Chapter 41 Preparations for Building the Factory

Hearing the township head’s words, Yu Yang fell into deep thought.

In 1998, wheat yields lagged far behind the future dominated by chemical fertilizers and high-tech seeds.

The yield per mu was a mere 600 catties.

Take his own family as an example.

Old Yu, Mother Yu, and himself.

During the household contract responsibility system rollout, the family received seven and a half mu of land.

600 catties per mu multiplied by 7.5 mu meant the summer harvest would yield about 4,500 catties of wheat.

Subtracting grain provisions and state unified purchases, roughly 1,575 catties would remain, along with the 30-yuan rebate from the unified purchase.

Wheat was currently twenty cents per catty, yielding 315 plus 30 yuan.

Assuming the autumn harvest left a similar amount, scraping through a whole year without eating or drinking could save 690 yuan.

Yet, as a farming household, paying eight different end-of-year levies meant ending up with only about 450 yuan in hand.

Therefore, if Old Yu simply farmed honestly at home, he himself might finish primary school only to be pulled out to herd sheep.

Because although junior high school fell under compulsory education, miscellaneous fees still applied.

Thus, during the early days of state-owned enterprise reforms, the "ten-thousand-yuan job purchase" policy was introduced.

This meant paying ten thousand yuan could secure a job and convert one's household registration to urban status.

Consequently, countless farming families would smash their pots and sell their iron just to move into the city.

Now, suppose someone offered you an opportunity.

Give up the family's land, pay 10 yuan per mu annually, let me handle the grain provisions, and I will arrange a job for you—would you be willing?

"Never mind the grain provisions, just getting a job arranged for me makes me willing!"

Witnessing the transformation of Yu Village, especially after hearing the villagers brag and knowing that people making thirty to forty yuan a day had already started taking action.

"Step aside!"

"Get out of the way and let me in!"

"Second brother, third brother, clear a path for big brother!"

"Damn it, who the hell just stepped over my head?"

"Hey! Why did you even carry the old lady here?"

"Widows, orphans, and the elderly hand over your land, three meals a day provided!"

"Damn!"

On the provincial highway outside the small western-style villa, the bustling commotion far exceeded that of the Shiliying grand market.

A dense crowd squeezed across the drainage ditch and poured into the courtyard...

Yu Yang even felt as though the villa was about to burst at the seams.

Sure enough.

The courtyard wall was the first to be knocked down by the surging crowd.

Not knocked over, but rather dismantled brick by brick until it vanished entirely.

Even the village chiefs on the left and right suddenly found themselves missing two companions.

Faintly, voices could be heard:

"Big brother, I fished our village chief out, so we don't have to squeeze inside anymore."

Fortunately, the people of Yu Village were all busy with bean sprouts, leaving the Yu Village chief untouched.

Seeing that the feuding Dongxiang and Nanxiang villages were on the verge of a massive brawl, Yu Yang hurriedly dashed up to the second floor and switched on the large loudspeaker.

"All of you, stop right now!"

The words of the big boss still carried immense weight.

The scene froze as if a pause button had been pressed, and even the expert standing on someone else's shoulders wobbled left and right, playing the role of a tumbler.

"No contracts signed today, household registration review tomorrow."

"After registration, land requisition will be conducted uniformly."

"Those on the outer perimeter withdraw first, watch out for the elderly and children."

"Anyone who dares to stir up trouble gets buried in the kiln pit!"

Following a brief silence among the crowd, the people on the outer perimeter began backing away step by step...

...

Once the chaos outside subsided,

Yu Yang handed tasks like registration, surveying, and contract signing over to the deputy township head, while dispatching the Sixth Uncle to keep watch.

随后跟乡长一起来到小洋楼书房，拿出之前参考视野中的3D鸟瞰图，制作的规划图。

With the land secured, the next step was building the factory.

A 6 million yuan loan might sound like a huge sum.

In reality, for an agricultural company—even with Yu Yang's two-plus decades of engineering experience enabling him to pinch pennies at every turn—it was still not enough.

Because a 5,000-meter by 5,000-meter plot required at least ten roads, each ten meters wide, to ensure that vegetables from the plastic greenhouses could be loaded onto trucks and transported out.

They wouldn't build asphalt roads, nor concrete roads.

Using only tamped lime-soil mixture (sanhetu), 5,000 meters multiplied by 10 roads multiplied by 10 meters wide meant a total road surface area of about 500,000 square meters.

Factoring in drainage ditches, assuming a construction cost of 10 yuan per square meter, at least 5 million yuan would be needed.

If asphalt roads were used at 180 yuan per square meter, that would round up to 100 million.

No wonder roads were referred to as streams of gold and silver.

Thus, Yu Yang recalled the iron tracks inside the tunnel kilns.

If he switched to steel rails and installed motorized rail cars instead...

His own enterprise would only need to lay a roadbed measuring 5,000 meters by 10 roads by 1.5 meters wide—roughly 50,000 square meters—and then purchase a batch of discarded steel rails and phased-out electric locomotives to solve the factory transport problem.

The total cost would not exceed 2 million yuan.

Moreover, it would look extremely trendy.

Because this was called a "mechanized plastic greenhouse"!

Yu Yang picked up his brick-sized mobile phone and contacted the county supervisor.

"Leader, I need 50,000 meters of discarded steel rails and three electric locomotives."

"What do you need those for?"

"If you help me pave the roads, I won't need them."

