The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 298 The So-called Friendly Guest Appearance
In the Law Enforcement Department office, Zhang Jincai looked at the documents in his hand and pondered for a long time.

Jiang Cheng also sat beside him waiting for his answer, the answer as to whether the auxiliary defense team should stay or go.

As for the joint control issue, the auxiliary defense team is responsible for catching gambling and prostitution, and is also responsible for patrolling many places. This saves a lot of trouble for the regular law enforcement team.

However, it is precisely because of the decentralization of power and the lack of control that rumors can reach Jiang Cheng's ears. As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire.

In terms of supervision, even if Jiang Cheng reorganizes a supervisory team, how can he guarantee that there will be no problems with the supervisory team?

The key point is that if the auxiliary defense team really accepted some benefits that they shouldn't have, it would implicate the Jiang Donglai group.

Jiang Cheng was just doing this for fun because he thought it would be fun to catch those gamblers and prostitutes.

If the Law Enforcement Department didn't really need the assistance of this team, Jiang Cheng would really change the auxiliary defense team into a security company and no longer exercise the power to arrest prostitutes and gamblers.

But in Shenzhen, it has only been open for one or two years, there are too many outsiders, and the supporting management has not kept up. It is already very difficult now. If Jiangdonglai is withdrawn, the law enforcement team will need more personnel to maintain those jobs.

Zhang Jincai actually proposed that all departments below recruit non-staff personnel. But one reason is financial issues, and the other is that there is no precedent for this. The law enforcement team has done this. Maybe other brother units will also do the same.

"Jiang Cheng, I've also heard about what happened with the auxiliary defense team. The people from 'Jiang Donglai' in Hong Kong are quite decisive." Zhang Jincai said.

"In fact, the Hong Kong businessmen don't value that little bit of money and are afraid of getting into trouble." Jiang Cheng replied.

The content of the document was very simple, which was to ask the Law Enforcement Department to supervise the auxiliary defense team and sign a disclaimer. In this way, if the auxiliary defense team really got into trouble, the responsibility could not be traced to Jiang Donglai.

Now the defense team catches gamblers and prostitutes, and the benefits are not small. Now the law enforcement department has its own small treasury, which can give bonuses to everyone and buy some equipment.

Most of the funds for the slush fund came from the defense team, so no one investigated the defense team. Zhang Jincai had heard some news of cover-up, but there was no evidence. Compared with gambling, the law enforcement department did not investigate it.

After hearing what Jiang Cheng said, Zhang Jincai finally came to his senses. This was indeed the case. When it came to the issue of law enforcement power, it should not be handed over to individuals or companies outside of local units.

In other words, Jiangdonglai was willing to give up such profits and actively seek supervision. If the auxiliary defense team really had problems, the Law Enforcement Department would also be held responsible, because they got half of the money they got.

It is unclear whether the Law Enforcement Department or Jiang Donglai is behind the auxiliary defense team.

Without the power of law enforcement, if some cadres in clothing and processing factories were found to be corrupt, at most they would only have financial problems. If there was damage, it would only damage Jiang Cheng's interests, but the law enforcement power of the auxiliary defense team was facing the people outside the enterprise.

"I don't think there's any problem with this document, but you know, everything has to go through a process. But I want to ask, Jiang Cheng, how come it's always been you, a driver, who's in charge of Jiangdonglai's affairs in Shenzhen? I haven't seen your leader for a long time recently." Zhang Jincai put the document aside and asked curiously.

"Why are you thinking about my leader? Wouldn't I be freer if she wasn't here? In fact, she has too many industries and can't take care of us at all. But they are indeed training a person in charge, but there hasn't been a suitable one." Jiang Cheng replied.

Jiang Cheng also understood this problem. Some local leaders here often wanted to meet with someone Jiang Donglai could talk to.

But currently in Shenzhen, the factory leaders are only responsible for production and don't care about anything else. What they said cannot represent the meaning of "Jiang Donglai".

After the auxiliary defense team was separated from the Law Enforcement Department, all personnel transfers and expansions had to be conveyed through Jiang Cheng.

This is just the relationship between the Law Enforcement Department and the Assistance Team. It is very troublesome to talk without a clear person in charge. In fact, there are also some units and departments in other factories and shopping malls who want to contact the person in charge.

In Shenzhen, for example, there are already quite a few privately-owned restaurants and shops.

Some local units find someone to eat at a restaurant and sign the bill, and settle the bill after a certain number of days. There are also some who ask for "sponsorship" and ask for money.

In other words, Jiangdonglai is a foreign-funded enterprise, and it is difficult to find anyone responsible, and it does not dare to do anything shameful.

But Jiang Cheng also knew that there was indeed a need for an executive president in China. It was impossible for a large enterprise not to deal with local departments.

Even in Hong Kong, in the early years, Jiang Cheng had paid a lot of tribute money. If you don't pay for the white money, you have to pay for the black money. Now there are many movie studios in Hong Kong, small film production and shooting companies, and people often go to collect protection fees for the filming sites.

