Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

Page 444

As the days went by, the food rations were reduced again. Not only food, but also the meat coupons that were given out every month were gone. Other daily necessities such as cotton, cotton cloth, sesame paste, and oil were also reduced.

Life became harder day by day, and many families began to eat only two meals a day.

People were using bamboo poles to knock the leaves off the trees by the roadside. There were huge crowds everywhere outside the city, and the wild vegetables in the fields were dug up before they even sprouted.

Everything edible was served on the table.

He Yuzhu has limited abilities and cannot take care of too many people; he can only take care of his relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Despite the hardships of life, He Yuzhu's work proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

The first batch of 20 sets of equipment has arrived. Actually, there was no assembly line at this time; instead, a rather cumbersome method was used for assembly.

The process involves first assembling the chassis in one location, and then installing all the components onto the chassis in sequence.

From the very beginning of assembly, all the parts of a Jeep are stationary.

He Yuzhu had no prior experience and adopted this rudimentary method, leading a team of carefully selected and trained employees. After many days of overtime work, the first jeep was finally assembled.

He Yuzhu took a deep breath while holding the crank handle, and then inserted the long crank handle into the small hole.

At this point, the car does not have an electric starter.

When the engine needs to be started, it is always started by cranking a lever to rotate the motor, using this most primitive method to start the car.

As He Yuzhu shook the engine, the rotation speed increased, and the engine suddenly made a loud noise, followed by a plume of black smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe.

Chapter 318 Rebuilding a New Car

He Yuzhu pulled out the crank handle; the engine was still running, and the smoke was thinning.

This car uses an M20 engine produced by Jinling Automobile Factory, so it's perfectly normal for it to be able to run. Right now, it needs to be driven out for testing to see if the overall assembly is up to standard.

He Yuzhu drove around the factory's internal roads twice to make sure there were no problems, then took the tester out and drove on the suburban roads.

The two took turns driving for half a day before finally returning to the machine factory.

As soon as He Yuzhu got out of the car, several leaders surrounded him, and Director Shen asked, "How did it go?"

He Yuzhu said, "There were three minor problems on the way, but they were all resolved. These were issues with the quality of the parts and had nothing to do with the assembly."

Factory Director Shen was getting a little anxious: "Who asked you that? Cars need frequent repairs, that's a common occurrence. I'm asking you how well the assembly is done, whether it meets the standards."

He Yuzhu nodded and then said, "The assembly should be fine, but the car still needs to be tested."

Factory Director Shen said, "That's good. You'll be in charge of assembling the next batch of cars."

He Yuzhu nodded in agreement, and he would personally take charge of this pioneering work.

Just like when we manufactured electric fans and compressor air conditioners.

He Yuzhu personally wrote the operating procedures and led the workers to explore them. Only after the workers were successfully trained did he step away.

He required all workers to operate according to the specifications he personally wrote.

All employees who do not operate according to regulations will be transferred from their positions. Those with more serious problems will be returned to the local street office, in which case they will lose their jobs.

Even now, when assembling Jeeps, He Yuzhu has staff members follow him to take notes while he assembles the vehicles.

He Yuzhu personally wrote the operating procedures, and the initial sample has been completed.

The next step is to continue assembling and perfecting this operating procedure.

When the first jeep was finished, the second one was already 70% loaded, and it would only take two days to finish loading.

As the second vehicle was being loaded, the third vehicle was already 2-3% loaded. Soon, jeeps were rolling off the production line one after another, with intervals of 2-3 days between each vehicle.

The factory's few drivers who can drive are tasked with testing the Jeeps on the surrounding roads every day.

You also can't drive too far, lest it break down on the road and can't be repaired in time.

After testing for half a month, He Yuzhu finally confirmed that the Jeep, after his assembly, had no major problems.

With some minor modifications, the assembly sequence is now more logical and convenient.

All the leaders were paying close attention to this matter, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

That day, Lü Xiaomi closed the door, came in to report on her work, placed the report on the desk, and stood inside the desk to give her report in a low voice.

A car now costs close to 2 yuan.

Jeeps are much cheaper because they are less comfortable, but the factory price of the 58 model Jeep, which is also the market price, is still around 1,200 yuan.

Lü Xiaomi said, "The cost of all our parts is 9600 yuan, which means our profit per vehicle is 2400 yuan."

He Yuzhu's hand had already slipped inside Lü Xiaomi's skirt. After listening to her report, he said, "It's too early to be happy. This vehicle still has many problems and is not a mature product."

