Chapter 115: Even the passing dogs must know
"You said your company wants to buy a car?"
After the meeting, Yan Xue went to the bureau to find Qu Mingli the next day.
All of their subordinate units are under the management of Qu Mingli. If there is any important matter, they have to talk to Qu Mingli first.
When Qu Mingli asked, she nodded, "Yes, we want to buy a truck specifically for transportation."
However, the cultivation center currently only sells mushroom strains in this county and Baisong County, with only tens of thousands of bottles sold each year, so there is no need to buy a car.
If it were someone else, they might think that Yan Xue had just achieved some success and was getting cocky, not knowing how to show off.
Qu Mingli knew Yan Xue well and knew that she was not the kind of person who would speak without purpose, so he did not rush to speak.
Sure enough, Yan Xue then handed over a picture. "This is what I asked the forestry bureaus of several towns that grow wood ear mushrooms. It tells me their production and sales areas."
It was a map of the province, with the sales areas of each town marked in detail using different colors and lines.
The widest area is the shadow drawn by the diagonal line, which extends all the way to the provincial capital, and the annotation at the bottom is Chengshui Town.
Yan Xue tapped on it with a pen. "Currently, there are five town forestry bureaus cultivating wood ear mushrooms. Chengshui was the first to do so, and its production and sales are the most stable, reaching nearly 100,000 kilograms annually."
He then pointed to two other locations. "Then there's Donggou Town and Wugang Town in Baisong County. They've just completed their third year of cultivation this year, and the annual yield is around 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms. However, Wugang is using the bottle cultivation method this year, which has resulted in a higher yield and allows for two crops per year. This figure is likely to increase."
The sales range is also marked on the map. It is slightly smaller than Chengshui, but it also occupies a considerable area. Finally, there is another town in Baisong County and Liuhu Town, which just started this year.
"If all were planted for three full years, the annual yield in these five towns would reach over 400,000 jin (approximately 100,000 kg), but all the places where it's convenient for train transportation have already sold out."
Yan Xue even marked the main train routes on the map. "The rest require multiple transfers, and some trains are inconvenient, but they account for nearly half of them."
There are indeed several areas on the map where they have sales gaps, especially the two cities that are far apart.
"Train shipments are also limited in speed. We have to wait for the railway to gather enough train cars, which can sometimes take more than 10 or 20 days to arrive."
Yan Xue looked at Qu Mingli and said, "So I was thinking, can we buy a car to fill these gaps in the province? It would definitely be more convenient than going outside the province."
The biggest advantage of road transportation over rail transportation is its convenience, time convenience, and route flexibility. You can replenish goods at any time.
Qu Mingli also knew this, but he still looked at the map and pondered for a while, "You mean the center will buy this car?"
"Yes, the center will purchase the goods and then charge the towns for transportation fees," Yan Xue said. "Otherwise, given the production volume of the towns, they may not be willing to pay, and they wouldn't need such a large amount of transportation."
Currently, the most common transport trucks are the Yuejin produced in Nanjing and the Jiefang produced by FAW. The former has a load capacity of 3 tons and the latter has a load capacity of 4 tons.
Even though wood ear mushrooms are light and afraid of being crushed, a truck can hold several thousand kilograms. No one in a single town would be willing to buy them.
After all, this thing is not cheap, it can cost tens of thousands of yuan, and you have to find a way to get the indicators. It is really not cost-effective just for those few trips of wood ear mushrooms.
It’s different if you buy from the center. Anyone can rent it, and no one needs to worry about the transportation of wood ear mushrooms.
Now that the sales channels are solved, the towns will no longer have to worry and can expand production. Maybe new towns will join in.
So in Yan Xue's opinion, there is no such thing as market saturation at all, and the vast land of China is their potential market.
What she has to do is to help the towns make their cake bigger when they think they have nothing to eat, and her own cake will naturally become bigger as well.
It seems that the money is paid by the center, but the center can charge transportation fees later and expand sales volume. The center does not lose anything and may even make a profit.
Qu Mingli could also figure this out. Looking at Yan Xue, who spoke so eloquently about this, he said, "The data is so detailed. It must have taken a long time to prepare, right?"
