Chapter three hundred and sixteen ulterior motives
It was a rare trip for Cao Mo to return to his country. No matter how unhappy he was, he could not ignore domestic affairs. After lunch, he and others followed Guo Donghu to the Xinxuan Food factory to inspect the production conditions here.
It must be said that Dongsheng has been deeply involved in the grain and oil industry for many years, and the customer resources accumulated provide great convenience for Cornero Food to expand the market.
The production capacity of Xinxuan Food Factory was overloaded around the Spring Festival. After the New Year, it rented a new factory nearby. In the past three or four months, it was mainly about purchasing equipment and recruiting and training new employees. The production capacity has been expanded based on the previous one.
More than double.
This is also a convenience in the country. Industrial parks of all sizes have already built ready-made factories, rented or purchased them, added equipment, and recruited employees, and they can be put into operation quickly, and the parks can also provide quite complete supporting services.
In a large park, there are even a group of manufacturers in the same industry or at the upstream and downstream ends of the same industry chain, providing unimaginable conveniences for the recruitment of management and technical personnel, business expansion, technical cooperation, etc.
Strong market demand determines that there are no weekends in the domestic manufacturing industry.
The same is true for Xinxuan Food. Frontline employees work in shifts. Today is the weekend, but the production line in the workshop does not stop.
The middle and low-level managers here also continue to hire old employees of Xinxuan Food Factory. Even after renting the adjacent factory building for expansion, they mainly recruit and supplement new front-line employees. Under the leadership of Guo Donghu, the management and technical team
It is very good to maintain the operation of domestic factories.
However, despite more than 40 years of development, the domestic chocolate consumer market is still limited in scale, which also limits the demand for upstream cocoa butter and other products.
In terms of current demand for cocoa butter products, the United States and Western Europe are more than ten times higher than China.
After the new phase of expansion, Xinxuan Food's production capacity is not very large, but fortunately, Cornero Food has opened up the upstream cocoa bean import and export trade. Under the current commodity market background, the profit margin is very high.
Of course, if Cornero Foods wants to develop significantly, it will need to build factories directly in the United States and Western Europe in the future, but Cao Mo has no intention of thinking about this issue in detail for the time being.
The cocoa plantation plan has just started. It will take at least five or six years for the plantations of Augusta and Drake to reach scale. This itself requires continuous capital investment and Cornero Foods needs to seize the downstream market.
Supported by huge profits, this also limits the further expansion of Cornero Foods in the downstream.
And this is contrary to Dong Chengpeng's investment philosophy.
Dong Chengpeng and others hope to expand as quickly as possible in a certain link of the industry chain, compete for a larger market share with the advantage of scale, quickly cash in profits, and eliminate investment risks. However, Cao Mo wants to expand the industry chain.
long.
There is no question of who is right or wrong here.
Dong Chengpeng has rich practical experience and has more keen observations and thinking about the Chinese market, but Cao Mo thinks that Cornero Food's industrial layout can take into account both China and West Africa, and it is destined to be at the end of the industrial chain.
This is also the fundamental reason why Cao Mo supports Xu Bin in planning to build Tianyue Industrial's product development and testing center in China.
In the end, Xu Bin failed to invite his former classmate and friend Zheng Chunyuan, a visiting professor at Xinhai University, to join Tianyue. However, in addition to cooperating with the National Automotive Power Engineering Laboratory hosted by Zheng Chunyuan at Xinhai University, Tianyue Industry still had to be recommended by Zheng Chunyuan.
, invited Chinese scientist Huang Yijiang, a colleague of Zheng's when he studied and worked in Germany, to join Tianyue Industrial and preside over the daily work of the product development and testing center.
Xu Bin and Xu Lizheng have long considered that there must be differences in geography, climate and other environments as well as user needs between West Africa and China. When Tianyue Trading was first established, they established a small-scale product research and development team in Kanem.
Limited by the actual level of Kanem's industrial production and R&D, the team led by Xu Lizheng himself does not have direct product design and development capabilities. It is more focused on analyzing, researching and defining new products based on West Africa's geography, climate and user-specific needs.
The product development direction is then handed over to Huachen Industrial’s domestic team for development.
However, Huachen Industrial's R&D department was completely indifferent to Xu Bin and Xu Lizheng's needs in this regard.
Or maybe it could be said that Huachen Industrial's R&D department has been so decentralized that it is unable to develop new products.
This finally prompted Xu Bin and Xu Lizheng to plan to establish an independent product development and testing center to develop Tianyue's own motorcycle products.
Xu Bin did not want to reach the top in one fell swoop and enter the palace of mid-to-high-end motorcycles such as recreational and off-road sports motorcycles in a short period of time. When the product development and testing center was first established, the main focus was on developing products suitable for the special environment and user needs of West Africa.
motorcycle.
