Volume 1 Chapter 29 Lack in manpower
Because of the long journey yesterday and adding in the fact he was tossing and turning late into the night because of Still’s matter, Xu Yi woke up quite late the next day.
When he opened his eyes, the sunlight shined in through his window and it seemed like it was around noon.
“Master, are you awake?” Vivian’s timid voice rang in his ears, “It’ll be noon soon, is there anything you want to eat?”
Xu Yi sat up and looked around, not seeing a trace of Still.
“Big sister Still already went back. She said that if master is heading to the Magic Tower today, she wants you to look for her. She has something to discuss with you.”
“Oh? Something to discuss with me? Why didn’t that fellow tell me last night?” Xu Yi looked out the window before asking Vivian, “Don’t make anything today. Let’s go out to eat, it’ll save some time.”
“Master, there’s no need for me.” Vivian said in a surprised voice, “You go and eat, it’s alright for me to casually eat something at home.”
“Stop talking, this is an order.” Xu Yi said without any politeness.
After being with Vivian for some time, Xu Yi knew that because this little girl had been a slave for too long, she was used to putting herself in a very low position. If he wanted to change her views, it would also take a long time.
“Oh.” As expected, hearing the strong tone in Xu Yi’s voice, Vivian obediently agreed.
After bringing Vivian out, Xu Yi brought her to a clothing store to buy two sets of clothes before looking for a restaurant to eat lunch in.
While eating, Xu Yi was organizing his thoughts in his mind.
There were many complicated things in front of him right now, so he had to sort these things into relative importances.
The most important thing was of course guaranteeing the production and sale of Magic Fans. Otherwise, if he lacked money, he couldn’t do anything.
Although the Magic Fan sales had exploded, Xu Yi was very clear that the market of Banta City and the surrounding area would be saturated soon. Their sales in the future quickly fall and plateau, they wouldn’t have the same explosive sales as before.
Xu Yi two methods for this. One was to improve the Magic Fan, constantly releasing new products.
He believed that after the second generation Variable Speed Magic Fan was produced, it would inevitably create a swell. This was because people loved new things.
The second was continuously increasing the market.
Other than Karma City, there have been merchants from other cities near Banta City who have made large orders.
According to the information they brought, when the Magic Fans came to their city, it immediately created a wild surge. The first test batch of Magic Fans these merchants brought back were emptied in a short period of time, so when these merchants came a second time, they directly proposed an order that was several times larger than last time.
But because the Magic Fan production capacity couldn’t be increased for now, Heinz had only accepted five thousand fans in orders right now.
Heinz was very annoyed because of this. If he knew about this earlier, he would have been even bolder and built a factory several times bigger, increasing their production capacities by several times to allow them to swallow all these orders.
Xu Yi was not anxious because of this, he had already set his mind on the second generation Variable Speed Magic Fan.
As long as everything went smoothly, as long as the second generation Variable Speed Magic Fan entered the production line, their output would increase by several times. When the time comes, not to mention a trivial ten thousand fans, even if it was twenty thousand, thirty thousand, or even more, they could handle it easily.
Of course, to actualize this production line, there were many things that needed to be prepared.
This was the thing Xu Yi cared about the most right now.
Although Master Lanus had already built a Magic Thread Rolling Machine and a Magic Capping Machine, allowing the production of screw bolts and allowing the possibility of a Variable Speed Magic Fan production line, it was far from being enough.
In order to upgrade the crude forging of the first generation Magic Fans, he needed to standardize every part of the Magic Fan production.
But to standardize it, it was very hard just based on manpower.
Even if Master Lanus’ tribe members had the same forging skills as Master Lanus, it wouldn’t satisfy his needs.
To achieve this, the most important thing was a forging machine.
Take the Magic Fan cover as an example, if one were to rely on hand forging, a blacksmith shop in Banta City couldn’t produce more than thirty covers.
In order to guarantee the production of Magic Fans, Xu Yi had already made orders in every single blacksmith shop in Banta City.
Although this meant there was always work and it made the blacksmiths very happy, this affected the order in Banta City, so it wasn’t a long term plan.
Even if it was like this, the output of Magic Fan covers could only barely match the production output of the factory. If he wanted to increase it, it was almost impossible.
Not to mention that Xu Yi had always been dissatisfied with the blacksmiths’ handiwork, most of the Magic Fan covers they made were not uniform at all. If it was placed on earth with their strict factory guidelines, most of them would be considered defective products.
If he wanted the Variable Speed Magic Fans to be placed on a mass production line, these outer covers couldn’t be used at all.
“In the end, there is still a serious lack in industrial foundations.” Thinking of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help sighing.
