Castle of Black Iron

Even though the day had just broken, Zhang Tie found that the outside of the airport had begun to be active when he left the airport.

Being over 12 miles away from Dongyang City, this airport was previously barren saline and alkaline land. A small town had already taken shape around this airport.

There were two boisterous commercial streets outside the airport with hotels and various stores in the streets. As the sun had come out, the hotels and taverns had started to sell breakfast.

Some taxis were already waiting in the parking lot outside the airport for the business. Among those taxis, Zhang Tie found 2/3 of them were traditional coal-fueled steam vehicles; 1/3 of them were fiery-oil taxis. These taxis were all matched with dual-drive engines whose displacement was basically below 1.0 liter, fewer than that of cross-country vehicles. Recently, as Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory pushed out more and more dual-drive engines of different types and displacements, these dual-drive engines with minor displacements were improving the lives of people in Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory.

Besides, many farming machines in farmland, such as combine harvester and multi-functional tractor were installed with dual-drive engines, which brought people great efficacy in the farmland.

With a buzz, a two-wheeled motorcycle rushed out of the exit of the underground garage of the airport behind Zhang Tie. The rider wore a helmet and a leather jacket which were similar to that of pilot’s.

The buzz of the motorcycle aroused the attention of many people in the street. The rider enjoyed being attractive very much. Accelerating his vehicle, he drove into the distance and disappeared in the street.

The production of the dual-drive engine also led to the reappearance of this traffic tool which could only be seen in the materials about the times before the Catastrophe. The motorcycle won the favor of some people. Before fiery oil was produced, the volume and power of its engine could barely coordinate with its manipulation. In this age, motorcycles could be rarely seen in the street. Some factories or mechanical manufacturers could build two-wheeled motorcycles, which, however, were as odd-looking as monsters and suffered from shortcomings in poor convenience, safety and amenity.

Watching that motorcycle which drove away like a lightning bolt and those fiery-oil cars which could be taken as taxis, Zhang Tie suddenly had a blurry, strange feeling.

Finally, Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he got on a common steam taxi…

…

“Ahh, they’re repairing the road ahead. My car couldn’t pass by. Therefore, you’d better get off here…” It took the taxi more than half an hour to arrive there.

Many building materials were piled on roadsides. As a result, taxis could barely pass by it. The moment the day broke, many people had started their work on the roadsides. In the rising dust, some locomotives were shattering those stones, causing loud sounds…

“Alright, just let me get off. I will take the rest of the distance by foot…”

“If you went to God’s Favor Tower, it would still be 1.5-2 miles away. I’m afraid you have to bear the bad road condition. When I came here last time, it was still an unsurfaced road. However, I could pass by it last time. I’m afraid that it would take a few days for the road to be paved well…” The driver reminded Zhang Tie.

“Master, I will give you one gold coin. May you wait for me here for a few hours and send me back to the airport when I come back?”

“Ahh, aren’t you kidding me or cheating me?” The driver looked at Zhang Tie with a dubious look as he added, “Even if I wait here one day for you, it wouldn’t cost 10 silver coins. You let me wait for you here for one gold coin like an idiot? What if you escaped away without payment? If that really happens, I would be in vain today. Whom would I ask for money from? Do you really treat me as an idiot?”

After being dumbfounded for a second, Zhang Tie revealed a smile as he took out a gold coin and gave it to the driver, saying, “I pay you one gold coin in advance and you only need to wait for me here. If I don’t come back when the sun sets, you could leave!”

After weighing the gold coin, the driver instantly revealed a brilliant smile as he said, “Sure, I will wait for you here. It’s no problem for me to wait for you for 1 week, not to mention 1 day…”

Zhang Tie then gave the driver a gold coin before getting off. The driver turned the car around as he parked it in a tree shade on the roadside.

…

Zhang Tie got off the vehicle in a new farm village and town about 40 miles away from Dongyang City.

Although vehicles couldn’t pass by it, people could pass by it easily. Neither did Zhang Tie feel the road dirty as he walked towards the distance along the roadside drainage ditch made of stones and cement.

As it was in April, the farms on roadsides appeared green because of luxuriant French beans. At this moment, the day had totally broken as more and more farmers entered the farmland.

Like those in farmland, construction workers could be seen almost everywhere on the road. These construction workers just lived in roadside tents, male or female, old or young. Although the accommodation condition was not good, everybody enjoyed very high morale when at work. With hopeful eye light and smile, they looked very thrilled. Someone even sang work songs, the rhythm of which aroused the resonance of all the others.

“Come on, come on…”

“Heyo…heyo…”

“Let’s repair the road…”

“Heyo…heyo…”

“Let’s fix the road…”

“Heyo…heyo…”

“For the bright future…”

“Heyo…heyo…”

The work song was passionate and generous with the special rhythm of dialect in Hua regions. It was of strong influence. The tone was featured by people in the western provinces of Taixia Country; instead of that in Youzhou Province and Northeast Military Region.

Zhang Tie didn’t see any indolent person on the road. Everyone was doing labor work in laughter and songs. Maybe only these laborers could sense how happy and hard it was for them to build their own homeland with efforts.

The others might only feel it interesting; however, Zhang Tie felt pretty satisfied as the forthright work song sounded as beautiful as the nature call…