My Lord, you need to stand up!

Has Chapter 445 stirred things up yet?

General Manager Collins was naturally in great pain.

It seemed like everything here was against him; even the cafeteria ladies dared to empty his ladle of food right in front of him!
But these confrontations are minor matters.

The key issue is that getting things started is extremely difficult: "Mr. Pete, as the vice president, what problems can you solve for me?"

For example, if someone says this, others will argue with him, saying, "Why should we work for you? We endured humiliation and hardship to deal with the American imperialists in order to build the automobile industry."

Without further ado, Wei Dong listened to the translation and leaned back in his chair with ease: "I can help you with anything that can help you carry out your work better. Let me put it this way, I suggest you go to the Shanghai Electronics Industrial Park. Apple has a joint venture factory under construction there, and you definitely won't be in your current situation."

Apple is awesome, but it wasn't awesome enough to make Citigroup tremble with fear.

Back in the 1980s, when Citibank's automotive industry still had some foundation, Collins's mood softened considerably when he heard the young man mention his relationship with his well-known domestic technology company for the second time: "Okay, the joint venture has been established for four years, and the factory has been in operation for a year. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is coming up soon. We agreed that the entire joint venture would be completely independent, but so far, the bathrooms, medical room, and canteen are shared. The two factories are not completely separated. I have made countless requests, but no one has paid any attention to me."

Wei Dong was asked to mentally recall the entire factory area's layout. He nodded and said, "I'll take care of it."

Collins clearly didn't have any hope when he said that, and he was even a little defiant, wanting to see what Collins would do.

The result was like punching thin air: "You...they all said this isn't important?"

Wei Dong understood perfectly: "How could it not be important? The most important thing in modern factory management is rules and regulations. If the factory area isn't even divided up, it's no wonder it won't be managed well. Okay, think about what else needs to be done, and we'll take it one step at a time and get this sorted out first."

He wasn't the kind of subordinate who was overly respectful to his superiors. He didn't collect any further feedback; he just wanted to get this done and keep the situation under control.

After leaving behind a business card from the sanitary napkin factory, Qin Yuye also left his contact number at the International Hotel. He then jumped up and came out, full of curiosity: "What are you going to do? Is this so difficult? He hasn't been able to get it done in four years."

Wu Xi was clearly someone who didn't understand foreign languages ​​either. He had been listening with great interest, but in the end, he got up, glanced at the foreigner, and followed him out.

Wei Dongzheng gave the Hong Kong girl some advice: "It's difficult for him, but very easy for us. And there are only three days left until the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Since all the leaders have come to see us today, we should deliberately make a big change in the next three days. That's the most important thing. We call it 'face-saving'."

Wu Xi scoffed, "It's just a superficial job, what's so difficult about that?"

General Wei Dong was immediately ordered: "Then you come and bring about a complete transformation, one that the leaders will remember vividly. Can you do it in three days?"

Wu Xi pondered for a moment: "Separating them is easy, just build a wall. But these guys are unruly and insist on coming and going, there's really nothing you can do. Is this a concession? Are Chinese and dogs not allowed in? Is this the kind of place you're talking about?"

So he chuckled and said, "I won't fall for that. You come here, I'll see. Do you want me to find you a squad of sentries to guard the gate? I can do that."

Wei Dong immediately retorted, "So some things still depend on ability!"

When they came out, they did indeed first ask Lao Geng to arrange for people to build a wall.

The Pingjing Automobile Manufacturing Plant, which originally had a total area of ​​about 70,000 square meters, allocated 40,000 square meters to the joint venture.

This was originally part of a joint venture with a total investment value of $50 million. You can't say that the Americans have paid $15 million in real money, delivered and installed the equipment, and yet you're still leaving the land plot unclear and undefined.

It doesn't make sense logically.

Thus, the huge factory area was divided along the lines, and even with the help of building factories, the wall was more than 300 meters long.

The workload is considerable.

It's almost dark now, and we only have three days, which is very tight.

