Artificial meat companies rely entirely on policy incentives. Although they have been tepid over the years, they have not lost much money and can basically ensure a balance of payments.
For such high-tech companies, as long as they do not suffer huge losses, Zhang Hao's consistent attitude is to reduce human intervention as much as possible and let them develop.
Zhang Chongxin still trusted his eldest grandson and did not raise any objection. He quickly changed his target:
"And that special thing..."
"Dad, it's Tesla."
Zhang Hao corrected.
"I know, it's such a local company, why does it have to have a Western name?" Zhang Chongxin complained.
Zhang Guoji immediately helped answer: "Grandpa, the Tesla brand has great potential, because among the famous scientists related to electricity, besides Faraday, Tesla is the only one. My father has a very vicious vision and moves very quickly."
"Dad, your eldest grandson explained it very well. Who makes our modern science lag behind others? I am planning to directly benchmark this company against Faraday. If you don't believe me, let's wait and see." Zhang Hao said with confidence.
Zhang Chongxin showed a look of disgust: "Don't talk nonsense to me. Faraday has been acquired by BYD. What's so awesome about it? Let me tell you, today is different from the past. Your kind of thinking of worshiping foreigners... is unacceptable."
"Stop talking nonsense, let's quickly talk about Tesla's situation. Did it make money or lose money last year?"
Zhang Chongxin heard the perfunctory tone in his son's tone.
Zhang Hao smiled and nodded: "Of course I made a profit. Didn't I just say that two-thirds of the production capacity was cut during the Minde era. Tesla finally no longer has to lose money to support the parent company. It made about seven or eight dollars last year.
billion, if everything goes well this year, the profit can double again."
Since taking control of Minde Times, in order to facilitate management, under his arrangement, Tesla was directly merged into Minde Times and became a subsidiary.
In fact, Tesla has been developing very fast in recent years because of the dividends from large-scale infrastructure construction. As of last year, it had established 18 branch bases across the federation. Among the same industry, Tesla is second only to the Federal Supply and Marketing Cooperative in scale.
Affiliated Waste Management Bureau.
"If you ask me, you should have listened to me a long time ago. Well-run companies should be vigorously supported, and poorly run companies must stop losses in time. Those who should be laid off should be laid off, and those who should be closed down should not be mixed together. None of them will recover in the end.
"
"Dad, in order to control Minde Times, I spent hundreds of billions. If the company is allowed to collapse, all those investments will be in vain."
Zhang Hao spread his hands.
"Don't BYD want to acquire Minde Times? If you really can't do it, sell it, right? Just lose some money."
Zhang Chongxin frowned.
Different from the Minden era, BYD has been prosperous in recent years. With its advanced technology, its market share once exceeded 50%, making it the well-deserved leader in the automobile industry.
"You want me and BYD to surrender?" Zhang Hao raised his eyebrows when he heard this: "This is absolutely impossible! I can't swallow this breath!"
"Don't act on impulse when doing business."
Zhang Chongxin gave a sincere advice.
Zhang Hao quickly explained: "Dad, to tell you the truth, I am very optimistic about the prospects of graphene batteries. Even if I invest another 100 billion, I will be happy."
"Don't be too confident. I think you are a little arrogant now. Arrogance is often the beginning of failure..." Zhang Chongxin babbled a lot.
Seeing this, Li Dajuan quickly interrupted: "Okay, father and son, stop talking about business and eat quickly. When there is a bonfire party in the village, let's go and join in the fun together."
"Why do we have a bonfire party in such a cold weather? It's really nothing to do."
Zhang Chongxin said something that was against his will.
On a cold day, you don’t need to ask to know that you definitely have no part in it.
Li Dajuan explained casually: "Didn't the village chief change last month? This event was organized by the new village chief. He probably wanted to have some fun together."
After all, Village Chief Fan is old and has long passed the retirement age. Finally, after a vote by all the villagers, the throne of village chief was passed to the deputy village chief, Fan Youwei, the eldest son of their family.
This phenomenon is very common at the grassroots level in rural areas.
"Grandma, you are enjoying yourself with the people."
Zhang Guodong rushed to add.
"Our family An'an is so smart." Li Dajuan immediately praised her, "I also heard that the village will expand the scale of earthworm breeding in the next year."
"Aren't there just a few basements in the village? How can there be room for expansion?" Zhang Hao frowned.
"They say they are going to clear out part of the apartment, so there will be space, right?"
"Apartments? It's illegal for them to do that."
