Chapter 559: Bad News!

The night passed without incident!

Early the next morning, Li Yi took Zhang Ziqiang to the Yanjing Television Factory.

Yesterday, he had intimidated the factory’s workers and managers with his thunderous tactics, but the problem remained unresolved.

Li Yi knew that the current calm was merely the lull before the storm; everything was only temporary.

If he couldn’t deliver on his promise to the workers and completely resolve the factory’s problems, both the workers and the management would continue to act just as they had the day before—those who wanted to cause trouble would cause trouble, and those who wanted to shift the blame would shift the blame.

And that is reality—that is human nature!

The abyss has a bottom, but the human heart is unfathomable!

When it comes to self-interest, human nature cannot withstand the test.

Therefore, Li Yi must put his plan into action as soon as possible and turn this failing factory around.

That way, he’ll not only be able to give the factory’s workers and managers a satisfactory explanation, but also provide an account to his second older brother, Jiang Longyin.

Upon arriving at the factory, Li Yi briefly reviewed the plan he had finalized the previous night, then had Sun Feng summoned.

For this plan to succeed, it would depend on two key factors: marketing strategy and the establishment of sales channels.

Li Yi would personally oversee the marketing strategy, so that wouldn’t be a problem, but he had to entrust the task of establishing sales channels to Sun Feng.

By this point, Sun Feng had also gained a general understanding of the sales channels for the Yanjing Television Factory.

Currently, there were still some sales channels in place, but their coverage was limited to Beijing, Tianjin, and parts of eastern Hebei; in other regions, the market had been eroded, and sales channels had long since disappeared.

To be honest, given the current situation, the outlook for the Yanjing Television Factory is far from optimistic.

If they didn’t make a breakthrough soon, it wouldn’t be long before they were completely phased out. By then, their only options would be to be acquired by another factory or go bankrupt.

The only silver lining is that, although the factory’s sales channels are lackluster, the sales department actually employs over 160 people—twice as many as the sales department at the Second State-Owned Cotton Mill before its restructuring.

Yet with so many employees, they can only sell two or three thousand televisions a month—which shows just how incompetent these people are.

After assessing the situation, Li Yi immediately presented the plan he had drafted the previous night to rebuild the sales channels.

According to his instructions, Sun Feng and his team were required to expand the sales network within two weeks to cover Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, as well as the four provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong. Additionally, they had to extend the network to the three northeastern provinces plus the province of Saibei—a total of 11 provinces and regions.

Of course, it was impossible for the staff at the TV factory to accomplish this on their own.

Given their capabilities, they’d be lucky to get a handle on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in such a short time—let alone expand their channels to so many places.

However, Li Yi had already devised a solution. While the staff at the Yanjing TV Factory couldn’t manage it alone, with the help of the Second National Cotton Mill, the problem would be easily resolved.

After more than half a year of development, and with the rapid expansion of Feixue Apparel stores, State Cotton Mill No. 2 has now established sales channels in the vast majority of provinces nationwide.

Especially in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the four provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan—due to their proximity to the factory—development has been the most rapid, with stores and warehouses in nearly every provincial capital and major prefecture-level city.

If they could leverage their resources, the Yanjing TV Factory would undoubtedly be able to distribute its products to these areas in the shortest possible time.

This is precisely why Li Yi insisted on transferring Sun Feng over!

After all, the sales channels of State Cotton Mill No. 2 were built by him and An Hong together; now that he was being asked to lend these channels, who could possibly refuse?

After Li Yi explained his plan, Sun Feng was immediately blown away and pledged his full commitment.

Sun Feng then set to work on the matter!

……..

“Knock knock knock!!!”

No sooner had Sun Feng left than there was another knock on the door of Li Yi’s office.

“Come in!”

Soon, Li Yi saw Wang Ruomei, the head of the finance department, walk in with a beaming smile.

“Consultant Li, I’m back from the district office!”

“Did they approve the funds?”

“It’s been approved! Secretary Jiang approved 120,000 yuan for us!” Wang Ruomei said happily.

“Alright, head over to the broadcast room right now and tell the factory workers to come pick up their paychecks immediately!”

Li Yi knew the factory workers hadn’t been paid for three months. At this point, making empty promises wouldn’t do; he had to show genuine sincerity.

Only by genuinely addressing the workers’ basic needs could he earn their trust, allowing them to return to work and focus on production with peace of mind.

“Consultant Li, we only have 120,000 yuan in total. How much should we pay out?”

“Let’s pay the employees one month’s wages first; I’ll figure out the rest later!” Li Yi said.

“Alright!”

“Go ahead. Don’t forget about the bank loan—both production and sales are counting on that money to keep things running!” Li Yi said.

“Okay, I’ll go this afternoon!”

“Hmm…”

Shortly after Wang Ruomei left, the factory’s loudspeakers blared: “Attention all factory employees and managers! All workshop teams are to suspend operations immediately. Everyone is to gather by workshop and proceed to the Finance Department to collect their wages…”

Upon hearing the announcement over the loudspeaker, a deafening cheer erupted throughout the factory.

Ever since Li Yi had promised everyone yesterday that he would secure a portion of their wages first, the factory workers had been waiting for news all day.

Although most believed that even if Li Yi really had the ability to secure the funds, it couldn’t possibly happen this quickly.

But they never expected that before 10 o’clock, the Finance Department would already be notifying everyone to collect their wages.

In an instant, the workers’ opinion of Li Yi improved significantly; even those who had once hated him with a passion now felt he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

More importantly, the workers’ mindset had shifted; some were beginning to believe what Li Yi had said the day before.

It could be said that although the amount wasn’t large, it had restored the employees’ confidence in the television factory!

Just as the workers were collecting their pay, Deputy Plant Manager Gao, who had gone to the electronics factory, returned.

He brought back good news: the Beijing Electronics Factory had relented and agreed to supply the Yanjing TV Factory.

However, they made it clear that the 500,000 yuan must be in their account within two weeks; otherwise, they would immediately cut off supplies and never cooperate with the TV factory again.

Although their words were firm, their actions were conciliatory. As far as Li Yi was concerned, as long as they agreed to continue supplying the TV factory, that was all that mattered.

In fact, Li Yi had anticipated this outcome when Deputy Plant Manager Gao went to the electronics factory to negotiate.

It wasn’t that he was some kind of fortune-teller, but rather because they had already identified the electronics factory’s Achilles’ heel.

The logic was simple: the debtor holds the upper hand.

If you owe the bank one yuan, that’s your problem; but if you owe the bank 100 million yuan, that becomes the bank’s problem.

The factory owed the Beijing Electronics Factory a full 3 million yuan. That might not sound like much, but if you adjust for purchasing power, it’s equivalent to 700 million yuan thirty years from now.

With such a massive debt, it was clearly the electronics factory that was more worried.

If Yanjing TV Factory were to go bankrupt, that money would truly be down the drain.

And with such a massive bad debt suddenly appearing on their books, the leaders at the electronics factory would likely wake up crying in their sleep.

So, no matter what, when it comes to external debt, it’s better not to owe it at all—but if you must, the more the better!

After resolving the component supply issue, Li Yi instructed Deputy Plant Manager Gao—his right-hand man—not to stop there. He was to continue visiting the accessory factory, the packaging plant, and other facilities, persistently persuading them to supply goods to their factory.

Only by sorting all these matters out could he proceed with the next steps!

However, what Li Yi didn’t know was that just as he was running himself ragged over the Yanjing TV Factory matter, bad news arrived from Hong Kong—Old Huang had been seriously injured and was fighting for his life!