Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie told Li Tao to show around this high-power alcohol production base to his followers. Meanwhile, those guards kept patrolling in the base.

This was Zhang Tie’s private high-power alcohol production base; however, it was Zhang Tie’s first time to visit here. Therefore, Zhang Tie was also interested in those tall and huge iron cans and pipelines in the base.

“Those guards have a quick reaction speed. Are they new?” Zhang Tie asked Li Tao as he looked around those facilities in the base.

“Master, they are guards of Zhongpin Business Group. After the base was completed, this humble man only assigned a part of them here for the sake of the safety of this base. However, after the catastrophe of bloody figures broke out in Tongzhou Province, I was told that many bloody figures had entered Yangui Mountain Range; therefore, this humble man assigned all of them here!”

“Do you live in here too?”

“There are fewer than 5 LV 9 fighters among them; all the others just rank from LV 4 to LV 8. I was told that all the bloody figures are LV 9 fighters. Therefore, I was worried that these guards might not deal with those bloody figures and directly live in the base!”

Li Tao was a LV 13 battle general. As long as he was here, he could deal with 10 bloody figures. Even if a big group of bloody figures raided here, he could at least resist them for a short while. During the process when he resisted those bloody figures, as long as he sent the distress signal, the powerhouses of all the clans across Dongyang City would be able to come here for aiding him as soon as possible.

“If you and your guards move to the base, what about your business?”

“Compared to the task of Master, my business is nothing but sh*t!” Li Tao said meticulously without any arrogance or claiming merit for himself.

Zhang Tie threw a glance at Li Tao as he signed with emotion inside. ‘What a young member of a family holding official rank for generations! His insight and trick couldn’t be matched by ordinary businessmen. Li Tao knew that he could change his fate as long as he completes Zhang Tie’s task and satisfies Zhang Tie. His Zhongpin Business Group, the annual sales volume of which was only hundreds of thousands of gold coins was nothing but sh*t in front of Zhang Tie’s eyes.’

Zhang Tie was also told that Li Tao had exerted his full efforts in the half past year in order to complete the construction of this high-power alcohol production base within 3 months. The budget of this base was 5 million gold coins; however, in order to complete Zhang Tie’s task, Li Tao added 600,000-700,000 more gold coins into the construction of this alcohol production base.

As long as money was in place, some equipment suppliers within Yanzhou Province could rapidly produce various facilities requied by this production base; additionally, resources and relations could be coordinated in all aspects; thirdly, he used this money to set heavy rewards for those workers, technicians and engineers who could complete the works overtime. With the efforts and coordination of Li Tao, this high-power alcohol production base was finally completed within 3 months. However, those gold coins that Li Tao provided himself greatly weakened the foundation of his business group. Even so, Li Tao didn’t complain about that; neither did he ask more money from Iron-Dragon Sect; instead, he just gritted his teeth and completed the task perfectly.

Li Tao’s meritorious services ranked first in the construction of this high-power alcohol base.

Li Tao’s efforts could be identified from his look. After half a year, he had been much thinner and darker.

What was more, after the first batch of high-power alcohol was produced, Li Tao blocked the news in case of arousing the attention of all parties as he was clear about the value of the alcohol. Additionally, nobody took away those high-power yeasts from the reaction kettle of the base. Zhang Tie was the creator of those high-power yeasts; if someone took away those high-power yeasts or if those high-power yeasts met some problems, Zhang Tie would have known that without having to come here.

As Li Tao had experience in producing alcohol; he knew what counted most in this base. However, he didn’t lose his mind in front of interest when Zhang Tie was not here. Therefore, he was definitely reliable.

As Li Tao was capable, visionary, loyal and deeply believed in Zhang Tie, of course, Zhang Tie would not let him suffer a loss; instead, Zhang Tie would put him in an important position and gift him a bright future. As Zhang Tie urgently needed capable and loyal people like Li Tao, he brought Zhang Su and Donder here.

“Do you remember what I told you at the beginning? As long as you could complete this task well, I will gift you a bright future and enable you to return home one day with honors. Even the elders of Li Clan of Wansheng Palace would behave politely in front of you!”

“This humble man remembers it!” Li Tao said meticulously.