Only large companies that have many martial artists and dare to fight against some small thugs can avoid being charged protection fees.

When it comes to making movies, Shen Li has been investing for fun for more than a year and plans to set up a company to invest in filming herself.

Because Shen Li is not just investing in movies in Hong Kong, like other bosses who invest in movies to make money. Shen Li also invests in movies to make money, but also because of her hobby. She invests in movies and likes to visit the sets and join in the fun.

But after investing in three movies, she found that even if the box office was good, she didn't make much money. And those with average box office actually lost money.

But even so, there are still many companies shooting movies in Hong Kong every year, and they are still shooting hard.

After playing for more than a year, Shen Li has figured out some of the tricks.

Normally, if you invest one million in a movie, you need to earn twice as much at the box office to recover the cost. But pure investment in movies is simply not as good as those invested in movies by film companies.

For example, Golden Harvest Films invested 5 million in a movie, which was completely different from Shen Li's investment of 5 million. Shen Li invested real money, while Shen Li invested in various ways.

For example, an artist under Golden Harvest was paid 2 million yuan. Golden Harvest invested in movies and used its own artists. Although 2 million yuan is good, the money earned by artists, except for very famous stars who can get a high share, many can't even get half.

So if a film company uses its own artists, it may only need half of the investment. If some stars' salaries are inflated, it will be even more exaggerated.

Therefore, if Shen Li invested 5 million in a movie, the artist's company might earn millions just by hiring a famous star.

The net worth of many artists is completely inflated. In fact, for film companies, their real net worth is the amount of money those stars can actually get.

The film companies were also keen on hyping up the stars’ worth. In 1982, the top ten Hong Kong films all made over 10 million at the box office, which meant that the investors could get over 5 million.

But if you invest and promote it, it will easily cost two or three million. That is to say, only the top ten movies at the box office can earn two or three million. Those with only a few million at the box office are not small, but they only make back their investment and some pocket money.

This made Shen Li feel something was wrong. If this was really the case, a company would suffer huge losses if it invested in many movies in a year but the box office results were not ideal.

But Shen Li saw that many film companies in Hong Kong were doing very well. Later she found out that a star who was paid 200,000 yuan for a film might not even get 100,000 yuan.

Some big film companies also have their own cinema chains, which also make money. So if you control the cost of investing in a movie, it's actually not that high.

Therefore, the investment cost of movies is to deceive laymen. The more fools come to invest, the better. Invest 5 million and the box office is 10 million. If the investors don't make money, everyone else will.

Many coal bosses in later generations were fooled into investing in movies, with production costs of tens of millions. They invested in partnership with other film companies, but before the movie was released, the film company had already recovered its investment from its own artists. Jiang Cheng also understood what a true friendship cameo was through Shen Li's investment in movies. A friendship cameo is a friend's price, but what counts as a friendship cameo? It's not the leading male or female role, or the role is very small.

In fact, they know that your pay is very inflated. If they hire you to shoot a movie or hire their own people to shoot the movie, of the same level, the artists from your own company can take more than half.

But even for their own artists, they have to pay them high salaries, just to show off to the outside world and to push up their value. If it is pushed up, other investors will hire stars, and the company will earn more.

So the friendly guest appearance is that everyone is in the same circle, don't be too greedy. If you want to maintain the popularity, you have to have new works, but the price is high and there are too few stupid bosses, so you have to make friendly guest appearances in the movies shot by other people and companies.

Therefore, if Shen Li wants to make money more easily by investing in movies, all the actors must make guest appearances, from leading actors to supporting actors, and even special actors and so on.

Jiangcheng actually has a cinema chain, and every shopping mall and supermarket has a small cinema. If he opens a film company and recruits some artists, Shen Li will make a movie for fun. If she doesn't hire any stars, she can invest in ten movies.

If you want to invite a star, you can also invite a small star to make a friendly cameo appearance. Chow Yun Fat's movies have no box office appeal now, so if you ask him to make a friendly cameo appearance, he may not even ask for a salary of 100,000 yuan.

Jiang Cheng didn't expect Shen Li to start a film company. Would this cause a butterfly effect? ​​However, Jiang Cheng didn't plan to interfere in the Hong Kong film and television industry. If he wanted to do it, he could just sign some of the big stars of the future.

Jiang Cheng was chatting with Zhang Jincai in Shenzhen at this time, but he didn't know that Shen Li, under the guise of being the boss of a film company, had gone to TVB Radio Station to make friends with actors.

Because Shen Li's company was just a shell company, used to fool people. With the help of Mrs. Jiang's background, she invested in several movies, although the box office was average. But no one thought her company was just a shell company.

This year, TVB launched the 'Wireless Five Tigers', which include Liu Lao Da, Huang Ri Shi, Liang Chao Wei, Tian Qiao Wei and Tang Zhenye.

Shen Li usually has to take care of her kids at home, so she doesn't have the time to train artists. Now she goes there to make friends. Several people promised her that they would make a cameo appearance next time she invests in a movie.

