Steel steam and flame

This year's winter was extremely cold.

It was a cold winter in the Manoma region. The cold season airflow from the right continent passed through the central ocean current belt and was brought here by more magnificent natural forces, eroding the vegetation and ground in the entire area.

The cold wind has been blowing for a whole month, but there is still no sign of stopping. The boiler factory in the west of the city is working overtime, and billowing black smoke rises, covering the sky, making the world in this cold winter seem like there is no dawn. Gray armored trains carrying black coal came more frequently than in previous years.

Old Roma was sitting in the duty room, holding a hot water bottle tightly in his arms, and he turned on the heating supply to the maximum. He stared blankly at the white and gray mottled glass windows embedded in the copper walls, which were covered with ice and could not see the scene outside the house at all.

There is a low temperature thermometer next to the window, which shows that the indoor temperature is 10 degrees and the outdoor temperature is minus 14 degrees.

"It's really not a human life. I hope the Holy Emperor hears our prayers and lets this damn weather go to hell as soon as possible!" Old Rom cursed and shrank his hands unconsciously.

Then the bright red indicator light came on without warning, and it wasn't until someone knocked heavily on the iron door that Old Roma knew a train was coming into the station.

The cold wind outside made the dilapidated sheds of the railway station rustle. The biting wind carried ice shards that seemed to cut people's cheeks.

Old Rom had a look of reluctance and fear on his face. If it weren't for the man who was as hard as a rock, he wouldn't be willing to come out of the duty room. But who would have thought that it was almost night time, and an army would come to this dilapidated train station in the minus 14-degree weather. And without saying a word, he was dragged out by two people.

Surrounded by a group of giant-like soldiers, he tremblingly opened the triple-locked iron door.

On the railway track is a huge black train with no markings on it. Old Rom has been working here for decades, and this is the first time he has seen such a huge train. The body is four meters high, and the whole body is welded with hard iron sheets, like a black-scaled python walking on the surface. The rails also groaned under their weight. The front of the car not far ahead was still spewing out rich, scorching steam, and the light of three giant car lights broke through the wind and snow and shot into the distance.

The first few carriages and the last few carriages were all filled with soldiers, and the goods were closely guarded in the middle of the train. The soldiers were standing by the window looking at Old Rom. Beside the unloading platform, the cargo seemed to be some huge piece of machinery. Several layers of dark green rainproof cloth were randomly and tightly wrapped around it. It was tightly fixed to the iron plate frame of the train through steel cables and iron nails. It bulged high as if Several layers of tarpaulins, three piles in total, had to be burst at any time.

Walking onto the platform, Old Roma lit up the gas lamps one by one. By the light, all the soldiers behind him were wearing thick military cotton-padded clothes. Except for the leader, the rest were also wearing masks like crows' pointed beaks. The convex spectacle lenses on them were also covered with a layer of white frost, but they did not hinder the eyes inside. The sharp gaze of a beast. They carried long-handled muskets on their backs, and on their waists were sharp military-issued bayonet swords. They wore black rubber boots on the soles of their feet, covering their ankles and lower parts of their calves. The leading captain wore gold-rimmed glasses. In addition to the stabbing sword at his waist, Old Rom also saw a short fire weapon.

They are all the elites among the elites in the army, Old Roma muttered to himself, while taking out the password card and inserting it into the difference machine, and in accordance with their requirements, the record of this train entering the station was eliminated.

Meeting the army to receive equipment is not a one-time thing, but according to Old Rom's intuition, the level this time is definitely much higher than the previous times.

Except for the sound of wind, there was no sound at all on the entire platform. Everyone was waiting for Old Rom to clear the record and leave, then start unloading the goods.

Of course Old Rome knew about this, and he also wanted to finish his work quickly and go back to the duty room to drink a few sips of cheap wine to warm himself up. But being stared at by hundreds of pairs of wolf-like eyes, in this cold winter with a temperature of minus 14 degrees, a thin layer of sweat oozed out from his back.

Really deadly. Old Rom was trembling in his heart.

After finally seeing the differential machine spit out the password card, Old Rom pulled it out, nodded to the leading officer, and immediately raised his feet to leave.

I don't know if it was because of the temperature, but one of the iron nails holding the tarp tightly together suddenly broke. The crisp sound of gold and iron striking quickly spread in the wind, and a corner of the tarp was immediately blown away by the fierce cold wind. .

Almost at the same moment, the soldiers closest to Old Rom immediately rioted all over. Information was sent from the white matter of the brain, and then the information was converted into electrical signals, transmitted through the nerves to various muscles and joints in the body, and moved to him. Behind him, his speed was so fast that it seemed to be in sync with the knocking sound. It also seemed that at the moment when the rainproof cloth was blown away by the wind, and the scenery below came into Old Rom's eyes, the soldier stood behind Old Rom and hit him with a knife. on the back of the neck.

,,,,,,

Old Rome woke up in the duty room. At that time, he was lying on a chair, and the water bag in his hand had long since turned cold. The only sound in the duty room was the whirring of the heating pipes and the ticking mechanical copper clock on the wall. The bronze clock showed that it was already 11 o'clock at night. There was no sound of wind outside the window, and the cold winter wind finally subsided.

"Why am I here?" Old Rome rubbed the back of his neck that was still aching, then picked up the wine bottle next to him and took a deep sip. Then he picked up the gas lamp, turned off the heating valve, and hurriedly walked out of the duty room. But it was already dark on the other side of the platform. The huge train parked there had long disappeared. The iron door was locked tightly, and the key was hanging on his waist.

The soldiers have left.

"Hey, what the hell."

Old Rom just felt a headache when he thought about it, but he only had a vague impression of what happened in the previous few hours. He opened the door to the soldiers, and then deleted the records on the difference machine according to the rules, and then... he came back to the duty room and fell asleep?

He always felt like there was something missing in it, but he couldn't remember it. When he thought about it, his head felt confused, as if it was going to explode, and his tarsal bones hurt. But the alcohol took effect at the right time, and when he got home, he took a deep sleep. When he got up early the next morning, he had forgotten all about it.

Until one day half a year later, it was already early summer.

It's the same duty room, the heating supply has been changed to air conditioning, and travelers are coming and going outside the window.

Old Rome was still sitting in that chair. The postman walked by and handed a newspaper through the window. He moved to pick it up and unfolded it with one hand. Several important events were bolded in large fonts:

"The current Holy Emperor Nico Freier has passed away, and the new Holy Emperor is Elro Astus."

"The Kingdom of Mano officially changed its name to the Saint Dorag Empire."

"The King of Saint Dorag Empire, Artu Astus, announced that the Lunar Calendar should be abandoned and that the Holy Calendar should be used. This year's Lunar Calendar 1879 is Year 0 of the Holy Calendar."

,,,,,,

Saint Dorag Empire?

Dorag?

Old Rome looked at the black words printed on the newspaper and whispered these three words that seemed to have some kind of strange magic power.

In a sudden moment, Old Rom felt that the scenery in front of him had changed. He seemed to have returned to that night half a year ago. At that time, he took away the password card, and when he turned around, he heard a sound of gold and iron knocking, and then the rainproof cloth was covered. The cold wind blew away a corner, and the soldier beside him was so fast that his body turned into an afterimage.

Under the rainproof cloth, Old Rom truly saw a giant claw covered with fine scales like black iron. It reflected the faint light under the gas lamp, like a fine piece of craft art, lying quietly on the iron plate of the train. On the shelf,,,,,,