Xu Bin has a very clear understanding of Tianyue Trading's success in the West African market.
The previous success was mainly based on Cao Mo's long-term operation in Kanem, taking advantage of the price advantage to instantly connect with the direct local demand, but in fact their advantage could not be maintained for long.
Xu Bin has a deep understanding of domestic peers and knows that competitors are not weak in their ability to develop the market. China's recent years of reform and opening up have made domestic car companies extremely adaptable to the market.
Xu Bin expected that Huachen Industry would continue to be closed and conservative, and the advantages of Tianyue Trading would soon be exhausted.
It was the strong sense of crisis that made Xu Bin and Xu Lizheng determined to develop new models to consolidate their current advantages in the West African market. For this reason, he did not even advocate rushing to develop markets outside West Africa.
The terrain in West and Central Africa is complex. Along the Gulf of Guinea is a narrow tropical rainforest. To the north and east are savannahs transitioning to tropical deserts. The performance requirements for motorcycles have different emphases. This is actually the case for almost all motorcycles.
Ignored by the company.
To be more precise, there are not many motorcycle giants left. On the one hand, they are far less wealthy than car companies. On the other hand, they have not paid enough attention to the West African market. In the past few years, they even regarded it as a dumping ground for second-hand motorcycles.
“Foreign mid-to-high-end motorcycles, mainly
Users who pursue performance are still playing, and even heavy-duty locomotives consume less fuel per kilometer than enough to attract the attention of users. This is almost the same situation in China, but in Kanem, the situation is different. Kanem 1
On the one hand, there are poor road conditions. On the other hand, there is demand for cargo. Local users need more powerful models. But on the other hand, the income of local people is too low and fuel prices are high. This requires a car with excellent power performance but
An engine that is both economical and fuel-efficient..."
"Developing a new motorcycle engine is our mid- to long-term goal, and it is difficult to achieve immediate results; the vehicle development we are currently conducting is mainly based on the local geographical and climatic characteristics of West Africa, based on old models.
Corresponding adjustments. For example, in addition to the wind and sand in the desert terrain, the wind and sand in other areas of West Africa are also very serious in the dry season, and there are very few hardened surfaces. This requires changing the air intake method of the motorcycle and widening the tires. These are relatively
easy to accomplish……"
Huang Yijiang doesn't talk much. Xu Bin has worked in Huachen's R&D and production system for many years. Although his R&D capabilities are not on the same level as those of Huang Yian, Zheng Chuyuan and others, he still has a good understanding of conventional technical matters.
Throughout the afternoon, he mainly introduced to Cao Mo and the others the newly established product development and testing center, which was conducting research on motorcycle engines, transmission systems, driving systems, control mechanisms, electrical equipment, braking systems, etc.
However, even an improved motorcycle cannot be developed in three to five months. The ideal situation is that it will have to wait until the second half of next year before a relatively mature model dedicated to West Africa can be launched on the market.
"Money burns like paper. In the most ideal situation, we have to wait until the second half of next year to launch a relatively mature model. So there is a high probability that it will not be launched. Even if it is launched, it is hard to say whether the market will welcome it.
No wonder Dong Chengpeng is not happy with you guys playing like this..." Cao Mo curled his lips and said with a smile.
Xu Bin and Huang Yijiang are both very hard-working types, especially with such a large investment, but they have to wait until a year and a half or even longer before they can come up with the real first product. In their hearts
Also holding back the energy.
The development tasks in all aspects are very heavy. Even though today is the weekend, most of the R&D personnel still stay at their respective jobs after eating in the canteen and work overtime until ninety o'clock, waiting for the tasks at hand to be completed.
leave.
Cao Mo did not leave the development center even after dark. He continued to talk about work with Xu Bin, Huang Yijiang and others while eating in the self-prepared canteen.
Xu Bin, Xu Lizheng and Zhou Jianming are all quite outgoing people. In the past, when Cao Mo was with them, there were many topics to talk about, and their work mainly focused on market and business topics.
Huang Yijiang and several of his product technology development managers are relatively introverted, but after getting to know each other, they talk endlessly about technical topics.
Shen Ji, Chen Feng, Guo Donghu and others felt drowsy after listening to it, but they had to stay with Cao Mo, but Cao Mo enjoyed it very much.
In the early years, when Chen Hua opened an auto repair shop on Longtan Road, his father was also one of the partners. Cao Mo liked to help out in the auto repair shop after school. At that time, it was impossible to have a driver's license, but he just liked to drive.
