Baojian

Chapter 301 The Land of Gold and Jade
"Boss Huang, how about the strength of Li Yongqian Processing Factory? Is it large?" After hearing Huang Bingyu's words, Qin Feng's heart moved.

Qin Feng received a call from Feng Yongkang and Xie Xuan yesterday. They have reached an agreement with the Hetian jade mine in Xinjiang Province to purchase a batch of high-quality Hetian jade raw stones from there every year at a relatively low price.

In this way, there is no problem with the supply of nephrite jewelry in "Zhenyufang", and now the source of jade jewelry is to be solved. The reason why Qin Feng insisted on coming here with Huang Bingyu is because of this thought.

As soon as he came to Jieyang, he met a master carver with good craftsmanship. Qin Feng began to ponder in his heart, whether he can hand over the processing of his jade ornaments to Li Yongqian in the future?
"Boss Qin, although Li Yongqian is a good carver, he is a craftsman, his business is a bit rigid, and it seems that he doesn't have enough funds. This processing factory is very average."

Huang Bingyu shook his head and said: "He is too demanding on craftsmanship. Originally, some craftsmanship that could be replaced by machines has to be polished by hand. If this is done, it will consume a lot of time and energy..."

In Huang Bingyu's view, Li Yongqian seems to have the bottom line of an ancient craftsman, and has always been adhering to the traditional skills of hand-carved jade. The so-called processing factory is that he brought a few apprentices to work.

However, there are many problems in this way. Firstly, the processing fee of hand-carved jade is much higher than that of machine, and secondly, the time is slow and the delivery is slow. Several times, Li Yongqian's processing factory has delayed the delivery time.

After several visits, some jade merchants who came here to admire Li Yongqian's fame also stopped doing business with Li Yongqian.

For those merchants, ordinary customers don't understand the difference between machine processing and manual processing, and they don't need to spend high processing costs to ask Li Yongqian to carve by hand.

"It's a good thing to be meticulous."

After hearing Huang Bingyu's explanation, Qin Feng smiled and said, "Why, Boss Huang, after you bought the jadeite, you also planned to hand it over to Li Yongqian?"

"Me? Oh, brother, I'm not afraid of your jokes, I can't afford him."

Huang Bingyu shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "It takes Lao Li three days to make a pendant, even with his apprentices, how many pieces can be produced in a month?
And even if he carves the simplest jade jewelry, his asking price is more than three hundred, which is even more expensive than the price of jade itself. Do you think I can afford it? "

"It's a bit slow to dry a pendant for three days."

Qin Feng frowned when he heard the words, and seeing that he had come outside the room, he immediately said: "Let's put away our things and go eat first, Boss Li is still waiting below."

"Okay, yes, Qin Feng."

Huang Bingyu suddenly said: "I'll pay for the meals later on. I owe a lot of favors, and it's hard to open my mouth when it's time to talk about business..."

Huang Bingyu's business is not big, and he only has a total of one million yuan in his hands. He just wants to buy some ordinary rough jadeite and process it into jewelry that sells at 500 yuan. That's why he doesn't want to accept Li Yongqian's favor. of.

Qin Feng smiled and didn't say much. He was hoping that Li Yong's business would not be good, so that he could concentrate on processing jadeite for him. However, Qin Feng was a little puzzled, why Li Yongqian's jade cutting efficiency was so low?
You know, Qin Feng himself is a master of jade carving. For him, he can carve a simple pendant in an hour, but it takes three days for Li Yongqian, which makes Qin Feng a little confused. up.

Regarding this question, after coming to the hotel to sit down, Qin Feng asked Li Yongqian face to face.

After hearing Qin Feng's question, Li Yongqian said bitterly: "Boss Qin, I use old techniques. Whether it's removing impurities from the jade or polishing it later, it's all done by hand."

"It's all handmade? It does take three or four days, but Boss Li, the use of machines for this urgent process shouldn't affect the value of the finished jadeite product?"

Qin Feng was a little stunned when he heard the words. Removing impurities and polishing did not require very high skills for jewelry, and it could be replaced by machines. He didn't know why Li Yongqian was so stubborn?

"I know this too, alas, let's be honest..."

Li Yongqian sighed, and said: "I have been working for others for a few years, although I have saved some money, but after I came out to build a factory, I bet a stone with someone, and the bet went bankrupt, so I didn't even buy machines. The money is gone..."

To say that the people who have the most contact with gambling stones, apart from the original stone owners and gamblers, are probably those craftsmen who carve jadeite.

This has been seen a lot, and many jade carving craftsmen have rich experience in betting on stones. They know what kind of stone skin is most likely to produce good jadeite.

Li Yongqian's eyesight is good. Before he came out to work in a processing factory on his own, he once helped others to gamble with stones.

Moreover, Li Yongqian was very lucky. From a fist-sized rough stone of black black sand, an egg-sized glass-type light green jadeite was produced. The rough stone bought for more than 1000 yuan at that time helped the man earn more than 100 million yuan.

