Material Empire

"parking!"

A policeman stood in the middle of the road and stopped the convoy.

Bai Wanxin stepped on the brakes, poked his head out of the car window, and asked with a smile on his face: "Comrade policeman, I have a business license and I am not overloaded. I always run this line. Our Kangtai Traffic Police Team Team Zhang and Team Liu all know me, Lao Bai. You are new here, so let’s go drink together some other day.”

"I don't know Team Zhang and Team Liu." With a dark face, the policeman pointed to an open space next to him and said, "Drive all the cars over there and keep out of the way."

"Don't know Team Zhang?" Bai Wanxin was taken aback, "Aren't you from Kangtai Traffic Police Team?"

"Stop talking nonsense, drive the car over!" The policeman was annoyed, and waved his hand, "You, and the car behind, drive over and stop, turn off the engine, get out of the car and wait for inspection."

Bai Wanxin was puzzled, but he didn't dare to ask any more questions. He could only obediently follow the police's instructions and drive the car into the empty space next to him. This is an abandoned freight yard, enough to stop hundreds of large trucks. When Bai Wanxin drove the car into the freight yard, he saw some vehicles parked in front of him, and a group of people in uniform were checking something in the car.

When the drivers behind saw Bai Wanxin's car entering the freight yard, they also drove in one after another, parked in several rows, and then turned off the engine and got out of the car as the police said, waiting for inspection.

"What's in the car?" A staff member stepped forward and asked Bai Wanxin.

"Rebar." Bai Wanxin replied.

"Who is the owner?" the staff asked again.

"It's me." Lu Dashuang raised his hands and replied, unexpectedly, his heart was beating violently, thinking of the inexplicably large order that came to him, he suddenly had an ominous premonition.

"Qualification certificate, test report." The staff member stretched out a hand to him and said.

"Certificate of conformity, test report?" Lu Dashuang's eyes widened. He has been in the steel business for so many years, but he has never issued any certificate of conformity. These steel products are all inferior steel, and the word "qualified" cannot be relied upon at all. .

"Comrade, we used to transport steel, but we have never issued a certificate of conformity. Our steel... must be qualified, or can the customer accept it?" Lu Dashuang pretended to be stupid, and at the same time wondered if there was anything room for maneuver.

"The document of the State Economic and Trade Commission stipulates that in order to ensure the quality of building materials and ensure the safety of the people, a major inspection of the quality of steel products will be carried out nationwide from now on. All steel products that do not meet the quality requirements will be temporarily detained and must not flow into the construction market. For For steel products that fail to provide quality inspection reports, on-site inspection methods are adopted, and they can be released if they pass the inspection, and they will be temporarily withheld if they fail.” The staff said to Lu Dashuang with a straight face, like an endorsement.

"When did this regulation come into being? Why haven't I heard of it?" Lu Dashuang was in a hurry. Can he still not know the quality of this batch of steel? There is no need to do complicated on-site inspections at all, as long as two steel rods are knocked against each other, it will be clear at a glance. If it can not break immediately, it is considered good, as for obvious cracks, scars and the like, it goes without saying.

"This is a document that has just been issued, but the notice on the management and elimination of low-quality steel production has been issued as early as the year before last. As a steel plant owner, don't you know?" the staff asked coldly.

"I..." Can Lu Dashuang say that he doesn't know, there are so many small iron and steel factories in Xingchuan County, which one doesn't know that the country has such a policy. It's just that everyone firmly believes in the creed that there are policies above and countermeasures below, and these policies have never been taken seriously. But now the situation is different. More than a dozen trucks and nearly 800 tons of steel fell into the hands of the inspectors. This was the death of Lu Dashuang.

"Comrade, I don't know this document. Our customer is in a hurry to use this batch of steel. How about I send the steel over there first, and then send you the certificate of conformity? I promise not to be an example. As for this time, it should be You have the final say on how much the fine will be." Lu Dashuang said while winking at the staff desperately, he felt that his hint was very obvious. As long as the other party is interested, he will definitely agree with him on a place to "send the certificate". As for whether the certificate will be sent there or something else, that is a matter of heaven and earth.

Unexpectedly, the other party ignored Lu Dashuang's trouble at all. He pointed to the front not far away and said, "Go over there and go through the formalities. All the steel materials are unloaded. How many tons are there in total? The work over there The personnel will give you a receipt. At present, the state has not yet determined the final disposal method for these inferior steel products. We are only temporarily detaining them. Whether they will be confiscated or ordered to be reworked and re-smelted depends on the national policy.”

"But... we signed a contract with the customer, and if we deliver it one day late, the customer will claim compensation." Lu Dashuang argued.

