Li Youcai brought two pieces of news, one is that because Li Xingzhi sacked the town of Liulizhuang, Chen Xinjia, the governor of Xuanda, was furious, and he had instructed Lu Liangzhi of Xin'an Zhi County to join the Baoding garrison of 800 troops, and then use the military horses of Xin'an, Gaoyang, and Renqiu to attack Lijiashan, and the second is that the Dongyu is gathering troops in Horqin, and it is expected that they will plunder Gyeonggi again in less than a month.

Li Xingzhi frowned when he heard this, to be honest, he didn't pay attention to the official army's attack at all, Gao Yang's reality is very clear, Huang Wenchang has no soldiers to adjust at all, this time it is estimated that he is just arresting some homeless people to make a noise, and the Xin'an defenders are only hundreds, and they have been captured by themselves more than 100, how many soldiers can be dispatched?

In this way, the total strength of the officers and troops is only about 1,500 at most, and although Li Jiashan is not dangerous, he is condescending, and as long as he holds the key point or blocks the road, the officers and troops have no possibility of entering the mountain at all.

What worries Li Xingzhi now is that it is the time of the summer harvest, and once the eastern captives enter the Kou, then these grains will be cheaper for them.

Therefore, Li Xingzhi immediately said to Li Youcai: "Then go back and tell Huang Wenchang for the owner of the village, and say that a certain family is very grateful for the military information sent by Huang Guerrilla, please ask him but please rest assured, my Li Jiazhai has all the preparations, and the officials and soldiers will not be able to break the mountain, but the Dongjiao is about to enter the Kou, for the sake of the people of Gaoyang, please also ask Huang Guerrilla to quickly organize manpower to grab the summer grain as soon as possible, don't be cheap." ”

Li Youcai nodded and agreed, the purpose of coming to Lijiazhai this time has been achieved, he doesn't want to stay in Lijiazhai for long, in case he is discovered by someone with a heart, once the news leaks, he can't afford the crime of being a thief.

After Li Youcai left, Li Xingzhi ordered Yang Biao and other cottage leaders to immediately go to Juyi Hall to discuss how to deal with the invasion of the official army and the entry of the Eastern captives.

When Li Xingzhi finished explaining the deployment of the official army to the leaders, Zhang Shaoqian was very curious, how could Li Xingzhi know the movements and strength of the official army well?

However, Li Xingzhi did not hide it from him, and directly stated that the information came from the guerrilla Huang Wenchang in Baoding, and Zhang Shaoqian suddenly realized that no wonder Li Xingzhi had so many firearms, and it turned out that he had already colluded with the officials and troops in Gaoyang.

Qian Anning said with a smile: "The big boss, now the reality of the official army is in the hands of our army, the so-called knowing the enemy, a hundred battles will not be defeated, we can ignore the Huang guerrilla all the way, as for Ren Qiu's officers and soldiers, his subordinates have also heard of it, Ren Qiu garrison Xu Zhijian is not as good as Huang Guerrilla, so we just need to concentrate on dealing with the officers and troops of Lu Liangzhi's department." ”

Li Xingzhi thought for a while, then looked at Zhang Shaoqian and said: "Brother Zhang has been in Xin'an for a long time, Xin'an's reality and the officials and troops in Baoding must have some understanding, can you talk to your brothers?" ”

Lu Liangzhi won the hearts of the people in Xin'an, and Liu Guangzuo resisted the Dongyu in Baoding, which is a well-known thing in Baoding.

Zhang Shaoqian has served under the command of the two for a long time, and he also has a lot of respect for Lu Liangzhi and Liu Guangzuo, so he had to hesitate and said: "The big boss, it's not that the brothers don't want to say it, but Lu Zhixian is really a clean official who is the master of the people, and Liu Zongbing is also a good man who kills Tartars. ”

Yang Biao pouted and said: "We didn't provoke Lu Liangzhi and Liu Guangzuo, they came to the door by themselves, according to Brother Zhang's intentions, they were only allowed to beat us, so we had to shrink at home and be beaten by them?" ”

Zhang Shaoqian's face turned red when he was squeezed by Yang Biao, and he secretly scolded in his heart, "If you hadn't attacked Liu Lizhuang, how could the official army come to suppress you?" But now that he has fallen into the grass, where can he say this.

