Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 75: Starry Machinery (7 chapters asking for monthly tickets)

That evening, Wang Jiankun finally had time, so Chen Xingdong invited him and his uncle to go on a cruise on the Pearl River, where they could have dinner on the boat and tour the Pearl River and see the night view.

On this more than 40-meter-long cruise ship, there are many people dressed fashionably. They speak with a variety of accents, including Mandarin, Cantonese and even English. According to Chen Xingdong, most of these people are overseas Chinese, and a small number of them have made their fortunes as speculators in recent years.

The cruise ship is a second-hand ship bought by overseas Chinese in Hong Kong. After some renovation, it serves as both a restaurant and a social venue, with an area for singing and dancing downstairs.

Those who can get on board are those who know each other or are introduced by someone, so it is relatively private. Many people who want to discuss business like to meet on this boat, have meals, drink tea, and go singing and dancing after the deal is done. So since the business started, almost all the seats on the boat are booked every day.

Chen Xingdong is relatively well-known in this circle, so it was easy for him to buy tickets, and no one stopped him from bringing strangers up.

Wang Jiankun currently does not plan to let too many people know him, so he tells Chen Xingdong to just have dinner with a few people he knows and not to introduce him too much.

I can introduce my uncle to more people. His import and export company also has opportunities to deal with overseas Chinese and traders in the business world. If he can introduce more people to import and export goods through his import and export company, then my uncle can also achieve more results.

After finding a seat and sitting down, Chen Xingdong gave the menu to Wang Jiankun. In this small private room, Chen Xingdong focused everything on Wang Jiankun and hoped to accompany Wang Jiankun well.

Wang Jiankun looked through the menu and ordered a main dish, roast suckling pig, then gave the menu to his uncle, who also ordered a famous Cantonese dish, crispy roast goose. Seeing that the two of them ordered two main dishes, Chen Xingdong took the menu and ordered two more dishes and a soup.

"Mr. Wang, Mr. Cen, thank you both for giving me this opportunity. I'll drink it." Chen Xingdong stood up, raised his glass and drank a glass of beer.

"Adong, you don't have to be so polite. You are my uncle's right-hand man. We sent you to the mainland to help us. Let us toast you in return." The uncle and Wang Jiankun raised their glasses together and toasted Chen Xingdong in return.

"Adong, are you used to being sent to the inland area?"

"Mr. Cen, I'm originally from Foshan, Guangdong Province. The food culture here is no different from here in Guangzhou, so there's nothing I need to adapt to when I come here."

"That's good. Life here can't be compared to Hong Kong, right?"

"I don't think there's a big difference. Hong Kong is now prosperous only in the places where foreigners gather. There are still large areas of farmhouses in the countryside. The living standard is about the same as here in Guangzhou. When I first started in Hong Kong, I also stayed in places where mainlanders often gathered."

"Can you tell me about the life of ordinary people in Hong Kong now? I want to know more. I will go to Hong Kong the day after tomorrow so that I can learn more about the situation."

"Okay, Mr. Wang, then I'll explain in detail."

"It can be said that the polarization between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong is very serious now. The poor have nowhere to live. 80% of the wealth is in the hands of the 2% of the people. The British capital earns a huge amount of wealth every year and transfers it to Hong Kong. Therefore, Hong Kong's infrastructure was very poor in the past few years. In recent years, as the British capital began to shrink and support those Chinese tycoons, the city construction has gradually started."

"Oh? British capital is now starting to support wealthy Chinese as agents?"

"Yes, ever since the mainland's policies began to change, with reform and opening up, and then negotiations for the return, British capital has begun to support wealthy Chinese to take over some assets with stable returns. It should be a two-pronged approach. If they don't return, the lifeline of wealthy Chinese (bank financing channels) will still be in the hands of British capital. If they return, British capital can also cash out a large amount of funds, leaving a heavily indebted Hong Kong to the mainland, and there will be disloyal wealthy Chinese making trouble on the side. Then they can launch a movement from time to time to cause trouble to the mainland."

"It seems that the British are still as bad as ever. Even though they are down and out now, their bad instinct still makes them do this."

"Then let me talk about Hong Kong's current economic pillars. Previously, it relied on capital and talent from the mainland to do some re-export trade and labor-intensive industrial production. Five years ago, China's reform and opening up, port trade and finance began to develop. The cost of labor-intensive industries is now getting higher and higher, so the garment industry, home appliance assembly and other industries are slowly shrinking."

“So how do those investors in Hong Kong respond?”

