Volume 4: The World of Great Conflict Chapter 0504: Easy-to-read Business Strategies
"Batian..."
"Don't omit the word 'Nan'. It sounds ambiguous."
"Okay, okay, Nan Batian, we have gone to several factories and haven't found a suitable one. Either there are no vacant factories or they are not suitable. Is this going to be a waste of time?"
"Why are you in such a hurry? There are still many houses that we haven't visited yet." Nan Yi looked at the simple map in his hand, then turned to look out the window. "It's not far from Qinghe. Let's go and take a look."
“Is Qinghe too far from the city? It’s not convenient for people to go there.”
"It's OK. You can take bus 345 from Deshengmen."
As soon as Nan Yi finished speaking, the car made a 90-degree turn in Madian and turned onto Jingchang Road.
After turning this bend, the dotted high-rise buildings in the capital were left behind, and two protective forests appeared in front of us. The road conditions improved and the car drove very fast. After passing Qijiagouzi, we soon arrived at Qinghe.
Qinghe is a town, a textile town.
There are three major state-owned textile factories in the town - Changhe Woolen Mill, Jingcheng Textile Mill, and Jingcheng Textile Mill. There are also several mediocre factories. The residents of the town are all textile workers and almost all of them make a living from textile production. Even the tap water smells like wool.
When the car passed the entrance of the grocery store, Ye Yu shouted, "We have mutton skewers. Get off the car and buy two to fill your stomach?"
"Okay, go by yourself. I'll find a place to relieve myself. I'm out of cigarettes. Buy two packs and pick the good ones."
"Okay, do you want some naan?"
"Two naan and two skewers. Ask if they have goat eggs. If they do, give me two."
"Don't be too nervous."
Ye Wei muttered, got out of the car and ran towards the mutton kebab stall.
Nan Yi did the same. He pushed open the door on the other side and headed towards the alley he had chosen.
As soon as I entered the alley, my nose started to sniffle and a pungent smell of ammonia rushed into my nostrils. I swept the walls on both sides and walked towards a wet area.
Turn on the safety and hold the trigger. Don't worry about long or short bursts. You have enough money and can make whatever you want.
Wang... Wangwang...
No sooner said than done, a mixed-breed dog ran to Nan Yi's feet and started barking at him.
Nan Yi glanced down and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know this was your private toilet. I was wondering why the smell was not right. Please forgive me, I'll compensate you with a skewer of lamb later."
As he spoke, Nan Yi pulled the jammed bullet belt, fired a few final short bursts, and then turned off the safety.
The mongrel seemed to understand what Nan Yi said. After Nan Yi raised his leg, it followed him all the way back to the car.
"Take it."
As soon as he saw Nan Yi, Ye Qi handed him the prepared naan.
Nan Yi took the naan and lifted the top one, revealing the mutton pieces on the bottom one. He shook it off until all the mutton pieces fell to the ground.
"Eat it. I'll keep my word and give you two skewers."
The mongrel raised its head and glanced at Nan Yi with a gentle look. This was probably the first time it had encountered such a good thing and a good person like Nan Yi.
"While it's hot."
Nan Yi said something again, put the two pieces of naan together again, squeezed them with his hands, put them in his mouth and took a bite.
"I say, Nan Batian, you are really something. Why did you give all the meat to the dogs?"
"Nonsense, you have to give them some compensation for using their toilet. Eat quickly, you still have to climb over the wall after you are full."
"I'm eating and I'm choking. I'll go get two bottles of soda."
"One bottle, I'll give it up."
Nan Yi finished eating two dry naan, took out a can from the car and drank two sips of water. He waited for a while, and when Ye Qi finished eating, he started the car again and drove towards the factory area.
He led the way with cigarettes and stopped a few workers in work clothes on the road. After asking a few questions, he got a rough idea of the situation.
You don't have to go to the other factories, you can go directly to Changhe Woolen Textile. Only this factory has two connected empty factory buildings in the north, and I heard that the area is quite large.
