Billowing black smoke puffed out of the locomotive, dragging wagons full of unprocessed seed cotton, like a tired old cow, driving on the tracks of the wilderness.

Due to the depletion of oil and gas resources, these old-fashioned steam locomotives have been turned out of the pile of old papers of history and reused their residual heat.

The depletion of energy sources has pushed people's living standards back to the pre-war nineteenth century. Without enough electricity, cement and brick factories can only be started in small quantities. Lacking enough building materials, the reconstruction of the ruins is just a matter of a flash.

The current Deccan colony has only three cities, spread over the vast colonial triangle, and the rest are just scattered small villages and towns, scattered like pearls on this wasteland.

These wagons for transporting cotton are C64K gondolas, with end walls, side walls and floors, no roof, and open upwards. Because it hardly rains in the wasteland, the highly versatile open cars account for more than 70% of the total number of trucks.

In order to make sure there is a surplus, the truck will always carry an extra car or two. This gives the crew the opportunity to make extra money, often privately carrying passengers who can't afford to pay for the bus ticket.

In this way, Li Mu and the four of them got on a freight train bound for Xinlinfen and lay in a half-filled carriage. Yang Xiaoye also followed them, she was the only person in the town who had seen the true faces of Li Mu and Li Xuan, and he didn't worry about leaving her in the town.

Instead of a passenger car, they took a freight train. Because these freight trains don't need to be identified, like passenger cars, they are prevented from being traced.

If Ouroboros was alert enough, it is likely that Li Xuan would have been tortured from the rescued children as children with the qualifications of the Holy Son.

Although they may have misjudged that she had died in the explosion of the ground-penetrating bomb, Li Mu still did not take it lightly and carefully sailed the ship of ten thousand years.

The underbody has not undergone deseeded seed cotton, unlike the lint that has been ginned and treated, it is very soft, and it is still very comfortable to lie on it. Li Xuan was a little excited, it was her first time to take the train, and everything was so fresh. Kneeling on the cotton, her hands on the side wall, her little head poked out, looking at the rapidly receding street trees on both sides of the railroad tracks, and the vast fields under the scorching sun in the distance.

There was the clatter of wheels against the rails under the carriage, and a hot air with the smell of soot was blowing in front of you. Her small brow was curled, and her face was full of comfort.

"Falling down the stairs, don't you have a long memory?"

Li Mu's blaming voice sounded behind her, making her involuntarily cringe. Her heart was beating when she fell off the windowsill yesterday, but luckily her brother rushed over in time to catch her.

Just when she was wrinkling her little face and didn't know how to explain, Li Mu suddenly picked her up, put her in his arms, and looked at the scenery outside the carriage together.

"Hee-hee, brother."

She shrunk down, squeezed into her brother's arms, and lay down comfortably.

The wilderness suddenly disappeared, replaced by a large cotton field. At this time, the cotton was already full of cotton peaches, and the boundless white spread all over the earth. It was a very aggressive white, encroaching on all vision. It was as if he had teleported from the wasteland in the south to the snowfields in the north in a moment.

A large sparkling river appeared in front of it, and the water vapor on the river was steaming. On both sides of the river, a huge steam pumping machine is spewing black smoke and roaring, pumping the river water into the ditch in the field.

This is the Godavari River, which originates in the eastern foothills of the Bilister Mountains and is formed by melting snow from the mountains. It crossed the Deccan Plateau from east to west. Due to its abundant water volume, the land on both sides of the Godavari River is the most fertile in the entire Deccan Plateau. The best cotton is produced here, accounting for 60% of the entire plateau.

A group of slaves stood in a cotton field, picking cotton from the field. There were the Zhuxia people, the Hindustani people, the Negritan people and the lizard people. They were shackled, their eyes glazed and numb, their clothes unclothed, and their bodies covered in blood cut by cotton. Whenever someone slowed down, an overseer whipped them with a long whip and cursed.

Looking at their hopeless eyes, Li Xuan felt a chill rising from the bottom of his heart and squeezed into his brother's arms.

Li Mu knew that these cotton fields belonged to the Huang family, and Huang Yuanyin was the largest slave owner and plantation owner in the colony.

His estates are spread along the banks of the Godavari River. In fact, the most fertile land along the coast has long been divided up by these owners. Homesteaders often produce only in remote and barren areas.

Because mechanized agriculture consumes a lot of energy. Cheap slaves became the best substitute for machinery. The high intensity of labor makes the life of a slave surprisingly short. An adult male ** subordinate basically does not live for five years, and the life span of a minor and a female ** subordinate is even shorter.

