"This..." Major Macconley opened his mouth, and after a long time he took a long breath and said with a wry smile: "President Xu, this price... is really too expensive..."
"Is it expensive?" Xu Yi shook his head. "Major, I thought you should have a clear idea of the power of this magic trebuchet after reading the drawings. With such a powerful power, do you think this magic trebuchet might be cheap?"
"I know this too, but..." McConley had a helpless smile on his face. "This price is still too high. To tell you the truth, the budget of our Logistics Department for this year is less than 300,000 gold coins, and only less than 100,000 gold coins are spent on armaments. If it weren't for the cooperation with your New Flying Chamber of Commerce We cooperated to build an arsenal, which reduced the cost of supplying armor and weapons several times, but I couldn’t even afford more than a copper plate.”
Xu Yi couldn't help but shook his head, thinking that the Lampali Kingdom was really poor. Its annual fiscal revenue was less than two million gold coins, and its military expenditure was only a mere three hundred thousand gold coins, which was pitifully small.
Such a small amount of money is already insufficient to ensure the daily expenses of the army. No wonder Major Macconley vomits bitterness every time he sees him.
But sympathy is sympathy, but Xu Yi is not willing to give up a single copper coin for this price.
"Major, although I also want to help you, the cost of this magic trebuchet is too high. Not to mention anything else, just manufacturing a magic trebuchet requires more than three tons of steel. And this new type of steel , the sales price of our Chamber of Commerce is as high as one hundred gold coins per ton. In addition to the material cost, the labor cost is a big expense, and the most important thing is the research and development cost of our Chamber of Commerce Magic Research Institute. The magicians, including the great magician Camilla, and the magic mechanical engineers in the magic machine tool research and development workshop spent more than two months on this, forgetting sleep and food every day, and even worked overtime all night long. Do you think... one thousand gold coins is too expensive?"
"It's indeed not high." Major Macconley nodded and sighed: "But President Xu, the problem is that our military department really can't come up with so much money. With the remaining budget for this year, the military department probably has the most money. It’s good to only buy three.”
"If you want to buy it, you don't necessarily have to spend gold coins..." Xu Yi reminded softly.
Major Macconley glanced at Xu Yi with a complicated expression.
After thinking for a while. But he waved his hand: "Let's not talk about this for now. Even if you want to buy it, you have to wait until your chamber of commerce takes out the real thing and lets the big shots above see the actual effect before you are really tempted. Let's discuss other things now. It’s too early for something.”
Seeing that Major Macconley was not going to talk in depth, Xu Yi also stopped the topic knowingly.
Of course, apart from this topic, Xu Yi also had a more important purpose for his trip that he did not mention. After seeing Major Macconley carefully put away the drawings, Xu Yi directly extended his hand to him.
"Major, I have done what I promised you, but what about the person you promised me?"
"follow me."
Major Macconley waved to Xu Yi. He took him out of the office and went straight to the training ground outside. He reached out and waved to a tall man standing upright outside the training ground.
The big man trotted over, gave Major McConley a neat military salute, and looked at Major McConley without even squinting in Xu Yi's direction.
Judging from his sturdy physique, upright posture, resolute expression, and the deep scars on his exposed skin, it is obvious that he is a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time.
"Come on, President Xu, let me introduce you. His name is Hart, and he is a veteran who just retired this year. Since Hart joined the army, he has been fighting against those bastards from the Sark Kingdom on the northern battlefield, and his combat experience is absolutely "The most important thing is that he has served as an instructor of the Zhenbei Army and once led a group of brothers. If you let him be the captain of your chamber of commerce guard, he is definitely the most suitable candidate." The major pointed at the big man and introduced.
After hearing Major McConley's words, Hart turned his head and looked at Xu Yi.
The two people's eyes just happened to collide, and Xu Yi's scalp suddenly went numb, and a murderous aura that seemed to be substantial rushed towards his face, almost giving him goosebumps all over his body instantly.
Xu Yi narrowed his eyes, took a deep breath, then forced himself to calm down, and tried to look at Hart squarely.
Hart's eyes were particularly bright. Seeing that Xu Yi did not avoid his gaze, he seemed slightly shocked, and then a trace of appreciative smile flashed across his face.
"Are you President Xu of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce?" Hart took the initiative to extend his hand. "It's much better than I expected."
Xu Yi stretched out his hand to shake his hand and asked with a smile: "In your imagination, what should I look like?"
"In my imagination, businessmen are just trash who only care about money!" Hart said unceremoniously. "If the major hadn't found me and assured me that President Xu, you are different from other businessmen, I wouldn't have come to see you at all."
Major Macconley suddenly smiled awkwardly and said, "President Xu, this is Hart's character. You must not be as knowledgeable as him."
