On the last day of year 3783 of the continent's new calendar, the « Banta Times » had a rather conspicuous piece of news on the second page.
"The New Flyer, the Mirando Duchy, and the Rudson Duchy have signed a three way long term cooperation agreement.
According to this agreement, the New Flyer will provide technical support to the Mirando Duchy and the Kingdom of Ruhr, building several household magic machine factories in the two countries. As for the Mirando Duchy and the Kingdom of Ruhr, they will open up their mineral resources to the New Flyer … … "
Although there were many people who noticed this news when they saw the « Banta Times », overall, this news didn't create that much of a stir in Banta City.
In the end, the New Flyer had already been banned by the magic machine industry management department and hadn't been able to produce magic machines in the Lampari Kingdom for half a year. Then because of the new rules of the business department, the New Flyer had greatly reduced the number of magic machines it sold in the Lampari Kingdom.
For the people of the Lampari Kingdom and even Banta City, the New Flyer had disappeared from their world for half a year.
Although the New Flyer's service centers in the various cities of the kingdom were still working and there was still a research facility and a canned fruit factory in Banta City, in most people's lives, the only things the New Flyer had left were the household magic machines they had bought before.
People were forgetful and after half a year, most people in the Lampari Kingdom had gradually forgotten about this company that had led countless trends in the kingdom.
Perhaps only in Banta City would there be many people who would think of it and have a bit of nostalgia for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
The Fersen Carriage Company's chairman Pompeii was perhaps one of the people who missed the New Flyer the most right now.
Although he was very dissatisfied with the City Lord Manor forcing him to buy the Lafaye Chamber of Commerce's Magic Cars for public transport, he could still profit from Banta City's public transport system. Moreover, maintaining the public transport system would greatly increase the reputation of the Fersen Carriage Company. So after careful consideration, chairman Pompeii didn't choose to give up in the end. He followed the rules of the City Lord Manor and switched to the Lafaye Chamber of Commerce's Magic Cars.
However, it had been less than four months since all the buses had been replaced. After President Pompeii did a detailed calculation, he found that not only did he not earn any money from the city's public transport system, but he had also lost more than 50,000 gold coins on net.
Before this, although the Fersen Carriage Company followed her highness Seveni's wishes and Xu Yi's advice and set a low price for public transport, they could still make a profit.
Even though the profits weren't much, he still earned about ten to twenty thousand gold coins a month.
Now that there was a sudden loss and it wasn't a small loss, after the Fersen Carriage Company calculated it, they found that the reason for this was because of the quality of the Lafaye Brand Magic Cars.
Just last month, the Fersen Carriage Company's three hundred and seventy four Lafaye Brand Magic Cars had suffered a total of one hundred and seventy six small and large damages. They had spent an extra twenty three thousand six hundred and twenty five gold coins to repair them.
Because of this high frequency of damages, the entire Banta City public transport system was greatly affected and there were times where they had to be changed.
The Fersen Carriage Company had to pay at least three thousand gold coins in operating costs.
Other than that, the damages varied in severity. Some of the more serious ones even caused a few serious accidents.
The most serious one was when a Lafaye Brand Magic Car heading to the new southern district suddenly went out of control and crashed into a shop on the side of the street.
Although it wasn't fast and no one died, there were thirteen people who were heavily injured and twenty four people who were lightly injured.
Because of this, the Fersen Carriage Company had to pay over five thousand gold coins in medical and compensation fees.
Adding it all together, just last month, the Fersen Carriage Company had spent close to forty thousand gold coins on the public transport system.
Putting aside the profits, their net loss was over twenty thousand gold coins.
It was like this for several months, so chairman Pompeii felt that the public transport system was simply a burden for the Fersen Carriage Company.
But maintaining the public transport system not only increased the reputation of the Fersen Carriage Company in Banta City, it also gave them a certain amount of support from the City Lord Manor. So even though they were clearly losing money, chairman Pompeii never made up his mind to give up and kept doing his best to maintain it.
However, the City Lord Manor had made a new rule a few days ago that forced him to make his decision.
The Fersen Carriage Company couldn't keep maintaining the public transport system.
The content of this rule was very simple. It was to announce that starting tomorrow, the special subsidies that Banta City's finances gave to the public transport system would be canceled.
