My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 812 Working together
That very night, Lao Geng flew over from Beijing, and Lao Cheng went with him.

Old Zhang is still in Detroit, meticulously reviewing all the supporting equipment for the transfer to the mainland.

It turns out that Lao Cheng saw that not many containers had arrived yet, so he decided to go with Lao Geng to support the construction of the new factory in the Pingjing Cherokee supply chain.

Speaking of that, it's like a massive project is underway. More than 1,200 containers have already arrived at Tianjin Port, and almost all container trucks in the relevant areas have been mobilized to work day and night to haul them to the new factory area.

Therefore, Wu Shengyun repeatedly investigated between Tianjin and the Pingjing factory area to demonstrate whether it was possible to dredge the waterway and enable shipping to the sea dock.

Not only can we import some supplies now, but we can also use the finished products when they are shipped overseas in the future.

Both of them lamented that if they had known earlier that the new factory would be used for export production, they would have simply built it in Tianjin.

It's an extra 180 kilometers, but thankfully it's flat and straight. The Beijing-Tianjin line has been a major line operating between the two municipalities for many years.

It's already reached a considerable scale, so it's not easy to move it now.

The factory area, which was under construction for less than a year, has basically completed its large-scale factory buildings and office buildings built to the standards of the Cherokee assembly line.

The dormitory and residential complex, which can accommodate four to five thousand people, is 80% complete.

The hotel building has been topped out, and now the renovation team is rushing to get in and finish the work.

This is to ensure the living environment for the numerous Citibank technical advisors and engineers who will then connect with over twenty supporting factories of various types.

Chrysler even proposed building a baseball stadium and a basketball arena!
All of this required Wei Dong to pay for it.

In reality, Weidong paid for the costs of such a large-scale industrial chain relocation, but all the car factory shares belong to state-owned assets.

He's not stupid. All the buildings in this newly built factory area, including Shanghai's future factory area, are owned by Dongsheng Trading. They paid for the construction out of their own pockets and provided them to the car manufacturers for free for twenty years, after which the ownership will be discussed again.

Hotels and supporting venues are definitely owned and accounted for independently.

Cherokee appointed Wei Dong as a shareholder and vice president. He does not participate in management but only assists in the work. At the Shanghai Dodge plant, he is the legal representative and chairman, which is almost a lifetime appointment, but it is unlikely that he will pass the position on to his son.

Wei Dong laughed when he heard this. A baseball field can cost a few dollars, but it takes up the land. A basketball court would cost even more... Let's take it slow. We'll see how much funding we have and try to get a nice venue.

Needless to say, what these assets will look like in twenty or thirty years is anyone's guess.

So even though it seems like a free gift to state-owned assets, the preferential conditions you get along with it are worth the price.

The main task is to support the rice seedlings.

Old Geng also brought back technical specifications, including the assembly plant's facilities, which still required significant adjustments for other processes.

So right now, all the urban construction technicians have rushed over there to learn, while we're just doing the demolition and compaction to build the foundation. Once everything is fully adjusted, we can start working on it quickly.

Wei Dong could only urge them to produce something as soon as possible to report to their superiors.

As it turned out, these two were much more adept at writing official documents than he was. After a little thought, he told the boss to leave it to them and let them handle it.

Wei Dong was sent to the shipyard to see his container ship.

The only domestic manufacturer capable of producing Panamax ships is Shanghai Haikou Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

Guoyuan just took delivery of its first domestically built Panama bulk carrier at the beginning of the year, but now Guoyuan's CEO, Engineer Tang, has revealed to Rang Weidong that the ship has been plagued by malfunctions since it was acquired, causing Guoyuan a major headache.

In the shipping industry, ships need to operate continuously, with people on the move and the ships running non-stop, in order to break even.

The daily loss from downtime for repairs is more than $20,000!

In short, just like the first ten or twenty years after domestically produced cars came out, there were all sorts of outrageous quality problems.

With a precise target for the problem and difficulty, Wei Dong was sent to the port machinery factory to hang out with Lao Zhong.

Once we confirm that full-scale production of quay cranes has begun here, we will then make our requests to the shipyard.

Spend more money to import the best Hans MAN ultra-long stroke marine diesel engine currently on the international market. Don't buy some substandard models to reduce costs, and don't even think about using this ship to practice and imitate the engine.

The nascent container industry cannot withstand such disruption.

The order was placed just over two months ago, and the steel keel has just been laid here. The shipowner's requirements are still quite demanding.

With Lao Zhong patting each other on the shoulder and chatting along the way, and after a few good meals and drinks, everyone confirmed that this was indeed a private enterprise building a ship, not a transaction between state-owned units like last time, and that all payments and foreign exchange could be made on schedule. Finally, it was confirmed that the ship would be delivered before the end of next year.

Keep in mind that it took Tang and his team over two whole years to build that ship...

This can also be considered practice for this second Panamax-class cargo ship.

Fueled by alcohol, Wei Dong promised that as long as the ship operated stably for more than a year, he would continue to order more.

Shipyards that have been undergoing difficult restructuring in the past two years have repeatedly expressed their approval.

In short, I shuttled between the electronics industrial park, the international community, the automobile industrial park, and the shipyard and shore engine plant, trying to visit two or three places every day.

The main purpose is to make your presence felt and to express the boss's high level of attention.

