Yu Zixun went to Tonghua by airline. He began to arrange to take the train, but there were some temporary changes, the railway inside and outside the Guanxi is being overhauled, although it does not delay the opening of traffic, but the overhauled section will stop for a long time, and finally the secretary with his permission, he booked a ticket from Beijing to Tonghua. It is said that in the last year of the war, Yang Rui personally ordered the suspension of military aircraft manufacturing and the production of commercial aircraft, in order to occupy some foreign markets before European and American companies switched to production.

At the same time, chariots were dumped at low prices in the markets of non-belligerent countries, and even if they were not enough to deliver to the Entente countries, they had to be delivered to these countries first. Its deep meaning is also to enter the market first, and then try to keep the market. Who let China have no colonies, if you want to snatch a bite of food from the hands of foreign adults, you have to get up early and touch the dark, otherwise you won't be able to drink a sip of water for washing pots. Domestic airlines are the first experimental products of commercial aircraft projects, and the maturity of commercial aircraft and the increasing density of domestic routes after a few years have a lot to do with the development strategy that was determined at the beginning.

Yu Zixun may not know these deep-seated things, but when he saw that the plane ticket price was only two hundred and fifteen yuan, and it was also first-class, he felt that the price was really cheap, and he knew that the first-class cabin of the railway cost five or six cents per kilometer per passenger, and this plane was ...... The most ordinary seats will probably not exceed a dime per kilometer, but only twice as much as the first class of the railway; In addition, the speed of the plane is fast and there is no other cost on the road, which is the best choice for the wealthy to travel.

On the day he went to Nanyuan Airport, in the terminal building, which was like an enlarged version of the Beijing automobile sales showroom, Yu Zixun really saw that it was full of old ladies and women dressed in gorgeous clothes, brocade robes and furs. And, of course, their sons and daughters and their descendants. Because the plane carries two kinds of passengers, it is generally ten or fourteen people, so many times it is a charter flight. Yu Zixun encountered a charter plane on the plane that went to Tonghua. A family of thirteen people, if he hadn't booked the ticket for this shift first. I'm afraid I can only take the last ordinary cabin or the next plane.

"Sir, you are also going to Tonghua?" Yu Zixun got on the plane first, the seat number is Ayi, the first row by the window, in fact, the plane is two rows of seats, and the middle one is not a spacious aisle, but because the window cannot be as dense as the seat, some positions are not facing the window. As soon as he got on the plane, he was followed by a stocky merchant and his family, who wore a small black gauze hat. It feels like a Jin merchant on the other side of the mouth. As soon as he opened his mouth, it was really a smell of vinegar, but this person was fair-skinned and looked very self-contained, and it was good to have someone to chat with during the four-hour direct flight.

"Yes, I heard that Tonghua is good, so I plan to go and have a look." Yu Zixun was alone, with a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose. At first glance, he looks like a gentleman. "You're also going to see this family?"

"Look at it too, and do business." This person suddenly took out the small business card that had just become popular in Zhang's business world, and handed it over: "Shao Yubao, the owner of the Dongshengyuan store, is a contemptuous person, and the word is Shunfu." The family ancestral family is engaged in the leather trade. In addition to going to Tonghua, go to the land of Longxing; Then I went to negotiate some deals with car companies. Dare to ask for a gentleman's name? ”

"Oh, in Xia Yu and Qin, the word is self-honored. Brother Shunfu is a fur merchant. How can this de-Tonghua do business with car companies? Yu Zixun replied immediately, forgetting the pseudonym he had made up before. Fortunately, the other party didn't know who Yu Zixun was, so there was no stubble.

"You need to use leather on the top of the car, too." Shao Yubao smiled gently. "I've been supplying goods before, but now they want to move to Tonghua with a small number, you see, I have to bring the family over."

