Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 177: White Wood City

The roads in Limassosya County are somewhat poor, the pits are depressed, the wagons are very difficult to navigate, and Uncle Osk cursed the wagon to the right while driving to the left to avoid the large pits and bulging rocks that accumulate water on the road.

It rained heavily last night until early morning, and the road became muddy. Limassosyas County is full of hilly highlands, and the carriage is trekking hard down the highway, one step at a time.

“This road is too bad, why can't it be repaired properly?” Claude was already sitting next to Uncle Osk, and this kind of highway was sitting in the trunk, and it was a sin, and nobody could stand the bump.

“I can't fix it, it's not that nobody fixes it, but that's what happens in less time after I fix it. Limassosya County is a major mining county, and almost all roads outside are in this situation, mainly driven by heavy wagons transporting ore. And the road repair fees they charge mining companies can barely repair roads near towns, and there's nothing they can do further away.” Uncle Osk replied.

Claude understands that the world's current road construction is essentially based on stone powder, that is to say, make a good foundation, put rock on it, fill it with gravel, then pour clay pulp on it, and finally put a layer of stone powder on it. Normal carriages and wagons run fine. But for the load-bearing wagons transporting ore, the road's load bearing capacity is not very good and can easily be crushed over time.

Although there are building materials like cement in the world, the cement production is modest and the cost is a little high, building a house and building a yard is nothing, but the cost of building a road is unaffordable. It is also said that even if cement was laid on the roads, the sample could not withstand the pressure of many carriages.

Wang Du once had a bustling street that was broken, and the owners were collecting money to pave the ground with cement in order to attract more customers. As a result, only six months later, the cement pavement was crushed to the end by the usual wagons, and many pits appeared. Instead, the pedestrians were prevented from passing. Finally, the owners had to repave the slate pavement...

“We're going to have to pause in the front, and you can see that the feet and hooves of the two horses in this truck are covered in a lot of mud, and I'm going to have to help them shave it so they can run easier. And the roads are too wet, so we can rest for two hours until the sun dries up the pavement.” Uncle Osk frowned and said to Claude.

“It's okay, we have plenty of time. It doesn't matter if you check in one day or the other.” Claude consoled.

“Well, we're staying in Whitewood tonight. I was supposed to arrive in Bentaglio City at night, and I could be in Gonida City, Cafelezt County, tomorrow, and the day after that, you'd be able to report to the Fuckabee Hill barracks. This is exactly a six-day trip, but now it looks like it's going to take a day, and the highway here is too hard to walk away from..." Uncle Osk was very annoyed by the unexpected situation in the plan.

Another mountain road, the carriage stopped in an empty space beside the road, Uncle Osk took a small piece of wood to scrape the mud from the feet of the two pulley horses, and Claude was not idle, looking for a branch of tree to pick off the sticky dirt on the wheel.

“Uncle Osk, are you familiar with this Limassoshian county?” Claude has nothing to say.

“I am familiar with the fact that my troops were stationed here for five years, and then a second war broke out with the Kingdom of Nasri, where an army hit the city of Bentaglio at the beginning of the war. My battalion was ordered to guard, and as a result, it was on the walls of the city. Without a single shot, I was injured by a shell, bled a lot, and woke up in a field treatment facility. Six months later, after raising the wounded, the war was almost over. My troops have been ordered to retreat from the Kingdom of Nasserli. I still haven't had a chance to make a success on the battlefield...”

This is the experience of one of the three wars that Uncle Osk has fought in his life, going to battle, getting hurt, resting and ending the war. Uncle Osk, however, said he had been very fortunate when his battalion was down by as much as two thirds after the defensive battle in the city of Bentaglio. Uncle Osk was wounded at the beginning of the war and had enough men to send him to the field for treatment by a pharmacist. It is said that the post-defensive war casualties were heavy, and many wounded soldiers died because they could not be removed from the battlefield and bled alive...

“As an escort to the merchants after his discharge, he travelled here several times a year to escort the merchants to purchase ore and transport a variety of goods. Less came after not being a merchant's escort. Apart from you, which was the year before yesterday when you escorted your family here to Creedaldaro County, the male owner seemed to be hired as a manager by a large mining company here. I hear that there is a high monthly salary of Golden Kroner, which is very enviable. ”

“By the way, Uncle Osk, you said this was a big mining county, and what were all the mineral resources that came out of it, and when I read the geography book, it said that there were more than a dozen mineral resources that came out of it?” Claude asked.

“That's enough, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, coal. These are common, and limestone, granite, nitrite, etc., and you're right about that geography book anyway. It's just that more than a dozen mineral resources are missing, and there are more than a dozen mineral resources alone. I have heard the leaders of the merchant team say that the white root powder, pebble stone and fluorescent stone produced here have been in short supply and demand, the annual output has been robbed of as much, the price has risen every year...”

Pebble is actually a marble-like stone, subtle in shine, and is known as the best carved stone. And the Fluorescent Essence also has a name, the earth crystal, the earth attribute Demon Crystal.

Uncle Osk pointed to the front of the mountain lane: “Follow this road for more than 20 miles, and it will be Shiraki City, where the white root powder is the most famous in the kingdom. It is said that workers who were digging for fossil plants when they dug for them yelled at them, saying that the basement was full of waste and garbage, not the gold and silver copper and iron ore they were looking for.

