Chapter 19 First build roads if you want to become rich
Viscount Leslie and Baron Hannas leaving created large ripples in Xu Yi’s heart, but the lives of Banta City’s people weren’t affected at all and everything went as normal.
After the spring planting was over, the Banta City land reclamation product was smoothly finished with the help of large amounts of agricultural magic machines.
According to data from the City Lord’s Manor, after this land reclamation project, the farmland around Banta City had increased from thirty thousand hectares to a hundred and ten thousand hectares. As well, there were corresponding crops that had already been planted on them.
According to initial estimates, Banta City’s fall harvest would at least double last year’s amount.
If everything went smoothly, there would be a shocking result when the fall harvest came. To Count Sean who was Banta City’s City Lord, this was an important achievement.
So although Count Sean had been busy during this time, he had been very happy. Each time he saw Xu Yi, he would have a very affectionate smile on his face.
But when he heard the topic Xu Yi mentioned today, his expression became very ugly.
“Constructing roads?” Count Sean looked at Xu Yi with an awkward expression and hesitated a bit before saying, “Chairman Xu, although I don’t know what difference there is between these roads and the roads outside Banta City, constructing roads outside the city is very expensive. For a fellow who can spend money like you, building roads would be even more expensive? Our Banta City’s current finances aren’t good right now, I can’t agree to this.”
Xu Yi revealed a smile like he expected this and said without any surprise, “Lord City Lord, this road does cost quite a bit of money, but there is an idiom in my hometown which is that to earn money, one must first build roads. It means that if Banta City wants to become rich, the first thing it must do is build roads and protect them. To give an example, our Banta City has quite a few special products, which the Magma Berry that Still and I have liked eating during this period of time is considered one of. I think the Lord City Lord should also like eating this fruit, can you acknowledge it as a delicacy?”
Count Sean couldn’t help nodding, “Un, that’s right. This Magma Fruit has a very good taste. It is quite sweet and one doesn’t get tired of eating it, so if it was put in Anvilmar City, I think many people would buy it even if it sold for a gold coin per pound.”
“That’s right. Such a good fruit, but because it’s hard to preserve, it can only be traded in Banta City and the surrounding cities. Let’s not mention increasing the price, we can’t even advertise it, which means we’re losing a large amount of business.” Xu Yi said with a look of regret.
“Indeed, if we could sell it…...Wait, how is this related to you building a road to the Falling Rain Valley?” Count Sean suddenly remembered, “If the Magma Fruit is sold to further places, it’s clear that we need to build a road from Banta City to Anvilmar City first. Kid, don’t think of using the Banta City flag to create benefits for your Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
The so called Falling Rain Valley referred to the piece of land the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had rented fifty kilometers to the west of Banta City.
Because this land had two mountain ranges surrounding it and it had the Falling Rain Forest at its back, it was called the Falling Rain Valley. 𝐛𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗼𝐯𝐞𝗹．𝐨𝐫𝗴
On the matter of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce renting this large piece of land, Count Sean knew everything. How could he not know why Xu Yi wanted to create a road from Banta City to the Falling Rain Valley.
“Lord City Lord, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce is a Banta City company, benefits gained by our Frestech Chamber of Commerce are also benefits to our Banta City.” Xu Yi complained, “If our company didn’t wish to help the Lord City Lord, creating more factories and recruiting more workers, causing the hectare of land rented from Viscount Leslie to be not enough, how could we go to the Falling Rain Valley and ask you for a road? Lord City Lord, you can’t unfairly judge me.”
Count Sean gave a snappy cold snort, “Alright, you make it sound nice, but in the end it’s to help your Frestech Chamber of Commerce develop. Even if I wasn’t involved, wouldn’t you still be setting up a factory?” After saying this, Count Sean focused. After hesitating a bit, he asked, “Speaking of this, Xu Yi, why don’t you keep renting land from Viscount Leslie and have to rent this large piece of land that is so far from Banta City from the king? If you just use this reason, it wouldn’t make sense, right?”
