The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Huajing City is known as the first scenic spot in the polar mountains. Even those who are most hostile to the polar mountains have to admit that if they have not visited Huajing City, it is equivalent to not having been to the polar mountains.

The reason why Huajing City has such a reputation is entirely due to the special geographical environment of Huajing City and the unremitting efforts of the previous lords of Huajing City.

Huajing City is built in a valley, and the surrounding mountains are all extinct volcanoes, but the underground lava of these extinct volcanoes has not stopped moving, but has been continuously producing geothermal heat for so many years, and these geothermal heat have converged on Huajing City. In the valley, so that spring seems to be fixed in the valley.

At first, the founders of Flower Mirror City took into account the special environment here, so they transplanted a large number of rare flowers and plants from the south, and the subsequent city owners also continued to increase the number of various flowers and plants, and the magic is no matter where they come from. Flowers, no matter how different the growing environment, can survive without exception after being transplanted here.

For a long time, these flowers and plants have been accumulating continuously, so that their number has reached an astonishing number. The variety includes almost all plant species in the world, and even some plants that have disappeared from the outside world can be found here. The botanists of the city will go to this legendary city in the heart of the polar mountains for research.

In the beginning, the area of ​​Huajing City was not particularly large, it only occupied a small area in the middle of the valley, and a city wall was built, and most of the surrounding land was mainly used to grow food. At first, it was rare in the polar mountains. There are several places suitable for growing food, and the city builders at that time used extremely brutal warfare to break through the siege from more than a dozen large tribes and obtained this valley.

Therefore, in order to prevent the valley from being taken away again, the first few generations of city lords focused on military development of their territories. Most of the city buildings were in the style of military castles. As well as tribal marriages, a stable alliance has been established, making these large cities and tribes known as the defensive circle of Huajing City, and the armed forces of Huajing City itself have become insignificant.

The more important point is that the huge military expenditure accounted for more than 70% of Huajing City's finances, which seriously interfered with the development of Huajing City, and the officers and soldiers at that time were also extremely domineering, causing very bad influence and public grievances in Huajing City.

So, when the military threat from outside disappeared, the city owner of Huajing City began to deal with internal problems. The forces were completely disbanded, and the established military units were also directly disbanded, leaving only an armed force of the City Guard Army. Later, the city wall of Huajing City was demolished on the grounds that it hindered the expansion of the city. It made Huajing City the first city without city walls in the polar mountains.

Perhaps it is precisely because of Huajing City's practice of reducing armed forces and dismantling the city walls that the surrounding city-states and tribes feel that Huajing City is no longer a threat, so that even if there are various disputes in the surrounding areas, they have avoided Huajing City. And Huajing City also took advantage of this special political environment to shape itself into a completely harmless image. This innocuous image makes all the city-state tribes around the borders without exception choose Huajing City if they want to conduct military and political negotiations. As a place of negotiation, it has become an absolute neutral zone in practical sense over time.

Although Huajing City looks like it has no military power, and only needs a centurion to capture it easily, in fact, even people who look down on Huajing City will not underestimate the strength of Huajing City, because Huajing City is in At the same time when the self disarms the armed forces such as the army, it also obtains the support of another force, which is the power of the natural shaman.

The shaman is not an extraordinary thing that is native to the polar mountains. The people of the polar mountains originally advocated the forces of nature such as ice, snow, storm, and lava, and only had primitive worship of these primitive forces, but did not form a systematic belief. With the introduction of caravans into the polar mountains from the south, the shaman's natural beliefs began to build up pan-shamanic beliefs with the power of nature they admired.

The reason why it is called pan-shamanic belief is that each tribe does not recognize the natural way of shamanism. Primitive priesthood of the northern tribes.

Although shamanism has not been able to become the main belief in the polar mountains, it has not been rejected and suppressed like the missionaries of the Church of the True God, which has allowed shamanism to form a certain scale in the mountains, and finally combined into the present natural shaman.

As far as the overall power is concerned, the Nature Shaman Association may be ranked outside the top ten among the polar mountains, but in terms of deterrence, the Nature Shaman Association can definitely rank in the top three, because the Nature Shaman Association is The organization with the most extraordinary power in the polar mountains, and it also has a very good relationship with the priests of various city-states and tribes. If necessary, these relationships can be used to influence some decisions of the decision-making level of the city-states in the polar mountains.

When the Natural Shaman Society was first established, there was no fixed headquarters. When it was necessary to discuss and make decisions, the city-state or tribe where the great shaman was located at that time was usually used as the meeting place. If they didn't choose well, the Natural Shaman Society was inadvertently involved in a big dispute that affected seven city-states and more than a dozen tribes, and nearly half of its members were lost.

In this great dispute, members of the Natural Shaman Society suffered heavy casualties, but the number of city-states and tribes killed and injured by the Natural Shaman Society was also staggering. The polar mountains, seeing the strength of the Natural Shaman Society, were also concerned about The Natural Shaman Society is full of vigilance. If the Natural Shaman Society does not make a clear statement at this time, then what awaits it will be the same situation as the Church of True God.

Therefore, the great shaman at that time decided to change the tradition of having no headquarters, and finally after discussion, he chose to establish a headquarters of the natural shaman in Huajing City, which is an absolutely neutral area, and at the same time, he also showed himself to the city-states and tribes in the polar mountains. neutral attitude.

In this way, the Natural Shaman Society is also included in the strength map of Huajing City, and its influence has been doubled in all aspects due to the participation of the Natural Shaman Society.

