Chapter 9 Long term plan
For the Lampuri Kingdom that was to the southwest of the Sines Continent, spring came earlier than most other countries on the continent.
Entering March, the south winds came. The snow on the ground had already been blown away and there were even some sprouts in the fresh soil, bringing a touching trace of green to the monotonous ground.
Xu Yi looked at the eye catching green outside the window and was stunned for a bit before turning back to the kingdom’s map on the wall.
To the west of Banta City, other than the area of red where the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factories were, there was a large area of light red to the west. It represented the area the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was going to take under them.
Of course Seveni didn’t only bring bad news. After spending two months at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and completing the first batch of agricultural magic machines, Seveni gave Xu Yi some good news. The king had seriously considered it and had agreed to Xu Yi’s request to rent some land from the royal family.
And unexpected to Xu Yi, the king was even more generous than he had thought.
Xu Yi just tentatively wanted to rent a land with an area of one square kilometer, but the king had increased it by ten times! He agreed to rent the Frestech Chamber of Commerce a giant area of over ten square kilometers!
Moreover, the rent the king had set was even cheaper than Xu Yi had expected.
At first Xu Yi was planning on renting a square kilometer of land and was planning to pay at least five thousand each year in rent, but after the king agreed to rent him ten square kilometers, he actually gave him a rent of only thirty thousand gold coins each year!
If one used conversion based on purchasing power, thirty thousand gold coins was equal to three million RMB.
If any company on earth knew about this, that they could rent a full ten square kilometers with only three million RMB each year, they would have fainted from happiness.
Of course, with the rent being cheap, it meant that the land wouldn’t be that good.
Although the king allowed Xu Yi to pick land near Banta City, he requested that it was at least ten kilometers away.
Normally because this land is far away from Banta City, it would be quite bad.
But unexpected to the king and Seveni, Xu Yi actually chose a desolate piece of land that was fifty kilometers to the west of Banta City.
Seveni even thought that Xu Yi was insane.
Although on the map, this place seemed to be in between Banta City, Saltan City, and Karma City, not being that far away from the three cities, it was still over fifty kilometers from the closest Banta City.
With such a large distance, even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce built a factory here and produced large amounts of magic machines, it would without a doubt cost a giant amount to transport the magic machines to these cities.
Thinking of how Seveni tried to talk him out of it, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
Although Seveni was seriously thinking about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, she didn’t know Xu Yi’s plan at all, so she could only worry in vain.
Xu Yi stood up and moved in front of map. He first looked at the large fire red area before looking to the top left, finally stopping at some forests, rivers, and mountains.
This forest was the Falling Rain Forest.
Those two mountains were the Crossing Mountains where the Norma Tribe and the Angola Tribe’s dwarves lived.
The river was naturally the one that passed through the Falling Rain Forest, the river that was now filled with silt.
The place Xu Yi’s eyes fell was where the new tribe was to be constructed after Xu Yi talked with chief Siluka and chief Monto.
The Amrit Chamber of Commerce had already sent large amounts of people there and were currently building houses in full force.
After two months of construction, this place of over ten thousand square meters would have buildings of a new tribe that could host over a thousand dwarves.
Once it was complete, according to the estimates of the two dwarven chieves, it could host over three thousand dwarves at once.
Not only would it allow all the dwarves of the Angola and Norma Tribes to move in, it would also leave over half the houses for other dwarven tribes.
His eyes then fell onto a place to the top left of the river where the Night Song Tribe had hidden themselves.
In these past two months, the elves haven’t been idle.
They had been studying the resin according to Xu Yi’s requests, while also bringing some human irrigation specialists upriver to see what the situation was.
After a month of inspection, they had finally finished their plan.
The one in charge of this project was still the Amrit Chamber of Commerce.
The Amrit Chamber of Commerce slowly grasped how to use the cement, so they were the only company on the Sines Continent that could follow Xu Yi’s request to use reinforced cement to build reinforcements along the bank of the river.
Even if this river wasn’t big, the amount of time needed for this project was set for over two years.
Xu Yi had no other choice since the Sines Continent didn’t have large scale construction machines like on earth. And the Frestech Chamber of Commerce didn’t have the technology to make machines that were similar.
But as this project progressed, Xu Yi had instructed the research department to research construction magic machines, so perhaps one or two could be finished in time.
For example, the technology needed for the Magic Concrete Mixer wasn’t high and had already been made. After they gave it to the Amrit Chamber of Commerce to use, with how good it was, chairman Cruise ordered a hundred units.
Elder Illusia didn’t think that this was long.