The miners' quarters were also built because the excavated fossil plants gave rise to the name of a white wooden cave until a pharmacist heard about it from the miners who had purchased supplies down the hill and rushed to the hill to see that the fossil plants were raw materials for the white root powder. Trash suddenly became a treasure, so the White Wood Cave began to become a town, and then it escalated into a city... ”

So the most used white root powder in drug trials and alchemy trials comes from here, and Claude is excited: "Uncle Osk, do you know what the price of white root powder comes from here? ”

Uncle Osk shook his head: “I don't know, I'm not interested in these, they don't seem cheap anyway. However, buying white root powder in White Wood City should be careful, there are a lot of liars, some liars hire children, use other powder as white root powder to sell, said that the adults in the family stole it from the mine, now it is cheap to sell subsidies for household use, many people who do not know the root of the greed easily fall for the cheap. My former merchants used to go to shops run by big businesses and mining companies, and the prices were a little expensive, but the quality was guaranteed. ”

After resting for almost two hours, the otherwise muddy highway was slightly dried up by the sun, and Claude and Uncle Ox had some dried food for lunch, then boarded a carriage, which drove the two golden horses on their way back to Whitewood City around 4 p.m.

Claude was again severely questioned at the gate of the city, and the guard soldiers scrutinized those stamps on Claude's Blue Feather Corps conscription order and permit before finally stamping them with the seals of the White Wood City Guard Battalion and letting the wagon enter the city. And Uncle Osk sat in the carriage with his national identity card, laughing and waiting for Claude to check it out and get in.

Claude found, however, that Shiraki City appeared to be heavily guarded, with a squad of guard battalion soldiers on duty at one gate. In addition, it was felt that the soldiers were more alert in the city than outside. Only four soldiers entered the city for inspection, while the other eight soldiers who remained vigilant faced the city. Beyond that, there is also a squad of soldiers on each side of the walls, who are constantly patrolling in the direction of the city as well. Most importantly, all the firewires on the guns held by the soldiers were lit, and they were ready to shoot...

Uncle Osk didn't think otherwise, he had been through a lot when he was a soldier, nothing short of what went wrong in the city. For example, fugitives were found sneaking into the city, so soldiers increased their guard to prevent their dogs from jumping against the wall and forcibly breaking through the city gates.

“The vast majority are unsafe, and several fugitives want to break through the gates of the city, which promises to be suicidal.” Uncle Osk said: “When I was a soldier, I once caught an underground group of private casinos. The boss gathered more than 40 people to strike the gate guarded by only a small group of soldiers. As a result, a single shot went over, killing only four or five wounded, and the rest of them cried on their knees and cried out for their lives...”

Claude knew a lot along the way, such as checking and stamping his laissez-passer, which was the responsibility of the patrol in the town and the guard battalion guarding the gates in the city. As for local guards, such as those formed by villages or towns, they can inspect but do not have the authority to stamp passes.

Uncle Osk's tavern with Claude's sleepover is called the Grand Scooter Tavern, which is the favorite gathering place for carriers carrying ore to mining companies, and Claude sees more than twenty heavy carriages parked in a vast open space in the tavern's backyard. Three rows of stables built from logs next to them are full of sturdy pullers, and five or six horses are busy feeding and watering them.

It was too early to eat in the evening for more than an hour, and Claude decided to go out for a walk, and he wouldn't want a glass of wine sitting in the tavern hall like Uncle Osk listening to the wagon blow over an hour of cattle.

Take a left out onto Mario Street, two blocks away. Uncle Osk told Claude that the mining companies and the shops of the big businesses were on Mario Avenue, close to the Grand Scooter Tavern, and just over a decade's walk away.

It's just that just past a block, Claude got tangled up. A thieve-eyed skinny guy appeared next to Claude: "Dude, do you want some white root powder? ”

Claude shook his head with a smile.

“Cheap brothers, one box only needs a golden crown, I got this out of the mine privately, guaranteed quality. You know, the big companies sell for three gold kroner a box, and the profits are paid off by the greedy mining companies and the owners of the merchants, and we, the diggers, make money to buy black bread. It's so unfair that we snuck a little out of the mine. Nor are we greedy, as long as we can eat a few meals...”

The skinny chattered Claude nagging, and Claude helplessly stopped: “Do you think I look like a man who can afford a box of gold crowns? And I don't know what white root powder is...”

“Told you you couldn't afford it, so I walked with you for so long and said so much.” Skinny man scolds. “Hey, silly boy, how about you apologize to Brother Silver Taller for buying him a drink to moisten his voice? ”

Claude held on to his anger: "No, why would I apologize? ”

“Oh, silly boy, are you still upset? Why don't I send some people over to ask your brother for forgiveness on your knees? You let him take so much drooling and kung fu. Of course, you have to buy wine to apologize to him! Hurry up and get the money out...”

Claude's eyes sparkled with flashes, killing and spitting a cold word: "Get lost! ”

The skinny man even backed away when he was on board, but his mouth was still strong: “You, wait for me...”

Claude ignored him, turned around and left. Uncle Osk said there were a lot of liars involved.

The skinny guy saw Claude go away, bit his teeth and followed him quietly, staring at Claude far away, ready to see where he was going...