Chapter 102 Basketball Match

  "Xiao Rou, Xu Shaojie and Chen Mubiao are all outstanding among young people. I hope they become friends, and they will definitely become friends. Liu Hong was not bad either, unfortunately, he didn't understand what can be done and what cannot be done. It's a pity that Liu Hong has a good father. I really want to meet Xu Shaojie."

  Tang Wenjun's face showed a smiling expression, and when he mentioned Liu Hong, the corners of his mouth slightly curled up. Tang Wenyu understood what her father meant by this gesture - in his eyes, Liu Hong had already been written off.

  After October, the situation in Yudu District became more tense. The peak season for tobacco procurement had arrived, and the collection of agricultural taxes also began to be carried out on a large scale. Of course, various problems arose during this period, most of which were handled personally by Zhang Shikui. Xu Shaojie rarely asked about specific matters. As time passed, the workload gradually became lighter. By late October, more than half of the two main tasks had been completed.

  The cement plant's effect has begun to emerge, the produced cement is in short supply, especially for the five districts and towns of Nanmen, they welcome Yudu Cement Plant's approach very much. They saved a lot of effort, and the price of cement was also cheaper, so the cement transported to the districts and towns were mostly sold out within a short period of time. Faced with this situation, Zhang Shikui, Tian Lixin, Zhao Deli, and Song Tao all thought that large-scale publicity is not needed anymore, as there is no inventory of cement in the factory, no need for publicity. When the secretary's office meeting was held, Tian Lixin first proposed this opinion.

  The cement plant is in a completely different position in the Yudu District Government, mainly because it involves the treatment of every cadre and staff member in the district government. In the profitable month, the district committee held a meeting to study and decide to give each cadre and staff member of the district government a bonus of 100 yuan. Everyone understood that the prosperity of the cement plant is closely related to their own interests. Therefore, when studying the cement plant's affairs, the team members are still very careful.

  Zhang Shiqiu agreed with Tian Lixin's opinion. Although the Yudu Cement Plant is not well-known at present, there is no inventory of cement, which can be said to be in short supply, and it does not need to invest too much money in publicity.

  Xu Shaojie had a different idea, he couldn't have the thought of being content with small gains, however, he also couldn't say such words, after all everyone was considering the cement plant.

  "Everyone thinks the cement factory is doing well now, so there's no need to increase promotional efforts for the time being. People have their reasons, but we should be prepared in advance. The market competition is fierce these days, as people say, 'good wine fears the deep alley.' If we wait until the cement factory really faces sales difficulties and then start promoting, it may not be effective. Now that the cement factory is doing well, let's add some finishing touches to make it even better. Let's take advantage of this favorable wind to quickly increase its reputation. I've thought about it, but large-scale promotions like TV ads are too expensive for us. The cement factory hasn't been in production for long, so we have to think of other ways. One idea I have is that the current timing is just right, and the weather is suitable."

  Xu Shaojie said that in reality, the actual meaning is still to promote the cement factory. Everyone will not object to it. What Xu Shaojie said makes sense. When we really encounter difficulties and cannot take out money for promotion.

  "We and the Municipal Sports Committee jointly organized a basketball game called Yudu Cup Basketball Tournament, which allows teams from municipal units and districts to sign up. I've inquired about it, and the funds needed for such an event do not exceed 10,000 yuan. I think that through this basketball tournament, we can promote our Yudu cement and greenhouse vegetables more effectively than other promotional methods. The game will be held in Huaian City, with many spectators, which will have a very good effect on our promotion."

  Huang Guangming nodded repeatedly, Xu Shaojie's idea was really good. Cement and vegetables were mainly promoted to the general public, especially greenhouse vegetables, which would be launched on a large scale soon. Choosing to promote at this time was just right. Moreover, ordinary people liked watching basketball games, and the promotional effect was better than advertising on TV.

  "I fully agree with Secretary Xu's opinion, this kind of publicity will achieve unexpected results. We can request to make a speech at the opening and closing ceremonies to publicize our cement plant and greenhouse vegetables. At the same time, we can also produce propaganda slogans and put them up in key places in Huaian City, taking advantage of the basketball game's name, without spending too much money, but maximizing the promotion of Yudu District's reputation. I believe that after this basketball game, all counties and cities in Huaiyang will know our Yudu District, know our cement plant and vegetable greenhouses."

  Zhang Shi-kui immediately expressed his consent, and the matter was settled. The specific coordination work was undertaken by Huang Guangming, assisted by Tian Li-xin, as Huang Guangming was very familiar with the people from the municipal units.

