Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Chapter 13: Wufang Town (3)

Outside the town’s house, a large group of people crowded at the door, blocking the road. There are not only the remnants of the imperial army who live in Wufang Town, but also many local old and weak women and children. People flock here with different feelings.

This was obviously a good thing Yang Biao and the others did. It was not that he spread the news while calling everyone to the door of Li Desheng's house, nor would he gather like many people in a short time. Except for the dozens of remnants of the Forbidden Army, these almost abandoned old and weak living quietly, suddenly gathered together, only to find that there were so many people, at least several hundred. At first glance, the eyes are full of gray hair and cloth covering the head. Women seem to like to wrap their hair around the house.

Seeing Li Desheng was about to speak, Guo Shao stepped forward, clasped his fists and sang the salute, shouting: "You folks..."

Suddenly, he looked at him with gazes. It seemed that everyone was looking at himself in this situation. Guo Shao hadn't experienced this kind of occasion for a long time, and his heart felt a little nervous. He cleared his throat and said: "This time the Khitans went south to take advantage of the emptiness of the Zhaoyi army's main force and the official army to attack Jinyang, and to harass... Thanks to the general Li of the town general, let me serve as the deputy general to assist in defense." After that, seeing Li Desheng frowned and didn't mean to refute, Guo Shao ignored it.

He continued to say loudly: "A month ago, we came here to recover. The people of Wufang Town provided shelter and clothing, and gave food and drink regardless of the difficulties of the family... Dripping grace, the husband should report to you; the folks treat people with sincerity, which is gratifying. To the deepest. I need it today, brothers, how can we stand by? Dare to die!"

People are quiet, there is no noise or cheers, just like this dilapidated old town. But they all listened.

Guo Shao's gaze swept over the remnants of the Forbidden Army, and he shouted: "In the battle of Gaoping, Zhang Yuanhui, the first fierce fighter of the North Han Army, rushed into my ranks and was cut by me on the spot! I have two brothers and were heavily besieged by enemy soldiers. It’s nothing to kill the enemy with ten! The commander of the official family and the front of the palace, Si Zhangdu, has personally commended him, saying, "Commander should be granted." Mentioning the emperor and high-ranking officials in public, Guo Shao held his fist in salute to the north and recognized the authority of the court. Emphasizing his authority, he continued, "The generals who are stationed in Wufang Town today have different affiliations. Do you want to disperse in a crisis or reorganize into the army? If there is a military rank higher than me, I am willing to stand. Come out and call the soldiers, speak now..."

"Since there is no such thing, Mr. Guo will not give up and take over the right of the skirmish troops stationed in Wufang Town from now on! I have a list of wounded soldiers placed in Wufang Town, and those who remain are still in the position of the forbidden army; It's a deserter. What happened today will be reported to the front office of the palace." Guo Shao won't allow others to say it. Of course he doesn't want the only soldier to be reduced again.

The army was silent, and no one was willing to oppose it.

Guo Shao was very satisfied when he saw it, and now he incited the people: "I know that there are many veterans in the scene. You have served your country for your whole life, and you have been fighting for others; now the barbarians are going to trample on your homeland and kill and rape|humiliate. Your relatives, the time has come to fight for yourself! The Khitan people of Liao Kingdom burned, killed and plundered, as everyone knows, if you don’t fight, you will die. Take up your weapons and use your last blood to defend your family! My colleagues, brothers and sisters, I would have been able to defend the land and the people to death on the battlefield with everyone, and I feel infinite glory!"

Slowly, many gray-haired people stood out from the crowd. Someone said: "Old man killed people in the past." "Counting me, I don't have many days to live anyway. If you die, you will die..."

Guo Shao took the opportunity to say: "Since all the folks think that they would be able to take on this task, in order to prepare for the war, it is reasonable and legal for me to issue a call-up order in Wufang Town!"

He immediately issued the first call-up order to select people who can still fill the army to help defend, and every household in other households must have people and rations to follow the arrangements for repairs. In front of the entire town, it was clear that the town’s general Li Desheng did not object on the spot, and everything changed from raw rice to cooked rice.

Li Desheng had to agree to the method proposed by Guo Shao before. He took people to Luzhou to purchase supplies, leaving his servants to help manage the people.

Those old men who claim to have been in the army are all at least fifty years old; there are no young men in this place, and young men will not be sent to Wufu Town. Guo Shao and others can only lower the standard for selecting soldiers, and pick those who seem to be in their seventies and eighties, walk more agilely, and have better spirits. After choosing for a long time, there were sixty-eight people.

These veterans also dig out the broken copper and rotten iron armor from their homes, which are better than nothing, and some have weapons. Before the town general left, he finally gave up his armor, sword, and bow, but only one pair.

Busy till noon, someone came over to greet Guo Shao. He looked back and found that it was Zuo You, a civilian military doctor in the army. This man has a good face, a small beard, and a round-neck gown, but he is very thin. Zuo You said, "I have a suggestion below, would Guo Lang listen to it?"

Guo Shao put down the bow and arrow in his hand and hurriedly told him to speak frankly. Zuo You said: "The top priority is not only to compile soldiers into a roster, but also to formulate military laws and regulations as soon as possible, so that rewards and punishments have evidence. I have written the ‘four cut orders’ and asked Guo Lang to look at it."

