Chapter 3 Trivial matters
Half a month after New Years, the noisy Banta City gradually returned to its normal state.
At the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory to the west of the city, it had already started work a week ago and it regained its lively state.
Heinz opened the door to the office and saw Xu Yi standing in front of a wall, thinking deeply as he looked at the map of the Lampuri Kingdom hanging on it.
This map was something Xu Yi had asked for from the Lord City Lord. It seemed he liked this map very much, as he seemed to be looking at something on it every day.
Heinz found that the map today had changed today.
When this map was put on, Xu Yi had put a small flame red spot to the west of Banta City.
Heinz asked him why he did this and Xu Yi told him that represented where the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was, so he used the flame red colour to represent where the flame of the magic industry burned.
Heinz had found that Xu Yi had put a circle of fire red on Karma City not far to the right of Banta City and it was actually larger than Banta City.
Heinz looked at the flame red circle and asked Xu Yi with a smile, “What? You already reached an agreement?”
Xu Yi nodded, “Un, I just discussed it with Count Anaris’ representative and have reached an agreement to rent some land in Karma City. We just need to send someone from our company to inspect the land and make the final confirmations. With how much Count Anaris cares about this matter, I think it should go very smoothly. That’s right, Count Anaris’ representative asked me to go for an inspection as soon as possible, so I told him I would arrange it within a week. Although Karma City is very close to Banta City, with a trip there not taking that much time, the inspection will take quite a bit of time so you and Camby need to make preparations.”
Seeing Heinz nod in agreement, Xu Yi gave a sigh and pointed at the extra flame red circle on the map as he said, “But now we’re also facing an important problem. It isn’t hard to invest in a factory in Karma City, we just need to put in enough gold coins and with Count Anaris’ help, the factory can be easily built. But the problem is that I’ve found that we can’t send a corresponding person to manage it. Normally speaking, when a company opens up a new market, I should take the helm as the chairman, but I have to pay attention to the large order of agricultural magic machines for the agricultural department. There are many things I have to take care of and I can’t pull myself away. If I find anyone else, I’m not assured, so it is very hard.”
A hesitant look flashed on Heinz’s face before he paused and suddenly said, “Let me go.”
Xu Yi looked at him in surprise, “You?”
“Un.” Heinz gave a strong nod, “Xu Yi, I’ve thought about it. There are more and more things that need to be taken care of and we can’t have the chairman go personally, or you will be too busy. As the vice chairman, I must share some of this for you. Therefore let me take charge of building the factory in Karma City this time, what do you think?”
Xu Yi thoughtfully looked at Heinz for a bit before saying with a smile, “You taking care of the household magic machine workshop for this long is already considered taking quite a bit of work. But since you’re willing to accept even more work, naturally I will welcome it. But Heinz, didn’t you say that you wanted to peacefully live your life in Banta City and not go anywhere else? Why did you suddenly……”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said on New Years Eve during this time. Each time when I think about what you said about having a factory open on every part of the continent and seeing the mark of our Frestech Chamber of Commerce everywhere, I would feel very excited. Thinking about it, I really want to do something to make this a reality. Xu Yi, I know that I’m not a person with farsight like you, so I can’t help you with making decisions for the company. What I can do and excel in is taking care of trivial matters. This time we have Count Anaris’ support in building the factory in Karma City, so I think there shouldn’t be any problems. The main thing is that there needs to be someone there taking care of trivial matters. I feel that I’m very suited for this, what do you think Xu Yi?”
“I also think you’re very suited.” Xu Yi couldn’t help saying with a smile, “But Heinz, you are mistaken about something. Although this work is trivial, it is also very important. If these trivial matters aren’t taken care of, our company’s development will be empty talk. If you can help me take care of this matter, I would be very happy, but Heinz, what about the workshop if you leave?”
“You don’t need to worry. Do you remember the worker called Ankhto I mentioned to you before?”
“Ankhto?” Xu Yi thought about it before remembering, “The worker who took the initiative to clear up the argument between workers last time?”
“Yes, it’s him.” Heinz nodded. He had a look of praise as he said, “I’ve been observing this fellow for some time and found that he has a steady personality and a flexible mind. He has some prestige among the workers so a month ago, I promoted him to team leader to help me run the workshop. After observing him for some time, I feel that he isn’t bad. If I leave, you can promote him to vice manager of the workshop to take care of the production line in the workshop, I feel he should be able to do it.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “It seems like you’re very satisfied with Ankhto. Good, since it’s your personal recommendation, we’ll decide on him. Go and tell him after you head back, let him prepare himself.”
“Relax, I know what to do.”
Since there was Heinz to volunteer, Xu Yi simply to yield and let Heinz take care of the matter of the Karma City factory.