If you ask a few people from the town forestry bureau now, they may not even remember the data from previous years so accurately.
I guess this girl is just like before, she has already figured out the plan in her mind and is just waiting for the right time to take the next step.
Seeing Yan Xue just smiled and didn't say anything, Qu Mingli even joked with her, "Tell me the truth, how many years have you been working on that plan?"
That depends on whether she needs to continue doing it. Yan Xue smiled modestly and said, "There's no such thing as a few years from now. I'll just take it one step at a time."
But from establishing a pilot project, to expanding production, to setting up a cultivation center, every time she was still taking this step, she had already seen the next step.
Compared with her skills in cultivating wood ear mushrooms, Qu Mingli even felt that her mind and vision were more rare.
Qu Mingli put the map away and said, "Okay, I'll talk to Secretary Tang about this and let you know when I have the final word."
In reality, the bureau didn't have to pay; the center could make its own decisions. But supplies were scarce back then, and buying a bicycle required a ticket, and buying a truck required a quota from the unit.
Of course, it is not difficult for a large unit like the Forestry Bureau to set an indicator. After listening to Qu Mingli's message, Secretary Tang also understood what Yan Xue meant.
A few days later, he called Yan Xue and asked, "How about the Jiefang CA10? If so, you can pay 12,000 yuan to the bureau."
With the purchasing power of this era, twelve thousand is definitely not a small number. The annual salary of an ordinary worker is only five or six hundred.
Yan Xue replied, "Sure," "I'll go to the bureau to pay the money later." Then she asked, "I have something else I want to ask you. Can you help me find a driver who can drive?"
In this day and age, being able to drive is a skill that most people can’t learn. They all learn it while serving in the army.
Yan Xue had the ability to generate income for the bureau, and Secretary Tang did not refuse. About a week later, a 26- or 27-year-old veteran came to the center to report.
However, the center's vehicle had not arrived yet, and it took almost a month before the Jiefang CA10 was transported by train.
At that time, Liu Weiguo had just returned from the provincial capital and was visiting the center with nothing to do. When he heard that the car was back, he immediately got ready to go and see it.
Compared with the later trucks that could carry more than ten tons, the Jiefang CA10 was not that big. It had a military green body, a slightly round front, and a raised nose.
Because domestic steelmaking technology is backward, steel production has always been low, and the truck bed is not made of iron, but of wood.
But in an era when most units were still using horse-drawn carriages for transportation, this Jiefang CA10 was definitely a rare and large item.
Everyone checked the goods at the station, and the driver got on, quickly started the engine, and prepared to drive all the way back to the center.
There was not enough space on the bus, so Yan Xue sat down and Liu Weiguo had to stand on the back bed, becoming the coolest guy on the street.
He actually enjoyed it, got off and walked around the truck, "Looks like I don't have to just follow the train line anymore."
Then he sighed, "When you said that one day you could use a truck to pull it, we didn't believe you. We never thought that it would really be pulled by a truck."
"Yeah." Seeing the truck arrive, Zhou Wenhui and the others came out to watch. "It's only been a few years, and we're already using trucks to transport it."
When the four of them first met at Yan Xue's house for a meeting, they probably didn't expect that one day the wood ear mushroom business would become so big.
When Liu Weiguo first tried to help a pilot project sell wood ear mushrooms, he probably never imagined that one day he would travel all over the province.
Five years have passed and many things have changed, but what everyone can be sure of is that they are all getting better and better, following Yan Xue's footsteps.
Qi Fang came after work in the evening, bringing his little fat boy and a can of paint.
He did what he said. As soon as the weather got warmer this year, he removed the child seat from the bicycle and let his son sit on the front bar.
The little guy was very happy sitting on the front bumper of the car. As soon as he entered the training center, he immediately rang the bell to greet everyone.
"Oh, our Yan Yu is here." Liu Weiguo reached out and pulled him out of the car. "Look, what's that?"
The little guy was six years old and was not used to being held. He wanted to struggle a bit, but he was stunned when he saw the whole thing.
