Volume 4 75 - Standard of struggle
Commander Lantis’ plan was as Xu Yi had guessed. He wanted to cooperate with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, receiving the support of their magic machines to invade the Sack Kingdom, taking territory from the Sack Kingdom. Then he would hand the mineral rights of that land to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to pay for those military magic machines.
This place was simply crazy.
First, the Sack Kingdom was stronger than the Lampuri Kingdom. In the hundreds of years of history, the Sack Kingdom had always been suppressing the Lampuri Kingdom and the Lampuri Kingdom had been barely able to keep back to the Sack Kingdom’s invasion.
In this situation, commander Lantis was telling Xu Yi that he wanted to use the mineral rights of the Sack Kingdom’s territory to pay. This was even funnier than feeding on painted cakes.
If the Sack Kingdom was that easy to invade, the Lampuri Kingdom wouldn’t have been bullied for so many years.
Next, even if the national strength between the two didn’t differ, if the western army with the support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines were to take territory from the Sack Kingdom, it would without a doubt go against the taboo.
The Lampuri Kingdom’s royal army could allow the western army to buy military magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to increase their power, but they definitely wouldn’t allow the western army to invade the Sack Kingdom by themselves.
This was because this was equal to provoking a war between the two countries. The Lampuri Kingdom wasn’t stable right now and the situation could explode into a civil war at any moment. Whether it was the military headquarters or the upper stratum, they definitely wouldn’t take the initiative to provoke the Sack Kingdom.
Putting aside these two main problems, there was another very important problem. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production couldn’t match the needs of the western army.
Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had been developing military magic machines for three years, because of the resistance in Xu Yi’s heart, they didn’t invest that much. Until after they moved the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to the Stantine Duchy and were forced to focus on developing military magic machines, as well as increasing the scale of their production.
With the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s current production, other than being able to satisfy the needs of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the guards of the other companies, they couldn’t even satisfy the orders from the lords of the Stantine Duchy. How could they have the energy to satisfy the needs of the thirty thousand soldiers of the western army?
Then again, even if these problems didn’t exist and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could produce enough military magic machines to arm the western army, would the western army put this plan in order? Rather would commander Lantis really put his efforts into this?
Xu Yi was very doubtful.
After hearing commander Lantis passionately describe the plan in his mind, Xu Yi thought for a bit before slowly shaking his head.
historical
Not mentioning the other aspects that he was worried about, Xu Yi mainly focused on the fact that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s current production couldn’t match the demands of the western army. He expressed that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce couldn’t take this large order.
Commander Lantis gave a smile that wasn’t worried at all, “That doesn’t matter, I didn’t want to arm all thirty thousand of my brothers at once. We can go bit by bit and slowly arm them all.”
Xu Yi forced out a smile.
If they followed the standards of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guard, it would take over a hundred gold coins to equip a soldier.
Then there was the Magic Trebuchets, the Magic Bazookas, and the Magic Armoured Vehicles.
If the western army followed this standard, it would cost at least ten million gold coins to invest in them.
Then taking in the training, it would cost several hundred thousand gold coins a year or even more.
This large consumption, not mentioning the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, even the Lampuri Kingdom couldn’t support.
Then again, if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce really took out this much money, why wouldn’t they equip their guards and throw it away on the western army that wasn’t related to them?
Xu Yi had already closed the door on cooperation, but seeing the hopeful look in commander Lantis’ eyes and because of the western army’s great influence on the Black Rice Wasteland, he didn’t immediately reject him. After thinking about it, he said.
“Sir commander, how about this? Since you don’t want to equip the entire western army at once and our Frestech Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have the ability to achieve this, then let’s stretch out our cooperation and solve this bit by bit. What do you think? For the first batch, I think our company can......”
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After leaving the camp, Xu Yi entered his Magic Sedan and drove off. The smile on his face quickly disappeared to be replaced with a bitter look.
After his discussion with commander Lantis, in the next month, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be providing five hundred Magic Repeating Crossbow, ten medium sized Magic Trebuchets, one thousand sets of Magic Armour, one hundred personal Magic Bazookas, and five Magic Armoured Vehicles.
This had a value of close to two hundred thousand and the price that the western army was paying was only two promises from commander Lantis.
Commander Lantis promised that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would receive the full support of the western army. The western army would help no matter what the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wanted to do on the Black Rice Wasteland.
Even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wanted to do something in the Stantine Duchy, the western army would support them.
