Volume 2 Chapter 81 Xu Yi’s work
Xu Yi brought Kennard on his first job. It wasn’t researching Magic Arrays, going to the magic machine workshop to conduct research, nor was it going to work at the factory, rather he brought him to a large piece of farmland outside the city.
Right now it was the fall harvest and Banta City wasn’t an exception, as the fall harvest began just like last year.
But it wasn’t like last year where everyone had to come out to work on the farmland. Because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s agricultural magic machines had become popular and with the farmer support plan, many normal farmers had agricultural magic machines. So the fall harvest was mainly left to the agricultural magic machines to finish and it didn’t take that much manpower. It didn’t delay the city renovation plan and the efficiency was much higher than before.
Xu Yi brought Kennard to a baron’s territory to the north of the city. When the two of them arrived, there were several dozen small Magic Harvesters quickly moving across the farmland in the territory.
In just the blink of an eye, a large patch of the dense wheat in the field had been cut down and there were many bags of packed wheat on the side.
“Hey, Baron Nazr, it seems like you’ll be able to finish the harvest by today?” Xu Yi came to a middle aged man of around forty by the side of the field and greeted him.
Baron Nazr turned to look at Xu Yi and the smile on his face became even brighter. He said with a nod, “That’s right, it seems like it won’t be a problem to finish the harvest today. Luckily we had the help of the agricultural magic machines from chairman Xu’s company. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to finish even if I had several hundred more people.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and accepted Baron Nazr’s praise without any politeness. He looked at the Magic Harvesters moving through the field and asked, “Are there any problems with the machines?”
“No problems at all.” Baron Nazr shook his head, “Then again, even if there are small problems, with chairman Cantona and his helpers here, they can solve it themselves.” After pausing, Baron Nazr asked in a surprised voice, “Chairman Xu, why did you suddenly come here? And these two are…..”
Baron Nazr’s eyes fell onto Kennard and Sophia who were looking over the fields and Xu Yi explained, “These two are friends of Baron Hannas and they came here together with him from Anvilmar City to play. I came this time because I have something to discuss with chairman Cantona.”
“Is it related to him bringing people to other cities to help with their harvests?”
“Un, he is bringing all those agricultural magic machines away from the city, so there are many things to pay attention to that I have to remind him of.”
Baron Nazr couldn’t help saying, “You can just send someone else to contact him about this, there’s no need for you to personally come.”
“There are quite a few things to take note of, so they might not be able to explain everything.” Xu Yi shook his head.
“There’s no need for you to come here. You can just contact him and have him come find you. You are the chairman of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there’s no need for you to personally handle this small matter.” Baron Nazr didn’t seem to approve of Xu Yi’s actions.
Xu Yi gave a shrug and said with a faint smile, “The customers are gods. Since chairman Cantona purchased products from our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, then our company has to provide service to him. No one is an exception to this, even the chairman like me.”
“Alright, chairman Xu, I have also bought many products from your company and I am also your customer, so am I also a god? Speaking of this, can I call you to my house for a service call at any time?” Baron Nazr said with a smile.
Of course Xu Yi knew that Baron Nazr was joking, so he replied with a faint smile, “It’s a real pity Baron Nazr, our company divides post sale service based on scale. There are few things that require the chairman like me to personally head out, so I’m afraid you won’t have that chance.”
Baron Nazr laughed before pointing at a field in front and saying, “Alright, go and find chairman Cantona. He’s over there.”
Xu Yi nodded before turning back to Kennard and asking, “Do you want to listen to my conversation with chairman Cantona?”
Kennard shook his head, “The matter you’re discussing will involve secrets of your company, so I won’t come with you.”
“There’s no secrets, but it’s fine if you don’t come. The field is rather dirty and while it’s fine for the two of us, young miss Sophia might not want to go.” Xu Yi nodded before heading off in the direction Baron Nazr pointed out.
After Xu Yi left, there were only Baron Nazr, Kennard, and Sophia standing by the field.
Baron Nazr looked over the two of them curiously.
Xu Yi said that these two people were Baron Hannas’ friends, but Baron Hannas wasn’t here, so why were the two of them following Xu Yi?”
Noticing Baron Nazr looking at them, Kennard looked away from the Magic Harvesters moving in the field and nodded to Baron Nazr with a faint smile. He gave a simple introduction before pointing to Xu Yi talking to a person that looked like a farmer and asked, “Lord Baron, does chairman Xu normally personally handle these matters?”
Baron Nazr shook his head, “You heard what he said just now, there aren’t many things that he personally needs to handle. There are too many things the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needs to do now, if he were to personally handle each matter, even ten of him wouldn’t be enough to keep up.”
Kennard nodded before asking, “Then can you tell me, what does this chairman Cantona do? Why does chairman Xu have to personally come and meet him for this matter?”
Baron Nazr looked at Kennard in surprise, not understanding why he was interested in this matter. But thinking about it, he still answered.
