Castle of Black Iron

Huian City, 80 km away in the south of Pingsha Valley...

Huian City was a Class D LV 3 city in Taixia Country.

The area of this city within the city wall only covered less than 30 square miles. There were large tracts of farmsteads outside the city. Taixia Country had been in peace for a long time. As one of the nine immortal provinces in Taixia Country, Zhongzhou Province had not broken out any war for hundreds of years. Therefore, Huian City maintained its original look. Although being matched with steam city-defense facilities, the city wall was only about 10 m in height.

From a certain degree, Huian City was an ancient city. Native residents were very proud of their own city. As Zhongzhou Province had many Class A cities, Huian City, as a small city which maintained its original look looked special and thought-provoking.

As the granary of Zhongzhou Province, Longxi Prefecture was famous for Huian rice and wheat. Additionally, Huian City was close to Huihe River, the water quality of which was suitable to brew liquor; therefore, Huian City was also famous for some brands of liquor in Longxi Prefecture. Huian City’s Double-well Liquor was sold to other provinces and could even be seen in Xuanyuan Hill.

Huian City was famous for brewing liquor. Grains and liquor produced in Huian City were sold across Taixia Country. Over hundreds of years, local residents lived better and better due to diligence and intelligence. People in Huian City and its surroundings were wealthy and safe. Even the buildings inside the farmsteads nearby Huian City were tasteful and exquisite under the governance of the immortal province. Many barbarians who came to Huian City from subcontinents and saw the broad farmlands, garden-like farmsteads and the tidy buildings with rich Hua style in the farmsteads would exclaim that this was a paradise on the earth.

In an early morning of August, the sun had just risen. The boundless plain outside Huian City was covered with golden ears of wheat, which were very eyeable...

The wheat outside Huian City had grown mature. As it was a good weather, a lot of farmers had started their steam machines and prepared to reap ears of wheat. Due to the holy war, the prices of grains were rising steadily; especially this year. It was a bumper year. At the sight of the heavy ears of wheat in the fields, all the farmers outside Huian City revealed big smiles as they felt pretty pleasant inside...

The city gates in Zhongzhou Province would not close all the year round; the soldiers at the city gates would be on duty by shifts.

Even though native old men in Huian City didn’t remember when the city gate of Huian City was closed last time. Last time, it might be closed during the 2nd holy war. From then on, nothing else could enable Huian City to close its city gate.

However, it was an exception today.

In the morning, a series of tidy and urgent footsteps drifted from the Zhengde Avenue being connected to the north gate of Huian City. In the astonishment of those who were accessing to the north city gate, a team of over 1,000 fully armored soldiers of Huian City rushed over here under the leadership of an officer. Those with sharp eyes even noticed some criminal hunters and officers in Huian Municipal Court among those soldiers.

”At the order of the castellan, close up all the city gates of Huian City right now; close up all the city gates of Huian City right now; Class I war preparedness; start all the steam city-defense equipment on the city walls right now...”

Before arriving at the city gate, the officer had started to roar.

Hearing the roars and watching the flurried movements of these soldiers, the north gate of Huian City became bustling at once. They didn’t know what happened at all. Additionally, 2/3 of a fleet of vehicles was still in the city. After hearing that the city gate was going to be closed, the fleet sped up to leave the city.

”What’s wrong with you? Haven’t you heard me? Close the gate right away!” The officer was driven mad and rushed towards the driver of one vehicle which was still leaving the city orderly followed by some soldiers and two criminal hunters from Huian Municipal Court when he found that the pneumatic device remained still.

Watching the officer walking over here with a furious look, the squad of guards at the city gate remained silent. The team leader of these guards looked a bit embarrassed. A person who looked like a steward moved a few steps forward with a big smile as he explained, ”Officer, this is the fleet of Double-well brewery. They are going to discharge cargo in the airship base outside the city. The rest of the fleet will leave the city gate in only 2 minutes. As these people at the city gate are all familiar with us, I invited them to spare 2 more minutes for us. Please forgive us. We only need 2 minutes...”

