After the novelty of the first two days of the trip on the airship wore off, the rest of the trip gradually became boring to Zhang Tie, even in places like the Blackson Human Corridor, where the airship flew over
There are actually not many opportunities to see the human cities below.
Most of the time, when you look down from the airship's port window, all you can see are rolling hills, undulating mountains and grasslands, and endless forests. All places look sparsely populated.
The desolate appearance, let alone cities, is rarely seen in larger towns and villages. After all, compared to the land area of the Blackson Human Corridor, the population of the Human Corridor countries is too small. It is these populations
, most of them are concentrated in cities protected by city walls, and the possibility of seeing large-scale human settlements outside cities is very small.
After getting on the airship, Zhang Tie was assigned a cabin. After getting tired of the monotonous scenery below the airship, except for eating and sleeping, Zhang Tie stayed in his cabin on the airship and quietly carried out activities that ordinary people would not be able to do.
The practice of imagination.
Zhang Tie took out the fifth-grade crystal pyramid that Zhang Tie had photographed at the auction house and placed it under the bed in his cabin. When practicing, he sat on the pyramid with a thin bed board separated from it, letting the pyramid's
At the top, facing the bright spot on his tailbone, the cultivation effect of the fifth-grade crystal pyramid is much stronger than the crystals Zhang Tie used before. The speed at which Zhang Tie uses his mental power to polish the bright spot is also
Significantly faster.
Even when he is not practicing, the special effect of the pyramid crystal fills Zhang Tie's small cabin with a comfortable energy, making his mind much clearer.
The airship Zhang Tie is riding on is a large rigid airship with a length of more than 200 meters and a height of nearly 70 meters. The normal cruising speed of the airship is 110 kilometers per hour. It is neither fast nor slow. Except for Zhang Tie, a special passenger, everyone here
When we returned to Jinyun Kingdom from Karur for the first time, the airship also carried more than fifty passengers who were leaving Karur for Jinyun Kingdom. These passengers were male, female, old and young. Many of them looked completely different.
The whole family was here, and these passengers, at least in terms of their dress and temperament, were all very respectable, and they seemed to belong to the well-educated and wealthy class.
Zhang Tie can more or less guess the reason why these people left Karur. These are the people with a keen sense of smell in the original Andaman Alliance. This sudden war and many signs have made these people see
When they encountered some kind of potential danger, they began to seize the opportunity to find a way to leave the city before the Andaman Alliance and prepare to go to a safer and more ideal place in their mind.
Jinyun Country is probably a place where these people feel safe and can live a better life.
On the fourth day after leaving Karur, the airship landed once in a city that was completely unfamiliar to Zhang Tie. It replenished coal, water and other supplies, rested on the ground for a few hours, and then started flying again.
Zhang Tie originally thought that the journey by airship would be smooth sailing, but it turns out that in this era, there is no absolute safety when traveling outside the city walls.
On the sixth day after arriving on the airship, the airship Zhang Tie was riding suffered its first attack.
The urgent and short whistle inside the airship woke up Zhang Tie, who was meditating. Then Zhang Tie heard someone shouting outside the cabin, "Encountered an attack by dangerous creatures. When attacked by dangerous creatures, all personnel should be in their positions. All personnel
Go to your places. Passengers on the airship stay in their cabins and don’t come out..."
If it were in the past, Zhang Tie would have stayed in the cabin like other passengers and not come out, but the experience of the Iron Blood Camp changed Zhang Tie. When encountering such a dangerous situation, Zhang Tie jumped out quickly.
He got out of bed, opened the door of his cabin, and ran out together.
The airship's cabin is twenty meters wide, and the walkway outside is not narrow. When Zhang Tie ran out, many crew members in crew uniforms were busy, some running towards the deck, and some running towards the engine room and weapons.
The passengers who were originally on the open deck of the airship enjoying the scenery and breathing in the morning ran inside in panic one by one. People like Zhang Tie who rushed outside the deck were only wearing uniforms.
airship crew.
"What are you doing here?" When Zhang Tie ran to the entrance of the deck, a man in his thirties suddenly looked at Zhang Tie with wide eyes. This man was the first mate on the airship. Zhang Tie got on the airship.
At that time, I met this man and the captain of the airship once, but I never saw him again, so I can't say that I was familiar with him. At most, I just knew that everyone's surname was Zhang.
"I served as a soldier!" Zhang Tie replied in a deep voice, "Maybe I can help!"
The first mate on the airship took a serious look at Zhang Tie. It was only after their airship sailed out of Jinyun Kingdom that Huaiyuantang sent a message asking them to call Zhang Tie when they were in Karur City.
He and the captain of the airship were the only ones on the entire airship who roughly knew who this Zhang Tie was. He seemed to be a descendant of the Zhang family who had been left behind, and was wanted by the secret police of the Norman Empire.
Of course, the person wanted by the secret police of the Norman Empire would not be an incompetent person. I also heard that Zhang Tie had been a soldier. After thinking for a moment, the first officer nodded, "Come on, Huaiyuan."
There is indeed no reason for Tang’s descendants to hide when they encounter danger!”
