Chapter 434: Striking First to Gain the Advantage

After seeing off the two Deans, Lin Sicheng returned to his office.

Zhao Xiuneng followed behind, a hint of hesitation on his face: "I was thinking earlier, should I invest a little and try my hand at it!"

Lin Sicheng asked casually: "Try what?"

"The Changguan Glaze, of course!"

His footsteps faltered; Lin Sicheng turned around, his eyes filled with disbelief and astonishment.

Having spent so much time together and gained a considerable understanding of him, Zhao Xiuneng could roughly guess why Lin Sicheng's expression was so strange.

"I know, Junior Brother, there's a high probability I'll lose money; I just want to do something."

Lin Sicheng sighed: What is this, an old man suddenly acting like a reckless youth, is the money burning a hole in your pocket?

"Zhao Shixiong, how much are you planning to invest?"

Zhao Xiuneng calculated: "Four or five million should be enough, right?"

"Four or five million is, at most, a drop in the bucket." Lin Sicheng shook his head, "Senior Brother, if you really want to do this, add two more zeros to the end."

Zhao Xiuneng was stunned: What on earth?

Adding two more zeros—wouldn't that be several hundred million?

"How could it possibly cost that much?"

"That's still on the low end!" Lin Sicheng counted on his fingers, "The initial investment is indeed not much: lease a plot of land in a nearby town, build an electric kiln, and four or five hundred thousand is the absolute limit. Even if you build a traditional kiln, seven or eight hundred thousand is more than enough."

"Hire an old kiln worker from Jingdezhen to be the factory manager, then hire a ceramic artist with decent technical skills; twenty thousand a year is the ceiling. Then there's labor, machinery, and raw materials—let's count that as two million. In total, you could build the factory and start production for less than three million."

"But Zhao Shixiong, this is imitating the ancients, it belongs to the category of art. To be precise, it can only be considered a craft. Once it's made, you still have to figure out how to sell it: come on, think about it, how do you plan to sell it?"

Zhao Xiuneng smacked his lips, beginning to grasp the situation: This stuff isn't an antique where you just open a shop, hang a sign, and people come looking for it by reputation. It's even less of a consumer good where life can't go on without buying it. This is an artistic product, something dispensable for ordinary people. The problem is: there are so many famous ancient porcelains in history, why would people buy yours instead of the more famous ones?

But it must be sellable; otherwise, when the leaders in Tongchuan found out that Lin Sicheng had restored the techniques for the Changguan Glaze and the Inverted Pot, they wouldn't have been so anxious, chasing him all the way to Xijing like their house was on fire.

If it couldn't make money, the district wouldn't be following it so closely.

Including just now, when Lin Sicheng said he would only handle the licensing, and as for how to bid and produce, the school should negotiate with the district—the two Deans were both moved and excited.

Does this mean this thing should be quite promising?

He scratched his chin: "Then how should it be sold?"

"The same way antiques are sold; to put it simply, it's three words..." Lin Sicheng held up three fingers, "Tell a story!" Zhao Xiuneng listened, half-understanding.

"Let me put it even more simply: branding. To put it bluntly, it's about advertising and promotion: talk about how amazing the craftsmanship was in ancient times, how harsh the technical requirements were, how difficult it was to make, and how rare it was."

"And how famous it was in history, which emperor praised it and wrote poems about it. Which famous official used it and left behind calligraphy, which imperial concubine cherished it like her own life and died for it..."

"If you can make up some story about the nation and the world, about sacrificing one's family for the country, that would be even better... Anyway, just brag about how awesome, bizarre, high-end, and positive it is."

Lin Sicheng's mouth was like a machine gun, rattling on and on. Zhao Xiuneng was completely bewildered, his eyes wide as lightbulbs: Isn't this just pure nonsense? Selling antiques also involves telling stories, but there's at least some basis: the reason this antique is expensive now is because it was expensive in ancient times. But the Changguan Glaze only has a few lines written about it in the history books.

"Right, there are indeed only a few lines. But you know it, I know it, yet the consumers don't." Lin Sicheng spread his hands, "This isn't like antiques, which cost thousands or tens of thousands; people who dare to spend that kind of money know at least a little bit."

"This is a craft, the good ones cost a hundred or eighty, the ordinary ones thirty or fifty; the average wage earner can afford it, and it has nothing to do with being swindled. So no one will specifically look into it; as long as you dare to brag, and can brag until it blossoms, you certainly won't worry about sales."

Seeing Lin Sicheng's half-smile, Zhao Xiuneng had a bad premonition: "Junior Brother, what counts as bragging until it blossoms?"

"At the very least, it can't be worse than similar porcelain from Jingdezhen. If that's not possible, then at the very, very least, you must let the consumers know: although this thing can't compare to Jingdezhen's imitation ancient porcelain, it is unique in Shaanxi Province..."

