The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

When the first ice storm from the endless ice field entered the Northland, Ferut, which was deserted throughout the summer, became lively again. Those tribes living in the Northland came to this huge city for the winter one after another, waiting The arrival of next spring.

The Sixteenth King of the Rock is Ferut's city gate official. This is his family's hereditary position. From the day Ferut City was established, his family has always held this position. It can be said that their family has witnessed Ferut the entire history of

There are quite a few hereditary official families like the Panshi family in Ferut, but few families can be as old as the Panshi family, and those families that are as old as the Panshi family are somewhat unsuited to life in a city like Ferut and gave up. Some positions have returned to the tribe, and some have perished for some reason.

The Panshi family has been able to serve as city gate officials for such a long time without any accidents, except that every generation of Panshi family members who hold official positions knows how to judge the situation and know who can be offended and who cannot be provoked. Some literature on Ferut.

The Panshi family was just a small tribe in the north at the beginning. When the King of Knights built Ferut, the Panshi tribe was not even eligible to participate in the grand ceremony. Chief Panshi, later known as Panshi I, was a student of Earl Felin, the most trusted subordinate of the King of Knights, and obtained the order of the King of Knights to record Ferut's daily affairs when he was the city gate officer.

In order to be able to fulfill the will of the Knight King, Panshi I learned the French language with his heart. He was also the first chief of the northern tribes to learn the French language, and he also learned to draw. While recording Ferut's daily affairs, he The various changes of Ferut were also drawn, and this matter was also passed down. While serving as city gate officials, the patriarchs of each Panshi family also recorded the changes of Ferut with words and pictures.

It is precisely because their family has so many years of information on Ferut that their family's reputation in Ferut is extremely high. Even the royal students of the Faran Empire need to borrow various materials from their family when they need to revise the history of the northern tribes. .

Panshi XVI inspected the city gate he was in charge of as usual, then walked to the top of the city wall, entered a wind-watching tower specially built by the Panshi family, came to the top and sat next to the stove that had been lit long ago, opened the side door Looking at the scenery of Ferut outside the window, he carefully drew the scenery on the animal skin paper on the table.

Pope Panshi XVI has drawn such city panoramas countless times in the past. Since he was very young, after he was chosen as the heir, he would copy those drawn by his ancestors over and over again in the family library every day. The panorama of Ferut, when copying these panoramas, he also had a very detailed understanding of the city changes of the entire Ferut.

The original Ferut was only one-twentieth the size of the current Ferut City, and now the Ferut Tribal Council District was the Ferut City at that time.

According to the records of the ancestors of the Panshi family, when this city was first built, not all tribes were willing to settle here. There were less than 20 tribes in the entire Northland tribe that obeyed the order of the King of Knights, and among the 20 tribes Except for the Antler tribe, the other tribes are small tribes about the same size as the Rock tribe.

In this regard, the French Empire did not show any tough demands, giving people a feeling that they don't care about Ferut.

Because of the attitude of the Faran Empire, several tribes who had already settled here gave up their positions in the city, retreated out, and followed the ancient customs to spend the winter on the northern ice field.

It wasn't until later that the tribes of the Northland discovered the benefits of spending the winter in Ferut, having enough food, not having to worry about the cold wind in the Northland, and not having to worry about the hungry wild beasts of the Northland, etc., that the tribes of the Northland joined in one after another. Arrived in Ferut City.

Because a large number of northern tribes settle in every year, the original size of Ferut City is no longer enough to cope with the settlement of so many tribes. Therefore, the Faran Empire had to expand the city again and re-establish several tribes outside the city walls. settlements.

To this day, this kind of expansion is still not over. As the population of the northern tribes increases, more and more people spend the winter in Ferut City, and the city has to expand outward again and again. In addition to the construction of various settlement buildings, a city wall to defend against wind, snow and wild animals was also built, which made Ferut City have more than one city wall.

From the Ferut tribal council area to the outermost city wall, there are now thirteen city walls. These walls divide the entire city into thirteen layers. The closer the tribes live to the inner ring, they The status of the tribe in the north is also higher.

Everyone who saw Ferut City believed from the bottom of their hearts that Ferut City was definitely a city that could not be breached from the outside, because thirteen walls with 20 towers were enough to stop the attack of any army. Including the legendary Knights of the Franks.

In the past, Rock Sixteen also thought so, thinking that Ferut is the strongest city in the world, and no one can break it unless it is a god.

But half a year ago, when the new Emperor of France visited the Northland and prepared to select the royal guard from the warriors of the Northland according to the usual practice, King Rock XVI and the other tribal leaders who were resident in Ferut realized that their past Those ideas are multi-modal absurdity, and the city that can never be breached is simply a joke.

He still clearly remembered how embarrassed he looked when that huge monster appeared in the air, and he was not ashamed of it, because there were quite a few people who behaved similarly to him at that time, and several elders in the tribal council were even killed. Scared to pee, no one dares to say that he is no longer afraid until today.

There is no doubt that any city wall is useless in front of that giant flying in the air, and Ferut is as vulnerable as a defenseless baby in front of it.

Now they can only rejoice that this sky fortress belongs to Emperor Faran, and Ferut also belongs to Emperor Faran, otherwise, they might not be able to stay in this city with peace of mind.

To this day, Pope Panshi XVI still clearly remembers the scene of being received by Emperor Faran, and was awarded the title of earl because of the contribution of the Panshi family to Ferut City. He is also the first in the entire northern tribe to be awarded The patriarch of the family of the Earl.

