These two pieces of news, one sad and one happy.

  What is worrying is that to the south of Wuyang City, in the Taihang Mountains, bandits have risen up and repeatedly hijacked merchants traveling back and forth. Their audacity grows daily, their movements become more frequent, and they have already had a huge negative impact on commercial activities south of Wuyang City.

  Only large merchant groups traveling in flocks can avoid the misfortune of being plundered.

  The delightful news is that General Direction has led his 5,000 light cavalry from the northern camp to come and station here, ready to join forces with him to resist the strong enemy.

  Upon receiving the news that Du Jingru was leading five thousand light cavalry to provide support, not only was Xu Haifeng overjoyed, but even Jiang Kongming unexpectedly showed great enthusiasm.

  They put down all their affairs and came out ten miles away to greet him.

  However, when Jiang Kongming rushed over and hugged Xu Haifeng, his first sentence revealed the real reason why he was so excited.

  "General Fang, have you brought the things?" Jiang Gongming asked anxiously.

  He asked with his mouth, but his eyes had already glanced at the more than 100 horse-drawn carriages behind the army. If it weren't for politeness, he would have rushed up to take a look himself.

  Towards the black flag army's chief military advisor, who was a few years younger than himself, Fang Xuan couldn't afford to have even a hint of disdain or offense. He hastily replied: "Military Advisor sir, please don't worry, everything has been brought over."

  "Hahaha..." Jiang Kongming burst into a fit of laughter, then immediately returned to normal, lazily and casually bowing on the ground, saying: "General Fang has come from afar, making us students wait with bated breath."

  Fang Xiang let out a wry smile and said, "It's not that I don't want to hurry, but those things are really too heavy and hard to move. If we come late, there's nothing we can do about it."

  He thought to himself, you're so enthusiastic, isn't it just because I brought the things according to your request? If I came with empty hands, who knows what kind of face you would make.

  In the Beijiang Grand Camp, Jiang Kung-ming had already shown his astonishing knowledge, and even Fang Ling-ch'en was convinced, ordering all the young men of the Fang family to treat him with the respect due a teacher. Therefore, Fang Chih-ming, though dissatisfied, did not dare be impolite to him.

  Upon receiving the Ministry of War's dispatch ordering his troops to enter Lin'an City to provide support, a letter from Jiang Kung-ming was also delivered into Xiang Liang's hands.

  In that letter, Jiang Gongming lavishly praised Fang's family, saying they were loyal and filial, righteous and patriotic, with a heart full of loyalty, using all their wisdom to serve the country, and so on. In short, under his pen, Fang's family became a model five-good-family since ancient times, with the most positive educational significance.

  Then he suggested that Fang Rong bring the direction to Lin'an City, and also carry some of those dark, semi-solid liquids excavated in the east of the camp last time.

  Fang Ling and his uncle-nephew duo were at a loss, laughing and crying. Although they didn't know why the great military strategist was so interested in this unknown-purpose black water with a pungent smell, they still followed his orders without fail.

  However, what surprised Zhi was that these black waters were much heavier than ordinary clear water. A horse cart could only hold twenty buckets, and any more would be impossible to pull.

  Finally, a hundred carts required four hundred horses to pull, which made Fang Lingchen feel extremely heartbroken.

  However, fortunately at this time the secret letter from Fang's family had already been delivered, and Fang Lingchen knew that Xu Haifeng's Black Flag Army was about to single-handedly confront Caesar's invincible army in Lin'an City.

  The Black Flag Army, no matter how powerful it is, may not be able to win under the military strength gap of ten times or even dozens of times, so they do not oppose the imperial court's order to let Zuo Zongtang's troops reinforce.

  If it weren't for the fact that they were facing the Xiongnu, who had dominated the grasslands for hundreds of years and whose fighting strength was even more formidable than that of the Romans, Fang Chen would have wished he had brought more men.

  Until this moment, Fang Lingchen felt even more deeply that the Great Han's military strength was already barely enough.

  Jiang Kongming rode his horse to the front, arriving before those carriages. Along the way, all of the Red Ocean Cavalry saluted him with utmost respect, their eyes filled with a reverent gaze that was clearly genuine and heartfelt.

  These men were all elite troops from the Northern Great Camp, and they had all passed through the training program left behind by Jiang Kung-ming.

  Their physical fitness and combat effectiveness have made a qualitative leap, with great respect for the creator of such an unprecedented training plan.

  It's just that Jiang Kung-ming's attention was completely not on them, letting their efforts to show off go down the drain.

  Before he even reached the carriage, Xu Haifeng caught a whiff of a pungent and strange smell.

  But Jiang Kungming boarded one of them with a carefree attitude, drew out his treasured sword, pried open the barrel cover, and took a close look. Suddenly, he let out a maniacal laugh that was like the wailing of ghosts and wolves: "Heaven is helping our lord, Heaven is helping our lord!"

  Xu Haifeng immediately turned around and rode away on his horse, muttering to himself: "I don't know him."