After such a long period of research, He Yuzhu has determined that this Jeep has many inherent defects.

Whether it's the M20 engine, or the matching gearbox, gears, four-wheel drive system, operating system, or steering system, they are all beyond redemption.

Overall, this model of Jeep is an immature product.

Lü Xiaomi asked, "What if we replaced it with an engine that we produce ourselves?"

"Replacing just one engine won't work; other system assemblies also need adjustments. There's still a lot of work to be done."

He Yuzhu initially thought it was easy, but as he delved deeper into the research, he discovered that there were pitfalls everywhere.

If he had known from the beginning that it would be this complicated, he would have preferred to go in a different direction rather than want to study this Jeep.

It would be much better to disassemble the TV in your home and set up a TV production line than to produce cars.

Lü Xiaomi asked, "You don't want to give up on this, do you?"

He Yuzhu shook his head and said, "Of course not, but there are many difficulties. I need to complain to Director Zhu and ask him to provide more manpower. I can't solve all the problems by myself."

He Yuzhu no longer cares about profits; what he wants now is to be able to produce engines and successfully install them in Jeeps.

By changing the power source, half of the problem can be solved.

Lu Xiaomi was pleased to be touched and whispered, "I'll take the afternoon off."

He Yuzhu looked up at her, which made Lü Xiaomi even more shy. She clenched her fist and punched He Yuzhu's shoulder, shouting:

"Who gave you the right to tease me in this office?"

He Yuzhu chuckled and said, "Alright, by the way, make an appointment so we can meet Director Zhu tomorrow."

"Well, I'm going."

Lu Xiaomi turned and left. He Yuzhu was sometimes exposed to the air and felt that his fingers were a little sticky. He got up and went behind the door to wash his hands.

The next day, He Yuzhu drove his new Jeep to the research institute.

Director Zhu walked around the jeep twice, and even drove it for a while himself. After getting out, he said, "This is not bad."

He Yuzhu said, "There are no problems with the assembly, but after so much time, I found that this car has inherent design flaws, especially the engine, which is of poor quality."

Director Zhu nodded, invited He Yuzhu to his office, and then said, "When production first started, the whole country was excited. We finally had our own Jeeps."

"However, when the Jeep was delivered to the customers, they gradually reported that the vehicle had many problems, often broke down on the road, and had a short interval between repairs."

He Yuzhu, based on his understanding, discussed the shortcomings of the vehicle and then said, "That's why I decided to replicate the GAZ-100 car engine. The replication work is almost complete."

Director Zhu asked, "Have you encountered any difficulties in the counterfeiting work?"

He Yuzhu said, "The engine is fine, we can solve it ourselves, but we don't have the ability to solve all the other parts and assemblies."

Lü Xiaomi took the documents out of her briefcase, and He Yuzhu introduced the other items on the car, explaining which parts were prone to problems, indicating that the quality of those parts was substandard.

The material may need to be reinforced, or abnormal wear may occur due to design issues.

He Yuzhu gave a detailed explanation, pointing out all the problems.

In conclusion, "This car is a copy of the American Willys CJ-3A. I feel that we have gone down the wrong path. It would have been better to use the assembly of the GAZ-69 Jeep produced in the north."

"Oh, tell me what you think."

"Here's what I'm thinking: we have 30 more assemblies, but no engines. So after we produce the engines, we'll install them on these 30 assemblies."

He Yuzhu continued, "Then we used this time to learn from and imitate the Type 69 Jeep, combining the advantages of both vehicles to develop a new model."

"That's a good idea."

He Yuzhu stretched out his hand and said, "So you have to give me a Type 69 jeep first."

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not kidding, there are still more than 10 jeeps in the machine factory that you can drive away."

"That's more like it. I thought you were just asking for it for free."

He Yuzhu said, "All of them are priced at 1 to 2000 yuan per vehicle, based on the factory price."

"You're robbing me! I even helped purchase all the parts; it only cost less than 1 yuan in total."

He Yuzhu said, "Isn't assembly free? We need to be paid too. Besides, we're not even in the same system."

"you..."

This is what displeased Director Zhu. They belonged to the Ministry of Machinery, while He Yuzhu's machinery factory belonged to Jiaodaokou Commune.

The two belong to different systems. Although Director Zhu has a high rank, He Yuzhu can still disregard his authority.

"Okay, I'll pay for all those cars, but I can't just give you 1,000 or 2000 yuan per car. I'll give you 11,000 yuan."