After the meeting, Niu Hongzhang acted with his usual thunderous efficiency and began assembling the main factory's endurance-testing convoy, determined to make a big splash before the higher-ups.
But once he actually got started, the very first step nearly fell apart.
The main factory's workers were unwilling to join the testing convoy. Either they had sick elderly mothers at home to care for, or they themselves had high blood pressure and poor health, completely unable to adapt to the plateau's climate.
Niu Hongzhang angrily questioned them, "This is an honorable and meaningful event, something you might not encounter once in a lifetime. Look at how eagerly the people from the First Branch Factory signed up. How could your awareness be so low?"
But the workers were even more fired up.
"The First Branch Factory is testing imported buses. They're easy to drive, comfortable to ride in, and they won't have major problems even after tens of thousands of kilometers.
"Our factory makes trucks. Fine, if you just want us to drive on regular roads. But you want us to go up to the plateau? In that godforsaken place, you might not see another person for eighty or a hundred miles. What if the vehicle breaks down halfway and we freeze to death?"
"Exactly. The First Branch Factory's travel allowance is twice ours, and when they get back, they even get rewarded with group trips in batches. What do we get?"
"What kind of talk is that?"
Niu Hongzhang was furious. "These are all passenger-cargo dual-purpose vehicles. They have fans and heaters, so you won't freeze or overheat. And you're still complaining?
"When I was young, I was thrilled just sitting in the cargo bed of an Old Jiefang. Your conditions now are better than ours were by I don't know