1968: Started from breeding

Chapter 224 If the quality of the products cannot earn us foreign exchange, then we may not have any leather to sell.

During the period leading up to the Spring Festival, Su Wenchen lived a busy and fulfilling life.

On the one hand, we will concentrate on expanding the breeding scale of Yuehua rabbits.

On the other hand, they also cleaned up their house and bought new wedding furniture, because both of them had written their reports and could hand them in when the time came.

Although it is very busy, the results after the new year are also very gratifying.

First of all, the Yuehua rabbits give birth to one baby every month or so. Especially after the second generation of Yuehua rabbits grow up, they can continue to give birth, so the scale expands very quickly.

However, Su Wenchen also discovered that the fur color of the Moonlight Rabbit raised on cultivated feed would be the same shiny Moonlight color as the first mutant.

If it is raised on ordinary feed, its fur color will be slightly darker and more silvery.

It's actually not bad if you look at it alone, but compared with the eye-catching Moonlight Color, you can still tell it at a glance, especially the kind that even gives people an illusion of flow as your vision changes and the different layers of hair when you move slightly.

Su Wenchen has also tried it, and it turns out that just a slight change in the formula of the breeding feed will make the breeding feed ineffective.

However, Su Wenchen is not so demanding about principles.

Because at that time, whether it was imported equipment or many other industries, most people in China did not know the principles and could only slowly learn how to use them.

Therefore, Su Wenchen thinks that this kind of thing should be left for future generations who have free time to study it slowly!

Even because it involves the golden finger, he estimates that even if technology advances, it may not be easy to figure it out.

After the Chinese New Year.

Time gradually entered 1970.

Not far from Su Wenchen and his team’s blue water field, a new factory was built.

If we look at the small houses mentioned above, they look no different from home workshops at first glance. Calling them factories is more of a way to make themselves look better.

Now it truly has the prototype of a factory of this era.

Now, after the county's integration, the previous commune tannery, handicraft factory and county slaughterhouse have finally merged to form the current Lanshui County Leather Manufacturing Factory.

He Zhenbang even specially bought a set of chrome tanning equipment that was discarded in Beijing from the city.

Whether it is personnel configuration or mechanical equipment, there is a world of difference from before.

In the drying room of the tannery, slanting sunlight shines in through the door.

He Zhenbang was pacing back and forth anxiously at the door, his leather shoes tapping on the ground with rapid clacking sounds.

Su Wenchen, who was originally sitting quietly on the side, became a little anxious after hearing this.

"Uncle He, please stop wandering around. I can't sit still anymore."

As he said this, he patted the stool next to him.

"There are no thorns on the bench, let's sit and wait. You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry!"

Hearing Su Wenchen's words, He Zhenbang gave him a displeased look.

"You know nothing. This is about earning foreign exchange!"

"And I gave my word to Old Zhai and Secretary Zhou, and I also spent a lot of money to get a set of tanning equipment from Beijing."

"And even Secretary Zhou takes this matter very seriously. Do you think I can be calm?"

"I'm already enduring it if I don't rush in now."

Su Wenchen was speechless.

"Uncle He, didn't you go to our farm to see the living Moon Rabbit? There's nothing to worry about."

"But don't really rush in!"

"They are just finishing up the greasing, grinding and polishing. If you rush in here, it would be bad if someone slips and creates some kind of flaw."

He Zhenbang glanced at Su Wenchen.

"Get out of here! Am I such a fool? If I wasn't afraid of this, I would have gone in long ago."

"And you think I'm like you! I'm worried about our county tannery!"

"Even if the leather here is not tanned well, there are always other factories that can tan it well. It won't affect your foreign exchange earnings, so you don't have to worry."

"But I've put so much effort into this, and now all the money has been wasted. How can I not be worried?"

"You said this foreigner too, why do they like handmade vegetable tanned ones?"

"Didn't we learn this chemical chrome tanning method from them? Why do they dislike it now?"