Zhao Xiuneng suddenly realized: Comparing it to Jingdezhen, isn't that even more ridiculous?

They were the production base for official kiln porcelain during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, while the Changguan Glaze was just one of hundreds of thousands of types of official kiln porcelain in the Qing Dynasty.

Although it could barely be called palace-use porcelain, it was extremely inconspicuous, almost at the bottom of the list. If we talk about local porcelain, that is, Yaozhou Porcelain, then fine: the popularity is even lower.

Therefore, no matter which way you look at it, at this stage, it can at most be sold within the province.

Zhao Xiuneng was somewhat unwilling: "Then what if we expand outside the province?"

"Then you have to go toe-to-toe with Jingdezhen; if you really want to do it, it's actually not difficult!" Lin Sicheng was exceptionally blunt, "You know Red Bull, the 2008 CCTV bid winner, with an annual bid of eight billion. Like that, you bid for three consecutive years."

Zhao Xiuneng's eyes went straight: No... you call this not difficult?

Three years is twenty-four billion; if I had that much money, would I be kicked in the head by a donkey to do this?

But that's not right, is it?

"Then why was Tongchuan so anxious in the spring when they found out we had restored the technique? The district too, sending people to ask every few days?" "Because they never thought about relying on this thing to make money; to be precise: for the local government, the main benefit generated by this thing isn't to make money, but as a cultural label..."

"Not to mention anything else, I'll give you a simple example: for the past twenty years, Tongchuan's biggest economic pillar and fiscal revenue has been coal. But if one day, due to overcapacity, the country plans to implement energy transformation and doesn't let them mine coal, what will they do?"

"And what if the country advocates: cultivating the tourism industry of energy-based cities into a strategic pillar industry, allowing for the deep integration of culture and tourism—what will Tongchuan do? You can't have tourists come to look at abandoned coal mines, can you?"

"Therefore, they can only take precautions and develop historical and cultural resources. But there are only a few famous historical sites in the city worth developing for tourism: one is Yaowang Mountain (where Sun Simiao lived in seclusion), and the other is Chenlu Ancient Town (the site of the Yaozhou Kiln)."

"And if you want to make something of these two places, you can only deeply explore their cultural value. Let alone Yaowang Mountain, just take Chenlu Ancient Town: it originated from porcelain, thrived on porcelain, and flourished on porcelain. If you don't develop porcelain culture, what else can you develop? And the lost ancient ceramic techniques are the perfect gimmick..." Zhao Xiuneng finally understood what Lin Sicheng meant by "telling a story": using "lost ancient porcelain" as one of the cultural labels to help promote tourism culture. At the same time, relying on tourism resources to realize the combination of cultural creativity.

Under this premise, whether the ancient porcelain makes money has become secondary. To put it bluntly: this is not something for private individuals to play with.

The reason the leaders in Tongchuan were anxious was also because they sensed the policy trend and had to prepare for the next step.

The reason the district followed so closely, and the reason the school's two Deans were so excited, was also because their positions were different, and their perspectives on the problem were different. Officially, it's for the people's livelihood; privately: regardless of whether this can be done, as long as it is done, it's a political bonus...

Secretly pondering, Zhao Xiuneng paused again: I always feel like something is wrong?

This should be considered political economy, right? How does Junior Brother Lin, who studies cultural relics and plays with antiques, understand this?

Not to mention him, Wang Qi Zhi's background is special enough, and even he shouldn't understand it very well.

And what Lin Sicheng just said, that "overcapacity," "energy transformation," and "cultivating the tourism industry into a strategic pillar industry, allowing for the deep integration of culture and tourism to become a new economic growth point"—this sentence structure, this tone, why does it feel like something only found in important documents?

Huh, Professor Wang Qi Zhi's second older sister, Ye Anning's mother, seems to be in charge of things in this area...

Seeing Zhao Xiuneng's eyes darting around, Lin Sicheng guessed seven or eight out of ten.

It wasn't that he had read any documents, and certainly not that he had used foresight from his previous life, but that some places had already started doing this long ago.

Tongchuan was just following suit.

In fact, the concept of energy transformation existed last year: the country released the "China's Energy Conditions and Policies" white paper, which clearly stated that China had officially embarked on the path of energy transformation.

"Cultivating the tourism industry to become a new growth point for the national economy" was an economic policy that began to be implemented at the end of the last century.

However, most places were relatively slow to react, or simply didn't take it seriously. And those who combined these two policies and saw the unusual nature of it were few and far between, as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

But some places are wickedly fast, for example, Shanxi: this year, Mayor Geng officially took office in Datong, and he is about to take drastic measures immediately.

There are even people whose concepts for governing and developing a locality are released even earlier than the state's policies, almost synchronized with the research time of the Policy Research Office.

