The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

There are two railways from Kaga in Josh County to Mirtanos, the capital of the Otto Federation. These two railways are not state-owned railways, but private railways belonging to the Piro Railway Group.

Although Josh County is next to the federal capital county, the difference in terrain between the two is as high as a thousand meters, and the undulating mountains stand between the two. This has led to a long period of time in the past. People come and go, either take long detours to other plain provinces, or rely on pack horses and other means of transportation to take winding mountain roads.

Later, after the steam train appeared, the federal government also thought about building a railway to connect the two places, but after repeated discussions, it felt that the manpower and material resources required were too great, so the railway construction plan was not implemented, and the relevant documents of the plan were rejected. It was sealed up and received in the archives room.

Until more than 50 years ago, a clerk named Randy in the archives accidentally saw this archive document. After his analysis, he found that with the changes of the times and the improvement of technology, materials and capabilities, this road that runs through the two places The final construction cost of the railway will be much less than the estimated construction cost in the file. If all goes well, only a quarter of the estimated construction cost will be needed to complete the railway.

So, the clerk rearranged the plan in the file, and then went to his superior with the plan he had sorted out, hoping to resubmit the plan through the hands of his superior. Able to leave the Archives without any future through this plan.

However, the clerk's boss was content with the status quo. He not only rejected the clerk's request, but also mocked the clerk's whimsy.

While annoyed, the clerk seriously considered the government's lengthy review system, and felt that the plan could finally be passed, and it might take more than ten years, so he decided to give up the government's path and find a private railway company to implement it. This plan.

At that time, the Piro Railway Group was not the largest private railway company in the Outer Federation. A director's secretary, and he arranged through his classmates to have a dinner meeting with the director who has influence on the decision-making level of Piro Corporation.

As a result, everything went very well. After the director read his plan, he immediately decided to support his plan and took a copy of the plan with him, saying that he would discuss the plan at the board meeting the next day.

The clerk didn't know whether it was because he was too happy to drink too much at dinner, or because of other unknown reasons, when he went home that night, he accidentally slipped and fell into the Ponte Waterway that runs through the capital, and was washed away by the flowing water. In the swamp, the body was not found by several fishermen until a few months later.

Although the clerk died, his railway construction plan was not buried. It was passed by the Piro Group two days later, and the director also became the director of the entire railway plan because of this plan, and was then implemented. The position of director can be regarded as entering the core layer of the Piro Group.

Two years later, the railway from Mirtanos, the capital of the Federation, to Kaga in Josh County was successfully built, and this railway has since become one of the most important railway lines in the Otter Federation.

Because of the successful completion of this railway, the Piro Company won the favor of the Federal Transportation Agency, and then received a lot of policy support. It also got some tilt in the bidding for the railway construction plan. , became the largest railway company in the Otter Federation.

On the contrary, the dead little clerk was forgotten for a long time. It was not until a few years ago that someone discovered the original railway construction plan left by the little clerk in the National Archives, and this period of history was revealed.

Also because of this incident, many people suspected that the clerk fell into the water not because he was drunk, but was deliberately pushed down, and the person who pushed him was probably the director of the Piro Group, the beneficiary of the final plan.

However, even if there is such suspicion, it will not shake the current position of the Piro Company, but it still hurts the image of the Piro Company. A statue of the clerk was erected, and the railway was named after the clerk, and it was called the Landy Railway to commemorate the clerk.

The reason why Piro Company still chose to remedy this matter even knowing that the rumors and rumors would not cause any actual loss to the company is entirely because the Landy Railway is the golden signboard of Piro Company, and there is no room for it on the signboard. A little stain.

Since the appearance of steam trains, traveling by train has become a fashion for rich people. Both state-owned and private railway companies will add several luxury and comfortable travel carriages to each shift.

And those rich people who are keen on train travel like to discuss which railway line has the most beautiful scenery, and even created a related magazine for this purpose, and no matter how they like the scenery of which railway line, once they want to choose The railway line with the most beautiful scenery, maybe seven or eight out of ten will choose the Landy Railway, which is why the Landy Railway is known as the railway line that federal people must take once in their lives.

Because of the poor terrain, the Randi railway line was built completely along the mountain terrain, with winding lines, and some places even need to go up to the top of the mountain. The scenery of snow mountains, forests, grasslands, basins, lakes, swamps, etc. seems to be here. One line can be seen, and each scene changes so quickly that it feels like watching each scene in a theater. The first moment is still a high mountain, and the next moment after bypassing a very curved hill, Then I found that the surrounding scenery had turned into a grassland. I was walking through a basin just now, but the next moment I climbed over a mountain top, the snow-capped mountains came into view.

All in all, when taking this route, you cannot relax at all. As long as you close your eyes a little, there may be a beautiful scenery sliding past your eyes.

Piro’s annual income from Landi Line is one-fifth of the group’s overall income, which includes not only ticket revenue, freight revenue, but also commodity revenue at stations along the line. The most important railway line.

However, now the Piro Company or all private railway companies have encountered a problem that makes them feel painful, that is, according to the latest wartime decree of the Otter Federation, during the war period, whether it is state-owned or private railways It was requisitioned and used for the dispatch of materials and soldiers, and all civilian uses were stopped.

