Volume 3 Chapter 34 - Make a bet (1/2)

These documents only had a small matter on them. They said that there were some villagers in the surrounding villages that wanted to work in the Stantine Duchy, so they were reporting it to Banta City ahead of time, keeping their identity as Banta City citizens.

There were some matters like this before, but Count Stagg didn’t care that much. He just authorized them according to the customs from before.

But seeing the same document again and again, Count Stagg suddenly had a strong sense of crisis in his heart.

After carefully thinking about it, he noticed why this strong sense of crisis had appeared.

The reason was very simple, it was related to the Banta City tax revenue problem that he had been worrying about.

Because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce left and the other companies following them, as well as the business department suddenly giving out free trade rights, this year’s Banta City tax revenue would return to the level of several years ago.

Losing the revenue that came from the large companies, it was equal to someone taking a large chunk of Banta City away.

And now, the citizens of Banta City were actually leaving Banta City. For a traditional noble like Count Stagg, this was basically shaking the foundations of Banta City.

When Count Stagg recalled the documents from a few days before, he found a shocking fact. The citizens that were leaving Banta City were actually normal farmers from the villages outside the city.

For Count Stagg that placed great importance on agriculture, these normal farmers were the foundation of Banta City.

One or ten farmers leaving wouldn’t affect anything, but if a hundred or even several hundred left, it would create a shocking effect.

Recalling the documents over the past few days, Count Stagg was shocked to find that in a short time, there had been close to a hundred peasant families that had put in their applications.

If this trend continued, wouldn’t Banta City’s foundations be shaken?

Thinking of this, Count Stagg looked at the document in his hand again and found that several villagers wanted to leave Banta City. They wanted to work in the Stantine Duchy, all of them were going to work on the land that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had rented.

To put it in other words, they were changing from farming in Banta City to farming in the Stantine Duchy.

In the past documents, the other farmers had given the same reason. Thinking of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s recent actions, Count Stagg’s eyes turned cold as he gave a strong snort.

“That damn Xu Yi, you actually dare steal the most important old and experienced farmers from me. You want to dig a hole for me?”

Count Stagg thought about it before denying this application.

Although in theory he didn’t have this right, as the Banta City’s City Lord, he had many methods to force the normal farmers to stay.

When he finished replying to the document, there was a soft knock on the door to the office.

Based on the frequency, Count Stagg could tell that it was his trusted subordinate manager Chekhov, so he let him come in with a deep sounding reply.

After Chekhov came in, he gave a bow to Count Stagg, “Lord Count, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu is here for a meeting.”

Count Stagg was stunned, turning to look at the dark night outside.

Why did Xu Yi come for a meeting at this time?

Ten minutes later, Count Stagg saw Xu Yi in a small room in the City Lord Manor.

“Chairman Xu, it really is rare for you to visit this late at night.”

Now that the City Lord Manor had received the three thousand agricultural magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and finished the fall harvest, Count Stagg’s attitude when meeting Xu Yi had greatly changed.

Xu Yi saw that after the first confrontation, Count Stagg always revealed a polite manner when meeting him and this time wasn’t an exception.

“Lord City Lord, I’m very sorry for bothering you this late.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “But I might set off for the Stantine Duchy in two days, so I wanted to discuss some things with the Lord City Lord ahead of time.”

Hearing the words “Stantine Duchy”, Count Stagg’s face sunk, “Very good, chairman Xu, since you took the initiative to raise the Stantine Duchy, I have something to ask you. Since your company has rented land in the Stantine Duchy, why don’t you employ local Stantine Duchy workers to help you develop it, why are you poaching our Banta City’s old and experienced farmers? Do you know how much impact this will have on our Batna City’s agricultural development?”

Xu Yi’s smile didn’t change, “I do know about this, so I specially came to discuss this with the Lord City Lord to solve this problem.”

“Solve this problem?” Count Stagg gave a cold snort, “You make it sound so easy. Do you know how important these old and experienced farmers are to Banta City? If you take them away, can you take responsibility for the crime of affecting our Banta City’s grain yield?”

“Of course I can’t take responsibility.” Xu Yi honestly said with a smile, “Grain production is a large matter in our Lampuri Kingdom, even if I am bold, I can’t do something like this. But Lord City, if I may, although grain yield is closely related to people, you don’t need this many people.”

Count Stagg knit his brows, “What? Are you here to sell me your theory of replacing manpower with magic machines?”

Xu Yi gave a shrug, “I don’t feel like there’s a problem with this theory. If with the help of magic machines, people can do more things, isn’t this a good thing?”