Courtyard House: I'm an engineer, and a fairy godmother transferred me to a different position.

At this moment, Wang Jianguo was immersed in a pleasant, spring-like mood. He leaned back in his large office chair, one hand holding an enamel mug with a red star on it, while the other hand casually twirled the edge of a stack of papers. He hummed intermittent lines of opera, the tune slightly erratic, but unable to conceal the heartfelt contentment. The stack of papers was not an ordinary production report, but foreign exchange order vouchers stamped with the bright red seals of both the foreign trade department and the neighboring northern country.

Since the establishment of Hongxing Chuanghui Machinery Factory, the factory has never had a moment's rest, with orders already booked until the end of the year. Now that the new workshop specializing in CNC machine tools has successfully started production, his position as the deputy factory director in charge of production has risen even higher. No wonder, now even various ministries are lining up to pick up their goods. Whether he goes to the foreign trade department or the Ministry of Machine Building, he is always greeted with warm smiles, making him feel that his spine is straighter than ever before.

"Knock, knock."

Two light knocks interrupted his humming. Looking up and seeing Liu Guangqi enter, Wang Jianguo sprang to his feet as if springy, his face instantly breaking into a warm smile that seemed to dispel the chill outside: "You've finally shown up! Come on, sit here!"

While busy pouring water for Liu Guangqi, he couldn't wait to ask, "Have you finished preparing the foreign exchange version of the CNC drawings for them?"

"Hmm." Liu Guangqi responded with a calm smile, handing over a stack of blueprints. "This is a version specially prepared for export."

Wang Jianguo took it, quickly glanced at it, then pulled out the original complete design drawings, compared the two, and examined them carefully. His brows gradually furrowed, forming a deep frown: "This... I look at the general structure and function, and it seems almost identical to the original version we're using? Will this work?"

Liu Guangqi chuckled and pointed to a mark on the hydraulic system on the blueprint: "Look here, this sealing ring. Once they disassemble it and try to put it back together, the tolerances can't be restored, causing the machine tool to intermittently jam." His finger moved to another circuit node, "And here, if the wiring is disassembled, restoring the original connection won't be so simple. Also, here..."

As Liu Guangqi calmly and deliberately guided him, Wang Jianguo's eyes gradually lit up, a knowing, sly smile spreading across his face: "Brilliant! This 'tit-for-tat' approach is absolutely brilliant! It's time they tasted firsthand what it's like to be hampered by technology." The more he thought about it, the more pleased he felt, his voice filled with barely suppressed glee. "Thinking back to the old days, when did they ever provide us with technical support? It was always incomplete, always holding back. Now, it's perfectly reasonable for us to keep this up!"

Liu Guangqi nodded with a smile, adding, "Moreover, the facts are entirely on our side. The delivered finished machine tools are in perfect condition and meet the contract specifications 100%. All these 'little surprises' will only become apparent when they can't resist taking them apart themselves. At that point, the repair costs and conditions will be determined by us."

Their eyes met, and they smiled knowingly, as if they had returned to the days when they worked side by side in the Ministry of Machine Building. The tacit understanding that needed no words flowed out naturally.

"Hahaha!" Wang Jianguo pointed at Liu Guangqi, laughing so hard he bent back. "Do you know what I admire most about you? It's that you always seem to come up with seemingly ordinary but actually brilliant 'ideas'!"

After laughing for a while, Wang Jianguo suddenly leaned closer, lowered his voice, and asked with a hint of mystery, "Guangqi, you should have heard about the merger by now, right? It's about our factory merging with the Third Electrical Factory."

Because of their close relationship, Wang Jianguo addressed Liu Guangqi more casually and intimately in private.

Liu Guangqi sat down naturally in the chair opposite Wang Jianguo, picked up the cup of freshly poured hot water on the table, gently blew away the steam rising from the surface, lowered his eyelids slightly, and said in a flat tone: "I have heard some things. But this matter is probably something even the head chefs serving food in the ministry's canteen can talk about now."

"Hey!" Wang Jianguo pursed his lips, then couldn't help but chuckle. "Those people's mouths are never shut up, they can't keep any information to themselves!" Although he said that, he couldn't hide the excitement on his face.

