King Eric forcefully pinched his forehead, feeling like his head was about to explode from the pain.
The reason for this was that one, he hadn't had a good night's sleep in several months and two, it was because of the large pile of documents in front of him.
Although there seemed to be many documents, they were all talking about the same thing. It was the bloody conflict that had occurred in Banta City before.
If it was in a normal sense, this bloody conflict was just an accident and wasn't worth paying attention to. It was impossible for a respected king like him to have a headache over it.
But the problem was that the meaning behind this bloody conflict was too complicated and too important. It created a backlash from the people of the Lampari Kingdom, which was why it became this serious.
This bloody conflict was very simple on the surface, it was just the Banta City guards killing a commoner while carrying out their mission.
This matter had happened many times in the history of the Lampari Kingdom. They had always sealed the mouth of the commoners before and at most they could take out a bit of money to settle it.
However, as soon as this matter happened, it was immediately revealed. In a short period of time, it attracted the attention and reaction of everyone in the kingdom.
The main reason for this bloody conflict was that the city guards were following the rules of the City Lord Manor. They were stopping a company from using agricultural magic machines that weren't part of the rules to harvest.
After this matter happened, almost all the newspapers in the Lampuri Kingdom had reported it in detail. There were even many newspapers that followed up on this matter, clearly writing about both sides of the conflict and the inside story, letting everyone know the reason for this conflict.
It was because they knew the reason that countless people in the kingdom had such a large reaction.
Did Banta City's City Lord Manor have the right to set the rules that they had to use a specific brand of agricultural magic machines when harvesting?
This question was the core of everyone's doubts.
To most people, the main goal of harvesting was to quickly and smoothly finish the harvest. As long as they could harvest the grain in the field, it didn't matter what brand of agricultural magic machine was used.
Not to mention that there were only two brands of agricultural magic machines in the Lampari Kingdom. One was the Xinfei brand, which was used by the Cantona Chamber of Commerce in this conflict. Because it was confiscated by the city guards, it caused this bloody conflict.
The other was the Hayada brand.
Not only was it the brand that Banta City used, it was also the brand that the magic machine industry management department recommended all the cities in the kingdom use.
At the same time, the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machine was a brand designated by the agriculture department. Before the spring plowing this year, it had already been promoted to many cities in the Lampari Kingdom and was recommended to all cities.
Although the business department and the agriculture department didn't force people to use the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines like Banta City, since the business department and the agriculture department both recommended it, most of the cities in the kingdom changed their Xinfei Brand agricultural magic machines to the Hayada Brand.
This wasn't a big deal at first, but after the bloody conflict in Banta City, there were many voices of opposition that came out.
There were two main reasons for the opposition. One of them was that no matter if it was the Mayor's Mansion, the Magic Machine Industry Administration Department, the Business Department, or even the Agriculture Department, they couldn't force a certain product to be used.
If people want to buy something, they have to do it voluntarily.
It would be a violation of basic principles to enforce the rules.
The other point was mainly the quality of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines.
According to the news from the newspapers of the various cities, the quality of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines really couldn't be praised.
The reason for this bloody conflict in Banta City was because the quality of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines was too poor. Most of the twenty small Hayada Brand Magic Harvesters the Cantona Chamber of Commerce had bought were broken, so they were forced to violate the rules of the City Lord Manor and use the Xinfei Brand agricultural magic machines.
The City Lord Manor wanted to enforce the rules, so they had a conflict with the workers of the Cantona Chamber of Commerce, causing this tragedy.
If the quality of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines was a bit better, how could this have happened?
Moreover, other than Banta City, the performance of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines in the other cities was also very bad.
The newspapers of the various cities reported that there were all kinds of problems with the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines in their cities, making it impossible to harvest normally.
There were many cities that had problems with the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines, so they had no choice but to use the Xinfei Brand agricultural magic machines again, making it in time for the spring harvest.
Otherwise, the grain yield of the Lampari Kingdom this spring harvest would have been greatly affected because of this.
In most of the newspapers, there were strong condemnations of the Hayada Chamber of Commerce.
Countless people questioned the Hayada Chamber of Commerce. Why was it that after receiving the complete technology from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and receiving the support of the magic machine industry management department, the Hayada Chamber of Commerce could only make such low quality agricultural magic machines?
Not to mention comparing it to the Xinfei Brand agricultural magic machines, they should at least be able to use them normally, right?
But there were some newspapers that raised another point of view.
It was an indisputable fact that the quality of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines was bad, so of course the newspapers wouldn't forcefully explain it. They threw the problem onto New Flyer, saying that it was because New Flyer didn't give the technology to the Hayada Chamber of Commerce that the quality of the Hayada Brand agricultural magic machines wasn't good.
