Book 3: Chapter 168: No alternative
Looking at the scattered steel pieces that formed an unknown machine under the cloth, Anklo’s complicated expression returned to normal in the end. He turned back to Hart and gave a nod, “Chief Hart, please express my gratitude to chairman Xu. He is helping us this much, I will forever remember this in my heart.”
Hart said without any expression, “Chairman Xu told me before leaving that this is just a very normal transaction, everyone is getting what they want.”
Anklo was surprised. After pausing for a bit, he knit his brows as he pointed at the scattered pieces and asked, “But I have a question. Chief Hart, why do the parts of the Magic Trebuchet look this small? If they are assembled, wouldn’t it be much smaller?”
“This is our company’s second generation Magic Trebuchet. Although it is much smaller than the first generation, it isn’t weaker and is rather stronger, so it is a bit stronger compared to the first generation Magic Trebuchet. Moreover, because it is smaller, it is easier to carry. Look, we only needed one Magic Car to transport it over.” Hart explained.
“It’s like this.” Anklo looked at the parts of the Magic Trebuchet and still had some questions, “But how do we assemble this thing together? We don’t have anyone for that.”
Hart took out a small book from his chest for Anklo.
“There’s the assembly instructions for the Magic Trebuchet on this and it also includes the main maintenance parts for the Magic Repeating Crossbows, as well as the armours and weapons. After you finish transporting these things, you have to study them. Otherwise, if it breaks because you didn’t maintain it, our company won’t provide any repair services.”
Anklo took the small book and didn’t read it as he kept asking, “Chief Hart, why didn’t you just provide a technical personnel to guide us on these things? Wouldn’t that be more convenient?”
Hart shook his head, “Sir chairman said that this is simply a transaction between our two sides. If we send people, it will be interfering in the internal affairs of your Stantine Duchy. He felt that mister Anklo wouldn’t be willing to see that.”
Anklo was silent for a bit before giving a slight nod.
“Chairman Xu had considered everything, but……” Anklo looked at the ten Magic Cars and said with a bitter smile of self ridicule, “Actually, this is equivalent to you participating……”
Hart was silent.
Anklo was quite for a bit before taking a deep breath and regained his energy.
“Alright, chief Hart, I have confirmed these goods and now we’ll do the trade.”
Hart nodded and took out a list of the cargo for Anklo. After Anklo had confirmed it, he gave Hart a signed contract.
This contract was to give an iron mine and a Magic Crystal mine in Anklo’s territory to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
According to the contract, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would have the rights to exploit these mines forever.
In other words, this iron and Magic Crystal mine was completely handed to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. It was no longer related to Anklo or the Stantine Duchy anymore.
These two mines were used by Anklo to pay for these weapons from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Although it was just the cargo of ten Magic Cars, their total value was two hundred thousand gold coins.
The new Magic Trebuchet was already worth ten thousand gold coins.
As for the three hundred Magic Repeating Crossbows with the arrow chests, each set sold for a high price of four hundred gold coins and three hundred equaled one hundred and twenty thousand gold coins.
As for the remaining weapons and armours, they had a total of seventy thousand gold coins.
Actually, these two mines had a value of over two hundred thousand gold coins, it was no less than three hundred thousand.
But Anklo couldn’t take out that much money, so naturally he could only trade resources for things he needed from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
If he had the choice, Anklo wouldn’t want to give up the resources under his name because he knew the importance these resources had in developing the Stantine Duchy.
But he had no alternative.
Because if he wanted to achieve his goal, he had to spend money and he had to spend a large amount of money.
With Hart’s directions, his subordinates loaded the goods from the ten Magic Cars into their boats. Anklo had a complicated expression, as his eyes revealed anxiety as his lips had a bitter smile.
“I hope that these sacrifices will bring a good result, otherwise I’ll become the most condemned person in the history of the Stantine Duchy.”
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Anklo was worried about the future because of his decision and the people of Banta City were happy about their bright future, as they welcomed the new year with great enthusiasm.
With another year passed and since her highness Seveni took over Banta City in the later half of the year, Banta City was once again filled with life. It was completely different from when it was dead and spiritless when Count Stagg was City Lord.
