Chapter 1482: The Return of the Hero

"Phew, delicious!"

Li Kuiyong drank the mutton soup with great satisfaction and asked, "You finally have the time to talk to us. Brother Yan, how is things over in Yangcheng?"

"It's definitely better than here. There are so many high-rise buildings, and people look wealthy at a glance; it's much more prosperous than our side. The Canton Fair was also lively; you could see foreigners every few steps, and they were always chattering away in their own languages."

Wang Yan said, "You don't need to envy them. When it's time to deliver the goods, you can come with me, and the two of us brothers can go to Hong Kong to broaden our horizons."

"Brother Yan, can you see if a few of us can go?" Zhong Yuemin said with a cheeky, grinning face.

"Don't ask me. Isn't the director of the county's educated youth office your father's old subordinate? Mention it to him and have him arrange for you two to join the delivery team. It's going to take a dozen or twenty people anyway, so both you and Zheng Tong can go."

"We can go, sure, but can we go to Hong Kong?"

"It depends on whether you want to go or not." Wang Yan laughed, "Sneaking across is an option. I heard from Peng Yunliang that quite a few people sneak over, and once they get there, they can get an identity with a little money. Of course, if you go over and don't come back, then it's the cadres in the county who will suffer."

"We'll definitely come back," Zheng Tong said. "No matter how good it is outside, it's not as good as home."

Zhong Yuemin nodded repeatedly: "Right, right, right. We two brothers just want to go out and broaden our horizons. If we can take the opportunity to make some money, that would be even better. Brother Yan, since you agreed so readily, you must be aiming to get rich, right?"

Wang Yan laughed out loud: "Didn't that Mr. Peng already say it? He asked me to go over and give him ideas. What kind of ideas? Just making money. Since we're in the territory of capitalism, wouldn't it be wrong not to 'capitalize' a bit? We have to undermine the foundations of capitalism to subsidize the development of our socialism."

Li Kuiyong became worried at this point: "Brother Yan, you have to be careful with this. I heard that when we drove away Old Jiang back then, quite a few remnants retreated to Hong Kong. That place is chaotic; they have guns and cannons. It's not easy to deal with."

"Hey, Kuiyong is right, Brother Yan." Zhong Yuemin echoed, "I know about this. I heard they're running gangs over there."

Wang Yan drank his mutton soup and said, "Let me ask you, how many years has it been since the founding of the country?"

"Exactly twenty-one years. National Day was only a few days ago." Zheng Tong seemed very good at math.

"Then how old are those routed soldiers from back then now?"

"Even the youngest must be over thirty, and most should be in their forties or fifties. These people are also people who keep their word." Zhong Yuemin let out a long 'oh' and realized, "You mean that these routed soldiers have been bullying the unarmed all day over there, enjoying themselves in the territory of capitalism, and have long since lost their heroic spirit."

"Heroic spirit, my foot. Just a bunch of routed soldiers, and they dare to call themselves heroes?"

Wang Yan said nonchalantly, "When we get there, if you're not afraid of death, then come with me. If you are afraid, just play there for a few days. Once I've found the money, I'll let you all enjoy yourselves. I heard from Mr. Peng that there are 'horse stables' there, which are brothels. I'll arrange that for you."

"Brother Yan, I have to criticize you. How can you corrupt revolutionary youth? None of us three brothers are that kind of person, right Kuiyong?"

Li Kuiyong nodded firmly: "Brother Yan is joking. He just likes to tease us."

"Is that so?" Tian Fang glared sideways at Wang Yan, "It doesn't look like a joke to me."

Qin Ling followed up: "I don't think so either. His eyes light up whenever he hears about visiting brothels."

Wang Yan laughed out loud and went back to eating and drinking, ignoring the little conflicts between the two couples.

Nowadays, what Wang Yan is doing is no secret, except that the local villagers don't know. The reason the people at this table know is that Li Kuiyong leaked it. Since he is dating Tian Fang, he would always mention Brother Yan this and Brother Yan that. Tian Fang was already extremely curious, so naturally, she asked.

As the two were dating, sneaking around, hugging, and whispering sweet nothings, Li Kuiyong naturally spilled everything, and Tian Fang found out...

Wang Yan took the time to write a report on this Canton Fair and his gains, and mailed it to Beijing.

In fact, the local branch's actions were faster than his. When they were hosting, the newspaper reporters followed along, recording the whole process. Before the foreign businessmen left, it had already been written up and reported.

