1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 193 Sowing
Chen Jiazhi's confidence is also related to a recent news report he saw on television: two TVB hosts from Hong Kong came to a vegetable market in Panyu that supplies vegetables to Hong Kong for an interview.

The market covers an area of ​​1400 mu (approximately 93 hectares) and has 500 workers, producing 1400 tons of vegetables.

This production volume is very low!

Of course, some factors also play a role, such as planting rice for half a year, the long autumn and winter growing season, and restrictions on the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

However, even if these factors are excluded, if he only grows two crops of vegetables a year, the yield per crop is only 700 tons, or 1000 jin per mu.

In contrast, Chen Jiazhi's lowest-yielding crop of Chinese cabbage in the past four months still yielded 1200 jin per mu!
Under normal circumstances, the yield of Chinese cabbage per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.067 hectares) fluctuates between 1800 and 2800 jin (a Chinese unit of weight, approximately 0.5 catties).

The production volume varies greatly.

This is one of the sources of his confidence.

I can't help but be confident!

If in future generations the yield of a single crop of Chinese cabbage is less than a thousand catties per mu, the crops will be uprooted and started over before the harvest can even begin.

This is a very common phenomenon in today's large vegetable markets.

After agreeing on the investment, Chen Jiazhi brought the money and officially signed the agreement the next morning, becoming one of the shareholders of Jiangxin Vegetable Market.

5% shareholding.

In addition, as the most important member of the management team, Chen Jiazhi is also entitled to profit sharing. According to the agreement, he can receive up to 25% of the net profit as profit sharing.

The prerequisite is that the annual net profit exceeds 500 million yuan.

This means that the Jiangxin vegetable market has 600 mu of land, and the net profit per mu per year must be at least 8000 yuan!
Both Xu Wenxiang and Huang Jianyuan, along with other shareholders, believed that this was an impossible task.

None of them paid attention to the profit-sharing conditions that Chen Jiazhi had requested, and they all agreed to the conditions.

If the net profit reaches 500 million yuan, why not give him a 25% dividend?

The others didn't take it seriously, but Chen Jiazhi made it his goal.

This is quite a challenge for him as well.

Managing a 600-mu (approximately 40 hectares) vegetable market is much more difficult than managing his 30-50 mu (approximately 2.5-3 hectares) vegetable fields.

After the agreement was signed at the Spruce Hotel, accountant Xu Yao went to handle the payment matters, while Chen Jiazhi went to the Spruce Purchasing Department and found manager Liu Xiaoying.

"Manager Liu, it's really not easy to get in touch with you."

Liu Xiaoying asked, "What does Director Chen want with me?"

"Get the car."

"What car?"

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "Manager Liu, there is a light truck and a motorcycle on the market's supplies list. I heard that they have been borrowed by the purchasing department. I've come to retrieve them."

"Don't you have a car?"

“Private cars are not for public use,” Chen Jiazhi said. “I didn’t drive here today either, and I don’t know how to get back.”

Liu Xiaoying frowned and pondered, "This is really unfortunate, both cars are out."

"Really? Then I'll have to go find Ms. Xu and ask her to take me home," Chen Jiazhi chuckled, turning to leave.

"Wait a minute, let me ask again."

Feeling that she was being difficult to deal with, Liu Xiaoying went to ask around and ended up bringing a man with her.

"The light truck is in the parking lot, easy to find, it's a white Qingling Isuzu with double seats. The motorcycle isn't here today, come get it next time." The man handed the keys to Chen Jiazhi with great displeasure: "Keep it safe, I don't want to come back in two or three months to get the car when it's broken."

"Hmm?" Chen Jiazhi asked, puzzled.

The man snorted and said disdainfully, "You really think you're a god? Even a god couldn't save that mess at Jiangxin Market. The fact that you've managed to hold on for two or three months is already a favor!"

"Hehe, what's your name?"

"What, you want to interfere in the hotel's affairs? So what if I tell you? I'm not changing my name, He Jun!" He Jun turned his head and spat, "What good is good looks if you're just some country bumpkin?"

Chen Jiazhi seemed less upset now, as no one had praised his good looks for a while.

