By the time the morning dawned, it was already quite hot.

Outside the courtyard, there was a faint sound of cicadas and birds, but they were not very loud.

Due to the burning of a large area on the periphery, a considerable number of trees were cut down in the vicinity of the building during the construction of the premises, which was also considered for the establishment of a security area.

The trees are sparse, the birds seem to be much less, and in the morning only a faint birdsong can be heard.

Soon after the sun came out, the dew on the blades of grass was quickly evaporated, and then the coolness of the night and morning vanished without a trace, leaving only a frustrating heat.

In this season, even the morning sun is scorching, and there seems to be water vapor evaporated by the sunlight on the ground, which is the Eastern Domain, and not only the sun is fierce, but also the damp heat and stuffiness are even more uncomfortable.

After people pushed the door out, they felt a strong wind blowing, which made this stuffy feeling a little less, and everyone was soaked with sweat on their robes, even if they were thin, everyone was already sweating.

Then the second drum sounded.

The beat of the drums was the same as usual, the rhythm did not change, but everyone felt that the beat of the drums seemed to be more rapid, perhaps psychologically, but the men untied their skins from their waists and poured the freshly beaten well water into their mouths to moisten their parched lips and burning throats.

The drummer of the Baihu Official Hall is a disabled soldier, and he is also the administrator of the Baihu Guanban, so he has the identity of a warden, and his monthly income is not less.

The warden was injured during the Battle of Jiangtan and was impaled in the thigh by a long sword, after which he could not walk normally and needed to walk normally with crutches.

When playing the drum, he put the crutch aside, picked up the drumstick and beat the drum, this drum is very useful, gathering the men in the hundred households to build roads, or to work in the fields, or to concentrate on speaking, generally speaking, the intention of the drum beat is different, sometimes only men, sometimes both men and women, as long as it is an adult Dingkou to assemble, sometimes it is to gather all the people of the hundred households, including the elderly and children.

The drummer's chest and back were soaked with sweat, and he had to walk with much more effort than usual, because he had to walk on crutches, and if he accidentally used his right leg, then there would be a kind of pain that pierced the heart.

But even in a thunderstorm and his leg was in excruciating pain, the drummer never regretted what he had done.

It can be said that the most fortunate thing in his life is to participate in the Nan'an group training, to be able to be in it, to be led by the prince, and to be surrounded by like-minded partners.

If he wants to miss, it will never be his miserable childhood, he can't eat enough, those vegetable leaves and rice paste are mixed with water, and he can see the figure of a person when he can walk, and he has to work in the field before he can walk, and the whole family is busy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, but he still eats miscellaneous grains and wild vegetables, and the refined grain is only eaten twice during the New Year and birthday.

Day after day, year after year, he married at the age of less than twenty, and his parents seemed to be relieved, but he himself knew that it was nothing more than another reincarnation, and his son also ate multigrain and wild vegetables, and had to help work when he could walk, and live this life of never seeing hope.

After the beating of the drums, the wardens sat crooked to one side, watching the great crowd pour out of the alleys of their dwellings, some dressed in summer robes, some with iron helmets, some in leather or cotton armor despite the heat, most of them holding long stalks and various weapons, and the rest all with bows and arrows.

The streets and alleys were full of strong men in their seventeenth and eighteenth to forty years old, and hundreds of people gathered under the banner of small flags, and then gathered under the banner of hundreds of households.

Then the rousing drum beat sounded, and the hundred households led all the strong men to line up in array, and then walked towards the Huandao Avenue, where another hundred households were already standing in line and gathering.

Due to the war, every five hundred households are organized into a thousand households, and the hundred households here will gather under the banner of a thousand households, line up in columns, and form a phalanx array, and then people will follow the thousand household flags and rush to Huaxi and Nan'anxi to garrison.

There the strong men would be busy all day, practicing the formation, and the archers would gather on the two wings, constantly practicing tactics and practicing archery. People were worried, not only worried about the arrival of pirates, but also more worried about Nan'anhou's condition.

This thing did not deceive everyone, the prince is the kind of person who can't be idle, the people on the island can see the prince riding by almost every day, whether it is going to the farmland or to the sea, or to various factories, Nan'an Hou has no idle time.

It's acceptable not to show up for a day or two, but you can't see Nan Anhou for more than three days, and the fool knows that something is wrong.

The news of Nan'anhou's infection like a wildfire quickly triggered quite strong emotions on the island.

Fortunately, the doctor went out every day, and every hundred official offices would gather everyone in the evening, regardless of men, women, and children, to come and observe, and people knew the development of the disease, and knew that the prince had a high fever in the first two days, and the fever subsided on the third day, but he was still not out of danger.

