Volume 2 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?”
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.”