The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 599: Integration of production and sales!!!

Today is the "Autumnal Equinox", one of the 24 solar terms, and it is also a good day for the harvest of Liujiazhuang's famous "Jingxi Rice".

As the ancient saying goes, "In the middle of autumn, grains become mellow and all treasures are harvested." The "Autumnal Equinox" symbolizes a good harvest and abundant crops, which is a pleasing sight.

When the "Jingxi Rice" in Liujiazhuang area begins to be harvested, it is also the season when "Shengfang Crabs" raised in rice fields are put on the market in large quantities.

During the autumnal equinox, crab meat is plump and delicious.

Regardless of north or south, crabs have always been a favorite delicacy for gourmets.

Zhang Dai, a poet in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, wrote in the "Crab Meeting" chapter of Taoan Yimeng: "River crabs grow fat in October along with rice and millet. Their shells are as big as plates, with a bulge in the middle, and their purple claws are as big as fists. Their little feet are fleshy and oily like caterpillars.

When you open the shell, you will see the fat and oil piled up like jade fat and amber flakes, which are cohesive and not scattered. Even the eight delicacies cannot compare to their sweetness and richness. This shows how tempting autumn crabs are.

The old Yanjing people have had the custom of eating crabs since ancient times, calling them "autumn delicacies."

The old Yanjing people have inherited the food culture of "holding crab claws to enjoy the autumn" since ancient times, and regard it as a delicacy on the autumn table.

When it comes to choosing crabs, people in Yanjing show unique regional preferences - compared to the sea crabs favored by people in coastal areas, people here prefer river crabs.

In the early years, the crabs eaten by people in Yanjing were mainly sorghum red crabs and Shengfang crabs.

Sorghum red crabs are produced in the east of Beijing and in Majuqiao and Nanyuan areas in the south of Beijing. Nanyuan is the most famous one. They are produced in Xiaolong River and Liangshui River.

In the early years, the river banks were mostly planted with flood-resistant sorghum. When the sorghum turned red, crabs would climb up the sorghum stalks and eat it.

It was the autumnal equinox at that time, and the crab meat was plump. Some people caught them and took them to the capital to sell them. Because of their low price and freshness, they became a delicacy on the tables of ordinary people.

In modern times, with the expansion of cities, these places have long become urban buildings, the clear river water has turned into stinking ditches, and of course the crabs have gradually disappeared.

Therefore, when the local crabs were gone, crabs from other places became popular, and among the foreign crabs, the "Shengfang Crab" from Shengfang Town was the most famous.

Later, as the pearl of the crab-eating culture in the capital, "Shengfang Crab" became a favorite of Yanjing gourmets.

This river crab, which originates from Shengfang Town, Jingang, has a unique beauty due to the nourishment of the special aquatic environment. Its green shell, white belly, golden claws and yellow hair make it highly recognizable.

However, as the local wetland area has shrunk, the crab production in traditional production areas has declined year by year. The "Shengfang Crab" from Liujiazhuang has officially become the first choice on the tables of Yanjing people.

Through more than 30 years of ecological farming exploration, Liujiazhuang area has successfully built a three-dimensional farming system with interwoven rivers, lakes and ditches.

The water-net rice fields here not only replicate the original growth environment of Shengfang crabs, but also improve the quality of crabs through scientific fattening technology.

When the autumn wind blows across the golden rice waves, the plump and yellow "Shengfang crab" becomes a taste memory passed down from generation to generation among Yanjing diners.

Restricted by geographical conditions, the "Jingxi Rice", which once made great contributions to the development of Liujiazhuang, has maintained a planting scale of about 50,000 acres in the past 30 years, neither expanding nor shrinking.

However, with the rapid economic development of Liujiazhuang, this land is undergoing earth-shaking changes.

Today, most of the land here has been replaced by high-rise buildings and modern factory facilities, and every inch of land is worth a lot of money.

By adhering to agricultural civilization in the tide of urbanization, the people of Liujiazhuang have demonstrated extraordinary wisdom.

The Management Committee of Liujiazhuang Development Zone designated the Jingxi rice planting area as an "agricultural cultural heritage protection zone" and improved per-mu yield benefits through three-dimensional planting.

In the golden autumn season, 50,000 mu of rice fields turn into a golden ocean on the edge of the city, complementing the modern light and shadow reflected by the glass curtain walls.

