Castle of Black Iron

The Iron-Dragon airboat slowly declined in a huge grain-sunning ground outside a fortress at the riverside of Ninghe River.

It was Ninghe Fortress which was responsible for managing all the official fields in Ninghe Prefecture.

In Ninghe Prefecture, the universal airport was not required as all the grain-sunning grounds being attached to each farm or fortress being paved with cement or stones which were hundreds of meters in length and width at least. These grain-sunning fields were natural universal airports in Ninghe Prefecture.

Zhang Tie saw a lot of people waiting for him on the grain-sunning fields, some were in eye-catching red, blue and purple uniforms.

"Why have the officials of Ninghe Prefecture arrived here?" Zhang Tie asked Donder.

Donder let out a sigh as he replied, "The 120 million mu official fields that you rented in Ninghe Prefecture are the best water-irrigated farmlands in the south of Ninghe Prefecture. Plus those mountain lands and dry lands, Ninghe Prefecture had over 300 million mu farmlands in total. From now on, you will be the largest landlord of Ninghe Prefecture. As all the officials in Ninghe Prefecture are anxious, when they heard that the famous Qianji Hermit would like to rent all the official fields in Ninghe Prefecture with the rent of 50% of its yield, what do you think they would feel?"

"They must think that I have the countermeasures and that's why they treated me as their life-saving straw!"

"Of course, after hearing that you're heading for Ninghe Prefecture, these officials hurriedly ran over here to look after you; by the way, they would like to see what great means could you use to help Ninghe Prefecture tide over the crisis!"

As they talked, the Iron-Dragon airboat had already landed on a grain-sunning field. Zhang Tie rubbed his face as he walked towards the hatch door of the airboat, followed by Donder.

Previously, Zhang Tie's wives would like to take a look at the granary of Yanzhou Province. However, at the sight of the scorched dark scene all over, they became disappointed. When the wind blew over, the pitch-dark wheat ash flew all over the sky and made it a black wind. Additionally, there were too many people outside, these women lost their interest in showing up at once.

The moment the hatch door opened, Zhang Tie had seen those people bowing deeply towards him, headed by those officials of Ninghe Prefecture.

In Taixia Country, earth knights were qualified to be on the equal footing with provincial governors. Plus Zhang Tie's fame, none of the provincial governors in northeast military region dared say that they were more famous than Zhang Tie.

Everybody was regarding Zhang Tie with reverence.

"Welcome, Qianji Hermit!"

Over 100 people greeted Zhang Tie in unison. They had evidently practiced it in advanced. Additionally, these people must have inquired about Zhang Tie's look and frame in advance in case of mistaking Zhang Tie as a lackey of Qianji Hermit.

Not until getting off the airboat did Zhang Tie notice that the grain-sunning field had been surrounded by straw mats so as to prevent those black ash. Those straw mats were 3-layered and higher than 4 m. It was like an artificial windbreak. However, as this grain-sunning field was as large as the airstrip of the new Class A airport in Fire-Dragon Prefecture, a great amount of manpower, time and straw mats were required.

Donder got off the airboat closely after Zhang Tie.

Being paved with cement and bluestones, the ground was pretty smooth and firm. It was still wet on the ground as if it had just been seriously cleaned. However, as these people had been waiting here for so long, charcoal grey ash could still be seen here and there over the ground. Now that Zhang Tie's airboat had arrived, of course, these people would not clean the ground in front of Zhang Tie.

After straightening up their bodies, they all started to look at Zhang Tie. Although they looked calm and polite, their eye light revealed that they regarded Zhang Tie with reverence very much.

Those who saw Zhang Tie for the first time would always be shocked by the young and innocent look of Qianji Hermit. If not see him, nobody would believe that it was true.

"Sorry for having you wait for so long!" Zhang Tie said tenderly, being neither too passionate nor too cold. It sounded as comfortable as facing the spring wind and autumn dew; therefore, everybody at present felt much relaxed at once.

