The Path of the Sage

Chapter 156: Mirage

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After the run around the city was over, all the people from the three teams gathered together and walked slowly back, and finally entered the barracks of the first squad together.

One group of soldiers lived in one barracks, with bunk beds on both sides. One large bunk bed could sleep eight people.

Thirty or forty people were sitting in the room together, chatting and gossiping, but it was summer now, and the room was filled with sweat and stench as there were too many people. All the soldiers didn't care, and Fang Yun didn't feel disgusted at all, because he was also one of them.

As Fang Yun listened to the conversation of these soldiers, he understood more clearly why General Yu did not let him change his name. The fear of letting the cat out of the bag was secondary. The main reason was that the army was different from other places. The communication channels were very narrow and the social circle was very small.

Soldiers within a team communicate frequently. A battalion has ten teams, and communication between different teams is relatively rare. Ordinary soldiers from different battalions generally do not know each other.

Fang Yun estimated that in the near future only the people in this battalion would know him more or less, and it would be difficult for other battalions to get news about him, not to mention other guards. The possibility of the news spreading outside Dinghai Army was almost zero.

The military is a place where competition prevails but it is also a place where the strong are worshipped. Now that Fang Yun has demonstrated his strength, these people regard him as the successor of a military strategist and quickly accept him.

Those sergeants and captains were not afraid at all that Fang Yun would take their positions. They knew that if Fang Yun wanted to be an official, at worst he could be a ninth-rank lieutenant, and there would be no conflict between them in any way.

Fang Yun knew a lot about macro aspects such as military tactics, military intelligence, and formations, but he had never been a soldier after all, so he listened very carefully and understood the military camp from all aspects, because a very small detail could determine the success or failure of a battle.

These soldiers talked about everything: sirens, dragons, women, training, superiors, etc. It was as if all kinds of military life were unfolding before Fang Yun's eyes. Some of the details were very important to military tactics and commanding troops.

According to the rules, everyone had to practice after three o'clock, but because they were running around the city, the three teams did not practice and kept chatting. After dinner, they gathered together to chat.

The old soldiers were very happy because of Fang Yun, the talented new recruit. Fang Yun often asked questions about things he didn't know, which made the old soldiers talk incessantly. Some even argued because of different opinions.

It was not until after nine o'clock in the evening that people began to go to bed.

At 5:30 the next day, the morning bell rang and all the soldiers of Yuhai Mansion got up one after another.

A group of big men wearing only underwear began to wash. They were all strong and healthy. Some of them were so energetic that their blood and qi were stronger than those of ordinary demon soldiers.

Afterwards, the three teams went to the canteen of the first battalion to eat together, chatting and laughing.

It was seven in the morning. All the barracks of the Dinghai Army were empty. Tens of thousands of people lined up in a long queue and ran out of the barracks. Jogging for an hour was a common practice in the army. It was the best training method summarized by a semi-saint who was good at training soldiers three hundred years ago.

After the jog, the twenty battalions of the Dinghai Navy began training in different subjects.

The Second Guard and First Battalion where Fang Yun was located started with weapons training, and Fang Yun first practiced the bow and arrow.

With the level of Wen Dan, Fang Yun's control over his body far surpassed those soldiers. Every arrow hit the bull's eye. And shooting at a moving target was no different from shooting at a fixed target. He had already mastered the archery of the six arts of a gentleman to perfection.

"Sharpshooter!" Everyone couldn't help but give a thumbs up, and even people from other teams were secretly amazed.

Although the archers had to shoot all the time, they also carried swords with them. Fang Yun practiced swords for another quarter of an hour. His swordsmanship was average, but after four times of talent initiation, his strength and reaction surpassed all the other students, which attracted many people's applause.

After training with weapons, they began to practice military formations. A battalion had ten teams, and under the command of the battalion commander, they began to form formations, charging in a cone formation or defending in a circle formation, constantly changing to cope with different situations and testing the soldiers' various abilities.

Half an hour later, Fang Yun's battalion and five other battalions formed a guard and practiced formations together. The formation of three thousand people was relatively complicated, and the soldiers often made small mistakes, but their comrades next to them kept reminding them, allowing the formation to continue.

Finally, the people of the Third Battalion cooperated with the Juren Battalion School to launch an attack, which was close to an exercise. After each use of large-scale war poems, the battalion school would command the team to act.

Although Fang Yun was a soldier for the first time, he was more familiar with the formations and orders in the army than the veterans. He made no mistakes and sometimes even corrected the mistakes of the veterans next to him and told them how to understand the formations. Fang Yun's words were easy to understand and the veterans around him understood them as soon as they heard them.

"You are worthy of being the successor of a military strategist!" Everyone admired him very much.

Now no one doubts that he is the role model of literati Fang Yun.

After the drill, each team made a summary and someone reported to Captain Shi about Fang Yun's teaching of the veterans. Captain Shi praised Fang Yun and then invited everyone to have lunch.

The lunch break was very long. After a short nap, more and more people came to the barracks where Fang Yun was located, and soon it became a gathering place for nearly fifty people from the entire team, which was rare before.

Unlike yesterday's casual chat, today many veterans asked Fang Yun questions about military formations. Fang Yun answered them one by one in the most popular and simple language. However, Fang Yun did not know the answers to some of the questions. After all, he had not encountered many situations before. He wrote them down and said that he would think about them later and tell the person once he had a result.

