"This ......" Major McConley opened his mouth, and it took a long time before he let out a long breath and said with a wry smile: "President Xu, this price ...... It's so expensive......"

"Is it expensive?" Xu Yi shook his head. "Major, I thought you would know the power of this magic trebuchet after reading the drawings. With such power, do you think this magic trebuchet is likely to be cheap?"

"I know that, too, but ......," McConley smiled, helplessly. "The price is still too high. To tell you the truth, the budget of our Logistics Department for the whole of this year is less than 300,000 gold coins, and less than 100,000 of them are spent on armaments. If it weren't for the construction of an arsenal in cooperation with your Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, which reduced the cost of supplying armor and weapons by several times, then I wouldn't have been able to get more than a copper plate. ”

Xu Yi couldn't help but shake his head, thinking that the Lampari Kingdom was really poor, the annual financial revenue was only less than two million gold coins, and the military expenditure was only 300,000 gold coins, which was pitiful.

With such a small amount of money alone to cover the daily expenses of the army, it is no wonder that Major McConley vomits bitterness every time he sees him.

However, sympathy is sympathy, and this price Xu Yi is not intended to let a copper coin.

"Major, I want to help you too, but the cost of this magic trebuchet is too high. Among other things, it takes more than three tons of steel to build a magic trebuchet. And this new type of steel, our Chamber of Commerce sells it at a price of as high as 100 gold coins per ton. In addition to the cost of materials, labor costs are a major expense, and the most important one. It is R&D expenses. In order to develop this magic trebuchet. Our Chamber of Commerce's Institute of Magic, together with the magicians including Grand Magician Camilla. And the magic mechanical engineers in the R&D workshop of the magic machine tool spent more than two months on this, forgetting to sleep and eat every day, and even working overtime all night. What do you think...... Is the price of a thousand gold coins high?"

"It's not high, indeed. Major McConley nodded and sighed, "But President Xu, the problem is that our military department really can't come up with so much money. With the budget left for this year, the military department may only be able to buy three units at most. ”

"If you want to buy it, you don't have to spend gold coins......" Xu Yi mentioned softly.

Major McConley glanced at Xu Yi with a complicated expression.

After thinking about it for a while. He waved his hand: "Let's not talk about this yet." Even if you want to buy it, you have to wait until your chamber of commerce takes out the real things and lets the big people above see the actual effect before you can really be tempted. It's too early for us to talk about something else. ”

Seeing that Major McConley didn't intend to talk deeply, Xu Yi also stopped the topic with interest.

Of course, in addition to this topic, Xu Yi did not mention a more important purpose of this trip, and after seeing Major McConley carefully put away the drawings, Xu Yi directly stretched out his hand to him.

"Major, what I promised you has been done, but what about the people you promised me?"

"Follow me. ”

Major McConley beckoned to Xu Yi. Took him out of the office and straight to the training ground outside. Reaching out and beckoning to a tall man standing straight outside the training ground.

The big man trotted over, gave Major McConley a neat military salute, and looked at Major McConlee, not even squinting at Xu Yi.

Judging by his strong physique, straight posture, resolute expression, and deep scars on his exposed skin, it is obvious that he should be a battle-hardened veteran.

"Come, President Xu, let me introduce you to you. His name is Hart, and he is a veteran who has just retired this year. Since Hart joined the army, he has been fighting hard against the bastards of the Sark Kingdom on the northern battlefield, and he has absolutely rich combat experience. The most important thing is that he also served as an instructor in the Zhenbei Army before, and he once led a group of brothers under him. If he were to be the captain of your Chamber of Commerce's escort team, he would definitely be the most suitable person. Major McConley pointed to the big man.

Hearing Major McConley's words, Hart turned his head to look at Xu Yi.

The eyes of the two just collided, Xu Yi's scalp suddenly went numb, and a murderous aura like a substance rushed to his face, almost giving him goosebumps all over his body in an instant.

Xu Yi narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath, only then did he reluctantly calm himself down and try to look at Hart as much as possible.

Hart's eyes were exceptionally bright, and seeing that Xu Yi did not avoid his gaze, he seemed to be slightly stunned, and then a smile of appreciation flashed across his face.

"You are President Xu of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce?" Hart took the initiative to stretch out his hand. "It's a lot better than I thought it would be. ”

Xu Yi stretched out his hand and shook him, and asked with a smile, "In your imagination, what should I look like?"

