Chapter 59 Freeing up production forces
“Fifty gold coins! That much!” Freeman stood up and his limbs started trembling out of excitement.
Although he already guessed that the prizes would be quite good, he never thought that it would be a high prize of receiving fifty gold coins at once!
For a poor family like his, if they had fifty gold coins, this meant that he could immediately escape his poor living conditions.
Not only could he fix several places in his roof that were leaking, he could even change the entire set of furniture in his house. Other than that, he could buy two new dresses for his wife and even buy several toys for his children that they had long fantasized about…...
Xu Yi saw Freeman’s fluctuating expression and didn’t say anything to cut him off.
Based on what Alex told him and the clothes Freeman was wearing, he could guess that this man’s family background was a difficult one.
Fifty gold coins was naturally nothing for the current Xu Yi, but it was a very important thing for Freeman.
When Xu Yi had just transmigrated to the Sines Continent, because he wasn’t familiar with the people and the land, he had almost starved to death.
If someone were to suddenly give him fifty gold coins back then, his excitement wouldn’t have been less than that of Freeman’s.
After a while, Freeman slowly regained his cool. He looked at Xu Yi and swallowed a mouthful of saliva with great difficulty as he slowly asked, “Chair…..Sir chairman, is this true? You wouldn’t be lying to me, right? Can I really receive a prize of fifty gold coins?”
Xu Yi gave a very certain nod, “Of course it’s true. I think that since you are someone from Banta City, you should be familiar with our Frestech Chamber of Commerce. You think that I would throw away the prestige of our company for fifty gold coins?”
“No, no, no, of course not, of course not!” Freeman quickly waved his hand, “Sir chairman, don’t misunderstand. It’s just that for a while…..For a while, I didn’t dare believe it, it isn’t that I’m doubting you.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “I understand. Then Freeman, have you decided to pick this prize?”
“I’ve decided……” Freeman had just finished half his words when he suddenly stopped, “Wait…..Wait a minute. Sir chairman, you said that there were two prizes that I could choose from, can I ask what the other prize is?”
Seeing Freeman’s eyes light up, Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a smile. He thought that although this Freeman looked like an honest person, he wasn’t dumb.
“Of course you can, but I don’t think the second prize will excite you as much. This is because the second price is not as real as gold coins, rather it is giving you a chance.”
“Chance?” Freeman scratched his head and looked at Xu Yi with a confused gaze, “Sir chairman, this…..What does this mean?”
“Freeman, I’ve heard that you came from Ireland Village to sell your wheat. You should have seen the wheat fields around Banta City, right?” Xu Yi asked back.
“Wheat fields?” Freeman tilted his head to think before nodding, “Un, I saw quite a few on the way here. Speaking of this, sir chairman, it seems like the harvest near Banta City happened quite early. In the fields I saw, the wheat stalks had already been burnt for a long time.”
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile, “It’s good that you could notice this point. But if I told you that Banta City’s harvest had already harvested ten days ago, what would you think?”
“How is that possible!” After Freeman was in a daze for a bit, he forcefully shook his head, “It had just ripened ten days ago, how could it have been harvested in just a day or two? Sir chairman, a great person like you might not understand some things in farming. You don’t know that the harvest is very troublesome, even I had to spend a whole week to finish the couple of mus of land that I have.”
Xu Yi reached out his right finger and shook it, “No, I understand very well. Moreover, when the wheat fields outside Banta City were harvested, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce had participated.”
Freeman looked at Xu Yi with a strange gaze, “Sir chairman, I remember that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce sells Magic Fans, so how could it help with the harvest?”
“This is because we don’t just sell Magic Fans, we also sell small Magic Harvesters.” Xu Yi laughed as he took a picture from Alex’s hands and opened it in front of Freeman, “It’s this.”
Freeman looked over.
What was drawn was a small harvester moving through the fields, but it was different from the scene Freeman was used to of several men in the field with blades. What was drawn was a large man pushing something strange through the fields.
This strange thing had a large opening that swallowed the grains and then there was a small mouth at the end that kept spitting out wheat grains.
Freeman looked at it for a while before asking with a frown, “Sir chairman, is this thing real? How could harvesting the wheat be this simple?”