Yu Zixun didn't understand the significance of the leather goods store to move to Tonghua, so he only chatted with the leather dealer all the way, and the plane landed at Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport four hours later. His trip to Tonghua had long been known to Gu Zhaozhen, the person in charge of Tonghua Diesel Engine Company, because Gu Zhaozhen was on the side of the runway before others got off the plane. Shao Yubao, who was traveling with him, obviously knew that Gu Zhaozhen was the general manager of the general office of Tonghua Automobile Factory, and he could personally go to the airport to greet him, which showed that Yu Zixun must have a big background, thinking of his braggart on the plane, he hurriedly left with a red face.

"Sir, why do you want to come to Tonghua in person, don't you ......just send a telegram to the students" Gu Zhaozhen is one of the business elites arranged by Yang Rui to go to the United States for training, and he also competed with Liu Hongsheng for the position of general manager of the Great China Automobile Company before, but he lost; However, at the instigation of some local shareholders of Tonghua, Tonghua Plant entered the commercial vehicle field before FAW.

"It's better to see is believing." Yu Zixun said with a smile, he looked back at the plane behind him, and said, "With this kind of plane here, you can really travel thousands of miles in a day!" ”

"Oh, this is the Phoenix airliner from the Hangzhou Aircraft Factory. The Prime Minister personally supervised it, and it is said that the three-engine mechanism was also idealized. Gu Zhaozhen said as he asked Yu Zixun to get on the yellow flag car that specially welcomed guests, "In this way, more than 1,300 horsepower can send such a heavy plane and more than a dozen people to the sky, it's not easy!" ”

Calling himself Mr. is cordial, calling Yang Rui the prime minister is respectful, and these management trainees are all professionally guided by Yang Rui himself. Yu Zixun passed this section in his heart, and then asked: "It seems that the key projects of the Ministry of Industry are automobiles, aircraft, and chemicals?" ”

"Sir, electronics, appliances, and movies." Gu Zhaozhen replied, and then gave an order to the front, and the car started at this time.

"Electronics, appliances, and movies?" Yu Zixun has seen the movie, but he doesn't want it to be an industry, and he doesn't know what household appliances and electronics contain. "Tell me more." He said.

"Electronics are radios, radio stations, radios, and the like; Household appliances are radios, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, etc., "Gu Zhaozhen is not very clear about the specific items included in electronics and household appliances, "The movie is mainly set in Shanghai, and the Voltage Academy has also moved to Shanghai. ”

"That's right." Yu Zixun said that he didn't expect that those could become the same industries, let alone what Tonghua would look like, so that the next day when he stood on the top floor of the Longmen Inn in Tonghua New Town, and saw that the factory and chimney could not see the end, he realized that this was not a car factory at all. This is the Motor City.

"From the first nine years of Mr. Xianfeng's Shenwu to Tonghua, the construction of Tonghua has never stopped. Even if it's a time of war. So far, it will be 20 years since Tonghua was established. Twenty years! Gu Zhaozhen accompanied Yu Zixun to stand on the top floor of the inn, and when he saw the scale of Tonghua at the moment, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Yu Zixun was also shocked by the scale of Tonghua, and he suddenly asked, "Why did you choose Tonghua in the first place?" Since Tonghua was chosen, why did FAW build in Dalian? ”

"I chose Tonghua because there is coking coal in Tonghua, and there is also high-quality iron ore that can be like a furnace without selection, which is indeed a good place to run an industry, in addition to being located in the deep mountains and inconvenient transportation. There are almost no drawbacks. Moreover, at that time, Mr. Xianfeng did not know how the future would develop, and the choice of the mountain was meaningful. Gu Zhaozhen said. Compared with the people who fight the world, these management training courses are people who rule the world, and they are extremely admired for the former's ability to open up the current situation.

