Chapter 144: Rapid Progress

"I didn't expect Gao Ning to have a brother named Gao Ming, and that Gao Ming turned out to be a bandit chieftain? He actually abandoned his family enterprise in Shandong just to acknowledge his brother, and led over 5,000 subordinates to march into the Northeast?" Mother Zhu asked in utter astonishment.

Xian'er shook her head. "Don't just be surprised; I'm still feeling a bit dazed myself. But you have to admit, Gao Ning's brother is truly righteous. Aside from being a bandit, there's not a single flaw to be found in him. He's a rare and magnificent hero!"

Listening to Chuanwen and his wife singing the praises of Second Brother Gao, Gao Ning was left speechless.

From his appearance until now, Second Brother Gao hadn't even exchanged many words with the couple, so how on earth did he suddenly become an epic hero of boundless loyalty?

While they were talking inside, the two brothers outside had already packed everything away.

The security guard force did not linger for long. Fangniugou had few residents and plenty of wasteland, so they directly found a relatively flat piece of land to pitch camp.

Naturally, people were soon dispatched to purchase land and a series of daily necessities.

Someone had already ridden ahead at full gallop to bring Zhang Shaolong and the siblings Ye Zimei over.

With the whole family reunited, the old Zhu household became even livelier. Mother Zhu was overjoyed, and unable to suppress her enthusiasm, she rushed into the kitchen to cook several dishes. Holding wine pots, the group ate and chatted away the entire afternoon.

The joy of the family reunion continued for several days before gradually subsiding.

Using some of his methods, Gao Ning directly purchased a large expanse of land in Fangniugou, bought two large residential plots at the east end of the village, and hired the finest craftsmen to build two connected large courtyards featuring the most standard six-room brick-tiled houses.

Coincidentally, it shared a wall with Han Laohai.

The commotion Gao Ning made was somewhat grand. Mounted on tall horses, fully clad in black from head to toe, the bandits rode back and forth through the village, attracting the attention of many observant people. Everyone whispered among themselves, guessing just who this Zhu family from Shandong could be, and why they suddenly appeared so formidable.

If Zhu Kaishan were here, he probably would have set up a banquet, invited all the elders and youngsters of the village, and explained everything clearly.

Gao Ning, however, had no such interest. Behind closed doors, you could say whatever you liked, but just make sure it didn't reach his ears. Once a single malicious word came to his attention, he wouldn't care about being polite and would come straight to your door to cause trouble.

Families that could thrive in times like these usually possessed good judgment and knew what to say and how to act.

Seeing Gao Ning's momentum—with twenty cavalrymen under his command who clearly looked like no ordinary folks—even the villagers who liked to gossip dared not spread rumors everywhere.

Coupled with the arrival of the mason team into the village, who began constructing houses amidst the clatter of tools, the entire Fangniugou became bustling with activity.

Such gossipy matters quickly faded away.

Chuanwu was overjoyed. With so many people and so many horses suddenly added to the household, he could finally indulge his passion for horseback riding to his heart's content.

Every day he would find some excuse to ride back from Yuanbao Town, select a pleasing horse from the spacious stable that looked like a bicycle shed, and gallop wildly across the plain, refusing to go home for dinner until he was thoroughly exhausted.

Chuanjie, perhaps inspired by Mr. Xia's entrepreneurial spirit, had dug up a lot of materials and, upon returning, personally calculated just how much those two cartloads of goods brought back by Gao Ning were actually worth.

Mother Zhu was also very happy. At first, when Gao Ning spent money to build the residence, she adamantly refused.

Later, seeing that Gao Ning was determined and had already hired people to build the large brick-tiled houses, she reluctantly agreed. However, since the head of the family had not yet returned, the residential courtyard at the west end of the village naturally could not be sold.

Mother Zhu took out all the gold dust the family had and handed it directly to Gao Ning. Gao Ning added some more money of his own and directly purchased nearly 2,000 mu of land in Fangniugou.

Afterward, he transferred nearly a hundred bandits from Second Brother Gao's command, had them change their clothes, and instantly transformed them into regular farm laborers.

The number of bandits kept growing—increasing by thirty every three days—so this small batch was just a drop in the bucket.

In the story, Chuanwen was an absolute expert at farming; he was arguably the most quintessential peasant, possessing a fanatical love for the land.

When Gao Ning handed over the 2,000 mu of land and more than 100 farm laborers to him, Chuanwen was almost foolish with joy.

He immediately vanished from sight, riding a horse back and forth across the fields every day to direct the bandits in their work.

These bandits had truly run into terrible luck. Having never done an honest day's work in their lives, they were suddenly reduced to peasants facing the earth with their backs to the sky.

Fortunately, they were cyborgs with biological energy conversion systems inside their bodies. They worked tirelessly, ate very little, and learned quickly.

With such a group of tireless laborers, Chuanwen naturally found things much easier.

The breakfast stall run by Zhang Shaolong was handed directly over to the bandits by Gao Ning.

The three of them discussed the matter and decided to restart the escort agency. With Gao Ning around, they lacked no manpower; through the channels of the escort agency, they could open up routes across the entire three northeastern provinces, and by then, even running just a horse caravan would bring in boundless wealth.

Of course, making money was a minor detail; using the opportunity to expand their influence and gather intelligence from all sides was their primary objective.

None of the three had forgotten that their adversaries had yet to make an appearance.

The appearance of Han Laohai indicated that Zhang Shaolong's target was already in position.

Han Xiuer was still young and had not yet experienced the ordeal of escaping a wolf's jaws, so she had not yet developed any romantic feelings for Chuanwu.

After discussing it with the other two, Zhang Shaolong felt this was a rare opportunity, so half of his recent efforts had been devoted to Han Xiuer.

After all, their current primary task was to protect the safety of the targets.

Therefore, the balance still had to be carefully maintained.

So far, only Ye Zimei's target had yet to appear.

However, following logical deductions, they should be located somewhere in or around Yuanbao Town.

Gao Ning was not in a hurry. Second Brother Gao's forces had already been brought over and had directly occupied Old Bat's lair.

That mountain peak was quite sizable, and stationing 5,000 men there created a formidable presence, frightening several nearby bands of bandits.

Second Brother Gao paid them no mind and did not bother with the traditional bandit rituals of paying respects to other mountain strongholds.

Instead, he ordered his men to embark on massive construction projects, turning Old Bat's lair into the stronghold of the Black Mountain Bandits. Afterward, he split them into numerous squads to strike out in all directions, occupying crucial mountain peaks and vital transportation routes around Yuanbao Town.

Along the way, he conveniently cleaned out several disreputable local bandit gangs.

This frightened many bandits into fleeing their mountains, making Yuanbao Town much quieter for a time.

With all aspects stabilized, the Black Mountain Bandits continued to grow and expand.

There was no shortage of displaced refugees in these times, and combined with the forced incorporation of bandits from various mountains, the Black Mountain forces expanded with the speed of an inflating balloon.

As power plants and mines were established, Gao Ning's foundation was finally set in place, and he officially entered a period of rapid development!