Xu Yi gave a dry laugh, “Lord City Lord, renting Viscount Leslie’s territory is too inconvenient in the end. Then again, in just a few days, that place won’t be Viscount Leslie’s land and someone else’s.”
“Oh? It seems like that kid Leslie spoke to you before he left?” Count Sean looked at Xu Yi in surprise, “This kid treats you pretty good, he actually told you about this.”
“The Lord Viscount is indeed pretty good to me…..” Thinking of the advice Viscount Leslie gave before leaving, Xu Yi couldn’t help sighing. He rubbed his knit brows and took a deep breath before saying to Count Sean, “Lord City Lord, even if it is thinking for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce developing the Falling Rain Valley, there are good reasons to build a road from Banta City to the Falling Rain Valley. You’ve said that you fully support the development of our Frestech Chamber of Commerce and now that our development has reached a bottleneck, you have to support us. You can’t go back on your word.”
“This kid, you want to pressure me?” Count Sean scolded with a smile before giving a sigh, “Actually I understand your idea and want to help you. I even seriously studied the road plan you gave me last time and feel that if we build roads according to your plan, it will greatly help Banta City develop, but…..”
Count Sean spread his hands with a helpless look.
“I really don’t have the money. Although Banta City’s tax revenue is considered not bad in the Lampuri Kingdom, a large amount is given to the kingdom finances each year and the rest is used for maintaining Banta City and the surrounding areas, so there’s nothing left for other matters. As for building roads…...first let’s not mention the large amount of resources needed, just the amount of people would be hard for me to find.”
Xu Yi laughed, “Lord City Lord, this is the important reason why I came to find you. Building these roads are not the same as the ones you imagined. Last year our Frestech Chamber of Commerce made a road to our factory and the largest expense was in manpower, so I understand your difficulty. But the cement roads I’m talking about are different since with the help of magic machines, the manpower needed isn’t that high and most of the cost will come from resources.”
“Magic machines?” Count Sean looked at Xu Yi with a confused look, “You mean that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has made magic machines for building roads?”
Xu Yi gave a slight nod and said with a proud look, “Of course. Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce specializes in developing magic machines, so naturally it is easy for us to make magic machines for building roads.”
“Then based on this, those magic machines should already be developed?” Count Sean asked.
“Far beyond being developed, they have been tested and are currently being used.” Xu Yi replied with a smile, “Lord City Lord, did the Amrit Chamber of Commerce chairman Cruise invite you to see their newly developed concrete floor two days ago and suggested that you change the square outside the City Lord’s Manor to this kind of floor?”
Count Sean thought about it and understood, “The concrete had your Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s involvement? When you said mentioned this matter, I thought that it was very strange. How could you know about this thing.”
“Accurately speaking, I taught this thing to the Amrit Chamber of Commerce. And the most important cement was provided by our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s cement factory.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “Lord City Lord, what do you think of the road made from cement?”
“Of course it’s very good.” Count Sean said without any hesitation, “Actually, I thought of this issue when I saw the cement floor two days ago. Since this thing can be used to make a square, it can be used to make a road. This thing is even smoother than normal ground and much harder. If it could be used to make a road, it is much better than the soil and gravel road outside Banta City.”
Speaking of this, Count Sean gave a sigh, “But it is the same problem, this concrete floor is very expensive. According to what chairman Cruise said, just a single square meter costs sixty gold coins. If it was used to make a road…...it is paving a road with gold coins.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. A single square meter of cement costed sixty gold coins, so if it was converted to earth’s RMB, it would be around sixty RMB per square meter. If those road developers on earth knew about this, they would think that one was skimping on materials.
Of course, this is because the price in this world is too low. Actually sixty silver coins for each square meter was already a shockingly high price for the people of this world.
“Lord Count, don’t worry. You won’t have to take out a single copper coin for this road. I came looking for you today just to have you authorize this road building project. Without your authorization, I wouldn’t dare to build such a long road by myself.” Xu Yi said.