Liu Weiguo immediately carried him over and placed him in front of the car. "How about it? Do you want to get in and sit for a while?"
Qi Yanyu nodded immediately, and Liu Weiguo asked him again: "Do you miss Uncle Weiguo? Talk to me after you've thought about it."
Zhou Wenhui couldn't help but glare at her husband. "How old are you? You're still not in good shape."
Liu Weiguo was determined to get an answer from the little guy, "What's the matter? Our Yan Yu and I are very close, right, Yan Yu?"
The little guy looked up at him and suddenly asked, "Uncle Weiguo, can you drive?"
Very good, he would ask the same question as his father. Liu Weiguo was choked at the time, "Uncle Weiguo can find someone to prescribe it for you."
But their relationship had to be discounted, and in the end the driver got in the car again and took the little guy out for a ride.
After the little guy came back satisfied, Qi Fang opened the paint, picked up the brush, and started painting on the truck bed.
"Are you going to put your business card on the car?" Liu Weiguo saw that he started with "Wood Ear Mushroom Cultivation Center of Changshan County, Jiangcheng City, XX Province".
Qi Fang said "hmm", and Liu Weiguo immediately turned around to look at Yan Xue, "Your trick works really well, I can see it wherever I drive."
It's more effective than handing out business cards everywhere. Not only people, but even dogs passing by will know that they have a training center.
Yan Xue learned this from others. It was a pity that there were no tape recorders in those days, otherwise she would have wanted to record a clip and play it back as she drove.
She smiled and said, "If you want to use it, you can put your own on one side, but only on one side. The other side must be left for us."
"Of course, otherwise Qi Fang's efforts would have been in vain." Liu Weiguo agreed immediately and said that he had learned something new.
However, the wood ear mushrooms in Chengshui are easy to sell. They have been grown there for five years and have fixed sales channels. Among all the towns, the demand for this car is the lowest.
So after the car was put into use, Yan Xue did not specifically notify Chengshui, but made the first call to Zhuang Qixiang.
Compared with Chengshui, Liuhu is really one step behind, and everything has to start from the beginning.
It was okay when they sold the first batch in May, after all, the goods were cheap and the wood ear mushrooms from other towns had not yet been put on the market, so they did make some money.
This made all the forest farms that had won the bottle cultivation method breathe a sigh of relief. Just like the ones in Wugang Town, they quickly placed orders with Yan Xue for the autumn.
But in June, when the wood ear mushrooms grown on logs came down, the salesperson at the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau was dumbfounded. No matter where he asked, there were already suppliers there.
For those who have been cooperating for a long time, they will contact us and ask how many kilograms they need before the goods are delivered. Of course, there are also companies that say they can buy from them, but everyone knows the premise: the discounts must be generous and the kickbacks must be high.
The salesperson didn't dare to make a decision casually, so he had to come back and tell the bureau. Zhuang Qixiang then called Yan Xue specifically to inquire about the sales scope of several other towns.
After this question, everyone in the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau fell silent, silently cursing Secretary Hu in their hearts for delaying them for two years.
If they had started planting two years ago and not grown wild vegetables, Chengshui was the only place with a fixed market at that time, so they would have been able to grab a piece of the pie.
Now, the training center clearly belongs to their county, but they started the latest, even later than the two towns in Baisong County, and they can't even get in.
The two forest farms that had won the lottery for log planting were secretly delighted, but now they were both in a state of distress. What should they do? They couldn't just let it all go to waste, could they?
The situation was completely different from when the lots were drawn. One of the forestry secretary's draws for bottle planting couldn't help but say, "Why don't you join us in bottle planting next year?"
What about the ear field that has already been built?
Just leaving it empty, unused?
Doesn’t it cost money to rebuild the cultivation room?
This sounded like gloating, and someone looked over and asked, "Do you think you won't be affected at all?"
If they can use the bottle planting method, does that mean Wugang can't use it? If other towns find that this thing sells well, won't they follow suit?
At that time, they will still have to compete for sales channels. They started late and cannot compete with others.
