Commanding Wind and Cloud
chapter-419

The old man had just placed his hands on the desk and was about to sit down. Hearing this, he stood up again and looked at Qian Jin. "Alright. As long as you recite the profiles and meritorious battles of two hundred illustrious generals, I will plead the dean to provide the winner of the 40th ranking of the Hundred Battle Ranking List with another batch of provisions so that you will have double the resources."

A string of harsh pants rang out in the classroom. To enumerate the personal information of two hundred famous generals had already been exhausting work, let alone their respective merits. Well, it seemed an unattainable task.

"Your words…" Qian Jin looked into the old man seriously, "Do count or not?"

"Hahaha." The old man made a wild laugh and thumped his chest loudly. "I am Nanmen Xiangrong! How could my words be invalid?"

The surrounding warriors nodded their heads incessantly, thinking that this old professor was after all someone who had fought on the battlefield. Though his reason for serving here as a teacher was unknown, he received great treatment from the dean, someone who generally treated the teachers harshly.

"Nanmen Xiangrong?" Qian Jin opened his mouth into a wide "O" shape, "Withstood a group of twenty thousand warriors from the Samael Demons for fifteen days with only a dispatch of seven hundred. Assailed the Mammon Demons at night and triumphed by killing four thousand enemies at the cost of two thousand on your side. Later you had the Samael Demons fight with Asmodeus Demons in the evening for thirty-five minutes. Was that you, the meritorious general Nanmen Xiangrong?"

An incessant stream of cold gasp rang in the classroom. The warrior apprentices looked at their Professor Nanmen Xiangrong who was now in a state of excitement as could be seen from his facial expression.

Was he so that compelling? The warrior apprentices exchanged a doubtful look at each other. How could such a mighty general serve as a teacher here?

Nanmen Xiangrong's hands, which were propped on the pulpit, were now trembling slightly. His wrinkled face was flushed, his breath turned harsh and his eyes were filled with surprise. "Who are you? Why do you know so many things about me?"

Qian Jin was shocked. What? He read all these in the memoir of a Qian predecessor. It might be true that the commoners of the Zence Empire had no knowledge of him, but the fact that students of a warrior academy hadn't heard of him didn't make sense. Why were his classmates so surprised upon hearing this name? Why did this teacher himself become so excited?

"I read these in a memoir."

"Memoir?" Nanmen Xiangrong twisted his brows so hard that he could even squeeze a fly to death. "Who dared write down my name? What a bold person he is!"

Qian Jin screwed his lips. He read this name in a dozen memoirs, even including those written by the arrogant bloodline warriors of the Qian Family. This pointed to the truth that this ordinary warrior was undoubtedly outstanding.

"Should Nanmen Xiangrong be listed as a famous general?" Qian Jin looked at the teacher who gradually returned to normal. "So there are one hundred and ninety-nine names left to be listed."

Nanmen Xiangrong paused for a little while and then wore a smile amid the tangled wrinkles on his face. "So you have one hundred and ninety-nine left here."

"Beili Kunying." Qian Jin burst out speaking with fervor and assurance. "Collectively called 'Talents of the North and South' along with Nanmen Xiangrong, who once led one thousand and nine hundred people to go deep into the Demons' territory and assault their supply transportation dispatch three times during ten days to block the transfer of the Demons' main force, thus having made a grand merit. Burnt five thousand Asmodeus Demons with six thousand on our side…

Nanmen Xiangrong looked at Qian Jin blankly and gathered a cluster of moisture above his small eyes. His flattened emotions started to swirl again on the thought of Kunying

As Qian Jin blurted out the names of one general after another, ninety percent of the students in the class were dumbfounded. What was this person's brain made of? Was he seriously going to count the names of two hundred famous generals?

Qian Jin gradually closed his eyes, since there emerged so many generals in his mind that he had to pick up the relatively more famous ones among them. Meanwhile, his admiration for professor Eulalia's grand deed in making the mystic Memory Potion grew heavier and heavier, the drinking of which not only helped him to remember new things coming to his sight but also to recall past memories. Even the things that happened when he was only two or three years old had now become as clear as day.

Two hundred meritorious generals. Two hundred meritorious generals. Nanmen Xiangrong looked at Qian Jin bemusedly, wondering where this little monster came from. It might go if he invested all his energies and time into learning military tactics and commanding without laying any importance on personal combat power. However, it was obvious that he only had eyes for the individual growth of combat power.

No one would believe that he had defeated Wei Buhuan, the notoriously atrocious 40th winner of the Hundred Battle Ranking List as he was not someone who laid overweighing importance on personal combat power himself, now that he was such a young warrior without bloodline awakening power.

"Hush…" Qian Jin made a long exhale, slumped into his seat and looked to Nanmen Xiangrong smilingly. He had just blurted out the information of one hundred and ten generals.

