Chapter 206 Technology Investment

Liu Biao seldom invited people to his home for dinner. Except for Deputy Factory Director Xie Changjiang and Chief Engineer Li Cunzhu, other factory leaders had never eaten at Liu Biao's home.

The reason is very simple. As the factory director, Liu Biao has to be fair and impartial when dealing with some factory management matters, while also avoiding suspicion. Inviting subordinates to dinner is actually a signal, but for the sake of his prestige in the factory, Liu Biao seldom does this.

However, inviting Xu Qiang and the union secretary to dinner was simply an encouragement for them to get into college. In addition, the electrical engineering students in the factory were going to study in Shanghai, and Liu Biao did this because he certainly hoped that they could take care of each other outside, especially since Xu Qiang was the only boy, and he could also protect Liu Siying's life safety outside.

"There are less than four months left until the deadline of the project. You will also have to report to Jiangxi University in February, so you don't have much time left." Liu Biao frowned slightly and said, "Even though you have been admitted to the university this time, if I mess up this project, your life will still be difficult. The chemical experts from the province have also given up a lot of things to come to our factory. I have to take care of them. If you don't continue to produce solid results, your position can be adjusted at any time..."

"Don't worry, Director. I promise to complete the task on time and in full."

"Very good, let's leave it at that for today." Liu Biao nodded with satisfaction.

"Then I'll go first."

After Xu Qiang finished speaking, he stood up and left Liu Biao's office.

Walking in the corridor of the office building, almost everyone greeted him enthusiastically when they saw him, which had never happened before.

In the days to come, Xu Qiang will continue to be the focus of the entire factory.

However, Xu Qiang always kept a clear head. He knew that getting into university was not the end of the world. It was just a channel for him to be promoted quickly in the future. As for how high and how far he could go, he still needed to do a lot of things.

The most important task at present is to complete the research and development of aramid 1414.

That night, Xu Qiang did not work overtime, but returned to the peat field to deal with some things.

The production equipment purchased from Shanghai has arrived. This 50L reactor has more than twice the capacity of the previous 20L reactor, but the actual output can be increased three times.

In the morning, someone from the manufacturer came and, together with Liu Jun, completed the installation and debugging of the equipment. Official production will begin tonight.

Upon learning that Xu Qiang had received an admission letter from university, the people from the peat field came over to watch. Xu Qiang simply asked them all to stop working and arranged for Da Hei Niu to cook a few more dishes.

Everyone was surprised that Xu Qiang was admitted to university. After all, no one in the local area had been admitted to university for many years. Xu Qiang undoubtedly created a miracle.

Even the village chief of Xiazhuang Village, Yang Dong, rushed over quickly after learning about this, and brought with him a bottle of old wine that he had collected for more than ten years and was reluctant to drink. This shows how much he valued this matter.

"Now that you've been admitted to university, you'll be a government official in the future. Please take care of our Xiazhuang Village in the future..."

At this moment, when Yang Dong faced Xu Qiang, he looked very respectful. As soon as the food was served, he toasted Xu Qiang repeatedly.

Chinese people have always had a kind of "official-oriented" thinking, and Yang Dong is even worse.

Even though Yang Dong is the local tyrant in their village, he is more obedient than a cat when facing his superiors. This is also caused by his long-standing eunuch-centered thinking.

If the relationship between the two was that of business partners before, then now, when Yang Dong faces Xu Qiang, he is like a subordinate facing his superior.

But this is no wonder. Nowadays, college students are popular wherever they go. Even if they don't work in factories, they will be valued in government agencies. Therefore, Yang Dong can't afford to offend such people no matter what, and he must find ways to establish relationships with them.

"It will be no problem for me to take care of you. After all, we have been working together for such a long time." Xu Qiang smiled and continued, "When I graduate from university, I plan to apply for a job at the county government to specialize in managing the production and wealth creation issues in our local rural areas. By then, I guess we will definitely interact with each other frequently."

"That's great! If Boss Xu needs any help in the future, just let us know. Our village has made a lot of money recently with Boss Xu. I hope we can continue to have long-term cooperation and expand our business..." Yang Dong said with a smile on his face.

In fact, even if Xu Qiang graduated from university, he would still choose to return to Shengli Machinery Factory. The reason for saying this is actually to give himself more invisible "chips".

Nowadays, many surrounding villages have mastered the technology of humic acid production. On the peat field side, as Liu Jun has been transferred to be responsible for the production of dyes, daily fertilizer production has begun to be dominated by Yang Dong and his Xiazhuang Village.