"But it's good that it's leaked out, anyway, what's done is done, it's a done deal!" His tone was filled with a triumphant satisfaction, and he continued, "The two ministries above us have already officially stamped the seals, approving our factory to start the merger. The first merger target is the Third Electrical Factory under the Ministry of Light Industry."

Liu Guangqi was already fully aware of this matter. The Third Electrical Factory, in terms of administrative level, was the same as the Red Star Factory, a unit at the division level.

They lived under the same roof, yet their fates were worlds apart.

With Liu Guangqi's unwavering support, Hongxing Factory was practically a pampered child, nurtured in the palm of his hand. From the very beginning of its establishment, it received the green light all the way, with abundant resources and channels at its disposal. Its foreign trade department had direct access to the Canton Fair, ensuring a constant stream of foreign exchange orders and a constant stream of new products generating foreign exchange. In just over a year since its establishment, Hongxing Factory's annual output value had already surpassed 100 million yuan. What does this mean? Consider a provincial-level steel rolling mill; even with tens of thousands of employees working hard for a year, its output value barely reaches that figure. Hongxing Factory, merely a department-level enterprise with limited personnel, has unleashed such astonishing energy; its future is self-evident.

Looking at the Third Electrical Factory, it was like a discarded pawn in the eyes of the Ministry of Light Industry, ignored and struggling to make ends meet. The root of the problem lay in its "backwardness"—the machines in the workshop were old and dilapidated, some even older than the factory's veteran workers, clattering and breaking down frequently as soon as they started, naturally resulting in low output. Without output, it lost its voice in the entire industrial system. When the Red Star Factory was selecting partners, countless manufacturers were scrambling to get a piece of the pie, but the Third Electrical Factory didn't even make the preliminary selection. How many production quotas could the higher authorities allocate to a factory that had neither technology nor production capacity? In those years when planned economy reigned supreme, without quotas, even the greatest abilities were useless.

Falling behind at one step leads to further difficulties. Having missed the opportunity to become a cooperating unit, they also missed out on the first batch of CNC machine tool quotas. As time went on, they fell into a vicious cycle. Now, the Third Electrical Factory is barely able to maintain operations, and with the three years of hardship upon them, they are almost unable to pay the wages of their more than three thousand workers. Meanwhile, at the Red Star Factory, foreign exchange orders are piling up, and Deputy Factory Director Wang Jianguo is even smiling in his dreams; production plans are already scheduled until next spring. With one side starving and the other bloated with unfulfilled desires, any clear-headed leader would know what to do if this situation were reported—merger is the only and inevitable solution.

During the conversation, Wang Jianguo slammed two documents on the table, pointing sharply at one of them: "Guangqi, look at this! The Third Electrical Appliance Factory under the Ministry of Light Industry had a total output value of less than 1.5 million last year!" He couldn't contain his excitement as he unfolded another report: "And look at our factory, our orders are booked until the second half of next year. The machine tools are running 24/7, and we still can't finish them all!"

Liu Guangqi remained silent, placing the two reports side by side in front of him. Both were at the division-level, with similar salaries and ranks, yet the numbers on the paper were worlds apart. His gaze then fell on the end of the equipment list for the Third Electrical Factory, his fingertips lightly tapping on those lines—interesting, the list included over twenty idle ordinary punch presses. In the Third Electrical Factory's eyes, these were nothing more than old, unused iron occupying space, but for the Red Star Factory, with just a little technical modification and reorganization, they could be put back into operation without any burden.

"Don't get too excited," Liu Guangqi said with a slight smile. "This is in line with the higher-ups' policy of integrating resources according to economic principles." He understood what this merger of Hongxing Factory meant—it was a crucial leap towards becoming a department-level unit, like a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate. Once that threshold was crossed, Hongxing Factory would no longer be confined to its current position. In this era where planning governs everything, being able to break through from numerous department-level factories in just one year meant that its future path would only become wider and wider.

Hongxing Machinery Factory is destined to become a key project in the plans of the two ministries, enjoying preferential resources and policy support.

