Castle of Black Iron

There were 4 red lanterns outside the gate of the Land Bureau, which were used to set the festival atmosphere. The arrival of Zhang Tie made those in the Land Bureau busy at once.

As the new director general of the Land Bureau in Youzhou Province, Elder Muan was not there. The deputy director and two hierarchical superiors came out to receive Zhang Tie.

The position of deputy director was assumed by a deacon of Huaiyuan Palace. The two hierarchical superiors were from two subordinate departments of the Land Bureau respectively.

In a magnificent parlor of the Land Bureau, Zhang Tie was drinking tea leisurely and talking with the deputy director and the two hierarchical superiors. The others were trotting here and there in the Land Bureau. In a couple of minutes, a field register official had entered the parlor with a pile of documents. He then placed those documents in front of Zhang Tie.

After waving his hand to let the field register official leave here, the deputy director started to introduce the documents to Zhang Tie one after another.

”Elder Mushen. This is the general agreement of the land that you’ve purchased. With the general agreement, the title deed that you sigh when you want to divide and sell this land would be legitimate; this is the trading document approved by the Land Bureau of Youzhou Province; this is your receipt; this is the map of that land that you’ve bought...”

With the introduction of the deputy director, Zhang Tie reviewed all the documents one after another. The material of the title deed was similar to silver-based paper. However, it was more ductile than silver-based paper. The title deed for the land was watermarked with complex, colorful, secret patterns. The secret patterns would change their colors from different perspectives. Touching the grains, Zhang Tie could feel evident three-dimensional lines. This should be a very senior anti-fake printing means. There were the location, area of the land, the corresponding identifiers of the subsidiary files, maps and a scarlet stamp of the Land Bureau of Youzhou Province on the title deed for land.

The names of Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang were written in the column of owners of the title deed. Because the land was paid by Zhang Tie, when his elder brother handled it, he only wanted Zhang Tie’s name to be left in the column of owners of the title deed. Later on, at Zhang Tie’s insistence, Zhang Yang’s name was added as well.

This bit of land was really nothing for the two brothers. The common title deed symbolized the common undertaking of the two brothers.

The entire land that Zhang Tie purchased covered 257,970 square km. In the beginning, Zhang Tie thought that he could buy an integral area of land such as 250,000 square km. Later on, he knew that plain countries in Taixia Country could be easily sold integrally; however, such mountainous areas were always sold according to the trends of the mountains and rivers and topography within the territory. A river, a mountain or a remarkable topographical symbol would serve as the boundary of the territory, which could be easily identified. Because of this reason, the area of the mountainous region could only be measured according to details.

As the attached document of the title deed, the map of this private territory was composed of over 40 pages.

The turnover on the receipt presented by the Land Bureau was 110,927,100. According to the preferential policy formulated by the Land Bureau of Youzhou Province, Zhang Tie could enjoy 5% off. However, Zhang Tie felt that Huaiyuan Palace might be framed as being greedy for small gains due to this, especially when Huaiyuan Palace wielded the scepter of Youzhou Province; therefore, he ignored the benefit of millions of gold coins. Compared to the reputation of Huaiyuan Palace, such a preferential policy was really trivial. Given the overall situation, Zhang Tie ignored the small gains.

Watching the figure on the receipt, Zhang Tie felt that he was too innocent, ’If others want to attack me, they could. It’s nothing to do with my caution.’

As the dean of the provincial court of Youzhou Province, only those people above LV 15 on the wanted list or events that aroused a shock across a prefecture could attract Zhang Tie’s attention, ’Knights should not pay attention to trivial affairs or bury themselves in these documents all day long. Knights in Taixia Country are not that cheap. Even if I did that, I’m sure that they would impeach me too with the reasons such as ”has no appreciation of things’ importance”, ”Being busy doing trivial affairs all day long”, ”sees only tree leaves instead of Mountain Tai”, ”has no experience and is only limited to counties and cities”. Given their reasons, facing demons outside the country and evil forces inside, it’s the countrymen’s misfortune to have me take the office of the dean of the provincial governor of Youzhou Province.’

