Chapter 83 Household magic machine store
This autumn, the harvest of Banta City was not bad.
Actually using “not bad” to describe it wasn’t right, it should be “quite good”, “very good”, or even “so good that it was hard to believe” that would be more appropriate.
This is because compared to last year, after the fall harvest was over and everything was counted, the amount of wheat harvested was five hundred and seventy thousand tons. It was four times more than last year’s hundred and thirty thousand tons!
Production of grain was very important to all the countries of the Sines Continent, but to the Lampuri Kingdom that had just recovered from their disaster, it was even more important.
So after receiving the numbers, the Lord City Lord Count Sean was pleasantly surprised, so he specially called a large banquet and invited all the important people of Banta City.
Of course Xu Yi was also invited.
He wasn’t willing to waste time on this kind of banquet, but the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s agricultural magic machines played a large part in the success of this autumn harvest, so Count Sean had invited him by name and naturally he couldn’t refuse.
The banquet began with an excited and lengthy speech from Count Sean. Then when it came to the free time part of the banquet, everyone went to find people they wanted to talk to.
The Sarank Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Rank immediately came to find Xu Yi.
“Chairman Xu, your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has shown off again. With how the Lord Count praised you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, if anyone in Banta City wants to cause trouble for you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Lord Count would be the first to go against them.” Chairman Rank said with a smile.
“The Lord Count has always supported our company.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “Of course, this is all because of how useful the agricultural magic machines are, don’t you think, chairman Rank?”
“Of course. This old man had experienced many famines, so I know for a person, the first problem they need to solve is how to fill their stomachs. Right now with the help of the agricultural magic machines, our Banta City can harvest much more wheat and let everyone fill their stomachs. This means that chairman Xu and your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is doing a great thing. If someone dares to cause trouble for you and your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, not mentioning the Lord Count, this old man wouldn’t let them off.”
After saying this, chairman Rank’s eyes unknowingly moved over to Hank Wilson who was currently talking to the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Cruise not far away.
Xu Yi followed his eyes to look at Wilson before revealing a faint smile, “Chairman Rank, has the Walmart Chamber of Commerce come to your Sarank Chamber of Commerce?”
“Un, this Wilson came looking for me yesterday afternoon.” Chairman Rank nodded. Looking at Xu Yi, his expression became a bit strange, “Chairman Xu, is it because you’re not satisfied with the conditions of the Walmart Chamber of Commerce that you pushed him to us? I think that this Wilson wants to cooperate with your Frestech Chamber of Commerce the most.”
“I just mentioned a new cooperation model to him.” Xu Yi said, “In the beginning, I was indeed dissatisfied with the conditions he gave. But when vice chairman Wilson began to worry about the production output of our company, I suddenly thought of this new method that everyone could benefit from. I think that vice chairman Wilson must have mentioned it when he came to see you?”
“Un, he said that your idea is to have the Walmart Chamber of Commerce set up a store for household magic machines and gather all kinds of different brands together, letting people choose what they want to buy?” Chairman Rank asked.
“Right, I did suggest this. What do you think of this model?”
Chairman Rank slightly knit his brows and considered his words before thoughtfully saying, “Chairman Xu, I don’t think that this is a very good method. You should be clear that the reason why our companies brought our Magic Fans to far off places was because we couldn’t compare to your Frestech Brand magic machines in Banta City or the surrounding cities. Now you want to put our household magic machines with your Frestech Brand household magic machines…...I’m not afraid to say this, but if I was the customer, I would choose your Frestech Brand magic machines.”
Xu Yi laughed, “Thank you for your praise. But chairman Rank, you’ve ignored an important problem. You can’t compare to us in Banta City or the surrounding cities, although the quality is a reason, the main reason is that in Banta City and the surrounding cities, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce has established a good reputation and everyone prefers buying our Frestech Brand magic machines. But the people of the other cities don’t have this preference, so we are all at the same starting line.”
Chairman Rank’s expression didn’t relax at all.
“But I have to admit that your Frestech Brand household magic machines have better quality than ours. Even if the people in the other cities don’t know this at first, they will naturally understand after comparing them and we won’t be able to compete with you.”
“But isn’t your price lower than ours?” Xu Yi said, “Actually in my opinion, the disparity in quality and performance isn’t that big. If other people had the choice, there would be many people who would sacrifice a bit of quality and functionality for a cheaper price. So you don’t need to worry about not being able to compete with us.”
Chairman Rank looked at Xu Yi’s serious expression and couldn’t help asking in a confused voice, “Chairman Xu, we are your competitor, why are you thinking about us?”
