Two days later, Zhang Hao and others boarded the passenger ship heading north. Not long after the group arrived in Minde, a big news happened.
On September 2, the government officially announced a one-hundred-billion-yuan economic revitalization plan with a resounding slogan: Build Back Better.
According to official explanations, in the next twenty to thirty years, the federal economy will focus on manufacturing and innovation.
It mainly covers modern agriculture, federal manufacturing, energy development, and restructuring supply chains, creating more than 50 million new jobs for those who lost their jobs due to the Yellowstone volcanic eruption.
Although the specific plan has not yet been released, it has already caused an uproar in society.
At Minde Times Company, Zhang Hao was inspecting the production workshop with Mayor Jiao, and the two of them received the news from their assistants at almost the same time.
"Mayor Jiao, did you know about this in advance?"
Zhang Hao probed carefully.
Mayor Jiao shook his head: "Like you, I only found out about it today, but the relevant rumors have been around for a long time, but I didn't expect the scale to be so big."
"Then what do you think about this matter?"
Zhang Hao continued to ask.
"To be honest, my first impression of this plan was that it was both unexpected and reasonable."
"Oh? Can you tell me in detail?"
Zhang Hao humbly asked for advice.
Mayor Jiao did not beat around the bush: "The biggest 'unexpected' is that the most urgent military production is missing from this plan, which makes me a little confused."
"The heroes have the same view. I also find it a bit strange. After all, the armistice agreement signed with the Europeans only lasts for three years. Does it have to be renewed after three years? Even if it can be renewed, it is impossible for the officials to make no preparations at all.
There must be something wrong here."
Zhang Hao echoed.
"That's right. The officials are indeed a little unusual this time. I guess there must be some inside story that we don't know, so that the higher-ups are absolutely sure that war can be avoided." Mayor Jiao guessed.
Zhang Hao touched his chin: "Does the Federation intend to recognize the independence of the Europeans? Or is it just a nominal unification, allowing the Europeans to have a high degree of autonomy?"
"This possibility cannot be ruled out. This is what I said is reasonable. War will only bring about lose-lose situations. Rationally, not fighting is the best choice.
If there is another all-out civil war, all mankind will be at risk of extinction. This is not alarmist, but reality. If the higher-ups really want to compromise, they can actually be forgiven."
"I'm afraid things are not that simple. Once we compromise with the Europeans, other regions will follow suit, and the federation will definitely exist in name only."
Zhang Hao said worriedly.
Mayor Jiao was inspired and suddenly had an idea: "Hey, from what you said, it might be possible. Didn't the official say they want to reorganize the supply chain? Are they preparing for future decoupling?"
"Hiss... If this is the case, things will really change." Zhang Hao's heart trembled.
"Director Zhang, you don't need to be too pessimistic. Everything has pros and cons. If the higher authorities really plan to decouple from overseas, it may not be all bad. At least for you, Director Zhang, it will definitely be a rare opportunity."
"Opportunity?" Zhang Hao smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Mayor Jiao, let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. My only wish now is for stability. No matter how good the opportunity is before me, I don't want to get involved."
Mayor Jiao heard the other party's attitude, so he quickly advised: "Director Zhang, you can't give up. So many people in our Minde rely on you to make a living..."
"Mayor Jiao, I didn't say let go. What I meant was to maintain the status quo and not to expand blindly anymore."
Zhang Hao said seriously.
Mayor Jiao breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel a little regretful: "Director Zhang, you might as well think about it again, the situation is not as complicated as you think. Besides, based on my many years of experience, as long as we follow the above, most of the time we will be fine.
It can’t be wrong.”
"Mayor Jiao, you don't need to persuade me anymore. I still owe tens of billions of foreign debts. The burden is very heavy and I am really powerless. But the Tongxinhui can think of more ways." Zhang Hao thought, "
"Disaster water" is diverted eastward.
"Okay! Please then."
Mayor Jiao nodded helplessly.
Next, the inspection work ended hastily, and Mayor Jiao hurried back to the city hall without even eating lunch.
…
As soon as Mayor Jiao left, Zhou Jianneng appeared in front of Zhang Hao. He had been on a business trip in Fucheng, the capital, for the past few days and did not finish his work until last night.
This morning, I immediately took the train and rushed back.
"Director Zhang, where is Mayor Jiao?"
"gone."
Zhou Jianneng was stunned: "So soon? Didn't you say there was another symposium in the afternoon?"
"It was temporarily canceled. Didn't you watch the news?"
Zhang Hao replied.
