Chapter 75 New town effect
It had been two months since Count Sean showed Xu YI the plan for Banta City, but progress in this aspect had been very slow.
One reason was that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Amrit Chamber of Commerce responsible for the first part couldn’t find any free time. A second reason was because there were problems that came up during planning.
In the first part of the plan agreed upon between Xu Yi and Count Sean, other than two villages, there were several pieces of noble’s private land also included.
Comparing it, although there were many villagers in the two villages, they were easy to take care of.
Xu Yi brought the City Lord Manor’s token and no one in the two villages argued with him, obediently following everything Xu Yi asked them to do.
What caused trouble for Xu Yi and chairman Cruse was rather the several stretches of noble land that weren’t that big.
For the nobles of the Sines Continent, their territory was their property, so not even kings could take care of them. So if Xu Yi wanted to do something in the territories of the nobles outside Banta City, he had to get the agreement of those nobles first.
The problem was that other than two open minded nobles who agreed to let the Amrit Chamber of Commerce build on their territory, the other nobles didn’t understand this so called Banta City renovation plan, so naturally they didn’t agree.
So this project had been delayed by these stubborn nobles and it progressed very slowly.
Count Sean was very dissatisfied with this matter. After he learned the reason from Xu Yi and chairman Cruise, he specially held this banquet, not just gathering all the nobles in Banta City, he also gathered all the companies together.
Other than explaining it to those stubborn nobles to make them understand the significance of this project, he also wanted to get funds from more companies.
After he finished his introduction, Count Sean quickly jumped on the main topic, explaining the details to the plan that he showed Xu Yi before.
The people under the stage were a bit confused at first, but as Count Sean continued to explain everything, they revealed looks of comprehension.
It should be said that Count Sean’s plans to change Banta City were very good.
Right now, because of the appearance of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were many factories that appeared. Also because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magic machines, the production efficiency of the other companies had been increased, so they also developed.
So right now there were countless new factories in Banta City and countless employment opportunities. That attracted many people to migrate here, which made the peaceful Banta City quite lively.
This also brought a big problem along with it.
Banta City was only a small city with less than fifty thousand people, so no matter what part of the city it was, it wasn’t developed. Now that there were so many factories and people, this was like a large disaster for a small town.
Not mentioning anything else, the waste that came out of Banta City had increased by several times, which created great pressure on the city administration.
If this continued, Banta City would collapse from the pressure eventually.
“Everyone, I think that everyone isn’t willing to live in a chaotic city. So in order to change this situation, I have given careful consideration before deciding on this Banta City renovation plan.”
After saying this, Count Sean paused and looked around. Seeing everyone’s thoughtful expressions, he gave a satisfied nod and continued, “Of course, there is no way to change the inside of Banta City since Banta City is indeed too small and can’t handle all these people. So my goal is outside the city. As for how to transform the outside of the city, we have to listen to a specialist of this subject, the ideas of chairman Xu from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Xu Yi walked onto the stage in front of everyone with a faint smile. He took Count Sean’s position and gave a slight bow to everyone before saying with a smile, “Lord City Lord is too generous with your praise, I’m not a specialist. Just that when developing the Falling Rain Valley, I had some experience.”
Hearing Xu Yi mention the Falling Rain Valley, everyone discussed in whispers.
When the Falling Rain Road was open, many people had taken a horse carriage along the Falling Rain Road since they had nothing to do and naturally many people had seen the Falling Rain Valley.
Everyone found that the Falling Rain Valley wasn’t as desolate as before, without a single specialty to mention. After the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had developed it, it had become a very beautiful and magnificent place. ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ
There were many people who saw the beautiful industrial and residential areas of the Falling Rain Valley and they praised it like chairman Pompeii.
So when they learned that Count Sean handed the renovation project to Xu Yi to complete, there weren’t many people surprised.
“First, I want to show a few pictures to everyone.”
Under Xu Yi’s indication, two servants from the City Lord’s Manor came out with a stand and rolls of pictures, which they unraveled one by one.
