The next morning, Xu Yi carried the reluctant Freya, as well as Liz and Linda who came with her, as well as Agnes, to bid farewell to elder Elucía.
The four people and one elf sat in the Magic Sedan that Xu Yi had parked outside. It only took two hours to reach Banta City that they hadn't seen in a long time, heading straight to the City Lord Manor.
Since Seveni was crowned the queen, Banta City had a new City Lord.
The current City Lord, Count Will, was a firm supporter of Seveni. He was only in his forties this year and could be considered a very young Count in the Lampari Kingdom.
Seveni had sent him as the new City Lord, which showed how much importance Seveni placed on Banta City.
Count Will had been Banta City's City Lord for a year now, working hard to follow her majesty Seveni's wishes, working hard to revitalize the magic machine industry in Banta City.
With the support of the New Flyer, although there were many companies in Banta City, especially the New Flyer that had pulled out most of their businesses, making it less prosperous than before, with the cooperation of the New Flyer, most of the prosperity in the city had been restored.
Once they entered Banta City, they could see all kinds of advertisements and signs for magic machines.
But if one looked carefully, they would find that on these magic machines, there were traces of the New Flyer.
This was because most of the magic machine companies in Banta City came from the joint venture between the New Flyer and the Lampari Kingdom.
Strictly speaking, for every magic machine that these companies sold, the Xinfei merchants would profit from it.
Even if this wasn't as profitable as the New Flyer selling Xinfei Brand magic machines, with these joint ventures and the large and mature market in the Lampari Kingdom, the New Flyer had earned a large profit of over five million gold coins from the Lampari Kingdom in the past nine months of this year.
However, this time, Xu Yi didn't come to Banta City for these joint ventures, rather it was for something that many people didn't think was important. It was a small matter that didn't need the New Flyer's chairman to personally make a move.
Because of Count Will's orders, Xu Yi's Magic Sedan entered the City Lord's Manor without any hindrance. Soon Xu Yi saw Count Will himself.
When he saw Xu Yi, Count Will revealed a warm smile.
"Chairman Xu, after two years, you're finally back in Banta City. I represent all the citizens of Banta City to give you a sincere welcome."
Xu Yi laughed and shook hands with Count Will before saying, "Sir Count, your words are too serious.
Banta City has always been my second home in my heart, how could I need a special welcome when I'm back. "
"Alright, I hope that Chairman Xu will always remember that Banta City is your second home and I hope that Chairman Xu can come back to your home more often."
Count Will said with a sincere smile, "Banta City is currently in its most crucial period of rapid development, we can't do without Chairman Xu's support."
Xu Yi shook his head with a faint smile, "Based on what I saw on the road, Banta City is in a very stable and fast developing state. Even without me, I believe that Banta City will become one of the top cities in the Lampari Kingdom."
After the two finished exchanging pleasantries, they quickly entered the discussion stage.
Xu Yi's main goal in coming back to Banta City this time was to participate in the spring and fall bicycle race that was held twice a year. Other than last fall, it was held every year.
Although the cycling competition had only been held six times so far, the scale of each competition was larger than the previous one. This year, when the cycling competition was changed to the first half of the spring, the number of participants was as high as fifty thousand.
For this fall's bicycle race, other than the participants from Banta City and the surrounding cities, there were many people from the other cities of the Lampari Kingdom that came to sign up.
Other than the Lampari Kingdom, there were quite a few people from the Drake Duchy, the Mirando Duchy, and the Kingdom of Ruhr that signed up.
So this year's Banta City bicycle race could be considered an international race. Not only did it have a large influence in the Lampari Kingdom, it even had a large influence in the surrounding countries.
What was different from the previous races was that starting from this year's bicycle race, they began accepting groups of teams to participate.
Because of this rule, in this year's bicycle race, there were many teams that signed up.
Apart from a small number of convoys that were organized on their own accord, most of the other convoys were either funded by a certain merchant association or a certain noble family.
Among these teams, there was a team that attracted everyone's attention because this team was called the Xinfei team.
This Xinfei team was of course funded by the New Flyer.
Things like bicycles were developed by the New Flyer.
Even if there were many companies that received the technology from the New Flyer and began to produce their own brand of bicycles, everyone was certain that when it came to bicycles, the New Flyer would definitely surpass the other companies.
So when most people bought bicycles, they would first choose the Xinfei Brand.