Xu Yi laughed: "It doesn't matter, I like this kind of straightness. If a soldier like Hart can serve as the captain of our Chamber of Commerce's escort team, I believe that no one will dare to take the initiative to provoke our Chamber of Commerce in the future."
Since both Xu Yi and Hart were satisfied, the meeting was considered a success.
Under the witness of Major McConley, Xu Yi initialed an agreement with Hart, hiring him to be the captain of the New Flying Chamber of Commerce's escort team.
In addition to Hart, Major McConley also recruited Xu Yi to a total of two hundred retired veterans similar to Hart.
These veterans are elite soldiers who have experienced hundreds of battles. After retirement, they will become the targets of the major chambers of commerce in the Lampali Kingdom.
If it weren't for Major Macconley's relationship, it would have been impossible for Xu Yi to obtain two hundred such veterans in one go.
Of course, compared to the current deep cooperative relationship between the Military Department and the New Aircraft Chamber of Commerce, this request can only be regarded as a small price paid by the Military Department.
After finishing this matter, Xu Yi left the military headquarters. Visited Marquis Joseph again.
Came to Anvilmar last year. Xu Yi also discussed with Marquis Joseph about mining non-ferrous metal veins in the Kingdom of Lampali.
Now several months have passed. The preparations for both parties have been basically completed, and a non-ferrous metal vein near Karamay City has been explored through the dwarves of the Noma tribe and decided to mine it.
According to the previous agreement between the two parties, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and the Joseph family originally planned to cooperate to open a steelmaking plant near Karamay City.
After discovering this non-ferrous metal vein, Xu Yi simply expanded the steelmaking plant so that it could simultaneously smelt special steel and non-ferrous metals required for military equipment.
In this way, the scale of this steelmaking plant was even comparable to that of the steelmaking plant in Falling Rain Valley from the very beginning.
Even for the Joseph family, the opening of this steelmaking plant is a matter of great significance. Therefore, Marquis Joseph was very cautious about Xu Yi's visit.
The negotiation process between the two parties was also very smooth.
Marquis Joseph did not reveal much of his intentions on the surface, but for an important person like him in the Lampali Kingdom, sometimes as long as he did not express his objections clearly, it could represent his inner agreement.
Xu Yi didn't expect him to bargain nakedly with him like President Morgan. He just learned his basic intention from him and achieved his goal.
The only surprise may be that when Xu Yi left the Marquis Mansion, he happened to run into Senter who was returning home.
The moment he saw Xu Yi, Senter's expression became very exciting.
The last time he was scolded severely by his father in front of Xu Yi. After he was forced to apologize to Xu Yi, no matter how unwilling and angry Senter was. But he also knew clearly that Xu Yi was no longer on the same level as him. No matter how much he hated Xu Yi, he would not dare to do anything to Xu Yi.
So Senter just glared at Xu Yi fiercely, then passed him by, as if he hadn't seen him at all.
Xu Yi naturally wouldn't argue with such a family guy, so he just smiled and left the Marquis Mansion.
This time when he came to Anvilmar City, Xu Yi only stayed for three days and met with Major Macconley, Marquis Joseph and the Great Magician Essenka respectively.
In addition to the important transactions to be completed with Major Macconley, the meeting with Marquis Joseph and the Great Magician Isenka was just to further confirm the previous cooperation. It can only be regarded as a stopover because of the visit to Anvilmar City. Just a visit.
Xu Yi originally wanted to take the opportunity to meet His Royal Highness Princess Sevigny, and it would be best to ask to see His Majesty the King, but he was told that His Royal Highness had gone to the northern border to inspect, and he didn't know when he would be back.
In general, for Xu Yi, this trip to Anvilmar City did not achieve many results except achieving the most important purpose of his trip and solving the problem of the escort team.
However, judging from Major Macconley's reaction, Xu can be sure that as long as the New Flying Chamber of Commerce can actually produce the magic trebuchet and allow the big shots in the military to truly see the huge power of the magic trebuchet, then this thing will definitely There is already a market.
Xu Although what Xu Yi said to Major Macconley was basically right, the cost of the magic trebuchet was very high, but it was still a slight exaggeration.
According to the budget, if you put aside the research and development costs, the cost of a magic trebuchet per day should be between one hundred and seven hundred gold coins.
R&D costs are mainly reflected before mass production. Once R&D is successful, they will be quickly shared by mass production, and in the end they will not occupy such a large proportion.
Based on this calculation, as long as the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce can sell one magic trebuchet, it can make a huge profit of more than 200 gold coins or even close to 300 gold coins.
The only obstacle is probably that the military department has no money...
But for Xu Yi, this is not a big problem.
Money, Xu Yi and Xinfei Chamber of Commerce are not that short of money.
In comparison, many things that cannot be bought with money are the most important. (To be continued...)