"Now that the country is safe and the world is settled, it is obviously not suitable for FAW to be put in the mountains, and it is mainly an assembly plant, only for Asian users. In North America and Europe, parts are directly exported and assembled into cars by local assembly plants. This would reduce tariffs – for example, in the UK, where the import tariff on finished vehicles is 25 percent, but the import duty on parts is only 10 percent. This is to encourage us to stimulate local employment;

Second, the iron ore reserves in Tonghua are not large, and they are all scattered small iron ores. Benxi Anshan is a big iron mine, and it is appropriate to build a factory around it. At the beginning, I also wanted to put the assembly plant in Yingkou. But considering the terminal facilities, it was finally placed in Dalian. It is a deep-water port, and there is room for development in a hundred years. ”

"What about Tonghua?" Hearing Gu Zhaozhen's explanation, Yu Zixun asked again.

"Tonghua is basically maintaining the status quo, and at the same time stepping up prospecting nearby, if there is a suitable iron ore, then it will be mined again and expand the scale; If not, then the iron sand will be transported into Benxi, but this will be uneconomical in terms of freight. Gu Zhaozhen said. The location of a large factory is a very, very important thing, and it largely determines the fate of the factory. For example, in Hanyang, coal and iron are separated by more than 500 kilometers, and if it were not for the support of the Ministry of Industry and the stimulation of the European war, I am afraid that it would have closed down long ago.

The factory is like this, and the industrial base is even more of a lifeblood, otherwise hundreds of millions or billions of funds will be smashed into steel and cement plants, and the mine will be dug up for more than ten years, which is really a huge loss. However, Mr. Cheng's vision is indeed not ordinary, he chose Tonghua at the beginning, then Ma'anshan, and finally Shanxi, and these three places were not wrong. Liaodong is a large industrial base centered on Benxi and Anshan; Shanxi is centered on Tongpu Road, which is also a large industrial base; It is that the positioning of Ma'anshan is unclear, and Shanghai is the economic and financial center of the country, but the Ministry of Industry does not want to build more factories in Shanghai.

"Ruizan, how many cars do you produce in Tonghua every year?" Yu Zixun has no concept of an industrial base, he looked at the automobile city outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and couldn't help but think of the purpose of this trip, which is to see the automobile manufacturing in Tonghua.

"Cars? Last year, the annual output was more than 154,300 vehicles, and this year it is estimated that it will exceed 200,000 vehicles. Gu Zhaozhen was startled as soon as he said 200,000 Yu Zixun, but the back was even more shocking, only to hear Gu Zhaozhen say again: "In addition, there are two big heads of tractors and trucks, last year tractors and construction machinery, that is, equipment under the Caterpillar brand sold 170,070,000 units, and trucks sold 140,000 units......

"How can there be so many?" Yu Zixun exclaimed that he didn't expect the output of Tonghua Diesel Engine Factory to be so large before he came to the call.

"Caterpillar and van have achieved the best diesel engine in the world, and the marine engine is still worse than the German MAN company; The core of the diesel engine is the oil pump, that is, precision grinding, which is basically not possible for other countries except for Germany, which may catch up with us - the Americans may be able to, but they don't bother to do it.

The diesel engine market is a small market, many trucks and tractors use gasoline engines, and even some tractors also use kerosene, plus tariff protection, competition with railway transportation, etc., the world's truck market is only about one-tenth of that of cars, that is, cars; The tractor and agricultural machinery markets are similar; And construction machinery is still cultivating, we have an absolute advantage in this regard, but the problem of this market is smaller, a year with 100,000 construction machinery is very remarkable. ”

After introducing the diesel engine vehicle, Gu Zhaozhen introduced the gasoline engine, "The cars we produce are actually mainly pickup trucks. Seeing that Yu Zixun didn't understand, he explained: "It is a combination of a car and a truck, with a car in front and a truck in the back." The reason why American farmers buy Ford cars is that the land is vast and sparsely populated. If you have a car, you can go to the bazaar; Then the things in their fields have to be transported to the market to sell, which is a bit like the positioning of the Shifeng three-wheeled car put into production by Shanxi Second Automobile. Four years ago, our pickup trucks were in short supply as soon as they were launched. This is thanks to the tractor relationship, and the American farmers have a certain trust in us......"