Looking at the direction, Nan Yi and the other man headed towards the north of Changhe Woolen Spinning.
When they reached the north wall, there was no need to say anything. Ye Qi walked to the base of the wall, threw a torn quilt up and hung it on the top of the wall, then squatted down and bent his back as far as possible.
Nan Yi took two steps back, then ran towards Ye Qi. He stepped on his back and, using the force, jumped up. He put his hands on the quilt, pushed his feet against the wall, and following inertia, he stood on the top of the wall.
He raised his heel and kicked the wall diagonally, and all the broken pieces of tiles on the wall were kicked off by Nan Yi.
Nowadays, broken pieces of clay pots are inserted on the top of the walls of such factories. This was the practice in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, broken beer bottles are inserted on the new walls.
Nan Yi stood on the wall and glanced left and right. When he saw no one, he carefully identified the target he wanted to observe.
After a while, Nan Yi saw two unpopulated factories in the north. He estimated that these were the two empty factories. He raised his thumb and estimated the distance between the two factories using the jumping eye method. He wrote down the estimated data on paper. When there was nothing missing, he did a backflip and stood firmly on the ground.
When Ye Qi saw Nan Yi fall to the ground, he raised his hand and pulled the torn quilt back.
"How about it?"
"Wait a minute, I haven't figured it out yet."
Nan Yi took a pen and plugged the numbers into the formula one by one. Soon he had calculated the factory's floor area.
"It's roughly 2,800 square meters, two floors. From the outside, most of the panels used are prefabricated, which can't bear much weight. The second floor can only be used to store light goods."
“Not small anymore.”
“It’s not big, but the layout is good and the utilization rate is high.”
As Nan Yi spoke, he drew a rough diagram of the factory according to his memory and recorded numbers.
"That's it?"
"Well, that's it." Nan Yi nodded, stretched out his hand and patted Ye's shoulder, "Comrade Xiao Ye, the organization has a difficult task to give you, do you have the confidence to complete it?"
"Resolutely complete the task ."
"Very good. On July 3, at 2 a.m., our team will launch a general attack on Changhe Woolen Textile. Before launching the general attack, you must thoroughly understand the firepower points here. I want to know how many bunkers and machine guns there are, and where there are firepower gaps."
"I don't understand. What is a bunker? What is a machine gun?"
"Xiao Ye, your understanding is too slow. Forget it, forget it. Who asked you to call me Master? Then I will have a good talk with you. The bunker is the factory director, and the machine gun is the head of the factory office. I want to know the detailed information of the factory director and the list of factory office staff. If you can find out that the factory director and the accountant are having an affair, I will commend you."
"Go away, if you're going to have an affair, it's with the cashier."
"Forget about it. I'll leave this matter to you. Find out the situation of this factory, especially whether the factory leaders are smart, whether their ideas are conservative, and their attitude towards the market economy. Oh, if there is a factory newspaper, publish a few issues of it."
"Okay, this isn't difficult. I'll just stay here for a few days and have some drinks with someone and then I can find out." Ye Qi said, patting his chest.
"Let's go home. Come back tomorrow after you get the letter of introduction."
"Walk."
The two men put their arms around each other's shoulders and walked towards the factory gate where the car was parked.
I had just stuffed my butt into the car with my head still outside when a female voice floated past the window.
"Do you remember me?"
"The voice was nervous and excited, with a Zhejiang accent..."
Before he turned around, a string of words floated through Nan Yi's mind, and names popped up in his mind one by one.
"Yan Pannan."
Finally, Nan Yi locked onto this name. He turned around, immediately smiled, and said, "Long time no see. Not bad, you didn't get shot."
"Nan... Comrade Nan, hello." Yan Pannan said excitedly: "I have been looking for you in Yiwu for a long time."
Nan Yi looked at Yan Pannan's hands and saw that she was holding a few rolled-up woven bags, with a green schoolbag on her shoulders and one hand holding a corner of the bag.