Zhang Tie and the first mate rushed onto the airship deck together. At this time, the cannon jackets of the ballistae on the airship deck were opened one by one. Many of the crew members who rushed onto the deck quickly sat on their ballistae.
On the gun position.
Because the main purpose of this airship is cargo, not military, all ballistas on the airship are non-automatic, and the steam power equipment on the airship only provides power for the airship's propeller thruster.
There are three crew members on each ballista gun position. The crew member who sat on the gun position put his feet on a mechanism similar to bicycle pedals and began to pedal his feet quickly. Between the chains and a pile of
Under the action of mechanical gears, the first round of winding and firing preparations of the ballista are completed. The whole process takes less than twenty seconds.
"No. 1 gun position is ready..."
"No. 2 gun position is ready..."
"The No. 3 gun position must be secured..."
"No. 4 gun position is ready..."
The gunners at each gun position who had completed the launch preparations began to report loudly. Zhang Tie watched with cold eyes and found that the military quality of these boat crews was very high. Even compared with the regular army of the Norman Empire airship force, they were not comparable.
After the crews were ready, two rows of crews holding crossbows and bows and arrows took their positions on both sides of the airship deck.
"Take it, put it on and buckle it!" The first mate of the airship threw Zhang Tie a set of special equipment to wear on his body, as well as a crossbow.
This is a set of leather-like things similar to a simple vest. After putting it on, there is a safety buckle on the waist of the clothes, which can be buckled to the two fixed metal sliding rods on the side of the deck. Zhang Tie saw it.
Every crew member on the deck, including the first mate, was wearing such a set of clothes. Everyone fastened the safety buckles on their waists and followed suit. After quickly putting on their clothes, they also put on the safety buckles.
Buttoned up.
As soon as Zhang Tie buckled it up, the airship that had been flying in a straight line suddenly made an accelerating right turn. The entire hull tilted hugely to the right, and the horizontal plane of the entire airship deck suddenly tilted at least nearly 30 degrees to the right.
Zhang Tie only felt the strong wind blowing against his face. His feet slipped and he almost lost his balance. He quickly used one hand to hold on to a metal handrail on the deck, and then he stood firmly.
After the entire airship drew a huge half-arc in the sky to the right and adjusted its direction, the people standing on both sides of the airship deck suddenly saw clearly the appearance of the dangerous creatures that were about to attack the airship.
It was a group of giant birds that had just swooped down from the clouds in the distance. Zhang Tieyun looked over and saw a dark mass of things flying towards the airship from a distance. Those things were very big. They spread their wings.
When it was close to more than three meters, looking around, there were at least forty or fifty of these giant birds in the dark mass.
After the giant birds flew closer, Zhang Tie could even see the long beaks on the heads of these giant birds.
The first mate of the airship standing next to Zhang Tie turned serious and said loudly, "It's a level four mutant monster, the Iron-beaked Ibis. Everyone, be careful!"
The airship made two consecutive evasive maneuvers, but these giant birds just clung to the airship.
Looking at the sword-like and spear-like beaks on the heads of those giant birds and the airbags on the airship, Zhang Tie also understood the huge damage these iron-beaked ibises might cause to the airship.
Although there is a special layer of light metal protective armor on the airbag of this rigid airship, no one knows how long the protective armor on the airship can last under the continuous attacks of these giant birds.
When these iron-billed ibises approached the airship about two hundred meters away, several ballistae built into the left deck and body of the airship opened fire at the same time.
Zhang Tie only heard a soft "buzzing" sound in his ears. Six of the dozens of iron-billed ibises, after several piercing calls, exploded into the air with a few blood flowers, and their feathers scattered in all directions.
At the same time, it fell from the sky, and the remaining iron-beaked ibis flapped its giant wings and accelerated towards the airship.
A hail of crossbow arrows flew up from the deck of the airship. The giant birds dodged very flexibly in the air. This hail of arrows only shot down less than three Iron-billed Ibis.
When the iron-beaked ibises rushed towards him, Zhang Tie did not immediately pull the trigger of his crossbow. Instead, he calmly aimed at one of the iron-beaked ibises, which had just completed its evasive action.
, when he got close to the airship, which was about eighty meters away, he calmly pulled the trigger.
"Quack!" In an unpleasant bird cry, the iron-beaked ibis that Zhang Tie was aiming at was pierced through the chest by the crossbow arrow fired by Zhang Tie, and fell from the sky.
Almost at the same time as the iron-beaked ibis fell, a cloud of blood mist exploded from the iron-beaked ibis next to it. Zhang Tie heard a strange vibration in his ears and turned his head to look, only to see the people on the airship.
The first mate held a long bow, and the bowstring sounded softly. The iron-billed ibis just now must have been shot down by the long bow in the first mate's hand.
The first mate didn't seem to notice Zhang Tie's gaze, but quickly drew the bow again, shot, drew the bow, shot, drew the bow, shot, almost one arrow every second. After three arrows, three more arrows exploded in the sky.
Blood mist.
The remaining iron-beaked ibises pounced, not toward the deck, but toward the airbag of the airship. The harsh sound of metal scraping suddenly sounded above Zhang Tie's head...