“I’ve said it before, I’m making a large cake and I’m not stealing the cake. When this industry is very, very big, not mentioning our Frestech Chamber of Commerce having our fill, even all the companies in Banta City won’t be able to have their fill. If everyone competes with each other and hinders the growth of the industry, it’s better to have good competition and develop together.” Xu Yi seriously said, “In fact, I’m prepared to release a bit of technology on producing household magic machines, allowing everyone to make household magic machines that aren’t much worse than our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s.”
“But you’ll never give us all the technology that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has?” Chairman Rank said after seeing his chance.
Xu Yi said with a laugh, “Of course. If everything is given out, what will be left for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce to feed ourselves with? Then again, leaving a bit of disparity gives everyone motivation to chase after us. Think about it, as long as you put in a bit of effort, you’ll be able to surpass our Frestech Chamber of Commerce in terms of household magic machines, how moving of a thing will that be!”
Chairman Rank shook his head with a sigh, “Chairman Xu, should I call you generous or cunning?”
“It’s not important how you describe me, the more important thing is that including you, chairman Rank, I want all of the companies of Banta City to realize that I really want to develop this industry. Everything that I’m doing right now is just working towards that.” Xu Yi said with a serious face.
Chairman Rank gave a slight nod, “Un, I can see it. Alright, since chairman Xu is planning to share more technology, I feel that if the Walmart Chamber of Commerce really makes a household magic machine shop, the other companies will be interested in participating.”
“That’s good.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “If there are more companies that participate, we can form a group to discuss conditions with the Walmart Chamber of Commerce. In the end, we’ll gain more advantages by discussing with them.”
Chairman Rank looked at Xu Yi, “It’s more benefits for your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, right?”
“I won’t deny that.” Xu Yi laughed, “It’s good when everyone benefits, don’t you think so, chairman Rank?”
Chairman Rank helplessly shook his head and turned to leave, walking towards the Business Union members that were present.
He came to find Xu Yi because he wanted to ask Xu Yi about this, but now that he knew what Xu Yi wanted to do, of course he went back to tell the other companies about this.
Chairman Rank had just left and chairman Cruise had unknowingly come over.
Looking at him, Xu Yi was surprised, but he couldn’t help revealing a smile.
“Chairman Cruise, didn’t you go vacationing in the south? In less than a month, how did you become this black?”
Chairman Cruise’s face was much darker, so the whites of his eyes were brighter. He snappily said, “How could I have free time to take a vacation. I’ve been running outside all this time and I’ve been burnt black.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help asking with a smile, “So what happened in the end?”
“In the end?” Chairman Cruise revealed a very satisfied smile, “The result was quite good. In going out for less than a month, I’ve already signed agreements with four different companies. Our Amrit Chamber of Commerce will be building seven different roads paid for by four different companies.”
“Seven roads?” Xu Yi was a bit surprised, “There are actually such bold companies that are making more than one road?”
“You thought that the other companies are as poor as your Frestech Chamber of Commerce?” Chairman Cruise was now quite close to Xu Yi, so he could joke around with him without hesitation, “The Falcao Chamber of Commerce ordered three roads at once, a carriage company that’s around the same size as the Fersen Carriage Company ordered two roads, and the other two companies only ordered one road.”
“The Falcao Chamber of Commerce?” Xu Yi turned over and looked around the banquet hall, finding chairman Morgan quite quickly, “Which three roads are they planning to build?”
Chairman Cruise said the names and Xu Yi recalled a map in his mind, finding that as expected, those three roads connected the mines of the Falcao Chamber of Commerce and it also connected to Anvilmar City.
Xu Yi calculated it, it would require building around four hundred kilometers to build these three roads.
Compared to the Falling Rain Road and the Banka Road, this was a large amount.
The Falcao Chamber of Commerce really was one of the largest companies in the Lampuri Kingdom, when they made their move, it was this shocking.
When chairman Cruise described the general situation of the roads to Xu Yi, he found that if those seven roads were finished, although it was far from linking up all the roads in the Lampuri Kingdom, it would replace a large number of important roads.
It could be seen that the heads of these companies all had farsight, they chose quite appropriately.
Xu Yi was naturally happy to see this.
He even thought that the seven four companies and seven roads chairman Cruise had gotten was far from enough.
If possible, he wished that all the companies in the Lampuri Kingdom would all move, covering the Lampuri Kingdom with smooth roads. It would greatly increase the traffic conditions of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Of course, Xu Yi knew that this was simply wishful thinking.
