Chapter 61 What qualifications do you have to be arrogant
“Chairman, why does your expression look so ugly?” Ankhto looked at Xu Yi in surprise, as he asked in a worried voice, “Did you not sleep well last night?”
Xu Yi rubbed his stomach. He had taken seventeen trips to the washroom last night, it would have been strange if he slept well.
“It’s nothing, just a bit of discomfort, it’s nothing special.” Xu Yi waved his hand and stopped Ankhto from further questioning him, “Let’s talk business. Ankhto, the Falling Rain Valley factories will be finished soon, so after a while, I’m prepared to move part of the factory over to the Falling Rain Valley. Part of it includes the household magic machine workshop, which you are the manager of, so do you have any thoughts?”
Ankhto thought about it before replying, “Chairman, I feel that if we are moving, it would be best if we wait for the end of summer. Right now the Magic Fan, the Magic Air Conditioner, and the Magic Refrigerator are all selling well and we’re still taking orders. If we were to move, it will definitely affect production and we won’t be able to finish those orders.”
“Un, I also considered this. So the first batch to move will be the production team for the Automatic Magic Rice Cookers, the Magic Bread Makers, and the Magic Lamps which aren’t as rushed. As for the ones you said, we’ll leave it for consideration next month.” Xu Yi said.”
“Will the workers also move over?” Ankhto asked.
“Of course. The production magic machines are secondary, the workers are the main thing.” Xu Yi said with a nod, “Other than that, the Falling Rain Valley factory is bigger, so we can recruit a new batch of workers. Talk to the workers when you have time, ask if they have any friends or relatives that want to work for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce. As long as they qualify, I want them all.”
Ankhto revealed a look of joy on his face, “Great! Chairman, I already wanted to ask you about this matter. There are many people in the workshop that have asked me about this, saying that they had friends and relatives that wanted to work for our company because of our high wages and good benefits. But you have never mentioned recruiting new workers, so I’ve never responded. Now that you’ve said this, the workers will definitely be happy when I tell them about this.”
Xu Yi was a bit surprised, “There is work everywhere in Banta City and the wages aren’t much lower than ours, so why do they want to work for our company?”
Ankhto laughed before replying in a proud voice, “Of course it’s because our place is better. Chairman look, other than our Frestech Chamber of Commerce having high wages, we also give things to our workers as benefits. For example, last time you had me give every worker a tub of ice cream, when I took it home, whether it was my wife or kids, they all liked it. They finished it all in a day and they asked me if there was more.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help laughing. He had just casually given out the ice cream made for their experiment, but it was actually treated as a good benefit.
“Other than this, there is another very important reason. It’s because working in our factory is very relaxed.” Ankhto pointed at the busy workers and said, “Look, the workers just have to move their hands, there’s no effort at all. This kind of relaxed and simple work, other than our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, where would you find something similar?”
Xu Yi’s face became even more strange.
The mechanical labour of the household magic machine workshop was called mindless and repetitive by countless people on earth, saying that it was very tiring. Now on the Sines Continent, it had become simple and relaxed work.
But thinking of the time when he visited the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s work site, Xu Yi understood.
Compared to that work that was back breaking, the work at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was much more relaxed.
Xu Yi looked around the workshop and he couldn’t help looking at the elves currently assembling some small parts.
These hundred elves were naturally from the Night Song Tribe.
They left the Falling Rain Forest and came to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to be normal workers because elder Illusia realized the faults of the elves after seeing the Magic Fan covers they made last time. So she sent some clansmen to Xu Yi following his request, having them specially train them.
As for the so called special training, it was actually very simple.
Without another word, Xu Yi three these hundred dwarves into the household magic machine workshop. He had them engage in the most boring and repetitive kind of work.
It had already been half a month since they started working at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. No matter how many times Xu Yi saw this scene, whenever he saw these noble, mysterious, and elegant elves working like normal workers from earth, doing this kind of simple and repetitive work, Xu Yi felt a bit conflicted.
“How are the elves doing now?” Xu Yi asked. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡．𝙣𝒆𝙩
“They’ve progressed quite a bit.” Ankhto nodded and praised them, “They were indeed like you said in the beginning chairman, sloppy and without discipline. But after you scolded them last time, they’ve become much better.”
