Material Empire

From a long distance, Lu Jianzhong, the gatekeeper outside the entrance of Dongdaogou Village, saw the Mercedes-Benz driving in his direction.

In recent years, due to the prosperity of the steel market, many people in Xingchuan County have become rich due to steelmaking and coking. In addition to building houses and buying gold, the group of people who got rich first also had another hobby of buying high-end cars. In Xingchuan County, there are one to two hundred high-end cars of various brands. Even the children in the village can accurately recognize the signs of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

Lu Jianzhong can be regarded as a person who has seen a little bit of the world. He has been to the provincial capital several times. Cuban cigars, he only heard later that the price of this cigar is enough for his monthly salary, which has made him proud to this day. As a knowledgeable person, he has done some research on the grades of cars, so when he saw Qin Hai and Xin Jinlong's Mercedes Benz 600, he knew that this must be a super boss, because Xing The car that the richest business owner in Chuan County rides is not as luxurious as this car.

"Boss, where are you from?"

Seeing the car driving in front of him, Lu Jianzhong grinned and leaned forward, chatting up the man who looked like a bodyguard sitting in the passenger seat.

"What do you do?" Ge Dongyan, who was sitting on the side seat, rolled down the window and asked Lu Jianzhong with a dark face.

"I'm the guard of Dongdaogou Village... Uh, because something happened to our village, outsiders are not allowed to enter casually. May I ask where the boss is from, and what's the matter with our village?" Lu Jianzhong asked.

Ge Dongyan turned his head and seemed to ask Xin Jinlong for some instructions, then turned around and said to Lu Jianzhong, "Our boss Xin is behind us. We came from Yunjiang. Why don't we come to your village? Besides buying steel, what else can we do?" ?”

"Oh, so it's the boss who came to buy steel." Lu Jianzhong's face became more attractive. In the past two years, there have been many foreign bosses who have come to Dongdaogou Village to buy steel. These people are from Dongdaogou Village The God of Wealth needs to be served by good students. Dongdaogou Village started out by engaging in small iron and steel, and produced many small bosses, but compared with the big bosses from outside, they are insignificant. Because of this, everyone is full of awe towards foreign bosses.

"I don't know which factory the bosses have made an appointment with. Would you like me to guide you?" Lu Jianzhong asked attentively.

Xin Jinlong, who was sitting in the back row, also rolled down the window, revealing his chubby face with elements of nouveau riche, and said, "We came here specially because we heard that Dongdaogou has steel products. As for which factory we are talking about, we will I don’t know, it would be the best if you can lead me down the road.…This is for you, save it to buy a few packs of cigarettes.”

As he said that, Xin Jinlong threw two banknotes at Lu Jianzhong like throwing waste paper. Lu Jianzhong caught them quickly and took a closer look. They were both hundred-yuan bills. All stretched out one by one.

"Thank you boss, thank you boss, come with me, I will take you to the largest Tongxin steel factory in our village first." Lu Jianzhong raised the crossbar at the entrance of the village, let Qin Hai and his car enter the village, and then walked all the way Xiao Pao led the way for the car and led them to a steel factory at the east end of the village.

"Xiaomei, Xiaomei, is Dashuang here? A big boss has come to Yunjiang and wants to buy steel products. Quickly ask Dashuang to come out to pick up the customers."

Outside the gate of the factory with the words "Tongxin Steel Factory" hanging, Lu Jianzhong stopped and shouted out of breath to a girl who was chatting with someone at the gate. The owner of Tongxin Steel Factory is named Lu Dashuang, who is considered to be Lu Jianzhong's distant nephew. This Xiaomei is Lu Dashuang's cousin, who works as an accountant in the factory, and is very familiar with Lu Jianzhong.

"Uncle Jianzhong, look at how sweaty you are running. What did you say just now to ask our boss to come out to pick up the guests? Are you afraid that our boss will tear your mouth off?" Xiaomei joked to Lu Jianzhong with a giggle.

Lu Jianzhong was a little embarrassed, and said: "I am his uncle, how dare he tear my mouth? Xiaomei, stop making trouble, go and ask Dashuang to come out. I brought a big boss. Look at their car. knew."

At this time, Xiaomei also noticed Da Ben who was slowly driving behind Lu Jianzhong. She stuck out her tongue and ran into the factory to call for someone.

The Mercedes-Benz stopped in the open space at the gate of the factory, and Ge Dongyan got out of the car first, and opened the rear door. Xin Jinlong and Qin Hai came down one after the other, Xin Jinlong with his hands behind his back, looking like a boss. Qin Hai followed half a step behind him, carrying a briefcase in his hand, like a full-on follower. Ge Dongyan waited for the two of them to get out of the car, closed the car door, and then stood on the other side behind Xin Jinlong, scanning everything around him like a falcon.

"Boss Xin, wait a moment. I've sent someone to call Boss Dashuang. He'll come out soon." Lu Jianzhong approached Xin Jinlong and said respectfully.