New Flyer didn't give the technology to the department and chose to break off the cooperation, leaving a mess for the department and the ten companies represented by the Hayada Chamber of Commerce.
The fact that these ten companies were able to produce complete magic machines was already a testament to their hard work.
In order to support the development of these ten companies, making better and better magic machines in the future, allowing the people of the Lampari Kingdom to break free from the restrictions of the Xinfei Brand magic machines, I hope that everyone can be patient with these ten companies and support them.
This point of view was naturally cursed by countless people.
It was clearly the department that wanted to steal the large cake of the magic machine market from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but after stealing the technology, they couldn't do it themselves and now they were blaming the Frestech Chamber of Commerce?
This was clearly acting like a whore trying to build a chastity!
There was an article in the « Lampuri Weekly » that pushed the anger directed at the ten companies to the peak.
This article was an interview the « Lampuri Weekly » had with the chief magic mechanical engineer of the New Flyer magic machine development center, dwarf Camby.
In the interview, Camby said that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had already given all the technology to the ten companies of the magic machine industry management department and didn't hide anything.
The quality of the magic machines they produced couldn't compare to the Xinfei Brand magic machines. Other than the fact that the craftsmanship of the ten companies couldn't compare to the New Flyer, there was another important reason, which was that they cut corners in order to save costs.
Take the small Magic Harvester that caused such a large problem. The Xinfei Brand small Magic Harvester used a special super hard steel refined by New Flyer, which cost over two hundred gold coins per ton.
As for the Hayada Brand small Magic Harvester, it used a low quality steel refined by one of the ten companies, the Detroit Chamber of Commerce. Whether it was in terms of hardness, toughness, wear resistance, or corrosion resistance, they were all inferior to the special steel used by the Xinfei Brand small Magic Harvester. The price per ton was estimated to be no more than fifty gold coins.
The most common problem with the Hayada Brand small Magic Harvester was that the parts were damaged and the most serious part was the shaft breaking, which was because the quality of the steel was too low.
In the report published in the « Lampuri Weekly », there was a list of detailed data given by Camby. It compared the Xinfei Brand small Magic Harvester to the Hayada Brand small Magic Harvester.
Although the data was very boring, it was very clear.
Comparing it, there was no doubt that the Hayada Brand small Magic Harvester was seriously cutting corners, so of course the quality couldn't be good.
When this conclusion came out, other than a few newspapers that doubted the data given by Camby, no one said a single good word for the Hayada Brand.
So in less than a month after the bloody conflict in Banta City, there was a wave of activities in the Lampari Kingdom to boycott the Hayada Chamber of Commerce. All the cities in the kingdom announced that they would no longer use the agricultural magic machines produced by the Hayada Chamber of Commerce.
After this, these activities developed into boycotting the magic machines produced by the ten companies of the magic machine industry management department.
To everyone, they were also one of the ten companies of the magic machine industry management department. If the Hayada Chamber of Commerce's magic machines were this bad, the magic machines produced by the other companies would be the same.
Before this, there were already many voices of opposition to the quality of the magic machines produced by the other merchant guilds. Now, they were just using this opportunity to expand their influence.
The documents in front of King Eric were documents sent by the City Lord Manors of many cities. They stated that they wanted the magic machine industry management department to inspect the ten companies and strictly control the quality of the magic machines they produced.
Otherwise, there would be many cities in the kingdom that would refuse to import the magic machines produced by these companies.
Among these documents, there were some that were even more direct.
For example, Sowell City's City Lord, Count Count Samo, had directly announced that Sowell City would no longer be managed by the magic machine industry management department and would support the development of the city's magic machine companies.
There were eleven other cities that made the same choice as Sowell City, taking up a third of the Lampari Kingdom.
If the other cities that sent documents were included, there wasn't a single city in the Lampari Kingdom that still supported the magic machine industry management department.
Looking over the documents in front of him, King Eric felt his head hurt a bit more. He couldn't help knitting his brows and cursing in a low voice before feeling a deep sense of helplessness.
Although he was the Lampari Kingdom's king in name, there were very few things he could control.
Not to mention changing the attitudes of the cities and the nobles that protested, even if it was the magic machine industry management department, the business department, and the agriculture department that were under his command, he couldn't influence a single one of them.
"If Seveni was the king back then and she had the support of Xu Yi and the New Flyer, wouldn't she be much better off than me?"
Hearing the familiar footsteps of Duke Stagg outside the door, King Eric revealed a bitter smile.