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- On Friday, December 29, 1645, the last government working day of the year, fine snow like dandelions fluttered in the wind.
On the streets of Manchester, the capital, wet black umbrellas were flying everywhere under the huge billboards in commercial plazas. In the commercial street of Manchester's southern district, female citizens holding hands with their children or pushing strollers were wandering in and out of a new shopping mall with self-painted promotional posters.
This is a large department store jointly founded by Carnation Group and Yang Wenwen Life Art Group and just opened in the capital Manchester yesterday. It is named "Lily Mall". The biggest business feature is that only women are allowed to enter.
In traditional Chinese business culture, women are very unpopular with businessmen, especially if the first customer opening every day is a woman, it will be considered a bad sign. In areas where discrimination is the most severe, after women leave the store after shopping, shopkeepers and waiters must perform superstitious rituals such as spreading incense and ash on the floor to ward off evil spirits.
Among the lower-class European citizens, the traditional discrimination against women is even worse. Open derogation and discrimination against women is common in Christian teachings. Even until the end of the 19th century, the buying and selling of wives in public, like dealing with secondhand goods, was tacitly accepted by the lower classes of Europe.
When the precarious days are gone, more and more immigrant families have become a new force in the business circles of beautiful and beautiful cities with a strong commercial atmosphere, and some bad old habits have quietly come back.
For example, in many stores in remote towns, some people have restricted the time period during which women can enter the store. After so-called thinking, this kind of social discrimination that hinders ordinary women's daily life has begun to spread to big cities. And after the population increases and the labor force becomes abundant, in addition to specific jobs, the number of female employees in many stores has increased. There has also been a decline over the years.
Although the gorgeous laws expressly prohibit any open gender discrimination, national education has also been strengthening the ideological cultivation of the new generation. It should be said that the social status of gorgeous women is much higher than that of other countries at the same time, but this does not prevent some stores from tactfully arranging a waiter at the door of the store or putting up a small sign and making up any reason to remind them repeatedly. Messages such as "Female customers are not allowed in the morning hours".
This has to be said that the localization of Huamei Society continues to evolve strongly. However, the influence of the Chuanchuan people, who constitute an absolute minority of the population, and once led the social landscape, has shown a subtle phenomenon of degradation.
Although shops run by ordinary citizens do not dare to use these old-fashioned ideas to target women of the superior wealthy class, the hidden conflict between forcibly spreading new culture and continuing traditional concepts has still aroused the contempt and even anger of many female transmigration people.
The promotion of a new civilized life cannot be enforced by law in a short period of time. Changing old views also requires a longer period of education, transitional guidance or transfer interpretation.
As a "revenge" for certain backward ideas, or to formally elevate and maintain the status of women, as early as 1630. Manchester City¡¯s urban public transportation has launched women-only carriages to facilitate the transportation of female passengers who feel that they have low status.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????OUTOUTOUT, in 1632, in order to increase the enrollment rate of girls and pursue and shape the social image of the new generation of gorgeous women, the Ivy League Private College with Yang Wenwen Life Art Group as the largest sponsor behind the scenes. He founded the Ivy League-affiliated girls' middle school and elementary school, which kicked off a group of rich women across the world who openly demonstrated against outdated patriarchal ideas.
Then, the Carnation Group, which has maternal and infant chain service centers in many major cities in the country, upgraded its business in Manchester in 1634 and established the first "Carnation Women's" based on the Carnation Maternal and Infant Chain Service Center in Manchester. Hospital", which only allows women or infants and young children under ten years old to be admitted for treatment, also appropriately solves the psychological barriers of a large number of female patients when entering general hospitals.
After years of practical operation experience summarization and talent training, Carnation Group is now carrying out preparations for women's hospitals in Lianhe City, Yacheng City and Qingcheng City.
The opening of Lily Mall in Manchester. It immediately aroused great interest among the female citizens of Manchester. Coupled with the explosion of women's natural shopaholic characteristics under the opening discount promotion, the excitement exceeded all the large shopping malls in the southern district of Manchester. Its external store employee recruitment advertisements clearly indicate that only women are required. It has also attracted the attention of many housewives who want to earn an income outside the home.