The man who was gloating just now stopped talking immediately and continued to curse Secretary Hu in his heart for being a beast.
Zhuang Qixiang waited until they had finished discussing it and were completely out of ideas before he said, "Let's go sell it somewhere else. There's no need to compete with them."
They would like to sell it somewhere else, but they also need a car. For some places, it is not a question of whether to reverse or not, but whether the train can reach them.
Everyone was complaining, but no one said it directly. However, Zhuang Qixiang could guess it without saying it, "The training center recently bought a Jiefang truck, which can help us with transportation."
The conference room was quiet for a moment, and then it suddenly came alive. Whether it was the log plant or the bottle plant, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"The cultivation center was very thoughtful and bought a car. Otherwise, where would we sell these fungus?"
"It's because our Secretary Zhuang has a good relationship with the training center that we are the ones who have suffered this bad luck."
The scene was harmonious again, showing the beautiful image of unity, hard work and positivity of the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau.
Anyway, this time the sales staff from the Forestry Bureau of Liuhu Town went out and didn’t go anywhere else. They headed straight to a distant place that had not been visited by sales staff from other towns.
When I went there and told them I wanted to sell wood ear mushrooms, the local shops and supply and marketing cooperatives were a little confused. After all, the city is not close to the mountains and does not produce much of these.
But after they gave them the samples and the products were not expensive, people started placing orders with them one after another, filling up half of the truck.
The day the truck set out for Liuhu Town to load cargo was so cool. Simple Chinese people had never seen advertisements printed on the truck bed.
The people at the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau had never seen it before and were truly shocked. When they heard that they could also hang it up, they immediately found several large pieces of paper, wrote on it and posted it up.
Then the car drove out of Liuhu, out of Changshan, and out of Jiangcheng City, carrying advertisements on both sides and the hopes of the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau.
The rate of return visits is higher than in the county. After all, Changshan has a wood ear mushroom cultivation center that everyone in the county knows about, but few people outside know about it.
Whenever I stop on the road, whether for gas or to grab a bite to eat, someone will always ask, "What the hell are you doing here?"
The driver was specifically told this before leaving the house, and if anyone asked, he would say, "The wood ear mushrooms on the bus are grown artificially using strains from our center."
If you ask why the two sides are different, they will say that their center only sells strains and teaches techniques, and the products are grown at the base on the other side.
When we arrived at the store we had contacted, someone noticed us before we even started unloading the goods. "A wood ear mushroom cultivation base in Liuhu Town, Changshan County? We're selling wood ear mushrooms here?"
There's not much entertainment these days, so who wouldn't love to see something new and exciting? The news had already spread before the content even arrived.
Originally, the store was not ready to put the goods out so quickly, but when they saw that there were many people asking, they weighed the goods to make sure there were enough and then took out a bag first.
Anyway, the prices are fixed. This bag will be sold first, and the remaining ones will be put into storage and sent to other branches.
To be honest, at the beginning there were more people watching than buying. After all, it was a new thing and no one knew whether it was good or not.
But the stuff is really not expensive. Even if you can't afford a pound, you can still afford an ounce. You can go home and soak it in water, and it's not a small amount.
Then people started to repurchase, especially those who had relatives in other cities and had been given the food by their relatives before.
The people at the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau waited patiently for a while and finally received the follow-up order. They sent out a second truck, this time it was full.
Now I was completely relieved, because the advertisement on the car was so good that even the dogs passing by would know about it. The breeding center also received two calls asking them about wood ear cultivation.
No matter whether the other party will plant it in the end, the fact that they come to ask means that the breeding center’s advertising is successful and it has gained some popularity.
Every time she received a call, Yan Xue patiently and carefully introduced the two existing planting methods and the technical support she provided to the other party, and invited the other party to visit the center.
After she hung up the phone, Lang Yue'e pushed the poured water in front of her and said, "Hurry up and drink a couple of sips. We've been talking for a long time."
Yan Xue's mouth was dry after speaking, so she thanked him and handed him over. "When we grow bigger in the future, we'll hire a customer service representative to answer the phone."
