Chapter 8 Letters from Europe

  Dear:

  I think you've been spending difficult days in long thoughts recently, and it's a helpless move to let you and the child stay in Germany. Forgive me, dear, believe that I will bring enough happiness to you and the child after working hard.

  Thank God for giving me a beautiful wife, it's you who makes me spend the long years of endless work without any worries, because parents and children will be taken care of and live a happy life under your care, and I have spent nearly two years in thoughts of you. The vast ocean has cut off geographical communication, but my thoughts for you have never been interrupted. My beautiful wife, taking advantage of the opportunity that someone from our company is going to Germany, I can finally write a letter to you.

  I'm having a great time in the US, I think I've fully justified the high salary paid by the company. Here, I work hard to earn more money for our future good life, actually I really do my best, God knows everything, believe me, baby.

  My work is busy and fulfilling, perhaps you don't know why I can earn $700 per month. At this rate of work, it won't be long before I have enough capital to return home and start my own business. However, before that, let me calculate for you what your beloved husband has been doing in the United States to get such a generous return.

  Firstly, I work in a large conglomerate with an enormous scale, the number of employees is more than the total population of our small town. There are all sorts of people, Chinese, French, British, Americans and so on, and we Germans also make up a considerable proportion. The working conditions in the company are very good, my monthly formal salary is 350 US dollars, but I have an additional income from part-time jobs and bonuses which amounts to another 350 US dollars. You might not know what part-time jobs and bonuses mean, let me tell you slowly.

  You know, I'm just a mechanic, and making things is my instinct. If I were in China, I might only be a foreman or a team leader in a large factory, but the treatment I receive here is far better than what I would get at home. My living arrangements, food, and transportation are all taken care of according to our German customs. Especially since they made me the technical deputy director of the mechanical plant, managing thousands of people makes me feel a great sense of responsibility while also making me feel like this is the best platform for showcasing my abilities. Otherwise, what I learned in university would go to waste at home, but here it has been put on its best display.

  Here is the translation:

  We work five days a week, and the remaining Saturday and Sunday are for our own arrangement. Of course, workers are the same, but they work in two shifts. Those who rest on Monday and Tuesday will be responsible for production on Saturday and Sunday, while those who rest on Saturday and Sunday are like us. You may wonder why they arrange for workers to rest on good days, knowing that a day's delay in production and waste of productivity are the greatest torture for capitalists. But I want to tell you that the production model here is different from domestic ones. Each worker only needs to be responsible for a very small part of the work, and the work is completely fixed. Those who are responsible for welding will always only be responsible for welding one part of the machine, and other parts are someone else's business.

  So they need a rest after long-term repetition of the same action, and I also need to make more money during their resting time.

  The group's scale is constantly expanding, and the newly completed excavator factory also needs a large number of skilled workers. The apprentices in my machinery factory have left in batches, but still cannot meet the group's demand for technical talents. Therefore, the group established a technical training school. On Saturdays and Sundays, all resting people can go to class and practice, and we can temporarily act as teachers. There are two classes every morning and afternoon, with a total of only four hours of courses, which can earn me the same return as my daily salary.

  Many people are willing to use their free time to teach one or two classes, and those who really need a rest may only have Saturday or Sunday off. In short, there will always be many students in the school who need guidance. You might think that this is the main reason for my high salary, but in fact it's not that simple.

  Like many university-educated engineers, my main job during formal working hours is to supervise production. However, the machines that are almost perfectly running don't need us to maintain them. Most of our work is to research various machine equipment. Our group's technical director won't disappoint you, he will give you a lot of partial drawings. When you study clearly and manufacture the prototype, you get rewards at the same time, and the second drawing comes one after another. So our first job is to study, and we can get unexpected bonuses while getting regular salary.

  There are many talented people in this regard. A fellow villager who studied electrical engineering at the University of Berlin helped the group improve its electronic ignition system and received a bonus of $1,058. To put this into perspective, this was the sales record set by our company's first Volkswagen Beetle. Receiving such a large bonus is not only a recognition of one's work but also an honor. I myself won a second prize for improving the car's suspension system and received a reward of $528, which was quite generous. However, opportunities like these are rare.

  After finishing my formal work and part-time job, my income is almost enough to make up $700 per month. The last item is writing teaching materials.

  You must be thinking that someone like me couldn't possibly have the ability to write teaching materials, but within the group anything can happen. We compile various job operation training materials, mechanical accident handling methods, mechanical principles and so on, supplemented by a lot of relevant knowledge, which can complete a set of practical teaching materials. Especially for those who haven't received much education, under the guidance of the teaching materials and after long-term training, they can quickly and skillfully operate various machines, and the products processed are better than ours.