Count Sean was instantly stunned, “You mean that…...For this fifty kilometer road from Banta City to the Falling Rain Valley, your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is planning to pay for everything?”
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile, “That’s right.”
Chapter 20 Reason for leeching a meal
Building roads is a very expensive matter.
On earth, building public roads was something funded by the government, supplemented sometimes by private capital. It was rare for a road to be completely built with private capital.
Because the roads connecting a country can be considered its veins, there was no doubt of its importance. If it wasn’t controlled by the government, it could easily become a large problem.
If it was possible, Xu Yi naturally hoped that he could fully pay for the road construction plan across the Lampuri Kingdom.
But the fact was that the Lampuri Kingdom’s financial situation wasn’t that good. The large companies and large nobles of the kingdom had plenty of money, just the kingdom’s finances were lacking.
Reflecting this onto Banta City, the City Lord Count Sean and the chairman of those large companies could live rich lives, but Banta City itself didn’t have much finances.
It was clearly impossible to build roads when the financial situation was this bad.
So Xu Yi gave up on letting Banta City and the Lampuri Kingdom pay for these roads and decided to pay for them himself.
Viscount Leslie’s advice before leaving could be considered a warning to Xu Yi. It made him lose confidence and hope in developing on Viscount Leslie’s, or rather the Stagg Family’s land, so he had to develop the Falling Rain Valley.
Although the Falling Rain Valley’s position wasn’t bad, connecting the Falling Rain Forest and Crossing Mountains, allowing him to develop relationships with the Night Song Tribe’s elves and the dwarves of Norma Tribe and the Angola Tribe. But it was still fifty kilometers away from Banta City and if he wanted to develop it, he had to connect them and had to first build a road to Banta City.
This road was around a total of length of between fifty to fifty five kilometers. According to the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s price of sixty silver coins per square meter of concrete, to create a road that was three meters wide, fifteen centimeters thick, wide enough to hold two horse carriages, adding the base price of constructing the road, it would cost a total of around one hundred and thirty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
It should be said that the price of this over fifty kilometer long road wasn’t high, but the Frestech Chamber of Commerce didn’t have enough floating capital now, so Xu Yi couldn’t pay this much gold coins.
“Isn’t this simple? We’ll follow the old method and use cement as payment.” Chairman Cruise patted his chest and generously said to Xu Yi, “We are old friends, I believe in chairman Xu. We can help you finish this project and you can slowly pay. I’m not in a rush, ha, ha……”
Xu Yi looked at him, of course he wasn’t in a rush.
According to chairman Cruise’s plan, he wanted Xu Yi to spend even more money on this road. That way his Amrit Chamber of Commerce could keep their monopoly on the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s cement and continue to hold their advantage in the construction industry.
Of course Xu Yi didn’t reject this method.
He wasn’t willing to pay anyway, so using cement to pay was an acceptable method.
The cement factory had been in the Norma Tribe for some time and the dwarves were getting used to making the cement. Then adding in the fact that the Ferstech Chamber of Commerce had made progress in developing the Magic Cement Mixer and other magic machines, the cement output of the Norma Tribe had greatly increased. They went from last month’s amount of three thousand tons to this month’s amount of seven thousand tons.
And after the next two cement factories were added to the Norma Tribe and Angola Tribe, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be producing over twenty thousand tons of cement each month!
According to the price that Xu Yi had with chairman Cruise of one ton for six gold coins, it would only take a month or two for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to pay the costs of building this road in terms of cement.
Of course, if Xu Yi sold the cement publicly, the price would be over six gold coins per ton and would earn even more money.
But the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had too many construction products and couldn’t separate from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce. Xu Yi was very happy to use cement to maintain the good relationship between the two companies.
The cement was mainly produced with the clay and limestone that the dwarves dug out of the Crossing Mountains, so the cost could be basically ignored.
“Alright, we’ll do this.” Thinking of this, Xu Yi nodded and confirmed their cooperation again, “That’s right, chairman Cruise, I’ve heard that chairman Morgan has looked for you and wanted to develop a magic machine with your Amrit Chamber of Commerce?”
