Outside the town general's house, a large group of people were crowded at the door, blocking the road. Not only were there remnants of the imperial guards living in Wuqi Town to recuperate, but also many local elderly, weak, women and children. People rushed here with different moods.

This was obviously a good thing Yang Biao and the other two did. He didn't spread the news while asking everyone to come to Li Desheng's house, and it wouldn't be like many people in a short time. Apart from dozens of remnants of the imperial guards, the elderly and weak who were almost abandoned lived quietly. Suddenly they gathered together and found that there were so many people, at least hundreds. At first glance, they were covered with gray hair and cloth with cloth. Women seemed to like to wrap their hair with a bupa to go out.

Seeing Li Desheng about to speak, Guo Shao stood up first, clasped his fists and held his tribute, shouting loudly: "My fellow villagers..."

Suddenly, a group of eyes looked over. It seemed that everyone was looking at him in this situation. Guo Shao had not experienced this on such an occasion for a long time, and he felt a little nervous. He cleared his throat and said, "The Khitans went south this time to take advantage of the emptiness of the main force of the Zhaoyi army attacking Jinyang with the official army, and they rush to harass him... Chengmeng general Li raised me and asked me to serve as deputy general to assist in defense." After saying that, seeing Li Desheng frowned and had no intention of refuting, Guo Shao ignored it.

He continued to say loudly: "We went here to recuperate from a month ago. The people of Wuqi Town provided housing and clothing, and gave food regardless of the difficulties at home... The kindness of water should be repaid by a real man; all the villagers treat others sincerely, which made people deeply grateful. Today, we can have brothers, so how can we stand by and watch? I dare not live without my life!"

People were quiet, without noise or cheering, just like the dilapidated town of dusk. But they all listened.

Guo Shao's eyes swept over the remaining soldiers of the imperial guards and shouted: "In the Battle of Gaoping, Zhang Yuanhui, the most powerful general of the Northern Han army, rushed to me and was killed on the spot! I have two brothers, surrounded by enemy soldiers, and they all killed ten enemies with one count! The official and the commander-in-chief of the palace, Zhang Du, once praised him personally, saying, "It is advisable to be the commander-in-chief." When talking about the emperor and the high-ranking people in public, Guo Shao bowed his fists to the north, acknowledging the authority of the court, and emphasized his authority, and continued, "This time, all the soldiers stationed in Wuqi Town, have different ownerships. Should they disperse in a hurry or reorganize them into an army? If there are any higher military positions than me, they are willing to stand up and order the soldiers, and speak now..."

"Since there is no, Guo will do whatever he wants. From now on, he will take over the military power of the scattered soldiers stationed in Wuqi Town! I have a list of wounded soldiers placed in Wuqi Town, and those who stay are still the position of an imperial guard; the ones who want to run away are deserters. Today's affairs will be reported to the front office of the Palace in the future." Guo Shao did not allow others to tell the difference. Of course, he did not want the number of soldiers to be reduced again.

The troops were silent and no one was willing to stand up and object.

Guo Shao was very satisfied with this and immediately incited the people: "I know there are many veterans present. You have served the country all your life and are fighting for others. Now the barbarians are going to trample on your homeland and kill and insult your relatives. It is time for them to fight for themselves! The Khitans in Liao Kingdom are known to burn, kill and plunder. They will die if they don't fight. They will take up their weapons and use their last passion to defend their families! Dear fellow comrades and brothers and sisters, I will be able to defend the people and die on the battlefield with you, and feel infinite glory!"

Slowly, many gray-haired people stood up from the crowd. Someone said, "The old man has been killed by the army." "Including me, I don't have many days to live anyway, and I will die if I die..."

Guo Shao took the opportunity to say, "Since all the villagers think that this general can take on this position, in order to prepare for the war, it is legal for me to issue a conscript order in Wuqi Town!"

He immediately issued the first recruitment order, to select people who can still be exiled to help defend. Every household must also provide personnel, and the food and food will be arranged and repaired fortifications. In front of the whole town, the town general Li Desheng did not object on the spot. He changed from raw rice to cooked rice in a few seconds.

Li Desheng had no choice but to agree with the method proposed by Guo Shao before. He took people to Luzhou to buy supplies and left his servants to help govern the people.

Those old men who claimed to have been with the army were all at least fifty years old; there was no young and strong place at all, and they would not be sent to Wuqi Town. Guo Shao and others could only lower the standard of selection of soldiers, picking those who looked not in their seventies and eighties, walking more easily and energetic. After choosing for a long time, they had to be 68 people.

These old soldiers also dug out broken copper and iron armor from their homes that they had not used, which was better than nothing, and some of them had weapons. Before leaving, the generals finally generously and dedicated their armor, swords and bows, but only one pair.

He was busy until noon and someone came over to greet Guo Shao. He looked back and found that it was Zuo You, a civil servant in the army. The man had a straight face, had a thorny beard, and was wearing a round-necked robe, but he was very thin. Zuo You said: "I have any suggestions below, would Guo Lang be willing to listen?"