As Huian City had been in peace for so long, when the guards received the emergency order of closing the city gate, they were perplexed because they didn’t have the sense of urgency at all. Additionally, as they were familiar with people from Double-well Brewery, which was well-known in Huian City, they intended to postpone 2 minutes to close the city gate so that the fleet of Double-well Brewery could leave the city gate.

With a sound of ”chuang...”, the officer pushed the steward away and pulled out his long sword at once. In a split second, he moved his sword towards the neck of the leader of the garrison team at the city gate, causing everybody at present to change their face...

The sharp blade cut open the skin of the team leader’s neck, causing blood drops to roll down. The team leader’s face turned pale at once as his feet turned soft too. Just now, he thought that his head was going to be chopped off.

”If the city gate is not closed in half a minute, I will chop off your head!” The officer said mercilessly.

The moment this officer moved, the two criminal hunters who followed this officer here had run towards the cabins of two trucks; after showing their identity plates to the drivers, they directly dragged the drivers away from the seats. Closely after that, they reversed the two trucks at the same time, leaving space for the pneumatic device of the city gate although colliding with the vehicles behind them heavily.

The moment the two trucks crashed, many terrines of Double-well liquor broke apart, filling the air with the aroma of Double-well Liquor.

”What are you doing? These liquor will be transported to Zhongzhou City, the father of the mayor of Zhongzhou City is going to celebrate his 120th birthday. The old man favors our Double-well Liquor most; he ordered our liquor for the banquet. Do you assume the responsibility if you delay the delivery time? You’re just a soldier from outside, how could you be so presumptuous? Even the mayor of Huian City would give some face for our Double-well Brewery...” The steward looked extremely bad after being pushed away by the officer as he started to assume the mayor’s authority as his own by raising his voice...

As a Class A city, Zhongzhou City was the provincial city of Zhongzhou Province. The mayor of Zhongzhou Province’s official rank was as same as that of the prefectural governor of Longxi Prefecture and closer to that of the provincial governor of Zhongzhou Province. Given social positions, the mayor of Zhongzhou City was even higher than that of the prefectural governor of Longxi Prefecture and was easier to be promoted.

”F*ck off!” The officer directly kicked onto the steward’s belly, sending him to fly away and fall onto the ground outside the city gate. As a result, the steward almost died.

The officer didn’t use his full strength. Otherwise, he could easily kick a commoner to death. However, even so, the steward didn’t pick himself up for quite a while.

When the steward picked himself up, the pneumatic device of the north city gate had been triggered and the city gate had been closed.

Only after jumping and swearing the officer a few seconds outside the city gate, the steward had heard the exclamations from the tower over the city gate. The steward turned around and saw a black, dense smoke rushing into the sky from a town a few miles away from Huian City.

’Fire?’

The moment this whim occurred to the steward, he caught sight of another black smoke in a farmstead in another direction...

’What’s happening?’

At the sight of the two dense black smoke in two places, someone among the crowd being blocked outside of the city hurriedly climbed onto the trucks and watched the smoking places in the distance.

”Ahh, why are so many people escaping away from Fuan Town? What’s happening...” A guy on the top of a truck exclaimed...

The city gate of Huian City was closed urgently; dense smokes rushed into the sky from farmsteads and towns outside the city; someone escaped out of there... After integrating with these messages, the steward’s face turned pale at once, ’There must be a big event...’

Although the steward assumed the mayor’s authority as his own just now, he was not stupid. At the sight of the closed city gate behind him, he understood what happened at once. Closely after that, he started to scream and forcefully hammered the thick metal city gate, ”Ahh, open the city gate, let me in...”

It was already a bit chaotic outside the city gate...

At the same time, all the soldiers on the city gate had changed their faces, including that officer and two criminal hunters who followed him in from Huian Municipal Court.

On the city gate, they could see clearly what was happening inside Fuan Town by telescopes.

At the sight of the dense smoke and fire in the center of Fuan Town, many farmers who were doing farming work in fields put down their tools and prepared to put out the fire. However, before those people arrived there, more and more residents cried and rushed into the wheat fields from all places in Fuan Town...

Only after 2 minutes, those who ran less than 1,000 m out of Fuan Town firstly had been caught up by some bloody figures and torn apart in the wheat fields...