For the elves with lifespans of hundreds of years, two years was just a snap of the finger. It wasn’t considered much.
Moreover, the Night Song Tribe had abundant underground water right now, so it wasn’t pressing for them to fix the river like before.
His eyes looked across the map and Xu Yi put a finger on Banta City on the map. Then he slid his finger out of the city, drawing a straight line that led to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory. Then going along, he went to the land he rented, to where the new dwarven tribe was before finally stopping at the Falling Rain Forest.
“There needs to at least be proper roads that connect these places.” Xu Yi muttered. Then his finger created two more lines from the land her rented, going to Saltan City and Karma City, “Other than this, there needs to be two more roads.”
According to Xu Yi’s plan, the large piece of land he rented would become the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s most important large scale production base. It would take most of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magic machine orders.
And for a production base, convenient transportation was one of the first things to consider, so Xu Yi immediately thought about how to construct roads to this place. Rather than ordinary roads made of rocks and sand that was normally constructed on the Sines Continent.
Of course, this plan couldn’t be completed for now and currently only existed in Xu Yi’s mind.
Currently speaking the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production base was the factory Xu Yi was currently in.
“Right, there’s still the factory outside Karma City.” Seeing Heinz come in, Xu Yi secretly added in his heart. Then he asked Heinz with a smile, “Hey, Heinz, are you setting off?”
There was a tense look on Heinz’s mature face. After he went around the office twice, he asked Xu Yi, “Xu Yi, you’re really not planning to go with me?”
Xu Yi said with a smile, “Why would I go? Didn’t we already agree that you had full authority for Karma City and I wouldn’t meddle? Then again, I went when the factory began construction a few days ago, so if I go now, the people there will misunderstand. They will think that you managing them is not a good thing.”
“I know what you say is reasonable, but……” Heinz said with a bitter smile, “Xu Yi, I have never managed such a large place. Actually…..it’s a bit nerve racking.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling, “Didn’t you bravely say before that you wanted to share some of my responsibilities and wanted to run the Karma City factory alone, so why are you telling me you’re nervous now? Alright, no one knows anything from birth. Didn’t you see that I didn’t know anything about business before and hasn’t the Frestech Chamber of Commerce developed properly?”
“That’s is different. You…..You have talent, I don’t……”
“What talented. Isn’t managing these things the same. If you can manage a workshop with several hundred people, then you can manage a factory in Karma City.” Xu Yi patted Heinz’s shoulder and said, “Alright, quickly set off. Today is the first day the factory is starting work, if you as the factory manager is late, you’ll lose face.”
“Then…..I’m setting off?” Heinz asked in an uncertain voice.
Xu Yi shook his head with a smile and pushed him from behind, pushing him out of the office and onto the horse carriage already prepared for him.
He watched as Heinz’s horse carriage disappeared into the distance. Xu Yi shook his head and prepared to return to the magic machine workshop, but he caught a glimpse of a horse carriage in the distance, which unexpected stopped in front of him.
When the horse carriage stopped, a familiar figure jumped out and fell into Xu Yi’s embrace with a fragrant scent.
Feeling two warm lips pressed on his face, Xu Yi said in surprise, “Still, why are you here?”
It was different from the shy appearance when they entered their relationship, now Still had regained her sunny personality like before. Even in front of others, she didn’t hide it at all. This kind of bold attitude made Xu Yi blush from time to time.
But Xu Yi’s personality was quite passive, so he enjoyed Still acting like this.
“I brought a special guest here, look.” Still pointed at the horse carriage with smile.
“Special guest?” Xu Yi looked at the horse carriage and saw a middle aged magician wearing a magician’s robe, but was covered in the sharp aura of a merchant stepping down.
Seeing Xu Yi look over, the middle aged magician said with a faint smile, “Hello chairman Xu, let me introduce myself. I am Gordon Eisenkel.”
Chapter 10 Cooperate with me
Gordon Eisenkel?
Xu Yi was instantly shocked.
This middle aged man that seemed like a sharp merchant was actually the richest magician in the Lampuri Kingdom, Gordon Eisenkel!
“Hello Great Magician Eisenkel.” Xu Yi quickly gave the other side the standard magician greeting before curiously looking over the other side.
It was a bit different from the rumours, this Great Magician Eisenkel’s clothes was actually quite simple. Other than the normal dark black magician’s robe that he was wearing, there was a strange bracelet that was at his wrist.
But after Xu Yi saw that bracelet, his eyes couldn’t help narrowing.
