1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 255 Dividends
Stacks of banknotes were neatly arranged on the table, creating a rather impressive sight.

Chen Jiazhi admired the contents for a moment, then took out two iron boxes from a hidden compartment under the bed. Inside, they were also neatly arranged banknotes of different denominations.

I haven't deposited any money recently; it's all at home. I did a rough count, and I have about 15 yuan in cash.

Chen Jiazhi doesn't plan to deposit money in the bank for the time being, as there are many expenses to be made before and after the New Year.

He also plans to spend the money in the bank as soon as possible, because the currency is depreciating too much now, and it's a waste to keep it in the bank.

Li Xiu pushed open the door and walked in, asking, "Jiazhi, have you finished counting? How much money did you make this morning?"

"More than 19400 pieces."

Chen Jiazhi closed the metal box, then put it in the compartment under the bed, and prepared to leave.

Li Xiu asked in surprise, "I heard you hand over your work to Brother Yi just now. Aren't you going to stay home and get some sleep?"

"I suddenly remembered something I need to take care of," Chen Jiazhi said with a smile. "You should just stay home and rest; don't go to work today."

"What's the matter that's so urgent?"

After staying up all night, Li Xiucai realized that selling vegetables was also very hard work. At first, he was excited and it was okay, but later he got more and more sleepy and his eyelids could hardly stay open.

Chen Jiazhi said, "The chili seeds haven't been decided yet. I need to go to the office to make a call. Also, I need to give Xu Wenxiang the funding plan so we can start distributing profits sooner..."

"Busy, busy, all you ever do is busy," Li Xiu muttered discontentedly. "What if your health can't handle it? All that work will have been for nothing!"

"I know it well."

After saying a few words, Chen Jiazhi went downstairs, rode his bicycle out, and Peng Guozhen and Chen Shaochang asked him a couple of questions from downstairs, but in the end, they could only watch him leave.

"Sigh, Jiazhi is pushing himself too hard these days."

“Making money can be addictive!” Peng Guozhen looked up at the building: “Li Xiu, you should also try to persuade Jiazhi.”

"I tried to persuade them, but I couldn't."

Lying in bed, reflecting on the night's events, Li Xiu suddenly felt that all those days working at the Jiangxin vegetable market had been a complete waste of time.

Jiazhi has goals and plans, so I should be the one to help him.

Downstairs, Peng Guozhen and Chen Shaochang shook their heads at each other. They used to worry that their son was too lazy, but now they worry that he is too hardworking.

"Where are you going?"

Peng Guozhen, carrying her grandson, came to the chicken coop. "I'm thinking of killing an old hen today and making some chicken soup for Jiazhi to nourish him."

Upon hearing this, Chen Shaochang also got up and walked over, saying, "I think it's a good idea."

Li Cai had just changed his clothes and was about to leave on his bicycle when he overheard the two men's plan to kill the chickens. He glanced at the chicken coop and saw that the chickens were almost all gone.

After arriving at the market, Chen Jiazhi didn't rush back to his office. Since he was already there, he decided to take a walk around the fields first.

As dawn broke, white mist still lingered over the vegetable fields.

After riding for a while, outside the second group of the northern section, Chen Jiazhi encountered Yi Dinggan and Qi Yongfeng directing traffic by the roadside.

"Jiazhi, didn't I tell you to go to sleep? Why are you out again?" Yi Dinggan said with dissatisfaction, "Don't you trust me?"

Chen Jiazhi took out cigarettes and offered them to the two men, then shook his head: "I don't want to come out yet, but I still have a lot of things to deal with in the office. You two go ahead and do your work, I'll take another look around."

He glanced at the workers in the field, who were preparing the seedbeds. He had already emphasized what needed to be emphasized, so he didn't say anything more.

The rows of snow bean trellises were covered with cold dew, the ditches reflected the blue sky, sparrows flew away in fright from the empty vegetable fields, and the river surface shimmered with silver light.

After inspecting the fields, it felt like nothing had been inspected at all.

If one were to deliberately nitpick, one could certainly find problems, but he didn't want to disturb the beautiful scenery or ruin the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere of work today.

Perhaps because they had just enjoyed a bountiful harvest and the Lunar New Year was just around the corner, the vegetable workers, who were looking forward to their wages and bonuses, were especially excited today.

Even shrouded in mist, he could often hear laughter and cheerful voices, and Jiangxin Market was moving towards becoming the market he envisioned.

"Good morning, Manager!"

As soon as he went upstairs, he ran into Xu Yao and Huang Chuan. Chen Jiazhi nodded slightly and went into his office. Li Cai was also there.

"Why are you here instead of sleeping?"

"Reading a book," Li Cai waved the magazine in his hand. "I want to learn and improve!"

"Uh..." Chen Jiazhi looked at the steamed dumplings on the table and asked, "Where did they come from?"

Li Cai gestured towards the corridor and said, "It was delivered from the office next door, want some?"

Next door, that's most likely Xu Yao.

Chen Jiazhi said in a low voice, "If you're going to talk, talk properly. Don't mess around. Or just go back to sleep."

Li Cai was somewhat dismissive: "I'm here to learn."

“If you want to learn, take the book back and read it.” Chen Jiazhi said seriously, “Li Cai, I’ll emphasize again, I don’t need you to sacrifice your looks anymore. I know what kind of person you are.”

Li Cai exclaimed in astonishment, "Brother Chen, could you please not be so blunt?!"

"I'm afraid you're pretending to be stupid." Chen Jiazhi waved his hand and said, "Go back, I have to go now."

Li Cai stood up, and Chen Jiazhi said again, "Take the books with you, bring several. You and Zhengxu can read them whenever you have time. These books sometimes introduce the vegetable situation in different regions and cities, so you can learn more." Li Cai asked curiously, "Brother Chen, can we go to other cities in the future?"

