The district committee meeting quickly passed a resolution recommending Meixi Iron and Steel Factory to carry out the pilot work of equity restructuring, together with the equity restructuring plan book submitted by Meixi Town Government and Meixi Iron and Steel Factory, and reported it to the Municipal Planning Commission again.

  As the first equity restructuring pilot enterprise in Donghua City, Meixi Steel Plant received a formal approval letter from the Municipal Planning Commission on May 18.

  After obtaining the admission certificate for equity restructuring, the equity restructuring was rapidly launched, and Meixi Steel Factory was re-registered as Meixi Steel Group Co., Ltd.

  Yeshin Bank provided a total of RMB 8 million in stock pledge loans to Zhao Dong, Qian Wenhui, Wang Kangsheng, Xu Xiting, Xu Wendao, Pan Cheng and Hu Zhigang, among others, who are members of the group's management team and core engineering and technical personnel, which was injected into Meisteel Group, holding a 10% stake.

  Overseas private company Zhonghe invested $1 million in foreign exchange funds and holds 11% of the shares.

  Including He Qing She, Li Feng, Huang Xinliang, Guo Quan, Chu Qiang, Chen Tong and other administrative personnel of the town government, as well as some employees of the steel plant, they also borrowed money to participate in this equity restructuring, holding a total of 7% of the shares.

  Zhen Asset Management Co., Ltd. represents Meixi Town and holds 72% of the shares of Meigang Group, ensuring control over Meigang.

  After the restructuring, Meishan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd.'s total assets rose to 1.6 billion yuan, its net assets rose to 800 million yuan, and its debt ratio also dropped from 70% to 50%. More importantly, after the restructuring, Meishan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. has a cash reserve of 360 million yuan, which has prepared relatively sufficient funds for the subsequent expansion of power supply and technological transformation of production lines.

  After the restructuring, a shareholders' meeting was established. Shen Huai represented Meixi Town as the chairman and general manager, Zhao Dong, Qian Wenhui, and Wang Kangsheng served as deputy general managers, Xu Xiting became the group's chief engineer, and other management positions were also adjusted accordingly.

  In addition, Guo Quan represented the town's asset management office and entered the board of directors; Chu Qiang, as a shareholder representative, entered the board of supervisors.

  According to Zhu Shen's design, this equity financing is not open to outsiders. However, Chu Qiang still counts as a government employee. The Chu family invested 400,000 yuan in total, making them the largest individual shareholder outside of the steel plant management team.

  Chen Dan also obtained 80,000 yuan in shares of the restructured Meigang Group through his younger brother Chen Tong, holding one-thousandth of the company's shares, a negligible amount.

  By late May, the administrative regions of Hetang and Meixi towns were adjusted, with Lishè and Caijiagiao villages being incorporated into Meixi Town in their entirety. The Jianggang Port project also received approval documents from relevant departments at both municipal and district levels.

  Mei Gang has over 360 million yuan in cash reserves after the restructuring, but it will mainly be invested in the transformation of electric furnace steel production lines and the expansion of generator units to ensure that monthly production capacity increases to 15,000 tons before September.

  Only in this way can Meixi Steel achieve its goal of breaking through 400 million yuan in output value this year.

  At the same time, Industrial Bank will provide another 200 million yuan loan to Ma Gang for the pre-construction of the cargo terminal.

  By the end of May, Meixi Steel had achieved two quarters of stable high profits and officially entered a period of prosperity. Through equity financing, the overall debt ratio also dropped below the safety line, and it was natural to apply for additional loans from financial institutions for rapid expansion.

  For banks, absorbing deposits and lending them out as loans can generate stable interest income. To control risks, banks normally prefer to lend to profitable and stable enterprises.

  Other financial institutions reacted slowly, Sun Yalin spent the whole day with Shen Huai, and after Meixi Steel's financial indicators met the requirements, Yeshin Bank quickly increased its credit limit for Meixi Steel.

  The steel industry is a capital-intensive industry with large production scale and high labor efficiency. To develop rapidly, it must have the support of financial capital.

  With a loan of 200 million yuan from Industrial Bank, the cargo terminal and the Meihua Highway project connecting the terminal with the lower Mei Highway also quickly entered the implementation stage.

  ************

  In early June, it was already the plum rain season, and every three to five days there would be a rain, which had some impact on the progress of the entire project. After a new rain, Shen Hua took a car from the muddy soil to the dock project site.

  Shao Zheng looked at the car body that had been washed yesterday, but was now covered in mud and dirt. He shook his head and sighed, then followed Shen Hui and Huang Xinliang as they climbed up the riverbank with difficulty. Wang Kangsheng and the engineering personnel were rushing over from another direction.

  Mei Xi Steel currently needs to go online with two projects at the same time, both of which are large-scale projects:

  Production line expansion is in charge of Zhao Dong, and the cargo terminal side is in charge of Jiang Kangsheng.

  Shen Hua met with Wang Kangsheng, Zhu Li and the project manager of the Municipal Port Construction Company, and together they inspected the site under their accompaniment.

  "When can Meixi Town relocate the farmers, our engineering team can enter the site on a large scale at that time!"

  The cargo terminal and yard project was contracted to the Municipal Port Construction Company, which subcontracted the civil engineering and earthwork to Zhujiang Construction.

  The project manager sent by the Port Construction Company is named Ren Wei, who is familiar with Zhu Li. Zhu Li also often subcontracts engineering projects from the Port Construction Company; this allows the project team to enter a state without too much running-in period after its establishment.

  Under the big embankment, workers of the construction project on the river are building a temporary project management office with light steel keel and color steel tile.

