Traveling back to 1977

Let's leave Chapter 595 aside for now.
A car factory wouldn't occupy a small area. The district leaders moved some small factories next to the machinery factory and approved a 500-mu plot of land for Yunhu Car Factory.

Of course, the car factory wouldn't use up all 500 acres at once. In the first phase, they used 100 acres to build several large factory buildings, and then built a logistics building and an office building, and then they could open for business.

Chen Fan drove directly through the machinery factory area, with the automobile factory right behind him.

It wasn't time for work yet, and there weren't many people in the factory area, except for the cleaners sweeping the ground with large bamboo handles.

The security guards on duty at the gate saw his car but didn't stop it.

Whether they are long-time employees or newcomers, they may not remember the dozen or so official vehicles of the Machinery Plant, but they will definitely remember this very special GAZ truck.

Chen Fan then brazenly drove through the machinery factory and into the automobile factory area, finally stopping in front of the government office building.

I got out of the car and walked into the office building. Although it wasn't working hours yet, some people were already there, including some veteran employees who had been transferred from the machinery factory.

Upon seeing Chen Fan, he immediately stepped forward to greet him, "Consultant Chen, you're here. Director Yang hasn't arrived for work yet. Please sit here for a while and have some tea. He should be here soon."

Chen Fan didn't refuse. He sat down in the waiting area in the corner, waited for the person to bring him a cup of hot tea, thanked them, and then asked, "Who came up with this reception area?"

These days, very few organizations set up a reception area; they either invite you into a specially designated meeting room or into the interviewee's office.

Unless they are leaders or cadres from other units, most people just wait at the entrance.

Even a small reception area surpasses the production units of most of this era.

The man smiled and said, "This is Director Yang's arrangement."

He paused for a moment, then added, "However, judging from what he said, it was your suggestion."

I?
Chen Fan blinked, thinking that it was possible he had let it slip during a work discussion.

He nodded slightly, smiled, and said, "Oh, I forgot."

The man laughed and said, "You've given our unit so many suggestions, it's normal that you can't remember some details."

Chen Fan smiled and didn't say anything more about it. Instead, he asked, "Isn't today the day your new car is launched? Why don't I see any special arrangements?"

"It's been arranged."

The man pointed outside and said, "We've hung banners at the factory gate, on the factory road, and in the office building and warehouse. You probably didn't notice them because you were driving."

Chen Fan blinked, thinking to himself, "So those banners were part of the new car launch plan?"

He did notice the banners earlier, but didn't look at them closely. After all, which organization doesn't have a few banners these days?
For a more elaborate approach, use a strip of red cloth as a base, then write the words on square pieces of red paper and paste them onto the cloth. For a simpler approach, just find any strip of cloth, as long as it's not colored—red, yellow, blue, black, or white will do—it's just a cloth base, the focus is still on the red paper for writing.

When you need to replace this type of banner, you can simply change the paper, which is convenient and saves on fabric.

Just as he was pondering this, Yang Kangnian strode in.

Whether they had arranged it beforehand or not, as soon as Chen Fan stood up, several people appeared behind him, including Deputy Factory Director Li, Chairman Zhao of the Trade Union, Secretary Zhang of the Youth League Committee, Director Qian of the Women's Federation, and Section Chief Sun of the Finance Department.

In addition, there is Shi Tiezhu, the former workshop director of the machinery plant, who has been transferred to the position of deputy director of production at the automobile plant, and Ding Guangsheng, the newly appointed director of the vehicle assembly workshop.

Basically, it's the original team from the old machinery factory. In professional terms, this is called "one team, two names".

Factory Director Yang took the lead and immediately saw Chen Fan standing up. His eyes lit up and he raised his hand to greet him, "I just saw your car and knew you were back. When did you get back?"

Chen Fan stepped forward to greet him, smiling, "I arrived last night and first thing this morning."

Before anyone could greet him, Chen Fan stepped forward and asked, "Today is the first day of the car's launch. Besides displaying banners, do you have any other ceremonial activities?"

Deputy Factory Director Li walked over and laughed, "Of course! At 9:50, all 800-plus cadres and employees of the factory will gather in the square at the factory gate for a grand celebration ceremony."

Provincial leaders, leaders from the Provincial Machinery Industry Bureau and the Prefectural Party Committee will also attend the ceremony and deliver speeches. Afterwards, employee representatives and management cadres will make a pledge to produce cars of excellent quality.

Finally, several organizations that wanted to purchase cars bought them on-site.