However, he still remembered He Jun.

Within the circle centered around the Spruce Hotel, there must be quite a few people like He Jun who don't have a high opinion of him.

Even Liu Xiaoying, whom he had met a few times, seemed hostile.

After walking around the parking lot, Chen Jiazhi found a white Qingling Isuzu light truck, a joint venture vehicle, which cost at least 20 yuan without a license plate.

Seeing this car, Chen Jiazhi felt even more that Jiangxin Vegetable Market's losses were well-deserved; the money wasn't spent wisely!
However, the valuation of Jiangxin Vegetable Market at 100 million yuan is actually a bit of an undervaluation.

The market paid five years' rent upfront, and there are still four years left on the lease, which is worth 700,000 yuan.

A light truck, an office building and warehouse, a motorcycle, and intangible assets such as ditch repairs.
It's definitely more than a million yuan.

Tang Xiao and the other two shareholders who withdrew all suffered huge losses and were forced to exit, even though it was their own choice, because they were not optimistic about the future of the market.
After checking the car and confirming that everything was in order, Chen Jiazhi drove off.

There's a reason why it's expensive. This car is much easier to drive than his Yuejin, with less noise and slightly more power, but it still doesn't have air conditioning, so you can only open the windows to let in natural air.

Chen Jiazhi did not return to Jiangxin Market, but went to Dongxiang Market instead. It was noon when he got home.

When he got off the bus, a large crowd had already gathered.

Yi Long called out, "Uncle, why are you driving a white car back?"

"From Jiangxin Market," Chen Jiazhi asked Li Xiu, "Is there any food left?"

Li Xiu handed him a towel and said, "Go wet it and wipe yourself down first. I'll cook you a bowl of noodles."

While Chen Jiazhi was wiping himself down, he chatted with the people in the market.

He came back several times during this period, but each time it was at night, and he would go to Jiangxin Market early the next morning.

They learned about the situation in the fields through Li Xiu.

They have been working for seven days, and during that time they bought two truckloads of fermented peanut husks and spread them all over 50 acres of land.

The first 30 mu of land were tilled with a rotary tiller, and a lot of land was leveled.

However, the seeds have not yet been sown.

When he returned, besides seeing Li Xiu and the children, he mainly talked to Ao Dehai about the planting plan.

The canteen was all set up. After chatting for a bit, the food workers all went back to the canteen to watch TV.

Ao Dehai followed Chen Jiazhi into the house with a notebook in his hand.

Chen Jiazhi reminded them, "Watching TV is fine, but we also need to make sure they get enough rest." Ao Dehai said, "Yes, the TV is turned off at set times every noon and evening, so we don't let them watch too much."

"That's fine, let me see the notebook."

Ao Dehai had also received some schooling, and his handwriting was considered quite good among vegetable farmers. His notebook contained his daily work log.

Everything was recorded that day, including what was done, how much work was done, the completion rate, and how many materials were used.

This was something Chen Jiazhi forced him to memorize.

Not only him, but the five-person team at Jiangxin Market was also required to keep daily records.

Because they are now in a managerial role, most of the time they don't have to do the work themselves; what they need to do is coordinate and manage.

Similarly, Chen Jiazhi didn't let Li Xiu do any more work, but instead put her in charge of the finances, warehouse, and personnel.
This made her feel much more relaxed. If her son weren't still so young, she would have liked to follow Chen Jiazhi around every day.

After reviewing the work logs from the past few days, Chen Jiazhi began to discuss the next planting plan.

“从明天开始，11~15号每天各播种2亩菜心、芥兰，16-22号每天播种4亩菜心。”

Ao Dehai was taking notes, but after he finished writing, he didn't hear the next sentence. Then he realized that there was no more space!
The sowing was completed in about ten days!

Ao Dehai asked in surprise, "Isn't it too concentrated?"

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "Let's take a gamble on the market. This way, management won't be complicated. It's very simple and straightforward, isn't it?"

Ao Dehai nodded. This was indeed simple and clear, without having to consider varieties and crop rotation planning; it was all about production management.