Actually compared to Xu Yi, Heinz was much older and had more worldly wisdom than Xu Yi. Letting him handle this kind of thing, perhaps he would even do better than Xu Yi.
But through this matter, Xu Yi found another problem for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. It was the fact that they lacked talented people.
Although Heinz had found a talent for management among like workers like Ankhto, with how fast the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was developing, it wasn’t enough to meet their needs to find talents from inside them.
So when recruiting more workers for the expansion of the factory, Xu Yi also needed to recruit some managers.
Talented people naturally wouldn’t appear easily, so Xu Yi could only wait.
But the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production line couldn’t wait.
After they began working after New Years, they had officially started using the new workshop. The dwarves of the magic machine workshop entered a new workshop that was more than ten times bigger and much more beautiful, causing their enthusiasm for work to skyrocket.
In just a single week, the magic machine workshop had completed over five hundred small Magic Harvesters.
With their speed, in less than two months, they could complete the first order for three thousand agricultural magic machines for the agricultural department.
Of course, the reason for this terrifying speed was that Camby’s group of dwarves had already finished developing the line of Magic Punch Presses before last year ended.
Now there was a production magic machine production line for the small Magic Harvesters and they didn’t need to rely purely on dwarven labour to make them, so naturally the efficiency had been increased.
Sheets of iron were cut, flattened, and formed by the Magic Punch Presses and then skillfully assembled into small Magic Harvesters by the dwarves. Seveni who had just arrived in Banta City in the morning and ran over to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory was very satisfied. She couldn’t help turning to Xu Yi and praising him, “Chairman Xu, to be honest, I wasn’t that confident in you before. This was because after I came to Banta City and saw that your company didn’t have a high efficiency in making the agricultural magic machines, I was doubtful about whether your company could finish the order or not. You said before that as long as you developed the Magic Punch Presses, your efficiency would be greatly increased, but I was very doubtful. This was because before seeing these Magic Punch Presses, I couldn’t have imagined what kind of tool could allow workers to increase their efficiency by over ten times.”
“Then what about now that you’ve seen it?” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“I’m very…..shocked. Yes, I’m very shocked.” Seveni said with an emotional expression, “I never thought that these Magic Punch Presses would be this strong. Look, to turn an iron sheet into a certain form, if it was using pure manual labour, it would take a blacksmith an entire afternoon. But using this Magic Punch Press, it happens in the blink of an eye. This really has opened my eyes.”
Xu Yi laughed. He came in front of a stack of iron sheets that had already been shaped and slid his finger along the edge. He said to Seveni, “Young miss Seveni, efficiency is only one part of it. The other important part is standardizing everything. Look, almost every one of these iron sheets have the same form, not differing at all. If you had blacksmiths make this, it would be impossible to be as complete as this. This kind of difference is the biggest difference for a large scale assembly line.”
Seveni slightly knit her brows. She looked at Xu Yi and said in a confused manner, “Chairman Xu, the things you’ve said…..Actually I don’t understand that much, can you explain it to me?”
“Of course that’s not a problem. But young miss Seveni, you have to pay some tuition to learn this knowledge. What will you use to pay your tuition?” Xu Yi said in a teasing voice.
“Tuition?” Seveni revealed a cunning smile, “Chairman Xu, I wonder, will some good news about renting land would be enough to pay this tuition?”
Chapter 4 - Helpless chairman Morga
Helpless chairman Morgan
This was indeed some good news.
Regarding Xu Yi’s request to rent some land, the king had considered it and had shown some agreement for now!
As for the specifics, that would depend on when Xu Yi gave an initial plan. After he showed his goals for the land, the king would truly consider it.
Moreover, this was on the premise that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce finished the first batch of agricultural magic machines on time, otherwise there was no need to mention any of this.
Of course, now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had finished the new series of Magic Punch Presses, so this premise was no problem at all.
Compared to the magic machine workshop production line that was already in order, Xu Yi would always be more focused on research and development.
The magic machine workshop workers had already changed to their new workshop and the old workshop had been turned into a magic machine development workshop by Xu Yi.
Including Camby, Bordeau and thirteen other dwarves with the richest experience in blacksmithing specially worked on researching and developing magic machines.
Although the Magic Punch Press could be used now, it was still at initial success. Whether it was Xu Yi or Camby’s dwarves, they all felt that these Magic Punch Presses could be improved still.
Actually if it wasn’t for the fact that the king and the agricultural department’s orders were too tight, according to the ideas of Camby’s dwarves, it would take them another three months to finish these production magic machines.
As for Xu Yi who was a well known mechanical engineer on earth, he was very clear that developing these magic machines wouldn’t just take a short month and it wouldn’t just take three months, there shouldn’t be a limit to how long it took.