Originally, according to his title, he could easily obtain the status of a parliamentary elder, but he rejected the proposal to become a parliamentary elder, and still served as his city gate official. This is not to say that he did not want to be a noble parliamentary elder. It is because the ancestral precepts of the Panshi family stipulate that the patriarch of the Panshi family is not allowed to hold any other positions except for the position of the gate official of Ferut City, otherwise the patriarch must be removed.

If he becomes the elder of the council, his patriarch status will automatically disappear, and he will be handed over to the second person in the family who is qualified to inherit the position of patriarch. However, the identity of the earl is bound to the identity of the patriarch, and he loses the status of patriarch. , he also lost his earl status, and naturally he was not qualified to become a council elder, so he was left with only one choice in the end.

At that time, he was annoyed at not being able to become a member of the council, and even complained from the bottom of his heart for the broken rule left by his ancestors, but now he is extremely grateful for his ancestors' decision, and he also repays this family rule that he once spurned I trust it very much, and think that this breaking the rules is the reason why the Panshi family can gain a stable foothold in this city.

He still remembered that just after Emperor Fran left, more than 20 tribal chiefs claimed the position of council elders by virtue of their newly acquired noble status, and after becoming council elders, they fought immortally with the original old council elders, overtly and secretly The feud continued and grew, eventually turning into a civil war among the resident tribes of Ferut.

In this civil war that lasted for half a month, all the families in the city participated except the Panshi family, and a large number of people died every day. At the end, more than seventy resident tribal families finally Only forty or so remained.

Those families and tribes that disappeared were either completely wiped out by hostile families, or they were defeated in the battle, and they left Ferut with others and returned to the tribal life.

It doesn’t matter if these urban families that have turned back into tribes are Shixin families, they still retain a lot of ability to spend the winter in the north, but for those tribes that have completely turned into urban families, their escape is just lingering. , they can't get any supplies from Ferut in winter, and they don't have the ability to spend the winter in the north, and the only thing waiting for them is death.

The brutality of Ferut's civil war has also alarmed other tribes in the Northland, because both the surviving families and the families that have disappeared and fled have more or less kinship with them. The tribe and the middle tribe sent people to Ferut before winter to deal with this matter.

And this matter cannot be handled by the tongues of a few tribes. Ferut's family also has an extraordinary background and will not let go easily. However, as the subsequent northern tribes came to Ferut City one after another, the Northern The power of the local tribes is growing, which finally makes Ferut's family gradually let go. Half a month ago, they agreed not to pursue those who fled the family, and returned the real estate and part of the property in the settlement of those families. Of course, the premise is that those families are willing to return. to Ferut.

After announcing this decision half a month ago, they asked the merchant tribe to spread this decision to the Northland. As a result, until three days ago, the last merchant tribe, the Longhorn tribe, returned to Ferut for the winter, and only one fleeing family returned. When it came to Ferut, the other families seemed to be planning to die rather than surrender.

Those families who would rather die than submit were indeed respected by many tribes, which also made them secretly send out a lot of supplies enough for these families to survive the winter, provided that they could find a shelter in the winter that could shelter them from the wind.

While thinking about things, King Panshi XVI completed a new panorama of Ferut, and then he only needs to wait for the right time to add a little color and put it in the family library.

Just as Ferut took out the paint from the cabinet next to him and was about to color the picture, the quarrel from the city gate below ruined his good mood.

He closed the window, put the picture on the bookshelf next to him, walked out of the small room at the top of the wind tower, and walked down the stairs to the city wall.

At this time, some people had already surrounded the gate of the city, and some people dressed in obvious tribal clothes were arguing with the guards at the gate. The careful Panshi XVI saw the totem poles of the tribes they belonged to on the sleighs of those tribesmen. Look at the shape of the pillars It should be from the Longhorn tribe.

However, what caught the attention of Panshi XVI was the blood-stained animal skin bags on the sleighs of these Longhorn tribesmen. Because of his many years of experience, he could see that these animal skin bags must contain It's a head, but counting the number a little, it's nearly a hundred people.

This immediately made him think of some bad things, and he subconsciously guessed that some families in the city hired these merchant tribes who were familiar with the terrain of the North to hunt down those fleeing families in order to eliminate future troubles forever.

Thinking of this, King Panshi XVI immediately showed displeasure on his face. Although the tribes in the Northland could not help but fight each other, they would not kill all the hostile tribes. This kind of buying and killing is even more taboo among taboos , so he already had a very bad impression of the people of the Long Horn Tribe, and decided in his heart that no matter who was standing behind the Long Horn Tribe, he would teach these rule-breakers a lesson.

"What happened? Why are you blocked at the gate of the city?" Panshi Sixteenth Form asked as if he had just arrived and didn't understand the situation.

"My lord, it's none of our business. They are making trouble for no reason." Seeing the boss appear, the team leader who guards the gate heaved a sigh of relief, and at the same time quickly explained: "According to the rules, we must check all items entering the city. They stopped us when we checked the bags and blamed us for not respecting their customs."

The person headed by the Longhorn Tribe immediately stood up and explained: "My lord, we are from the Longhorn Tribe. It's not that we are making trouble for no reason. It's because these things are our prey for participating in the winter tour. Once these bags are opened, these The qualifications of the prey will also be lost, and we have made this trip in vain."

"Winter parade?" Panshi XVI was stunned for a moment, looked at the people from the Long Horn Tribe next to him, and found that they were all young people, and except for the leader, none of them had the mark of a warrior who had passed the winter parade , so he believed this man's words a bit, but he still asked: "When did your long-horned tribe's cold winter tour treat people as prey?"

"People?" The leader of the Changjiao Tribe was startled, and said hastily, "My lord, you made a mistake. These are not people."

While talking, he probably felt that such an explanation alone would not be able to convince Rock Sixteen, so he opened one of the pockets to reveal the contents of the pocket.