Hearing Ankhto mentioning the matter of him scolding the elves, Xu Yi couldn’t help rubbing his face and revealing a bitter smile.
This happened a week ago, there was a small conflict that erupted in the household magic machine workshop.
This conflict happened between the elven workers and the human workers.
Because the elves were sloppy, there were problems with the products that they assembled. It caused the human workers who inspected the boxes of finished products to have even more work.
After a long time, contradictions accumulated between sides before finally erupting.
Although the human workers worshipped the elves because of their mysteriousness at first, after working with them for a while, naturally they didn’t seem that mysterious anymore.
Because the elves created more work for them and affected the efficiency of the workshop, those human workers naturally felt dissatisfied. Finally because of a mistake, a human worker finally couldn’t help insulting the elves.
The elves had a proud personality, how could they take the crude insults of human workers? So the conflict between both sides erupted.
If Xu Yi hadn’t come in time, the first armed conflict would have happened in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and it would have been a conflict between races.
When Xu Yi came and heard the entire story, he ruthlessly scolded both sides that caused trouble.
Xu Yi was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman, so he had a high position in the minds of the workers. After being scolded by him, the human workers naturally could only take it and couldn’t refute him.
But when had the elves ever been scolded like this? Not to mention that it was a human scolding them.
Even if elder Illusia had strictly ordered them to listen to Xu Yi before they left the Night Song Tribe, in this kind of situation, the elves couldn’t take it and refuted Xu Yi’s scolding.
But a few simple words made them completely speechless.
“Everyone is doing the same work, but the human workers are faster and better than you, so what qualifications do you have to look down on them? What qualifications do you have to scream in front of me? Could it be the pride of you elves is acting shamelessly after making mistakes?”
After that conflict, the hundred elves changed their sloppy attitude and began to work seriously like the human workers, strictly following the rules.
Once they became serious, the elves’ personality of chasing perfection and innate talents came out. The work they finished was much more beautiful compared to the ones made by the human workers.
“Although this is a good thing, it isn’t good that there are antagonistic feelings between the elven workers and our human workers. If it stays like this, it will go against the intentions of elder Illusia.” Xu Yi thought about it before saying to Ankhto, “Pay attention to this in the future and defuse as much tension as you can. For example, you can go and hold a banquet when there is free time, let the human and elven workers have contact with each other so they can understand each other better.”
Ankhto nodded in response.
After telling them this, Xu Yi began talking about business.
“According to the plan, our company will be making a tire factory after a period of time. This factory will be divided into three parts, making the bearing, casting the steel frames, and making the cover for the tire. This should split the work between three to five workshops.”
“Tires?” Ankhto was a bit confused, “What is that?”
“You don’t need to understand what it is now, I just need to you pick from among the current workers, some that are familiar with controlling the production magic machines and the Magic Punch Presses. I need to rely on these people to develop and make the first batch of tires. In the future, they will be the foundation for the tire factory.” Xu Yi said.
“Alright, around what time do you need them by?” Ankhto asked.
“If nothing unexpected happens, I need them by the end of the month. Also I need a group of these people to be elven workers. You should pick some elven workers who have a decent sense of discipline, I need them to make the cover of the tire.”
Ankhto nodded to show he understood.
Xu Yi said a few more things to him before leaving the household magic machine workshop, heading to the magic machine development workshop.
Compared to the household magic machine workshop that only manufactured developed magic machines, the magic machine development workshop had the important role of studying magic machines. Their importance surpassed the magic research facility, so Xu Yi had always placed the most importance on this place.
Naturally, he gave Camby, Bordeau, and the other dwarves in charge the best treatment.
Not mentioning Camby, because Bordeau was an outstanding talent and had played a very important role in the research of the last few months, Xu Yi had raised his wage from fifteen gold coins a month to twenty five gold coins a month.
But Xu Yi still felt that this wage was just too low.
If the other companies know how important Bordeau was to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they would still be very happy even if they had to start by doubling the wage of twenty five gold coins a month.
It had to be known, on earth, some important high level research staff in some companies had yearly salaries of at least a million.
Changing that into gold coins on the Sines Continent, that was equal to ten thousand gold coins!
That meant a monthly salary of close to a thousand gold coins!
