After the spectacular fire tornado and the burning Elin Cathedral perished together, the fire on the south bank no longer had the power to launch an offensive.

The fire scene in the old city was divided and surrounded one by one, and finally ran out of fuel and died unwillingly.

By the afternoon of the next day, the fire in the city had been basically extinguished, but the remaining fire that spread to the mountains was still spreading three days later.

The Provisional Military Control Commission issued a notice changing the primary task to controlling wildfires.

The conscripted militiamen had just reestablished their chain of command according to previous winter training arrangements, and immediately, led by officers at all levels, marched into the mountains and forests south of the city to once again fight the fire.

There are only a small number of military police and militia in the city to maintain order.

The garrisons in neighboring states have been notified one after another, and reinforcements are rushing towards the Steel Fort day and night. However, no news has been sent back from the messenger to the Horn Fort yet.

Compared with firefighting, post-disaster disposal is more troublesome.

On the night of the fire, many workshops along the coast were looted, and a large amount of the ordnance stored in the workshops was lost.

Then the fire quickly got out of control, and escape became a top priority, so a considerable amount of ordnance was abandoned directly at the fire scene on the south bank.

Some of the ordnance was carried by the refugees and was seized by military checkpoints when they left the city.

There is also some ordnance that flowed into the north bank, which was less affected by the disaster. Its whereabouts are unknown and needs to be confiscated urgently.

As for the workshops that were not looted but suffered fires or were demolished, they were temporarily sealed by the army.

Due to the tradition of bringing their own weapons for war, the laws of the Monta Republic allow civilians to possess weapons and armor.

Therefore, how to distinguish between "lost ordnance" and "weapons originally held by citizens" and recover them is a big problem.

In addition, the weapons that have been recovered come from dozens of different workshops and are now all mixed together. How to return them to their original owners? It is also a big problem.

The problem of ordnance is only a microcosm of the difficulties faced in post-disaster disposal.

It's not just the ordnance that is missing. Even if thousands of houses, shops, and warehouses in the old city are reduced to ashes, there will always be something left.

People who lost everything valued their remaining possessions even more. On the morning of the next day before the fire was completely extinguished, some people had already ventured back to the city to see what was left.

Also, on the night when the garrison took over the Steel Fort, a large number of carriages were pushed directly into the Rose River to keep the road open. So that the river was full of tables, chairs, clothes, tableware and all kinds of things that could be taken away from home.

Although it was urgent to follow the authority at that time, it also dug a big hole for the finishing work in the future.

Even the above are not the most pressing problems. Inside and outside Steel Castle City, tens of thousands of hungry and homeless refugees are looking at the future with fear.

Putting out the fire is not the end, putting out the fire is just the end of the beginning.

…

[Steel Castle, South Bank of Old Town]

[Temporary garrison command post]

The sky was gray and the sun could not be seen.

Due to the terrain surrounded by mountains, the smoke and dust generated by the fire stayed in the sky above the steel castle and was difficult to disperse for a long time.

Everyone in line covered their mouth and nose with a scarf, and Ernst Fuller was no exception.

He suppressed the desire to cough and vomit, wrapped his cloak tighter around his body, and tried his best not to attract extra attention.

To Fuller's right, a few steps away, a dead man was hanging on a newly erected gallows.

A wooden board was hung on the dead man's chest, with a few words written on it as the cause of death - "I robbed".

Two crows landed on the dead man's shoulders, one on the left and the other on the right. They screamed unscrupulously and feasted on the dead man's food.

The dead man was pushed by the wind and swayed slightly. His dull eyes scanned the living people lining up, but the living people deliberately avoided his gaze.

The queue moved forward slowly, and Fuller was finally a little further away from the body, which gave him some psychological relief from his turbulent stomach.

Martial law did not end with the fire, and the steel fort is still under the control of the army.

The army's method of establishing order was brutal and ruthless, and any criminal - even a thief - would be hanged after a simple trial.

Looking around, there are identical ruins everywhere, only the gallows erected along the road are brand new.

Fuller lowered his head and focused his eyes on the calf of the person in front of him, but his mind was gradually occupied by other things.

Everything he experienced was so crazy that he is still dizzy now.

The cloak, the assassin, the strange feeling of the cold sword digging into the thigh, the slippery brain dripping onto the ground...

In just a few days, he was reduced from a respectable forge master to a miserable speculator on the verge of bankruptcy, and then a fire wiped out all his wealth and even lost the qualification for bankruptcy.

But in the desperate situation, there is a ray of light and a turning point...

