Hong Kong Island: From a small stall to a global supplier

Both sides only briefly mentioned this underground group, describing them as a bunch of rats living in the gutter. Although they were mostly connected to upper-middle-class interest groups in Bangkok, they were ultimately not respectable figures.

Once there's a need, they're discarded without a second thought. There are too many rats at the bottom, and new replacements will soon appear, so nobody cares.

Besides, this kind of shady business can only be hidden in the shadows. If the people who do bad things are some insignificant little people, then they will certainly be met with a thunderous blow, letting them feel the cruelty of society.

But not now!
Then we can only endure it for now and wait for things to calm down.

After the banquet, Ganzha personally saw Wang Yaotang off. On the way back, Ajie and Aji were still marveling at how they had attended so many banquets, but this was the first time they had ever experienced such a high-profile event. It was a very novel experience.

"That's why I brought you to Bangkok." Back at the hotel, after setting out tea, Wang Yaotang said with a smile to Aji and Ajie.

"Huh? Aren't you here to take care of those petty scoundrels?" Ah Jie looked surprised, remembering that he himself had requested to come this time.

“It’s not impossible for you to go if you want to, but what kind of status do you have? A billionaire, and you’re still fighting and killing? Can’t you grow up a bit?” Wang Yaotang scolded him irritably.

“Uh…” Ah Jie touched his nose and muttered to himself, “When you were a billionaire, you still went out to sea and fought in tournaments.”

Seeing Wang Yaotang raise his hand, A-Jie quickly dodged, saying, "I didn't say anything."

He raised his hand, picked up the teacup, and drank it all in one gulp, then chuckled awkwardly.

“Our foundation was once the ‘Shengyi’ organization, comprised of over a thousand brothers who dared to fight and struggle, and thousands of low-level thugs who made a living off them. As for me, I was responsible for the overall direction and enjoyed the spotlight,” Wang Yaotang said with some emotion.

“You’re under the most pressure and in the most danger, we all know that,” Aji said with a smile.

Wang Yaotang smiled and said, "Four-Eyes and Ah Wei are in charge of the legitimate business, which takes a lot of hard work."

“You two hide behind the scenes, dealing with the lowest of the low all day long, supporting the foundation of our brothers in the mud. I feel a little guilty about that.”

Ah Jie turned his head away, clenched his teeth, and his voice trembled slightly as he spoke, "Wow, Yao-ge, does this have to be so sentimental? Are we making a movie?"

Ah Ji hurriedly picked up his teacup and drank it all in one gulp. "I feel great. All the company's documents and reports are a headache to look at. It's best to ignore them."

“Yeah, history, politics, reading newspapers, foreign languages, bro, I became a gangster because I couldn’t learn them. Now that I’m a gang leader, I still have to learn all this stuff. What the hell did I do as a gangster for?” Ah Jie said with a pained expression.

“Just looking at those things makes me dizzy, nauseous, and uncomfortable all over. I feel like I have a disease, a serious reading disorder. Can’t we just stop doing this?”

"Just increase the study time!" Wang Yaotang sneered.

"Oh no!!" Ah Jie clutched his head, collapsing onto the sofa with a look of utter despair.

A real man never sheds a tear!
Wang Yaotang took over the conversation with a laugh, picked up his teacup, took another sip, and said, "With the three core strengths of 'stone,' 'dock,' and 'maritime strike,' we have finally established a firm foothold in Hong Kong and built a solid foundation. Therefore, the importance of 'Sheng Yi' is gradually decreasing. I can't let you continue to waste time on it. Besides, developing the Southeast Asian market won't be easy, and we'll need the two of you to do the work."

“I can’t stay in Bangkok forever. If no one is in charge here, it means we don’t value this place enough. If you don’t value it, how can others value it? How can the local forces value it?”

The two nodded, understanding Wang Yaotang's meaning. They would be stationed in Southeast Asia as pioneers.

Neither of them expressed any dissatisfaction.

In the Hong Kong underworld, Sing Yee is said to be the weakest of the four, with the smallest territory, but in reality, it has the strongest manpower, financial resources, fighting power, and background. It can be said that even if the other three were tied together, they would not be enough to defeat it.