The Hualing Festival is the most important festival in Huajing City, and it is also the most important festival of the Natural Shaman Society. The time of this festival is not fixed. Usually, it starts from the end of the first black storm in Xueyuan until the next black storm. Appears to end.

During the festival days, the shamans will go to the streets and use their own power to promote the growth and release of flowers and plants inside and outside the city. The whole city will be filled with the refreshing fragrance of flowers. People from various city-states and tribes in the mountains will live here until the end of the festival, and this time is naturally the most populous day in the entire Huajing City, and it is interesting that in ten months, the entire polar mountains will have a birth tide. , so the city-states and tribes in the polar mountains are more willing to call the Flower Spirit Festival as the conception festival.

Because of the issue of population and fertility, Hualing Festival is no longer just a local festival in Huajing City. The entire city-states in the polar mountains also regard Hualing Festival as their own important festival, even if there is no way to go to Huajing City to celebrate the festival in person, I will try to buy some fresh flowers sent from Huajingcheng to decorate my home.

It's just that this year's Hualing Festival has become a little wrong. First of all, the first black storm in the snowfield lasted several times longer than in previous years. People from other city-state tribes who were in the city during the festival were all stranded in Huajing City. So many people lived in one city for a long time, which inevitably affected all aspects of the city, such as prices, health and so on.

During this period of time, not only the local people in Huajing City are extremely dissatisfied with the current life, but other people who come to celebrate the festival from other places are also complaining. There were a lot of disputes between people. Within ten days, the city guards of Huajing City had dealt with no less than 100 fights between locals and foreigners, and the number of people arrested was as high as 1,700. Some were beyond the range of numbers that the City Guard, which numbered only 1,500, could handle.

Secondly, a battle broke out between Bishan City and the Haider Tribe, which are only a few mountains away from Huajing City, and the battle showed no signs of subsiding. An army of nearly 30,000 people has been assembled, and a war will start at any time.

You must know that in the polar mountains, due to various conditions, only a few hundred people participate in most battles between city-states and tribes. Even large-scale battles are only a few thousand people, and only a few really affect the polar groups. The war in the mountain situation is in the tens of thousands, but the number of people like 30,000 is still rare. More importantly, the time they chose to start the war was beyond everyone's expectations.

Although there is no explicit stipulation, all city-states and tribes in the polar mountains have adopted a tacit approach and regard the festival time of Hualing Festival as the peace time of the entire polar mountains, and all battles, big and small, stop during this time. Come down, let alone start the war, even if there is an ongoing war or battle, it will stop, and the two sides will finish this festival in a stable manner.

This unspecified default period of peace has been going on for hundreds of years and has long been the habit of everyone in the polar mountains. However, now Bishan City and the Haider Tribe have broken this habit and started during the Flower Spirit Festival. , which shocked everyone who heard the news and wondered if it was true.

After the news spread, different city-states and tribes sent people to verify, and the feedback without exception indicated that this matter was true, and the reasons given by both sides of the war were also very good, that is the first black The storm is not over, so the Festival of Flowers has not yet begun, and their war at this time does not break the tradition.

The city-states and tribes have no way to refute the rhetoric given by the warring parties, because what they said is the truth, the Flower Spirit Festival has not started, and from the current situation of the black storm in the snowfield, I am afraid it will last for ten days. possible.

For Huajing City, this sudden war was really a prelude to a disaster. Because of the large scale of the war, the civilians in the two territories had to leave the battle area to avoid the war. If it was any other time, just go nearby. Find a flat place to live for a while, and then go back after the armistice.

But now the black storm on the snowfield has not stopped, and it is still strengthening. The polar mountains are also covered by the black storm. Although there are mountain blocks, the intensity of the wind and snow cannot be compared with the endless snowfield, but it is definitely not an ordinary person. The range that can be tolerated, so the usual method of avoiding the fire of war is simply useless. Living in a place without shelter from the wind and snow is only waiting for death. Therefore, those refugees on both sides of the war who are evading the fire can only find a suitable place to take refuge.

Huajing City, as the city closest to the location of the two warring parties, is basically the preferred refuge for refugees from both sides due to its favorable living environment, but Huajing City has been overwhelmed by the surging refugee tide at this moment. .uukanshu.com The overall affordability of the original city has reached its limit because of the foreigners who are stranded here and preparing for the festival. Now that so many refugees are pouring in, the continuation of Huajing City has basically reached the brink of collapse.

For this reason, Huajing City had to convene all officials and Vera Thothmuller, the great shaman of the Natural Shaman Society, to hold a meeting at the city owner's mansion to discuss how to solve the current crisis in the city.

However, when these managers were discussing countermeasures, the city guards who were responsible for maintaining order had already made arrangements first. They mobilized a large number of trucks and filled them with soil, and surrounded the entire Huajing City. , combined into a simple city wall, which prevented the refugees from continuing to approach, and Huajing City, which had been without a city wall for hundreds of years, also had a city wall again, even if the city wall was not standardized.

At the same time, in order to be able to defend the city wall, the city guards also temporarily recruited a large number of soldiers in the city, both locals and foreigners, to form a militia team to assist them in defending the simple city wall built by this circle of carriages, preventing A refugee crawled over.

The action of the City Guards made the already tense situation in the city even more tense. Various rumors began to spread in the city. Everyone began to hoard food and buy weapons. The objects became refugees outside the city, leaving them no time to estimate the security and other issues in the city. For a while, crimes such as robbery and murder continued to occur in this flower-covered city, and the entire situation had begun to collapse toward the abyss of chaos.