He roughly judged that Yan Pannan was here to sell or purchase goods.
“Buy or sell?”
"I have both. I came to Beijing to sell socks, and I want to buy some blankets. Changhe's blankets are very famous."
"Oh, are you in a hurry to go back? If not, come with me first. It's late today, and you have nowhere to go after you get the goods."
"That's great, but my friend is selling goods in Dongdan," said Yan Pannan.
"Boyfriend?"
"Um."
"It's okay, I'll pick him up later. Let's go back to the city first."
Nan Yi pushed Ye Qi to the passenger seat and invited Yan Pannan to sit in the back seat.
“Have you had a good time?”
"I'm living well, getting better day by day." Yan Pannan's eyes penetrated time and space as he narrated, "Back then, I used the 20 jin of national food coupons and 100 yuan you gave me to buy goods in Yiwu and then sell them in the surrounding counties, earning pennies. Sometimes, when I ran into the Anti-speculation Office [temporary office to combat speculation and profiteering], my goods would be confiscated, so I had to hide from the authorities.
I did this for eight months and finally saved up 1,000 yuan. I often went to Ximen Street, hoping to run into you and return the money and food coupons to you, but I never ran into you once. "
"I only stayed in Yiwu for a few days, and went to Ximen Street once, and never went there again."
"No wonder I never met you. Later, I was not so diligent in going to Ximen Street. I put all my energy into doing business and traveled farther and farther, all over the country. At the end of last year, I returned to my hometown and had the opportunity to contract a village-run sock factory, specializing in socks."
"Is business going well?"
"It was difficult at first, but it became easier when the weather got warmer. Two bags of socks were sold out in half a day."
Nan Yi frowned and said, "Since you have opened a factory, why do you still come out to sell socks by yourself? You shouldn't spend your energy on this."
"Selling socks is just a side job. I mainly want to know if socks are easy to sell in Beijing. The socks from my factory can only be sold to Hangzhou and Shanghai, both in the surrounding areas. I want to sell socks to the north, so I came to take a look."
"Oh, you're doing market research, that's good, very experienced." Nan Yi nodded and said, "Are there any socks that haven't been sold yet? Let me see."
"Yes, I'll give them to you." Yan Pannan took out a few pairs of socks from his schoolbag and handed them to Nan Yi.
Nan Yi took it and looked at it carefully, and saw two big red characters "Yi Yan" on the sock label, and three characters "Xi Shi County" in a line below, and then "Yi Yan Sock Factory" printed below that.
"Yi Yan? This word Yi is not because of me, right?" Nan Yi asked in surprise.
Yan Pannan nodded and said, "That's your character 'Yi', right? Your name is this Yi, right?"
"Yes."
"That's great. I was afraid I'd made a mistake, so I asked a lot of people. They all said 'Yi' was the most likely choice, so I used this word. I want to remind myself that I owe my current situation to you, Nan Yi."
"Haha, don't say that. You can get up without me."
After Nan Yi finished speaking, he continued to look at the socks, examining them carefully inch by inch, and even pulling them with his hands.
"See? The warp is fine, but the spacing of the weft is wrong. This one and this one are particularly brittle and both broke. Are they not from the same batch of nylon, or is there something wrong with the hosiery machine?"
"There's something wrong with the sock knitting machine. When it's drawing the thread, it's sometimes heavy and sometimes light. The mechanic I found is not very skilled and can't fix it properly. I'm worried about it." Yan Pannan said with a worried look on his face.
"There are so many sock factories in Xishi County. It should be easy to find a mechanic, right?"
"It's not easy. They don't dare to take jobs outside."
Nan Yi looked at Yan Pannan's face in surprise, "You are not reluctant to give the money, are you?"
"How can I be reluctant? I've already given 500, but still no one comes."
"I understand. You are too smart. You have taken away the business of other big sock factories. Are they targeting you?"
"How do you know that?"
"It's not hard to guess . Who would be so stingy with money? Unless the factory strictly orders them not to take your job, they know which is more important, 500 yuan or losing the job."