The staff stared and said, "The contract your client signed with you is to purchase substandard steel? Why don't you bring your client here, as long as he dares to say that what they want is substandard steel..."

"How about that?" Lu Dashuang felt that there was a glimmer of hope.

"We detained him directly." The staff member said decisively.

"Ju..." Lu Dashuang was dumbfounded. The contract he signed with the client was in his briefcase. Of course, he remembered that the quality requirements were clearly stated in the contract. Such things as ground strip steel cannot be put on the table in itself, and both the supplier and the marketer are tacit, but it is impossible to directly state in the contract that inferior products can be accepted. The staff member asked him to call the client to the scene to confront him, which was obviously a difficult task.

"You are breaking the law! You are..." Lu Dashuang yelled. Things worth more than 1 million yuan were confiscated, and anyone who put them on it had to be impatient. The most important thing is that if this batch of steel is detained, the steel that has not been shipped later will definitely not be shipped. If the steel cannot be transported to Dalun Wharf, he will not be able to get payment for the goods. The customer's prepaid deposit is only 1.5 million, and he has already spent more than 3 million in purchasing scrap steel and smelting. Who can make up for this shortfall?

Some time ago, Lu Dashuang demolished the old house in his family and rebuilt a small four-story western-style building. He has already spent all his savings over the years, so part of the cost of the advance payment this time came from the county seat. usury. The matter of supplying customers can be discussed again, but the interest on the usury side can't be delayed for a day, and the gang of lenders have black forces behind them, and Lu Dashuang can't beat them.

"What are you shouting about? Does it make sense for you to sell steel strips?" The staff reprimanded angrily. Obviously, Lu Dashuang's reaction did not exceed his expectations. Which consignor who was detained for steel would not shout a few words ?

"Everyone came here to comment. In the past, we never said that we need to check any evidence. Now the sudden attack, isn't it deliberately embarrassing us? Is it easy for us to do business! Does the government not let us live!" While Lu Dashuang continued to yell, he used his eyes to look for other cargo owners and truck drivers in the freight yard, hoping that they could join him in clamoring and put a little pressure on each other.

What he didn't expect was that other people in the freight yard didn't respond to him at all, but cast a bunch of eyes with complicated emotions on him. There were sympathy, pity, sympathy, and more have no choice. Before Lu Dashuang, everyone had already quarreled, and the ones who made the most quarrels had already been taken away by the police to drink tea. The rest of the people did not want to drink the free tea, so they could only accept their fate in dejection.

After a lot of tossing, Lu Dashuang finally knew that he had encountered a hard problem. It is not the law enforcement officers from Kangtai County, nor even the people from Yanning Province who set up checkpoints here to inspect the steel. Bai Wanxin did see a few familiar faces among those law enforcement officers, but these people were obviously in the position of soy sauce, and it was a group of officials who did not know where they came from who really counted their words.

Lu Dashuang stood on the side of the road and observed carefully, and found that these law enforcement officers only checked the vehicles transporting steel, and ignored other vehicles. In other words, they were here for him, which reminded him of the rumor about the central working group a month ago.

It turns out that the central working group is not silent, but is waiting for everyone here. What they plan is not only to shut down their small steel mills, but also to make them deeply in debt and have no ability to turn around... Thinking of this, Lu Dashuang suddenly felt a chilling feeling.

All the drivers and cargo owners whose goods were seized were arranged to temporarily stay in a nearby guest house. Their communication tools were already confiscated when they got off the car, so that they didn't even have the opportunity to inform their family members and colleagues. For three whole days, Lu Dashuang watched helplessly as carloads of steel strips were stopped on the road. One after another, the owners of the goods experienced begging, shouting, threats, and then fell into despair.

Lu Dashuang knew some of these people, and knew that they also spent all their wealth and worked day and night to produce those sudden orders. No matter how stupid Lu Dashuang was, he could still imagine that these orders were clearly the bait placed by his working group. It's ridiculous that everyone didn't realize it at all. Many colleagues were happily talking about their dream of building a house and buying a car after finishing this order.

It's true that the cost of the bait they put in is very high, and the advance payment that Lu Dashuang got was as high as 1.5 million. But people don't have to worry, these advance payments have already been paid to the scrap steel supplier, and the goods that have been seized by themselves can be worth millions if they are re-melted as scrap steel. If the whole thing is a trap, then from the customer to the scrap steel supplier, they must all belong to the other party, and even...

usury!

A more terrifying idea flashed into Lu Dashuang's mind. Could it be that those lenders in the county were also recruited by the central working group? He thought carefully about the process of borrowing money, and the more he thought about it, the more suspicious he became.

Who is this so ruthless? Is this still the government's style of doing things?