My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 317 Playing Hard to Win Hearts

When Wei Dong was summoned, it was somewhat casual.

He was thinking about the family matters to some extent.

I just think my wife is such a busybody.

At that moment, standing in front of the regimental department, he had long since forgotten everything else.

Quietly straightening his chest, looking at countless faces, some young and some weathered, he hurriedly ran out of the barracks and quickly put on his military cap, now stripped of its insignia.

Yet they still held themselves to military discipline, standing in full formation.

Old Geng's voice boomed: "Attention, everyone! Starting today, we are officially transitioning to the Jiangzhou Construction and Development Company. Although our official designation has not yet been determined, our new battlefield, new honors, and new goals are already ahead!"

In the mountains in March, the spring nights are still chilly.

But countless eyes turned fervent and intense with the sound.

Many family members also quietly appeared in the corners with their children, watching the scene with mixed feelings of joy and worry.

After a hiatus of more than half a year, the situation has finally changed, but will we have to live apart again?

For some reason, Wei Dong felt like he was seeing his father.

He never mentioned his time in the army, yet he lived his entire life with his back straight and upright.

So when Lao Geng turned around and saw Rang Weidong standing there with satisfaction, he raised his voice: "Therefore, from now on we will join the reform team led by Comrade Rang Weidong and fight on the front line of urban construction. Please welcome Comrade Rang Weidong to say a few words!"

The enthusiastic applause from the thousands of people was indeed filled with questions.

Without the typical military speaking style, Wei Dong waved his hand and stepped forward, saying, "First, let me answer the questions from the families present. Now that you've been demobilized, you are all legitimate construction workers, cadres, and family members in Jiangzhou City. Your future household registration will be in Jiangzhou City, and you will settle down here. Perhaps the first residential community you build will be your future home. So I guarantee that all of you who work hard will have a happy and fulfilling home. I guarantee it!"

This is what makes Wei Dong different.

Whether it was the films shown at the film festival, the later reports on TVB, or the visits to Hong Kong.

Yes, and also You Qili's speaking style, which had the deepest influence on Wei Dong.

This era, from top to bottom, including today's Lao Geng, is accustomed to grand narratives and magnificent momentum.

We must use lofty ideals and slogans to motivate everyone to follow.

no problem.

Without this spirit, we wouldn't be standing here.

But after decades, this tactic has almost reached its limit.

Let Wei Dong carry on with his habits from thirty or forty years later, he likes to pour his emotions from grand historical scenes to specific groups of people. This kind of emotion full of humanistic care can soothe the various mental states that are experiencing disappointment, doubt and division at this time.

I've never heard of happiness being so concrete before, and it's right in front of me?

Even Lao Geng was a little surprised.

He heard with his own ears that Wei Dong didn't know them at all, didn't know what they did, and even hesitated a bit on the phone.

But now I've made up my mind to bring happiness to everyone.

This is a situation involving thousands of people, not just a few horses and guns, which can be easily resolved by fooling around.

The entire engineering corps was overjoyed; some shouted "Bravo!", some clapped, and many more just grinned sheepishly, unsure how to express their feelings.

Wei Dong is used to clarifying things, which is probably a habit of the tax authorities; talking about abstract concepts is not as good as doing concrete accounting.
"Secondly, the first team of about a thousand people, with engineering equipment and transport vehicles, will go to the Jiangnan District Economic Development Zone in Jiangzhou. They will start work tomorrow. We have factories, residential buildings, residential communities, and commercial buildings to build. Perhaps you haven't built some of these types of buildings before, but I believe you can learn and improve yourselves as soon as possible and become the best construction team!"

Well, it seems that Wei Dong doesn't really know much about the infrastructure engineering corps.

After Lao Geng finished speaking, he led the team in applauding to thank the boss for his speech before proudly ordering: "All Party members and Youth League members shall form an assault team!"

With a whoosh, about a third of them stepped out of line and regrouped.

"All mid- to senior-level technical and business backbone personnel, get ready for action!"

Surprisingly, nearly two hundred people silently stepped forward and formed a line.

This left Wei Dong dumbfounded.

The construction teams he's currently working with mostly have very few technical personnel.

I never imagined that the construction team could have such a high level of technical expertise.

On second thought, wow, they're working on the most complex and technically demanding project in the country and even the world right now, so their technical skills must be top-notch.

Underestimated it!
Of course, what he mentioned at the end was that others should stay at their current posts and wait until they have established a foothold there before gradually leaving to settle down.

The entire camp was filled with a joyful and busy atmosphere that night.

Their feelings are definitely different from those of the Hongguang Factory.

At least the non-ferrous metals plant had some output and could do the work; even selling it cheaply was still selling it, and having goods meant they could at least perceive their own value. The infrastructure engineering corps, on the other hand, had all its support suddenly removed. The team, which was known for its ability to conquer the north and south and conquer all, was like a bull stuck in a swamp after a long period of construction work—it had no strength to exert.

With the absence of national-level infrastructure projects and the real estate market not yet fully developed, they all began to doubt their own value.

In a market economy where everyone is responsible for their own profits and losses, no work means no income, and without income, life immediately falls into hardship. The past year has been the most difficult time for them.

Now that there is hope again, they are eager to fight to the death!