Moreover, she has invested in three movies and got to know some directors, who might make guest appearances to help out in the future.

Jiang Cheng had no idea that in this era, if a wealthy lady entered the Hong Kong film and television industry, many artistes would try to curry favor with her.

You should know that in 1979, Wu Mengda starred in "Chu Liuxiang" with Zheng Shaoqiu, which was very popular. However, he lost all his savings due to gambling and owed a huge debt of 300,000 yuan.

For a popular star, 300,000 is a lot and can be considered a huge debt. It is conceivable that in this era, except for the top artists who earn a lot, other actors actually don’t earn much.

Because Adam Cheng and Cecilia Yip are the spokespersons for "Jiang Dong Lai", Shen Li actually has contact information with them.

Jiang Cheng left the Law Enforcement Office, and the matter of the defense was concluded. In the future, Jiang Cheng would no longer engage in industries related to law enforcement. There were some things that Jiang Cheng was not omnipotent for, even if he had traveled through time.

In Jiang Cheng's opinion, even if a time traveler is not smart enough, he will die miserably if he takes the official road.

After leaving the Law Enforcement Office, Jiang Cheng returned to where he lived with Zheng Ke. Zheng Ke's life was now fulfilling. After following Jiang Cheng for such a long time, he did not regret leaving the art troupe.

In the art troupe, Zheng Ke is just a team leader and has to obey the arrangements of many people.

Zheng Ke is now the head of the department, and she has the same curiosity as Zhang Jincai. She has never seen a leader who manages her, and she was the only one in charge of the Propaganda Department when she first took over. She took the position with a document and work permit sent from Hong Kong.

No one questioned Zheng Ke's identity at the factory and supermarket. Because the meal tickets and wages were not issued to Zheng Ke by them, it seemed meaningless to pretend to be a member of the propaganda department.

Regarding the recruitment of people for the Propaganda Department, Jiang Donglai directly gave her a monthly budget of 20,000 yuan for this department, including wages, equipment purchases, material costs, and travel and performance expenses.

If Zheng Ke feels that the funds are insufficient, he can apply in writing.

Twenty thousand yuan was definitely enough in this era. Zheng Ke first hired a few broadcasters to solve the problem of having radio and music to listen to during work in the morning.

Then we recruited two young girls who graduated from a technical secondary school majoring in fine arts to write slogans for the factory and paint outside the factory walls.

We also recruited some people who can play musical instruments, and those who are interested in dance and stage performance, and we can slowly cultivate them.

In addition to salary, Zheng Ke has to buy performance costumes, musical instruments, and consumables.

There will definitely be more than enough when you start with 20,000 yuan, but if you continue to expand slowly, it will not be enough sooner or later.

However, Jiang Cheng discovered that the people Zheng Ke recruited were all women, not a single man. In fact, there were quite a few male artists in the art troupe.

For some reason, Jiang Cheng suddenly thought of Boss Xu's song and dance troupe, and wondered if he could ask Zheng Ke to help him set up one.

"Jiang Cheng, you're back. What happened to you? Didn't you finish your work?"

When Zheng Ke saw Jiang Cheng coming back, he didn't even play with his daughter and just lay down on the sofa.

In the past, Jiang Cheng would either tease his daughter Xiaoshuang or take advantage of her before going to rest.

"The matter has been settled, as for other matters, there is no general manager of Jiangdonglai Company in China. My leader asked me to help find a capable person who has the necessary ability and can deal with various departments." Jiang Cheng said.

Jiang Cheng lies without even thinking before he tells it, that's what he is like now.

After returning from Zhang Jincai's visit, Jiang Cheng did realize that he needed a person in charge. He always showed up, which was a bit bad. If he was the leader's assistant, it would be fine, but he was just a driver, and he didn't want to show up.

Now Jiang Cheng is deceiving everyone, and he doesn't know when this will end.

Sometimes Jiang Cheng really hoped that someone would find out something, and even looked forward to a confession and a lighter sentence. But every woman of his believed everything he said.

"Isn't this the HR department's business? Why do you still have to worry about it?" Zheng Ke asked.

"The leader of 'Jiang Donglai' likes to appoint people based on personal connections. Ability is one aspect, but he prefers to appoint people who have a good relationship with him," said Jiang Cheng.

"Ah~, the leader in Hong Kong is such a person, no wonder. I was wondering how come I became the section chief without even meeting the leader. And every month he directly hands over the funds to our department for management. That's because I'm honest. If it were someone dishonest, a lot of the 20,000 yuan a month would have been embezzled." Zheng Ke said with a look of understanding.

"That's right. It's a pity that our daughter Xiaoshuang is too young. If she were 18 years old, I would recommend her to be the person in charge." Jiang Cheng said with a smile.

Zheng thought Jiang Cheng was joking, at least he didn't think there was any truth in it, so he smiled too. His daughter Zheng Shuang was still wearing open-crotch pants, and Jiang Cheng was lucky to have her be the person in charge.

(End of this chapter)