The Iron Dragon airship slowly descended onto the vast grain-drying yard outside Peaceful River Fort, a fortified settlement beside the Peaceful River.
This was Peaceful River Fort, which managed all the official farmland throughout Peaceful River County.
Peaceful River County had no need for dedicated airship or flying-boat landing fields. The grain yards attached to its farms and fortified settlements were each at least several hundred meters long and wide, their ground paved with either concrete or stone. These yards were natural landing fields for airships and flying boats scattered throughout Peaceful River County.
Still aboard the flying boat, Zhang Tie saw a large crowd waiting for him in the yard below. Amid the sea of people, several splashes of vivid red, blue, and purple stood out conspicuously.
"Why have the officials of Peaceful River County come too? We didn't notify them, did we?" Zhang Tie asked Tang De.
Tang De sighed. "The 120 million mu of official farmland you leased in Peaceful River County is all the best land there—the irrigated fields south of the Peaceful River. All the farmland in the entire county, including mountain fields and dry fields, totals only a little over 300 million mu. From now on, you'll be the largest landowner in Peaceful River County. The county officials are all frantic now. If you were them, and you suddenly heard that the world-famous Thousand-Mechanism True Person had become a sucker, willing to lease all the official farmland in Peaceful River County at a fifty-percent land rent, what would you think?"
"They'd think I must have a solution, and treat me as their lifeline!"
"Of course. The moment they heard you were coming to Peaceful River County, wouldn't these officials come running over one by one to wait on you, hoping to see what heaven-shaking