The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 23 First Delivery
The Jiefang truck cannot compare with the Yellow River heavy truck in terms of model or load capacity, but this is normal. If it could be compared, there would be no need to design and produce the Yellow River heavy truck.

Although the Yellow River heavy truck surpasses the Jiefang truck in various performances, it has one disadvantage: the cars these days do not have power steering pumps, so the bigger the car, the harder it is to turn.

So the salary of drivers of Yellow River and Jiefang cars may be the same, but the extra food allowances are different. Drivers of Jiefang cars have a monthly ration of 36 kilograms, while drivers of Yellow River cars have a monthly ration of 40 kilograms. In this era, drivers have to do both technical and physical work.

Jiang Cheng used the car key to open the car door, and then found the engine key on the seat, which was the real key of the car, a Z-shaped hand crank key. The key that Stationmaster Xu gave Jiang Cheng was only the car door key, and cars in this era still rely on hand crank keys to start.

The parking lot of the transport station was large enough, so Jiang Cheng started the car and drove around the parking lot twice. It must be said that cars are difficult to drive these days. Even though there was no cargo loaded, it was quite strenuous to turn the steering wheel.

Jiang Cheng thought that this car would be used for at least six or seven years after the opening up of the country. He planned to make some simple modifications to the Yellow River car in the future. He would not only make a hydraulic power steering pump, but also a mechanical one.

But now Jiang Cheng had to drive, and during the test drive, Section Chief Zhao and the people from the logistics department came over with work clothes and gloves. They brought several sets of clothes of different sizes for Jiang Cheng to try, and kept two sets of clothes that he thought fit him well.

Jiang Cheng tried on his clothes, put on his gloves and set off directly. His first stop was the machinery factory. Although he was not familiar with the road, he just needed to know the general direction and ask more questions along the way.

Even in the city, there weren't many particularly smooth roads these days, but it was still much easier to drive than in later times. There were no obstacles, few cars on the main roads, no traffic lights, and no need to stop for pedestrians. Just honked the horn and pedestrians would give way to cars. Plus, there weren't that many intersections now, so Jiang Cheng didn't waste much time on the road and arrived at the entrance of the machinery factory.

"Master, are you here to pick up goods from our factory?"

"Yes, this is the shipping order, please check it."

"Master, please smoke. I'll go open the door and have someone notify them."

The car was parked at the gate of the machinery factory without shutting off the engine. It would be too troublesome to restart it if it was shut off. Before Jiang Cheng got out of the car, the factory guard came out, jogging over. He spoke to Jiang Cheng very politely, and after confirming that he was here to help deliver goods, he immediately took out a cigarette from his pocket and gave it to Jiang Cheng.

You have to know that the security guards in factories and units are the ones who smoke other people's cigarettes, but if they dare to neglect the drivers who are transporting goods, or if the drivers trip up the deliverymen, you will be in trouble.

The gate of the machinery factory was quickly opened. Jiang Cheng drove the car into the factory without turning off the engine. He parked the car on the avenue inside the factory and smoked a cigarette.

Anyway, the diesel burned is reimbursed. Jiang Cheng thought about the time when he was driving Didi, sometimes he was reluctant to turn on the air conditioner to save fuel. Now it's free, so he can do whatever he wants.

Not long after, two people came out of the machinery factory's office building and trotted to the car door.

"Master, you are finally here. Thank you for your hard work. Have a smoke."

"It's not hard work, it's serving the people." The man who handed Jiang Cheng the cigarettes was a gentle man in a white shirt, who looked like he was not an ordinary worker. And what he handed to Jiang Cheng were not loose cigarettes, but two packs of cigarettes, and there seemed to be two tickets stuck in the cigarettes.

Even though it was his first time delivering goods, Jiang Cheng was not polite at all and accepted what he should accept. He did not expect to make money so quickly on his first delivery. Two packs of Hongmei cigarettes. Jiang Cheng did not know the price of cigarettes in this era, and he did not look at the receipt carefully, and put the money into his pocket first.

This is a case of giving something back and being soft-hearted. The cigarettes and tickets are not given for nothing. It is not the first time that the factory has invited drivers to deliver goods. It is okay not to bribe a good-talking driver. If you don't give me some courtesy, I will give you some courtesy. I will deliberately park the car far away from the goods to be delivered, so that you can call someone to carry them to the car. Not only does it waste time, but it is also very tiring.

Jiang Cheng took the cigarette and drove wherever the driver told him to park. After he parked, the driver immediately handed Jiang Cheng another cigarette to thank him.

No wonder people say that drivers never lack cigarettes. During this short period of time, Jiang Chengyan never stopped smoking.

Moreover, Jiang Cheng didn't have to worry about moving the goods. He could just lie in the car or sit in the factory's reception lounge for a while. People in the factory would never let the driver move things.

More than half an hour later, all the equipment to be transported to Macheng was loaded onto the truck. Then three people from the machinery factory were going to take the truck together, so Jiang Cheng opened the door and let the three people get on.

It was good to have someone to go with the car, at least there was no need to ask for directions to Macheng, as someone knew the way. Jiang Cheng set off with three people and a car of goods. After loading the goods, the car's steering wheel was obviously a little more difficult, but it was nothing for the strong Jiang Cheng.

You don't have to exercise deliberately. Given the intensity of driving, you can still build up a body of muscles without exercising.

The car quickly drove out of Changcheng city, and the distance to Macheng was only about 150 kilometers. If it were in the future, it would take at most two hours to get there on the highway. But the fastest speed of the Yellow River truck was only 60 to 70 miles per hour, and the road was not cemented. After a distance out of the city, the road was not so good.

A 150-kilometer road would take at least a whole morning to reach. After driving for half a day, Jiang Cheng found that the road to Macheng was easy to remember. After all, it was a road between urban areas, with only one or two forks and road signs.

After driving for about three hours, we arrived at Macheng at noon. Jiang Cheng sweated a lot, not because he was tired, but because of the hot weather. The hot weather plus the effort of driving made it easy to sweat. There was no air conditioning in the car, and it would be uncomfortable if it got any hotter.

This time I came to Macheng to deliver some production machine parts to a glass factory. It is now the 1970s and the demand for glass is gradually increasing. In terms of civil use, people used to use window paper for windows, but now they use bright glass.

The car drove directly to the glass factory, and then we got off to eat. The people who came with the car were all equipment installation technicians, and the glass factory had to entertain them. Jiang Cheng, the driver, was even better. Even if the people at the glass factory didn't entertain Jiang Cheng, the comrades who came with the car had to be entertained.

When Jiang Cheng drove to the machinery factory to install equipment in the morning, the machinery factory notified the glass factory and arranged for a truck to deliver the equipment, so the glass factory had already prepared a reception dinner.

There were four dishes and one soup, both meat and vegetables. Before the meal, the people from the glass factory gave everyone a pack of cigarettes, and there was also a bottle of wine on the table. The cigarettes were from the Swimming brand. Jiang Cheng really didn't know much about cigarettes of this era, but the cigarettes used by the factory to entertain people were at least not too bad.

(End of this chapter)