Chapter 18

Luo Liko had not meddled in the specific personnel appointments at Factory 501 for a long time. At 55 years old, he was almost in a state of retirement.

People could understand him; this old man had dedicated his entire life to the new China and Factory 501, and it was time for him to rest.

However, a leader who rarely expressed opinions, when he did, would be taken seriously by people. If Hu Jiefang had issued such an order, Hong Yijue, as a department-level cadre, would have struggled, but with Luo Liko stepping in, he had no power to resist.

The Technical Department of Factory 501 was smoothly placed under Hu Wenhai's command. The department consisted of 15 people, with an average age of 33. Ten had completed junior high school, and five had completed high school.

If this were placed 20 years later, how could one believe this was the technical department of a large factory with over a thousand employees?

But this situation was not unexpected. The main business of Factory 501 was precision machining. Although it was said this way, the business content had remained almost unchanged for a decade. The Technical Department did not need any innovative capabilities; it only needed to find the technical documents from the past after the superiors issued requirements and then pass them on to the workshop.

Of course, this situation did not form overnight. The attitude of the superiors towards Factory 501 changed gradually from reliance to despair. At first, some technical tasks were still assigned to Factory 501, but after failing to complete them multiple times, the superiors naturally removed the factory from their list.

Hu Jiefang cannot be said to be without responsibility, but he had only been in office for one or two years. The main issue was with the previous factory manager. Specifically, it couldn't be said, but in the 1970s, Luo Liko had to step aside for a long time, and a large number of engineering personnel without technical capabilities came into the factory, leading to a significant decline in technical skills.

To be honest, for Factory 501 to maintain its current technical level was already a blessing, and it could only be said that the foundation was indeed deep.

Luo Liko immediately expelled Hong Yijue and personally appointed Hu Wenhai as the leader of the technical task force. Hu Wenhai did not hesitate and pulled out a stack of A4 papers from his green military bag.

"In order to have an accurate understanding of everyone's abilities, please complete this test."

Hu Wenhai shook the test papers, and everyone in the Technical Department changed their expressions.

With Hong Yijue out of the way, the group below was indeed more obedient. Even though they cursed Hu Wenhai in their hearts, they still had to sit down and take the test.

The exam process was harmonious. Hu Wenhai did not prohibit them from looking up information or checking data; they just couldn't openly whisper to each other. The knowledge on the test was not difficult, just some basic circuit and machining knowledge, with a few questions on analog signal processing in the optional section.

Fortunately, as the saying goes, "If you read three hundred Tang poems, you can recite even if you can't write." These technical department staff, relying on open-book exams and mutual discussions, spent nearly an hour to complete the test.

After collecting the tests, Hu Wenhai glanced at a few and then handed them to Luo Liko with a slight shake of his head.

Seeing Hu Wenhai's expression, Luo Liko's face darkened. Although he trusted Hu Wenhai's judgment, he still took the tests and carefully examined each one.

After a while, Luo Liko placed the tests back on the table and sighed deeply, "Negligence, it is my negligence as the secretary."

The secretary was responsible for personnel, and Luo Liko was not taking responsibility for himself, but he truly felt that his years of inaction had caused immeasurable damage to Factory 501.

Among the 15 people present, half did not even score 60 points, and some had scores in the single digits—meaning they had not even copied correctly. This was truly disheartening.

However, the Technical Department still had a few good seeds. Among those who scored over 60, five or six had joined the factory before 1965, and then there were the two who scored full marks, both of whom had just started working for one or two years and were in their early twenties, high school graduates. Most impressively, one of them actually answered one of the analog signal processing questions.

Not all was lost, and this made Luo Liko's face a bit more pleasant.

"Who is Shen Qianzhe?" Luo Liko pulled out a test and asked the people in the Technical Department.

"Secretary Luo, I am Shen Qianzhe," a girl with twin ponytails, big eyes, and a small nose timidly stood up from the crowd.

"Do you have knowledge of analog signals?" Luo Liko looked her up and down, satisfied with her response.

Shen Qianzhe nodded, and speaking about this topic seemed to give her some confidence. She straightened her back and said, "I have learned a bit about electrical repairs, and the Electrical Repair Magazine mentioned this issue."

