Chapter 55

Lin Qiangsheng looked at the newly constructed factory building, feeling extremely pleased. The soldiers worked so quickly; with their help, this small factory building, over a hundred square meters in size, was erected in just over twenty days.

The original factory workers were left aside, and Lin Qiangsheng paid no attention to them, showing great enthusiasm for the soldiers. For a factory manager, when they cannot fire employees they dislike, they often ignore them, treating them as if they do not exist, excluding them from all activities.

Train them? Teach them how to obey collective labor? Don't be ridiculous!

Factory managers don't have the energy for that. There are plenty of people who can work, and qualified workers will naturally emerge. The factory needs employees who are self-motivated and capable of self-learning.

Lin Qiangsheng used this method to evaluate the workers who had been eliminated from the factory, to see how many of them were still useful.

Lu Guangming, Xu Ke, and others formed their own small groups. Some of the original workshop workers joined them, but most of them gathered based on their shared youth labor points and adjacent regions.

Urban residents and urban youth gathered together, rural residents and rural youth gathered together, and they were further divided by region, age, and gender. Of course, some female workers also grouped together with male workers.

Among the female workers, there were also those who were mischievous, liked to chat, and often talked back to the workshop supervisors. Lin Qiangsheng treated them the same as the male workers, excluding them from the group.

Such workers were quite common in those days. Most of them were rural youth who had returned to the city. Their living environment in the countryside had shaped their rough and capricious personalities. Some of them, upon returning to the city to work, found it hard to adapt to their roles as workers and developed rebellious attitudes.

Among both male and female workers, there were also those who did not fit in. These people either had personality flaws or were unwilling to join the group.

Lin Qiangsheng silently observed, noting who was quietly working and who was still fooling around and chatting. Gradually, a list formed in his mind.

The factory building was taking shape, and Gao Jun led the army's vehicle company to bring over more than a hundred jeeps and a variety of other vehicles. In the end, they even used over ten large trucks to transport many old parts to the empty ground in front of the factory.

Lin Qiangsheng looked at these vehicles and the old parts, surprised, and asked Gao Jun, "Comrade Gao, are you kidding me? I even saw a World War II Willys and a Soviet GAZ from the 1960s! You even brought over old Mitsubishi trucks used by the Japanese!"

Gao Jun was not at all embarrassed and said with a smile, "These are the materials I mentioned! Our jeeps need to be modified, so you can process them. Treat them as raw materials, cut them up, and use them for our jeep modifications!"

"Uh, okay!" Lin Qiangsheng nodded. Since the army did not mind, he did not care about using these old parts and materials.

Lin Qiangsheng called Gu Hongliang and Li Zheng, handed them the list he had written, and said, "Call these people. Have them withdraw from the construction site and arrange these vehicles, parts, and scrap metal."

Gu Hongliang and Li Zheng took the list to the construction site, where the workers were currently helping the soldiers move bricks.

Many of the soldiers were skilled masons and could easily handle the construction work. The hundred or so workers could only move bricks.

Gu Hongliang walked around the construction site, calling out names loudly. The workers immediately paid attention, straining their ears and eyes to see who was on the list and if they were included.

They had been moving bricks for nearly twenty days, and many of the workers were almost worn out. Now, when called to do something else, they went without complaint, like silent human bricks, ready to be moved wherever needed.

Gu Hongliang and Li Zheng called out a worker, and the others immediately showed concerned and anxious expressions. The called workers were overjoyed, while those not called looked distressed and helpless.

"Xu Ke! Stop moving bricks and report to Lin Qiangsheng," Gu Hongliang and Li Zheng called out to Xu Ke, who was moving bricks on the other side of the site.

Xu Ke, hearing his name, immediately perked up and asked, "Not moving bricks anymore?!"

Li Zheng said slowly, "If you want to keep moving bricks, you can continue!"

"Ah, no more, no more!" Xu Ke quickly shouted, afraid of being made to continue the work, which would be the end of him!

He threw off his gloves and ran to Lin Qiangsheng, as if a dog were chasing him, afraid of being too slow.

Gu Hongliang and Li Zheng laughed and continued calling out names. When they finished, the others who were not called immediately started complaining.

"Why should we still be moving bricks? We want to work too!" Lu Guangming shouted, inciting the remaining workers.

Gu Hongliang shook his head and said, "We don't know. Ask Lin Qiangsheng."

