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

Chapter 638 Win-win cooperation!!!

Before the handover, there were many patriotic businessmen in Hong Kong, like Liu Shudong, Bao Yugang, and Huo Da Lao Cao Guangbiao, who made many contributions;
Through their patriotic actions, they interpreted the true meaning of "the greatest businessmen are those who serve the country and the people."

Cai Guanshen came to Beijing and Tianjin again. He was inspecting the inland fishery market accompanied by Hao Haibo, the son of his old friend Hao Shun.

Hao Shun is an old acquaintance of the Cai family. He received care from the Cai family when he was doing the "fish stall" business in Hong Kong.

"I often tell people that we should follow the trend, as the general trend is the direction of the country's development." Ai Cai Guanshen said to Hao Shun.

Cai Guanshen admired Hao Shun, the son of his old friend, and couldn't help but give him some advice.

"Thank you, Mr. Cai, for your advice!" Although Hao Haibo has done well in the seafood business in the mainland, he is still not good enough to face this "Seafood King".

This is no ordinary businessman. Cai Guanshen comes from a seafood family and was one of the first Hong Kong businessmen to invest in the mainland after the reform and opening up.

For nearly twenty years, he has always been full of confidence in the development of his motherland.

Whether facing the wave of reform and opening up or the important historical node of return, Cai Guanshen insisted on investing in the mainland and reaped satisfactory results.

Cai Guanshen's father Cai Jiyou is the founder of the Hong Kong Xinhua Group.

Cai Jiyou was originally a small fishmonger in his hometown of Zhongshan, Guangdong Province. Later, he opened a seafood wholesale store "Hua Ji Lan" in the Xihuan Shellfish Market in Hong Kong. Due to his good management, the scale of the store continued to expand.

In the late 1950s, Wah Kee Lan merged with New Asia Trading Company to form Xinhua Company, which was also the prototype of the early Hong Kong Xinhua Group.

This year, Cai Guanshen was born.

By the 1970s, the Cai family's seafood business had expanded from Hong Kong and Macau to Japan, Southeast Asia and other regions.

At that time, Cai Guanshen was studying in Japan. He was interested in literature, history and philosophy. His original ideal was to become a scholar, but this plan was interrupted by reality.

At that time, the seafood business run by Cai Guanshen's father was still small in scale and was in the expansion stage, and urgently needed his help.

"The cost of studying in Japan was quite high. My family was not well off at the time and they needed my help, so I decided to return to Hong Kong."

So, Cai Guanshen told Hao Haibo how he got into business.

After returning to Hong Kong, Cai Guanshen assisted his father in running the seafood wholesale business, and the first thing he learned was hard work and perseverance.

Because I have to go to the fishing boats to purchase, I have to start work at six in the morning, and go to the factory at eight o'clock to help with processing, and I can only go home at ten o'clock in the evening.

"At that time, all the small factories in Hong Kong were run in this way. You can't be in this industry without enduring hardships. You also need to have good physical fitness and be able to endure hardships."

Cai Guanshen still feels deeply moved when recalling the past. He said that the fresher the seafood is, the more valuable it is. This particularity dictates that operators must be "quick and accurate" when making decisions. These three words have long been engraved in his mind.

The Cai family is very decisive in doing business!

When the mainland just started its reform and opening up, Cai Guanshen followed his father to Wanzai, Zhuhai, and became one of the first people to try out the new things.

In the initial transaction, the Cai family invested in the mainland through "compensation trade".

Cai Guanshen continued to say that he was very bold and adventurous when he was young, and he often took a small wooden boat to Wan Chai to discuss business.

Later, their family invested more than 3000 million yuan in Wanzai, Zhuhai, and established a fleet of more than 70 ships.

Later, he invested more than 1000 million yuan in his ancestral hometown, Hengmen, Zhongshan.

"We provide advanced fishing equipment and preservation technology, fishermen are responsible for sea operations, and the harvested seafood is used to offset investment."

In fact, the early investment was not ideal. Under the original model, fishermen's monthly salary was 36 yuan. They would get this money whether they worked or not, which made it easy for them to become lazy.

After discussions between the two parties, Cai Guanshen decided to contract the boat to the fishermen for operation, and the fishermen would then repay the loan to Xinhua Group in installments. As a result, everyone became more motivated and the boat loan was quickly paid off.

