An hour later, the local gentry outside Yao Yuanwai brought a total of more than 700 strong men from their respective families to the county government to gather. Fortunately, most of them have weapons in their hands. However, there are many different types of these weapons. Some even have farm tools and sticks in their hands.

After a while, Zhou Xun also ran to the county seat with one hundred and fifty soldiers sweating profusely, and Li Sanhe also followed Zhou Xun to the county seat.

However, although they brought thirty heavy firecrackers and ten three-eyed firearms. However, they did not bring much gunpowder. Wu Shigong immediately sent people to the entire county to collect gunpowder. However, Zuihou only collected a dozen catties. Most of the gunpowder in the entire county has already been bought back by Wu Shigong.

However, in order to strengthen Wu Shigong's long-range attack ability, Xue Yongli asked Zhou Xun to bring them fifty bows and a thousand arrows.

Wu Shigong calculated, and with these gunpowders, thirty heavy firecrackers and ten three-eyed firearms, plus more than two dozen medium-sized firearms around Wu Shigong's guards, each of them could fire more than thirty rounds of bullets.

Since gunpowder is not enough, it is still necessary to rely on cold weapons. So, Wu Shigong instructed Zhou Xun to let him divide these strong men into groups of ten first. Then let these strong men accept, the training subjects when the recruits first began to train weapons. That is: a group of ten, all armed with spears, running ten steps side by side, assassinating together.

But as soon as the training began, Wu Shigong found that something was wrong. None of these strong men have been trained in the queue at all. So, they couldn't run ten steps side by side at all.

In the process of training, these strong men are full of foreign appearances. There are those who run ten steps and do not become a queue at all; There are those who run and run, but fall; After running crookedly and being disturbed by the people around him, he couldn't make an assassination action.

Wu Shigong made a temporary decision to reduce the number of strong men in a row. But after it was reduced to five strong men running side by side, it still didn't work. In Zuihou, Wu Shigong was finally able to only let three strong men run side by side, and only ran five steps to assassinate them. In this way, I was able to start training reluctantly.

However, Wu Shigong thought to himself: "These strong men, if they are assassinating those rebels who have just climbed the city wall, these trainings are still quite effective." ”

At this time, it was already time for lunch, Wu Shigong and Qi County Ling had no intention of eating, and both of them took their respective subordinates to the west city wall, waiting for Zhang Biao and them to come back, wanting to know the details of these chaotic people.

After looking forward to seeing through for more than half an hour, Zhang Biao finally came back with ten guards. He said to Wu Shigong: "My lord, twenty miles west of the county seat, the little one has already found traces of the rebels. But the number of these rioters is small, and they are all busy robbing houses in the countryside, that is, a group of guerrillas. ”

The little courage led the brethren around these rebels, and went about five miles deeper, and found a great deal of smoke and dust raised by men and horses walking seven or eight miles away. It is estimated that it is the brigade of the rebels. The small ones don't dare to go any deeper. However, judging from the appearance of smoke and dust, the number of rebel brigades is indeed tens of thousands. ”

However, the little one observed for a while. The brigade of the rebels did not walk fast. It is estimated that they will not be able to come to the county seat until after noon and before evening tomorrow. ”

There's only one day left. Wu Shigong and Qi County Ling glanced at each other, and they immediately went to the west city wall and began to discuss how to defend the county seat. The officials and guards on the side also came up with ideas.

After discussing it for a while, they decided on the following measures:

The first point is that martial law should be imposed immediately in the whole county. All residents are allowed to stay at home without permission and are not allowed to go out into the streets. Otherwise, they will be arrested and detained;

The second point is: before dinner, after the people outside the city are withdrawn to the county seat as much as possible, all the county gates are immediately closed, and no one is allowed to enter or leave the county seat. If there are any remnants of the people who want to enter the county seat, they can only be hoisted into the county town with hanging baskets on the edge of the city wall;

The third point is: let Wu Shigong's 200 soldiers and more than 700 strong men, plus the dozen or so people brought by Li Lu, immediately guard the various city walls in groups. And the Qi County Order will also organize all the young and strong people in the county to gather through the various mayors in the county town and supplement them to the liliang guarding the city;

The fourth point is: Wu Shigong asked Foreman Jiang, who was also trapped in the county seat, to immediately survey the next line of defense in the county seat, and according to this line of defense, the houses that obstructed him were demolished and the second wall was built;

The fifth point is: mobilize the young people in the county town and block the four city gates with stones and sandbags;

The sixth point is: Qi County ordered to immediately arrange, let the head of the government official team lead all the officials, and began to conduct a census of all the families in the county. If there is someone who is not in the county, there must be a guarantor. If they are strangers without a guarantor, they will be detained.

In addition, Wu Shigong and Qi County Decree also demanded that all the grain in the county be withdrawn behind the second wall. In addition, Wu Shigong had the order conveyed to those strong men: "This official will withdraw all the families of the strong men to the second wall and gather them for the best protection." However, if anyone dares to flee, the official will first kill the entire family of the person who escaped. ”

Wu Shigong also did this out of helplessness. Before, Wu Shigong and Qi County Ling had already looked around the city wall.

The city wall of this county town is no more than three feet high. Because the county has not been in war for a long time, the city wall has not been repaired for a long time, and it looks very dilapidated. Thankfully, it looks sturdy at the moment.