Even on the industrialized earth, research on machines never stopped with new results being published each year.
This was because for those corporations on earth, if they could advance their technology, they could surpass their competitors and take another part of the market.
Although there was only the Frestech Chamber of Commerce producing magic machines right now on the Sines Continent, so they didn’t feel any pressure at all, Xu Yi didn’t relax on this aspect.
Actually as Xu Yi researched magic machines even more, there were many times he found he couldn’t apply his mechanical engineering knowledge from earth. Rather he had to make a corresponding change based on the specialties of magic or the Sines Continent.
For example, like the medium Magic Drill that he had Camby’s dwarves research, it was very different from the drills on earth.
The drills on earth used the spinning drill head to bore into the earth. As for the drill that Xu Yi developed, he combined the unique magic of the Sines Continent and stuck a Fifth Grade Earth Magic Array that wasn’t weak on the drill head.
With the help of this Earth Magic Array, the drill only needed to be close to the ground. The Magic Array’s might would appear and easily create cracks in the earth and even in rock layers, saving quite a bit of time when it was drilling.
The small Magic Drill Xu Yi used to drill out the water at the Night Song Tribe was only a test product and it was already strong enough to drill through a rock layer of several meters. The medium Magic Drill developed now went a step further and the drilling power was even stronger.
Heinz had asked Xu Yi why he needed to develop this kind of thing because although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had an iron mine, they didn’t have enough funds to open this mine right now. They could only put it aside for now, there was no use in developing this thing.
Xu Yi could only say in his heart that Heinz didn’t have any foresight.
Even if they couldn’t use it, there were people who could use it.
For example, the Falcao Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Fuller Morgan.
“Chairman Xu, this thing is actually this strong!” Chairman Morgan looked at the cracked giant rock in front of him in shock, ignoring the large amount of dust raised from it being cracked. His mouth was open in shock and it didn’t close for a while.
When he was invited by Xu Yi to witness the testing of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s new product, Chairman Morgan hesitated a while before finally deciding to come take a look.
But he never thought that the small Magic Drill that Xu Yi mentioned to him before would actually be this strong. In less than three minutes, this large stone that was three meters tall, four meters wide, and two meters thick had actually been turned into rubble.
As the Falcao Chamber of Commerce’s chairman, chairman Morgan could see that this giant rock was iron ore normally found in mines and it was very hard.
If it was the workers in the mine using pickaxes to mine this thing, even if several workers worked on it for one-two hours on this iron ore, they might not be able to crack it.
Xu Yi had two young men who weren’t that strong pick up this Magic Drill and aim it at the center of this giant iron ore. Then this iron ore that was even troublesome for chairman Morgan with his rich experience in mining actually had a hole appear in the center and was shattered to pieces.
Then the two of them continued pointing the Magic Drill at rather large pieces and all the rocks were shattered into pebbles.
This entire process added together took just over ten minutes.
Hearing chairman Morgan’s surprised voice, Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “How about it? Chairman Morgan, are you satisfied with this Magic Drill?”
“Of course……” Chairman Morgan suddenly stopped his mouth and he looked at Xu Yi. He restrained the shock and excitement on his face as he gave a soft cough and slowly said, “Un…..This thing is indeed quite good. But chairman Xu, your Frestech Chamber of Commerce can’t seem to use this thing, right? Why would you invent this kind of thing?”
Seeing the indifferent look chairman Morgan pretended to have, Xu Yi found it funny in his heart. He looked surprised as he said, “Who says we can’t use it? Chairman Morgan, you’ve forgotten that our company had gained an iron mine from the auction last time. We invented this thing just to open that mine. Chairman Morgan, your Falcao Chamber of Commerce are experts in opening mines, so I invited you here to have a look at this. Is this thing very good at opening mines?”
Chairman Morgan really wanted to shake his head, but with facts in front of him, the Magic Drill’s might would slap him in the face if he denied it. So he could only give a dry laugh before nodding, “Un, it’s very good.”
Xu Yi clapped his hands and excitedly said, “Then that’s great. With chairman Morgan’s affirmation, it means that this magic machine really isn’t bad. I can be assured then. If we wanted to open the mine earlier, our company wouldn’t have enough manpower and funds to do so, but now that we have this thing, we can at least give it a try.”
Chairman Morgan couldn’t help giving a cold laugh as he said, “Chairman Xu, you’re looking down on opening a mine too much. Although I admit that with this Magic Drill, it will be much easier gathering ores, but mining isn’t just simply gathering ores. There’s also transporting, processing, and many other things. Each process will take a large amount of manpower to complete and with your Frestech Chamber of Commerce……” Chairman Morgan gave a soft snort, as his expression was filled with disdain.