He even attended a meeting of the Shanghai Deep-Water Port Preparatory Committee, as he was the first person to submit the survey report for the new deep-water port and ocean-going terminal in Shanghai. Perhaps there was a change in city leadership, so things weren't as efficient here. The tea and snacks were quite good, so Weidong packed some to take back for his wife to have as a snack during their break.

Then Lin Wangfu flew back upon hearing the news.

Before even meeting, they handed over the transfer documents for two hundred million US dollars in the car.

Wei Dong was a little surprised: "It's not that I intentionally left it with Citibank. Can you use it for dividends or R&D investment?"

Lin Wangfu looked down on him: "We have to follow the company's procedures. This is something that your wife will handle for financial accounting. You are in charge of investment, and I am in charge of research and development. Profit sharing is something that happens at the end of the year. I came back now to seek your decision on the next research direction."

Wei Dong thought to himself, "I've already bought a yacht and a mansion," and then glanced at Lin Wangfu, who took out a bubble wrap bag from his backpack, opened it to reveal a piece of equipment.

He was driving, and quickly turned his head to glance at it as if it were nothing new: "A CD drive, huh? What's wrong with it...?"

Then, in the next second, I was shocked and turned my head to take a closer look. It really was a CD drive!
The main point is to make Wei Dong instantly connect the DVD player with the one they discussed when they first arrived in Shanghai a few days ago!
He didn't know if there was any technological relationship between LD players and optical drives, but VCDs definitely did, and later DVD drives corresponded to DVD players.

The technicians in the computer room often secretly watched various discs using the computer's optical drive.

Lin Wangfu sat happily in the passenger seat, holding the silver-gray CD player: "I knew you would like it!"

Wei Dong, still afraid of giving himself away, tried his best to control his attitude: "I think I've seen this somewhere before when I was in North America. What, do you think this thing has any future?"

Lin Wangfu said with deep emotion, "I have a sound card and speakers, but I've always felt that my computer is missing something. Isn't that it? How much music can a 20MB hard drive hold? CDs! What music can compare to the sound quality of a laser disc?"

Wei Dong suddenly realized what was going on.

So that's how you think about it.

Lin Wangfu's love for music inspired him to develop a system that could produce stereo sound from computers.

Then, naturally, we need to get an audio source.

This is indeed the typical thinking of countless enthusiasts.

Wei Dong was instructed to tone down his behavior and ask the question as calmly as possible: "Then why didn't anyone notice it before? Why didn't Apple realize this?"

Lin Wangfu replied matter-of-factly, "It's expensive. Philips only launched a CD-ROM drive two years ago with 600MB of storage. It's an expensive device used in mainframes and research institutions, costing over three thousand US dollars a unit!"

Wei Dong almost stalled his manual Honda: "So expensive?!"

Lin Wangfu nodded: "So I'm thinking of buying the patent so we can produce this thing... Hehe, secretly produce it, and then suddenly release it next year like a sound card to be installed in Apple computers. What do you think of this idea?"

Wei Dong burst into laughter: "So you've figured out my vampiric mode too?"

Po-zai revealed a sly expression: "Excellent! I really like your model. We don't need to expand sales globally ourselves. We can focus on developing a certain component for big companies and then sell it all over the world with them. Hahaha, I love your model so much. That's why when I saw this device in Apple's server room, I immediately had this idea."

Honestly, to be honest, even Wei Dong hadn't figured out what selling points to offer Steve when Apple's new computer model was first released next year.

They initially thought it was an earphone.

The discovery by Lin Wangfu will allow the sound card company to reap another profit next year!

But he's no longer hiding it from his partner: "How much does a standalone CD player cost these days?"

Since they already had this, they must have a CD player too. Wei Dong vaguely remembered seeing similar products being promoted when he was shopping in Hong Kong.

But at that time, I didn't associate it with the VCD industry line at all.

They are also less sensitive to CD-ROMs used in computers.

Audiophiles are indeed well-informed: "More than a dozen brands have already followed suit. Once you've heard the CD sound quality, all high-end brands will join without hesitation. Cheap Panasonic and Sony can be bought for around three to five hundred US dollars, but high-end ones can cost thousands of US dollars or even more."

He also explained to Wei Dong: "CD players can only read CDs, but the CD-ROM used in computers is backward compatible with music formats and, more importantly, reads code data, which is why it is so much more expensive. I also discovered this huge price difference and realized that we might be able to reduce the cost of CD players to a few hundred US dollars, which would definitely help Apple computers sell like hotcakes next year!"

What kept Wei Dong thinking was the VCD business.

But he could come up with something off the top of his head: "Indeed, for example, if we give away a novel on a CD, that's hundreds or thousands of books, and then there are games... Damn, won't that affect our business of swapping memory cards?"

At that moment, he understood why IBM had deliberately delayed abandoning the 386 chip, essentially crippling itself. When older products were generating profits, those damned capitalists would really give up the drive to move forward.

Lin Wangfu quickly reassured him, "No, no, CD players can only read, not write. Memory cards are still irreplaceable."

Wei Dong thought to himself, "I've seen rewritable CDs before."

But now, the research leader is inspired: "Have you ever thought that this device could replace LD players and play videotape-like images on a computer?"

Lin Wangfu was stunned for a moment: "My God, you still have unparalleled inspiration. If we can develop this direction, it will definitely be another year of huge profits..."

Then he instantly turned into a jerk: "No rush, no rush, we'll release them little by little, year by year, right?"

He's a born shrewd capitalist.

Wei Dong also liked his style.

(End of this chapter)