Early winter came, it began to snow again in a few days, but the Han army camp was tense and orderly, looking through the gate, there was a huge green curtain military tent between the layers of military tents and pieces of guns, although there was a lot of snow on the tent, but outside the tent there were many soldiers who were not slacking off, and the banner of the Han army was erected in front of the tent - that was Liu He's Chinese army tent.

At this moment, although all the generals were seated in the big tent, there was silence, except for the crackling of a few charcoal braziers. Liu He sat beside the handsome desk without saying a word, holding a small wooden stick in his hand and fiddling with the charcoal fire in the basin, his eyes staring at a piece of burning charcoal and being stunned; The generals also looked at him motionlessly, like a clay idol.

After a long time like this, Liu He threw down the small wooden stick, looked around at the camp generals and said, "Mr. Gonghe!" The Assassin Mansion recruited displaced people from Jizhou and Qingzhou to enrich Guangyang and Youbeiping, and cooperate with the new policy, I think there are some things that must be prepared first. ”

Fu Zhi nodded and said: "Yes, I think the first thing is to buy a large amount of grain, and the immigrants are in the field, and when they arrive in Baicaowa, I am afraid that not only the army, but also the common people of the immigrants will have their mouths open to eat, without food, there will be no stability, not to mention that the winter is about to end." ”

"Xian and you and Yide went to the state capital, first, to go to the Assassin Mansion to ask for more money and food, and second, to ask Uncle Yide to go to Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou to buy grain. At the moment, I don't know how many people are homeless, but the more food the better, and we must raise as much food as possible to come back. Whether we can survive this winter depends on Erjun. ”

"No." Jian Yong and Zhang Fei took the order.

"Demou, Yigong, your department continues to guard Lulong, I led Boyu, Hansheng, Xuande, Sui'an, and Yun Chang to lead five hundred elite cavalry, first go to Baitanzhen near Baicaowa to garrison and survey Baicaowa." Liu He pointed to the military map.

Cheng Pu said very seriously: "Lord, if you encounter a thief again, you must not take danger in person!" Yan Yun: 'The son of a daughter, he can't sit down'. You were born in a famous family, only to pass the group, you will be used by the country in the future, and the future is limitless, how can you be contemptuous and do not hesitate to die? Leave this kind of trapping and killing thieves to us! ”

"Bad morality! It is precisely because I am a member of the Han family that I have to take the lead! All the soldiers are protecting my Han country, they are all willing to throw their heads and spill their blood, my life is my life, isn't your life your life? Everyone is raised by their father's biological mother, their origins may be different, but there is no one more noble than whom, Chen Shi said in the past: "The prince will have a kind of Xiangning", so there is Emperor Gaozu who cut the snake uprising, Dingding Han family foundation, thinking of the first grandfather, frost and dew, cutting thorns, to have a size of the land. I serve as a great ancestor for the children of the clan, and I do not avoid arrows. ”

Liu He said abruptly: "I'd rather take more soldiers home!" The people are precious, the community is secondary, the monarch is light, the people are only the state, and the country is solid. ”

"O lord is the Lord of righteousness! There is the style of an ancient famous general. Frustrated.

"I am willing to die for the Lord!" The generals bowed down.

"Don't talk about life and death, live to see victory." Liu He lifted the generals one by one.

Ten days later, Jian Yong and Zhang Fei came back with Zhang Shiping and the grain team, along with 30,000 displaced people. The migrating refugees were led by Fu Zhu, escorted by Jian Yong and Zou Jing, and led by Liu He.

Since stepping into the boundary of Baitan County, the road began to be difficult to walk, more and more rugged, and the mountains became steeper day by day, but what made Liu He and others feel heavy was that because they had been abandoned for a long time, there were ruined houses along the way, and occasionally there were some villagers with yellow faces and thin faces and desperate faces on the road, and after seeing this team, they were silent and followed behind the team without saying a word.

But when Liu He came to Baitan Town, he was immediately stunned by the scene in front of him, this is a town?

There is a memorial arch on the loess road, on which are written the three words of Baitan Town, which is probably the most trace of human civilization in this place. Behind the archway, the dilapidated and collapsed earthen wall has shown signs of weathering, and there are holes everywhere, so the simple city gate is just a decoration from a distance, and there are many low and dilapidated houses in the city, some are thatched huts, probably similar to the shacks; Saying that it is a town, it seems that it is not much different from a village, and all you see along the way are old and weak women, young and strong men, and there are disabled old men in ragged clothes who come to beg.

There were frequent wars and many casualties. Some of the town soldiers died or were disabled, and the families who depended on military salaries for survival lost their source of livelihood, and Shanggu County could not continue to provide for them; As a result, those people would be forcibly moved out of the military strongholds, and they would be given another place and some land to fend for themselves.

Barren farmland, backward economy, famine, banditry, and military disasters were rampant, the Han army withdrew, and there was no strong labor force, so people lived quite hard. At first, when these remnants saw Liu He's soldiers and horses, they thought that the thieves were coming, but later found out that they were Han soldiers. Suddenly, the whole town was crying, the Han officials and soldiers came, and the Han court did not give up on waiting.

