All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

The local government naturally agreed and arranged for several full-time leaders to accompany him on the inspection. Lei Dongbao followed their arrangements, since he wasn't inspecting anything related to people's livelihoods.

On the third day, Xun Jianxiang arrived in Jiangcheng. Lei Dongbao learned from him that Song Yunhui had a girlfriend. This made him somewhat interested. It seemed that he should take some time to call Song Yunhui and have a good talk with him.

They're clearly just getting started, so Lei Dongbao has to put a strain on his brother-in-law. When they're dating, he only talks to Cheng Kaiyan, but once they get married, he'll be talking to the entire Cheng family!

Think about Cheng Kaiyan, that pampered girl who never lifted a finger, who in the end had a child for Song Yunhui, learned to do housework again, and was then cruelly abandoned. Perhaps they should never have been together in the first place.

When it comes to matters of the heart, outsiders can offer advice, but whether one can truly heed it depends on the individual!

Chapter 85: Contracting State-Owned Factories

Lei Dongbao spent the entire week wandering around Jiangcheng and even went to several surrounding cities, accompanying his superiors who were afraid he would run away and kept trying to persuade him to stay.

Lei Dongbao smiled without explaining. He was just checking the surrounding traffic conditions; he didn't mean anything by it.

The last stop was Lao Zhou's hardware factory. The location was indeed excellent, with a four-lane highway right outside the factory. It will be upgraded to a national highway in the future, no wonder the Koreans were interested.

Lei Dongbao also carefully examined the factory's structure and equipment operation, and finally came to the conclusion that if it weren't for the surrounding land of more than a thousand acres, this factory would be a pile of dog shit, the kind that no one would want to step in.

Can you believe that in a hardware factory with more than 800 employees, more than 60 of them have finger disabilities?

Moreover, this factory is a gathering place for the elderly. There are four or five hundred employees over forty years old, and the remaining two or three hundred are the children of these elderly employees. In the family building, you can see three generations of grandfathers and grandchildren playing together everywhere.

This hardware factory has a long history, almost as old as China. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was a manufacturing plant. Later, it was restructured into a county-owned enterprise in Jiangcheng and has remained so ever since. Most of these veteran workers have grown up alongside this factory.

As for why there are so many disabled people, it's because this factory has four old-fashioned manual mold-making machines. These four machines are the factory's prized possessions. However, these four old-fashioned manual machines were imported from the Soviet Union in the 1950s and have been in use ever since. In the past two or three decades, there have been more than a hundred accidents involving severed hands and fingers, and now there are still more than sixty survivors.

This is the real blood and tears factory. After learning about this history, Lei Dongbao was also dumbfounded. He watched as a worker first put his hand into the mold, placed the material, and finally stepped on the pressure pedal. The machine tool slowly pressed down. The press tool, which was descending very slowly, suddenly accelerated rapidly. With a dull "thud", a piece of iron was quickly pressed into a barrel shape. Then the press rose, and the worker reached in and took out the formed semi-finished product.

This thing made Lei Dongbao's heart pound; it was damn dangerous. But seeing the workers smoking and covered in grease, seemingly oblivious to the danger around them, Lei Dongbao secretly felt a chill for them.

In Lei Dongbao's view, apart from the land, the factory was worthless and even a burden. As for the factory's prized possessions, they were all junk in Lei Dongbao's eyes.

In those days, land in Jiangcheng wasn't worth much. Lei Dongbao was interested in the location of the factory, and he believed that the Koreans were interested in the factory because of its location.

This place is surrounded by water on one side and mountains on the other, with a highway running on both sides that provides direct access to several prefecture-level cities. It's an excellent location, and the surrounding land, spanning over a thousand acres, is occupied by hardware factories. It's truly a wonderful place.

Lei Dongbao estimated that this piece of land could be worth tens of billions if it were developed into a residential area in the future. Lei Dongbao stood in front of the hardware factory for a long time and finally made up his mind that he wanted this place!

Now that he had made up his mind, Lei Dongbao was ready to negotiate terms with Jiang Cheng!

He directly proposed to the Jiangcheng government to contract the Jiangcheng Hardware Factory. He wanted the workers, and all management and operation of the factory had to be handed over to him. Lei Dongbao's proposal to contract out the state-owned enterprise startled the Jiangcheng leaders. Historically, the first person to contract out a state-owned enterprise was a man named Ma Shengli, which would happen next year.