Chen Fan nodded gently as he listened, and after he finished speaking, he couldn't help but look up at him, "And then?"

Deputy Factory Director Li was taken aback for a moment, then turned to look at Factory Director Yang, and then at him, and laughed, "Is that all? What else do you need?"

Chen Fan wiped his forehead, leaned closer to the two men, and whispered, "Here's what we'll do: prepare a convoy later. Cars will be in front, minivans and trucks in the middle, and a band will be loaded into the truck beds. We'll bring along everyone who can play drums and gongs, and keep the drumming going. Finally, we'll have a few minivans following behind, filling all the seats, with each person holding a bouquet of flowers."

Once you're ready, as soon as your ceremony is over, immediately drive the convoy out and drive around Yunhu City, wherever there's a lively atmosphere.

Factory Director Yang's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but nod. "This will definitely be very lively."

The next second, he frowned slightly, "Private individuals can't buy cars, so what's the point of making such a fuss?"

These days, only companies can buy cars; private individuals are not allowed to buy them, nor can they afford them.

Which unit in Yunhu City doesn't know that the car factory's products are being launched today?
What's the point of all this fuss, besides wasting money and manpower?
Chen Fan clicked his tongue and explained, "The role of publicity is not only to those above and within the company, but also to those below and to the outside world. Yes, everyone knows that we have a new car factory in Yunhu, but very few people have actually seen what the cars look like."

In this way, apart from the employees and their families of the machinery factory, the automobile factory was nothing more than a topic of conversation for the vast majority of the people, and had no other significance.

However, if we promote our factory among the masses, linking the car factory with the Yunhu area, and instilling in the public a sense of pride in our factory, then when they travel and see cars, they will definitely compare ours with others and will most likely recommend our Yunhu cars to people they know…”

Chen Fan gave a thorough explanation, which made Director Yang and the others suddenly realize, "So that's how it works?!"

He turned to Deputy Factory Director Li and the others and said, “Last time I went to the provincial capital and met with people from Jiangnan Automobile Factory, I felt that their people lacked a certain drive. Now that Xiao Fan has said this, I realize that what they lack is the spirit of ‘taking pride in the factory’.”

If every one of our cadres and staff members could have this spirit, and if we could also get the masses involved as much as possible, this kind of spiritual wealth would be extremely valuable.

Deputy Factory Director Li nodded slightly, then said seriously, "I'll arrange this."

After saying that, he left in a hurry.

After a brief exchange with Director Yang, the others also divided up their tasks to prepare for the celebration ceremony.

After everyone had left, Factory Director Yang led Chen Fan to his office. They chatted casually as they walked, and soon reached the second floor. Factory Director Yang walked to the far end of the floor, where his secretary had already opened the door. He went straight in, had the secretary make two cups of tea, and then looked at Chen Fan sitting opposite him, smiling, "After working hard for half a year, whether we can make a good start depends on today. As for the rest, we'll just have to do our best and leave the rest to fate."

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Well, you have to do your job properly."

Factory Director Yang was slightly taken aback. He glanced at the door that his secretary had closed, then looked back at him. "What do you mean?"

Chen Fan asked, "What's the process for buying a car now?"

Factory Director Yang chuckled and said, "What other procedures are there? The company first applies to the Commerce Bureau, and after approval, we get the car purchase quota. Then we take the approval form to the car factory to buy the car."

Chen Fan picked up his teacup and took a sip, his brows furrowing slightly. "So, if I want to buy a Hongqi, I have to go to Changchun to pick it up?"

Factory Director Yang took out a pack of cigarettes from his drawer, opened it, and tossed one over. "What else can we do? Of course, you can only buy a Hongqi car in Changchun, just like you can only buy a Shanghai-brand sedan in Shanghai. You can't exactly go to Shiyan to buy a Hongqi or a Shanghai-brand sedan, can you? The Second Automobile Works doesn't have those there."

Chen Fan picked up the cigarette and looked at it. "Huh, it has a filter? Are filters so easy to buy now?"

Factory Director Yang lit a cigarette, flicked out the match, and threw it into the ashtray. He said, "This year, it's much easier to buy cigarettes with filters. Although you still need cigarette coupons, there's basically no shortage of them, and sometimes we even give out a little extra."

As he spoke, he opened the drawer again, took out two Platinum Dragon cigarettes, and placed them in front of Chen Fan, saying, "Take these and draw them."

Chen Fan didn't stand on ceremony, moved it aside, took out a lighter, lit it, and continued the previous topic, "Yunhu Auto went public today, what about the other factories? When will their cars be produced?"