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In the Manchester District Court, which is only a few hundred meters away from the Lily Mall in Manchester, a civil court hearing isolated from the outside world is underway. This is the last civil judgment of the year. The presiding judge of the court is Yan Xianfeng, the new Acting Civil Judge of the Manchester District Court.
The large number of new-generation talents entering core business positions in various industries is the reason why Huamei¡¯s leaders have strengthened successor training in recent years.?The most direct method. Yan Xianfeng, as a young man who has received a full set of new education from China and the United States from elementary school to university, has begun to take on major judicial cases that could only be controlled by traveling through groups.
¡°¡Both the prosecution and the defense accepted the dispute mediation agreement regarding the ¡®Industrial Refrigeration Technology Patent¡¯. According to the relevant contents of the Civil Procedure Law and Patent Law of the Republic, the court verdict is now read as follows¡¡±
Yan Xianfeng is about to turn thirty. Wearing an oriental-style black judge's robe with red edges, he stood up and read out the verdict of this civil court hearing. Representatives from both sides of the dispute in the audience secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The previous tense situation finally subsided at this time. The legal representatives of Norinco and General Industrial Group all stood up and shook hands with each other. Regardless of whether they were willing or unwilling, they all managed to squeeze out a smile.
When the outcome of the court hearing and mediation came out, far away in Haizhou, at the dedicated dock of the state-owned Qingcheng Shipping Company, an ocean-going refrigerated transport ship was undergoing final equipment debugging work. In half a month at most, it would undergo the first Trial voyage.
The merchant ship named "Lengyun No. 1" belongs to the state-owned ocean shipping company and is currently one of the most advanced ocean-going large merchant ships in China and the United States. The full load displacement exceeds 5,000 tons, the economic speed exceeds 10 knots, and it has several large-scale ship cold storages. It can carry up to 2,000 tons of fresh and frozen cargo to Europe thousands of nautical miles away.
When the original saltpeter ice bucket was still popular in ordinary restaurants or homes. The ship cold storage successfully developed by Norinco is Huamei's most advanced large-scale industrial refrigeration equipment.
Using steam pressure pump and multi-stage cycle refrigeration technology, although the design prototype still refers to the modern industrial refrigerator that appeared in the mid-19th century, the overall technical level is much higher than that of products of the same period in history.
The practical use of large-scale industrial refrigeration equipment has finally solved the core problem of Huamei's low-temperature industry. Whether it is a military or civilian ship, it can greatly improve the freshness and storage of fresh products loaded on the ship. It can greatly improve sea self-sustainability.
For Huamei¡¯s large-scale offshore fisheries and some high-end low-temperature industries, large-scale industrial refrigeration equipment has an industrial value that is difficult to measure. It can be said that if Cheng Yaojin had not emerged halfway, Norinco would have monopolized a heavyweight market segment.
What¡¯s interesting is that this set of large-scale industrial refrigeration equipment manufactured by Norinco Group was installed shortly after receiving the user¡¯s order. I received a lawyer's letter from General Industrial Group, and was sued by the latter for infringement of technology patents.
Although the leaders of Norinco and General Industrial are both domestic neutrals, there have been many interest disputes between them over industrial patented technologies.
Huamei promulgated the "National Patent Law" in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to encourage the public to participate as much as possible in any patented technology that has been put into practical use. Regardless of the size and importance of the application field, legal protection and recognition of patent monopoly are given. However, according to the provisions of the Patent Law, the ownership of patents approved by enterprises or individuals is only valid for 25 years. After expiration, they will automatically be taken back to the state. The ownership of state-owned patents is 50 years.
Driven by monopoly interests, from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the present, at least half of the time-traveling public has tried to participate. Even many people with low levels of education have completed certain patent registrations based on their previous life experiences. However, the vast majority of patented technologies with practical industrial application value in this era are still monopolized by a small number of people, and have created several major private industrial giants today. Three of the most representative ones. They are Lin Youde's Norinco Group, Jiang Zhaolong's General Industrial Group, and Zhou Junting's Xinhua Chemical Group.
