Iron Age

When Liu Ziguang woke up, he found himself in a big rumbling car. He could only lie flat, with wooden boards under his body and wooden boards above him, as if the carriage was divided into many layers. His feet were locked by something, which seemed to be an iron ring fixed on the carriage. The wooden boards on the upper layer were very close to his face.

The carriages are framed, so he can see the outside. The carts are made of black iron frames, one connected to the other, and the front is a huge front, an ugly black steel behemoth, with tall chimneys blowing Thick dark gray smoke and a large cloud of white steam travel on the roadbed paved with gravel, and two black railroad tracks extend into the distance.On both sides of the road are farmland and big trees.When turning a corner, you can see that there are neat piles of charcoal on the two wagons behind the front of the car. The upper body of a person is exposed on the top of the car. Several rows of sparse embroidered iron pieces are strung together to form a waistcoat. A concave and convex heart goggle, with a long knife and a whip hanging on his waist, looks like a car escort.

What kind of place is this? This weird train is even rougher than the steam trains I used to ride when I was a child. The scenery on the side of the road is so strange. There are no telephone poles, no cars, no roads, and the occasional villages are also very strange. It is a shack with a thatched roof and yellow mud walls. Farmers in ancient costumes walk on the rice paddy fields with hoes on their shoulders facing the setting sun.

What the hell is this place?Liu Ziguang was terrified in his heart, the fear came from the unknown, and everything was not the world he was familiar with.He was puzzled, and fell asleep again amidst hunger, exhaustion, and nervousness.

Drowsy and bumpy for several hours, the sky gradually darkened, a huge moon climbed up from the sky, the train stopped, Liu Ziguang rubbed his eyes full of gum, and saw a group of people coming from the front board Getting off the train, it was the group of sturdy swordsmen who were sheltering from the rain in the dilapidated house. The swordsmen got busy, some lit a fire to cook, and some knocked on the wheels of the train one by one with the handle of a knife, seemingly checking the axle.One of them went to the carriage next to Liu Ziguang, dragged a sack from the bottom of the carriage, poured the yellow sand-like powder in the sack into a large bucket, picked up a dirty water bottle, and poured it into the bucket. Poured water into the big bucket, and the jug dried up after pouring not much. The man grunted, tore off the hem of his clothes, urinated in the big bucket, picked up a stick and stirred it in the bucket, Liu Ziguang Seeing it inexplicably, the man had already walked over with a bucket, and with a long-handled iron spoon, poured a lump of yellow paste on the wooden board next to each passenger's head, "Today there is not enough water, It’s cheap for you bastards to make such a thick meal.” Obviously the man was very aggrieved.Liu Ziguang wanted to vomit in disgust, but all he could vomit was acid water.

The person next to him had already swallowed his share of dinner at an unbelievable speed. He was surprised to find that Liu Ziguang's piece hadn't moved, so he took Liu Ziguang's piece up and ate it unceremoniously. Stick out your tongue and wipe out the residue in the cracks of the plank.It seemed that Liu Ziguang even vomited up the last bit of acid water.

The swordsmen were sitting around the fire, and the meat of unknown animals was roasted on the raging bonfire. There was a burst of meaty smell, and Liu Ziguang, who was hooked, was gluttonous, his stomach was overwhelmed, and the gluttons began to protest. The compartment partition seemed to know what his stomach was thinking, and the stinky water began to drip down from the gap in the upper partition, and the liquid mixed with feces and urine dripped on the passengers on the lower floor, and an indescribable stench permeated the air. The carriage suppressed his appetite in a special way. Fortunately, the carriage is an open structure with ventilation on all sides. If it is a stuffy tank car, it will definitely suffocate people to death.

After three days of trekking, Liu Ziguang was so hungry that he had to accept the food made of mixed noodles mixed with water. His whole body was covered with sand, excrement, blood, and there was no clean place.Just when he was approaching the limit of endurance, the destination arrived.

Looking from a distance, there is a huge black mass of machines on a desolate land, with towering chimneys, dense pipelines, thick black smoke and white steam lingering over the factory area, and the surrounding hills are barren of grass. I saw a few dead old trees, and a small river beside the railway was actually flowing with red water.

