A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

Chapter 128 Oriental Daily
In a brick-and-wood structure house at the Yangtze River Motors base, Vitasoy is conducting research and development of soy milk.

There are a total of four R&D personnel, two of whom are beverage talents that Chen Guangliang poached from Watsons, and two more were recruited by placing advertisements in Shanghai newspapers.

These four people not only understand the beverage industry, but also have knowledge of related machinery, so the "soy milk" process has already been initially developed.

Chen Guangliang roughly divides it into four steps: raw material preparation and soaking and peeling, pulping and boiling, filtering and blending, sterilization and canning, which is actually divided into eight steps.

The first major step does not require modern machinery, only manual labor is needed;

The second major step involves refiners, boilers, and continuous cooking equipment, all crucial for the industrialization of soy milk. Cooking the ground soy milk removes any beany odor and harmful substances, while also enhancing its taste and nutritional value. This crucial step is crucial.

In the third step, the filtering equipment can be selected from centrifuges, filter screens, etc., and the appropriate filtration method is selected according to the production scale and demand; as for the preparation, it is mainly to add white sugar, milk or milk powder, vanilla extract, etc. (the formula is selected according to the actual situation).

The final fourth step requires pasteurization and canning equipment. Pasteurization is usually used for milk. This equipment is very common in the West and uses high-temperature steam to achieve sterilization. It can also be used for soy milk. There is no need to mention canning, as China already has its own soda industry.

"Boss, this is the finished soy milk product. It's drinkable. Would you like to try it?" Chief technician Wu Guangliang brought over a cup of soy milk.

In fact, it was the first time for everyone to come into contact with "soy milk", but after all, there is still a certain degree of difference between the two. Moreover, Chen Guangliang had already collected and experimented with a lot of information before.

The biggest problem at present is just to solve the problem of 'industrialization'.

"Well, let me try it!"

After tasting it, Chen Guangliang carefully savored the taste in his mouth and then asked, "Have you measured the pH value?"

Wu Guangliang nodded and said, "I've tested it, it's neutral. This is also part of the process."

Chen Guangliang added: "We need to find a way to add some vanilla extract to enhance its flavor. In addition, adding vitamins is also within the scope of consideration later."

The vanilla extract here is a kind of artificially extracted 'vanilla', not a chemical flavor.

For example, when adding milk to soy milk, you can choose to use fresh milk or milk powder later, depending on the specific cost and process.

Wu Guangliang and others immediately recorded it.

Chen Guangliang asked again: "What do you think about the equipment?"

In fact, these devices were already available in Europe and the United States twenty years before, not to mention the 1930s. The soy milk production process is not difficult; it's just that people haven't thought of this product yet.

Wu Guangliang said: "Our idea is to design it ourselves, then purchase the relevant equipment and assemble it. For example, this grinder is imported from Japan."

Chen Guangliang didn't object when he heard about the Japanese machine imports. After all, learning from foreigners is the best way to defeat them. Perhaps the soy milk ground by Japanese machines would improve the physical fitness of the Chinese people and help them on the battlefield in the future.

"Okay, we'd like to design a production line in the shortest possible time. The soy milk tastes pretty good right now, and we can adjust it later."

It’s not a big problem. We can set up a production line in a few months.

During this period, China was already able to produce rubber shoes and other products. For example, the Greater China Rubber Factory was put into production this year, using Japanese equipment and technology. In the future, it will also be able to produce tires and other products. China also produces electric fans, and the motors are all produced by itself. Watson brand electric fans have become a major brand on the market.
So, Chen Guangliang knew from the beginning that the process of making soy milk would not be too complicated, and now it seems to be true.

In fact, recently Chen Guangliang has devoted half of his energy to the preparation of "Oriental Daily".

He personally trains editors and reporters, and personally handles the recruitment of new talents. He personally takes care of many things so that he can feel at ease.

Mid-December, Oriental Newspaper Office.

In his office, Chen Guangliang, Huang Chunsun and Zhang Jinglu met with Wang Yingbin from the Shenshi Telegraph Agency.

The "Shenshi Telegraph Agency" was a news agency secretly established by Zhang Zhuping, the editor-in-chief of Shenbao, and Wang Yingbin, the deputy editor-in-chief. Firstly, Zhang and Wang were obviously setting up a new agency, and secondly, the Shenshi Telegraph Agency was actually selling the resources of Shenbao.