  Of course, we need to relocate the farmers along Meihua Road and the 100 mu of land in front of the dock before the construction team can officially start work.

  The administrative region has just been adjusted, and Lishacun Village was merged into Meixi Town only a few days ago.

  Heting Town wants to share the Meitang Highway, but it is powerless to undertake the responsibility of demolition and relocation. These things are thrown over, and Meixi Town needs to quickly resolve them in order to pave the way for the project; however, Heting Town also cooperated with some publicity work in the early stage.

  The relocation and settlement should have been decided by the town government, and the village would just need to cooperate with the execution.

  However, considering that Lishacun Village has just been merged with Hetang Village, the rigid administrative order may cause Lishacun Village to feel like an outsider. Therefore, Shen Huai came over in person this time to discuss relocation work with the cadres of Lishacun Village, and it is still planned that Lishacun Village will take the lead in demolition and relocation work, with the town providing coordination.

  Before the appointed time, Song Xiaojun, the village director of Lishacun Village, and two other village officials rode bicycles over. The road was not easy to walk on, and their pant legs were all muddy.

  Song Xiao-jun is a sturdy man who was transferred from the army to his hometown, starting as deputy branch secretary and elected village committee director this year at just 30 years old.

  Shen Huai also contacted Li Shecun's people just these two days, and didn't know what kind of temperament Song Xiaojun was. Standing at the edge of the construction site, watching Song Xiaojun and others walk over, he shook hands with them and said directly: "Li Shecun currently doesn't even have a decent sandstone road, Meihua Highway and cargo terminal will directly open up Li Shecun's connection to the outside world, your work also needs to speed up..."

  "This we know, the town issued a document, and in recent days we have been working with villagers overnight. The vast majority of villagers are willing to cooperate with the demolition work, but as for compensation and resettlement, they hope to be able to reapply for homestead land to build houses..." Song Xiaojuan said.

  In the domestic officialdom, the so-called "the higher the official position, the more deadly the oppression", refers to the middle and upper level groups with deep vested interests, while at the grassroots level, the authority of superiors is relatively much weaker.

  Like Song Xiaojun, the village officials in these poor villages earn less than migrant workers, and they don't even have the opportunity to make extra money. They are clean and honest; if Shen Hua tries to suppress them with his official power, these village officials are hot-tempered and might just quit on the spot.

  The difficulty of grassroots work lies here.

  "The entire Meicun town needs to be replanned, and the township and village cadres also need to have a vision for development," Shen Huai picked up a branch, squatted on the muddy ground, and drew out the Meicun River and Zhujing River with horizontal and vertical strokes. He then drew the lower Mei highway and the planned Meihe highway, pointing it out to Song Xiaojuan and two other village cadres. "The two sides of the Meihe highway will be the new industrial zone after replanning. The area from the industrial zone westward to the east bank of the Meicun River will be the new residential district after replanning. From the planned industrial zone westward to the east bank of the Meicun River, it's about four square kilometers. If we re-allocate homesteads today, scatter them around and build houses, in two years when economic development takes off and we start building residential areas again, we'll have to relocate again. Who will the villagers point their fingers at then?"

  "Secretary Shen, we've also thought about these principles," said Song Xiaojun. "However, Li She Village is located in a remote corner, and except for young people who go out to work, most of the villagers left behind make a living by farming. Building roads and docks will be good in the long run, but the demolition work is about to start, and the livelihoods of farmers will immediately become a problem. This is also the most difficult part of the job."

  "What are you worried about, I know; I came to find you just to talk about this," Shen Huai said. "The town has discussed it and wants to solve the worries of the relocated farmers before the relocation work can be carried out smoothly. Now three suggestions are proposed: First, those with high school or vocational education or above can be recommended to work in the steel factory; Second, I suggest that Lishacun Village establish a labor company to cooperate with Zhujing Construction, Meixi Steel, Zilu Home Textiles and other companies to absorb more surplus labor; Third, the country is establishing a basic social security system, this time the town plans to take out a portion of the land compensation fees to set up an old-age fund account for the relocated farmers..."

  Li She and Cai Jiaqiao villages, with a total area of no more than 8,000 mu, are the last space for Meixi Town to develop southward.

  Shen Hua's ambition is to develop Meixi Steel into a super-large steel enterprise with an annual output of tens of millions of tons. However, in 1993, the total steel output of Huaihai Province was only over 30 million tons, and it is obviously not the time to announce this grand plan.

  Shenhuai has only publicly announced the development plan of Meixi Iron and Steel's three-year 500,000-ton production capacity, including cargo terminals and power plants, from which Li Shecun will be requisitioned for 600 mu of land, which is sufficient.

  However, to build a tens of millions of tons level electric furnace steel base on the north bank of Xiangjiang River, it is necessary to reserve industrial land and collect all the land in Lishacun Village. This is something that will be done step by step over the next three to five years.

  Not only can't re-allocate housing land in Lishacun Village to relocate demolished farmers, but also need to requisition land in Caijiabridge further west for construction, so as to be consistent with the plan and avoid building this year and demolishing again in three or five years. Even if it's a waste, the villagers can't afford such troubles.

  "The town has discussed it, and later on, we will consider merging Lishacun with Caijiagiao into one administrative village," Shen Huai revealed the town government's future construction plan to Song Xiaojun. "The new residential area in the west will be built in Lishacun, and a concentrated residential area for villagers will also be built near the Caijiagiao Village Committee. In this way, as long as the town builds an asphalt road along the east bank of Meixi River to the south, it can connect both Lishacun and Caijiagiao with the town at the same time..."