"You have to break the law. Life has not been easy for the people in the village in recent years. Who doesn't want to share more food rations? People are starving to death. How can we take care of so much?"
Li Dajuan shook his head and picked up a big chicken leg for his grandson.
Shawei Village was originally a wealthy village, but as time went by, the villagers' food reserves had long been exhausted, and they had lived a hard life for several years.
The only advantage at present is the mushroom plantation and earthworm farm in the village. Although the output is limited, it is better than nothing.
Zhang Hao immediately paid attention: "This matter is not that simple. It is not just a matter of having a venue. They are doing this illegally and cannot purchase earthworm feed at all."
Zhang Chongxin interrupted: "This is not simple. They must want to ask you for help."
"It's no use looking for me, and there's nothing I can do."
Zhang Hao shrugged.
"Why not? Don't you have 20 to 30 million tons of feed? Are you using it up so quickly?"
"That's not true." Zhang Hao shook his head and then explained the reason: "It's just that in the past two years, the authorities have suddenly tightened supervision. Now the warehouse is full of people from the WFP. I really can't help it."
"Forget it if you don't. Don't put yourself at risk. Don't forget that you still have a wife, children, and parents."
Li Dajuan quickly reminded.
Yang Huaqing on the side also looked worried.
Zhang Hao gently held his wife's hand: "Don't worry, I'm not that stupid."
"This matter cannot be delayed. You can discuss it with Boss Fan later and tell him not to mess around."
Zhang Chongxin solemnly reminded.
"I know." Zhang Hao nodded.
…
After giving out the new year's money, Zhang Hao took his wife and sons out together.
Li Dajuan did not go with him.
On the one hand, he is not too young, so he is afraid of catching a cold, so it is better to be careful; on the other hand, he also wants to stay and take care of his old man and his granddaughter, who is still sleeping soundly.
Arriving at the bonfire party, Zhang Hao quickly found the new village chief Fan Youwei.
"Lao Fan, happy New Year!"
"Director Zhang, you are here too."
Fan Youwei greeted with enthusiasm.
In recent years, the Fan family has benefited from each other a lot, and it is precisely because of this that the whole family is not hungry.
Zhang Hao smiled and nodded: "I have nothing to do at home anyway, so I might as well go out for a walk."
"You should go out for shopping more often. A busy person like you probably only has a few relaxing days during the Chinese New Year." Fan Youwei complimented.
"I can't help myself!" Zhang Hao sighed, and then asked: "Why didn't Uncle Fan come out tonight?"
"Just when we were having New Year's Eve dinner, Tiantian suddenly had a stomachache. The old man sent her to the hospital."
Fan Youwei replied.
Tiantian is the stepsister who is fifty years younger than him. The old man raised the little girl very well. She is chubby and very cute.
Zhang Hao quickly asked with concern: "Is it serious?"
After all, he also watched Tiantian grow up.
"The preliminary judgment is that it is appendicitis. The specific situation will not be finalized until they come back."
"Let me know if you have any news later."
"Yeah." Fan Youwei nodded.
After some polite remarks, Zhang Hao immediately talked about the expansion of the breeding farm. His attitude was very clear. He believed that this matter was inappropriate and unworkable.
Fan Youwei suddenly looked sad: "Director Zhang, is there no room for negotiation on this matter?"
"No, the management from above is very strict. Especially the chaos in small plantations within state-owned enterprises that was exposed in the past few years has completely blocked the road to nursing homes."
Zhang Hao said without hesitation.
"This is terrible. The news has spread. What do you want me to explain to everyone?"
Fan Youwei was so anxious that he stamped his feet.
He is now a new official and has three fires. Unexpectedly, the first fire was extinguished. This will seriously damage his prestige, and he may not be able to keep his position as village chief.
Zhang Hao quickly comforted him: "Lao Fan, actually I can't blame you entirely for this matter. Your intention was good, but it backfired..."
"Director Zhang, what do you think if we use natural soil to breed earthworms?"
Fan Youwei's mind was very flexible and he quickly grasped a life-saving straw.
"Okay, okay. I talked to Uncle Fan. The only drawback is that the breeding efficiency is too low. The more you raise, the more you lose."
Zhang Hao answered truthfully.
Fan Youwei breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay to lose money. It's hard to buy food now if you have money. In this way, it's not actually a loss."
"Lao Fan, don't rush to expand. I suggest that the village test it on a small scale first, and then consider whether to expand the scale after the results are obtained."
