With Gan Xing personally leading people, Chen Wu gathered more food than he imagined.

Although more than 200 stones of grain in the Baron's Mansion were burned to ashes, the famine in Taiping County had not yet reached the point of starvation for thousands of miles and cannibalism. The people of Changshan Town still have a little margin at home. In addition, some rich households stockpiled grain, and finally forcibly confiscated seven or eight thousand catties of grain, and there were all kinds of dry goods.

At Chen Wu's request, the squires in the town, as well as the two surnames Sun and Li, also reluctantly transported nearly 1,000 catties of grain from the ancestral hall, which was the only remaining family property of their family.

That's it, it must have been hidden a lot.

Chen Wu knew this, but there was nothing good to do, it was impossible to really force these rebels to death.

Fortunately, there are tens of thousands of catties of food in front of Ming, which is enough to support the movement of the rebel army. Although there are many people in Changshan Town, half of them are old and young and women, and the amount of food is not even half of that of the young and strong. What's more, they didn't help the rebels much, and Chen Wu further lowered the food standard. As a result, the amount of food spent on a daily basis is limited to an affordable level.

Limited food must be used on the cutting edge.

Two days passed in such intense preparations.

There was no accident on Dian Yong's side, and he brought back the loot hidden outside and robbed from the black scarf thief. Counting the seizures from the Baron's Palace, the rebels had a total of twenty-one horses. It's just that among the twenty-one horses, there is not a single horse that can be called a qualified war horse. Not only that, but there were even several old horses that were too old to be used, and those who were injured and had to be slaughtered for meat.

Although this is equivalent to a lot of meat, it alleviates the nutritional needs of the soldiers of the Volunteer Battalion. Only sixteen horses were left to form a horse team.

However, Chen Wu soon discovered that what bothered him even more was still to come.

There were more than 3,000 people in the entire rebel army, and only eleven could ride horses. Among them, there are several who are not good at riding, and people can't help but worry that they will fall off their horses and be injured. Among the remaining riders, there is no way to compare with Chen Wu with the best level, let alone those who can ride at Dian Yong's level.

As a result, there are more horses than riders!

Dian Yong was also helpless about this, so he could only pick and choose first, pulled a team of eleven horses, and took the time to teach slowly. As for what kind of riding shooting, horse fighting, etc., you can leave it first, and if you can find out the news, you can run without falling off the horse, and you are qualified. In the future, when the scale of the rebel army increases, it will slowly expand.

………

After the horse team was settled, the problem of weapons was immediately placed in front of Dian Yong.

If you want to rebel, you don't have armor, but you must have weapons. Before attacking the black turban thief, the day before yesterday rioted and killed the people brought by the warden, and raided the baron's palace, each got a batch of weapons. Counting Dian Yong's own private collection, there are about fifty or sixty swords and iron rulers of all colors. Not to mention giving the volunteers a handful, even if they only equip the two infantry brigades that are about to be selected, it is far from enough.

For this reason, Chen Wu and Dian Yong had to ask the king blacksmith in the town to help open the furnace and make iron.

Iron ore and coal are needed to make iron, and there is a small open-pit coal mine near the town of Changshan, which has small reserves but can still be obtained. With the best iron ore, Chen Wu couldn't do anything, so he could only take the farm tools and kitchen knives of each family, melt them and reforge them.

These extremely inferior iron products make swords that are afraid that they will not be used at all. Moreover, the king blacksmith who can only fight hoes and sickles and the like, and he does not have the ability to build swords. In desperation, Chen Wu could only learn from the player's experience and settle for the second best thing, letting the king blacksmith forge the spear.

Prepared to say, the spearhead of the spear!

Compared to swords, spearheads are easier to build and require less material. What's more, it saves rail!

The iron used to make a sword is enough to make several spearheads. As for the ash poles for these spearheads, there is no shortage of them in this Changshan town. A few carpenters teamed up with their apprentices, and after a busy day, they cut out dozens of improvised wooden pole guns.

In the afternoon of the same day, Dian Yong got the first sample in his hand.

