Chapter 126: Ghostly Shadows over Jiangzhou

Rang Weidong, treating the situation like a desperate gamble, proposed his plan: "I’ve contracted a truck and I’m planning to start running routes to Yuezhou from June. I aim to make one round trip every month. I have supplies to transport there and goods to bring back, and I can take advantage of the trip to haul some of the latest goods from Yuedong to sell. If the factory’s trucks are sitting idle, you could establish a transport service here in Jiangzhou. I won’t take a cut of your profits."

His original intention was that he didn't care for such meager earnings.

The driver nodded repeatedly, though he knew the rules and kept his silence.

However, to the factory director—stuck in a remote mountain location with no other options—it was clear that someone with expertise was needed: "We still have seven trucks. Three are old and worn from hauling ore for years, but they still run. Come, you must come. As long as we can solve some of the livelihood problems for our drivers and staff, you’ll know how to manage it."

Rang Weidong was concerned that if Gou Dan and the others went out with just one Dongfeng truck, what would they do if they encountered road bandits?

If they organized several trucks into a fleet, the safety coefficient for their travels would be much higher.

Unexpectedly, when he mentioned this, Director Zhao gritted his teeth: "Whoever dares to rob our goods will have to face a fight to the death. We have a security department with guns; we’ll just bring them along!"

Having spent the eighties and nineties in the tax office, Rang Weidong truly hadn't known this.

Upon asking, he learned that not only such secretive military factories, but even ordinary state-owned factories, basically maintained their own militia platoons.

In years past, they had organized target practice every quarter, full of the spirit that if imperialist aircraft dared to invade, they would shoot them down.

Thus, these Third-Front military factories, which were always on guard against sabotage by enemy agents, possessed formidable firepower—they even had anti-aircraft machine guns!

Moreover, it was perfectly in line with policy for them to carry such weapons on their trips.

Rang Weidong agreed: "Fine. In any case, you’ll have a titanium ingot on each truck. If anyone asks, you’re out looking for sales, so it’s not considered neglecting your proper duties. You can carry other goods along the way. Let me think, let me think this through carefully. The factory still needs to keep some trucks for hauling ore, but for the better ones, four or five trucks per trip will surely need to be loaded both ways to avoid losing money."

Coming back was easy; just hauling truckloads of clothes would earn plenty. The key was that driving back empty-handed was not cost-effective.

Even if they produced at full capacity, the volume of snacks, sanitary napkins, and cameras being sold toward Yuezhou would be significant for a single truck.

Come to think of it, his products were all items with relatively small volume and weight but high value.

Shipping four or five trucks a month might be more than they could sell.

As for the tape recorders at hand... they were nothing special in the south, and Rang Weidong hadn't even counted on selling them there.

The factory director racked his brain as well, but their mountain facility truly had nothing else.

Instead, Dong Xueying, sitting to the side, spoke up: "Doesn't Shangzhou specialize in exporting bamboo-woven wares? Rattan chairs, bamboo chairs, various plant stands, and tea tables. Old Yu used to buy them from there several times; there is still a market for them."

Rang Weidong said: "That’s settled then. Tomorrow morning, let’s go to the street behind us and take a look. There are already quite a few clothing and appliance businesses importing from Yuedong. Let’s see if they have this demand, figure out the approximate shipping costs, and calculate how much each trip will cost so the fleet can turn a profit. We need it ourselves, too."

Director Zhao finally felt a sense of relief.

Though it didn't solve the fundamental problem, it at least eased the immediate crisis, and he took a satisfied sip of his wine.

Dong Xueqing reached out to pick up some food for Rang Weidong: "Take a look at our tape recorder. The school almost kept me at the factory, but I wanted to go home, so I didn't stay in Rongdu."

Rang Weidong examined the small repeater, which had been made to look like a book according to his instructions. It wasn't quite refined yet, but it already looked the part: "I’ll listen to it at the shop tonight and then we'll see. The basic issues are mostly resolved. Now it depends on what we advertise first among the four products... Wait, did you just say this recorder is already being test-marketed in Rongdu?"