Fortunately, all the construction workers had been called over in preparation for the building renovation, and nearly twenty people immediately rolled up their sleeves and were assigned tasks.

Then Wei Dong turned the wall to face the street and gestured to Lao Geng: "Open it up and build a new factory gate."

Wu Xi teased from the side, "You're really cunning. You opened the door from a different direction, creating a barrier so people would have to walk a long way to avoid coming in?"

Orders were relayed like a flowing stream, and even Qin Yuye had work to do. Old Cheng, along with a few people, served as the deputy general manager's temporary secretariat, contacting all departments in the factory to streamline the production structure.

Wei Dongcai and Wu Xi drove his Cherokee back to the sanitary napkin factory: "Separate them? You underestimate me. I want them all to see the advanced nature of capitalism."

Wu Xi was immediately speechless.

As a result, Wei Dong was brought back to meet with his computer experts and hold a meeting around the only remaining computer. Only then did Shen Cuiyue follow the instructions and find people from various universities to listen to her orders.

The distinctive feature of Dongsheng Trading's sales team is that it is comprised primarily of college students.

People from all kinds of schools and colleges are present, including graduates who have started working, part-time workers, and students.

They were enjoying a Western meal at a restaurant last night, and they're already ready to go to the front lines today. Of course, they'll be forming groups and rushing to sign up.

Because they knew the boss would definitely reward those who had contributed.

As Wu Xi once said, peacetime is the most frustrating time for those who want to become generals.

Regardless of one's major, only when there is an opportunity like this "battle" can one have the space to perform and showcase oneself.

Even if civil engineering can't directly involve building and constructing walls, they can immediately contact construction companies in Beijing and find their senior classmates to connect with relevant organizations.

As for electronics majors, upon hearing that they could be of use, they immediately gathered around with soldering irons and other electronic devices.

Wu Xi fell silent, because she could clearly hear various details about the technology.

It was a line of thinking he had never considered, and what surprised Wei Dong even more was that it seemed as if he had unlocked a whole new world of technology.
I secretly took photos on the side and didn't leave even at night.

More than 400 people had arrived overnight to help.

They've been seen in everything from sanitary napkin factories to car factories.

The civil engineers worked with the infrastructure soldiers for most of the night, finalizing various on-site surveys and construction details.

All the senior members of the electronics major and several top researchers from the research institute held a meeting to develop a solution, making other majors extremely envious.

Those watching the spectacle were eager to join in.

As soon as it was light, someone drove Wei Dong's Cherokee, the 212 assigned to this area, and vans to take people out to purchase parts and run errands.

Wei Dong only got a short nap in the early morning, and then he was back to his energetic self, receiving the construction team members who came one after another.

With Lao Geng's help, two construction companies were quickly finalized. They started by assembling teams to build brick walls, which served as a test to assess the quality of the other companies. Meanwhile, geological surveys and construction site fencing were also underway for the commercial and residential building across the street.

By noon, construction teams had already started arriving with their equipment, hauling bricks and mortar, to begin work.

The construction workers skillfully took on the role of project managers for their respective sections. By nightfall, they were working late into the night.

Many college students rolled up their sleeves and joined the construction soldiers in laying bricks and mortar.

Pingqi has a total of 12,000 employees, and together with 4,000 employees from the joint venture plant, they stared in disbelief as the dividing line clearly appeared in the factory area.

Some people started crying and making a fuss, saying that this meant they wanted to split up the family, to undergo a transformation, or to abandon capitalism.

There must have been people making phone calls everywhere to complain.

But most of the time they just watched silently, seemingly gathering their strength.

Old Cheng started taking the key personnel and factory leaders of Xishan Factory to access all the labor and wage data of the joint venture factory.

More than 4,230 people, including foreign managers and technical experts, are all on the register.

On the second day of construction, to Wu Xi's and everyone else's surprise, a gap several meters wide was left in the wall inside the branch automobile factory, and together with the gate that had been torn open on the other side, a beautiful facade design began to be created.

