The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 280 Epiphany
Xu Damao played a trick. He did not go to find Liu Hua immediately, as this would have made him seem like he was trying to push the issue too far and not be able to raise his own status.

Three days later, Xu Damao finally found Liu Hua and said, "I've thought about it. I'll try following you. I originally wanted to open a video parlor, but following you may make a lot of money. I am also ambitious."

"Okay, okay, okay. As long as you can help me get through the first few years, even if you want to resign, I will fully approve it, and I will not treat you unfairly."

Xu Damao pretended to be generous and said, "That's more like it. But don't worry, I will definitely help you get the sales done properly."

Xu Damao completely forgot that he had never worked in the sales industry. The more awesome he performed now, the more confused he would be when he first started working in sales in the future.

While Ju Wei was leading the old people in the factory to renovate the old factory buildings, he was also visiting the technicians who had just retired from the steel rolling mill and re-employing them.

Liu Hua set a high salary. At that time, the average salary of workers in Beijing was only more than 90 yuan. Liu Hua directly increased everyone's salary by 30%.

Many workers have been busy all their lives and are not used to having an idle time. Now, if a factory suddenly wants to re-employ them with a higher salary than when they were working, they will immediately agree without hesitation.

None of the workers suspected that this was a joke, because they knew Ju Wei, who was previously in charge of their production and was an honest man.

They also knew that Liu Hua was a former engineer at the steel rolling mill. He was capable and kind. There was no need for these two people to deceive a small worker like them.

Ju Wei quickly recruited over a hundred people. The factory was almost renovated, so he found Liu Hua again.

"Boss, the factory is almost done. When will the equipment be brought in?"

Liu Hua could only say apologetically: "It may take some time. Shipping by sea is a bit troublesome. It will take another ten days or half a month to reach the shore."

It’s the first time for everyone to do business, so it’s inevitable to be busy and confused. Liu Hua’s equipment was not purchased domestically. It’s not that he didn’t want to support the domestic machine tool industry, but the development of domestic machine tools stagnated in that decade, resulting in the inability to keep up with the precision.

So Liu Hua bought a batch of second-hand machine tools in Hans through BASF Chemicals, at the direct price of scrap metal.

The West is at its peak of development, with various technologies iterating rapidly. This second-hand machine tool needs to be disassembled after being replaced, which is another considerable expense.

It just so happened that the people from BASF Chemicals helped and found someone to take over in the East, saving them the trouble.

So the people from the recycling company sold a batch of machine tools that were 50% to 70% new to Liu Hua at a 20% discount, and even gave him some scrapped goods. Anyway, Liu Hua paid the shipping fee.

When the machine tools arrived at the customs, Liu Hua went to declare them. The relevant parties saw that the order stated that they were scrap iron, but they were actually machine tools. After checking the models, they found that this batch of machine tools was actually quite difficult to buy.

At that time, there was a thing called COCOM, and the entire West imposed a comprehensive technological blockade on us. Our country also sought to purchase machine tools from the West, but many of the ones with a little bit of technological content were not sold by these people.

Now someone has imported a large number of COCOM-specified machine tools in the name of scrap iron. The customs suspected that this was smuggling. After checking the machine tool models, they found that many of them were ones we wanted to buy but could not, so they notified the Ministry of Industry.

Liu Hua was also called to the scene. The person in charge of the industrial department was a newcomer who had not been working for long and had never met Liu Hua.

At that time, Liu Hua was questioned: "Comrade Liu Hua, where did you get these machine tools?"

"I bought it from Hans country with real money." This is what I want to hear. Even the country can't buy it, so how did you buy it? Another thing, this batch of machine tools is not cheap. How can you, a private individual, get so much money to buy machine tools?
Liu Hua shrugged and said impatiently: "You shouldn't be asking this question. You are just a heavy industry worker, not a policeman."

"Correct your attitude."

Liu Hua smiled and said, "You are a newcomer, right? Otherwise you should know me. Go back and check and find an old person to talk to me. I feel very uncomfortable with your attitude."

"I've been working for three or four years. Am I still a newcomer?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "Go and ask if you should use this attitude when talking to me."

This person felt that Liu Hua seemed to have some background, and since no one working in the department was a fool, he quickly called back to inquire.

In less than an hour, Li Huaide arrived.

"Oh my, the flood has really hit the Dragon King Temple." Li Huaide said with a smile: "We heavy industry people are investigating our own people."

Liu Hua nodded: "It's also my fault that I didn't say hello to you."

Li Huaide smiled and nodded: "Right!"

Liu Hua said angrily: "What? My normal business dealings are not against the law. Why should I say hello to you?"

"You gave us all a big shock." Li Huaide said with a smile: "The customs informed us that a batch of machine tools that were not sold to us abroad suddenly came in. Do you think we were shocked?"

Li Huaide turned to the newcomer and said, "Xiao Zhang, let me introduce you. This is Engineer Liu Hua, an engineer from our heavy industry department. He has presided over the technical upgrades of many domestic steel plants, as well as the technical development of CNC machine tools. However, he was later transferred to the Science Department. He has been working at Huaqing University for the past few years. It is understandable that you don't know him. Please respect Engineer Liu in the future."

"Hello, Mr. Liu. I'm sorry. I'm just speaking from the point of view."

Li Huaide waved his hand and said, "Let's go and take a look at it. We spent a lot of real money to buy it from Hans, but they refused to sell it. The scrap metal you imported here is what we want but cannot get. It makes me angry just thinking about it."

After the container was opened, Li Huaide squinted his eyes and took a quick look, and he discovered the trick.

"Why do they all seem to be second-hand goods? Did someone cheat you?"

Liu Hua was speechless and shook his head: "Can you please stop having a preconceived impression that I am planning to evade taxes?"

"Isn't it? Otherwise, you bought a machine tool, but the customs declaration said it was scrap metal."

"This is the scrap metal I bought." Liu Hua argued, "I bought it from a scrap metal recycling company in Hanslao. The economy there is developed now. Some machine tools that are a little old and have some problems are directly discarded. They are recycled at the price of scrap metal. I add a little bit of money and buy it back at the price of scrap metal."

Li Huaide seemed to have an epiphany at that moment, and it was as if a water and land Taoist ceremony had opened in his head, with bells, chimes, gongs, and cymbals ringing together.

(End of this chapter)