Castle of Black Iron - Chapter 212

Zhang Tie and his subordinates were calmly lying in the grass while a team of about 100 soldiers of the Sun Dynasty were walking towards them with a bit of tension on the hillside below them.
As this was a mountainous area, the mountain pass below was very narrow. On both sides of the pass were shrubs or large rocks, so even if the team of soldiers wanted to pass this region as soon as possible, the over 100 people could not move fast at all.
This was already the 12th day since the Iron-Blood Camp had executed the "enmity task" here in this mountainous area. In the first week, based on the statistics of the Iron-Blood Camp, Zhang Tie had already won the nickname of "One-Hundred People Down", which was an honor in the army, an honor that was gifted to real warriors. However, Zhang Tie didn't like this honor, neither did he like being called "One-Hundred People Down" by others.
In his opinion, he was forced to kill people in the battlefield. As a small figure, he could not change the willingness to fight between the two powers at Kalur region. Because he wanted to survive himself, as well as help his subordinates do so, he chose to kill. Although they were enemies, there was no animosity between him and the soldiers of the Brilliant Feathers. In the enmity between two powers, they were just trivial components, tools and iron filings...
Perhaps someone truly deserved death such as that bastard who was quartered by the five horses of the Iron-Blood Camp, but even if the opponents were members of the Sun Dynasty, Zhang Tie still felt that most of them were no different from him and his friends in Blackhot City. They were all small figures who had their own parents.
Since they were all human beings, one should be reluctant and aggrieved to kill people. For if this action was taken as an honor, it would be grievous.
Such a though might be seen as too merciful, fitting more for women. Especially in the army, few people would agree with Zhang Tie, however, he felt that there was nothing to be proud about in being called "One-Hundred People Down". He only felt jarred. He preferred to be called "One-Hundred People Down" for convincing one hundred women into his bed instead of killing one hundred men in a battlefield.
The two events were totally different as one could bring people happiness and new birth while the other could only bring pain and death.
Zhang Tie preferred the former one.
Including those adorable girls of the Rose Association, Pandora, Alice, and Beverly, only 16 girls were left before Zhang Tie would gain the honor "One-Hundred People Down" which he could be proud of. He had never dared to imagine something this before, which gave him a sense of pride when he was alone.
In Zhang Tie's opinion, there was nothing to be proud in killing commoners who had no way to fight back against him.
When at school, it was said that before the catastrophe, for a period of at least 2000 years, human beings were actually ruled by those demons who disguised themselves as humans. When demons ruled, people's values were twisted so many people took ugly as beauty and wrong as right: a group of people killed another group of people; people of one profession killed others of another profession; people of one skin color killed others of another skin color; people of one country killed others of another country; people with one belief killed others with another belief. The above killings became as usual as cooking dinner.
Demons told people how to make distinctions. When people were born, they would learn how to separate themselves by language, skin color, blood ties, religion, country, wealth, educational background, looks, hobbies, social status, moral standards, even food... Everything could be used to split them apart.
After that, people learned of animosity and how to take revenge and kill each other. They learned how to eliminate things that were different from themselves. As each newborn was labeled to distinguish it, these labels then taught them who to kill based on the differencess of those labels when they grew up. As a result, each one became isolated in their soul islands and turned into the most senior wild beasts.
When demons encouraged people to take revenge on and kill each other, the love affairs between men and women that were the most beautiful and pleasurable emotions, allowing people to grow in numberes, were twisted to become shameless and lewd. Expressing love to a person became something shameful, condemning and humiliating.
After being confined for thousands of years, people's love flowers in their hearts gradually withered away as if they were locked in dark rooms. Many people no longer knew how to express their love the right way, instead, they learned how to vent their resulting emotions through violence, hypocrisy, and deception. People had turned love into harm, greed, and fear. Even to this day, people still couldn't remember how to express the most beautiful side of their human nature with pure love and pleasure.
