Castle of Black Iron

On November 27th, heavy snow, in the wilderness over 250 miles away in the southwest of Golden Light City...

This region was not affiliated to Yanghe Prefecture; however, it bordered with Yanghe Prefecture. As a wasteland in the territory of Youzhou Province, it’s closer to Youzhou City than Yanghe Prefecture.

Zhang Tie, Zhang Yang and a group of people of Zhang family were watching this land in the command module of a fury-level airship in the sky.

Compared to Yanghe Prefecture, this land was undulating and untraversed. Such a land existed everywhere in lower provinces like Youzhou Province.

Due to heavy snow, the woods in the mountains were rimy while some rivers and brooks had been frozen. Zhang Chengze, Zhang Chenglei and the other little guys were lowering their bodies in front of an optical imaging device in the command module and adjusting the focal distance and display area in the optical imaging device. At the same time, they exclaimed due to the excitement.

Zhang Tie, Zhang Yang and Zhang Ping were standing on the other end of the command module and watched the land through the lower view porthole.

”Dad, how do you feel about this land?” Zhang Yang asked Zhang Ping.

Zhang Tie felt that his dad’s crow’s foot had disappeared greatly while his face had turned florid perhaps because he had promoted to LV 6 and felt cheerful lately.

”I just followed you here to take a look. As for the details, you brothers could make decisions by yourselves; I will agree with you!” Zhang Ping said cheerily.

”Dad, there’s a herd of deer below us...”

Before Zhang Yang replied, those little guys had shouted and applauded as they found a herd of deer galloping in the wilderness.

”Follow the herd for a while for these little guys!” Zhang Tie issued an order to the captain of the airship.

”These little guys have already turned crazier after following you for only a few days. Other fathers are strict, look at you, you’ve spoiled our sons!” After hearing Zhang Tie’s order, Linda, who was chatting with Zhang Tie’s elder sisters-in-law started to blame Zhang Tie, causing the other women to giggle.

As it turned colder, the women of Zhang’s family wore thicker clothes. With scarfs made of hides of sables and silver foxes over their necks, plus those expensive and delicate runes or alchemist’s jewelry on their hands, these women looked more like rich ladies.

”After all, the airship has to travel in the sky, however, we need to please these little guys!” Zhang Tie explained with a smile. After that, he turned around and asked Zhang Yang, ”What’s the price of the land below?”

Although being the dean of the provincial court of Youzhou Province, Zhang Tie still didn’t know too much about commerce. He rarely cared about money. It seemed to be the ”Sequela of Gorath”. Speaking of money, the first thought that occurred to Zhang Tie’s mind was to rob Three-eye Association clans, which was the fastest way to make the most money.

”Youzhou Province is a lower province. All the lands below are wastelands being 140 miles away from cities. 2/3 of them was a mountainous area, while 1/3 of them was plain. According to the regulations, the land here is just Class C level II. Such a land is priced as 600 gold coins per square mile by the Land Resources Bureau in Youzhou City.

”So cheap!” Zhang Tie replied after being stunned for a few seconds.

”It’s not cheap if you compare it to the wild provinces in the north. All the lands over there were ownerless. According to the laws of Taixia Country, as long as you build a city over there, you will have 3 square miles of land surrounding the city for free as the affiliated land. If mining ores were discovered in those wild provinces, the major clans would always build a city in the nearby so as to occupy the mining ores. Besides levying taxes, the imperial court would not interfere with them at all. Therefore, wild province reclamation is a big business in Taixia Country.” Zhang Yang made a further explanation to Zhang Tie as his eyes glittered. It seemed that Zhang Yang was interested in land reclamation in Taixia Country.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Tie realized that what Zhang Yang said was true. The wild provinces in Taixia were truly in an anarchic state. Even though there were still people in these wild provinces. As long as there were people, there would be conflicts such as disputes about the right of attribution of mining ores being discovered in the wild provinces which different pioneering clans were involved in. As wild provinces could not hear litigation cases, according to the regulation of the judiciary jurisdiction in Taixia Country, the litigation cases in Liaozhou Province, which was near Youzhou Province in the north would be heard and tried by the judgment court under the court temple in Youzhou Province. Namely, Zhang Tie would take charge in such cases. Actually, the dean of the supreme court in Youzhou Province was also responsible for the litigation cases in Liaozhou Province before Liaozhou Province was established.