  The group's success has a lot to do with its reasonable and advanced operating philosophy and management model, but I don't understand much about this aspect. Perhaps I can tell you about this Chinese-run enterprise, which is run by Orientals, that is, the Chinese people (as of my writing, I've heard that half of the group's employees are already Chinese, making it a genuine Chinese enterprise). They were able to unite and work hard without fear, while the long-braided Orientals were ignorant and backward, and the Chinese who cut off their braids and remade themselves were terrifying. They were like the monsters in the stories you tell your children before they fall asleep, just like my yellow-skinned colleagues.

  I got a speech draft of the group chairman when many Chinese workers obtained formal employee qualifications. You can see the reason from it:

  Fellow compatriots, I am delighted to see you all wearing blue uniforms today. From now on, you are officially employees of the AsiaMe Group. You will receive the same treatment as white people at work. Here, in this company founded by us Chinese, you can work with confidence and assurance that your hard-earned money will not be deducted. As Chinese people abroad, we should unite closely and help each other out, for we are all one family.

  Many people have asked me, why are we so bullied in the United States? Why can't our children go to school to study? Why do we work hard but receive discriminatory treatment? Why are we also human beings, but some people don't treat us as humans? Why? We must ask our own motherland, what kind of country is behind us that gives us such strong support.

  We Chinese people have been rich and poor.

  When we were rich, nearly 40% of the world's wealth was ours. Our technology led the world, our wisdom shone globally, our techniques reached the peak, and our prosperous era made the whole world yearn for it. Papermaking, compass, gunpowder, printing, etc. are all evidence.

  When we were poor, all that was left was a pair of pants, and our bodies were bare. The vast China, with its long-term prosperity and glory, had produced countless extravagances and corruptions. In the Opium War, we were defeated by foreign guns and cannons, leaving us with nothing. We lost the dignity and honor of our ancestors, ceding territory and paying indemnities, seeking to survive at any cost. We lost Taiwan, we lost Lushun, and we lost the spirit of a great nation that our people had relied on for so long. The once-mighty China was left with only its past glory, and even that was lost. All that was left was a pair of pants to cover our shame, and the last layer of covering was our hardworking and enduring nature.

  We climbed over mountains, climbed to the top of the highest ethnic group, we stood on it for a long time to enjoy the scenery, and the days were longer than some countries' entire history. We fell, fell from the mountain peak into the abyss, and the wealth that accidentally fell from our bodies could support a country's people for many years.

  We wander the world, struggling to survive in unfamiliar places, just to eke out a living and sustain our meager existence. We've lost everything and are no longer worthy of anyone's respect. So why do we need other people's respect? Why do we need someone who only knows how to farm and have children to become powerful? Why do we need someone who only knows how to carry heavy loads on their shoulders to receive the treatment due to a great nation's citizens?

  Why can't we climb again? Why are we willing to be the underdog instead of a free and democratic nation? Our ancestors spent thousands of years cultivating our traditional culture, fostering our national spirit. They were able to reach the pinnacle of the world's nations. Why can't we? We are also ambitious Chinese people who believe from the bottom of our hearts that we should be number one in the world. Now all we need to do is reorganize ourselves at the foot of the mountain, and after preparation, set off again towards the highest peak.

  To gain respect, one must first learn to self-respect. We must start with ourselves, do our own work well, and counter any contemptuous gaze with rightful work and salary, using our own sweat and strength to regain the world's respect.

  This is the kind of leadership that I need to teach my students, their leadership may be a bit crazy, but the students and technical workers can only be described as a group of madmen. They can learn how to weld well in three months on the assembly line, they can also learn how to weld more things in several months. They can learn how to operate and maintain machine tools correctly in two months, even if the qualified rate of parts produced is less than 60%, but give them another month, you will have a sense that you are about to be fired if you are also a technical worker.

  Of course, your husband will not be removed from his position. The chairman of the group personally signed an eight-year cooperation agreement with us. I have enough time to accumulate sufficient capital and then start my own business. Dear, just wait until next spring when flowers bloom, and I'll come back to pick you up! Take care of the kids and parents, I will let you ride in the best cars, the best ships to settle in America, and then we will buy a set of the best apartments or villas, and it must be from the Hongyuan Real Estate Company. That is the real life, real enjoyment, and true happiness. So believe me, dear...

  Love you, dear!

  The letter from Liew's wife and children was quickly sent to the United States via the American Motors direct sales store in Berlin, Germany, along with a report summarizing some experiences and lessons learned since the opening of the direct sales store. Like Liew, many people took advantage of the weekly fleet of ships sent by the American Group to Europe to send letters, cash, and other items to their families back home. As a result, employees in Europe received a letter every week, but most of the stories told were from a week ago in Europe. Nevertheless, this also brought satisfaction, and the group's seamless connection between family members and employees through this "special mail route" was well-received. This mail route continued until the Chinese-American War when all Chinese-owned enterprises in the United States were confiscated.