"In just three to five years, small villas were built in coastal areas, and the fishermen's income increased from 36 yuan per month to several hundred yuan, and their living standards also leaped forward," Cai Guanshen continued to recall.

That year, during the critical period of negotiations between the two sides, many Hong Kong businessmen adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards the future of Hong Kong.

However, Cai Guanshen and his family decided to stay in Hong Kong. At a banquet, he was introduced to Liu Shudong, a top tycoon of H-funded enterprises.

Later, with the support of the big boss Liu Shudong, Cai Guanshen borrowed 10.5 billion Hong Kong dollars from the Asia Pacific Bank at a low interest rate.

With this huge sum of money, Cai Guanshen bought a large piece of land in Tuen Mun and established a seafood headquarters that integrates a processing plant, a 10,000-ton cold storage and a private dock.

"At that time, there were many competitors from Hong Kong for this piece of land, and in the end our family won the bid at a high price," said Cai Guanshen.

Although it cost a lot of money, this decision laid a solid foundation for the subsequent development of the group and became the cornerstone of the Cai family's take-off in the overseas business.

Cai Guanshen joined Xinhua Group at the age of 18 and took over as the head of the group at the age of 25.

At that time, the average age of Xinhua Group's management team was less than 30 years old.

“At that time, I woke up at 4:5 a.m. every day, showed up at the wholesale market at 7: a.m. to buy seafood, and arrived at the factory before : a.m.

365 days a year, only the first three days of the Lunar New Year do I take a short break, the rest of the time I devote myself to work." Cai Guanshen continued to say to Hao Haibo.

At that time, the company's employees saw that Cai Guanshen had no airs of a "prince" and that he took on all the dirty and tiring work such as moving goods and driving, so they shared with him all the experience they had accumulated over decades.

Cai Guanshen's emphasis on young corporate talent continues to this day.

“Competition among companies ultimately comes down to competition for talent, and excellent talent needs to be cultivated from a young age.”

“We have established a systematic talent selection mechanism in East and Southeast Asian countries such as Country Y and Country J.”

Cai Guanshen continued to introduce their talent training mechanism.

Xinhua Group cooperates with local universities to select students with excellent academic performance and moral character, and provides them with full scholarships to pursue master's and doctoral degrees at Chinese universities such as Jinling University and Yenching Normal University.

After completing their studies, most of these students choose to return to their home countries to work for Xinhua Group branches.

Ever since Cai Guanshen took over as the head of the group, he has been determined to carry out reforms!
He pays great attention to the rejuvenation of the team, actively cultivates talents, and promotes the diversified development of the company.

Now, Xinhua Group’s business scope has expanded from single seafood to multiple fields such as finance, technology, real estate, etc., which is a gorgeous turnaround!

Cai Guanshen’s efforts and decisions have enabled Xinhua Group to achieve great success in the seafood industry and become an important player in Hong Kong and even the international market.

His business philosophy has also changed, from pursuing the false title of "Seafood King" to a win-win business model to promote the sustainable development of the company.

Hao Haibo was deeply moved after hearing this. Although he only has a technical secondary school degree, which he obtained through adult education while working in Liujiazhuang, he knows the importance of knowledge.

Although his fishery company has developed rapidly over the years and almost monopolized the seafood market in major cities such as Beijing and Tianjin, as the helmsman, he is increasingly feeling overwhelmed.

As the company continued to expand, management became increasingly difficult. The veterans who had worked with him at the beginning could no longer keep up with the pace of the company's development due to the lack of systematic management training.

Xiangjiang Xinhua Group's complete talent training system is like a beacon, pointing out a new direction for Hao Haibo's enterprise transformation and upgrading.

He realized that in order to lead the company to a broader stage, it was necessary to establish a scientific talent echelon and let professionals do professional things.

……

While Cai Guanshen was inspecting the mainland, Liu Shudong and Hu Yingxiang were inspecting the construction of the "Humen Bridge".

In 1992, the Humen Bridge project was officially launched. The total joint investment of "Liu's Overseas Investment" and "Hehe" reached 30 billion yuan, which was an astronomical figure at the time.

The bridge has been under construction for four years and will be fully completed before the handover next year.

The construction of the Humen Bridge is not only a great achievement in infrastructure, but can also once again boost the economic take-off of the Pearl River Delta region.

The early 1990s was a critical period of reform and opening up, and the Pearl River Delta was full of opportunities.

The economy began to take off due to the influx of a large number of foreign-funded enterprises, but it also exposed the shortcomings of transportation infrastructure.

