Chapter Forty-Seven Cigarettes (Part One)

  When Sima reappeared in front of Gao Chuanliang, Shi Daomu, Liu Jiyuan and others, it did not cause everyone's surprise. As for Sima's disappearance for several days without any news, the crowd had long been accustomed to it. Moreover, this time Sima went to add a cigarette machine to the company, in order to set up a cigarette factory outside the mouth to produce cigarettes. It was just curious about the wound on Sima's head.

  "Jiyuan, take a look at this, it's the blueprint for the tobacco fermentation house. Study it carefully and hurry up to build it, we're all counting on it."

  After settling everything, Sima began to arrange the activities. Although it is said that this volume of tobacco can be made, the tobacco leaves can only be imported from American or Turkish and Indian tobacco through foreign trade companies.

  But first building this fermentation house will never be wrong, wait until next year to bring Sima from the future to get a suitable variety of tobacco for the northern region, and then start slowly replacing imported tobacco leaves with local tobacco leaves after the people harvest.

  "Master, as you instructed, we have purchased 1,000 barrels of Turkish tobacco leaves from a Turkish firm through connections. We also collected over 1,000 piculs of local tobacco from the north. Indeed, just like Mr. Strawn said, the aroma and quality of this local tobacco are not inferior to those of Turkish tobacco leaves."

  Before Sima could ask, Gao Chuanliang had already spoken out the things Sima was going to ask. As for Sima's handling of matters, he really couldn't be more at ease with Gao Chuanliang. Many times, as long as he gave a brief explanation, Gao would take care of it wholeheartedly and do a good job.

  Sometimes Sima felt that his acquaintance with Gao Chuanliang was arranged by heaven, just like he discovered a space-time anomaly point, why didn't anyone discover it before?

  "How's the technician's thing going?"

  This technician was the one Simal most concerned about, although when Simal bought the cigarette machine, he also took formulas for Virginia tobacco, Turkish tobacco, Havana cigars and several other types of flavored cigarettes, as well as some other necessary technical materials.

  But these dead materials are definitely not as good as experienced technical personnel. After all, except for a certain Strom, this German who used to be a mechanic at British American Tobacco, others have never even come into contact with tobacco.

  "This matter, I'll say it once, even if it's the production management of cigarettes in British American Tobacco Company, for confidentiality reasons, it is mainly controlled by a small number of foreign personnel and will not be easily leaked out. Generally, Chinese people can't get in touch with anything. Your own cigarette enterprises mostly lack professional technical talents, they just operate based on experience, always lacking a comprehensive system of technical procedures. So even if you poach workers from other companies, there won't be any suitable candidates."

  Strom, who once worked at British American Tobacco for some days, obviously only he is more familiar with the inside story of this line, let alone it was him who saw Si Ma open a cigarette factory.

  "So your meaning is that unless we find those technical personnel from British American Tobacco, otherwise we can only explore by ourselves like other factories?"

  From Shidao's words, Sima only knew that there was such a premise, originally thinking that as long as he had the machine, and then dug up a few technical personnel from other factories, his cigarette machine could turn day and night, and the money would come pouring in, but who would have thought that many things were not as simple as imagined.

  But now the machine has been bought back, and it's too late to regret it. If Nanyang Brothers, a national enterprise like that, can figure out the process on their own, then we can also figure it out here.

  Moreover, compared with other domestic tobacco companies, Sima has several advantages, that is, having sufficient flavorings for cigarettes and cigarette flavor formulas in hand.

  These dozens of tobacco flavor formulas, if they are not considered anything in the 21st century, after all, formulas like Virginia tobacco essence and Turkish tobacco essence have long been common products. As long as you are willing to search online casually, you can get these tobacco flavor formulas, of course, this is only limited to the 21st century.

  In this era when flavorings for tobacco products were just beginning to be widely used, these flavor formulas were undoubtedly a huge fortune and advantage in Sima's hands.

  "This information was known to me when I chatted with their production management personnel at British American Tobacco, and these days I recalled it and wrote it down here. I have already asked Mr. Liu to translate it into Chinese, you can take a look."

  Shidao Mu handed over a few thin pages of paper, saying that although it was only a few pages, it was still much better than knowing nothing and not understanding anything.

  "Thank you, Stroum."

  After receiving the materials handed over by Shi Daomu, Sima Yu said sincerely, "I thought about it for a while earlier. I think there's nothing to be afraid of. It's just a matter of taking things one step at a time. At worst, we'll make less money, that's all."

  Simar took over some materials from Sidrum's memoirs, just some simple materials. Although Simar was an outsider, he also knew that although there were many outsiders' conjectures in this material, it was a very detailed production division process, from the division of labor in the silk production stage, acceptance, inspection to the packaging and delivery stage, all listed in great detail.

  In the process of making cigarettes, although the quality of tobacco leaves is the most important link, if there is an accident in the silk production stage, even the best raw materials cannot produce good cigarettes.