Every night, many people spontaneously burn incense and pray in front of the land temple in the village, many of the hundreds of households and officials of the official hall have to look at their official residents, many people do not hesitate to use self-harm to pray for the blessing of Nan'anhou, a few people succeeded, and then Nan'anhou had to issue a stern notice, such a method will not invite the gods, but will make the gods guilty, Nan'anhou will also be upset when he knows, affecting the recovery of the prince, with this method, to stop the fanatical mood on the island.

But it is impossible for people's hearts to be settled, even including the soldiers of the government.

In the past few days, preparations for war have been carried out as usual, people have dug a wide range of trenches near the official road, installed a large number of strong crossbows in cooperation with the north and south forts and the east and west forts, and at the same time made a large number of arrows, and are also preparing medicinal materials and setting up hospitals for treatment and bandaging.

All preparations were carried out in an orderly manner, and Qin Dongyang and other military attachés led the officers and men of the government army to conduct battle formation drills every day.

But obviously, everyone's spirit is not very full, and it can be seen that quite a lot of people don't sleep well and do these things with dark circles under their eyes every day.

People were very angry, and there were often strong men fighting when they were doing things, and once it even caused a brawl of 100 people, and later they had to send out the soldiers of the government to separate the two sides of the fight.

This is unprecedented on the island, one is that the rules are very strict, and a fight may lead to serious consequences, and even be removed from the island, which is an unacceptable consequence for everyone.

The occurrence of this kind of thing only shows one point, people's hearts are frivolous, and the rules are no longer so strict to bind everyone.

Even the officers and men of the government army are just as uneasy, but they have been subjected to strict military training for a long time, they are subject to strict military law, they are more able to accept orders than civilians, they are institutionalized.

The officers and men of the government army are on the surface business as usual.

In the few days when Nan'anhou fell ill, Nan'anhou's mansion bought some leather armor and cotton armor in Penghu, Fuzhou, and Quanzhou, and reluctantly equipped the soldiers with long swords and swords.

The merchants brought the latest news: a large number of forbidden troops and Xiang troops were deployed in the vicinity of Fuzhou and Quanzhou, and it was apparent that the upper echelons of Fuzhou had also heard that the pirates were coming.

In this era, there is no real sneak attack, and the route from the sea to Fuzhou is the most lively route in this era, and there is no one.

However, the people of the Eastern Domain found that the military and political officials of Fuzhou did not seem to have considered the safety of the Eastern Domain at all.

The island was forgotten and completely left behind them.

Such news, in addition to bringing uneasiness and anger, certainly does nothing to help the situation on the island.

When people understand that they can only rely on themselves, they do not burst out with stronger enthusiasm.

Indeed, people know that in a short period of time, there is no way to make everyone flee, a large number of people need not only a small boat, but also enough water, food, to Fuzhou Quanzhou Zhangzhou is not safe, if a large number of people flee, pirates are likely to turn to the coast of Fujian Road to loot, then it will be very dangerous.

If you further escape to the inner border, what you need is a lot of money, or this kind of escape is to die, this era is not the afterlife, there are many small supermarkets and shops within a few miles, people can buy enough daily necessities as long as they take out the money.

In this era, people's body is not strong in its ability to resist diseases, and without enough medicine, a small illness is enough to be fatal. At the same time, there is a lack of food and clothing, no means of transportation, and often there is no place for food supplies within dozens of miles, so they can only go to the village to beg, and most of the time they can't get anything, because the villagers are also quite poor, and even if they want to help these fleeing people, they do not have enough strength.

In the period of great turmoil in history, it is not an exaggeration to say that the white bones are violent in the wilderness, only a few people were directly killed, and most of the tens of millions of people died in the famine after the war, and the number of people who died on the way to escape was far more than those who were directly killed.

The people of the Eastern Domain Island lacked the belief that they would win, and they knew that there was no possibility of escape, and they were more filled with sadness in their hearts.

Like this hot morning, this weather was tolerable until then. Sweating more is nothing more than drinking more water, people in this year are not as delicate as later generations, as long as the doors and windows are opened at night, there is a sea breeze blowing into the house, can sleep well, not to be hot and unable to sleep, then people have not much to complain about.

And now people are always swearing loudly when they gather, scolding pirates, scolding the weather, scolding everything that is not used to seeing.

The swearing at such times does not show the spirit of hatred and hatred, but rather makes people's hearts more scattered.

There are always some people who are doing the gesture of putting their hands together, and people know that this is praying for the protection of the heavens, as long as Nan Anhou can get better before the pirates arrive, then everything will be different.

But can Nan Anhou get better?

No one can know, and even Chen Changnian, a medical officer, does not dare to play this kind of package ticket at all.

The servant leaned against the wall, the drumstick was thrown to the ground, he felt a piercing pain in his right leg, this man in his thirties had not cried since he became an adult, crying was a luxury emotion for the poor, many people could only howl when their fathers died, their tears had long disappeared without a trace in the process of growing up, but at this moment, he covered his face, his shoulders shrugged, tears kept flowing from the gaps between his fingers, he cried, as helpless as a child.