Chapter 34 small town wars

Here are two neighboring towns in southern Zhejiang: Wenxi - the "East Gate" of the Lishui area known as "Zhejiang Tibet"; Qiaotou - the "West Gate" of Wenzhou City, which has the most developed commodity economy in China. The two towns are only 13 kilometers apart, connected by mountains and rivers, and have been repaired for generations. However, since the end of the 1980s, the changes that have taken place in these two small towns of 10,000 people and their mutual competition have staged an intriguing "small town war". In terms of family background, both Wenxi and Qiaotou have only one poor word.Qingtian and Yongjia, where the two towns are located, were once provincial-level poverty-stricken counties.

In terms of "geographical advantages", Wenxi is better than its neighbors. Wenxi is located in a small plain, 104 National Highway passes through the town, with a daily traffic flow of 5,000 vehicles, and there is the only inland wharf in Lishui area.Water and land transportation, can be called the first in southern Zhejiang. The bridge head is sandwiched between two mountains, and there are still three kilometers away from the 104 National Highway on a dusty mechanical farming road. The per capita cultivated land is only 0.23 mu. In the late 1970s, the spring breeze of the commodity economy blew the town.People at the bridgehead, who had already been desperate in the two-point land, keenly grasped this "time".A pair of Shan brothers who roamed the rivers and lakes picked up a pile of defective buttons at the gate of a button factory in another place, brought them back to the bridge and set up a stall. Unexpectedly, the business was surprisingly good, and they became famous in far and near villages. But it was unacceptable, and the townspeople followed suit.Within a few years, thousands of stalls and more than 100 family workshop-style button factories opened one after another, and a supply and marketing army of more than 3,000 people traveled to 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

Merchants from all over the country crowded into this muddy, narrow Button Street.In a few years, the buttons produced and distributed by Qiaotou have reached 16 categories and 1,500 varieties, accounting for more than half of the country's total, and the daily transaction volume is hundreds of thousands of yuan. The fabulous economic miracle shocked the Wenxi people 13 kilometers away.The previous hard-pressed brothers and sisters-even the conditions are not as good as their own-but they have become the largest button market in the Far East. It was under this kind of stimulation that Wenxi people began to boldly put their feet into the ocean of market competition.

This year, a huge arena lined up in Wenxi. Relevant departments issued a "military order" to seize the button market at all costs. Wenxi farmers and thousands of people who have just entered the market "Bermuda" firmly believe that the "magic weapon" that has been used in the past 30 years of administrative means to engage in the economy is a work "magic weapon" Will still be victorious. Led by the local government and supply and marketing cooperatives, they raised huge sums of money and went to various places to purchase a large number of buttons of various colors. The price is cheaper than that of Qiaotou.

All of a sudden, vendors turned from the bridgehead to Wenxi. A few days later, farmers at Qiaotou responded by reducing prices accordingly. Wenxi immediately reacted by continuing to cut prices one by one to compete at low prices.The cadres are very confident: victory is at hand and the future is bright.Here is the "government army" with a well-organized lineup, and the "peasant army" is scattered over there. The victory and defeat are self-evident. Although it has dropped again and again, the selling price is close to or even lower than the cost, and it costs a penny to sell a button.But the Wenxi people gritted their teeth: Persistence is victory.

Finally, the peasants at Qiaotou got impatient.They rushed into Wenxi like a tide, quickly snapped up all the high-quality buttons on the stall, and walked away. Soon, the market price of bridgehead buttons rose back to before the "war". At this time, the Wenxi people had spent most of their funds, and they were thinking too hard, and they were no longer able to organize a large-scale counterattack. A "hand-to-hand combat" of buttons, so far the gongs have been called to withdraw. The failure of "hand-to-hand combat" has not annihilated the ambition of Wenxi people to run the market.A protracted war plan of "building nests to attract birds" was formed.

In the next two years or so.They've been tirelessly working on this nesting project. An area of ​​21 acres, the largest town-level station in Zhejiang Province was built; a 24-meter-wide standardized commercial avenue was built; two trade buildings with unique shapes were built; A large hotel with more than 500 beds was built; a small market covering an area of ​​5,280 square meters was built; there are also waterworks with a daily water supply of 500 () tons, a 110,000-volt substation, and a post and telecommunications building with 3,000 automatic telephones. There was also an international direct-dial telephone on the office desk that even the secretary of the prefectural party committee did not have at the time... Within a few years, Wenxi acquired 350 mu of land and built a house with an area of ​​230,000 square meters, which was twice the size of the old Wenxi.

Wenxi people poured out their pockets and built a modern "golden nest" with 36 million yuan. They are waiting eagerly, the "wind birds" who come from south to north to do business and start industries, should they come here now? At the beginning of 1992, in Wenxi, what we heard and saw was the five-story Tianxianglou Restaurant, which closed down soon after it opened.The front desk is full of raw paper, and the congratulatory plaques congratulating the opening of the year are covered with dust and cobwebs hanging from the corners. In the small commodity market with 242 stalls, only more than 150 are regularly open. The products are not distinctive, and there are more vendors than customers.The five-story commercial building and the four-story commercial building are all locked.

A 24-meter-wide Chuzhou Avenue is empty and clean.Half of the huge parking lot has been piled with wood for a long time.There is a steady stream of vehicles coming and going, but most of them pass by in a flash. "Fengniao" still flies directly to Qiaotou and other more attractive places 13 kilometers away. An ambitious and painstakingly planned "building nests to attract birds" plan failed without a fight.The cadres in Wenxi were more puzzled than they were distressed: "The facilities here are far better than Qiaotou, why can't they attract people?"