It seems to be an age of steel.

As if overnight, the world familiar to the people of this land has changed dramatically.

Last year the people were still living the same days as they had not changed for hundreds of years, the commoners toiled among the dirt, the sun rose and sunset, the knights rode around the castle with great majesty, the nobles and ladies feasted day and night in the castle, and the country taverns were full of absurd tales of black magic, wizards, monsters, and warriors, and people lived in their own places, a century ago, and two centuries ago.

But suddenly one day, the nobles and lords ordered troops to go out to the battle, and the mighty knights left the territory neatly clothed, and the nobles also left the castle, and the mighty army went away with the collected grain and colorful flags - the old people said that such things will always happen several times in their lives, and the knights who went out would return to the territory with a large pile of gold and silver and a group of slaves in a year and a half, but the knights who went out never returned, and the nobles in the castle did not return.

Nothing like this has ever happened to the old people.

A new lord came to the castle, the lord was abolished, the lord's laws were abolished, a new and powerful lord made new rules for the entire South, the government office replaced the lord and advisor, the clerk replaced the tax collector and steward, and the rules of the whole world changed dramatically and became thrilling.

And then the age of steel arrived, as last week's newspaper put it.

Sam, who lives in the village around Hossman, thinks it's a fitting term, and it's a term that a literate person can come up with.

The rising sun dispels the moisture accumulated at night, and the early summer in the northern country has a crisp morning, and the lukewarm temperature is refreshing. Sam came out of the house, dressed in the linen clothes he had just purchased last year, with a kettle hanging from his waist, shoes on his feet, and a cake in his hand that he had prepared to eat on the road because he had not had time to eat breakfast, and walked towards the yard of the "Agricultural Machinery Management Office".

There were seventeen people named Sam in the village, and most of the uneducated rednecks couldn't think of any other name, either Sam or George, or John and Tom, but since last year's night school, everyone has more or less learned a few words, and ten of them have changed their names, but this does not include him.

He didn't like his name either, but felt that he had been called it for half his life, and he was really used to it.

He simply changed the name of his son "Tom" to "Parni", and the night school teacher said that this word was a term in the magic industry, meaning "power" - he felt that his son was his own motivation.

The yard of the Agricultural Machinery Management Office is just in front.

Sam quickened his pace, his mood becoming a little anticipatory.

Agricultural machinery was brought by the government affairs department, and like the arable land allocation and measurement bills, they were all new things promoted by the new lords. As a farmer who had just learned a few words in night school, Sam didn't understand the mechanics, just as he didn't understand why the leader wanted to move people from remote villages to Horsman and the surrounding towns, but that didn't stop him from figuring out one thing: farm machinery was a good thing.

With the strength of those rumbling machines, which were worth the strength of several men and several cows, and with them, combined with cheap druid potions, and the re-planning and measurement of the land that had been put together, this year's grain harvest was unbelievable.

The door to the farm machinery management office was open, and Sam cautiously walked inside, first looking left and right, and no one who had arrived before him, and then he saw the steel machine, which was quietly perched in the courtyard.

It has rigid lines, like a large iron box, flanked by rows of wheels and metal bands wrapped around the wheels, while at the front of the machine, a mechanism with pick teeth, chains, and drum frames.

A young man was busy around the lead-gray machine, seemingly checking the connection of the mechanism at the back of the machine for baling and throwing straw, and when he saw Sam, he raised his hand and pointed to the small room not far away: "Go there and register, I'll be ready in a moment." ”

Sam nodded to the young man and walked briskly into the cabin in the courtyard.

A clerk in a white shirt was sitting in a small room, flipping through a newspaper, Sam came to the table, saw the newspaper with a black bold headline, and after barely making out the headline, he understood what it was: "The Pioneer Sails to the Carroll - Citizens Cheer Along the Coast"

In the plate next to him, he saw a slightly smaller headline: "The bandits of Gravel Ridge have subsided, and a total of seven knights who have abandoned their oaths have been appeased."

"Recognizable words?"

The clerk behind the desk looked up and looked at the farmer standing in front of him as he spoke—a typical peasant, hunched over, swarthy, with thick hands and feet, wrinkles creeping up his face, he looked like an old man, but he should have just reached middle age.

Sam woke up in shock and nodded hurriedly: "Ah, I know, I recognize...... I'm sorry sir, I'm just ......"

"It's okay, it's good to know words, know more words, and you can read more knowledge from books in the future," the clerk laughed, "don't be so nervous, I'm not a nobleman either—I'm a commoner like you." ”

"Well," Sam nodded a little panicked, the gentlemen and ladies of the government hall were kind and nice people, at least much kinder than the previous tax collectors and stewards, but he still subconsciously nervous when facing these people, "I...... I'm here to borrow a harvester and a tractor, and I was in the row three days ago. ”

As he spoke, he took out the note he kept close to him, it was the number he had obtained in this yard three days ago, and since he got it, he didn't dare to put the note more than a meter away from him for three days: there was only one harvester and one tractor here, which had only been transferred from Hossman City not long ago, and this new machine was as precious as the magic car, and the opportunity to use it was ...... Equally precious.

