In mid-September, Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang brought several specialists from the First Branch Factory to inspect units that "intended to merge" with the First Branch Factory.
The first was the Eighth Machinery Factory, located west of the capital.
According to the materials they provided, the Eighth Machinery Factory had over a thousand current employees. For many years, it had supplied supporting parts and components to numerous manufacturing enterprises, including well-known units such as Beijing Auto and Motorcycle and Jilin Province Automobile Factory. Its machining capabilities were exceptionally strong.
But how had an enterprise with such outstanding capabilities fallen to the point of needing to merge with someone else?
Don't tell me the market was bad. Just explain to me what the hell "exceptionally strong" meant. What the fuck did "exceptionally strong" mean?
The intriguing truth behind it would have to be investigated by Li Ye and the others themselves.
Since it was not particularly far away, the First Branch Factory had arranged to arrive at ten in the morning. But Li Ye deliberately—or perhaps casually—arrived a little early, at nine forty.
Yet when Li Ye and the others spotted the gates of the Eighth Machinery Factory from afar, they found that a huge red banner reading "Welcome to Visit and Inspect" had already been hung up, and people were waiting at the entrance to receive them.
Li Ye said in surprise, "Oh? Did word get out?"
Lu Zhizhang shook his head. "Probably not. Maybe they sent someone to keep watch at our factory gate, or maybe they simply came out early to wait for us. When I was a director at the main factory, I did the same."
Remembering the several occasions when the Light Vehicle Company had received ministry delegations, Li Ye could not help laughing. "So they're