The invasion of Central Nias by the Zhuxia had ended in a resounding victory ten years earlier, and together with the army of the Deccan colony, the Ouroboros had been driven into the Bilisian Mountains.

During the war, Zhuxia had no time to control the colonies more, and relaxed restrictions on the Deccan colonies in all aspects. On the other hand, due to the power struggle, the House of Representatives has frequent changes in colonial governors and changeable policies, which is extremely unfavorable to the control of the colonies.

The war was over, and the colonies believed that the colonies should pay enough for the benefits they had gained in the war, and some people of insight realized that with the end of the threat of the colonies from the Centralis, the colonies would feel that it would be okay to do without them. Strengthening control over the Deccan plateau has become particularly urgent.

Beginning eight years ago, the Ministry of Finance began to implement a number of new policies towards the colonies in an attempt to control the colony's economy and rule more directly.

They limited the types of industries that the colonies could have, and the Deccan Plateau could not even have ironworks with a daily output of more than 50 tons. Textile mills were also banned, and the colonies even lost the right to export finished cotton cloth to the central state.

This intensified the direct contradiction between the people of the colonies, especially those big industrialists, and Zhongzhou.

The Ouroboros, driven into the Bilisters, began to make a comeback, and intensified, they began to attack the garrison, attacking the Doge's Palace. The situation in the Deccan plateau began to take a sharp turn for the worse.

Li Mu knew that Xinlinfen, as the center of the storm, was the safest place. In the future, the Ouroboros will become more and more serious in the Deccan highlands. In previous lives, there were also players who would take on some missions against Ouroboros. Now, the only real opponent of Ouroboros is a scattered group of immigrants Zhuxia.

He looked worriedly at the cotton fields lining the tracks, and in ten years' time, the plantations would be gone, and the enraged Hindustani would destroy them all.

The speed of the steam locomotive was very slow, and in order to save coal, it was even slower, only more than thirty kilometers. They had to spend the night on the train before arriving in New Linfen the next morning.

"There's nothing to see outside, so get some sleep, it's very tiring to take this kind of train."

Li Mu sat down with Li Xuan in his arms, opened the kettle, and poured some water on her.

"I don't want to sleep yet, I slept a lot yesterday."

Li Xuan furrowed her cute eyebrows and coquettishly looked at her brother. Everything in her eyes is novel, she has never seen it, how can she be willing to sleep.

"Don't run around, plant it carefully, the wheels of the train will click and roll you in two sections."

Li Mu said with a grimace.

Li Xuan's little face was frightened by his description, and he imagined the scene of being rolled into two pieces, shivered, and hurriedly threw himself into his brother's arms.

"What are you scaring Guanchen for, wash your hands and eat."

Li Mei glanced at Li Mu angrily, she spread a dinner cloth on the cotton, opened the food box, and took out the prepared lunch.

The dishes are simple, they are all very ordinary home-cooked dishes, but the portions are very large, and each dish has a plate the size of a basin.

This is the vegetable that Li Mei bought in the market in the town and made it with her own hands. She knew that Li Mu had a lot of rice, so she deliberately cooked a lot of rice.

"This little girl, I'm getting more and more skinny, don't be scared, how can I take care of it."

Li Mu picked up the bowl, took a few bites of ordinary rice, picked up a piece of chopsticks and meat, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it in his stomach. It didn't take long for most of the meal to be pulled into my stomach.

He was hungry and hungry. The heartbeat began to accelerate, which was a reminder from the Titan Tyrannosaurus cell that the host had eaten.

Li Mu lay on the seed cotton, holding his stomach, feeling the stomach quickly digesting the food, a warm current flowed from the stomach to the whole body, and the whole person came back to life.

"My brother eats and sleeps, he's a big stupid pig!"

Li Guanba pulled the rice in the small bowl, and remembered the revenge that her brother had just scared her.

"I'm a pig, you're a pig, who called you my sister."

Li Mu looked at the flowing clouds in the sky and breathed a big sigh of relief, his nerves had been tense before, and it was rare to breathe a sigh of relief.

After eating and drinking, everyone became sleepy with the clatter of monotonous wheels crushing the rails. Li Xuan was really frightened by his words, hugged him tightly, and fell asleep, for fear that he would not be honest in his sleep, and rolled down from the edge of the carriage.

Li Mu rubbed her hair and closed her eyes.

ps: I routinely ask for recommendation votes on Monday, thank you for your support.

Thanks to the book friend lonely toys and empty solitary sleep tips.