Rebirth 1990: The beginning is sweet and cool Bai Yueguang

A middle-aged man wearing a blue felt hat was standing in front of the office steps. He stretched out his hands from a distance and said, "Nice to meet you! I'm Li Sanmin. I heard from Lao Zhang that the quantity you want is not small."

A cup of Qingming Festival tea was poured into the blue and white porcelain cup, and Zhou Qi crossed his legs in the mist:

"Inspect the goods first and then talk about the price. If Gaofu Laojiao is really as authentic as word of mouth says, let alone hundreds of tons, it will consume your annual production..."

Director Li almost dropped his teacup and hurriedly led the way to the storage area.

Passing through the steaming distillation workshop, the mountain-like piles of lees in the open courtyard are steaming, and amber wine waves are surging in the thirty century-old cellars.

"Smell this sauce!"

Director Li scooped up a ladle of raw liquor and said: "Our cellar has been heated since the reign of Emperor Guangxu. Every drop of wine is the workmanship of our ancestors."

Zhou Qi took the wooden spoon and took a sip, feeling a burning sensation in his throat. "Take me to see the blending workshop. If the quality inspection is up to standard, we can sign the advance payment contract today."

"Our winery is only a few miles away from Shuipo Liangshan. The folks here have loved drinking since they were young, and many of them have to drink with every meal."

As Director Li Sanmin led the team to the workshop, he put his sweaty shirt on the machine and said, "If you like our craftsmanship, we will definitely give you a good price."

The workshop was filled with steam as workers were busy crushing grains, distilling mash, and making base liquor.

Several shirtless men were pushing shovels to dig out the wine dregs, with beads of sweat running down their backs.

Li Sanmin picked up an enamel pot and scooped half a pot from the boiler mouth that had just been connected: "Boss Zhou, please try this first batch of wine. It's more than 60 degrees of original liquor, brewed from our local sorghum."

Zhou Qi took a sip, and his throat suddenly felt hot and burning: "This wine is quite strong, but the aftertaste is really good."

He looked at the faded award certificate on the wall and suddenly changed the subject: "Do you have any old wine in the cellar?"

"You've come to the right place!"

Li Sanmin lifted the thick curtain of the warehouse. In the three-story deep cellar, there were hundreds of wine jars with faded red seals, and the paper on the oldest ones had turned white.

Zhou Qi tasted them one by one and found that Gaofu Laobai Gan was not inferior to Xianghe Daqu at all.

He quickly calculated in his mind: If those big factories in Guangzhou stop supplying, the production capacity here will be enough to sustain his own winery until it can go into production.

Even if the company could catch up with the production capacity, according to his memory in his previous life, when Shen Bing was selling out, didn't he also collect base liquor from everywhere to OEM? If Dongbin, a major province for liquor consumption, was taken over, half of the national market would be taken.

"Director Li, I want to buy all your wine."

Zhou Qi put down the wine bowl, causing the mahogany coffee table to clang loudly.

Li Sanmin rubbed his hands with joy and quickly led the two to the office. When they passed through the yard where the wine lees were drying, seven or eight managers were already waiting at the door, welcoming the two into the house.

Many workers in the factory heard that a boss named Zhou Qi was coming to purchase liquor, and he wanted hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of tons.

Such big customers are rare. Many people didn't even take care of their work and crowded at the door of the workshop to see the excitement.

As soon as the two entered the office, Li Sanmin greeted people to pass cigarettes and pour tea: "Boss Zhou has visited the winery and tasted the samples. How much do you want to order?"

Zhou Qi, who was smoking a soft Zhonghua cigarette, blew out a smoke ring and took a deep breath back: "I want as many as you can get, but I won't sign a purchase contract with you."

The first half of the sentence made Li Sanmin's eyes light up, but the second half left him puzzled: "It's okay not to sign a contract, so do you plan to pay in cash?" He wondered how much goods this retail investor could buy.

"Director Li misunderstood."

Zhou Qi flicked the ash from his cigarette and said, "I'm the distributor and you're the manufacturer. What I want to sign is a long-term strategic cooperation. I will be the only one selling wine in China."

Li Sanmin was nervous when he heard the diplomatic term "strategic cooperation" - he had only heard of this term being used between countries in the news.

"Can you tell me in detail how we will cooperate?"

"It's simple. You must give priority to supplying me with whatever I need. If you stop supplying me, you must compensate me ten times the loss."

As soon as Zhou Qi finished speaking, Li Sanmin stood up and said, "Isn't this an unfair clause? If you casually quote an astronomical figure one day, won't our factory have to pay a huge loss?"

"Don't worry yet."

Zhou Qi put out his cigarette in the glass jar. "If I really wanted to cheat people, would I have taken an eight-hour green train to come to this mountain valley? What was your total production last year?"

"In the peak season, there are only 30,000 tons..."

"I can help you sell 50,000 tons this year!"

Zhou Qi took out an abacus and started calculating: "Based on the current factory price, I can get 8 million for the deposit alone. But the prerequisite is to sign this agreement. Do you dare to accept it?"

The office suddenly became so quiet that he could hear the cicadas chirping outside the window. Li Sanmin stared at the spider web dangling on the windowsill, his palms full of sweat.

"With our current production capacity, it is no problem to produce 20,000 tons of liquor every year." Li Sanmin said as he opened the account book.

Zhou Qi put the teacup on the table and said, "Lao Li, our long-term cooperation needs a guarantee.

The contract states that no matter how much you produce per year, I will take 60% of the goods. This way, you don't have to worry about me using the production volume as an excuse to ask for liquidated damages, right?"

"You mean to say that no matter how much the annual output is, 60% must be taken?"

Li Sanmin's fingers tapped the table unconsciously. You have to know that in the mid-1980s, this output was not simple. Even twenty years later, the annual output of raw pulp of Shenbing Factory was only 160,000 tons.

Zhou Qi smiled and handed over a cigarette: "I am a serious businessman, not a speculator. We have written it clearly in black and white, so you can rest assured."

"It's great! Mr. Zhou is such an open-minded person!"

Li Sanmin's face was wrinkled with smile, and he took out matches to light cigarettes for the two men.

"But..."

Zhou Qi blew out a smoke ring: "We have to make three rules. The quality must be controlled for me, and this wine bottle must be redesigned."

He picked up the sample bottle on the table and shook it: "Now this plain glass bottle with a red paper label can't be sold at a high price even in the supply and marketing cooperative."

Li Sanmin patted his chest and guaranteed: "As long as you are willing to sign this order, you have the final say on the style!"

The two of them got more and more interested in the conversation, and soon the ashtrays were piled up into a small mountain.

The purchase price agreed upon that day made accountant Zhang smack his lips - 1.5 cents per kilogram, 25% lower than the market price of 2 cents per catty at Shenbing Winery.

It comes down to 180 yuan per ton, and 180 tons is million yuan.

However, Zhou Qi has to bear the labor costs for the upgrade and the transportation costs to Guangzhou himself.

As dusk deepened, two contracts with wet ink lay on the table.

Gaofu Winery promises to supply 60% of its annual output exclusively to Zhou Qi, and the price will fluctuate every year with market conditions.

Li Sanmin's hand was shaking as he held the pen. This order was enough for all the workers in the factory to have a prosperous new year.

The sun is very hot during the dog days of summer, and farmers are most afraid of this time.

There are two crops a year in Tailin Province. After the wheat is harvested, rice seedlings have to be planted. Rice grows the fastest in July and August, and the sun is the hottest. Farmers have to go to the fields before dawn, and weeding, spraying pesticides, and applying fertilizers cannot be delayed.