The establishment of an industrial system couldn’t leave behind development of heavy industrial equipment. But on the Sines Continent, not to mention heavy industrial equipment, even light industrial equipment was rare to find. Their foundation was just too lacking.
“I hope that after those dwarves come, they can improve this aspect.”
Xu Yi took out a little book and began making preliminary plans on this matter.
According to his agreement with tribe chief Siluka, in three days, there would be a hundred dwarves with excellent skills that would come to Banta City to become Xu Yi’s employees.
In order to protect these dwarves, Xu Yi would build a residential area near the factory and also separately build two more workshops.
One would be a metal foundry that the dwarves would mainly work in while the other would be the assembly room for the Variable Speed Magic Fans.
Because there was only a single month of summer left, time was very short. Those two workshops would have to be crude for now and would be built like the previous Magic Fan workshop.
But he couldn’t casually build the residential area. He had given tribe chief Siluka a good condition and also slap his chest in promise in front of Master Lanus.
Not to mention that these dwarves were the most important forging masters in Xu Yi’s heart. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the base of the industrial system for the Sines Continent laid in these dwarves’ hands. If he didn’t treat them properly, that wouldn’t be good.
“There are just too many things to do, I don’t have enough people at all.” Xu Yi knit his brows as he looked at the packed things in his little book, “Not mentioning anything else, just the workshop and the employee dormitory needs a large amount of people. I wonder, how will Heinz take care of this?”
While thinking about this, Xu Yi suddenly looked at Vivian who was focused on eating and his eyes lit up.
“I know!”
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“You want to buy a few slaves from me?” Viscount Leslie looked at Xu Yi in a daze. He never thought that this fellow would run over here at noon and ask this kind of request, “What are you buying them for?”
“Because I need a large amount of people right now.” Xu Yi said, “I’m expanding the factory’s production line and need large amounts of workers. I can’t hire that many people in a short period of time, so I could only find you to think of a solution.”
Viscount Leslie’s expression was a bit ugly, “Based on your tone, I’m afraid you won’t need a small amount of people. Tell me, how many people do you need?”
Xu Yi raised one finger and said with a faint smile, “I’ll take one hundred for now.”
“One hundred?” Viscount Leslie slightly narrowed his eyes and reprimanded him without restraint, “Do you think they are pigs? You’ll get one hundred if you need one hundred? Let me tell you, I only have a total of three hundred slaves under my name and if I give you one hundred, what would I do? I’ll be honest with you, where would I even find slaves to buy to make up for that? Don’t you see that there is still undeveloped land under my name? If I had enough people, that land wouldn’t be empty at all and there wouldn’t be empty space for you.”
Xu Yi wasn’t moved at all by this, as he asked with a smile, “Then speaking of this, the Lord Viscount only needs slaves to help you sow the land?”
“Nonsense, what use do these fellows have? It’s just a bunch of slaves.” Viscount Leslie said these sharp words before suddenly looking at Vivian who had been following behind Xu Yi the entire time, “That’s right, this little girl should be the slave you stole from Brunei without my permission last time, right? What? After experiencing some sweetness from her, you want to buy a few more slaves to use?”
Viscount Leslie looked over and Vivian immediately lowered her head in fear.
From her views, her previous master Viscount Leslie was in an aloof position, one that a small slave like her couldn’t stare at.
Xu Yi knit his brows and seriously said, “Lord Viscount, first, I didn’t steal her, rather I have discussed the conditions with Butler Brunei. Vivian was bought with agreement from both sides and you signed the contract for this matter. Secondly, Vivian is my people, so I ask you to mind your words and not say anything degrading.”
Hearing Xu Yi directly contradicting Viscount Leslie, Vivian was terrified. She couldn’t help reaching her little hand to pull on Xu Yi’s clothes with a face covered in terror.
Viscount Leslie was a bit surprised. He actually wasn’t angry at all from being contradicted, rather he looked over Xu Yi and Vivian before revealing a smile.
“Xu Yi, you really are a strange fellow. For a slave, you actually dared confronting me. You said that this little girl belongs to you…..but I can see that she’s still a virgin, right? She could actually remain a virgin after being with you for so long, are you actually an unexpected good person?”
They never thought Viscount Leslie would say something like virgin, causing Xu Yi and Vivian to blush.
“Ke……Lord Viscount, I didn’t mean that, only……Forget it, there is no meaning hanging onto this matter. I just want to remind the Lord Viscount that you have underestimated slaves too much. Even if they are slaves, as long as their hands, feet, and head are working properly, they have value as manpower, only you are not using them efficiently. I’ll say something you won’t like to hear, but if those three hundred slaves remain in your hands, their value is far less than if you hand them all to me.”
Viscount Leslie was instantly filled with joy.
“Good, then I want to hear this. If I gave them to you, how will you let them display their value?”
