Old Xu is not an indecisive person, but he had no connections before. Now that he has heard Xu Fei's suggestion, he feels that doing construction work is feasible.

In the morning, when he came to the agricultural machinery station and discussed with his six "comrades," he found that everyone knew about civil engineering. Without hesitation, they directly ran to the county courtyard to submit their resignation reports.

The village chief, who had returned from drinking tea in the county, had completed the last two investment targets and obtained financial allocations for the last two quarters of 99 years for Huangnigang Township. After receiving the salary from the county finance, he saw that there was still a surplus. In addition, the township courtyard was in ruins, so he handed over a repair project worth 20,000 yuan to the "Huangnigang Township Construction Engineering Co., Ltd." that had not yet obtained a license.

Coincidentally, the palace bureau went to the countryside and told Xu Fei that the construction team of the Daze Tractor Manufacturing Factory had joined the third construction company in Zeshi City. Upon hearing this, he helped Old Xu arrange for them to join as well, and also took away the registration materials of the construction company.

Things developed faster than one could imagine.

They had just decided to do construction work last night, and they had already started working at ten o'clock this morning.

Old Xu touched the cold iron shovel handle as if he had returned to the front lines of Nanyue, desperately repairing fortifications to welcome enemy artillery fire.

Cement, sand, water, and mud...

Apply mortar and lay bricks, level the mortar with a trowel, and finish the brickwork...

Busy.

Old Xu looked at his six comrades and found that each one was faster than the last, and they didn't even need to use a level when building walls.

Then.

Before noon, the repair project entered the acceptance phase.

Immediately after.

Three more men arrived on the road, and they had a similar temperament to Old Hu and the others.

Burly, strong, and spirited!

Sure enough.

"Company Commander!!!"

"..."

As the saying goes, the camp is made of iron, and the soldiers are made of water.

Old Xu wanted to remember every soldier he had led, but after twenty years in the army, from a private to a company commander, he had experienced too much. In addition, there were new faces every year, so he couldn't recognize them.

At the same time, doubts arose in his heart.

He had seen a few comrades who had returned from the military before, either living in poverty or working at the agricultural machinery station.

But the comrades he had encountered in the past two days, not to mention their physique, why did they all come together...

No matter how he thought about it, it was strange.

Suddenly, Old Xu remembered the old leader.

Since the other party planned to support Xu Fei to become a TEP executive, they might also arrange for others to join TEP.

These men were obviously from the military. If they all joined TEP together, it would definitely raise suspicions. But if they joined through him...

Just like yesterday, using the identity of comrades, he asked Xu Fei to help arrange jobs, which seemed natural.

"Fortunately, I had them do construction work. Otherwise, wouldn't my son be surrounded by supervisors?"

Old Xu didn't dislike these people, and he even felt close to them.

"Then let's work on construction projects together in the future. After all, we won't go hungry!"

With this in mind, Old Xu greeted the three new men with a more enthusiastic smile.

"Er Gou, you guys are here!"

Engineer: "???"

...

"What the hell!"

Xu Fei, who was hiding in the dark and observing, felt a bit confused when he saw this scene.

The engineers were all similar in physique, strong like bulls.

He was worried that arranging too many people at once would arouse Old Xu's suspicion, so he divided the engineers into groups and gave them different reasons for joining.

For example, Engineer A learned about the situation in Nanyue through Xu Fei's narration and went to join as Old Xu's comrade.

Engineer B appeared as Engineer A's comrade, not knowing Old Xu...

As more engineers joined, some knew Engineer A, some knew Engineer B, and some knew Engineer C...

The relationship framework was established, and more engineers joined later. Even if Old Xu suspected something, their identities could be confirmed through their relationships with each other.

But...

Old Xu actually gave the engineers names?!

"Or did I expose something?"

Xu Fei thought for a moment and took out the phone book left by Old Xu.

When Old Xu was in the army, he sometimes entrusted the leaders of the county's armed forces department to buy things, and sometimes he entrusted his comrades who had returned home from the army to bring back some special products from Nanyue.

Xu Fei's grandfather was the director of the electric fan factory and arranged for some unemployed veterans to work there.

Therefore, he left behind the contact information of many "real comrades."