Fengchu hurriedly flipped through her notebook: "The samples were ready after May Day. I even went to help with the assembly. People at the factory had already started trying to sell them on the market. They sold quite well. Yes, I even took one to the office to find Secretary Zhang, but I couldn't find him, and there was no one to consult. How should we sell them?"

Rang Weidong finally understood: "So the sales of this recorder bypassed me, huh? Haha, I was wondering... the 'X' logo on this machine looks like it was made in a rush."

Dong Xueqing’s face changed immediately: "Let me see!" Her face began to flush with heat.

Rang Weidong pointed it out to her with the tip of his chopsticks.

In those days, appliance trademarks were either small pieces of sheet metal riveted to the casing or plastic-molded logos with two small pins on the back that could be pressed into holes drilled in the shell.

At a time when brand awareness wasn't strong, this was more like an identification code.

So, one could see the clues in the "X" trademarks on the two recorders.

Rang Weidong had encouraged the manufacturer to make the product look substantial, suggesting they use larger speakers. The core mechanism remained the same, but it looked very impressive. This unit had two speakers, each as large as a soccer ball, and the overall size was like a large pillow, with metal speaker grilles that looked quite luxurious.

Coupled with the exaggerated lighting effects Rang Weidong had suggested, it would definitely be a status symbol in any home.

The trademark on the corner was naturally the size of a thumb.

However, the small book-like repeater used the same large trademark, which looked extremely uncoordinated. Even though one could tell the buttons and cassette compartments were shared, the fact that they were too lazy to make a smaller trademark showed their perfunctory attitude.

Compared to the meticulous effort put into the design of the small repeater, the difference was obvious.

Rang Weidong even tried to pry the trademark off; there was only a bit of glue behind it: "Look, there are two small holes here that were the original ones; the large holes were drilled in a rush. Hahaha, they must have had the idea to sell it themselves."

Dong Xueqing had never seen such treachery in human nature. She had been the one to facilitate the cooperation with the Post and Telecommunications Equipment Factory, and Rang Weidong had provided them with all the ideas. Now, as soon as a good product was made, they had started selling it on the quiet.

She was so anxious that tears welled up: "How could they be like this! I knew they were selling them, but they said it was just to test market reaction. How, how could they do this!"

She wanted to jump up, but her sister reached out and pressed her down: "Getting anxious is useless. Stay calm and think about what can be done. Besides, look, even Weidong isn't anxious, so you should learn from how he handles it."

Dong Xueqing took a deep breath, filled with expectation and trust, and wiped her tears with her sleeve.

Rang Weidong, satisfied, teased the child first: "Call me brother-in-law, and I’ll tell you."

Dong Xueying glared, but the charm in the corner of her eyes was even more captivating.

The younger sister was shocked, but immediately filled with surprise, first hugging her sister to confirm: "Really?!"

The young lady was caught off guard and helpless: "Let's, let's say so. We’ll talk about it when we get home."

She couldn't help but poke her sister's head.

Dong Xueqing let her go, turned, and hugged Rang Weidong, cooing in a sweet voice: "Brother-in-law... tell me!"

Even Director Zhao, who had been buried in his hotpot, looked up.

Rang Weidong spoke more subtly: "Greed knows no bounds. They lack the sales capacity, yet they were overcome by greed. Now they will miss out on the initial profit from selling the 'X' brand. The advertising opportunities that might have been given to them will naturally go to others. They can regret it once they see other 'X' products become famous."

Dong Xueying chimed in to reinforce the point: "Yes, business must be built on integrity. Your equipment factory might be new to this kind of marketing and managed to sell a few units by using Weidong’s good ideas, but you’re still far from the advertising and sales methods we can employ. That makes it all the more necessary for us to show them what else we can do."

Director Zhao seemed to catch the drift.

