Chapter 73 Urban public transport system
When the first yellow leaves were blown down by the autumn wind, the road connecting Banta City and Karma City was announced to be finished.
It was different from the Falling Rain Road. This road connecting Banta City and Karma City was the real intercity public road on the Sines Continent.
The completion of this road could represent the public transport system on the Sines Continent entering a new era. It got rid of the bumpy gravel roads from before and now they could enjoy the benefits and speed of concrete roads.
To the Lampuri Kingdom, this was a road with real and symbolic significance. So when this time it wasn’t just Count Sean that came to the opening ceremony, even her highness Seveni came on behalf of the king.
Other than the citizens that came from Banta City to watch the fun, the small and large companies all sent representatives.
For these companies, the most important thing was to gauge the attitude of the kingdom’s upper class through Count Sean and her highness.
Although Count Sean had expressed his support for the roads in many newspapers, to the public, the king had never displayed a concrete attitude.
Even if he didn’t display a concrete attitude, he still secretly supported it. However if it wasn’t said out loud, not everyone could feel confident.
After all, after this road was finished, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be building a toll booth to take tolls.
The companies all cared about what attitude the king had towards this.
So at the ceremony, although the representatives seemed like they were seriously listening to Count Sean’s passionate speech on the surface, they had been secretly paying attention to her highness Seveni standing behind Count Sean.
Standing beside her highness and smiling as they were talking about something was Xu Yi. Naturally everyone’s heart was filled with jealousy towards him.
But they never would have thought that her highness and Xu Yi were discussing an irrelevant issue at this moment.
“Chairman Xu, I really pity your ability to pick names.” Seveni looked at Xu Yi with his relaxed smile and helplessly said, “This road has such a large significance, but you’re actually this lazy to call it a simple name like “Banka Road”. This is simply…..This is simply wasting everyone’s feelings!”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “It’s just a name, it’s not something incredible. Then again Banka Road is easy to understand, one will know it’s a road connecting Banta City and Karma City as soon as they hear it.”
“But this is the first public road in our Lampuri Kingdom, can’t you put a bit more effort in the name?” Seveni angrily said.
Xu Yi had an uncaring expression, “There really isn’t a need, right? The road is used by people to travel on, the name is just something to call it by. Not calling it Highway One was already good enough……”
Seveni helplessly shook her head and she rolled her eyes at Xu Yi.
When she had just met Xu Yi, Seveni could still keep her grace and dignity as a princess. But when she met him more and more, she found that in front of Xu Yi, her attitude became more and more relaxed. She lost more and more of her important calm and wit, rather it was quite easy for her to react to Xu Yi.
“Forget it, this is the road that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce paid for, so what it is called is the right of you as the chairman, so I don’t care.” Seveni gave a sigh and decided not to continue with this question, “But there is a problem that I hope you can give me your honest reply to.”
“What is it?” Xu Yi asked in a curious voice.
“Although royal father agreed to your plan before, allowing your Frestech Chamber of Commerce to invest in building these roads and allowing you to build toll booths to collect tolls from them, don’t you think that the toll you’ve set is rather high?” 𝑏𝘦𝑑𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝘰𝘮
Xu Yi slightly knit his brows, “Your highness, I remember that when we set the amount, didn’t I already contact the king through Count Sean? Why do you feel that the price is too high? Then again, it’s only fifty silver coins per carriage, I don’t think that’s high at all.”
Seveni revealed an awkward expression and paused for a bit before saying with a sigh, “Chairman Xu, actually this is my royal father’s thoughts. This road is mainly used to serve the citizens of the kingdom, specifically the people between Karma City and Banta City. Taking a toll is something that shouldn’t be done and for the price to be this high, it’s even worse.”
Hearing what Seveni said, Xu Yi’s smile disappeared and he seriously said, “Your highness, you should be clear that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has invested a total of four hundred and thirty thousand gold coins to build this road. Moreover we have to maintain the road, so that is also a large amount. If the price is too low, how long do you think before we can earn back the money that we invested?”