In just half a month, not only did Banta City recovered the prosperity from before, it became even more lively.
As the magic machine industry led by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce entered the hearts of the people, there were more and more people in Banta City dragged into this industry. In Banta City now, everyone could find a satisfying job and wouldn’t need to worry about food or clothing. They could even enjoy a luxurious life that they wouldn’t dare dream of a few years ago.
For example, for things that you didn’t buy because you were stingy or for other reasons, when New Years came, naturally you would make up for it.
So when New Years came, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s household magic machine department had large sales.
Just in a single week, their sales numbers were as good as the past two months added together.
According to the data, in just a short week, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce earned a shocking five hundred thousand gold coins just from household magic machines.
Because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had high profits, in just a single week, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce earned a net profit of three hundred thousand gold coins just from household magic machines.
If this was three years ago, Xu Yi would have been wild with joy when he saw these stats.
But when he saw these stats now, Xu Yi found that he didn’t feel anything. Rather he was trying to see if there were any errors from the data, seeing if there were any places that he could improve on.
There was no other way. According to this year’s stats, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had broken through to the ten million gold coin mark, so how could Xu Yi feel joy from a trivial three hundred thousand?
Of course, the more they earned, the more they also spent.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s net profits were shocking, but they also made shocking investments.
Not mentioning the wages that reached a shocking three million, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce started investing in production bases in the second half of the year because of their expansion plan, as well as investing in the Black Rice Wasteland, the Stantine Duchy, and Sowell City in the last two months, they had already spent over five million gold coins.
Counting this, by the end of the year, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce only had an excess of a million gold coins.
Compared to the current scale of the company, this bit of money wasn’t considered anything. When finance manager Sebas was going over the year end reports, he kept complaining to Xu Yi and kept reminding Xu Yi to balance out the revenue disbursement next year, or the company might really have a deficit.
However, Xu Yi just smiled at his warning and didn’t care.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had invested this much this year because of the development plan he had made.
When the production bases are finished next year and start producing, these investments would turn into large amounts of profit.
At that time, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s profit would increase. It wouldn’t be strange for it to increase by several times.
The more important thing was that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had laid down their foundation. They wouldn’t be influenced by the changes of a single city anymore. They could adapt to any situation and wouldn’t have to become passive because a single noble was aiming at them.
“Of course the normal nobles no longer dare plot against you or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Royal father had already displayed his attitude last time at the Royal Parliament, so there is no noble that would dare anger royal father on this matter.”
Seveni looked at Xu Yi who was sitting in front of her looking relaxed and shook her head.
“Xu Yi, to be honest, I don’t understand, why do you always have a confident expression when you are always in danger? Tell me, why are you recruiting so many guards? It can’t be that you want to increase the guarding power of your company, right?”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Much? It isn’t much, it’s only five hundred people. Compared to the Falcao Chamber of Commerce that has over two thousand guards, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce with our less than a thousand guards can’t be considered much.”
Seveni glared at him, “Stop acting! Your company has elf guards, dwarf guards, and even those beastmen guards you just recruited on the Black Rice Wasteland. Right, there’s also the guards that you recruited from the Stantine Duchy that don’t count to your total. If you add them all together, it’s already past two thousand, right?”
Xu Yi laughed into the sky, but he didn’t give an answer.
Seeing his reaction, Seveni was a bit angry. She slapped the table and knit her brows. It was rare to see her raise her voice and shout in an angry voice, “Xu Yi, the battle strength of those elves, dwarves, and beastmen are all higher than normal humans. If you compare battle strength, your Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards can compare to an army of five thousand. Just what do you want to do?”
Seeing Seveni’s serious expression, Xu Yi gave a sigh and spread his hands, “Your highness, I don’t want to do anything, I just want to protect myself. You just said that no nobles dare aim at me or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but does that include his highness Eric?”
Seveni’s eyes trembled as she gave a sigh before not saying a thing.
Seeing Seveni’s reaction, Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and continued, “Alright, your highness, let’s not discuss what everyone is aware of, what is the meaning of that? Let’s discuss business, what standard of equipment do you want for your five thousand private guards?”