But outside the city walls, the moat that surrounds the county town has long since dried up, and even the dry riverbed has been basically filled with silt. Coupled with the recent drought, the silt has also largely dried up. Therefore, the role of the moat and the moat can no longer be played.

However, on the other hand, the county town is not very large, and if there are nearly a thousand soldiers defending on the city walls, it will barely be enough. However, the defending soldiers also had to rest and would suffer casualties. Therefore, Wu Shigong asked Qi County to mobilize all the young people in the city to strengthen the defense of Liliang.

And the construction of the second layer of the wall is Wu Shigong's plan to build the fortress of a thousand households. In Wu Shigong's idea, not only should the second layer of the wall be built, but as long as the time comes, the third layer of the wall should be built with the county government as the center to form the third line of defense.

Wu Shigong thinks about this issue from the perspective of these chaotic people. The purpose of these rioters now is nothing more than to grab food. However, in this vicinity, the grain is basically in the county seat and the fortress of Qianhusuo.

If Wu Shigong concentrates the grain in the core defense area of the county, that is, behind the third layer of walls. Suppose it takes half a month for these rebels to break through the city wall, and ten days to break through the second wall. As long as Wu Shigong and the others hold on to the third wall for five days, the rebellious people will have nearly a month without food replenishment.

At that time, even if these rebels got some grain in the Zhuangzi near the county seat, it was definitely not enough for tens of thousands of rioters to eat for a month. In other words, as long as Wu Shigong and them insisted on holding on for a month, they would be hungry, and they would starve all these chaotic people to death.

Besides, at that time, the yamen at all levels in Henan who have received the news of the rebellion of the people will also take action, and the reinforcements will basically rush to the rescue in this county.

Wu Shigong, on the contrary, was not too worried about the defense of the fortress of Qianhusuo. Under the leadership of Xue Yongli, an experienced military leader, there were nearly 500 soldiers who had received at least four months of military training for defense, plus the dangerous terrain of the fortress of Qianhusuo, and the addition of strong men in the military households. Then, the combat effectiveness of the defensive forces of the fortress of Qianhusuo will far exceed the combat effectiveness of the defensive forces of the county seat.

Under the threat of artillery and guns from the fortress of Senhesho, it is possible that these rebels may not be able to fill the trench in front of the fortress within a month, and they can approach the city wall to attack the fortress.

And Wu Shigong gathered the families of these strong men and withdrew behind the second wall. On the one hand, the reason is, of course: to protect the safety of the families of these strong men, so that these strong men can fight on the city wall with peace of mind.

But the main reason is that the families of these strong men are nakedly taken hostage, forcing these strong men and the chaotic people to fight hard. In order to achieve the effect of holding the county city wall for as long as possible.

The reason for Wu Shigong's two-point decision, the blocking of the four city gates with stones and sandbags, and the decision to have the Qi County Commander arrange for the officials to search for strangers in the county town who did not have a guarantor, and to imprison them all, was that Wu Shigong had already known from Li Lu's words and Zhang Biao's inquiry that this rebellion was organized and led by the Holy Spirit Society.

Wu Shigong still remembers that when he arrived in the town, Xiao Jie fell ill, and Chang Meng invited Xiao Jie from the town to a god of the Holy Spirit Society. From this point of view, the Holy Spirit will be in this county, and there must be some believers. Now that the Holy Spirit is going to attack this county, why won't they take advantage of these believers?

In addition, it may be that the Holy Spirit Society will also send some people to take advantage of Wu Shigong's evacuation of the people outside the county to blend into the county. When the rebels attacked the county seat, those internal should be able to cooperate with the outside and open the gate of the county seat, causing the county to fall.

Therefore, Wu Shigong simply blocked the gates of the county town with stones and sandbags. Let these internal should not open the gate of the county town at all in a moment or three.

And the Qi County Order arranged for the officials to search and detain them, and there were no strangers in the county town who had a guarantor, also out of the role of eliminating the Holy Spirit Society as much as possible.

Wu Shigong's estimate was indeed not wrong. His two decisions are also very timely. Later, after the search arranged by the Qi County Order, a total of more than 100 strangers who entered the county seat without a guarantor were arrested.

Under the severe interrogation of experienced officials, a total of more than a dozen members of the Holy Spirit Society were arrested. Wu Shigong immediately beheaded them all for public display. And some Holy Spirit Society believers in the county town did not dare to act anymore after seeing the tough style of the government.

By the way, Wu Shigong's two decisions were made under the reminder of Shumo. It seems that although Shumo is timid, timid people always have a very keen sense of smell when saving their lives, and they also have a few tricks to save their lives.

Before dark, the people near the county seat basically withdrew into the county seat, and the city gates were immediately closed and blocked with stones and sandbags.

And Foreman Jiang had already surveyed the line, and led a group of young men from the county seat to start building the second wall overnight.

Seeing that Wu Shigong's arrangements were in good order, the young people in the county also took action. At this time, the officials, gentry, and every common man in the county began to settle down.

After receiving the news that the rebels were going to attack the county seat, these people felt for the first time in their hearts that it was indeed possible for Wu Qianhu to lead them and defend the county seat.