A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

Chapter 177 Honeycomb Briquette Technology

After returning to the Yangtze River Taxi Company, Chen Guangliang immediately convened a management meeting. Seven senior executives attended the meeting, including General Manager Liang Mengqi, Business Manager Xu Yeguang, and Automobile Department Manager Zheng Wensheng.

“How is driver recruitment going?”

Zheng Wensheng reported: "We have recruited 52 drivers so far. In order not to alert the enemy, we are doing a relatively quiet recruitment process."

The first batch of 3 Chevrolets imported by Changjiang Taxi is already at sea and is expected to arrive in Shanghai in early March.

Of course, after arriving in Shanghai, you still need to register, pay taxes, and change the color.

It is expected to be put into operation in late March.

Chen Guangliang urged: "Driver training must not be neglected. Even newly employed drivers must maintain a certain amount of training time every month. Service and customers are paramount."

Taxis in this era really have to compete on service. Fortunately, this is not a problem for Chen Guangliang, a man from later generations. The emergence of various rules and regulations, rewards and punishments has ensured that Changjiang Taxi has always maintained a good level of service, no worse than that of foreign companies.

Zheng Wensheng knew what his boss valued, and he immediately said seriously, "I understand. We have engraved this business philosophy into our bones. Everyone must always keep it in mind and not let down their guard."

Next, Chen Guangliang said to Business Manager Xu Yeguang, "The first batch of 100 vehicles will be put into use, which also means that Changjiang Taxi will have to do a lot of advertising. What are your specific plans?"

Xu Yeguang immediately said, "It's already out. We'll use 'Four hundred million compatriots, dialing 4 numbers, riding 40000 cars' as our advertising slogan and promote it extensively in newspapers, at restaurants and amusement parks, in taxis, on wall advertisements, and so on. We'll also be producing a batch of calendars with '' and 'patriotic slogans' printed on the baseboards."

Wow, in this day and age all everyone thinks about is 'patriotic kidnapping', but it is indeed very popular among everyone.

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "Let's add another thing. We'll make a 'telephone base' and work with the telephone company to give it to every customer who installs a phone. We just need to print an advertisement on the base. This way, not only will the telephone company be happy, but customers will also be able to see our taxi ads."

Do whatever you can!
Of course, in this day and age, running a taxi business requires the ability to advertise.

Because it is not a "hail and you stop" model. After all, fuel is so expensive and the proportion of people hailing taxis on the streets is extremely small, so that model will lose money.

All taxi-hailing methods are based on the phone-hailing model.

Xu Yeguang said in surprise: "Boss is smart"

Everyone was very excited. After all, with the first batch of 120 taxis, they would have vehicles, second only to two foreign companies. Moreover, they had another taxis put into operation in June, which meant they would become the taxi company with the most vehicles.

The key is that the 'marketing' and 'management' they are planning now are very advanced. Once they take off, they will firmly become the largest taxi company in Shanghai.

Finally, Chen Guangliang asked, "How are the renovations of the five branches going?"

General Manager Liang Mengqi said: "This will be completed this month. By then, we will have seven branches, two taxi call numbers (with a backup), and each branch will have contact information. We will be able to arrive at the taxi call point as quickly as possible, and gradually achieve a delivery within ten minutes."

The seven branches are just the first batch. Eight more branches will be added later, and eventually there may be nearly 20 branches, which will cover the entire Shanghai Stock Exchange and its surrounding areas.

Since he wanted to do this business, Chen Guangliang decided to do his best. After all, he had the funds and the business skills.

"Alright, everyone, continue recruiting staff and make the best preparations. I hope that in a year, Changjiang Taxi will dominate this market, and both British and American companies will be forced to bow down to us."

"Yes, boss"

Everyone is full of passion, after all, who doesn’t want to be the best in the industry!

Currently, Yangtze River Taxi has invested a total of US$22, of which US$20 is for the vehicle, and the remaining US$2 is used to purchase 40000 telephones, rent branches, recruit staff, and invest in advertising.

As for the down payment for the next batch of cars, it will naturally be withdrawn from Changjiang Real Estate first; then one hundred cars will be mortgaged to continue borrowing funds.

At the Yuyuan Road base of Changjiang Motors, Chen Guangliang was introducing his new invention – honeycomb coal – to the "coal king" Xie Hengbi.

"Mr. Heng, what do you think of my invention?" Chen Guangliang said proudly, pointing to his 'stove'.

He had wanted to invent "honeycomb coal" for a long time. When he saw the large amount of dust produced by burning coal balls, Chen Guangliang came up with this idea.

