Chapter 75 Chapter 75 Production Line in Hand
As soon as Yu Guoliang finished speaking, the scene fell into dead silence.
If we go back a few years, it was impossible for state-owned factories to sell their equipment to private individuals. But with the wave of reform sweeping across the country in recent years, many boundaries have become less rigid. Everything is centered around the economy, so they had equipment to dispose of, and someone happened to want to buy it, so it was a natural fit.
But when it comes to taking advantage of loopholes to make money from the country, the problem is serious. It involves the loss of state-owned assets, and if you are not careful, you will be held accountable and punished.
Several factory leaders in front of the stage looked at each other with different expressions.
Director Yan frowned.
He is not young anymore and his ideas are rather conservative in many aspects, but at the same time, he knows his own shortcomings, so he tries his best to learn new ideas and new knowledge, and he also tries his best to support any new ideas that people in the factory have.
Like launching a canned food production line and conducting internal bidding for the production line, these things were initially suggestions from his subordinates, and he agreed after careful consideration.
Although the canning production line ultimately failed, it was not the fault of one or two people. In a market economy, everything is new. Since it is an experiment, failure is inevitable.
As the head of a military factory, Director Yan is well aware that he does not have sufficient innovative capabilities, but he is a responsible person who dares to take on responsibilities. He positions himself as someone who can grasp the general direction and provide protection for comrades who dare to innovate.
When deciding to sell the production line to a private individual, Director Yan did consider policy issues and even consulted with the higher authorities. He only made the decision after confirming that there were no problems.
But he certainly hadn't considered the issue of reselling it.
This is also because people like him who have worked in public institutions for decades have deep-rooted thinking habits, believing that purchasing machinery and equipment is for the purpose of setting up a factory and is the top priority. Therefore, it is normal for private individuals to purchase equipment from public institutions, but it is impossible for manufacturers to purchase equipment from private individuals.
No matter how prosperous individual businesses and township enterprises are, they can only focus on ensuring that they have enough food and clothing, and they cannot get involved in heavy industry.
Besides, it's possible for a self-employed person to resell some clothes and electronic products from the south, but if you were to talk about individuals reselling machinery and equipment, Director Yan really hadn't even thought about it.
But before the bidding, someone raised this question.
Director Yan’s first reaction was that it was impossible, but he quickly realized that although he thought it was impossible, it was theoretically feasible.
The atmosphere at the scene was somewhat stagnant. The director of the factory office glanced at the factory leaders and pointed at Yu Guoliang. "Comrade, please sit down. We are holding an open bidding. Our goal is to get rid of the idle production lines in the factory at a reasonable price. We just need to ensure that the price is reasonable."
Yu Guoliang thought to himself, the youngest one is really amazing, he even guessed what the other party said.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "The country encourages everyone to develop the economy, allowing the rich to help those who are not," he said. "It doesn't encourage speculation or exploiting loopholes to get something for nothing. If someone really takes advantage of this opportunity to buy up the production line and resell it, it's clearly contrary to national policy. This is disrupting the market and will cause losses to the country. This isn't a question of whether the price is reasonable or not, it's a question of whether they are qualified to participate in the bidding."
There was a moment of silence, and someone couldn't help but retort: "That sounds nice, but how can you prove that you're not a speculator?"
Someone spoke up, and someone else immediately chimed in: "This is obsolete equipment from the factory. Selling it at a reasonable price so the factory can recover the funds in time and start other projects is the most important thing. You're not from our military factory, are you? I think you're the one causing trouble."
"You're exaggerating. Everyone here is a factory employee or their family members. How could they do anything that would harm the factory's interests?"
…
Everyone started talking at once and attacking Yu Guoliang.
Yu Guoliang had never encountered such a situation. Even though Liu Mianmian had analyzed the situation he would face today in detail last night and he was mentally prepared, his heart couldn't help but beat faster at this time.
