number of technical backbones.

In the early spring of 1998, Yanjing Automobile Group ushered in a historic moment.

On the first anniversary of the commissioning of the third assembly plant, the first batch of 2000 "Warrior Off-Road Vehicles" destined for the Middle East were loaded onto a ship at Tianjin Port and set sail.

Anqingshan stood at the dock, gazing at the departing cargo ships.

This technical expert, who was transferred from Beijing Gearbox Group back then, has now become one of the leaders who have guided the company to achieve leapfrog development.

With the surge in international orders, Beijing Automotive Group began to establish an overseas business division.

Chen Daohua, who had studied in Japan, was promoted to technical director. He led his team to develop a new hydraulic forming process that reduced the molding time of car doors by 40%.

At the board meeting in early summer, Chairman Liu Jianguo announced the launch of the "Double Million Project": to achieve an annual production capacity of one million vehicles and annual revenue of 10 billion yuan within five years.

To this end, the group has jointly established the "Xiaou Automotive Research Institute" with a renowned German design company, with Dr. Xie Xiaojuan serving as the director of the Digital R&D Center.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, An Qingshan looked at the towering cranes on the construction site and recalled the simple office he had in the motorcycle factory seven years ago, and couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions.

According to data from the marketing department, the "Warrior" series has topped the sales charts for domestically produced off-road vehicles for 18 consecutive months.

1998年5月28日至31日，“燕京”汽车公司成功举办了“98夏国第六届燕京轻型越野车大奖赛”。

Objectively speaking, although the understanding at the time was not that high, the rally did set a precedent for the promotion of Chinese automobile brands and boosted the sales of "Yanjing Automobile Industry Manufacturing Group". This rally was unforgettable.

Yanqi provided 30 Warrior off-road vehicles for the Grand Prix and was responsible for the maintenance of the participating vehicles.

These participating vehicles withstood the rigorous test of the rally, and the event was successfully held. More than 30 news media outlets, including Y TV, Xia Guo Sports News, and Xia Guo Auto News, reported on the competition. The feedback from all parties was very positive and the evaluation was very high, which greatly enhanced the external image of "Yanqi".

The drivers were very determined to compete at the time, and some of the young drivers who participated later became well-known drivers in the country.

In the summer of 1998, Yanjing Automobile Group ushered in a new development opportunity.

Following the success of the off-road vehicle grand prix, the group received a special order from J party – to develop military off-road vehicles adapted to the high-altitude environment for border troops.

Anqing Mountain immediately formed a special task force, led by Chen Daohua, to conduct on-site testing on the plateau.

Three months later, the improved "Iron Cavalry-2000" military off-road vehicle completed its extreme test at the Tanggula Pass at an altitude of 5000 meters.

This vehicle, equipped with a new turbocharged engine and cold-resistant materials, can still start normally in extremely cold environments of -40 degrees Celsius, and its outstanding performance has won high praise from military representatives.

The signing of the first order of 3000 vehicles marks Yanjing Automobile's official entry into the commercial vehicle market.

(End of this chapter)