The Official Ladder: I ascend to the pinnacle of power, wielding the power of life and death.

Chen Zixin and Liu Sicheng exchanged a glance, both looking somewhat worried.

The reforms proposed by Jiang Yiming were disagreed with even by the few people present, let alone the remaining nine hundred-plus employees.

"Please don't rush to express your opinions; this is just the most basic step."

Jiang Yiming remained calm and continued, "The winery's current strategy is a shareholding system, where each shareholder contributes capital, and that capital is then used for development."

"Our company still owes its employees wages and bank loans, how can we implement a shareholding system?"

Wang Weifa asked in confusion.

“You’re absolutely right. We currently have 980 employees, and three months’ wages have not yet been paid. The county has promised to pay 30%, meaning the company has to cover the remaining two months’ wages, totaling about two million. We also owe the bank four million in loans, making a total of six million.”

Jiang Yiming said, "According to estimates, the company still has more than four million yuan in fixed assets and more than one million yuan in outstanding debts that have not yet been recovered. The books are basically balanced."

"In order to raise funds, we set the company at one million shares, each at ten yuan, which means the total assets are ten million yuan. The shares will be subscribed by employees and members of the public. The more people subscribe, the more shares they will have."

"The two million yuan in unpaid wages owed to employees will be automatically converted into 200,000 shares of the company. Two months later, the company will unconditionally buy them back at 12 yuan per share. The four million yuan in bank loans will be converted into 400,000 shares, to be repaid in eight months, with 50,000 shares repurchased each month at 11 yuan."

"The remaining 400,000 shares will be purchased by members of the public, with each person allowed a maximum of 1,000 shares. Any purchases exceeding 1,000 shares will be subject to approval by the distillery's enterprise reform team before they can be considered valid. Any purchases below 1,000 shares will be unconditionally repurchased by the company at 1.2 times the original price two months later."

"This will alleviate the debt pressure without making the winery's equity too scattered and uncontrollable. It's a matter of funding and equity."

"The second part concerns the employees. Yusha Winery Company will be broken up into Yusha Winery, Yusha Paper Box Factory, Yusha Bottle Factory, etc., each operating independently. All employees of Yusha Winery will be dispersed to other factories. Recruitment will be conducted according to the quotas set by Manager Wang Weifa, with the enterprise reform team responsible for recruitment and strictly adhering to the job requirements. Employees of Yusha Winery will receive a 50% salary increase, while those who remain in other factories will initially have their salaries reduced by 20%, with adjustments made later based on the performance of each factory."

"I've finished speaking. If you have any opinions, please feel free to share them and let's discuss them together."

The meeting room fell silent. Jiang Yiming had said a lot, and they were having trouble processing it all at once.

"I guess you're still a bit confused, so let me give you a simple summary."

Jiang Yiming said, "Eight words: Borrowing resources to generate wealth, recruiting talented individuals!"

"I understand. You mean we shouldn't pay back the money we owed before, but borrow some more money to help the company grow? At the same time, we should reassign all the surplus employees to less important factories, select capable people to work at the winery, and focus all our efforts on developing the winery?"

Wang Weifa, as expected of someone in business, grasped the concept immediately.

"You've pretty much figured it out."

Jiang Yiming nodded.

"I think I understand Director Jiang's reform ideas. As for the banks, Director Jiang can use the county's administrative means to make them postpone the collection of debts for a while, but why should more than 900 employees agree to your conditions?"

Xu Shengmao said, "Who would be willing to invest the remaining four million? The company is on the verge of bankruptcy, I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to invest any more money."

"So no matter how well you explain it, if these fundamental issues aren't resolved, it's all for naught."

"Old Xu is right. No matter how good our ideas are, they are useless if these problems are not solved."

Jiang Yiming laughed and said, "What's the purpose of establishing the winery reform team? It's to solve these problems!"

"Director Jiang, we also want the winery to develop better and better, and we also want to solve the problem, but solving this problem is very difficult."

Another member said.

"If it weren't difficult, what would be the point of having all these people here?"

Jiang Yiming said, "Let me first tell you about the benefits that will be for you if we succeed."

"The five of you here will be able to purchase shares without limit. Once the winery's restructuring is successful, the shares will be held by you few after the buyback. You only contributed a small amount of money, but you will eventually own the entire winery."

"By then, our enterprise reform team will be dissolved, and the development of the entire distillery will be entirely up to you. More profits, more shares; less profits, less shares. No more fixed salaries like before!"

"Director Jiang, I'll do it!"

Wang Weifa had already been persuaded by Jiang Yiming, so it was natural for him to take the lead at this time.

“Old Xu and the other brothers, haven’t we been looking forward to this day? Now that Director Jiang has secured this policy from the county, he has pointed out the direction for us and paved the way. If we miss this opportunity because of our fear of difficulties, the winery will never have a chance to develop, and we will regret it for the rest of our lives!”

Wang Weifa declared passionately, "If you guys won't do it, I'll do it all by myself. I'll give it my all, even if it kills me!"

“Wang Weifa is right. Director Yiming has done a lot of work for this enterprise reform. I don’t need to say more, you all know the resistance and difficulties of enterprise reform.”

Chen Zixin said, "Putting everything else aside, at least one-fifth of these nine hundred-plus employees have their own networks of connections. If we do this, we will inevitably face pressure from all sides. But in order for the reform to succeed, we will bear this pressure and the criticism. The ideological work among the factory's employees is your responsibility. If you can't even do this, then there's no point in continuing this enterprise reform!"

After a moment of silence, Xu Shengmao slammed his fist on the table and said, "Let's do it!"

"Dry!"

The others responded enthusiastically.

"We will hold a staff meeting at 3 p.m. We hope that you can persuade one-third of the workers before then, so that we will have less pressure to hold the meeting."

Jiang Yiming said with a resolute expression, "Time waits for no one. We must strive to finish this work within three days and move on to the next stage!"

"The rest of you go and prepare; Grandpa Xu Shengmao stays behind."

The others then went outside.

"Mr. Xu, you are a key figure in the distillery. To ensure the distillery's continued operation, we would like to trouble you to sign this agreement."

Jiang Yiming explained, "Once the agreement is signed, you and the technology you possess will belong exclusively to Yusha Winery. In return, the winery will provide you with 20,000 free original shares. As for your annual salary, it will be determined by the new management team after they are established."

Previously, Xu Shengmao was a state-owned enterprise employee and could not leave the winery without a transfer order. Now that he is a member of the public, he can go to other wineries at any time.

With his skills, many wineries would surely be willing to pay high prices to acquire him, so he needs to eliminate any unstable factors in advance.

Originally, it was thought that Xu Shengmao would consider it for a while, but unexpectedly, he suddenly burst into tears and then knelt down in front of Jiang Yiming.