At the same time, if the western army could invade the Sack Kingdom, commander Lantis would give all the mineral rights in the territory captured to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Xu Yi completely ignored the promise about the Sack Kingdom, rather the first promise had satisfied him.
With the support of the western army, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had the right to speak on the Black Rice Wasteland. It would be of great help to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s development on the Black Rice Wasteland.
With how chaotic the situation in the Stantine Duchy was, if they could obtain the support of the western army, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be safer on the land Xu Yi obtained.
To be honest, these military magic machines worth close to two hundred thousand gold coins was the protection money the Frestech Chamber of Commerce paid the western army.
Although it was a bit expensive, it was very useful.
Of course, Xu Yi wasn’t very satisfied with this situation.
He hoped that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t be influenced by anything and could smoothly develop.
But the Frestech Chamber of Commerce still wasn’t strong enough right now, so they could only compromise.
This compromise wasn’t just in terms of military matters, it was also in terms of business.
After leaving the camp of the western army, Xu Yi drove his Magic Sedan back to Black Rice City. Without resting at all, he went to a Business Union meeting that gathered all the companies in Black Rice City.
At this conference, there was only one topic which was to set standards.
When each company was in Banta City, because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s dominance, almost all the standards in the magic machine industry were set by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. The other companies could only agree to them.
But as the situation changed and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce left the Lampuri Kingdom, the magic machine industry management department that controlled the magic machine industry had set a different standard from the Frestehc Chamber of Commerce. They requested that whether it was magic machines produced in the kingdom or somewhere else, they had to follow the magic machine standard of the Lampuri Kingdom, or they couldn’t be sold.
Not mentioning the influence this had on the Lampuri Kingdom, it had quite a large influence on the magic machine companies of the Black Rice Wasteland as well.
Although most of these companies had withdrawn from the Lampuri Kingdom, for many of these companies, their main markets were still in the Lampuri Kingdom. The main consumers for their magic machines were still the citizens of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Now that the Lampuri Kingdom’s magic machine industry management department had made these new standards, they forced the other companies to follow these standards, or they would give up the mature market that had been built up by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But how was it easy to change their standards? To many companies, this was equal to throwing away their foundations. To many companies, it was equal to throwing away their specialty.
But if they didn’t change, they would lose the main market of the Lampuri Kingdom, which was a path of death for these companies.
These helpless companies could only turn their eyes to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for help.
If the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was willing to accept the new standards, helping these companies that weren’t as good change their production lines, they could make it past this crisis.
However, Xu Yi only had a single appraisal for their ideas.
“Idiots!” Xu Yi revealed a cold look that these people rarely saw and his tone was very serious, “Do you really think that those fellows will let you off if you change your standards? Could it be that you still didn’t learn from the bitter experiences back in Banta City? Those greedy fellows want to expel everyone other than them from the Lampuri Kingdom!”
The companies at the conference looked at each other with helpless looks.
“Chairman Xu, we do understand this, but there’s no other way.”
“Yes, chairman Xu, changing the standard for your Frestech Chamber of Commerce isn’t hard, you just need to adjust the production magic machines. I feel that it isn’t hard to satisfy the standards of the magic machine industry management department, right?”
......
Seeing these people who tried their luck, Xu Yi shook his head with a cold laugh.
“No, your understanding of standards is too shallow. Let me tell you, the struggle of standards is a struggle of life and death. Once you obey the new standards of the department, we would be playing into the hands of the department. Even our Frestech Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t be able to resist at all, do you think that your companies are stronger than us?”
Everyone was silent and after a while, a representative asked Xu Yi, “Then.....chairman Xu, do you have a way to solve this?”
Seeing everyone’s hopeful eyes, Xu Yi replied with a smile, “It’s very simple, since those fellows in the Lampuri Kingdom don’t want us in their market anymore, we’ll just abandon this market.”
“How can we do that? Over 90% of the products our company makes are sold in the Lampuri Kingdom. If we give up this market, isn’t this equal to waiting for death?”
“Right, we’re the same.”
“Us too.”
......
“Don’t forget, at this time last year, other than our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, almost all the products of your companies were sold in the Lampuri Kingdom, but now there’s a part that is being sold in other areas.”
Xu Yi revealed a confident smile.
“Believe me, giving up the Lampuri Kingdom market will make you suffer a bit, but you can seize this chance to welcome a much wider market. It won’t take long and I can promise that the Lampuri Kingdom market will open itself to us again.”