Factory Director Yang chuckled and shook his head, saying, "When will it be manufactured? I haven't even settled on a price yet. Several factories are already shipping out their products, mostly to their own regions. They're not selling to other places. We're keeping the profits within the family, after all."

He took a puff of his cigarette, shook his head, and said, "At first I was quite worried, but then I went to two factories to take a look. Hey, what kind of crap are they making? They're almost the same as the prototypes our machinery factory made at the beginning. They leak air everywhere when they run."

He looked up at Chen Fan and said with a sigh, "It wasn't until I saw their cars and then looked at the cars we make that I understood what you meant back then."

He gestured, "Don't worry, with your advice, Yunqi Factory has made the best start, and it definitely won't falter later. At the same price, I don't believe we can't sell better than those with poor quality."

Chen Fan leaned back in his chair, smoking and blinking, somewhat speechless.

He somewhat understood why, in the early days of reform and opening up, most foreign products entering the country would negatively impact domestic products.

By placing the products together, it's immediately clear which ones are of better or worse quality.

Some things were indeed done with far too little care.

After a few seconds, Chen Fan decided to stop talking for now and just leave it at that.

Since they're willing to come and pick up the car, let's just sell it like this. We'll deal with it when it stops selling.

The car sales model in later generations was very mature. For high-end cars, there were 4S stores; for budget cars, there were stores of various brands in car cities; and even in small towns, there were clusters of car stores.

But in those days, if you wanted to buy a car, you had to do what Yang Kangnian said: take the approval form to the car factory to buy it, and then arrange for a driver to drive it back yourself.

It wasn't until 1986 that higher authorities gave clear instructions to further reduce the scale of the plan.

In addition, in 1984, a document that directly affected the development of the national economy and industry and commerce was issued, namely the "Several Provisions on Farmers' Individual or Joint Household Purchase of Motor Vehicles, Ships and Tractors for Transportation Business".

This document is the first to explicitly define the legality of private car purchases.

It is thanks to this document that privately purchased cars can be registered at the vehicle management office.

Also in that year, people in Beijing and Shanghai bought private cars.

Against this backdrop, in the same year, 1986, the higher authorities decided to establish two automobile service companies: one was the Automobile Trade Center, and the other was the China Automobile Trade Corporation.

The establishment of these two companies marked the beginning of automobiles entering the market as commodities.

To enter the market, you need to have a store.

Therefore, car dealerships only really started to spread starting in 86.

Prior to this, there were mostly city sales offices, but no car dealerships.

Chen Fan originally wanted to suggest that Director Yang open stores in several key cities today, but seeing his confidence, he swallowed his words and decided to wait until later.

After taking a sip of tea, Chen Fan looked up and said, "The Jiangnan Writers Association needs five vans, and the Shanghai Writers Association may also need three to five. Do you have any in stock?"

Factory Director Yang immediately nodded, "Since you've given the order, we have to have it even if we don't have it yet."

He grinned and said, "I've had the production department prepare two hundred vans and 20 sedans on hand. You can take them anytime you want."

Chen Fan thought for a moment, "Can you deliver?"

Factory Director Yang was immediately dumbfounded, "You still want to deliver goods? What kind of car delivers goods?"

He paused for a moment, then threw away his cigarette butt and let out a long sigh of relief with a smile. "Luckily, we have a good relationship with the shipping company. I can talk to their manager and ask them to send a boat to help us make the trip."

However, the truck can only be delivered to the provincial capital's port and the Shanghai freight port, and the cost is not low, at least a thousand yuan.

He thought for a moment, then waved his hand, "Forget it, I'll figure out the transportation costs. Today, some units in the provincial capital also want to buy vehicles, and the total number is quite large. I'll share part of the transportation costs with them later, and they'll definitely be happy to do so."

If you're sure there are no problems, let me know again and I'll arrange the shipping time.

Chen Fan nodded. "The five vehicles in the provincial capital are confirmed. As for the ones in Shanghai, I need to send a telegram there first and wait for their reply before we proceed."

After a pause, he added, "If it's urgent, we'll ship three vehicles first, and we'll talk about the others later."

He chuckled as he spoke, "I have one in Shanghai that I use myself."

Factory Director Yang waved his hand, “What’s the rush? Water transport is slow by nature. Coordinating cargo ships, especially large ones that can enter the Huangpu River estuary, can’t be done in a day or two. Just keep in touch. I’ll arrange the shipment once everything is confirmed.”

(End of this chapter)