The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 272 The Bad Taste of Making Money
In Hong Kong, a private driver is nothing, just a driver, but the level of intimacy is definitely higher than other positions.

But in the country, these days, most of the people who drive for leaders are usually their confidants.

So Jiang Cheng drove a car to the farm, saying that he was driving for the leader of Jiang Donglai in Hong Kong. People who didn't know the situation in Hong Kong thought that Jiang Cheng was a confidant of the foreign company, which was why he could represent Hong Kong companies to discuss cooperation with the farm.

Jiang Cheng arrived at the reclamation farm at around 4pm. This time, a reception ceremony was held directly. Many leaders were present. If he could make friends with these leaders, he would be able to walk around FZ City with ease.

However, Jiang Cheng did not think about making friends with anyone, and the number of people going to Hong Kong for exchange was not his decision. He could only give the farm a nominal invitation, but the number of people who could go and whether they were allowed to go or not actually had to be reviewed by a certain department in China.

A foreign-funded enterprise has no ability to interfere with domestic personnel going abroad for certain reasons.

However, the country now attaches great importance to generating foreign exchange earnings. The invitation from Jiangdonglai in Hong Kong to the Lichuan Farm for cooperative study, visits and exchanges is likely to attract attention and allow the personnel arranged by the farm to pass approval to go abroad.

Therefore, a certain department in China decides the lower limit of people who can go to Hong Kong, and Jiangdonglai decides the upper limit of invitations.

This means that Jiangdonglai can invite 100 people to Hong Kong for inspection, and they will be received and entertained there. But China can refuse its invitation, or only agree to arrange for 10 people to go.

Similarly, Jiang Donglai only asked Director Hou to bring two followers with him, and it was impossible for people in China to arrange a large number of people to go there.

Facing these leaders who came this time, Jiang Cheng was very relaxed and played along. If he was just an ordinary driver, he would probably feel proud after seeing so many leaders.

But Jiang Cheng is a big shot in Hong Kong, and he has also met Mr. D in China. It is impossible to get any promise from him just by having a meal.

After dinner, Jiang Cheng followed Director Hou directly to his home. Since the higher-ups approved the cooperation, the farm had to send someone to Shenzhen to finalize the contract. As for how many people to invite to Hong Kong, the invitation had to be well-founded, otherwise it would not be approved.

At Director Hou's house, Jiang Cheng discussed with him for a long time, but they only roughly agreed on the department to go to "inspect". As for when to go to inspect, it would take at least until next month. This time, Director Hou had to go with him to Shenzhen to sign the project with "Jiang Donglai".

Once the contract is signed, such a large reclamation farm, in addition to industrial products, will have to give priority to supplying everything else to Jiangdonglai.

Even the grain produced here is supplied to Jiangdonglai in order to create foreign exchange.

In fact, the so-called supply is only from supermarkets in Shenzhen, and cannot be supplied to Hong Kong. As for the supply of the workers' canteen in the factory, in fact, as long as foreign exchange is provided, the leaders in Shenzhen will take the initiative to solve it.

Moreover, Shenzhen is currently implementing OEM and the factory staff are all recruited from there, so Jiang Cheng doesn't have to worry about the canteen at all.

Jiang Cheng is now cooperating with the reclamation farm, which is actually a free production base. Now it is just a simple cooperation, but in the future, the farming and vegetable planting will be highly standardized, and the use of pesticides is not allowed, even if the yield is lower.

In a certain Donglai in the future, a pound of leeks can be sold for about 20 yuan, and soy sauce can be sold out at more than 9 yuan. The bean sprouts are produced by themselves, and because nothing is added, the quality of the bean sprouts is a little poor, but it is still the same if you go too late, they will be gone.

Nowadays, you can’t even buy chemical fertilizers, so you don’t have to worry about food safety. But if you want to have good products in the future, you have to lay the foundation now.

Jiang Cheng will not only cooperate with the Lichuan reclamation farm, but will also cooperate with more farms in the future to realize ecological breeding and planting.

At noon the next day, Jiang Cheng was still enjoying a sumptuous reception at the reclamation farm. Then at half past one, Director Hou arranged for two drivers and one of his capable men to go to Shenzhen with Jiang Cheng.

Two drivers were arranged, and Director Hou also arranged a jeep himself. One driver drove the jeep, and the other driver drove the car for Jiang Cheng. Director Hou and Jiang Cheng sat in the car to discuss the specific content of the cooperation.