"Of course they moved to where the cost is lower. Most of them moved to Southeast Asia, and a small part went to several special economic zones in our mainland, such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen across the river."

"So Hong Kong now relies on trade and finance? Wouldn't it be more difficult for ordinary people to make money?"

"Who says it's not true? Hong Kong is now full of gangs, with several large gangs and poor public security. Then the entertainment and service industries have spontaneously formed."

"Oh! Didn't the Hong Kong government do anything?"

"They were originally a bunch of robbers who wanted to make a quick buck. They didn't have any long-term plans. They found that the entertainment and service industries could accommodate more and more people, so they gave them some policy conveniences. Some government officials who wanted to make quick money also started to invest. So now the entertainment industry there is very developed. For example, more and more movies and TV series are being made, and they are getting better and better. They are also starting to be released in Southeast Asia and even Taiwan."

"Then I made the right decision by asking my uncle to buy some machinery manufacturing factories and land. These assets should be very cheap, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Wang. I didn't expect that you, who are in the mainland, could make such an accurate assessment of the situation and economy in Hong Kong. Many factories are currently laying off employees. Some are simply quitting and preparing to emigrate, while others are selling their land and using the money to build factories in Southeast Asia or Taiwan."

"Oh? They won't take the equipment in the factory with them?" asked my uncle, because he felt that if they built a factory somewhere else, it would be difficult to buy machinery and equipment, so it would be strange if they didn't use the original ones.

"Mr. Cen, you don't understand the inside story. In fact, most of the machinery and equipment in Hong Kong factories are second-hand goods from Europe, America and Japan. They bought them very cheaply, and there are still a lot of second-hand equipment for sale in Europe, America and Japan. So as long as you have money, you can directly build a factory in Southeast Asia and then go to the port to buy a batch of second-hand machinery and equipment, and then you can start production."

"Why are there so many second-hand equipment for sale in Europe, America and Japan? Aren't they industrial countries? How can they develop industry if the equipment is sold?"

"I don't know about that. I only know that there are a lot of second-hand equipment and they are very cheap."

"I do know something about it, uncle."

"Well, it's still early now, and I don't know much about the situation. I just thought that Japan's second-hand home appliance production lines were for sale, but they were not cheap when they sold them to mainland companies. It seems that we have suffered a great loss here."

"It's like this, in different places. The United States should be on the road to deindustrialization and transformation towards finance and electronics. Previously, they supported Japan's development to fight against China, the Soviet Union and North Korea, so Japan's automobile industry and home appliance industry developed rapidly, and they no longer supported such industries at home. Now they have tasted the sweetness and started to transfer some higher-end manufacturing industries to Japan and South Korea."

"No wonder Japan and South Korea have developed so fast in recent years. It turns out that they have absorbed so many good industries."

"It's not over yet. Japan and South Korea are also beginning to want to develop high-end industries, such as electronics, semiconductors, finance, etc., so they are also beginning to transfer some industries abroad. For example, black-and-white TVs are no longer selling well in Japan, as every household has a TV. They are now developing color TVs, so they are selling second-hand black-and-white TV production lines."

"I see. Then why is the US still selling used equipment at this time? Do they really not want industry anymore?"

"For them, manufacturing cars and ships is no longer technically demanding. They have begun to focus on high-end manufacturing industries such as machine tools and measuring instruments that can produce cars and ships. Therefore, several American car factories have been established in Southeast Asia in recent years. These are second-hand production lines shipped from the United States."

"It seems that there is a huge gap between our country and the United States. We haven't figured out how to industrialize the production of cars and ships, but others already look down on them."

"We will eventually catch up if we catch up slowly, and we have the advantage of being a latecomer. I have asked my uncle to set up a machinery equipment company in Hong Kong called Xingyao Machinery. In the early stage, we will do some scrap picking work, and later we will design and manufacture high-end machine tools and equipment ourselves."

"What's the situation in Europe? Why are they selling so many used devices?"

"They have reached a bottleneck in their development because of the pressure from the Soviet Union in the north. They are afraid that the country will be infiltrated and a red revolution will break out. So the previous policy was to continuously improve the welfare of workers. As a result, the workers' wages are very high. This makes their products completely uncompetitive compared to American and Japanese companies. The locals already have a lot of industrial products, and consumption is sluggish. In this case, they can only reduce the number of workers and develop in the direction of improving productivity."

"So what are they going to do?"

"On the one hand, workers are given better treatment, and those without jobs can also receive minimum living allowances and will not go hungry or cold. On the other hand, the industry is moving towards automation. CNC machine tools are replacing the original manual machine tools on a large scale, which has greatly reduced the quality requirements for workers and greatly improved efficiency."