"This manual vegetable tanning is troublesome. The whole process took more than half a month, while chemical chrome tanning only takes three to five days. It's such a waste of time."

Su Wenchen sneered when he heard this.

"It is precisely because this technology was introduced from there that those wealthy people in Europe despise it."

"Of course they know how many chemicals are added to it. Can you imagine how much those foreign rich people value their lives? Would they be willing to wear something tanned with chemicals?"

"Who knows if wearing it for a long time will have any effect? Even if the effect is tiny, they will never take such a risk."

Not to mention the rich people in Europe, even Su Wenchen himself was very wary of the safety of chemical materials at that time.

Since the introduction of chrome tanning equipment, the speed of tanning ordinary Rex rabbit skins has indeed increased countless times.

Manual vegetable tanning takes half a month, but chemical chrome tanning only takes three days.

However, Su Wenchen discovered that there was a huge problem with chrome tanning at this time, which was that the residual chemical smell was very strong, mainly the pungent smell produced by chromium salts.

Even after being left for a long time, the smell will not be completely eliminated, but it will be relatively weakened and not as pungent.

Vegetable tanning is different. It only leaves a faint plant fragrance, which is a bit similar to the scent of bark and tea. It is not particularly fragrant, but compared with the pungent smell of chemicals, it definitely smells much more comfortable.

And Su Wenchen felt.

What rich people want is to enjoy your handmade services. If you fool them with industrial products, why would they pay a high price for them?

He Zhenbang also knew that what Su Wenchen said made sense.

It’s just that hand-made vegetable tanning takes longer than chrome tanning, which is faster and easier.

But he couldn't see any results and was under a lot of pressure, so he was naturally anxious.

Looking at the anxious He Zhenbang, Su Wenchen comforted him directly.

"Uncle He, don't worry. Didn't the polishing master say that he can finish the final grease polishing today?"

"It won't take a while."

Just as Su Wenchen finished speaking, there was movement in the greasing and polishing workshop next to the drying workshop.

After a while, the door opened, and along with the "rustling" sound of sandpaper rubbing against each other, a faint scent of pine resin wafted out from inside.

Jiang Li walked out holding the completely tanned fur.

Spread the tanned fur of the Yuehua rabbit flat on the table, and carefully touch the edge of the silver-white fur with your fingers.

He looked at Su Wenchen with some anticipation.

"what do you think?"

For this batch of samples, we followed the entire process of ginger pear from skinning to softening, tanning, drying, grease application and polishing.

I was afraid that there would be problems on my side.

Su Wenchen looked at the leather material in front of him that was as shiny as moonlight and nodded with a smile.

"Yes, I think it looks much better than rawhide."

Then he looked at He Zhenbang and said.

"Uncle He, what do you think?"

He Zhenbang ignored Su Wenchen and walked over directly, gently brushing the surface of the fur with his hand.

When you stroke it against the hair, it seems to create ripples of silver waves like moonlight.

"good very good!"

He Zhenbang thought for a long time, trying to think of words to describe it, but his vocabulary was limited, so he could only come up with two sentences: "good" and "very good".

But at this moment, after seeing the finished tanned product, He Zhenbang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It felt as if a mountain had been lifted off my body.

God knows how much pressure he has been under during this period. Although this foreign exchange earning is accompanied by huge profits, it is also accompanied by huge pressure.

Fortune and misfortune can be said to be just a matter of thought.

After taking a breath, He Zhenbang directly pulled Su Wenchen.

"Let's go, let's go to the city."

"I told them to wait and see me laugh! During this period of time, many people in the city think that our Lanshui County teamed up with your farm to make a fool of ourselves. Are they waiting to see us laugh?"

"I have to show them what it means to fire a blank shot!"

"Just looking at the quality, if this can't earn foreign exchange, then I'm afraid we won't have any leather to sell."

"Then we'll see who laughs at whom!"