This trip to Shenzhen was just to sign a letter of intent. The specific content of the cooperation had to be finalized after the letter of intent was signed. The farm staff would be arranged to go to the Jiangdonglai supermarket in Hong Kong to see what they could supply, and then sign the specific project. After arriving in Shenzhen, Director Hou found a guesthouse to accommodate the staff. Jiang Cheng found a reason to ask them to wait in Shenzhen first, saying that he had some things to do and would be delayed for a few days.

Jiang Cheng didn't want to reveal his identity as a Hong Konger, so he couldn't tell Director Hou that he was going to Hong Kong. If he wasn't a Hong Konger, it would be impossible to take a boat directly to Hong Kong.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Jiang Cheng took a break from his regular job and started a new business, planning to invest in building a mid- to high-end hotel in Kowloon Tong.

Jiang Cheng didn't want to make money from the hotel business, it was just a temporary evil interest. In addition, he knew the situation of Hong Kong in the future. As long as he got the land, no matter what business he was in, even if it was a loss, he could make money by selling the land.

Because many people in China want to go abroad, Jiang Cheng found that there are actually many "hidden" rich people even in this era. And in a few years, the first batch of rich people will appear in China. It is easy to make money from the rich in China, especially those nouveau riche.

For example, when it comes to cooperating with a reclamation farm, apart from considering the number of places, they also need to consider how much Jiangdonglai can provide for reception expenses.

It's not that those people don't have money, but they don't have foreign exchange. If Jiangdonglai gives a team 10,000 yuan for reception fees, there will be many people going, and each person can't share much. And in Hong Kong, 10,000 yuan is not enough to spend.

Accommodation, food and drink may take up more than half of the money, and the remaining money may only be used to buy some civilian products like a bumpkin, such as milk powder, cakes, candies and ordinary clothes.

If Jiang Cheng did not use the portable space, he would have to enter the mainland through formal channels from Hong Kong, and there were entry regulations. He could not carry more than a certain amount of foreign currency, and if he carried more money, he had to exchange it into foreign exchange coupons in advance.

The tricky thing about foreign exchange coupons is that you can exchange foreign exchange, but you can't exchange foreign exchange coupons for foreign exchange. This is actually because some places in China have not been completely opened up. Foreign investors come to invest and they are all processing orders. If you want to make money in China, there is currently no market.

Jiang Cheng is now planning to find another way to earn money from the "rich" Chinese people. Although he cannot get foreign money into the country openly, he can print it himself.

Print a batch of shopping coupons and sell them as real money to those who want to spend money in Hong Kong. Then they can stay in hotels, eat and shop all in one go.

Jiang Cheng has "Jiangdonglai" supermarkets in every district of Hong Kong, and it is very simple to implement some internal shopping coupons for shopping. It is just a little lacking in food and accommodation, but as long as a hotel is built, all the "customers" he brings can consume in his industry.

In later generations, some people used shopping coupons as wages, giving out a small amount of cash and a large amount of shopping coupons.

Jiangcheng just allows people from China who want to come to Hong Kong to spend money to spend better. Foreign exchange cannot be obtained, but there are enough shopping coupons. This is not a currency and is not controlled by the immigration department.

And you don't need to carry a lot of shopping coupons, because the denominations can be printed at will, and you can just print a denomination of 10,000. When you arrive in Hong Kong, you can exchange it for smaller denominations to spend.

The self-printed coupons can also avoid the exchange rate restrictions of domestic and foreign exchange. The official exchange rate is now as high as 5:1, with Hong Kong dollars for RMB.

Because the current exchange rate of RMB to US dollar is 1.5:1, while the exchange rate of Hong Kong dollar to US dollar is 7.7:1. Both are calculated by converting US dollar, but the actual situation is that in Hong Kong scalpers, five Hong Kong dollars can be exchanged for at least two RMB.

Jiang Cheng planned to print a batch of shopping coupons and bring them to China to have Director Hou promote them. He would exchange them at a 1:2 ratio. One RMB would be exchanged for two Hong Kong 'Jiang Dong Lai' shopping coupons.

This is because the country is not yet wealthy and there are not many hidden rich people. The exchange rate should be roughly the same as that of the scalpers in Hong Kong.

If in a few years, those who have made their first pot of gold appear, and coal mines can be privately contracted, the first batch of lovely coal bosses will be born, and then these people will have no problem exchanging shopping coupons at a 1:1 ratio.

(End of this chapter)