The train stopped, the swordsman untied the shackles, beat the "passengers" with a whip, and drove them off the train, but due to long-term immobility and blood stasis, most of them could not get up. Liu Ziguang touched the numb Legs, hobbled off the train.

As soon as he stepped on the ground, Liu Zi's bare feet softened and he fell to the ground. Immediately, a whip was drawn towards him, making him scream, and hot liquid flowed down his back. "Line in a line and file into the factory!"

The tired "passengers" slowly lined up in a line of indistinct heights, and walked towards the gate of the factory in a mess. The majestic city wall stretches for a long time. Outside the city wall is a wide moat, and the river is still earthy red. In the river, a row of ragged and haggard people knelt on the bank of the river. Behind each of them was a burly man in a black hood holding a sharp knife. Following the word "cut" from the leading man, the knife flashed. A row of blood rushed out of the neck, and more than a dozen large heads were rolling everywhere.Then a group of people with the same haggard face came over pushing a small wheelbarrow, loaded the corpses into the cart in twos and threes, and dragged them away.

The people on the city wall moved the huge winch, the suspension bridge was slowly lowered, and the passenger team slowly walked into the city gate surrounded by swordsmen. Liu Ziguang squinted his eyes and looked up. Under the glare of the sun, the city was covered with black iron armor The warriors held iron spears, and a row of iron mesh cages hung under the crenels of the city wall. Inside were rotten and smelly human heads!Looking down, there is a huge iron plaque hanging above the city gate, with four black embossed official script characters on it.

"Liguo Iron Works"

***************************************************** ***************** A "snap" whip was drawn from a distance, leaving a bloodstain on Liu Ziguang's bare back. He gritted his teeth without making any sound. There are already many intricate welts on his body, long-term torture and heavy physical labor have turned this frail urban youth into a slave with extremely high endurance.

"Don't be lazy," the black and fat guard shouted at the people who were working while waving his whip.

This is a huge mine pit. Unlike coal mines, iron ore mines are mostly on the surface of the plain, so the mine pits are not deep and belong to the scope of open-pit mines. There are also some vertical shafts and horizontal shafts to mine ore stored on the shallow surface.Under the whip of the supervisor, thousands of naked slaves dig iron ore with iron axes, hammers, iron cones, and iron picks under the scorching sun, and carry the mined ore in bamboo baskets to the mineral processing. field for washing.

After washing, the dark red hematite ore was picked out, and the red muddy water flowed into the moat of the iron factory, dyeing the river like a corpse dump after a massacre.In the iron factory surrounded by city walls, there are many blast furnaces and chimneys, and there are special rails leading to the mine. Small coal-burning locomotives spray steam to transport iron ore to the factory for refining.

The huge blast furnace swallows countless ores, coke, and limestone every day, discharges thick smoke from the chimney, flows dark red hot molten iron from the tap hole, and discharges waste slag from the slag tap.In addition, the factory also has a coking workshop responsible for making coking carbon, and a casting and forging workshop for producing ironware. Countless tools, agricultural implements, and weapons are produced every day and transported to various places by train.

Trains, railroad tracks, majestic city walls, iron furnaces full of sinister beauty, knights riding horses, wearing helmets and armour, holding spears, bows and arrows, and the fiery red sunset in the sky constitute a strange picture.

Liu Ziguang was bent over under the weight of the heavy ore basket, sweat flowed down his dirty hair and dazzled his eyes, and the wound on his back was burning hot. It has been more than a year since he came to this world. The slaves who work as coolies and mine together are almost all prisoners of war, and there are also a small number of refugees who were kidnapped like him. The slaves are different from the workers in the iron factory. They have no personal freedom and no dignity. The slaves fought to death or were beaten by the supervisor. After he died, he was thrown into a very deep natural cave nearby like a dead dog. There was no tombstone, no wreath, and no one even remembered his name.

The place where it is located is within the territory of Xuzhou Prefecture on Huaihai Road in the Ming Dynasty. The iron factory occupies a huge area and has private soldiers.

There are prisoners of war from various countries in the slave team. They are simply the United Nations Army. Most of these prisoners of war are brave and ruthless. They often fight for a bite of food, and even kill them.Liu Ziguang had to change in such an environment. He was gentle and kind-hearted, but now he is no longer the original Liu Ziguang.