The team moved forward a few steps, but Fuller still stood there stupidly. It wasn't until someone behind him coughed in dissatisfaction that he came to his senses and hurriedly followed.

If a good person came over at this moment and asked the identities of the queuers one by one, he would be surprised to find that the people in this long queue were, if not respected masters of the forge, at least free people with civil rights.

.

To be able to have so many "people who really own steel forts" waiting in line like ordinary soldiers is already a miracle.

But no one in the queue was in the mood to appreciate the comments. Most of them were just like Fuller: their faces were covered, their eyes were gloomy, and they were silent.

It is not difficult to understand that anyone whose family property was destroyed by a fire would not be in the mood to laugh now.

The long queue moved slowly, and everyone who passed the sentry post was carefully searched, and Fuller was no exception.

A sergeant held his halberd and looked at Fuller with the eyes of a prisoner. Two soldiers approached Fuller and motioned to Fuller to open his arms.

Fuller felt a little uncomfortable being stared at and turned his head to look at the Rose River.

In the middle of the river, some militiamen, led by soldiers-looking men, were carefully salvaging debris from the ice.

The spring-loaded pistol that Fuller carried with him was quickly found—of course, Fuller had no intention of hiding it in the first place.

The sergeant holding the halberd took the short gun from his subordinates, frowned, and asked in a bad tone: "What are you doing with this?"

"Self-defense," Fuller whispered.

The sergeant holding the halberd checked the chamber and gunpowder pool, but saw no lead bullets or gunpowder: "Empty?"

Fuller also felt a little embarrassed: "I just used it to scare people."

The sergeant holding the halberd shook his head and put the gun in the box in the guard box: "I'll get it when I go out."

"well."

Starting from the night when the army took over the Steel Fort, the chapel covered bridge and nearby houses were requisitioned by the garrison and served as a temporary command post for the garrison until today.

Following the directions, Fuller walked into a shop on the bridge.

The store's original furnishings have been cleared, and the counter top is completely occupied by maps.

There are far more shelves inside the counter than there should be in a store. In order to place so many shelves, all the partitions in the room were removed.

Several people who looked like clerks were walking among the shelves, busy filing documents, and several orderlies were constantly moving boxes of files into the room.

Behind the counter sat an officer with bloodshot eyes and disheveled hair. When he saw Fuller coming in, the officer raised his eyelids slightly: "Name?"

"Fuller. Ernst Fuller."

"Did you bring the title deed?"

Fuller nodded vigorously: "Bring it."

“Take it out as soon as you bring it!”

With Fuller's body temperature, the deed of the workshop and all the certificates for the forge were placed on the counter.

The officer glanced at it and gave a few instructions. Several clerks immediately rummaged through the shelves.

After a while, a clerk came to the counter with a copy of the document.

Comparing the supplementary file kept at the city hall, the temporary clerk who was originally affiliated with the city government confirmed that the land deed was not a forgery and nodded slightly to the officer.

The officer took the land deed, marked the location on the map, rang a bell to summon a messenger, and told Fuller without raising his head: "He will take you there."

Fuller wanted to ask something else, but the officer was already urging impatiently: "Next!"

The orderly soldier took the map, raised his hand in salute, and then walked out the door. Fuller followed him out of the shop in confusion.

After walking out of the room, the orderly asked skillfully: "Do you have many things in your shop?"

"Quite a few."

"Then go get a carriage first." The messenger took Fuller to the stable: "Then ask two militiamen to help move things."

Fuller thought of his warehouse and said hesitantly: "I'm afraid one carriage is not enough."

"Hey, don't worry. All the gentlemen I met today were worried that one carriage would not be enough." The messenger grinned: "Only when we got there did we find that even one carriage could not hold it."

The messenger drove the carriage, carrying Fuller and two militiamen, and slowly drove out of the bridge camp.

It's easy to get lost when walking in the current old city, because the once narrow and dark streets and alleys have completely changed their appearance.

The places that used to be workshops, churches and wooden houses are now in ruins. There are no landmarks to tell people where they are. Only the remaining spire of Elin Cathedral still stands amazingly in the distance.

The Fuller family's workshop is not difficult to find, just walk along the river bank. It just took Fuller some time to accept the current appearance of the workshop.

The walls of the workshop collapsed, the roof collapsed, and the two forges that Fuller's father and grandfather were so proud of were buried in the rubble.

The warehouse used to be able to accommodate two heavy-duty carriages, but only a small section of the wall that was blackened by smoke remained and refused to fall down.
To be continued...