Apart from the gate design, the rest of the factory area was quickly painted and cleaned.

At the same time, a "restaurant" in the form of a makeshift shed was set up.

Now even foreigners are starting to watch.

Because among these construction "workers," some of them were able to explain to them in fluent English what they were doing.

College students love chatting in English, especially students from the north who absolutely won't let their words fall flat: "It's alright, this is supposed to be a high-tech cafeteria, let's just set it up as a model and gradually improve it..."

The workers on both sides of the factory area fell even more silent.

It is said that some people originally conspired to tear down the wall, and absolutely refused to allow such a complete division inside the Pyeongkyung Automobile Factory.

But now that there's a door, it seems unnecessary to push down the wall, doesn't it?

Moreover, there was no fence installed on the gate, nor were there any latches on the gateposts to hang the large iron gate.

The atmosphere that had been building up was somewhat dissipated.

But it wasn't until the last day that everyone truly witnessed the extent of technological sophistication.

Five thousand sets of denim work clothes were transported from Jiangzhou by train, along with five computers.

Following this, more than 4,000 magnetic stripe cards were distributed to each employee of the joint venture factory along with their work uniforms.

Anyone who used a bank passbook from the 1990s knows that those paper cards had a dark brown magnetic strip at the bottom.

Unlike later IC cards, these magnetic stripes did not have recharge or retrieval recording functions, but they were the latest identity verification methods available in China in the 1980s.

Shen Cuiyue's food street inspired Wei Dong, and he is now pushing forward with the research and development of this thing.

It's technically possible, but it's impossible to make something as small as a card reader.

A computer must be connected to the back, and one computer is required for each type.

Now is the perfect time to do superficial projects.

In the past two or three days, students majoring in electronics have been working with experts from the research institute to build six turnstiles by hand!

There was one machine at the main gate, but actually five machines were installed facing the back gate of the old factory area.

Because this side connects to the dormitory area.

The clothes were distributed for testing right by the back door.

These workwear-style stonewashed blue denim jackets and pants are already a very mature product of the Colorful Jeans Factory.

The dark blue fabric is paired with gold double stitching, and there is a large "JEEP" logo on the back.

The logo for "Pingjing Jeep" is in small print on the chest.

Then, each set of clothes has a framed card pocket on the right wrist, into which each employee's identification magnetic strip is inserted, without affecting work under normal circumstances.

Simply raise your hand and touch the contact card reader, and the door bar, which is as wide as a person, will snap up.

The key point is that this thing can also be used for eating in the cafeteria and taking a shower in the bathhouse.

Taking a shower is simple, since it's free; just scan a QR code and the elderly folks will let you in.

The cafeteria staff swipe their fingers at different set meal counters, take away the pre-served small bowl of set meal, and the back-end computer deducts the corresponding amount from the "account" associated with the magnetic strip.

It's not easy to make small LCD single displays now, so let's implement voice-activated price reading.

Originally, Wang Zhiwen was called in to record the electronic voice, but his irresistibly magnetic voice met the magnetic barcode recognition: "Balance is sixteen yuan and eighty cents..."

The deep, heavy smell almost made everyone watching burst out laughing.

In the end, Yu Xiaoqiu's sweet female voice was chosen.

With this thing, the joint venture factory could legitimately give all employees a meal allowance of 20 yuan per month.

In 1985, when the average monthly salary in mainland China was fifty or sixty, this was a considerable subsidy.

A meal at the canteen costs only a few cents, but it can last for almost half a month.

If you don't finish your food by the end of the month, you can redeem it for soft drinks, cakes, or SOD cream at the cafeteria's convenience store.

This may have been what ignited the complex emotions within the car manufacturer. Even though the ribbon-cutting and production line-rolling ceremony was scheduled for National Day the very next day, thousands of people quickly gathered at the back gate in the afternoon.

Upon hearing the news, Wei Dong was instructed to immediately lead his men to meet them!

Afraid of a hammer!

(End of this chapter)