The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 287 Color TV
Many units nowadays have no means of generating revenue, as they are all state-owned units, and there is no place to collect money even for free.

Unlike later generations, a rural leader could easily get hundreds of dabului.

Nowadays, some people want to be corrupt but there is no soil for it, so many cadres are doing practical things for the people.

This is the case with the law enforcement department where Zhang Jincai works. There is no gambling, or it can be said that it is unrealistic to generate revenue by cracking down on gambling in this era.

The stakes are very small, after all, most people's salary is only more than 30 yuan.

It's impossible to catch any girlfriends because there's no one who specializes in this. At most, some widows do it secretly to make a living.

In later generations, if someone is caught, the fine is several thousand yuan. Maybe in order not to report it, not to affect work, not to let family know, and to be able to chat privately, it is normal to be fined tens of thousands of yuan at once.

So these days, all city law enforcement departments rely on financial grants. Zhang Jincai feels that there are not enough staff, and if he wants to recruit people, he needs financial support.

It is difficult to recruit people normally and we cannot exceed the scope, let alone recruit people who do not meet the physical requirements.

Zhang Jincai wanted Jiang Cheng to solve some problems of his comrades and assist them in their work. This was a good idea, but if some conditions were given, it was not impossible to do it.

In later generations, many units had non-staff personnel. In some good places, people would scramble for a auxiliary police job, and some would even pay money to get it.

Jiang Cheng didn't know how chaotic the country would be in the future, but he had heard of the "severe crackdown". The fact that they were carrying out a severe crackdown specifically for the purpose of improving the environment meant that the urban environment would not be very good in the future.

There is no problem in letting Jiang Cheng retire, and even no problem in following Zhang Jincai's arrangement. But it must be in the form of cooperation. It is said that after Shenzhen opened up, many people made money, and the prostitution and gambling started.

Some people even hired thugs to watch over the place, fearing that some people would cause trouble. There were also those who lent money at interest, nine out of ten returned, and many protective umbrellas appeared.

Jiang Cheng only needs Zhang Jincai to agree to give him commissions and rewards from the money he gets from cracking down on prostitution and gambling, and then give him the skin of an accomplice with certain law enforcement powers. Then it is not impossible for Jiang Cheng to ask Jiang Donglai to give him some funds and form a team.

Jiang Cheng's request was to give him power, and Zhang Jincai could not have the final say. Zhang Jincai had no problem with this, because he did not think that cracking down on gambling and prostitution would make much money. He even thought that ordinary people were just playing cards, winning or losing a little bit for fun, and should not be taken too seriously.

Jiang Cheng just laughed inwardly at Zhang Jincai's opinion. It's okay to invest some money now, but when there are more rich people in Shenzhen, as long as they are covered with skin, even if they are non-staff personnel, they can arrest whoever they want and punish whoever they want.

Anyway, Jiang Cheng had made a promise to Zhang Jincai that as long as he dared to give him the status of assistant, he would not say more, and asked him to recruit 100 people first. But he must make it clear when recruiting that in addition to assisting the Law Enforcement Department, he would also be dispatched by Jiang Donglai.

Don't just go and recruit people, but also arrange for them to patrol or something. In the end, those employees still think they are from the Law Enforcement Department, and it's funny to make wedding clothes for others.

One hundred people, the monthly expenses are only three to four thousand yuan. It is not as much as the salary of a senior executive in Hong Kong. Nowadays, the cheapest thing in China is labor.

Zhang Jincai is now the head of the Law Enforcement Department. The next day, he held a meeting and talked about the assistants. They don't need to be paid, they don't need to be assigned positions, and they only need to be given a uniform. Even the money for the uniforms is paid by others, and the assistants can't wear any official badges when wearing the uniforms.

As for the conditions of cooperation, if we catch people involved in pornography and gambling, in addition to the illegal proceeds confiscated on the spot, we will also impose monetary penalties, and the money in this regard must be split 50-50.

No one in the lower ranks objected to such conditions. In the eyes of the lower-ranking leaders and cadres, gambling and prostitution could not bring in any money.

Moreover, if a few people who know each other play cards, it is difficult to arrest them for gambling, unless the amount involved is at least several hundred.

Jiang Cheng didn't know what those people were thinking. If he knew, he would laugh to death. In the next few years, if he caught a big gang, he could support a team for a whole year.

But if Zhang Jincai is still in office, he might be able to keep it going. If he retires, Jiang Cheng won't get to eat the cake.

Of course, Jiang Cheng was just joking. He would do whatever he thought was interesting.

Zhang Jincai held a meeting to agree to cooperate with Jiang Donglai to set up a joint security defense assistance team. He just had to wait for Jiang Cheng to contact them to get the money, and then Zhang Jincai would go to the army immediately.