From all kinds of steam machine tools to steam tractors, from train braking equipment to steel rifled cannons, even though the two bosses Lin Youde and Jiang Zhaolong have never appeared on stage in person, the legal teams of the two groups have fought against each other time and time again and won. burden. This time is no exception. Both parties claim to have a complete set of patented technologies for the production of industrial refrigeration equipment.
NORINCO Group successfully launched the first large-scale industrial refrigeration equipment. It can be regarded as narrowing the gap with General Industrial Group in the manufacturing of civilian industrial equipment. However, General Industrial Group has also been studying miniaturized refrigeration technology in the past few years, targeting households, small businesses and the pharmaceutical industry. It also registered a series of patents earlier than Norinco, but unfortunately no final mature product has been released.
Since the establishment of the project, Norinco has directly targeted the large-scale industrial refrigeration equipment market. Although the cold storage for ships launched this time is exactly the same as the General Industrial Group in terms of technical principles, and also uses some parts from the General Industrial Group, the overall design and manufacturing process are quite different.
The court ruled that the "industrial refrigeration project initiated by General Industrial Group against NorincoThe "Technology Patent Infringement Case" ultimately ended with a mediation agreement. According to the mediation agreement, the two industrial groups will share the industrial refrigeration technology patent for 15 years, after which the patent ownership will revert to Norinco until the expiration of the patent validity period.
The result of another handshake and peace naturally made Lin Youde and Jiang Zhaolong, who were behind the scenes and did not appear in court, feel better. However, both of them knew that their conflict of interests was far from over. No one knew what would happen in court next time. When will there be tit for tat?
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January 1, 1646, New Year¡¯s Day.
Robert City, with a population of more than 20,000, is only separated from the outer island area of ??the capital Manchester and Jersey City by a bay waterway several hundred meters wide. Water transportation is very convenient.
Robert City, established in memory of a cavalry corporal, originally existed only as an iron ore supplier for the industrial base in the outer island area of ??the capital. Iron ore mining a few kilometers north of the city is the city's main source of income. Once upon a time, a large number of miners and their families were the main population component of Robert City, and most of the jobs were related to the mining and transportation of iron ore.
The mining industry requires a large number of manual workers with very low quality requirements. Therefore, Robert City has become one of the towns with the largest number of naturalized residents of Delaware descent.
After the Luo-Xinjiang Railway was officially opened to traffic at the beginning of last year, Robert City became the starting point for land strategic transportation from Songzhou to Binzhou towns in the south, thus ushering in a period of rapid development opportunities. Industrial raw materials such as cotton, coal and tobacco came from Binzhou along the railway. Industrial manufacturing products from the north moved southward from here, and the warehousing and logistics industry expanded rapidly.
Under the policy guidance of the national industrial layout strategic adjustment plan. In just a few years, relying on convenient transportation, more and more small businesses from the outer islands of Manchester have moved here, and Robert City has become a center for the primary processing of industrial and agricultural raw materials.
The rise of the logistics industry and a large number of small-scale processing manufacturing industries has enabled Robert City to successfully "tempt" the labor force in nearby towns to transfer, and has also slowed down the pressure of urban population expansion in the capitals of Manchester and Jersey City.
Two years have passed. Only then did the officials from Robert City manage to get rid of the lively chaos that exploded in an instant, and finally planned and adjusted the industrial zone belonging to the city.
Due to issues such as enterprise size and relocation costs, it will take several years or even more than ten years for large industrial groups to move from the outer islands of Manchester to Robert City in full accordance with the national plan, so they are currently the main force entering the Robert City industrial zone. The vast majority are still small businesses, even small self-employed businesses like private workshops.
These small businesses or private workshops have always been the peripheral forces of the industrial areas on the outer islands of Manchester City. They spent a lot of money or bank loans to purchase various small machine tools of high value, specializing in providing primary processing of raw materials or replacing spare parts for large industrial groups. outsourcing business.
Under various patent authorizations or production guidance, many small businesses or private workshops can obtain a good living space, which also allows large and medium-sized industrial groups to concentrate on higher-value terminal production.
