Volume 2 Chapter 32 - Sandton Manor

Volume 2 Chapter 32 Sandton Manor
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s two factories in Banta City were the large workshop covering over three thousand square meters and the smaller workshop covering over a thousand square meters. Adding in the office and the store rooms, they took up a total of over five thousand square meters.
Calculating all of this, over half of the hectare of land was already being used, leaving not enough space for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to develop.
So when Xu Yi announced that they were moving, everyone in the company was shocked. But after they listened to Xu Yi analysis, they agreed with his decision.
Of course, there were still some complaints.
Like when Camby heard Baron Belil’s request, he spat out in disdain, “Pei! Humans really don’t keep their words!”
As for the human leaders of the company led by Xu Yi, they could only lower their heads and not say a thing.
Moving an entire factory was a very large and complex task, especially with the various production magic machines of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, where any of them weighed over several hundred kilograms, or even reaching a ton. It wasn’t an easy thing to move them.
It was a good thing that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had several hundred dwarves. With the strength of these dwarves that surpassed normal humans, they really lifted these machines that would normally require heavy machinery on earth to lift into the horse carriages.
Otherwise if they relied purely on manpower, it would waste quite a bit of effort to move these magic machines.
For this relocation, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce not only moved all their employees, they also hired all the free labour in Banta City.
But this was far from enough. Count Sean even sent five hundred Banta City guards to help out with this matter.
Watching these dwarves and large men with their shirts off, sweating as they lifted these large machines into the horse carriages, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret.
If he had invented some heavy magic machinery before this, perhaps it wouldn’t have been this troublesome.
Of course, no one expected Baron Belil’s sudden request. So even if Xu Yi had prepared his heart for this, it was impossible for him to prepare everything.
Right now, he could only urge everyone to pay as much attention as they moved all the large machines to reduce their losses as much as possible.
“Not only will there be losses because of these machines being moved, just your Frestech Chamber of Commerce stopping their production for a few days will cause serious losses.” Chairman Moon Cruise of the Amrit Chamber of Commerce came to watch after hearing this news, but he gave a sigh as he said this in a pitiful voice, “I wanted to urge you to quickly finish those Magic Concrete Mixers, but now it seems like it’ll take some time.”
“There’s no other way, I can’t expect things suddenly happening.” Xu Yi said with a shrug.
Chairman Cruise looked at Xu Yi and suddenly lowered his voice to mysteriously say, “Hey, chairman Xu, I’ve that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is suddenly deciding to move because you’re being forced out by Baron Belil?”
Xu Yi looked at him and calmly said, “Chairman Cruise, you can’t speak nonsense. This is a decision that our company made for our own development, it isn’t related to Baron Belil at all.”
Seeing Xu Yi’s expressionless face, chairman Cruise laughed and didn’t ask anything else.
Actually the people of Banta City already knew about this matter in their hearts, but since Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce remained silent, others wouldn’t take the initiative to offend Baron Belil or even the Stagg Family.
If it wasn’t for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce being close to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and chairman Cruise having a good relationship with Xu Yi, he wouldn’t have asked this much.
“That’s right, chairman Xu, I still haven’t asked you, but where are you planning to go?” After a moment of silence, chairman Cruise couldn’t help asking this.
“I’ll be following my original plan and moving to the Falling Rain Valley. Once it is done, I won’t need to worry about the land for the factory at all. But chairman Cruise, has only half the road to the Falling Rain Valley been finished?” Xu Yi asked back.
Chairman Cruise looked at him, “What? You think we’re going slow? This is the fastest speed with me personally supervising, we can’t go any faster. You care too much about quality, so if I raise the speed, we can’t keep the same quality. It would be strange if you didn’t come find me for trouble later.”
Xu Yi waved his hand with a smile, “No, no, no, you’re misunderstanding, I don’t find it slow. On the contrary, only a month has passed and you’ve already finished close to half of it, so it is actually quite fast. So fast that I’m worried about the quality of the road. Of course, I believe in chairman Cruise and the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, I believe that you won’t be careless with the road’s quality. The reason I asked this was actually to say that I don’t have a way to safely bring everyone to the Falling Rain Valley. You think that on those broken uneven gravel roads, can we transport everyone there safely?”
Chairman Cruise shook his head without any hesitation, “It’s definitely impossible. It is spring and it rains quite a bit in a year, since those roads are made of dirt, if you move onto them, the wheels of the horse carriage will sink in and you won’t be able to move at all.
“That is right. Although we have to move this time, we don’t need to move far. Rather we can go to the Sandton Manor that isn’t that far away.” Xu Yi said.
“Sandton Manor?” Chairman Cruise thought about it before looking at Xu Yi in surprise, “If my memory isn’t wrong, that Sandton Manor was the one you bought three months ago? Could it be that you expected this to happen three months ago?”
