Chapter 42: Three Origins Grand Dining Hall

The third day of the eleventh month in the lunar calendar.
Tiny Shiliying Camp kicked off its infrastructure construction mode.
Over a dozen makeshift tractors that once served the brick kiln traveled back and forth between the sand and gravel plant and the cement plant in Buddha Temple.
Vegetable vendors, who had been waiting in line for goods, took on odd jobs during their downtime and shuttled between the lumber yard and the steel mill.
Additionally, numerous donkey-drawn and horse-drawn carts formed long, winding queues to scavenge from several nearby brick kilns.
Meanwhile, the local men and youths of the township, hearing that anyone who worked a day would be fed from the communal pot and even given cigarettes, eagerly shouldered their home spades and pickaxes and rushed to various construction sites.
Some dug trenches, leveled roads, and tamped earth...
Some sieved sand, mixed mortar, and grouted...
Some unloaded carts, carried bricks, and laid walls...
The sea of bobbing heads and the bustling, enthusiastic scene caused passing drivers on the western expressway to pull over and admire the spectacle.
"Get moving, everyone get moving! We're logging work points for this."
"One work point is worth 1 yuan. Whoever accumulates the most work points during the probation period gets priority for official employment!"
The man who had rushed into the small western-style villa yesterday and was the first to fork out 300 yuan had already become Sanyuan Agriculture's very first official employee.
His monthly salary was 600 yuan, complete with social insurance and housing fund contributions, along with provided room and board, or an optional board and lodging subsidy of 300 yuan.
At this very moment, this man was holding a small megaphone, with a flag bearing the character "Patrol" stuck in his belt, swaggeringly leading two interns as he patrolled the various construction sites.
"Look at me, I was the first to rush in yesterday, and I got hired this morning."
"The Big Boss keeps his word, and you will too!"
Seeing hope before them, the local men and youths worked even harder.
...
In the courtyard of the small villa.
The benches and square tables had not yet been cleared away.
Eighteen village chiefs, together with the accountants from each village, were making abacuses clatter loudly.
"East Village, 1,677 mu, 10 yuan per mu, signed for a five-year contract, totaling 83,850 yuan."
"Our village has 51 old men and women..."
Before he could finish, South Village, which had a feud with East Village, immediately jumped up. "Bullshit! The company specified the old, weak, widowed, and solitary, not all old men and women. Your village only has 6 guaranteed-care households, 3 orphans, and 4 disabled people in total!"
"Guaranteed-care households are one thing. As for the old men and women who have sons and daughters, if their children are unfilial and unwilling to support them, there's nothing we can do! Besides, your village has 11 people who meet the criteria for the old, weak, widowed, and solitary—why did you write down 46?"
On the other side, Small Wang Village and Great Wang Temple, who also had a feud, had already rolled up their sleeves and started fighting.
The reason was simple: neither village wanted the 1,000 mu of wasteland in the north.
After all, whoever took it had to pay for it: 1,000 mu x 10 yuan x 5 years came out to a whopping 50,000 yuan.
If split evenly among the households, each family would have to shell out one or two hundred yuan.
As village chiefs, how could they go back and explain that to the villagers?
Consequently, the conflicts between the villages began to escalate.

"I'll choke you to death!"
"I'll choke you to death too!"
Seeing the situation getting more and more chaotic, Yu Yang stepped forward and kicked over the two village chiefs who were choking each other and looked ready to perish together. "Quiet!"
"The wasteland that the villages don't want can be signed over by the village collective and transferred directly to the company."
"As for the 'communal elder-care meals,' those in each village who meet the criteria will have three full meals a day provided. Those who don't meet the criteria can also come eat for one yuan per meal."
"Alright, continue compiling the figures."
Compared to collecting dues, collecting road-building funds, or collecting money to build an elementary school, people were even more enthusiastic about collecting arable land transfer fees than they were about delivering grain to the state.
In just two days, all 18 remaining villages in Shiliying, save for Yu Family Village, rushed to bring in cash.
A full 1.56 million yuan.
Very auspicious, matching the exact number of their own agricultural workers.
As for whether the village chiefs and accountants would pocket anything for themselves...
The unit price per mu and the contract period were right there; the amount of arable land was fixed, and the total sum was fixed, leaving no room for falsification.
It was just that they had never imagined that renting out land could also bring in money, let alone a staggering 1.56 million yuan.
After much deliberation, Yu Yang decided to separate the "communal meals" and restart the Shiliying Grand Canteen.