Among those people, the one in the official uniform of the prefectural governor hurriedly cupped his hands as he said, "At this moment, Qianji Hermit's arrival must be a timely assistance for the commoners in Ninghe Prefecture!"

This official was over 60 years old. Although being sincere and kind, he didn't look good as he had swollen eyelids and blisters on his lips. Zhang Tie guessed that he must have not slept well these days. "Are you the prefectural governor of Ninghe Prefecture?"

"This humble official is Liu Yuntao, the prefectural governor of Ninghe Prefecture!"

"Who's responsible for Ninghe Fortress?"

After hearing Zhang Tie's words, a round guy immediately drilled out of the crowd behind Liu Yuntao. Closely after that, this man replied with an insinuating look, "This humble man is here!"

This man was too short. Although Liu Yuntao was not tall, this man was only as high as Liu Yuntao's shoulder. Therefore, when he was standing behind those officials, he was completely covered by them. As a result, Zhang Tie could barely see such a person. Additionally, he was round and fat. Plus his little eyes, nose and brandy nose, he was absolutely the legendary hedgehog spirit. At the sight of him, Zhang Tie almost burst out into laughter.

With swarthy skin and taupe hair, this man was a foreigner from the subcontinent.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Xiao Ciwei!"

As he was a foreigner, his accent was a bit strange; therefore, Zhang Tie almost misheard it as Xiao Ciwei which meant little hedgehog.

"What, little hedgehog?" Zhang Tie repeated it with an amazed look as he felt that this guy was teasing him.

"Thanks for the byname, from now on, I will be little hedgehog from today on!" Xiao Ciwei knelt down at once as he kowtowed loudly 3 times. When he raised his head, his forehead had been red all over; however, there was still a big smile on his face.

All the other officials in Ninghe Prefecture slightly frowned as they revealed a despised look at the sight of his demeanors. What a shameless realm!

Zhang Tie threw a deep glance at this guy. Now that this guy could behave in such a shameless way in the public, he must be born to be that flattering or have a special talent. Otherwise, this man could never be responsible for the Ninghe Fortress. As this position ranked first among all the managers of official fields in Ninghe Prefecture, it meant a great power for commoners. As for whether Xiao Ciwei could reach this position by flattering or by talents, we would know it soon.

All the official fields in Ninghe Prefecture belonged to Zhang Tie now. Of course, the fates of these people who survived on official fields were in the hand of Zhang Tie.

After moving his eyes away from Xiao Ciwei, Zhang Tie said, "Well, don't stand here; let's go take a look around..."

"Hermit, where are you going to look first?" Liu Yuntao asked respectfully.

"Let's go to the riverside first. Let him show us the way!" Zhang Tie replied as he pointed at Xiao Ciwei...

"It's the great honor of this humble man!" Xiao Ciwei replied with a pleasant look as he hurriedly showed Zhang Tie the way towards Ninghe River in the north of the grain-sunning field.

Of course, Zhang Tie should walk in the front with Liu Yuntao and Xiao Ciwei on his sides, closely followed by Donder. The rest hundreds of people followed the 4 people.

The moment they left the grain-sunning field, they had seen ashes everywhere on the ground, on the tree leaves, grasses, the walls and eaves of those houses. The entire Ninghe Prefecture almost looked like the same. These ashes could never be cleaned by manpower. Over these days, over 120 million mu wheat fields had been burned in Ninghe Prefecture this summer, the flying ashes and charcoaled land almost changed the color of the entire Ninghe Prefecture. These ashes could never be cleaned without some heavy rains.

After noticing that Zhang Tie paid more attention to the roadside leaves, Liu Yuntao hurriedly explained the reason for burning the wheat fields to Zhang Tie.

Even now, the wind would still be mixed with ashes.