Nanmen Xiangrong looked at Qian Jin meditatively, feeling shocked by this young man's memory. Now that this boy hadn't awakened the bloodline power and thus couldn't reach the summit of individual combat power, he needed to be developed toward being a battle general. Nanmen Xiangrong thought to himself.

Splendid memory itself didn't constitute all needed essentials for becoming an outstanding general but would work for taking up the post of strategy advisor responsible for providing the marshal with all battles of referential significance.

This would be much more promising than merely pursuing individual combat power as an ordinary warrior.

Nanmen Xiangrong nodded his head suddenly and heavily. "That's right. I will talk with this boy after class to see whether he has the potential in commanding. If so, I will go to the Dean's and discuss with her about sending Qian Jin to the commanding division for further observation." Nanmen Xiangrong thought to himself.

"Stand up."

All warrior apprentices stood up and made a bow at the old man, so did Qian Jin. Then he sat down silently again.

Qian Jin felt a little puzzled. He was told that even the lecturers (the bottom level of the faculty's professional title) of advanced warrior academies gave lessons by having some reference to the textbooks. Why didn't this old professor take any textbooks with him for today's course of military psychology?

Splash…splash…

A string of noise, which sounded like hundreds of thousands of pebbles falling off on the ground crisply, rang in the silent classroom.

Qian Jin saw the rest of the class take out a quadrilateral wood board from their desks painted with intersecting lines to form strange grids, on the hindermost parts of which were miscellaneous chess pieces carved with names and numbers.

What was this? A kind of chess? Qian Jin looked confusedly at the chess board and chess pieces. Given the voluminous records he had read and all the popular variations of chess he had played, there wasn't such a strange type of chess in either the Zence or the Demon Empire.

Qian Jin took out a similar chess board, a jar of miscellaneous chess pieces as well as an instruction manual from the desk.

The names on the chess pieces represented the assorted military establishments in the army while the numbers represented certain degrees of combat power. When these chess pieces were gathered and conducted some arrangement, the numbers carved on them would have corresponding changes.

In the case of army's troops and divisions being deployed appropriately and made their appearance under proper formations, the numbers would rise up incessantly. While when the army's troops and divisions were allocated wrongly or appeared in improper places or be besieged by others, the numbers would decrease.

Magic conductor? Qian Jin turned over the chess board and the chess pieces and found the eerie magic rune characters known to no one but runemasters.

No wonder it was called an advanced warrior academy. Qian Jin smacked his lips. To have all these props in place might cost no more than one magic core of the lowest-level demon beast for one hundred years to elapse, but to manufacture them was undoubtedly a heavy task.

Bang.

The old man took out a huge chess board from the pulpit which looked five times bigger than that of Qian Jin's.

"You noobs," The old man straightened his sleeves and stretched his neck, "let me quench you all today."

A beam of light flashed out of the chess board, which broke into innumerable lights instantly and connected all chess boards to form a strange intersecting grid taking on the shape of a spider web. All the smaller chess boards were now connected by the lights.

Qian Jin discovered that some warrior apprentices were given a dozen or so chess pieces while the others several dozens. Inputting the warrior apprentice's identification number on the compact digital board, Qian Jin was surprised to find that the available chess pieces boards on his side were only four.

Forty logistic transportation soldiers. Seeing the four chess pieces at his command, Qian Jin forced a bitter smile. What use could these props be?

Dense spotlights of all colors started to show up on the chess boards, including Qian Jin's which was blazing in the hindermost part of the entire queue.

"This is…" Qian Jin turned over the manual rapidly and came to know that this wasn't a drilling chess exclusive to Punitive Expedition Academy. In performing this, the students and teachers played the role of the army force from Lucifer Empire and the Zence Empire to fight against each other.

Scores would be given according to the game results, on the basis of which the performers would be promoted or demoted according to the military merits they accrued. With the promotion of the military titles, the numbers of available troops would also rise up.

This type of war chess was not only a test for the warrior apprentices' commanding abilities but also their coordination qualities. Many retinue members would come spontaneously close to their masters for conducting a small-scale war to increase their combat power.

Qian Jin soon found out that he didn't know anybody at school and there were only four dispatches of logistic transportation soldiers. What use would they be in a real fight?

Seeing Qian Jin engaged in studying the drill, Hoare Tee wore a sneer and placed fifteen chess pieces on the board, which soon gathered nearly one hundred light spots to gather from all directions.

"There are only four dispatches of transportation corps." Lenz Zarf looked at the four light spots of Qian Jin on the chess board. "Find someone to block his way and make him stay towards the back of the entire battlefield so that no incentive scores of combat power would go to him. Having no recourse to accruing scores or familiarizing with the battlefield, he would very likely to flunk this course at the end-of-term examination.