"CNC machine? What does that look like and how do you know about it?"

"I was chatting with a German 'ham' and heard him talk about his work at Siemens. He said that the company was replacing CNC machine tools in large quantities and selling these high-efficiency machine tools to the whole of Europe. This machine tool is controlled by a computer. By inputting the cutting program of the product to be processed and pressing the switch, the machine can start production automatically. One person can watch over several devices, and the efficiency is several times higher than before."

"I don't know when we can make something this good in China. Even hand-cranked machine tools have to be imported in large quantities now."

Chen Xingdong and his uncle listened to Wang Jiankun talking about several major countries in the world and lamented the gap between China and other countries. Wang Jiankun comforted them not to underestimate themselves. As long as our country firmly adheres to the current reform and opening-up policy, communicates and cooperates with the world, and relies on the wisdom and talent of the Chinese people, we will surely catch up and surpass them one by one.

What's more, there is Wang Jiankun, the biggest variable. With him, the improvement of domestic productivity will definitely be faster than ever before.

The two were infected by his confidence and got drunk on beer. Wang Jiankun had to use his superpowers to forcefully decompose some of the alcohol in their stomachs.

After resting for a day in Guangshi, Wang Jiankun bought a lot of things to take home, including a lot of food, daily necessities and clothes.

In the evening, arranged by Chen Xingdong, Wang Jiankun boarded a small boat to Hong Kong.

After arriving at the dock, Wang Jiankun saw his younger uncle. He looked very similar to his older uncle, but his eyes were sharp and he had a scar on his forehead, making him look very fierce.

"Uncle!" Wang Jiankun shouted before getting off the boat.

"Jiankun, we finally meet, come and let your uncle see you."

"Well, you look a bit like your mother, especially your eyebrows and nose. You've grown so tall. You're only 15 years old!"

"Uncle, my food has improved a lot in the past six months, and I exercise regularly. It's the time for me to grow taller, so it's normal!"

"Well, it's good to be tall. I was worried that you would be delayed in the countryside. Many of my comrades and some local children grew up very thin because they didn't eat well before."

"Uncle, you should be feeling much better now, right? If not, I'll transfer some more money to you."

"It's much better now. I'm not short of money for the time being. I expanded my territory some time ago and seized a lot. Keep your money and make your own arrangements."

"Okay, uncle, just tell me if you have any trouble."

"Hey, kid, let's go to my place and have a good chat."

Then he took Wang Jiankun to a Crown car. The driver was a tall and strong man with a murderous aura. There were two similar cars behind him, and everyone was armed. My uncle said that one of the three cars was bought, and the other two were rented. The company here needed money, so they saved as much as possible.

When they arrived at a house by the sea, the uncle got out of the car and led Wang Jiankun inside. According to the uncle, this was a stronghold of their organization, and it was close to the sea for ease of escape. However, at present, the manpower they had here was very capable, so no force dared to come and harass them.

"Uncle, now you can tell me the details of your organization. You were worried about the radio leak before. In fact, I told you that the encryption system I created has not been deciphered by anyone yet, but you still didn't believe it."

"Jiankun, you must be respectful. The messages you send in China are recorded from time to time. Just because you can't decipher them now doesn't mean you can't decipher them in the future. And if they find out that they are contacting me, they might use other means."

"Other means?"

"You are still young and inexperienced. The country is not an ordinary organization. The human and material resources that can be mobilized are terrifying. So I have tried not to contact the country in recent years, just to avoid causing trouble."

"Okay, I'll pay attention, and then I'll think of a more secure means of communication."

"It's all right for now. Confidential information should be communicated face to face as much as possible. The country should be too busy to handle other information right now, so don't worry."

"What do you mean, uncle?"

"The two factions are still fighting each other, and there are still local wars outside, so our attention is dispersed. As long as the intelligence is not very harmful, it will generally be shelved."

My uncle told me what he knew, for example, the war in the south has increased the domestic economic burden a lot, and now they are trying hard to attract investment in Hong Kong, hoping that Chinese people in Hong Kong and overseas can invest in the mainland, and the preferential policies will be unprecedentedly large.

He also found some companies in Myanmar, all of which were members of their organization developing local overseas Chinese, and asked them to take this opportunity to invest in the mainland.

Hearing that his uncle had already started to make external arrangements, and was no longer nervously buying supplies as he had heard on the shortwave radio at the beginning, he felt that this development was in line with his judgment of his uncle.