It was like Xu Yi didn’t see chairman Morgan’s expression at all as he shrugged and responded with a relaxed smile, “That is very easy. Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce excels in researching magic machines to replace manpower. The work that you mentioned before, we can use the same method of inventing some magic machines to finish it. This isn’t anything hard to do, don’t you think?”
Chairman Morgan wanted to say that Xu Yi was looking down on mining, but then he thought about it. He realized that since the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could invent this Magic Drill, it didn’t seem impossible for them to invent magic machines that did all the other work.
Thinking of this, chairman Morgan’s expression couldn’t help changing. He looked at the Magic Drill resting on the side and after thinking about it, he couldn’t help asking Xu Yi, “Chairman Xu, this Magic Drill…..You should be selling it, right?”
Xu Yi laughed in his heart, but he gave a surprised expression as he asked back, “What? Chairman Morgan, are you interested?”
Chairman Morgan said with a frown, “Chairman Xu, if you are not prepared to sell this thing to me, why did you call me down?”
“I just said it, I wanted to ask for your opinion.” Seeing chairman Morgan’s expression that quickly turned ugly, Xu Yi immediately changed his tone, “But since chairman Morga is interested in this thing, then that’s good. Sell! Of course I’ll sell! Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce sells magic machines to begin with.”
“That’s good. How much does each one cost?” Chairman Morgan asked.
“Un…...We haven’t set a price yet. But since it’s chairman Morgan asking…..Alright, since we’re all old friends, I’ll give you an exclusive price. It’ll be an exact figure, one hundred gold coins per unit, what do you think?” Xu Yi said.
“One hundred gold coins per unit?” Chairman Morgan’s eyes popped out as he looked at Xu Yi in disbelief, “Why don’t you simply steal my money?”
Seeing chairman Morgan’s angry expression, Xu Yi innocently blinked his eyes and looked aggrieved as he said, “Chairman Morgan, this is already a very fair price. You’re still not satisfied?”
“Fair……” Chairman Morgan resisted and stopped himself from swearing. He took a desperate deep breath and calmed down, as he said in a deep voice, “Chairman Xu, don’t joke around. Give a serious price and if I’m satisfied, I will order a few units.”
Xu Yi revealed an awkward look and after thinking about it, he finally said with a sigh, “Alright, since it’s chairman Morgan, I’ll give in a bit. Ninety five gold coins per unit, what do you think?”
Chairman Morgan looked at Xu Yi and was too lazy to get angry as he coldly said, “Fifty gold coins per unit, don’t think about it if it’s any higher.”
Xu Yi shook his head, “Chairman Morgan, I am unable to accept this price. If you are sincere, I’ll give you a serious price. Ninety gold coins per unit, it can’t be any less.”
“Humph, this machine doesn’t seem to be worth more than twenty gold coins in my eyes. If you dare say ninety gold coins per unit, you are too black hearted. Fifty five gold coins, this is the price.”
“You have to look at how much time and effort our company put in to develop this thing. Alright, the lowest is eighty eight gold coins.”
…...
Arguing back and forth, the final price was set at seventy eight gold coins per unit.
Chairman Morgan wasn’t satisfied with this price, but he was helpless about it.
After personally witnessing the might of this Magic Drill, he had to admit that if he had this machine that could help with mining, their efficiency would greatly increase. How could he miss this chance, so he couldn’t insist too much on the price he wanted.
Although Xu Yi had an exaggerated look like he suffered a loss, his heart was filled with joy.
The materials for this Magic Drill didn’t even add up to a trivial five gold coins.
Although the research cost was high, as long as they can sell enough units, the research costs would eventually become irrelevant.
So calculating with the strictest conditions, if it was sold at this price, just a single unit earned the Frestech Chamber of Commerce over sixty gold coins!
And although Chairman Morgan only ordered a trivial hundred units from Xu Yi, he had also said that if this thing is easy to use, he would continue ordering in large amounts.
Xu Yi was very confident about this.
With the low technology level on the Sines Continent, the mining industry relied purely on manpower. How could this kind of efficiency compare to the efficiency of machine power?
As long as the Falcao Chamber of Commerce saw the large efficiency increase brought by the Magic Drill, they wouldn’t be able to separate themselves from it.
After they discussed this initial cooperation, they should have gone to eat a meal together to foster a friendship according to normal conventions. But chairman Morgan didn’t have any good feelings towards Xu Yi, so he never mentioned this matter.
As for Xu Yi who had other things to do, he didn’t mention it at all.
So the two left after saying their goodbyes and Xu Yi directly headed to Banta City on a horse carriage.
What he needed to do was come here to welcome a special group of guests.