Seveni was surprised and said in an embarrassed voice, “This…..Chairman Xu, could it be that you don’t have any sympathy for the citizens at all?”
Xu Yi looked at Seveni in surprise, “Your highness, haven’t I discussed this matter with you before? It’s fine if you ask me or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to care about others, but can you request everyone else to do the same?”
“Although I hope this is the way, but that is something that is impossible to achieve.” Seveni helplessly nodded.
“That’s right.” Xu Yi continued without any politeness, “Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has built this road to set an example for all the companies in the kingdom. We’re telling them that not only will they not lose money on building roads, they can also earn money. If there wasn’t this reason, do you think that the Fersen Carriage Company would choose to build a road between Banta City and Saltan City? If it wasn’t for our companies paying, where would the kingdom financial department get this kind of money?”
“It’s impossible.” Seveni shook her head with a bitter smile and took a deep breath. Her smile reappeared on her face, “Alright, chairman Xu, it’s my problem, just treat it as I didn’t say anything. After seeing this road being finished, I can’t help feeling that if every road in our Lampuri Kingdom was like this, how moving of a scene that would be. Sometimes I get excited because of that.”
Xu Yi looked at Seveni for a while before his tone relaxed a bit.
“Your highness, I understand your feelings, but I ask you to understand reality. The kingdom isn’t strong right now and can’t rely on its finances to build these infrastructures, so we can only find other ways to solve this problem.”
Xu Yi’s sincere tone and expression couldn’t help moving Seveni’s heart. There was a flash of light in her eyes as she honestly looked at him and continued listening to him.
“Anyway it’s our Frestech Chamber of Commerce taking the infamy for the toll booths. The newspapers had announced that there were even people who protested in front of our company’s service center, but that doesn’t matter. To me, reaching the end goal is the most important and I can treat it like I’ve heard nothing.”
“There were people protesting?” Seveni was a bit surprised, “What reaction did Count Sean have?”
Xu Yi laughed, “After the Lord Count learned of this, he wanted to send guards to our service center, but I rejected him. After all, compared to those who scold me and our company, most people of Banta City and Karma City support us constructing this road. Even if there is a toll, most people can understand.”
Seveni revealed a faint smile, “Anyway, most people don’t have personal carriages and your road doesn’t take a toll for pedestrians.”
Xu Yi’s mind turned, “Speaking of personal carriages, I thought of something that I wanted to ask your highness’ help with.”
After knowing Xu Yi for so long, Seveni was clear that other than when he used honorifics in the beginning, if Xu Yi suddenly changed to using honorifics, he must have some troublesome matter. So she vigilantly asked him, “What is it?”
“You just said that most people don’t have personal carriages, so generally they would choose to walk and rarely would choose to ride in a horse carriage. But like this, it wastes quite a bit of time. I calculated it and just going from Banta City to our Sandton Manor workshop which is only a total of fifteen kilometers, it would still take two hours even if one moved quickly. Not mentioning the waste of time, it is quite tiring.”
“And then? You want to solve this problem? But how are you planning on solving it?” Seveni asked in a curious voice.
“Right, I do want to solve this problem very much. For example, many workers for our factories live in Banta City or the surrounding villages, so they need to spend quite a bit of time on the road before and after work. Although our company has built dorms for workers to live in, there aren’t enough right now and when we expand our factories, there would be even more of a deficit.” Xu YI said.
“You still haven’t said how you plan on solving this problem.” Seveni reminded him.
“Un…..To put it simply, it’s to build an urban public transport system.” Xu Yi replied.
“Urban public transport system?” This wasn’t Seveni’s first time hearing strange words from Xu Yi. Although she didn’t understand it, she still carefully thought it over, “You mean…...just like the Fersen Carriage Company? Using many horse carriages to transport around Banta City, connecting the all of Banta City together, allowing everyone to ride horse carriages to where they want to go?”
“Your highness truly is wise!” Xu Yi couldn’t help praising, “But it has the same general meaning.
Seveni thought about it before knitting her brows and saying, “Although this sounds quite good, I feel that you should be discussing this matter with the Fersen Carriage Company or Count Sean, why are you discussing this with me?”