Rang Weidong delivered the final blow: "Compared to those military radio factories, the Post and Telecommunications Equipment Factory certainly has the drive for innovation. But perhaps missing this round of advertising and sales—missing the biggest bite of the cake—is something they have only their own duplicity to blame for."

Dong Xueying, having seen much through her dealings with Yu Qili and the others, added: "I think you could try one last time to talk to them, at least to make your stance clear."

Rang Weidong was actually still exploring things himself. He felt satisfied to have a wife who was good at managing the household, and he nodded in agreement.

Director Zhao raised his glass: "I can guarantee that, apart from what is allocated by the state, we will never seek other sales channels for the titanium ingots... The annual national output is only two or three hundred tons, and I don't even know how we’ll survive."

Rang Weidong, having moved from cured meat to titanium ingots to cameras, no longer needed to rely on the sale of non-ferrous metals, and he was actually terrified that selling such things might lead to trouble.

Otherwise, the non-ferrous metal factories in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions would have already said they could ramp up to five tons per month.

He could still hold back, thanks entirely to the impressive camera sales.

But camera production, currently at eight thousand units per week, had almost reached a bottleneck. If they expanded in the photography competition, they wouldn't even need to fight for the opportunity to have a TV commercial.

So, calculating everything, Rang Weidong had already mentally prepared the opportunity for the sanitary napkins.

He smiled and raised his glass: "Give me the policy documents regarding the factory's self-sales of products, and draft an agreement authorizing me to handle sales freely. I’ll strive to sell more and negotiate a higher price with others."

Regardless of anything else, he had to cover his bases so that if something happened, he would at least have room to maneuver.

Even though he understood that in this country, such matters could carry immense weight if they were ever brought to light.

Director Zhao agreed repeatedly.

After the meal, they dispersed.

Rang Weidong simply left the office to the two sisters for their private talk that night, opting to curl up in the spicy hotpot shop for the night. He had to find a place to settle down the next day.

Dong Xueqing, however, wanted to drag her brother-in-law back with them, but her sister, looking somewhat conflicted, pulled her ear and carried the child away, intent on giving her a good lecture to vent her frustration.

Why hadn't she acted sooner? She had let someone else seize the opportunity.

There were still many details to be grilled.

As someone who had already been through it, Dong Xueying could certainly feel some of the details, and she probably had an inkling of the truth.

Auntie Wang and the elder Rang couple took the truck back to the retail shop to rest, and Director Zhao took the driver to the guesthouse across the street in the other Dongfeng truck.

The next morning, Rang Weidong invited him to browse the clothing and goods street behind them to inquire about the transport channels that those merchants used to import goods from Yuedong.

They harvested a list of shopkeepers who were eager for a stable transport channel.

Even so, Director Zhao was unwilling to do it himself: "Since you said those partner factories are so greedy and duplicitous, and coming from a technical background, I don't want to get involved in that trouble. You handle it. I’ll provide the agreement. The Hongguang Factory currently produces 80 tons of titanium a year; as long as we can sell 50 tons, we can basically support the whole factory. If you can supplement it like this, I’ll have an explanation for the factory staff. The factory next door can no longer pay wages."

Rang Weidong vaguely remembered—what did this mean? If things dragged on, the factories would go bankrupt in droves, and workers who had spent their whole lives there would be laid off.

Heavy industry in the Northeast and Third-Front factories in the Southwest were the hardest-hit groups in this round of reforms.

It all depended on whether the leaders could forge a new path at this critical moment.

As far as he could see, this Director Zhao didn't seem capable of it. If titanium weren't such a sensitive material, Rang Weidong would have really liked to take it over himself.

In any case, it was settled that once the agreements were in place, they would make adjustments for the next month. After seeing Director Zhao off, Rang Weidong ran up the stairs to the second floor, where the sisters were already refreshed and waiting to go out.

Dong Xueqing was impatient: "I have three days off. Where is our home? Where is our home!"

Rang Weidong looked at his unofficial wife. *You don't dare say we're living together? I'll say it.*

How could they have a child running around the house all day, hindering their romantic life?