"Xiao Yu, private individuals cannot lay steel rails."

"We are using them internally within the factory area."

"That might be acceptable."

"Leader, it is definitely acceptable. I want the 38kg standard rails. The electric locomotives shouldn't be too old, and it would be best to introduce a few dozen flatbed rail cars as well."

"I'll give you an answer shortly."

Sanyuan Agriculture building a factory with a total investment of 6 million yuan was undoubtedly a major event for the county.

Just two minutes later, the county supervisor called back, "There are a few construction-use electric flatcars over at the railway bureau. Do you want them?"

"What's the load capacity?"

"40 tons."

"What's the price?"

"Second-hand goods, 5,000 yuan per unit."

"Give me 100 units."

"Do you think the railway department runs a wholesale market?"

"10 units?"

The county supervisor suddenly remembered something. "When I once went to Fengtian Prefecture for training, I recall there were quite a few abandoned trams over there."

Yu Yang's eyes lit up. "Right! Those old-fashioned trams can not only transport vegetables but also be used to shuttle employees back and forth to work."

"I'll see what I can do to help you secure some."

"Lian Gang and Ice City should have them too."

"I'll ask someone to check."

After a long while, the county supervisor called back again. "I managed to piece together 20 electric rail cars here and there, including some trolley poles and power supply units. Since they're all phased-out old items, they only want a small handling fee, but we need to cover the transportation costs."

Yu Yang pondered for a moment: "Could you help coordinate? I'll send people to pick them up."

"Going back and forth will cost a pretty penny."

"We sell vegetables, after all. We can load 20 cars with hot pot gift packages, haul them to the Northeast, gift a batch to the local compounds, and sell the rest. Who knows, the Northeast fellows who love hot pot might even help us turn a profit."

"That makes sense."

The county supervisor increasingly felt that growing vegetables was the right path.

...

With the roads settled, water and electricity came next.

Cables cost 20 yuan a meter, requiring a small amount.

Wires cost 2 yuan a meter, requiring about 100,000 meters.

Water pipes cost 5 yuan a meter, requiring about 200,000 meters.

Factoring in installation costs, an estimated 1.5 million yuan was needed.

...

Next were the plastic greenhouses.

The plastic greenhouses adopted the standard size of "50 meters long, 30 meters wide, with an area of 2.25 mu."

If arranged in an overall labyrinth layout, about 3,500 units could be set up at a construction cost of 2,000 yuan per unit, requiring roughly 7.5 million yuan.

If arranged in an overall Bagua (Eight Trigrams) disc layout, about 3,800 units could be accommodated, but road lengths would need to be increased; calculated comprehensively, it would take around 7.8 million yuan.

If steel frames were used, the cost would double.

If sunrooms were used, the cost would double again.

As for why a labyrinth or Bagua disc layout was chosen...

To get their own employees lost, of course; otherwise, how could nine falsehoods mixed with one truth conceal the yield issue?

Naturally, with only 156 farmers currently on hand, their true plastic greenhouses amounted to at most 15.6 mu, or about 7 units.

These 3,000-plus illusory plastic greenhouses could be built gradually while growing other vegetables along the way, requiring an initial investment of only 1 million yuan in the early stages.

Similarly,

If residential quarters were built to serve as dormitories and office buildings, purchasing building materials at a construction cost of 3,000 yuan per room would mean 1,000 rooms would require at least 3 million yuan.

However, this could also be built gradually, requiring an initial investment of only 500,000 yuan in the early stages.

...

Finally came the supporting facilities.

Electric lights, power strips, tables and chairs, bunk beds, bicycle sheds, pots and pans, large earthen stoves...

Scattered items combined would exceed 500,000 yuan.

...

Then there were office supplies.

Office desks, office chairs, printers, copiers, fax machines, projectors, 10 computers, network cables, telephone lines...

Along with floppy disks, optical discs, paper, ink, glue, A4 paper, staplers...

Again, scattered items totaling over 500,000 yuan would not be enough.

...

Thus:

Roads: 2 million yuan,

Water and electricity: 1.5 million yuan,

Plastic greenhouses initial investment: 1 million yuan,

Buildings initial investment: 500,000 yuan,

Supporting facilities: 500,000 yuan,

Office supplies: 500,000 yuan.

The entire 6 million yuan loan would be wiped out completely, and perhaps even augmented by the past couple of days' sales revenue.

And staff salaries hadn't even been calculated yet.

That was why, in another spacetime, very few people were willing to engage in physical industries.

Pouring 6 million yuan in resulted in zero immediate returns.

If luck turned sour and severe droughts, pest infestations, or blizzards struck, bankruptcy was guaranteed on the spot.

Conversely, putting that money into stocks or mutual funds would at least leave something behind.

Yu Yang assigned the procurement of building materials to the Sixth Uncle.

The procurement of supporting facilities went to the county branch's business manager.

Office supplies were handed over to the computer mall sales manager.

Hardware and electrical machinery went to the township's investment promotion director.

Then he notified the parking lot construction team and the plastic greenhouse construction team to expand their staff, lease vehicles, push northward, and initiate the "three supplies and one leveling" project.

The township head witnessed the entire process, watching a super-sized project with a 6 million yuan investment break down into detailed items in the blink of an eye, and transform into a series of actionable directives within breaths. In disbelief, he asked:

"How on earth did you pull this off?"

"Nothing special. I went to high school."

"???"