Xu Yi laughed, “Your highness, of course you can help because you can get something that can be replaced in the long run, but can’t be missing right now, which is the horse that will pull the carriages.”
Chapter 74 The price of a horse
There wasn’t anything worth noting at the Banka Road opening ceremony. The only highlight was that after Count Sean’s speech, her highness Seveni said a few simple words.
Although her highness didn’t say much and was most likely her extending congratulations to the Banka Road, she had clearly revealed some important information in her words.
That was that the king acknowledged companies investing in building roads and even showed support.
So the representatives of the large companies were all excited.
Since this matter had the explicit support of the kingdom’s royal family, that meant there were bright prospects.
Now they just needed to see if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could earn money from this road.
This question had completely disappeared after a horse carriage from the Fersen Carriage Company had arrived in Banta City.
It was because this horse carriage had set off at the beginning of the ceremony and it didn’t even take an entire morning for it to go an entire round trip!
All the merchants understood that time was money.
When the Banka Road hadn’t been constructed, although Banta City was less than sixty kilometers away from Karma City, it would take most of a day even riding in the fastest horse carriage.
Now that the Banka Road was open, a round trip actually only took a single morning! If this was converted to an one way trip, that was a trip of less than two hours!
Compared to before, this without a doubt saved quite a bit of time.
There was no need to mention that if a horse carriage galloped across sixty kilometers of gravel road, a person’s butt would have been destroyed. If it was cargo, in order to protect the cargo, they could only move as slowly as possible, so it might take more than a day for an one way trip.
But because of the new Banka Road’s smooth concrete surface, their horse carriages didn’t jolt when running across it.
Adding in the fact that the Fersen Carriage Company’s carriage had swapped from the old wooden wheel to the new tire developed by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, not only did it lessen the shaking, it made the horse carriage lighter and allowed it to move much faster.
If it wasn’t for the help of this new tire, even if the Banka Road had this kind of incomparably smooth concrete surface, it definitely wouldn’t take just a single morning to run back and forth between Banta City and Karma City.
So after the ?Banta Times? had run a special report on these new tires, there was a new wave that appeared in Banta City and the surrounding cities. All the horse carriages switched tires.
In less than half a month, the large and small carriages in the streets of Banta City and the surrounding cities had all changed to the tires manufactured by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
If there was a horse carriage that was still using the old wooden wheels, they wouldn’t have the face to appear in public!
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Some night in the middle of September, the City Lord’s Manor held another banquet. Almost all the chairman of companies and nobles were invited.
“Chairman Xu, I really am filled with admiration towards you” The Fersen Carriage Company’s chairman Pompeii raised his wine glass and clanked it against Xu Yi’s before saying with a sigh of admiration, “Since your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has been established, no matter what you’ve researcher, it has led to a buying spree in Banta City and the surrounding cities. Ignoring the magic machines since your Frestech Chamber of Commerce specializes in it, I never thought that this tire that you casually took out would be this popular.”
Xu Yi shook his head, “Chairman Pompeii, you can’t underestimate the tire, this thing can’t be casually taken out. You have to know that although this thing seems like a simple iron ring, there are many levels of things included in it. Just the cushion inside took the Armani Chamber of Commerce several tries before I was satisfied. Because of this, chairman Vincent complained many times that I was being just too picky.”
In all honesty, the most important part of the tire was the tire’s cover.
But on the Sines Continent, Xu Yi had never discovered the existence of rubber trees. Although he wanted to make the tire before, because there was no rubber, he could only give up.
After the Night Song Tribe did all kinds of strange experiments with the resin following Xu Yi’s requests, they accidentally came up with a resin that was close to rubber.
This resin came from a plant that the elves called Tear Fruit.
After this plant matured, it would grow fruits that were the size of a human head and it would release white liquid when split open.
After this juice and several kinds of pollen were mixed together, then using the special magic of the elves, it became this kind of special resin.
This kind of resin had similar characteristics as processed rubber, so when Xu Yi saw it, he immediately thought that he could use it for tires.