Su Wenchen looked at He Zhenbang's anxious look and felt a little amused and helpless, but he also knew that He Zhenbang must have been under a lot of pressure during this period of time when he was struggling with the city.

Now that the pressure is finally over, it's natural that I will behave inappropriately.

But he still said it.

"Uncle He, why are you in such a hurry? There are still several skins in the back! Even if we go to the city, we have to take them all."

"This Moonlight Rabbit's skin also has two qualities."

"One is fed with two kinds of medicinal herbs and various supplementary materials, and the other is raised on ordinary grass and straw."

"We also need to see how big the difference is, so as to decide on the export plan and appropriate price."

He Zhenbang waved his hand.

"Okay, wait here! I'll call the city and notify them in advance."

"Also let them be mentally prepared in advance!"

"Ha ha!"

He said this and walked out of the workshop with a smile on his face.

Su Wenchen shook his head and looked at Jiang Li.

"Are you going to the city later?"

"I think as long as we see the real thing, there will be no problem in the city."

Jiang Li nodded, but still spoke.

"I won't go. I've been very nervous recently. I'm afraid something unexpected will happen here and ruin such good hides."

"Now that the quality is up to standard, I can go to sleep easily."

Su Wenchen looked at the tired cheeks and the faint dark circles under his eyes.

Obviously, this period of time is also very stressful, after all, I am the person in charge of the new factory after the integration.

If the tanning here fails, she will be the person most directly responsible.

Even if Su Wenchen knew, he couldn't provide much help in this regard.

Because if you want to make progress, you must have strong psychological qualities and the ability to withstand strong pressure.

Otherwise, even if you have connections, you can only find a leisurely job and do some work.

And those who can truly succeed have all been tempered.

Whether it is the ability to do things, the ability to withstand pressure, or the psychological quality and interpersonal background, every additional one of these will increase the upper limit. As for Jiang Li, in terms of doing things, he can actually give a lot of suggestions and help, allowing the other party to avoid many detours, not to mention the background.

Even if his father doesn't care, it is basically impossible for him to stand idly by when the critical moment comes!

The only thing you have to rely on is your mental quality and ability to withstand stress.

So when he saw Jiang Li's tired look, Su Wenchen said with some heartache.

"Then you can go and rest first! Leave the rest to me, just wait for my good news at home!"

Jiang Li also nodded.

"Well, I plan to take a few days off and sew some quilt covers for my wedding. We have submitted our marriage report, and I don't know how long it will take to get it approved."

Su Wenchen thought about it.

"I don't think the speed will be very fast. It's okay here. The staff structure is all local, and the city is easy to review."

"But since your father is involved, I'm afraid you'll have to communicate with Beijing City, which will definitely slow down the efficiency."

"By the way, have you told your father about our marriage report?"

Jiang Li shook her head and said angrily.

"No, I won't tell him if he doesn't write to me. He doesn't care about me, so why should I try to be a filial son and a good grandson?"

"Let the reviewer notify him!"

"Besides, my stepmother would probably like me to get married here so that I can stay here forever. So don't worry, my father will definitely not object!"

When Su Wenchen heard this, he smiled and shook his head.

"Okay, I won't interfere in your father-daughter affairs, but no matter what you choose, I will stand behind you."

Hearing Su Wenchen's words, Jiang Li was somewhat moved and hugged Su Wenchen's neck, sniffing the scent of Su Wenchen greedily.

"Achen, you are so nice!"

"Ever since I met you, I feel that it wasn't a bad thing for him to leave me at that time. Now even if you ask me to go back, I won't go back!"

Su Wenchen patted the other person on the back.

"Who can say for sure what will happen in the future?"

After all, he knew that reform and opening up would begin in ten years, and at that time the flow of people would gradually be eased.

If I really want to go back and take a look, it’s just a matter of taking a bus. Of course, it’s not easy to transfer my job to Beijing.

After a while, the noise in the polishing workshop gradually stopped.