Everyone’s gaze fell onto the pictures and they saw the beautiful scenery.
In the middle picture, the main angle was on a river, but this river was different from the one that everyone was used to.
The sides of this river were not stacked with silt, rather there was something that created a beautiful river embankment.
The river was clear and filled with ripples. There were also all kinds of trees and flowers planted along the side of the river.
The sides of the river had a smooth cement road that wasn’t too big and was surrounded by grass. There were countless men and women walking on the cement path, young and old strolling by the river, enjoying the cool breeze.
And on the patches of grass by the roads, there were quite a few kids running around and playing with happy smiles of joy on their faces.
Just seeing this picture, everyone couldn’t help giving a gasp of surprise.
When had a river ever been this clean and neat? Even they wanted to take a walk along it at sunset.
“Chairman Xu, you took these pictures out just to tell us that the river in the picture is the river that is outside Banta City?” Someone under the stage couldn’t help asking in a loud voice.
“That’s right, the river in the picture is the transformed river. What does everyone think?” Xu Yi asked back with a smile.
“It is good, but how could that river become like the one in the pictures?”
“That’s right, it’s already good that the river doesn’t flood every year, how could it become so beautiful?”
“Chairman Xu, this must be your imagination. This can’t be real.”
“That’s right……”
…...
Seeing the people discuss this, Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Who says it’s impossible? You can ask chairman Cruise if you don’t believe it, the river in the Falling Rain Forest has already become like this.”
Everyone looked at the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Moon Cruise who was sipping red wine.
Chairman Cruise put down his wine glass and revealed a proud smile to everyone.
“Chairman Xu is right, the river doesn’t look that good now, but it isn’t hard for it to become like the pictures. This is because during this year, our Amrit Chamber of Commerce has been changing the banks of the river to the northwest of the Falling Rain Forest and now we’re seeing the beginning effects. Although right now it doesn’t look as good as the picture, it’s not that far away.”
“Un, I had some matters to handle with the beastmen of the Black Rice Wastelands. I went upstream on the river and found that the river had completely changed to look like this, only it didn’t look as good as it does in the picture. When I saw people working along the river bank, I never thought that it would be workers from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce.
Everyone looked over and found that the one who spoke was the Renekton Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Renersa.
Because of his company’s business, he occasionally went to the beastmen tribe and went up the river.
Since he said this, it seemed like it should be true.
Seeing everyone’s expression change, Xu Yi clapped his hands and brought everyone’s attention back. He pointed at another image and said, “Everyone look at this picture. I think that everyone should be able to see that this is a picture from a high angle. Everyone please notice that the city here represents our Banta City and to the left, it is our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s Sandton Manor. As for the interconnecting straight white lines, I think that everyone has guessed that these represent roads.”
Even though they could guess it, hearing Xu Yi mention it now, everyone was quite surprised.
“Chairman Xu, all these lines are roads? It can’t be, right?” A small company’s chairman couldn’t help saying, “I can understand your Frestech Chamber of Commerce building a road from Banta City to Sandton Manor, but building all these roads, is there a need?”
“No need?” Xu Yi waved his hand with a smile, “No, there are no useless roads in this world. I marked all these roads on this image to tell everyone that I’m planning to do all of this. I’m planning to commission the Amrit Chamber of Commerce to inspect all the areas the roads will be placed and as long as there are no problems, these roads will begin construction.”
“That’s right. Our Amrit Chamber of Commerce has experience with building roads and since it’s chairman Xu’s commission, we will definitely build good roads.” Chairman Cruise said with a nod, “Also I want to remind everyone here that if anyone is interested in building roads, they can discuss with me at any time.”
Xu Yi laughed, “Chairman Cruise, I just hoped that you can confirm what I said, I didn’t ask you to advertise yourself.”
The people under the stage couldn’t help smiling.
“Of course, just chairman Cruise and I can’t decide the roads ourselves, we still need everyone else’s support.”
Hearing Xu Yi’s words, the merchants under the stage all looked at the nobles on the other side.
