My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 473 The foreshadowing always happens unexpectedly

Let Wei Dong conveniently send the car team to the repair shop first.

The Santana is probably still adrift on the cargo ship, but the Cherokee has already driven over.

Now everyone can participate deeply in learning the disassembly work and become familiar with the operating principles of the parts.

While the Hong Kong businesswoman was away, they dismantled her Land Rover Defender for comparison.

No matter which part of the automotive industry you work in in the future, you must first become an automotive expert.

Finally, it is emphasized that we should select a few highly skilled auto mechanics to go to the Pingjing factory to follow Lao Cheng. This will allow them to learn, improve, and receive further training, and they will also serve as technical assistants to Lao Cheng in a different location.

The prospect of working in Pyeongjing instantly reignited the passion and enthusiasm throughout the entire auto repair shop.

After settling in here briefly, we'll take the computer team to visit the Xishan Building construction site.

Learn about the operation of the entire Xishan Electronic Computer Building, industrial park, and business model.

The construction site here is just as bustling as the one in the Shanghai Electronics Industrial Park.

Hong Kong capital did indeed provide considerable convenience for Wei Dong's fund transfers during this period.

This shared the burden of construction and minimized the risk of Weidong's financial collapse.

Electronics buildings, four-star hotels, office buildings, commercial centers, and mixed-use buildings are all under construction, racing against each other.

Divided into small blocks of about 100 by 50 meters, the buildings are not yet erected, but the grid pattern of the temporary construction roads can be seen more clearly.

The scene of five or six blocks under construction simultaneously, surrounded by barren slopes and fields, really resembled the construction of a Red Alert base.

Even if you've never played strategy/management video games.

These experts and professors, who were familiar with circuit boards and skilled in programming, immediately felt the grandeur of their ability to control the layout!
The leaders of the educational machine component manufacturers fell silent.

They witnessed the massive construction boom of twenty or thirty years ago.

But back then, it relied on government funding, and everyone worked hard and made contributions.

Now almost all state-owned factories and mines are in dire straits, struggling to continue operations and barely able to keep going. The employees, used to the system of equal distribution of resources, are not easily persuaded to act like fools.

Is this the power of the private economy and capital?
Even as the heads of state-owned factories, controlling a large area of ​​factory land, they never had such a situation of doing whatever they wanted.

Because all funding has to come from higher levels, the country has been struggling financially in recent years.

To be honest, we've never been well-off.

I'm really envious now.

Finally, he began to open his heart to Wei Dong.

The core issue is whether we can generate profits as quickly as possible.

They are under immense economic pressure.

In fact, the state-owned electronics factories in the Yangtze River Delta region have attracted top students from all over the country. For many years, prestigious universities such as Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Xi'an Jiao Tong University have been sending their chosen talents to this region.

It brings together the nation's top experts in the electronics industry.

The technical skills are high, and the salary is not cheap.

The average salary that people outside say is over forty, that's just an average.

Newly hired workers who reach level 18 are considered skilled workers, but their salary is only 25.5. However, assistant technicians generally start here, and level 14 earns 44.5, which is on par with the average national salary.

Then, when a technician reaches level nine, they can earn 90 yuan.

There are only one or two such county-level factories that are highly sought after, and for them, it's just the lower limit.

There are plenty of engineers.

Those above level eight were all engineers, and a salary of 130 to 150 yuan was definitely considered middle class in the 1970s and 1980s. No wonder they were treated as intellectuals.

Level 4 and above are chief engineers and deputy chief engineers, with a salary of 280 yuan.

Almost everyone present was!

In places where high salaries are concentrated, it was fine before that the state covered all the costs, but now they are required to be self-sufficient and have even implemented a system of converting allocated funds into loans...

The last time in Japan, what made Wei Dong decide to participate in the major battle of the computer industry and chip manufacturing was that his electromechanical expert explained this reformed allocation-to-loan system.

It was a bit too hasty to push all electromechanical manufacturers into the market. After decades of relying on the "iron rice bowl" system, only a very few were able to be led out of the mire by the leaders.

The vast majority were swept away in the torrent of this clash between policy and the times.

The plight of a large number of scientific and technological personnel selling popsicles and engaging in small businesses.

This wave of income drop was basically caused by a precipitous decline, making it extremely difficult to go from luxury to frugality.

In his previous life, Wei Dong was in the tax compound at this time, in Shangzhou, a place that was already extremely poor, so he had no idea about these hardships.

No wonder so many people took the civil service exam and became civil servants later on.

For ordinary families, it was probably only after experiencing this period that they realized that in the face of societal changes, having a government job was the safest option.

But who could have imagined that the next ten years would see a massive wave of layoffs, and this tragedy was only just beginning? Seeing that he didn't speak, the factory leaders assumed he was also facing financial difficulties.

A factory manager from Nanjing finally spoke the truth: "I studied economics and used to work in the banking system, but the current situation is actually..."

He hesitated for a moment before saying, "In 1978, when the reform and opening up began, the national currency in circulation was over 20 billion. Since then, 5 to 6 billion new banknotes have been issued every year, and this year it has reached over 80 billion. This situation..."