“Cantona…..Actually he was just a normal farmer from a village outside the city, but he earned a bit of money from participating in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s farmer support plan last year. Then he united a bunch of farmers that had participated in this plan and owned agricultural magic machines into a single company, specializing in harvesting fields for people.”
“Then this Cantona must have quite the mind for business.” Kennard praised.
“Hei, this fellow’s mind is quite nimble, he’s not like a normal farmer.” Baron Nazr said with a nod, “As for why chairman Xu personally came here…..It’s just like chairman Xu said, there are too many things to pay attention to and other people wouldn’t be able to describe it clearly. Then again, chairman Xu was the one who gave Cantona the idea of going to other cities to help with the harvest, so chairman Xu puts a bit of importance in this matter.”
“It was chairman Xu who suggested that they take agricultural magic machines to other cities to help with the harvest?” Kennard was a bit surprised, “I thought that this chairman Cantona thought of it himself, I was actually admiring him for having such good thoughts.”
Baron Nazr laughed, “I’ve said before that Cantona is just a normal farmer, him being able to unite the farmers together into a company is already good enough, how could he have thought this far ahead. Before he just wanted to do business in our Banta City and the nearby Karma City and Saltan City, but chairman Xu reminded him that he could have even more business if he headed to further cities, so he made this decision. If we’re comparing farsight, how could he compare to chairman Xu?”
Kennard couldn’t help asking, “Lord Baron, you seem to admire chairman Xu very much?”
“Of course.” Baron Nazr had a natural look on his face, “Chairman Xu has established the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for just over a year now and has developed the Frestech Chamber of Commerce into such a powerful company, he’s very powerful just based on this. Moreover, it is because of him that such large changes have happened in our Banta City in just a year and many people’s lives have become much better. I wouldn’t understand too much if you asked me, but if you asked the farmers outside Banta City, I guarantee that they will all worship chairman Xu. For example, if you were to ask Cantona, do you believe that he would praise Xu Yi into the sky?”
Kennard gave a soft nod. He looked at Xu Yi talking to Cantona in the distance as he narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought.
Even Sophia on the side couldn’t help taking a few glances at Xu Yi. But after looking for a while, she gave a snort and turned her head, looking in another direction.
After around twenty minutes, Xu Yi came back.
After saying goodbye to Baron Nazr, he left with Kennard and Sophia, taking the horse carriage back to Sandton Manor.
When Xu Yi had just arrived, the chairman of the small companies of the Sandton Manor’s industrial sector came in. They came to discuss the possibility of expanding production with Xu Yi, preparing to buy some more magic production machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Naturally this wasn’t a difficult matter. Xu Yi asked them to present their last month’s sale and output numbers and when he learned that they had large orders, he agreed to their requests.
But as for the chairmen who asked to produce more than one kind of component, wanting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to provide them the magic machines and training to do so, Xu YI rejected them.
“There is a phrase from my hometown, it’s called biting off more than you can chew. From what I can see, although the quality of the parts your companies produce isn’t bad, just reaching the standard, there are many places where it can be improved. For example, the bearing disc that chairman Geta’s company produces, although it can be used, the size of the hole inside each disc is not consistent. Last time I held an examination, the largest margin of error was three millimeters.” Xu Yi seriously said.
Chairman Geta who had been called out by Xu Yi scratched his head and awkwardly said, “I’ll tell the workers to pay attention when I head back.”
Xu Yi nodded, “Paying attention to improving the level of the part you make is more important than producing another part. You should be clear that the parts with higher quality will receive more orders, even receiving a higher price. Chairman Geta, if the margin of error for the bearing discs that your company makes can reach one millimeter, then when our Frestech Chamber of Commerce buys from you, we’re willing to increase the base price by another silver coin.”
Chairman Geta’s eyes lit up, “Really?”
Xu Yi looked at him with a smile and didn’t respond.
Chairman Geta slapped himself and spat out, “Pei, when has chairman Xu not kept his words, I’m speaking nonsense. Alright, chairman Xu, since you’ve agreed to this, I will work hard on researching when I get back. I will definitely get the margin of error to one millimeter and satisfy your needs!”
Xu Yi nodded with a smile, “I’ll be waiting for your good news.”
Seeing Xu Yi agree with chairman Geta, the other small company chairmen didn’t want to fall behind and all made the same request of Xu Yi.
Naturally Xu Yi didn’t reject them.
As long as these small companies could raise their level in producing these components, he wouldn’t mind raising the price a bit.
The more important thing was that he hoped to invoke a competitive atmosphere between these small companies, allowing them to put in all their effort into increasing their level.
For an industrial system, the technological level of producing components was just as important or even more important than materials.
Especially at a stage where high precision CNC routers hadn’t appeared yet.
[TL Note: CNC routers are computer controlled cutting machines.]