However, wild provinces also had their own rules of survival. Generally, conflicts in wild provinces would be handled inside the provinces. Bounty hunters and major clans in Taixia Country would manifest their power in wild provinces.

”How about this land? After a few days, we can fetch someone here to fix the border. Let’s buy about 100,000 square miles of land first.” Zhang Tie suggested calmly as if he was talking about buying 5-10 kg of white cabbages.

After saying that, Zhang Tie found that the command module became silent immediately. Zhang Ping and Zhang Yang were watching him with dumbfounded looks; even those women stopped their talks as they turned around to see him.

”What’s wrong?” Zhang Tie touched his face with a confused look. His dad almost popped out his eyes while Zhang Yang looked bashful.

”Ahem...ahem...” Zhang Yang coughed, ”Although Jinwu Business Group has developed really fast these couple of years, Jinwu Business Group only has over 60 million gold coins as floating capital. It might not be enough for such a big investment. We might need bank loans. If the loan amount was too large, Jinwu Business Group would have a greater financial stress.”

”Wuh, I see!” Zhang Tie moved his hand onto his jaw. He almost forgot about the financial stress facing Jinwu Business Group and his family if they wanted to buy such a wide area of land.

”I’ve calculated it. I feel that we can buy about 150,000 square miles of land first. We can build a small Class D city with distinctive features. When these kids grow up in the future, we can further expand it if there’s any demand!”

Stroking his jaw, Zhang Tie was thinking about those women and the babies in their wombs in Ice and Snow Wilderness. As he felt sorry about his mom, Linda, Beverly and Fiona, he didn’t tell them about that. Zhang Tie was considering whether Zhang Chenglei, Zhang Chengting and Zhang Tingpei would feel that he didn’t love them the most if they knew that their brothers who shared the same father yet different moms with them were left in Ice and Snow Wilderness which covered tens of millions of square miles.

Zhang Yang was right. However, when he considered about the future, Zhang Tie felt that they should buy as more lands as possible. It was just a matter of money. Besides those he deposited in Golden Roc Bank, he could afford the territory which was 5-10 times that of Yanghe Prefecture with the money that he had robbed from Three-eye Association clans and stored in Castle of Black Iron. Therefore, money was not a problem for him at all.

”I agree with you on building a small city, elder brother. As it’s our family’s first time to build a city, given the situation facing Jinwu Business Group and Youzhou Province, the city doesn’t need to be too large. Just fix it within 70 square miles based on the requirements of a Class D city. However, I don’t think that we should buy the surplus land in the future!” Zhang Tie stopped for a second, ”Nobody could tell what would happen in the future. After 1-2 decade, Youzhou Province might change greatly. It’s hard to say whether will we have such a good chance by then. We can buy the surplus land first. In this way, we can expand the city whenever we want. As there’re so many wastelands, mountains and resources in this region, which have not been exploited yet; plus it neighbors Yanghe Prefecture, why not take them as our hereditary land. If Jinwu Business Group meets any trouble and goes bankrupt in the future, the juniors could also live a wealthy life without any concern!”

The word ”trouble” reminded Zhang Yang something. As his brother, Zhang Yang knew that Zhang Tie referred to some unpredictable dangers that he might encounter. After all, the holy war had just broken out for a few years, knights might go to the battlefield in the future in Taixia Country. In this family, all the movable wealth might be lost except for this land. As long as Taixia Country and Hua people were not defeated by demons, nobody could take away this real estate.

”You’re right, but...”

”I joined a bet with humans in Waii Sub-continent a few years ago and made more than 200 million gold coins. I deposited the money in Golden Roc Bank. I could have Golden Roc Bank transfer 100 million gold coins to the bank account of Jinwu Business Group. Elder brother, you can use the 100 million gold coins to buy the land!” Zhang Tie said.

Everybody in the command module was startled by Zhang Tie’s words.

”How much have you made?” Zhang Tie’s dad almost sprung up as he asked with an unbelievable look.

”Over two hundred million gold coins!” Zhang Tie said frankly.

Linda, Beverly, Fiona and Zhang Tie’s elder sisters-in-law watched Zhang Tie with shocked looks at the same time.

No matter what, hundreds of millions of gold coins was definitely a terrifying figure. Although Zhang Tie’s current annual compensation as the dean of the provincial court of Youzhou Province ranked top in Taixia Country, he should also work over 40 years to make 100 million gold coins. Try to imagine how difficult it was to make 100 million gold coins even in Taixia Country...