Solving the employment problems of a hundred veterans is a good deed, especially for those comrades who were injured while serving in the army and retired.

Jiang Cheng added fuel to the fire. Before Shenzhen became a special economic zone, the dozen or so cars he parked at the Jiangdonglai supermarket plaza were left there gathering dust.

Zhang Jincai was asked to contact other units to exchange sedans for tricycles, and four sedans were exchanged for twenty tricycles. With the addition of twenty tricycles, it would be more convenient to patrol.

Jiang Cheng hadn't expected that he just wanted to take care of his sister and brother-in-law. He first pulled out a security team and kept them for free, but he didn't expect that he would actually bring out the auxiliary police of later generations.

In fact, we can also hire an urban management officer. When there are more vendors in Shenzhen in the future, Jiang Cheng will specifically recruit some fat and big-eared people to be urban management officers. They must be arrogant and domineering. The first element of urban management is to be greedy and ask for bribes. Those who don't have this talent are not welcome.

We don’t want those who are bold, we want those who bully the weak and fear the strong. We don’t want those who are fat and big-eared, but we want those who have middle-parted hair and look like they are from the Imperial Army.

Of course, this is just Jiang Cheng's mischievous thought. In fact, the junior high school that was first established by the Urban Management Department was a good one.

With the establishment of a new team, Jiang Yan and Chen Changgen also had to get busy. The dormitory of the food factory was first given to the members of the security joint defense team. They didn't have to pay rent, but they had to pay for water and electricity.

In addition, they took the opportunity to ask Zhang Jincai to approve a large piece of land for the construction of a joint security office building and dormitories, which were built near the Public Security Bureau.

This seems to be providing an office environment and welfare for employees, but in fact Jiang Cheng is grabbing land. Even if he supports this group of people for 20 years, he can make back his investment by selling the land after 20 years, or even make money.

The land Jiang Cheng wanted was very large, even involving some scattered residents. The key point was that he was building it in the name of the joint defense team's need for training and supporting facilities, and in the form of a military unit.

There are basketball courts, a fitness area with parallel bars, and a place to practice shooting. They even have a vegetable garden to grow vegetables.

The land in Shenzhen is not valuable now, and it was Zhang Jincai who stepped forward and the process from approval to document issuance was extremely fast.

Because of this matter, Jiang Cheng spent quite a few days in Shenzhen this time.

As soon as the matter was settled, Jiang Cheng drove back to Changcheng. Because the "Jiang Dong Lai" in Shenzhen was closed, Jiang Cheng went to the reclamation farm again when he returned. He went there once a month and took some shopping coupons to Director Hou to exchange for RMB. Then Director Hou took the shopping coupons and organized a group to go to the "Jiang Dong Lai" in Hong Kong to defend their rights.

The leaders of FZ City took Jiangdonglai's breach of contract very seriously and set up a rights protection group to demand an explanation from Jiangdonglai.

But after all, Hong Kong is someone else's territory, and the road to rights protection is "difficult and hasty". Because of poor work, the members of the rights protection team are replaced almost every month.

Many local cadres volunteered, not afraid of danger and hardship, and were determined to "come to Jiangdong" to give them a bright and peaceful world.

As for Director Hou, Jiang Cheng initially gave him a shopping voucher worth NT$1,000. At that time, Director Hou was still wondering in his heart whether such a large-value shopping voucher would really be useful in Hong Kong.

When I went to Hong Kong, I found that I could exchange it for the smallest denomination of one dollar, although Hong Kong also has smaller denominations of cents. When using shopping coupons, you can round up the goods, but you can't get change.

But the shopping coupons can basically be used as Hong Kong coins in Hong Kong. At the beginning, some people sold them to scalpers at a 20% discount. With the Hong Kong coins, you can buy things on the streets.

Later I found that it was more economical to use the coupons to buy things at the Jiangdonglai supermarket. And they sell everything there, so you don't have to run around.

Moreover, "Jiangdonglai" has homestays similar to guesthouses in Kowloon and the New Territories. The conditions are much better than those in domestic guesthouses and are not worse than hotels.

There are air-conditioned rooms with bathrooms in the rooms. In domestic guesthouses, there is no place to take a shower in the room, nor a separate toilet.

Such living conditions are very high-end for people in China, and there are special scalpers purchasing shopping coupons under the two homestays.

With Jiangdonglai as an endorsement, the scalpers who resell the coupons are very bold and are not afraid of the coupons being invalidated. Director Hou and his team have also discovered in the past few months that in addition to this group of people, many people from Shenzhen also use the coupons to consume here.

Now the shopping coupons of Jiangdonglai are well-known in the circle, and they are no longer called shopping coupons. They are called Donglai coupons, which just fits the domestic background.