After dropping out of school, he applied to work in the machine repair workshop of Dongsheng Group's Qingjiang District factory, and when he came to Kanem, when there were no technicians or engineers at first, Cao Mo was able to lead Kabuga and the others to run the Ibogu gold mine.
, which is also the foundation accumulated in the early years.
Cao Mo has always liked playing with cars and enjoying the fun of driving motorcycles. In Kanem and Akwa, he often likes to drive himself, with the driver and bodyguard sitting comfortably in the car; he is very fond of cars and motorcycles.
The structure and performance are familiar, and can also be said to be quite amateur level.
Later, when he saw Shen Ji, Chen Feng, Guo Donghu, Song Yuqing, Zhou Han, and Xu Xin, they were really not interested, so Cao Mo said goodbye and left. But it was already nine o'clock at night.
However, Cao Mo asked Xu Bin to leave him an office in the development center.
When he returned to China this time, he originally planned to sign an agreement with the New Steel Federation and then go back to Kanem for two days, but he did not expect that such a trap would be waiting for him. Even though the Lu family was coerced by him, they agreed to find a way to withdraw the case, but
This requires a process and cannot be completed in three to five days.
Cao Mo didn't want to call him Han Shaorong. People like the Lu family brothers thought he had a guilty conscience, so he decided to stay in the country with Zhou Han during this period.
During his stay in China, if he didn't want to go to the Dongsheng Building Development Center, in addition to the research building and processing and testing workshop, there is also a small testing venue. In addition, some of the more mainstream motorcycles have been purchased for performance testing and analysis.
, Cao Mo thought that if he came here to work, he could deal with the daily work at home and abroad every day, and find something else to do.
…………
…………
On the first day back home, especially when something like this happened, Chen Rong would tell his father to a certain extent that no matter how much Cao Mo was in love, he had to go back home first.
After leaving Zhiyun Lake Industrial Park, Cao Mo took Song Yuqing's car and went to the entrance of the main street of Tianzifang. He shook his cell phone at Song Yuqing, indicating that he would call later.
In front of Zhou Han, Song Yuqing pretended not to notice Cao Mo's hint and urged him to go down quickly.
It was midsummer in China, and Cao Mo was in a hurry to return home this time without any luggage. He opened the half-open courtyard door and saw his father, Jiaying, Chen Rong, and Mrs. Cao sitting in the bright living room.
He walked into the living room, put down his backpack, and smiled at Jiaying: "Don't stare at me. I came back in a hurry this time and didn't buy any gifts..."
"Have you seen Han Shaorong today?" Cao Xiong asked.
"seen,"
Cao Mo sat on the sofa. Seeing that his father was worried, but not particularly serious, he thought that Chen Rong would not tell his father and Jiaying all the details, so he said lightly,
"In the past two years, I have been as low-key as possible when I returned to China, just to avoid attracting Han Shaorong's attention, but this time I was tricked by him after all. This time we were in Kanem, and we were originally with the New Steel Alliance in Akwa.
After negotiating the terms of cooperation, I rushed back to sign the cooperation agreement this time, but I didn’t expect that this matter would have been discussed by Mr. Han long ago.
Rong was messed up, played like a monkey, and even ridiculed!"
"You now have a certain foundation for your career. As long as you don't get caught by Han Shaorong, whether at home or abroad, you can do your thing with peace of mind. Han Shaorong will never be able to cover the sky with one hand!" Cao Xiong said with a sigh.
The legal environment in the country is improving day by day. Every three to five years, gangs are cracked down on, and vicious cases and social cancers are cleaned up. People like Han Shaorong and the Lu brothers, who have been cleared and become justices of the peace, are even more afraid that they will be caught.
In the end, he ended up in jail.
Therefore, Cao Mo was not worried that Han Shaorong and the Lu family brothers would use bottomless means to deal with his family in the country.
The really dangerous situation was in Kanem and Akwa, but his father and Jiaying couldn't help with these matters, and Cao Mo wouldn't tell them all, which would increase their psychological burden.
"Han Shaorong wanted to take advantage of my family, but didn't he have nothing to do with me eight years ago?" Cao Mo sat down comfortably on the sofa and said with a smile to his father.
"snort!"
Cao Mo looked up and saw Han Shuyun holding a mug in his hand, probably about to go down the stairs. She was dissatisfied when she heard them talking about Han Shaorong in such a tone.
No. 118 was renovated with a cost of two million. The interior can be said to be somewhat luxurious. However, the structure of the traditional house determines that the stairs are relatively steep and narrow. Han Shuyun was wearing a nightgown. Cao Mo looked up and saw two tender white legs.
Cao Mo glanced at it, sat up straight, changed the topic and asked Jiaying: "How are you going to spend this holiday? Don't you want to go abroad for a walk?"