  Xu Shaojie made a request that the cement factory must form a basketball team to participate in the competition, with one men's and one women's team each. A day later, Zhao Deli found Xu Shaojie with a bitter face, saying that the cement factory really couldn't pull together a men's basketball team, and the women's team was barely scraping by, with many of them being "mud legs" who could run while hugging the ball but were hopeless when it came to dribbling. Xu Shaojie went to the cement factory to take a look and saw that they already had a simple basketball court, with some selected workers practicing - the process was so pathetic that Xu Shaojie couldn't help but tell Zhao Deli to spend some money to find people from district units to play, just saying it was the cement factory's team. This trick worked well, and a men's basketball team was quickly formed, looking somewhat decent.

  Huang Guangming and Tian Lixin soon contacted the Municipal Sports Committee, and then issued a notice regarding the conditions for participating teams, etc. These tasks were handled by the Sports Committee. The official competition began on November 10th, with both the men's and women's teams from Yudu Cement Factory playing in the opening match. Upon receiving the news, everyone became tense, as this was a city-level competition, not just a casual game at the district or town level. Huang Guangming immediately went to the Huaiyang Municipal Sports Committee and found his old classmate, who was the top basketball coach in Huaiyang City, to start training the Yudu District basketball team. Everyone's main energy was focused on the men's team, while relatively less attention was given to the women's team.

  In less than 20 days, wanting to make a qualitative leap is obviously impossible, and can only do some tactical training. However, the coach is different, and the effect is not the same. The Yudu Cement Factory men's basketball team first trained in the district and then went to the city for training. Although it was hard work, all the players were full of energy. In comparison, the women's team was much weaker. Most of the players were employees of the cement factory and could not completely devote themselves to the sport. Moreover, everyone did not take the women's basketball game very seriously. For this reason, the captain of the women's basketball team, Yu Zhihong, complained to Xu Shaojie about the district committee.

  Prefer sons over daughters.

  The day before the opening ceremony, all the propaganda slogans were in place. At this moment, Yudu District Cement Plant and Vegetable Greenhouse have gained a certain reputation. Many citizens know that Huai'an City's Yudu District has a cement plant and a vegetable greenhouse, which sponsored the basketball game this time.

  Xu Shaojie took an attitude of trying, to invite Huaiyang Municipal Party Secretary Ding Yuan to attend the opening ceremony. He was just trying his luck, a basketball game is really insignificant, and the municipal party secretary's work is so busy that it is difficult to participate.

  Xu Shaojie's luck wasn't good, Secretary Ding wasn't at the municipal party committee office. However, Xu found Liao Hongyuan, the secretary general, explained the purpose, and Secretary Liao agreed to pass on the message. The leaders in charge of Huai'an Municipal Party Committee and Government attended the opening ceremony, but the main leaders did not attend because it was the Sports Committee that invited them.

  In the evening, Xu Shaojie, who was having dinner with his teammates, received a call from Secretary Ding Yuan's secretary. Secretary Ding Yuan was going to attend the opening ceremony of the basketball game. Xu Shaojie was overjoyed and immediately fed back this information to the Huai'an Municipal Party Committee and Government. He understood that if he didn't inform Mayor Xu Yunfei, who was close to Secretary Zhao Deling, in a timely manner, he would have made a mistake.

  As expected, the Huai'an Municipal Committee changed its strategy immediately after verifying the accuracy of the news. Zhao Dekui and Xu Yunfei all attended the opening ceremony, and the host of the opening ceremony also became Xu Yunfei.

  The opening ceremony started at 7 o'clock in the evening, held at the Huai'an City Lighting Ball Court. The ceremony was simple, with speeches by the leaders of the Huai'an Municipal Committee, representatives from Yudu District, athlete representatives and referee representatives. Finally, Secretary Ding Yuan of the Municipal Committee declared the start of the competition. The arrangement for the two matches of the opening match was also very interesting. The first match was a men's basketball match between the Yudu Cement Factory representative team and the Municipal Committee Office representative team. The second match was a women's basketball match between the Yudu Cement Factory representative team and the Municipal Government Office representative team.

  The stadium is open-air and can accommodate around 3,000 people. Before the opening ceremony, the stadium was already packed to capacity. It's been a long time since Huai'an City has hosted such a competition, so everyone wanted to come and see the excitement. The previous promotion by Yu Du District was also very effective.

  Before the opening ceremony, Ding Yuan simply asked Xu Shaojie about the purpose of holding this competition. In fact, Ding Yuan already knew it, and asking like this was just to remind other leaders to help with publicity.

