Management holding shares is something Shenhua is determined to do; and this work should be done sooner rather than later.

  Only when the management holds shares, with people like Jiang Kangsheng, Qian Wenhui, Xu Xiting, Zhao Dong, and Pan Cheng, can they truly unite around the interests of the steel plant and will not easily collapse.

  This time, He Qing She, Li Feng and other town officials were also allowed to hold shares. One reason was to let He Qing She, Li Feng and others share the benefits of the steel factory's rapid development. Another reason was to have them stand up at all times to protect the interests of the steel factory.

  In the future, if someone really dislikes him and wants to take action against him, removing him from his position as Party Secretary of Meixi Town and appointing a new one wouldn't be particularly difficult. However, wanting to replace all party and government personnel in Meixi Town would not be an easy task.

  Although domestically it is still official-oriented and the power of the top leader is extremely great, the power, no matter how great, is relative.

  Even when Tan Qiping arrived at Donghua, he could only adopt a strategy of differentiation and winning over local forces, and did not dare to offend everyone.

  Shen Hua wants to use this equity reform to gather the people who can be gathered, and initially form a force that will not disintegrate.

  Only if he succeeded in reforming himself could he be considered to have some foundation at Donghua, and would no longer be anxious because of Tan Qiping's estrangement.

  Even within a interest group, there should be a hierarchy, so that everyone can be united into one force. Xu Xiting and Wang Kangsheng are still conservative, good at defending but not enough to make progress, Shen Huai is more willing to support Zhao Dong to take the throne.

  In fact, during this period of time, Zhao Dong was also his most core assistant in managing the steel plant, and he had formed his own influence and prestige in the steel plant.

  This time, the management held shares to control the influence, and the total shareholding ratio was controlled below 10%. Xu Xiting, Wang Kangsheng, Qian Wenhui, and Zhao Dong were among the first level, and each could hold up to 1% of the shares. However, in return, each of them had to borrow nearly 800,000 yuan from Yeshin Bank to invest in the steel plant.

  Xu Xiting and Wang Kangsheng were still afraid of the risk being too great, and had no intention of holding onto the shares under their names; the extra shares that Shen Hua was preparing to let Zhao Dong take over.

  As a result, Zhao Dong had to borrow 1.6 million yuan from the bank and invest it in the steel plant, holding 2% of the shares.

  Even if the shares are pledged as collateral, once failed, it means that all the struggles and efforts in the steel plant will be in vain. This is a pressure that ordinary people can bear in 1994.

  "After the reform, you only have one last battle," Shen Huai also feared that Zhao Dong's shoulders would be too heavy with pressure, which would have a negative impact. "What does Mingxia think after you told her?"

  "Mingxia hasn't slept well for three or four days, but I guess she's also been stimulated by Haipeng, that little rascal. She decided to follow me and take a chance. To show her determination, she went with me on Sunday to get the certificate, saying we'd 'share life and death, wealth and honor' together," Zhao Dong said with a smile. "But we're also using our shares as collateral. If we lose, what's there to be afraid of? Half a year ago, when I was talking to you, wasn't it true that we had nothing to lose? Could it be that just half a year has passed and now we're afraid of this and that?"

  Having this mindset is good, there are still many opportunities in the country now, as long as you have the courage to fight and dare to take risks, there are still many opportunities. If it's another ten or twenty years later, when the domestic economy develops to a certain extent, most economic fields will form stable interest groups, and it will be much more difficult for individuals to stand out with their own efforts. We can learn from these experiences abroad, we should have this foresight," Shen Hua affirmed Zhao Dong's attitude, saying: "Right, you've got the certificate, when are you planning to get married, I'm waiting to hand over the red envelope?"

  "The matter of having a drink will have to wait until the steel factory is busy with this festival, Mingxia's parents can also understand. At that time, you will inevitably be asked to show your respect." Zhao Dong said with a smile.

  "The wedding banquet can be delayed for a while, but getting the certificate is such an important thing, we should still celebrate it in a small circle first," Shen Huai said, "You call to ask if Haipeng has time, I'll invite him out tonight. Don't invite too many people, just invite my cousin and about one table of people will do..."

  "Alright," Zhao Dong replied, "I'll head back to the factory first."

  "I'll just go to the construction site for a walk too..." Shen Huan picked up the car key and went downstairs with Zhao Dong.

  ***************

  Collective fund housing projects, after the funds are in place, can be built very quickly.

  The two residential buildings near the steel factory road are about to be capped, and the exterior of the residential buildings is wrapped in green curtains, only faintly visible workers busy on the scaffolding; another four residential buildings have also risen from the ground, at a speed of one floor per week, next month these six buildings will all be capped and decorated with exterior walls.

  The planning of new residential areas is six buildings as a community unit.

  After the completion of external pipeline and social engineering, the six buildings of the first community unit will be delivered around July or August.

  On the west side of this building unit, a new community unit has started construction.

  In 1994, land resources were not yet scarce, so this plot of land was built with two community units and a total of twelve buildings, which is roughly equivalent to six or seven hundred residential suites, all of which are planned to be completed before October.

  Shen Hua stood at the side of the steel mill road, looking at the residential building surrounded by a green canopy to the south.

  One thing that is not satisfactory about the newly built residential area is that it is located in the southwest corner.