As the trade environment in Europe and the Far East worsened due to the war, the digestion capacity of overseas markets declined, and the export of Huamei industrial products began to shrink. These small business owners who are completely dependent on outsourcing orders from large industrial groups will inevitably be implicated. However, as Yunzhou in the north and Binzhou and Jiangzhou in the south are entering the fast lane of development, domestic demand for various industrial products is very strong, so on the surface, small processing enterprises or private workshops in Robert City still feel good.
The industrial zone of Robert City is built inland to the west of the city. It was originally a settlement of Delaware-affiliated villages and an iron ore accumulation area. With the completion of several roads extending from the urban area and the improvement of basic supporting facilities, it has now taken initial shape.
For small family-style industrial workshops, the Spring Festival holiday has basically no impact on them, except for the cannon salute overlooking Manchester Bay at night to share the festive atmosphere. The most social activities here are men, women, old and young working together in small workshops, busy and menial.
Most of them are old immigrant families with special skills, but with the leap-forward development of Huamei industry and the new generation of industrial workers, they are constantly taking up their jobs. Today, more than twenty years later, except for some top talents. Large-scale labor companies no longer rely too heavily on the first generation of ordinary old technicians who rely on old craftsmanship but have low educational levels.
Through some national policies to encourage private entrepreneurship, many older workers who are no longer qualified for high-level technical jobs in large industrial groups have gradually stepped forward. Small family-style industrial workshops emerged about five years ago and are developing quietly and rapidly. They have also filled the social grassroots power necessary for Huamei's domestic industrial chain.
It was already dusk, and there was a light snowfall in the sky. Many small family workshops in the industrial zone of Robert City were closed. Small chimneys filled with black smokeAt the end of the day, people returned to their simple but comfortable homes early, enjoying the comfort after work, with scattered firecrackers. There was only a small factory shed in a remote corner with a kerosene lamp on and the roaring sound of a small steam engine.
In the dim small factory shed, a small steam engine was running. A middle-aged European woman wearing low-end linen clothes was slowly adding coal to the boiler. Another middle-aged woman was still wearing a sleeveless undershirt in the winter. A young Chinese man was limping around in front of several small machine tools. In the corner, there were three young children carefully packing up a large pile of semi-finished metal parts.
Li Chun came to Huamei alone in 1629, when he was only 16 years old. Li Chun, who was almost illiterate when he first arrived, worked as a porter, road builder and construction worker. After receiving simple literacy education, he also worked as a hotel security guard for a period of time. Living quietly in Jersey City as a typical example of the older generation of immigrants.
In order to change his destiny, Li Chun volunteered to join the Chinese-American Army at the age of 21. Later, as a recruit, he participated in the African dispatch brigade to suppress the black riots in South Africa. He was then shipped non-stop to Recife, Brazil, to participate in The Brazilian War against the Dutch West India Company.
During the offensive and defensive battle of Recife. Unfortunately, Li Chun was hit by a solid bullet fired by a Dutch cannon. Although his life was saved, he lost a calf and was deemed severely disabled, thus ending his military career early.
In accordance with the Disabled Servicemen¡¯s Living Security Act, Li Chun, who was wearing a wooden prosthetic leg, entered the General Industrial Group to work. It was considered that he had settled down for the rest of his life, and with his net worth of nearly a thousand dollars in combat allowance and disability retirement pension, he married an ugly girl from an old European technician family who couldn't get married.
Even though the other party immigrated to China and the United States many years earlier than him and could still speak half-baked weird Chinese and American English, Li Chun and his ugly European wife really had nothing to communicate with each other. It was only with the idea of ??continuing the family line that we established such a small family that made other Chinese neighbors point their fingers.
After that, Li Chun devoted himself to learning culture and crafts. Probably because of his experience in the military, Li Chun was very hard-working and easy to learn. In just a few years, he became a serious intermediate technician, specializing in the 32a rotary machine gun production line in the military industry workshop. parts assembly work.
Li Chun is very interested in this expensive weapon that once shocked himself and his comrades. Continuously gain a deeper understanding of the technical characteristics of this type of machine gun during work.