The reason why he did not continue to expand was entirely because Wang Yaotang looked down on the 'pornography, gambling and drugs' industry and did not want to get involved in trouble. This can be seen from his sweeping up of the water houses.

The three families were aware of this, so from the moment Wang Yaotang's opponents became Lü Zhihe and Li Xiangjiao, the three families warned their subordinates that whoever had a conflict with Shengyi should deal with it themselves.

Without the backing of a powerful figure, who among the smaller Karamis would dare to step in?

Yao-ge's RPG teaches them how to do things.

Without rivals, Ah-Ji and Ah-Jie have been hearing nothing but flattery and praise for the past few months. They also have far fewer things to deal with, and they're bored out of their minds.

It's really a pain in the ass. Ah Jie has Hui Yinghong, Chen Fusheng, Huang Manning, Liu Hongfang, and a pair of twin sisters around him. Six people are essentially juice-making him. His body simply can't handle it.

"What do you expect us to do? You don't mean to oversee the expansion of Shining Star or the construction of a port, do you? Are you trying to kill me?!" A-Jie exclaimed in alarm.

“These are naturally handled by professional managers,” Wang Yaotang said with a smile.

"Phew, thank goodness." Ah Jie seemed to have come back to life.

Wang Yaotang said with a cold laugh, "However, as the person in charge, it would be too embarrassing if your subordinates couldn't understand your reports. It would also make them have ulterior motives, which would be detrimental to development. Therefore, the pace of learning needs to be accelerated!"

Ah Jie's eyes widened, and he collapsed onto the sofa, convulsing. "I'm dead!"

Ah-Ji wasn't being silly, but his expression was still quite distorted.

Seeing the two of them looking utterly hopeless, Wang Yaotang burst into laughter.

After a few jokes, the topic was brought back, and Wang Yaotang said, "Your main work is similar to what you did in Hong Kong. First, you need to set up the Sheng Yi sign."

"Huh? We've already gotten the mayor of Bangkok to apologize to us and can speak directly with the king, so why bother with this?" Aji asked, puzzled.

“You can only go far by walking on two legs. In the world, only the administrative power in the north can reach the grassroots level. Other countries cannot do this, so this expansion cannot be one-way,” Wang Yaotang explained.

There are two paths to market expansion. One is the expansion of 'Sheng Yi', which is based on 'Sheng Yi' and relies on the extensive Chinese community in Southeast Asia to take root at the grassroots level, unite the majority, and bring more people into its ranks.

Without sufficient public support, a commercial enterprise is just a castle in the air, very unstable.

Of course, people also need to eat. Simply chanting slogans and making empty promises is useless. To achieve unity, we need a large enough business scale. Therefore, we also need to develop a 'nightclub' system that can provide a lot of jobs.

Basically, it's a repeat of Hong Kong's old path, only now they have more cards to play, developing on multiple fronts, so the pace will be much faster. After explaining things to the two brothers, I took a short nap. Around 3 o'clock, Wei Tao knocked on the door, "Brother Yao, I have an appointment with Mr. Chen Ziqian this afternoon, we're leaving soon."

"Ah."

……

Chen Ziqian is around 50 years old. He has some gray hair, but not much. Wearing a polo shirt, jeans, and slicked-back hair, he looks like he's around 40. He looks very energetic.

After getting out of the car, exchanging pleasantries and introducing their companions, Chen Ziqian led the three Wang brothers on a tour of their family estate.

Unlike Hong Kong, where the area is small and so-called luxury homes focus on the building itself, often being three or four stories high, large families in Thailand have a long history and large estates. They don't pursue the utilization of space, but rather emphasize the overall style. The estate covers an area of ​​more than 10 acres and is designed in the style of Ming and Qing dynasty gardens. It is both antique and modern, which made Wang Yaotang quite envious.

After touring the manor, the last stop was the manor's scenic lake. The long wooden corridor and the tea room surrounded by water were quiet and elegant, with a dedicated tea master to serve you. In a corner, a musician dressed in ancient costume was tuning his zither, giving Wang Yaotang the feeling of traveling back to ancient times.

Damn, these old money guys really know how to enjoy life!