  Gangchang Road to the west is blocked by Meixi River, and only a few narrow and winding alleys are connected to Meixi Old Street in the north. Cars can only go out via Xuetang Street on the east side.

  The agricultural market, supply and marketing cooperative, health clinic, town primary school, town middle school, credit union, post office, cultural station, town government, and police station of Meixi Town are all located in the northern part of Meixi Town along the lower Mei Highway.

  Dī dī

  When he heard the car horn, Shen Hui turned his head to look over and saw Yang Haipeng parking his newly sold Santana by the side of the road, walking towards him with big strides.

  "How did you get here so quickly?" Shen Huan asked.

  "I just received a call from Zhao Dong and knew you were here, anyway I didn't have anything to do at the moment, so I came over," said Yang Haipeng, with his hands on his hips, looking at the newly built building in the south, "This building was built quickly, wasn't it just two months ago?"

  "This is just a multi-story building, even if it's a skyscraper, Shenzhen has already set a record of building one floor in three days," Shen Hua said with a smile. "As long as the funds are sufficient and the team can be assembled on site, a speed of one floor per week is no longer considered fast domestically..."

  "These twelve buildings have been built, should we continue building?" Yang Haipeng asked.

  Up to now, the town workers and government staff of the steel plant and other enterprises have participated in the collective housing construction with a total of over 500 households. In addition to the funds paid by the town and the steel plant, there are currently nearly 200 million yuan in the account, and finally, at the time of delivery, the total amount of the collective housing fund for the 500-odd households should be around 270 million yuan.

  The fund-raising housing project went very smoothly, and it was also a strong organization of the town and the steel factory. Among so many fund-raisers, the steel factory workers accounted for half; Yang Haipeng and his team were thinking about continuing to do the fund-raising housing project.

  Shen Huai shook his head and said, "The town of Meixi has only about 2,600 households. After being suppressed for so many years, a batch of people who urgently need to improve their housing conditions have accumulated, so they can gather more than 500 households to participate in collective fundraising for house building at once. In the future, there will not be too much demand for collective fundraising for house building in a short period of time..."

  "There are 648 apartments in the 12 buildings, and after deducting the more than 580 households that have already participated in the collective housing project, there will be about 60-70 apartments left," said Yang Haipeng. "Zhu Li has calculated the detailed accounts with us: construction costs, taxes, plus the land fees to be paid to the steel factory, and the final collective funding amount is around 27 million. This can almost cover all the costs, leaving behind about 60-70 apartments as engineering profits. However, according to what you said, this engineering profit needs to be discounted, and it will take some time to digest..."

  Shen Huai shook his head and said, "The development of Zhujing Construction now requires more funds. The town's real estate company will convert the excess residential buildings into land fees and hand them over to the steel plant; the engineering fees that Zhujing Construction should receive, the town's real estate company will pay in cash on time..."

  The real estate company, as the organizer of the collective housing project, will not extract profits from it except for a small management fee. The steel factory provided land for building houses in advance, which is an asset of the steel factory itself and will naturally be recovered as land payment.

  As for the construction of Jiangnan Garden, after calculating the entire project, it can be estimated that there will be nearly 3 million yuan in engineering profits, which is quite substantial. However, these profits are all compressed into the more than 60 houses built.

  In recent years, rural residents who want to buy a house in the town or city are subject to the "agricultural to non-agricultural" household registration restrictions. Mei Creek Town only has about 10-20 quotas for this purpose every year. For urban workers, solving housing problems mainly relies on the welfare housing allocation system of their work units. If the unit's performance is poor, the workers' income will also be low, and they cannot enjoy welfare housing or afford to buy private houses.

  As for Meixi Town, a single fundraising event can have more than 500 households participating, which is the result of long-term accumulation and the leadership of the steel factory. It's impossible to have a larger demand in a short period of time.

  There are more than 60 suites, which doesn't seem like a lot, but in '94 it would still take quite some time to digest. Moreover, the residential area is located in the southwest corner of the town, and the geographical location is somewhat biased, making it less conducive to attracting people from outside the town to buy houses.

  Shen Hua knew that if the more than 60 suites of houses built were handed over to Zhujiang Construction as engineering profits for digestion, it would seriously affect their development speed. It was decided that the steel plant would take over the excess houses instead.

  Yang Haipeng knew that the steel plant should be more eager for funds and asked, "The steel plant will have three or four projects in a row this year. Is there no shortage of funds?"

  "If the equity restructuring is successful, by mid-year, the steel plant will have 300-400 million yuan in construction funds available. Equipment renovation and power expansion don't require a one-time investment, there's a process. After June, as long as the steel plant achieves two consecutive quarters of profitability, we can ask banks to re-audit and grant new credit. If banks increase their loans to the steel plant, its funding will become even more abundant," Shen Hua said, "The steel plant recovering some residential properties isn't just for helping Suzhou Construction, but also has practical uses. Currently, the living environment of steel plant employees is very poor, many skilled engineers, like Zhao Dong's family, live in small tube-shaped apartments with multiple people; or maybe even shantytowns. I invite these engineers to work at Mei Creek, and I want to respect their value. No matter how beautifully we shout slogans, providing housing will make it more attractive, right?"

  Yang Haipeng heard Shen Huai's plan and chuckled, saying, "The people at the municipal steel factory are all scolding you for corrupting their minds."