Sun River Prefecture, Golden Crow City...
Standing atop a mountain peak outside Golden Crow City, Zhang Tie looked out over the city, unable to suppress the excitement in his heart.
Four years ago, Golden Crow City had existed only as a vision on blueprints drawn up by Zhang Tie and his elder brother, Zhang Yang. Today, that vision had become reality.
Compared to Great Xia's Class-A metropolises, Golden Crow City, with an area of barely over a hundred square kilometers, could only be considered a small city. Yet the constant stream of airships overhead, along with the bustling crowds outside its gates, made people forget it was a small city and regard it instead as a thriving commercial center or a regional air-transport hub.
By now, both railways and highways had been completed. From his high vantage point, he could see the sprawling network of rail lines and roads radiating outward from Golden Crow City in all four directions. Trains belching thick smoke raced along the tracks like long serpents, while all manner of vehicles came and went along the roads.
Because the city itself was so crowded, two towering, majestic auxiliary forts had been built over a li outside the city—something Zhang Tie had not expected. Like two silent guards, they protected Golden Crow City while helping divert the flow of people. Many of the airships traveling to and from Golden Crow City landed directly at the airship bases outside those two great auxiliary forts.
Around Golden Crow City and those two auxiliary forts, villages, towns, and factories had already begun to spring up across dozens of kilometers of surrounding land. Everything before his eyes was flourishing, brimming with vitality.
Zhang Tie also spotted a large military camp outside the city.
Like Golden Crow City, that sizable camp was