  Back in the city, the two brothers were reunited after a long time apart, and there was a surprise.

  Jiang Kung-ming, like a treasured baby, directed the Black Flag soldiers to transport over a hundred large carts to a secluded courtyard specially designed for researching new-style weapons.

  This is where the greatest secret of the Black Flag Army lies, called the Research Institute by Jiang Gongming.

  At least half of Su's skilled craftsmen were here making those strange and wonderful things that Jiang Kung-ming had invented.

  These people have lost their personal freedom since entering the research institute. Although they enjoy the most luxurious treatment in the world, they have never had contact with the outside world again. It's as if they evaporated from the world and disappeared without a trace.

  Su Chunwei certainly knew about this matter, but after a detailed discussion with Jiang Kongming, he no longer inquired about it.

  Xu Haifeng was perplexed, to think that these people, even in the Su family, were top-notch talents who were hard to come by, why did he let go so easily.

  Until Jiang Gongming handed him a scroll, unfolded it and took a look, he knew what was going on.

  In this scroll, some exquisite tools are depicted, including the divine crossbow of Zhuge.

  With Su Chunwei's discerning eye, he naturally knew the value of these things. He weighed his options repeatedly and knew that these items were worth a city. The craftsmen were gone, but the Su family had a way to cultivate another batch within a few years.

  But it's not possible for ordinary people to create such things, so Zhuge Liang used them to exchange with those craftsmen, and the Su family didn't lose anything.

  Now that a large number of trained soldiers such as Directional Moan have arrived, Xu Haifeng can fully launch the next step.

  To cultivate the next generation of brave and good warriors, Jiang Gongming put forward the suggestion of establishing a military school.

  He once asked Xu Haifeng whether he wanted a lifetime of fame or more capital for his future descendants.

  Xu Haifeng did not understand what he meant, so Jiang Kongming said straightforwardly: "If the lord only wants to gain fame in this life, then he can fully expand the Blood Wine Warriors and rely on their ferocity and abilities that surpass ordinary people. They will surely be invincible under the sky. However, once the lord passes away, his descendants will never be able to restore the glory of the Black Flag Army."

  Xu Haifeng understood his meaning and asked for a solution.

  Jiang Kung-ming then proposed the establishment of a military school, but what surprised Hui Hai-feng was that Jiang Kung-ming, when selecting instructors for the military school, actually strongly excluded all of Fang Zhong-ying's subordinates, preferring to temporarily lack personnel rather than allowing them to take part.

  At this time, the military academy was like a strict new recruit camp multiplied by a hundred. In addition to physical training, it also taught how to command troops, march and deploy, and other basic skills that junior officers must master. Only one person, Jiang Kongming, could summarize and teach these aspects.

  Such high-intensity training is naturally not something that everyone can withstand and pass through.

  Xu Haifeng began recruiting and conscripting as soon as he arrived at Wulong City. So far, thousands of new soldiers have been formed, and with the original city guards, the army under his command has exceeded 10,000 people, excluding the Black Flag Army.

  Members of these regular armies were selected through layers of screening, selecting those who could endure hardships and were agile and intelligent to enter military school for study. When they went through the military school's intensified training and came out, they had already become qualified soldiers.

  These people returned to the troops and served as squad leaders or even platoon leaders. With these systematically trained junior officers, the combat effectiveness of the troops was qualitatively improved.

  Jiang Kongming's method was immediately applauded as soon as it came out.

  As a high-ranking commander, the ultimate goal is to command troops with ease and precision, but those junior officers in the past were inconsistent, unless they had gone through years of tempering, it was impossible to reach such a state.

  But once a large number of casualties occur in the troops, the command system immediately collapses, and it takes years to recover.

  But once the military academy is established, it can continuously supply junior officers to the troops. Since they come from the same place, they know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and naturally cooperate without problems.

  That is to say, as long as there are enough soldiers, they can quickly form combat effectiveness, and no longer need to spend a long time understanding the commander's orders.

  As soon as he thought of this, Fang Zhong couldn't help but nod his head in praise, and for Jiang Gongming, it was even more respectful.

  Although he appeared to be nonchalant on the surface, Chiang Kung-ming had actually been harboring other thoughts when his subordinate declined his offer to take up a teaching position at the military academy.

  In addition, in the military school, Jiang Gongming also opened a short-term training class. This is specially prepared for the logistics department.

  At this time, the logistics department used traditional Chinese characters for accounting, which made calculations appear complicated and confusing.

  Jiang Gongming specially introduced Arabic numerals and the multiplication and division tables of 99.

  This change brought a huge shock to Tong Yifeng. These things are not complicated, and anyone with a slightly better brain can grasp them quickly. Moreover, the records are concise and clear. No longer like before, facing an account book is like looking at a heavenly book.

  This move greatly simplified the tedious work of the logistics department. Tong Yifeng saw the subtlety in it and ordered all logistics officers to learn from it uniformly. Although they were not very used to it at first, as time went on, they tasted the sweetness in it and became staunch supporters of the reform.