Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

On a snowy winter day in 1965, the heavy wooden door to the office of the Minister of Heavy Industry was gently pushed open.

Zhao Lichun carried a freshly brewed cup of hot tea and walked in slowly, placing the teacup steadily on the mahogany tea table next to Lin Yang.

He didn't say much, but simply bowed slightly and prepared to leave to deal with the mountain of documents.

Lin Yang looked up at him, his gaze lingering for a moment on the cuffs of his faded old Zhongshan suit before returning to the Third Front construction plan map in front of him.

No one knew that in the instant this door opened and closed, Lin Yang's political empire quietly acquired its final, crucial piece.

The winter of 1965 passed quietly amidst the roaring sounds of heavy industrial bases across the country.

As the clarion call for the Third Front construction was fully sounded, Lin Yang, the newly appointed Minister of Heavy Industry, demonstrated an impressive iron fist and efficiency.

Under his strong promotion, heavy machinery plants in the mountains of Southwest China and special steel bases in the Gobi Desert of Northwest China sprang up on the originally barren land, and the first wisp of smoke rising from the chimneys became the most touching scenery of that era.

In this magnificent process, Zhao Lichun, who was originally an unknown selected graduate, was like a diamond that had been polished to its sharpness, and established himself in the General Office of the Ministry of Heavy Industry at an astonishing speed.

Zhao Lichun is indeed a born political talent. He is as meticulous as a Swiss watchmaker, and he leaves no room for error in his work.

Lin Yang often only needs to mention a general direction at a meeting, and he can come up with three complete implementation plans overnight. Each plan is precisely in line with the central government's policy spirit, while cleverly avoiding the interest entanglements of local factions. It clearly sorts out the issues that would have been dragged out for half a year, such as land acquisition, material allocation, and personnel resettlement.

On one occasion, local leaders in a southwestern province refused to cooperate with the land acquisition work for a special steel base under the pretext of "protecting arable land," and even secretly incited villagers to block roads.

Zhao Lichun personally made a trip to the southwest, without putting on airs as a minister's secretary. Instead, he visited villagers door-to-door and had heart-to-heart talks with local leaders for three days.

In the end, he not only successfully completed the land acquisition, but also helped the local area solve the irrigation problem that had plagued them for many years, winning over the local leaders who had initially been adamant in their stance.

In just over half a year, Zhao Lichun went from an ordinary clerk serving tea and water to "Secretary Zhao," a name known to everyone in the Ministry of Heavy Industry.

Even the directors in the ministry who were decades older than him would offer him a cigarette and politely address this young man in his twenties as "Secretary Zhao."

Many local leaders, when coming to Beijing on business, would first try to find Zhao Lichun through connections, just hoping to get a good word for him from Lin Yang.

But Zhao Lichun remained absolutely clear-headed. He knew better than anyone that the awe-inspiring power he held came entirely from the man in the office with eyes as sharp as knives.

Without Lin Yang's appreciation and protection, Zhao Lichun would be nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust in the treacherous city of Beijing.

Therefore, he showed an almost obsessive loyalty to Lin Yang.

He was always the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave. He remembered Lin Yang's eating, sleeping, and working habits perfectly.

He had considered the details that Lin Yang hadn't thought of;

Lin Yang had already made preparations for the things he had thought of.

However, the wheels of history never turn smoothly according to anyone's expectations.

It always turns abruptly at the most unexpected moment, stirring up a storm powerful enough to overturn everything.

Early summer, 1966.

A restless and frenzied atmosphere began to fill the air, like the muffled thunder before a storm.

The radio broadcasts grew louder and louder each day, and the headlines on the front pages of newspapers gradually shifted from "grasp revolution and promote production" to "take class struggle as the key link."

The bright red slogans that used to read "Go all out and strive for the top" on the walls of the streets and alleys were covered overnight by densely packed big-character posters. The papers with messy handwriting and strong words rustled in the hot summer wind, like countless roaring mouths.

A massive storm that swept across the country arrived without warning.

Social order is descending into chaos at a visible speed.

The factory, which used to be bustling day and night, began to shut down, and skilled technicians were forced off their workbenches and labeled as "reactionary technical authorities."

Students at the school put down their books and took to the streets carrying red flags;

Even the hutong aunties who usually only chat about daily necessities started muttering about "destroying the Four Olds" and "exiling the capitalist roaders."

Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill was naturally not spared from this storm either.

Although the factory director, Lin Fan, was keeping things under control, and production could barely be maintained, undercurrents were already surging beneath the surface.

A few usually idle and unruly troublemakers seized the opportunity to form a "revolutionary rebel team," and the most enthusiastic member of this team was none other than Liu Haizhong from No. 95 Nanluoguxiang.

This old worker, who was transferred from a level 7 worker position to a cleaning job in the logistics department due to his lack of technical skills and repeated mistakes, seemed to have found the ultimate value of his life in this storm.

He pulled out a dark blue Zhongshan suit that had been stored away in his home. It was faded from washing, and a red armband, bigger than the palm of his hand, was sewn onto his arm. The four characters "Rebellion is justified" were crookedly written on it in yellow paint.

Every day before dawn, he would carry a chipped enamel mug to the factory, gather a dozen or so idle men who also did no work, and patrol back and forth in the various workshops.

Seeing an old worker still engrossed in polishing parts, he would snatch the tools from him, point his finger at him, and curse him as an "old stubborn man who only pulls the cart with his head down and doesn't look up at the road."

If he saw a technician looking at blueprints, he would snatch them away and tear them to shreds, calling the technician a "stinking intellectual who worships foreign things."

As for Xu Damao, this projectionist with a belly full of bad intentions, he was even more at home.

He was naturally gifted at reading people and keenly sensed the change in the wind direction.

That night, he hid in his small house and stayed up all night writing more than a dozen anonymous letters of complaint.

The letter was full of slander, accusing Lin Fan of "attacking revolutionary masses," "protecting reactionary technical authorities," and "promoting a revisionist production line," and was secretly slipped into the mailbox of the city's Revolutionary Committee.

Even so, they dared not directly attack the Lin family.

Lin Yang's presence was like a mountain looming over their heads, making it hard for them to breathe.

They all knew in their hearts that as long as Lin Yang remained the Minister of Heavy Industry, they could never truly bring down Lin Fan.