Jiang Hongmei couldn't bear to watch and wanted to speak, but Yu Guoliang spoke before she could, "I'm not questioning anyone here. I'm raising this question from the perspective of the Nancheng Military Factory. I don't want the factory to suffer any losses, and I want to help the factory plug this loophole."
He said in one breath, "So my suggestion is that before bidding, every bidder should promise the factory that they won't sell the production line for two years after successfully bidding. It takes two years to build a cannery from scratch—selecting a site, building the factory, hiring employees, producing products, selling them, and then accepting market testing."
If it still fails to succeed within two years, the factory will go bankrupt and the equipment will naturally have to be sold again.
As soon as he said this, the faces of almost all the bidders changed.
Some might argue that the military factory's equipment wasn't even two years old, only about a year at best. But then again, it's not that the military factory couldn't withstand the test of the market, but rather that it simply didn't have the raw materials. But if you were to argue that after buying the equipment, you might end up like the military factory, unable to continue production due to a lack of raw materials, then this person would probably ask, if they knew they couldn't produce without the raw materials, why did they buy the production line?
This is really a case of a random punch killing the master, which disrupted all their plans.
Some people may also say, can you guarantee that the production line you bought will really be put into production? Even the military factories don’t have the raw materials, so where will you get them from?
But he couldn't say this. Saying it would be like exposing himself and admitting that he didn't want to run a cannery.
Yu Guoliang seemed to know what everyone was thinking. He said solemnly, "I can make a statement and promise that after purchasing the equipment, we will put it into production as soon as possible."
He pulled out a stack of documents from the cloth bag he was carrying. "These are the various documents the township has handled for our Meizizi Cannery. We've also decided on a site for the cannery. As long as we can buy the equipment today, we'll start construction as soon as we get back."
Others present: “………………”
For a moment, I couldn't tell whether it was more outrageous that this person was really planning to open a cannery, or it was more outrageous that they had completed all the procedures without doing anything.
The director of the factory office originally thought that he was just here to go through the motions and serve as a tool for making announcements, but he didn't expect that he would have to deal with such an emergency.
To be honest, this kind of thing is not something he can decide, but Yu Guoliang's words are reasonable and well-founded. If he doesn't respond at all, it will make it seem like there is something fishy about their bidding.
There is something fishy going on. The factory director had actually heard some rumors. Take Liu Zhigang for example. Everyone in the factory knew his family's financial situation. Under such circumstances, he signed up to buy equipment. Who wouldn't know there was something fishy going on?
It’s just that everyone thinks that the price of this equipment is not cheap, and if someone really has the courage and channels, then they deserve to make money.
Of course, there are also people who really want to run a cannery, such as Zhang Dayong's family. After their eldest daughter went to the countryside, she stayed in the rural area under Jiangxi Province. That place is a fruit town, and it is said that his family wants to run a cannery there.
Thoughts raced as the factory director looked at several factory leaders. Then he saw Director Yan waving at him. He walked over, and Director Yan said in a deep voice, "It cannot be sold within a year."
They sold the equipment after only one year of operation, so naturally they had no right to ask others not to resell it within two years. After considering it, Director Yan felt that the process mentioned by Yu Guoliang would take at least one year.
The factory director's expression changed slightly, but he quickly calmed down and nodded, saying, "Okay."
The director of the factory office, who could lead a powerful department in a military factory, was naturally no ordinary person. He quickly adjusted his composure, returned to the stage, clasped his hands, and said with a smile, "This is an internal bidding meeting. Out of trust in the employees and their families, the factory has not set too strict conditions. However, the question raised by this comrade just now does have some truth."
After a brief pause, the factory director continued, "I believe there are no people in our factory who would harm the public interest for personal gain. However, since someone has raised this issue and even offered countermeasures, we are always happy to accept good suggestions. So, we have temporarily decided to add a condition to the bidding process: regardless of who wins the bid, they must sign a contract guaranteeing that they will not resell the production line within one year."
As soon as he said this, the expressions of several people below changed, and some of the factory leaders also looked unhappy.
"Although this is a temporary condition, whether it is added or not actually has little impact."
