According to Guo Song's plan, the first thing to do was to form a reserve army of the militia, which was composed of men over the age of 17 and under the age of 40 among the people of Jiuyuan and Feng'an counties, and some special figures could be excluded, such as county officials and so on.

According to the data provided by the county Cheng Wang Liao, more than 3,800 eligible men can be summoned.

The equipment was provided by the army, mainly leather armor, helmets, spears and knives, but their main task was to carry all kinds of armor and weapons up to the city, and if the situation was critical, they would also be put into battle.

Young women are then formed into logistics teams, whose main tasks are to provide meals for three meals a day and to care for wounded soldiers.

With the full help of the soldiers and the desperate harvest of the people all over the city, all men, women and children went into battle, and finally on the third night all the wheat outside the city was harvested, at this time, the Tang army scouts sent the clearest information with the letter eagle, Xue Yantuo's army has been killed a hundred miles away, about more than 20,000 people.

An emergency alarm sounded in Jiuyuan County.

At the fourth watch, the gate of Jiuyuan County was closed, and 5,500 soldiers were all in place, waiting for them, but at this time the soldiers were wrapped in blankets and leaned against the city wall and fell asleep.

In the wilderness outside the city, more than a hundred figures were quietly busy, they were spreading thistles and digging pits and thorns, and the Tang army and the people no longer went out of the city, leaving the risk outside the city to the Xue Yantuo people.

'Woo-woo-' the trumpet sounded at the head of the city.

The eastern sky was already white, Jiuyuan County began to wake up, and the soldiers and civilians who had just recovered from the exhaustion of wheat harvesting rose again.

A team of people carry it with their shoulders, carry it with donkeys, send all kinds of war materials to the city, bundles of arrows, a large number of rolling wood and stones, there is a big green mountain dozens of miles away in the south of Jiuyuan County, it is famous for its abundance of bluestone, the city wall and the houses of the people are mostly repaired with the bluestone of Daqingshan, there is a bluestone waste yard in the southwest corner of the county, those are the stones that are abandoned for building the city and building houses, most of them are ten pounds a piece, like a hill piled together.

Now these bluestone scraps have become the best weapons for defending the city, and ox carts and mule carts loaded with stones are sent to the east and west of the city.

Fifty or sixty pounds of boulders under the city have been piled up into a mountain, and the militia soldiers are extremely busy, Liang Wu shouted in a hoarse voice: "The spacing is not too large, be steady, slow down!" ”

On the east and west sides of the road, more than 200 young and strong militia groups stood on each side, and they carried large stones up to the city by means of passing.

In the distance, dozens of women drove donkey carts to bring hot breakfast.

The soldiers stand on the head of the city, especially the west city head is the focus of defense, compared with the youth of the militia, the combat soldiers need to conserve their physical strength.

At present, there are a total of 5,500 Tang Army soldiers in Jiuyuan County, plus 3,800 people from the Qingzhuang militia, and more than 9,000 soldiers who can be put into the war.

The 3,000 soldiers brought from Lingzhou were all elite soldiers selected by Guo Song, and all the generals at the level of brigade commander were replaced by Guo Song's henchmen, that is, the seventy-five soldiers he brought back from Anxi, all of whom had experienced the test of life and death, and their will to fight was even more tenacious.

The militia youth is served by the children of wealthy families in Lingzhou as low-level generals, such as Liang Wen, Liang Ju'er, Guo Liang, Lin Hui and others, although most of them are strong in martial arts, but after all, they have not experienced actual combat, and they cannot be put on the front line of combat.

There are dirt bags stacked on top of the castle, and mud bags are also padded on the ground, although it looks a little dirty, but the city's defense ability has improved a lot.

In front of a mound of dirt, Guo Song and a dozen generals were watching a soldier's invention.

"I thought last night that if I could get a spear through the crack in the dirt bag, the enemy soldiers outside the walls would be caught off guard by a spear, and they would be overwhelmed by a spear."

"But the gap is too small, and it's inconvenient for the spear to pierce in!" Li Le said on the side.