"Well, uncle, how is Xingyao Machinery doing now? Can it produce the parts on the drawings I sent you?"

"Well, production is possible, but the yield and efficiency are extremely low. The cost is much higher than what I bought. The quality is also very average, not as good as what you wrote in the information. It's better to buy finished products than to produce like this."

"What's the problem?"

"I don't know much about it. According to the factory manager, some of the materials they buy don't meet the standards and are of varying quality. Also, the skilled workers they hire are average in skill level, and the price they charge for skilled workers is too high. So far, they've only hired one or two."

"Well, I brought some parts for modifying machine tools. I will go to the factory tomorrow to try to modify a few CNC machine tools. I will use CNC machine tools to produce those more precise parts, and I will see how to produce other parts to improve efficiency."

"It would be great if you could come and help with the production. I'm worried about whether I should continue with the production. Now the weapons sold in the north are increasing in number and getting cheaper. The source of light weapons has eased a lot now."

"Uncle, only if you have production capacity can you avoid being strangled. Our country had to do everything it could to produce under such difficult circumstances. This was because we learned the lesson that the Kuomintang was blockaded because it was better to buy than to make. Your base is in northern Myanmar, which is more vulnerable to blockade, so you must increase your production capacity as soon as possible."

"Okay, I'll listen to you. Why do I feel like you're more active than me? Don't you want to come to my place too?"

"I am concerned about you, isn't it? Since you have this opportunity, of course I want to help you see how far you can go."

"Okay, I will send more educated people to learn factory production, but the base is currently short of manpower!"

"Uncle, you can try to recruit more Chinese. In Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, many low-level Chinese lack opportunities. Don't you have a language training school? You can expand the scope of teaching and run it as a vocational school. Teach them how to use machine tools, how to weld, how to assemble, etc., and then provide them with corresponding jobs."

"Hey, that's a good idea. It's easy to expand the language school. The site we found is large enough and there are enough classrooms. If that doesn't work, we can just find some materials to build a temporary room."

"Then I will find some information for you so that Chen Xingdong can recruit some talented people who are not successful in the mainland to be teachers. There are still many grassroots talents in the mainland."

"Okay, I'll call him later. How is he doing in the Mainland? Is Xingyao Electronics, which he manages, okay?"

"It seems to be OK at the moment. His appearance as a Hong Kong businessman and his eloquent mouth are very useful. People in the mainland trust him. It doesn't matter if he doesn't understand technology. I will try my best to provide technical support."

"That's good. He's the only one who can go. The others either can't leave the base or don't have enough ability. I'm also worried about the new recruits, so I spent a long time selecting before deciding to let him go."

"Who is in charge of the language school? This is also very important."

"He's Pan Hua, a Chinese from Myanmar. He's a local talent that our organization is developing. He speaks several languages ​​and is very smart. Do you want me to introduce you to him?"

"We'll see how things go after I finish my work tomorrow. I'll be back in two days at most."

"Okay, it's late now. Go to bed first. You'll need to work at Xingyao Machinery tomorrow."

The next morning, Wang Jiankun followed his uncle to Xingyao Machinery, which had three large factories and an office building. It used to make electric fans, but the boss disliked the low profits and hard work, as well as the growing competition, and was worried about losing money, so he sold the land and factories at a low price and went to Southeast Asia to open a cinema.

When he arrived at the factory, he met with the factory director Huang Kun. After his explanation, Wang Jiankun had a more intuitive understanding of the current difficulties of Xingyao Machinery.

Huang Kun came to take over the factory a month ago. At that time, the factory was empty except for the factory building and water and electricity equipment. Everything else had been sold by the former factory director. However, the equipment for producing electric fans was not needed. After he came, he bought 8 lathes, 2 milling machines and 1 grinder according to his uncle's instructions, and then began to recruit workers to produce parts.

Currently, we have only recruited two workers with slightly better technical skills, and the other nine people only have a basic understanding of machine tools. Current production relies on the two skilled workers to lead the nine novices in exploring.

Seeing this situation, Wang Jiankun was not discouraged. As long as he could organize production for now, it was good. People start from not knowing how to do it.

So he asked Director Huang to free up three lathes in the morning and two milling machines in the afternoon, as he wanted to renovate these machines.

Before coming, Wang Jiankun had asked his uncle to send him the machine tool model, so a modification plan had been made and carried out at the base.

When he came this time, he brought the main electronic components and motors with him. Other structural parts will be temporarily produced using the equipment here.

Wang Jiankun asked Director Huang to send the technical workers aside and began the work of transforming the machine tools and milling machines.