The "Rice-Crab Symbiosis 2.0 System" developed by the team of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences makes each rice ear a natural habitat for crabs. The monitoring equipment added to the crab fields controls the water temperature and dissolved oxygen in real time, making the roe and plumpness of Shengfang crabs 37% higher than that of traditional farming.

During every autumnal equinox, Liujiazhuang witnesses a grand scene of "double harvest".

In the morning light, the harvesters draw perfect arcs among the rice waves; in the twilight, cold chain logistics trucks loaded with fresh "Shengfang crabs" drive to major time-honored restaurants and supermarkets in Beijing.

Restricted by Liujiazhuang's protection policies and restrictions on the scale of breeding and farming, the market prices of the two iconic specialties, "Jingxi Rice" and "Shengfang Crab", have continued to rise in recent years.

As the former "royal tribute rice" and the representative of the Beijing-Tianjin area's specialty aquatic products, its annual output has always been low. This scarcity has directly pushed up the product's premium space.

In ordinary small shops and farmers' markets, the authentic Liujiazhuang "Jingxi Rice" and "Shengfang Crab" are almost hard to find.

If ordinary people want to taste it, they can only go to famous restaurants like "Zhengyanglou" or large chain shopping malls and supermarkets like "RT-Mart" and "Jia Lejia".

Moreover, the prices in these places are often staggering.

It is worth mentioning that large chain retail enterprises such as "RT-Mart" and "Jia Le Jia" were also invested and built by "Liu Shi Zhuang Capital".

The history of "RT-Mart" can be traced back to 1988, when the first store was opened in "Wangfujing" in Yanjing.

After years of steady development, this chain mall now has more than 50 branches across the country, becoming a leader in the large-scale comprehensive retail industry.

Although the "Jia Le Jia" supermarket chain started late, it quickly gained a foothold in major cities across the country with its people-friendly positioning and rapid expansion strategy.

Today, it has 400 chain stores, and this number continues to grow rapidly, showing strong development momentum.

Almost at the same time as "RT-Mart" and "Jiajia Supermarket" rose to prominence was the home appliance chain giant "Five Star Electrical Appliances", as well as "Gome Electrical Appliances" and "Suning Electrical Appliances", which were later controlled by "Liu's Investment". Together, they occupied an important position in the home appliance retail sector in Xia.

Since the people of Liujiazhuang established their own terminal retail system, their diversified product lines covering food, beverages, wine, home appliances, medical supplies, fresh produce, grains, fruits, hardware tools, etc. have seen an unprecedented surge in sales.

This remarkable sales growth is due to the strategic development model of integrated production and sales, which not only optimizes the supply chain, but also greatly improves market response speed and consumer satisfaction.

As the helmsman of the Liu family's retail business, Liu Shuying is responsible for integrating the group's retail footprint.

This business elite, who is only in his early forties, is in his prime time to achieve great things.

As Liu Zhiye's cousin, Liu Shuying's business ability is outstanding among his peers in the family.

Not only did he graduate from Huaqing University with excellent grades, he also went to Harvard Business School in the United States for further studies, laying a solid foundation in both academic and business fields.

While studying at Harvard, Liu Shuying got a rare opportunity - to intern at the global retail giant Walmart.

This experience allowed him to closely observe and learn the world's most advanced retail operation models, laying a solid foundation for his future development in the retail field.

With an international vision and cutting-edge ideas, Liu Shuying resolutely returned to China. With the strong support of his family, he started his legendary journey in the retail industry in China and gradually grew into a leader in the industry.

Even so, Liu Shuying was not satisfied but was actively expanding. His ultimate goal was to allow all the terminal retailers under Liu's control to go abroad and compete with giants like Walmart.

At the family meeting, Liu Zhiye gave his utmost support to his cousin Liu Shuying's ambitions. He reminded him earnestly: "Today's society is developing rapidly, and the terminal retail industry is also undergoing earth-shaking changes.

Take the emerging field of the Internet for example, its future development will completely subvert people’s cognition.”

Liu Zhiye further gave an example: "Just like Amazon, the newly emerged Internet shopping company in the United States.

Although it may be too early to say this now, given the development of the Internet in our country, e-commerce will not gradually rise until at least after 2000. "Here, he paused meaningfully and added: "However, this time point is actually not far away. This may be the future..."

