Dreaming back to 1949, the great powers were there to deceive us

Hu Zhenhua turned around again and pointed at the foreign investment on the blackboard and said,

"In the short term, it's unlikely that my country will attract foreign investment. This is due to both external and internal factors! However, we still need to find ways to attract some, because with foreign investment comes technology! Take, for example, coal mining equipment from US Steel. Isn't that attractive?"

The three economists looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

"Foreign technology is truly advanced! We conducted research in Shanxi Province and found that a mine with a daily output of 2 tons only requires 4500 workers! That's all the workers, including clerical and logistics staff. Their coal mining efficiency is more than ten times higher than ours!"

Hu Zhenhua nodded slightly and said,

"There's nothing to be afraid of with foreign investment. We can definitely cooperate. As long as we hold a controlling stake, the fundamental position of public ownership won't be important!"

Hu Zhenhua knocked on the blackboard and made a summary speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my view on public ownership is this: the government and the military are led by the Party. Land and mineral resources are all state-owned! Heavy industry will be developed by the state using a planned economic model, and advanced technology can be invested in the industry, with the proportion kept below 20%. As for light industry, it will be left to collective and private capital, allowing them to fully compete!"

He Baoyi raised her hand and asked,

“What if one day the scale of private capital exceeds that of collective capital?”

Hu Zhenhua laughed.

"At this stage, the scale of the collective economy is tens or even hundreds of times larger than that of private capital. Given this huge starting advantage, if private capital were to overtake us, I have only one word to describe it: bah!"

Guan Tianpei and the other two burst into laughter, and even He Baoyi, who asked the question, was amused by herself.

Hu Zhenhua turned around and wrote on the blackboard: The mission of capital is to make profits.

"Any capital that can't make a profit is playing rogue! Such capital, whether state-owned, collective, or private, should be eliminated by the market!"

“What if it’s the grain and cotton industry?”

"Grain and cotton are state-monopolized, yet they're still losing money. The people in charge should just hit themselves with a piece of tofu!"

Guan Tianpei waved his hand and disagreed with Lao Hu's statement.

"Making a profit in the grain and cotton industry is incredibly difficult. We're committed to protecting people's livelihoods, and we might even have to invest money! The agricultural department has done statistics, and our rice yield per mu is only 252 kilograms, and yields of other grains are even lower. With a population of just under 6 million, the average annual food ration per person doesn't exceed 80 kilograms!"

"In order to ensure farmers' income, our purchase price cannot be too low. At the same time, in order to ensure the livelihood of ordinary people, especially the urban working class, the selling price cannot be too high!"

Hu Zhenhua returned to the sofa and sat down, waving his hand.

"You guys are always bound by rules and regulations! Grain and cotton don't make money, but grain stores do! Every day when the people don't need to buy grain, the grain stores are always crowded. You can also sell other daily necessities, such as cigarettes, alcohol, and non-staple foods. The profit from this part is enough!"

Guan Tianpei suddenly came to his senses and shouted,

"That's not right. This is the business scope of the supply and marketing cooperative! Are you going to let them fight each other?"

"We need to let them compete! Who says state-owned enterprises can't compete with each other?"

"You're right! Competition is the only way to make progress!"

Hu Zhenhua lit a cigarette and said,

"You said the West lagged behind us for thousands of years, so why did it take the lead in modern times?"

"Please enlighten me!"

Hu Zhenhua blew out a puff of smoke and said,

"Because of war! If you look through European history, you'll find that they've been at war almost every day for the past one or two hundred years. War is the best catalyst for technological development! They've been fighting for one or two hundred years, and technology has been forced to advance for one or two hundred years! But for us, ever since Qin Shi Huang unified the country, as long as there's no internal chaos, we've had no motivation to develop technology!"

Guan Tianpei frowned, and it took a long time for him to relax.

"I understand what you mean. When formulating economic policies, we will consider allowing competition among various market players!"

Hu Zhenhua put down the cigarette in his hand, stood up again, and said with a smile,

"I'll give you a present!"

Lao Hu opened the cabinet, took out a map, spread it on the table, picked up a pencil, and began to introduce from north to south.

"This highway starts in Dandong in the north and runs south, crossing the country directly, ending in Guangzhou. It's planned to have six lanes in both directions, with ample space reserved on both sides for future expansion! The total length of the road is approximately 6 kilometers. Let's start our first major public project to expand M3 with this road!"

Guan Tianpei stared at the map and suddenly felt his scalp tingling.

It's over 3 kilometers long, with six lanes in both directions, countless tunnels and bridges along the way, and countless mountains need to be blown up and countless ditches filled. What a huge amount of engineering work this is!

Scholars can expound their theories to their heart's content, but as decision makers, they also have to consider many factors!

Guan Tianpei stared into Lao Hu's eyes and said worriedly,

"For such a large project, I don't know how much money will be injected. I'm afraid inflation will explode instantly!"

"Master Guan! You can't just focus on the shortcomings and ignore the advantages! It's precisely because this project is so huge that it generates such great economic benefits! Think about it, with such a large project, wouldn't the entire society be mobilized? Machinery factories would need to manufacture construction machinery, and car factories would research cars with higher load capacities. The people along the way would earn wages, and the construction site would have a huge demand for tents, food, medicine, and so on. How many factories would be stimulated to increase production capacity?"

"Also, once this north-south artery is opened, there will be a constant flow of vehicles. Just imagine how much revenue the country will gain every year!"

"As for the inflation you mentioned, it will indeed happen, but you have to understand one thing: we are too poor. If the people don't suffer, how can the country develop? If we have to suffer, I would rather my generation bear it all!"

Guan Tianpei stood up and walked back and forth in the room, looking very anxious!

After a long time, he looked at Hu Zhenhua.

"The reasons you gave are not enough to support the decision! Unless you can solve the problem of the sharp devaluation of the currency!"

Hu Zhenhua leaned against the sofa, lost in thought. After a long while, he sat up straight and asked,

"500 million tons of grain, is that enough?"

……