In the north-east of the Old Continent, on the narrow coastal railway of the Grand Duchy of Livonia, a special train of a special style runs on the tracks. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Unlike ordinary passenger cars or wagons, this particular train only has three carriages. The nose and carriage were wrapped in steel armor chained with rivets, and on the roof of the carriage were twelve-pounder bronze cannons, twelve-barreled organ cannons, and groups of privates armed with the latest flintlock guns.

Anyone with a little eyesight can see it. This is a military train. And it is the highest-cost, most expensive and most powerful ironclad train. One of the most fearsome weapons of war in this age of coal and iron. It is a symbol of absolute identity and status. It's not something you can get with money.

With money, you can even pave railroad tracks with gold and make trains out of silver. Decorate the carriages with diamonds and jewels. But you can't get a train with iron armor and a private company guarding it.

The roar and rumbling black smoke are enough to scare away even the most daring brown bears, wild boars or wolves. It was also enough to scare off the rest of the robbers who were plotting against the enemy. Those wild goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls and other robbers lurking in the wilderness would never dare to touch such an ironclad army.

Even powerful ogres, centaur bandits, or semi-official human bandits supported by the principalities around them, are extremely measured, and will never attack them unless they have to.

And even a super-large gang that is really strong enough to rival the size of the regular army will be afraid after seeing the gilded three lions logo on the front of the car and the scarlet lobster armor of the private on the roof of the car.

They may have the strength to rob an ironclad train. But there is absolutely no strength to fight against the rising Briton Empire. The red and majestic lion is the coat of arms of this powerful, lonely empire. With 100,000 well-armed and well-trained armies and hundreds of monstrous fortress ships, it will easily crush any impudent who dares to offend the Empire.

Self-confidence, as well as monotonous road conditions, made the conductor at the front of the train feel bored. The round, beer-barrel-like dwarf yawned and looked around boredly. As far as the eye can see, there are uninhabited barren beaches, swamps and reeds. Everywhere there is a barren patch.

This made the dwarf conductor find it very boring. He thought for a moment and muttered a dwarven curse in a low voice. Then he reached for the bottle in his waist pocket.

Originally, the train was supposed to train the conductor not to drink any alcoholic beverages. But it's still a little too difficult for dwarves not to drink. The dwarven train captains have been repeatedly banned from secretly drinking, and it is useless to punish them.

He hesitated, but then he opened the cork and poured a sip of wine down his throat. Feeling a line of fire stretching from his throat to his stomach, his body shook involuntarily. It took a while for a refreshing "ah". Hiccuped. He plugged the stopper again and put the bottle back in his pocket.

The dwarven conductor who had stolen the wine hurriedly looked left and right. I found that no one was paying attention. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Turning around, he was about to tell the other railroad workers not to forget to add coal and water to the steam engine, but they saw the barbarian coal shoveler who was shirtless and exposed the tendons and flesh of his upper body.

He was about to curse when he heard him shout, "Ahead!" The dwarf conductor looked back sharply, and saw several pieces of wood running across the railway line ahead. If this happens, he probably won't have to think about being caught secretly drinking in the future.

"Grandma!" The short winter melon-like conductor hurriedly rushed to the front, stretched out his big hand with a layer of fluff, grabbed the lever of the brake and pulled it back desperately. Everyone in the whole train fell backwards under the force.

"Got it!"

At the same time, on a large tree not far from the train. A middle-aged man in a black leather suit with gray hair swung his fist excitedly. Immediately afterwards, he pulled out a harmonica from his waist.

Silent, inaudible music wafts through the jungle. A large number of poorly dressed, even undressed, sleek and hairy green-skinned goblins emerged from the dead grass, the bushes, the reeds, the canopies of the great trees, rushed out, slid down, and rushed toward the train.

"Goblins! a lot of goblins!" the barbarian shoveler's voice changed in fright. With a shudder, he shouted at the dwarven conductor - and was slapped by the dwarven conductor, who was less than half his height, and spun like a spinning top.

"! What is there to be afraid of goblins?! Lao Tzu cut him one with an axe, and two axes with a pair - bring me Lao Tzu's axe!" he said as he took out the bottle of wine and poured most of the bottle of liquor into his stomach.

At the same time that the dwarven conductor was shouting with the barbarian barbarian and the barbarian coal shoveler. The roof of the carriage has already begun.

This ironclad train has double-decker carriages. The carriages on the lower floor are the normal bodies where passengers and soldiers rest. Only minor changes. At this moment, it was attacked, and the crystal glass windows on both sides of the carriage had lowered the steel armor, sealing the entire hull.