At present, Oriental Daily is in short supply of such resources, so naturally we started to negotiate cooperation immediately.

Chen Guangliang said, "Mr. Wang, we are also a Shanghai newspaper. Is the news you sell us a day late? If so, we will not buy this kind of news. It is better to reprint it from the newspaper."

The so-called reprinting is actually plagiarism, of course the content can be re-edited.

Anyway, in this day and age, there is no awareness of copyright.

Of course, in this case, all the information will be second-hand, which will inevitably lose a lot of readers.

Wang Yingbin immediately said, "No, it's guaranteed to be firsthand information. Of course, what I'm selling you is just the news described over the phone. You need to edit the details yourself."

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "Of course. In that case, let's talk about the price!"

This is a stopgap measure. The Oriental Daily is building its own network of reporters, and when the time comes, there will be no need to purchase news at all.

What's more, Chen Guangliang also understood that Shi Liangcai, the general manager of Shen Bao, would never sit idly by and would sooner or later deal with Zhang Zhuping and Wang Yingbin.

In fact, Chen Guangliang also knew something about Shi Liangcai and Zhang Zhuping of Shen Bao.

The general idea is that Zhang Zhuping was in charge of the Shenbao, second only to Shi Liangcai, and owed much of the credit to the paper's current success. However, Zhang Zhuping was ambitious and held high ideals, unwilling to remain subordinate and serve as a servant to others. As the Shenbao reached its peak, Zhang, second only to Shi Liangcai, grew in status and power, frequently offering his opinions on all internal and external affairs of the paper.

To put it bluntly, Zhang Zhuping had already planted the seeds of his intention to leave, so before leaving, he prepared to sell some company resources. Wang Yingbin, who had returned from studying in the United States in 1924, was one of Zhang's accomplices. Soon, the two sides reached an agreement on the price.

This time, it was Chen Guangliang who suggested purchasing news from Shenshi Telegraph Agency. He knew that Zhang Zhuping and Wang Yingbin would definitely agree. After all, the two of them establishing their own Shenshi Telegraph Agency meant leaving Shenbao.

After Wang Yingbin left, Chen Guangliang said, "Let's continue publishing the latest edition of the Commercial Daily as I said. Let's see how it works first!"

Recently, the newspaper has been recruiting editors and reporters, so the number of news will naturally increase; now, it has purchased news from the Shenshi Telegraph Agency, which has increased a lot more.

Before the Oriental Daily was launched, reform experiments could have been carried out on the Commercial Daily.

Huang Chunsun was already somewhat impressed by Chen Guangliang at this point and said, "I feel that this tactic of Manager Chen's revision will be very useful. The only drawback is that it requires a lot of news content. Fortunately, we are also expanding our reporter base."

Chen Guangliang laughed and said, "Big newspapers like Shenbao have an abundance of news, so they not only sell news to other newspapers nationwide, but also own the Current Affairs News. So, we will be in the same boat later on, so there's nothing to worry about."

Huang Chunsun immediately said, "Why not keep the Commercial Daily?"

Chen Guangliang also pondered, and then said: "Let's discuss it together later. Even if the Commercial Daily is retained, it can only publish two pages."

It’s not that it’s not possible, but we need to analyze the pros and cons in detail.

Fortunately, the Oriental Daily will take nearly two months to prepare and is expected to be launched in late January next year.

Then, Chen Guangliang took out a stack of information and handed it to Zhang Jinglu.

"Editor-in-Chief Zhang, this is an outline for a martial arts novel I stumbled upon. I find it quite interesting, so please arrange for the newspaper to find someone skilled in writing martial arts novels to complete it."

At this point, he had no choice but to take out Huanzhu Louzhu's "The Legend of Swordsman of Shu Mountain".

Zhang Jinglu found the information and couldn't help but take a few glances at it. Then he asked, "Is this considered the main novel series in the supplement?"

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "It's a long novel, the kind that can be serialized for a long time. The outline is quite detailed, so we need someone to write it for us. Just write it according to this framework."

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away."