He patted chairman Cruise’s shoulder and praised him with a nod, “You did well.”
Chapter 84 Can you live past forty
Chairman Cruise didn’t just come to report his deeds to Xu Yi, he also wanted to make another order with Xu Yi, buying more road work magic machines for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. At the same time, he wished that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would speed up their development, researching faster and developing new magic machines as soon as possible.
He also gave Xu Yi a very detailed list, describing the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s road and river construction, as well as the difficulties that they had faced.
As for the places that could be replaced with magic machines, they were detailed out on the list. The meaning was that he wanted Xu Yi to study these problems first.
Xu Yi looked over the list, but he didn’t say that he would be able to quickly solve these problems.
There was no other way, the capacity of the magic research facility and the magic machine workshop were limited and there were countless problems to solve. Even if Xu Yi had a bunch of mechanical engineering knowledge that he brought from earth, he needed to cooperate with these two sides to develop the magic machines.
Chairman Cruise of course knew this, so he could only urge him and he couldn’t say anything else.
When chairman Cruise finished with his list, the Fersen Carriage Company’s chairman Pompeii came to Xu Yi’s side.
He came to ask Xu Yi about the toll booth that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had placed on the Banka Road.
The Fersen Carriage Company’s road between Banta City and Saltan City was close to being finished. Although there were already toll booths on the road and they earned quite a bit from the tolls, this was the Fersen Carriage Company’s first time doing this, so chairman Pompeii lacked confidence.
“Relax, her highness has already promised me that as long as his majesty is in power, the agreement we signed with the royal family will never change. You can just keep charging tolls, there’s no need to worry.” Xu Yi was very clear on what chairman Pompeii was worried about, so his words were very direct.
As expected, when he heard Xu Yi say this, the expression on chairman Pompeii’s face relaxed quite a bit.
“Then that’s good. I always felt that taking tolls on roads the people used seemed like being a bandit, so I felt a bit unsettled. Hearing you say that his majesty supports this plan, I feel much more assured. Even if we are bandits, we are bandits approved by his majesty, ha, ha……”
Xu Yi rolled his eyes at him, “Who said that we are bandits? Do bandits pay to build roads? Relax, the people who are scolding us are just people who don’t understand new things. I guarantee that in a few years, when this matter is all over the kingdom, everyone will be used to it and no one will be scolding us any longer. Just now chairman Cruise told me that they would be starting construction on another seven roads. When the seven roads also have toll booths, you can see if people still curse us.”
“Another seven roads?” Chairman Pompeii was instantly overjoyed. “At this speed, wouldn’t our Lampuri Kingdom be filled with roads in just a few years? If it is like this, this would really be a great thing for our Fersen Carriage Company. Chairman Xu, do you know that after the Banka Road was opened, our house carriages have been running thirteen more trips each day between Banta City and Karma City! If all the kingdom’s roads are changed, then our horse carriage business will be much better than before!”
Xu Yi was speechless as he stared at the easily agitated chairman Pompeii. If he was this excited from thirteen extra trips a day, if the engine was developed and he could run over a hundred trips a day, wouldn’t he faint from his excitement?
After talking about the matter of toll booths, chairman Pompeii asked Xu Yi if they should build another two roads, connecting Banta City to the further Canberra City and Norton City.
Although Xu Yi was very interested in this proposal, right now the Banta City renovation project was ongoing, therefore he didn’t know how to deal with these two roads. Then again the Amrit Chamber of Commerce was building another seven roads for four other companies, so they couldn’t spare manpower to build these two roads, so he would postpone this proposal.
“Chairman Xu, if chairman Cruise could learn from you and share the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s road building techniques, wouldn’t there be more companies building roads?” Chairman Pompeii said in a voice filled with pity.
Xu Yi looked at him, thinking that his words might be referring to something. Thinking about it, he softly said, “The technique is not important, the more important thing is people. Chairman Cruise’s hair is turning white from his anxiety, but he still can’t recruit enough people. Their Amrit Chamber of Commerce is taking more and more work, so they are lacking more and more people. Otherwise why do you think that after going out for a month, he only accepted the projects for seven roads?”
Chairman Pompeii revealed a bitter smile, “His lack of people is still alright. Right now there are people from all over coming to Banta City, so sooner or later he can recruit enough workers. But our Fersen Carriage Company is lacking horses right now and they have to be horses that have the endurance to run long distances. This thing is harder to find compared to people, my hair is turning much whiter than chairman Cruise’s.”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, showing that he couldn’t help.
