Director Lu, who was surrounded, was unable to work normally. He couldn't stay in his office, and he didn't dare go home, so he had to stay at the municipal government guesthouse.

He was indeed under a lot of pressure.

They couldn't withstand the pressure from above, nor could they withstand the pressure from below.

So, this incompetent factory manager had no choice but to go into hiding.

Zhong Bin ordered the auditors to be stationed directly at the machinery factory to begin various audits. He wanted to assess which industries could be abandoned and which needed to be retained.

As for the opinions of the factory workers, it's not that they don't listen, but the project can't be stopped.

The city simply can't solve the problem of the workers laid off from the machinery factory. He's already figured out where they can go. There are so many companies in the High-tech Zone, they can't absorb even a few thousand people.

As for the distance between the machinery factory and the high-tech zone, we can ask the city's public transportation department to plan a bus route from the machinery factory to the high-tech zone.

This perfectly solves the commuting problem for laid-off employees.

The city government held numerous meetings, both large and small, to study the proposals put forward by Hong Kong businessmen, but encountered considerable resistance from some colleagues.

After all, there are no precedents in China to refer to, and the first to try something new may not necessarily be the most delicious!

Therefore, this matter is not so easy to implement.

Someone suggested, "Doesn't the rice have a partnership with Hong Kong? Why don't we just ask Xing Baohua?"

Some people also say that the Hong Kong-funded companies that partnered with Xing Baohua are not listed on the stock exchange.

Those who know about Xing Baohua's affairs in Hong Kong remain silent, while those who don't know about his company in Hong Kong spread rumors.

Zhong Bin knew very little about Xing Baohua and always thought that Xing Baohua only had cooperation with Hong Kong capital.

So they invited Xing Baohua to inquire about the possibility of the municipal machinery factory going public.

Because of Zhong Qiang's situation, Xing Baohua didn't have a good impression of Zhong Bin either, feeling that introducing his brother was just a way to trick him.

As for Zhong Bin's inquiry about the Hong Kong listing, Xing Baohua immediately said he knew nothing about it! Listing? Rice has never even been listed, how would he know about such things?

As for Zhong Bin's question about his views on the Hong Kong capital acquisition of the municipal machinery factory?

Xing Baohua smiled and said, "After the acquisition, we'll see how he operates it. Will he upgrade the equipment in the machinery factory, or will he try to secure more orders? Businessmen invest to make greater profits; otherwise, they'd be doing nothing or have too much money to spend! First, if Hong Kong capital wants to invest, it must be real money. Upgrade the equipment where necessary. Second, we absolutely cannot allow Hong Kong businessmen to separately divest and liquidate assets; they must exchange funds based on their shareholding. City Manager Zhong, the land where the machinery factory is located is valuable! If the Hong Kong businessmen are interested in that land and want to develop real estate, the city will suffer huge losses."

Xing Baohua successfully led Zhong Bin into the alley, but the issue of listing on the stock exchange remained unresolved, causing Zhong Bin considerable worry. "What if the Hong Kong businessman wants to develop the land for the machinery factory and build buildings there?" he thought.

As expected of someone who came down from above, he quickly changed his mindset after considering things and listening to advice.

Not long after Xing Baohua returned to the factory from the city, Wei Laisong called, inviting him to dinner that evening.

Without even thinking, you know this guy wants to know why Zhong Bin is looking for him.

In fact, Wei Laisong also wanted to ask about the listing of the municipal machinery factory in Hong Kong, how difficult it was, and how much room for maneuver it had.

Although the machinery factory was a project led by Zhong Bin, the final results were collective. If it can be listed on the stock exchange, it will be very beneficial to the overall situation.

Sure enough, when the two of them had dinner together that evening, Wei Laisong asked about it.

Xing Baohua shook his head and said, "First of all, you need to understand what going public means. It's not something that can be achieved just by a company shouting about going public. There must be stringent conditions and impressive financial reports. Does the Municipal Machinery Factory have those?"

Seeing that Wei Laisong remained silent in thought, Xing Baohua continued, "The Hong Kong businessmen mentioned a package listing. You need to understand what this package means. First, it means divesting non-performing assets. So who will pay for the non-performing assets that are divested? The city will absorb them. Next are the workers and all sorts of other burdens. The city will take those in as well."

Okay, even if the city grits its teeth and takes over, and the company successfully goes public, do you think it's a good thing for the machinery factory? The Hong Kong businessmen will package it up and find a suitable price to sell their shares and leave. Can the city just sell them off like that? They might even have to bail them out and buy back the shares. It's all a roundabout way back to the city—what's the point of all that trouble?

"What you said makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't sound quite right to me," Wei Laisong asked, looking completely bewildered after listening to Xing Baohua's nonsense.

"To be honest, did you investigate what that Hong Kong businessman does? Does his main business overlap with that of the machinery factory? Well, even if Hong Kong is too small to develop its manufacturing industry and needs to acquire a company to expand its business, it's good for the machinery factory's future development and might even be able to expand its scale."

"If there's no business relationship, then their acquisition of the municipal machinery factory was just for the purpose of going public? That's speculation, treating the entire machinery factory as a commodity with the aim of making money. In the end, either the city or other companies will be the ones left holding the bag. Do you understand?" Xing Baohua repeated.

The reasons have been explained; now it's up to these people to decide how to handle the situation.

Then, Xing Baohua gestured with his fingers to explain the cooperation model between SAIC and Volkswagen, and then talked about his cooperation with Motorola and Samsung.

They are all complementary, unless that layman Hong Kong businessman is very optimistic about the future development of the municipal machinery factory and invests money to help it develop and receive future dividends.

Otherwise, they would genuinely want to sell the municipal machinery factory.

Xing Baohua's words made Wei Laisong fall into deep thought again.

He nodded in agreement with Xing Baohua's words.

Thus, Zhong Bin faced another obstacle in his efforts to bring together the Hong Kong businessman and the municipal machinery factory.

The factory workers couldn't find the factory manager, making the situation even more chaotic. The city government had also noticed this inaction from the manager. So Wei Laisong had the city's machinery bureau replace the manager with Lu Guangwei.

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