At this time, Zhang Jinglu already admired his new boss and did not dare to be careless in his work.

What's more, Hong Yanbin and Huang Chunsun were still serving as assistant managers in the company, so the entire management and staff of the "Business Daily" were relatively stable and cooperative at this time.

Serializing novels was not a new thing in this era. For example, the supplement of the Xinwen Bao, Happy Forest, serialized The Female Hero of the Wild River in 1929. The author was Gu Mingdao from Suzhou City.

On the other hand, while the atmosphere for creating martial arts novels was later heated in the north, the southern Suzhou region (Shanghai, Suzhou, and Changshu) also had a tradition of creating martial arts novels. In fact, the true modern martial arts novel originated from the southern region with "Jianghu Qixia Zhuan".

In Chen Guangliang's plan, the supplement of Oriental Daily was named "Oriental World", and its content covered: movie gossip, novel serials, dog and horse knowledge, with the main focus on leisure and entertainment.

As for the main publication, it is of course mainly current affairs news, especially local news, as well as business news, columns by famous people, etc.

Then, Chen Guangliang said to Huang Chunsun, "Assistant Manager Huang, I need to personally apply for all the reporters and editors we've recently recruited, and I'll have to schedule them. Also, the newspaper needs to implement an incentive system for reporter salaries. Breaking down the explosiveness of news into three levels, each time a reporter reports a piece of news, it counts as a performance. The higher the score, the higher the performance, and the higher the performance, the higher the salary. This will increase everyone's motivation. You also need to come up with a comprehensive system for this."

Although Huang Chunsun was an assistant manager, he actually had less equity but great management responsibilities, which was equivalent to the "executive director" in later generations. Chen Guangliang had to rely on him to share many things, and he was a full-time assistant manager, unlike Hong Yanbin's part-time job.

"Okay, Manager Chen, but if you recruit so many reporters and editors all at once, I'm worried the company's finances won't be sustainable."

Chen Guangliang said bluntly, "We only have one chance. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, so we have to spend all the money. During the preparation period, if the funds are still insufficient, I will choose to take out a loan. In addition, after the launch of Oriental Daily, we will give away 3 copies for free for ten days."

Huang Chunsun and Zhang Jinglu were shocked and found it unbelievable. How could it be free?

Huang Chunsun immediately said, "No! Giving it away for free would be a complete mess. Who knows where the newspapers would end up! Besides, 1200 copies would cost yuan a day. That's way too much."

Chen Guangliang said calmly, "This isn't a price, but a marketing tactic. We're not giving it away for free to readers, we're giving it away for free to newspaper vendors. Think about it, how much do newspaper vendors make from buying a copy of Shen Bao (0.036 * 0.35, about 1 cent), and then they get our newspaper for free, but we sell it for 2 cents, which means they still make 5 cents. They have no cost, but they still have to work hard to sell our newspaper. If we can sell 2.5 copies of our newspaper in ten days, wouldn't the 2 yuan be well spent?"

Of course, the prerequisite for this is that you are very confident in the content of your newspaper.

Huang Chunsun finally understood, and his eyes lit up as he said, "Manager Chen, this is a very generous move. We are giving discounts to newspaper vendors and using them to increase our sales. In addition, we can recruit advertisers and say that our sales volume is 30,000 copies. I believe this can save some costs."

Chen Guangliang laughed and said, "We're being stingy. We won't be running ads for the first ten days. We'll consider soliciting advertising and investment the day after the launch. Anyway, if this newspaper doesn't maintain a stable sales volume of over 1 copies within a month, then we've completely failed and there's no need to struggle. If we can maintain a stable sales volume of 1, it means we've stabilized and can continue to improve. But if we can reach over 2 copies, then all our efforts will be worth it."

Huang Chunsun was also moved by Chen Guangliang's confident smile and said, "I think many of Manager Chen's ideas about running a newspaper are very advanced. I believe it will be successful."

"Okay, let's work together!"

Huang Chunsun is not Hong Yanbin's man, so he can be won over to his side.

Of course, now that Chen Guangliang is the one with real power, there is no need to worry about Hong Yanbin's infiltration into the Oriental Newspaper Company.

He had personally recruited all the new reporters and editors recently, so there would be no mistakes.

(End of this chapter)