Volume 5 Chapter 51 Taking the high end road
“Chairman Xu, last time you promised me…..that new type Fire Engine Magic Sedan, what is going on now? This time…..Oh, no, wasn’t it supposed to come out last month?”
Seeing Baron Belil who had a nervous look, but still had a trace of respect in his eyes, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling. He thought that worldly matters really were hard to predict.
The first time he saw this Baron Belil, he had come to Banta City on behalf of the Stagg Family. He had replaced Viscount Leslie in managing the Stagg Family’s land in Banta City and the first thing he did was chase the Frestech Chamber of Commerce out of his territory.
Baron Belil had been so arrogant before and always looked down on Xu Yi when he saw him, as if he didn’t place Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in his eyes at all.
However, after four years, the Stagg Family had disappeared in the Lampuri Kingdom’s civil war and had turned into history.
If it wasn’t because of Leslie that Xu Yi had made a request to Seveni, the Stagg Family would only have had a path of death.
There were only a few people left in the giant Stagg Family now, in the line of direct succession, other than Leslie, there was only Baron Belil.
Seveni out of respect for Xu Yi had not only left Baron Belil’s surname, she had even left him his t.i.tle and his small territory outside of Banta City.
This meant that compared to before, without the influence of the destruction of the Stagg Family, Baron Belil’s life didn’t change from before.
At the same time, with Leslie’s special request, Xu Yi had given Baron Belil a way out. He had let him cooperate with the magic machine companies of Banta City, earning him several tens of thousands of gold coins each year, which gave him a decent life.
Of course, compared to when they first met, when Baron Belil saw Xu Yi now, he didn’t act arrogant at all. Rather, he had become respectful and even occasionally flattered him.
“There’s no hope this month, but if everything goes smoothly, the experiment should be a success next month.” Xu Yi shook his head as he replied.
“It’s still next month?” Baron Belil’s face was filled with disappointment, “I even bragged to those fellows that I would get your Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s new Magic Sedan this month, the one that can even reach a hundred kilometers an hour.”
Xu Yi gave a laugh, “Relax, as long as the new Magic Sedan is developed, I will give the first one to you, so you can have some face in front of those fellows. How about it?”
Baron Belil nodded with a smile, “Un, un. Chairman Xu, you have always been kind, I understand that. But…..if it can be a bit faster, I hope it can be as fast as possible.”
After saying this, Baron Belil mysteriously looked around before coming to Xu Yi’s side, lowering his voice, “His majesty prince Frank is also very interested in this new Magic Sedan.”
“Oh?” Xu Yi’s brows raised, “His majesty Frank also knows about this?”
Baron Belil gave a laugh, looking very confident.
“I wrote to him before, specially telling him about the advantages of this Magic Sedan. Prince Frank’s reply was that he was very interested in this and even asked me if I could get one for him.”
Xu Yi slowly nodded. After thinking about it, he said, “Belil, respond to his highness Frank. If he is interested in the Magic Sedan, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce is willing to give him a newest Magic Sedan for free. If he is interested in power, when we develop the new Fire Engine Magic Sedan next month, we can also give him one for free as soon as possible.”
“For free?” Baron Belil had an envious look, “Chairman Xu, can you also give me one? Hei, hei, your newest Magic Sedan will cost several thousand gold coins and my funds are a bit tight right now, hei, hei…..”
Xu Yi calmly looked at him.
“If you can get his highness Frank to take our company’s present, there’s no problem in giving you two new Fire Engine Magic Sedans.”
“This……” Baron Belil’s expression became bitter, “The emperor has strict demands of the princess, they aren’t allowed to accept the presents of others, not to mention those of merchants. His highness Frank also has many scruples on this, so this request might not……”
“If you can do it, I’ll give you one, otherwise there’s nothing to talk about.” Xu Yi directly cut Baron Belil off.
Baron Belil gave a bitter laugh. He just walked around in a few circles while muttering under his breath.
Xu Yi shook his head with a smile before reminding him, “Belil, I’m not telling you that his highness Frank has to take a Magic Sedan for free. I just need him to have a Magic Sedan, I don’t care how he gets it, do you understand what I mean?”
Baron Belil suddenly stopped as his eyes lit up, “Really?”
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile.
Baron Belil instantly became excited as he gave a laugh. His mind turned before he said in a loud voice, “That’s much easier! Chairman Xu, if I help you with this matter, can you…..”