"News? What happened?"
Zhou Jianneng frowned.
In order to rush for time, he worked until about four o'clock in the morning last night, basically dozing off along the way.
Zhang Hao didn't waste any words and handed over the official announcement he had just printed.
Zhou Jianneng was overjoyed after reading the announcement: "Tsk, tsk, one hundred billion is simply unprecedented. The higher-ups are finally going to take action. If not, it will be too late."
"Uncle Zhou, don't be too quick to be happy. It's hard to say how effective this wave of stimulus policies will be. We can't be blindly optimistic," Zhang Hao reminded.
"Director Zhang, this is one hundred billion..."
Zhou Jianneng's tone was filled with disbelief.
Zhang Hao waved his hand and expressed his attitude on the spot: "Although severe cases require strong medicine, there are exceptions to everything. We just issued more than 50 trillion yuan in July, and this time it is 100 billion yuan. There is too much uncertainty."
Well, I think it’s better to be more conservative.”
"Director Zhang, we can't miss this opportunity in vain. If we don't catch up now, the gap between us and BYD will only widen."
Zhou Jianneng's face was full of anxiety.
Zhang Hao spread his hands and directly showed his cards: "Uncle Zhou, please calm down. I said conservatism. I didn't say no development. In fact, what I object to is radical expansion."
In other words, what he opposed was high leverage.
"Director Zhang, are you serious?"
Zhou Jianneng was a little hesitant.
Zhang Hao nodded: "Uncle Zhou, I hope you can stand on my side."
"I……"
"It's not urgent. Uncle Zhou, you can go back and think about it carefully."
Zhou Jianneng gritted his teeth: "Xiao Hao, if the board of directors objects, what are you going to do?"
"Cold salad." Zhang Hao made a little joke casually, and then said sincerely: "Uncle Zhou, I hope that Minde Times will be a high-tech company instead of a simple OEM. OEMs have no future."
"I see."
Zhou Jianneng nodded slightly.
In order to ease the atmosphere, Zhang Hao immediately changed the subject and asked about Zhou Hengming's work situation.
"It's generally going smoothly. The power plant is expected to be put into use in March or April next year. By then, it will significantly improve the city's power shortage problem."
"Is there a shortage of electricity here in Minde recently?"
Zhou Jianneng couldn't help but sigh: "Starting from last month, I can basically only work three days a week, and I can only take holidays at other times."
"So serious?" Zhang Hao asked in surprise.
"Alas, Mindong is not even a third-tier city and cannot compete with those big cities. Moreover, it is winter in Australia and the coal production capacity is less than half of that in summer. There is nothing we can do about it."
"Didn't the city stock up on firewood?"
"Mayor Jiao said that the firewood is the city's emergency energy source and cannot be used easily. This winter may not be easy, and heating needs to be ensured as a priority."
Zhou Jianneng explained patiently.
Zhang Hao suddenly smiled bitterly: "I'm sorry that all my previous reminders were useless and of no help to our company. I wasted so much time in vain."
"Speaking of which, the firewood stockpile is still low. If there were enough firewood, the city wouldn't have to worry about it."
Zhou Jianneng explained.
"I really hope the power plant can be built soon."
…
At around nine o'clock in the evening, Zhang Hao finally found time and came to Zhongxin Agricultural Company, the small plantation invested by Zhang Xu and others.
The plantation is located in the northern suburbs of Minde City, about dozens of kilometers away from the urban area. It was originally a large rural area, but was later requisitioned by Minde officials and directly transformed into a planting base to facilitate unified management.
"Zhang Hao, you're here, have you eaten?"
Zhang Xu said with enthusiasm.
Zhang Hao nodded: "I ate at the guest house, your place is pretty good!"
"It's not bad, not as good as those big plantations." Zhang Xu paused, and then said with envy: "The three of us have visited many big plantations since we arrived here. It's really hard to know.
We were shocked. This is called professionalism. It was completely beyond our expectations."
"There's no need to compare with them, let's just be ourselves." Zhang Hao comforted him as he walked.
No one knows the model of large plantations better than him. If employment issues were not considered, the entire park could achieve fully automated and intelligent production without the need for a few employees.
Li Ningtao interjected: "Zhang Hao, those large plantations are too competitive. In order to avoid direct competition with them, we plan to find another way, not to grow food, but to grow cash crops. What do you think?"
"Can the WFP agree?"
Everyone knows that cash crops are highly profitable, especially sugar cane and tobacco. The profits are dozens of times that of ordinary grains. If there were no restrictions, it is estimated that most plantations would choose to grow cash crops.
