"It's here, Withered Steel City!" When they climbed over a small hill and saw the towering chimneys and dense houses on the plains in the distance, everyone couldn't help but cheer, and a smile appeared on their tired faces.

Although nothing thrilling happened on the road from Barrel Town to Dry Steel City, the caravan did not relax its vigilance at all, because they had already encountered robbers more than once on the road, but these robbers could see that this Saville caravan was a difficult bone to gnaw, so they just watched them leave from a distance and did not move.

But even so, the caravan was still very nervous, the worst thing was that the caravan was originally going to be used as a rest point in a small village, which had been destroyed by unknown forces, there were some fresh corpses in the village, it seemed that the attack should be within the last four or five days, so they were worried that the unknown forces that destroyed the village would target the caravan, so the caravan had to give up rest and rush overnight, until now they came to the outskirts of Dry Steel City, and everyone's nervousness was slightly relaxed.

Dry Steel City has been the smelting center of the Mares Kingdom since a thousand years ago, and at its most prosperous, nearly ninety percent of the steel creations in the entire Maris Kingdom were produced by the Dry Steel City.

Originally, the rulers of Withersteel were the Rokem family, the most famous and largest hereditary earldom family in the Kingdom of Mares, who ruled over seven castles, including Drysteel City, and were the largest county in the northwest.

Originally, according to the principles and abilities of this family, they should have been able to continue the inheritance for hundreds or even thousands of years, but unfortunately they were on the wrong side in the war led by the king-elector, not only were they deprived of their territory and titles, but they were even driven out of the kingdom of Mares and became exiles, and they are still living in Dyliat as stateless.

After the city was out of the control of the Rokem family, the entire city was taken over by the kingdom, but the kingdom did not have full control over the city, they just sent a tax specialist to control all the taxes in the city, and the city's municipal administration was handed over, the original city steel joint board of directors, until today, the government affairs of the city are still in charge of this board.

In order to place things like rebellion, after taking over the city again, the walls of the city were demolished by the army of the Mares Kingdom, and the city was forbidden to build walls.

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

Now the total area of Kugang City is six times that of two hundred years ago, and this is only the area of the city, if you count the area of the attached suburbs, then ten times the area is possible.

Although the city is the most prosperous city in the northwestern region of the entire Mares Kingdom, it is the most unsuitable city for ordinary people, and the dozens of chimneys that look like towers in the city emit black smoke all day long, and these black smoke linger inside and outside the city for a long time, in such an environment, the inhabitants do not even dare to say that their washed clothes are hanging outside the house, because then when he takes back his clothes, the clothes may be dirtier than before washing.

According to the advice of the medical school, all residents of Kugang City must wear masks when they go out, otherwise they will get all kinds of fatal diseases if they breathe this dusty air for a long time, so in Kugang City, in addition to the bosses of those steel mills making money, the factories that make masks also make a lot of money.

However, even so, the number of people who die from various heart and lung diseases every year is twice as high as that of other places combined, so it is also known as the City of Death.

Despite its various shortcomings, its well-developed railway network made it a commercial center in the northwest, as well as an economic and trade hub for the kingdoms of Maris and Dalyat.

The first railroad track of the Kingdom of Mares was laid in the city of Kuresteel, which was 17 kilometers long and mainly connected the city of Kuresteel and the port of Keller.

At that time, the steel products of the dry steel city needed to be transported to the port of Keller, and then through the sleep of the Dekar River, into the Mamm, the mother river of the Maris Kingdom, and then used the waterway system of the Mam River to run through the whole country, and transported to all parts of the Maris Kingdom.

Because there was a ready-made supply of steel in large quantities, the railway did not cost much money, but at that time, the construction of the railway was more due to the pressure of the upper echelons of the kingdom in the board of directors of the dry steel city, so it was not allowed to pay for the construction of the railway.

It's just that the grievances of the board of directors of the dry steel 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 paid, and all the funds paid for the construction of the railway were all returned in less than half a year.

Because of the convenience of the railway, when the high-level of the kingdom began to discuss whether to lay the railway to all the big cities, the city of dry steel was uncharacteristically strongly agreed, and even did not hesitate to act as a lobbyist for the royal government.

Therefore, when the central station of the western railway network began to choose a location, 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 of the western cities need to be transported to the city of Kugang, and then transferred from the city to the national railway network, and transported to all parts of the country, so there is also a huge railway station, warehouse and trading market on the outskirts of the city.

Now the caravan was going to the trading market, and like all outsiders, the Saviles were very dissatisfied with the air in the city of Dry Steel, and they would not enter the city unless they had to, and the same was true of the merchants of Dairiat, and over time a community of outsiders and foreigners formed around the trading market on the outskirts.

The Kingdom of Savile has set up an office here and has also purchased some properties to serve as a temporary residence for Savile merchants who come here to do business.