At the sight of the figure 110,927,100, Zhang Tie felt that the zeros in this figure were like ripping mouths that were deriding him as an idiot. After running his spiritual energy, Zhang Tie instantly got a figure 5546355, ”F*ck, over 5.5 million gold coins, over 2 years of compensation for this father. Even many dogs would wave their tails towards me if I bought steamed buns for them with this amount of money; however, those b*stards still want to ruin my family.”

’Being meticulous? That’s bullsh*t!’

The deputy director was always observing Zhang Tie’s facial expressions carefully. Watching his slightly complex expression at the sight of the receipt presented by the Land Bureau, the deputy director lightly coughed twice and comforted Zhang Tie meticulously, ”Don’t worry about that, Elder Mushen. Although it’s a high price, when Youzhou Province develops into a medium-sized province, this land will definitely pay off. Additionally, all the mineral resources beneath this land have not prospected. If you discovered large-scale mineral ores in your territory, you would further make a great profit. Based on the information mastered by the Land Bureau, Youzhou Province is not a barren province. We’ve found various rare mineral resources in Youzhou Province. Many major clans in Taixia Country also usually make such enclosure investments on large scale in lower provinces and have made great profits. As there’re more and more people in Taixia Country, after a few years, this land would become more and more valuable. Your offsprings would have something to rely on by then.”

Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he felt a bit better. He then threw a satisfactory glance at this deputy director.

After telling the deputy director to put away these materials for him, Zhang Tie said, ”Did any other clans purchase a lot of land like me lately?”

”Over the past two months, the Land Bureau has received a lot of records of land purchase cases. Many major clans from Tongzhou Province, Qiongzhou Province, Yanzhou Province, Huizhou Province and Chaozhou Province were purchasing lands which ranged from hundreds of square miles to tens of thousands of square miles. Besides being used for domestic investment, these lands are always provided for the branches of those major clans! Aww, Zhu Dabiao 1 the grandson of the provincial governor of Yanzhou Province had also bought one patch of land in Youzhou Province. His private land covers over 200,000 square miles, which is the largest patch of land being traded by now. Yesterday, he had already paid it off through the bank. After the new year festival, the Land Bureau will dispatch people to survey that land, draw a map and set boundary marks for it.”

After hearing his words, Zhang Tie realized that a climax of land enclosure was aroused after Youzhou was promoted to be an established lower province. However, the name of the grandson of the provincial governor of Yanzhou Province really...really...had a strong personality...

Zhang Tie smacked his mouth...

”Lands in lower provinces are the cheapest in Taixia Country; especially those which have just been established. According to the regulations of Taixia Country, after one purchases a patch of land and builds a city there, he will take the office of the mayor of this city and become an official of Taixia Country. In Taixia Country, many major clans choose such a method to help their juniors become officials! If one buys a patch of land in a wild province, even though he builds a city there, he could not be an official of Taixia Country. By implementing such a policy, Taixia is guiding folklore major clans’ capital to flow in lower provinces for the sake of the development of lower provinces.” The deputy director explained.

”Hmm, not bad!” Zhang Tie nodded as he stroked his jaw with hand, ”I want to buy one more patch of land. Do you have the map of Youzhou Province? Bring it to me, please. I want to select one more patch of land and register it here today!”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the deputy director became stunned, ’How rich is Elder Mushen?’

After being silent for a second, he composed himself at once as he hurriedly threw a glance at a hierarchical superior on his side and let him fetch the map of Youzhou Province.

After drinking two mouths of tea water, the hierarchical superior had already fetched the map of Youzhou Province and paved it directly over a huge square desk in the room. Zhang Tie walked closer to the desk and could see the whole territory of Youzhou Province on the map.

Youzhou Province’s map was like a fat eggplant. It was almost 15,000 miles from east to west and about 7,500 miles from south to north. With Liaozhou Province in the north, it connected other provinces in the territory of Northeast Military Region in the south and west; besides and was close to the ocean in the east. The entire area of Youzhou Province was about 200 million square miles.

The topography of Youzhou Province was predominated by mountains and plains, which were in disorderly distribution. All the lands that had been purchased on the map were marked in blue while those that were available were marked in green. Given the map, the blue areas were mainly in the prefectures of Youzhou Province while the green areas occupied over 95% of the total area of Youzhou Province.