If he wasn’t mistaken, this bracelet was actually a rarely seen Natural Magic Accessory!
Natural Magic Accessories were rarely seen on the Sines Continent and they had special effects, so each one could be considered a top class treasure.
Although Xu Yi didn’t know what effect this bracelet had, since it was on the wrist of a Great Magician like Eisenkel, it was definitely a special Natural Magic Accessory. If it was put onto auction, the lowest price would be over a hundred thousand gold coins!
If Xu Yi at first thought that Great Magician Eisenkel was simple, if anyone were to say to him now that Great Magician Eisenkel was simple, he would definitely spit in the other side’s face.
Simple? Is your family so simple that you can wear a treasure worth a hundred thousand gold coins on your wrist?
Not to mention that this was only what Xu Yi could see. God knows how many other treasures Great Magician Eisenkel was hiding in places that couldn’t be seen.
But only Great Magician Eisenkel dared to do something like this. If anyone else dared to flagrantly wear something this valuable, they would have had their hands chopped off already.
All kinds of strange thoughts floated out of Xu Yi’s mind. When he stood up again, there was a standard polite smile on his face.
“Your excellency Great Magician Eisenkel, for you to suddenly come to our Banta City, it should be to visit Great Magician Camilla, right? Why did you come to my place?” Xu YI asked.
Great Magician Eisenkel looked at Xu Yi holding hands with Still with a faint smile before shaking his head and saying, “No. On the surface it is to come visit Camilla, but actually I came this time to see you, chairman Xu.”
Xu Yi was stunned. He turned to look at Still and seeing that she didn’t look surprised at all, it seemed like she already knew about this matter.
“This…...For your excellency Great Magician Eisenkel to specially visit me, I really am honoured. Only I wonder, what does your excellency Great Magician need me for?”
Great Magician Eisenkel smiled without replying, “Chairman Xu, you’re not inviting me in for a tour?”
“You want to tour these factories?” Xu Yi asked in surprise.
“Right, I came this time for them.”
Xu Yi looked at Great Magician Eisenkel in surprise. After thinking about it, he invited him in.
“Please follow me.”
After an hour, Great Magician Eisenkel went to the office with Xu Yi and Still after they finished the tour.
Seeing Still take the initiative to pour them water, Great Magician Eisenkel said with a smile, “Last time I came to Banta City to visit Great Magician Camilla, Still, you were still just a little girl of around ten. I never thought that in the blink of an eye, that you would become a big girl with such an outstanding boyfriend who is about to get married.”
Xu Yi gave an awkward smile as Still naturally placed the water in front of Great Magician Eisenkel, saying with a faint smile, “Great Magician Eisenkel, you’re old.”
Great Magician Eisenkel broke out in laughter, “That’s right, I’m already old. This world already belongs to you young people. Look, for many years I wanted to apply magic into people’s normal lives, but I never had a clue on how and I didn’t have the time or energy to actually do it. I never thought that in just a short year, chairman Xu Yi could apply this theory to application magic and penetrate it into people’s hearts. I really can’t compare.”
“Great Magician Eisenkel, you’re too modest.” Xu Yi replied before asking, “Your excellency Great Magician, you’ve paid attention to magic application before?”
“Yes.” Great Magician Eisenkel nodded, “If I didn’t pay attention to magic application, I wouldn’t have earned that much money. If I didn’t earn that much money, my magic power wouldn’t have reached the step it was at now. Actually this is a very simple logic, I’m just curious, why are there so many magicians who don’t understand it?”
Still couldn’t help curiously asking, “Great Magician Eisenkel, you mean that you worked so hard to make money just to increase your own magic power?”
“It isn’t exactly like that. My meaning is that magic and making money doesn’t clash. Since becoming a powerful magician means that you have to spend money, then why can’t studying magic and making money be related?” Great Magician Eisenkel said with a sigh, “I really can’t understand, why do so many of my colleagues have to be so proud. It’s like relating magic and making money would taint magic. Didn’t they think about how if they didn’t have money, they couldn’t even study magic, so how could they increase their power? Just by wildly guessing?”
Still slightly knit her brows, “Great Magician Eisenkel, why do I feel you’re talking about my grandfather?”
Great Magician Eisenkel laughed, “That’s right, I am talking about your grandfather. But of course I’m talking about the previous him. As for now…...In my visit this time, I’ve found that your grandfather had changed into another person. Not only does he not have the same cold and disdainful attitude like before, he even took the initiative to talk about magic application with me. Speaking of this, it should be chairman Xu’s merit, right?”
