Castle of Black Iron

After throwing off the bombs, the 9 airplanes made a circle above the valley before heading far away, leaving raging flames within the white circle. Commander Cheng watched the scene for a short while before flying towards those people on the hillside, closely followed by Gao Tianqi.

In the blink of an eye, Commander Cheng had landed in front of those people in military uniforms on the hillside.

Those people neither wore the military uniforms of the regular army across Taixia Country nor that of the top 4 armies in Taixia Country; instead, they wore grey-green military uniforms which were similar to that of the armed forces of business groups and private armies of major clans. The sharp difference between this military uniform and that of the regular army in Taixia Country lay in that there was an eye-catching diamond-shaped mark on the sleeve of this military uniform. Those who were familiar with the military legal system in each military region could find more information from the details such as their shoulder mark, collar badge, cap badge and armband. Their cap badge was a sword made of crisscrossed steel gears.

Among the crowd, there were 5 people in blue engineer’s uniform and eyeglasses, which looked a bit eye-catching.

There were 50-60 people on the hillside. All of them were capable and vigorous. Additionally, there were more than 10 six-wheeled SUVs in the nearby. Compared to that of ordinary steam vehicles, those vehicles’ steam engine, boiler, accumulator and smoke evacuation system which were easily identified could be barely seen from outside…

After landing on the hillside, Commander Cheng and Gao Tianqi glanced around these people and those vehicles behind them for a short while out of curiosity.

When Cheng Honglie and Gao Tianqi landed on the hillside, those people were all shocked a bit as they gazed at the two strangers; however, they didn’ look afraid or intense.

“You’re in the Arms Testing Field of Fire-Dragon Corps. May I know your purpose here?” A youth official at his 20s asked.

Unless making a report to Emperor Xuanyuan in Xuanyuan Hill, Commander Cheng would not wear the official uniform. Although being a shadow knight, he didn’t release his battle qi purposefully when he was not in a battle; in that case, people below knight rank could barely identify the concrete rank of a knight.

Cheng Honglie threw a glance at that youth official who was only LV 9 before asking in an imposing and direct manner, “I’m Cheng Honglie the commander of the northeast military region, who’s your head here?”

After hearing Commander Cheng’s words, these officials were in an uproar. As many knights had been to Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory these days, they had been used to see knights here. However, they had not imagined that they could see the commander of the northeast military region here.

Zhang Su, who was younger than 40 years old with a handlebar mustache in a military uniform, walked out of the crowd as he said, “I could make decisions here. As we’ve not seen Commander Cheng before, please prove your identity; otherwise, please leave this important military place!”

Zhang Su said in neither humble nor pushy way. He was not afraid at all even in front of the two knights.

Commander Cheng nodded inside, ‘That’s how soldiers should behave. As these people have not seen me before, if they believe in my words immediately, I would feel that these people are idiots and don’t comply with military disciplines.’

Commander Cheng moved his hand while a big, brilliant seal appeared in his hand. He had the “words” side face Zhang Su and the other officials. After everybody else saw the words “Seal of Cheng Honglie the Commander of Northeast Military Region in Taixia Country” clearly, Cheng Honglie put it away in his portable space-teleportation equipment.

“Welcome, Commander…”

Zhang Su gave a military salute to Commander Cheng, followed by all the others.

Commander Cheng nodded as he moved his eyes onto Zhang Su, “What’s your name?”

“This humble man is Zhang Su!”

“What’s your title in Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory?”

“This humble man is the deputy regimental commander of the Fire-Dragon Corps of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory!”

Besides being fluent in reply in neither a humble nor a pushy way, Zhang Su’s look always felt familiar as if Commander Cheng had seen him somewhere. After watching Zhang Su’s face carefully for a short while, Commander Cheng asked, “What’s the relationship between you and Zhang Tie?”

“I’m Zhang Tie’s cousin…”

‘I see!’ Cheng Honglie nodded. As cousins, Zhang Tie and Zhang Su were close in blood ties. Therefore, the facial contours of Zhang Tie and Zhang Su especially their jaws and noses were similar to each other. “Were you testing the news arms?”

“Yes!”

“What’s that?”

“It’s Fiery-Oil Incendiary Bomb!”

“Fiery-Oil Incendiary Bomb?” Commander Cheng’s eyes turned bright as he asked, “Is it made of Fiery-Oil?”