Everyone could understand that Xu Yi’s words were said for those stubborn nobles.
At this time, there was a cold snort that came from the crowd of nobles.
“Humph! Chairman Xu can really speak his mind. Do you think that Banta City belongs to you alone?”
Chapter 76 Many changes with the small town
Hearing this voice, everyone’s expression became a bit strange.
This was because the one who spoke was Baron Belil.
When Baron Belil had just come to Banta City, he had expelled the Frestech Chamber of Commerce from his territory. Everyone could understand that he was breaking off all relations with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Of course, after the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had moved to Sandton Manor, Baron Belil had unexpectedly become calm and didn’t cause trouble for Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce like everyone expected.
Based on this situation, everyone couldn’t help guessing that Baron Belil expelling the Frestech Chamber of Commerce from his territory was the Stagg Family’s idea and not his own idea.
But now, Baron Belil had made such a clear opposition that everyone was a bit surprised.
Xu Yi looked at Barong Belil and he wasn’t angry at all, as he said with a faint smile. “Lord Baron, Banta City does indeed not belong to me alone. So if we can successfully change Banta City, it will benefit all the people of Banta City.”
Baron Belil gave another cold snort, “Benefit everyone? Chairman Xu, you think you’re cheating a little child? I think that this benefits only you and your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, right? Otherwise why would you work so hard?”
Xu Yi looked at Baron Belil and thought for a bit before asking, “That means that the Lord Baron is against this overall transformation plan?”
Baron Belil coldly looked at Xu Yi, “Don’t try to trap me with words. This plan is the idea of the Lord City Lord, so of course I’m not against it. I just will not be showing my support.”
Everyone’s expression became even stranger as they thought that his words were quite wonderful.
Since it was raised by the Lord City Lord, not showing support was going against it, what else could you say?
Xu Yi’s reaction was even more wonderful.
After hearing Baron Belil’s words, he actually gave a simple nod and said, “Alright, I understand.”
He didn’t plan on discussing this matter with Baron Belil at all!
Baron Belil was clearly a bit surprised, but since Xu Yi didn’t say anything, if he were to take the initiative to argue with him, it would be a loss of face. So he could only close his mouth and couldn’t say anything.
Xu Yi explained the other images to everyone. Without an exception, these were all images of Banta City after this project was over as imagined by Xu Yi.
Seeing the beautiful scenes in the pictures, the people under the stage almost didn’t dare believe it.
After all, compared to the current somewhat chaotic Banta City, the Banta City in the pictures were just too beautiful. It was something that even Anvilmar City couldn’t compare to.
But everyone still hoped that Banta City could become like the pictures. If this became true, Banta City would be a scene that everyone would be jealous of.
After showing off these artistic paintings, Xu YI changed the topic.
He was very clear that to the people under the stage, no matter how good the pictures were, it couldn’t compare to the benefits that they received.
So after introducing the images, he began explaining the significance the plan would have towards Banta City.
After talking about the various benefits of having industrial and residential areas, one could see the eyes of the company representatives lighting up. It was like they could smell the business opportunity coming from Xu Yi.
Most of the nobles didn’t really care, but after Xu Yi described everything, their hearts were also moved.
Xu Yi spent half an hour to finish explaining the plans. The people under the stage no longer had the same confused looks as before, rather it was clear that they were thinking about all kinds of things.
Seeing this scene, Count Sean couldn’t help looking at Xu Yi with a smile of admiration.
This kid, he really was good at discovering benefits that everyone could enjoy, which made matters he wanted to do easier for people to accept.
The banquet continued for the entire night and when it was finished, Xu Yi’s throat was parched.
At the banquet, there were representatives and nobles that kept asking Xu Yi about specific details, hoping to gain some information so they could know what kind of benefits they would receive.
Xu Yi had to explain to them one by one and give them his analysis.
Although the people left one by one feeling satisfied, Xu Yi had wasted his saliva, so his throat hurt from how dry it was.
