Castle of Black Iron

Ear-splitting battle alarms immediately spread across all the camps of the no. 46 air cavalry regiment like air raid alarms, causing shrill and distant sound "Wuh wuh wuh wuh..."

In the canteen of the no. 1 battalion, the moment Zhang Tie took a seat with his service plate and moved his chopsticks, he had heard the shrill alarms...

After hearing the alarms, Zhang Tie immediately shouted, "All the teams, prepare for battle. Follow me..." Zhang Tie roared as he rushed out of the canteen towards the tarmac ahead of all the others.

All the air cavalries of the no. 1 battalion immediately rushed out of the canteen closely after Zhang Tie...

"Ahh, what's happening...what's happening..." Old Gao who was responsible for the canteen swore loudly when he came out of the kitchen with a basin of hot fried dishes and saw everybody rushing out the canteen, 'B*stard demons, couldn't you wait till we finished the lunch...'

"I will ascend at first. All the teams, follow me up in order according to the tactic that we used to train these days..." Zhang Tie issued an order as he zipped up his combat uniform. Zhang Tie didn't run too fast; he was just ahead of all the others. Seeing Zhang Tie rushing forward, all the other fighters roared and rushed out closely after him. At that time, a person instantly caught up with those battalion chiefs as dexterously as a monkey as he came to the side of Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie then called him, "Fei Hao..."

"I'm here, battalion commaner, I'm with you..."

Although being short, Fei Hao was pretty capable and vigorous. He was Zhang Tie's shooter, one of the best shooters in the no. 1 battalion.

After hearing the battle alarms, even those ground forces who had been staying glued to the tarmac and airstrips instantly became busy running across the tarmac and on both sides of the airstrips. As the ground forces of air cavalry battalion, they had to be in place and prepare well for the coming ascension before pilots reached their aircraft...

Zhang Tie's aircraft was in the first parking space in the no. 1 battalion's tarmac. He was also the first one who arrived there. After stepping on the ladder, he opened the cover of his cockpit and entered it. After sitting down, he started the engine, put on his battle helmet and fastened his safety belt. After Zhang Tie accomplished all these movements, the ground forces of no. 1 aircraft had already started the propeller. Closely after that, the land forces moved away from the no-slipping device and the ladder before making a gesture to Zhang Tie, implying that he could fly off...

Fei Hao who closely followed Zhang Tie to the airplane on his back was also ready. After checking the steam ballista, he patted the ballista to indicate that Zhang Tie could fly off.

Zhang Tie then had the aircraft turn a corner dexterously. After leaving the parking space, it rushed into the airstrip and ascended ahead of all the others.

A pattern of wolf head widely opening its mouth had been printed on the fore of every aircraft compared to that one month ago, making it grisly and aggressive.

Closely followed by Zhang Tie's aircraft were the aircraft of the other air cavalries of the no. 1 battalion, which flew off the other airstrips. After ascending, they were all circling above the airstrips of the no. 1 battalion, waiting for their brothers.

Only after Zhang Tie made two circles in the sky, all the 500 air cavalry aircraft of the no. 1 battalion had flown off and entered the sky like 500 wild wolves.

The operations tower of the air cavalry regiment sent decrees using lamplight signals. After receiving lamplight signals, Zhang Tie led 500 aircraft of the no. 1 battalion towards the west.

In this age, operational aircraft were not matched with radio stations like those before the Catastrophe. Across the no. 1 air cavalry battalion, only Zhang Tie's aircraft was matched with a crystal remote sensing device which was used to contact the regimental headquarters after leaving the camp.

When in emergencies, in order to enhance combat efficiency, the air cavalry regiment headquarters would send decrees using the signal lamplight on the control tower.

The crystal remote-sensing device in the army was similar to Zhang Tie's remote-sensing finger rings. However, there was a sharp difference between them. Knight's remote-sensing finger rings were matched with small and portable top-quality remote sensing crystals. However, the remote-sensing crystal device on battalion level was as large as an alarm clock. Zhang Tie had not used that device ever since he joined the air cavalry battalion.

In the sky, as the head of all the aircraft of the no. 1 battalion, Zhang Tie would send his decree to the other aircraft by waving his wings or making circles in the sky when in need. It was similar to how bees transmitted information. Although being not advanced, it was the mere choice that officers of air cavalries made in the air.

Zhang Tie had not imagined that only 6,000 operational aircraft were assigned to join the battle this time, namely 12 air cavalry battalions, 3 from no. 46 air cavalry regiment while the other 9 from the other air cavalry regiments.

It indicated that at most 5,000 wing demons had been assigned by demons, which scale was much smaller than that over 1 month ago.

'What could 5,000 wing demons do?' Zhang Tie had a question in mind. 'Such a bit number of wing demons was far less enough to break through the first airline of humans' defense. Is it a tentative strike or provocation of demons?'

Nobody could answer Zhang Tie's question. As Zhang Tie was just a battalion commander of air cavalries, nobody would explain it to him.

The distance of over 150 miles between the base of air cavalries and the billowy Weishui River was fewer than half an hour's journey for those air cavalries.

In the sky, they found that the earth was full of killing intent. The eastern and western banks of Weishui River were covered with lofty battle fortresses of humans and demons. Neither party could be overwhelming.

Above the formation of operational aircraft were the magnificent Xuanyuan Fortress and the other air battle fortresses. When they watched Xuanyuan Fortress and those huge battle fortresses from inside their aircraft, they immediately sensed that the magnificent and bulky Xuanyuan Fortress was pretty oppressive. As for air cavalries of Taixia Country, this great sense of oppression represented great confidence. As long as all the air cavalries could still see Xuanyuan Fortress and those huge battle fortresses, they would not be worried.

The formation of air cavalries then flew by Xuanyuan Fortress and the other battle fortresses.

In the sky above the west bank of Weishui River, those wing demons were hovering sparsely hundreds of meters high instead of forming a combat formation. Those wing demons didn't approach Weishui River. All the aggressive 6,000 air cavalries were in a daze at the sight of that. 'What're the demons doing? Just now, we received the order to block wing demons above Weishui River. However, it seems that the wing demons don't mean to fly over the river at all. Will we fly across the river?'

Although fighters could be fraught, the head shouldn't. At this moment, only Zhang Tie took out the remote-sensing crystal device to contact the regimental headquarters.

The decree from the regimental headquarters was pretty simple, namely, the air cavalries of the no. 46 air cavalry regiment would just stay hovering above the east bank of Weishui River and check what those wing demons intended to do. If wing demons didn't fly over the river, the air cavalries would not take any action either in case of falling into their trap.

Although this decree was a bit conservative, it would not bring any unprecedented trouble.

All the other air cavalries should have received the same decree like Zhang Tie as all the 6,000 aircraft were just hovering in the sky above the east bank of Weishui River and waiting for the coming battle seriously in a battle formation...

Only after a few minutes, Zhang Tie had already known those wing demons' intention. After seeing those people walking out of the camp of demons, Zhang Tie's heart froze at once...

...