Xu Fei called each village to find them, some could be reached, and some had disconnected numbers.

For those he could contact, he directly told them that Old Xu had decided to do something big. If they were not doing well at home, they could come here for free food and accommodation, starting at 20 yuan per day!

"True or false, let's see what happens."

After Xu Fei finished his busy work, he returned to the microcomputer room of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

Lou Xiaohu greeted him happily, "Factory Director, the toy factory has been unsealed. They notified us to do the handover."

"Hmm?"

This won't do!

A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.

According to the original plan, the toy factory would only be unsealed after completing the offshore company registration and obtaining the TEP foreign investment license.

During this period, the unsold Frog Monsters in the warehouse would be stolen by outsiders every night, with thousands or even tens of thousands of them gone.

On the day of the unsealing, they would call the village leaders, county leaders, and everyone else to do the handover with the technical supervision and inspection and quarantine departments.

By then, they would take inventory...

Damn it, all my Frog Monsters are gone!

According to the price of the Golden Edition Mechanical Three Kingdoms, 100 yuan per piece, with a stock of 80,000, that's a total of 8 million!

According to the regulations, the sealing unit is responsible for preservation, so naturally, the sealing unit should compensate.

Of course, the other party most likely couldn't afford to compensate.

And he didn't intend to make them actually compensate, he just wanted to use this incident to restrain them so that they wouldn't come and freeload in the future.

But now...

"In five days, they must have stolen twenty to thirty thousand pieces.""It's just that I don't know which leader dares to stand up for us."

Xu Fei thought for a moment and believed that the county leader wouldn't dare, the city leader was a bit uncertain, and the only person he knew who could help was probably the old lady from Dongshan General Society.

But it would be troublesome for her, so it would be better to try Cheng Guang, the second leader of Zeshi who had only met once.

Zeshi was poor, with a load rate of up to 90%. If the region could go bankrupt, they would have probably applied for bankruptcy long ago.

Twenty to thirty thousand items, two to three million.

If Cheng Guang was extremely poor and fearless, with his character of selling off state-owned enterprises in Zhumarket, he might actually dare to cause trouble in Dongshan Prefecture.

As for whether he would trick the other party?

We are in the right!

Besides, compared to his selling off state-owned enterprises, this was nothing.

Moreover, the toy factory was compliant and legal, innocent but sealed. There must be something fishy going on behind the scenes, and the other party would definitely feel guilty.

Thinking about it, Xu Fei took out the small note left by the other party and dialed the number on it.

"Leader, the toy factory is celebrating its unsealing. Come and take a look at the imported production line!"

Cheng Guang didn't want to go.

He was currently worried about the old power plant in Zeshi.

Generally speaking, power plants were collectively-owned enterprises and did not belong to state-owned enterprises. But in reality, they were controlled by the Development and Reform Commission, which had the right to dispose of them.

However, before disposal, the power plant's debts had to be settled, and the collective rights and interests had to be resolved, which meant compensating the holders.

The total installed capacity of the old power plant was 80MW. Before 1996, urban electricity prices were relatively high, almost 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, and separately set agricultural electricity prices were even higher, averaging 1 yuan per kilowatt-hour for the whole village.

At that time, coal was 80 yuan per ton, and the average cost of electricity generation was less than 5 fen. The purchasing price by the power supply unit was 2 fen, so there was naturally no loss.

But after 1997, in order to promote rural development, Zeshi launched half-price electricity, and even electricity at a 20% discount. Coupled with the increase in coal prices, the average cost of electricity generation exceeded 1.5 fen, while the power supply unit lowered the purchasing price to 1 fen in order to make a profit.

In other words, for every kilowatt-hour generated, the power plant lost 5 fen. With a total installed capacity of 80MW, occasional maintenance and occasional power reduction over three years, the average daily loss was about 9,600 yuan, the annual loss was about 3.5 million yuan, and the total loss was about 10 million yuan.

In Zhumarket, those state-owned enterprises were only slightly losing money and about to enter a big loss, so they could sell at a good price and then use private capital to operate, thus recovering economically.

But in Zeshi, the period of big losses had already passed, and each one was burdened with a lot of debt. Even if he gave it away for free, there weren't many wealthy people who dared to take it.