For example, Mayor Geng: in '93, he spent 50 million to renovate a dilapidated courtyard in Lingshi County...

"Senior Brother, in any case, don't think about this matter; even if you do, it's just throwing money away, and you won't even hear a sound. If you really can't sit still, once the project is established with the Palace Museum Porcelain Research Institute, Sweet White Glaze and Thin-body Porcelain are worth a try. If Senior Brother still doesn't feel satisfied by then, then go all the way: Chicken Cup..." "Ah? Can the Palace Museum agree?"

Recalling the project proposal that had just been taken away by Director Liu and Director Bao, Zhao Xiuneng was startled, "Even if the Palace Museum agrees, the district won't agree, right?" Lin Sicheng, however, was dismissive: I have drafted half a cabinet of thesis manuscripts, what is there that cannot be agreed upon?

To put it bluntly: whether it is North Song Dynasty Yingqing Porcelain, Ming Dynasty Sweet White Glaze, or Thin-body Porcelain, including Yuan Dynasty Egg White Glaze, Ming Dynasty Dehua White Thin-body Ware, as well as Hejin Porcelain and Hozhou Porcelain, they are all the same type of craft technology.

Of course, the differences are also significant: raw materials, body shape, Carving Embryo, thickness, and the most critical Glazing technology. But the problem is, the time Lin Sicheng took to restore these several types of crafts did not differ much.

When Department Head Wu Hui and Division Chief Sun Jiamu were invited to visit the school, these types of crafts had basically been completely deciphered; he had even fired them successfully. Over these past few months, Grandfather has continuously improved and perfected them based on the materials he left behind, basically reaching a simulation degree of over ninety percent. No matter who he cooperates with, no matter which unit establishes the project, it only needs to be verified, or reverse-engineered.

The reason for cooperating with the Palace Museum and having the district government put its name on it is the same principle as the BTA Slow-Release Technology: the cooperating units don't need to invest much, but the benefits are numerous.

And for Lin Sicheng, only by cooperating with a unit like the Palace Museum Porcelain Research Institute can the benefits be maximized. Just look at one point: the four characters "Ming and Qing Palace Museum" alone are worth hundreds of millions in advertising fees. This time unit is only calculated in "years," and it can be continuous...

Lin Sicheng sighed and pointed to the document on the table: "Zhao Shixiong, take this back and read it. If you don't understand it, find a Lawyer who handles commercial lawsuits and have them explain it to you line by line..."

Zhao Xiuneng was stunned and realized belatedly: "Junior Brother, you mean: the patent rights are with us?"

"Of course, just like the Changguan Glaze and BTA Slow-Release Technology!"

If even the patent rights cannot be protected, why would he spend so much effort and so much time restoring this thing?

Zhao Xiuneng was ecstatic: Why didn't you say so earlier?

If he had known there was still this, what would he need Changguan Glaze for?

Seeing his excited expression, Lin Sicheng poured cold water at the right time: "Zhao Shixiong, the investment might be very large, estimated to be in the tens of millions. If we want to rely on this to make money, to make big money, then it must be at least in the hundreds of millions!"

"I know!" Zhao Xiuneng nodded vigorously, "Telling a story, right!"

For Lin Sicheng, the craft technology is definitely not a problem. Raw materials, equipment, and labor might cost a bit more, but around ten million is more than enough. The key lies in promotion; one must form brand competitiveness.

Going on CCTV is definitely unnecessary, but in the world of antiques, or to be more precise: one must stir up heat in the art circle.

Zhao Xiuneng rubbed his hands: "Junior Brother, about when shall we start!"

"Around May Day, first build a small earthen kiln in Beijing and try firing a few batches!"

"Good, then May Day!"

By that time, the Palace Museum Porcelain Research Institute would have just established the project.

Even with mature technology, it is impossible to produce results just after establishing a project. Even if it's just for show, it will take a few months.

For example, the Cultural Relics Research Institute, officially cooperated in August, and by the time the BTA Technology was announced to the public, it was already November. And what was announced were only phased results. Thin-body Porcelain is ancient porcelain research, the cycle will be even longer; the first stage of academic disclosure will take at least a year.

This means that even if someone wants to compete with him, they will be a full year behind him.

Zhao Xiuneng was full of confidence: As the old saying goes, he who strikes first gains the advantage.

After asking clearly about the general situation, Zhao Xiuneng took the project proposal to find a Lawyer.

After he left, Lin Sicheng picked up his phone again, preparing to call Qin Tao (a core Researcher at the Center) to ask about the progress of the archaeological project in Shanxi. But before the number was dialed, the phone rang. Lin Sicheng glanced at it and quickly answered: "Mom!"

A sigh came from the phone: "Son, the meal has been ready for almost three hours... both families are waiting for you..."

Lin Sicheng was stunned, sweat on his head: he had forgotten...