Dole City was in a very specific place.
This city had belonged to the Falk Kingdom and was in the north of their territory, being close to the border between the Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire.
Because there was a mountain range on the border of the Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire and Dole City was in the valley that connected to many exits of this mountain range, it could be considered to be in the key position that blocked the main road between the Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire.
The Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire had always been close and they could be considered allies, so Dole City had played a role of a transport hub between the two countries.
Now that the Falk Kingdom had been destroyed and the Drake Duchy had taken Dole City, the meaning of Dole City had changed and the strategic value was clear.
If the Marlow Empire were to invade again, Dole City was not something that could be ignored.
So Xu Yi worked with the Drake Duchy to prepare a Magic City Defense System. If the Marlow Empire were to invade, Dole City was the best choice for them to invade from.
As Xu Yi had said, the goal of this system was to create a magic defense system for this city with military magic machines, allowing them to easily defend against the attack of the Marlow Empire’s army.
The final goal was to completely defend against them even if they sent an Arch Magus, making Dole City impregnable.
But there was a very serious problem with this system which was that the price was too high.
Just to lay down the system in Dole City which wasn’t considered a big city, according to the estimates from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it would take at least eight million gold coins.
So even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce acted, they couldn’t build this same system in all the cities the Drake Duchy controlled. They could only choose to set these up in certain cities.
Dole City was one of them. They would also set up these defense systems in cities on the Drake Duchy’s northern border with the Marlow Empire, completely blocking the Marlow Empire’s route to invade south into the Drake Duchy.
Therefore, the estimated cost for the Drake Duchy reached a giant price of seventy million gold coins.
Although the Drake Duchy had been vigorously developing their magic machine system over the years and had increased their finances, they couldn’t afford such a large expenditure.
Based on their agreement, the Drake Duchy would give a third of the mineral resources from the one hundred and seventy square kilometers of land that they received from the Falk Kingdom to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. As for the remaining mineral resources, they would develop them together with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce which would be considered payment.
Because this involved a giant amount of mineral resources, there were voices of dissent that came from the Drake Duchy. They claimed that Duchess Caroline was using the mineral resources that they had fought hard to earn to appease the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, which could even be considered betraying the Drake Duchy!
But from a realistic perspective, with the current power of the Drake Duchy, they wouldn’t be able to develop these mineral resources at all. It was better to give them to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to develop together to use them.
The most important thing was that the Drake Duchy couldn’t separate themselves from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at all.
If they lost the support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it was impossible for the Drake Duchy to develop to this point. It was also impossible for them to fight a giant like the Marlow Empire.
So compared to the voices of opposition, most of the Drake Duchy still supported Duchess Caroline.
This time the Drake Duchy had annexed a giant one hundred and seventy kilometers of land from the Falk Kingdom, causing the Drake Duchy’s territory to expand by over twenty times. It could be said that this was something that the previous dukes had dreamed about in their three hundred years of history, but had never dared to imagine.
With this success, Duchess Caroline’s prestige was without doubt.
It was also because of this that there were many nobles in the Drake Duchy that hoped that Duchess Caroline could become queen, but this request was denied by Duchess Caroline.
“How could I not understand what those fellows are thinking?” There was a smile of disdain that appeared on Duchess Caroline’s gorgeous face, “They want me to become the queen and then redistribute the land. Humph, those fellows all want the new territory. Those inexperienced fellows, they are all thinking about obtaining a larger piece of land right now.”
“That is very normal since they are nobles. Obtaining more land is the tradition of nobles and represents the glory of a noble.” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“Che, even if I gave them a bigger piece of land, would they be able to defend it?” Duchess Caroline’s look of ridicule became even stronger, “Just like you. Xu Yi, don’t you still only have a title of count in the Stantine Duchy? You have all that land under your name, has it influenced you at all? Could it be that you’re still not good enough because your land isn’t big enough?”
“I have always stressed that I am a merchant. Whether it is a noble or a magician, it is only secondary.” Xu Yi gave a shrug before saying with a relaxed look, “There’s no meaning in comparing territory sizes with me, it’s better to compare who makes more money each year.”