’Aren’t you impeaching this father for being immersed in stocking lands and wealth? This father will show you about greed. F*ck! I don’t believe that you could bite off my ass for that. There’s no regulation in the Laws of Taixia Country that officials are forbidden to buy land. Additionally, the more land I buy, the deeper Huaiyuan Palace will root in Youzhou Province.’

Zhang Tie bought more land especially for those members of Gobbling Party. As the old Hua saying went, humans and buddhas both strove for vindication. Although Zhang Tie could not defeat the Gobbling Party right now, it didn’t represent that he would not launch a counterattack.

Being supported by Commander Cheng and some big figures in the Xuanyuan Hill, Zhang Tie felt reassured. ’Although the Gobbling Party is powerful, someone dares ignore it too. As long as I don’t do anything excessive so that the Gobbling Party could get my alibi, I don’t need to worry about anything at all.’

As he purchased this patch of land mainly for giving vent to his anger and making his enemy uncomfortable, what was important was not where that patch of land was located but that the patch of land should be large; the larger the better.

”Which land is cheapest in Youzhou Province? Even cheaper than the patch of land that I’ve already bought?” Zhang Tie put it straight.

”Elder Mushen, the patch of land that you’ve bought is wasteland over 150 miles away from Yanghe Prefecture. It’s Class C Level II. The cheapest land in Youzhou Province is here. The mountainous areas here are Class D Level IV!” The deputy director pointed at the green mountainous area nearby the border of Liaozhou Province which covered tens of hundreds of square miles, ”This mountainous area is a depopulated zone. There’s no city within 1500 miles. It borders Liaozhou Province with a large area of wilderness in the west. Additionally, the greater part of this mountainous region is covered with rocks. Few plants could be found there. Few lands could be cultivated over there. Therefore, the land over there is Class D Level IV. Its price is only 30 gold coins per square mile!”

’30 gold coins per square mile?’ Zhang Tie watched the map as he thought about the money that he could use. He then directly patted onto a gourd-shaped plateau which covered almost 2 million square miles, two times the size of that of Yanghe Prefecture before saying, ”Here, I will buy it. Register it today. Go prepare for it, I want to handle the procedures as soon as possible!”

After Zhang Tie moved his palm away from the map, the deputy director was shocked by the words below Zhang Tie’s palm——Zanggu Plateau.

The Zanggu Plateau was a bit larger than 1% of the total area of Youzhou Province on the map.

”Elder Mushen...are...are you sure? You’re buying Zanggu Plateau?” The deputy director watched Zhang Tie with a shocked expression, ”There’s nothing here. It’s too difficult to develop it. Even if Youzhou develops into a medium province or big province in the future, this place will still be of a very low value...”

”I don’t care, as long as it’s large enough!” He then gritted his teeth and added, ”And, I will take all the discounts! F*ck...”

The deputy director didn’t even know why Zhang Tie suddenly swore. After all, less than 10 people had read the memorial that Zhang Taixuan showed Zhang Tie across Youzhou Province.

Zhang Tie took all the documents away from the Land Bureau, leaving a lot of exclamations once again.

After leaving the Land Bureau, Zhang Tie came to his territory with a cold face——Provincial Court of Youzhou Province.

Forbidding agencies like the Provincial Court of Youzhou Province remained unchanged even though the new year was coming while the other yamuns had hung red lanterns at the gates. On such a cold day, it still looked like ”Business Only”.

In the Provincial Court of Youzhou Province, Zhang Tie was sitting in the main seat of the main hall while hundreds of officials were lowering their bodies towards him for the first time.

After stealthily throwing a glance at Zhang Tie, the officials in the Provincial Court of Youzhou Province found Zhang Tie didn’t look good. Therefore, they dared not breathe smoothly.

After running his eyes over the officials, Zhang Tie sipped a mouth of tea water and put down the teacup. As a result, the officials felt much colder in the hall.

”I’ve not been to Youzhou Province for over 2 months. While taking a round in Youzhou City this morning, my purse was stolen...”

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