In fact, since the reform and opening up, the country has been exploring the reform of state-owned enterprises. Among them, the state-owned enterprise contract system has also entered the exploration period. In history, Ma Shengli fired the first shot, and in this world, Lei Dongbao is preparing to fire the first shot!

Unlike Ma Shengli's factory director contract system, his current contract system has a touch of capitalism.

The leaders of Jiangcheng obviously didn't dare to make this decision. After discussing it with Lei Dongbao for several days, they finally reported the matter to the city. In the end, the city reported it to the Anhui Province. The uproar caused by this matter was much bigger than Lei Dongbao had imagined. The leaders discussed it for a long time but didn't dare to open the door.

However, the ideas proposed by Lei Dongbao greatly impressed the leaders.

His promise was that, within the contract period, he would do the following.

First, he can take over all 835 full-time employees of Jiangcheng Hardware Factory. Disabled workers and workers who have reached the retirement standard will receive pensions according to the local retirement pension standards. If some employees need to be laid off in the future, he will also provide reasonable buyout compensation according to the length of service and disability standards to ensure that both parties are satisfied!

Secondly, Jiangcheng Hardware Factory is currently insolvent and still receives more than 200,000 yuan in government subsidies every year. After he takes over the contract, he will not accept any government subsidies. In addition to profits and taxes, he will also have to pay a contract fee of 200,000 yuan every year.

The third point, and the most controversial, is that Lei Dongbao's idea was that he would bear the losses of the factory, but once it made a profit, in addition to the normal taxes and fees paid and the contract fee, he would have to distribute the profits himself. In other words, if Lei Dongbao made money, he could keep it for himself.

This point also became a topic of debate among the leaders. After all, China is now a socialist country that is extremely prosperous, and Lei Dongbao's approach has a bit of a capitalist restoration feel to it. However, after a few days of debate, the old factory director, Lao Zhou, suddenly sighed and said something.

"I don't care who the contractor is, but they have to make up for the six months of unpaid wages owed to our factory!"

Upon hearing this, the leaders were all speechless. Yes, Jiangcheng Hardware Factory was a dilapidated factory that had long been insolvent. To discuss whether or not the money they had earned should be kept was simply insane. Besides, they had the ability to make money, so it was only right that they kept it. If Lei Dongbao really made too much money, then we'd talk about it later. Did Lei Dongbao think he could just run away?

After this debate ended, there was basically nothing else to discuss.

Nowadays, there are countless state-owned factories like Jiangcheng Hardware Factory across China that are insolvent and rely on government subsidies to survive. These enterprises have become a serious burden on local governments.

Lei Dongbao's proposal for state-owned enterprise contract management can be seen as opening up a new way of thinking for leaders.

In fact, the original intentions of state-owned enterprise contracting, and even the future reform of state-owned enterprises, were very good. They solved many problems for the government. However, in the end, the reforms enriched a small number of people, while the real workers suffered a large-scale wave of layoffs. It was just a matter of timing and fate!

After a week of discussions, Anhui Province finally sent a team of more than 100 people to Jiangcheng Hardware Factory for inspection. After carefully investigating the details of Jiangcheng Hardware Factory, the experts and leaders came to the conclusion that the factory had long been a burden on the government.

Although a South Korean company is willing to take over the factory, their first condition is that the more than 800 employees must be resettled by Jiangcheng authorities, and they will not take over the business themselves. If this condition is met ten years from now, the local government might actually agree to the South Korean company's terms. At that time, they could simply ask the South Korean company for a sum of money to buy out the employees' seniority and get rid of the more than 800 laid-off workers.

But in 1983, the topic of state-owned enterprise layoffs was too sensitive, and Jiangcheng dared not make any promises to the Koreans.

Of course, Lei Dongbao's state-owned enterprise contracting is a slightly sensitive topic, but in fact, as early as around the 1980s, some production brigades in rural areas had capable people who contracted out brigade enterprises to the production teams. In the last two years, this trend has become more and more common. It is precisely because of this precedent that the higher authorities are not so sensitive to Lei Dongbao's contracting of state-owned enterprises.