However, generally speaking, when the newspaper publishes articles about Lin County, if there is a report from Wang Yan, they are published together. After all, it's a multi-perspective exposition, and it's better to read them together. For such a major event, there is no doubt that Wang Yan would definitely have a report to present.

People across the country, including leading cadres, love reading Wang Yan's reports. Besides the inexplicable sense of satisfaction from watching his progress, it's also because Wang Yan's reports are beautifully written.

The local customs are written in a way that makes people yearn for them, the ideological content makes people ponder, and the path and choices of development allow people to grasp the context, which has considerable reference value.

Otherwise, a report just piling up flowery language and singing praises from beginning to end would never make it into the newspaper, because there is no shortage of articles singing praises.

On the contrary, it is reports like Wang Yan's that have novelty.

Wang Yan, of course, also kept in touch with Zhou Xiaobai very diligently. The letters were filled with the mushy feelings of young men and women. In the letters, Zhou Xiaobai's longing was ready to burst forth.

Besides corresponding with Zhou Xiaobai, Zhou's father also occasionally wrote to Wang Yan, with letters consisting of nothing more than encouraging Wang Yan to work in a down-to-earth manner.

Although this prospective son-in-law is very good at causing trouble and can be described as daring, both Zhou's father and mother, as well as Zhou Xiaobai's other brothers and sisters, all held Wang Yan in high regard.

And besides encouragement, Zhou's father also occasionally asked Wang Yan to do some calligraphy and painting, depicting the spirit of the people of Northern Shaanxi fighting against heaven and earth and struggling hard.

Wang Yan took the time to paint the Long March he had previously thought of, with a total length of twenty-five meters, which was quite exaggerated. The whole piece goes from right to left, connected by major events, supplemented by the Chairman's poems.

It starts with the Autumn Harvest Uprising.

"The army is called the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, with the sickle and hammer as its banner. Staying in the Jinggang Mountains is not the way, we must march straight to the Xiang River. The landlords oppress us layer by layer, and every peasant shares the same hatred. The autumn harvest season is filled with gloomy clouds, and a thunderclap sparks the uprising."

The ending is the self-defense counterattack against India, and the poem is "We must sweep away all pests, invincible!"

And the finishing touch for the entire painting is "Qin Yuan Chun · Snow": "Countless romantic figures, look to the present."

The entire painting, from beginning to end, is all about armed struggle, with a crimson tone. The font for the poems is Wang Yan's own, but generally speaking, it starts from regular script and ends with the Mao-style calligraphy that Wang Yan himself grasped, which can be considered as having written out the Chairman's path of calligraphy.

This painting was completed in the gaps of doing foreign trade orders, and Wang Yan spent more than half a year painting it. During this period, it became widely known.

The first to know was Secretary Zhang, who came to inspect his loyal furniture factory whenever he had nothing to do. After he heard Wang Yan's ideas, he was amazed!

Afterwards, he reported this news to the county. After people from the county came to see it, they didn't know what to say, but the complex look they gave Wang Yan revealed the feeling of "you really know how to create auspicious omens."

Later, the county went to the city, and there were famous calligraphers and painters in the city. After they came to see it, they were convinced and asked Wang Yan for advice on various techniques.

After it was completed, Shaanxi Province and Yan'an City each copied a version, and then sent the original to Beijing. It is said that they were all very satisfied with the level of the calligraphy and painting, as well as the high-spirited and undying spirit of struggle conveyed by the work.

Finally, this painting landed on the wall of Hall 118 of the Great Hall of the People...

This half a year was nothing more than a few exchanges of letters between Wang Yan and Zhou Xiaobai.

After expanding the production scale once again, these two foreign trade orders were completed very quickly. Under heavy pressure, the progress of the apprentices who had previously emerged was even more rapid, which greatly reduced Wang Yan's workload.

In June of the following year, when summer arrived, Lin County became busy.

Thousands of pieces of furniture were loaded onto a special train arranged by the railway system and transported to Lianyungang, which was then sent directly to Osaka, Japan, and finally landed in Osaka.

Another several thousand pieces of furniture headed straight for Hong Kong and were sent to Peng Yunliang.

Wang Yan took Li Kuiyong, Zhong Yuemin, Zheng Tong, and seventeen others to escort the furniture all the way. Peng Yunliang wrote back saying that there was no problem for twenty people to go to Hong Kong, so everyone was very happy.

They went over to solve after-sales problems. After all, with such long-distance transportation, it was inevitable that there would be some damage when it arrived, and Wang Yan had to take people there to repair it.

"This train ride is really uncomfortable." Zhong Yuemin started shouting.

It's no wonder he said that; it was indeed uncomfortable. They were directly in the freight car, making do with the bedding they brought themselves.