The upper floor of the carriage is set up like a fortress. The upper deck of the carriage is open, and there are two-meter-high wood-hulled iron breastwalls on both sides. Twelve-pounder infantry guns and twelve-barreled organ guns were placed on either side of the breastwork, two on each of the two carriages.

Behind the breastwork, there are three steps more than one meter high. Musketeers with guns standing on the upper floor. The second layer is the second column of reservists. Due to the lack of numbers, the Britsons were unable to produce a three-stage shot, but a two-stage shot in a reciprocating cycle could.

Armed with long-barreled heavy smoothbore guns, Briton soldiers wearing lobster-style forged armor set up their gun mounts on either side of the parapet wall, in the gap between the pheasants. Listening to the order of the non-commissioned officer of the company, "Prepare - fire!" was a volley.

At the same time, four twelve-pounder guns and four organ guns, independent of the company, also opened fire. The shrapnel used by the twelve-pounder gun was a piece of iron sand like a fan when it was fired. Although the organ cannon with the barrels chained together was troublesome to load, the twelve barrels fired in succession allowed for a short period of dense fire.

In the thunderous sound of gunfire, large swaths of iron sand and lead bullets set up for the unobstructed goblins on the open ground. The wild goblins that rushed to the front were like wheat, and they were shot to the ground one by one. The buckshot and iron sand that hit their chests, torsos, heads, and limbs burst into a blinding red.

Unexpectedly, the goblins were still charging forward. They stepped on the corpses of their slain companions. The mouth was indistinct, meaningless howls, as if he was crazy.

“...... What's going on?!"

This scene surprised the Breton soldiers greatly. According to common sense, a timid thing like a goblin can be scared half to death with a salvo as long as it is lined up. And this time they had four twelve-pounder guns and four organ cannons. Hundreds of goblins were killed - no, not to mention goblins. Even the regular army of the ordinary human kingdom would probably collapse under such a strong firepower. But, but they're still --

The warrant officer company commander of the Briton shook his head, and was about to give the order to change the ranks and ask the soldiers on the second step to come forward, when he heard a rather magnetic voice in his ear:

"What are you thinking?"

The warrant officer's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately touched the saber at his waist - and then he felt his arm uncontrollable, and the saber he had drawn from his sheath was actually slashed at his throat.

After waiting for a few seconds, they did not hear any further instructions from the warrant officer company commander, and the Briton privates, who felt bad, immediately turned around. and saw their commander lying in a pool of blood. Beside him was a middle-aged man in a black leather coat, a black cape, and a black wide-brimmed hat. He held a harmonica in one hand and a saber in the other, and the saber was still dripping with blood.

"Enemy! The enemy is on the train, he killed the company commander! Shoot, shoot!" Amid the shouts of several company non-commissioned officers, the Briton soldiers raised their smoothbore guns in panic - and then uncontrollably aimed at their comrades and pulled the trigger. "Bang bang ......"

A burst of gunfire woke up the frenzied goblins who were about to crawl on top of the ironclad train. They looked around blankly. Later, the ironclad train parked in the middle of the railway was found, and the body of his companion who was still convulsing in a pool of blood not far behind him.

"Run!"

I don't know which goblin shouted like that, and then all the goblins ran away without a trace.

"Hey...... What's going on?"

The dwarven conductor only felt that he had caught up with all the strange things in the world alone. The goblins dare to rob military trains. The first volley of muskets and artillery could not scare them away. When the muskets stopped, the bastards came to their senses and ran faster than the rabbits.

He reached out and lifted the brim of the steel helmet he had just found, and then opened the door of the front cab. I climbed down with difficulty on my short legs. He had just drunk and his body was shaking, and the front of the car was designed to be human in size, so it was natural that he fell when he went down.

"What are you doing here?" the daring barbarian coal shoveler asked as he poked his head out anxiously and fearfully as he saw the dwarf conductor leaving.

"I'll go ahead!" the dwarf thought to see if he could remove the broken logs that lay across the railroad tracks.

"What about me?" asked the barbarian shoveler.

"You come down too—no, you go to the back carriage and ask the soldiers to come and help! I can't move so much wood alone!" the dwarf conductor's voice grew farther and farther away.

"Oh......" The barbarian shoveler subconsciously looked at the carriage behind him. At this time, none of the soldiers that the dwarf train captain asked him to find were dead.