"Now that the A-share market is in a bull market, I can't even make money. How can I have time to go abroad? Brother, how much money do you think I have made now?" Jiaying didn't mind Han Shuyun's presence and happily showed off her fortune first. Gains in the securities market have come over a period of time.
"How much money did you make?"
Although Cao Mo asked Jiaying to make an analysis report for him before making every important investment decision, in fact he did not pay attention to the fund fluctuations in the investment account and left it almost entirely to Jiaying.
"Eighteen million!" Jiaying said proudly, "When I told my dad that I made so much money, his eyes were dumbfounded!"
"Ah?" Cao Mo was stunned after hearing this.
He still signed an equity transfer agreement with Xu Bin and Xu Lizheng after the Spring Festival. Later, with the help of Shen Ji, Xu Bin and Xu Lizheng transferred the 20 million acquisition money to him through an equity pledge loan by the end of March.
In other words, from the beginning to the end of the three months, Jiaying's book surplus reached 90%?
In the morning, I heard Shen Ji say at the stadium that the bull market caused by the share-trading reform was particularly magnificent. He didn't feel anything about it yet, but when he heard Jiaying's gains during this period, he was also shocked.
If it was so easy to make money in the securities market, how many people would be willing to invest in industry?
Today, Dong Chengpeng spoke for the Lu brothers in front of Ding Zhaoqiang. Shen Ji and Chen Rong both believed that Dong Chengpeng was secretly involved with Lu Jianchao or Lu Jiancheng. However, when they were at the Jinchen Golf Course, Cao Mo saw that Dong Chengpeng was actually interested in Han Shaorong. There was a deep involvement, but Dong Chengpeng carefully concealed it in front of Ding Zhaoqiang. Neither Shen Ji nor Chen Rong noticed it.
Cao Mo was also certain that Dong Chengpeng spoke for the Lu brothers in front of Ding Zhaoqiang today, not because he had interests involved with the Lu brothers and wanted to send a favor to the Lu brothers, but because he was asked to do so by Han Shaorong in advance.
This also means that Cao Mo is sure that Dong Chengpeng recommended Xu Xin to take charge of the daily affairs of the new office with ulterior motives.
However, these were Cao Mo's intuitions, and he could not find any obvious evidence at the moment, so he did not tell Shen Ji or the others.
Cao Mo has always been strange in his heart. Dong Chengpeng and Ding Zhaoqiang have not suffered any losses in these years. They are already rich. If they want to be considered successful in Xinhai, Han Shaorong can't deceive him by just throwing a bone. What is Han Shaorong? What benefits can be given to Dong Chengpeng, so that he and Han Shaorong are so flirtatious and at the same time deliberately hide this from Ding Zhaoqiang?
When Cao Mo heard Jiaying talk about her gains in the stock market, a thought flashed through his mind. Could it be that Dong Chengpeng and Han Shaorong had any cooperation in stock investment?
"Mom, I also want money to learn stock trading!" Han Shuyun held a mug and squeezed to Chen Rong's side like a baby and shouted.
"You don't even know how much money you spend a month. Why should you learn to trade in stocks?" Chen Rong said.
Dongsheng Group's stock price has been falling for several years. This time, it benefited from the bull market and has nearly doubled. Chen Rong's assets are also worth 8.9 billion. However, it doesn't matter how Han Shuyun usually spends money lavishly. He buys luxury brands casually, but It's impossible to spend 10 to 20 million to waste it.
Even without Cao Mo's deliberate misdirection, Han Shuyun was convinced that her mother was the one financing the Cao family's business, whatever Cao Mo was doing in Africa, and Cao Jiaying's investment studies in the securities market. She felt unspeakable grievances in her heart.
Feeling uncomfortable, he shouted willfully: "Cao Jiaying can do it, why can't I?"
"You kid, why do you get more and more stubborn the more you talk about it?" Chen Rong now knew that she couldn't indulge her daughter's temper. She scolded her with a straight face, "When did you really learn the school's courses and don't fail the class?"
If you can get a special scholarship like Jiaying and publish a paper in your freshman year, why don't you come and get angry with me again!"
Han Shuyun was about to have a fit, but in the blink of an eye she saw Cao Mo smiling sinisterly. She swallowed her breath and shouted to her mother unconvinced, "I will prove it to you!"
"Why, you failed such a simple and easy course in college? If there is anything Shuyun doesn't understand in your homework, you can ask Jiaying to help you with tutoring. You should be able to make up for it soon..." Cao Mo posted.
, suggested with concern.
"Huh! Who wants you to be kind?" Han Shuyun gave a cold face, picked up the mug and went upstairs...