Aside from the fact that the work is more concentrated, busier, and more tiring, there are no downsides in terms of production management.

"What about selling vegetables? Won't it be difficult to sell vegetables if the market is too concentrated?"

"No, you don't need to worry about selling vegetables. You just need to focus on how to grow the vegetables well and make them even better. Leave the selling to me. How about that? Any questions?"

"Gone."

"And then there are production management issues."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "You need to memorize the pests and diseases I told you about, as well as the rotation of medicines. You need to watch when the medicine is being prepared."

"What supplies do we need? Please calculate them again around noon and give me a list. If it's not enough, we'll have to go buy more."

Just then, Li Xiu brought over the noodles, and Ao Dehai went back into the house to do his calculations.

Chen Jiazhi ate his noodles and chatted with Li Xiu for a while.

His parents sent him another message.

The rice harvest at my hometown is done, and the old sow has been sold. We're preparing to head to Huacheng, and we expect to arrive at Huacheng Railway Station on the 16th.

Chen Jiazhi even left his father the phone number of the vegetable market, telling him to call him again before getting on the bus when he arrived in Chengdu.

We also need to prepare accommodations here.

After discussing it for a while, the son started crying again, and Li Xiu quickly went to breastfeed him.

Chen Jiazhi washed the dishes and then chatted with his second sister and Yi Long for a while.

With no vegetables available for sale these days, Yi Long is probably the most carefree one.

With enough time, money, and a bicycle, I've explored all the attractions in the surrounding area.

My second sister works at the market, which is less tiring than before. She watches TV with great interest and often gets distracted while chatting with Chen Jiazhi.

They're all doing quite well.

...

After his afternoon nap, Chen Jiazhi adjusted the list of supplies that Ao Dehai had compiled, and then drove to Hongzhong's shop.

Hong Zhong was overjoyed and kept praising Chen Jiazhi's car. When he learned that it wasn't his car, he blushed deeply.

"Mr. Chen, how long has it been since you last patronized my business?"

"So today I'm giving you a big order." Chen Jiazhi took out a detailed list. "Take a look and give me a price."

After a quick glance, Hong Zhong began to calculate with great delight.

"The total is 15130 yuan. Let's round it down to 15000 yuan."

"Row."

Chen Jiazhi didn't try to bargain anymore; the price was about what he expected, so the family had about two thousand yuan in cash.

But the Dongxiang vegetable market shouldn't have any major expenses going forward.

Around four o'clock, Chen Jiazhi drove to Jiangxin Market, a journey that took nearly an hour.

The situation at the Dongxiang vegetable market is better than expected.

After several periods of intense labor, these workers showed significant improvement and became highly efficient.

According to his assessment, one vegetable worker at Dongxiang Market is equivalent to at least three vegetable workers at Jiangxin Market.

The core difference lies in the salary system.

He raised the daily wage for vegetable workers at Jiangxin Market to 10 yuan, paying them only for the day they worked, with no commission or bonuses.

The basic wage at Dongxiang Vegetable Market is 12 yuan per day, plus commission and bonuses.

Secondly, the vegetable workers at Dongxiang Market have undergone multiple training sessions and intensive practical training, so it's normal for there to be such a difference.

Therefore, when Chen Jiazhi arrived at Jiangxin Market and saw the vegetable workers who liked to work in groups, he was not angry.

Instead, they went to see the leveled vegetable fields, with standard rectangular beds, horizontal ridges, and interconnected ditches.

In order to open this ditch, he even raised the wages of the ditch workers to 15 yuan per day, which misled the former shareholders, Tang Xiao and others.

In reality, manually digging ditches is very hard work; it can be said to be the most physically demanding task in clearing vegetable fields.

It can only be said that Tang Xiao is too inexperienced.

The prepared vegetable fields cover about 30 to 40 acres, and the next step is to sow the seeds.

Just like the rush to buy bok choy at Dongxiang Market, Jiangxin Market also needs to grab a batch of bok choy and kale, along with some water spinach, Shanghai bok choy, and baby bok choy.

They are targeting the market trend that may occur in October.

(End of this chapter)