And with Xu Fei's exaggerated appearance, facing a 10 million yuan debt and compensating the rights and interests of hundreds of employees and retired employees, in exchange for an old power plant that was already outdated...

Would the other party accept it?!

So, Cheng Guang came to Yellow Mud Hillock.

He planned to have a good chat with Xu Fei, at least TEP had money.

And then...

As the warehouse door of the toy factory opened, the warehouse manager and the supervisory staff exchanged words.

"Factory Director, something bad happened. We're missing 27,853 sets of Golden Skin Jumping Frogs!"

"What? Say that again?!"

"We lost 28,000 sets of Golden Skin Jumping Frogs!"

"How many?"

"30,000 sets. Based on the price of the Golden Edition Guan Yu, it's a loss of 3 million!"

"Damn it, 3 million! I'm just a worker, how can I explain this to TEP? Moreover, this is a hot-selling product customized by the overseas Golden Group. I hope this loss won't be on my head."

Xu Fei took small steps, patting his left hand on his right palm, anxiously spinning around, and suddenly froze, "Pfft~"

"Factory Director, what's wrong with you?" Lou Xiaohu anxiously approached and called a security guard, "Go and call my sister, tell her that my brother-in-law is not well!"

Cheng Guang: "..."

County leader: "..."

Supervisory staff: "..."

..................

Night.

Yellow Mud Hillock Hospital.

The door of the emergency room was opened.

Cheng Guang hurriedly approached, "Doctor, how is Factory Director Xu?"

"Perhaps due to excessive fatigue and mental stress, he had a heart attack. Luckily, the rescue was timely, and he is young and resilient. Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable." The doctor finished speaking, shook his head, and left. "The overall condition is not very stable. Let's treat him conservatively and see how he recovers."

"Should we transfer him to another hospital? The best one in Zeshi!"

"The patient is not suitable for moving at the moment. Besides, the road to Yellow Mud Hillock is too bumpy. It's not afraid of the occasional mishap, but the constant one!"

"..."

"Let's go with this for now. There is a famous old Chinese doctor in Yellow Mud Hillock. I'll ask him to come and take a look."

"That's good!" Cheng Guang nodded. "By the way, doctor, can I go in?"

"You can, but please be quiet."

"Okay!"

Cheng Guang pushed open the dilapidated wooden door of the emergency room and looked up to see Xu Fei with IV drips hanging from both hands, wearing an oxygen mask on his face, and his eyes blurred as he looked at the ceiling. "Xiao Xu!"

"Leader, you're here. I just wanted to talk to you about the power plant."

"No, you need to rest now!"

"It's okay, I can handle it. It's for the sake of Zeshi!"

After Cheng Guang waited for him to finish speaking, he glanced at the supervisory staff who had left, sat on the bed, picked up an orange, peeled it, and ate it while asking, "How much do we need?"

Xu Fei took off the oxygen mask. "How much is the power plant losing?"

"Over ten million, including the compensation for the employees' rights and interests. It can't be less than 13 million."

"Even if TEP rebuilds the power plant, they still have to sell at a loss and buy at a high price, right?""According to the regulations, that's indeed the case. But I can go through the Development and Reform to help you offset the purchase price of the power supply unit with the selling price. After all, the purpose of introducing foreign enterprises is to study imported power generation equipment and learn overseas power generation technology. You can go without making a profit for the first five years."

"Who are you going to form a joint venture with?"

"What's TEP's plan? The county compound, or the city compound?"

"Can we go with the East Mountain Supply and Marketing Cooperative?"

"Yes, it serves the agricultural sector, following the Supply and Marketing model."

"But in this way, it doesn't have much to do with you. I, Xu Fei, am very particular about how I do things. I definitely can't let you work for nothing. How about this, I'll help you double the scale of the tin toy factory, making Swamp City home to a large toy factory with assets of 50 million!"

"That sounds great, let's settle on that!" Cheng Guang happily agreed, "By the way, what type of power plant?"

"It depends on what you want. A thermal power plant with a total installed capacity of 1000MW? A wind power group with a total installed capacity of 2000MW? Even nuclear power is not impossible, but it will take some time."

"..."

What on earth does TEP do?