“Yes!”

Pointing at the raging flame on the barren land in the far, Commander Cheng let out a sigh, “Only 9 Fiery-Oil Incendiary Bombs could reach such a great effect. At least 20 white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs are required to reach the same effect. What a sharp weapon!”

“This benefits from our far-sighted master!”

“Oh?”

“Our master said Fiery-Oil could release greater heat than that of gasoline before the Catastrophe. Before the Catastrophe, humans invented powerful gasoline incendiary bombs. In this age, we’ve got white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs. Our master enlightened us to draw the strengths of the two kinds of weapons and make a new incendiary bomb made of Fiery-Oil. Through months’ experiments, our engineers and researchers finally invented the new Fiery-Oil Incendiary Bomb!”

Of course, the white phosphorous gel bomb was a weapon of mass destruction on the battlefield and a strategic human resource in the holy war. As the commander of the northeast military region, Cheng Honglie was clear about the high cost and complex manufacturing process of a white phosphorous gel bomb. A 500 kg’s white phosphorous gel incendiary bomb would cost at least 3,000 gold coins. Additionally, due to rare raw materials and strict requirements on the manufacturing process, the largest official factory within the northeast military region could only make fewer than 10,000 tons’ white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs a year. Although this figure seemed big, it indicated a very small production scale.

Especially in the holy war, none of countries or troops would feel that they had enough white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs. Those white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs that were produced in the largest factory within the northeast military region had almost been shared by all the troops across the northeast military region before leaving the factory. In order to get more white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs, generals and provincial governors of each province would almost stir up trouble in the northeast military region headquarters yearly, which made Commander Cheng pretty upset.

The major clans in each province across the northeast military region also had clan factories and enterprises which could produce white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs. By contrast, these clan enterprises had poorer production capabilities. Although these clan enterprises would sell white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs before the holy war, after the holy war broke out, these clans would keep stockpiling these arms except for selling them to the other clans which got along well with them.

It was said that Zhang Tie’s Fiery-Oil was made of fermented straws; therefore, the cost of Fiery-Oil should be low. Additionally, its manufacturing process should not be that difficult. If Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory got hang of the method of manufacturing Fiery-Oil Incendiary Bomb in a large scale at a low cost, they could shock the military of Taixia Country for sure.

Over the past 2 months, the names of Fiery-Oil and Airplanes had shocked the world. Nobody could imagine that Fiery-Dragon Bounty Territory could make new arms using Fiery-Oil so fast.

Besides ordinary white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs, Cheng Honglie knew that the military of Taixia Country had been dedicated to studying minimizing white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs and expected to turn them into individual equipment. After so many years’ study, they had made major progress. Minimal white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs had been gradually put into use in the battle fields of Earth-elements Realm. However, due to some reason, minimal white phosphorous gel incendiary bombs couldn’t be matched to troops in a large scale due to low capacity.

Commander Cheng glanced around those engineers in blue uniforms as he asked Zhang Su directly, “Besides Fiery-Oil, what other raw materials are needed to make Fiery-Oil Incendiary Bomb? Can you realize continuous production? What’s the maximal yearly output in Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory?”

“Sorry, Commander, it’s classified in Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory. Without the consent of the master of Iron-Dragon Sect, I have no right to reveal this intelligence to you!” Zhang Su shook his head with a solemn look as he refused to answer this question immediately.

“Audacious!” Commander Cheng widely opened his eyes as he released his overwhelming qi towards Zhang Su and all the others at present. As a result, they all felt like falling into a 10,000 years’ ice cave while their body, battle qi, qi, blood even mindset were frozen at once. In front of the majesty and qi field of a shadow knight, all the people at present whose highest rank was lower than a battle spirit felt like being ants at the crater. As long as Commander Cheng ran his spirit and waved his arm, all the people at present would become sh*t.

“Even if the commander wants to kill us, I will still stick to my words. Without the consent of our master, I have no right to reveal this intelligence to you!” Zhang Su said while gritting his teeth.

“Hahahaha…” Commander Cheng burst out into laughter at once while the overwhelming stress disappeared. He then pointed at Zhang Su as he nodded and commented, “You’re not bad. You’re polite and disciplined. Zhang Tie selects the right man. I’m looking for Zhang Tie, please be my guide…”