On July 12, 2008, Yuan Danjun came to a ferry port with unlimited business opportunities in Majiazhai, Jiangling County, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, with passion and courage. At the same time, he noticed a small old fishing boat quietly leaning against the shore, and the fishermen on board were busy adjusting the state of the boat.
Closer to observe, Yuan Danjun noticed that the fisherman was trying with all his might to catch a large catfish. This catfish is at least 30 catties long, and it is obviously a Yangtze River largemouth catfish that only exists in the wild environment.
However, it was in terrible condition, covered in wounds of all sizes, drenched in blood, and seemed to be on the verge of death.
With his rich business experience, Yuan Danjun immediately recognized the special value of this fish. So he decisively asked the fisherman for a purchase.
To the astonishment of everyone present, the fisherman actually gave a high offer of 190,000 yuan!
What is even more unexpected is that Yuan Danjun agreed without hesitation and promised to pay the fisherman an additional 10,000 yuan as a reward. "Please don't hurt this fish, I'm willing to pay you another 10,000 yuan!" Yuan Danjun said firmly, his words full of determination.
Immediately afterward, he quickly called the two drivers and ordered them to hurry up and take the fish away. The two drivers were dumbfounded when they heard this instruction, and they stepped forward to advise the boss to think calmly, thinking that this dying fish could not be worth 200,000 yuan at all.
However, Yuan Danjun turned a deaf ear to this and still stuck to his beliefs.
Soon after, Yuan Danjun appeared with 200,000 yuan in cash, and after handing it over to the fisherman, he instructed the workers to carefully load the fish into the truck. The fisherman took the heavy money bag and glanced at Yuan Danjun suspiciously, fearing that the boss would change his mind, and then left the scene in a hurry.
Although the people around him expressed puzzlement and even doubt about Yuan Danjun's behavior, he always firmly believed that this dying fish had immeasurable value.
All of this stems from his decades of experience in the aquaculture industry, with a deep understanding and innovative thinking about catfish.
Yuan Danjun cherishes the wild largemouth catfish that is dying so much precisely because he had a similar experience when he stepped into the catfish industry many years ago.
Back in 2000, Yuan Danjun was still engaged in the clothing wholesale business in the capital Beijing. A chance dining experience made him keenly aware of a huge business opportunity.
Surprisingly, Yuan Danjun found that among the many restaurants in Beijing, although a very small number of restaurants have strong Hubei characteristics, the vast majority of the rest do not serve the popular and hometown-flavored specialty dish - largemouth catfish!
After realizing the huge opportunity brought by this market gap, Yuan Danjun made a decisive move to seize the opportunity. He began to search for a stable supply of largemouth catfish in various large aquatic product markets in Beijing, and started in-depth negotiations with a Chinese specialty restaurant.
At the negotiating table, Mr. Yuan generously promised that he would personally bear all the costs of promoting the largemouth catfish to more restaurants, but that he would share 30 percent of the profits if the campaign was successful.
It's an enticing promise that restaurants can't resist. As expected, the hundreds of largemouth catfish purchased by Yuan Danjun were sold out by the restaurant in a short period of time.
Largemouth catfish has quickly won the love of diners in Beijing's catering industry, and major well-known restaurants have followed suit and launched a variety of catfish-related delicacies, and the whole market has shown a prosperous scene.
In order to ensure the continuous and stable supply of goods, Yuan Danjun began to travel all over the country to find high-quality catfish supply channels. In 2005, he was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a large number of Huaitou catfish in the farm in Xiaobao Village, Dengta City, Liaoning Province, but due to the lack of effective sales channels, these catfish were facing the dilemma of being unsalable.
Yuan Danjun did not hesitate at all, and he bought a large number of these Huaitou catfish at a high price, solving the contradiction between supply and demand in one fell swoop.
By 2006, Yuan Danjun invested more than 3 million yuan in his hometown of Jingzhou, Hubei Province, and contracted more than 200 acres of ponds for breeding Huaitou catfish.
Considering the difference in climatic conditions between the north and the south, he innovatively adopted the method of well water cooling, and successfully coped with the impact of environmental changes on the growth of pangasius, thus ensuring the healthy growth of pangasius.
On the eve of the Spring Festival of the following year, the first batch of Huaitou catfish that met the listing standards was finally launched, and at the same time, the price of goods rose in the disaster year, so Yuan Danjun became a blockbuster and obtained huge benefits.
Yuan Danjun's catfish business has begun to take shape, and he is full of confidence and decides to further expand the scope of business. He once again spent a huge amount of money to contract 240 acres of fish ponds, plus the original breeding area, and now has more than 440 acres of breeding base.
In order to ensure the efficient and orderly management work, Yuan Danjun specially invited a former classmate and friend to come to help deal with various affairs.
However, in the short time that Yuan Danjun left Beijing on a business trip for only ten days, a sudden change pushed his catfish industry into the abyss from which it could never be recovered.
Before escaping, he even bought a large amount of spoiled and smelly fake and shoddy feed, which caused the catfish in the pond to be unable to eat normally, and deaths occurred frequently.
When employee Wu Fuyun noticed the abnormality, he immediately notified Yuan Danjun as quickly as possible. After hearing this unfortunate news, Yuan Danjun was shocked and almost fell into despair.
Without hesitation, he drove the vehicle across the entire 12-hour journey, and after 19 hours of bumps and effort, he finally returned to his hometown of Jingzhou.
The scene presented in front of his eyes was shocking! The fish pond was full of countless dead catfish, and the purgatory-like scene made Yuan Danjun even more heartbroken.
However, the root cause of this tragedy turned out to be the counterfeit feed that was purchased at a low price.