"It's not a big deal to burn them. But those straw mats were too time-consuming and labor intensive. No need to do that in the future. I'm not that fragile. These ashes are not as poisonous as the air in the abyss of Earth-elements Realm. And, how many straw mats have you used?" Zhang Tie asked Xiao Ciwei casually.

"Totally 8761 straw mats!" Xiao Ciwei immediately replied.

"That's not right, I saw 8786 straw mats." Zhang Tie said casually.

"8786 complete straw mats. Additionally, there are 50 broken straw mats. I had people keep half of those broken straw mats and get 25 more complete straw mats..." Xiao Ciwei said in a bit quivering voice.

After hearing their talk, all the others' hearts pounded at once as they all held in awe very much. It was not strange for Xiao Ciwei to know the number of straw mats because it only meant that he was meticulous in doing his job and didn't lose his face in the public. However, the moment Qianji Hermit got off the airboat, he had already known the number of straw mats around the grain-sunning field. That indicated a terrifying power...

Right then, a heavy wind blew over with the ashes. Many people in the team hurriedly covered their mouths and noses with their sleeves. However, when the wind automatically detoured around Zhang Tie from 1 m away.

Zhang Tie continued to walk towards the riverside as if he had not discovered it.

The roads from Ninghe Fortress to Ninghe River were all 6-lane roads being paved with cement and slabs. Right on both sides of the road, there were large areas of willows and locusts. On the way, they could see many tidy canals as deep as 4-5 m in the woods. One end of the canals was connected to Ninghe River; the other end was reaching far away into those farmlands like blood vessels of human bodies. There were water houses and water gates on the way, which could allocate the water to the farmlands flexibly and freely. Besides, 0.5 m thick cement prefabricate canals connected these water houses and water gates to the farmlands. There were also water gates in the cement canals from where water flew into the farmlands for the sake of water irrigation. It was as convenient as the water faucets in people's kitchens. It was no exaggeration to say that the water irrigation project in Ninghe Prefecture was absolutely the best one in Taixia Country and among all the human countries.

"How many farms, fortresses, farmers and farm machinery are there in these official fields?"

Zhang Tie asked Xiao Ciwei as he walked forward.

"There are 3147 farms and fortresses, 1765521 farmers and over 512180 sets of farm machinery in the official fields of Ninghe Prefecture!" Xiao Ciwei immediately reported all these figures.

"What did these farmers do before?"

"Most of the farmers were border inhabitants from Yinyue Subcontinent like this humble man!"

Zhang Tie threw a glance at Xiao Ciwei as his answer was a bit out of his imagination. Previously, Zhang Tie thought that most of these farmers should be native people.

However, after thinking about it for a short while, Zhang Tie found it was reasonable. The so-called border inhabitants were not official citizens in Taixia Country because they were just foreigners who escaped to Taixia Country or were sold to Taixia Country. Out of kindness, Taixia Country, which always regarded itself as the ruling human country didn't treat these people as slaves; but gave them a special identity——border inhabitants.

In order to survive in Taixia Country, these border inhabitants could always endure hardships and be capable of hard work. They dared not commit any crime in Taixia Country. The moment border inhabitants committed any crime, they would be severely punished and suppressed by the judicial agencies in Taixia Country. If the border inhabitants could survive the punishments, they would always be expelled from Taixia Country. In that case, they had to stew in their own juice.

It was indeed a good method to reduce cost by employing border inhabitants to till the arable lands in Ninghe Prefecture. From a certain perspective, Taixia Country provided a method to survive these border inhabitants.

There were two kinds of border inhabitants. First, those border inhabitants who were sold here. These border inhabitants were more inferior. Their human rights and lives were basically in the hands of those magnates and major clans in Taixia Country. Over these years, none of those major clans had slaughtered and killed these border inhabitants in the public. In fact, these people who controlled their contracts had a lot of methods to kill them as long as they wanted. Additionally, these methods could always avoid the sanctions of Taixia laws. For instance, if tens of thousands of border inhabitants carried out a non-violent non-cooperation campaign, these people could never be killed casually in Taixia Country; the imperial court of Taixia Country would not ignore them either. In that case, the major clans who controlled their contracts only needed to transport all of them to the high sea outside Taixia Country by a ship which was registered in somewhere of a subcontinent and killed all of them on the ship before throwing all the corpses in the ocean. This method was out of the sphere of influence of Taixia Country.

