At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

After entering the twelfth lunar month, the weather in Jiangyang became increasingly dry and cold. There was no heavy snow to block the doors, only the dry north wind carrying ice shards, which blew like knives across the empty South High-tech Zone.

Inside the fenced-off area of ​​Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing's more than 100 acres of land, all was still quiet. The frozen soil was as hard as iron, making it impossible to break ground and start construction at this time, but this did not stop Xinglan from building frantically on paper.

The creation of a heavy industrial manufacturing enterprise is far more complex than simply finding a piece of land and building a factory. It is an extremely large and sophisticated system engineering project.

For the next two weeks, Li Xiao ignored the rumors and gossip, and instead led his core team to systematically build the underlying framework of Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing.

The first things to be implemented are the legal and financial entities.

Sun Zaiquan truly lives up to his reputation as a cunning old fox in the capital world; he handles things with meticulous care.

He personally led his legal and financial teams through the green channel of the Jiangyang County Administration for Industry and Commerce to complete all the procedures.

That afternoon, Sun Zaiquan pushed open the door to Li Xiao's office, carrying a black briefcase with a combination lock.

"Mr. Li, all the formalities are complete." Sun Zaiquan placed the box on the coffee table and opened it with a click. Inside, the original and duplicate copies of Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing's business license were neatly arranged, along with five seals that gleamed with brass luster—the company seal, the financial seal, the legal representative seal, the contract seal, and the invoice seal.

Li Xiao walked over, picked up the official seal representing the highest authority, and glanced at it; it felt heavy in his hand.

"What about the bank account?" Li Xiao asked.

"All accounts are open. Jiangyang City Commercial Bank and the Jiangyang branch of ICBC are vying to open basic accounts for us because of Secretary Cao's approval. The presidents of both banks personally came to our door to handle the business."

Sun Zaiquan pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and said with a smile, "Not only that, the president of ICBC also privately revealed that as soon as our factory starts laying the foundation, a low-interest equipment purchase loan of 50 million to 100 million yuan can be approved at any time. In Jiangyang, no one will hold Xinglan by the throat now."

Li Xiao nodded and put the official seal back into the box.

"The shell is now firmly established. Lao Sun, your focus should shift to the supply chain and early procurement. Although the factory hasn't been built yet, we must place orders in advance for the first batch of pilot line equipment, non-standard automated machine tools, and core components such as servo motors, reducers, and laser radar needed for the Xingfeng prototype that Peng Yue and his team have ordered."

"I understand. But, Mr. Li,"

Sun Zaiquan paused, then tentatively asked, "As for Luo Tiangong... when do we make our move? Peng Yue's team has almost finished drawing the CAD blueprints for the pilot production line in their temporary office these past few days, but without Luo Tiangong's main architecture diagram, they can't finalize the designs for many workstations. Should I send a headhunter to Jianye now to contact Luo Tiangong privately?"

"No rush."

Li Xiao walked to the water dispenser, filled two glasses with warm water, and handed one to Sun Zaiquan. "Poaching people now is the worst possible strategy."

"The Spring Festival is just around the corner, and Chinese people have a deep-seated attachment to the New Year. At this time, people are not inclined to change their minds. Everyone is looking forward to receiving their year-end bonus and returning to their hometowns for a peaceful New Year. If you go and talk to Luo Tiangong's subordinates about ideals, job hopping, or moving to another city now, even if they are dissatisfied with Zhou Bingsheng, they will subconsciously reject it and may even think that we are fooling them."

"Let's talk about this after the New Year!"

As the Spring Festival approaches, the festive atmosphere in Jiangyang County is growing stronger. Red lanterns are hung on the trees along the streets, and festive New Year's greetings songs are playing on a loop in supermarkets. But inside the several-story office building of Xinglan Technology, the sound of keyboards clicking away is still as dense as a downpour, a scene of bustling activity.

As an internet technology company that focuses on SaaS services and underlying scheduling algorithms, Xinglan's servers cannot be shut down.

Whether it's enterprise clients in Jianye District or some newly integrated logistics scheduling test data, someone needs to monitor the backend 24/7.

Moreover, although Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing has not started construction, the temporary rental warehouse is filled with expensive experimental equipment that is arriving one after another, and security cannot be interrupted.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the day before the Lunar New Year, Huang Yi, the finance and human resources director of Xinglan Technology, carrying a thick stack of folders, knocked on Li Xiao's office door.

Huang Yi was a senior executive that Li Xiao poached from a near-listed company in Jianye. In his thirties, he was meticulous and pragmatic, and usually stern and unsmiling. He was the most competent steward in Xinglan, a high-speed machine.

"Mr. Li, this is the duty roster for the Spring Festival holiday, as well as the draft of this year's year-end bonus distribution plan. Please take a look." Huang Yi respectfully placed the folder in front of Li Xiao.

Li Xiao didn't check his year-end bonus first; instead, he pulled out the duty roster. It was densely filled with names of people from various departments who needed to stay on duty from New Year's Eve to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year. Although Huang Yi had noted at the back of the table that overtime pay would be issued at three and two times the normal rate according to national regulations, Li Xiao still frowned slightly when he saw the shifts marked next to the names of those young engineers.

"Mr. Huang, approximately how many employees does our company have now?" Li Xiao asked.

"With the recent additions to Xinglan Technology, the total number of employees has exceeded one hundred. About 90% of them are from other provinces. In particular, the algorithm development team led by Chen Qiming is almost entirely composed of recent master's graduates and technical backbones recruited from other provinces," Tang Yi replied immediately, having thoroughly mastered the company's data.

Li Xiao tapped the schedule twice lightly with his long, slender fingers.

"It's always unpleasant to not be able to go home for the Spring Festival. The triple pay stipulated by the state is for established large companies that follow the rules. We at Xinglan are building our empire now, and we can't let our brothers sweat and shed tears."

"Change this clause. All employees who voluntarily stay on duty for the eight days from New Year's Eve to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, regardless of their position or which day is a statutory holiday, will receive five times their usual daily wage. In addition, the administration department will be responsible for booking the best restaurant in Jiangyang on New Year's Eve to provide an internal New Year's Eve dinner for all employees and their families who stay on duty. The standard for food and drinks will be 500 yuan per person, all paid from the company's accounts."

Huang Yi froze for a moment, almost dropping her pen: "Five times? Mr. Li, that's going to increase costs significantly. We need to..."

"You don't need to worry about the costs," Li Xiao interrupted him. "If I'm going to be stingy with overtime pay for these few days during the New Year holiday, why should I expect these young people to work themselves to the bone with me next year? Just send out the notices as I told you."

"Yes, Mr. Li!" Tang Yi took a deep breath. Although he felt a pang of regret, he couldn't help but admire his boss's decisiveness. This kind of corporate culture, built by simply throwing money at the problem, may be crude, but it is definitely the most effective way to win people's hearts.

After all, people come to work to earn money, not to listen to your talk about corporate honor. Only when your salary is high enough and your benefits are good enough can people be willing to work hard for you.