China belongs to the East, and the Donglai coupon just reflects the coupon used by people from the East. In addition, the three big characters "Jiang Donglai" are printed on the shopping coupon, and there is also a background picture.

In the eyes of many people in China, this shopping voucher has long ceased to be just a food coupon as it was initially thought. It is now being used as a form of currency.

It's a pity that Jiang Cheng didn't want to reveal his identity, otherwise he could have tried it and printed his own portrait on the shopping coupon. Then his wife's, and then his daughter's.

It may be easy to forge because there is no watermark, but it can still be controlled in a short time. It cannot be printed like real currency, and the membership card is the final ownership.

But there are no POS machines in Hong Kong now, and computers are still in their early stages and have not been used in the field of cashier settlement. It will take at least several years for cards to replace shopping coupons.

However, the pattern of Jiangdonglai's coupons can be updated once a quarter. If necessary, it can be updated once a month.

You can even buy back the issued shopping coupons from time to time to prevent counterfeiting. Anyway, the final right of interpretation belongs to Jiangdonglai. But this will be more troublesome.

Now Jiang Cheng got a shopping voucher worth 10,000 yuan, and Director Hou dared to buy it. Of course, he bought it with some people who were going to "defend their rights". When they arrived in Hong Kong, they exchanged it for scattered shopping vouchers.

Large-value shopping coupons are also easy to carry. You can put them in your underwear pocket and they will not be detected when you leave the country.

Jiang Cheng drove to the reclamation farm and exchanged a shopping voucher for a large bundle of money. Wrapped in newspaper, each voucher cost ten yuan, and a small bundle cost one thousand yuan.

This time Jiang Cheng went to the reclamation farm and said hello to Director Hou. They are almost successful in defending their rights. In about half a year, the supermarket in Shenzhen will deliver the goods and then open for business.

Half a year later, it was no longer so easy for the rights protection groups here to go to Hong Kong.

In fact, Jiangdonglai has been cooperating with us and has not overreacted. They are afraid that some people will worry about diplomatic problems, but they have not dealt with the situation here. The situation of breach of contract has not eased. Once the situation eases, some leaders may come forward to force the companies in Hong Kong.

To be honest, even if Jiangdonglai breaches the contract, there is a written contract. Jiangdonglai only needs to send a few people to explain the situation and say that the contract is delayed. The leaders above will consider cross-strait relations and basically there will be no problems.

Even if the contract is not fulfilled, there is a high probability that the domestic side will not pursue responsibility. Those who know history know this. In the past few years, when attracting investment across the country, many local leaders have been stood up, and even worse things have happened.

If there is not much actual loss, anyone who signs the contract seriously will be called in for a talk.

In the past six months, the staff of the reclamation farm went to Xiangjiang to defend their rights. They bought electrical appliances, watches, milk powder, clothes, and jewelry. Every time, they bought a lot. Director Hou’s family now has a refrigerator and a tape recorder. Some leaders who are well-off and not afraid of being investigated directly bought color TVs.

Director Hou actually wanted to buy a nice TV, but given his status, it was a bit shabby to buy one.

Jiang Cheng felt that he was almost there, having driven for foreign leaders for more than half a year. It seemed reasonable to buy a color TV worth thousands of yuan.

If you get a TV, it will be troublesome in this era. It's just like buying a radio in the past. You can't not let your neighbors listen to it.

This TV was obtained in one go, and it was in color. Watching TV in this era was no different from watching a movie. It was possible that not only the people in the courtyard would come to watch, but also those outside the courtyard who got the news and knew Zhou Lingying would probably come to watch.

Jiang Cheng has seen some short plays, in which television was shown in that era, and people were asked to pay to watch the TV.

In the short play, in the 1980s, in order to increase income, someone who already had a TV at home provided TV viewing services to his neighbors and nearby people.

Just like opening a mahjong parlor in later generations, you need to gather people to watch. You promote what programs are available and if there are good programs, people will actually pay to watch them.

And this is not a joke, because in addition to individuals, there are units with TVs in the factory's employee lounge. There are also people who specialize in maintaining the TVs. In order to pay for the daily maintenance of the TVs and electricity expenses, workers who want to watch TV may have to pay one or two yuan, and then provide monthly services.

In the countryside, there may be only one or two TV sets in the whole village. In order to let everyone watch TV, it is also possible to make up for some costs. It is normal to charge for everyone to watch TV. Rural people can watch TV at a lower price, but there are many people watching TV. Houses with yards can be filled with people watching TV.

Jiang Cheng didn't know what surprise Zhou Lingying would have when he brought the TV back, but at least she would reward him. He had been feeling a little frustrated these days.

(End of this chapter)