As soon as Gu Zhaozhen talked about trust, Yu Zixun nodded frequently, his career as a pastor made him very familiar with American farmers, they are stubborn, difficult to get along with, and rude, but they are very honest, and generally nostalgic, once something has touched them, then they will remember it decades later.

“…… And then there are no other companies with such models. So 30,000 units were sold in the first year, 87,000 units in the second year, the year before last was the end of the war, the peasants could not sell their grain, and they owed a lot of money to the bank, so they only sold 70,000 units, and last year it was better, more than 100,000 units, and this year there were 120,000 units until October of the solar calendar. It is estimated that more than 150,000 units will be sold throughout the year. ”

"How much does it cost?" Yu Zixun asked, though he couldn't imagine what a pickup truck would look like.

"It varies from year to year, but this year it starts at $500 per vehicle and goes up to $1,000." Gu Zhaozhen said. He took Yu Zixun down the elevator at this time. Get ready to drive to the assembly plant. Hearing that the price of the car was more than 500 US dollars, Yu Zixun immediately felt that this was not dumping, because it was higher than Ford's price. Take that day at the experience of a car dealership. His biggest concern is that Chinese cars will be sold in the U.S. market at extremely low prices, and the consequences will be extremely serious. Now it's not dumping at the lowest price, so he doesn't have to worry so much.

I thought about this for a while. Yu Zixun exhaled and said, "It seems that the price difference between us and American cars is not too much." ”

Knowing what Yu Zixun was worried about, Gu Zhaozhen smiled and said: "Sir, if it is really a simple comparison of prices, this may not be the lowest, but if it is more cost-effective, this is the lowest." Do you think that China's labor is cheap, and the cars built will be several times cheaper than American cars? ”

"Isn't it?" Yu Zixun has been investigating for many days, and one of the most profound concepts in his mind is that China's artificial labor is only one-twentieth or even one-thirtieth of that of the United States, and the price of the things made in this way is at least one-tenth.

"Not exactly." Gu Zhaozhen replied: "Under normal circumstances, the labor cost of a car only accounts for about 20 to 25 percent of the ex-factory price, and there are about 20 percent of the profit, about 20 percent of the fixed and current costs, 30 percent of the materials, and about 5 of the research and development, so the manpower is only a part of it, not the whole of it."

According to this calculation, we can save 20 to 25 percent of labor costs, but these offset tariffs are not enough, the British tariff on vehicles is 25 percent, and the tariff between us and the United States is 30 percent -- the tractor companies in the United States do not like us, so after the war, we asked the government to raise tariffs, and we have no advantage in counting labor alone. ”

"What's the advantage?" Yu Zixun asked, he didn't know that the tariffs were so high.

"There are many differences between us and American companies, for example, we are made-to-order, and if there is no order for the front sales, then the factory will not operate, while American companies such as Ford are producing every day, regardless of whether the front sales order is more or less. The advantage of this is that compared to them, our liquid assets are very small, about only one percent of them.

If you have less money in stock, you will have less interest to pay, and you will be able to change models quickly. In many cases, American cars can completely eliminate some minor problems by changing the production process slightly, but they just can't do it. Any small change would be almost impossible for their production line, so Ford was only able to produce the Model T for the last decade, and we were about three or four years old to upgrade and launch a new model. In addition, there are many series, so in the face of the monotonous Ford or the newly formed General Motors, they will face a sea of cars. ”

Che Haizhi's words couldn't help but make Yu Zixun think of his surprise when he was in the capital, he thought that a company would sell a car, just like Henry. Ford said -- no matter what car a customer needs, the cars I make are black. But in fact, it was two companies that actually had twenty-five cars, piled up in the showroom, which he could not imagine. Thinking of this, he asked, "Do we have a lot of production lines?" ”

"No, sir. Pickups, cars, and warriors all come out of one line, trucks are one line, tractors and chariots are one line. There are three lines in total. There is only one production line in Dalian, and his products are more varied. It's Volkswagen and BMW, all of which are mixed production. The Americans simply can't do this. They have as many production lines as they have models, such as General Motors, which has six models from Chevrolet to Cadillac, each with its own production line, although some parts are common between them. Gu Zhaozhen said.