After several days of investigation and research, the leaders felt that this was an opportunity and a new direction for the reform of state-owned enterprises. Using a factory like Jiangcheng Hardware Factory, which was insolvent, as an experiment was very much in line with the spirit of reform and opening up. Therefore, the leaders finally agreed to Lei Dongbao's request for the contracted management of state-owned enterprises!

Soon, led by provincial leaders, presided over by municipal leaders, and accompanied by Jiangcheng leaders, both parties signed a five-year contract.

The contract naturally outlines Lei Dongbao's responsibilities and obligations, including arrangements for employees.

With everyone present as witnesses, Lei Dongbao signed his name. From the moment he signed, Lei Dongbao finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now, it was time for him to perform.

After the contract was signed, the first problem was money. Although Jiangcheng Hardware Factory did not owe any bank loans, it was barely surviving thanks to government subsidies. Even so, it was still in arrears with six months' wages. The contract stipulated that these six months' wages would be temporarily paid by Lei Dongbao and would be reimbursed in the future through other tax payments.

In short, Jiangcheng was really broke. Lei Dongbao finally agreed. In fact, the wages of more than 800 people for half a year would only amount to a little over 100,000 yuan. Most of these people were just living on a guaranteed monthly wage of 30 yuan. Who could blame them when the factory was not doing well?

Lei Dongbao's biggest problem right now is money, but where will the money come from?

Naturally, people came knocking on his door. Almost all the leaders in Anyun Province knew about Lei Dongbao's contracting of the state-owned factory, so it was impossible for the banks not to know. Based on Lei Dongbao's past track record, several bank leaders had accompanied the Anyun Province leadership when they formed an inspection team.

Lei Dongbao didn't hold back this time and directly borrowed five million Chinese yuan from several banks. This amount was a huge sum. Lei Dongbao had asked for it, but five million was an astronomical figure in this era. No bank dared to lend to him alone. After discussion, four banks each contributed 500,000 yuan to lend to Lei Dongbao, for a total loan amount of two million yuan. Although two million yuan was not quite up to Lei Dongbao's expectations, he ultimately accepted the two million yuan loan.

If we were to say who paid the most attention to Lei Dongbao in this era, it would naturally be the banks. Back when he was in Xiaolei Village, Lei Dongbao managed the village and quickly accumulated tens of millions of yuan in wealth. Although this money was all liquid capital, it was definitely a super big client for a bank. So, from that time on, the bank's leaders had already started paying attention to Lei Dongbao.

Then there's Jinzhou Second Machinery Factory, which goes without saying. If Lei Dongbao hadn't resigned, the banks would probably have been calling him "father." The legend of a $100 million foreign trade order is widely circulated in banking circles, and even many other provinces are envious that Anyun Province can make a fortune this time.

In short, Lei Dongbao's various deeds prove that this capable man has absolute real skills. Although this time he was starting from scratch to contract a state-owned enterprise, the banks had already heard about it and came to him!

In fact, from the 1980s to the 1990s, the government encouraged private lending. Although a lot of bad debts eventually accumulated, this policy did allow many people to get rich through bank loans.

In later generations, it might be difficult to get a loan of several hundred thousand without collateral. However, in the 1980s and 90s, it was easy for individuals to get a loan of two or three hundred thousand from a bank if they wanted to start a project. Of course, this ease of access depended on the individual.

In short, in that era, thanks to policy support and less stringent review processes, stories of getting rich by taking out loans from banks and credit unions were everywhere in the 1980s and 90s!

With money, everything became easier. The first thing Lei Dongbao did after taking over Jiangcheng Hardware Factory was to pay back the wages owed to everyone for the past six months. With money, Lei Dongbao's reputation instantly soared.

After settling things with the workers, Lei Dongbao then cleaned up the messy projects in the factory, stopping what needed to be stopped and cleaning up what needed to be cleaned up. In addition to these, Lei Dongbao began to apply to Jiangcheng to expand the scope of business, and the name of Jiangcheng Hardware Factory was officially changed to Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory!

Lei Dongbao has chosen to return to his old business of electrical appliances, but this time, he plans to do it in a different way.

This time, he shifted his focus from production to sales.

Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory's main business is no longer producing electrical appliances. This time, it will mainly focus on producing spare parts for household appliances. What Lei Dongbao really wants to do is sell electrical appliances!

