The training ground west of the outer city.
Boom boom boom—
The fourth quarter of the hour of the Snake.
Boom—
Boom—
Boom—
The sound of war drums began ringing out around the training ground.
The drums rolled like thunder, growing ever more urgent.
Thud thud thud—
A series of crisp, uniform footsteps suddenly sounded outside the training ground as well.
Everyone followed the sound with their eyes.
They immediately saw two squads of armored soldiers, weapons in hand and spirits soaring, running forward in perfect formation.
The armor on every one of them was dark black, retaining its gloomy hue even beneath the sunlight.
They carried long halberds, their cold radiance flashing.
"What bearing, what superb equipment. They truly deserve to be called the elite soldiers under Constable Wang!" Cheng Ran sighed from behind.
Jiang Ning watched the scene and nodded inwardly as well.
Judging by the history of his previous life, from ancient times to the present, aside from a tiny number of exceptionally elite soldiers, only generals, city garrisons, and a general's personal guards could afford full suits of armor.
Yet these two squads before him were merely a force of one hundred soldiers stationed in Luoshui County.
Even a county garrison possessed such bearing and such elite equipment. That said it all.
This Constable Wang seems quite wealthy! Jiang Ning inwardly remarked.
From what he understood, although such armor certainly was not forged from hundred-refined fine iron and the materials were relatively ordinary, equipping a single soldier this way would still cost at least several hundred taels of silver.
Not to mention anything else—equipping these two elite squads alone had already burned through ten thousand taels of silver.
And these were merely two squads of armored, weapon-bearing soldiers.
What if there were more?
At this moment.