Regardless of whether Chen Ziqian was deliberately showing off, Wang Yaotang did feel that he was being overshadowed in terms of presence. Just look at A-Jie and A-Ji; the two of them were a little reserved, with the feeling of a rough and uncouth man feeling ashamed after meeting a high-ranking official or noble family. Yet, they couldn't find any fault with them and even had to thank the host for their thoughtful hospitality.

As Chinese people, they don't usually jump straight into the main topic. They talked about Hong Kong and Southeast Asian Chinese, about how their ancestors struggled to make a living in Thailand a hundred years ago, about how Chinese people help each other, and about the current situation of their motherland. Fortunately, Wang Yaotang was a spirit from a later era who had experienced the information explosion. No matter how Chen Ziqian rambled on, he could keep up and speak meaningfully, which made Chen Ziqian look at him with new respect.

This is not to say that Chen Ziqian looked down on Wang Yaotang in the past, and that he really thought that this kind of rambling communication style passed down from his ancestors was meaningless small talk.

The West's simple and direct communication is praised by many media outlets as efficient and regarded as a golden rule by many. However, the reality is that even in Western families with aristocratic titles or long-standing traditions, people still engage in small talk before discussing anything else, such as the weather, horse racing, hunting, wine, and cigars.

In academia, this is called 'high-context culture', which aims to 'establish emotional connections', 'create a safe atmosphere', and 'observe the other party's state'.

To put it bluntly, this kind of casual conversation can reveal a person's family background, education, personality, political leanings, and other information, setting the tone for the subsequent conversation.

Often, the outcome of negotiations is already determined before they even begin.

Family background, social standing, and education determine a person's level of knowledge. If Wang Yaotang lacked knowledge, then it's no wonder that Chen Ziqian took the initiative and gained more advantages.

But the result was beyond his expectations. Chen Ziqian couldn't understand it. The information clearly showed that this kid was a gangster who dropped out of junior high school before the age of 20. In recent years, he had focused his energy on fighting and business. If business could be done with some intuition and luck, where did he get this knowledge?

With such a brain, how could someone fail to study well and drop out of school?
That's just unreasonable of him!
He couldn't figure it out, but Chen Ziqian knew he had to lower his expectations further... His family had been in the spinning and fabric business for a century, with channels and connections in Southeast Asia. He could use these advantages to persuade Wang Yaotang to cooperate with Giordano and Hongdou Apparel, thereby entering the garment manufacturing industry, breaking the blockade of other families, and building a complete industrial chain.

It seems there's no hope now!
Of course, we should still give it a try, just in case Wang Yaotang does something foolish.

When discussing the development of the textile industry in China and then the textile industry in Thailand, Chen Ziqian said with a smile, "Mr. Wang's move to expand into the Southeast Asian market is a good one. Southeast Asia has a large enough population and the garment industry has broad prospects. For example, our Chen family has always been involved in spinning and fabric production, and we are preparing to enter the garment industry. We invited Mr. Wang here today to discuss cooperation."

"Oh? How does Mr. Chen plan to cooperate?" Wang Yaotang asked with great interest.

"Our Chen family has been in business for a century and has connections with Chinese family groups in Southeast Asian countries. We can use this channel to greatly accelerate the promotion of Mr. Wang's brand. Moreover, Hong Kong has developed rapidly in recent years, and the rapid increase in per capita income has led to increasingly higher labor costs. Mr. Wang can move some of his production capacity to Thailand in the future, which can greatly reduce costs."

“Cooperation and promotion is possible,” Wang Yaotang agreed with a smile. “I came to Southeast Asia to communicate and exchange ideas with the Chinese communities here and seek cooperation. As for the garment processing issue, I have other plans.”

"Oh, can you tell me what the plan is?" Chen Ziqian's heart skipped a beat; he was in trouble.

"Most of Hongdou's products are produced in Shenzhen. I plan to move Giordano's clothing production to the Pearl River Delta in the future."

"Leaving aside the potential for total annihilation due to policy risks, as far as I know, the Pearl River Delta region can't even maintain its power supply, can it?" Chen Ziqian frowned and said, "With insufficient power supply, they can't possibly still be using hand-operated sewing machines, can they?"

“There is indeed a shortage of electricity, but as Old Chen said, we need to use people. Electricity costs money, but manpower costs less. It only consumes half a bowl of rice per hour, which is clean and hygienic.” Wang Yaotang laughed.

