Chapter 32: Meeting The Sichuan Army Commander To Procure Chilies And Deliver A Car
Just as the new store manager Chen Ziwen was troubled, the butler Liu Xing had already returned.
And he handed a piece of paper to the other party, telling him to follow the instructions written on the paper.
Chen Ziwen, who took the paper, quickly glanced at it, looked puzzled, but obediently followed the instructions.
Then they headed towards the car showroom to receive those reporters who were taking photos.
However, all the reporters who came today were domestic ones, and not a single foreign reporter showed up, because these foreign reporters did not think highly of Zhou Wenhua’s domestic cars,
feeling there was no need for interviews, and even thinking that if they came, it would be free promotion for Zhou Wenhua’s domestic car brand, so only domestic reporters came, and not many of them, nor from major newspaper offices.
Although Zhou Wenhua’s advertising and marketing were done very well, with some topical appeal and a fresh feel,
many major newspaper office reporters, like the foreigners, did not think highly of Zhou Wenhua’s so-called domestic car brand creation and sales.
Because the perception of all major newspaper offices was very clear that current domestic cars were uniformly purchased foreign imports for assembly, and did not possess their own automotive industry industrialized production,
so for them, wanting to create their own car brand was either passing off sheep’s head for dog’s meat by assembling foreign automotive parts, or just making a joke, so there was not much news value.
It was also because of these reasons that the reporters now on site taking photos of the cars were all from mid-to-low-end domestic newspaper offices, and not in large numbers.
But these reporters were completely captivated by the four cars in front of Zhou Wenhua with very novel and good-looking exteriors, and were frantically taking photos.
Originally, for them, they had only come for a visit after receiving money from Zhou Wenhua, just to report on it, and had no confidence in Zhou Wenhua’s so-called domestic car brand creation.
But something completely beyond their expectations was that the cars in the car showroom were really very good-looking.
Completely exceeding the backward self-produced car appearance they had imagined before coming.
“Excuse me, Manager Chen, are these four new-style cars all self-produced and self-sold by you? Their exteriors are all very good-looking; or are they cooperatively produced with foreign car companies?”
“Manager Chen, who is your designer? These cars’ exteriors are really the best-looking I’ve ever seen, even better than the currently popular foreign car brand exteriors!”
“Manager Chen, I heard that your automotive specialty store belongs to the Zhou Family’s car factory, right? Are these good-looking cars really independently produced by your car factory? Or purchased foreign automotive parts for assembly? Or is there investment from a foreign car company?”
“Manager Chen, what is the selling price of these cars? Are these really the domestic cars you published in the newspaper? What performance do they have?”
After the appearance of store manager Chen Ziwen and butler Liu Xing,
those reporters who were taking photos immediately focused all their excitement on these two new car executives.
Thus, soon a series of questions came pouring out from these reporters’ mouths.
Faced with so many questions from these reporters, Chen Ziwen was momentarily speechless, but butler Liu Xing had them maintain order in questioning for answers one by one.
However, before answering, they first had to listen to Chen Ziwen deliver a speech based on the content on the paper written by Zhou Wenhua.
In response, these reporters who had received money exchanged glances with each other and accepted butler Liu Xing’s proposal.
It did not take long,
before Chen Ziwen began his speech at the car showroom.
“In 1769, Frenchman N. J. Cugnot built the world’s first steam-driven three-wheeled car. This car was named ‘Cugnot’, and in 1886 Karl Benz built the world’s first three-wheeled car!”
“In 1888 Benz produced the world’s first car for sale, in 1893 the world’s first car license and driver’s license were issued in France, and in the same year Durie designed the United States’ first gasoline engine car, up until 1907, when Japan produced their first domestic car!”
“But now in October 1931, looking at the entire domestic scene, aside from the Minsheng Automotive Factory in the Northeast which has manufactured domestic trucks, no domestic car company has been able to self-produce and self-sell domestic cars!”
“It is based on such a heartbreaking weak domestic automotive industry foundation that our ‘New Era Automotive Factory’ has embarked on the path of creating a domestic car brand for our era, and also in October this year, we have successfully manufactured a car brand belonging to our domestic market, our own self-manufactured domestic cars!”
“And the four cars you see here in the car showroom are the four new-style domestic car brands strongly promoted by our ‘New Era Automotive Factory’; their names are.”
“To revitalize China, to have our domestic first self-produced and self-sold domestic car brand, our ‘New Era Automotive Factory’ will spare no expense, invest huge funds and massive manpower, material, and financial resources to strive for research and development.”
When all the domestic reporters’ cameras were aimed at Chen Ziwen for shooting,
Chen Ziwen also followed the content on Zhou Wenhua’s paper and delivered the first speech in his life for promoting domestic cars.
As his speech became more agitated and excited, those reporters who had been sporadically taking photos were also infected by his emotions, becoming full of vigor,
thus the flashbulbs kept flashing,
and those reporters responsible for taking notes with notebooks and ballpoint pens also sped up their writing.
At the same time, these domestic reporters on site all felt that this time they had not come in vain to Zhou Wenhua’s automotive specialty store for this car interview.
And at this moment,
Sichuan Region,
National Revolutionary Army Fifth Route Frontline Commander-in-Chief Headquarters,
Commander Yang Sen, who had lost the capital to dominate the Sichuan Region, met a very unexpected visitor.
This was a man who looked like harmony brings wealth,
somewhat overweight, the new sauce factory factory director Li Dafu whom Zhou Wenhua had recruited.
He was dispatched by Zhou Wenhua to the Sichuan Region to purchase various chilies, and thereby make initial acquaintance with commanders of Sichuan Army Troops like Yang Sen and Liu Xiang who would later send troops out of Sichuan to resist Japan, and build good relationships, to lay out his business connections in the rear area in advance.
Of course, the raw material chilies for the chili sauce and Pixian Broad Bean Paste that Zhou Wenhua’s sauce factory planned to produce would not be limited to the Sichuan Region,
because he would continue to have people in places like Guizhou, Gansu, and Henan purchase strongly spicy chilies, and even try purchasing chilies from Guangxi to see if good chili sauce products could be made.
Because the chili sauce and Pixian Broad Bean Paste that Zhou Wenhua planned to manufacture not only followed the production routes of Lao Gan Ma and Pixian Broad Bean Paste, but also adopted the multiple chili sauce routes of later-era “Wei Mei Hao”, including its produced five-spice powder, Thai sweet chili sauce, and ketchup routes.
The United States brand “Wei Mei Hao” had annual income exceeding 37 billion.
Several times Lao Gan Ma’s annual business operation revenue.
So for profitable food brand routes, Zhou Wenhua would absolutely not miss them, because such routes could let him quickly complete the system’s tasks and obtain the first batch of weaponry, equipment, and ammunition rewards.
Of course, in this era when many civilians could not afford meat, Zhou Wenhua felt that chili sauce, Pixian Broad Bean Paste, five-spice powder, Thai sweet chili sauce, and ketchup routes had very mass-market appeal.
Cheap, economical, affordable, and good taste, could be used as rice seasoning to satisfy cravings.
But facing this unfamiliar factory director Li Dafu dispatched by Zhou Wenhua, Commander Yang Sen was uninterested.
Until factory director Li Dafu said he would give him a car for free,
Yang Sen’s expression softened a lot, and he became somewhat interested in hearing the other’s detailed business cooperation plan.
