Chapter 168 Door-to-Door Sales
Ten minutes later, Xu Ming appeared at the factory gate, and Erhu immediately greeted him with a smile on his face.

"Hello, Chief Xu!"

"You are……"

"We had dinner together last time. I work at the fertilizer factory in Xiazhuang Village!" Erhu said quickly.

"Ah, it's Erhu!" Xu Ming then remembered.

As the head of the supply and marketing department of the textile factory, he holds the power of purchasing. In the past year, he has attended various dinner parties one after another, including some leaders of other manufacturers. So when he saw Erhu again, he did not recognize him at first.

"What brings you here today?"

Facing Erhu, a hint of impatience flashed across Xu Ming's face. After all, Erhu was just a salesman of a village-run enterprise and had no business dealings with their factory. But after all, the two of them were acquaintances, so he still had to ask a few questions.

"It's like this, Chief Xu..." Erhu groped in his bag and said with a frown, "Can we talk somewhere else..."

"I have nothing to do today anyway, so come in with me." Seeing this, Xu Ming said to Erhu.

The next moment, led by Xu Ming, the two came to the office building.

Fufang’s office building is located right opposite the factory gate. It is a newly built three-story building. There is a large flower bed at the entrance, which looks very grand and beautiful.

As one of the city's pillar enterprises, Fufang is wealthy and powerful. The roads in the factory are all newly paved cement roads, and there are several Shanghai-brand cars parked at the entrance. After entering the office building, the chandelier in the lobby on the first floor is very grand, and there are potted plants and flowers in the corridors and windows.

In the reception room on the second floor, Erhu and Xu Ming sat face to face, and a staff member brought them a cup of tea.

"Erhu, it's not that I don't want to buy your products, but our factory has very high requirements for the quality of dyes, and usually other large domestic factories provide targeted supplies, so..."

Xu Ming took out a cigarette, lit it, and said to Erhu with a frown.

"I understand this. Your factory is the leading one in Fuzhou. The quality of the products you produce is impeccable. There is nothing wrong with your strict requirements for the supply of raw materials..." Erhu took out a bottle of dye from his bag, put it in front of Xu Ming and said, "But you mentioned to me before that your factory is very interested in a dye called indigo powder. After I went back, I reported this to our factory director. After more than half a month of hard work, we finally made a sample of this dye. If your factory needs it, we can supply it immediately!"

"Your factory has produced indigo powder!" Hearing Erhu's words, Xu Ming was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Are you kidding me? This thing is not so easy to produce. There are only two or three factories in our country that can produce it. The blue dye produced by other factories is not indigo powder at all, and it can't be used to dye jeans!"

"Chief Xu, although our Xiazhuang Fertilizer Factory is only a small factory, our factory director is no ordinary person." Erhu paused and continued, "Next to our village is the Shengli Machinery Factory, the largest third-tier military enterprise in Jiangxi. Our factory director is a technician from this factory. He went to college in the Northeast and was a well-known top student in the school. He majored in chemical engineering, so he knows a lot about dyes. This time, the sample was developed and produced by him."

Erhu has been with Xu Qiang for some time. He was also present when Xu Qiang first met Wang Zhong, the director of the town supply and marketing cooperative. He learned from them how to use a false identity to raise his own status.

Erhu could also see that if he told the truth, Xu Ming would not have any interest in the samples he brought. After all, the other party looked down on village-run enterprises like theirs from the bottom of his heart, let alone buying their products.

So Erhu could only make up some stories, at least to get him to use these samples. As for whether the samples could pass the inspection of their manufacturer, that was another matter.

"I've heard of the Victory Machinery Factory, but doesn't that factory produce artillery shells? Can their technicians also make dyes?" Xu Ming asked with some doubt.

"I don't know the details, but our factory director studied chemical engineering and must be very knowledgeable about dyes. The fertilizers our factory produced before were also produced with the technology he provided. The quality of the fertilizers is impeccable and they have always been very popular."

"Is that so?" Xu Ming nodded after hearing this, and said after a moment: "Since you brought the things from far away, I will let the technical department of the factory check it. But let's be clear, if the sample passes the inspection, everything will be fine, but if it fails, don't say I didn't help you, you have to figure it out yourself in the future!"

It was obvious that Xu Ming was just repaying Erhu for inviting him to dinner. In fact, he didn't believe that the sample would be qualified.

"Thank you so much, Chief Xu!" Erhu immediately smiled apologetically and said, "By the way, Chief Xu, if you have time tonight, I would like to invite you..."