“It’s just this simple.” Xu Yi gave the picture to Freeman before honestly saying, “Now, Freeman, we should return to the main point. The second prize you can choose from is an opportunity and this opportunity is related to this small Magic Harvester, as well as the Small Magic Plowing Machine that we will be releasing soon……”
“Why?” Viscount Leslie slightly knit his brows as he looked down to read some documents Xu Yi gave him, “You should know that even with fall harvest over, as long as you continue to make small Magic Harvesters, the nobles in Banta City will snatch them up. As for the small Magic Plowing Machine, there are a group of people who submitted orders to you for a long time now. With these two very hot magic machines and the total price of one hundred and twenty gold coins, you actually want to give it to commoners for free who don’t have any relationship to you at all? Xu Yi, just what are you thinking?”
Xu Yi looked up and revealed a relaxed smile to Viscount Leslie before shaking his head, “It’s not give, it’s lend, this can’t be mistaken.”
Viscount Leslie gave a soft snort, “Lend? Not taking a bit of money and lending it to someone, what difference is there from giving?”
“Of course there’s a difference.” Xu Yi looked at Viscount Leslie’s face and felt that Viscount Leslie treated this issue very seriously. After thinking about it, he gave him a good explanation, “Lord Viscount, this is actually a part of the farmer support plan that I’ve developed. As for this farmer support plan, Sebas and I have discussed this before and I think he should have reported to you already.”
“He has indeed mentioned this before, but it was only a thought that you had and there wasn’t a solid plan at all. Why did you suddenly decide to do this? Giving…..Alright, boring the small Magic Harvester and the small Magic Plowing Machine to the farmers, how will it help the plan?”
“It’s very helpful.” Xu Yi was very clear that Viscount Leslie was a very insightful person. If he wanted to convince him, he couldn’t use ambiguous language, “Lord Viscount, before explaining the specifics, I want to ask you a few questions.”
Hearing what Xu Yi, Viscount Leslie immediately knew that Xu Yi had been thinking about this matter for a long time and his heart relaxed. He relaxed in his body and leaned back in his chair, waving his hand at Xu Yi to continue after composing himself.
“Ask.”
“Alright. The first question, Lord Viscount, where do you think the small Magic Harvester and small Magic Plowing Machine are used in?”
“Is there a need to ask this? Of course it’s on the farm.”
“Then the second question, limiting it to the area around Banta City, what proportion of farmland do you and the nobles own inside the area of Banta City?”
“This…..I remember there was a count last year and it was around 30%.” Viscount Leslie thought before replying.
“Very good. Since you and the nobles own 30%, what about the remaining 70%? Whose hands are it in?” Xu Yi then asked.
“Nonsense, if it doesn’t belong to us nobles, of course it belongs to the royal family. The farmland in the hands of us nobles was granted to us by the royal family.”
“That is not quite correct.” Xu Yi shook his head, “Although theoretically speaking, all the land in the kingdom belongs to the royal family, it is impossible for the royal family to have enough manpower and effort to open up all this farmland. Therefore, the farmland is actually given to the normal farmers of the kingdom. In theory, they are farmland owned by the royal family, but actually they are controlled by the peasants.”
Viscount Leslie considered this a bit before slowly nodding, “It’s correct if you want to say it like this, but how is this related to what you are talking about?”
“It’s very closely related.” Xu Yi continued in his certain voice, “Lord Viscount, currently the small Magic Harvesters sold by our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has been sold to the nobles represented by you, but not a single one has gone to the peasants. This means that on the 30% of the farmland controlled by you nobles, it can enjoy the convenience of the small Magic Harvester, but those peasants still have to rely on pure arduous hand harvesting to complete their harvest.”
Viscount Leslie knit his brows, “What? You’re planning to blame the fact that those peasants can’t afford the small Magic Harvester on us nobles?”
“There is no meaning in blaming someone.” Xu Yi waved his hand, “I’m just stating a fact. The facts in front of us are that just using Banta City as an example, only the 30% farmland owned by you nobles can be quickly harvested and that is not the case with the other 70% farmland. What I want to do is help those farmers also enjoy the benefits of this quick harvest.”
“So you directly gave the small Magic Harvester and the small Magic Plowing Machine to that farmer named Freeman?” Viscount Leslie was still confused, “But Xu Yi, what use does just giving one machine do? Based on the area Banta City covers, I think it won’t be enough even if you give out a hundred, right? Then again, is there any benefits to you in this matter? Are there any benefits to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce?”
“Lord Viscount, I want to remind you that it is not giving and it is lending. Although you can’t see any income now, I can dare to guarantee that our company will earn a large revenue just based on this service, please believe me.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “Other than this, this matter is of great importance to me alone and it will bring great benefits to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Viscount Leslie shook his head in confusion, “I can’t see any benefits.”
Xu Yi laughed as his expression became a bit strange.
“Lord Viscount, have you heard of a phrase before? It is called freeing up production forces?”