The factory director ignored everyone's reactions and quickly went through the process. He glanced at Yu Guoliang, who was already seated. Seeing that he had no objections, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "Then let's get started. The base price is 8,000. Everyone can bid based on this, with each bid increasing by no less than 500."
No. 9, Qiuzhi Lane.
Liu Mianmian sat under the pomegranate tree, checking accounts. Aunt Liu sat beside her, picking vegetables. As she was picking, she couldn't help but ask, "Do you think Guoliang can buy that production line today?"
Liu Mianmian quickly wrote down a number in her notebook before saying, "If he performs normally, it should be possible. After all, among the seven people who signed up, only a few are truly committed to doing real work. And I told him it's okay if the price is a little higher. My base price is 14,000. At that price, he won't make much money if he tries to resell it."
Since she wanted to run a cannery, she had to buy equipment. The two production lines of the military factory were carefully selected and had not been used for a long time, so there was basically no depreciation. Even if the price was a little higher, it was cost-effective to save various intermediate links.
Aunt Liu was genuinely curious: "Didn't they say the military factory couldn't even start a cannery? Why did you want to start this? We don't have any fruit in South City, do we?"
Liu Mianmian laughed and said, "Aunt Liu, have you ever eaten salty canned food?"
Aunt Liu frowned: "There are salty canned foods?"
This is why the Nancheng Military Factory has to sell its production line once it runs out of raw materials.
Liu Mianmian had actually discovered a long time ago that there were no salty canned foods in Nancheng, and there were only two kinds of canned fruits, one yellow peach and one orange.
Zhijiangxi Restaurant sells canned luncheon meat, but since it's sold in a restaurant, they don't serve it in tin cans; it's all taken out and reprocessed. A local South City employee at the restaurant once said that canning meat was strange; they only had cured and smoked meat here, and had never seen this kind of canned meat before.
But in fact, at that time, canned luncheon meat was among China's export products.
This is the regional difference.
Liu Mianmian guessed that the leaders of the military factory must have seen canned meat, canned fish and other canned foods when they were on business trips, but they may have forgotten about these things that were never sold in the factory, or they may have felt that it was difficult to open up the market and not worth the risk, so they did not consider it.
Qianjin Township is indeed not a major fruit producing area, but it is the largest township in the county. It has many mountains and forests and abundant water resources. There are a lot of canned raw materials in the entire Qianjin Township.
In addition to canned meat and fish, pickles, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, etc. can also be canned. With the substantial increase in peanut production, they may even be able to make peanut butter... The raw materials and ingredients are different, but the production process of canning, sealing and labeling is the same.
In the eyes of others, these two production lines in the military factory are just chicken ribs that are tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away, but in Liu Mianmian's eyes, they are two treasure troves.
Not to mention anything else, if Xu Li's pickled radish strips could be mass-produced, she could make a lot of money.
Aunt Liu was shocked: "How much would it cost to make canned pickles from radish strips? Who would be willing to spend so much money on pickles?"
Liu Mianmian analyzed for her that using glass bottles to pack radish strips did increase the cost, but if the radish strips could be mass-produced, the cost per unit quantity would actually be reduced. It also solved the problem that the taste of radish strips would change after being pickled for a long time and the shelf life would be too short.
In the future, they can supply two types of radish strips, one is large-scale, bulk, and slightly cheaper radish strips, and the other is radish strips packaged in cans, which have a longer shelf life and more guaranteed taste. The former is supplied to vegetable markets, and the latter is supplied to department stores and supply and marketing cooperatives, and can even be sold to other places.
Aunt Liu was stunned when she heard this: "Can our radish strips be sold outside the province?"
Liu Mianmian smiled and said, "Of course I can. Break out of South City and go out into the world!"
"Oh my, it's going global and selling in the South City Department Store and the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Your mother will be so happy!" Aunt Liu said, "Then, according to you, we should buy this production line. The sooner we buy it, the sooner we can start production."