Although this kind of expropriation government will pay part of the cost, but compared with the income, the cost is simply a drop in the bucket. More importantly, special railways like the Landy Railway have been built for passengers to travel or travel between the two places from the very beginning. Personnel exchanges are the mainstay, and cargo transportation is only a small part.

And now after the federal government expropriates, the main transportation of the entire line is a series of extremely heavy-duty freight trains, which will undoubtedly accelerate the wear and tear of the rails. The Piro Company even suspects that after the war, the federal government will return the railway to them. At that time, there were still a few rails on this line that were intact.

But even if they are dissatisfied, they have nothing to do. Even if they use their connections in the federal government and Congress, it is useless. Obviously, everything in the current federation focuses on war, and all other things have to be sidelined.

Bob is the train dispatcher of the Piro Company. When the railway was requisitioned, he was also requisitioned by the federal government to be responsible for the train dispatching of the Landy Line.

Although he was not in charge of this line before, this kind of scheduling work is similar, and he quickly got started. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is that the load of each train should not exceed the limit, otherwise it will not crush the rails. It's not a question of being able to climb those mountains.

Although in the eyes of outsiders, he is just a competent dispatcher, but he knows very well in his heart that he has another identity. He is a very devout believer in the Lord of Source, and he is not a native of the Otter Federation. In the first fifteen years of his life, he grew up in the Papal State of Nass. Later, he came to the Outer Federation to replace the identity of another Outer Federation named Bob. He worked, married, and had children here until the previous paragraph Only when a dark mark engraved in his blood appeared, did he remember his true identity again.

He didn't struggle back and forth between the two identities, he was more concerned about the positive and negative impacts this incident would have on him, and he didn't want his current stable life to be disrupted.

Apparently his superior also knew that he couldn't do much in his current position, so he was only asked to do what he could, such as copying a copy of the cargo list of each material train, and he was not forced to do it those dangerous things.

It wasn't until the last few days that he received another task, which was not very difficult. It was to ask him to pay attention to the special train, and to see if there was a foreign couple among those who had completed the special train. For this reason, he even got a ticket An extremely exquisite portrait. In the portrait, the man looks a bit ordinary, but his body seems to be strong. On the contrary, the woman is extremely eye-catching. He thinks that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Deeply engraved in my mind.

What surprised Bob was that the couple mentioned in the mission appeared in front of him only two days after he received the mission.

On this day, as usual, he began to arrange the train schedule, and check and compare the list of goods to be shipped, but when he and his colleagues were about to finish counting the goods of the last train, the station supervisor found his colleague and took out a new The list of goods on this list is obviously much less and has to be reloaded.

This method of increasing the workload naturally aroused the disgust of everyone. When asking the reason, the station supervisor only mentioned the order on this matter. Asking too much will only lead to bad luck. content to reload the goods.

During this period of time, they have been very clear about what to ask and what not to ask. Sometimes knowing too much can bring disasters. After all, more than one person has been sent to jail for knowing something they shouldn't know.

Even so, a person like Bob who has access to the freight list and arranges the train schedule can know what is going on from some small details. In his memory, only people with extremely special identities who need to use special trains will appear This situation.

Therefore, in the following time, he kept an eye on the situation at the end of the train, and he was not sure that his guess was right until he saw a special train being hung on the hook at the end.

At this time, the couple mentioned in the mission appeared, and he recognized the lady at a glance, but he didn't dare to go forward, because there were many bodyguards who seemed to have special identities beside the couple. He had no doubt that if he leaned in, the bodyguards would have drawn their weapons and executed him on the spot.

After discovering the objective of the mission, Bob didn't stay at the station anymore. He found an excuse, asked for leave, and left the station. Then he came to the market near the station alone and bought at a fruit and vegetable stand set up by a local farmer. I bought some fruits and vegetables, but when I paid the money, a piece of paper was folded under the money.

I don't know if it was because the successful completion of the extra task made him relax a lot, or because of other reasons, when he left the market and walked to his home, he didn't realize at all that a new building was being installed on the building he passed. The window, when he walked past from below, the rope hanging the window above suddenly broke, and the entire large window made of brass fell directly, smashing him who was walking below into a meat sauce in an instant, which was terrible.

At the same time, the piece of paper that Bob submitted was also sent to the secret lair of the nearby TEDA Empire spies for the first time. After that, more than a dozen people left the lair one after another. Jia, rushed towards the distant mountains.

Another two hours passed, and the direct train that had already loaded the last batch of goods into the carriages slowly left the platform amidst the driver's whistle and headed towards the capital.

At the same time, in the special compartment at the end of the train, Leo took out a good bottle of wine from the wine cabinet in the compartment, poured a glass for himself and Sylvia, made some ice, and drank it. One side said: "This train may not be too calm."

Sylvia looked at the Secret Service security guards outside the carriage and said, "If there is an attack, they may not be able to play a role. We'd better rely on ourselves."

Leo shook his head and said with disapproval: "You underestimate these people, they are different from those secret service security guards like Kadi."

"Is it different?" Sylvia was stunned, and looked at Leo questioningly.