“It would be boasting if I said that I predicted this to happen. But…..It isn’t wrong to prepare beforehand.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “There’s a temporary workshop built in that manor and although it is simple, we can maintain our normal production without any problems. So chairman Cruise, you don’t need to worry, your Magic Concrete Mixers will not be delayed. Don’t forget, the river construction project and the road to the Falling Rain Valley needs the help of those Magic Concrete Mixers and these two projects are very important to me.”
Chairman Cruise looked at Xu Yi like it was his first time meeting him.
Sandton Manor was Viscount Sandton’s private manor. Because financial problems occured with the Viscount Sandton’s family, Viscount Sandton held a public auction for this manor three months ago, selling it to Xu Yi for a high price of three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.
Everyone in Banta City thought Xu Yi was crazy back then.
Although this Sandton Manor was facing a mountain and beside a river, so it was very peaceful, making it a good choice for a vacation manor. It was still over fifteen kilometers away from Banta City, so it was rather remote.
Moreover the manor was less than two hectares, so even if the interior was decorated quite well by Viscount Sandton, it was not worth over three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins no matter what.
According to the price among the Banta City nobles, the manor should be worth around two hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
But at the public auction of the manor, Xu Yi had suddenly come in and placed his bet.
Perhaps they were not satisfied that an ordinary merchant like Xu Yi wanted to buy this manor, so some nobles bid against Xu Yi, driving up the price. In the end, it reached a shocking amount of three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.
Three months ago, everyone’s estimates of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was no more than five hundred thousand gold coins. For Xu Yi to suddenly take out three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins to buy this manor, naturally everyone thought that Xu Yi had gone crazy.
Even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had popular products and high profits, causing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to have more finances than normal companies, but to suddenly take out three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins, this must have emptied the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s coffers.
Doing something like this, to the other merchants and companies, this was simply stupid.
Even if people thought that Xu Yi wanted to buy some land for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, this price was a bit high in the end, so they didn’t think it was a smart choice.
However, Xu Yi still insisted on doing this.
Chairman Cruise had been very confused back then and did his best to persuade Xu Yi, but he was powerless since Xu Yi had steeled his heart and didn’t listen to his advice, as he bought this manor.
But three months later, when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce faced the difficult problem of having to move, chairman Cruise suddenly found that Xu Yi’s decision to buy the manor was a very smart decision.
Actually if it was just purchasing the manor, this two hectare manor was only worth at most a hundred thousand gold coins, or not even that much.
But for Viscount Sandton who was lacking funds, when he sold this manor, he also sold the territory that this manor was on which was rarely seen.
Because the Lampuri Kingdom had never given land since it was formed, so all land was very precious for nobles and they wouldn’t easily take them out to sell.
Viscount Sandton really had no other choice, otherwise he wouldn’t have made this decision.
Adding in the fact that the land was also being sold, this manor’s price suddenly went from a hundred thousand gold coins to around two hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
It was because of this that Xu Yi encountered such large obstacles when he tried to buy this manor, spending over a hundred thousand more than the estimate to get it.
Of course, right now, that auction was very cost effective for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
With a piece of land that belonged to them, not only did it have a strong symbolic significance, it also meant that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could give up the factory on the land controlled by the Stagg Family.
At least they wouldn’t be forced to move again because of a casual word from Baron Belil.
Thinking of this, chairman Cruise couldn’t help revealing a look of praise as he looked at Xu Yi.
With a chairman with such foresight and having such decisiveness in critical matters, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would definitely develop more smoothly than people imagined.
And for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, being able to have this kind of partner was a matter that was worth rejoicing over.
Chairman Cruise turned over and said with a faint smile, “Chairman Xu can be assured, not only do you attach great importance to these two projects, I also attach great importance to them. If our Amrit Chamber of Commerce can finish these two products, it means that our Amrit Chamber of Commerce has completed two projects that other companies didn’t have the techniques to complete. Just based on this, we should thank chairman Xu from the bottom of our hearts. If it wasn’t for your selfless help, our Amrit Chamber of Commerce definitely wouldn’t have this chance or advantage.”
“Chairman Cruise is too polite, this is also your Amrit Chamber of Commerce working hard to seize this opportunity.” Xu Yi said.
Chairman Cruise laughed and was about to say a few more polite things to Xu Yi to increase their relationship when he suddenly saw several horse carriages slowly approaching.
A horse carriage in the middle had the mark of the City Lord’s Manor and the one behind it had the mark of the Stagg Family.
Chairman Cruise immediately closed his mouth and pointed in the direction of the horse carriage for Xu Yi.
Xu Yi turned to look and revealed a faint smile, “The Lord City Lord has also invited Baron Belil, is he planning to laugh at my present distressed manner?”