Volume 2 Chapter 151 Poor army headquarters
“This…..” Major MacConley’s mouth opened before he finally gave a long sigh. He said with a bitter smile, “Chairman Xu, this price…..it’s just too expensive…..”
“Expensive?” Xu Yi shook his head, “Major, I think that after you saw the blueprint, you should understand how powerful the Magic Trebuchet is. With this kind of power, do you think that the Magic Trebuchet would be cheap?”
“I know this, but…..” Major MacConley had a helpless smile, “This price is still too high. I won’t hide it from you, our logistics department’s yearly budget is no more than three hundred thousand gold coins and we use less than a hundred thousand one equipment. If it wasn’t because we made a weapon factory with your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, decreasing our costs by several times, I might not even be able to take out a single copper coin.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help shaking his head. The Lampuri Kingdom really was poor, their annual income was less than two million and the military expenses were only three hundred thousand, it really was pitiful.
It was already a stretch to maintain the army with this bit of money, it was no wonder major MacConley kept complaining when he saw him.
But sympathy was just sympathy, this price was one that Xu Yi wasn’t willing to bend by even a single copper coin.
“Major, although I also want to help you, the cost of the Magic Trebuchet is just too high. Not mentioning anything else, it takes over three tons of steel just to make a single Magic Trebuchet. As for this new kind of steel, our company is selling it at a hundred gold coins per ton. Other than the materials, the labour costs are also quite high and the most important part is the research cost. In order to develop this Magic Trebuchet, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magicians, including Great Magician Camilla spent two whole months working on this, forgetting to eat, losing sleep, and even working overtime. You think…..that a thousand gold coins per unit is too high?”
“Indeed it’s not high.” Major MacConley nodded before giving a sigh, “But chairman Xu, the problem is that our army headquarters can’t take out that much money. There’s not much left in this year’s budget and our army headquarters being able to buy three units is already good enough.”
“If you want to buy, it doesn’t mean you have to spend gold coins…..” Xu Yi softly said.
Major MacConley looked at Xu Yi with a complicated gaze.
After thinking for a bit, he waved his hand, “Let’s not talk about this for now. Even if I want to buy it, let’s wait until your company makes the thing and see if it moves the hearts of the people above me. It’s still too early for us to discuss other things right now.”
Major MacConley didn’t plan on discussing it, so Xu Yi could only stop here.
Of course, other than this topic, Xu Yi hadn’t mentioned his other important goal. Seeing major MacConley carefully putting away the blueprint, Xu Yi directly reached out his hand.
“Major, I’ve already accomplished what I promised you, what about the people you promised?”
“Come with me.”
Major MacConley waved his hand to Xu Yi and brought him out of the office to the training field outside. He reached out to wave at a large man who had been standing there the whole time.
This large man jogged over and gave a clean military salute to major MacConley. He kept looking at major MacConley, not even sparing a glance for Xu Yi.
Seeing his strong figure, his straight back, and his resolute expression, along with the scars that he had, this should be a veteran with quite a bit of experience.
“Come, chairman Xu, let me introduce you. He is Hart, he is a veteran who retired this year. Since Hart joined the army, he has been someone who has been fighting with the Sack Kingdom bastards up north, so he has rich fighting experience. The most important thing is that he used to be an instructor with the northern army and he has a group of brothers under him. He is definitely the most suited person if you’re looking for a guard leader for your company.” Major MacConley pointed at the large man as he gave his introduction.
Hearing major MacConley say this, Hart turned to look at Xu Yi.
The two locked gazes and Xu Yi felt his scalp itch. There was a killing intent that came over him and instantly covered his body in goosebumps.
Xu Yi narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself down before facing Hart straight on.
Hart’s eyes were bright and seeing that Xu Yi didn’t evade his gaze, he seemed to be a bit surprised. There was a smile of praise that flashed on his face.
“You are the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu?” Hart took the initiative to reach out his hand, “You seem much better than I imagined.”
Xu Yi reached out his hand to take his hand and asked with a smile, “What kind of person am I in your imagination?”
“In my imagination, merchants are all trash with money in their eyes!” Hart said without any courtesy, “If it wasn’t the major who came looking for me and promised that chairman Xu is different from other merchants, I wouldn’t have come to see you.”