Although with Xu Yi asking, Seveni had allowed the Fersen Carriage Company to buy the horses that couldn’t become military horse, compared to the people flooding into Banta City and bring all kinds of goods, the military horses were just a drop of water in the flames, it was far from being enough.
Xu Yi wanted to comfort chairman Pompeii by saying that as long as he developed the engine, he would be able to solve the horse problem.
But thinking about how difficult it was and how he hadn’t made any breakthroughs so far, he couldn’t say this no matter what.
After sighing with Xu Yi for a while, chairman Pompeii left. Chairman Vincent from the Armani Chamber of Commerce who had been waiting on the side for a while immediately came over.
Before chairman Vincent even said anything, Xu Yi cut him off, “There’s no need to urge me, I’ve already had Camby and the others test the producing spindles and cradles. This is rather simple, so I think it’ll take less than a week for them to figure out how to mass produce them. Then we just need to find one or two small component companies to teach them the technology and then you can just directly order from them. As for the ring, the bead hoop, and the needle, you don’t need to rush. Sooner or later there will be a component factory that can solve this problem for you.”
Chairman Vincent was stunned before giving satisfied nods, “I know that chairman Xu is reliable, but today I have some other matters to discuss with you today. There’s another thing……”
…...
Seeing chairman Vincent talking to Xu Yi in the distance, Count Sean shook his head and said to Kennard beside him with a smile, “Look, that kid is actually this busy.”
Kennard said with a faint smile, “I already know this. After following chairman Xu for the past few days, even I’m tired from just following, so I can imagine just how busy chairman Xu is.”
“Actually this kid can only blame himself. With how developed the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is, he doesn’t need to be this busy. He can just safely and honestly develop those magic machines and sit at home while collecting money, so why is he doing this to himself.” Count Sean said.
“Lord Count, isn’t this a veiled way of praising chairman Xu?” Kennard revealed a smile, “If chairman Xu had such short sights and had no ambitions at all, would you support him like this?”
“Of course not.” Count Sean said in a certain voice, “Actually, this kid has brought many pleasant surprises to me and helped me solve quite a few problems. If it wasn’t for him, Banta City wouldn’t be developing this quickly, this speed has even surpassed my expectations. But because of how involved he is, I’m quite worried for him. First not mentioning how he has more things to do and more problems to deal with, just by making himself this busy, his body won’t be able to take it eventually.”
Kennard shook his head, “There is no need to worry about his body, chairman Xu should soon become a Seventh Grade Magician. If he can keep setting aside time to study magic, he should be able to become a Great Magician by the age of forty. After becoming a Great Magician, his body will be greatly changed by the magic particles and his lifespan will be much longer. You don’t think that he can’t even reach forty, right?”
“Forty years old?” Count Sean suddenly gave a sigh and looked at Xu Yi in the distance with worry in his eyes, “This kid has caught the attention of many people. I’m worried that if he and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce keeps growing, he might step on the nerves of some people. No, not perhaps, this will definitely happen. So I really can’t guarantee that he’ll live to forty years old…..”
Kennard revealed a faint smile, “Isn’t there someone as important as the Lord City Lord protecting him? Not to mention that her highness also supports him. With the protection of you and her highness, he doesn’t need to worry about this at all.”
“Her highness’ admiration and support? This isn’t necessarily a good thing for him…..” Count Sean looked to the north where Anvilmar City was. After thinking for a bit, he turned to ask Kennard, “For you to suddenly come here, does it mean that your father has made his decision?”
Kennard shook his head, “Lord father hasn’t made his decision yet, but the good news is that he’s revealing his thoughts, otherwise he wouldn’t have let me come here.”
Count Sean gave a slight nod, “Just a bit of thought is enough. You are already here and have made contact with Xu Yi, it doesn’t matter what your father is thinking because the main thing is what others see.”
Kennard shook his head, “I am not big brother.”
“Is that so?” Count Sean revealed a smile, but he didn’t plan on continuing with this topic. He looked at Xu Yi in the distance who had finished talking to chairman Vincent and thought for a bit before asking, “Then what about you? Have you made your decision?”
Kennard also looked at Xu Yi as he said with a faint smile, “I also haven’t made my decision yet. But after being with him for a few days, I also have some thoughts. As for whether I can make a decision in the end or not, that will depend on my further observations.”
“I hope that you can make your decision soon.” Count Sean said with a nod, “That kind Xu Yi is too busy, so busy that he hasn’t even had time to spend time with Still, which is not a good thing. If there was someone to help him and take a bit of it for him, that would be great.”
Kennard smiled without saying anything.