Three days later, Huaiyuantang's airship landed at the airship base of a strange city in the middle of the desert for the second replenishment of the journey and the first repair after being attacked by the iron-beaked ibis.
Although the attack of the iron-beaked ibis only made one of the airbags in the airbag compartment completely lose its ability to float, in order to maintain the balance and stability of the airship's flight, the airship with twelve airbag compartments took the initiative to release a lot of helium from the other airbag compartment opposite the attacked airbag compartment during the subsequent flight, and also adjusted the air pressure of the other three airbag compartments, which made the airship's speed drop by one-third in the next three days, from more than 100 kilometers per hour, falling to a level of about seventy or eighty kilometers per hour.
Airship flight is a complex technical job, and Zhang Tie only knew from others how much adjustments he needed to make to make the airship continue to fly smoothly after being attacked by an iron-beaked ibis.
It was during these three days, because of the battle with the iron-beaked ibis, Zhang Tie's identity on the airship had undergone a subtle change, although he was still a special guest living in the passenger cabin, but most of the crew on the airship knew him.
When the airship was about to land at the city's airship base, Zhang Tie also walked out of the cabin like other passengers, and came to the vast airship deck, looking at the city full of strange atmospheres below.
What impressed Zhang Tie was that the terrifying cacti that surrounded the city were often forty or fifty meters high, and those cacti formed the city's city walls, looking down from the air, the entire shape of the city was like a green clover, in the middle of this clover, there were buildings with strange domes everywhere, and in the middle of the city, there was a lake with a small area.
The airship base that can accommodate Huaiyuantang's airship landing is right next to that lake.
The bitter cold wind of winter when they left Karol had turned into a warm sun hanging in the sky, and the passengers standing on deck had now taken off their bulky warm clothes and dressed lightly.
"This is the desert city of Loulan, and the population of the entire city and the vicinity of the city adds up to four million people" Just when Zhang Tie was looking at the city below, Zhang Zhitian had already appeared by Zhang Tie's side and introduced the city below the airship to Zhang Tie.
After being saved by Zhang Tie that day, Zhang Zhitian, who was still two years older than Zhang Tie, had become friends with Zhang Tie at this time.
"How is it, is your injury better" Zhang Tie looked at the young boatman whose skin on his face was tanned by the sun, Zhang Zhitian's eyes were narrow and long, perhaps because of the same bloodline, it looked two points similar to the old brother's, this guy looked like Sven, but under Sven, he had a strong temperament that ordinary people could not imagine.
Thinking of the appearance of this guy and the iron-beaked ibis desperately on the airship's airbag that day, Zhang Tie quietly shook his head in his heart, and sure enough, he was not a human being.
Hearing Zhang Tie's inquiry, a smile appeared on Zhang Zhitian's face, and he raised his arm slightly, "After using a low-level recovery potion and applying some wound gel, I have rested for the past two days, and I have been much better."
"By the way, did you often encounter this situation before," Zhang Tie asked casually.
"How can this happen so often, if it is so dangerous every time, then all cargo airships will become the target of those high-level mutant creatures that can fly" "You're saying this situation is very uncommon," Zhang Tie was slightly stunned.
"It's not that it's uncommon, but it's very rare, I've been on this airship for three years, but it's the first time I've encountered a situation as dangerous as a few days ago, although I've encountered some flying mutant creatures and monsters harassing the airship before, but it's not as dangerous as this time" Zhang Zhitian patiently explained to Zhang Tie, "Although you see that this airship seems to be able to fly everywhere in the sky, but in fact, the routes of large cargo airships like ours are relatively fixed, on these routes, Basically, there will not be too high-level, can directly threaten the safety of the airship creatures, this is an important consideration in the selection and exploration of the airship route, if there are many mutant creatures or monsters in a certain airspace that can threaten the safety of the airship route, then, under normal circumstances, the airship's route will choose to bypass this area, which is similar to the ship sailing on the sea, although the sea is vast, but it is not everywhere you can go. ” Zhang Tie suddenly realized, "I also feel strange, I feel that those iron-beaked ibises seem to be a little too smart, they seem to know how to avoid the shooting area on the deck, and specially choose the most lethal place on the airship, which is also the place where everyone's weapons can't reach to attack."
Zhang Zhitian looked to both sides, and after seeing that not many people paid attention to him and Zhang Tie, he lowered his voice and told Zhang Tie a message, "I heard the discussion between the captain and the first mate, and they also felt that the attack of the iron-beaked ibis was a bit strange this time, in the past few years of sailing, there has never been a trace of the iron-beaked ibis on this route, and this time it was found that there were a lot of them, and things were a little abnormal."
"Could it be that there are still people behind this who can't manipulate it," Zhang Tie also felt slightly surprised.
At this time, the airship, after getting the confirmation of the ground signal, has been vacated by the ground base above the airship landing position slowly lowered the altitude, when there are still a few hundred meters from the ground, the airship has thrown several huge ropes, the ground vehicles and personnel in the airship after receiving the rope thrown down by the airship, one by one are busy, originally in the sky because of the wind direction of the airship is still a little swaying airship suddenly stabilized, and the speed of descent is also accelerating.