I didn't dare say anything more.

Wei Dongcai was suddenly taken aback, as he had never paid attention to such macroeconomic conditions before.

Even those who have experienced it firsthand only know... yes, there will definitely be a period of soaring prices coming up!
This is common knowledge among netizens in later generations. They see the US printing money like crazy after the pandemic, and even with the help of the whole world, prices still skyrocketed.

In this situation, traders with strong manufacturing capabilities and nationwide sales power can definitely make a fortune!

But would you dare to make that money?

I'm afraid we'll have to kill a few unscrupulous merchants who are driving up prices to appease public anger. Do they really think they can make big money by following business rules?

This set a new standard for Wei Dong in his mind for the upcoming sales conference.

He then smiled and continued, "We can only adapt to and adjust to the overall national situation, but as for wages... you don't know that our frontline employees in the sanitary napkin factory can earn more than two hundred yuan a month, and the hardworking ones can even get close to five hundred?"

The chief engineer and deputy chief engineers were astonished.

Wei Dong then started waving money around: "In any situation, there will always be people who are happy and people who are sad. Developing productivity is the key to solving the current problems. Join our electronic computer production community and I can guarantee you sufficient production capacity to start operations."

He counted on his fingers: "Because the monitor production line jointly established by Shanghai Vacuum Electronics Factory and Apple Computer aims to reach an annual production scale of 500,000 units, everything except vacuum picture tubes will be sourced domestically as much as possible."

"X Computer is currently only in trial production. To reach an annual production of 100,000 to 200,000 units, we will inevitably need the participation and support of everyone. The reason I disagree with selling both computer and learning machine models at the same time is not to discriminate against learning machines. Rather, we want to use one solution now, so that everyone can work together to reduce costs and increase efficiency. While pushing the computer to the market at the lowest possible price so that more Chinese people can access learning computers, we can also support our scientific and technological research and development. As I have said, as long as we can satisfy the income of so many people in the sales team, I, as a private business owner, can forgo making a profit and invest all the profits in research and development. Everyone can see the accounts."

What a huge sacrifice!

Even if the X-computers produced 100,000 units a year, excluding monitors, that would still generate nearly 100 million in revenue.

Capitalists don't make money?

But the leaders of the state-owned factories were used to it. They only envied: "That's really good. You don't have to hand over your profits. You only have to pay taxes. Who can compete with your prices?"

That's right. Even if all state-owned factories are now responsible for their own profits and losses, they still have to bear the consequences of going hungry if they lose money, but if they make a profit... the factory belongs to the state, so the profits still have to be handed over to the state.

Even if some talented people compete for leadership positions and lead the company to fight hard and make money, their income is only slightly increased by bonuses, and their living expenses are entirely covered by the company.

However, this business operation and corporate reform were basically done on a voluntary basis.

This is also the biggest reason why Murong in the South and Qiao Feng in the North, who were later the standard-bearers of reform and opening up, were soon involved in various economic disputes.

The leading figures in the reforms are helping out for nothing; all they need is some honor and treatment.

Therefore, the high price of products manufactured by companies does not actually mean that the factory, factory leaders, or employees are making a profit.

For example, a Santana worth 180,000 yuan or a Cherokee worth 160,000 yuan.

This made Wei Dong finally understand what the term "state-owned assets" meant.

"So, if we can make the business thrive, earn just the right amount, and most importantly, keep increasing the company's assets, then it all depends on your work abilities..."

The meaning wasn't fully explained.

But then he led everyone from a large construction site into the city, and once they arrived at the White Building, they understood.

I arrived late last night, and almost in a daze, I was taken from the train station like a piglet and sent to the factory area.

Now it is very clear that we are crossing the Yangtze River Bridge on the riverbank and quickly entering a crowded and dilapidated urban area of ​​Jiangzhou.

Even the city center is filled with a large number of old buildings from the Republican era.

Moreover, it's not like the beautiful old villas in Shanghai, with wide European-style streets and classic old-fashioned streets shaded by plane trees.

This is a timber-framed building made of bamboo strips and plastered with mortar, a type of "new-style architecture" commonly seen in Southwest China during the War of Resistance against Japan. It is estimated that during the wartime capital period, a large number of people suddenly arrived, and this method of construction was quick.

So after nearly half a century, it is dilapidated and in ruins everywhere.

This backwardness cannot be concealed no matter how much it is washed away or whitewashed.

Then I saw the bustling city center, which had the feel of a big city, and a few decent Soviet-style buildings that were clearly model projects from recent years.

Then you see that bright white, seven-story "magnificent" building.

Because the top dozen or so floors are already close to being completed.

It is indeed the tallest building over 100 meters in the entire city!

Passing citizens would stop and look up at it.

The computer experts and team members in the vans couldn't help but exclaim "Wow!" in unison, and some even squeezed to one side of the van to watch the spectacle.

Wei Dong felt that Wu Shengyun's work on the building was indeed quite good.

But the company he casually mentioned earlier had a good sense of proportion, being "just right" in terms of profitability without making much money, yet still developing well.

This building immediately sparked the thinking of some clever people.

(End of this chapter)