Hearing this, Lang Yue'e burst out laughing. "Isn't this a big deal? Now the whole province knows that we have a fungus cultivation center here."
However, only two counties under Jiangcheng City actually planted wood ear mushrooms, while the entire three northeastern provinces had places suitable for growing wood ear mushrooms. Yan Xue just smiled and said nothing.
Lang Yue'e also knew that she was ambitious and had a plan for success, but she wouldn't say anything until the time was right, nor did she ask any more questions. "Are you going to pick up Yan Yu today?"
Qi Yanyu was six years old, and although he could recognize as many words as a first-grader, he was still officially out of school. After Yan Xue and Qi Fang discussed it, they sent him to the nearby Linyi Primary School for preschool.
Whether he learns anything or not is secondary. The most important thing is that he needs to have peers to play with. He cannot always stay at home and be watched by the old lady, who is old.
It’s just that usually Qi Fang would ride his bike to pick her up after work. These days, Qi Fang went to the provincial capital to attend a provincial drag exchange meeting, so she took over.
Not sure whether Qi Yanyu wanted to see his mother more or ride in his father's car more, Yan Xue smiled and said, "Qi Fang should be back today, but I'll go pick him up."
When Yan Xue arrived, half of the children had already left the playground, and the other half were playing while waiting for their families to pick them up.
Her little one was inside and was quite popular. A group of little boys and girls surrounded him and wanted to play with him.
Qi Yan never refuses any children he meets. He is very good at entertaining people at a young age. His little peach blossom eyes are narrowed with a thoughtful look.
When Yan Xue went to pick them up, the group of children were reluctant to leave and almost followed them, especially the two little girls who kept holding on to him.
This is because the little guy is still young, otherwise Yan Xue would have to consider whether to ask his father to enroll him in a men's ethics class.
Qi Fang has a famous saying: "I don't know any lesbians." But her little one is just the opposite. He smiles at everyone he meets.
When the mother and son returned home, the second old lady was cooking in the kitchen. She moved very quietly and raised a finger when she saw them.
The child was about to say "great-grandmother" when he covered his mouth with his hands. After a while, he whispered under his hands: "What's wrong?"
"Your father is back and busy." The old lady came over, took his little schoolbag, and took him directly to her room.
Yan Xue went in to take a look, and was mainly surprised that Qi Fang was busy right after returning.
The man was writing furiously at the desk with his back to the door, and he didn't even hear her open the door. The bag he carried when he went out was placed on the kang beside him.
This is not like him. With his personality, he would pack up his things as soon as he came in. If he didn't pack up, it only meant that he was too anxious to take care of it.
Yan Xue did not make a sound to disturb him, but closed the door gently. When it was time for dinner, she called out but received no response, and then she brought over a meal.
The old lady had rolled the dishes in pancakes and could eat them right away. She tapped Qi Fang's arm, signaling him not to forget, and turned and left without saying anything.
Qi Fang hadn't finished his work until bedtime. Yan Xue thought about it and decided not to interrupt his train of thought. She washed up and went into bed.
Just as I was about to fall asleep, Qi Fang must have noticed me, came over and turned off the light, and then he took out a flashlight and continued.
Yan Xue slept until the roosters crowed outside, and then she felt someone close to her and hugged her in his arms.
She narrowed her eyes and asked, "Are you done?" But what she met was the man's gaze, which was brighter than usual after enduring a night.
Qi Fang said "hmm". Seeing that she woke up, he looked at her with his peach blossom eyes. He raised his hand and gently stroked the lazy corners of her eyes.
Yan Xue could clearly feel the hint in his action, and could even sense a certain readiness that was still there after several days of absence.
I don't know why he seems to be more energetic the longer he stays up. Anyway, the thin morning light shines through the curtains, casting a hazy ambiguity on the whole room, making the temperature rise so naturally.
After a while, Yan Xue finally let go of the short hair under her hand. She felt the man wipe his lips and leaned over to her ear, "Xiaoxue, I've figured out how to deal with the last control valve."
Yan Xue's mind was still full of fireworks, and she didn't react at first. By the time she realized what he was saying, he had already rushed in.
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