Castle of Black Iron

After they set off from Blackhot City, they drove for two days until the military train carrying all the equipment and members of the Iron-Blood Camp of No. 39 Division finally arrived at Kalur region on the third morning.

Zhang Tie was woken up by a dream. From the moment he got onto the train, he had only done three things: first, sleep; second, kill wild beasts in the Trouble-Reappearance situations; third, visualize two abacuses at the same time to practice ’Mental Arithmetic by Abacus’. Compared to those fragrant and adorable girls, it was really boring to stay with a lot of smelly old men on the train.

The ruffians were playing cards with tobacco in their mouths. The violent maniacs who wanted to have a breakthrough in the Iron-Blood Fist skill were silently practicing the movements in the carriage. In contrast, most of the veterans had their eyes closed or were calmly polishing their weapons to prepare for the coming war.

During the past day and two nights, the train only stopped three times in some small stations on the way so as to add coal and water; one hour each time. Being strictly disciplined, none of the soldiers and military officers took even half a step from the carriages.

The carriages with common soldiers were filled with smoke while the carriage with military officers felt so still that they could not even break wind.

Under this situation, Zhang Tie went to the sleeping compartment and threw himself onto the bed. With the exception of eating meals, he didn’t come out at all.

...

”Wake up, Second Lieutenant Zhang Tie, we’ve arrived at Kalur...”

Still in a sweet dream, Zhang Tie was rocked awake by a second lieutenant above him. Opening his eyes, he found that the train had already stopped. It was noisy outside. Pushing his head out the window, Zhang Tie looked outside and found that the day was about to break. The whole station was filled with people in dark-red military uniforms and mountains of military items.

Zhang Tie immediately got up and put on his clothes and shoes. After slightly grooming himself, he came to the canteen carriage, which was now the temporary conference room of Iron-Blood Camp.

When Zhang Tie came to the canteen, a military officer ranked first lieutenant who was not of the Iron-Blood Camp was hurriedly leaving from the next carriage.

In the next minute, the first military conference was held in the canteen carriage when Iron-Blood Camp came to Kalur.

...

A map of Kalur region was hung on the wall. The center of the map was a city, the south and north of which were occupied by obvious blue or red marks. Between the red and the blue plates, there was a huge gray region which just surrounded Kalur. Holding a command pen, Major Guderian was introducing the present situation about the regions surrounding Kalur in a very concise language.

”Now, both our troops and the Brilliant Feathers are gathering in the expanse region fifty kilometers away from Kalur. The city remains neutral. On its south, namely the blue region on the map, are the Brilliant Feathers, while on the north side, namely the red region on the map, is our Iron-Horn Army. The station we are in is 87 km away from Kalur. We are here...”

Major Guderian pointed his command pen on a town called Karic in the frontier of the red region on the map.

”This narrow gray region surrounding Kalur on the map is 75 km in length, 124 km in width. It is the mountainous area of Kalur and where the most fierce fighting happens between our troops and the Brilliant Feathers. Now, many troops of both parties have been dispatched in this region. Encounters happen everyday here. Just now, I’ve received an order from the Division’s headquarter that we have to be there as soon as possible and grab this area.

”We had another battalion there before, however, before last night, this troop had lost contact with its superior. Usually, this means that that battalion’s brothers all been lost...”

Guderian then drew a direct line from Karic to that place called Solanet in the gray region. As they could all understood the contour line, they knew that Solanet was a town built on a half-hill.

Guderian then drew lines and circles on the map using his command pen and told others what to do next.

”Our first task is to grab this place again. Additionally, we have to continue to move for two weeks in this demanding region which covers at least 100 sq km and clean three enemy bases. In the next two weeks, we will give the biggest strike to the troops of Sun Dynasty in this region.

”In this task, we can only consume our own provisions and will get no relief. Fourteen days later, we can go back to the No. 4 Fighting Castle of the Iron-Horn Army near Kalur to recondition. Any questions?”

Everybody shook their heads, except Zhang Tie who felt his heard pounding as this was his first war. Unexpectedly, the moment they arrived at Kalur, without even sipping a mouthful of water, they were assigned with a task, leaving no time for a buffering at all.

”Fine, the battle maps will be delivered to each company. If there are no problems, you have five minutes to prepare. After that, we should get off the train and assemble the teams to set out!”