Hu Wenhai suddenly interjected, "Then tell me, what is the typical bandwidth of an analog video channel?"

"6 to 8 MHz," Shen Qianzhe hesitated but quickly answered.

"What is the difference in refresh rates between interlaced and progressive scanning?"

...

Shen Qianzhe was taken aback, bit her lip, thought for a moment, and then firmly said, "There is no difference."

Hu Wenhai smiled and nodded slightly to Luo Liko. Luo Liko then breathed a sigh of relief. Shen Qianzhe's appearance was not just a personal highlight but also a sign that the country's technical talent cultivation system had emerged from the chaotic era and was beginning to supply truly capable people.

"Alright, come in," Luo Liko placed Shen Qianzhe's test back on the table and called out to the door.

"Wow, impressive! I've always heard you talk about your talented grandson, and today I see he lives up to the name!"

"Secretary Luo, Chief Hu, I'm coming in!"

"Well, in critical moments, we have to step up!"

"Exactly, exactly!"

As they spoke, four or five old men, as gray-haired as Luo Liko, or even more so, suddenly walked in from outside. Some wore的确良shirts, others wore old green military uniforms. Their appearance and attire confirmed that they were certainly not young.

"Grandson, come here, let me introduce you," Hu Shiwu smiled, showing his back teeth, "This is your Grandpa Li, Grandpa Bai, Grandpa Liu..."

"Don't look at them, they're almost in their graves, but they're still sharp. They were my old comrades-in-arms who fought with me! They were supposed to be enjoying their retirement, but they can still contribute. See what they can do and assign them some tasks!"

Although Hu Shiwu said this, Hu Wenhai's eyes lit up. These old men, whom he had only heard of but never met, were the ones who had accumulated the vast technical resources of Factory 501. Where did the decades of technical accumulation come from? It was all built by these people!

If Factory 501 could produce a national treasure like Hu Shiwu, an eighth-level worker, then his old comrades must be equally capable.

"Hello, grandpas, my name is Hu Wenhai. I didn't expect my small matter to disturb your peaceful lives..."

"Hey, don't talk about peaceful lives. We may be retired, but we can't just watch Factory 501 fall. This factory is our lifeline!"

"Right, to be honest, Factory 501 is like my son, my own son!"

"Well, no matter what, we have to give it our last effort. Comrade Hu, tell us, what can we do? Even if it's just helping out or sweeping the floor, our bodies are still strong!"

...

At this moment, Hu Wenhai really didn't know what expression to have. He really wanted to bring the workers of Factory 501 to see how these retired old men were still dedicated to the factory.

In them, the phrase "advanced nature of the working class" was truly embodied. They should show the current workers, who often skip work, slack off, or even commit crimes, how they have enjoyed their good lives for decades.

After the reform and opening up, the fate of state-owned enterprise workers was tragic. Honestly, how much of it was due to their own actions? Even if the laid-off workers in the 1980s and 1990s were miserable, were they more miserable than the farmers who had their cattle and pigs seized by the debt collection teams?

It was simply because they thought everything was taken care of by the state, so they acted recklessly on the credit of past achievements. In the end, they exhausted the resources of their predecessors and the confidence of everyone in state-owned enterprises, leading to a major collapse.

The Americans said China was moving from one collapse to another, and this was not entirely wrong. Looking at the history of China after the reform and opening up, all social classes were acting recklessly. Then came the collapse, restructuring, reform, and evolution. This was true for state-owned enterprise workers, future fake goods merchants in Wenzhou, the Chinese securities market, and the dual-track system for prices and production materials.

These intense social upheavals, if they occurred in other countries, would certainly lead to the collapse of society. For example, the price breakthrough in 1988, due to the comprehensive liberalization of prices, quickly led to a nationwide loss of control. Prices soared like a runaway horse, and crosstalk actor Jiang Kun even created a skit to describe the panic buying: buying a bathtub full of vinegar, two water tanks of soy sauce, five thermoses of bean oil, and six drawers of monosodium glutamate...

However, after each collapse, the Chinese people ultimately stood on the world's second-highest peak. If one were to find a reason, it could be summed up in four words: "Old soldiers never die." The spirit of struggle passed down by these old men, and their belief that China would rise again, made the Chinese people stand up time and time again.