Yes, he wants to establish an appliance mall that focuses on sales, following the old path of Suning and Gome. He wants to make money from the profits of selling appliances, not from the profits of producing appliances!

Chapter 86: Lei Dongbao's Eighteen Arhats

The Heavens Begin with Love in the Courtyard, Volume 86: Lei Dongbao's Eighteen Arhats. With the reform and opening up, the domestic consumer market is gradually awakening, especially in the field of electrical appliances. At present, even the most basic electric fan is not yet popular in China, so the market is too huge. He is now using the state-owned Jiangcheng Hardware Factory to complete this step!

He plans to establish a logistics hub and warehouse on the more than 1,000 acres of land belonging to Jiangcheng Hardware Factory, making it his base in the southern region!

Everything is ready; now all that's left is to recruit soldiers!

Lei Dongbao's establishment of Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory in Jiangcheng has recently been reported in the Anhui Provincial Daily. During this period, he has also received many calls from his former subordinates, including the sales team of several hundred people he once formed.

Those people had followed Lei Dongbao since he was a child at Leijia Electric Appliance Factory, and later went through Jinzhou Second Machinery Factory, conquering one city after another. Especially in Anyun Province, these sales personnel had almost become local bigwigs, establishing a powerful sales and relationship network in the local area. In recent years, those sales agents who have not been eliminated are almost all top sales talents of this era. This group of people is almost the most valuable asset.

Lei Dongbao knew they were valuable, and Jinzhou No. 2 Machinery Factory naturally knew as well. Because Xiao Leijia was a small township enterprise with incompetent managers, no one paid attention to these sales personnel at the time. However, Jinzhou No. 2 Machinery Factory was a large state-owned factory with tens of thousands of employees, and its talent pool was abundant.

Especially now that Jinzhou No. 2 Machinery Factory is the face of Jinzhou, and has even been featured in the China Daily, not only Jinzhou is paying close attention to it, but Anyun Province is also protecting it like a treasure. The lesson of Xiaoleijia serves as a constant reminder to them.

Therefore, after Lei Dongbao resigned, a professional team was quickly established by An Yun Province and Jinzhou to take over the leadership of Jinzhou Second Machinery Factory. The team was reshuffled and replaced with young and energetic leaders, who were also top technical talents in An Yun Province in terms of professional qualifications.

The most vehement reaction to Lei Dongbao's contracting of state-owned factories naturally came from Jinzhou No. 2 Machinery Factory. They knew, of course, that their current sales team was entirely trained by Lei Dongbao, so they naturally paid a heavy price to retain these talents.

Jinzhou Second Machinery Factory had already anticipated Lei Dongbao's move, so after the New Year, it issued a notice that was mainly aimed at sales agents. The notice not only increased the commission bonuses of the sales agents, but also publicly stated that it would increase the advertising investment of the Peak brand and Hongyun fan this year, so that the agents' income would reach a new level. This two-pronged policy did indeed make the vast majority of people choose to stay.

On one hand, there was a mature sales market; on the other hand, there was Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory, which Lei Dongbao had just established—a situation of starting from scratch. Everyone knew who to choose; no matter how deep the feelings, there were still values ​​to be measured.

This was the moment when Lei Dongbao truly showcased his personal charisma. Despite making countless phone calls, only a dozen or so people ultimately confirmed their intention to follow him!

In the end, only seventeen of Lei Dongbao's old subordinates truly resigned, gave up everything, and were willing to fight to the death to come to Jiangcheng to follow him. These seventeen people were almost all veteran salesmen who had been trained by Lei Dongbao as his top leader.

Several of them were salespeople who chose to give up the Anyun Province market back then and eventually went to foreign companies to develop new markets. These people are all excellent city-level agents. Among the real Anyun Province employees, not a single one of them was willing to give up everything to follow them!

Yang Xun was naturally not among them. Lei Dongbao was not surprised by this result at all. Yang Xun was the kind of person who seemed to value relationships and loyalty on the surface, but in reality, he was someone who valued interests very much.