Xu Yi shrugged his shoulders, “If he didn’t see the real benefits magic application brought to people, I feel that an old person like him wouldn’t easily change his thoughts.”
“If you’re talking about real benefits, you’re talking about the magic machines your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has made?” Great Magician Eisenkel asked.
“Pretty much.” Xu Yi thought for a bit before asking, “Great Magician Eisenkel, you should tell me your goal for looking for me this time. For a Great Magician like you to suddenly come here, I don’t think it’s for a small matter, right?”
“He, he, chairman Xu really is in a rush. Alright, let’s stop chatting and talk about business. I cam this time mainly to talk to chairman Xu about the matter of cooperation.” Great Magician Eisenkel said with a faint smile.
“Cooperation?” Xu Yi and Still looked at each other, seeing the surprised look in each other’s eyes, “How can you and I cooperate?”
“Since you can cooperate with Camilla, why can’t you cooperate with me?” Great Magician Eisenkel asked back.
“You mean…...you want to cooperate with me to research magic machines?” Xu Yi asked in an uncertain voice.
“That’s right. I’m very interested in how you combined magic and machines and thought that this would need more research. If this can be complete, I even feel that it could change the entire Sines Continent!” Great Magician Eisenkel said in a somewhat fervent voice.
Although his words mimicked what Xu Yi thought, without knowing why, Xu Yi didn’t feel any excitement from his ideas being finally acknowledged at all.
Thinking about it, Xu Yi asked, “Then Great Magician Eisenkel, how are you planning on cooperating?”
“It’s very simple, I’ll provide the materials the magicians need that I own and you provide the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magic machine research knowledge. With us working together, we can have magic machine take over for all manpower. With our strengths, I believe that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s research can progress by leaps and bounds. Think about it, if we successfully research more and more magic machines, flooding the Sines Continent with it, how attractive of a situation would that be?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling a bit excited by Great Magician Eisenkel’s fervor. After pausing he asked, “Then how do we take care of the results of the research from this?”
“Of course we’ll jointly own it, this is the results of us working hard together.” Great Magician Eisenkel responded in a refreshing manner, “That’s right, a month ago with the other Great Magicians, we’ve proposed to the Magicians Guild of magicians having exclusive rights to their research. According to the newest information, the guild is very likely to accept this proposal. This mean that the results that we obtain together will belong to us along and you won’t need to worry about others taking your research to use for themselves.”
After saying this, Great Magician Eisenkel took out a sheet from his chest and spread it in front of Xu Yi.
There was an image on it and it was actually that of a Magic Fan.
“Look, this is the Magic Fan researched by a small company in Anvilmar City, it is already the same as your Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Fan. I feel that if your Frestech Chamber of Commerce wanted to sell your Magic Fans in Anvilmar City, you won’t be able to compete with them. But if the magic research rights are passed by the guild, we can strictly order the magician working with this company to stop. Otherwise they will be going against the guild’s rules and will be punished accordingly.”
Xu Yi looked at the Magic Fan and gave a slight nod, “Indeed, having protection matters will be much better.”
“So chairman Xu, cooperate with me. As long as those people in the guild sees the benefits of magic application, they will happily approve this proposal.”
Xu Yi looked at the expectant Great Magician Eisenkel and he couldn’t help giving a cold laugh in his heart.
What cooperation?
Perhaps Great Magician Eisenkel would be able to provide assistance with his knowledge of magic when it came to researching magic machines.
But in terms of magic research, it wasn’t only Great Magician Eisenkel who could help him.
To put it differently, he didn’t have any uniqueness.
But Xu Yi was completely different.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce or more accurately Xu Yi with his knowledge of magic mechanical engineering theory, was currently unique on the Sines Continent. It was impossible for anyone to have the same knowledge and no one could replace Xu Yi.
One that had knowledge and one that didn’t, it was impossible for both sides to be on the same level.
Great Magician Eisenkel made it sound good, claiming that he would use his financial resources to support the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magic research, also claiming that both sides would share the research.
This looked pretty good at first glance, but to Xu Yi, this Great Magician Eisenkel clearly wanted to take Xu Yi’s mechanical engineering knowledge that he didn’t have at all.
Xu Yi was certain that as long as he agreed to this cooperation, when Great Magician Eisenkel felt he had grasped enough mechanical engineering knowledge, he would definitely kick Xu Yi away.
This kind of cooperation, Xu Yi would be an idiot if he agreed.
But after Xu Yi considered it for a while, he nodded at Great Magician Eisenkel.
“Your excellency Great Magician, I hope we have a happy cooperation.”