This iron hand method was always used in Taixia Country as the most effective way for major clans of Taixia Country to frighten their border inhabitants.

The second kind of border inhabitants was evolved by refugees. After coming to Taixia Country, these people had no vacancy; therefore, they could only be border inhabitants. Their jobs were managed by the officials of Taixia Country. Compared to the first kind of border inhabitants, this kind of border inhabitants was much luckier.

"How many years have you been in Taixia Country? Have you signed any contracts?"

"We've been in Taixia Country for 23 years. We've not signed any contract at all!"

Zhang Tie nodded as he almost understood the background of these border inhabitants.

They soon arrived at the riverside of Ninghe River.

Zhang Tie saw the irrigation works that connected Ninghe River to the farmlands just now. After approaching Ninghe River, he found that people had made a lot of efforts in managing the Ninghe River.

There was a 30-m thicker river bank which was paved with stones, steel bars and cement on the riverside. The entire riverbank was spacious, bright and firm, which formed a unique tree-lined riverbank avenue.

The water of Ninghe River was very limpid. The current water level was over 10 m lower than the highest level of the riverbank. There were some iron column markers near the riverside, which marked the water level of the Ninghe River. Zhang Tie saw an eye-catching red line on the top of those iron column markers which was about 2 m away from the highest level of the riverbank.

"Is that red line the highest water level in the history of Ninghe River?" Zhang Tie asked Liu Yuntao.

"Yes, this riverbank was built to defend the highest water level of Ninghe River that would be met in every 1,000 years!"

"What if the riverbank of Ninghe River collapsed during the flood?"

Liu Yuntao replied in a muffled voice, "If the riverbank burst, over 40 officials in the prefectural governor's mansion of Ninghe Prefecture would be killed, including me. Additionally, the entire clans of the director of the construction business group which is responsible for building the river bank, the inspector general, the inspector of the river reach and the main local officials of the burst section would be killed..."

After hearing Liu Yuntao's reply, Zhang Tie shook his head. With such a severe punishment, who dared make a mistake in the construction of such a kind of project.

In the far, Zhang Tie also saw a large-scale wharf. However, compared to those boisterous wharves in Zhang Tie's imagination, this wharf looked sluggish as if it went out of business.

"What's happening to that wharf?"

"That wharf is for transporting grains. As there are no grains this summer, the wharf goes out of business!" Xiao Ciwei explained.

Zhang Tie threw a glance at that sluggish wharf as he let out a sigh inside. The moment the wharf went out of business, the livelihood of the workers on the wharf and those boatmen would be greatly influenced for sure. On one hand, they would not have any revenue and work to do; on the other hand, prices of grains grew higher due to crop failure. The plot of Three-eye Association not only influenced the farmers' livelihood but also influenced the other aspects.

The prefectural governor of Ninghe Prefecture kept observing Zhang Tie's look stealthily. When he noticed the sad look flashing across Zhang Tie's face when the latter looked at the empty wharf, Liu Yuntao let out a sigh inside at once.

After enjoying the scenery in Ninghe River and checking the irrigation facilities in the official fields, Zhang Tie went to inspect Ninghe Fortress.

Like what Xiao Ciwei said, given the looks of those people in the houses of Ninghe Fortress, they indeed came from the same place with Xiao Ciwei.

What shocked Zhang Tie was that Xiao Ciwei enjoyed a very high position among those border inhabitants. Many elder border inhabitants would kneel down in front of Xiao Ciwei while saying something that Zhang Tie didn't understand. Those male young adults also held great reverence in Xiao Ciwei.

