Volume 3 Chapter 122 Upgrading the road network
“Sealed?” Xu Yi looked forward in surprise. After thinking about it, he stood up and got out.
In front of the motorcade, he found that there were a bunch of logs that were used to block the road, keeping the motorcade out.
Xu Yi looked into the distance to find that there were no signs of construction ahead and that there were several horse carriages
It seemed like they were the only ones being blocked.
There were ten soldiers wearing armour behind the blockade and based on the symbol on their chests, they were not from the royal army, but rather they were Lamarte City’s guards.
The one currently arguing with Ankhto seemed to be a team captain.
“Ankhto, what is it?” Xu Yi looked at Ankhto whose face was completely red with anger and asked him this.
“Sir chairman, this fellow actually dares to only block us. I think that they are just trying to make it hard on us!” Ankhto pointed at the soldiers and indignantly said, “I clearly saw them letting the horse carriages go through earlier, but they actually stopped us when we tried to go through.”
“Hey, didn’t I just tell you earlier?” The team leader pointed at the road behind him, “This road is currently being fixed, so your heavy carriages can’t go on them. Do you not understand that?”
“But I clearly saw a large cargo horse carriage let through, the cargo they had wasn’t any less than ours, right?” Ankhto said without giving up.
“How do you know they are heavier than you?” The team captain looked at Ankhto before looking at Xu Yi, “Hey, you are the chairman? Let me tell you, this road is closed, take a detour.”
“Be more polite to our sir chairman! Let me tell you, sir chairman is……”
Xu Yi raised his arm and stopped Ankhto. After thinking for a bit, he came in front of the captain and said with a faint smile, “This official, can we step to the side and talk?”
The captain looked at Xu Yi and gave a laugh. He waved at Xu Yi and moved to a tree at the side of the road.
Xu Yi followed him and they came behind the tree. Without another word, he took out a small purse from his chest.
“Official, can you tell me why this road is sealed?”
The captain didn’t show any courtesy and took the purse. He weighed it and could tell that there were at least twenty gold coins based on the weight. The serious expression on his face disappeared and he revealed a happy smile.
“Hei, about that……Actually I don’t know what is going on.” The captain explained with a smile, “In any case, the Lord City Lord gave an order a month ago and said that all Magic Cars weren’t allowed on the road. Before you came, I’ve already stopped the Magic Cars of several companies.”
The captain turned back to look at the motorcade on the road and asked in a curious voice, “Speaking of this, what company are you from? This is my first time seeing a company with this many Magic Cars.”
“He, he, just a small company, this official definitely hasn’t heard of us.” Xu Yi vaguely replied before asking, “Official, is there a chance of bending the rules? We’ve come this far and if we turn back, it’ll be a large waste of time. Moreover, we wouldn’t be able to find a place to rest, right?”
While saying this, Xu Yi took out another purse.
Seeing that this one was much bigger, the captain couldn’t help swallowing a mouthful of saliva. After struggling a bit, he still shook his head.
“No, the Lord City Lord gave a strict order this time. If I let you through, I might be caught by the Lord City Lord.”
Seeing that the captain had a firm look, Xu Yi knew that there wasn’t a chance at all. After thinking about it, he gave a nod. He looked at the distant road before turning back to the cars.
“Sir chairman, how about it?” Ankhto immediately asked in a low voice.
Xu Yi shook his head, “Turn around, we’ll change roads.”
Ankhto immediately knit his brows, “We’re turning back now? But sir chairman, there is only this road near Lamarte City.”
“It’s not like we can’t take other roads, then again don’t you think that normal roads would be better than this road?” Xu Yi asked back.
Ankhto looked at the bumpy road under him and gave a cold laugh. He looked back at the ten soldiers standing by the road before turning to get in the car.
Seeing Ankhto going to the first cargo Magic Car that he was driving to turn it around, Xu Yi returned to the passenger Magic Car in the middle of the motorcade.