“Hmm, don’t run your Zhongpin Business Group anymore!” Zhang Tie said calmly.

Li Tao’s footsteps stagnated slightly.

“That business is too small. You couldn’t make too much money in one year. You don’t derserve to do that. Just stay on my side as the general manager of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory!” Zhang Tie threw a glance at Li Tao as he added, “This base is just a start in Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory. The scale of 500,000 tons is just the first step for throwing a stone to clear the road. In the future, Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory would be able to produce at least 2 million tons’ high-power alcohol a year. As the conditions gradually grow mature, I will found bases in Youzhou Province, Yanzhou Province and Tongzhou Province. You will be responsible for all the alcohol production bases within Northeast Military Region. As for the treatment, I gained 60,000 kg gold a year when I served as the judicial officer of Youzhou Province. You could choose between 60,000 kg gold and 1/100 of the total profit of the entire high-power alcohol industry within Northeast Military Region a year!”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Li Tao blushed in a strange way as he took in a deep breath and bowed deeply towards Zhang Tie once again and said, “Master, from today on, Li Tao would like to serve you faithfully. Li Tao had confidence in the business of high-power alcohol and would like to choose the second compensation!”

Zhang Tie burst out into laughter as he thought, ‘This guy is really smart and could take note of the situation. He could grasp the chance timely.’

After this bow, Li Tao became Zhang Tie’s first myrmidon instead of a commoner within Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory.

In Taixia Country, the relationship between master and myrmidon was similar to the relationship between teacher and student. Myrmidons enjoyed many privileges; meanwhile, they would be restricted in many aspects. Rights and obligations always went hand in hand. When Li Tao was not Zhang Tie’s myrmidon, if Zhang Tie killed him out of no reason, he would commit a crime; however, after Li Tao became his myrmidon, if Zhang Tie killed Li Tao according to home regulation, he would not suffer any punishment. Similarly, before Li Tao became Zhang Tie’s myrmidon, if he had any enemy, Li Tao had to deal with the enemy himself; however, after becoming Zhang Tie’s myrmidon, Zhang Tie would be responsible for dealing with Li Tao’s enemy.

All the major clans in Taixia Country had myrmidons, such as Lord Guangnan’s Mansion and Huaiyuan Palace. The more powerful myrmidons a clan had, the more powerful the clan would be.

Now that Zhang Tie had determined to treat Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory as his foundation in Taixia Country, of course, he needed to consolidate this foundation in all aspects and expand his reliable ones for better ruling Fire-Dragon Territory. As Zhang Su was his cousin, Donder was his instructor and friend; of course, they couldn’t be his myrmidons. Therefore, Li Tao was fortunate to become Zhang Tie’s first myrmidon.

Bai Zhengnan and the other knights just saw Zhang Tie convince Li Tao on one side. Although they didn’t know what Li Tao had done for Zhang Tie, they could see that Zhang Tie regarded Li Tao highly.

After realizing that this man might be responsible for the business of high-power alcohol on Zhang Tie’s side in the future, even Bai Zhengnan threw a deep glance at Li Tao and bore this man’s look in mind.

As the sun rose up, workers in the alcohol production base were in positions on time. Black smoke also rose out of the chimney of the base which indicated that they were producing alcohol. Most of these workers came from the former alcohol plant of Li Tao; some of them were recruited by him lately.

Li Tao introduced each production link to Zhang Tie and the other knights.

They saw hills of maize straws being transmitted into the huge grinder. After being shattered into pieces, the maize straws entered the stewing workshop. After that, they were divided into those huge reaction kettles for fermentation.

The entire fermantion process would take 21 days. 21 days later, the substances in the reaction kettles would be divided once again. The reaction kettles were connected to high-pressure steam pipelines. In high-pressure steam, different substances would be divided into different places once again.

The pale gold liquid that flew out of that pipe on the top of the reaction kettle was high-power alcohol. The substance flowing out of the pipe which was connected to the middle part of the reaction kettle was plant fiber pulp, the residue at the bottom of the reaction kettle was a special organic fertilizer…

After the plant fiber pulp entered the new production line, they were mixed with broken coarse coal cinders and turned into combustible honeycomb briquet before being pulled away by trucks…