But he would never do anything for nothing, so he kept putting it off until now.

Xie Hengbi, 55 years old, had been working in the coal mining industry his entire life, but today was an eye-opener. "This briquettes seem to burn better, but what's in them that actually allows them to hold their shape?"

Chen Guangliang said: "Compared to Liu Hongsheng's coal briquettes, my coal briquettes are more economical. I only need about five or six of these briquettes a day. At the same time, the coal smoke and coal ash are reduced."

When Liu Hongsheng invented a type of coal briquettes, it was actually a technology he learned from a study abroad and was not considered very advanced.

The real "honeycomb coal" technology was not invented until the late 1940s by a coal worker in Texas. Now it is nearly 20 years ahead of time.

Xie Heng looked left and right, picked up the "fire scissors" and looked at it again, and finally roughly determined that this was a very advanced "coal ball" technology, including this stove as a supporting facility.

"Guangliang, let's be frank. How would you like to cooperate?"

By the way, once when the two were playing cards, Xie Hengmi "lost" a piece of land, namely 10.2 acres of land on Weihai Road. Of course, it was actually sold to Chen Guangliang.

But now that this land is in Chen Guangliang's hands, he is naturally making a fortune!
The reason why Chen Guangliang chose Xie Hengbi was naturally because he was more honest. Otherwise, he should have chosen another coal tycoon from Ningbo, Liu Hongsheng. They were also acquaintances of the "Ningbo Shanghai Association".

"Let's form a joint venture, each contributing half, with the profits split 50-50. You'll be responsible for coal procurement and management, and I'll provide the technology and marketing. In a very short time, we'll quickly seize the Shanghai market and catch everyone off guard."

Xie Hengwei immediately weighed the pros and cons. Chen Guangliang, an outsider, actually wanted to own 50% of the shares?

This technology should not be difficult. The ingredients of coal balls should include soil (to set the shape and delay combustion), charcoal, etc. But I don’t know what equipment is used to make them?
The key is that with Chen Guangliang's means, if he finds another person to cooperate with, relying on his business skills, he will definitely be able to quickly occupy the Shanghai market and surrounding markets.

"Okay, let's set up a business together and split the profits 50-50."

Seeing that his goal was achieved, Chen Guangliang immediately smiled happily, making Xie Hengbi feel like he was a little fox.

Afterwards, the two sides had a preliminary exchange of views.

The two companies each invested 10 yuan to establish a company. They rented a large piece of land in the suburbs to use as a factory. Of course, this factory did not need a large factory building, and mainly operated outdoors.

Only after the company is established will Chen Guangliang transfer the complete technology to the new company.

Don't underestimate this "technology". The ingredients of "honeycomb coal" are actually: anthracite, wood chips, charcoal, and loess, and there are relevant proportions among them.

Besides that, there was also the "honeycomb briquettes mold," which Xie Heng hadn't even shown. Plus, the coal stove, which was also specially designed and manufactured.

As long as the company is established, Xie Heng will not do any other tricks.

On Sunday, February 2th, a dozen or so Shanghai gold speculators gathered in a private room at the Dahua Hotel. These included Chen Guangliang, Yan Zhiduo, Shi Jinsheng (representing Kong Xiangxi), and representatives from the "Ningbo Gang"—the Fang family of Zhenhai, the Ye family of Zhenhai, the Li family of Xiaogang, the Dong family of Cixi, and the Qin family of Ningbo. It was clear that this group was headed by the Ningbo Gang, and in turn, Chen Guangliang.

In fact, this group was not initiated by Chen Guangliang. Because he is the most famous now, everyone recommended him to be the "chief leader".

Li Binchen, the general manager of Xin Shun Ji, representing the Zhenhai Ye family, was the first to speak. "Mr. Chen, we've all gathered here to nominate you as our chief financial officer. We're not doing this for anything else, but simply to prevent Cheng Linsheng's malicious short selling and any negative market impact."

"Yes, there's a great economic depression happening overseas, and gold prices are gradually rising. So the Shanghai gold market should naturally rise. We can't let Cheng Linsheng maliciously short sell just because he has a lot of money."

Everyone pointed out the purpose of this gathering!
Chen Guangliang then said, "He can't have the final say on the exchange. Moreover, if he is maliciously short selling, how will he respond if we demand physical delivery?"

Although the price of futures is not equal to the spot price, the difference will definitely not be outrageous.

Similarly, no matter how much money Cheng Linsheng has, it cannot match the strength of the entire Shanghai Stock Exchange's "gold speculators".

Therefore, the final price still depends on the 'gold market prices in London, New York and Paris', 'the competition among local forces' and so on.