This was secondary; the main thing was that the train didn't stop much along the way. Except for adding water, coal, or temporary stops for repairs, it only stopped when it picked up goods from other places while heading south.

The rest of the time was all the loud noise of clanking, the carriage was stuffy, and the food wasn't good either. It was dry rations and pickles all day long, and the experience was extremely poor.

But no matter what, the train still drove to the fishing village, unloaded the goods, and loaded them onto trucks.

It was also at this time that Peng Yunliang appeared in front of Wang Yan with his people.

"Wang Sheng, it's been more than half a year. I really miss you."

"Mr. Peng is still in such good spirits."

"It's because you, Wang Sheng, have come, so I'm happy." Peng Yunliang offered Wang Yan a cigarette and said, "I saw the painting you did in the newspaper. I heard it was hung in the Great Hall of the People? Amazing."

"What's even more amazing are our heroes. What I painted are things they actually did with their blood." Wang Yan said meaningfully.

"Wang Sheng is right. Wang Sheng has high ideological awareness, no wonder you can serialize reports in the newspaper." Peng Yunliang nodded repeatedly, then turned and said, "Wang Sheng, let's go first. The furniture will naturally be transported over later. I'll trouble Wang Sheng to take people to handle it then."

"Easy to say." Wang Yan nodded with a smile and took his group of people to cross the border into Hong Kong with Peng Yunliang.

The final destination was Fanling in the New Territories. Thus, Peng Yunliang's identity was understood; he was a descendant of the Peng clan in Fanling.

"Wang Sheng, what do you think of this place?" Peng Yunliang asked while strolling with Wang Yan.

Zhong Yuemin interrupted first: "Didn't they say this place is rich? Why doesn't it look like much to me?"

Peng Yunliang was not offended. He explained: "We are in the suburbs here. Further south, that's the Central and Western District of Hong Kong. There are high-rise buildings everywhere, and there are many people. I'll take you for a walk another day, and you'll know."

"That's not necessary. We'll go ourselves later. We're all grown up, so we won't get lost." Wang Yan said with his hands behind his back, looking at the housing estate buildings in Fanling, "You still need to develop."

"Wang Sheng has many ideas. Inviting you over this time is to ask you to give us some pointers."

From beginning to end, Peng Yunliang never thought of asking Wang Yan for ideas on selling furniture. That thing just needs to be placed there, and with a little shouting, those who want to buy will naturally buy it. What other ideas are needed?

It was precisely because he had read all the reports written by Wang Yan and went to Lin County to understand the situation on the spot that he realized Wang Yan was simply awesome. On such barren land, he managed to create the current good situation.

This is still the land of capitalism. The Peng clan can decide everything themselves. In the New Territories, they can be said to have people, land, and guns. It is much more convenient to do things.

If Wang Yan could give a feasible idea, wouldn't their Peng clan take off? He himself could also have more say in the family and mobilize more resources.

Even if he couldn't, Wang Yan and his group of twenty-one people came over, and it wouldn't cost much to treat them to good food and drink. Not to mention that they were originally going to do carpentry work, so Peng Yunliang was sure to make a profit.

Wang Yan thought for a moment and said: "Development, in the final analysis, is two things. One is to keep more people busy, and the other is to sell the things people are busy making. Once the market is opened, everyone has work to do, and everyone has money to spend. You then open other business venues to let everyone spend money, and this creates a virtuous cycle, rolling like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger."

"Wang Sheng's words are simple, direct, and penetrating. We just don't know how to keep more people busy."

"What factories do you have?"

Peng Yunliang listed them like family treasures: "Water plants, slaughterhouses, plastics, shoes and clothing, cement... In short, we have everything related to food, clothing, housing, and transportation, but we just can't do any of them well. We can barely support people."

In their large family structure, the patriarch has to worry about everything. If they can't live well, they need relief; if they have difficulties, they need help; if they get into trouble while working in gangs outside, the family also has to protect them.

Of course, the power they get is also very great. They are indeed local emperors. Here, their word is law. Foreigners cannot enforce the law here either. That's how overbearing they are.

Wang Yan said with a smile: "Then find a way to make money, and then use the money earned to develop all the land here, so that your clansmen can live in good houses. Once construction starts, this place will naturally become hot, and the economy will become good."

"Wang Sheng is right, but the problem is, what ways are there to make money?" Peng Yunliang asked sincerely.

Li Kuiyong, Zhong Yuemin, and others all looked at Wang Yan. They knew that Brother Yan had the most ideas...

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