Industrial overlord

  "Kobayashi, you set up this Sino-Japanese Industrial Development Company, what is it for?" He Haifeng asked Lin Zhenhua.

  It was the evening after the founding meeting of Hanhua Industrial Company, He Haifeng and He Lan, who had just enjoyed a steamed fish dinner at Lin Zhenhua's home, came to the Zhangjiang Dam two miles north of the Hanhua factory with Lin Zhenhua and Yang Xin, taking a stroll to digest their food and appreciating the beautiful scenery of the long river sunset.

  The formation of this line of people is very interesting. He Haifeng and Lin Zhenhua walked together, with one hand holding the 12-year-old He Lan, while He Lan's other hand was held by Yang Xin. During their stroll, when they encountered a stone or a puddle on the embankment, Lin Zhenhua and Yang Xin would work together to lift He Lan over the obstacle, causing her to giggle with delight.

  He Lan came with her father, and Hubei Province is adjacent to Jiangsu Province. He Lan was on summer vacation and heard that his father was going to Lin Gege's place, so she cried and shouted to follow him. After arriving, He Haifeng took teachers and students to inspect various things of Hanhua Industrial Company every day, while He Lan lived in Lin Zhenhua's home and got along well with Yang Xin and Lin Fanghua. The age difference between her and these two sisters is even smaller, and the common language is more than that with Lin Zhenhua.

  However, Lin Fanghua didn't spend many days at home during this summer vacation. Since the college entrance exam ended, she spent every day with her classmates, watching movies, shopping, eating snacks, and having a great time. According to herself, it was to reclaim the youth lost during the intense studying for the college entrance exam.

  The party school's research team at Hanhua Factory is nearing its end. Witnessing the joint-stock operation of Hanhua Industry was their greatest gain on this trip. Before coming to Hanhua Factory, some students suspected that Lin Zhenhua's purpose in promoting joint-stock operations was to embezzle state property, but after arriving, they found that the property rights relationship between Hanhua Industry Company and Hanhua Machinery Factory was much clearer than they had imagined.

  At that time, each state-owned enterprise had a labor service company for the placement of family members. Almost all of these companies were parasitic on the parent factory and lived by sucking blood. No one felt that this approach was wrong.

  However, at the Hanhua factory, trainees saw another model. The Hanhua Industrial Company had established a strict settlement relationship with the parent factory. Even for small accounts such as taking out a plate of wire mesh, there were clear records in the custody room of the Hanhua factory. At the end of the month, the Hanhua Industrial Company needed to transfer these costs from its own income into the account of the parent factory.

  Lin Zhenhua made it very clear on this point. He believed that the dependent model in other factories was truly digging into socialism, while Hanhua Industrial and its parent company drew strict boundaries of property rights, which was actually an effective means to avoid state-owned assets loss.

  The teachers and students who came to conduct research were not rigid in their thinking. After experiencing ten years of turmoil, the cadres on the economic front line all had a desire to do practical work. They saw the pragmatic attitude of Hanhua Industrial Company and also saw the progressive spirit emanating from the young workers, almost everyone was moved. The unemployed youth, in the eyes of the worldly, were just that generation wearing bell-bottom pants and sporting big hairdos, but in the small workshop of Hanhua Industrial Company, the teachers and students saw a different group of people who were sweating profusely with hope shining in their eyes.

  Now, what's bothering He Haifeng is just one question: what exactly does Lin Zhenhua want to achieve by doing this?

  "Kobayashi, you were already the manager of Labor Service Company. As I guessed, the Xinxin store opened by Xiong Lijun should also have your shares, and it's possible that you are even the largest shareholder, which you can't hide from me. In terms of position, as a 20-year-old young man, having a formal deputy department-level position is already very good. In terms of income, with one hand holding salary, one hand holding contract fees, and another hand secretly taking dividends from the store, your living standard has long reached four modernizations."

  "Dad said Lin Gege has three hands?" He Lan asked with a smile, according to He Haifeng's calculation, Lin Zhenhua indeed had three hands, and having three hands seemed not to be a compliment.

  Yang Xin knew that He Haifeng and Lin Zhenhua were discussing something very serious. She gently pulled He Lan and said, "Let the adults talk about serious matters, I'll teach you how to make boiled fish."

  He Haifeng ignored his daughter's interruption and continued, "With such good conditions, why bother to get involved in shareholding system? You should know that this is a very dangerous thing. If the policy changes slightly, you may end up in prison."

  Lin Zhenhua said, "Old He, I won't hide it from you, the three hands you calculated, I have them all. As for why we must adopt a shareholding system, my reason may be somewhat offensive, to be honest, I don't trust the commanding ability of various levels of administrative departments, and I hope to have more autonomy."

  "No wonder you must get the controlling stake." He Haifeng said.

  "Lao He, you can't just talk nonsense, I don't have controlling shares!" Lin Zhenhua half-jokingly denied.

  He Haifeng said, "If you want to keep something from others, don't do it yourself. On the surface, you only hold 30% of the shares, but behind the scenes, you let Peng Shaozhe and two others each buy 6% of the shares. Do you think I'm unaware? How could Peng Shaozhe and the other two possibly come up with 6,000 yuan to buy shares?"

  "They didn't say they were going to borrow from Xiong Liming, did they?" Lin Zhenhua explained.

  "Am I supposed to believe you?" He Haifeng retorted.

