Chapter 460

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The third week of August.

Jiangning was as hot as the West Continent.

Group after group of suited-and-booted fellows surged into the Jiangning Head Office building, letting out happy "Ah," "Oh," "Baa," "Whoosh," "Chatter" sounds under the air conditioning.

"Timely rain after a long drought, cool breeze amid scorching heat, death sentence commuted to life, rebirth after a car crash" — the so-called four great fortunes of life; air conditioning is precisely the pinnacle invention of human civilization.

Gao Qiu stood under a parasol on the rooftop, looking down at the crowd, and said with a smile: "There are really a lot of people today, the parking lot is full of luxury cars."

"If you want to be corrupt, it's still not easy." Fang Yu wore his frog glasses, jealous to the extreme.

"It merely strengthened my idea of building a new building." Gao Qiu finished speaking and left the side near the road. Talking with a rich kid like Fang Yu, eight or nine times out of ten you'd sink yourself into trouble.

Fang Yu boredly darted all over the place, feeling like he was leaking oil from the heat, and said discontentedly: "In such hot weather, why hold a meeting on the rooftop? Wasting the air conditioning downstairs."

"It's to shorten the time!" Chen Yi appeared in the rooftop garden with imposing momentum, accompanied by Luoxiong and Yin Senyong, simultaneously answering Fang Yu's words.

Seeing Chen Yi, Fang Yu immediately clamped his legs tight and sat back under the corner parasol like a cat.

"He really has the aura of a consortium leader. Just don't know how long this loss-making purchasing can last; hope it can persist for a year." Li Lao naturally believed that a purchase order focused on low-grade materials was a money-losing purchase order.

"Everyone received the specific technical requirements, right?" Chen Yi walked to the side facing away from the sun, faced the crowd, and said: "Now I'll send down the purchasing details; there's no major change from before, only some material quantities have changed. Xiao Lu."

Xiao Lu, now in a gray short skirt, immediately distributed the prepared purchase orders to the attendees in turn.

Those who got them first immediately compared them against their original orders; someone even read them aloud.

"Linen short-sleeve shirts" 1 million pieces.

"Workwear long-sleeve shirts" 2 million pieces.

"Linen knee-length shorts" 1 million pieces.

"Denim long pants" 2 million pieces.

"Cotton" underwear 1 million pieces.

……

"Military boots" (rainforest mountain) 3 million pairs.

"Rubber-soled shoes" (mining area) 5 million pairs.

"Labor protection" coats and gloves (high temperature) 3 million pieces.

……

325# cement 40,000 tons.

425# cement 10,000 tons.

Grade II hot-rolled rebar 5,000 tons.

……

The merchants fortunate enough to reach the top floor of the Jiangning Head Office building clutched the purchase orders with sweaty palms, yet not a single one bothered to wipe their sweat.

Everyone was frantically calculating — calculating prices, calculating profits, calculating others' bottom lines.

This was far more specific than the photocopied purchase order from last week, and the quantities were much larger; naturally, enormous competition came with it.

The merchants had to consider not only their own capacity but also others' capacity. Although a week ago they had repeatedly discussed bid prices and bottom lines, no one dared say they could securely win a contract.

The purchase orders Chen Yi issued had virtually no technical content; he said products from the 1950s would do, but businessmen were unwilling to purely compete on price.

"If only we could pull some strings."

"Don't know who the Chen Family's client actually is."

The more the merchants thought, the more chaotic it became; the whole venue was silent as a graveyard where mutes were buried.

Li Lao worried more for Chen Yi, thinking to himself: As expected, still a young man, flattered a bit and he loses his judgment. Several million shirts — probably the client's order for one or two years; how to maintain future orders? Hope losses don't exceed 100 million, otherwise it can't be sustained and will end up defeating the purpose.

He supported the company's group-ization and consortium-ization, but if it caused the Chen Family to be lost in the process, the loss would outweigh the gain.

"Don't know how much of those precious metals truly belongs to the Chen Family." Li Lao anxiously considered for the Chen Family: "Hope Chen Yi doesn't lose too much this time."

He didn't know that the materials Chen Yi purchased this time were merely enough for the West River Water Fortress to use for about half a year — just the slaves on the mine exceeded 300,000, wearing out a pair of shoes every month was perfectly normal.

And if he opened them for sale, they'd likely sell out in two months at most. This still accounted for the reaction speed of Xima Market and port merchants.

Given the vastness of the West Continent and the severity of the Temple War, not to mention Jiangning's manufacturing, even the entire Southeast Province's manufacturing would need to expand tenfold to barely supply it. What truly restricts trade is transportation conditions, just like fleet tonnage limits in the Age of Sail; any material trade between the two continents is profitable.

Choosing this time to implement the purchasing policy was Chen Yi's consideration for expanding power. Hardware readiness was also one aspect; if the West River Water Fortress couldn't be self-sufficient in part of its food and basic resources, and the Martial Arts Hall's expansion couldn't provide large numbers of trusted students and staff, Chen Yi wouldn't have enough surplus to sign orders and promote integration.

"Can one enterprise bid on multiple items?" A sudden question broke the "graveyard" silence; the merchants lifted their heads like carrion crows, sweat flowing down their necks, as if they were working hard.

