Chapter 956 Land Acquisition Worker Peng Xueqin
The release of Xiaolingtong was scheduled for November 10, 1993.
It was originally planned to be launched on National Day, but due to some circumstances, it did not go as fast as expected, so the launch time was delayed by more than a month.
But then again, there are advantages to being late, as we can be more fully prepared for the release, including advertising arrangements.
As early as last month, advertisements for Xiaolingtong had already appeared, but the product has not yet been actually launched on the market.
When Xiaolingtong advertisements were broadcast on television, radio, newspapers and even on street posters, many people noticed it and became particularly interested in the Xiaolingtong product mentioned in the advertisements.
Nowadays, mobile phones, or big brothers, have become quite popular in China. Of course, those who use this kind of thing are all rich people. After all, the cheapest big brother costs more than 10,000 yuan, and this does not include the 6,000 yuan network access fee and the 1,000 yuan prepaid telephone fee. In other words, it costs at least nearly 20,000 yuan to buy a big brother.
In addition, the cost of using mobile phones is also very high. Local calls cost 0.6 yuan per minute, and long-distance calls cost an additional fee. There is a two-way charge, which is simply not affordable for ordinary people.
Those who hold mobile phones are all rich and well-connected people. Especially in the past two years, the stock market has created a group of people who have become rich through stock speculation and purchasing subscription certificates. They have replaced the original "ten thousand yuan households" who started their business by being self-employed and doing business, and have become the new generation of wealthy people.
Although they cannot afford mobile phones, more and more people in society are using pagers. With the continuous expansion of Shenghua's paging business in the mainland and the entry of other paging stations into the industry in the past two years, the consumer group of pagers has now reached a considerable scale. From this point of view, there is not only a huge user group, but also long-term and stable income.
The emergence of Xiaolingtong was about to change this situation. Xiaolingtong was much cheaper than mobile phones. After calculating the manufacturing cost of Xiaolingtong, Song Yuanchao decided to set the sales price of the first batch of Xiaolingtong at 980 yuan, of which nearly 200 yuan was given to channel dealers. In other words, Shenghua's actual sales price was 780 yuan. According to the current cost of 275 yuan for Xiaolingtong, the gross profit of a Xiaolingtong reached as high as 505 yuan.
This gross profit is an astonishing 284%, which is quite impressive. However, compared with the mobile phones which are many times more expensive, the price of Xiaolingtong is much lower. In other words, Shenghua has basically lowered the price of Xiaolingtong to the same level as the Chinese pager, which is enough to break into the market.
In addition, the charges for Xiaolingtong are much cheaper than those for mobile phones. The monthly rental fee for Xiaolingtong is 20 yuan, and the one-way charges are the same as for local calls. Local calls are charged at 0.2 yuan per minute, which is much lower than the charges for mobile phones. So when the advertisements appeared everywhere, everyone was looking forward to it, especially those "big customers" who originally felt good about themselves with their mobile phones, but suddenly felt that the mobile phones in their hands seemed to be a little less attractive.
Peng Xueqin is an ordinary worker in Shanghai. He has a low level of education, only primary school education. He does not originally have an urban hukou, but a rural hukou, which is what the people in Shanghai city often call a local.
Peng Xueqin's parents and ancestors were all farmers, so he has been a farmer's child since he was a child. If nothing unexpected happened, Peng Xueqin would dig for food in the fields like his parents and ancestors, facing the loess and back to the sky, working hard on the land, and then get married and have children, and his children would continue to be farmers.
But after the reform and opening up, everything changed the trajectory of Peng Xueqin's life, or rather, it changed the future of many farmers like Peng Xueqin.
After the reform and opening up, the urban area of Shanghai gradually expanded to the suburbs. Due to the small size of the urban area and limited conditions, and the fact that many factories and enterprises moved to the suburbs, space was freed up for new planning and transformation of the urban area. Many new factories and enterprises were re-established in the suburbs, which led to earth-shaking changes in Peng Xueqin's family.
In order to build enterprises, the government expropriated a large amount of farmland in the suburbs. Taking into account the livelihood security of farmers who lost their land, the government and enterprises formulated a policy, which is a special policy for the expropriation of farmland.
According to the policy, for land-expropriated farmers like Peng Xueqin, the government and enterprises provide double compensation based on their private homesteads, in the form of resettlement in nearby newly built housing estates and monetary compensation.
For example, Peng Xueqin's family received three new houses ranging from one bedroom and one living room to three bedrooms and one living room in compensation, and also received more than 70,000 yuan in cash compensation. From this point of view, such compensation is very good. After all, the housing problem has been solved, and there is still so much compensation. You should know that the annual income of an ordinary worker is only about 2,000 yuan. The compensation of 70,000 yuan is the income of an ordinary worker for 30 years!
But that’s not all. In order to take into account the long-term living and income issues of landless farmers, the government and enterprises also solved the two problems that they are most concerned about.
The first problem was the household registration issue. Because of land acquisition, they lost their qualifications as farmers, so according to the policy, their household registration was directly changed from agricultural to non-agricultural, thus completing the transformation from a farmer to an urban dweller.