For decades, every word and every decision made by Liu Zhiye has deeply influenced the development of Liujiazhuang and the entire Liu family.

Time is the best witness. Liu Zhiye's foresight shines brighter with the baptism of time. His judgment has never been wrong, and his decisions have always led the family to glory.

Today, Liu Zhiye has become the spiritual leader of the Liu family. His wisdom and courage earn the respect of his fellow clansmen, and they even develop a trust in him that is almost worshipful.

This trust, like a solid foundation, supports the entire family to move forward steadily through wind and rain.

As a result, Liu Shuying developed a strong interest in Internet e-commerce.

Perhaps this is a new opportunity bestowed by the times, but it may also be a new direction for the future.

What Liu Shuying didn't know was that perhaps it was the butterfly effect created by Liu Zhiye that Amazon, which was originally scheduled to be established next year, in July 1994, was established more than a year earlier. However, the newly established Amazon was similar to Liu Zhiye's previous life. At the beginning, Amazon only provided customers with unique new, refurbished and second-hand products, such as books, movies, music and games, digital downloads, electronics and computers, home and garden supplies, toys and other businesses.

Today's Amazon is not yet the Internet giant it will be in the future; it is just in its infancy.

The domestic Internet e-commerce is Alibaba, and this company will have to wait a few more years to be established.

Ali initially focused on B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce, helping small domestic manufacturers and suppliers connect with international buyers.

Taobao, which focuses on online personal shopping, came even later, that was after 2000!

Founded in the same year, EachNet is one of the earliest C2C (consumer-to-consumer) e-commerce platforms in China, using auctions to conduct transactions.

Of course, the hottest Internet companies in the world today are high-tech companies such as America Online, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Interestingly, Yahoo also came to market earlier, but the company’s founder was still the legendary figure Jerry Yang.

What’s different is that it’s different from the difficulties Jerry Yang faced when he founded Yahoo in his previous life.

In this life, Yahoo, founded by Jerry Yang, received favor and investment from the "Liu Overseas Fund" from Hong Kong in its early days.

Does it sound familiar?

It sounds familiar. This is actually one of the investment funds set up by the Liu Zhiye family to facilitate overseas investments.

After the first round of financing, "Liu Overseas Investment Fund" became Yahoo's largest shareholder, holding a 40% stake, injecting strong momentum into Yahoo's rise.

Looking back at Liu Zhiye’s past life memories, Yahoo ushered in its historic moment in 1996 - it successfully entered the capital market.

On the day of its listing, Yahoo's market value soared by nearly $10 billion, shocking the entire technology industry.

If Liu can maintain his shareholding ratio without dilution in the future, based on this ratio, the value of his Yahoo shares will be as high as approximately US$4 million, which is an astonishing fortune.

For high-tech companies like these, "Liu Overseas Fund" has made many diversified investments in global fields, including some start-ups, or invested in some mature companies.

For example, high-tech companies such as Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, Intel, Nvidia, AMD, Amazon, Ali, Qualcomm, etc., as well as traditional industries such as Walmart, Tyco, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, etc.

Liu's capital gradually went abroad, conquered cities and territories in the global financial field, and continuously recovered profits.

…………

It's another "harvest" season.

While preserving the traditional ritual of "Harvest Festival", Liujiazhuang's agricultural tourism project also gives visitors the opportunity to participate in harvesting and catching crabs.

Of course, during this autumnal equinox, in addition to the bumper harvest of "Jingxi Rice" and "Shengfang Crab" in Liujiazhuang area, the orchards in the mountainous areas also present a prosperous autumn scene.

After the Autumnal Equinox, all kinds of fruits and vegetables in Liujiazhuang area come on the market, so the people of Liujiazhuang also call the "Autumnal Equinox" the "Fruit Festival."

At this time, there are more seasonal fruit stalls on the streets.

Compared with "rice field breeding", Liujiazhuang's fruit planting industry is superior and can be regarded as the cornerstone of Liujiazhuang's industrial development.

The huge fruit planting industry not only brought rich economic benefits to Liujiazhuang at that time, but also laid a solid foundation for the subsequent industrial development.

It is the prosperity of this industry that has given birth to the nationally renowned "Yanshan Wine Group" and "Liujiazhuang Food and Beverage Group". They are like shining pearls inlaid in the industrial map of Liujiazhuang.