Compared with the standard equipment of the Imperial heavy infantry, this spear looked miserable in terms of weight, quality, and workmanship. Dian Yong weighed it in his hand for a moment, and stabbed the stump at the door six or seven times with fifty percent of his strength, and the hastily built spearhead was disconnected and half embedded in the tree.

Seeing this, Dian Yong couldn't help but shake his head: "It's too brittle, it can't be used at all." ”

This quality, if it is put in the emperor's **, I am afraid that all the officials and craftsmen in charge of supervising the production will be beheaded for public display, and their families will be exiled to the army!

"It's good to be able to stab six or seven times." Chen Wu had already expected it in his heart, so his expectations were not high, and he was even more optimistic: "Maybe, the spearhead has not been broken before the real fight, and the infantry army has already broken the gun first." ”

Although the spear is cheap and the tactical movement is simple, it is still very technical. If you don't have the right angle, or if you push too hard, you can easily break the barrel. Especially when they are in a hurry, the quality is even more unguaranteed. Therefore, Chen Wu's requirements for these weapons are that they can be used a few times, and no matter how bad they are, they can stab a person to death, which is better than empty-handed!

He didn't expect to use this group of people against the regular army of the Empire.

"According to the current progress, by the time we start our army, how much can we build in total?" After the trial, Chen Wu asked the most critical question.

When it came to forging weapons, Chen Wu was only responsible for setting the tone. After the real start of construction, it is Dian Yong who is in charge. In the past few days, Dian Yong has also been very busy. He was also responsible for the training of more than 500 volunteer battalions recruited by Ganxing, and the training of the only horse team, as well as the coordination of weapon forging. If it weren't for the fact that he knew these military affairs very well and was physically strong enough, he really couldn't do it with another person. However, Dian Yong not only did a good job, but also arranged it quite methodically. Asked by Chen Wu, he only thought about it for a while, and then reported a number: "About sixty or seventy strokes......"

This is already the best-case scenario.

"So little?"

Chen Wu frowned, the spearhead of the spear was the least technical and easiest to build.

In this regard, Dian Yong was also very embarrassed, explaining: "There is only one blacksmith who can be used, and others can't help much." Moreover, the quality of these iron remelted is too poor and there are too many impurities, so that the qualified rate of the spearhead is very low. To be able to do so much is already desperate, unless the general is willing to delay the start of the army. ”

"No!"

Chen Wu did not hesitate and immediately rejected the idea.

Now thousands of rebels think that the news has leaked and the Yicheng government has gotten the news, but Chen Wu knows that due to the timely blockade, the Yicheng government should not know yet. Moreover, after 300 years of imperial peace, the administrative efficiency has also been outrageously low. No matter how slow it is, it won't take more than a week for the government to realize that something is wrong. Waiting for someone to investigate, find out the situation, and discuss the response, there will be almost a week.

In other words, half a month is basically the limit.

Out of the idea of stabilizing the situation and keeping his black hat, before the situation expands to a certain extent, the county magistrate of Yicheng may not report the news, but he will definitely mobilize troops, recruit militia groups to prepare for counterinsurgency, and may close the city gates.

What Chen Wu is really afraid of is this!

Although Yicheng is a small city with a population of tens of thousands, it also has a real city wall. For the rebels, who had no means to siege the city, once the city gate was closed, it would be impossible to capture it in a short time. Once it drags on for a long time, not to mention the local troops in other directions, the pressure of food alone is enough for the rebels to collapse on their own.

After all, in order to force the rebels to make up their minds, Chen Wu burned the grain himself.

In order not to leak the news and make a joke about starving to death before rebelling, Chen Wu can only raise the army as soon as possible, and he can't delay it!

Even if the weapons and equipment are not in place, it doesn't matter. After all, compared to them who took the initiative, Yicheng itself was even more defenseless, and the power it possessed was extremely limited. The two brigades of the city defense battalion can concentrate up to dozens of people in a hurry. The officials and catchers were originally a force, but unfortunately they suffered heavy losses on the side of Changshan Town. The rest of the local militia groups could not jump out and oppose the rebels on their own without being requisitioned and assembled in advance.

As long as the soldiers are fast, and the people of Yicheng are not vigilant before attacking, Chen Wu will win!