Traffic on both sides of the Pearl River is blocked by waterways, and corporate logistics costs are high and efficiency is low, which seriously restricts economic development.

All this points to an urgent need: the construction of a cross-river bridge.

At this time, Hong Kong businessman Hu Yingxiang appeared.

Hu Yingxiang is the founder of Hong Kong Hopewell Holdings and has already made achievements in the infrastructure sector.

As a native of H, he received a good education since childhood. His experience of studying abroad in the United States broadened his horizons and gave him a deep understanding of infrastructure and bridge engineering.

Seeing that the economy of his hometown was restricted by inconvenient transportation, Hu Yingxiang came up with a bold idea: to build a cross-river bridge in Humen to connect the Pearl River Delta.

This plan is not only ambitious, but also requires huge investment and superb technology.

It is easy to come up with a plan, but it is difficult to implement it in practice.

The construction of the bridge faced a huge funding gap, and the mainland's technical level was limited at the time, making the complex bridge design and construction very difficult.

However, Hu Yingxiang did not back down.

Hu Yingxiang first found Liu Shudong, the chairman of "Liu's Overseas Investment".

He knew that Liu Shudong was now a foreign-funded leader in Hong Kong, and that Liu's Overseas Investment had been investing heavily in infrastructure in the mainland for many years. Moreover, Hu Yingxiang and Liu Shudong had a friendship.

When the old headquarters building of "Hehe" was sold to "Anju Property" Group under "Liu's Overseas", the two parties had cooperated.

Sure enough, Liu Shudong immediately agreed with Hu Yingxiang's idea.

As a result, both parties invested a large amount of money and introduced advanced design and construction technologies from Hong Kong and internationally to solve many technical problems.

Four years ago, the Humen Bridge project was officially launched with a total investment of HK$30 billion, which was an astronomical figure at the time.

The construction process of this bridge was full of challenges. Not only was the project large in scale, but the geographical environment was complex and the technical requirements were extremely high.

Every detail had to be carefully calculated, and the construction team worked day and night to complete every key step under tremendous pressure.

The builders braved the scorching sun, wind and rain, and built a magnificent bridge bit by bit.

This year, the bridge completed its initial construction and is ready to be opened to traffic early next year.

Hu Yingxiang is also a super rich man. He was born into a wealthy family with his ancestral home in Guangdong Province. He was very smart and good at mathematics since he was a child. He was a top student with his own ideas.

His father Hu Zhong contracted a taxi company in Hong Kong and became known as the "Taxi King" by Hong Kong people.

Therefore, Hu Yingxiang has been dressed appropriately since childhood.

After graduating from high school, his parents sent him to study architecture at Princeton University in the United States.

While studying in the United States, Hu Yingxiang witnessed firsthand the impetus that highways brought to the development of the United States.

After graduation, he returned to Hong Kong to work in architectural design.

With the support of his family, he founded Hopewell Construction Company and started a real estate business.

At that time, Hu Yingxiang foresaw the rapid development of the country in the future.

He realized that once a factory was built, it would not work without transportation, communication and power systems.

Since the 60s, he has been advising his father to give up the taxi business and start a real estate business.

Unlike other real estate tycoons in Hong Kong, Hu Yingxiang himself is an architect, and many buildings were designed and participated in by him.

From 1980 to 1990, Hu Yingxiang contributed to the construction of Hopewell Centre, a landmark building in Hong Kong.

"Hopewell Center" is known as "the tallest building in Asia".

Later, this "Hopewell Center" was sold to "Liu Overseas Investment" and became its headquarters.

Because of this transaction, Hu Yingxiang and Liu Shudong became friends and their cooperation increased.

With the financial support of "Asia Pacific Bank", Hu Yingxiang entered the real estate industry and developed more proficiently. He was soon hailed as one of the "Five Tigers of Hong Kong Real Estate" together with Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties and others.

Hu Yingxiang's construction shifted the focus of the family business to the real estate market.

Under the leadership of Hu Yingxiang, Hopewell Group developed rapidly and its assets exceeded HK$30 billion.

After the reform and opening up, Hu Yingxiang actively participated in the construction and development of the mainland.

