Volume 2 Chapter 150 Magic Trebuchet
While everyone was waiting for Xu Yi’s books and his new school, Xu Yi had secretly gone to Anvilmar City alone.
This time he didn’t see anyone and just directly went to the army headquarters’ logistics department to see Major MacConley.
“Hey, chairman Xu, I’ve heard that you went to the Stantine Duchy?” When major MacConley saw Xu Yi, he immediately asked this with a smile, “What do you think about the Stantine Duchy? Do you feel that there’s no cure for it at all?”
Hearing this question, Xu Yi immediately understood. It wasn’t just him who knew about the laziness of the Stantine Duchy’s people and the greed of the upper cla.s.s, this was common knowledge among people.
“It isn’t that there’s no saving them at all, but…..” Xu Yi gave a shrug and said with a bitter smile, “To do things on that side is indeed difficult.”
Major MacConley laughed as he patted Xu Yi’s shoulder, “If you want to take care of things, you should just stay in our Lampuri Kingdom. Especially for someone with skills like yours, you don’t need to waste your time in a place like the Stantine Duchy.”
Xu Yi looked at him. If the lands of the Lampuri Kingdom were as wide as the Marlow Empire or the Candra Empire, with resources as rich as those empires, he would be willing to develop in the Lampuri Kingdom.
But the Lampuri Kingdom was just a small country on the Sines Continent and their resources weren’t that rich. Most of the resources were already divided among the n.o.bles, so there wasn’t anything for Xu Yi and a new small company like the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to handle.
Just like with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s cooperation with the Jole Family. According to Xu Yi’s real wishes, he would want the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to control all the non-ferrous metal mines in the Lampuri Kingdom. But he was clear that the Jole Family wouldn’t be that generous, so he could only adopt this method of cooperation to receive preferential treatment from the Jole Family.
As someone who transmigrated from earth, Xu YI was very clear on the importance of controlling resources.
There was no chance in the Lampuri Kingdom for now, so Xu Yi had to set his eyes on other places.
The reason why he went to the Black Rice Wasteland to mine non-ferrous metals under the eyes of the beastmen and even ran to the Stantine Duchy to buy three mines, not giving up even after finding out that Duke Stantine wasn’t that reliable, it was because as long as he could control the resources in those two places, they would be completely controlled by Xu Yi.
To control his most precious energy resources in his hands, it was fine even if he had to pay a price.
Of course, to do this, he had to take care of a very important problem first.
Xu Yi gave major MacConley a signal with his eyes and major MacConley looked around before bringing Xu Yi to a secret room.
“You already developed it this quickly?” As soon as the door closed, major MacConley looked at Xu Yi with a look of expectation and excitement.
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and took out a set of blueprints for major MacConley.
Major MacConley quickly took them and didn’t care about Xu Yi as he went over them.
After taking a few looks, major MacConley’s eyes began to light up. When he reached the end, he had a smile of joy and excitement.
After reading the final page, major MacConley slapped his thigh and broke out in laughter.
“Great! Great! If we can use this Magic Trebuchet, our army’s battle strength will greatly increase!”
Xu Yi said with a smile, “Of course. Although we haven’t done any tests yet, this Magic Trebuchet is made completely out of steel and it has strong momentum, so in theory the greatest weight it can throw is one ton! Moreover, there is no need to adjust for a long time like with a traditional trebuchet. According to our current estimates, it won’t take more than half a minute to reload and set after each shot.”
“That means that as long as the stones can be loaded fast enough, it can even fire two stones in one minute?” Major MacConley asked with large eyes.
“That’s right.” Xu Yi gave a slight nod, “Moreover, this is just the first generation Magic Trebuchet. If you weren’t in such a rush, I wanted to develop another generation of Rapid Fire Magic Trebuchets to bring over.”
“Rapid Fire Magic Trebuchets?” Major MacConley’s bright eyes lit up even more, “Could it be that it can fire continuously?”
“Pretty much. To be specific, the Magic Trebuchet can be filled with stones and after it is adjusted, it can fire all the loaded stones. The soldiers in charge of the Magic Trebuchet just needs to prepare enough stones to put into the ammo box of the trebuchet.”
“Ammo box?” Major MacConley knit his brows to think before reacting, “This is a special box to put stones?”