As the factory continued to expand and the number of employees grew, it was only a matter of time before it came under the direct jurisdiction of a ministry. Everyone understood that the foreign exchange earnings of this factory were too dazzling in the eyes of the higher-ups.

"Guangqi, the ministry leaders have another intention!"

Seeing that Liu Guangqi's expression relaxed, Wang Jianguo lowered his voice and leaned forward, as if to reveal some major secret:

"The leadership has stated that as long as the annual output value of the two factories exceeds 200 million yuan after the merger, they will grant special approval for our Hongxing factory to continue absorbing new factories..."

As he said this, he couldn't help but grin:

"This is practically a golden opportunity for our factory to leap to the top!"

Wang Jianguo's gaze shifted back and forth between the blueprints on the table and Liu Guangqi, his eyes filled with eagerness.

"Guangqi, you'd better work harder. Whether I can reach the deputy director-general level position, my future depends on you!"

This was half a joke, half the truth. Wang Jianguo knew that with his own ability to manage production, he could at most become the deputy director of a division-level factory. Only by closely following Liu Guangqi's lead could he possibly lead Hongxing Chuanghui Machinery Factory through mergers and acquisitions, eventually elevating it to the level of a provincial-level unit.

Liu Guangqi was amused by his words but did not say anything more.

Each of the two factories had one or two thousand employees. After the merger, not only would management become more difficult, but the personnel hierarchy would also become more complex. Even the integration between departments at the division level is fraught with intricacies. Therefore, even with official documents pushing for it, the merger would not be a matter of a day or two.

Who should lead, who should cooperate, and how should positions be arranged—these are all thorny issues. Although the two division-level factories need to be merged, time is also needed to coordinate the leadership teams.

Of course, while the Third Electrical Appliance Factory has a long-established reputation and a large workforce, the Red Star Factory has greater potential, a steady stream of orders, and leading technology—this is its true competitive advantage. After the merger, it's highly likely that control will fall into the hands of the Red Star Chuanghui Machinery Factory, while the Electrical Appliance Factory will gradually integrate. In other words, the core decision-making team of the new factory will remain largely unchanged, and Wang Jianguo, who is in charge of production, will retain his position as deputy factory director. Other details will require further negotiation between the two parties.

However, these trivial matters had no direct connection to Liu Guangqi. Although he held the title of Chief Engineer of the Hongxing Factory, his focus had long been on work at the ministerial level. Not long after, Liu Guangqi got up to leave, but before leaving, he gave Wang Jianguo a few hints: if the merger were to actually happen one day, he would support his old leader. After all, their cooperation had been quite smooth; Wang Jianguo had fully cooperated with his decisions and never procrastinated, making him a truly capable partner. If asked about the candidates for the new factory's leadership, Liu Guangqi's first choice would naturally be the familiar Wang Jianguo.

Leaving the Hongxing factory, Liu Guangqi went straight to the back seat of the Volga sedan. The factory buildings and crowds outside the window rushed past, and the merger issues that had been lingering in his ears were instantly forgotten.

Those personnel changes were merely trivial matters; his gaze had already been set on something much more distant.

Liu Guangqi looked away and tapped his fingertips lightly on a sketch on his lap.

The paper was covered with extremely complex mechanical structures, with intersecting lines and dense markings, which looked like a foreign language to the untrained eye.

Five-axis linkage heavy-duty machining center - this is the key weapon that can rewrite the entire national industrial landscape.

"The pace needs to be accelerated."

He muttered to himself, his eyes sharp as blades.

"The first prototype must be put into production by the third quarter of this year at the latest."

Once this equipment is available, all the challenges of machining high-precision, complex curved parts, from aircraft engine blades to submarine propellers, will be solved.

The heatwave of June swept across the land, but inside the steel rolling mill, a production frenzy even more intense than the summer heat was raging.

The calendar quietly turned to the end of the month.

The workshop echoed with the resounding clang of metal striking metal, the rhythm more rapid than ever before. The technologically upgraded production line operated day and night, rapidly shaping red-hot steel billets into uniformly sized parts under the precise control of the CNC system. Facts speak louder than words—the machine tools modified by Liu Guangqi seemed to have been given a new life, working continuously with astonishing efficiency.

Production capacity records are being broken continuously.