Of course, Zhang Tie knew that it could not be made only in coercive means. Xiao Ciwei must really have a great prestige among all the border inhabitants.

There were old men, women and kids in Ninghe Fortress. Of course, the employed farmers didn't refer to these weak laborers, but those young male adults. These women, kids and elders were those young male adults' family members.

Although they had clothes to wear, given their clothes and expenditures in all aspects, they could only survive themselves.

Those women and elders raised some livestock outside Ninghe Fortress such as chicken, ducks, pigs and sheep; however, besides the ducks which could find food in water, all the other livestock was in a poor condition as the fodders supply were becoming increasingly intense in Ninghe Fortress.

Xiao Ciwei said 1765521 farmers were employed for the official fields in Ninghe Prefecture; actually, many farmers had their families. Over 5 million people were living on the official fields in Ninghe Prefecture.

In these farms and fortresses, men were responsible for looking after the official fields, women, kids and elders did some sidelines by relying on the official fields.

"I know a bit about the local language in Yinyue Subcontinent. Those elders call Xiao Ciwei His Highness..." Donder whispered to Zhang Tie.

'His Highness? I've not imagined that Xiao Ciwei is a prince of a country in Yinyue Subcontinent who seek for refugee in Taixia country together with his clansmen.'

Zhang Tie seemingly understood something when he thought about the obsequious look of Xiao Ciwei.

However, even emperors of many countries in Subcontinents were nothing serious in Taixia Country, not to mention a prince. Many emperors of countries in Subcontinents treated it as an honor by being received by provincial governors in Taixia Country.

When he was inspecting Ninghe Fortress, Zhang Tie suddenly threw a glance at the attic on the top of a high building as he asked Xiao Ciwei, "Who's living there?"

After hearing Zhang Tie's question and looking at the place along Zhang Tie's finger, Xiao Ciwei who usually stayed calm replied flurriedly, "This humble man and this humble man's family members live in there!"

Zhang Tie replied with a silent smile.

After showing Zhang Tie around Ninghe Fortress and noticing that Zhang Tie was going to return to the grain-sunning field where the airboat had declined without staying in the hall of Ninghe Fortress which was used to deal with public affairs or leaving any words, Liu Yuntao became anxious as he suddenly knelt down forcefully in front of Zhang Tie regardless of his identity.

"Just now, I noticed hermit's sad look when you caught sight of the empty wharf and your merciful look when you caught sight of the border inhabitants in Ninghe Fortress. Hermit, you might not know that, but the boats that accessed to this wharf were all transporting grains. Previously, this wharf was the largest and most prosperous wharf in Ninghe River. However, this year, as Ninghe Prefecture suffered a crop failure, this wharf became sluggish at once. There are over 60 more wharves like this one in Ninghe River. Ninghe Prefecture is an agricultural prefecture. Above 90% of people are living on farmlands. Besides border inhabitants who served as farmers and those boatmen at the wharves, the other industries such as rice mills, flour mills, food processing factories and animal husbandry which were closely related to agricultural production also suffered a great loss. Additionally, the prices of grains skyrocketed across Taixia Country. If those jobless people couldn't make money to survive their families, they would arouse trouble for sure sooner or later. Qianji Hermit, please save hundreds of millions of commoners in Ninghe Prefecture for mercy's sake..."

Liu Yuntao, the prefectural governor of Ninghe Prefecture seized the opportunity and clarified the current situation facing Ninghe Prefecture before directly putting his arms onto the ground in front of his head, followed by all the other officials in Ninghe Prefecture. They had completely treated Zhang Tie as a life-saving straw.

"I've already seen the problems facing Ninghe Prefecture. In one word, there are two points: first, seeds; second, land. You're afraid of suffering another crop failure after sowing the grain seeds in Ninghe Prefecture, right? Even though the grain seeds are good, as the lands in Ninghe Prefecture have been contaminated by demonized grains, they might suffer a reduction of output, right?" Zhang Tie watched Liu Yuntao with a smile.