"In my imagination, businessmen are just money in their eyes!" said Hart unceremoniously. "If it weren't for the Major finding me and assuring me, President Xu, that you are different from other merchants, I wouldn't have come to see you at all. ”

Major McConley suddenly smiled a little embarrassedly: "President Xu, Hart is this character, you don't want to be like him." ”

Xu Yi laughed: "It's okay, I like this kind of straight nature." 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 Xu Yi and Hart were both satisfied, the meeting was a success.

In the presence of Major McConley, Xu also initialled an agreement with Hart to hire him as the captain of the New Flying Chamber of Commerce's escort.

In addition to Hart, Major McConley also recruited a total of 200 retired veterans who were about the same as Hart.

These veterans are elite soldiers who have been through a lot of battles, and after retiring, they will become the target of the major chambers of commerce in the kingdom of Lampari.

If it weren't for Major McConley, it would have been impossible for Xu Yi to get two hundred such veterans in one go.

Of course, compared to the deep cooperative relationship between the military department and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, this request can only be regarded as a small price paid by the military department.

After doing this, Xu Yi left the military department. Again he met with the Marquis of Joseph.

I came to Anwemar last year. Xu also discussed with the Marquis of Joseph about the mining of non-ferrous metal veins in the Kingdom of Lampari.

Now a few months have passed. Preparations were almost ready, and the dwarves of the Guò Norma tribe had explored a vein of non-ferrous metals near the city of Karamay, 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 steel mill near Karamay City.

Now after discovering this non-ferrous metal vein, Xu Yi simply expanded this steelmaking plant so that it has the function of smelting special steel and non-ferrous metals required by the military equipment at the same time.

In this way, the scale of the steel mill was even comparable to that of the steel mills in the Falling Rain Valley from the beginning.

Even for the Joseph family, the opening of this steel mill was a very significant event. Therefore, for Xu Yi's visit, Marquis Joseph had to be very cautious.

The negotiation process between the two sides was also very smooth.

The Marquis of Joseph did not reveal much of his intentions on the surface, but for a man of great importance in the kingdom of Lampari, there were times when he did not explicitly express his opposition to it.

Xu Yi didn't expect him to bargain with himself as much as President Morgan did, but after learning his basic intentions from him, he had already achieved his goal.

The only accident may be that when Xu Yi left the Marquis's Mansion, he happened to meet Vincent who was returning home.

The moment he saw Xu Yi, Vincent's face became very exciting.

Last time, he was scolded by his father in front of Xu Yi. and was forced to apologize to Xu Yi, no matter how unwilling and angry Vincent was. But he also clearly knew that Xu Yi was not a high-grade character with him at all, and no matter how jealous he was of Xu Yi, he didn't dare to really do anything to Xu Yi.

So Vincent just glared at Xu Yi fiercely, and passed by him, as if he didn't see it.

Xu Yi naturally didn't bother with this kind of guy, just smiled and left the Marquis's Mansion.

This time he came to Anweimar City, Xu Yi only stayed for three days, and met with Major McConley, Marquis Joseph, and Grand Magician Eisenka respectively.

In addition to the important deal to be completed with Major McConley, the meeting with the Marquis of Joseph and the Grand Magician of Eisenka was only a further confirmation of the previous cooperation, and could only be regarded as a visit to Anvimar City.

Xu Yi originally wanted to take the opportunity to meet with Her Royal Highness the Queen of Severny, and it would be better to ask to see Her Majesty the King, but she was told that Her Royal Highness had gone to inspect the northern border, and she didn't know when she would be able to return.

In general, for Xu Yi, this trip to Anweimar City did not achieve much results except for achieving the most important purpose of his trip and solving the problem of the escort team.

However, judging from Major McConley's reaction, Xu Yi is sure that as long as the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce can actually make the magic trebuchet, so that the bigwigs of the military department can really see the great power of the magic trebuchet, then this thing will definitely have a market.

Although Xu was basically right when he said to Major McConley, the cost of the magic trebuchet was high, but it was still a slight exaggeration.

According to the budget, if you put aside the R&D costs, the cost of a Mana Trebuchet should be between 600 and 700 gold coins a day.

The R&D cost is mainly reflected in the mass production, once the R&D is successful, it will be quickly amortized by mass production, and it will not occupy such a large proportion in the end.

According to this calculation, as long as the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce can sell a magic trebuchet, it can make a huge profit of more than two hundred gold coins or even close to three hundred gold coins.

The only obstacle is probably that the military department has no money......

But for Xu Yi, this is not too much of a problem.

Money, Xu Yi and Xinfei Chamber of Commerce are not so scarce.

In comparison, many things that can't be bought with money are the most important. (To be continued......)