Chapter 449: The Cunning Wang An

Soon, Wang An arrived in the county. After checking his watch and thinking for a moment, he headed straight for the brick factory.

A few days ago, when preparing timber, Wang Li had approached Wang An, wanting him to help order 100,000 bricks.

However, later, when excavating the ancient tomb, Wang Daliang changed his mind, saying they should order 200,000 bricks—100,000 blue bricks and 100,000 red bricks.

He had been too busy yesterday, but today, he had to get this matter handled.

In less than 20 minutes, Wang An arrived at the brick factory. At that moment, the factory director, Comrade Hao Dayou, was pacing back and forth between the stacks of bricks and tiles, looking distressed.

It was clear that this courtyard full of bricks and tiles had truly become a source of heartache for Hao Dayou.

In truth, the 900,000-plus bricks and tiles Wang An had bought last time had solved the factory's immediate crisis, but as a factory, it needed money at all times to keep running.

Especially the wages for the brick factory workers; every month was a significant expense. Having no money was the most fundamental and practical problem.

Yet, the bricks and tiles just wouldn't sell!

A brick factory that only spent money and didn't bring any in—never mind a brick factory, even a gold mine couldn't sustain that!

Therefore, seeing Wang An arrive, Comrade Hao Dayou was filled with joy, his eyes practically glowing green.

Seeing Hao Dayou, Wang An greeted him with a smile:

"Doing well lately, Big Brother?"

Although Hao Dayou was full of smiles, it turned into a bitter laugh, and he complained:

"Not well, not well at all. You tell me, such good bricks, why can't they sell?"

Wang An looked at Hao Dayou with a chuckle, not answering his question, but instead pondering in his heart how he could get Hao Dayou to voluntarily "donate" some bricks and tiles.

The main thing was that the courtyard cleared by the bulldozer was truly too large—a full 30 mu of land! The courtyard walls alone would require a lot of bricks, and later, when building the deer sheds, sheep sheds, chicken coops, and pig pens, the number of bricks needed would be astronomical.

Although there were quite a few bricks at home, if all those structures were built, he might have to keep buying bricks halfway through.

Wang An pondered for a while, then, pinching his fingers like a charlatan, he bluffed to Hao Dayou: "I've calculated this, and your brick factory is about to have a big deal coming its way."

Sensing there was more to Wang An's words, Hao Dayou put away his smile and asked with a face full of confusion:

"A big deal? What big deal, little brother?"

In truth, the big deal Wang An spoke of was simply the county government.

Because Wang An remembered that in his past life, it was around May or June of this year that the county was going to build an office building and establish the County No. 2 Middle School.

And this No. 2 Middle School was a combined junior and senior high school; along with the teaching buildings and dormitory buildings, it would seriously require quite a lot of bricks and tiles.

It could be said that this matter didn't have much to do with Wang An, because the county only had this one brick factory; no matter what they wanted to build, they would have to use bricks from this factory.

But the cunning Wang An wanted to use this information to bluff some benefits out of Hao Dayou.

Wang An feigned mystery and smiled, but directly changed the subject: "After the thaw, my younger brother's family is also building a house. I came here intending to order another 200,000 bricks, 100,000 blue and 100,000 red."

Hao Dayou was still pondering the "big deal" Wang An had mentioned, so he didn't really pay much attention to the 200,000 bricks.

Hao Dayou said very seriously:

"Big brother, what's this about the big deal you mentioned? Why did it leave me, your older brother, so confused?"

Wang An smiled mysteriously again but stopped talking. Seeing this, Hao Dayou immediately reacted and hurriedly greeted Wang An: "Come inside, big brother. I got some good tea a couple of days ago. Let's go inside and have a taste."

To tell the truth, in this place in the Northeast, alcohol was the mainstream, and tea culture had never really had much of a presence.

However, after Wang An went to the South in his past life, he drank tea basically every day, so he was still very fond of it.

It was also only then that Wang An realized why the South was relatively wealthy while the North was quite a bit worse off.

Regarding the general environment, one aspect was the climate.

By comparison, the South had very short winters and very long summers; with one rising and the other falling, the time available to create economic value was relatively much more sufficient.

On the other hand, it was the geographical location; the South was close to the sea and had many ports, so foreign trade developed very well, and trade, naturally, could drive economic development.

The final aspect was the difference in business concepts; the South had quite a lot of merchant groups and chambers of commerce, meaning people were very focused on doing business.

But in the North, people didn't really study doing business; they were mainly keen on stability, like working in an office or being a factory worker.

All of the above were the general environment, or the overall situation.

However, in Wang An's view, this North-South difference was mainly related to "people," or more accurately, related to alcohol and tea.

As everyone knows, Northerners like to drink alcohol, while Southerners like to drink tea.

In the North, especially during the winter slack season, it was common for three or five people to sit on the kang, prepare two random dishes, and start drinking.

No exaggeration, once they started drinking, they could drink from morning to noon, from noon to night, and sometimes from night until the next morning—that was also a normal situation.

You can imagine, alcohol, especially white spirits—drinking a little is fine, but if you drink too much, then no matter who you are, you'll be muddled.

You have to know that doing business is something that requires brainpower; at the very least, you have to keep a clear head.

So if people are all muddled from drinking, their consciousness isn't clear, and they can't even recognize who is sitting across from them, what business can they do? If it were you, could you figure out any good projects or good ideas?

But in the South, it was usually three or five people sitting together, brewing a pot of tea, and chatting while drinking tea.

After chatting a lot, naturally, they would start studying how to make money. With everyone putting in their two cents, working together, methods for making money would be born.

You have to know that tea is something that makes you clearer the more you drink it; sometimes, if you drink too much, you're so clear-headed you can't sleep.

And when you can't sleep, wouldn't you continue to ponder how to make money?

Therefore, in Wang An's view, the reason the North was worse off economically than the South was simply because they drank too much "alcohol."

As the saying goes: "Three cups of wine in the vast red dust, a pot of tea for a thousand-year great cause."

The original intent of the first half of the sentence was actually that the chaotic affairs of the secular world were discussed over three cups of wine.

And the meaning of the second half was that any great ambition in the world was worn away in a pot of tea.

Of course, Wang An didn't understand it that way; Wang An understood it literally, and it was very simple.

That is, "Drinking alcohol makes you muddled and delays things; drinking tea makes you clear-headed, which is the only way to achieve a great cause!" I have to say, Wang An's understanding actually had no flaws at all.

Wang An followed Hao Dayou into the room, watching Hao Dayou very cherishably put a pinch of tea dust into an enamel mug, and felt speechless in his heart.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 450 =====