"Hermit, you have bright eyes. That's what we're concerned about. If Hermit could rent the 120 million mu official fields in Ninghe Prefecture with such a high rent, you must have got the solution!"

"The solution is simple. Just give tit for tat. After having the lands in Ninghe Prefecture recover their vitality and sowing good grain seeds, we will solve the problem!"

"Yes!"

"You should be able to see those items on the grain-sunning field. My crew should have already discharged those goods from the airboat. Those items should be able to solve the problems facing Ninghe Prefecture!"

...

When they returned to that grain-sunning field, the empty land on the grain-sunning field had been covered with piles of bags and crates.

At the sight of those items, Liu Yuntao directly lifted his official uniforms as he ran at full speed towards those items, leaving Zhang Tie alone, regardless of etiquette.

Those bags contained soybean seeds. After unveiling those crates, Liu Yuntao saw piles of earthworms...

'Earthworms, earthworms?'

Liu Yuntao suddenly recalled something when he saw those earthworms. Closely after that, he forcefully patted his head.

When Liu Yuntao returned to Zhang Tie's side, he saw Zhang Tie taking 2 blueprints and an extremely brilliant box out of his portable space-teleportation equipment and handing it to Xiao Ciwei. He then said, "You make an arrangement. From today on, all the 3147 farms across Ninghe Prefecture should build the two facilities as soon as possible according to the blueprints. One is rearing pond of earthworms, the other is a fermentation tank. As long as the two facilities are completed, the output of the official fields in Ninghe Prefecture will be guaranteed. When this batch of soybean seeds get ripe, I will have people send another batch of seeds here. My subordinates will teach you how to use the item in this box. Additionally, your compensation remains unchanged, even in the catastrophe!"

The seed and land problem that made so many people in Ninghe Prefecture anxious and the compensation problem facing the border inhabitants that haunted Xiao Ciwei with fear were solved by Zhang Tie only by a few words. After saying that, Zhang Tie left Donder and a team of professionals that Donder brought here and two dare-to-die men who were proficient in agriculture and management here before going back by airboat without even having a meal.

After seeing off Zhang Tie's Iron-Dragon Airboat, Liu Yuntao and the other officials in Ninghe Prefecture fixed their eyes on the blueprints and the extremely brilliant box on Xiao Ciwei's hands.

"Prefectural governor could have people copy the blueprints; the surplus soybeans could also be lent to the prefectural governor; prefectural governor could even take away some earthworms; however, the item in the box couldn't be unveiled until the fermentation pools are completed. This humble man is working for Qianji Hermit, prefectural governor, please don't make this humble man embarrassed. When the item in the box is available, I could notice prefectural governor. By then, prefecture governor could come here yourself or assign people here to get it..." Xiao Ciwei tightly nipped the box under his armpit before revealing a big smile towards the surrounding officials.

No matter how dignified were those officials and how humble was Xiao Ciwei, nobody dared grab Xiao Ciwei's item. They all guessed that the item in such a brilliant box must be an earthshaking treasure.

Strangely, before Qianji Hermit arrived here, everybody was worried; however, after seeing Qianji Hermit leaving in such a casual way and those seeds, earthworms, two blueprints and a mysterious box, everybody realized that the problems facing Ninghe Prefecture had been easily diffused by Qianji Hermit...

'Qianji Hermit really deserves his fame!'

Everybody in the grain-sunning field had the same thought...

...

On the airboat, Zhang Tie unconsciously stroked his jaw as he saw the gradually smaller Ninghe Fortress.

This journey to Ninghe Fortress was indeed out of Zhang Tie's imagination. Besides Xiao Ciwei, what shocked Zhang Tie most was that there was a knight in such a small Ninghe Fortress!

'Interesting!'

'Interesting!'

...