Even more worrying is that the important manager has long since disappeared, and even swept away all the company's cash before leaving.
Faced with such a predicament, Yuan Danjun had to raise 4 million yuan from the capital, Beijing, to close this huge loophole, but even if he did, he could not save the company's declining situation.
What's more, creditors have come to the door to demand the arrears by forceful means. Yuan Danjun was helpless, so he could only kneel down helplessly and beg for mercy, promising to repay all debts as soon as possible.
After calling the police and waiting for a long time, the whereabouts of the person who had absconded with the money could not be found. In the face of such a heavy blow, Yuan Danjun once lost confidence and wanted to give up completely.
Just as he was about to leave his hometown and find another way out, the village party secretary reached out in time and provided him with a loan guarantee of 2 million yuan to help him regain his strength and rise again.
Yuan Danjun did not live up to the ardent expectations of the village party secretary. At that fateful moment in July 2008, he resolutely took out his savings and generously spent 200,000 yuan to buy the wild largemouth catfish that was on the verge of death.
Although many people around him were skeptical of his actions, believing that he might have been deceived, Yuan Danjun had special expectations and plans for this fish.
Experienced Yuan Danjun has an in-depth understanding and mastery of the advantages and disadvantages of various catfish species. For example, although the largemouth catfish from Guangdong grows quickly and has a high yield, due to its large size, it is difficult to transport over long distances, and its mortality rate can be as high as 50% if not handled properly.
On the other hand, the Huaitou catfish from Liaoning Province has a strong adaptability, and the loss during transportation is relatively small, but its growth rate is relatively slow, and the output is difficult to meet the market demand.
Faced with this unprecedented challenge, Yuan Danjun had a bold and innovative idea: if these two catfish of different shapes were crossed, would it be possible to achieve a win-win result of both higher yield and higher adaptability?
In order to prove that his inference was not groundless, he went to Yangtze University to seek the opinion of Professor Yang, an authoritative expert in the field of zoology, about the possibility and feasibility of crossbreeding between northern and southern catfish.
After in-depth research and discussion, Professor Yang agreed with this idea, believing that as long as the parents of wild largemouth catfish and wild Huaitou catfish can be found, it is expected to breed new species of catfish.
Like a hunter looking for the most precious prey, Yuan Danjun traveled around the country, tirelessly searching for the parents of the wild bosom-headed catfish.
After unremitting efforts, he finally found the parents of the wild bosom catfish, however, regrettably, for the next six months, he was never able to find the parents of the wild largemouth catfish, which made the hybridization plan deadlocked.
Just as Yuan Danjun gradually lost confidence, the goddess of fate once again reached out to this brave dreamer. A fisherman offered a sky-high price of 190,000 yuan, but Yuan Danjun did not hesitate to buy this "sick fish" that seemed fragile and powerless in the eyes of farmers and fishermen, because in his heart, this fish was the key to opening a new chapter in his future career.
Under the careful guidance of Professor Yang, Yuan Danjun finally launched the grand project of hybrid cultivation of catfish from north to south. After countless failures and repeated attempts, they finally succeeded in breeding a new species of pangasius in 2009 and gave it a monumental name - "Chinese catfish".
This Chinese catfish, which is bred by the cross of northern and southern catfish, perfectly combines the unique advantages of the two: fast growth rate, high yield, strong transportation adaptability, and excellent survival rate.
Under the careful care of Yuan Danjun, once the Chinese catfish came out, it immediately won the warm pursuit and love of the majority of consumers.
Catfish dealers across the country seem to be called by some mysterious force, and they are surging like a tide to welcome and enthusiastically embrace this new species of catfish - Chinese catfish.
They showed great enthusiasm, ecstatic to sign a series of huge supply orders with Yuan Danjun, and even visited Yuan Danjun's breeding base in person to select those fresh and lively Chinese catfish by the pond.
This situation and this scene are very lively, far exceeding Yuan Danjun's expectations.
In the blink of an eye, the popularity and influence of the Chinese catfish spread rapidly. Whether it's at a well-known restaurant or a farmer's market, you'll catch a glimpse of this new upstart catfish.
Both the traditional largemouth catfish and the whitehead catfish seem to be on the verge of being replaced by this new hybrid breed, which is praised by restaurateurs and diners alike.
According to relevant data, since the birth of Chinese catfish in 2010, Yuan Danjun's annual sales of pangasius industry have increased year by year, until 2011, it has broken through the amazing 100 million yuan mark! This is undoubtedly the best feedback for his hard work over the years.
The Chinese catfish is the key to the success of Yuan Dan's military career, and it can be called an important cornerstone of his career building.
The magic of money, like the driving force that pushes the giant ship forward, opens a new chapter in life. Yuan Danjun's career is booming, and he brought this glory of success back to his hometown, leading more than 300 local peasant families to devote themselves to the breeding of Chinese catfish, so that they can quickly embark on the road of poverty alleviation and prosperity.
Looking back on the past, the key factor why Yuan Danjun was able to make huge profits in the catfish breeding industry was the "sick fish" that was purchased for 200,000 yuan that year.
It was an unexpected encounter that led him to discover this seemingly ordinary wild largemouth catfish with a unique pedigree, which provided him with the opportunity to cooperate with experts, and finally gave birth to the invincible species of Chinese catfish.
It is no exaggeration to say that Yuan Danjun's life trajectory began to change from that "sick fish", and all the brilliant achievements came from the seemingly crazy but brave investment decision of 200,000 yuan.
Behind this seemingly unexpected incident, Yuan Danjun's firm belief in the cause and the spirit of innovation over the years are hidden.