“Who makes more money each year?” Duchess Caroline looked over Xu Yi and slightly knitted her brows, “Xu Yi, can you tell me how much money your Frestech Chamber of Commerce makes each year?”
Xu Yi couldn't help smiling, “This isn’t a shameful secret, you don’t need to ask like that. To be honest, our company earned around one hundred and fifty million last year.”
“One hundred and fifty million!” Duchess Caroline took a cold breath, “Gods! I always knew that your company earned a lot, but I never thought that it would be this much! Our duchy’s entire yearly income is less than twenty million gold coins!”
“That is because you were only a small duchy. Now that you have this large territory, as long as you manage it well, I think that your income will easily surpass ours in a few years.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “I also have to tell you something, our company’s financial report this year will be very ugly to look at.”
“That isn’t strange since your Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards entered the war this year. Going to war is a costly matter and if it wasn’t for the fact that your military magic machines gave you a battle power advantage, if you fought for a long time, whether it is our duchy or your company, we would be burned down by the Marlow Empire and the Candra Empire.”
“You’re right, so we can’t delay and must finish this war as soon as possible.” Xu Yi said with a serious look.
“How do we do that?” Duchess Caroline knitted her brows, “The foundations of the Marlow Empire and the Candra Empire are too deep and they have all those Arch Magi. We can only be passive when facing them, it’s up to them when this war is over.”
“That isn’t certain. As long as you can hit them where it hurts, letting them know that they will be injured even more if this war lasts, they will choose to end the battle.” Xu Yi revealed a dangerous smile, “First, I need to tell them that just the Arch Magi won’t be enough to guarantee their safety.”
Duchess Caroline looked at Xu Yi with a doubtful gaze.
Over the years, Xu Yi hadn’t cared about Arch Magi more than once, even disdaining them which made her very confused.
Properly speaking, Xu Yi was already an Arch Magus, so he should know better than anyone how terrifying an Arch Magus was.
Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines were powerful, the most terrifying thing about an Arch Magus was that they were more flexible than military magic machines, so it was hard to truly deal with them.
Moreover, Arch Magi don’t find it as hard to cast Forbidden Spells as Great Magicians. Once an Arch Magus revealed their full power, their destructive might was quite terrifying.
Perhaps there were ways to defend against it, but to fight back, the destructive might of an Arch Magus was something that created headaches.
This was why even though they had easily defeated the armies of the Marlow Empire, the Candra Empire, and the other countries, Duchess Caroline still thought that they were at a disadvantage.
They could easily defend against the attacks of the two empires with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines, but there was no hope of countering their attacks.
Not to mention Arch Magi, there was too much of a difference just between their foundations.
“Our best choice right now is to consolidate what we have won and absorb them to increase our own power. That way we would have the qualification to truly face the two empires. If we move rashly, I don’t think that it’s a good choice……” Hearing the wild ideas contained in Xu Yi’s words, Duchess Caroline couldn’t help trying to convince him otherwise.
“This is the correct choice for you as the ruler of a country, but……” Xu Yi patted her shoulder with a smile, “Haven’t you thought of something? What are we relying on to easily defeat the armies of the two empires?”
“Of course it’s the military magic machines your Frestech Chamber of Commerce provided, is there anything else?” Duchess Caroline asked in a confused voice.
“It is like this, but it isn’t completely accurate.” Xu Yi shook his head, “In fact, in the battles against the two empires, we have found that the two empires have done some research on military magic machines and have quite a few military magic machines that they use. We can easily defeat them because of the technological superiority of our company. Have you thought that if there is enough time, if our company loses our technological superiority, what would happen?”
Duchess Caroline’s expression changed slightly, “It can’t be……Your company’s military magic machines are much stronger than theirs, how could it be possible that they could catch up to you?”
“There’s nothing that’s impossible in this world. So we need to seize the time when we have the technological superiority to get as many benefits as we can for ourselves.”
“Could it be that you’re planning……” Caroling looked at Xu Yi with a stunned and uncertain look.
Xu Yi patted her shoulder with a smile again, “Wait for my good news.”