"Huh?" This was the first time Chen Ziqian had heard someone speak like that, and his expression was somewhat strange. "What about labor costs?"

"It's very low, around 50 RMB per month, which is only 250 Thai Baht at the current exchange rate. What are the labor costs like in Thailand?"

Chen Ziqian frowned. There was no way to hide this. "Women textile workers in Chiang Mai earn around 600 a month, while in Bangkok it's 800."

“Exactly, and that doesn’t even take into account the difference in the quality of the workers.” Wang Yaotang smiled. “Back home, the working class is the master of the country, and they all have a strong sense of ownership. They work 10-12 hours a day. But I’ve heard from the people below that Thai workers are very difficult to manage. They don’t want to work overtime, they maliciously demand money, and they strike at the drop of a hat, demanding higher wages. They’re a bunch of troublemakers!”

Chen Ziqian's lips twitched incessantly. Is this how you run the household?
As if seeing through Chen Ziqian's thoughts, Wang Yaotang said with a smile, "Of course, being in charge of a household requires sacrifices. Just like a man, once you have a family, you have to work hard, take on the responsibilities of the family, and support your wife and children without complaint."

Chen Ziqian: Good, good, good, what a great way to take charge!
There's nothing to say!

“The benefits don’t stop there.” Wang Yaotang seemed oblivious to Chen Ziqian’s darkening expression. “It’s a vast and resource-rich country with a large population, no joke. It has a complete industrial chain, and is self-sufficient in cotton and chemical fibers, without relying on imports and with stable and cheap prices. Compared to that, Thailand really doesn’t have any advantages. Mr. Chen could consider a reasonable allocation of assets. I agree with what you just said about complementary resources, and we can go further and do deeper cooperation.”

"How do we cooperate?" Chen Ziqian asked instinctively.

"With the share swap, Mr. Chen will take the equipment and technology north to the Pearl River Delta to build a complete industrial chain from spinning, weaving, garment making, and brand sales, maximizing profits and conquering the entire Southeast Asian market!" Wang Yaotang said with a wave of his hand, full of vigor.

Chen Ziqian was dumbfounded. No, that's what I should be saying!
Wang Yaotang got more and more excited as he spoke, not giving Chen Ziqian a chance to refute him at all. "Old Chen, the conditions in the north are not just like that. There are three tax reductions and three tax exemptions, and the tax benefits are extremely favorable. Moreover, the hard work and endurance of us Chinese are unmatched by the Thais. In terms of personnel quality, public security, transportation conditions, and financial stability, Thailand is far inferior to China in all aspects. Thailand's textile industry has no future."

"Let me be frank with you. My company has conducted a comprehensive investigation in Thailand. Our investments here will mainly focus on three areas: 'audio-visual product chain stores,' 'nightclubs,' and 'harbour terminals.' I know that Thailand's textile industry currently accounts for the largest share of exports, but I won't be investing here because there are better options." As he spoke, Wang Yaotang shook his head and waved his hand dismissively. "No future, doomed, beyond saving!"

Chen Ziqian felt flustered and dizzy as he listened. The Chen family had been rooted in Thailand for a century, and during the Republic of China era, they supplied cloth to the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. During the War of Resistance against Japan, their supply increased several times over, and they were quite famous in the textile industry throughout Southeast Asia. But now they were sentenced to death!
I want to refute it, but I don't know where to begin.

As Chinese who left Southeast Asia a century ago, they all firmly believed that once the country was unified, it would surely soar to new heights. During the War of Resistance against Japan, Southeast Asian Chinese were the most active in donating money and supplies, partly out of patriotism and partly to gamble on the opportunity to join the cause.

Of course, we won't go into the latter part, but whether Chinese people are useful or not, those who have been in Southeast Asia know perfectly well!

Who the hell would hire a local if they could hire a Chinese person?!
There are objective reasons why wealth in Southeast Asian countries is controlled by Chinese people; they are simply incomparable in terms of race!
My mind is a mess. The more I think about it, the more I believe Wang Yaotang makes sense, and the more I feel that the Thai textile industry lacks a foundation...

But I invited you here not so you could take me away! (End of Chapter)