Zhang Zhitian only glanced down slightly, and then retracted his gaze, "The fifth-level creature of the iron-beaked ibis because of its sharp and pointed beak, in the air, the threat to the airship can be ranked among the top three of all creatures below the sixth level, this kind of creature that can threaten the safety of the airship airway suddenly appeared in large numbers without any warning between the originally safe airship channels, and the commanders on the airship all judged that someone was operating behind the scenes, This time, if our airship is not a hard airship with an advanced airbag compartment design, but other soft airships, everyone on the airship may not be able to come back this time."
Zhang Tie took a breath of cold air, although he had a certain degree of suspicion in advance, but when this suspicion was confirmed by a more experienced person, he still felt a little frightened, "Could it be that someone is targeting Huaiyuantang?"
"I don't know," Zhang Zhitian shook his head, "But we will soon know, the desert city of Loulan is the most important air traffic hub within two thousand kilometers in the vicinity, after landing in Loulan City, as long as you ask if there are any other airships that have encountered this kind of thing, the commanders will probably be able to make a judgment."
"What if someone really targets Huaiyuantang?"
Zhang Zhitian showed a proud smile on his face, "Then as long as we return to the Huaiyuantang clan, naturally someone will come to settle accounts with those guys, and no one can calculate Huaiyuantang without paying the price."
Zhang Zhitian's self-confidence beyond his age also infected Zhang Tie, and Zhang Tie's face also showed a smile, this is the confidence to have a strong family behind him, such confidence, so that a young man on the airship of the merchant group under Huaiyuan Hall seems to have the same pride as Reinhardt when facing the enemy when he encounters danger and difficulties.
Thinking of the Zhang family in Huaiyuantang, and thinking about the situation of his father and the family at the moment, Zhang Tie quietly sighed in his heart.
"Speaking of Huaiyuantang, I don't know a lot about Huaiyuantang, can you tell me about it?"
"Okay, I estimate that it will take at least a day to complete this supply and airship repair in the desert city of Loulan this time, anyway, I am also recuperating from my injuries at this time, there is nothing to do, if I have this time, I will tell you about Huaiyuantang" Hearing Zhang Tie take the initiative to ask him about Huaiyuantang, a smile appeared on Zhang Zhitian's bronzed face.
"Jinyun country is a human country composed of the Chinese nationality, our Huaiyuan Hall is one of the six major families of Jinyun country, there are eight cities under its command, more than 1,000 miles of clan land, occupy a county of Jinyun country, the name of the county is the hall name of our Zhang family Huaiyuan Hall, each generation of Huaiyuan Hall inherits the title of Earl Feng of the patriarchal family is respected by all the family owners, and the position of the head of the family is elected by the family elder group, but in the past two hundred years, the position of the head of the Zhang family of Huaiyuan Hall has been inherited by the Donghai City lineage, and it has been inherited to this day."
Zhang Zhitian spoke eloquently, and Huaiyuantang's impression in Zhang Tie's mind gradually became clear.
After the airship landed, many people on the airship were busy, because the desert city of Loulan lacked mineral resources, so many high-grade alloys and ordnance brought by the airship from Karur City were sold here, which brought huge profits to the Changfeng Merchant Group.
After selling the goods brought from Karul, Zhang Tie saw that the airship purchased a lot of things from the desert city of Loulan, under Zhang Zhitian's introduction, Zhang Tie knew that there were three main things that the airship purchased here, the first was a ruby, the second was something in the body of a mutant lizard in the desert, I heard that it was a certain material for making bows and arrows, and the third thing was said to be a special cactus secretion, which could directly bind the wounds on people's bodies.
While all kinds of goods are coming in and out of the cargo hold under the airship, the water, coal, and food needed by the airship are also replenished here.
After landing, the repair of the airbag compartment of the airship is also being carried out in an intense and orderly manner.
After landing on the ground, under the leadership of a familiar airship crew, Zhang Tie took a walk around the desert city of Loulan, and the barbecued scorpion meat of Loulan City and the cacti that protected the city after mutation gave Zhang Tie a deep impression.
At night, the temperature in Loulan City dropped sharply, and it suddenly became even colder than when they were in Karur City, which suddenly made the passengers on the airship feel the taste of ice and fire.
That is, in the evening, the captain of the airship, the first mate, and several of the main characters sat in the control room of the airship with a frown.
"Have you inquired about the news?"
the captain of the airship asked a man sitting at the table.
"I have inquired clearly, in addition to us, among the airships that have come to Loulan for supply and rest in the last three days, five have encountered the same situation as us, and they have all been attacked by a large number of iron-beaked ibis, those five airships are all hard airships with protective armor, and after paying a great price, they reluctantly came to Loulan, and in addition, there are several airships that have agreed on delivery times with several merchant groups in Loulan City, but they have not reached it until now, and they have been missing for several days, all the missing airships, are relatively backward single-airbag soft airships" The eyes of the captain of the airship who were smoking his pipe narrowed, and he asked after a long time, "Is there any news about the destruction of the elder family of the Carlo Federation Pill Pharmacist Union?"
"No, although the wanted warrants of the Carlo Federation and the Pill Pharmacist Guild have now spread throughout the Weii subcontinent, those murderers seem to have disappeared out of thin air" The man who spoke glanced at the captain of the airship, "Is there a relationship between the two?"
"I don't know if it matters, what I do know is that this world and the airship's course seem to have started to become dangerous overnight" The airship captain's eyes flashed with a calm and serious light, "Repair the airship as soon as possible, and then go and contact the caravan airship that has been attacked by dangerous creatures at the same stop as our target, and everyone will team up and leave Loulan together" "Yes":