The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

"It's here, Dry Steel City!" When they turned over a small hill and saw the tall chimneys and dense houses on the plain in the distance, everyone couldn't help cheering, and a smile appeared on their tired faces.

Although nothing dangerous happened on the road from Wooden Barrel Town to Dry Steel City, the caravan did not let down their vigilance, because they encountered robbers more than once on the road, but these robbers could tell that this Savile team The human caravan is a tough nut to crack, so they just watched them leave from a distance without doing anything.

But even so, the caravan is still very nervous. The worst thing is that a small village that the caravan was originally planning to use as a rest point has been destroyed by unknown forces. There are some fresh corpses in the village. It seems that the attack It should have happened within the last four or five days, so they were worried that the unknown forces that would destroy the village would target the caravan, so the caravan had to give up rest and drive all night until they arrived at the outskirts of Kugang City. I just relaxed a little bit.

Dry Steel City has been the important smelting center of the Maris Kingdom since a thousand years ago. When it was the most prosperous, nearly 90% of the steel works in the entire Maris Kingdom were produced in Dry Steel City.

In the beginning, the rulers of Dry Steel City were the Rockham family, the most famous and largest hereditary earl family in the Kingdom of Marris. They ruled seven castles including Dry Steel City, and they were the largest earl family in the northwest. collar.

Originally, according to the principles and abilities of this family, they should be able to continue for hundreds of years, or even thousands of years. Unfortunately, they were on the wrong side in the war led by the selection of kings. Not only were they deprived of their territories and titles, they were even deprived. He was kicked out of the Marris Kingdom and became an exile, and he still lives in Deliyat as a stateless person.

After Dry Steel City broke away from the control of the Rockham family, the entire city was taken over by the Kingdom, but the Kingdom did not fully control the city. They just sent a tax specialist to control all taxes in Dry Steel City. , while the municipal administration of the city was handed over to the original Urban Iron and Steel Joint Board of Directors. To this day, the government affairs of Kugang City are still in charge of this board of directors.

In order to avoid things like rebellion, after taking over Kugang City, the city wall of Kugang City was demolished by the army of the Maris Kingdom, and Kugang City was ordered to prohibit the construction of the city wall.

Later, although the kingdom's control over Kugang City was greatly weakened, the board of directors of Kugang City did not plan to build the city wall, because as the amount of steel produced in Kugang City increased, the entire city became more prosperous, and a large number of The factories were built, and along with the factories, the workers' living quarters were built, which also made the urban area continue to expand.

The total area of ​​Kugang City is now six times that of two hundred years ago, and this is only the area of ​​the urban area. If the area of ​​the subsidiary suburbs is included, it may be ten times larger.

Although Dry Steel City is the most prosperous city in the northwest of the entire Marris Kingdom, it is the most inhospitable city for ordinary people to live in. The dozens of towers in the city look like towers. The same chimney emits black smoke all day long, and the black smoke lingers inside and outside the city for a long time. In such an environment, residents don’t even dare to hang their laundry outside the house, because in that case, when they take back the clothes The laundry may be dirtier than it was before washing.

According to the recommendations of the medical school, all residents of Kugang City must wear masks when they go out, otherwise they will suffer from various fatal diseases if they breathe this dusty air for a long time. In addition to making money, the factories that make masks also make a lot of money.

However, even so, the number of deaths in Kugang City due to various heart and lung diseases every year is twice that of other places combined, so this place is also called the City of Death.

Although Dry Steel City has various flaws, due to its well-developed railway transportation network, Dry Steel City has become a business center in the northwest region, as well as an economic and trade hub for the Kingdom of Maris and the Kingdom of Daliyat. .

The first railway track of the Kingdom of Marris was laid in Dry Steel City. This track is 17 kilometers long and mainly connects Dry Steel City and Keller Port.

At that time, the steel products of Kugang City needed to be transported to Keller Port, and then passed through the sleep of the Dekar River to enter the Mamu River, the mother river of the Maris Kingdom, and then use the Mamu River to run through the country's waterway system to be transported to Mamu River. All over the Kingdom of Reese.

Because there is ready-made steel that can be supplied in large quantities, the railway did not cost too much money. However, when the railway was built at that time, it was more because the board of directors of Kugang City was under pressure from the upper echelons of the kingdom that they could not spend the funds for the construction of the railway. of.

It's just that the grievances of the board of directors of Kugang City disappeared soon after the railway was repaired, because they found that the convenience brought by the railway to their cargo transportation far exceeded the money they paid, and it was only less than half a year. All the funds paid for the construction of the railway have been withdrawn.

Because of the convenience of the railway, when the high-level officials of the kingdom began to discuss whether to lay the railway to all the big cities, Kugangcheng uncharacteristically strongly agreed, and even acted as a lobbyist for the kingdom government. It can be said that later Maris The construction of the national railway can pass the discussion smoothly, thanks to the Kugangcheng board of directors.

So when the site selection for the central station of the western railway network began, Kugang City also became the final winner with the support of the kingdom, and this also brought new vitality and wealth to Kugang City.

All the commodities in the western cities need to be transported to Kugang City in a centralized manner, and then transferred from Kugang City to the national railway network to be transported to all parts of the country. Therefore, there is also a huge railway station, warehouse and trading market on the outskirts of Kugang City. .

Now the caravan is going to the trading market. Just like all outsiders, the Saviles are also very dissatisfied with the air in Dry Steel City. They will not enter the city unless necessary. The same is true, over time, a community of outsiders and foreigners has formed around the trading market in the suburbs.

The Savile Kingdom set up an office here, and also purchased some real estate as a temporary residence for Savile merchants who came here to do business.