  At the opening ceremony, athletes entered the venue and walked directly to the center of the court. The crowd managed to squeeze open a path for them. There were 40 participating teams in total, consisting of 32 men's basketball teams and 8 women's basketball teams. The prize settings were quite good, with the top three men's basketball teams receiving cash prizes of 2000 yuan, 1500 yuan, and 1000 yuan respectively. The top two women's basketball teams received cash prizes of 1500 yuan and 1000 yuan respectively.

  The speech of Secretary Zhao Deling was very simple, lasting no more than 5 minutes. Next, Zhang Shiqiu represented Yudu District to give a speech, with even simpler content, mainly promoting Yudu Cement Factory and Vegetable Greenhouse, which also lasted less than 5 minutes. After the speeches by athlete representatives and referee representatives, the competition officially began, and the audience was very satisfied with this opening ceremony.

  The first men's basketball match was extremely intense, with both sides employing tactics and showcasing many exciting combinations. The crowd cheered loudly and applauded as they watched the two teams compete, while the 60-person cheerleading squad organized by Yudu District seemed weak in comparison and eventually stopped cheering altogether.

  Ding Yuan and Zhao Deling, Xu Yunfei and others were all watching with great interest. They rarely saw such a match. By the end of the game, Xu Shaojie couldn't help but stand up. He was cheering for Yudu Cement Factory, but since Zhao Deling was beside him, he didn't dare to cheer loudly. In the end, the cement factory team won by two points.

  When the two teams left the field, there was a warm applause around them. Many people thought that the Cement Factory team would give in to the Municipal Party Committee team. But who knew, both sides were fighting with all their might on the court, regardless of who their opponents were. Everyone wanted to see this kind of match. Xu Shaojie looked at Zhao Deliang with a somewhat guilty conscience, while Zhao Deliang was smiling and still applauding enthusiastically. Xu Shaojie finally let out a sigh of relief.

  The women's group match was even more lively after it started, reaching its climax, which was beyond Xu Shaojie's expectation.

  The game had just begun, and when the first ball was thrown, the female player standing under the basket wasn't thinking about grabbing the ball, but rather "you hug me, I hug you", not allowing the opponent to grab the rebound. The crowd watching the game burst out laughing, even Ding Yuan and others couldn't help but laugh. The referee had no choice but to tell everyone that hugging was not allowed, otherwise it would be a foul. However, what the referee said was useless, although the hugging action under the basket stopped, the blocking action was almost the same as hugging. The referee really had no way out and could only relax the standards, otherwise the game couldn't continue.

  The strength of the cement factory team was clearly no match for the city government agency team, with too many fouls committed. Xu Shaojie's face turned red with embarrassment. The women's team had not trained much and Xu Shaojie did not expect to lose so badly here. Later, the number of fouls increased, but the level of the city government team was not high either. The referee finally could not bear it and blew several fouls, making the scene slightly better.

  Ding Yuan couldn't help but speak up and said something to Xu Shaojie across Zhao Delei.

  "Xiao Xu, is the cement factory team playing basketball or wrestling?"

  Xu Shaojie was really speechless, the audience watching the game laughed so hard they were out of breath. But this wasn't the most classic part yet. A main player from the Cement Factory team committed five fouls and was penalized off the court. After that, a substitute player came on, Xu Shaojie saw him and couldn't help but laugh, it turned out to be Yu Zhihong.

  The game was almost over, and neither side had a high score. At this moment, a classic scene appeared. Yu Zhihong finally got the ball, perhaps too excited, Yu Zhihong hugged the ball and rushed forward, regardless of the referee's urgent whistle, the surrounding audience laughed so hard that they didn't know what to do.

  Ding Yuan laughed out tears, about to speak to Xu Shaojie, but seeing Xu Shaojie's flushed face and embarrassed expression, he pointed at Xu Shaojie without saying a word. Xu Shaojie hastily explained.

  "For this women's basketball team, friendship comes first, entertainment second, and competition third."

  Xu Shaojie did not expect that as the competition level improved, later in the women's basketball team matches, they would always find Xu Shaojie's weaknesses. Because what Xu Shaojie said had spread widely in Huaiyang City and Huai'an City. In fact, Tang Wanrou was also watching the game, and these days she was cheering for the Yudu representative team. Sometimes she would have dinner with Xu Shaojie, and during the women's team matches, she would be an off-court advisor. However, the scene was really unbearable, so Tang Wanrou simply didn't say anything and let the players play freely.