"Yes, yes, let's try it first before talking."
Fan Youwei nodded repeatedly.
After talking about the business, Zhang Hao turned all his attention to the bonfire party and played lively with his wife and children for two and a half hours.
Overall, the bonfire party was well organized, with fireworks shows, song and dance performances, and a lucky draw that everyone loved.
Leslie Cheung had the best luck and was the only winner among the six. He won a lucky prize. The prize was a notebook. Don’t get me wrong, it was just an ordinary notebook, not a computer.
The first prize is ten kilograms of shiitake mushrooms, which is approximately equivalent to ten kilograms of food rations. It is not the most valuable of all prizes, but it is the most popular.
…
It's early in the morning on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
A bunch of relatives came to Lao Zhang's house one after another. Before ten o'clock, the living room was full of people. Zhang Hao roughly counted them and found that there were almost seventy people.
Most of the people here live in Huicheng or Zhucheng next door. Only three families, Zhang Xu, Zhang Kun and Li Ningtao, came here from Minde after a long journey.
This is probably what "rich people in the mountains have distant relatives"!
While everyone was chatting animatedly, Cao Fan suddenly stood up and shouted:
"Fuck!"
For a moment, everyone at the scene looked sideways.
Cao Zheng immediately glared at his son: "What are you doing? Are you surprised?"
"Dad, look at your phones quickly, something big has happened."
Cao Fan said impatiently.
Zhang Hao casually took out his mobile phone, clicked on a hot search ranking list, and his eyes widened instantly.
Zhang Chongxin's eyesight was not good and he had trouble moving, so he asked directly: "What happened?"
"Grandpa, a huge meme appeared on the Internet. Someone published a top-secret file. It turns out that the Middle East war was actually staged. This is a shocking scandal." Zhang Guoji rushed to answer.
"Acting? What do you mean?"
The old man was old, his mind was a little confused, and he couldn't react for a while.
Cao Fan took over the words: "Grandpa, it means 'fake'. The Federation and the Europeans jointly staged a show and deceived all of us."
"Why are they acting?"
Zhang Chongxin expressed confusion.
"The declassified documents say that the Federation surrendered the Middle East oil depots with only one purpose, which was to deliberately organize the division of Europa, and then take advantage of the situation to throw away the burdens of the African and Middle Eastern regions."
Cao Fan explained in detail.
"Could it be a conspiracy theory?" Steve tried to question, "The purpose of the Federation is unity and common prosperity. Such an approach is completely contrary to the spirit of the Constitution. How could such a thing happen?"
"Well said, this is simply outrageous. Open the door to outrageous things. It's outrageous as hell."
Li Ningtao immediately echoed.
Upon hearing this, Cao Fan retorted: "Don't believe it. The declassified documents contain not only various meeting minutes, but also audio and video recordings. It is unlikely to be fake."
"Cao Fan is right. There are many doubts about the armistice agreement and the subsequent peace agreement. If all of this is false, it would make sense."
Zhang Hao sided with his nephew.
"Tsk, tsk, if the declassified documents are true, then Consul Ji will definitely be blamed. I'm afraid he will retire early, and he might even have to go to a military court."
Zhang Xu gloated.
During the years when Archon Ji was in power, he made great contributions to post-disaster reconstruction, but it also caused dissatisfaction among many people, especially the increasingly tense food rations issue.
Zhang Chen retorted on the spot: "Consul Ji has only the last six months of his term left. If he really steps down early, to be honest, he won't suffer much loss.
Moreover, regardless of whether he is in office or at the end of his term, the consul enjoys absolute judicial immunity. Even if this incident was really planned by him, there is nothing he can do about it."
The reason why there is such a provision.
Mainly because the federation is too big and internal conflicts are serious. If the basic safety of the consuls cannot be guaranteed, basically nothing will be done.
Steven still insisted on his judgment: "I still think it is unlikely. If it is really an act, there is no need to destroy the Djibouti military port or even ignite the oil well. These losses are not light.
In addition, although the casualties on both sides were not large, they also lost thousands of people, so it should not be serious."
"What's so incomprehensible about this? There's a saying in the East that when you act, you do it all. If you act too fake, will you really think everyone is a fool?"
Zhang Hao explained casually.
Steven's face suddenly became solemn:
"If this declassified document is true, then the problem will be too big. The Federation may fall apart as a result, and a real civil war may even break out."
Zhang Guoji, who was on the side, couldn't help but interject: "Second uncle, I think you have forgotten something."