Chapter 62 Engine
Entering the magic machine development workshop, he was not surprised to see Bordeau and the other dwarves crowded together, talking while they surrounded a strange looking machine.
Xu Yi walked over to take a listen and found that they were currently researching a problem with the kinetic energy parameters of this Magic Punch Press.
According to Xu Yi’s initial design, this Magic Punch Press’ kinetic power came from the Fourth Grade Flame Magic Array, the Burst Magic Array. It relied on the explosive force of the Burst Magic Array to drive the head through the mold.
In the beginning, there was no problem with this design.
But after it was used for a while, the dwarves gradually found that the force of the Magic Punch Press wasn’t strong enough. Moreover, the recovery time before each explosion of the Burst Magic Array was rather long, so it seriously limited the efficiency.
As the Frestech Chamber of Commerce received more and more orders, increasing the amount, the Magic Punch Press’ efficiency clearly couldn’t keep up.
Although they could produce a few more Magic Punch Presses to solve this problem, this required a few more workers to operate these Magic Punch Presses which indirectly increased the cost.
So while the dwarves led by Camby were researching new Magic Punch Presses, they didn’t stop improving the old Magic Punch Presses.
As for improving the Magic Punch Presses, Xu Yi had already given a new design to provide mechanical power for the Magic Punch Press.
But because Xu Yi only knew the machine structures from earth, he needed to change the entire structure for it to work with Magic Arrays, so he had Camby and the dwarves finish the research for this.
Bordeau and the other dwarves were currently studying the kinetic energy parameters of the old Magic Punch Presses to determine the force specifications of the old Magic Punch Presses. Then they would use this to design the new Magic Punch Presses.
This was work that required precise calculations. This was not the customs of the dwarves before, but after working for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for a while, they were gradually influenced by Xu Yi.
Seeing Xu Yi come in, Bordeau and the others stopped talking and handed over the estimates they had made to Xu Yi to let him take a look.
Although Xu Yi tried to participate in this research as little as possible, whether it was to the dwarves of the magic machine development workshop or Evita and the other researchers of the magic research lab, he was the best magic mechanical engineer in their hearts.
Xu Yi carefully looked over the results of the dwarves and pointed out some mistakes. He then gave them a bit of explanation on where to proceed next before not saying anything else.
He reduced his involvement to let Evita’s group and the dwarves to develop their own minds for research and to build up their knowledge.
After Xu Yi finished talking to Bordeau’s group, Camby who had been waiting on the side asked, “Chairman, since you are here today, do you have some new research for us?”
Hearing Camby’s question, the other dwarves realized something and all looked over at Xu Yi.
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling, as he thought that all dwarves were workaholics.
“Right, it’s a new task this time and it’s quite the difficult one. Do you want to take it?” Xu Yi asked with a smile.
Camby curled his lips, “Chairman, why are you asking this nonsense? We like difficult tasks the most. Speak, what is it?”
“Alright, there are a total of two tasks and the first one is rather easy.” Xu Yi took out two blueprints and spread the first one, “I talked to the Fersen Carriage Company’s chairman Pompeii yesterday and I promised to help him design some tires, replacing the wheels of his horse carriages. Look, this is the design.”
The dwarves came over to look and Bordeau said in surprise, “Chairman, this tire design is so simple, why do you need us to research this? We just need to change our current production magic machines up a bit.”
“So I said that the first task is rather simple.” Xu Yi spread the second sheet of paper, “As for the second task, it’s much more difficult.”
The dwarves looked down at the paper and they all knit their brows.
There was a very strange thing drawn on the second sheet. It was in the shape of a cube and had many leather belts tied together, as well as a series of complicated and messy mechanical parts.
With just a single look, the dwarves were certain that this thing was very troublesome.
“Chairman, what is this?” Bordeau couldn’t help asking.
Xu Yi laughed, “This thing is powerful. If you can develop this, I dare to guarantee that there will be a giant change on the entire Sines Continent!”
Camby disdainfully curled his lips, “Chairman, you’ve said these words countless times. Whenever you have us develop something, you will say this.”
“Then do you admit if what I said is a fact or not?” Xu Yi said with a smile.
Camby was stunned before looking at the other dwarves, finding that they had no way to refute Xu Yi.