Some people not only asked about military formations, but also asked about the use of weapons and methods of fighting the enemy in battle. This would occasionally spark discussions, and Fang Yun would also hear useful things.

When he finished his break at three o'clock in the afternoon, Fang Yun had accumulated more than twenty questions. Some of these questions he really didn't know the answers to, while others required some time to think about.

The second round of training was from 3 to 5 pm. Fang Yun participated in it while thinking about those problems.

Fang Yun discovered a problem in the army. The so-called military tactics or military books were all mastered by mid-level officers. Team leaders, sergeants or corporals could only read some military tactics by themselves at most. Many times they were not very clear about the usefulness of military tactics, mainly because no one explained them in detail.

"Now I don't know much about military training. When I have enough experience, I have to find a way to write a training manual for grassroots officers and soldiers, using the simplest and most straightforward language to tell them what to do, why to do it, and the consequences of not doing so, etc."

Fang Yun shook his head, thinking that it was not that those higher-level military strategists did not understand, but that they knew too much. Because all the methods were clearly written in military books that everyone could read, and the more powerful descendants of military strategists could even control the soldiers' formations, so they did not care about the ideas of the grassroots soldiers.

"There is a lack of military education at the grass-roots level. If military education is strengthened in the army, perhaps more military strategists will emerge."

Fang Yun took advantage of the evening rest to go to the military library, looking for books on military training and reading them carefully. While memorizing them, he could also form new books in the world of strange books.

Military books have a wide range of uses. For example, the "Ten Formations" in "Sun Bin's Art of War" can control the formation of a million-strong army once its power is released, allowing each soldier to appear in the right place, which is enough to increase the strength of the entire team by 20% to 30%. The effect is huge.

Formation is the highest realm of military strategy, but there are very few military books on formation.

Near midnight, Fang Yun left the library and rushed back to the barracks. Nearly fifty people from the third team were already standing in front of the door. After a while, Captain Shi appeared and led everyone out. Finally, they met up with the other people from the first battalion at the entrance of the barracks and accepted the blessing of a Jinshi's poem "Chang Wu".

Under the cover of night, 500 men from the first battalion left the Dinghai Army camp, left the East Sub-City, and began patrolling.

Yuhai Port in East Sub-City is an important place in Jing State. Yuhai Prefecture is too big, and the port has left the coverage of Yuhai Prefecture Holy Temple. Although the port is guarded by the Great Confucian True Text, the Great Confucian True Text will not attack the small monsters in the distance, so there are often river monsters and sea monsters harassing near the port.

The demon generals still have reason and will consider the gains and losses before taking action, but the demons and soldiers have low intelligence and always want to eat people, which is a headache for the human race.

The existence of the patrol team is to prevent the monsters from accidentally entering and harming people, or discovering potential dangers. After all, the monsters have many ways to deceive the great scholar Zhenwen in a short time.

The battalion of 500 people was divided into ten teams. Before separating, Captain Jin asked everyone to cheer up, because Li Wenying had gone to the Yangtze River to kill monsters a few days ago. According to convention, the river monsters would retaliate against Yuhai Mansion. This attack on the state army rather than civilians would not trigger Li Wenying's personal revenge.

The ten teams were spread out, with each team half a mile apart, so that if any team had a problem, the nearest team could discover it.

The night at the seaside is dark and silent, with the occasional sound of waves hitting the shore or washing the beach. Ordinary soldiers hold torches, while the students have sharp night vision and can clearly see everything around them.

To the east of Yuhai City is the East China Sea, and to the south is the Yangtze River. A patrol battalion of 500 people patrols the shores between the East China Sea, the Yangtze River and Yuhai Prefecture.

According to Jin Yingxiao's order, everyone paid more attention to the Yangtze River side. After all, it was the revenge of the river monster rather than the sea monster.

The night was dark. After two hours, the soldiers' spirits were worn out by the increasingly cold sea breeze and they no longer had the initial vigilance.

Hong Cheng, who was standing by, was no longer as serious as before. He smiled and asked, "How is it? Are you used to patrolling in the middle of the night?"

"Well enough."

"Have you ever killed a siren?" Hong Cheng asked.

"I've killed river monsters, but never sea monsters. Generally, sea monsters are more powerful than river monsters, right?" Fang Yun asked.

"Of course. We know you are powerful, but the sirens are different, so don't be scared. There are two or three hundred sirens at a time, and it will be difficult for our three battalions to deal with them. Can you do it?" Hong Cheng said.

Fang Yun knew that Hong Cheng was trying to provoke him, so he looked towards the East China Sea with a smile and said, "A sea monster is also a monster, there's nothing to be afraid of. Eh? Is that a sea monster over there? No!"

Everyone turned their heads and saw three layers of huge waves rising from the sea and rushing towards the shore, each layer higher than the last. Each layer of waves was dozens of feet wide and dozens of miles long. On the waves stood densely packed river monsters, not sea monsters.

In the center of the group of monsters, a huge dragon head appeared, and the head alone was almost as big as a house.

"Not good!" Hong Cheng and many others immediately reached for the official seal and red document and wanted to tear it up to serve as a warning.

However, an invisible force separated the inside and outside of Yuhai City. Then everyone found that the world had changed and they were actually standing in Yuhai City, but the buildings in the city were translucent.

"Mirage!" Many veterans screamed involuntarily, their faces pale.

"It's over, we're dead! The one coming must be the Dragon King." (To be continued...)