Jiang Li quickly struggled to get out of Su Wenchen's arms and quickly straightened out the wrinkles on her body.

Xiao Paner, who is now also Jiang Li's secretary, came out with several flushed-faced masters.

"Director, Director Su, the six pieces of leather that were tanned have all been greased, polished, and finished."

Then, he followed a few masters and placed all the hand-polished leathers next to the piece of leather that Jiang Li had taken out in front of him.

On the huge long table, six moon-colored Rex rabbit fur skins were lined up in a row.

Although they are all the same breed of Yuehua rabbit, the three furs that have been fed with cultivated feed are obviously more eye-catching.

The old master who was leading the group looked at the fur in front of him and said with some emotion.

"I am able to tan such perfect leather, so I will not regret it even if the tradition ends with me."

The other people also nodded. Apparently, a few years ago, they thought that this craft would be lost to their generation.

In fact, when Jiang Li went to find them, they were reluctant to come out. After all, although their craftsmanship could not be burned like other things, it was also affected.

In the end, it was only after the commune acted as a guarantor that they were willing to come and work.

Now it seems that their choice was the right one. Such perfect leather is tanned by them, and they have lived up to the technology passed down from their ancestors.

Su Wenchen said directly.

"Master Tao, the craft will never be lost. In the future, the tannery will develop advanced chemical chrome tanning."

"Your old-fashioned manual vegetable tanning also needs to be developed, and this is not a conflict."

After all, Su Wenchen knew that even in later generations, high-end leather still advocated hand-tanning.

And it's not just leather, basically all high-end luxury goods are handmade with limited production capacity.

Because no matter how precious something is, once there are too many of them, it will become worthless.

For example, air is the most indispensable thing for the human body. You can survive for a few days without food or water, but you will die if you don’t breathe for a few minutes.

But because this thing is so common and there is so much of it, it is the least valuable thing.

If someone could really monopolize the air, he would definitely be the richest person in the world.

But the prerequisite is that he must be able to withstand the attacks of others.

Therefore, Su Wenchen planned to use the Yuehua rabbits raised from cultivated feed to target the high-end market. The products must be hand-vegetable tanned, emphasizing slow and careful work, and the price must be set high.

Then the ordinary Yuehua rabbit is mainly for the mid-range market, and normal chrome tanning is enough.

After all, the mid-range market mainly relies on volume, and if you still do it slowly and manually, the output will definitely not be able to keep up.

So Su Wenchen asked afterwards.

"By the way, Master Tao, what is our current monthly production capacity?"

After hearing Su Wenchen's words, the leader Master Tao thought for a moment and replied.

"At present, it usually takes about ten to fifteen days to tan a batch of sheets."

"But most of the time, it's in the soaking and drying stage, so it's not like we keep the same skin all the time."

"Besides, our rabbit skin is a light fur compared to cowhide, and it is much easier to handle. So with the eight tanning pools in the field now, it should be no problem to produce a thousand pieces a month."

"But we have to handle this kind of high-quality leather carefully at every step, so the speed is slowed down. If we go too fast, mistakes are likely to occur and the leather will be damaged."

"Otherwise, it's the same as the tanning of hare skins before. Two thousand pieces a month won't be a problem."

Su Wenchen shook his head.

"For this kind of handmade vegetable tanning, it is better not to pursue speed, but quality first."

"Even if we want to increase production in the future, we can just add more staff and tanning pools. We can't sacrifice quality for quantity."

"Otherwise, if there are serious quality problems with these exported products, it will not only affect the country's reputation, but people will also directly return the products."

Then Su Wenchen asked again.

"So what is your production capacity on the chrome tanning side?"

Hearing this, Master Tao shook his head.

"I don't know about that. I only know about handmade vegetable tanning."

After hearing Su Wenchen's words, it was Xiao Paner next to him who stood up and spoke.

"Director Su, at present, our chrome tanning workshop basically tans more than 200 pieces of leather every day. The main reason is not the production capacity limit, but the fact that your farm currently has more than 200 Rex rabbits slaughtered every day."

