Chapter 169 Connections
"Erhu?"

Seeing Erhu suddenly appear in front of him, the middle-aged man stood up immediately.

The middle-aged man surnamed Xue is named Xue Guozhong, and he is the director of this garment factory.

In Jiangxi at that time, private enterprises were rare, but Xue Guozhong was not ordinary. It was said that his family had some background and his father was an official in BJ. His clothing factory, like Xu Qiang's fertilizer factory, was a registered enterprise, but the two were registered in different villages.

Speaking of Xue Guozhong, he has a somewhat legendary experience. In his early years, he was sentenced to three years in prison for participating in speculation, but he was released after only one year of labor reform. Later, when he saw that the national policy began to relax, he adjusted his employment again, starting from selling watermelons and then to his current clothing workshop. His business is very good and he should be one of the earliest local people with an annual income of over 10,000 yuan.

"Director Xue, I'm here again." Erhu said with a smile.

"Welcome, welcome!" Xue Guozhong also said with a smile.

Xue Guozhong was a man with a bit of a gangster vibe to him. When he and Erhu met for the first time, he felt that they got along well. Especially since Erhu was eloquent and drank like crazy, Xue Guozhong admired him a lot.

In fact, Erhu is the kind of person who is quite outgoing and can get along with anyone, just like he did with the supply and marketing cooperative director Wang Zhong before. Although he knew that Erhu was a poor boy, he still helped him a lot over the years.

Before, when Xue Guozhong learned that Erhu was a salesman at a fertilizer factory, he wanted to win him over and let him work as a salesman for his factory, but Erhu politely declined in the end. Despite this, in Xue Guozhong's view, Erhu was a very good drinking buddy, so when they met again, he was very enthusiastic.

"Director Xue, I've brought you something good again this time." Erhu said as he took out a bottle of indigo powder sample from his bag.

"No rush. It's time for dinner. Let's drink and talk." Xue Guozhong glanced at the dye sample in Erhu's hand and said.

"Okay, let's drink and talk." Erhu nodded.

Unlike doing business in big factories, bosses of small factories like theirs prefer to discuss business over a drink, so Erhu had no choice but to follow the local customs and followed Xu Guodong to a restaurant not far from the workshop.

After they sat down in the restaurant, they immediately ordered three hot dishes, two cold dishes, and a bottle of Si Te wine. They drank from small transparent glass wine glasses. After filling them up, they clinked their glasses and then drank them all in one gulp.

"...If you ask me, you should just come and work with me. I will pay you double the salary your boss gives you!" After the two chatted about their recent situation for a while, Xue Guozhong invited Erhu again.

"It's not that I don't give you face, Boss Xue, I just can't leave. When I was penniless, they gave me this job and have always been very good to me. I can't be an ungrateful person." Erhu shook his head repeatedly, and he continued, "Besides, I have no education and no skills. I just make a living by running errands. There are a lot of people like me on the street. It's only you, Boss Xue, who thinks highly of me, but I know how much I am worth."

"Hahaha!" Xue Guozhong laughed when he heard this and said, "I don't have much knowledge, but I still came out to do business and make money. I have seen many intellectuals. There are many bullshit and sour words, but none of them can do things..."

"That's true." Erhu nodded and said, "Just like our factory director, he didn't even finish junior high school, and then used his father's pension to start a fertilizer factory. Now his business is getting bigger and bigger. In addition to fertilizers, he also sells soaps, shampoos and dyes. I came here this time to show you our factory's new products..."

"No... I mean, what exactly does your factory produce?"

"It mainly produces fertilizers, and also produces some daily chemical products and dyes..."

"These things are not easy to make. Soap and industrial dyes require technology. It seems that your factory has experts who understand technology." Xue Guozhong said.

"There's no expert. These products were all made by our factory director alone."

"Impossible!" Xue Guozhong obviously didn't believe what Erhu said. He only heard him say: "I don't know much about soap, but dyes are a bit technical. Not only do you need equipment, but the technical content is also quite high. Our factory has to buy various dyes worth thousands of yuan every year. We have also dealt with several small dye factories. They are all retired technicians hired at high prices from large state-owned enterprises. I heard that the production process is quite complicated and ordinary people can't handle it at all..."

"I am telling the truth. Maybe our factory director also learned the technology from outside. But no matter what, our factory can now produce several kinds of dyes, all of which were developed by the factory director himself." Erhu said as he stuffed a peanut into his mouth.

"Then your factory director is quite capable." Xue Guozhong nodded and continued, "By the way, I've always wanted to ask you, your factory is obviously a fertilizer factory, why can it produce and sell so many products?" "In the beginning, our factory was a fertilizer factory, which means it produced fertilizers. Later, we gradually started to produce soaps and dyes."