Chairman Cruise waved his hand with a look of disdain, “Che, that fellow has gone further than just looking for me. He’s gone to every company in Banta City with a bit of power. But there was basically no one that agreed to him because everyone knew that it would be hard to compare to your Frestech Chamber of Commerce in terms of developing magic machines. Instead of undertaking this fruitless task, it is better to do things they excel in. Don’t you think so, chairman Xu?”
“These words are quite right.” Xu Yi nodded as he gave a cold laugh in his heart.
He believed it if the Amrit Chamber of Commerce declined the Falcao Chamber of Commerce’s cooperation deal to develop magic machines, but if they wanted him to believe that the Amrit Chamber of Commerce wasn’t interested at all in developing magic machines, Xu Yi wouldn’t believe it even if he was beaten to death.
Other than the Falcao Chamber of Commerce who didn’t plan on hiding themselves at all, almost all the large companies of Banta City had basically invested in developing magic machines.
It wasn’t just for the large profit magic machines brought, it was also to master the magic machine technology and develop magic machines that they needed.
Of the large companies of Banta City, not a single one could avoid using products made by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Taking the Falcao Chamber of Commerce as an example, just last week, chairman Morgan had made an order of ten thousand small Magic Drills to Xu Yi.
At the same time, chairman Morgan had shown interest in the Magic Impact Crusher Xu Yi had mentioned. He said that once it was tested, he would put in a large amount with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
The small Magic Drill had a selling price of seventy eight gold coins, so ten thousand of them was seven hundred and eighty thousand gold coins.
And the selling price of the Magic Impact Crusher Xu Yi mentioned went as high as two hundred and sixty gold coins per unit. If one wanted to make a large order, one had to spend a large amount of gold coins without any doubt.
If the Falcao Chamber of Commerce could develop these two mining magic machines themselves and produce them, it would save them a large amount of gold coins.
The same situation as the Falcao Chamber of Commerce was shared by the Amrit Chamber of Commerce and the other companies.
All the other companies wanted to avoid the Frestech Chamber of Commerce earning large profits from this situation, but after using those magic machines, they had to admit that the magic machines were indeed very easy to use. Right now, those companies couldn’t separate themselves from the magic machines.
Since they couldn’t separate themselves, the only method was to develop them. They would strive to grasp this magic machine technology for themselves and no longer allow themselves to be controlled by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Only other than some success on the Magic Fan technology that Xu Yi willingly handed out, as for the other magic machines, especially the large magic machines, the companies hadn’t made any development at all.
As these thoughts flashed in his mind, Xu Yi couldn’t help finding this funny. He patted chairman Cruise’s shoulder and said in a friendly voice, “Of course, we are good partners. If the Amrit Chamber of Commerce is really interested in developing magic machines, chairman Cruise can just talk to me. If there is something I can help with, I will definitely do my best.”
“Really?” Chairman Cruise’s eyes lit up, but he then caught himself. He gave an awkward smile and shook his head as he said, “No, no, our Amrit Chamber of Commerce will honestly stay in the business of construction. A complicated thing like magic machines is something chairman Xu and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce can play with, I won’t mess around.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and didn’t continue this topic. He then discussed the concrete plans of constructing this road with chairman Cruise.
After discussing with chairman Cruise until the evening, Xu Yi rejected chairman Cruise’s invitation for dinner and headed to a yard that occupied a rather large space to the south of Banta City.
Since Evita and Akali’s five classmates joined, the small building the two lived in before clearly wasn’t enough as a research lab, so Xu Yi had rented this yard ahead of time with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s name.
This courtyard used be a viscount’s residence in Banta City, but since that viscount left Banta City, it was empty for Xu Yi to buy.
The yard took up a space of over two thousand square meters, including three small buildings and several houses. Other than giving the ten members of the research lab a place to work, it also gave Evita and Akali’s five classmates a place to live.
When Xu Yi entered the courtyard, he smelled something fragrant.
