228 Alchemists and Secret Police (1/2)

Chapter 228: Alchemists and Secret Police

Translator: WQLEditor: DarkGem

”It's so nice to know you're all right, sir!”

Whether it was true or not, when Zhang Tie caught sight of Pi Ping's slippery expression, he really felt warm inside and not hostile toward him. Zhang Tie was very good at making contact with these kind of people when he was in Donder's grocery store, so when he saw Second Lieutenant Pi Ping, he was not modest to him either. He instead hooked his hand around Second Lieutenant Pi Ping's shoulders and brought him into his office.

Since he became the director of the logistics administration two weeks ago, it was Zhang Tie's first time entering the director's office of this vehicle maintenance plant.

The office featured a military style—a desk, a sofa, a filing cabinet, some drawings on the structures of steam-driven engines and vehicles hanging on the wall. No more decoration besides these items. However, although Zhang Tie hadn't come here these days, the office was still well cleaned.

Entering the office, Zhang Tie instantly threw himself onto the sofa with eyes fixed on Second Lieutenant Pi Ping.

”Well, no crap, I know you're well-informed. Tell me what happened last night...”

Second Lieutenant Pi Ping had already realized that this military officer retired from the Iron-Blood Camp was different from others as he was more easygoing. However, actually, he was more complicated. As his subordinate, Pi Ping actually liked this kind of military officer. What Second Lieutenant Pi Ping feared most were those eccentric guys who didn't know anything but wanted to manage everything. If such a director came to the No. 9 Equipment Administration, that would be the nightmare of everybody here.

What Zhang Tie didn't know was that during the past two weeks, his indifferent attitude was even praised by people here. They all felt that he was a good officer and a good director.

Before telling Zhang Tie the news, Second Lieutenant Pi Ping glanced outside the office. After ensuring that nobody was there, he closed the door himself before moving close to Zhang Tie like a thief.

”I have a friend in the air-defense camp. He said many people were killed last night. One important warehouse of our Logistics Department was exploded by the airship of the Brilliant Feathers!” Second Lieutenant Pi Ping said, his voice low.

Zhang Tie became curious. ”Was that really an explosive?”

”Really!” Second Lieutenant Pi Ping nodded. ”It's said that this was Sun Dynasty's revenge. Because a couple of days ago, our Mad Shark Airship threw some heavy-type white phosphorous gel combustion bombs at the battle castle where their headquarters was located in the evening. Many people were killed there. The morale of Sun Dynasty was also weakened. Therefore, their move last night was to avenge themselves!”

Zhang Tie only felt frustrated. More revenge?

Sometimes, wars between two countries and between two armies were no different from brawls between 3-5 year old kids. When you give me a fist, I will give you a kick. No one wanted to suffer a loss. However, compared to brawls between kids, this revenge was more terrifying and bloody and would cause more people to lose their lives.

After the heads of the people of the Iron-Horn Army were chopped off, the people of the Iron-Blood Camp had to chop off their enemy's heads in revenge. As the Iron-Horn Army's air troop threw heavy-type white phosphorous gel combustion bombs towards the battle castle where the opponent's headquarters was located, the opponent drove an airship into the air territory of Blapei and threw off explosives onto a logistics base of the Iron-Horn Army,

Zhang Tie felt that perhaps, the battle castle in the frontline had long prepared for the sneak attack from the Brilliant Feathers. Then, since they couldn't find a chance to launch a sneak attack in there, the Brilliant Feathers extended the battle line to the back of the Iron-Horn Army and directly hit the most important part Due to the limited transportation capabilities, the logistics guarantee was truly one of the most essential parts of the Iron-Horn Army.

”Have their airship been brought down?”

After asking this question, Zhang Tie felt like an idiot. If the opponent's airship could casually drop off bombs onto the Iron-Horn Army's logistics base in Blapei which was more than 100 km away from the frontline and leave without sustaining any damage, the war would not have lasted this long.

”Done, that's what the trouble is!”

”Why?”

”It's said that our air-defense troop had truly hit their airship, so it crashed in a location over 20 km away to the south of Blapei. However, when our troop arrived there, with the exception of some dead people in the airship, all the rest had disappeared. This is the biggest trouble. Now, nobody knows where the rest people from the airship had gone.”

Second Lieutenant Pi Ping let out a sigh.

”We didn't find many corpses on the airship, which means that all the others had left. This is big trouble since nobody knows whether those guys escaped back to their zone or are staying here. If some intelligence agents of the opponent who were lurking in Blapei take action together with those people who had fled, nobody can know what may happen next. If those guys have another bomb, they might even directly rush into the parliament house of Blapei as suicide bombers!”

Hearing Pi Ping's words, Zhang Tie understood why the atmosphere in Blapei suddenly became tense. This was not only because of the explosion that occurred last night but that it had been confirmed that the dangerous opponents were lurking somewhere in Blapei. Even in his military uniform, Zhang Tie had still been requested to present his military officer's certificate three times on the way from his residence to the maintenance plant of the Ninth Equipment Administration of the Comprehensive Logistics Relief Department.

In order to catch those fleeing people, all the soldiers of the division stationed in Blapei walked through the streets. They started to set checking points to investigate all the passers-by. By doing this, although they could not immediately catch those potential dangerous people, they could at least limit their movements to a degree. Before finally catching or killing them, this was the only method to deal with those people.

”Does the Iron-Horn Army have explosives?”

The word bomb reminded Zhang Tie of a question that he was interested in.

”Yes, they have. But the explosives of the army are the most important strategic material. Because they're very rare and precious, all the explosives's assignments and use had to be approved and signed by the commander of the Iron-Horn Army. In the entire Norman Empire, all the explosives are controlled by the imperial households. The only two alchemist masters who can produce explosives in the Norman Empire are both members of the royal seniors cabinet!”

Zhang Tie had only heard of the alchemist profession in legends. It was mentioned in the book ”Initial Exploration about the Special Professions of Human Beings in the Black Iron Age” a couple of days ago. Whether in legends or reality, alchemists were ten times more rare than medicinal pharmacists. It was regarded as the most mysterious, wealthy, and terrifying profession in the Black Iron Age.

Although many cities of the former Andaman Alliance had medicinal pharmacists like Abyan, in the entire Andaman Alliance, there were no alchemists at all. Alchemists would spend their whole lives dealing with various weird stones and crystals. As long as they had a stone or a crystal, they would be able to turn it into a treasure that could be used to fight, cultivate, cure diseases, even to improve the attributes of a number of metals and machines.

After being processed by alchemists, many common crystals and stones could become ten thousand times more valuable, even more expensive than gold. As these people were truly able to touch a stone and turn it into gold, they were called alchemists. It was not only a description of their profession but people's obvious admiration for it.

Alchemists were the only group of people who could produce explosives. A person, once he became an alchemist, would never care about money any more. If one took the Norman Empire as an example, once any alchemist in this country was found to be able to produce explosives, he could instantly marry a royal offspring. Through kinship, that person would then benefit the Norman Empire on a military aspect.

Alchemists had many nicknames like ”treasure producers”, ”mobile vaults”, ”human bombs”, and ”thermal weapon time-travelers in cold weapons era”. It seemed that because of the last nickname which mentioned both science and technology before the catastrophe, many countries in the Blackson Human Clan Corridor would take owning an alchemist who could produce explosives as the symbol of powerful national strength and status.

The former Andaman Alliance had once intended to attract an alchemist with the chief position and a great amount of benefits. Unluckily, they failed.