At the Shanghai Third Radio Factory, with the help of German engineers, two production lines were fully assembled in less than half a month.
While assembling the production lines, Sheng Changqing arranged for all workers to familiarize themselves with the operational procedures. Although not entirely proficient, they could manage to run them.
Chen Yang directly had the last production line transported back to Jinling, where the factory buildings had already been constructed and a batch of workers trained.
This was all thanks to Zhang Weiyang spending over half a year in Jinling and Shanghai, laying the groundwork. Lei Baoguo also returned from Shenzhen, ready to oversee the factory's establishment and production.
As for Shenzhen, another comrade of his was sent to assist Zhang Weiyang.
This was Chen Yang's way of looking out for Lei Baoguo, as he had promised Li Jing that Lei Baoguo would return to Jinling soon, and it wouldn't be good for the young couple to remain separated.
Having experienced this period of growth, Lei Baoguo was now capable of standing on his own. Compared to the beginning, he no longer appeared so inadequate in front of Li Jing's parents.
Chen Yang paid him a considerable salary. Men are like this; with money, they gain confidence. Coupled with his travels with Chen Yang, he had seen much of the world, and his conversation was no longer as naive as before.
Furthermore, Li Jing herself was fond of him, so over time, Li Jing's parents became less opposed to their relationship.
Lei Baoguo was genuinely grateful to Chen Yang from the bottom of his heart. He knew that without Chen Yang, he would have returned to his rural hometown to farm after his military service.
Not only would he have been a farmer his entire life, but he would likely have been harassed by that woman Zhao Shufang forever, and possibly wouldn't even have been able to reclaim the betrothal money his parents had saved for him their entire lives.
It was Chen Yang who gave him dignity as a person and the confidence of a man. If Chen Yang hadn't helped him, he might have taken that wretched woman Zhao Shufang down with him.
Whenever Lei Baoguo thought of this, he felt immense gratitude. Fortunately, he had stepped forward on the train back then. If he hadn't met Chen Yang, his life would have remained stagnant.
Let alone being a factory director managing production lines, preparing to produce televisions as he was now.
Not only that, even his girlfriend's parents, who had always looked down on him, now regarded him with respect. Lei Baoguo knew clearly that all of this stemmed from Chen Yang.
He was determined to follow Chen Yang for the rest of his life. If Chen Yang told him to go east, he would never go west.
He was determined to help Chen Yang manage the factory well upon his return to Jinling. And, incidentally, he hoped to finalize things with Li Jing by the end of the year.
While Lei Baoguo was reunited with his wife, Zhang Weiyang was bored to death in Shenzhen.
This place had plenty of seafood, but one couldn't eat it every day. Zhang Weiyang found it novel at first, feasting on sea cucumber and abalone daily, something even an ancient emperor couldn't do every day. But it was always steamed or boiled, with at most a pinch of salt, which was unbearable for someone from Anhui province. Without some chili peppers and soy sauce flavor, he couldn't eat.
In Shenzhen, he hired locals to build a large warehouse on the closest spot to the border crossing on the opposite side of Hong Kong. Goods could be stored here once they arrived.
As it was foreign trade with Hong Kong, the Shenzhen government was extremely supportive, allocating a large plot of land to Zhang Weiyang with a thirty-year lease. For over twenty mu of land, they charged a nominal rent of only five hundred yuan per month.
Chen Yang was unaware of this. If he knew, he would surely give Zhang Weiyang a thumbs-up.
Six thousand yuan a year, only eighteen thousand for thirty years. This was Shenzhen, and moreover, in the area closest to Hong Kong. It was no exaggeration to say that after thirty years, even a toilet here would be worth more than eighteen thousand yuan.
With the warehouse built, Zhang Weiyang's connection with Huang Lizhen was smoothly established. Procedures for doing business in the mainland from Hong Kong were relatively simple.
Typically, within a week, Huang Lizhen would deliver the new orders from the past week. Zhang Weiyang would arrange for the arrived canned goods to be transported to the pier, and after customs verification, Huang Lizhen would take them back.
Thanks to the strong support from the Anhui Provincial Department of Commerce and Industry and the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, customs rarely detained or inspected goods, allowing them to be released on the same day.
The only significant difficulty now was transporting the braised fish in brine canned goods from the factory in Anhui to Shenzhen.
Since Qinghe City had no train station, the canned goods had to be sent from Liuhe County to Fei City, then by train from Fei City, and subsequently by truck.
There was no alternative, as Hong Kong had not yet returned, and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway was out of the question.
Transportation had become the biggest bottleneck for the continuously increasing orders. Within Anhui province, it was manageable, with the help of the municipal aquatic products company arranging large trucks to transport them to Fei City.
However, it became quite difficult in Guangdong province. Zhang Weiyang knew no one there. Large trucks were not as common as they are today; only larger state-owned factories had transport teams.
Smaller factories couldn't even afford a truck. If they needed one, they had to beg and borrow, find connections, and arrange for the dispatchers to allocate idle large trucks for transportation.
Sometimes, they even had to resort to ox carts and horse carts to transport goods from the station to the warehouse in Shenzhen bit by bit.
This issue had troubled Zhang Weiyang for a long time. He had no choice but to write a letter to Chen Yang.
When Chen Yang received the letter, he also recognized this problem. As their business grew and their operational scope expanded in the future, transportation would be a major issue.
It was not like in the future, with a mature transportation system, expressways, and extensive railway networks.
Even a large truck was a rare commodity. There was no way around it; domestic automobile manufacturers had limited production capacity, only producing a certain number of vehicles annually.
For a country as large as China, this was like a few months of rain followed by a drizzle, utterly insufficient.
After much consideration, Chen Yang found it impossible to buy trucks domestically.
He could only turn his attention to Hong Kong. However, Huang Lizhen's resources were still too limited. The only person who could help Chen Yang now was Old Mr. Zhou.
When Chen Yang returned previously, Old Mr. Zhou had mentioned arranging for an inspection team to visit the mainland to survey the market. However, after over a month, Chen Yang heard nothing.
Now, he still had to fulfill the promise he made to the other party, and he felt somewhat embarrassed to approach him again.
Moreover, he himself was currently in Shanghai. The last time he skipped class to go to Hong Kong, he had already caused considerable trouble for Zhang Yingying.
With final exams approaching, if he went out again, Zhang Yingying would likely flip the table. After much deliberation, Chen Yang could only ask Zhang Weiyang to wait.
Furthermore, Chen Yang remembered that the sports meet of their East China University of Finance and Economics was approaching. A leader who would quickly rise to prominence in the next decade would be attending. If it weren't for waiting for that person, he wouldn't care so much about his diploma.
He had met most of the people he needed to know. If all else failed, he could drop out. He wasn't studying for a diploma anyway.