He first used his super powers to check and found that this batch of second-hand equipment imported from Japan was well maintained, and the internal precision parts were intact. The accuracy could meet Wang Jiankun's requirements, so he began to manufacture the parts using a lathe. After all the structural parts to be used were turned out and milled, he asked one of the workers who had technical skills to help with the modification.

During the renovation, Wang Jiankun explained the principles and directed him to cooperate with the renovation.

It took one day to convert three lathes and two milling machines into CNC machines, and built in programs for several parts to be produced.

That evening, Wang Jiankun trained the two technically savvy employees on how to select programs, how to sharpen tools and how to position tools. After understanding these two key steps, they clamped the workpiece and pressed the switch, and the machine tool began to move and turn the workpiece according to the set program.

That night, my uncle and Director Huang were watching by the side. When they saw the machine tool running on its own, they kept praising Wang Jiankun for his ability. After the CNC machine tool was used to manufacture the parts of the gun that Wang Jiankun had improved on his design, and then the parts that had been sent before were assembled into a gun, my uncle couldn't wait to take Wang Jiankun to the sea to test the gun.

The gun produced this time is much better than the previous trial production. Whether in terms of accuracy, range or reliability, it is obviously superior to the AK47.

After returning to his uncle's residence, Wang Jiankun discussed the follow-up plans for Xingyao Machinery with his uncle again.

The first step is to recruit a large number of people, buy second-hand machine tools, modify them, and sell the modified ones to the mainland and Southeast Asia in exchange for development funds and raw materials.

The second is to train industrial talents for the base area. After the electricity problem is solved, the trained talents will be gradually transferred to engage in production.

Then comes the manufacture of more advanced machine tools and more powerful weapons and equipment such as mortars, machine guns, missiles, etc.

After Wang Jiankun finished speaking, my uncle had no objection to the first two items, but expressed doubts about the third item, about building missiles, and felt that Wang Jiankun was fooling him.

Wang Jiankun analyzed the composition of the missile for him. First of all, the missile body was initially made of aluminum alloy or steel. In recent years, lighter and stronger composite materials have been developed. Currently, composite materials are not available for purchase, so using aluminum alloy is also feasible.

Next was the propellant. Wang Jiankun listed several types of chemical propellants. After listening, my uncle felt that they were not difficult and the raw materials could also be purchased in Hong Kong.

Then comes the engine. The simplest engine is just a high-temperature resistant container and a nozzle. Wang Jiankun also listed some materials. It is possible to produce it in small batches using an electric furnace. My uncle also agrees that it can be produced.

Finally, there is the biggest difference between rockets and missiles - the guidance head. Wang Jiankun also analyzed and explained it. He told my uncle about infrared wireless guidance, TV guidance and small radar guidance. My uncle understood part of it, but seeing Wang Jiankun's confident look, he had to believe this talented nephew.

Finally, Wang Jiankun gave his uncle some reassurance, saying that he would first send him some infrared night vision equipment and small radar equipment so that he could see the actual equipment. After the Chinese New Year, when the Xingyao Machinery Factory has expanded its staff to a certain extent and has spare capacity for production, he would send the key components and produce and assemble some missiles here.

After hearing what he said, my uncle became more concerned about Xingyao Machinery. He thought about sending more people to strengthen the development of Xingyao Machinery and at the same time keeping confidentiality. Those who are responsible for the manufacturing of key parts should set up separate workshops and undergo loyalty assessments, and those who fail the assessments must be eliminated.

The next day, Wang Jiankun and his uncle went to meet Pan Hua, the director of the language training school. Wang Jiankun spoke to him in English, Japanese and Russian respectively, and he was able to answer them all, although he did not speak Russian fluently.

After a conversation, Wang Jiankun left with his uncle, and then suggested that his uncle should strengthen his support and protection for him, and that such a versatile talent should be treated well.

That afternoon, Wang Jiankun was sent on a boat by his uncle to leave Hong Kong Island. His uncle bought a lot of gifts for Wang Jiankun and asked him to take them to his family.

On the way back, Wang Jiankun was still thinking about the development of Xingyao Machinery. He hoped that his uncle and his men could follow Wang Jiankun's plan. By then, Wang Jiankun would be able to establish a machine tool equipment production group in Hong Kong, sell its products to the mainland, and help improve domestic productivity.

In the future, when he invests and sets up factories in China, he will have a reliable supplier of machinery and equipment without being restricted by other countries. Moreover, some equipment can be provided under the name of Hong Kong Xingyao Machinery to increase credibility.

(End of this chapter)