The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 392 The Front Line
The Americans are now rolling in money, and without hesitation, they put down a deposit. With the deposit left by the Americans, Liu Hua expanded four production lines in one go, two to meet domestic demand and two to meet foreign demand.

This year should be the happiest year for Americans, because they thought they had defeated the Russian bear and would become the sole hegemon of the world.

They believed that Liu Hua selling them such high-tech products at extremely low prices and smiling at them was a testament to their power.

Liu Hua was also happy. Buy, buy! Let your big American companies eat shit! Once we've killed your industrialization, let's see if you're still laughing.

There's an old saying that goes, "From Nanjing to Beijing, the seller is always more shrewd than the buyer." This saying is vividly illustrated here: you scheme for my present, and I scheme for your future.

These past two years have been a time when foreign capital has entered my country's market in large numbers, with a large number of joint ventures and foreign-invested enterprises settling in the country, posing a serious threat to local enterprises.

Even Liu Hua's company was threatened, though not openly.

Take Liu Hua's Taiyi Heavy Industry for example. As we all know, he trained a group of young technical workers. When foreign companies build factories, they also need workers.

They brandished the big stick of money and began poaching talent from all over society. Everyone knows that foreign companies pay high wages. Older workers might not believe in foreigners, but young people didn't care. They just wanted to go out and explore, to see a different society.

A number of young workers left Liu Hua's factory, workers he had spent time, energy, and money training.

Ju Wei said angrily, "These ungrateful wretches! We went through so much trouble to raise them, and now they've gone off to work for foreigners."

“Everyone has their own way of living, and everyone has their own choices,” Liu Hua said calmly. “We have no way of judging others.”

“I think we shouldn’t train those workers,” Ju Wei suggested. “If they can learn it, that’s their skill; if they can’t, so be it. If we really need highly skilled workers, we can just recruit them from the market.”

Liu Hua shook his head: "No, we still need to train them. If you train ten, even if only one can stay, it will be a victory for us."

Ju Wei could only agree: "Alright, it's just a pity for your money and energy, boss. I still need to recruit more people. There are hundreds of vacancies, and I have to train them all over again."

“Recruiting people is one aspect, but on the other hand, you need to find a way to establish our supply chain system.” Liu Hua said with a smile, “Organize our factory’s technicians and engineers to visit the surrounding small machinery factories. Once we confirm that their technical specifications can meet our requirements, we can allocate some orders to them.”

Ju Wei shook his head: "Boss, you're dreaming. Do you know how much higher our factory's technical specifications are than those small hardware factories around here? Some of our intermediate-level technicians work part-time at those factories on Sundays and are treated like master craftsmen. If it weren't for the fact that those factories can't guarantee their orders and their pay is unstable, many of our intermediate-level technicians would really like to work as master craftsmen in those factories."

"Let's do an assessment first. We can assign them some simple parts," Liu Hua said with a smile. "You said we have high technical skills. If we have high technical skills, why would we make those simple parts? Wouldn't that be a waste of resources?"

"What if none of them meet our standards?"

"We'll pick the tallest among the short ones," Liu Hua joked. "Anyone who can barely reach the required level will be put on the shortlist. If their skills aren't up to par, we can train them."

Ju Wei's eyes widened: "Boss, have you become addicted to this losing business? It's one thing to train people in your own factory, but to train others too? Isn't that just a thankless task?"

"Shortsighted," Liu Hua said sarcastically. "Why are you always only focused on your own little corner? Once our supply chain is established, it will greatly reduce our costs. Besides, foreign capital is coming on strong right now. Can we withstand it alone? We need to build a solid defense. A single chopstick is easily broken, but ten chopsticks are unbreakable." Ju Wei suddenly realized that his boss was playing a long game.

"What do you think it would be like if all the companies in our country could take on the responsibility of the world's industrial production supply chain?"

Ju Wei's eyes widened: "That means the Americans have to ask us first if they want to produce anything. If we don't provide them with parts, they can't produce even the most advanced weapons."

Liu Hua nodded: "Of course, this is just our goal. It will be very difficult to achieve. At the very least, the United States will always be wary of us, and they will not let us bear the burden of the weapons supply chain."

"I refuse to believe it," Ju Wei said, raising his head. "Once we get to this point, even if the Americans want to keep us out, can they really stop us?"

Ju Wei is absolutely brilliant; what he says now will become a fact more than twenty years later.

The American leadership doesn't want us involved, but they can't resist the contractors' greed for cheap deals. Using our products is not just a small cost-saving measure, it's a huge profit.

Ju Wei first had the factory's technicians evaluate all the parts produced and categorize them by difficulty level, then selected the easier parts for outsourcing.

Then Ju Wei led his team to inspect hundreds of machinery factories of all sizes in the surrounding area and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of them. Finally, they selected twelve factories with outstanding technology, ranging in size from large to small.

Ju Wei invited the owners of these twelve factories to a meeting. When they received the invitation, everyone was feeling uneasy.

They were all in the machinery manufacturing industry, and everyone knew the size of Taiyi Heavy Industry. Most people felt that Liu Hua had ulterior motives for inviting them to the conference.

In reality, Liu Hua didn't even show up. He had never attended a meeting of this caliber before; it was too low a level.

"Gentlemen, they were selected from the best of the best by our Taiyi Heavy Industry technical team."

Ju Wei nodded. The opening remarks were somewhat vague. The twelve bosses immediately felt a tightness in their chests. Oh no, Taiyi Heavy Industry has its eye on us and wants to take us over.

"Director Ju, does Taiyi Heavy Industry want to buy our factory?"

"No, Taiyi Heavy Industry has no designs on any of your companies," Ju Wei said magnanimously. "We have gathered you all here today to cultivate your talents."

"nourish?"

The twelve bosses began to discuss among themselves. Logically speaking, competitors should be enemies, so why would Taiyi Heavy Industry still train them? There must be some conspiracy involved.

(End of this chapter)