All the military officers then suddenly stood up and went to deliver the task to their own companies.

In the next five minutes, Zhang Tie put on that set of Sharp-Arrow Type-B lieutenant light armor produced by the Norman Empire for the first time; its alloy sheets could cover most of the key areas on his body.

Besides putting on this set of armor and taking the same equipment and provisions as other military officers, Zhang Tie also brought a container of javelins that weighed over 100 kg and held that ”Man’s Certificate’ in his hand.

Not only military officers, even the common soldiers had completed all the pre-war preparations in the five minutes.

Wartime was the right time to display the high efficiency of the Iron-Blood Camp. From the first soldier who received the order to open the door of a carriage and jumped off the train to all the 1000-odd members of the Iron-Blood Camp, they all quietly assembled into teams in the railway station. All of this was finished in two minutes.

At this time, the Iron-Blood Camp which had assembled before the war expedition was like a fierce beast which had finally revealed its killing nature. Everybody was holding their weapons and wearing armor. They all were quiet while a heavy killing Qi rolled in their bodies.

...

”Ah, Iron-Blood Camp, here’s our Iron-Blood Camp...”

When the Iron-Blood Camp was assembling in the station, the soldiers and military officers of the Norman Empire in the station couldn’t resist looking with amazement at this assembling ferocious troop.

”Which division?”

”I heard it’s the Iron-Blood Camp of No. 39 Division!”

”Ah! Is that the Iron-Blood Camp led by that mad Reinhardt?” someone exclaimed.

”That’s great, that Iron-Blood Camp will definitely give those bastards a fierce lesson!”

Someone became excited.

Hearing the discussions, Zhang Tie learned that boss Reinhardt was well known in the entire Iron-Horn Army.

”Who’s the guy holding that terrifying thing and carrying a pile of heavy javelins?”

”I don’t know, but he seems very sharp!”

Zhang Tie didn’t imagine that by just standing among the soldiers he would attract the attention of many people. However, as it was his first time participating in a war, Zhang Tie only felt nervous inside, not feeling like showing off at all.

”Set off!”

Soon after Boss Reinhardt’s roar, all the brothers of the Iron-Blood Camp started to move and trotted out of the station.

The moment they left the station, Zhang Tie understood why they were ordered to walk towards Solanet. In this frontier town where they got off the train, almost half of the buildings were destroyed in the war. Broken tiles and walls could be seen everywhere.

Buildings had been burnt to pieces while roads were seriously destroyed. As a result, the steaming armored vehicles that could only play their biggest role in plains and group assaults became useless in mountainous areas that surrounded Kalur region.

The town was covered with soldiers in dark red military uniforms of the Norman Empire. It was not strange for the 1000-odd people of the Iron-Blood Camp which rushed out of the railway station. After the troop of the Iron-Blood Camp trotted away from the railway station, they soon ran out of the town and entered the wild in only several minutes.

Solanet was at least 25 km away from here.

Only now Zhang Tie realised that it was very foolish to take this heavy sword as his main fighting weapon. That heavy sword along with the javelin container on his back, as well as some other equipment, made it that Zhang Tie carried half a ton of equipment with him. And all of that had to be carried while needing to run 25 km before participating in a war. Even if Zhang Tie had nine wolves’ strength, he still felt a bit tired with this high intensity. After all, carrying loads was not wild wolfs’ advantage.

However, at this time, Zhang Tie had to grit his teeth to stand it and collect his courage for himself.

Before the troop entered the mountainous area, a cavalry riding iron-horn beasts darted out from behind the troop and gave a metal cylinder that contained an order to Battalion Commander Reinhardt, who was at the front of the troop. After that, the cavalry rapidly rode away.

”According to the report of our scout brothers, those bastards of Sun Dynasty chopped off the heads of all of our battalion brothers in Solanet and piled them all on a granary’s floor. Nobody survived, including the wounded and refugees. According to the latest order of the division’s headquarters, also the latest task to us the Iron-Blood Camp, we will kill all the bastards of Sun Dynasty that are occupying Solanet. Do not let any one of them escape...” Battalion Commander Reinhardt growled full of killing Qi.

”Kill them all!”

”Kill them all!”

Everybody’s blood in the Iron-Blood Camp boiled...