Siheyuan (courtyard house): My name is Shazhu!

"Daddy, we think our hometown is great. The people there are very honest and simple. Is it okay if we go to work there?" He Minghui and her husband were also at home.

"You can make your decision anytime. Your hometown still needs a few more years to develop. Actually, it's better there than the port city. You won't lack any resources there."

"Daddy, let's go over there."

"Why don't we open a jewelry store there? You can run it when you're not busy with work, and the profits are yours." Qin Huairu was always thinking about how her children could earn more money through business.

"Too tiring, I won't do it." He Minghui refused very decisively.

"You guys are really something."

"You should worry less about them. The children are all grown up and have their own way of life. As long as they don't go astray, it's up to them what kind of work they do."

"Long live Daddy!" He Mingli said lively.

"Shut up, I want to slap you the most."

"It's wrong for Mommy to hit people without reason. Having a bad temper is bad and needs to be corrected."

"Get lost."

"Yuzhu, I'm planning to go to Malaysia in a while to see Mingzhong and the others. I wonder how the three of them are doing now?"

Aside from Mingzhong calling once every two weeks, they didn't call at all for two or three months; I was the one who called them.

"They're both scientists; they don't have time to call or answer your calls. They're doing very well at the research institute, and they'll be able to handle things independently in ten years."

"They called you?"

"Give me a weekly update on my work and life!"

"I'm so angry! All that kindness I showed them when they were kids was for nothing! They deserve a beating!"

"Don't you feel guilty saying that?"

"I'm doing this for their own good!"

"Putting aside the facts, that's certainly true."

He Yuzhu and his wife, along with He Yushui and his wife, received an invitation from their hometown in early September to attend the ceremony in October.

He grabbed a large blade of grass; wasn't that the famous 84 military parade?

We must go! This is a rare opportunity, and it's the most spectacular military parade ever.

Upon receiving the news, Zhou Songyu and Qin Huairu did not go to Malaysia, but flew back to their hometown in mid-September.

Zhou Songyu, Qin Huairu, and a few others went to visit a factory under the Dongda Group.

He Yuzhu, Zhao Youcai, and relevant personnel met to discuss matters, but to their utter surprise, it turned out to be the issue of expanding four ports.

Because of the surge in exports in recent years, some ports are facing a severe shortage of cargo throughput and are temporarily unable to invest in companies with slow payment cycles.

With the early launch of the port shareholding system pilot program, many people have already realized that with the huge increase in export volume, no single port will be sufficient in ten years.

Moreover, this is not something that can be solved with minor repairs; it needs to be expanded at least several times over to be sufficient, with Baozi Port, Qinhuangdao Port, and Shenzhen Port as the leading examples.

"We want to expand their three ports and build another port in Shenzhen. I will sell my shares at the normal price."

"We'll handle the operations, can you just take a share of the profits?"

After a ten-second silence, He Yuzhu said, "There shouldn't be a problem. We've been investing in promising companies and sharing profits, so it doesn't conflict with your requirements."

This is a major undertaking, involving an investment of at least tens of billions. We need to conduct an assessment and will give you a response within three days.

"Thank you, Comrade He Yuzhu. We'll go back and wait for your good news." The person who made the suggestion didn't mind taking three days to consider it, after all, it was a big deal.

Back at the state guesthouse, Zhao Youcai laughed and said, "Mr. He, I didn't expect them to expand the port using a shareholding system several years ahead of schedule. It seems that our investment is playing a significant role."

Shall we all take over?

"Why shouldn't we accept their offer? We're not going to interfere with their management."

"We should join in. The port is quite good; it will be a fixed asset and a source of income in the future."

Moreover, the profit model of "mainland production + port transit + global sales" leverages advantages such as production location conversion, information asymmetry, low tax rates, and export subsidies to achieve dual profits from trade and finance.

This approach will have a significant impact on us in the future. Our company will also need to substantially increase the number of factories near Shenzhen and Guangzhou to gain a competitive advantage.

