Chapter 206 – Changshan Iron and Steel Plant

As soon as he entered, he felt the warmth of the heating. Since the Finance Department gained financial power, it had changed its office.

Now its office was the largest in the entire county government, with an area of over 300 square meters. However, there were at least 200 workstations inside, with an average area of only 1.5 square meters per workstation, making the aisles so crowded that people could only walk sideways.

Every workstation was piled with documents, and paper files were everywhere.

Several large heaters were placed in the corner, constantly emitting heat. Several people were still moving and adjusting the position of the heaters, as if they had just been installed.

In this sea of people and books, Lin Wen immediately saw Old Xie running towards him. His fat body moved through every gap, as agile as a strange creature.

When Old Xie broke through the obstacles and arrived by his side, Lin Wen raised his hand to stop him from speaking.

"I'm asking you, how do you guys work overtime?"

Old Xie was stunned, quickly suppressing his joy and said, "Not much, just 12 hours of overtime every day. We work hard..."

Lin Wen looked at him sternly, "What happened to the three girls just now?"

Old Xie was taken aback, "They have weak bodies. They might not be used to the heating. They have already been sent to the hospital. Honestly, their bodies are not strong enough. They must be as strong as me to better serve Sheriff Lin..."

"Shut up!"

Lin Wen interrupted him.

If he had arrived one minute later, those three girls would have been beyond saving.

Apart from losing a good opportunity for assistance, there might even be negative consequences.

However, Lin Wen also knew that it was not Old Xie's fault. It was a problem with the system.

It was the limitation of history.

This world had not yet experienced the power of the people.

Good!

Then I will bring the system that has been stained with countless blood here first!

I will advance the civilization of this world by a big step.

Lin Wen said, "From now on, the overtime quota for grassroots employees in any department must not exceed 36 hours per month. Overtime pay will be calculated at 150% of the original salary. If you need to work overtime for more than 36 hours, you need to apply to me."

Old Xie was stunned for a moment, "Why, Sheriff Lin? Isn't everything fine with me? The Finance Department has such heavy workload, I..."

Lin Wen said lightly, "Using overtime to cover up incompetence is the worst kind of leadership."

"A top-notch leader is someone who can improve team efficiency. They can make their employees complete heavy work within 8 hours, then go home happily to rest and recharge, so that they can come to work the next day with higher efficiency, forming a virtuous cycle."

"An incompetent leader will only torment their employees with overtime and deductions, forcing them to complete work with unlimited time and extremely low efficiency."

"Then the next day, the employees will come to work with even lower efficiency, forced to work longer hours, forming a vicious cycle."

"Do you understand?"

Old Xie's face was blank, his nostrils were bigger than his mouth.

In the traditional imperial officialdom, someone who could make a department work overtime without paying extra was considered a good boss, a good leader, a good official. It showed their control over the department.

Old Xie had been working overtime without overtime pay, silently proving his ability to Sheriff Lin.

Unexpectedly, in Sheriff Lin's words, his proud ability became a manifestation of incompetence.

For a moment, he couldn't accept the result of his worldview being overturned, "But, but..."

Lin Wen glanced at him, "If you don't change your mindset, then I'll change the person."

Old Xie immediately wilted. He kept scratching his bald head, looking anxious and uneasy.

Of course, Lin Wen also knew that it would be difficult to change his mindset formed over many years in a short period of time, and the Finance Department did have a heavy workload.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "You can recruit people or borrow manpower from the Organization Department to share the pressure, instead of just relying on overtime."

Seeing that Old Xie was still anxious and uneasy, he patted his shoulder and opened his seven orifices.

It only said, "Only such a leader is the Old Xie in my mind. This is my expectation of you, and it is also where you are stronger than Old Lei."

Suddenly, like inflating a balloon, the originally listless Old Xie suddenly swelled up, almost floating.

"I understand! I understand now! So that's how it is! I will definitely not let you down, Sheriff Lin. Your insight is like a torch, and my admiration for you is like..."

"Alright."

Lin Wen interrupted him.

"Now report to me the industrial situation in Changshan County."

The enthusiastic Old Xie immediately explained all the details to him.

It turned out that Changshan County had very few industries. The only profitable exports were cotton, tobacco, and tea. The food they grew was not enough for themselves.

Once a flood occurred, the cotton, tobacco, and tea industries would be completely destroyed, and the three related companies would also stop production.

These were the local assets belonging to Changshan County. Once they closed down, the county's industrial income would be greatly reduced.

Then there were the major loss-making projects: Changshan Steel Plant.

This was a project introduced by the previous sheriff with great ambition. Due to lack of funds and accidents, only a part of the plant could operate. It would incur losses if it operated and even more losses if it didn't.

In addition, there was a breeding farm and a textile factory, both of which were super small factories with a monthly turnover of less than 50,000.

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Changshan County had only one private enterprise, a small copper mine located in Yaocun to the south. Its monthly output was only a few dozen tons, and the corporate tax it paid was less than a few cents.

Lin Wen took note and asked, "Does Changshan County have a state-owned assets management office like this?"

Old Xie said, "Are you referring to the Imperial Assets Management Office? Yes, we have it, but the people inside have already been transferred out."Lin Wen fell silent for a moment and decided to find Xia Xiaoxiang because he seemed to have seen the Imperial Asset Management Office on Xia Xiaoxiang's official list.

After bidding farewell to Old Xie, who had regained his vitality, Lin Wen found Xia Xiaoxiang buried in piles of files in the Organization Department. She looked up, seeming unhappy to be disturbed while working.