"You're the boss of Li De Group, right?" Chen Yi's memory was unquestionably excellent.

"My childhood name is A Li, formal name Mao Li. Mr. Chen, call me whatever." This was a man wearing a toupee, big-shouldered and thick-waisted like a wrestler.

Chen Zhenxing couldn't help but smile and said: "Old Mao, every time I hear your name I want to laugh; born as gross profit, die as net profit, good name."

Mao Li was used to people joking with his name and laughed openly: "Thanks to old friends' care, gross profit supports the family; this life I just strive for net profit. Pity the factory is small, few workers. Mr. Chen, honestly, in your order, if our company wants to take one item, we'd have to use all the manpower from several factories; like making shirts, I'd have to pull the shoe factory workers over too. Although we can complete the order, it actually wastes capacity and efficiency is low. So I thought, can we take half an order, then take half a rubber shoe order?"

"Yes." Chen Yi thought for a moment and said: "Multiples of 200,000 — 200,000 pieces, 400,000 pieces, whatever; you fill it in yourselves, as long as it meets the project proposal requirements, I'll take from the lowest price up."

A Li hit the bullseye with one shot; others immediately followed asking: "Then does that mean we can blind-bid on every single item?"

"As long as you can put up the guarantee deposit and guarantee you can fulfill the whole thing, I have no objection."

The man bearing the Jiangnan Printing Factory No. 1 sign then asked: "Can we not settle with this bond? Our accounting isn't very convenient with it."

"Still more convenient than settling after one year, right?" Chen Yi pursed a smile and said in an explanatory tone: "Foreign trade is troublesome; besides import-export matters, currency settlement is also troublesome. Using gold bonds eliminates exchange rate risk, which is beneficial for everyone, right?"

Hearing only his first half-sentence, Jiangnan Printing fell silent; in a buyer's market, arrears can decide life and death. Not to mention, 1 million shirt sets means tens of millions in payment; a year's interest alone would be on the million scale, possibly higher than the profit.

Subsequent questions returned to the blind-bid issue; Chen Yi answered a few more, clapped his hands and said: "There are 21 invited enterprises in total, 21 bids altogether. We'll use blind bidding — one round; if prices are equal, the one with stronger technical specs gets designated. One thing to note: you may subcontract some work, but cannot transfer the bid. Meaning whoever wins the bid signs with me; if problems arise I might trouble the subcontractor, but I'll definitely trouble you first. No objections? Then let's begin."

While speaking, he swept his gaze around once; that calm expression almost had the function of an icy world.

Actually there really was: after one round of "Pressure Strike," those who had broken out in a cold sweat all felt cool.

Twenty-one people leaned over the table, writing down the numbers of their secret bids while racking their brains in meditation.

The so-called secret bid corresponded exactly to the open bid. Each person could write only one price, and it was not public. In the final comparison, the lowest price won.

This method could avoid risk problems such as empty bids and bidding out of spite in open bidding—for larger enterprises, risk control was more important than a little profit.

Mao Li gritted his teeth and wrote a price of 13.8 yuan on the back of his shirt, again marking it as 600,000 pieces. It was not that he did not want to bid lower; Chen Yi's requirements were special—all extra-wide shirts, with durability higher by a level, looking as if they were meant to be sold to tribal orcs.

He had calculated that the cost of such shirts was over 13 yuan, and 13.8 earned just a fraction. He dared say no one could bid 14 yuan—without losing money.

Mao Li glanced at those few local state-owned enterprises. It was not easy for state-owned light-industry factories to survive into the 21st century; after several rounds of reform and restructuring, some state-owned enterprises in developed regions had truly endured. They could get bank loans more easily and had tax preferences; although they could not compete with private enterprises on price, they could operate without making money.

For state-owned light-industry factories, being able to open for production was the greatest achievement.

Mao Li thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and changed 13.8 to 13.5, then stared at the number and mocked himself: Our situation is no better than state-owned enterprises; as long as there are orders, even five mao is earned. If only there were five mao.

The scorching sun really seemed to have split open, unceasingly spitting out yellow light.

The people under the sunshade umbrella soon could not bear it.

Some who felt their hopes were slim hurriedly submitted their statements and ran back downstairs to enjoy the air conditioning. But seven or eight companies did not finish until ten minutes later; needless to say, they had filled out many bids.

"Then, it's over." Gao Qiu silently asked Chen Yi, and announced: "Everyone please rest downstairs for twenty minutes, and we will open the bids downstairs."

Mao Li lifted a bottle of ice-cold mineral water and gulped it down, then could not help regretting: Actually filling in 13.4 or 13.3 would have been fine; even two mao, on 600,000 pieces, would leave 120,000.

Factory owners who made the best of a bad situation like Mao Li were not few. The glorious era of processing supplied materials was long past; only declining capital supported the continued survival of a few labor-intensive enterprises. A few cost accountants could compress the profit of a pair of jeans to within one mao four Seven Points in less than one hundred hours of work, and capitalists who did not try hard enough would even lose money.

Chen Yi had not prepared to squeeze the labor of Jiangning merchants, but the rules of secret bidding were capitalist.

This became clear to him when he opened the first bid.

……(Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to come to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)