Chapter 60 Magic Plowing Machine?
The conversation with Viscount Leslie proceeded very smoothly.
Compared to the proud and stubborn nobles, Viscount Leslie had a very clear advantage. It was that when there was something he didn’t understand, he didn’t directly reject it, rather he patiently listened and tried to understand it as much as possible.
For example, the freeing up production forces that Xu Yi talked about. Viscount Leslie was completely confused and he showed that he didn’t understand at all.
But he didn’t refute Xu Yi because of this and patiently listened to what Xu Yi said. When Xu Yi used the hundred slaves that he took from him as an example, he had a bit of understanding of the topic.
When those hundred slaves were under Viscount Leslie, they could only do a few simple things, so their value was very limited. In order to support them, Viscount Leslie even had to take out a few gold coins each year.
But after he lent them to Xu Yi, it had only been two months. If he were just to calculate it by normal wages, it could be said that Viscount Leslie had earned over a thousand gold coins.
Not to mention that they played a very important role in developing the factory, bringing large amounts of revenue to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Viscount Leslie was a major shareholder of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so the benefits the company received, he would also receive a portion.
So even if Viscount Leslie was not willing, he had to admit it. What Xu Yi said before was completely right. If those slaves remained in his hands, the value they had was far below the value they had in Xu Yi’s hands.
Thinking of this, Viscount Leslie became quite interested in the farmer support plan that Xu Yi mentioned. Even if he didn’t know the concrete parts of Xu Yi’s plans, he still grabbed the bull by the horns and decided to fully support Xu Yi’s plan.
Compared to this, although Xu Yi’s net worth had increased because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he was still only a small merchant in Banta City. There were many things that weren’t easy for him to do.
It was completely different for Viscount Leslie. As a famous noble in Banta City and having a deep family background, the power of his words in Banta City was not something Xu Yi could compare to. With his great support, Xu Yi’s plan was naturally much easier to enforce.
After three days, the first small Magic Plowing Machine was released. It made a demonstration on Viscount Leslie’s farmland as usual.
This time was different from watching Viscount Leslie harvest the wheat last time. The Banta City nobles who received the invitations didn’t have a trace of doubt in their hearts and joyfully came because they knew the effects of the small Magic Plowing Machine being demonstrated this time.
Although they only understood the name of the small Magic Plowing Machine, that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm.
In the fall harvest before this, the nobles had already enjoyed the benefits brought by the small Magic Harvester. A field that needed around ten days to half a month to finish harvesting was finished in at most two days with the small Magic Harvester. The increase in efficiency was terrifying.
This time when Viscount Leslie told them that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had researched another magic machine that could increase the speed of their plowing, there wasn’t a single noble that doubted this. Without even knowing what the appearance of the machine was like, they all submitted their orders to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Now that the small Magic Plowing Machine was finally out, these nobles definitely wanted to be the first to see it.
When they came to the set field, they were stunned to find that by the fields, other than the nobles, there were some fellows that looked like commoners. There were some among them who looked very crude, having swarthy faces and dressing like farmers.
Seeing this scene, the nobles instantly felt dissatisfied.
This was clearly a gathering of nobles, it was acceptable for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu Yi to participate, but what was the reason for these commoners and even these earth working peasants being invited?
But since it was Viscount Leslie that invited them, they thought that Viscount Leslie could have other intentions. These nobles were dissatisfied, but they didn’t reveal it.
These peasants felt very awkward, especially the normal farmers. They had never seen this many nobles before and now that they were suddenly standing by these noble masters, they felt very awkward.
It was a good thing that the strange looking machine by the fields attracted everyone’s eyes and everyone’s attention fell onto this machine.
This machine should be the small Magic Plowing Machine, but its appearance was even stranger than the small Magic Harvester.
The front of the machine had a row of cylinders placed together and the bottom of each cylinder was releasing a weak yellow glow.
There were some nobles with understanding of magic, so they could see that there was probably Earth Attributed Magic Arrays attached to the cylinders.
Thinking about the fact that this machine was called the Magic Plowing Machine, it could be understood why there were Earth Attributed Magic Arrays on it.
But the other half of the machine was something they couldn’t understand.
There was a firmly packed iron back on the latter half and other than the thing that looked like a slit, they couldn’t clearly see what it was. It made people want to open the iron box and see what was inside.
The doubts in their hearts didn’t last long. After a while, Viscount Leslie saw that everyone had arrived and he announced that it would begin.
A large man came forward and after grabbing the handle of the machine, he pressed the switch. The row of cylinders with yellow glows lit up and then they fell down, slamming into the ground that had turned hard after they had finished harvesting the wheat.