"What do you need? I'm very busy right now."

Lin Wen asked, "Are you also responsible for political construction and organizational discipline?"

"Yes."

While working, Xia Xiaoxiang spoke and wrote on a file at the same time:

Any cadre who has not worked at the grassroots level but commands work on the front line will be put on probation;

Any cadre who sits in the office and boasts about how early they can finish their work will be put on probation;

Any cadre who only uses task indicators and standard answers to guide their work will be put on probation;

"Now add a clause about labor laws for grassroots employees."

Lin Wen said, reciting the main contents of the labor law.

"Note that the above content only applies to grassroots employees, not cadres and officials."

Xia Xiaoxiang looked up, her eyes shining brightly. Her handsome face only showed a serious expression, making people not dare to underestimate her.

"What should we do about the heavy workload?"

"Hire more people, and overtime is also allowed, but overtime pay must be given. Any excessive overtime must be approved by me."

"Why don't cadres have this?"

"They have a future, they want to become officials. How can they not work hard?"

Xia Xiaoxiang smiled, "You give practical benefits to grassroots employees and paint a bright future for cadres and officials. I've never seen anyone do it like this before."

"Now you have."

Xia Xiaoxiang lowered her head again, "Okay."

"Also, who is in charge of the Imperial Asset Management Office now?"

"Zhao Pengyuan."

"Okay."

Lin Wen turned and left.

Xia Xiaoxiang watched his retreating figure, lost in thought.

The Imperial Asset Management Office had not yet been posted in the county government office, so Lin Wen directly asked Fang Weiwei to find him.

As the only secretary of the county magistrate, Fang Weiwei had nothing to do since the Security Bureau took over the responsibility of supervising Old Xie. Besides occasionally sitting on Lin Wen's lap, she had nothing else to do.

Bored, she could only read books about performances every day, crying or laughing in front of the mirror, training her acting skills.

When Lin Wen finally returned to his county magistrate's office and assigned her a task, Fang Weiwei was overjoyed.

Although it was just a simple task of finding someone, she took it seriously.

Zhao Pengyuan was inspecting the Changshan Iron and Steel Plant. As soon as he heard that the county magistrate was looking for someone, he immediately brought the plant manager, Zhang Xiaoda.

Without any nonsense, Lin Wen asked, "What's the situation with the steel plant? Why is it losing money?"

Zhao Pengyuan had a sly face, and Zhang Xiaoda had a big beard. Although they were meeting Sheriff Lin for the first time, they had long heard of Lin Wen's ruthless reputation and were trembling, keeping their heads down.

Zhao Pengyuan said, "Sheriff, Sheriff Lin, the Changshan Iron and Steel Plant is just too small. The initial funding was insufficient, so the iron smelting plant was completed, but the steelmaking plant lacked some auxiliary facilities."

"The county had no money left, but we couldn't just stop. After Sheriff Zhao convened the engineers for discussion, we started construction forcefully. The first few weeks went well, and some minor accidents were resolved. But in the second month, a major accident occurred. Half of the steel furnaces lost power, and the molten steel solidified inside, rendering all the furnaces useless."

"Now we only have one furnace that can be used, but it can't handle the amount of iron."

"At that time, Sheriff Zhao had a big heart. The iron smelting plant bought the best Xu's blast furnace, which cannot be stopped once it starts. It can run continuously for more than ten years. If it stops once, it goes from being a first-generation blast furnace to a second-generation blast furnace, greatly reducing efficiency."

"The blast furnace for iron smelting cannot be stopped, but the amount of iron is too large, and the steel furnaces cannot accommodate it. We can only reduce the feeding rate of the blast furnace, but this greatly reduces its efficiency. Now with the rising price of coke, we are suffering huge losses."

Lin Wen asked, "Why not buy new steel furnaces?"

Plant manager Zhang Xiaoda answered in a low voice, "They said we should wait, wait, that they will be bought soon. But we have been waiting for a long time, even after Sheriff Zhao was transferred, there was still no news..."

As he spoke, he started crying, and tears fell into his beard.

"It's been a year, a whole year. There are more than 2,000 people in the Changshan Iron and Steel Plant, and we thought we could end the poverty and backwardness of Changshan County. But we have been losing money for a whole year, and everyone is starving to death!"

"Sheriff Lin, please think of a solution."

Lin Wen didn't say anything. He decided to go and see if the plant was worth saving.

If it was, he would save it.

If not, then forget it.

In Lin Wen's plan, making big money from steelmaking was obviously not cost-effective.

Because it was a basic product, unless it was built into a steel group with an annual output of tens of millions to billions of tons, the profit would not be very high.

But Changshan County did not have the capital to establish such a large enterprise.

What Lin Wen really wanted to do was some low-cost, high-value-added, and high-profit technology products. The overall technology level of the empire was roughly between the 1990s and the 2000s, with some industries being more advanced, such as biotechnology, but there were also some industries that were relatively backward, such as mobile communications and nuclear industry.

With Lin Wen's insight, there were countless ways to make big money, such as robbery, fraud, plunder, corruption, and learning from Mahua Vine. There were even more and better choices.

The key was the cost of time and management.

Lin Wen didn't like to make things too complicated in the physical world, involving too much.

Because these were all mundane matters that he disliked and would pollute his Dao heart.

Therefore, his philosophy had always been the simpler, the better; the more violent, the better; the less involved, the better; and the earlier he could perfect his reincarnation, the better.As an AI, I need the original text to perform the translation. Please provide the Chinese text you want to translate.

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