  The tobacco leaf silk craft is generally divided into four main processes: matching leaves, removing stems, cutting silk and drying silk. However, if it is refined, at least eleven processes are required, including unpacking (or opening barrels), sifting sand and returning moisture, matching leaves, steaming leaves, pulling stalks, rolling stalks, adding fragrance, cutting leaves, leaf silk returning moisture, steaming stalks and stalk silk returning moisture.

  After the tobacco is made, it is put into a cigarette machine and enters the next link to produce cigarettes. In this era, most domestic ethnic enterprises used a small wooden hand-push cigarette machine to roll tobacco onto paper, making semi-manual rolled cigarettes with general quality, higher cost, and easy to loose threads.

  Mechanized cigarettes, although they do not have the problems of hand-rolled cigarettes, also have their own set of issues, such as the presence of tobacco blocks and tobacco stems in the cigarette. However, this problem is limited to old-fashioned falling-silk type cigarette machines, whereas Sima purchased more advanced inhalation-type cigarette machines.

  This inhalation-style cigarette machine, even in Europe and America, has only just emerged. More importantly, the biggest advantage of using this inhalation-style cigarette is that, under the premise of ensuring that the tobacco does not fall off, the weight of each cigarette is only about 0.8 grams, compared to the average weight of cigarettes in this era of 1.2 grams, the amount of tobacco used has been reduced by about 30%. This alone has greatly reduced costs.

  Comparing left and right, Sima found that although he had some shortcomings now, his advantages were also very obvious. First, the cost of raw materials was low and the cost was low. Second, the machine was good and the output was high.

  However, obviously only these can only make Sima Kai's cigarette factory occupy a place in the future market. If you want to compete with British and American tobacco companies, it is obvious that only these are not enough.

  "If we are to enter the cigarette market, then without a doubt, British American Tobacco is our number one enemy. As for domestic enterprises like Nanyang Brothers, we don't need to consider them. As long as we can defeat British American Tobacco, we can occupy the cigarette market."

  Although he had never managed a company in the modern sense before, Sima felt that if you don't do it, then do it with all your might to be the best, and defeating British American Tobacco was undoubtedly the best proof of doing one's best.

  "If we want to compete with British American Tobacco in terms of brands or other aspects, it's definitely not possible. Now, there isn't a city in China that doesn't have British American Tobacco cigarettes, and just the brands alone number over a hundred, with high, medium and low-end varieties all available. If you want to go head-to-head with these foreigners, you can only think of other ways."

  In Gao Chuanliang's view, although the young master was not wise to confront foreigners from the start, it also showed the young master's ambition. However, he didn't know that as a later generation, Sima admired the businessmen of this era far more than those in the future.

  Businessmen of this era, although seeking profit, to a large extent, are doing business from the perspective of the country and nation. Just like cigarettes, the founder of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company established the factory for profit, but initially it was because he saw hundreds of millions or even billions of silver flowing into the pockets of foreign tobacco companies in China every year, so he decided to make his own cigarettes as a national brand to counter them.

  But this kind of spirit is precisely what later generations of businessmen lack. In most cases, they choose another path - relying on foreign capital to gain weight, selling company shares at a low price in exchange for the so-called joint venture or foreign-funded enterprise shell, in order to obtain policy privileges.

  Since the late 19th century, when Chinese people began to strive for prosperity, batches of Chinese entrepreneurs have grown and created one after another world-renowned Chinese enterprises. These entrepreneurs took it as their mission to save the country through industry, with serving society as their purpose and striving for prosperity as their driving force. Every time I read about their biographies, I feel deeply moved. In contrast, looking at those new entrepreneurs who grew up in the 21st century, I always feel that they lack something deep down compared to those old business pioneers.

  As for what was missing, as an outsider, Sima couldn't quite put his finger on it. It seemed to be the confidence, pride, honesty and hard work that those people had. Or perhaps it was something else...

  "Actually, this method is very simple, take a look at these few cigarettes and see what's different about them?"

  He took out one cigarette from several packs of different brands and placed them on the table, then asked Sima.

  "Except for the brand being slightly different, it seems like there's nothing else different."

  Gao Chuanliang, who has never smoked cigarettes but only water pipes, took a look and said so. In Gao Chuanliang's eyes, they are indeed the same except for the brand.

  "It seems like the thickness is a bit different. However, if you don't look closely, you can't tell at all."

  After picking up the cigarette from the table, Liu Jiyuan carefully compared these several cigarettes in front of him and said. And this history drum was laughing on the side, as a veteran smoker, history drum certainly knew what was different about these several.

  "Shidao Mu, judging from your expression, you must have known."

  Looking at Strudthoff's smile, Sima suddenly remembered that the German in front of him was a seasoned smoker, and probably before he had even seen cigarettes, he had already started smoking them.