Before the implementation of the factory director responsibility system, factory directors of state-owned enterprises did not even have the right to deduct wages or fire employees. When people in the factory went out to do private work, factory leaders would generally turn a blind eye and would not make a big deal out of it.
Anyway, there is no major punishment. At most, they will be asked to review themselves, which is not very serious. The era of technology speculation is over. Instead of offending people, it is better to just muddle through.
"I didn't do anything. I just set up a stall in front of other sock factories."
Nan Yi's teeth ached, and he said, "Setting up a stall? Selling socks in front of the sock factory? You are not setting up a stall, you are going to grab wholesale customers, right? You people in Xishi County are really good-tempered. If it were me, I would have put you in a sack and given you a good beating. Are you a bitch?"
Nan Yi completely chose to forget that he had set up a stall in front of the cafeteria to sell New York breakfast. When it comes to being a good person, he is much more experienced than Yan Pannan.
"I can't help it. My sock factory is too remote. There is only one tractor road. It is difficult to drive a hand tractor. It is not easy for wholesalers to find my factory."
"Then there is something wrong with your approach. People usually go to Xishi County by train. You can go to the exit of the train station, hold up a sign that says 'Sock Wholesale Merchants Reception', and then move a few boxes of soda to the side. Regardless of whether the merchants who come by will make a deal or not, let them drink their fill of soda first.
While they are drinking soda, you can promote your Yi Yan socks. No matter which factory they originally planned to go to for wholesale socks, there will always be some who are too shy to leave.
When people are almost ready, you can bring them directly to your factory, no matter what time it is, and start eating right away. The food doesn't need to be too good to save costs, but it must be filling. Wait until they are full and satisfied, then you can discuss the deal.
By doing this, other sock factories will not target you too much. Even if they don’t like it, they will come to you to discuss and ask you not to do it. You can slowly deal with them.”
Listening to Nan Yi's words, Yan Pannan's eyes became brighter and brighter. "This is a good idea. Why didn't I think of it? I've prepared the food, including fish, meat, and wine. As long as they become repeat customers, I won't lose money."
“This is just a stupid method. In fact, our country is still a seller’s market. As long as your products are good, merchants will naturally try their best to find your factory. You just sit in the factory and wait for the business to come to you.
Come to my place later and I'll give you some foreign magazines with the most popular stocking styles overseas. You can take a look and learn from them."
"Thanks."
"About a few magazines, you're welcome. Tell me about your boyfriend, is he working in the sock factory with you?"
"My boyfriend's name is Chen Xun. He's not with me. He has his own business, selling some women's odds and ends, including rings, necklaces, hair ornaments, etc."
"A trinket?"
"Yes, it's a small trinket."
“Is the factory open?”
“No, the parts are taken from other factories and then sent to the village for the women to assemble. After they are assembled, he sells them.”
"The profit is not high, right? Can you make a few cents per piece?"
"The highest is 50 or 60 cents, and the lowest is only a few cents. You can only make money if you have a large volume."
"That's not necessarily true. Your boyfriend didn't find the right way. Arabs in the Middle East and Africa like to wear a lot of bright, dazzling accessories on their bodies. These accessories are not difficult to make, but they can be sold at a high price.
As for India, people like to wear gold jewelry, but poor people cannot afford real gold, so they wear gold dust jewelry, which is cheaper, or simply wear gold-plated jewelry.
Many countries also like to wear accessories, but they are jewellery, such as sapphires and rubies. They don’t have to be real. You can use acrylic to make fake ones. As long as they are made exquisitely, they will not have trouble selling. "
“Is it selling well abroad?”
"As far as I know, the people doing this business, apart from local businessmen from various countries, are businessmen from Hong Kong and South Korea. Whether it is Hong Kong or South Korea, the prices are higher than our country, and their production costs are high.
The same product can be produced in our country at a cost ten times or more lower. Think about it, if your selling price is lower than the production cost of others, will your business be difficult to do?"
