Two days later, Wang Yan rode his bicycle alone straight to the not-too-distant agricultural machinery factory.
By the time he arrived, all 126 employees of the agricultural machinery factory, leadership included, had gathered in the yard, buzzing with conversation.
As they watched him wobble in on his bicycle, the clamor gradually faded. More than a hundred pairs of eyes fixed on his every move.
The factory's old director led the other managers forward.
"Comrade Wang Yan, hello, hello. I'm Qian Zhixue. I used to be the director of our agricultural machinery factory, but now that you're here, the county has transferred me to the textile factory as deputy director."
Old Qian was also an old man nearing retirement, about the same age as the old director of the textile factory. His hair was even whiter, all from worrying over the livelihoods of the factory's hundred-odd employees.
Wang Yan smiled as he shook his hand, then listened while he introduced the other factory leaders. More or less all of them had been demoted and were waiting for Wang Yan to assign them new positions.
Naturally, they had complaints, but there was nothing they could do. The county had nowhere else to place them. Anyone capable had already found a way to transfer out; those left behind were the ones who could work, but the agricultural machinery factory happened to have no work for them.
After giving the employees a speech, conveying the directives from above, explaining his management ideas, and painting them a picture of a better future, he gave them a boost of confidence and reassured them. Then he dismissed them to wait for work assignments.
Afterward, Wang Yan followed the factory leadership around to inspect the agricultural machinery factory.
What the county magistrate had said before, that the agricultural