Volume 2 Chapter 3 Trivial matters
Half a month after New Years, the noisy Banta City gradually returned to its normal state.
At the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory to the west of the city, it had already started work a week ago and it regained its lively state.
Heinz opened the door to the office and saw Xu Yi standing in front of a wall, thinking deeply as he looked at the map of the Lampuri Kingdom hanging on it.
This map was something Xu Yi had asked for from the Lord City Lord. It seemed he liked this map very much, as he seemed to be looking at something on it every day.
Heinz found that the map today had changed today.
When this map was put on, Xu Yi had put a small flame red spot to the west of Banta City.
Heinz asked him why he did this and Xu Yi told him that represented where the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was, so he used the flame red colour to represent where the flame of the magic industry burned.
Heinz had found that Xu Yi had put a circle of fire red on Karma City not far to the right of Banta City and it was actually larger than Banta City.
Heinz looked at the flame red circle and asked Xu Yi with a smile, “What? You already reached an agreement?”
Xu Yi nodded, “Un, I just discussed it with Count Anaris’ representative and have reached an agreement to rent some land in Karma City. We just need to send someone from our company to inspect the land and make the final confirmations. With how much Count Anaris cares about this matter, I think it should go very smoothly. That’s right, Count Anaris’ representative asked me to go for an inspection as soon as possible, so I told him I would arrange it within a week. Although Karma City is very close to Banta City, with a trip there not taking that much time, the inspection will take quite a bit of time so you and Camby need to make preparations.”
Seeing Heinz nod in agreement, Xu Yi gave a sigh and pointed at the extra flame red circle on the map as he said, “But now we’re also facing an important problem. It isn’t hard to invest in a factory in Karma City, we just need to put in enough gold coins and with Count Anaris’ help, the factory can be easily built. But the problem is that I’ve found that we can’t send a corresponding person to manage it. Normally speaking, when a company opens up a new market, I should take the helm as the chairman, but I have to pay attention to the large order of agricultural magic machines for the agricultural department. There are many things I have to take care of and I can’t pull myself away. If I find anyone else, I’m not assured, so it is very hard.”
A hesitant look flashed on Heinz’s face before he paused and suddenly said, “Let me go.”
Xu Yi looked at him in surprise, “You?”
“Un.” Heinz gave a strong nod, “Xu Yi, I’ve thought about it. There are more and more things that need to be taken care of and we can’t have the chairman go personally, or you will be too busy. As the vice chairman, I must share some of this for you. Therefore let me take charge of building the factory in Karma City this time, what do you think?”
Xu Yi thoughtfully looked at Heinz for a bit before saying with a smile, “You taking care of the household magic machine workshop for this long is already considered taking quite a bit of work. But since you’re willing to accept even more work, naturally I will welcome it. But Heinz, didn’t you say that you wanted to peacefully live your life in Banta City and not go anywhere else? Why did you suddenly……”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said on New Years Eve during this time. Each time when I think about what you said about having a factory open on every part of the continent and seeing the mark of our Frestech Chamber of Commerce everywhere, I would feel very excited. Thinking about it, I really want to do something to make this a reality. Xu Yi, I know that I’m not a person with farsight like you, so I can’t help you with making decisions for the company. What I can do and excel in is taking care of trivial matters. This time we have Count Anaris’ support in building the factory in Karma City, so I think there shouldn’t be any problems. The main thing is that there needs to be someone there taking care of trivial matters. I feel that I’m very suited for this, what do you think Xu Yi?”
“I also think you’re very suited.” Xu Yi couldn’t help saying with a smile, “But Heinz, you are mistaken about something. Although this work is trivial, it is also very important. If these trivial matters aren’t taken care of, our company’s development will be empty talk. If you can help me take care of this matter, I would be very happy, but Heinz, what about the workshop if you leave?”
“You don’t need to worry. Do you remember the worker called Ankhto I mentioned to you before?”
“Ankhto?” Xu Yi thought about it before remembering, “The worker who took the initiative to clear up the argument between workers last time?”