The clerk sent by the government department to manage the farm machinery glanced at the contents of the note, compared it with the register he had in hand, and nodded: "Sam, right—with your name and resident number." Lease for half a day and harvest the land in the second district of Luxi. ”

"Yes, yes," Sam nodded repeatedly, "District 2, District 2." ”

"Your voucher, the mechanic is in the yard, you should have seen it just now, just give it to him. The tractor has gone to town to pick up the goods, and will be back in a moment, and I will ask the mechanic to find you," the clerk in the white shirt took out a card with words printed on it from under the table and handed it to Sam, "Also, there is no need to pay for it, your family is the first group of activists to respond to the land exchange, and the mechanic's remuneration has been paid by the government department." ”

"Thank you, thank you."

Sam took the voucher, thanked him repeatedly, and walked out of the room quickly.

The clerk in charge of the agricultural machinery watched the simple farmer go out the door, and then lowered his head and looked at the register in his hand.

The names were lined up on it, and he couldn't help but laugh.

When the first tractor was transported to Hossman, the loud, powerful, and imposing machine scared away half of the crowd, just as the first magic car entered the city and the first pump turned on, causing a lot of confusion.

But in such a short period of time, so many people have come to borrow harvesters and tractors.

This should be attributed to several machine demonstrations organized by the government department a while ago, in front of the people, the government department showed people how useful agricultural machines can be, which dispelled everyone's doubts, after all, for farmers, it is better to be able to produce more grain, more than everything.

The Reaper is a new thing, it only appeared after the appearance of the magic car, and it is said that the magic guide technicians of Cecil City were researching agricultural machinery immediately after building the magic car, and from last autumn to this spring, they created a series of incredible machines.

No matter what new technology comes about, it will first be used in the military to ensure the safety of the homeland, and then it will be used in the civilian sector to ensure the prosperity of the people, and the pleasures of the upper class will always be at the end of all applications, and this is where Cecil and other places are most different.

The clerk sorted out the records of renting the harvester for the past week, lamenting the rapid development of the new gadget of the magic industry, and also lamenting the harvest this year.

Hossmann had been the most rapidly and thoroughly transformed area since the implementation of the New Deal, and thanks to the efforts of the Archon de Daedalus, the Government Council applied Cecil's successful experience to the land, and this borrowing proved to be fruitful, especially in the field of agriculture.

A large number of peasant households from remote villages moved to the periphery of the city and several key satellite towns, and the old aristocratic fields and the land of the knights' estates were remeasured and distributed to the new immigrants. Thanks to the distribution of grain seeds, the sale of druid potions at low prices, and uniform agronomic training, coupled with appropriate incentives and punishments, the original scattered traditional farming was quickly replaced by Cecil's "planned agriculture", and now, the results of all this have come to the people.

A predictable harvest.

In the yard, Sam handed the card to the mechanic who was in charge of controlling the machine, and then climbed to the seat next to the mechanic by holding on to the handrail on the side of the machine, and took a deep breath to calm his nervousness.

He looked down at the shoe on his foot to make sure it hadn't broken while climbing the tracks and pedals, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

It's his first new pair of shoes in recent years.

The machine started, driven by the magic, there was a sound of parts running in its steel "belly", and when it just vibrate, Sam subconsciously grabbed the handrail at hand, and a layer of sweat appeared in his palms, but when the machine drove smoothly through the yard gate, his pounding heart had calmed down.

He saw an endless stretch of land outside, land waiting to be cultivated, and one of them belonged to him.

More than anything else, it calmed him down.

Sam sat on the robot monster and watched the mechanic skilfully maneuver the levers, pedals, and steering wheel, directing the heavy steel creature forward in a way he couldn't understand, and suddenly felt a little envious.

He didn't know if he would ever have a chance to touch the levers and pedals with his own hands, he felt that most of them were not a chance, he was too old to learn such a complicated thing, but Parni ...... He's still young, and he might be able to do it.

The boy had learned a lot in school, and he was the smartest kid the family had ever had, and if he continued to learn, he might become a "mechanic" – a smart man who specialized in controlling machines.

The machine made of steel headed out into the field.

Gone are the knights who wore their armor and swaggered from town to town, the nobles who feasted all day in the castle, and the taverns in the countryside where the people who discussed the dark arts and wizards had now learned to hold the newspaper and read it aloud, and Sam ......

Sam sat on the machine heading to his farm, feeling the vibration and power of the steel beneath him.

This is probably the so-called "age of steel".

……

Cecil City, in the Machinery Manufacturing Institute-Agricultural Machinery I workshop, Gawain looked at the rough and simple, but full of power behemoth in front of him, and sighed with emotion.

This thing...... Sure enough, it was finally built in the tractor assembly shop.

A white knight from the Church of the Holy Light is praying for the behemoth: "...... The Light blesses its wheels and tracks, may it never overturn, may it never overturn, may it never overheat, may it never overheat, may it always be full of power......"

In the midst of the White Knight's pious (probably) and solemn (real) prayers, the young knight Philip stepped forward and tapped on the outer shell of the steel chariot, feeling the coldness and hardness of the metal, and the knight turned his head with a smile on his face: "My lord, I think I finally understand what you mean by 'Age of Steel' - as you say, this is indeed an age of steel. ”