Zhang Tie loved to wonder whether this world would be better if all men would feel shamed for killing or hurting other people but would feel proud for bringing an orgasm and pleasure to a woman.
He might never get the answer. However, Zhang Tie believed that if he could make a choice, he preferred to be a man who was not proud of killing people.
Because Zhang Tie didn't like to be called "One-Hundred People Down", all the members of the Iron-Blood Camp still called him Second Lieutenant Mummy. Right now, he was well-known in the Iron-Blood Camp of No. 39 Division. As Zhang Tie had made outstanding military exploits, Second Lieutenant Mummy gradually gained another meaning that Zhang Tie didn't like—any enemy that caught sight of Zhang Tie would soon be a mummy.
Even Battalion Commander Reinhardt kept speaking highly of the excellent javelin throwing skills of the Second Lieutenant Mummy, "Few people below LV 8 would escape from Second Lieutenant Mummy's javelins once he catches sight of them." Actually, none of the LV 6-LV 7 platoon leaders of Brilliant Feathers' troops caught in his sights could survive.
As they had to stay in this mountainous area for two weeks, smart Major Guderian chose a place where it was very difficult to walk on and impossible to assemble greater numbers of troops for the Iron-Blood Camp in this broad friction zone.
He said that the first benefit of such a place was avoiding the chance of being surrounded by superior enemy forces when the Iron-Blood Army moved alone; the second benefit was enabling the camp to be more mobile, exerting the wolf pack tactic to the utmost. In a simpler manner, greater enemy troops could not enter this area while those who entered could not match the Iron-Blood Camp.
Those tycoons of the division's headquarters might have presumed that the Iron-Blood Camp would adopt this tactic, so that's why they delivered an order to dispatch it to this barren land without even providing them provisions. Probably those military officers also knew that if a wolf pack was moved into the wild, they would seek food by themselves.
These days, Zhang Tie also rapidly learned about everything regarding war from others...
...
At this moment, in Zhang Tie's eyes, there seemed was a team of "lunch" sending themselves here voluntarily. After lying in an ambush in the brushwood for an entire morning, the sudden appearance of a team of Sun Dynasty's soldiers made everybody highly spirited.
"Head, will we f*ck them?"
Two team leaders had stealthily moved close to Zhang Tie. Now, all the soldiers of Third Platoon, Fifth Company of the Iron-Blood Camp didn't call Zhang Tie "sir" or "platoon leader" anymore as the two appellations sounded a bit jerky, instead, they all called him "head".
Zhang Tie slightly narrowed his eyes to observe the troop below. From the formation, he found no difference between this one and other troops that they had met these days. It was composed of more than 100 people, which might be the population of Sun Dynasty's company of. Based on his experiences these days, Zhang Tie along with about 50 other soldiers of the Iron-Blood Camp that followed him could kill them all in several minutes. However, for some reason, at the sight of that troop, Zhang Tie felt a faint restlessness.
He wanted to let them go, however, he could not find a single reason to let them go.
'Am I really as merciful as a woman?' Zhang Tie asked himself.

Nobody in Third Platoon moved. They all waited for Zhang Tie's signal. These past days, they all learned that if Second Lieutenant Mummy wanted to clean these people and horses, the javelin that was thrown by him would signal the start of the attack. So before Second Lieutenant Mummy launched an attack, nobody in the entire Third Platoon dared to move.
Seeing that the people below were going to soon leave the attack range, Zhang Tie reaffirmed that no ambush was around them and, gritting his teeth and forcing away the thoughts which had nothing to do with war, he launched the attack without any more hesitation.
This was one solution that Zhang Tie had learned in the Iron-Blood Camp—on the battlefield, you would not never know the answer for any doubts or questions unless you chopped down with your saber.
Action was always more persuasive than doubts.
The moment Zhang Tie moved, one of the main military officers from among that troop was struck by a spear and let out a shrill shriek.