The cylinders moved through the ground and everyone could hear a series of deep sounds coming from the ground. After that, they saw countless cracks form in the hard ground as it began shaking.
“Earth Splitting Spell?” The eyes of a young noble by the field lit up as he spoke in a surprised voice.
“Baron Hanass, you recognize the Magic Array on the ground?” The noble beside him asked in a dazed voice.
“Un, if I haven’t made a mistake, there should be the Earth Splitting Array on each of the cylinders.” The young noble called Baron Hanass nodded as he replied, “Although the Earth Splitting Array is only a Second Grade Array, to have the array work like this, to control the affected area of the array, and to even let the arrays on the cylinders not affect each other, it is designed perfectly. It could be imagined how profound the Magic Array knowledge of the person who designed this magic machine is.”
“He, he, Baron Hannas, this is your first time in our Banta City, so I’m sure you don’t know. The one who designed this magic machine is the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu Yi. He is definitely a magician and it’s said that even Great Magician Camilla has commended his talent for magic before. It is naturally not strange for him to be able to design this kind of Magic Array.”
“You said that he’s a magician?” Baron Hannas was stunned, “Since he is a Magician, why did he start a company? Why didn’t he properly study magic? He has such great talent for magic, if he completely focused on studying magic, he would definitely become a powerful magician!”
The noble beside him gave a shrug, “I don’t know that. But everyone has their own goals, perhaps chairman Xu Yi likes studying these kinds of things?”
Baron Hannas shook his head with a frown and didn’t say anything else.
In the field, the small Magic Plowing Machine didn’t stop as it moved forward.
As the cylinders in front fell down, the Earth Splitting Array on the cylinders easily cracked the firm ground into loose soil. The iron box in the back finally revealed its fangs, which was a fierce looking iron rake.
With the high speed rotation of the iron rake, the plows on the iron rake kept scattering the soil blocks left behind and broke them down into pieces.
When the small Magic Plowing Machine passed through the patch of soil, the firm soil was turned into incomparably loose piles of soil.
Seeing this scene, whether it was the nobles or the farmers, they couldn’t help gasping in shock.
If one was relying on just manpower, to do the same kind of plowing work, not only would they have to spend a large amount of effort and time, it was impossible for the soil to be this loose. The effect would be greatly inferior.
The more loose the soil was, the easier the planting work after the plowing was and it would be easier for the seeds planted to absorb the nutrients in the ground. It would be greatly beneficial to the future growth of the plants.
So this meant that with the help of the small Magic Plowing Machine, not only could one save on time and effort, it would also greatly increase the growth of their plants.
The group of people stared right at the small Magic Plowing Machine as it easily finished a mu of farmland in less than ten minutes before looking at the incomparably loose soil in the field. It took them a while before they came back to their senses.
Several nobles with quick reactions charged to Xu Yi standing beside Viscount Leslie and rushed as they shouted out.
“Chairman Xu, how is the small Magic Plowing Machine I ordered? Has it already been made? Send it to me right now!”
“Send what? Chairman Xu, I’ll send people to your company now, there are fields at my estate that are waiting to be plowed.”
“Hey, don’t think you can act like that just because you made an order. I was the first one to make an order back then. Chairman Xu, you must remember first come, first serve.”
…...
Seeing the actions of these people, the other nobles instantly reacted. They all charged in front of Xu Yi and began shouting.
Seeing these noble masters shouting without a care, the commoners on the side were shocked before finally reacting.
They looked at each other and they all revealed dispirited looks.
Although the effects of this small Magic Plowing Machine was very shocking, it was clear it would be very expensive. Not to mention them being able to afford it, even if they did, those noble masters were going all out to snatch them, so how could any come to these commoners.
Thinking of this, the commoners let out a sigh before preparing to leave while shaking their heads.
They couldn’t understand why Viscount Leslie had invited them at all. This kind of place, it wasn’t a place for commoners at all.
When the commoners wanted to leave, a man who whether it was his dress or his expression looked very serious came out. He smiled at everyone and said, “Everyone, please wait. I am the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s finance manager, Sebas. May I ask everyone, is there anyone who wants the small Magic Plowing Machine?”
The commoners were stunned. Seeing this very serious Sebas, they hesitated for a bit before they all nodded.
It had to be said, this small Magic Machine had given them a strong shock and they had to be blind if they said they didn’t want it.
Seeing everyone nod, Sebas revealed a smile before continuing, “Since it’s like this, I think you will all be interested in the farmer support plan that our company has established lately…..”