Last year, I was encouraged by my father-in-law and the social preferential treatment policy brought by the disabled military certificate. Li Chun was lucky enough to get a low-interest business loan, so he plucked up the courage to quit his job and start a business. His family moved to Robert City and opened a small self-employed metal processing workshop.
The most important job Li Chun received after starting his business was to do preliminary processing of blanks for the gear workshop affiliated to General Industrial Group. But there has always been a strong desire in Li Chun's mind. I just want to use my own hands to design and manufacture a rapid-fire weapon that is far better than the 32a heavy rotating machine gun.
At this moment. In Li Chun's hand, he held a gun component that had just been made on the machine tool, and he was looking at it carefully under the dim kerosene lamp. From time to time, I have to compare it with the drawings on the desktop.
"My dear, don't you think about your father's opinion anymore? Maybe what you are doing now can really get high rewards from those big shots. I think that is the best result."
Seeing that her husband was still studying his things selflessly, the ugly European wife muttered carefully in front of the boiler while wiping the dust on the faces of her three dirty children.
Not long ago, her father, who worked as a department foreman at General Industrial Group, came to visit her at home and accidentally discovered the gadgets and drawings that her husband was tinkering with.
The experienced and observant old European craftsman just looked at a few parts and quickly judged that the oriental son-in-law was making a murder weapon that might cause a sensation.
In addition to the production of vulnerable spare parts, the 32a heavy-duty rotary machine gun has long been discontinued, but even if these results can only provide a further improvement plan, it is an incredible achievement.
¡°Can a small private workshop and a disabled technician with almost no background really be able to maintain such a future? The old European technician who had been working for General Industrial Group for at least twenty years naturally knew that this dream was a bit unreliable, so he suggested that his son-in-law sell all his achievements to General Industrial Group.
You must know that these large industrial groups in China are very generous to the technological innovation of technicians. They once paid hundreds of dollars to reward a new processing technology that saves metal blanks, and it even made newspaper headlines, not to mention some talented young people. An example of getting rich overnight by selling your research results to large groups.After Li Chun¡¯s father-in-law¡¯s help and initial introduction, General Industrial Group was quite generous and planned to buy Li Chun¡¯s current research results for US$500. It even rewarded Li Chun¡¯s father-in-law more than ten yuan in advance for ¡°reporting meritorious service¡±. .
Although Li Chun¡¯s life is not bad now, US$500 is already more than a year¡¯s net income for Li Chun¡¯s family. Although the research progress is far from reaching a mature stage, Li Chun, who has invested a lot of effort, is reluctant to give up in every possible way and has rejected his father-in-law's lobbying several times in a row.
It¡¯s the current New Year¡¯s Day period. Because of the unhappiness with his father-in-law over this matter, Li Chundu did not take his family to visit his father-in-law in Manchester. As a result, the atmosphere at home was very tense.
The husband seemed to ignore his mutterings, and the housewife had to return to her place honestly, while the three children were pitifully looking forward to when they could return to the backyard of the workshop to eat snacks.
"Is there anyone at home?"
At a time when the atmosphere is depressing. Suddenly a figure appeared at the door of the workshop, identified by his voice as a young man.
Under the dim light of the kerosene lamp, it took more than ten seconds for Li Chun and his wife to finally see the person clearly. As expected, it was a Chinese and European mixed-race young man who was extremely well-dressed.
Yang Wenying is the eldest son of Yang Xiaohua, the president of Yang Wenwen Life Art Troupe. He is also the son-in-law of Lin Youde, the boss of Norinco Group. According to the tacit rules of getting along with the internal cliques of the public, Yang Wenying only worked as an intern at Yang Wenwen's company for one year after graduating from university, and then after getting married, she joined General Industrial Group as the marketing director, which can be regarded as an example of the strategic partnership between the two companies.
Today, Yang Wenying came to Robert City in person on the instructions of the group's senior management. Prepare to complete the acquisition of a technological achievement.
"Dear Sir, you are"
When she saw that the other party was a noble person with a high status, the housewife was so frightened that she quickly got up and drove the children into a small door, and then huddled obediently behind her husband.