“Un, the reason why I named it an ammo box was because to me, the stones of a trebuchet is its ammo.” After saying this, Xu Yi paused before a smile with a deep meaning appeared on his face, “Actually if I have to say it, stones really can’t be considered ammunition……”
Major MacConley looked at Xu Yi and had questions in his heart. But since Xu Yi wasn’t willing to talk about this, he thought about it before asking questions related to the Magic Trebuchet.
After understanding the basic knowledge, Major MacConley gave a nod, “Alright, this Magic Trebuchet is quite good. Although it needs to be discussed with the generals back at the army headquarters first, I think that it should pa.s.s. Chairman Xu, can I ask you, how long will it take for your company to produce Magic Trebuchets?”
“It isn’t being produced right now, so I can’t give you an exact time. But according to the estimates of the research facility, if we were to produce it, it would take at least a week at first to make one.”
“It’s actually only a week? This fast!” Major MacConley had a look of shock, “I thought that with how complicated this thing was, it would take at least several months to make one.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile as he thought that he estimated the miracle of industry too much.
This was because the industrial system of the Sines Continent was too weak. Even the Frestech Chamber of Commerce couldn’t compare to the large factories on earth, so it took them a week to finish a Magic Trebuchet.
This Magic Trebuchet looked very complex to major MacConley and had shocked him, but to a mechanical engineer like Xu Yi, it was very simple and wasn’t worth mentioning.
If this was placed in a complete industrial system like on earth, if it was given to a factory that made heavy machinery, it would only take a few days to make.
If it was given to a factory with a production a.s.sembly line, it might not even take a day to build one.
Major MacConley looked at Xu Yi with a hesitant look before asking, “This….Chairman Xu, this Magic Trebuchet, do you think our army headquarters could produce it ourselves?”
Xu Yi immediately revealed a smile.
As expected, as long as he took out the blueprint, the army headquarters would hope to grab the Magic Trebuchet in their hands.
But it was different this time, Xu Yi shook his head without even considering it.
“I’m afraid not.” Xu Yi said with a serious look, “Major MacConley, I think that you should understand that the Magic Trebuchet is very complex. It would even take quite a bit of effort for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce to make. I don’t think that your army headquarters has this ability.”
“Isn’t it enough to give us the blueprint and the technology?” Major MacConley kept asking, unwilling to give up.
Xu Yi firmly shook his head.
“No, major, this is different from producing weapons and armours. The main part of producing weapons and armours is the magic production machines from our company. The workers just need to understand how to use them, so it isn’t that difficult to make. But to produce something as complex as the Magic Trebuchet, even if I give you the corresponding technology, the army headquarters wouldn’t be able to understand it.” After saying this, Xu Yi revealed a taunting smile as he said, “Then again, although it isn’t impossible for us to take out the corresponding technology, the army headquarters should plan on using something to compensate us for it.”
Major MacConley fell into silence again.
He knew that the army headquarters could rely on the kingdom’s government to request these things from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and Xu Yi, they could even force the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to hand it over.
But to obtain it free of charge was clearly something that was impossible.
He could tell how strong this Magic Trebuchet was just by looking at the blueprint and if the Lampuri Kingdom’s army could have this, it would definitely increase their battle strength, so the army headquarters definitely needed this.
But if the army headquarters was too forceful, causing Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to be dissatisfied or to fight back, ignoring the dissatisfaction of the people who supported the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, just losing the chance to cooperate with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be an large loss.
To put it bluntly, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was unique right now. Other than them, there were no other companies that could research military magic machines that the army headquarters needed.
Even the concept of “military magic machines” was something that Xu Yi had proposed.
So even if major MacConley was the manager of the army headquarters’ logistics department, he was very polite to Xu Yi.
It wasn’t just because of the importance her highness Seveni and the king placed on Xu Yi, it was because Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gave them the things they urgently needed.
After he quickly calculated all the factors, major MacConley gave up the idea of having Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce give the technology to the army headquarters. After thinking about it, he said with a nod, “Alright then, chairman Xu, may I ask…..how much is your company planning to charge us for a Magic Trebuchet?”
Xu Yi stretched out a finger with a smile, “One thousand per unit.”
Major MacConley’s face instantly turned pale.