Taking a sniff, Xu Yi was certain that tonight’s dinner was made by Evita.
As expected, when he entered the main hall, he saw Evita taking off an apron and preparing to start eating.
Seeing Xu Yi suddenly come over, the group was stunned.
After a while, Akali jumped up and excitedly called to Xu Yi, “Sir chairman, why are you here?”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “I haven’t eaten yet, so I came here to leech a meal.”
Looking over the dishes on the table, Xu Yi pointed to one that was rather dark and said with a smile, “Let me guess, this one should be made by Akali, right?”
Akali angrily looked at Xu Yi and said with a cold snort, “I’m sorry, sir chairman, you were wrong.”
“Oh? Other than you, there is someone else who can turn stir fried vegetables into baked vegetables?” Xu Yi asked in a fake surprised manner.
Everyone broke out in laughter.
“Sir chairman, you really guessed wrong. This dish was something that Cecilia offered to make, it really wasn’t made by Akali.” Bella on the side said with a smile.
“Ah?” Xu Yi looked at the blushing Cecilia in surprise. He never thought that this shy and gentle girl who was even worse than Evita would be even worse than Akali at cooking, “This really is surprising still. I thought that gentle girls like Evita knew how to cook, but I never thought there was an exception.”
Cecilia lowered her head even more and silently gnawed on the bread in her hand, not saying a word.
“Sir chairman, stop bullying Cecilia, she is very shy.” A girl named Claire with natural black curls said with a smile, “If she can’t take it and comes to my room to cry, I have to ask sir chairman for compensation.”
Cecilia suddenly looked up and hit Claire’s shoulder, as she angrily said, “You’re the one who cried!”
Seeing Cecilia act like this, everyone couldn’t help breaking out in laughter.
Finding that even Schoch who always had a bad expression couldn’t help smiling, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling satisfied.
It seems like after working here for a bit, these young people had gotten used to living here.
It was because of their vigor and talent that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could develop those shocking magic machines.
These youths didn’t know this, but Xu Yi was certain on this.
As long as they worked hard, they would definitely become powerful magic mechanical engineers, becoming an important part of the magic machine industry.
Looking over their young faces, Xu Yi suddenly found a problem.
“That’s right, where’s Wella? Why don’t I see her? Did she go out to eat?” Xu Yi asked.
To make research more convenient, after Xu Yi bought this courtyard, he had Wella move from the laboratory at the factory over here.
Because Wella was now alone in Banta City, all her food and accommodations were taken care of like Claire and the others.
“Big sister Wella went out before eating, she said she wanted to see someone and didn’t know when she would come back.” Evita responded.
“See someone?” Xu Yi was a bit confused.
Since coming back from Saltan City, Wella hadn’t been willing to go out during this time. She didn’t want to see her acquaintances in Banta City, so who did she suddenly go out to see?”
“Perhaps big sister Wella went to find some boyfriend, we don’t need to wait for her.” Akali waved her hand, “Sir chairman, sit down and eat. It’s a good thing that Evita made some more today. But why don’t you go home to eat today? What about Vivian?”
“There’s some activity at school today, so Vivian is eating dinner at school. Otherwise would I come here to leech a meal off you?” Xu Yi casually replied before doubtfully sitting down.
“This isn’t right. Even if you want to leech a meal, you should go to Still’s house. You are Still’s boyfriend now, Still will definitely welcome you if you go leech a meal.” Bella said.
Schoch sitting opposite Xu Yi froze. He looked up at Xu Yi and a complicated look appeared in his eyes, before he lowered his head to silently eat his meal.
“I want to, but Still hasn’t come back from Karma City after doing an advertisement there for our company. I can’t just have a candlelight dinner with Great Magician Camilla alone, right?”
Everyone broke out in laughter again.
When the laughter stopped, there were footsteps that came from the door.
Xu Yi turned to look and saw Wella walking in with someone else.
Seeing the person beside her, Xu Yi was stunned.
“Rem? Why are you back again?”