The current Chamber of Commerce did not just rely on their few products to change Banta City and the surrounding cities.
If they were given time, being able to affect the Sines Continent and changing the Sines Continent was a foreseeable matter.
“This thing that I’m having you develop this time is even more powerful than the things I had you develop before and it can change the continent even more.” Xu Yi laughed, “Because it has a powerful name. It’s called the engine.”
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Developing the engine was a difficult thing even if they were on earth.
This is because the engine had high requirements. It not only required a high level of mechanical knowledge, it also required powerful foundation in materials, not a single one could be missing.
But the engine was just a general term. If they were to be divided, there were car engines, boat engines, airplane engines, spaceship engines, etc…...
On this Sines Continent with a weak technological level, Xu Yi naturally couldn’t expect to develop everything in one step, directly reaching the level of being able to develop a spaceship engine.
What he had given to Camby and the other dwarves to research couldn’t be considered a real engine, rather it was a crude gasoline engine model.
In the engines on earth, the driving force used was burning of fossil fuels, but one the Sines Continent, Xu Yi hadn’t even seen fossil fuels before nor had he ever heard of fossil fuels being mentioned before. Naturally he couldn’t develop the same kind of engine.
Of course, without fossil fuels, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t design an engine. Rather because they weren’t limited by having to use fossil fuels as the driving force, Xu Yi could make a more natural engine design.
For example, the engines on earth relied on internal combustion of fossil fuels to turn fan blades which transferred the energy through mechanical devices. The most important part of designing an engine was to consider how to best use the power of burning the fossil fuels, so the designs were quite complicated.
On the Sines Continent, with its specialty of magic, Xu Yi’s job in designing this was much easier.
He even had two different choices to choose from.
One was to imitate the engine design from earth, using Fire Magic to provide the force required, replacing the combustion of burning fossil fuels to provide energy in moving the fans to provide moving force.
To put it simply, he was using Magic Crystals to replace fossil fuels and a Fire Magic Array to replace the internal combustion.
It should be said that with Xu Yi’s rich mechanical engineering knowledge, it was easier for him to choose this design. Xu Yi just needed to design an appropriate Magic Array to replace the internal combustion unit.
As for the other choice, it was the same as the Magic Fan. He would use Wind Magic to move the fans to generate power.
This way Xu Yi could directly use the Wind Magic Array to provide the driving force, avoiding designing the complicated structures of an engine.
The problem was that compared to Fire Magic Arrays, Wind Magic Arrays were lacking in terms of explosive power.
Just like how the Magic Punch Press could use the Fourth Grade Burst Magic Array. If they used a Wind Magic Array to produce the same effect, they would have to use at least a Sixth Grade or higher Magic Array.
In short, the Fire Magic Array design had a ready made example and had enough power. As for the Wind Magic Array design, it was simpler and easier to design, but it was lacking in power.
What Xu Yi gave the dwarves to study this time was the wind powered design.
There was no relevant knowledge on the Sines Continent, so if he wanted to succeed, naturally it was better to start simpler.
Moreover, Xu Yi didn’t have much confidence in the fire powered engine design.
After all, he didn’t specialize in designing engines, so there were some concrete details he wasn’t certain about.
There was also the possibility of danger with this kind of research and Xu Yi didn’t want any accidents to happen to these valuable dwarves. He decided to study the wind powered design first and when the dwarves had enough knowledge, he would consider studying the fire powered design.
When Xu Yi mentioned that the horses of the horse carriage could be replaced to chairman Pompeii, he was referring to the engine.
In the history of earth, the development of engines had gradually replaced horses and things like horse carriages became things of the past.
Now on the Sines Continent, with the appearance of Xu Yi, as well as his strong discomfort from sitting in horse carriages, the engine was developed ahead of time. The time that horse carriages disappeared into history had also been brought forward.
Xu Yi wanted to research tires and engines because he wanted to stop the discomfort to his butt from sitting in horse carriages. He wanted to return to the comfort of sitting in cars like on earth as soon as possible.
But if he wanted to solve this problem, there was still an important problem that needed to be solved first.
Xu Yi left the magic machine development workshop and entered the horse carriage he hated, heading off to Great Magician Camilla’s Magic Tower.