Those who resisted cut off; those who flee before the battle were cut off; those who left without permission were cut off; those who took advantage of the chaos to avenge private revenge and bully the people cut off.

It is simple and rude and covers the foreseeable problems. The last one is even more faint with long-term concerns. Guo Shao immediately glanced at Zuo You twice, and now he changed his slogan to "Mr. Zuo": "Why don't Mr. Zuo cut the four to the public. Read it several times to know the whole army by knowing it?"

Seeing him so happy, Zuo You immediately said, "Let's take the order."

That afternoon, Guo Shao entrusted Zuo You to register his soldiers and soldiers. Then began to organize, the twenty-eight recovered wounded soldiers of the Forbidden Army were independently organized into a team; the seventy old and weak town soldiers were organized into a capital, called the township soldier. He served as the military envoy by himself, Yang Biao served as the deputy soldier and horse envoy and ten generals of the imperial army, Luo Mengzi as the long line (deputy post of the squad); he also promoted three generals among the ten generals. Although the sparrow was small and well-equipped, he directly formed an organization... and even asked Zuo You to put on the name of a marching counsellor. The staff team was considered established, although there was only one person.

In the evening, Guo Shao was discussing matters with the people around him. Four people were present, and Zuo You also began to participate in the discussions. It was agreed that the second levy was issued so that every citizen would contribute ironware to the forge in the town. Yang Biao is in charge of training soldiers, Guo Shao prepares materials and weapons, Zuo You and Luo Mengzi supervise the construction of fortifications.

...

There was originally a rammed city wall in Wufu Town, but it has fallen into disrepair over the years, and now it has only been digging and repairing the dilapidated areas; the soil is taken directly from the trench dug outside the wall, and then tamped with clay. Yang Biao's suggestion was to add a deep trench to a wall, and use sharpened bamboo in the trench to increase defense; to nail a wooden stake outside the trench. Manpower and materials are very scarce, and this can only be achieved.

There are forests and bamboo forests on the north side of this place. Choose one to two feet of hard bamboo, and one sharpened end is a spear. There is no iron gun that is sharp and durable, but it is also useful. It is lighter and longer than solid wood. It can be used by infantry temporarily against cavalry; if it is not durable, one person can prepare a few, which can be spared for those village soldiers who help defense.

The temporarily formed weak soldiers were incomplete, and most of the armors turned out by the old soldiers were rusty and damaged. So they used wooden blocks and bamboo chips to drill the air, and made simple armors that were not enough to supplement the scales. The protection was not very good, but it was better than nothing.

Two days later, I learned that Li Desheng had come back with two carts of things personally. Perhaps he stayed uneasy in Luzhou, but after all he was afraid of Li Yun's accountability? When Guo Shao heard the news and went out, he immediately understood that this servant was definitely a miser. He got some broken copper and iron on the neck of the knife holder. Fortunately, there were a lot of coarse grains in the two mule carts... Property must be more than just buying such things. Guo Shao was inconvenient to care about with him, and generously accepted the food.

Because after Li Desheng’s wife and children were sent to Luzhou, there were no female relatives at home. Guo Shao and others have moved to the relatively spacious Li’s home as a residence ~www.readwn.com~ Li Desheng returned to his home and only saw everywhere They are all debris, which has been completely changed.

In the past two days, Guo Shao has re-turned the terrain of Wufang Town several times, and when he returned to Li Desheng, he continued to discuss tactics with the people in the house:

"Wuzhen Town is a mountain on one side and vulnerable on three sides. It is estimated that the wall is nearly two miles long on foot. We have only a hundred soldiers, and most of them are old and weak. If they stand fast, they are not strong enough. It is known that the Khitans are good at field battles, so they go out of the city. No, we have no cavalry and long-range bows and arrows, and we will lose the battle. We can only try to lure the enemy into the city, use the fortification terrain to prevent the enemy from deploying, and use the walls and alleys to destroy the enemy. Therefore, I asked the people to build walls on the two central roads to block the roads. , This is the intention."

...Six or seven days passed in a blink of an eye, and Wufang Town was basically ready, but the surroundings were still deadly quiet, no different from countless days. The soldiers were a little worried that the Khitan soldiers would not come. It is strange to think that it is a good thing for the enemy to not come, but now people are looking forward to a fight. Because everyone has been busy for many days, smashing pots and irons to build fortifications, and trained to wait for it. If it is not useful, wouldn't it be a waste of work? As for what is the best result, people don't seem to think about it.

The soldiers are gearing up, and even the village soldiers are not accepting the old, and are looking forward to it. There are also hundreds of people who work at the city gate every day. Guo Shao set up outposts on all sides and one mile away, and sent people to take turns as scouts day and night. There are also people on duty on the walls of the city every day, which can be described as complete.

"Why aren't the Khitan soldiers coming?" The old man standing on guard outside the door also muttered.

Guo Shao was just talking about them. Of course, he wouldn't say "It's better if it doesn't come," so as not to hit everyone's active fighting spirit.

In the offensive and defensive situation, the defender naturally has an advantage, but it is at the cost of giving up the initiative; it is up to others to fight or not, and to what extent it cannot be controlled by itself.

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