Lei Dongbao also tried calling him this time. Yang Xun smiled and said that after he finished dealing with things in Licheng, he would meet up with Lei Dongbao. He chatted with Lei Dongbao for half an hour before hanging up. After carefully learning about Lei Dongbao's situation in Jiangcheng, he was very concerned about Lei Dongbao and said that if Lei Dongbao needed anything, he still had 100,000 or 200,000 yuan on hand, which he could use to support Lei Dongbao. It was as if he supported Lei Dongbao as always!

Two days later, Yang Xun called again, his voice tinged with bitterness, saying that his girlfriend didn't want to start over with him, so he could only apologize to Lei Dongbao. However, he himself absolutely wanted to rebuild the empire with Lei Dongbao.

Lei Dongbao smiled and said it was nothing, and comforted him, telling him to work hard in Licheng and strive for even greater success. Finally, Lei Dongbao hung up the phone and shook his head helplessly. Yang Xun was a talented person! What a pity!

It was precisely because of this that time revealed true character, and seventeen people were still willing to follow Lei Dongbao to rebuild his empire. Therefore, Lei Dongbao was especially grateful to these seventeen people, and it was genuine gratitude. In the past, he had treated them as subordinates, but from this moment on, Lei Dongbao began to cultivate them as partners!

Once they had all arrived, Lei Dongbao personally hosted them, inviting everyone to a get-together. He even cooked for them himself. In the canteen of Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory, several large tables were arranged in a circle, with several cases of liquor placed underneath. This banquet was a feast to be enjoyed until everyone was drunk!

At the dinner table, Lei Dongbao told them about his future plans. He planned to use Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory as the center and take advantage of the local road network to establish four Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Cities in four prefecture-level cities in Anyun Province and the neighboring Zhijiang Province. These cities would focus on wholesale and retail, selling home appliances produced by domestic manufacturers.

The goal for the development of the appliance mall in the next three years is to expand to eighteen stores, with each person in charge of one appliance mall. He plans to spend five years consolidating the market in two provinces. Five years later, Jiangcheng Appliances will truly go nationwide. At that time, Lei Dongbao will make them provincial agents, and each of them will become a local lord!

After several rounds of drinks, everyone's faces were flushed and they were in high spirits. Lei Dongbao had also drunk a bit too much and shouted to everyone.

"The seventeen of you, plus Da Xun, make eighteen. In the future, you will be my Eighteen Arhats. Let time prove all our ambitions! Everyone, tomorrow will be even better!"

Everyone cheered!

Tomorrow will be better!

Lei Dongbao also stated that their career is truly beginning from today. Before, whether they worked in Xiaolei Village or Jinzhou Second Machinery Factory, they were just working for others. Now, they are striving for their own career!

Lei Dongbao also boasted at the dinner table that in five years, all eighteen of you would become millionaires. Those who didn't earn a million would have to make up for it themselves!

Lei Dongbao's passionate enthusiasm indeed inspired everyone, and they were all full of confidence, waiting for Lei Dongbao's instructions and arrangements!

Whether the story of the Eighteen Arhats will become a joke or a legend passed down through generations, only time will tell!

The next day, Lei Dongbao gave them their first task in the conference room at Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory: within the next month, they would each become a teacher and bring out five apprentices, regardless of gender, randomly selected from the workers in Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory!

They taught their apprentices not in the factory, but on the road. Lei Dongbao's second task was to send them to Anyun Province and Zhijiang Province to find sources of goods, from fans to rice cookers, from televisions to air conditioners and refrigerators. Although Lei Dongbao had borrowed two million from the bank, he had to be careful with every penny.

As Lei Dongbao once said, everyone has a standard of value. In the eyes of those banks, Lei Dongbao's value was at most two million, which is why he was able to borrow two million. When he applied for five million, after evaluation, they felt that it was still very risky for Lei Dongbao to start from scratch, so two million was the limit. If he spent all that money and still didn't see any returns, then when those banks faced him again, they certainly wouldn't be all smiles anymore!

Therefore, Lei Dongbao hoped that when people went to discuss the source of goods, they could try to extend the payment period as much as possible, preferably three to five months, or half a year, so that he could have room to maneuver.

This task is indeed very difficult. After all, Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory is now just an empty shell. However, everyone understands Lei Dongbao's difficulties. They have overcome the most difficult times before. Now, with Lei Dongbao's reputation and their sales experience over the past few years, they believe that this is not the most difficult start.