Li Xingzhi saw that Zhang Shaoqian was embarrassed, but said with a smile: "Lu Liangzhi attacked each other for no reason, the owner of the village could not swallow this breath, but according to Li Youcai, the East Captives are about to enter the Kou, since we are the righteous army, then we must kill the Tartar as our responsibility, as the saying goes, the brother is on the wall, and the outside is insulted, if we fight to the death with Lu Liangzhi, it will only be cheaper for the Dongyu, so the owner of the village intends to stick to the cottage, once the Dongyu enters Kou Jinggi, the official army will retreat." ”

When the leaders saw that Li Xingzhi had made up their minds, they all nodded yes.

Li Xingzhi thought for a while and said: "However, in order to prevent the official army from attacking the mountain, and in order to prevent the eastern captives, the owner of this village decided to rearrange the defense line in Lijiashan, and this will be arranged by Brother Zhang. ”

According to Li Xingzhi's meaning, Zhang Shaoqian, as a hundred officials and soldiers, is naturally more good at things like setting up fortifications.

When Zhang Shaoqian heard that Li Xingzhi did not plan to fight with the official army, but only wanted to hold on to the cottage, he was also relieved, and immediately accepted the order.

Although Lijiashan is not dangerous, but it is connected to the horse shed lake, facing the water on both sides, only the southeast two sides can attack the mountain, and the terrain around Dajiaotai is flat, suitable for the army to camp in the village, Zhang Shaoqian thinks that whether it is the official army or Jiannu if they want to attack the mountain, they will definitely enter the mountain from the area of Dajiaotai, that is, the southeast foot of Lijiashan Mountain.

So under the auspices of Zhang Shaoqian, all the soldiers and civilians of Lijiazhai acted at the same time, and they began to dig trenches along the southeast foot of Lijiashan Mountain, and the radius of Lijiashan was only seven or eight miles, and the area around Dajiaotai that could attack the mountain was only about three or four miles.

More than 1,000 people moved at the same time, and the progress of the trench excavation was very fast, and the soldiers of the steel battalion and the fire battalion at the foot of the mountain were digging hard with shovels one by one, while the old and weak people in the rear battalion were stacking the excavated earth along the trench layer by layer, forming a three-foot-high mud wall, and the women and children were diligently cutting bamboo stakes.

The weather was very hot, but the soldiers and civilians did not complain, because their village owners and leaders were also digging hard, and the women in charge of cooking in the back camp also brought buckets of cold mung bean soup and freshly stewed bone broth, and the soldiers and civilians were hungry and tired, so they leaned on the mud wall and ate cakes with bone broth.

The military situation was like fire, Li Xingzhi only gave the soldiers and civilians of Lijiazhai five days, but fortunately, the non-commissioned officers of the Gangfeng Battalion and the Rapid Fire Battalion had been trained during this period of time, and their physical fitness had been greatly improved, and the trenches and mud walls that were four miles long had been formed in three and a half days, and with the dense stakes, the main body of the entire defense line had been basically completed.

The next thing is to build the arrow tower and watchtower behind the mud wall, this problem is not big, the trees on the mountain can be cut down everywhere, the excess broken wood can be kept as a rolling log, there is a condescending advantage, the arrow tower and watchtower do not need too much, Li Xingzhi only arranged for the soldiers of the Gangfeng battalion to make these fortifications, and the rest of the soldiers and civilians brought a large number of stones, and stacked these stones in an orderly manner behind the mud wall.

At the same time that Lijiashan was in full swing to build a defensive line, Chen Wu, who was in charge of patrolling, also sent more than a dozen sentinels down the mountain to inquire about the movements of the officers and soldiers, so as to prevent the officers and soldiers from coming in double and launching a surprise attack while the soldiers and civilians of Lijiazhai were busy building the defensive line.

However, Chen Wu came with the news that more than 1,000 officers and troops from Baoding Mansion and Xin'an County stopped marching in Liulizhuang Town the day before yesterday, and now the military horses actually entered Liujiabao.