"If the production line is small, the investment in fixed assets is low, especially the printing machine, which is the most expensive in the machine tool, and wants to be a small hydraulic press. Each production line requires several punches, and if there are many assembly lines, then the investment in fixed costs is very large. The Ford plant had more than 30,000 machine tools, $5 million in jigs and molds, and even though there were so many machines, the plant had to be abandoned when it came time to produce other models.

We are not the case, after the change of models, machine tools, fixtures and molds can also be used in other models, which in disguise to spread the cost. Take Tonghua's automobile production line as an example. Combined with the investment in supporting factories, excluding steel mills, the total assets are about 10 million US dollars, and the production capacity is 200,000 vehicles. In other words, after five years of depreciation, the cost of each car is only ten dollars;

And General Motors. With the exception of the low-end Chevrolet and Oakland, Buick and above are not produced in large quantities. But the production line is the same, so he only has two cars with lower fixed costs than ours. Everything else is higher than us. Ford, on the other hand, has near-zero fixed cost amortization because the Model T will be produced forever.

But if we look at it from another angle, if we don't follow the financial rigid five-year straight-line depreciation, our fixed costs are almost none, like Ford's. Because these lines will last forever, twenty, thirty years, until the machine is completely broken. In this way, the amortization of the entire fixed cost is less than a few dollars. That's actually a big part of the cost savings, and if you add up the savings in working capital interest, this 20 percent can be at least half of the savings -- compared to Ford, we have a 30 percent cost advantage, and we have a 50 percent advantage over GM's mid-range brand. ”

"Oh, so the gap is here!" Yu Zixun had a suddenly realized expression, he didn't expect that fixed assets, liquid inventory, and the like would occupy so much money.

"This is just one of them, the cost of raw materials is lower than that of the United States, because the steel plant also has labor cost advantages and management advantages, there is also order-pull production, and the production line is also as mixed as possible to save fixed asset input, so in total, our cost is about 50% of the same kind of cars in the United States, and with the promotion of the management model, the cost will be lower and lower.

Henry. Ford is extremely confident in his production model, from submarines to combat vehicles to airplanes, as long as it is industrial production, he believes that it can be reorganized according to the Ford model, which can not only improve efficiency, but also reduce costs. In fact, the same is true of our set of things, when we can produce all this equipment from mining to stamping machine tools, the price of our products and that of the United States will be infinitely close to the ratio of labor between the two countries, and now we can't do all this because in the entire industrial production, most of the equipment is imported, and their depreciation raises the production cost of the entire production system. ”

Gu Zhaozhen's last inference made Yu Zixun only shudder, he understood the importance of the matter. There are only four elements of industrial production: people, machines, raw materials, and technology. Raw materials vary from mine to mine due to natural conditions, and machines are made by humans with certain technology. The reason why it is only 50 percent of the cost of similar cars in the United States is that the key is that the car-making equipment itself will not be able to produce, and once the technology is mastered, then 50 percent multiplied by 50 percent, the cost is 25 percent, and then multiplied by 50 percent, that is, 12.5 ......percent, so that when the entire industrial system is its own technology and equipment, the cost of products is infinitely close to one-twentieth of the ratio of labor wages between China and the United States.

Who can afford such a cost?! Yu Zixun's face turned a little pale, and after a while, he asked, "Ruizan, how long will it take us to do what you said, the technology and machines are our own?" ”

"It's not far away." Gu Zhaozhen didn't notice Yu Zixun's uneasiness, he said confidently: "There is no machine that we can't make, I think in about fifteen years, the entire industrial system will be completely new!" (To be continued......)