It is not the time of 30 years later when rural household registration would be popular. Today, urban household registration is popular. There are only two ways for farmers to change from rural to urban household registration and complete the transition from rural to urban household registration. One way is to join the army, be promoted to officer, and then be able to return to civilian work after being promoted, thus leaving the countryside and becoming an urban dweller.
Another way is to take the college entrance examination. Passing the college entrance examination can also get rid of the peasant status and have the opportunity to become a city dweller. For example, Cheng Mengshan, an old classmate of Song Yuanchao, was admitted to the university through his own efforts. Now he has not only obtained the household registration of Yanjing, but is also a teacher at the Imperial University of Peking.
Unfortunately, Peng Xueqin could not choose either of these two paths. Although he had served in the army, he had no chance of promotion. As for the latter, his education level was not high . He could hardly pass the junior high school entrance examination, let alone the university entrance examination, as he had not even graduated from elementary school. University? Maybe he could think about it in his dreams, but it was impossible in reality.
Now that the land has been expropriated, the government and the enterprise have given compensation, and the whole family has been transformed from farmers to non-farmers, directly becoming city dwellers. Peng Xueqin would smile even in his dreams about such a good thing.
That was not all. Then someone found Peng Xueqin and asked him and his wife if they were willing to work in the company that expropriated the land. If they were willing, they could arrange for Peng Xueqin and his wife to work in the company. In this way, they would have a living guarantee, and they would get a pension when they get old. More importantly, they would have labor insurance after becoming workers, and they would not have to pay for any headaches or fevers when they were not feeling well.
Upon hearing this, Peng Xueqin's head nodded instantly like a chicken pecking at rice, and just like that, Peng Xueqin and his wife became employees of the land acquisition company. Due to his low level of education, his wife helped in the canteen of the logistics department, doing some work such as cutting vegetables and washing dishes. As for Peng Xueqin, considering that he was strong and healthy, he was directly arranged to work in the boiler room. The monthly salary including bonus was more than 100 yuan per person, and sometimes the company would give out welfare. From a farmer with his feet on the loess, he suddenly became a working class wearing work clothes. Peng Xueqin's mouth was almost crooked with smiles.
Several years passed by and Peng Xueqin had long been familiar with the work of the unit. After finishing work every day, he would go to the bathroom to take a shower, then smoke a cigarette in the locker room of the bathroom, chat and chat with his fellow workers in the workshop. After get off work, he would ride a bicycle home with his wife, make two side dishes and pour a glass of wine. He lived a very enjoyable life.
Peng Xueqin is very satisfied with this kind of life. After all, it is much easier than being a farmer before, and it also provides security. In addition, now that the whole family has urban hukou, there will be more opportunities for the children when they grow up. How can Peng Xueqin not be happy?
If nothing unexpected happens, everything will go smoothly. When Peng Xueqin retires like an ordinary employee in more than ten years, the children in the family will have grown up. The elderly Peng Xueqin and his wife will help take care of their grandchildren at home, or get together with old friends from the village and work, have a drink or something, and their life will just pass like this.
But the unexpected happened, just like the land acquisition. One day, Peng Xueqin finished his work in the boiler room and prepared to take a shower and rest as usual while the bathroom was still open in the morning.
Holding a soapy towel, Peng Xueqin walked into the bathroom in slippers, found an empty locker, took off all his clothes, and then went in to take a shower.
After half an hour, he finished showering and felt comfortable. He returned to the warm locker room, opened the locker, and was not in a hurry to put on his clothes. He just took a towel and took out his cigarettes and matches, lit a cigarette, and smoked as usual.
When Peng Xueqin came out of the shower, there happened to be a few young workers chatting and bragging in the locker room. Peng Xueqin listened to them chatting enthusiastically, and then he heard a young man talking about subscription certificates. Peng Xueqin usually never touched these things, and didn't even know what stocks were. But after hearing them talking so excitedly, he couldn't help but interrupt and ask the young man what the subscription certificates they were talking about were.
This young man was also bad. Perhaps because he looked down on uneducated land acquisition workers like Peng Xueqin, he could have explained to him clearly what a subscription certificate was, but he chose not to do so. Instead, he rolled his eyes and directly fooled Peng Xueqin.
He told Peng Xueqin that the subscription certificate was a good thing, a good thing that could be used to buy stocks and make a lot of money, and it was a state-issued, guaranteed security, which was almost the same as a treasury bond. He also specifically asked Peng Xueqin if he knew Yang Baiwan. Of course, Peng Xueqin had heard of Yang Baiwan. Reports about Yang Baiwan making a fortune by reselling treasury bonds had been published in newspapers several times. Although Peng Xueqin could not read many words, he had heard people talk about this.
Seeing Peng Xueqin nod, the young man smiled mysteriously and said to Peng Xueqin in a low voice that if he bought the subscription certificates, he would become as rich as Yang Baiwan. By then, let alone one million, maybe even several million would be possible.
After hearing this, Peng Xueqin's heart suddenly moved, but he was not stupid. He directly asked the young man why he didn't buy it if it was such a good thing, but told him?
The young man said seriously, how do you know he didn't buy it? It's just that he only gets a fixed salary of a hundred yuan a month, and he has a lot of expenses for dating and other things, so he can't save much money, but even so, he bought a few. If it weren't for his good relationship with Peng Xueqin, he wouldn't have told Peng Xueqin about this.
