Volume 1 Chapter 39 Farming machinery
Late into the night, the banquet in Viscount Leslie’s manor had finally ended. The guests had already departed and the manor finally regained its tranquility.
In the main hall that was slightly messy after the banquet, Viscount Leslie was staring at Xu Yi who was currently talking to Still. There was a look of admiration that couldn’t he hidden on his face.
Like Still had guessed, he had held this banquet under Xu Yi’s request. The most important goal was to help Xu Yi sell the Magic Air Conditioner that he had just invented.
Xu Yi had set the Magic Air Conditioner as a middle to high class product, so naturally it targeted those with status and high positions in Banta City. the most important ones were those people with net worth.
At this banquet this time, because of some intentional interference from Viscount Leslie, it could be said that all the guests fulfilled this requirement.
Xu Yi’s request for Viscount Leslie had only been this, he did not request him to participate, so Viscount Leslie never knew what Xu Yi would actually do. However, he knew now that Xu Yi had made quite a bit of harvest at this banquet.
This was because during the banquet, there were quite a few people who would mention the somewhat conspicuous Magic Air Conditioner when they came to talk to Viscount Leslie. After they learned of the price and current consumption cost of the Magic Air Conditioner, not a single guest didn’t reveal their willingness to buy it.
Even the City Lord, Lord Count Sean Samo was an exception.
Therefore Viscount Leslie was certain that these Magic Air Conditioners would become all the rage among the Banta City nobles. The one that caused this trend, in the eyes of the nobles, it would be Viscount Leslie.
“If those fellows these matters had already been calculated by Xu Yi, I wonder what kind of thoughts they would have?” Viscount Leslie secretly thought in his heart.
At this time, Xu Yi had ended his conversation with Still and walked over.
“Lord Viscount, the banquet tonight has been quite the success. I really have to thank you.” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“There is no need to thank me, I could be considered a major shareholder of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.” Viscount Leslie shook his head, “There is a question that I have to ask you. Xu Yi, there are only those few rich people in Banta City, there is a limit to the number of Magic Air Conditioners you can sell in Banta City. The profit, wouldn’t it be less than the Magic Fan?”
“You don’t have to worry about this.” Xu Yi laughed, “Since this Magic Air Conditioner is considered a middle to high class product, then the sales plan for this is naturally different from the Magic Fan. I have already signed an agreement with the Farsak Chamber of Commerce in Saltan City, there will be a special store that will open in Saltan City soon that will specialize in selling our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s products. When the time comes, our Frestech Brand Magic Air Conditioner will also enter Saltan City.”
“Saltan City?” Viscount Leslie suddenly thought of something, “That’s right, there were two young nobles that came from Saltan City to visit their relatives, you wouldn’t have made contact with them already, right?”
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile, “The Lord Viscount’s reaction is quite fast.”
Viscount Leslie’s gaze looking at Xu Yi instantly became more serious.
This fellow, he had already calculated this point, he really was quite terrifying.
But changing this thought, Viscount Leslie really had to admire his own foresight.
Luckily he had seen through Xu Yi’s unusualness from the events from before and had decided to cooperate with him. Otherwise, once he missed this chance, he would have missed out on many opportunities.
Not mentioning the others, just based on the sale of the Magic Fans, in just a single month, Viscount Leslie had already earned over a thousand gold coins from this.
Even with Viscount Leslie’s net worth, one thousand gold coins already couldn’t be considered a small amount.
Moreover, Viscount Leslie deeply believed that after the Frestech Chamber of Commerce became even bigger, the income brought by his 30% share would also gradually increase. In the end, it would far exceed a thousand gold coins.
“Lord Viscount, other than the Magic Air Conditioner, there is another thing I want to discuss with you.” Xu Yi then said.
“Oh? What is it? Speak freely.”
Xu Yi considered it for a bit before saying, “Lord Viscount, it’s about to enter September and your territory should have reached its fall harvest stage, right?”
Viscount Leslie was stunned. He never thought that Xu Yi would suddenly jumped to this topic.
“Ah, that’s right, it’s almost harvest time. What are you asking this for?”
Xu Yi laughed, “Do you still remember the little slave I bought from you last time? The reason I bought her back then was because she had lost a cow, which would greatly affect the fall harvest. Because of this, the guards almost beat her to death.”
Viscount Leslie naturally had heard Butler Brunei report this matter before. He looked at Xu Yi and said with a cold snort, “What? Do you want to ask for justice for this little slave right now? Let me tell you, it is very hard to train a cow right now, a cow is worth more than a single slave. She actually lost a cow, beating her to death is actually taking it easy on her.”