Lu Guangming said, "I'll go find him! I'll ask him why we can't participate in the work!"

He looked at the other workers and shouted, "Let's go together, ask him, and reason with him!"

The other workers looked at each other, and most avoided Lu Guangming's gaze, while only a few followed him to the front.

Lin Qiangsheng was examining the vehicles brought by Gao Jun, including Willys, GAZ, old trucks, 202s, and even older jeeps, as well as the pile of old parts. He was thinking about how to make the best use of them.

The workers whose names were called gradually arrived at the site, and Lin Qiangsheng instructed them to sort the items into categories.

"Once we're done sorting, we'll find tools to disassemble these vehicles. We'll take apart the parts I've marked with chalk!" Lin Qiangsheng shouted to the sixty or seventy workers.

"Great!" Nearly seventy workers shouted, some even shedding tears of joy.

Previously, when they were removed from the workshop, some of them felt extremely disappointed. Despite appearing indifferent, they knew the factory was dissatisfied with them and was trying to manipulate them.

The removal of these workers from the workshop was a significant warning to the entire factory! The factory had ways to deal with them; just being hired did not guarantee a job and a salary every month.

If they did not work well, the factory could still remove them.

The original factory workers, without comparison, did not realize how valuable it was to work in the workshop. But now, with over a hundred workers removed from the workshop to move bricks, they had a point of comparison. The remaining workers felt their status had suddenly risen, which made many of them more alert and aware of the risks. Their discussions and the influence they had on others led to a significant improvement in the factory's production efficiency and quality.

Factory Manager Lin Xiangrong was pleased; he did not expect his son's strategy to be so effective!

The workers were more serious about their work, and the workshop supervisors no longer had to rush around arguing with anyone, as the troublemakers and those who liked to talk back had been removed.

The workers began to work diligently without any distractions, and no one dared to slack off or chat. Without interruptions, their work efficiency naturally increased significantly.

The workers in the factory now knew that the so-called "smart" people were not so smart; those who liked to talk back were now moving bricks. The ones who worked quietly and diligently were the ones the factory needed!

Lin Qiangsheng's strategy was brilliant! He created a hierarchy among the workers, making them compare themselves. This formed a small competitive cycle within the factory, where the diligent workers rose, and the lazy ones fell.

At this moment, Lu Guangming and others were furious. They thought that after moving bricks, everyone would start working again. But some people were selected first. What did this mean? Why were they excluded again?

Lu Guangming walked up to Lin Qiangsheng, lowering his voice, and asked, "Lin... boss, I want to ask why we are not working with everyone else?"

Lin Qiangsheng stood on the empty ground, hands behind his back, watching the selected workers quietly moving materials and parts.

Hearing Lu Guangming's question, he did not even look at him and pointed to the workers on the site, saying, "These people are enough!"

Lu Guangming, suppressing his anger, said loudly, "But I think it's not enough! We can help too!"

Lin Qiangsheng turned to look at Lu Guangming, his eyes full of disdain, as if saying, "Do you think so? What are you, anyway?"

Lu Guangming, seeing Lin Qiangsheng's expression, felt as if he heard, "What are you, anyway? What are you, anyway? What are you, anyway?..."

He shook his head, angry, and looked at Lin Qiangsheng and the workers who were working diligently. He seized the opportunity, rushed forward, and grabbed a part from a worker, intending to place it somewhere.

The worker whose part was taken immediately objected. His eyes flared, and he punched Lu Guangming, then took back the part from Lu Guangming.

Lu Guangming cursed, and the two started fighting.

No one on the site tried to stop them. The dozen or so people who came with Lu Guangming watched silently, not helping.

Gao Jun and Dong Cheng watched the commotion from the side, along with some soldiers.

In the end, Lu Guangming, unable to match the determined worker, was hit in the cheek by the part the worker was holding and fell to the ground with a thud.

The worker spat and cursed, "Do you think you're so great? What are you, anyway?" He walked away, muttering.

Lu Guangming lay on the ground, pretending to be dead, too embarrassed to get up.

Lin Qiangsheng glanced at Lu Guangming on the ground and said, "Once the factory building is completed, I will have a place for you. Go back and move bricks."

Hearing Lin Qiangsheng's words, Lu Guangming lay on the ground for a few more seconds, then struggled to get up and slunk back. The dozen or so people who came with him also shook their heads and sighed, returning dejectedly.