"They're good at this, and we can learn from them. This isn't a small matter; the European or American governments will definitely implement anti-dumping measures, so we need to avoid them."

More importantly, if we handle financial loans well, we can make a lot of money for free. This won't harm our bank either.

We want both finance and real industry!

We agreed to invest in four ports the day after tomorrow morning; Zhou Ze will handle the specific details.

Call back and find out which factories would be better for us to build near Shenzhen. That disgusting anti-dumping duty.

"It's just commercial protection; it'll happen all the time."

He Yuzhu nodded in agreement.

The matter of the four ports was left to Zhou Ze to discuss. Although the investment in his hometown was huge, it was just a small amount of money in the eyes of Dongda Group.

Before the National Day holiday, only four days later, He Yuzhu came to sign the agreement: a 14 billion investment in exchange for 40% shares in various ports, much cheaper than Superman Brothers seven years later.

Dongda Group readily agreed to fund the construction of four ports, and many people were grateful. They didn't think that investing 40% of the shares was too much.

Because they only provide the land, and the sea is also part of the land, the remaining 60% of the shares are essentially free. Other companies wouldn't have it so easy.

This is another favor done for Dongda Group!

"Zhou Ze, how are Minghui and Wei Jun doing working here? No complaints?"

"Their work is very good, and I have never heard any complaints. They are considered high-level cadres, and the nature of their work means that they do not go to the grassroots level very often."

They also had their own courtyard house in Yanjing (Beijing), and lacked nothing in terms of daily necessities.

"As long as they are satisfied, that's good. Once the entire chemical industry chain is built, what will our total revenue be this year? What will be our next project?"

How's the highway construction going? How about adding another two or three thousand kilometers?

"Our after-tax profit this year is expected to reach 160 billion RMB. The next project, in my opinion, is to expand several projects in the manufacturing sector."

In terms of large construction machinery, there is a huge gap here. There are fewer than ten tunnel boring machines in total, not even a large truck with a capacity of 20 tons to transport stones, and the cement mixer trucks are also far behind.

This will seriously affect the construction progress of their major projects. With only one highway project, there are very few other projects, mainly due to a lack of construction machinery.

As for rebuilding the highway, there's no problem with funding, but there are issues with construction equipment, so the project won't be fast; it'll probably take about a year.

"We need to expand these large machinery factories. You write the plan and I'll submit it for approval. There's also a need to build ports!"

The figure is 160 billion. There are some issues with taxation here, and the exchange rate is just one aspect. These are things we don't need to worry about.

Let's wait and see about the highway project. Since we don't have the construction equipment, we should probably postpone it and use manual labor.

How are the various businesses with Lao Xiong going here? And how much do they export rare earth?

"The import and export trade with them is very good. They don't care too much about the relationship between the two sides now. They just keep delivering and picking up goods according to our import destination."

The domestic population isn't too large, so don't they have any light industrial factories? They need everything from food to flashlights, lamps, thermos flasks, instant noodles, clothes, toilet paper, and so on.

They export very little rare earth; they refine it themselves. They sell about 70% of what they need elsewhere, and the rest they sell to us for 300,000 RMB per ton. Take it or leave it!

I've expanded two more instant noodle factories here, each with an annual output of 500 million bags. The military and Lao Xiong both need them, and for the last four months of this year, we won't be able to export to other places or sell them domestically.

"You decide things here. Do you need us to supply flour? I still have more than 56 million tons here. Even a billion bags would only amount to about 500 million catties of grain."

It's enough for you for two hundred years, and the oil is enough for a hundred years. Let Malaysia transport it over; it's just a matter of shipping costs.

They understand the strategic value of rare earth elements; the key is the refining technology. Stockpiling rare earth elements is a pipe dream!

"Instant noodles and drinks sell very well here; kids love them. It's just that people are a bit poor, but the sheer size of the population makes it all the more challenging."

Even the poorest person can still scrape together a dollar a week. If you were to condense that population into a port city, the income would be higher than that of the port city.

"Haha, that's true, but it's not much per person."

"There are advantages too!"