As it happened, with the increase in folk housing, Third Sister-in-law, Fourth Sister-in-law, Fifth Sister-in-law, Sixth Sister-in-law, and others had arrived one after another.
Entrusting the task to them could temporarily be considered adding a new catering enterprise to his business.
From now on, the old, weak, widowed, and solitary of the township would eat for free.
As for everyone else, including outsiders who wanted to come in and eat, it would be one yuan for breakfast, one yuan for lunch, and one yuan for dinner...
"Sanyuan Grand Canteen!"
"Sure enough, I have an affinity with the number three!"
Yu Yang left the noisy living room and came to the roadside to catch some fresh air.
He looked up and saw a Mitsubishi off-road jeep driving over.
"This... a Mitsubishi?"
"Damn, it seems I have an affinity with this too!"
"The problem is, I still can't afford to acquire it just yet."
Amidst these sighing reflections.
Three people got out of the car.
Old Han, Zhang Haizi, and the owner of the Quanpu semi-trailer yard.
"Village Chief Yu!"
"Hof, haven't seen you in a few days, and you've put on weight."
"Thanks to your guidance, I've made quite a bit recently."
Judging by their strength, these three sworn brothers should have been Yue Donglai, the owner of the semi-trailer yard, Zhang Haizi, the chief coordinator of Shiliying, and Old Han, the vegetable vendor.
However, much like the Oath of the Peach Garden.
Old Han, the weakest in terms of financial strength, had become the leader of the transport fleet because he possessed some industry experience, a nimble mind, a glib tongue, and especially the ability to cast aside his pride.
Zhang Haizi became the second brother because his home was in Shiliying and he had some dealings with Yu Yang.
Yue Donglai, who was the wealthiest and owned the vehicles, ended up as the third brother.
Some time ago, the three brothers dispatched three Steyr semi-trailers to the capital and five Steyr semi-trailers to Tianjin Port, transporting a full 1,500 baskets of bean sprouts.
A basket of bean sprouts had a wholesale price of 90 yuan locally, but once they reached the capital and Tianjin Port, the wholesale price jumped to 240 yuan.
Priced individually, it was a full 5 yuan each.
However, the trucks were detained upon arrival in the capital and heavily fined upon arrival in Tianjin Port.
Because at this time, the Quanpu towing modifications were still just private workshops.
They had neither gained support from higher-ups nor obtained certification from industrial authorities.
In other words, the cargo beds of the Steyr semi-trailers belonged to privately modified equipment.
Driving a privately modified iron beast into the capital—what did you intend to do?
Fortunately, the higher-up authority of the higher-up authority overseeing Quanpu—namely, the city of Jishui—had a general manager who had some connections with relevant authorities in the capital. After prolonged communication, they finally released the people, vehicles, and bean sprouts.
Then came Tianjin Port, which waived the fines.
Perhaps misfortune and fortune are intertwined, or perhaps Jishui City placed greater emphasis on development. Through this incident, Quanpu Towing secured certification from the industrial authorities and began stepping onto the great stage of history.
Consequently, the three brothers borrowed money, took out loans, and pooled funds to establish the "Sihai Tongda Agricultural Produce Trading Co., Ltd." They expanded their fleet of "second-hand Steyrs plus self-made semi-trailer beds" to 30 vehicles, selling bean sprouts on the one hand, undertaking transport operations on the other, and occasionally handling logistics shipping.
They also set up liaison stations at Yu Family Village in Shiliying, the Quanpu expressway interchanges, the Buddha Temple expressway interchanges, and the Taiqian railway station.
The Mitsubishi off-road jeep worth 500,000 to 600,000 yuan before his eyes was presumably bought using company funds, then used for collateral loans to offset tax points, after which the loan money was used to conduct business.
A very standard operation.
Because this was what you called doing business.
Come to think of it, he didn't seem to play the game quite like that.
Because everything he owned was bought beforehand with his own money, after which he would establish a company, mortgage the company for loans, and finally use those loans to carry out construction.
It looked similar.
In reality, when it came to things meant for personal enjoyment, he paid for them solidly and truly out of his own pocket.
For instance, the AMG Tiger-head Mercedes parked on the roof.
Therefore.
He was noble!
Thinking of this, Yu Yang instantly felt that so-called richest men and real estate tycoons were nothing more than clay chickens and pottery dogs, mere placeholders waiting to be beheaded.
Sure enough, whatever you set out to do, you must always steel your convictions.