  Lin Zhenhua also smiled. He didn't expect He Haifeng to believe him anyway. After smiling, he said: "Even if the money from Shao Zhe and others was borrowed with my help, together we only have 48% of the shares, which is not enough to control the company."

  He Haifeng pointed at Yang Xin: "You won't tell me that Yang Xin isn't one of your family members, will you? Doesn't her 3% count?"

  He Lan heard this and started acting strangely again. She asked Yang Xin: "Sister Yang, are you also from Lin Gege's family?"

  Yang Xinhong's face turned red as she said: "Your dad is talking nonsense."

  He Lan Dao: "You're the one who's talking nonsense, I know you're Lin Gege's lover, aren't you?"

  Yang Xin pinched He Lan's hand and said: "You mustn't talk nonsense, it's not time yet."

  Finally, Lin Zhenhua stopped beating around the bush and said: "Old He, actually, this matter is also an open secret. Director Chen and Secretary Zhou should be very clear about it. Director Xie may not know, but she just doesn't want to know, because once she knows, if something goes wrong in the future, she will have to take responsibility. Yes, I did get control of Hanhua Industry, with this power, I can do things freely now."

  "My question is, you can also do things at Hanhua Labor Service Company and get paid without taking risks, why do you have to set up a joint-stock company like this? You invested tens of thousands of yuan in buying shares all at once, aren't you worried that one day the country will take away all your money?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "What I'm doing now indeed involves some risks. But, a person born in this world can't avoid taking risks, right? Actually, I'm not someone who dares to take risks easily, but the situation is forcing me, and I can no longer just sit here safely."

  "Why? Who forced you?" He Haifeng asked curiously.

  "What a crisis!" Lin Zhenhua said, "Old He, last time I came back from Guangzhou, I brought back a small Sony single-disc player for Xiaofang. She was so happy that she cried. Honestly, at that moment, I wanted to cry too. This is such a big country, and our industrial level is half a century behind a small Japan. We're all in the industry, how can we show our faces when we go out?"

  "It's all because of the ten-year catastrophe..." He Haifeng explained in a popular phrase at that time.

  "Right, ten years of chaos. For a full decade, 800 million people were busy with internal strife and criticism, while others... Japan aside, South Korea, Singapore, and our own Hong Kong and Taiwan became the Four Little Dragons of Asia overnight. An electric rice cooker I brought back from Guangzhou was made in Hong Kong, and even journalists from Jiangnan Daily thought it was a rare find. My god, an electric rice cooker is nothing special, what kind of technology does it have? We still had to import it, and it became a symbol of whether a family was rich or not. Old He, tell me, shouldn't we all just slit our throats with a car knife to apologize to the nation?"

  He Haifeng sighed and said: "Now the whole country is in a state of devastation, what you said are all due to historical reasons. It's come to this, can't blame us for that?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "History has become history, the ten-year catastrophe has passed. Opportunities are in front of us, it depends on whether we can seize them. I don't have any great abilities, but since history brought me to this era, I must not waste the opportunity given by history. Being able to start early and letting the country rise early, what does it matter if I take a little risk personally?"

  "What do you want to do?"

  "I want to develop industry, I want China's industrial products to be renowned globally. Whether it is high-end satellites, aircraft, high-speed rail, precision machine tools, or the lowest-end shirts, bicycles, electric rice cookers, and even the small horns blown by spectators at a sports event in South Africa, I want them all to have 'Made in China' printed on them. That's right, Chinese manufacturing! My ideal is to make 'Chinese manufacturing' sweep across the globe, making China the world's industrial overlord!"

  "Industrial overlord!" He Haifeng muttered to himself, a chord in his heart that had been buried for many years was plucked.

  That's right, industrial overlord, this is the dream in the heart of every Chinese industrialist.

  More than 20 years ago, in order to surpass Britain and the US in steel production, a nation paid a bloody price, but ultimately ended in failure. A few years ago, national leaders also proposed the grand idea of building "ten Anshans and ten Daqings", but things went against their wishes, and a country that had been weak for many years was simply unable to undertake such a large construction project, and in the end, the ambitious plan ended in a whimper.

  Having gone through too many setbacks, some people have become disheartened and feel that China is just a backward country. Even if it were to catch up in 100 years, it would still be far behind. In those days, even the most imaginative person wouldn't dare imagine that one day China's steel production would surpass the total of all other countries in the world, let alone think that the term "Made in China" would become a Damocles' sword that makes politicians from various countries turn pale at the mention of it.

  However, in this small Hanhua machinery factory, in the numerous small towns and counties of China, there are countless ordinary workers like Lin Zhenhua who started from manual labor, from small workshops and small enterprises, accumulating day by day, silently and stubbornly pursuing the dream of a strong industrial nation!

  "Kobayashi, thank you." He Haifeng said solemnly, "Go forth boldly, the world is yours!"

  "Brother!"

  A shrill voice came from afar, and before the words had even fallen, Lin Fanghua was already riding her bicycle towards everyone. She jumped off the bike, didn't even bother to put down the kickstand, just pushed the bike into Yang Xin's arms, letting her help hold it, and then threw herself into Lin Zhenhua's embrace.

  "What's wrong, Xiaofang?" Lin Zhenhua was startled and asked hurriedly.

  "Brother!" Xiaofang raised her head, her face flushed red, and her eyes were filled with tears. She pulled out a letter from her backpack and held it up high:

  "Brother! I got in, I was accepted into Huaying University!"