During difficult times, fruit planting became Liujiazhuang's "lifeline".

Fruit planting also provides strong support for the development of livestock breeding and meat processing in Liujiazhuang.

In addition, the fruit planting industry has indirectly promoted the rapid development of biogas energy.

Thanks to the prosperity of this industry, the people of Liujiazhuang have been using convenient biogas energy as early as thirty years ago and have led a more environmentally friendly and efficient life.

This innovative measure not only improves the quality of life of local residents, but also paves the way for the sustainable development of Liujiazhuang.

It can be said that fruit planting has played a vital role in the economic development of Liujiazhuang.

Today, fruit growing is only a small part of the Liujiazhuang area's huge economy.

However, Liujiazhuang makes full use of the geographical advantages of the Yantai mountainous area, and is also actively expanding and promoting the integration of the fruit planting industry with the local tourism industry to create Liujiazhuang's unique rural tourism brand.

Visitors can pick fresh fruits by themselves, taste authentic food, experience the rural customs, and enjoy an unforgettable pastoral time.

This not only brought considerable economic benefits to Liujiazhuang, but also enhanced its popularity and reputation.

In terms of environmental protection, Liujiazhuang will continue to leverage the advantages of biogas energy to promote green and low-carbon development.

By promoting biogas utilization technology, building ecological agriculture and other measures, Liujiazhuang will strive to become a model of a beautiful city with green ecology, suitable for living and working.

Here, people and nature coexist in harmony, jointly writing a magnificent chapter of ecological civilization.

Whenever the harvest season comes, the orchard is filled with enticing fruit aroma, attracting tourists and diners from the capital to come and compete to buy and taste the freshest and sweetest fruits.

The fruits in Liujiazhuang are not only diverse in variety, but also of superior quality.

The cherries here are bright red, the apples are crisp, sweet and juicy, the pears are fragrant and refreshing, the peaches are soft, glutinous and sweet, the pomegranates are crystal clear, the crabapples are lush and colorful, the sand apples are moderately sour and sweet, the grapes are attractive purple and black, the dates are sweet but not greasy, the apricots are soft and juicy, the strawberries are bright red and tender, and the watermelons are sweet and refreshing.

Each kind of fruit embodies the hard work and wisdom of the people of Liujiazhuang, and has become a bright business card of Liujiazhuang.

With the vigorous development of the fruit planting industry, Liujiazhuang has gradually become a tourist destination integrating sightseeing, picking, leisure and entertainment.

Here, visitors can not only taste fresh and delicious fruits, but also experience the fun of picking and feel the charm of nature.

At the same time, Liujiazhuang also actively promotes fruit culture and holds various festivals to allow more people to understand and love this land full of vitality and hope.

Today, Liujiazhuang’s fruits have become a brand and are sold all over the country, and are deeply loved and praised by high-end fruit consumers.

After waiting for more than a month, it was October.

This time of year is the moment that people in Beijing have been looking forward to for a long time.

Because it means they can finally taste the apple they have been longing for.

In this season, what is particularly eye-catching is the Nankou Guoguang apple, an apple that carries the fond memories of countless Yanjing people.

Just by stretching out your hand, you can touch the distant childhood memories; by just smelling it, you can feel the familiar and friendly smell.

With a gentle bite, the "crunch" sound accompanied by the sweet and sour juice instantly explodes in the mouth, impacting the taste buds.

Compared with the overly sweet apples on the market today, Liujiazhuang's Guoguang apples have a unique flavor that is unforgettable.

In the orchard of Liujiazhuang Farm in mid-October, the orchard masters’ hard work for a year finally bore fruit.

The delicate and small Guoguang apples, the plump and red Fuji apples, and the lush and green Wanglin apples are all hanging on the branches, making people happy.

Tourists who have tasted the apples have praised them highly: "These apples are really delicious, sweet with a hint of sourness, as if they brought back the taste of my childhood, and that familiar feeling has returned."

The apple farm has entered the harvest season, with branches full of "Xiao Guoguang" apples, which is a pleasing sight.

This Yanjing Guoguang apple, which has a cultivation history of nearly 40 years, has achieved variety innovation, but its sweet and sour, crisp and delicious taste is still deeply loved by the public and leaves people with endless aftertaste.

(End of this chapter)