Castle of Black Iron

Of course, Zhang Tie was serious about the preparation for the coming holy war. On the second noon since the Eschyle Victim Cemetery was founded, the five elders of huge bear tribe and Spencer clan sat together with Zhang Tie and started to discuss officially about how to respond to the coming holy war.

What Zhang Tie said yesterday outside Eschyle City not only shocked common people but also 4 of the 5 elders who were sitting on Zhang Tie’s sides. Elder Sarlin was the only one who stayed calm.

This conference was held in a manor of Spencer clan outside Eschyle City. After leaving the cemetery, they arrived here.

This place was once the vacation center of the clan elder of Spencer clan. But it became Zhang Tie’s sanatorium now.

Superb white pine wood floor and the ceiling lamp of a pile of class-IV pyramid crystals made this place low-key and luxurious. In winter, the superb white pine wood floor would radiate a wild pale fragrance of pine needles. As long as you sniffed it, you would feel relaxed compeletly. However, the crystal ceiling lamp above their heads formed a special natural energy which filled the room with a pleasant and energetic environment.

Zhang Tie admitted that the former ruler of Eschyle City really enjoyed his life.it would take them at least 10,000 gold coins for the layout of this average-look room.

This morning, Zhang Tie made an investigation about huge industries of Spencer clan in Eschyle City by car. Yesterday, the ownership of all the properties of Spencer clan in Eschyle city had been officially transferred to Zhang Tie.

Under the supervision of some influential figures in huge bear tribe, wild bear tribe and Eschyle City, Zhang Tie, Elder Rodolfo, Elder Turin, Elder Gouras, Elder Toles and Pontiff Sarlin respectively signed their name on a document, which represented that Zhang Tie, Spencer clan and huge bear tribe officially confirmed his ownership, position and the right of succession of this city in the future, etc..

Spencer clan transferred 75% of the whole Eschyle City and its ownership of clan industries to ”Peter Hamplester”, namely Zhang Tie. Spencer clan only kept 25% of its ownership to its clan industries.

In future, the above ownership and property of Spencer clan that Zhang Tie owned would be succeeded by a kid between Zhang Tie and a Spencer woman. That kid would also be the clan elder of Spencer clan in the future.

All the elders of huge bear tribe agreed with the document.

In a sense, this was only a symbolic document, especially for the top decision makers of two tribes. However, sometimes, such a symbol was unnecessary as those words on white papers could make people reassured and reduce a lot of troubles.

After signing that document, Elder Rodolfo read a book like an account book for more than 10 minutes when Zhang Tie finally understood what did it mean by 75% of the properties of Spencer clan.

Eschyle City alone would have over 2.8 million gold coins of tax revenue and over 1.7 million gold coins of property fee and wharf annuity a year.

Moreover, Spencer clan also had dozens of business groups and commercial firms, hundreds of factories and workshops, dozens of manors and farmlands and thousands of square meters of land of different exploitable value and more than 10 mines...

Zhang Tie felt confused after listening to them.

”You tell me, how much can I use each year and how many people can I mobilize?” Finally, Zhang Tie had to interrupt Elder Rodolfo.

”Except for the expenditures and accumulations for the normal operation of Eschyle City and Spencer industries, 7.8 million gold coins and over 13.4 million people are available each year. Except for the organs of violence like city guards and policemen, 1.26 million people are employed by you in various industries. After the policemen and city guards are re-organized, you have 250,000 city guards and over 40,000 policemen. All the others would follow your order.”

Zhang Tie finally understood. He only remembered two figures, 7.8 million gold coins and over 1.5 million people that could be mobilized by him. The two figures were great. After having the people and resources of Eschyle City and Spencer clan, Zhang Tie genuinely felt the great power of a bear tribe in Ice and Snow Wilderness.

In order to deepen his impression on these things, Zhang Tie especially took a round in Eschyle City this morning.

Zhang Tie paid special attention to three places, Eschyle Steel Plant, Iron Bear Steam Power Corporation and North Wind Shipyard. All of them belonged to Zhang Tie now.