  The employees and their families had correspondence, and there must have been correspondence between the management levels of the group. On April 5, 1912, Zhang Yusheng received the first handwritten letter from Wen Zonghua, with all the developments in Europe written in it.

  Chairman:

  Nice to see you! It's been almost four months since we last met. According to the original plan of the Group Board, all work at Amway Europe is progressing well. Here is a report for your reference:

  Regarding the expansion of the European car market, in January, our company's 12 directly-operated stores officially opened for business and have already sold 5,072 vehicles externally, with "Huarui" being the most popular, creating a sales record of ￡2,142 per vehicle in the UK. Currently, each store is operating well, with ample inventory of spare parts. The only hope is that the group can increase the scale of product transportation as soon as possible, allowing Beetle to land on the European market, thereby increasing overall sales.

  Branch offices have searched for Chinese students in Germany, the UK, France and other places as per your request. After several months of effort, we have now found a total of 42 students, including 28 self-funded students and 14 who are working part-time while studying. I have provided full financial assistance to them without expecting any return, as instructed. A larger-scale search is still ongoing.

  Regarding the current situation of automobile manufacturing companies in Europe, there are currently not many car companies that have products on the market for sale, but the development trend must be alarming.

  In 1883, Karl Benz established the Benz & Cie. in Mannheim, and in 1890 Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart. In 1894 and 1896, the two companies respectively introduced the first gasoline-powered public bus and the first gasoline-powered truck, but the most developed and largest one is Daimler AG in Stuttgart, Germany, which has been selling their Mercedes cars since 1900, as well as the recently mass-produced VELO.

  However, after some investigation, we found that in 1899, Emil Jellinek, the Austrian consul general in Germany, ordered three Daimler Phoenix cars and named them Mercedes after his daughter. He drove one of them to participate in the Nice automobile rally and won third place. The Daimler company also hoped to use this Austrian nobleman to open up the Austrian market, so it adopted this name. As a result, the car was very popular in Austria, and our American cars were unable to enter the Austrian domestic auto market. I have already asked someone to buy a Phoenix car to bring back with the ship, and I hope the group will take corresponding measures as soon as possible.

  I believe that once Mercedes and Daimler are no longer in my group's grasp, they will inevitably become our arch-rivals in the German automotive industry, with Daimler being the strongest. If this trend continues, they will have the ability to compete with us for market share in the global automobile market.

  There are three reasons, the first is from their respective development history and current situation. In March 1886, Benz's patented gasoline-powered three-wheeled car was patented, at the same time Daimler also invented his first four-wheeled car, and he also obtained a patent for a marine engine in the same year. In July 1889, Daimler first installed a four-speed gearbox on his car. In June 1890, Maybach of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft designed the world's first inline-4 cylinder four-stroke internal combustion engine. In May 1896, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft successfully manufactured the world's first truck.

  Mercedes-Benz also made great achievements. In December 1903, the first Mercedes-Benz car with a side-mounted, water-cooled engine and transmission shaft, the Pacifik model, was successfully manufactured. In November 1910, Mercedes-Benz developed its first four-valve engine. As time went on, Mercedes-Benz continued to grow stronger.

  The second reason is the technical personnel of the two companies, they have more and better technical talents than my group, excellent talent reserve is a guarantee for enterprises to become stronger. The third reason is Germany's good industrial foundation, perfect infrastructure and rigorous work attitude, these are extremely powerful foundations.

  In addition, I also found a relatively small car company founded by August Horch, the German company Horch, but this not-so-large-scale company also needs to raise our vigilance. The reason why I say so is because some investigation results surprised me.

  The first to use aluminum casting technology for automotive engine, transmission housing and other component manufacturing was not our company's original creation. Hochs Company had already started using this technology early on, and the universal joints of power transmission components and high-strength steel gears also used this technology. The seemingly strictly confidential technology in my group actually appeared in this company in Germany, but the technology was not yet mature enough.

  The company's four-cylinder engine cars also performed well, winning the championship in the 1906 automobile rally, which was considered to be the most difficult and longest road condition in the world. The current annual sales of Hoch Company have reached 300 vehicles. In 1910, a new company founded by Hoch, Audi Company, produced its first Audi car, which I also purchased and brought back for research.

  In short, Germany's auto development has benefited from their solid industrial foundation. Although their progress is slow, the momentum is strong and cannot be ignored. The rest of Europe's development is not a concern. In short, I hope the group will come up with a suitable response plan as soon as possible. Otherwise, the excellent European car market share that has just been gained will face increasingly severe challenges from German companies!!

  Wen Zhenghua, arrived!