Steal the enemy's base at the start and build a technological empire.

Chapter 390 Examining the Supply Chain

Ma Baoguo escorted Ling Yun to the car, extended his hand and shook it, "Mr. Ling, don't worry about things in Shenzhen. I'll keep an eye on things; there won't be any problems."

Ling Yun nodded and said, "Okay, thank you for your hard work."

He opened the car door and got in. Zhao Hu started the car, and it slowly drove away. In the rearview mirror, Ma Baoguo was still standing at the door, his hands hanging at his sides, watching the car drive away.

Noon, Chang'an Town, Dongguan.

The car exited the highway and turned onto a narrow road. Factory buildings lined both sides of the road, one after another, gray and white, some walls covered in vines, others with peeling paint revealing the red bricks underneath. Many trucks were parked along the roadside, covered in a layer of dust, their tires flat; it was unclear how long they had been parked there. Someone rode by on an electric scooter, carrying cardboard boxes labeled "Electronic Components."

Zhao Hu parked his car in front of a four-story building. The building wasn't large, and the exterior walls were painted white, but the paint was a bit old and yellowish. A sign hung at the entrance that read "Dongguan Huaqiang Electronics Co., Ltd." The sign was white with black lettering, and the edges were curled up.

A man in his forties, thin, stood at the door, wearing a gray polo shirt buttoned up tightly. Seeing the car stop, he quickly walked over and opened the back door. "Mr. Ling? I'm Zhao Xirui from Huaqiang. Factory Manager Ma told me you were coming to see me today."

Ling Yun got out of the car and shook hands with him. Zhao Xirui's hands were rough, with large knuckles, as if he had done manual labor. He said, "Mr. Ling, please come in. The workshop is on the first floor, the warehouse is on the second floor, and the offices are on the third floor. Our place is small and the conditions are not good, please don't mind."

Ling Yun said, "It's nothing, I just came to check on the workshop."

Zhao Xirui pushed open the door, and a wave of heat rushed out. There was no air conditioning in the workshop, only a few large fans blowing, buzzing loudly. The workers were wearing short sleeves, some shirtless, their backs covered in sweat.

The production line was simple: several long tables were pushed together, with soldering irons, solder wire, rosin, and multimeters on them. Workers sat at the tables, holding circuit boards and soldering components. The tables were piled high with capacitors, resistors, diodes, and transistors, packed in small, open bags.

Zhao Xirui walked ahead, pointing to the production line and saying, "We make power adapters. Computer power supplies, monitor power supplies, laptop power supplies, we make them all. We can produce more than a million a year. The power supplies that Factory Manager Ma uses are supplied by us. You can rest assured about the quality; we've been doing this for ten years and haven't had a single problem."

Ling Yun stood in front of a table, watching a worker soldering circuit boards. The worker was about thirty years old, with dark skin and thick fingers, but his movements were very delicate. He held the circuit board in his left hand and the soldering iron in his right, touching it once, soldering one, then touching it again, then soldering another. The solder joints were round and shiny, without any sharp points. Ling Yun watched for more than ten seconds, but the worker didn't look up. He flipped the circuit board over, inspected it, placed it on the shelf next to him, and then took a new one.

Lingyun asked him, "How many pieces can you weld in a day?"

The worker looked up, glanced at him, then looked down again and continued welding. "Two or three hundred yuan. It's piecework, one yuan and eighty cents per weld."

Lingyun asked him, "How much can you earn in a month?"

The worker said, "Three or four thousand, depending on how much work there is. When there's a lot of work, it can be up to five thousand, and when there's little work, it's a little over two thousand." He paused for a moment and then added, "It's better than farming."

Ling Yun didn't ask any more questions. He turned around, looked at Zhao Xirui, and asked, "How's the production capacity? How much can you produce per day now?"

Zhao Xirui said, "Around three thousand, and up to five thousand at full capacity. But the raw materials can't keep up. We have to buy capacitors and MOSFETs from outside. Sometimes there are shortages, and we have to wait. Factory Manager Ma needs the goods urgently, so we usually keep some in stock, about twenty or thirty thousand, and we'll rush to get more if that's not enough."

Lingyun asked him, "Can the raw materials be purchased domestically?"

Zhao Xirui said, "Most of them are available domestically. Capacitors, resistors, diodes, and transistors are all made in China. It's just that for MOSFETs, the good ones still have to be imported. Infineon and STMicroelectronics are expensive, but their performance is stable. There are domestic ones, but the parameters are inconsistent, and each batch is different. We don't dare to use them for products with high requirements. If the parameters are inconsistent in the power supply, the output will be unstable. If the output is unstable, the computer will break down. If the computer breaks down, the user will come to us, and we will come to you. So we don't dare to use them."

Ling Yun nodded. He walked to the warehouse door and glanced inside. Rows and rows of shelves were stacked high, piled high with cardboard boxes, each printed with the model number, quantity, and date. Boxes were also piled on the floor, stacked seven or eight layers high, almost reaching the ceiling.

Ling Yun stopped and turned to Zhao Xirui, saying, "Now that you're supplying us, orders and profits are stable. Mr. Zhao, do you have any plans for future development? Expanding the scale or upgrading automation?"

Zhao Xirui nodded. "To be honest, President Ling, since receiving the Xinghuo order, we've gradually gotten on the right track and are now a legitimate company. Although we can't compare to large companies like yours, I'm trying to improve our efficiency and quality. I've invited a few experts who will come next week to help me design and plan how to automate our production line and what equipment we need to purchase."

Ling Yun nodded in satisfaction. "Spark is developing quite rapidly now. I hope our supplier partners can keep up with our pace and not fall behind. As orders increase, efficiency and quality must be guaranteed, and you need R&D capabilities. In the future, we will have many customized orders for you. You will need to develop and produce these non-standard products yourself. We will only provide the requirements and parameters. Of course, the profit margin for these orders will be much higher than that of the products you are currently making."

Zhao Xirui's eyes lit up. "President Ling, my son is about to graduate with a master's degree. He majored in electronics. With him in charge of R&D, I, a rough guy, won't have to pull my hair every day."

Lingyun felt he had seen enough and prepared to leave.

Zhao Xirui followed behind and asked, "President Ling, would you like to sit in my office for a while? Have a cup of tea?"

Ling Yun said, "No, I have appointments with several suppliers, and I have to go to the next one."

Zhao Xirui escorted him to the car and extended his hand. Ling Yun shook it; Zhao Xirui's hand was still so rough. "Mr. Ling, if you need anything in the future, just let us know. We'll do our best in what we can. And if we can't do it well, we'll find a way to do it better." Ling Yun said, "Okay." He got into the car, Zhao Hu started the engine, and the car slowly drove away.