96: Chapter 96 The Grand Blueprint of the Dawn Empire

"Within forty-eight hours, I want to see Song Changming's water curtain wall frame standing completely intact in this thirty-thousand-square-meter foundation pit."

Lu Chen's voice thundered through the freezing construction site, "I want those foreign worms outside waiting to see us make fools of ourselves to know that in Jiangcheng, the rules are set by me, Lu Chen, and the materials are also set by me, Lu Chen."

Song Changming ripped off his ill-fitting blue work uniform, revealing a chest as gaunt as a skeleton's ribcage.

"Zhao Tiezhu! Take the men and move the stamping press! Get to work!" Song Changming rushed toward the prefab cabins like a madman.

Wei Jianguo wiped his face clean with his muddy hands, kicked aside the suitcase containing instruments, and roared at the five thousand experts squatting in the mud in the distance.

"Attention everyone! Follow the original organization of the three hundred assault teams! The first batch, go get the punch presses! The second batch, go draw the pipeline route map!" Wei Jianguo shouted at the top of his lungs, "Whoever the hell dares to complain today, I'll chop him to pieces!"

The construction site instantly erupted into a frenzy.

The bulldozer's bucket rose, and hundreds of catties of broken kitchen knives were dumped into the pure copper funnel.

The black box emitted a low-frequency hum once again.

The second titanium alloy ingot slid out along the conveyor belt, crashing into the anti-collision trough.

Lu Chen stepped back a few paces, giving the space to this group of people who had fallen into absolute fanaticism.

Da Biao walked over, carrying a solid steel pipe, and stood behind and to the side of Lu Chen.

"Factory Director, those fifty pieces of trash have been taken away by the cops." Da Biao lowered his voice, "The bottom of the pit has been cleaned up; not a single foreigner was left behind."

Lu Chen nodded, took out his phone from his pocket, and glanced at the time.

Five-thirty in the morning.

Dawn was breaking.

Lu Chen dialed Wu Dong's number. It rang three times before connecting. The other end of the line was extremely noisy, filled with the sounds of car horns and swearing.

"Boss, I can't hold on much longer!" Wu Dong's voice cracked over the phone, "The outer ring road is completely blocked. Small business owners from over two thousand scrap collection stations across the entire Jiangcheng and five surrounding cities have all arrived with their trucks, and the trucks have paralyzed the toll stations! The city traffic police are looking for me everywhere!"

"Find an open space and sign the contracts." Lu Chen watched the silver metal ingots being spit out one after another on the conveyor belt.

"Boss, there are too many people!" Wu Dong was so anxious he was hopping mad, "These two thousand small business owners have brought over ten thousand sorting workers and drivers with them. They are clamoring to sign long-term contracts with our factory, the kind that includes room and board!"

Lu Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.

According to the rules of the Recruitment Cash-Back System, as long as they are registered employees with substantive labor, they count towards the headcount. This army of over ten thousand scrap workers was practically a ready-made gold mine.

"Wu Dong." Lu Chen's voice deepened.

"Here!"

"Prepare twenty thousand employment contracts, with a base salary of ten thousand, including room and board." Lu Chen looked at the slowly whitening skyline in the distance, "Tell them to drive all the vehicles into the industrial park's backup area. By eight o'clock this morning, I want all twenty thousand people wearing Chenguang Electronics badges."

Nine o'clock in the morning. A temporary conference room on the third floor of the Jinlan Hotel.

The window wasn't closed tightly, and the sound of car horns from the street outside mixed with the cold wind blowing in. The room was filled with the pungent smell of cigarettes and instant noodles.

Lu Chen pushed the door open and entered.

Old Zhou followed closely behind. Old Zhou had changed into a pair of brand-new black leather shoes, with a clump of dry, hard yellow mud stuck to the upper of the left shoe. He clutched a stack of A4-printed financial reports tightly to his chest, his hands gripping them extremely hard. He coughed twice, his throat so hoarse that he could only make a wheezing sound like a bellows.