In the end, after a series of experiments, the Night Song Tribe elves came up with this tire cover.
Of course, this special resin was a Frestech Chamber of Commerce secret, so naturally Xu Yi wouldn’t divulge this to chairman Pompeii.
Hearing Xu Yi mention chairman Vincent, chairman Pompeii broke out in laughter, “But now that the tires are selling well, their Armani Chamber of Commerce must be earning a lot, so chairman Vincent won’t be blaming you.”
Xu Yi smiled and looked at chairman Vincent chatting with nobles. He thought that compared to the Armani Chamber of Commerce’s countless experiments, chairman Vincent would rather complain to him about the fact that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce still hadn’t developed the Magic Loom that he wanted.
But there was no other way, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had limited research staff and there were too many things to research. Xu Yi could only focus and choose to research certain things.
Compared to the textile industry which wasn’t that important, it was more important to research gathering and storing energy and the road building technology, which were more important for the development of an industrial system.
“That’s right, chairman Xu, I still haven’t thanked you yet.” Chairman Pompeii suddenly said.
“Un? Thank me for what?” Xu Yi asked.
“Of course it’s to thank you for raising the request with her highness. Now her highness has agreed that the horses that can’t become military horses will be sold to me. Although they are a bit expensive, to my company, being able to have that many horses means being able to bring out more horse carriages, which means plenty of business.” Chairman Pompeii said with an excited red face.
“This isn’t anything, I just casually mentioned it to her highness.” Xu Yi waved his hand, not caring at all. He then casually asked in a curious voice, “That’s right, chairman Pompeii, how much does your company usually spend on a normal horse?”
“It’s not set. The price will vary a lot based on the quality of the horse. The best kind of horses costs several hundred thousand gold coins, which my company can’t use. For a normal ones, other than the best horses being privately raised by large nobles, most of them are given to the royal army. Our company uses inferior grade horses, which cost around one to two hundred gold coins each.” Chairman Pompeii replied.
“One to two hundred gold coins?” Xu Yi thought about it before asking, “If there was something that can replace a horse and pull a horse carriage just as fast, or even two to three times faster, how much money would you spend to buy it?”
Chairman Pompeii looked at Xu Yi in surprise. After a pause, his eyes popped out and he excitedly grabbed Xu Yi’s shoulder while saying, “Chairman Xu, is this true? Is there really such a thing? Your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has already developed this? Quickly tell me! If it is true, even if it is two hundred gold coins…..No! I would definitely buy it at three hundred gold coins each!”
Xu Yi was a bit speechless. When Xu Yi mentioned the tire last time, chairman Pompeii was also this excited. Now he had just heard a bit and he was already excited.
He was still the chairman of a large company, was there a need to be this easily surprised?
“This…..it hasn’t been developed yet and is still in the beginning stages.” Xu Yi moved away from chairman Pompeii’s hands as he answered.
“Ah? Not yet.” Chairman Pompeii’s excited expression became disappointed, “That really is a pity, this kind of thing really is important for our Fersen Carriage Company. Chairman Xu, can you tell me when you will be able to develop it?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “I can’t give you an answer. This thing is very complicated, it’s not something that can be easily developed.”
Chairman Pompeii considered it before saying to Xu Yi with a serious face, “Alright, chairman Xu Yi, when you have finished developing this thing, you have to contact me and sell it to our Fersen Carriage Company first, alright?”
“We’ll see.” Xu Yi vaguely replied.
The engine development was indeed very difficult and Xu Yi wasn’t even certain if it could be developed, so how could he easily promise him this.
Then again, if he really could develop the engine, there were many widespread uses for it, so Xu Yi wouldn’t give any priorities.
Seeing Xu Yi’s vague answer, chairman Pompeii knit his brows. He wanted to say something, but he saw that Count Sean had walked through the crowd, so he could only close his mouth and look over at Count Sean.
In front of everyone, Count Sean slowly walked to the stage in the hall. Looking around, he raised his wine cup and said in a loud voice, “Everyone, welcome to the banquet on studying how to make Banta City a better place.”