Xu Yi secretly let out a sigh in his heart. Even if he was considered quite close to Viscount Leslie right now, he still couldn’t change the indifferent tone Viscount Leslie had towards slaves.
Of course, Viscount Leslie’s manner of treating slaves was the norm on the Sines Continent. Xu Yi didn’t have the ability nor did he have the mind to change this attitude, naturally he had something else planned when he mentioned this thing.
“The Lord Viscount’s meaning is that cattle is very hard to obtain and is very important to farming, so it has a very high value, right?” Xu Yi asked.
“Of course it’s like this. I say, Xu Yi, what did you say all this for?” Viscount Leslie became a bit impatient.
Xu Yi laughed, “Then Lord Viscount, if I can make a tool to replace the cattle, how much money are you willing to spend to buy it?”
Viscount Leslie doubtfully looked at Xu Yi, “Could it be that you have invented some magic machine that can work the land? This can’t be the truth, right? Farm work is that complex, what kind of machine is strong enough to replace the use of cattle?”
“Just treat it as me giving an analogy. Lord Viscount, if this machine could replace the work of cattle, even being far more effective than the cattle, what kind of price could you accept?”
Viscount Leslie thought it over and raised a hand, “Fifty gold coins for each one, give me as many as you have.”
Xu Yi’s eyes lit up, “Lord Viscount, are these words true?”
“Nonsense!” Viscount Leslie snappily said, “It isn’t like you don’t know, over half of my territory hasn’t been developed yet, that is because I don’t have enough manpower to cultivate it. I have no choice, so it became desolate. If there was the kind of magic machine you mentioned, then of course I want as many as you have, it’s best if I could finish cultivating all my land. Other than this, I dare affirm that not only me, in Banta City, the entire Lampuri Kingdom, and the entire Sines Continent, there are many nobles who need something like this. If you can really develop this kind of magic machine, I can guarantee that it will cause people to go wild snatching for it.”
After saying this, Viscount Leslie couldn’t help asking, “Hey, Xu Yi, you wouldn’t have already invented this thing already, right? This is not something you can joke about.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and shook his head, “Of course not, it is only an idea right now. But with such an exciting response from the Lord Viscount, I’m even more interested to go back and invent this thing.”
Seeing the mysterious smile on Xu Yi’s face, Viscount Leslie’s heart lit up.
“This kid, perhaps he had already invented this thing.”
Actually, Viscount Leslie had overestimated Xu Yi.
After seeing Vivian almost being beaten to death after losing the cow, Xu Yi had already made up his mind to research farming machinery. But up to this point, not only did he not have the time, he also didn’t have the funds and the manpower to research this thing. So this had always been an idea in his mind and hadn’t become reality at all.
But now it was different. Although Xu Yi still didn’t have enough time right now, the manpower he had now was not small, not to mention the most important hundred dwarves that came from Master Lanus’ tribe.
With the help of these dwarves who had craftsmanship not below Master Lanus, Xu Yi could make the promise with chairman Farsak and provide him the corresponding machines to make the second generation Magic Fans.
But the work for these machines wasn’t much, so these dwarves finished it all without spending that much time. They were studying some mechanical knowledge that Xu Yi had given them and most of the time, they were free, so Xu Yi thought about this farming machinery.
Actually to someone like Xu Yi, for the Sines Continent that had a technological level and standard of living that was below that of earth, farming technology was the most important thing right now.
It was like Viscount Leslie said, a large part of his territory remained desolate because he didn’t have enough people to cultivate it.
If this was raised to the level of the Sines Continent, one could imagine just how much desolate land there was on the continent.
Corresponding with this, the Sines Continent had always had a low standard for harvests, so this has lead to a low standard of living for the people of the continent. At least in a small city like Banta City, there would be news of people starving to death each year.
From chatting with Heinz, Xu YI learned that eleven years ago, the Sines Continent had a large famine because of strange climate changes. Locusts roamed the land back then and caused quite a bit of trouble on the continent, with several small countries being destroyed in a single night.
As for the frightened look Heinz had back then, Xu Yi remembered it vividly.
For Xu Yi who had transmigrated from a highly advanced society like earth, when had he ever seen this scene?
But just based on his imagination, he knew how terrifying this scene was.
So he was even more determined on studying farming machinery.
“If this could be enough to increase the living standard of the people of the continent, perhaps there could be some meaning to my transmigrating into this world.”
Xu Yi looked into the bright starry night as he was lost in thought.