He and Liu Shudong jointly invested in the Xiaguo Hotel in Guangdong Province, and then invested in the Guangdong-Baotou Expressway, Guangdong-Zhuhai Expressway, Guangdong Southeast West Ring Expressway, Shunde Road and Bridge System Engineering, Humen Bridge, Shajiao B Power Plant (2X35 kilowatts), Shajiao C Power Plant (3X66 kilowatts) and Bao County Huanggang Border Inspection Comprehensive Inspection Station and other projects.

Over the past decade, more than 500 billion yuan was invested in construction, and most of these projects were later donated.

……

After inspecting the Humen Bridge project, Liu Shudong's convoy returned to Hong Kong Island along the same route.

Liu Shudong was resting in a bulletproof Rolls-Royce Phantom when he was awakened by his secretary Moon Lee.

"Chairman, Mr. Zou Wenhuai, President of Asia Pacific Films, would like to report to you about our work." Moon Lee said softly, covering the microphone of her mobile phone.

Liu Shudong nodded and motioned for Moon Lee to hand over the phone. He took the phone with one hand and placed the other hand naturally on Moon Lee's long legs in black stockings.

"Hey! Mr. Zou..."

Beside him, Moon Lee's pretty face blushed, but she did not refuse Liu Shudong's seemingly casual touch.

Li Saifeng had just been chosen by the big boss Liu Shudong to be his personal secretary. She had risen to the top overnight.

This made the bunch of "little goblins" in "Asia Pacific Film and Television" very envious.

Of course, Moon Lee also cherished this opportunity very much. She had long been fed up with life at the bottom of society and would strive to become "a superior person" whenever she had the chance.

Moon Lee looks less than 30 years old now. She is 1.68 meters tall, with a curvy figure, and weighs only 53 kilograms.

Before becoming Liu Shudong's secretary, Moon Lee was a popular female star under the "Asia Pacific Film and Television Company" and was known as the "Jade Girl Action Star".

These days, Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment culture is popular throughout the Chinese world.

The streets were full of Hong Kong movies. These films with martial arts and gun fights made male actors like Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat famous, and also made actresses like Moon Lee well-known.

Actresses under the "Asia Pacific Film and Television Company" such as Moon Lee, Yang Ziqiong, Hu Huizhong, Yang Liqing, and Hui Yinghong are collectively known as the "Five Great Female Action Stars of Hong Kong" and are extremely popular in the Southeast Asian entertainment circle.

Moon Lee was born into an ordinary family that was not very wealthy.

She is the third child in the family, with two older brothers and sisters, and a younger brother and sister.

When she was a child, her father set up a stall outside to make money, and her mother stayed at home to take care of them.

Although my dad works hard from dawn to dusk every day, the money he earns is only enough to feed his family.

Fortunately, children like Moon Lee are very sensible and know how to understand and care for each other.

At the beginning, although life was tight, the house was still full of laughter.

But one year, Hong Kong's financial sector ran into problems and society was in chaos.

Li Saifeng's father was also affected and earned much less money.

It is said that "couples without money are prone to conflicts", and the peaceful days of their family are no longer there.

Li Saifeng's daddy and mommy quarreled every day and even fought.

When she was seven years old, his parents divorced, which left a scar on her heart.

Afterwards, Moon Lee followed her father to Kaohsiung and started a new life.

Since there was no one to help, Moon Lee had to go out with her father to fry and sell dough sticks at daybreak.

She gradually learned how to knead dough and how to entertain guests.

The stall was always closed very late at night, and she was often so tired that she fell asleep on the small table.

At a young age, Moon Lee has already experienced the difficulties of life.

After going to school, she would help her father whenever she had time.

One day, a few kids in dancing costumes came to buy snacks.

Moon Lee was drooling as she watched from the sidelines. Her father asked her daughter, "Do you want to learn dancing too?"

Moon Lee responded: "Of course I want to! But it's really expensive!"

Her father made up his mind and saved all the money he earned hard, except for the necessary daily expenses, and enrolled his daughter in a dance class.

This paved the way for Moon Lee to enter the entertainment industry in the future.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. This kind of life only lasted for two short years.

Later, her father started a new family.

Dad found a new love and gradually ignored Moon Lee.

This made her feel a little depressed, and her father eventually sent her back to her mother's home in Hong Kong.

Although Li Saifeng's mother allowed her into the house, she usually didn't have time to take care of her.

So, Moon Lee grew up without anyone to accompany her.

When she entered Xiangjiang Middle School, Moon Lee's mother stopped paying for her tuition, so the 13-year-old girl had to go out to work to earn money.

(End of this chapter)