“Ai, I won’t do such a thankless job in the future.” After accepting Count Sean’s praise and bidding him farewell, Xu Yi couldn’t help thinking this.
It was currently night and Xu Yi looked up at the moon and stars. He gave up the idea of going home in a horse carriage and began walking home.
The current Banta City was completely different from last year.
Last year because of how cold it was in the autumn night, when it was night like this, all the people of Banta City would be at home resting and there wouldn’t be a trace of people at all.
But even though it was night now, Banta City’s streets were filled with many open shops. They were brightly lit and all kinds of voices came out.
There were even small stalls outside selling snacks, releasing all kinds of different fragrances. It attracted people who hadn’t gone to sleep yet to take out silver coins from their pockets and enjoy a nice midnight snack.
Compared to the peace of last year, the current Banta City was lively even at night, just like a dense city on earth.
There was only one reason for this, it was people.
Banta City had only fifty thousand people before, but now there were over two hundred thousand people.
With so many people stuffed in a small city, naturally there would be large changes.
Xu Yi watched as a young man and woman walked through the night market and he couldn’t help revealing a smile.
This scene really was like the life in a few cities on earth.
The only difference was that Banta City didn’t have street lights. Whether it was a stall on the street or a store, they were all lit up with a Magic Lamp.
Thinking of street lights, Xu YI had a thought as he looked up.
Although Banta City had history and it was hard to completely change, there were some improvements that were possible and necessary.
For example, the street lights that were very common on earth, but didn’t exist in the cities of the Sines Continent at all, it was something with significance.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi immediately calculated the cost of building street lights.
Because the Magic Lamps didn’t need to be powered like the street lamps on earth, so they just needed to make a pole that was long enough and put the Magic Lamp on it, so it shouldn’t cost much.
But there were several problems with this.
The first was that although Evita and Akali had a breakthrough in magic transmission technology, the limit of the Magic Crystal was only being able to transmit to Magic Arrays that were three meters away. But it wasn’t stable at this distance, so it was still in an experimental stage and couldn’t be used.
No matter what, the street lamps had to be higher than three meters. If the Magic Lamps were to be put on a high pole, it would be a problem where to put the switch.
Moreover, the street lights on earth were all linked to the same power source, so they could be remotely controlled together. Right now with the technology of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, this was not something they could do.
If they were to put the switch on the lamp post, then it would be hard to stop a bored fellow from turning it on and off.
Although they could put a sealed space or a cage to prevent this from happening, not having the lights turn on and off at set times was a very troublesome matter.
After thinking for a bit, Xu Yi found that there were just too many problems and he couldn’t help feeling a headache.
“Ai, in the end, there isn’t enough technology.” Xu Yi sighed in his heart, “If Evita and the others could improve on the magic transmission technology, giving it a limitless range and making the Magic Crystals transmit like electricity, it would be much more convenient.”
Thinking about it for a bit, Xu Yi could only give a helpless sigh.
Magic wasn’t electricity in the end, it was impossible for it to transmit through a simple electric wire.
But if he couldn’t solve this problem, there would be a variety of problems to solve like when thinking about this street light.
“How to solve this?” Xu Yi quickly concentrated on this matter and forgot to watch the road.
“Peng——”
Xu Yi slammed his head into the pole that a shop was using to hold up their tent and he took a gasp of cold air from the pain, even seeing stars in front of him.
The sound of his collision was quite loud and instantly attracted the attention of people having midnight snacks around him.
Seeing Xu Yi’s look of pain, everyone couldn’t help secretly laughing at him.
The girl from the young lovers Xu Yi saw secretly pointed at him and said something to her boyfriend in a low voice with a smile.
But quite a few people realized that the one who hit the pole was actually the famous chairman Xu from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce!
While everyone was stunned, Xu Yi suddenly jumped up and wildly laughed while being stared at by everyone like he was a lunatic.
“Ha, ha…..I really am dumb! Why do I need magic to replace electricity? Was my head fried? Ha, ha, there’s such a simple method, ha, ha……”