Wu Dong leaned against a folding chair in the corner, his high-end custom suit covered in wrinkles, his tie long gone, who knows where. He kept his head down, using his small fingernails to pick at the black machine oil under his nails, then wiped them on the hem of his suit.

Zhao Tiezhu was squatting by the coffee table, bare-chested, with a yellowed, tattered towel draped around his neck. In his left hand, he held a bowl of unfinished instant noodles, and in his right, he held a large-screen calculator.

Lu Chen walked to the whiteboard and picked up the eraser.

The whiteboard was densely covered with a list of rotten steel pipes and broken pot bottoms sent by surrounding scrap stations. Lu Chen raised his hand and pulled down hard, wiping all the black characters clean in two swipes.

He tossed the eraser onto the table and grabbed a thick-tipped red marker.

Turning to face the whiteboard, Lu Chen drew a huge red circle right in the center.

The tip of the pen poked against the whiteboard, making a dull thud.

"The Lithography Machine is just the start." Lu Chen didn't turn around, his eyes fixed on the red circle, "Building one machine won't save our lives. I want to build the entire industrial chain. One hundred thousand workers is the foundation."

Lu Chen slapped the red marker onto the table.

No one in the room replied.

Only the sound of Zhao Tiezhu slurping noodle soup stopped instantly.

Lu Chen turned around and pulled a roll of blueprints from a waste paper box in the back row. He tore off the waterproof tape, flicked his wrist with force, and with a "swish," a two-meter-long anti-seismic planning blueprint spread out across the table.

Lu Chen grabbed two empty mineral water bottles and weighed down both ends of the blueprint.

"Old Zhao." Lu Chen tapped on the table.

Zhao Tiezhu hurriedly put down his instant noodle bowl, wiped his mouth messily with the towel, and leaned in.

Lu Chen's finger pointed to the far left of the blueprint.

"In the Chengbei High-Tech Zone, the city has approved twenty thousand mu of land for us." Lu Chen's fingertip drew a circle in the small corner on the left, "This is where the Lithography Machine ultra-clean workshop currently under construction is located, along with the twenty-thousand-square-meter quantum smelting center."

Zhao Tiezhu nodded and replied, "Factory Director, we've already covered nearly sixty thousand square meters. The foundation steel bars have reached the bottom."

"This accounts for less than one-tenth." Lu Chen looked up, "The remaining bulk will break ground today."

Wu Dong stood up abruptly; his movement was so sudden that the folding chair tipped backward onto the floor with a crisp clatter.

"Expand again?" Wu Dong leaned over, staring at the blueprint, "Boss, the city approved this land for us to develop in phases."

"No time for phases." Lu Chen's finger slid down the central axis of the blueprint.

"The remaining eighteen thousand-plus mu of land will be leveled entirely. Divide it into three major zones."

Lu Chen pointed to the huge block in the upper right corner, "The Super Heavy Industry Zone. We will build large-span factory buildings here. They will be used to house future semiconductor and new material automated production lines. I want to fit one hundred thousand workstations in this zone."

A strange sound came from Old Zhou's throat.

One hundred thousand workstations. Even if you added up the three largest factories in all of Jiangcheng, they wouldn't even manage twenty thousand people.

"This lake in the middle of the blueprint." Lu Chen's finger pressed heavily on the heart of the map, "Fill in half of it. Build a super internal health and wellness hospital. Build the outpatient building and inpatient department according to the highest five-A standards. I will handle the channels for the full set of imported medical equipment and special drugs. In the future, when our factory employees' family members need medical treatment or hospitalization, it will all be free with their employee badge."

Wu Dong swallowed a mouthful of dry saliva.

"This plot in the bottom left corner." Lu Chen poked it with the red marker, "Build a boarding school for employees' families. From kindergarten to high school. Recruit the best teachers in the country and pay them double. As long as they are children of Chenguang Electronics employees, tuition and boarding fees are completely free. Get them all in here to study."