"Zhang Hao, don't worry. With the relationship between Tongxinhui, this is not a problem." Zhang Xu rushed to answer.
"Okay, so what are you going to plant?"
Zhang Hao followed closely and asked.
"Beet." Li Ningtao replied softly.
Zhang Hao nodded: "It's a wise move. Compared to sugar cane, sugar beet is undoubtedly much easier to grow."
Sugarcane requires a high-temperature and high-humidity environment, which cannot be met by ordinary plantations. In dreams, growing sugar beets is the absolute mainstream.
On the contrary, sugar cane is more of a fruit, and its yield is less than one ten thousandth of that of sugar beet.
Zhang Xu smiled: "Actually, I wanted to plant sugar cane at first. After all, sugar cane has high yield, but then I found out that the construction cost of a small sugar cane plantation is five or six times that of an ordinary plantation, which is not something we can get involved in.
"
"It's not necessary. Cost aside, sugar beets can withstand low temperatures and are much less risky than growing sugar cane."
Zhang Hao shook his head.
While chatting, everyone put on their safety helmets and began to enter the plantation under construction.
Zhang Xu quickly introduced: "The factories here are all built by the city, with water, electricity and heating. We only need to pay rent every year."
"How much is the annual rent?"
Zhang Hao asked casually.
"Based on the area, we have a total of 1,500 square meters here, and the annual rent is 3 million. However, the city has preferential policies. The rent is free for the first five years, and the rent is halved for the next five years." Zhang Xu replied.
"The rent is quite cheap."
Zhang Hao nodded subconsciously.
This is not surprising. Whether it is a big city or a small city, they all hope that their food production will be as high as possible. The higher the food production, the more food they will share.
Zhang Kun couldn't help but interjected: "Not only is the rent cheap, but the water, electricity and heating bills are the big ones. If you can eliminate these three things, then you can really make a lot of money."
"You don't have to worry too much. In my opinion, growing sugar beets is much more beneficial than growing grain."
"I hope so. I hope the WFP will be more generous and not lower the purchase price too low."
Zhang Xu said worriedly.
Zhang Hao smiled confidently: "Compared with other crops, sugar beet is relatively niche. In addition, our planting scale is small and the cost is difficult to control. We should be able to get a good price."
"If so, that would be great."
Zhang Xu and others showed a sense of relief.
Half an hour later, everyone ended their visit. In fact, there was nothing interesting about the factory. It was similar to other plantations. The only thing worth mentioning was that the park did not use soilless cultivation technology, but a traditional model.
It is the most common type of land cultivation.
In Zhang Xu's words, it's not that they don't want to adopt more advanced and more convenient soilless cultivation technology, but the main reason is that the cost is too high to be worthwhile.
Before leaving, Li Ningtao hesitated for a while and finally asked a question:
"Zhang Hao, I believe you also know that the government has just announced a stimulus plan worth hundreds of billions. To put it bluntly, the government is going to release a lot of money.
In the afternoon, the three of us had a brief discussion and decided to strike while the iron was hot and rent two more factories of the same size. What do you think?"
This involves a loan, which definitely requires Zhang Hao's guarantee. The three of them are not qualified for this.
Zhang Hao ignored the feelings of the three of them and poured cold water on them: "Cousin, I don't think it's necessary. The current situation is unstable and there is no need for us to take risks."
Perhaps realizing that his words were not tactful enough, he immediately gave another red date:
"With so many plantations across the federation, there will definitely be a major reshuffle in the next few years. It's not time to expand now. You can still pick up ready-made ones after two or three years."
"Okay, we listen to you."
With people under the roof, the three of them could only give up.
After returning to the Minde era, Zhang Hao worked hard for more than a week and finally embarked on his return journey.
Unfortunately, he ultimately failed to convince other members of the Minde Times board of directors.
In order to express his dissatisfaction, he chose to withdraw in time and then took the opportunity to sell most of the stocks, except for a symbolic retention of one million shares.
In less than a year, the net profit was more than 5 billion.
It’s not like all the hard work was in vain.
As for the Tesla used car recycling company, he did not withdraw his shares. Not only that, he also invested all the money from selling the stocks and planned to build several branches in coastal cities.
The reason is simple. Regardless of the outcome, there will be a large-scale infrastructure construction frenzy across the entire federation, and in a low-risk industry like resource recycling, no matter how much or how little you make, at least you will not lose money.
Stability is his first pursuit.
(End of Volume 1)
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