Next to where Liu He lived, there was a thatched hut and dilapidated house, in which lived a lonely old woman, blind and skinny, who relied on the alms of the townspeople to hang her breath. It didn't take long to hear about her, her husband and three sons died on the battlefield one after another, and her daughter was caught in the grass and humiliated to death by the Xianbei people when they went south, and now the whole family is left with such a half-buried old woman.

To be alive is also like a pain!

Liu Bei couldn't see such a tragic thing, and often saved part of his rations for the blind old woman.

Zhang Fei occasionally complained and scolded: "What do you do when you are alive, everything is gone when your eyes are closed, what does it mean to be alive!" ”

But this guy is cheap, and he will drop half a cake or something after speaking. Liu He thinks that a person's good doesn't have to listen to what he says, but depends on what he does.

"Xuande, after camping, cook some porridge for these villagers!" Liu He instructed: "The sergeants also changed from two jobs a day to one work a day to save some rations, but I am afraid that there will be more and more remnants of the Han family who come to hear the wind." ”

Liu He's premonition was very accurate, with the re-stationing of the Han army in Baitan, after the news of the reclamation of Baicaowa spread, the number of displaced people became more and more day by day, and there was porridge to drink with this army, although it was not full, but it could survive, and finally gathered a thousand remnants.

However, Liu He heard that there was bad news, and these remnants said that there was a small Xianbei tribe that colluded with horse thieves to rob Baitan Town, but Liu He only brought fifty horsemen.

While Liu He sent Liu Bei to ask for help, while gathering the people, he said loudly: "Now the imperial court is back!" The Han army is back! I know that there are many veterans here, you have served the country all your life, and you are fighting for others; Now the time has come for the barbarians to trample on your homeland, to kill and humiliate your relatives, and to fight for yourself! That Xianbei people are known for burning, killing and looting, if you don't fight, you will die, take up arms, and use the last of your blood to defend your family! Your comrades, brothers and sisters, you will be able to fight to the death with everyone to defend the land and defend the people, and you feel infinitely honored! ”

Slowly, many gray-haired people stood out of the crowd.

"Lao Er has killed people in the army."

"Count me as one, anyway, I don't have many days to live, and if I die, I will die......"

Those old men who claimed to have served in the army were all at least fifty years old; There are no young people in this place at all, and some young people also return to the customs. Liu He and others could only lower the standard of recruiting soldiers, and select those who did not look to be seventy or eighty years old, who walked more neatly and were in better spirits. After choosing half a day, there were sixty-eight people.

These old soldiers also dug out the tattered copper and iron armor that had not been used for a long time from their homes, which was better than nothing, and some even had weapons.

In the afternoon of the same day, Liu He entrusted Guan Yu and asked him to register the soldiers. Then he began to compile, and his own fifty horsemen were independently organized into a team; More than 70 old and weak town soldiers were organized into a team, called township soldiers. He also promoted three team leaders among the township soldiers. He also asked each family to contribute iron tools to the blacksmith shop in the town to build weapons and build fortifications.

Baitan Town originally had a rammed city wall, but it was in disrepair and collapsed and dilapidated in many places. The soil is directly used to dig a trench outside the wall, and then compacted with clay. Guan Yu's suggestion was to add a wall and a deep ditch, and the ditch should be sharpened with wooden stakes to increase the defense; Nail the horse rejection stakes outside the ditch. Manpower and materials are very scarce, and this can only be done.

The temporary old and weak villagers were not fully armoured, and most of the armor turned out by the old soldiers was rusty and damaged. So they used wooden blocks and drills to make simple scale armor to supplement the incomplete armor, which was not very well protected, but it was better than nothing.

Liu He summoned Guan Yu and Zhang Fei: "Baitan Town is surrounded by high mountains on one side, and is vulnerable to enemies on three sides. Our soldiers are only a hundred people, and most of them are old and weak, and if we defend to the death, the strength is not enough; We have few cavalry and lack of long-range bows and arrows, and we will lose the battle. Only by trying to lure the enemy into the city, using the terrain of the fortifications to make it impossible for the enemy to deploy, and destroying the enemy with the help of walls and alleys; That's why I asked the people to build walls to cut off the roads on the two central roads. ”

By the second night, the surroundings of Baitan Town were still as peaceful as death, no different from countless days. The soldiers were a little worried that the Xianbei soldiers would not come. Strange to think about, it would have been a good thing that the enemy did not come, but now people are looking forward to a battle. Because everyone has been busy for many days, smashing pots and irons to build fortifications, and training for a long time, if it is useless, wouldn't it be a waste of work? People don't seem to think about what is the best outcome.

The soldiers are gearing up, even the village soldiers are not old, looking forward to it, and there are hundreds of people who work with miscellaneous people to report to the city gate every day. Liu He set up sentinels on all sides and a mile away, and sent people to take turns as scouts day and night. There are also people on duty on the city wall every day, so it can be said that everything is ready.

"Why hasn't Xianbei Dog come yet?" The old guard standing outside the door also muttered.

Liu He had to discuss with them, and of course he wouldn't say things like "it's better if you don'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 at the cost of giving up the initiative; Whether to fight or not depends on others, and it is up to you to what extent.