Shi Jinsheng then spoke up, "You guys want Mr. Chen to be the chief, but you're not telling the truth. You really think he's easy to deceive just because he's young, right? Actually, all of us put together might not be as smart as Mr. Chen!"

A group of money changers from the Ningbo Gang suddenly made my brother look embarrassed.

Shi Jinsheng continued, "To put it bluntly, everyone just wants to unite and divide up Cheng Linsheng's property. It's that simple, why go through so much trouble?"

Wow, Kong Xiangxi’s agent is really straightforward!

Fortunately, Chen Guangliang didn't want to cause any further trouble with the Ningbo money gang, so he said in time, "Mr. Shi's words are too blunt, and that's wrong. We're sitting together to prevent anyone from undermining the gold exchange's system. The price of Shanghai gold shouldn't be determined by a single individual. It should be based on market conditions in New York, London, and Paris, and then determined by actual local market conditions."

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. It shouldn't be decided by one person. The price of gold should refer to the international price."

"Mr. Chen explained it clearly."

MLGD wanted him to be the first to do so, but it was not so easy for him to be the first to do so.

In his "battle" with Cheng Linsheng, he had no other advantages except "public opinion".

After making money this month, Chen Guangliang plans to reduce the credit limit and return it to 1000 million.

Then, things finally became clear.

Everyone secretly formed a "reverse process alliance", but did not make it public.

On the way back, Chen Guangliang and Yan Zhiduo were in the same car.

"Uncle Yan, after this month's delivery, I plan to convert all profits into spot gold. Also, I'll limit the futures quota to no more than 1000 million to prevent my ambition from growing and becoming uncontrollable."

Yan Zhiduo was very surprised that his future son-in-law was unbelievably calm and did not look like a twenty-year-old at all.

"It's feasible. After all, we've already made a lot of profit, so it's time to reduce the risk. Besides, gold speculation is too complicated and consumes too much of your energy. It's not as stable as real estate."

If he could continue working in real estate, Chen Guangliang certainly wouldn't want to get involved in gold futures. But he knows that the market might gradually become oversupplied in the second half of this year.

That's why he wanted to make more money in gold futures, so that he could become a multi-millionaire around 1931.

"I'm afraid the real estate market won't last long. After all, there aren't enough buyers. The market may soon be oversupplied."

Yan Zhiduo looked at Chen Guangliang in surprise. This young man was simply unfathomable. He then sighed, "It's a pity that many people don't understand these principles."

He is considered a relatively calm "third generation rich man". Even though he knows Chen Guangliang, the "business genius", he has never really gotten involved in speculation in bid money and land.

Of course, Yan Zhiduo still exchanged a lot of yellow croakers, just as Chen Guangliang said - at least it can maintain its value.

At this time, Yan Zhiduo suddenly remembered that his daughter and Chen Guangliang were not really "engaged".

But Chen Guangliang is not in a hurry about this matter, and he can't be too anxious, lest people think that his daughter can't get married.

At the beginning of a new week, the gold market is operating in a fierce interweaving of "bull and bear".

At the same time, two gold markets in Shanghai announced a major news - in view of the recent active trading, the delivery date was changed to monthly delivery in order to sort out the cumbersome accounts.

"It's gone up again, the gold price is already over 440!"

"Gold prices in London, New York and Paris have risen sharply and cannot be suppressed anymore"

"It seems that the world financial depression has really happened"

“That’s right, many people are going long now.”

From 416.5 yuan after New Year's Day, the standard price has increased by nearly 30% in more than a month, an increase of 7%.

Wu Guizhen suggested to Cheng Linsheng, "Boss, our losses this month aren't that great. Plus, with overseas markets surging right now, I think we should suspend our aggressive short selling."

Cheng Linsheng immediately asked, "Assuming it's 440 this month, how much will we lose?"

Although they started short selling on April 416, firstly, the amount sold was not large, and secondly, the short selling price was higher later.

The higher you sell, the less you lose.

Wu Guizhen said: "Less than one million"

Cheng Linsheng almost fell down. This was still considered a small loss. However, on second thought, the bid price had risen so much, and he was prepared to invest so much, so the loss was less than one million, which could indeed be said to be the case.

"Let's try short selling a few days before delivery. I don't believe this benchmark gold will only go up!"

"Ok"

After all, Cheng Linsheng still insisted on "short selling".

He actually felt that the price of 440 had the potential for short selling. After all, it had risen by 10% compared to last year's market, which was already a very large fluctuation.

In his opinion, it is normal to have ups and downs.

(End of this chapter)