As he was speaking, there was a loud bang at the gate of the courtyard.
Aunt Liu stood up suddenly: "Oh, are they back?" She trotted to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, Liu Mianmian heard Jiang Hongmei's voice: "I bought it, I bought it. You don't know how powerful Brother Guoliang is. He spoke in front of the leaders of the factory and made them dumbfounded. Hahaha, it was the same when they were bidding later. People were increasing the price by 500, and he simply increased it by 1,000, and they immediately became intimidated."
Jiang Hongmei introduced herself very quickly. Yu Guoliang said embarrassedly, "I'm blushing when you say that. It's not that I'm good at it. Mianmian taught me all that."
"That only works if you can keep calm and say it!"
"Amazing, awesome! You two are both amazing! We just said we had to buy this production line, and you guys did it! You're both amazing." Aunt Liu asked curiously, "How much did that production line cost?"
Jiang Hongmei looked at Yu Guoliang with a smile: "You bought it, tell me."
Yu Guoliang also looked excited and looked at Liu Mianmian: "Twelve thousand."
Liu Mianmian raised her eyebrows. This was much cheaper than her reserve price, but it was also a relatively reasonable price.
Jiang Hongmei described the situation at the time, and was extremely amused: "You have no idea, when they heard that it couldn't be sold for at least a year, those people's faces turned very ugly. They really were all thinking of getting something for nothing. Some simply didn't make an offer, for fear of losing money on it."
After getting the production line, Yu Guoliang hurried back to Qianjin Township after dinner. He had to report to the township and then find someone to build a factory.
At the same time, someone in the military industrial compound was cursing Yu Guoliang.
"They've been humiliated. They're not allowed to resell the property for two years. They really should be thankful to Director Yan for shortening the timeframe. Otherwise, they would have lost a ton of money in two years."
"How could a cannery be so easy to build? If it were so easy, why didn't our military factory succeed? They really don't know how high the heavens are and how deep the earth is. Don't worry, just wait and see. In two months, when the factory building is built, they will know how powerful we are."
"Qian Aizhen even boasted that her daughter was going to give her the dividends from the cannery for her retirement. Isn't that funny? The cannery isn't even a thing yet, and they're already thinking about dividends. I don't think it's necessarily about dividends, but more about going into debt together."
…
These are the family members of employees who participated in the bidding.
Liu Zhigang walked behind these people, frowning tightly. He went to the venue in person today, but with his status, he couldn't show off, so he didn't say a word from beginning to end.
Like the people before him, he hated Yu Guoliang who showed up out of nowhere, but now there was a more urgent matter that needed to be dealt with.
He was afraid that he would have to pay after the bidding ended, so he borrowed money from the bank early on. Now that the bidding was unsuccessful, he has to pay the money back quickly, otherwise there will be additional interest every day.
Compared to Liu Zhigang who only lost some interest, Jiang Yingxue's loss was even greater.
She spent money to find someone to sign up and to find a buyer. Although she didn't get the equipment, she couldn't get her money back.
These were all agreed upon at the beginning, and it was all in vain for her.
After Jiang Yingxue left the military factory, she called Fang Meiyu at the sanatorium.
When Fang Meiyun heard that she had not won the bid, she was very surprised and blurted out: "How is this possible? You are a woman... I mean, you have tried so hard."
Fang Meiyu gently comforted Jiang Yingxue, telling her not to be depressed because of temporary setbacks. These things were just small setbacks on her way to success. The more setbacks she faced, the calmer she had to be.
Jiang Yingxue heard a lot of good things from Fang Meiyu, and by the time she hung up the phone, her mood had improved a lot.
Over the years, Fang Meiyu often encouraged her, which made her more confident in herself. Sometimes she even felt that Fang Meiyu seemed to believe that she could achieve results more than she did.
Jiang Yingxue feels so lucky to have such an elder who always cares for and encourages her.
What Jiang Yingxue didn't know was that after Fang Meiyu hung up the phone, the smile on her face disappeared completely.
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