Steel steam and flame

While waiting to leave, Cassia often went to and from the library in Amotan City, and also visited the only small bookstore a few times. The types of books cover a wider range. There is no library like a military school to provide a variety of convenient professional materials. Cassia relies on these to spend boring time in her spare time.

The meeting is scheduled for Monday, and the person who will take him away to the Kingdom of Chir is called a navigator, or a tour guide. And on Monday, the thin man with dark skin that Cassia saw did like to be called that.

This man is called Vettel, and his height of about 1.8 meters makes him look like a dead tree that can be moved. He has been doing this business for a long time, and I heard from him that there are many people like him in the sub-frontier without war like the Empire. They also have formal companies that ostensibly travel to surrounding places, but in reality they travel to surrounding small countries without a pass. There are also many supporting services, such as currency exchange, depending on the price, you can use it in the target area for several months, until you get a permanent identity card, etc.

In the morning, Cassia carried her suitcase to the agreed-upon location, which was on the edge of Amotan City. It was an industrial park that was not very prosperous and the roads were full of potholes. There are only a few factories still alive that can be observed.

The pick-up location was in a closed factory bought by Vettel's company. The machines had long been dismantled, leaving only the concrete floor with many foundation holes. Knowing that she was definitely not alone, when Cassia revealed the secret code for the meeting and her identity, and passed through the two doors whose paint began to bulge, she did not expect that the number of people in front of her would be several times more than she expected.

There were nearly 150 people approaching, all carrying large and small bags of luggage. Just like the factory, they looked lifeless, with expressions as solemn as the leaves of late summer and early autumn. Inside the factory, nearly twenty large vehicles were parked on the spot, as if they were spliced ​​together from the heads of heavy trucks and the bodies of passenger vehicles.

More than 150 people were divided into several groups. Those who knew each other gathered together to chat, while others sat on their luggage, smoking cigarettes, or looking at the crowd in front of them in a daze. Vettel and a few others were leaning on the steel pillars next to the crowd, looking at the time from time to time and finding it difficult to survive the short time.

Finding a corner next to the crowd, Cassia stood there waiting to get in the car. At this time, he let go of his senses and secretly wrapped up more than a hundred people in the small factory. In addition to Vettel and those who are surgeons, there are also nearly 20 surgeons among the more than 100 people, but the stage is probably not very high. Cassia judged that including Vettel, they are in the second stage. There are less than three people.

Most of these people's luggage contained firearms such as firecrackers, unlike my own luggage, which was full of weapons. When the sound was detected here, Cassia shook her head secretly, not knowing what she was sighing, but she just felt that she was completely incompatible with the person in front of her.

It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when we set off. There are at most twenty people in a car. Throwing away the luggage and some of the cargo carried by the vehicle itself, there is still plenty of room. Casually finding a seat and sitting down, Cassia watched the scenery outside the small window quickly change from a dilapidated factory building to a road with only vehicles. Then other vehicles disappeared. Before night fell, there was only wilderness around and an unknown direction. Which way.

According to Delya, starting from Amotan City and using the route taken by Vitel and his company, it would take approximately thirteen days to reach the Kingdom of Chir.

The next day, relying on Vettel and the others, they successfully crossed the border of the empire. The quality of the road gradually deteriorates with the desolation outside the window. In the evening, the concrete road had disappeared and turned into a hard dirt road that had been crushed over the years. After a bumpy ride, Cassia finished reading the third book and looked around. Others also slept extremely peacefully in this environment. I don’t know if I am really tired, but when I recall the appearance of these people I saw in the factory, I feel that it is a matter of course.

The only time you can set foot on the ground along the way is when you are taking steam and eating at dilapidated stations along the way. This has become an industrial line. At every station, Cassia can see other vehicles, pulling a lot of people to various small countries. These stations also appear at fixed times, at fixed points, and at fixed locations.

Most of the ordinary people worked in the past, and I occasionally heard their conversations. The wages in these small countries were much higher than those in the empire. This is probably due to frequent changes in the ruling class and perennial instability. There are many small countries mixed between the three giant countries, and the population is not very saturated. In addition, education is not as good as within the empire. As long as you have some skills, you can get satisfactory remuneration in these countries.

More importantly, many of these small domestic machines, such as some important production equipment, were exported from the empire. Either second-hand, or equipment that has been obsolete or is close to being obsolete. The operation method, the control method and the programming of the difference engine are all made by the Empire. As long as you have stayed in the factories of the empire, it does not require a high-end factory. Even if you have never used it, you can get started faster and master it more easily than people from these small countries.

On the fourth day, Cassia and the others all got off the bus and rested in a city in a certain country. The crowd was now divided into several groups, and Vettel and the others began to lead the teams separately, heading to different destinations.

In terms of transportation, some have turned into cheap trains, passenger versions of the Empire's heavy trains, but the extremely weakened version is definitely incomparable in terms of power, size and speed.

In the end, there were less than twenty-three people going to the Kingdom of Chil. In addition to Cassia and Vittel, there was also a first-stage surgeon among them. Still using that spliced ​​car. Before setting off the next morning, the vehicle also visited the Vettel company's small station here to provide real-time information on the areas passed by the nearest route.

It was definitely not a good situation. Before the car started, Vettel and the driver carried a box to the cab. There were weapons inside, including muskets and light machine guns, and the rest were bullets and steel-cased bombs.

It seems that no business is easy, Cassia thought. Outside the window, starting from the afternoon of the second day after departure, there were no obvious high-rise buildings framed. They are all wilderness, and communities of low-rise buildings built on the wilderness, either dense or sparse. Everything smelled of earth and dust, so that along the way, Cassia saw things in many places that made him feel that he had not seen them for a long time, full of familiarity and intimacy. It was a long chimney with black smoke coming out.