It was also after the hard work of more than [-] yuan given by that person that Li Yongqian gave birth to the idea of ​​going it alone.

But when his processing factory had just been prepared and he hadn't bought any machines yet, a fellow villager approached him, saying that he had a good eye and wanted to bet on stones with Li Yongqian.

Speaking of the gambling stones in Yangmei, we must first introduce the history of Yangmei.

Yangmei is a village in the Jiedong area of ​​Jieyang. It is known as the "Hometown of Gold and Jade". Since 1905, the villagers have been engaged in jade processing, production and trade, and it has a history of nearly a hundred years.

The chief worker of Yangmei Village has a population of 2800 and more than 600 households.

There are more than 400 large and small jade processing, production and trading enterprises, and more than 1500 people are specialized in jade processing, production and trade. It can be said that in Yangmei, almost every family has an indissoluble bond with jade.

With a history of nearly a hundred years of jade processing, production and trade, stone gambling is also very popular in Yangmei. As early as when jadeite ornaments were not popular in China, people in Yangmei went to Burma to gamble on stones, and many people had hidden good ones. Emerald rough.

After the emerald craze rose in China, gambling on rocks became a shortcut for many Yangmei people to make a fortune. Due to the limitation of funds, they united a few well-connected families to form a joint venture to gamble on stones.

In the early days of the gambling stone market, most of the rough stones that appeared on the market were old pits.

The so-called old pits refer to those jade pits that have been around for a long time and are known for their large output and high quality. Buy a lot of high-quality jadeite.

But last year, with the reduction of production in the old pits of jadeite in Myanmar, some rough stones from newly developed jadeite mines entered the country. Li Yongqian was also unlucky and just caught up with this wave.

At that time, he and his friends from the same village jointly invested 100 million yuan and went to Myanmar to participate in a jade fair, but the result was that Li Yongqian wanted to cry without tears. The rough stone he bought for 100 million yuan did not even cost 10 yuan after cutting it open. value.

No one can blame him for his bad luck. Li Yongqian could only stop gambling with stones and concentrate on setting up his jade processing factory.

It's just that he has no money, and Li Yonggan's processing factory is not even as good as other workshops. If he hadn't made some achievements in jade carving, he might not even be able to recruit apprentices.

"Boss Li, your craftsmanship is so good, wouldn't you just borrow some money and buy the machine back?"

Qin Feng was a little surprised when he heard the words: "As long as the processing business is on track, hundreds of thousands a year will not be a problem, right? Why do you still insist on doing every process by hand?"

In Qin Feng's view, every household in Yangmei is doing business, and it should not be very difficult to borrow hundreds of thousands from the private sector, so he can't figure out Li Yongqian's behavior.

After hearing Qin Feng's words, Li Yonggan drank a glass of wine sullenly, and said, "Boss Qin, that's not the case. You lost your bet, and no one is willing to lend you money..."

In Yangmei, every household is not only doing business, but also betting on stones, and these people are very superstitious. If your bet goes up, everyone will rush to play stones with you, hoping to be happy.

But if the bet is broken, it will definitely be overthrown by everyone.

Not to mention asking the neighbors to borrow money, even my relatives are ungrateful, and I can give it to them if they have no money to eat, but there is no way to borrow money to start a business.

"Boss Li, there must be a way for the car to reach the mountain, so you don't have to worry, maybe there is something you can do. Boss Li, this Kung Fu tea is not bad, is it a new tea this year?"

After figuring out what happened, Qin Feng toasted Li Yong with a toast, but he never mentioned the stone gambling and the processing factory, and just discussed with him the taste of Kung Fu tea and Chaoshan cuisine on the table.

"Thank you, Boss Qin, for your good words. I still have some tea. If Boss Qin likes it, I'll give you some later..."

Where did Li Yong have the heart to talk about tea with Qin Feng? He turned to look at Huang Bingyu and said, "Boss Huang, are you determined to start the jadeite business?"

"Yeah, the jadeite market is pretty good now, almost accounting for half of the jadeite market. I want to change careers."

Huang Bingyu nodded, and said, "Boss Li, Yangmei's gambling stones don't seem to have a large scope, and they are all brought by regular customers. This time I have to rely on you..."

As far as the stone gambling market is concerned, the Burmese jadeite market is the first to be promoted two to three times a year, but the threshold there is too high. With Huang Bingyu's strength, even if he goes to the place, he cannot compete with the major jewelers from Southeast Asia. of.

In China, only Pingzhou, Guangdong Province has a jadeite market that is open to the outside world, but the scale is far from being comparable to that in Myanmar, and it only happens once a year, and it was opened earlier this year.

To put it bluntly, Yangmei’s rough jadeite trading is actually a secondary transaction conducted internally by some powerful merchants in the village of Yangmei after they returned some stones from the Burmese public betting.

Compared with the jadeite public market in Pingzhou, the scale of this kind of transaction is even smaller, and it can basically be digested in Yangmei. Therefore, if it is not led by an acquaintance, outsiders cannot even enter the trading venue.

(End of this chapter)