"Then your factory is operating in violation of regulations." Xue Guozhong said in surprise.

"Our factory manager said that soap and dyes are byproducts of fertilizer processing. I don't know the specific situation."

"I see, your factory director is just trying to fish in troubled waters." Hearing this, Xue Guozhong laughed, and after a moment said: "In fact, since your factory director is so capable, he can definitely come to Fuzhou to set up a factory."

"Setting up a factory, isn't that easy?" Although Erhu was just working for Xu Qiang, he knew that it was very difficult to set up a factory in the city.

In the early 1984s, there were basically no purely private enterprises in the country. It was not until April 4, 13 that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued Jiang Wei the business license for China's first private enterprise.

On August 1984, 8, Jiang Wei founded Guangcai Industrial Co., Ltd. as China's first private enterprise in a joint venture with foreign investors.

Before this, private enterprises in China were all registered under the name of collective enterprises, just like Xu Qiang’s fertilizer factory, which was actually affiliated with the Xiazhuang Village Committee, but nominally it was still a collective enterprise.

Although there are many such affiliated enterprises in towns and villages, some local governments even encourage the establishment and development of village-run and township-run enterprises.

However, in big cities, it is very difficult to affiliate with a state-owned enterprise. On the one hand, due to national policy, local governments have very strict qualification review for state-owned enterprises to affiliate with. If the relevant government departments do not approve, the state-owned enterprise has no right to allow the enterprise to affiliate with. On the other hand, the current state-owned enterprises look down on individual businesses and small private enterprises, and have always had a discriminatory attitude. Therefore, there are very few private enterprises in the country that can truly affiliate with state-owned enterprises.

Even if it is to solve the employment problem of the families of factory workers, many state-owned enterprises have their own tertiary industry, that is, the "big collective", and there is no need to rely on affiliated enterprises to solve this problem.

"If you think it's not easy, then you haven't found the right way." Xue Guozhong smiled and continued, "You opened a dye factory in the village. It's not convenient to transport anything out of the remote area, and the products are not easy to sell. But if you open a dye factory in Fuzhou, the small clothing factories around it will be enough to support you, not to mention that we have a big factory like Fufang..."

"That's true." Erhu nodded and asked, "If our factory wants to set up a factory in Fuzhou, who should we look for to be affiliated with?"

Erhu also knew the current situation at the peat field. When he was drinking with Xu Qiang before, Xu Qiang had mentioned that due to the business qualifications and the fact that the peat field was located in a remote area, the soaps and shampoos they produced could only be sold in the surrounding towns and factory areas, and the products could not be packaged. Otherwise, once discovered by the industrial and commercial authorities, they would be fined or even have the factory closed down. As the factory director, Xu Qiang might even go to jail.

But if a factory could be built in a big city, Xu Qiang's soap and other daily chemical products could not only be packaged and sold directly in local cities, but could even be sold all over the country. As the second largest city in Jiangxi, Fuzhou has well-developed road and rail transportation, which can greatly reduce transportation costs and improve product competitiveness.

It was precisely because he learned all this from Xu Qiang that when Xue Guozhong suggested that he could find a way to get a license, it immediately aroused Erhu's great interest.

"We have a state-owned factory in Fuzhou that has been losing money for many years and owes our city government a lot of money. The workers' wages are the lowest in our city..." Xue Guozhong paused and continued, "Their factory director said privately that as long as we give them some money every month, they will allow small workshops like us to be affiliated with it. Now there are two or three workshops around us that are affiliated with their factory..."

"Isn't this regulated by the higher-ups?"

"Why would you care? How can you expect this factory to pay back the money it owes even if you care? As long as we can pay back the money owed to the city, the higher-ups will turn a blind eye. Besides, this is allowed by the state and is not illegal!" Xue Guozhong said.

"Uh." Hearing this, Erhu suddenly realized and asked, "Then how much does their factory charge per month?"

"I need to ask for you about this. You know, it's not easy to get things done these days. Even if I know their factory director, I can't go to the meeting empty-handed. I have to buy some cigarettes, alcohol and the like, and treat him to a meal. It will take a long time to go back and forth, and there are a lot of things to do in my factory..." Xue Guozhong said with difficulty.

"Just tell me straight, how much money do you need?" Erhu saw through Xue Guozhong's intention at a glance. It was obvious that this guy wanted a kickback.

"If I do this for someone else, I'll need at least two thousand. We have a good relationship, so you can just give me eight hundred!" Xue Guozhong said with a raised eyebrow.

(End of this chapter)