Volume 7 Chapter 79
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards’ recruitment this time was the third time being held in the March of year 3802.
In the last two recruitments, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards had recruited two thousand seven hundred and thirty nine people which was a strong supplement.
However, in the third recruitment, they only recruited three hundred and ninety eight people.
Compared to the last two recruitments, the number of people recruited this third time had greatly dropped.
There were many reasons for this, but most people thought that the most important reason was that in this third recruitment, there was an extra test which was the intelligence test.
With just this intelligence test, more than half of the applicants had been eliminated, which caused the number of guards recruited to drop greatly.
Countless people were confused by this test and were confused by the result of this test.
An intelligence test really was strange, but if it was a simple intelligence test, it wouldn’t have been able to drop all these applicants.
“Actually, the reason is very simple. The reason why we recruited so few people this time is because we’ve already recruited most of the people we can recruit in the last two recruitments.”
Xu Yi waved the report from the recruitment in his hand and his expression wasn’t as serious as the guard leader Hart who was in front of him.
“But sir chairman, in these rounds of recruitment, there were very few people who came. There were less than five thousand people who came for the third round. Is the enticement of our Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards that low?” Hart had a confused look, “But out of the people that came, only a small portion of them were humans, which added up to less than a thousand people. This really is too strange.”
“You have to understand something, it isn’t that our company’s guards aren't enticing enough, rather our requirements are too high.” Xu Yi shook his head, “To be honest, how many do you feel would meet the requirements?”
“Un……There really aren't many of them.” Hart gave a bitter laugh before looking at Xu Yi with a strange look, “But sir chairman, it’s because your requirements are too high. Otherwise, I feel that if we loosened some of the requirements, it wouldn’t be a problem to recruit ten times the number of people.”
“And then? What would be the use in recruiting these fellows that we can’t use?” Xu Yi asked back, “To be honest, I’m very dissatisfied with the fellows that you just recruited. If we weren’t in a rush to get more people, I would want to get rid of those fellows.”
The smile on Hart’s face became even more bitter.
“Sir chairman, not to mention you, I even want to get rid of many of them. I didn’t understand why you added this intelligence test in the beginning, but I completely understand now. I’ve been training those fellows who just joined the guards and I’m about to die of exhaustion from having them learn how to use the military magic machines.”
“Ha, now do you understand why I kept telling you to find more time to train the guards? Let me tell you, the company will be developing more and more military magic machines that will be more and more complicated to operate. If you don’t find the time to train them, you might not even be able to use the good things that we give you.” Although Xu Yi was smiling, his tone was serious.
Hart gave a slow nod as he agreed to this.
“I understand. Sir chairman, I also feel that I can keep up less and less recently, so…..I wanted to ask you a favour……”
“What? You want me to send some researchers to the guards?” Xu Yi looked over as he asked this.
Hart was stunned, “Sir chairman, how did you know? Did people mention this to you already?”
“No, it’s just based on my inference, you would need to make this request. Alright, you don’t need to say anything, I already have my ideas. While expanding the guards this time, I will transfer some of the interested researchers from the military magic machine development team over to help you guys understand and operate the military magic machines.” Xu Yi waved his hand as he said this.
“Great!” Hart was filled with joy, “Sir chairman, I never thought that you cared this much about our guards, this really is……”
Xu Yi couldn’t help laughing.
“Why do you make it sound like I never cared about the guards before? To be honest with you, the guards will become the most important department of our company and as the head of the guards, you have to be mentally prepared.”
Hart suddenly stood at attention and gave a salute.
“Sir chairman, please be assured. The guards will all be prepared and will be willing to sacrifice everything for the company!”
Xu Yi felt it was a bit funny as he looked at Hart.
“Hey, Hart, where did you learn this from?”
Hart gave a laugh, “I saw it in the «Legends of the Setting Sun Empire» and felt it was quite good, so I took it to use.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling. He thought that Hart could be considered someone he worked with for many years and he had only seen a bit of humour from him today.,
The «Legends of the Setting Sun Empire» was the New Moon Chamber of Commerce’s new series. It was a story about the building of a fictional Setting Sun Empire and their final decline. Because of how grand and majestic the story was, it was very popular as soon as it was broadcasted.
He never thought that Hart would watch it and even learn this pose from it, it really was surprising.
But if Hart knew that the words and pose that he had learned were all written by Xu Yi, how would he feel?
After Hart discussed the matter of the guards with Xu Yi, he left.
Xu Yi took the recruitment report that he had left and there was a bit of hesitation in his eyes.
Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had recruited too few people this time, with the main reason being that the standard of the guards were too high, there was a still a problem that couldn’t be ignored which was the lack of troops.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce was only a company in the end and the guards of a company were only normal members of the company.
Although Xu Yi had tried to train a sense of belonging and camaraderie in the guards which had worked quite well, a company was still a company and it couldn’t be a country.
If a country wanted to recruit an army, they could adopt conscription and force all the people who met the requirements in the country to join the army.
But a company could only use their conditions to entice people to join.
Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had the most enticing conditions out of all the races, it was limited to a company, so the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s troops were very limited.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had a good relation with the other races, which allowed them to supplement from other races, then the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards might only be a few retired soldiers from the Stantine Duchy and some other countries.
The quality of the soldiers recruited from this could be imagined.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had high requirements, so there would be very few that would pass in the end.
This would make the Frestech Chamber of Commerce set their requirements even higher which would further limit their supply of troops.
So don’t look at how great the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s reputation was and how good the benefits of the guards were, there weren’t as many people who came to join the guards as one would imagine.
For example, in this third recruitment, there were less than five thousand people who came and there were less than a thousand humans. The rest were all from other races.
One, it was because most humans weren’t willing to leave their home to come to the Stantine Duchy to join the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards. Two, most of the human warriors that came were veteran mercenaries and could be considered a scrap army, so they couldn’t meet Xu Yi’s requirements and would be eliminated, so less people would be willing to come.
Of course, it wasn’t that they couldn’t solve their lack of troops.
For example, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had built branches and factories in many countries of the continent, as well as building good strategic relations with most countries.
If Xu Yi was willing, he could set up military bases in those countries and recruit guards locally, which would expand the scale and range of influence of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards.
But like this, it would naturally change the nature of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in the eyes of many countries.
If it was said that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could be considered a normal company now and many countries were willing to cooperate with them, once the Frestech Chamber of Commerce started establishing military bases, it would pose a threat to their countries.
This was completely different from before.
Xu Yi was hesitating about this.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s development on the Sines Continent had reached a bottleneck and to break through, they required powerful military force to allow them to obtain room for development from other countries.
But if they increased their military force, it would mean that the relations with other countries would become tense and that would limit their room for development.
Moreover, investing in expanding their military force was like a bottomless hole.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce was in a crucial period of development and there were many places where they needed to use money. It wasn’t that they couldn’t increase the investment on the guards, but this will create quite a bit of pressure, so it wasn’t recommended.
As for the proportion, that was decided by Xu Yi, the chairman alone and the others couldn’t share this burden with him.
So Xu Yi had a rare moment of hesitation.
Because he knew that his decision wouldn’t just affect the lives of the three hundred thousand people in the company, it could even affect the fate of the entire Sines Continent.