Chapter 29 Chapter 6 Strategizing (1)

1 In the land of Jingchu during the Republic of China, wars were frequent and the people suffered. Wuchang Yuhua Spinning Mill encountered two major wars and almost became a victim of warlord melee.One time was in the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), when the Northern Expedition attacked Wuhan, and the fire destroyed nearly half of the factory building.After the Northern Expeditionary Army entered the city, they imposed a "victory tax" forcibly, resulting in a sharp shrinkage of production and a serious loss of operating profits. The other time was the war between Chiang (Kai-shek), Feng (Yuxiang), Yan (Xishan), and Gui (Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi) that broke out in the nineteenth year of the Republic of China (1930).For entrepreneurs, the prerequisite for the development of production is that the people in the world live and work in peace and contentment.The problem is that the warlords of all walks of life don't care about the life and death of the common people. They are keen to compete for territory and expand their power.The warlords fought for more than half a year, leading to the bankruptcy of a large number of enterprises, and Yuhua Spinning Mill was dying.However, the Oriental yarn mills run by the Japanese were not affected by the Chinese Civil War. They were protected by concessions and had the extraterritorial privileges of their own government. There were even Marines standing guard at the gate of the factory. Push the weak Chinese national industry into a corner.

As a result, the avalanche of "flowers are expensive and yarns are cheap" has appeared many times in the Chinese market. "Huagui" refers to the soaring price of cotton as a raw material for production, while the price of cotton yarn as a product has been falling all the way. The market is commonly known as "avalanche".The culprits who wantonly created this kind of market chaos were those Japanese businessmen with ulterior motives. They took advantage of the Chinese civil war to drive up the price of raw cotton and sell cotton yarn at a low price. The fledgling Chinese textile industry was hit hard by internal and external troubles. Not only did many small and medium-sized spinning mills go bankrupt and closed, but even some well-known enterprises were in trouble and had to announce the suspension of work and production.At this time, Yuhua Spinning Mill was not immune either. The factory was heavily in debt and its cash flow was not working well. When the creditors came to press for debts, many of the former followers had disappeared. There was only one loyal factory supervisor, Boss Xiao, who followed Zhang Songqiao.At this time, my grandfather said a famous saying. He said to my grandmother: People cannot be defeated unless you fall yourself.

At that time, no one believed that Zhang Songqiao would survive the fall. He was like an old tree whose trunk had been hollowed out, and it was difficult for him to resist the oncoming storm.Even in the eyes of the loyal boss Xiao, the closure of Yuhua Mill is only a matter of time unless a miracle occurs.There is only one person who is still firmly on the side of Zhang Songqiao, and she is my grandmother Liu Yunxian.Liu Yunxian asked her husband: What will you do after the factory closes? Zhang Songqiao replied: Go back to Baiquan Township to farm, or go begging again. Liu Yunxian smiled melancholy and said: I am not afraid to beg with you, but can I get back your factory by begging?

Zhang Songqiao asked her inexplicably: What can you do? The wife pushed a carved red sandalwood box to her husband, which belonged to all the private property of a woman, including gold and silver jewelry, real estate and bank notes (passbook).She said firmly: You must survive, time is our savior. Zhang Songqiao sold all his real estate and made a last-ditch effort.A well-known big industrialist almost had nothing to cook during the Chinese New Year.However, the Yuhua Spinning Mill has not stopped production. The workers do not receive wages and exchange cotton yarn for rice.Boss Xiao bought "cheap yarn (Oriental yarn)" for weaving, and then sold the products to the remote southwest inland, "fighting a guerrilla" with the Japanese in the market.When the civil war ended in the following year, a private bank finally lent a large sum of money to Zhang Songqiao, and Yuhua Spinning Mill was able to revive itself. Otherwise, the history of my family might have ended here.

Zhang Songqiao's life motto has become the motto of our family.This is what he said, and he also did so. His old man set a life example for our future generations with this strong attitude of never giving up. But in the spring of 1938, the flames of war approached Wuhan again, and the Japanese devils came.