Li Ye soon met Niu Hongzhang.
On his first day at the Light Vehicle Company, Niu Hongzhang convened a Party Committee meeting. Since Li Ye had already been transferred onto the Party Committee, he had the good fortune to meet this parachuted-in outsider.
He was around fifty, dressed in a half-new, half-worn Zhongshan suit. His long face bore little expression, and one look told you he was a very stern man.
"I've only just arrived and am unfamiliar with most of my colleagues, but that does not prevent us from sharing a common goal: carrying out the state's assignments and doing our unit's work well.
"Although some problems arose in the unit some time ago, I believe the vast majority of people are still good."
It was a perfectly ordinary opening, entirely befitting his position and responsibilities, so everyone's impression of him was fairly good.
In Li Ye's view, even if he liked to ramble on at length, there would be nothing wrong with that. Correcting people's thinking was his proper duty. If you didn't use your mouth to talk about ideology, were you supposed to do it with your hands?
But over the next five minutes, Niu Hongzhang showed what he was capable of. He did not launch into a long-winded speech. Instead, he laid out several simple ideological requirements for several of the Light Vehicle Company's major departments—stern, professional, and to the point.
Li Ye felt there was nothing wrong with that either. As long as the man did not blindly meddle in production matters, he could toss things around however he pleased.
Things were different now from before. Ma Zhaoxian had an official position and was the undisputed top leader in production management. It was no longer like when the Head Factory Director had been around, when