"Keep up the good work, and that day will come sooner or later," Chen Jiazhi said with a smile. "We'll strive to sell our vegetables in cities big and small all over the country in the future."

"Brother Chen, are you really that ambitious?" Li Cai was surprised. Just the thought of Huacheng alone made him feel that it was a huge ambition.

"Stop talking nonsense and hurry back. I have important business to attend to." He saw that Huang Chuan was already waiting at the door.

After Li Cai left, Huang Chuan came in with an organic fertilizer purchase order; it was from the same manufacturer as last time.

Chen Jiazhi confirmed that there were no problems and signed the document, then instructed the manufacturer to ship the goods.

Following closely behind, Xu Yao, Tong Gang, and others came to report on their work. It wasn't until after nine o'clock that Chen Jiazhi finally dialed the phone number left on [China Vegetables].

After the call connected, he stated his purpose and inquired about the sales channels of Zhongjiao No. 5 in Huacheng, successfully obtaining their contact information.

The promotion and sales of Zhongjiao No. 5 are handled by the Science and Technology Development and Consulting Service Department under the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

There are managers in charge of each region, and the one in charge of the South China region is a man named Luo Yi.

Chen Jiazhi dialed the number several more times before someone answered.

After learning about the situation, Luo Yi was slightly surprised: "If you buy Zhongjiao No. 5 now, when do you plan to plant it?"

Chen Jiazhi replied, "We'll start sowing and seedling cultivation right away, so time is still quite tight. Manager Luo, do you have any sales outlets in Huacheng?"

“Sowing now seems a bit inappropriate in terms of timing; summer planting is riskier.” Luo Yi hesitated for a moment, not answering his question directly.

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "Manager Luo, I understand the risks involved, and the production plan is ready. Now all we need are the seeds. Please help me out."

Luo Yi thought for a moment and then asked, "Where did you learn about Zhongjiao No. 5? We mainly promote it in Zhanjiang!"

Chen Jiazhi: "I saw it in the magazine 'China Vegetables,' which said that the trials in Wuchuan and Suixi went quite well."

"The sowing and seedling cultivation time in Wuchuan and Suixi is two or three months earlier." Luo Yi recalled and reminded, "Moreover, articles are usually embellished a bit when published, and Zhongjiao No. 5 performs very well in Guangdong during the winter and spring seasons."

However, in summer, due to high temperatures and heavy rainfall, bacterial wilt, blight, and flower and fruit drop are also quite serious.

"Why don't you reconsider? After all, it covers such a large area."

Chen Jiazhi felt that this person was quite conscientious. "No need, Manager Luo. I understand the risks you mentioned and am prepared to take them."

"Alright then, you're lucky, there just happens to be a batch of seeds in Huacheng," Luo Yi said with a smile.

The two quickly agreed on how to deliver the goods, and then went back to sleep.

As the year draws to a close, Luo Yi originally planned to buy some New Year's goods in Huacheng, but she didn't expect to receive an unexpected surprise.

However, he wasn't very optimistic about planting chili peppers in Huacheng at this time of year.

...

Two more days passed, and the work at the market was progressing steadily.

Wholesale and distribution businesses were also operating in the market. After Li Cai, Xue Jun, and Chen Zhengxu understood the basic logic of making money, Chen Jiazhi reduced his interference. When they arrived at the market, he would sleep in the car, and Li Xiu would be responsible for collecting the money.

Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu are becoming more and more skilled at driving. Once they are even more proficient, Chen Jiazhi won't need to go to the market every day.

Meanwhile, due to the continued warming weather, the price of leafy vegetables has shown a downward trend, and snow peas have also been affected to some extent, but are still at a high level of 4 yuan per jin.

The Dongxiang vegetable market can earn over a thousand yuan a day just from selling snow peas.

Jiangxin Market still boasts daily sales of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan, demonstrating its remarkable earning power!

Even if the supply of leafy greens increases later, the price of snow peas will be affected and gradually decrease. However, because a large number of pea shoots have been frozen to death, the market supply is low, and the price will always be higher than that of leafy greens.

The profit-making effect of this batch of snow peas will last for a long time, and it is still difficult to predict exactly how much money can be made.

The shareholders of Jiangxin Vegetable Market couldn't find any fault with this result.

It's incredibly profitable!

It's probably one of the most profitable vegetable markets in the Pearl River Delta!

It was also because it was profitable enough that Xu Wenxiang and the other shareholders tolerated Chen Jiazhi's many problems.
Even though they were resentful of the high percentage of dividends they were given, Huang Jianyuan, Li Zaixing, and Zhang Lerong did not dare to loudly object.

At the shareholders' meeting,

Chen Jiazhi reiterated the planting and funding plans for the next crop, and then it was time to discuss profit sharing.

Huang Jianyuan smiled and asked, "Director Chen, I also consulted experts, and they all said that Huacheng is not suitable for growing sweet peppers right now."

"That's why I said we had to take some risks." Chen Jiazhi responded with a smile, "This round of profits is quite substantial, and we're still making 30,000 to 40,000 a day. Let's risk 300,000 and gamble, Mr. Huang, I think we can be a little bolder!"

Huang Jianyuan had nothing to say.

Li Zaixing and Zhang Lerong had no intention of saying anything.

徐闻香也只能宣布了分红计划，1月3日~1月14日期间的销售收入206.99万元全部用于分红。

Based on the previous calculation method, Chen Jiazhi will receive 51.75 yuan in farm manager agreement dividends and 7.76 yuan in shareholder dividends.

Total: 59.51 yuan!

(End of this chapter)