Major MacConley said with an awkward smile, “Chairman Xu, Hart has this kind of personality, but don’t mind him.”
Xu Yi laughed, “It’s fine, I like this kind of frank person. For a soldier like Hart, if he can be the leader of my company’s guards, I believe that no one will dare offend my company.”
Since Xu Yi and Hart were both satisfied, this first meeting was considered a success.
With major MacConley as a witness, Xu Yi and Hart signed a contract to hire Hart as the leader of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards.
Other than Hart, major MacConley had also recruited two hundred retired veterans who were on the same level as Hart.
These veterans were elite soldiers who had fought many battles, becoming the biggest targets for the Lampuri Kingdom’s companies after retiring.
If he didn’t have a connection through major MacConley, if Xu Yi wanted to recruit two hundred veterans like this, it was not something possible.
Of course, compared to the current cooperation between the army headquarters and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, this request was just a small price that the army headquarters paid,
After this matter was taken care of, Xu Yi left the army headquarters and went to see Marquis Jole.
When he came to Anvilmar City last year, Xu Yi and Marquis Jole had discussed the matter of mining non-ferrous metals in the Lampuri Kingdom.
Now that several months had passed, the preparations for both sides had been finished and they had explored a non-ferrous metal vein outside Cramer City with the Norma Tribe dwarves, so they decided to start mining it.
According to the previous agreement between the two, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Jole Family would be setting up a steel mill together near Cramer City.
Now that they had discovered this non-ferrous metal vein, Xu Yi directly expanded this steel mill to be able to make all the steel needed for the army’s equipment, while also being able to use the non-ferrous metals.
Like this, the size of this steel mill in the beginning could even match the steel mill at the Falling Rain Valley.
Even for the Jole Family, this steel mill opening had a very important significance. So when Xu Yi came for a visit, Marquis Jole was very sincere in his treatment.
The discussions between the two went very smoothly.
Marquis Jole didn’t reveal much of his intentions, but for an important person of the Lampuri Kingdom like him, as long as he didn’t show an opposition, it meant that he supported this in his heart.
Xu Yi didn’t expect him to bargain with him like chairman Morgan did, just being able to understand his basic intentions had already accomplished his goal.
The only surprise was that when Xu Yi was planning to leave the Jole Manor, he bumped into Vincent who came home.
The instant he saw Xu Yi, Vincent’s face became very splendid.
Last time he had been scolded by his father in front of Xu Yi and was forced to apologize to him, even though Vincent’s heart was filled with unwillingness and rage, he knew that Xu Yi was not someone he could match. No matter how much he envied and hated Xu Yi, he didn’t dare do anything in front of him.
So Vincent only glared at Xu Yi before walking past him like he hadn’t seen him at all.
Xu Yi naturally wouldn’t argue with this kind of fellow, he just smiled as he left the manor.
For his trip to Anvilmar City this time, Xu Yi was only staying for three days. After meeting major MacConley and Marquis Jole, he also went to meet Great Magician Eisenkel.
Other than his important deal with major MacConley, as well as checking in on his previous deals with Marquis Jole and Great Magician Eisenkel, so he had to come meet them since he was in Anvilmar City.
Xu Yi also wanted to meet her highness Seveni. He could only ask the king, but he was told that her highness was inspecting the northern border and it was unknown when she would be back.
In short, other than Xu Yi coming to Anvilmar City to solve his biggest problem of taking care of the company guards, he didn’t accomplish much else.
But based on the response from major MacConley, Xu Yi was certain that as long as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce produced the Magic Trebuchet and showed the brass of the army headquarters the power of the Magic Trebuchet, this thing would definitely be sold.
Although Xu Yi had told the truth about how high the cost of the Magic Trebuchet was, he had exaggerated it a bit still.
According to the data, after adding in the cost of research, a single Magic Trebuchet should cost around six to seven hundred gold coins.
The research cost only existed before it was mass produced. Once this was developed, they could quickly produce large amounts and the research cost wouldn’t be a large percentage anymore.
According to this, as long as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce sold a Magic Trebuchet, they could earn a large profit of two to three hundred gold coins.
The only hindrance was that the army headquarters didn’t have money…..
But to Xu Yik, this wasn’t that big of a problem.
Money, it wasn’t like Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce lacked that.
Comparatively, the things that couldn’t be bought with money were more important.