As soon as the caravan arrived at the trading market, it went directly to the office of the Savile Kingdom, where it was prepared to obtain a relatively cheap camp.

It's just that after entering the trading market area, everyone feels that the atmosphere here is not right, not only are there many gendarmes and police patrolling the road, and almost all of them are wearing weapons, and these weapons are placed in a place where they can be reached at any time, what is even more strange is that when they see these weapons exposed, those gendarmes and police do not even bother to ask about it, as if this is a normal thing.

In strong doubts, the caravan came to the location of the office of the Kingdom of Savile in their memory, but everything in front of them made them completely stunned, because he found that the four-story building of the office was gone, only a pile of ruins remained, and a large amount of blood stains could be seen in the ruins on the ground, obviously there had been a fierce battle here, and the battle not only returned to the office, but even the people in the office died, otherwise, even if the office had become a ruin, someone should guard this place。

"Wait a minute, please. After recovering from the ruins, the caravan master Gusan looked around, and when he saw a local man walking in front of him, he immediately chased after him, stopped the man, and then, under the watchful eye of the man, in a not too pure Mares, said, "Excuse me, what is the matter with this Savile office building, why is it in ruins, and what about the people here?"

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

Hearing this man's words, the faces of all the Saviles present became very ugly, and the locals did not dare to stay long when they saw this, and quietly ran away.

"What do we do now?" someone asked.

The caravan leader Gusan pondered for a moment and said: "First go to our camp, although the office is gone, but the camp is still there, let's go there first to set up the camp and goods, and then you go to contact the merchants of Dairiat to see the goods, and I will take someone to the police station in the city to inquire about the office." ”

Hearing Gusan's instructions, the others also felt that this was appropriate, so they drove the caravan's cart towards a camp purchased by the Savile Kingdom Office.

Because most of Savile's caravans were packer caravans, the office of the Savile Kingdom did not buy any real estate around the market, but bought a vacant land very close to the market, which was specially provided for the Savile caravans to set up tents and camp camps.

When the caravan came to the clearing, a group of local merchants seemed to be surveying the land and wanted to occupy it, because the office of the Savile Kingdom was gone, and the land seemed to them to be terra nullius.

So when the caravan arrived, these people rightly 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 intimidated, and after a few cruel words, they fled in dismay.

Soon the caravan was stationed in the camp and carried goods, prepared food, etc., according to their own division of labor, and some of the men who were proficient in commerce left the camp and went to the dwelling of Dalyat, looking for merchants with whom they had previously traded.

According to the plan, Gusan was originally going to go to the city police station to inquire about the affairs of the office, and by the way, to see if he could take the corpses of those people in the office, if he could return to China with these corpses, the kingdom would definitely reward the people of the caravan for this matter, which was tantamount to a business without capital.

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

"Not yet, I'll be here for two days before I leave. Leo looked at Gusan and said, "If you're supposed to be for those wood carvings, have you scraped together enough money?"

Gu San's face was a little ugly, originally he was going to use his relationship in the office to borrow a sum of money from here to buy the wood carving in Leo's hand, but he didn't expect that the office was all destroyed and everyone died, which made his plan fail, and now he only hopes that the goods he brought can be sold at a good price, so as to get the funds that can buy the wood carving.

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 that even if all the goods are sold, you can only scrape together the funds to buy three wood carvings at most, and you use all the capital and profits of this business to buy the wood carvings in my hands, aren't you afraid of the reproach of the people of your tribe?"

"It's enough to have three wood carvings. Gusan gritted his teeth and said, "As for the tribal side, I'm sure they'll understand. ”

Leo nodded, agreed to Gusan's request, and said, "In that case, I hope that when I leave, you will be able to scrape together enough money." ”

Seeing that Leo agreed to his request, Gusan also breathed a sigh of relief, and then left the camp with his men and went to the city police station to deal with the affairs of the office.

"Mr. Leo, I'm ......," Sans on the side also asked.

Leo interrupted him and asked, "Do you have enough money in your hands right now?"

"Yes. Sans hurriedly took off his backpack, then dug into his backpack, took out a book, opened the folder of the book, and pulled out five very fine metal cards from it.

These five metal cards are all beautifully made, with a large number of patterns on the front and the emblem of the king of the hill on the back.

Seeing the metal card, Leo knew what it was, and couldn't help laughing: "You are a Savile who didn't keep the money in the bank opened by the Church of the Lord of All Things, but in the Church of the King of the Hill, if this is known, you will probably be regarded as an apostate." ”

"It's that everyone thinks it's impossible, it's really safe, and it won't be found out that the money is in my hands. Sans looked a little smug, and then nervously asked, "May I ask ......?"

"Pick one out of it!" said Leo, taking out some of the wood carvings and spreading them out in front of Sans.