The reason given by the City Lord Manor was very righteous, saying that this was to promote a fair business environment in Banta City, so they couldn't give special subsidies to certain companies.
But how could chairman Pompeii not know that this was completely because the City Lord Manor wasn't willing to take out money.
The reason why this rule wasn't changed this year was because the subsidies for the public transport system had already been given by her highness Seveni when she was still the City Lord at the beginning of the year.
If they changed it this year, it would without a doubt be a great disrespect to her highness Seveni.
In the new year, it was natural for the City Lord's Manor to change some policies. Even her highness Seveni couldn't blame them.
It was very clear that chairman Pompeii didn't have the right to criticize the City Lord Manor, so he could only silently accept it.
After several days of careful calculation, chairman Pompeii realized that if they lost the special subsidies from the City Lord Manor, the Fersen Carriage Company would lose over two hundred thousand gold coins a year just from the public transport system, it would even be close to three hundred thousand gold coins.
If it was two years ago when the Fersen Carriage Company had a profit of over a million gold coins a year, for their reputation and the support of the City Lord Manor, they could barely take this loss.
But now the City Lord's Manor clearly didn't support the Fersen Carriage Company. Moreover, because the ten companies had lowered the transport fees, the Fersen Carriage Company's profits had greatly decreased. At the end of the year, their annual profits didn't even exceed five hundred thousand gold coins.
Not to mention that this profit included the high profit from the first half of the year.
If they only counted the second half of the year, their total profit was only less than two hundred thousand gold coins.
In this situation, the Fersen Carriage Company couldn't take the large loss from the public transport system at all.
Helplessly, even if chairman Pompeii didn't want to disappoint her highness Seveni and Chairman Xu, he had to give up.
So when the « Banta Times » published news on the last day of year 3783 of the continent's new calendar, as long as it was related to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be on the front page, but now it had to be on the second page.
Because the front page news was an explosive piece of news from the Fersen Carriage Company through the « Banta Times ».
The Fersen Carriage Company announced that starting next year, the Fersen Carriage Company would be withdrawing from Banta City's public transport system!
In just a single morning, this news had spread all over Banta City.
Everyone who received this news was stunned.
The Fersen Carriage Company withdrawing from the public transport system, didn't that mean that there would be no public transport Magic Cars in the future?
But the people of Banta City were already used to taking the convenient Magic Cars to wherever they wanted to go. Now that it was suddenly gone, what would they do if they wanted to go out in the future?
It wasn't a problem for rich people since most of them had bought Magic Sedans from the New Flyer, but what about the people who couldn't afford Magic Sedans?
Could it be that they had to rely on riding bicycles?
The people of Banta City had been used to the public transport system for close to two years. Now that it was suddenly gone, everyone was a bit stunned.
After being stunned, many people became angry again.
The Fersen Carriage Company had taken over Banta City's public transport system with the support of her highness Seveni and Chairman Xu. Now that they had earned enough money, they actually wanted to withdraw while her highness Seveni and Chairman Xu were leaving Banta City?
What did they treat the people of Banta City as!
But after calming down, people thought of a very important question.
Why did the Fersen Carriage Company withdraw from the public transport system?
For merchants, of course earning money was the most important thing.
If running the public transport system could earn money, even if someone held a knife to chairman Pompeii's neck, he wouldn't announce his withdrawal.
Because of this question, people began reading the report on this matter in the « Banta Times ».
Although the « Banta Times » didn't describe this matter in detail, there were two key points. One was that the City Lord Manor had canceled the special subsidies for the public transport system and the second was that the Lafaye Chamber of Commerce had a monopoly on the public transport Magic Cars.
As long as people saw these two key points and thought about it, they could understand the problem.
It was clear that the City Lord's Manor was protecting the ten companies of the magic machine industry management department, as well as squeezing the Fersen Carriage Company that had a close relationship with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Thinking of the things the City Lord Manor did to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in the second half of the year, as well as the actions of the ten companies, comparing it to when her highness Seveni was the City Lord and when the New Flyer was still in Banta City, the people of Banta City were filled with even stronger resentment.
On the last day of year 3873 of the continent's new calendar, Banta City seemed calm on the surface.
But on the day of the new year, there wasn't a happy atmosphere in Banta City. Rather under the calm surface, there was an undercurrent.