The three companies were the most important industrial enterprises under the affiliation of Spencer clan. Except for Iron Bear Steam Power Corporation which was located in Eschyle City, the other two companies were in an industrial park area called Spias Gulf 30 km away in the east of Eschyle City, where gathered most of industrial enterprises of Eschyle City.

The main products of Iron Bear Steam Power Company were some locomobiles whose power ranged from 5 horsepower to 100 horsepower.

In this age, locomobiles which connected steam engine with boiler was almost human’s best friend. This machine could play a great role in rural areas, cities or plants. As long as it was connected with the proper equipment, it would be used to irrigate farmlands, saw wood, mill rice, drill well, extract oil, thresh, build roads, process and forge machine. Its steam exhaust could also be used to dry, evaporate and warm up as a heat source.

Locomobiles could be fed with both firewood and coal. Besides a heavy weight and a slow start-up speed, this was one of the most perfect machine that humans could produce in this age.

The locomobiles produced by Iron Bear Steam Power Corporation were famous across Ice and Snow Wilderness. One or two locomobiles could always be seen in tribe agglomerations. Even in Kurgan village, Zhang Tie had also seen a small low-speed 5-horsepower locomobile. The machine was used to drill well in Kurgan village.

Iron Bear Steam Power Corporation produced about 3000 sets of various locomobiles a year, which were mainly sold in Ice and Snow Wilderness; few of them were sold to Ewentra Archipelago. Those average buses in Eschyle City were also produced by this company. However, they could only produce a limited number of buses.

The Eschyle Steel Plant could produce 280,000 tons of steel a year as the largest and only steel producer in Ice and Snow Wilderness.

The Eschyle Steel Plant was supported by an iron mine over 40 km away in the east of Spias Gulf which covered about 15-16 square kilometers. This iron mine area contained 940 million tons of high-quality open-air iron ore, which were easily exploited. There was a coal mine about 210 km away in the north of Eschyle City. It contained above 2 billion tons of coal, which was enough to support the demand for coal of the steel industry in Eschyle City.

Of course, the coal mine and iron mine both belonged to Zhang Tie.

Each year, North Wind Shipyard would consume about half of the total production of steel products in Eschyle City. This shipyard was much bigger than the Milky Way Shipyard of Zhang Tie’s grandpa in Golden Sea City. It was already able to build huge steamers of tens of thousands of tons. Whereas, being restricted by the poor industrial development across Ice and Snow Wilderness from various reasons, North Wind Shipyard and Eschyle City didn’t have the ability to build key equipment for steam turbine of large ships. North Wind Shipyard purchased the key parts of steam turbines from Gantyadu Island and assembled them on Eschyle City.

This was the Eschyle City in Zhang Tie’s eyes and the overall industrial development situation across Ice and Snow Wilderness. According to Zhang Tie’s knowledge, due to extremely rigid living environment and the scarcity of various materials, life styles of tribes across Ice and Snow Wilderness were divided into three categories, 1/3 for farming work, 1/3 for nomadism and 1/3 for hunting.

Each bear tribe in Ice and Snow Wilderness had their fixed territory. They lived a relatively poor life in their own territory. Except for bear tribe in Eschyle City, almost no other tribe had a well-developed industrial system.

Facing such a situation, Zhang Tie felt pretty frustrated. For Zhang Tie who grew up from Blackhot City, he clearly knew about the importance of steam and steel to human living and prosperity. It could be said that without steam and steel industries, people would never sustain to the end in the former two holy wars between humans and demons.

Xiphodons were fierce; cavalries that rode xiphodons were also tough men and powerful fighters; however, neither could each one have an xiphodon, nor be a fighter above LV 6. For most of commoners, if they could drive a high-performance steam tank or armored vehicle towards a demon, they would not play a weaker role than xiphodon cavalries on the battle field...

”It’s the most reliable and effective way for us to face the threat from demons by using steel and steam. I wonder how the industry of Eschyle City and huge bear tribe would develop?” Zhang Tie determined the theme——To Respond to the 3rd Holy War between Humans and Demons through Industrialization at the beginning of the conference...