"Well, okay." Xin Jinlong snorted, and then asked, "What did you say about the boss of Dashuang just now? What's the last name of this boss?"

"My surname is Lu. Everyone in our village is surnamed Lu. He calls me Uncle." Lu Jianzhong explained.

A gleam of displeasure flashed across Xin Jinlong's face: "I said...you rush to lead us the way just to bring us to your nephew. Are you trying to trick us?"

Hearing Xin Jinlong's words, Ge Dongyan suddenly withdrew his gaze from wandering around, and stared at Lu Jianzhong's face. Being stared at by him, Lu Jianzhong shivered involuntarily, and quickly waved his hands to defend: "No, no, Boss Xin, please don't get me wrong, everyone in our village is relatives, and the bosses of other factories also have relatives. Some call me uncle, and some call me grandpa. This Tongxin Steel Factory is the largest factory in our village, and even the county magistrate Gao..."

"Lu Jianzhong, you're chewing your tongue again!" Before Lu Jianzhong could finish speaking, a stern voice came from behind and interrupted his words. Qin Hai turned his head and saw a man in his thirties striding out from the factory gate, and gave Lu Jianzhong a fierce look.

"Uh uh...Da Shuang, I didn't say anything." Lu Jianzhong was obviously very afraid of this distant nephew. Just now, in order to prove to Xin Jinlong that he was not favoritism, he almost gave Gao Xuejian, the county magistrate, a stake in Tongxin Steel Factory. The secret was revealed. This kind of thing is indeed no secret in Dongdaogou Village, but it is a big taboo to tell outsiders. Lu Jianzhong said something wrong and was caught by Lu Dashuang, so how could he not feel scared.

"Are you here to buy steel?" Lu Dashuang ignored Lu Jianzhong, but turned his attention to Xin Jinlong and his party. He sized up all three of them before he asked Xin Jinlong a question.

"Are you the boss of this factory?" Xin Jinlong did not answer Lu Dashuang's words directly, but pouted at the factory and asked arrogantly.

Lu Dashuang was not angry because of Xin Jinlong's unreasonableness. On the contrary, he felt that Xin Jinlong's behavior was like a real big boss. As a boss who comes here in a Mercedes-Benz 600, how can he be led by others to talk about it? At any time, he should be the one leading the topic. Xin Jinlong did not answer Lu Dashuang's question, but instead asked Lu Dashuang's identity in an anti-customer manner, which matched his response.

"Yes, I opened this factory." Lu Dashuang replied.

"Can you roll rebar?" Xin Jinlong asked again.

"All kinds of steel can be rolled." Lu Dashuang said.

"What's the price for 12 rebar?" Xin Jinlong asked.

"How about... let's talk inside?" Lu Dashuang basically believed in Xin Jinlong's identity through this conversation, and he made an inviting gesture to Xin Jinlong, with a smile on his face at the same time.

Qin Hai, Xin Jinlong, and Ge Dongyan followed Lu Dashuang into the factory gate. Qin Hai saw that the factory area of ​​the factory was not very big, just about five or six acres of land. Half of the factory area is a simple workshop, and there are several simple rooms next to it, which should be Lu Dashuang's own office and administrative users such as the accounting room. The other half of the area is the stockyard of the factory, where there are piles of scrap steel and finished steel covered with felt cloth, as well as some equipment accessories and the like.

The entire factory has no on-site management at all, things are stacked in a disorderly manner, and the workshop does not meet the requirements for ventilation and fire protection. Years of smoke and fire have made the factory area dirty and dirty, and the workers who occasionally come in and out are also sloppy, which makes people lack confidence in the products of this factory at first sight.

"Let's go directly to the workshop and have a look. We can talk while watching to save time." Seeing that Lu Dashuang was about to take his party to his office, Xin Jinlong stopped him and pointed to the workshop with indisputable words. Kiss suggested.

"Well, okay." Lu Dashuang didn't care too much. He knew the virtues of his workshop, but he also knew that those who could go to Dongdaogou Village to buy steel were profiteers who didn't have high requirements for the quality of steel. . It is impossible for a formal construction team or real estate company to accept this kind of steel made in the village, but anyone with some experience knows that the steel produced here must be of low quality.

Everyone followed Lu Dashuang into the workshop. The situation in the workshop was even more chilling. An intermediate frequency electric furnace stood in a corner of the workshop, next to it was an old rolling mill, and there were some ugly casting moulds. Because it was daytime, the electric furnace was not working, and some workers were using cutting machines to decompose scrap steel, which was the preparation work before smelting.

This is also the characteristic of these small steel mills. In order to save costs and avoid the impact of excessive power load on the power grid, these small steel mills generally choose to smelt scrap steel at night. This time belongs to the trough of the grid load. The power supply department will also give discounts on tiered electricity prices.

Seeing such a crude production site, Ge Dongyan couldn't help grinning, but both Xin Jinlong and Qin Hai looked indifferent, because they had expected this scene.