"No need to have dinner. I've been busy lately. Let's talk later." Xu Ming smiled and said, "Please leave the things here for now. I estimate that the dye inspection will take at least two or three days. I think you can come over the day after tomorrow."

"Okay!" Erhu nodded and said, "Then I'll trouble Chief Xu. I'll leave first."

After Erhu finished speaking, he stood up and left the reception room.

Seeing Erhu leave, Xu Ming crossed his legs and blew a smoke ring with a contented look on his face.

"Old Xu, you are here too." At this moment, the door of the reception room was pushed open again, and a middle-aged man with a slightly bald head walked in.

Normally, this reception room is where the leaders of several departments in the office building smoke and drink tea. In fact, smoking is allowed in the department, but it is not very convenient because there are female comrades present.

"Mr. Zhao, you've come just in time!" Seeing the bald man, Xu Ming immediately smiled and said, "I was just about to look for you."

The bald man was none other than Zhao Zhiqin, deputy chief engineer of Fufang Textile Co., Ltd. They both joined the factory in the same year and had a good personal relationship.

"Looking for me? What do you want from me?" Zhao Zhiqin asked casually after hearing that.

"Just now, a salesperson from a small factory gave me a bottle of dye sample. They want to supply our factory..."

"Isn't that nonsense? The dyes in our factory are all supplied by large factories. When have we ever purchased them from small factories?" Zhao Zhiqin took out a cigarette, lit it and said disdainfully.

Although Zhao Zhiqin is not responsible for the purchase of raw materials for the factory, he has been in the factory for so many years and knows a lot about the factory's situation. As Fuzhou's leading large enterprise, both purchasing and shipping are centrally coordinated by superiors.

Although the country has relaxed its policies in the past two years and allowed companies to have a certain degree of autonomy in management, factory leaders usually do not choose to cooperate with local small businesses. After all, if there are quality problems with the products, superiors will be held accountable.

"I have no choice. I have already told the other party about our factory's purchase situation, but they insisted on sending samples over. Moreover, this sample is the indigo powder that our factory urgently needs, so I..."

"Indigo powder!? Old Xu, are you sure? A small factory can produce this kind of dye?" Zhao Zhiqin said in disbelief.

"I also think it's impossible, but the salesperson from that factory said their products are guaranteed to be fine..."

"What they produce is definitely not indigo powder. There are many blue dyes on the market, and most of them are acid blue, which is a blue dye produced by salting out benzyl alcohol, disulfonic acid, and diethylaniline. It can generally only be used to dye wool and silk, and cannot be used to dye jeans. The production process of that thing is simple, and it is sold very cheaply. It is not what our factory wants at all!" Zhao Zhiqin took a puff of his cigarette and continued:

"There are only a few factories in the country that can produce real indigo powder, let alone small factories! I heard that the production process is very complicated and the process requirements are very high. If there is a slight mistake, the entire batch of products will be scrapped. If a small factory like theirs can produce it, the sun will rise from the west!"

As the factory's deputy chief engineer, Zhao Zhiqin was quite familiar with various industrial dyes, so he immediately concluded that the sample was not indigo powder.

"I don't understand what you said, but it's not easy for them to bring things here from far away. Just consider it as a favor to me and help test this sample. It would be best if I can get the entire test report, so that I can be considered to have done my job well..." Xu Ming said, spreading his hands.

"I think you are probably taking advantage of others and want to repay them!"

"I swear to God, I didn't ask them for a penny. It's just that our factory is in urgent need of this dye. Otherwise, I wouldn't want to take on this job."

"Okay, I'll find someone to test this sample right away."

After Zhao Zhiqin finished speaking, he put out his cigarette in the ashtray, picked up the bottle of sample, turned around and left the reception room.

……

At the same time, after leaving Fufang, Erhu took a bus and prepared to go to another local garment factory in Fuzhou.

Cast the net wide, catch as many fish as possible, and choose the best.

The inspection results from Fufang will not be available until three days later. Erhu cannot wait here for so long. After all, there are many manufacturers who need this kind of indigo powder. In addition, Erhu also needs to communicate with other small factories to obtain the current price situation of indigo powder in the market.

After taking several buses back and forth, Erhu got off at a small station on the outskirts of the city. Then he walked for more than half an hour and finally arrived at the door of a small garment factory.

It is called a clothing factory, but in fact it is just a small clothing workshop. Erhu came here once last time.

As soon as he arrived at the factory gate, Erhu saw a middle-aged man wearing a vest sitting on a recliner, holding a fan in his left hand and a radio in his right hand, listening to the broadcast with his eyes squinted.

"Director Xue!" Erhu walked up to him and greeted him with a smile on his face.

(End of this chapter)