“No problem, I’ll keep the promise that I just made.”
“Good!” Baron Belil was afraid that Xu Yi would go back on his promise, but he immediately replied, “Chairman Xu, you just wait for my good news!”
Watching Baron Belil happily walk off, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling as he shook his head.
This Baron Belil had no talent, but there was something about him that was important to Xu Yi. It was that his aunt had married into the Candra Empire, marrying a Lord Count of the Candra Empire.
And the daughter that his aunt gave birth to, who was Belil’s cousin, had caught the eye of the Candra Empire’s third prince, Frank Deboir, who took her for his princess.
So this meant that Baron Belil was actually related to the Candra Empire’s prince. These two even exchanged letters, being on quite good terms.
When Leslie left for sea for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he had told Xu Yi about Baron Belil’s relation which Xu Yi immediately used.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce was working hard on opening the Candra Empire market. Even if they had opened the door with amba.s.sador Hakanin, if they could create a relationship with one of the princes, that would without a doubt help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce open the market in the Candra Empire.
Xu Yi didn’t expect his highness Frank to really care about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce since the gap between the two was too big.
So he just wanted his highness Frank to be interested in magic machines. As long as he could accept magic machines and even use them, then with him as a model, the magic machines would quickly become popular in the Candra Empire.
The other magic machines might not be able to move prince Frank who lived in superior conditions since he was young, but the Magic Sedans that were far above the horse carriages was something that Xu Yi was certain that he would be interested in.
His highness Frank wasn’t thirty years old yet, so he was still a young man.
A man of this age, how could he not be interested in racing cars?
Xu Yi didn’t know how Baron Belil would get prince Frank to take a Magic Sedan, but as long as prince Frank had a Magic Sedan, then with the attraction that it had, Xu Yi was confident that the Magic Sedan would quickly spread across the n.o.ble circle of the Candra Empire. It would let the Frestech Chamber of Commerce officially enter the eyes of the Candra Empire’s upper strata.
If the normal household magic machines were the low end route, then with the expensive Magic Sedans, Xu Yi was walking the high end route.
With both methods aimed at the same goal, he didn’t believe that the magic machines wouldn’t be able to sell in the Candra Empire.
“Hey, Xu Yi, you have such a happy smile, could it be that you formed a relationship with prince Frank through Baron Belil?” There was a voice that came from behind Xu Yi.
Turning around to look, he saw that it was the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Cruise.
Compared to Xu Yi’s confident smile, chairman Cruise’s smile was a bit forced and one could see a bit of regret.
Xu Yi could naturally understand where this regret came from.
The Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s sale of the roads didn’t attract the attention of any high level members in the Candra Empire. Even if some people had asked about this, the roads couldn’t bring in any concrete income, so no one kept asking about them.
There had been no change after several months, so the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s attempt at entering the Candra Empire could be considered a failure.
They weren’t able to open the Candra Empire market as planned, it was no wonder chairman Cruise’s expression didn’t look good.
“It can’t be considered that yet, but the problem shouldn’t be big.” Xu Yi replied with a smile, “What? You still haven’t made any progress?”
Chairman Cruise gave a sigh, “Yes. I really don’t understand, small countries like our Lampuri Kingdom, the Rudson Kingdom, the Drake Duchy, and the Mirando Duchy can understand the importance of roads, but why can’t a large empire like the Candra Empire see this?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “Perhaps it’s because the Candra Empire is too big, so they can’t understand the benefits of the road. When our Lampuri Kingdom built the roads back then, didn’t we also run into a wall at first? If it wasn’t for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce taking the initiative to invest in roads, the people of the Lampuri Kingdom still wouldn’t have been able to recognize the benefits.”
“Yes, if we can build a road to the Candra Empire, I guarantee that the people in the Candra Empire will recognize the merits of the roads.” Chairman Cruise looked at Xu Yi and hesitated to speak.
Xu Yi couldn’t help smile, “Alright, Cruise, just speak if you have something to talk about. If you want to use the relationship with prince Frank, I can only say that it is too early.”
With Xu Yi seeing through his thoughts, chairman Cruise didn’t look awkward at all. He gave a laugh and said, “Since prince Frank is interested in the Magic Sedans, he should understand that driving the car on a public road will be much better than driving on those roads made of stone and dirt.”
Xu Yi pointed at the Banta City race track that was currently being built and said with a smile, “What did you think I started this compet.i.tion for?”