After the caravan came to the trading market, they went directly to the office of the Savile Kingdom, preparing to obtain a relatively cheap camp from there.

Just after entering the trading market area, everyone felt that the atmosphere here was not right. Not only were there many military police and police patrolling the road, but almost everyone was wearing weapons, and these weapons were placed In a place where they can be obtained at any time, what is even more strange is that seeing these weapons exposed, the military police and police didn't even ask about it, as if it was a normal thing.

Amid strong doubts, the caravan came to the location of the Savile Kingdom office in their memory, but they were completely stunned by everything in front of them, because he found that the small four-story building of the office had disappeared, only There was a pile of ruins, and a lot of blood can be seen in the ruins on the ground. Obviously, a fierce battle took place here. Not only did the battle return to the office, even the people in the office died. Otherwise, even if the office has been turned into ruins, there should be someone guarding it.

"Please wait a moment." After recovering from the ruins, Gu Sang, the head of the caravan, looked around and saw a local man walking in front of him. Watching with vigilant eyes, he said in the not-so-pure Marisi language, "Excuse me, what is going on with this Savile office building? Why is it turned into ruins here? And the people here Woolen cloth?"

"Dead! They're all dead!" The man responded impatiently, but when he saw the caravan guards following him, he immediately became nervous, his tone changed quickly, and he explained more patiently: " One night, a lot of monsters suddenly appeared in the city, and there are also here. Those monsters attacked people everywhere. At that time, many places were destroyed, and this place was also destroyed at that time. Later, the police checked and found that all the Saviles in the office... The people of Vail are all dead, and their bodies are still in the morgue, if they are not picked up, they will be sent to the public cemetery to be buried together.”

Hearing this man's words, the faces of all the Savile people present became very ugly. Seeing this situation, the local man didn't dare to stay for a long time, and ran away quietly.

"What do we do now?" someone asked.

The head of the caravan, Gu Sang, pondered for a moment, and said: "Go to our camp first. Although the office is gone, the camp is still there. Let's go there first to settle the camp and the goods, and then you can contact Dailiat. The merchants came to see the goods, and I took people to the police station in the city to ask about the office."

After hearing Gu Sang's order, the others also felt that this was a good deal, so they drove the caravan's cart and walked towards the camp bought by the Saville Kingdom Office.

Because most of Savile's caravans are pack caravans, the office of the Savile Kingdom did not buy any real estate around the trading market, but bought a vacant land very close to the trading market. It is specially provided for the Saville caravan to set up tents and camp.

When the caravan came to the vacant land, a group of local merchants seemed to be surveying the land and wanted to occupy the land, because the office of the Savile Kingdom was gone, and the land seemed to them to be became a land of no man.

So when the caravan arrived, these people confidently demanded that the caravan leave immediately, but after all the people in the caravan showed their weapons and showed a murderous look, they were all persuaded and said a few harsh words After speaking, he ran away in despair.

Soon the caravan skillfully settled down in the camp, and carried goods, prepared food, etc. according to their respective divisions of labor. Some people who were proficient in business left the camp and went to the residence of Daliat to find people who had traded with them before. merchant.

According to the plan, Gu Sang originally planned to go to the urban police station to consult the office, and see if he could take away the bodies of those people in the office. If he could bring these bodies back to the country, the Kingdom would definitely punish the caravan for this matter. It is tantamount to a costless business to reward people.

But before leaving, he thought about it for a while, and came to the cart tent where Leo was, and when he saw Leo coming out of the tent, he immediately stepped forward and asked, "Mr. Leo, what do you want?" leave?"

"Not yet, I will stay here for two days before I leave." Leo looked at Gu Sang and said, "If you should be for those wood carvings, right? Have you raised enough money yet?"

Gu Sang's face was a bit ugly. Originally, he planned to use his relationship in the office to borrow a sum of money from here to buy the wood carvings in Leo's hands, but he didn't expect that the office was completely destroyed and everyone died. , This made his plan fail, and now he only hopes that the goods he brought can be sold at a good price, so as to raise the funds to buy the wood carvings.

So he immediately said: "Not yet, can you wait for me for a few days until I sell all these goods..."

Leo interrupted him and said: "I think even if all the goods are sold, you can only raise enough funds to buy three woodcarvings at most. You use all the capital and profits of this business to buy them." Isn’t the woodcarving in my hand afraid of being scolded by the people of your tribe?”

"It is enough to have three wooden carvings." Gu Sang gritted his teeth and said, "As for the tribe, I believe they will understand."

Leo nodded, agreed to Gusang's request, and said, "In this case, I hope you can raise enough money when I leave."

Seeing that Leo had agreed to his request, Gu Sang also breathed a sigh of relief, then led his men, left the camp, and went to the urban police station to handle various matters in the office.

"Mr. Leo, I..." Sans on the side also asked at this time.

Leo interrupted him and asked, "Do you have enough money now?"

"Yes." Sans hurriedly said that he took off the backpack on his body, then took out a book in the backpack, opened the folder of the book, and pulled out five very exquisite metal cards from it.

These five metal cards are all very exquisitely made, with a large number of patterns on the front, numbering thousands, and on the back, the holy emblem of the King of the Hill.

Seeing the metal card, Leo knew what it was, and couldn't help laughing: "You, a Savile, didn't store money in the bank opened by the Church of the Lord of the Birth and Death of All Things, but in the Church of the King of the Hill instead. If people find out, you may be regarded as an apostate."

"It's because everyone thinks it's impossible, so it's really safe, and I won't be found out that the money is in my hands." Sans was a little smug, and then asked nervously: "Excuse me..."

"Choose one from the inside!" Leo said, taking out a few wood carvings and spreading them out in front of Sans.