After Freeman and the other merchant guild representatives, who had been delayed for several days by bridges washed away and roads damaged in the torrential rain, arrived at Marquis Southgate's private fief, Xu Yi met with them, spoke briefly, and returned straight to the Stantin Duchy.
Although this trip to the Malo Empire had not achieved every objective he had set, he had not only reached many agreements with Marquis Southgate but also made initial contact with some of the empire's upper echelons through the marquis, reaching several agreements with them as well.
Marquis Southgate's old friend, Duke Macalose, remained skeptical of the Xinfei Merchant Guild's farmland magic machinery. Before Xu Yi left, however, he suddenly sent someone to tell Xu Yi that he could set aside a third of the farmland in his private fief during the autumn harvest for the Cantona Chamber of Commerce to help harvest.
He hoped to use this as a trial to verify whether the miraculous farmland magic machinery Xu Yi had described could truly produce such miraculous results.
Apart from the rather stubborn Duke Macalose, the other noble lords of the Malo Empire whom Marquis Southgate introduced all expressed a willingness to try it.
Thus, for this autumn harvest alone, the Cantona Chamber of Commerce received contracts to harvest over three hundred thousand hectares of farmland in the Malo Empire. It was a major deal by any measure.
These noble lords also promised that if the Cantona Chamber of Commerce truly demonstrated the miraculous, unbelievable harvesting efficiency Xu Yi had described during the autumn harvest, they would seriously consider putting it in charge of the subsequent sowing and comprehensive farmland renovation as well.
Compared with harvesting, that was where the truly big business lay.
As president, Cantona placed tremendous importance on this opportunity