Unexpectedly, Cai Bian's move was obviously well-intentioned, but it was rejected by Pan Xiong.

Elite soldiers, from another angle, can be explained by arrogant soldiers.

Pan Xiong knew very well that although he was in the name of the Pan family, even if these soldiers were sent to him by Cai Bian, they would not necessarily immediately and completely listen to him, the new general of the Western Army.

It is better to recruit some new soldiers to be stationed in Jinmingzhai temporarily, and then eliminate some soldiers who are depressed or young from Jinmingzhai. As for the veterans among them, Pan Xiong will not give up on them easily, these are all valuable assets in Jinming Village during the defense of the city, Pan Xiong has been following Cai Dao for a long time, and naturally understands this.

Pan Xiong entered Jinming Village with 3,000 newly recruited soldiers, and this number was basically the same as the original number of soldiers in the village. However, it only took a very short time for him to complete the task of reorganizing the army.

Moreover, the method he adopted as a Shatai soldier, Pan Xiong quickly won the popularity of the soldiers of the Western Army in Jinmingzhai. This is because those young soldiers are still young, and they are basically the sons and nephews of Jinmingzhai soldiers, and those who have been eliminated by the sand do not mean that they will lose their jobs immediately, if they are still willing to be soldiers, they can go to Yan'an Mansion.

It's a bit safer there. Those who do not want to be soldiers can go home to farm, after all, although the land in Yan'an Prefecture is thin, it is also vast and sparsely populated, as long as you are diligent and willing to work, you are not afraid of starving to death.

As a result, before the Western Army's large-scale attack, Jinmingzhai had already gathered more than 5,000 soldiers.

Due to the rush of time, it was too late to reinforce the entire Jinming Village in a short period of time, so Pan Xiong decided to focus on reinforcement, and prepared a lot of strong bows and crossbows, as well as a large number of city defense tools, such as ash bottle cannons, rolling wood and stones, and the number of ash bottles was the largest.

In addition to the fine lime powder that was ground to the people, this Dongdong was specially made by Cai Daopai, and it was mixed with a new ingredient - pepperwood powder. Of course, in order to prevent the soldiers of the Western Army from accidentally injuring themselves, Cai Dao also prepared two silk scarves for each soldier of the Western Army in Jinming Village. It is used to seal one's mouth and nose.

In Jinmingzhai, in fact, there is a very elite team hidden, they are the five hundred elite cavalry recruited by Cai Dao from the Jurchen tribe. This can also be regarded as a mercenary recruited by the Great Song Dynasty from the nomads of the north.

These people are the remnants of those tribes who were wiped out by the Wanyan tribe, and they themselves are unwilling to merge into other forces that oppose the Wanyan tribe, so they took refuge in Cai Dao, a bigger backer.

However, for Cai Dao, the role of these Jurchens is actually not as good as that of those Japanese people, because of the battle formations on the island, there are too few places to use cavalry. Therefore, he gave these five hundred elite cavalry to Zhao Xu. However, the premise is to send them to Jinming Village to garrison first. said that it was garrisoned, but in fact, it was also to take the opportunity to give the other party a ruthless blow when the Western Xia Kingdom could not capture Jinmingzhai for a long time.

The Jin soldiers are less than 10,000, and they are invincible over 10,000 times, this is not the Jurchens themselves, but the number of their own tribe is too small. After the Jin army destroyed the Liao State and the Northern Song Dynasty, the reason why it was unable to take the Southern Song Dynasty was because of the continuous civil strife of the Jin State itself, and on the other hand, the Jurchen soldiers were too few and were dragged down by the Song army that expanded into the army.

Cai Dao also wrote very clearly in the letter that the road of Yan Yan Road was not the most important main direction of attack for the Song-Xia War, but only played a role in harassment and defense. Therefore, use the fortified city, shrink the force, and strengthen the defense at key nodes.

This was the greatest contribution to the entire Song-Xia War.

Therefore, Cai Bian not only transported a lot of strong bows and crossbows to Jinmingzhai from the rear, but also, at Pan Xiong's request, had a lot of large wooden barrels for carrying water from the rear prepared and sent them into the village.

However, defending does not mean putting all your forces into the city.

Cai Dao suggested that Cai Bian should release the elite soldiers who dared to fight out of the flanks of Yan'an City, so that the enemy could not and did not dare to besiege Yan'an City. Moreover, it is necessary to maintain the ability to enter the counteroffensive at any time. There are elite soldiers under the city to help defend it, and the archers in the city are also bold.

Cai Dao also wrote a letter asking the Yizhou Island Iron and Steel Works to improvise some one-meter-high iron shelves, which were quickly transported by boat to Hedong Road, and then transported to Yan'an Province in a large number of ox carts.

These iron shelves have two planes made of a single iron plate, one of which has a number of shooting holes, which are used to place on the city wall, on the one hand, to artificially increase the height of the wall, and on the other hand, to provide a certain degree of protection for the archers. The holes were only used for the archers to shoot accurately.

In fact, if there are too many enemy troops under the city, the archers can also kill and injure a large number of enemy troops if they have a way to shoot, but because of the angle and height, it is difficult for the Western Xia army to shoot arrows on the top of the city.

Considering that Jinmingzhai Panbao is too small, this thing is not very useful if it is transported, so it does not provide the front line with a sharp weapon for the defense of this city.

Because of the provocative behavior of Yan Yan Road, the Empress Dowager Xiao Liang personally led an army of 500,000 to attack, ostensibly four ways to attack at the same time, but in fact there is still a focus, and the target is Yan Yan Road.

This is also the first battle of Pingxia City, although the name is so, but in fact, the important battlefield in the entire war was mainly in Yanyan Road, and the Battle of Yan'an was the focus.

In other words, Jinmingzhai is the most important thing in the first battle of Pingxia City.

In fact, this is indeed the case, the Battle of Yan'an.

After receiving the report, Cai Bian's conservative Yan'an Mansion quickly received reinforcements from Bianliang City. Since Zhao Xu came to power, he has been using the victims who fled the famine to build, expand and strengthen the land passage from Bianliang City, Luoyang, Guanzhong, and all the way to northern Shaanxi in the spare time.

The people involved in the project did not need to be forced to be recruited by local officials, they participated in it spontaneously, and the tools used to build the road were also provided free of charge by the ordnance superintendent.

Not only were these people paid for the first time in the state project, but they were also able to eat three meals a day, and when they had finished their work, they were given a well-made tool for free, and the tools used to build the road were all made of stainless steel, and the rest of the tools were put in the hands of the victims.

The hoe is just the head of the hoe, and it can be turned into a farm tool immediately when you take it home.