"Pearl, hurry up, the leader is coming soon!"
The brigade leader rushed over in a hurry. He specially put on the Chinese tunic suit that he wore only for meetings in the commune. His hair was carefully combed and his beard was cleanly shaved. He was not so particular on his wedding day.
"Second Aunt, you must be fine!"
Tang Niannian encouraged her second aunt, but her face was expressionless and her tone was emotionless. Xuan Zhenzhu didn't receive much encouragement. She cheered herself up for a while, and then followed the captain to see the leader.
The commune sent five people. The commune secretary and the town mayor also arrived. The brigade leader stood at the entrance of the village to greet him. With his excited heart and trembling legs, he extended his hand to greet him from afar.
"Thank you for your hard work, leaders. Why don't you go have a cup of tea first?"
"Stop drinking and go straight to the sock machine."
The commune leaders are also looking forward to it. Their communes don’t even have decent factories. If the sock factory in Tangcun can be opened, they will not be inferior to other communes when they go to the county for meetings in the future.
When the group arrived at the cafeteria, a plaque was already hung at the door——
"Tangcun Hongyun Socks Factory"
This name was chosen by the captain, which is a homophony of good luck.
The commune leaders entered the workshop. Thirty sock machines were placed neatly and orderly. They nodded slightly and showed satisfaction.
The team leader solemnly introduced Xuan Zhenzhu, "She is the workshop director of Hongyun Socks Factory and has very strong technical ability. Next, Comrade Xuan Zhenzhu will show the leaders the new sock machine of our Hongyun Socks Factory!"
Xuan Zhenzhu took a deep breath and stretched out her hand to shake hands with the leaders. Her heart was in her throat. After the five leaders shook hands one by one, she walked to the sock machine as if in a dream and started to demonstrate.
When the machine started, Xuan Zhenzhu concentrated on knitting socks. She was no longer nervous and operated the machine skillfully. The leaders watched intently, and soon a formed sock came out.
Xuan Zhenzhu knitted a few more socks, at least twice as fast as an ordinary sock machine.
The leaders each held a sock in their hands, pinched it, pulled it, and shined it at the light. Their expressions became more and more satisfied. The quality and color of the socks were good, and the speed was quite fast.
"Very good, Comrade Tang Manshan, your Tangcun brigade did a good job this time."
The commune secretary was full of praise, and the brigade leader couldn't close his mouth. He wanted to be reserved, but he couldn't control the muscles at the corners of his mouth, and they expanded in both directions.
“It all depends on the support and guidance of the leaders!”
The captain said modestly, not daring to take all the credit.
Lunch was arranged at the brigade captain's house. The brigade captain and Tang Mantong were accompanying him. Tang Niannian asked Jiu Jin to send some hares and pheasants there. The brigade captain also wanted her to meet the leader, but she refused.
She doesn't like to deal with government cadres. She talks in official terms and uses clichés. She also has to watch people's words and try to figure out the leader's thoughts. She will suffer from indigestion even after eating a meal.
The commune leaders all returned satisfied after having a good meal and wine. The procedures for the Tangcun Sock Factory will not be completed until next month. During this period, Tang Niannian asked Xuan Zhenzhen to be responsible for training the employees.
And these days, the threshold of the captain's family and the Tang family are almost being stepped down by the villagers.
They all came to the house with something, basically eggs, for work in the sock factory.
Tang Niannian greeted her family members and asked not to ask for even a single green vegetable. Mrs. Tang carried out the instructions very well and returned all the things she brought up as they were.
"My Nian girl said that the selection should be fair, only those who are willing to learn and work hard, and those who are cheating, lazy and like to gossip, don't want it!"
Mrs. Tang would say this every time she returned something.
San Auntie also said the same thing, but she changed it to "My family is full of mountains".
In fact, the recruitment list of the sock factory was basically confirmed. Tang Niannian did not give specific names, but she gave a specific list of people who would not be admitted.
"Uncle San, these people are not allowed to enter the sock factory!"
Tang Niannian's list was very detailed. In addition to Qi Guohua's family, there were fifteen other households on the list that refused to enter the factory.
"Why?"
The captain took a look and saw that it was normal for Qi Guohua's family to be away. Why were the other fifteen households not allowed to enter the factory?
"These three families had a fight with my grandma and said bad things about her behind my back!"
"For the remaining twelve families, when I fell into the river, they said I was not innocent!"
Tang Niannian had good reasons, but among the fifteen households, some of them were settled in previous lives, and she had to count them all in this life.
The three families who quarreled with Mrs. Tang were all real. No matter who was right or wrong, she wanted to vent her anger for the little old lady anyway.
The captain's mouth twitched, and he was a little envious of Mrs. Tang.
How wonderful it is to have such a protective granddaughter!
"Sure, I don't want these people!"
The captain agreed. The fifteen families that Nian Yatou had circled were indeed not that good. They were either useless, selfish, or lazy, and he didn't like them either.
The village committee office in Tangcun, which has been abandoned for a long time, is brightly lit these days, and it stays on until nine o'clock in the evening every day.
The team leader convened the village's accountants, scorekeepers, women's directors and other cadres to hold a Tangcun meeting. The theme of the meeting was the recruitment issue of the sock factory.
After three days of meeting and discussion, the list was finally determined.
Xuan Zhenzhu and Xu Jinfeng must be included, as well as the team leader's daughter Tang Hongxing. The remaining employees are basically lesbians and young students, and the lesbians are also young married women.
The reason is very simple. Girls have to get married, so if they can't learn their skills well, they will take advantage of other villages.
Therefore, the brigade leader recruits all married women and young students under the age of thirty. All of them are quick-sighted, quick at work, and have high talents in learning to knit socks.
People never stop, and a sock machine requires two operators.
After the list was finalized, it was posted at the door of the sock factory. It was written in black on red paper and was written by the village accountant with a beautiful calligraphy hand. In addition to the sixty operators of the sock machine, there were also shapers, packers, and handymen. Wait, there are about a dozen of them in total, some are men and some are women.
There are many monks and few porridge. The lists are posted one after another. Some families are happy and some are sad.
The joy of being selected, the sad faces of not being selected, and some people even said bitter words, saying that the captain was engaged in a one-spoken bureaucracy, and the rumors spread like wildfire.
However, he was quickly suppressed by the captain.
Moreover, the captain also said: "The sock factory will definitely be expanded. By then there will be a hundred or two hundred sock machines. We don't have enough people in our village, and we have to go to other villages to recruit people. Those who spread rumors and caused trouble today, I will give you another chance. Next time, I will hear someone gossiping. Don’t blame me for not caring about my fellow villagers. As long as I am the captain, these people will never want to work in the factory!"
As soon as these words came out, the gossip immediately stopped. Even the tongue-tied woman with the longest tongue in the village shut her mouth.
Tang Niannian was very satisfied with the captain's thunderous methods. Her third uncle still had a strong sense of leadership.
April 28, 1976.
Tangcun Hongyun Socks Factory officially started construction.