The middle-aged man in black leather has nothing but a harmonica in his hands.

The barbarian shoveler shuddered, and then shouted to the dwarf conductor, "I'll come with you!"

The dwarven conductor turned his head and glared at him. He wasn't angry either, just giggled. Looking at his virtue, the dwarf conductor didn't bother to scold him. After snorting twice, he continued to walk, and the barbarian shoveler followed him, looking around nervously from time to time. Fearing that the goblins would return, they killed him and cut him into pieces to make broth.

In the empty train, a middle-aged man in black walked forward with a smile on his face. The locked compartment door opens automatically, opens automatically, opens automatically. It's like being in a no-man's land. It was only at the door of a delicate mahogany door that he stopped, stretched out his hand and knocked lightly.

"So, Miss Elisabeth of the Briton Chamber of Commerce, and below is Gerhard von Maleborg, Grand Mentor of the Gothic Order. There is something I would like to ask the lady about, and that is about the little problem that your Chamber of Commerce has had with the trade of the Shilonsk region in recent times......"

He waited a little longer, but didn't hear anything from the room.

"Well, though trespassing on a lady's room is not a gentleman's doing...... It's rude. As he said this, he reached out and turned the handle of the door, pushing it open......

"Stupid! Fool, put me down!"

Outside the train. The barbarian shoveler embarrassed to let go of his hand. The broken log he was carrying, and the broken wood on the other end, the dwarf that was suspended in mid-air, fell to the ground at once.

Not only did the dwarven conductor fall badly, but he was also hit in the stomach by a piece of wood, which made him hurt everywhere in his body. He had just tried to move the broken wood with the barbarian coal shovelers, and this was the result.

"Bastard! what a bastard!" the dwarven conductor who had risen from the ground ran in front of the barbarian coal shoveler. Jumping to hit him in the head. However, because of his height, he could only hit the barbarian in the stomach at most.

The savage, knowing that he had done something wrong, laughed, bent down, and let the dwarven conductor smack him twice—he didn't care if he was rough-skinned anyway.

"No! I still have to get the help of those GIs! The Chamber of Commerce's salary of twenty shillings a month can't be taken away by them so easily!" said the dwarven conductor.

"Didn't they beat the goblins away......" the barbarian muttered quietly.

"What's the point of putting a gun comfortably on the top of the car?!!

The middle-aged man in black who opened the door was stunned for a moment.

The coffee is steaming, and next to the coffee is the chocolate wafer, next to the chocolate wafer is the fruit cake, and next to the fruit cake is the cream puff. This makes one can't help but worry about the cholesterol and blood sugar levels of the room owner. The middle-aged man in black thought that if he had finished talking to Miss Elizabeth, he could remind her of this.

-- The problem is that she's not here.

Next to the cream puff is a stick figure drawn in crayons, a simple caricature with a grimace, and the word "fooled" written in a chubby, cute font next to the stick figure.

"Fooled!"

The middle-aged man in black only felt a cold sweat break out on his back, closed the door and turned to run—at the same time the dwarf conductor and the barbarian coal shoveler reached an agreement. Sure enough, I still had to go to those soldiers for help. Then they turned and looked at their train - and saw it blown up into the sky with a loud "boom".

"......" The two people, one tall and one short, both leaned their necks up, and their mouths were wide open.

This time they didn't have to ask for help, not even the train......

The screams of the dwarves echoed through the sky.

......

That is, at the same time as the accident of the ironclad train, on the sea surface of Polotsk, a huge ship rode the wind and waves and went straight to the Polotsk United Province. In the captain's room, which is the most spacious and luxurious on the battleship, nobles from across the ocean sip chocolate and taste cream puffs that are slightly high in calories.

As the ironclad train disappeared along with the unknown attacker, the corners of her mouth turned up, revealing a smug smile.

"They didn't welcome me, but it didn't matter. I never thought I'd get any welcome here. I also...... They don't need their welcome, or their help, or their collaboration. Because my own strength alone is enough to get what I want...... Huh-huh......

The Second Great Frontier War? Tartaria? A war in which an army of modern gunpowder weapons tortured and killed the cold weapons of the Middle Ages, even if it was won, what was the significance? In this era of rapid technological change, what is worth noting about such a desolate, remote, ignorant, and backward place as the border area of the human world?

Everything here is insignificant. It doesn't matter if it's all destroyed. And the barbarians here should not know at all what the world has become. But that's where my opportunity lies. ”

This was followed by a series of smug chuckles. Huge ship, twenty days away from Polotsk.