Guo Song thought for a while and smiled: "There can be two ways, one is to widen the gap between the dirt bags, this method is the simplest and easyest, and the other is to stuff a piece of wooden tube in the middle, and hollow out the middle of the pine tree to use." ”

Town general Ma Wei said: "It is not easy to hollow out the trunk, it is estimated that I can't do so much for a while, I have a way, use two round tiles up and down a button, there is a round hole in the middle, and the round tiles are relatively long, and strong and not afraid of pressure, I see that every house in the city has on the roof." ”

Guo Song was overjoyed, this method was good, it was more convenient and reliable than the method he thought, and he immediately said to Xue Changshou: "Go to Xie County Order and collect a batch of round tiles." ”

Guo Song also ordered to reward the soldier who invented the spear piercing ten taels of silver, and recorded a meritorious service.

.........

At the same moment when the Tang army was actively defending, the army of 20,000 Xue Yantuo also killed twenty miles away from Jiuyuan City, just as Guo Song guessed, the Shuofang army recovered to nearly 30,000 people, which made Xue Yantuo jealous and did not dare to go south easily.

At this time, their eyes turned to Fengzhou, which was far away from Lingzhou, although most of Fengzhou was a barren land, but after all, there were two county seats, nearly 15,000 residents, four or five thousand young women, and the wealth accumulated by every household.

Although they didn't look down on Fengzhou in the past, but now the good things can't be caught, although the meat of Fengzhou is less, but the two taels of meat on the bones can also be gnawed, they can't wait for next spring, it is estimated that the wheat in Fengzhou has matured, and Xue Yantuo's 20,000 captives set off.

According to the practice of the Xue Yantuo people, the main general must be the nobles of the Xue tribe, and the deputy general is the nobles of the Yantuo department.

Xue Chake was about 30 years old, extremely tall and majestic, nearly two meters tall, and made a 60-pound mace, known as the first warrior of Xue Yantuo, and the official title of 10,000 masters.

Xue Chake's personality is relatively violent, so the chief of Xue Yantuo sent a stable character of Wanfu to him as a deputy general, and Yantuo Manshan is much calmer than him in trouble.

"General Yantuo, I feel a little wrong!"

Xue Chake pointed to the wheat fields on both sides with a horsewhip and said, "You see that the wheat has been harvested, will the other party know that we are coming?" ”

Yantuo Manshan turned over and dismounted, and found an ear of wheat in a wheat field on the side of the road, he carefully observed for a moment, and said to Xue Chake: "The general is right, the other party is likely to know that we are coming." ”

"How can you tell?"

Yantuo Manshan stepped forward and handed the ears of wheat to Xue Chake, "The wheat is not fully ripe, it is only about nine years old, the farmers here will never do such a thing, and there are ears of wheat all over the ground." ”

He pointed to the wheat fields on both sides and said, "You can see how hasty they are in harvesting the wheat, they must have discovered that we have arrived." ”

Xue Chake snorted coldly, "I'm grateful that they harvested all the wheat for me. ”

At this moment, a cavalryman rushed from the front and reported with a fist: "General Qiyu, many Tang soldiers have been found at the head of the city, about a few thousand. ”

Xue Chake was stunned for a moment, he and Yantuo looked at each other, "How come, didn't you say that there were no defenders in Fengzhou?" ”

Yantuo Manshan was also surprised, and said for a while: "It should be that the Tang army has just increased its troops, and the strength of Lingzhou has increased greatly, and it is impossible for Fengzhou to continue without defense." ”

"I don't care when they will increase their troops, but now we are in trouble, obviously misjudged the opponent, we did not carry siege weapons, nor did we carry enough food, how should this battle be fought?"

Xue Chake's tone was full of dissatisfaction and anger, obviously, the old guys of the Xue Yantuo Elders Association had misjudged the situation, they only wanted to loot the population, property and grain of Fengzhou to the Xue Yantuo tribe, but they didn't think that the Tang army had already increased their troops in Fengzhou.

Yantuo Manshan sighed and said, "It's still that we think about the problem too simply. ”

Xue Chake was extremely annoyed and said, "Then what now? We've worked so hard to get here, and we're going back like this? ”

Yantuo Manshan thought for a while and said: "It's not realistic to go back now, I suggest going first to see how strong the other party is?" If it is easy to attack the city, we will attack the city, and if the siege casualties are too great, then we will withdraw our troops and go back! ”

Xue Chake also knew that this was a better suggestion, so he had to nod, "Then let's decide like this!" Let's take a look first. ”