Chapter 165: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

What kind of person was Yu Zuomin?

Over twenty years later, this individual has been forgotten in the long river of history. But in the present, the 1990s in China, he was a prominent figure! In China, mentioning Yu Zuomin and Daqiu Village made everyone raise a thumb and say "the best in the world."

Yu Zuomin was born into an ordinary family in Daqiu Village, the third of four brothers. If nothing unexpected happened, this farmer's son would have spent his life in the ditches of salt and alkali fields.

However, history always bestows special paths upon certain people during specific periods.

Yu was one of those fortunate individuals.

In 1974, the vigorous and energetic Yu Zuomin was elected as the Party Secretary of Daqiu Village. Facing the salt and alkali fields of Daqiu Village, Yu took the risk of imprisonment in that era and secretly organized the villagers to establish a hardware processing factory.

In just a few years, through the concerted efforts of everyone, Daqiu Village transformed from a small village where villagers needed to beg for food during famine years into a place with over 200 industrial enterprises, 12,342 employees, total fixed assets of 150,137 million yuan, and profits of 47,344 million yuan—a village that was essentially a large industrial enterprise.

In a village with only about 4,000 people, there were sixteen Mercedes-Benzes and over a hundred imported luxury cars. In the 1990s, the per capita income was over 24,000 yuan, ten times the national average!

The richest village.

The best village in the world.

This was the epitome of Daqiu Village.

As the mastermind behind Daqiu Village's leap, Yu Zuomin undoubtedly became a prominent figure of the time, hailed as the leading figure in China's reform.

However, after achieving success, Yu Zuomin began to inflate. He frequently publicly opposed local government policies and even protected criminals involved in incidents in the village, openly confronting the public security organs.

On the other hand, Shen Taifu was a different extreme. He was passionate about inventions from a young age and later founded the Great Wall Electromechanical Technology Development Company. He successfully developed an energy-efficient motor. To promote this "motor that surpasses similar products," Shen sought private financing. At that time, resources were tight nationwide, with frequent power outages causing widespread problems. Against this backdrop, Shen's motor project quickly garnered support from the public.

Within a year, thanks to Shen's relentless promotion and media hype, the Great Wall motor project became one of the hottest high-tech projects.

Leveraging this, Shen raised over a billion yuan from private sources at a 24% compensation rate. However, ironically, the so-called high-efficiency motor sold fewer than fifty units.

By 1993, the commercial fraud and illegal fundraising nature of the Great Wall Electromechanical Project had completely exposed itself.

These two self-destructive incidents happened to coincide with April 1993.

If taken separately, these events would have caused a stir but not a major shock. However, occurring simultaneously at the beginning of the economic reform wave in 1993, they quickly became a major earthquake in China's business world.

This too-coincidental coincidence led many to suspect that perhaps the higher-ups wanted to make an example of these events to deter others.

Although the government's intention was not to target these cases specifically, they caused widespread misconceptions during that period—especially among some regional officials.

Realizing this, Li Xian banged his head in frustration.

Damn it, how could I forget such an important matter!

In fact, these two incidents were not major issues. Within a few months, the higher-ups would support a batch of excellent enterprises to demonstrate their unwavering commitment to economic reform.

But Li Xian couldn't wait.

A few months might not seem long, but for the urgently approaching window period for the sanitary napkin industry, it was absolutely unacceptable.

He needed to find a solution to ensure the smooth implementation of his plans.

As his subordinate, Si Yang, continued to grumble about how everything was doomed, Li Xian was deep in thought.

At this moment, the two foreign businessmen who had just entered Director Wan's office walked out of the State Assets Management Office, accompanied by Wan Chunhui.

Li Xian watched as Director Wan, who had just sternly rejected his acquisition application, warmly saw off the two foreigners.

Watching the two foreigners leave in their car, a flash of insight struck Li Xian, and his eyes brightened.

...

"What? You're going to Hong Kong?"

In the Silver Sail Hotel, Li Xian's big brother's phone rang with Xu Maohua's astonished voice.

Li Xian lay on the hotel bed, looking at the travel brochure in his hand, and smiled slightly, "Yes, going to Hong Kong. To register an overseas company, it will be more convenient for business in China."

Li Xian's idea of registering an overseas company was not spontaneous. He had considered it when acquiring Beilin Paper Factory, but later abandoned the idea due to the quantitative reform plan.

After the confirmation of the 14th Congress's market economy goals, the government gradually relaxed many restrictions on foreign investment, attracting a large influx of foreign businessmen into the Chinese market. Among the more famous ones were Huang Hongnian and his Zhongce Group.

Local governments welcomed such wealthy foreign investors who could use international capital methods to promote state-owned enterprise reforms. As a result, many local officials viewed attracting foreign investment as a shortcut to revitalizing the local economy, and they introduced a series of "investment attraction preferential policies" that offered very generous conditions in terms of taxes, land use, and other aspects.

The most famous and common policy was the "three exemptions and two reductions," meaning that foreign-invested enterprises enjoyed full tax exemptions for the first three years and a 50% reduction for the next two years. This created an anomaly where foreign-invested enterprises paid a 15% income tax rate, joint ventures 33%, and domestic private enterprises up to 55%.

Thus, under such circumstances, registering an overseas company and investing under the guise of foreign capital was definitely a pass.

Although Li Xian had reservations about this practice of using foreign capital, the afternoon's encounter with Director Wan and the two foreigners deeply motivated him. He had made up his mind.

Seeing Li Xian's determination, Xu Maohua reluctantly agreed to his request and promised to handle the passport matter for him.

Considering Li Jie's previous dream of traveling abroad, Li Xian also asked Xu Maohua to arrange a passport for him, planning to take his third brother to see the world.

...

Xu Maohua acted quickly. Within a few days, he managed to obtain short-term travel permits through some connections. He and Li Xian set off from Ice City, passing through Beijing, heading straight to Guangzhou, and finally taking a ferry to Kowloon.

Standing on the ground in Kowloon, watching the distinctly different scenery and listening to the Cantonese that was sometimes heard in pirated videos without translation, Li Xian took a deep breath.

"Let the sea breeze blow for five thousand years, every tear seems to speak of your dignity. Let the tides accompany me to sing of you, please don't forget my forever unchanged, yellow face…"

In his ears, a melody faintly drifted from a ferry leaving Kowloon Port.

The Kowloon port area was a bustling market. Various stores like audio-visual shops, clothing stores, and communication shops were clustered together, with waves of people moving slowly through the market sandwiched between two streets.

The loud hawking and bargaining noises mixed with the clamor from shop speakers made Li Xian feel dizzy.

As he and Xu Maohua, along with Li Jie, finally managed to leave the market, a voice of frustration and fear rang out ahead.

The voice came from a middle-aged man wearing a yellow baseball cap with "Zhonglong Travel Agency" printed on it.

At this moment, the man was huddled in front of a pawn shop, tightly clutching a shiny golden object and pulling at an impatient-looking shop assistant, "This is Lao Lei, Lao Lei! How could it be fake?! I just picked it up over there, how could it be fake? I even spent 500 yuan on it!"

"Get lost, hurry up and take him away, don't make a scene here!" Perhaps annoyed by his entanglement, the pawn shop assistant shoved him aside.

Seeing the stunned man being pushed to the ground, Li Xian shook his head.

Picking up a gold watch on the ground still worked in this era.

It was truly an innocent time.