Now the Xinfei Brand had a terrifying 80% share of the bicycle race and this was a number that Xu Yi deliberately set.
If he really wanted to, he could even raise this percentage to 90% or even higher.
With the Xinfei team participating in the bicycle race, to most people, the championship would fall into the hands of the Xinfei team.
But New Flyer immediately announced a new decision in the « Banta Times ». In order to prevent the prize money from New Flyer from falling into the hands of New Flyer, the Xinfei team's results wouldn't be included in the rankings.
But New Flyer also announced that in order to promote the healthy development of bicycle races, starting from next year's fall bicycle race, the Xinfei team would be included in the competition. If the Xinfei team won the championship, the prize money would still be given.
In this announcement in the « Banta Times », there was a sentence that Xu Yi had announced to everyone.
"I'll give you a year to catch up to the Xinfei team. If you can't do it, then don't think about winning the championship."
These words for normal participants were just too domineering, making them feel a bit unconvinced, but they couldn't do anything about it.
But for the teams that represented the various companies and large nobles, this was without a doubt a naked provocation.
And for the teams that represented the companies that produced bicycles, this was an even greater challenge.
For these teams, it was obvious that they would use the bicycles produced by their own companies to participate in this race.
If they could obtain good results like this, even surpassing the Xinfei Brand bicycles, it would without a doubt be a good advertisement for their companies' bicycles.
Banta City's bicycle race received a lot of attention, so if they could do this, it would make their companies very famous. It would without a doubt greatly increase the sales of their companies' bicycles.
But now that Xu Yi had thrown out these words, it was without a doubt telling the other companies that they weren't qualified yet.
Although the other companies weren't convinced, no one could refute this.
In terms of strength in the mechanical field, no matter which company it was, it was impossible for them to compare to the New Flyer.
After introducing the details of the bicycle race to Xu Yi, Count Will invited Xu Yi to the City Lord Manor's conference room.
When the door was opened, Xu Yi saw several familiar faces.
Thinking about it, Xu Yi remembered that these people were the chairmen of the joint venture companies in Banta City.
If he didn't remember wrong, the companies under these chairmen were mainly in the bicycle industry.
Seeing Xu Yi and Count Will come in together, the chairmen quickly stood up. Their faces were filled with smiles that were several times more enthusiastic than Count Will's from before.
After both sides exchanged a few pleasantries, Count Will quickly got to the main topic.
These chairmen of the bicycle companies had been specially called here by Count Will. The so-called reason was to use this chance with Xu Yi to discuss a deeper cooperation in the bicycle industry with Xu Yi.
Xu Yi wasn't surprised by this. Actually, this was something he had revealed to Count Will ahead of time, so it could be considered his own arrangement.
Xu Yi had released the announcement of the New Flyer in the « Banta Times » a few days ago, which could be considered a foreshadowing. It was for this discussion.
These companies relied on their joint venture with the New Flyer to produce bicycles. Even if they couldn't break the monopoly of the Xinfei Brand bicycles, they had obtained quite a bit of profit from this. Now that Xu Yi was willing to discuss a deeper cooperation with them, naturally they welcomed him.
But the deep cooperation that Xu Yi proposed made these chairmen a bit stunned.
Xu Yi didn't do what they expected or what they expected. He didn't plan on giving them more bicycle production technology to improve the quality of their bicycles. Rather as soon as he opened his mouth, he proposed to hold a professional competition with them!
"To put it simply, it's a professional bicycle race that is different from tomorrow's bicycle race.
If the Banta City bicycle race is a race that everyone can participate in, the race that we're holding now is a race that only professional cyclists and professional bicycle teams can participate in. "
The chairmen looked at each other and one of them couldn't help asking, "But Chairman Xu, what meaning is there in doing this?
If it's just a race, the current Banta City bicycle race is already mature enough and can attract people's attention. "
The other chairmen also had looks of agreement. Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and shook his head.
"No, the race that I want to hold will only allow professionals to participate. The participating teams will only be allowed to use the name of their own Chamber of Commerce, and they will only be allowed to use bicycles produced by their own Chamber of Commerce. Therefore, it will represent the highest standard of bicycle racing."
"This highest level doesn't just mean the highest level of participants, it also means the highest level of bicycles.
Do you understand what I mean? "
Hearing Xu Yi's explanation, the chairmen thought about it before their eyes lit up at the same time.