After explaining it to Camby and the others, they were all confused.
“It’s fine if they were fixing the roads since such a broken road should be fixed, but why are they only stopping Magic Cars?” Camby knit his brows, “Could it be they are going against our Frestech Chamber of Commerce?”
Xu Yi looked at the road in the distance and found that he couldn’t even see Lamarte City’s walls. He shook his head and said, “I don’t know. Perhaps there is this reason, but it isn’t important. After all, this place isn’t Banta City, I’m too lazy to waste time negotiating with the Lamarte City’s City Lord. Moreover, like I told Ankhto just now, instead of taking this road, wouldn’t it be better to take the normal dirt roads?”
Everyone in the car broke out in laughter.
“That’s right, such a poor road, it might not even be as smooth as an old dirt road.”
“Che, the old road in our village is better than this broken road.”
“Alright, we’ll look down on those Amrit Chamber of Commerce fellows when we get back. Making such a broken road, they really aren’t embarrassed.”
……
Xu Yi didn’t join in their teasing and he opened the map again. His finger fell onto Anvilmar City before connecting it to Sowell City.
Other than stopping on Lamarte City, his finger also stopped on another two cities.
The other two cities were similar to Lamarte City, they all rejected the investment request of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to support his highness Eric.
Xu Yi was now worried that if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s motorcade was refused entry into Lamarte City, they might meet the same treatment in the other two cities.
Lamarte City not letting Magic Cars through because they needed to fix the road seemed like there was no problem, but Xu Yi could feel something discomforting from this.
If this matter was Lamarte City aiming at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, Xu Yi needed to consider this problem more.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce is going to invest in Sowell City because other than Count Sean inviting them, it was because it was more convenient to cooperate with the Drake Duchy from Sowell City. The more important thing was that this played a very important role in spreading the magic machine industry across the Lampuri Kingdom.
So based on this, Xu Yi couldn’t make mistakes. He had gathered all of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s elites and had even come personally.
Now that they had been obstructed in Lamarte City, Xu Yi couldn’t help considering a very real question.
Sowell City was over a thousand kilometers from Banta City and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needed to transport a large amount of people and cargo to invest there, so the transportation problem was the biggest problem.
To quickly transport things, Magic Cars and roads were necessary.
But because the roads in the Lampuri Kingdom were funded by the various companies or the cities, they were controlled by the cities they linked to.
For example, if Lamarte City doesn’t want to let Magic Cars pass, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s motorcade couldn’t pass.
If Lamarte City and the other two cities all limit the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce trying to transport things from Banta City to Sowell City will be affected.
So Xu Yi seriously considered this problem. The road network in the Lampuri Kingdom should be improved ahead of time.
Because there were limited funds and there was a lack of understanding of the roads, the kingdom’s roads were completed by the various cities. Although there were over three thousand kilometers of road in the kingdom, they were split into small parts by the various cities.
According to the standards of earth, they were only considered county roads, they weren’t even considered provincial roads yet.
So while they had a road network that connected all the cities in the kingdom, there were still many problems.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce met one of these problems today.
Other than this, because each road invested different amounts in roads, the quality of the roads were different. Adding the fact that the roads only connected cities, there were many twists and turns, so it was much longer than just heading straight towards the city.
Take the distance between Banta City and Sowell City, there was less than seven hundred kilometers between them, but if one measured in terms of roads, it was over a thousand kilometers of roads. This increased the distance by a half.
First not mentioning the travel expenses, just the time traveled made Xu Yi feel it was a waste.
Xu Yi had considered this problem before, but he felt that it wasn’t time yet, so he didn’t need to worry about it.
Now that he met this problem in Lamarte City, he had to seriously consider how to solve it.
Xu Yi drew a straight line between Banta City and Sowell City, then he began looking at the situation of the land near that line. He was considering if it was feasible to create a seven hundred kilometer long highway that would become the Lampuri Kingdom’s first transnational highway.