“Yes, it’s him.” Heinz nodded. He had a look of praise as he said, “I’ve been observing this fellow for some time and found that he has a steady personality and a flexible mind. He has some prestige among the workers so a month ago, I promoted him to team leader to help me run the workshop. After observing him for some time, I feel that he isn’t bad. If I leave, you can promote him to vice manager of the workshop to take care of the production line in the workshop, I feel he should be able to do it.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “It seems like you’re very satisfied with Ankhto. Good, since it’s your personal recommendation, we’ll decide on him. Go and tell him after you head back, let him prepare himself.”
“Relax, I know what to do.”
Since there was Heinz to volunteer, Xu Yi simply to yield and let Heinz take care of the matter of the Karma City factory.
Actually compared to Xu Yi, Heinz was much older and had more worldly wisdom than Xu Yi. Letting him handle this kind of thing, perhaps he would even do better than Xu Yi.
But through this matter, Xu Yi found another problem for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. It was the fact that they lacked talented people.
Although Heinz had found a talent for management among like workers like Ankhto, with how fast the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was developing, it wasn’t enough to meet their needs to find talents from inside them.
So when recruiting more workers for the expansion of the factory, Xu Yi also needed to recruit some managers.
Talented people naturally wouldn’t appear easily, so Xu Yi could only wait.
But the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production line couldn’t wait.
After they began working after New Years, they had officially started using the new workshop. The dwarves of the magic machine workshop entered a new workshop that was more than ten times bigger and much more beautiful, causing their enthusiasm for work to skyrocket.
In just a single week, the magic machine workshop had completed over five hundred small Magic Harvesters.
With their speed, in less than two months, they could complete the first order for three thousand agricultural magic machines for the agricultural department.
Of course, the reason for this terrifying speed was that Camby’s group of dwarves had already finished developing the line of Magic Punch Presses before last year ended.
Now there was a production magic machine production line for the small Magic Harvesters and they didn’t need to rely purely on dwarven labour to make them, so naturally the efficiency had been increased.
Sheets of iron were cut, flattened, and formed by the Magic Punch Presses and then skillfully assembled into small Magic Harvesters by the dwarves. Seveni who had just arrived in Banta City in the morning and ran over to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory was very satisfied. She couldn’t help turning to Xu Yi and praising him, “Chairman Xu, to be honest, I wasn’t that confident in you before. This was because after I came to Banta City and saw that your company didn’t have a high efficiency in making the agricultural magic machines, I was doubtful about whether your company could finish the order or not. You said before that as long as you developed the Magic Punch Presses, your efficiency would be greatly increased, but I was very doubtful. This was because before seeing these Magic Punch Presses, I couldn’t have imagined what kind of tool could allow workers to increase their efficiency by over ten times.”
“Then what about now that you’ve seen it?” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“I’m very…..shocked. Yes, I’m very shocked.” Seveni said with an emotional expression, “I never thought that these Magic Punch Presses would be this strong. Look, to turn an iron sheet into a certain form, if it was using pure manual labour, it would take a blacksmith an entire afternoon. But using this Magic Punch Press, it happens in the blink of an eye. This really has opened my eyes.”
Xu Yi laughed. He came in front of a stack of iron sheets that had already been shaped and slid his finger along the edge. He said to Seveni, “Young miss Seveni, efficiency is only one part of it. The other important part is standardizing everything. Look, almost every one of these iron sheets have the same form, not differing at all. If you had blacksmiths make this, it would be impossible to be as complete as this. This kind of difference is the biggest difference for a large scale assembly line.”
Seveni slightly knit her brows. She looked at Xu Yi and said in a confused manner, “Chairman Xu, the things you’ve said…..Actually I don’t understand that much, can you explain it to me?”
“Of course that’s not a problem. But young miss Seveni, you have to pay some tuition to learn this knowledge. What will you use to pay your tuition?” Xu Yi said in a teasing voice.
“Tuition?” Seveni revealed a cunning smile, “Chairman Xu, I wonder, will some good news about renting land would be enough to pay this tuition?”