"Haha, I, Yang Wenying, this is my business card. I came here specifically to visit Mr. Li today, hoping to have an opportunity for frank communication." The young man took out a business card from his pocket in a smart manner. Then he handed it to the couple with a smile.
"It's getting late. What's the matter with Mr. Yang?"
You probably guessed it from the business card, and the gun parts in Li Chun's hand were secretly stuffed into his pocket. He also quietly rolled up the drawings on the table.
"I will tell you the truth without wasting Mr. Li's time. Our group appreciates Mr. Li's research results and hopes to acquire a complete set of technical drawings. For this, the group will pay"
The young man did not choose to sit down in this dirty workshop. Instead, he walked slowly around the dark and narrow processing area with great interest, and from time to time he picked up a metal blank to play with.
"Thank you Mr. Yang for your kindness. But I have no plans to sell it at the moment."
Li Chun¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change much, and he directly interrupted the other party¡¯s offer. On the contrary, the ugly European wife behind him looked very excited. Now even people from Norinco Group are coming to buy my husband¡¯s things, which shows that my family is really getting rich!
"800 yuan." Yang Wenying didn't mind the other party's cold attitude. Instead, he spit out a number lightly.
"Oh God, there are so many more than my father! My dear, this is a lot of wealth! It can pay off all the loans in the family!" The housewife's eyes widened with joy on her face.
"How do you know meActually, it's not perfect yet, it's just a prototype"
Li Chun was also stunned, but after half a minute, he still struggled to find the reason. Because if the research results are sold to Norinco at this time, it will be tantamount to further offending the father-in-law in General Industrial Group.
The housewife is in a hurry now. If her husband hadn¡¯t always been consistent at home, she would have wanted to snatch the drawings from her husband¡¯s hands.
"1000! Don't care how we know it, but I advise you and your wife not to refuse anymore. As for the maturity of the technology, don't worry, we will gather the best engineers to complete the subsequent design work."
Yang Wenying didn¡¯t give the other party any more room to think, so she added more money and took out a checkbook from her pocket.
Unlike the father-in-law who was still trying to persuade her with gentle words, the young man opposite was completely forceful and forceful, and even revealed a threatening tone.
Li Chun¡¯s body began to tremble slightly, and his fists gradually tightened, but he was not afraid.
"Haha, let's put it this way, does Mr. Li really think that he can keep these? Even if I don't come today, maybe General Industrial Group will use it even more unfairly than me."A beautiful way to steal your hard work. It is said that your current property owes a loan to the bank for several years, right? Once they lose their outsourcing business, I'm afraid"
"Furthermore, if this weapon design wants to truly generate market value, it needs to solve problems such as material technology, large-scale production technology, production line configuration, etc., not to mention the complex and long product testing cycle. Mr. Li, do you think you can do it alone? Can it be done? Waiting for price is a good business rule, but it¡¯s not necessarily the wisest choice.¡±
Yang Wenying quickly filled out a series of numbers in the checkbook, then pulled it down with a smile and put it on the table: "Here is 1,500 yuan Please believe in the business credit and strength of our group, we can completely guarantee that you can stay out of the matter safely, and also You can get the friendship and long-term business support of our group. When you start your own business, isn¡¯t that what you expect life to be like? I will stay at the Oriental Hotel in the city tonight and will leave at noon tomorrow. Please think about it.¡±
After saying that, Yang Wenying left, leaving only a check and Li Chun and his wife looking at each other uneasily. Under the dim light, both of their faces were extremely pale.
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The next day, with fine snow falling, in front of a large hotel in the east district of Robert City, Li Chun's ugly European wife was wrapped in a thick felt shawl and walked to the side of the door. A luxury carriage was ready to leave.
The housewife took out a few rolls of drawings from her body, handed them through the car window tremblingly, and then leaned down deeply to salute. Yang Wenying, who got the drawings, just smiled slightly and closed the curtains.
The carriage headed towards the port, but the housewife in the snow did not dare to straighten her upper body at all. (To be continued) - Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report
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