This was the signal!
The people in Third Platoon with light crossbows then immediately shot their bolts, causing people and horses off their feet on the road below.
Zhang Tie jumped down first. After shooting a few more volleys of bolts, the other people of Third Platoon also followed after Zhang Tie and rushed down the slope.
When rushing downward, the javelins in the container on Zhang Tie's back were constantly thrown out, striking the other three military officers in that troop before they could make any response. For the rest of the javelins, Zhang Tie just glanced over the tallest and toughest guys in that troop before stroke them all down.
After all, once the backbone of military officers were killed by Zhang Tie, that troop collapsed immediately.
"Kill them all!"
Zhang Tie dashed forward like a fierce tiger jumping out of a narrow place and rushed first into the enemy troop; he became calm and emotionless once again.
Although it was not glorious to kill people, he had to do that right now since he wore the military uniform.
...
Zhang Tie didn't hold that 300-odd kgs' huge sword any more, instead, he put it back in the base of Iron-Blood Camp. He realized that if he kept carrying that huge sword in this mountainous area, he would be a true idiot.
Zhang Tie was holding a relatively smaller two-handed sword, which weighed more than 70 kgs. This double-handed sword was Zhang Tie's personal booty that he had collected recently. It came from a LV 7 military officer of the Sun Dynasty.
This sword was very delicate with fish-scale like sword body and snow white and mirror-like blade that seemed to have a very great texture. The handle was a pair of praying nude virgins. Their wings formed the armguard. From the craftsmanship, this sword was much better than that "Man's Certificate" in both weight and visual effect.
The double-handed sword that weighted more than 70 kgs was only one fifth of Zhang Tie's huge sword. Holding it in one hand,he felt like holding a wooden stick. It was too light. With a casual flick, the blade would cut through the air and cause a sharp sound along with ghost cries and wolf howls...
Zhang Tie named it with another f*cking name that aroused the ridicule of everybody in the Iron-Blood Camp - "Woman's Excellence".
Although this sword was used for killing, Zhang Tie wanted to warn himself with it that it was not greater to let a man die easily on the battle field than letting a woman live happily.
It was not great to kill people, but Zhang Tie wouldn't leave any chance for a single enemy to survive.
Although this sword was a bit smaller, its power could even match that of the huge sword in Zhang Tie's hand.
The second thing was "Woman's Excellence" warned Zhang Tie that the most suitable weapon would be the most powerful one. For Zhang Tie, that huge sword was really a bit heavy.
...
The moment Zhang Tie rushed into the enemy troop, he wove his double-handed sword and sent four heads flying in the air. After another swing, his great strength granted the blade with a terrifying cutting force so several spears thrusting towards him were easily broken.
Zhang Tie then rapidly moved inside. After another sweep, some more soldiers of the Sun Dynasty lied down to the ground while sprouting blood out from their bodies.
In the terrified eyes of a soldier, Zhang Tie clashed into him like a furious bear. With the horrible sound of broken bones, that soldier was sent rolling directly down the hill.
Zhang Tie then thrust out his sword once again which penetrated through two soldiers of the Sun Dynasty at once. Using their bodies as a shield, Zhang Tie lifted the two bodies and threw them towards the most populated place. As a result, more than twenty people lost their balance. Many of them even rolled down the narrow pass from Zhang Tie's barbarous force while screaming miserably.
The rest of Third Platoon's soldiers moved in only several seconds later than Zhang Tie, but in that little time, he had already cleaned 1/5 of Sun Dynasty's soldiers. including those he had taken care of with his javelins before.
Seeing such a dauntless military officer, all the soldiers of Third Platoon became highly spirited while the surviving soldiers of the enemy troop tried to awkwardly escape.
"Kill them all..."
After another growl, fifty more fierce tigers charged at the chaotic troop. In a split second, the mountain pass was filled with blade lights and miserable shrieks...