They packed up and loaded all sorts of construction vehicles onto truck trailers overnight.

So when about sixty large trucks followed Wei Dong’s minivan back to Jiangzhou the next day, most people felt like they hadn’t been to the city in a long time.

When they saw the massive, terraced construction site, with dormitory buildings under construction and high-rise residential buildings being excavated, they almost burst into tears.

I miss the bustling atmosphere of a construction site so much.

The staff of the moving company, sanitary napkin factory, jeans factory, printing factory, and the Hong Kong-funded factory that had just started construction after the Lunar New Year could hardly believe their eyes.

It's like waking up one morning to find a heavy combined armored brigade crouching in front of you.

The 100,000-square-meter plot of land in Weidong is roughly square, and construction is in full swing on the front side, but in reality, at least two-thirds of it is still wasteland inside.

We chose a side of road that was still under construction in the distance, where even the city roads were not yet finished. We unloaded our equipment and immediately started building barracks!

Aside from borrowing some bricks and cement from here, we have everything we need, even our iron-framed beds.

Because their first choice for work was to build factory buildings for Hong Kong-funded factories.

Wei Dong had previously considered lending them his factory.

Forget it now. Isn't it better to use the capitalists' money to train your own team? It would be a shame if such a prestigious brand didn't build a nice factory area.

As the sole partner of the Hong Kong-funded factory, he happily settled on the policy.

It introduces several key aspects of mutual understanding and cooperation.

Wei Dong then took Lao Geng to the city to sign the shareholding reform agreement.

On the way, he invited Lao Geng to ride in his car and explained the current situation regarding economic system reform, especially real estate reform, to the old commander in the mountains.

Finally, an unexpected solution was proposed: "Infrastructure teams are crucial national assets during the reform period, and I have no right to claim them for myself. Therefore, I suggest that Jiangzhou City accept this heavy construction development company as its top team, and I can at most be considered the contractor for this stage."

The reason is simple. On the surface, it seems that even the employees and managers of private enterprises, including Lao Geng, find it hard to accept becoming "individual business owners." They never thought they would be the boss of this private enterprise, and emotionally, they find it hard to accept that they have actually been abandoned by the system.

When Wei Dong realized this, he tried his best to bring them together as a state-owned enterprise in Jiangzhou.

In general, the transfer of assets from military to civilian use is considered a state-owned enterprise in this way.

However, in practice, over the next few to ten years, as future generations will know, many clever and capable individuals made a killing by selling off state-owned assets at bargain prices during this round of institutional reforms.

Although it won't be as bad as when Su Ting collapsed, creating a bunch of incredibly wealthy oligarchs.

This situation is quite shocking.

Why let Weidong build a sanitary napkin factory with an annual output value of hundreds of millions by himself? Why step into this quagmire?

Even the Xishan Optical Instruments General Factory, which he was currently developing, did not take any of the original state-owned assets, but instead established a wholly-owned sales company independently.

That's enough to effectively prevent the Xishan General Factory from encountering any issues like a change in leadership or something going wrong.

He now believes that this engineering machinery group, which he values ​​at least tens of millions, should not be greedily taken into his possession, as it will become a hot potato like the Hongguang Factory in the future.

It's enough to control a segment of the world to help you conquer it.

The city officials were already very familiar with the cunning of the young and old, who were very wary of falling into the trap of this policy. In front of Lao Geng, they teased Wei Dong, saying, "Do you know where Jiangzhou's construction companies are ranked now? Do you know that this round of infrastructure engineering corps reform has resulted in 500,000 people being demobilized and all of them are making a lot of noise in the market?"

Wei Dong couldn't help but show a stunned expression. Five hundred thousand infrastructure engineering troops?!

If you calculate the timeline, the establishment of government agencies began to be abolished in 82, real estate companies were promoted on a large scale in 84, and commercial housing was aggressively promoted a few years later.

This is clearly a cause-and-effect relationship!

Without funds for national projects and unable to support engineering troops, a large number of people were demobilized, leading to a sudden increase in various construction companies across the country. No wonder many real estate tycoons rose to prominence by riding this wave.

Wearing a simple, old military uniform, Lao Geng's expression was tense. He probably didn't expect to have so many competitors!

The information available in the city is certainly more comprehensive and abundant: "Pengzhen is currently relying entirely on two infrastructure engineers who were transferred from the Northeast. Forty thousand people are working on construction. They have established Pengzhen Construction Corporation. But Pengzhen used to be a small fishing village. Jiangzhou has twelve construction companies. Aren't you yourself an advisor to the real estate construction and development corporation? I think at this time, there should be a trustworthy private construction company to set a benchmark for the whole country."

Someone else might have readily accepted it at this point.

Wei Dong was instructed to strictly adhere to the red line: "The city has no problem with the private shareholding system, so let's convert the equipment into state-owned shares, making them the largest shareholder. Then, the other shares will be jointly held by all the officers and soldiers of the infrastructure team. This is a construction company that truly belongs to everyone, and I guarantee that their work enthusiasm will become a national benchmark."

Old Geng was completely stunned; he never imagined there was such a way of "contracting production to households".

What they didn't expect was that Wei Dong didn't harm them in the slightest. This noble attitude completely won over the hearts of this elite army.

(End of this chapter)