Business partners need to be equally strong and complementary. Only in this way can a long-term stable cooperative relationship be maintained. Yang Dong, who has gradually mastered the humic acid production process and most of the manpower, has gradually taken the lead in this peat field. But Xu Qiang has the identity of a college student, and the words just now have made the balance of power between the two people begin to regain a delicate balance, which is crucial to Xu Qiang's business.

In addition, Xu Qiang has another bargaining chip in his hand, which is new technology.

"Village Chief Yang, our peat field has been shipping a lot of goods every day recently, right?" Xu Qiang asked.

"Not bad..." Yang Dong replied casually with a hint of embarrassment on his face when he heard that.

Since the beginning of this month, Yang Dong organized people to secretly transport some humic acid produced upstream of the water source to the town to sell, but the money was not credited to the account. Liu Jun, who had been working here, privately reported the problem to Xu Qiang.

In fact, this kind of thing is inevitable. At present, many township collective enterprises in the country have more or less problems with tax evasion, and the country has no good means to monitor them. Even in the 1990s, some well-known celebrities had problems with tax evasion. It can even be said that they did not attach importance to paying taxes at all.

In fact, Xu Qiang had expected something like this to happen a long time ago, but he still had to make use of Yang Dong. After all, it was he who provided the qualifications and labor. Besides, Xu Qiang now mainly makes money from dyes, and the price of humic acid fertilizers has been falling again and again. The profit is very meager and he can't make much money at all.

"Actually, I also know that the fertilizer business in our local area is not doing well now. The price is getting lower and lower every day. In the end, we may not even be able to make back our capital." Xu Qiang said with a smile.

"The supply and marketing cooperative is such a jerk!" Yang Dong couldn't help but swear at this time, saying, "They know that we have nowhere to sell our fertilizers, so they just raise the price and cut the price arbitrarily. So many workers can't make much money in a day. If they cut the price further, this business will be out of business."

"If there are too many things, they are worthless. We can't make much money, and other villages are even worse off." Xu Qiang paused, then said, "But we can still do other businesses. If there is darkness in the west, there will be light in the east. As long as we are willing to work hard, we will have no problem making money."

"Do other business? Now everything requires skills, but we are just farmers who make a living from the land. We don't know how to do anything except farming."

"I do have a ready-made business. Would you like to be a partner?"

"What kind of business should we start? Please give me some advice, Boss Xu." Upon hearing this, Yang Dong's eyes suddenly lit up.

"I know some techniques for extracting dyes from peat. If we set up a factory to produce it, I guarantee it will make more money than chemical fertilizers!"

"That's great!"

"But if we become partners, I'll provide the technology, you'll buy the equipment, and we'll split the profits in half. What do you think?"

“How much does it cost to buy the equipment?”

"I estimate it will cost at least 20,000 yuan."

"Twenty thousand yuan!?" Yang Dong was shocked when he heard the amount Xu Qiang quoted.

Twenty thousand yuan is not a small sum for their village. Even Yang Dong, the head of the village, only has a few thousand yuan in savings. If he wants to spend twenty thousand yuan, he has to borrow money from everywhere.

"As long as the product can be produced, I can be responsible for sales and ensure that we can make money." Xu Qiang added.

The reason why Xu Qiang suddenly proposed to cooperate with Yang Dong to produce dyes was that he had his own plans.

Xu Qiang currently does not have the qualifications to produce and sell industrial dyes. He had only started trial production with very little risk. However, if he wants to maintain stable production in the long term after expanding the production scale, Xu Qiang must solve the problem of production qualifications.

Especially now that he has been admitted to university, if something goes wrong in his business, he might be fined, detained, and expelled from school. This would be a huge stain that would affect his life, so he absolutely cannot afford to fail.

Before, Xu Qiang had developed four dyes extracted from humic acid. However, the market prices of these four dyes were not high. If they were mass-produced, the profits would definitely be much higher than those of humic acid fertilizers. But even so, it would still be impossible to compare with the profits of indigo powder, and it would not even be a fraction of the profits of indigo powder!
Therefore, Xu Qiang currently only produces indigo powder dye. As for the other dyes, they have never been mass-produced after they were developed. After all, besides being far less profitable than indigo powder, Xu Qiang does not have enough trustworthy people. There is only Liu Jun. Considering that his dye formula is of no use if it is idle, he simply partners with Yang Dong to make money.

Of course, their cooperation is limited to the four dyes developed previously. Xu Qiang will never leak the formula and production process of indigo powder to others!
"Well... let me think about it..." Yang Dong said after thinking for a while.

"No problem, take your time to think about it. Anyway, the sooner you produce, the sooner you can make money. If you miss this opportunity, you may never have this store again..." Xu Qiang said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)