"And according to the production line we introduced initially, if there are enough raw materials, we can tan 2,000 hides a day."

Su Wenchen was a little surprised to hear what Xiao Paner said.

He had only told him the news at first, but he didn't expect that in such a short period of time, the other party not only entered the commune's factory, but also seemed to be highly valued by Ali.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have such a clear grasp of the data. After all, he told Ali about the other party's visit to him, so he could gain their trust.

Su Wenchen felt that Xiao Paner was quite capable, but he didn't pay much attention to her.

Su Wenchen felt relieved after hearing about this production capacity. After all, mid-range fur mainly depends on volume, and only in this way can a stable supply contract be reached.

However, the specific price of this moonlight-colored Rex rabbit fur will still depend on the Canton Fair. It will be higher than the purple-blue color.

Later on, they will gradually replace all the Rex rabbits in the farm with this moonlight color.

Thinking of this, Su Wenchen said directly.

"Okay, pack these samples and I'll take them to the city later."

soon.

When Su Wenchen walked to the door of the tannery with several packed pieces of leather, He Zhenbang was already waiting anxiously in the car.

See Su Wenchen come out.

"Why did it come out so late? After I made the call, Lao Zhai and Secretary Zhou heard that the samples were out, so they postponed their afternoon meetings."

"We also specially called people from the Municipal Foreign Trade Bureau and the Municipal Textile Import and Export Company to come with us."

"How is it? Are the leathers at the back still in good condition?"

"I'm telling you, let's not go through so much trouble that we can't even get past the first level!"

Su Wenchen opened the car door with a smile and put the leather wrapped in his hand into the car.

"Uncle He, don't worry!"

"Although our vegetable tanning technology cannot compare to chemical chrome tanning in terms of speed, slow work produces fine results, and there will definitely be no problem with quality."

"There will definitely be no problem with this part of the city."

Su Wenchen knew that the foreign exchange-earning city was one of the direct beneficiaries, because at this time, if you were developing industry, you basically couldn't get around foreign exchange.

After all, at that time, industrial technology was still very different from that outside, and if we wanted to develop, we could not do without foreign exchange.

In fact, the area where Su Wenchen is most unsure is the Foreign Trade Department.

After all, the two sides are not on the same level. If one side gets stuck, it will be very difficult to deal with.

Although he is confident in himself and the quality of Yuehua Rabbit's leather, sometimes people don't care about the quality and you don't have much to do.

He Zhenbang's jeep slowly drove towards the city.

Along the way, neither of them spoke.

Everyone has something on their mind.

He Zhenbang was thinking that although he thought the quality was very good, he was, after all, a rough guy who had not seen many things from abroad.

In fact, he had no idea whether this thing would be popular outside.

This time, the city not only called in the Foreign Trade Bureau, but also people from the import and export companies under the city's textile industry who often deal with foreigners.

Obviously, although the city is eager to earn foreign exchange, not everything will be reported to the higher authorities, so it naturally needs to be evaluated.

If the assessment fails, it will be difficult for their county this time.

Su Wenchen was thinking, what can he do if the problem is finally stuck at the Ministry of Foreign Trade?

I thought about it for a long time.

Su Wenchen discovered that it seemed that only Ali's father could talk to them.

After all, the Ministry of Railways is actually superior in all respects, because all kinds of foreign trade transportation need to rely on railways, so it can have a say anyway.

Of course, Su Wenchen would not place his hopes in such a place. After things were over in the city, he still had to go to the province to find out the truth.

As the jeep drove into the city.

Su Wenchen clearly found that the city was much more peaceful this year than last year.

Perhaps because all the young educated youth had gone to the countryside, Su Wenchen could clearly feel that the atmosphere in the city had gradually begun to settle down.

Most of the remaining people have families to support, work all day, and don’t have the energy to run around all day.

(End of this chapter)