Guo Shao put down the bow and arrow in his hand and hurriedly told him to say something. Zuo You said: "The most urgent task is to not only organize the soldiers into the registration list of troops, but also set military laws as soon as possible and clarify the rules so that rewards and punishments can be established. After not being able to give a talent, he wrote the "Four Dead Order" and asked Guo Lang to take a look."

Those who disobey will be killed; those who escape at the fortitude will be killed; those who leave their posts will be killed; those who take advantage of the chaos to avenge their personal revenge, and those who bully the people will be killed.

It is simple and crude and covers foreseeable problems. The last one is even more long-term concerns. Guo Shao immediately looked at Zuo You again and changed his words to "Mr. Zuo": "Why don't Mr. Zuo recite these four beheads several times in public to know the entire army?"

Seeing that he was so happy, Zuo You immediately bowed and said, "I'm going to receive the order."

In the afternoon of the same day, Guo Shao entrusted Zuo You to register the soldiers. Then he started to organize the 28 recovered imperial guards and wounded soldiers into one team; the 70-year-old and weak soldiers were organized into one capital, and the township soldiers were called the township soldiers. He served as the military envoy, Yang Biao served as the deputy envoy and the ten generals of the imperial guards, and Luo Mengzi served as the Changxing (the deputy squad); and promoted three of the ten generals among the township soldiers. Although the sparrow was small and had all the internal organs, he directly formed an organization... and even asked Zuo You to be the title of marching counselor, and the staff team was established, although there was only one person.

In the evening, Guo Shao and the four people around him discussed the matter. Zuo You also began to participate in the discussion. He agreed on a second order to ask every citizen to contribute iron tools to the blacksmith shop in the town. Yang Biao was responsible for training the soldiers, Guo Shao prepared materials and weapons, and Zuo You and Luo Mengzi supervised the construction of fortifications.

...

Wuqi Town originally had a rammed city wall, but it was disrepaired and collapsed in many places. Now the recruitment of the people is just digging the dilapidated areas to repair the dilapidated areas; take the soil and digging the soil outside the wall, and then ramming it with clay. Yang Biao's suggestion is to add a deep trench to increase defense with sharpened bamboo in the ditch; to nail the horse-repellent piles on the outside of the ditch. Both manpower and materials are very scarce, so we can only achieve this.

This place is backed by the mountains to the north, and there are woods and bamboo forests on the mountain. Choose one to two meters of hard bamboo, and sharpened one end, which is a spear. It is not as sharp as a gun, but it is also useful. It is lighter and longer than solid wood, and it can be used for infantry to temporarily fight against cavalry. If it is not durable, a person can prepare several pieces, which can be used for those rural soldiers who help with defense.

The temporary old and weak soldiers were not fully equipped with armor, and most of the armors that the old soldiers turned out were rusted and damaged. So they used wooden blocks and bamboo pieces to make simple scale armor to supplement the armor. The protection was not good, but it was better than nothing.

Two days later, he heard that Li Desheng had actually returned with two carts of things in person. Perhaps he was uneasy in Luzhou, but he was still afraid of Li Yun being held accountable. When Guo Shao heard the news, he immediately realized that this guy was definitely a stingy man. He got some trashed iron around his neck. Fortunately, the two mule carts contained a lot of coarse grains... His family's property must have bought more than just such things. Guo Shao was inconvenient to argue with him, so he took the food openly.

Because after Li Desheng's wife and children were sent to Luzhou, there were no female relatives at home, Guo Shao and others had moved to the relatively spacious Li family as their residence. When Li Desheng returned to his home, he saw that there were miscellaneous things everywhere, which had been beyond recognition.

In the past two days, Guo Shao has turned the terrain of Wuqi Town several times again. He welcomed Li Desheng back and continued to discuss tactics with the people in the room:

"One side of Wuqi Town is a mountain, and it is easy to be attacked by enemies on three sides. The wall is estimated to be nearly two miles long when we measured on foot. Our warriors only have a hundred people, and most of them are old and weak. If we defend to the death, we will not have enough troops. We have always heard that the Khitans are good at fighting in the field, so we can't go out of the city and fight in the field. We have no cavalry and lack 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 spreading, and use the walls and alleys to annihilate the enemy. Therefore, I asked the civilians to build walls on the two central roads to separate the roads. This is the intention."

... Six or seven days passed in a blink of an eye, and Wuqi Town was basically ready, but the surroundings were still as quiet as death, which was no different from countless days. The soldiers were a little worried that the Khitan soldiers would not come. It was strange that it was a good thing for the enemy to come, but now people are looking forward to a battle. Because everyone has been busy for many days, they have smashed iron to build fortifications, and have been trained to prepare fortifications. If they are not used, wouldn’t they be in vain? As for what is the best result, people don’t seem to consider it.

The soldiers were ready to go, and even the township soldiers were not convinced and looked forward to it. There were also hundreds of people working chores to report to the city gate every day. Guo Shao set up sentry points on all sides and miles away, and sent people to take turns to be scouts day and night. There were also people on duty on the city wall every day, which was ready.

"Why haven't the Khitan soldiers come yet?" The old man standing outside the door muttered.

Guo Shaoyou asked them to discuss it. Of course, he would not say anything like "It's better not to come" to avoid damaging everyone's active fighting spirit.
Chapter completed!