During these days, the people of Yugan paid a lot to prepare for the war, but the lake bandits were calm, making people nervous and tired every day. Sometimes even Li Dan himself wonders: Did these thieves change their goals and stop doing more?

But time and time again he dismissed the idea. No, judging from the information transferred from all sides, Tatehanako is still assembling the team and preparing food and grass, it's not that he won't come, but he feels that the time has not come!

He had a good reason to think so. Zhao Jingzi's reconnaissance department had already spread its tentacles along the lake, and he even contacted the two small leaders of the lake bandits, and through them, he learned a lot of information about the two departments, Tatehuazi and Chen Yuanhai.

Contacts were also established with Zhao Chongbi, who had returned to Poyang, and the exchange of information between the two sides was quite frequent, and almost every day, two small flag officers went out of the city as sentry spies, and went to a village in the eastern suburbs of Poyang to rest in a village in the name of inspection and visitation, and then returned to Poyang with the information obtained.

Then someone from the village came out to the nearby temple of Pranya to offer incense or alms, and by the way, they hid a note written in pencil under a certain stone in the base corner of the courtyard wall, waiting for someone to take it away and send it to the staff office of the regimental training headquarters in Yu Gan.

The confidential staff officer checked a copy of "Wenxin Carving Dragon" printed in the third year of Jingwu, translated the Arabya numbers on it into words, and handed it to Zhao Jingzi.

Of course, the busiest is Jia Mingjiu, the deputy director of intelligence of the Inspection Department (also known as the deputy envoy of the inspection), and when the war is imminent, he has to put down his beloved wine and come to Feng Shen as his deputy first.

Every day, he receives more than a dozen pieces of information from various inspection divisions, such as what people have broken through, what suspicious items have been found, and what horses are lost and suspected to be thieves passing by...... Wait a minute.

Jia Mingjiu had to find out useful and true information from it and report it to Li Dan.

However, all of this he could not discuss at home.

"Auntie, they will come, and there will be a lot of them!" Li Dan thought for a while and told Aunt Qian, "I caught another fine work last night, you said that if they don't fight us, why do they keep sending people here?"

"That's right." Aunt Qian nodded: "Then you have to be careful!"

"I don't have anything in the city, Uncle Ma Jiu is in Wuni Town!"

"Huh?" Aunt Qian was taken aback, and immediately reproached, "He has bad legs and feet, and it's so close to the lake, you should send someone else!"

"Yes, but it's because it's so close to the Lake Bandits that it needs an experienced person to take charge of it, so I sent him. Now the residents of Wuni are moving to Leijiawan, and when the people have left, he will lead the team to retreat.

You can rest assured, Leijiawan has built an additional wall, and a small village has been built as a horn, surrounded by a river on three sides, and 500 people can resist the siege of 2,000 people."

Li Dan is telling the truth, there are 500 people in Leijiawan alone in the patrol and inspection sub-division plus the militia, and there are also more than 100 people in the families and guards of large households, as well as 3,000 people from the surrounding villages.

Those who have been to Leijiawan remember the beautiful five-arch stone bridge outside the Dongzhai Gate, which is called Taigong Bridge, which is said to be built by the ancestors of the Lei family for the local area.

A stone road arcs from the bridge head to the southwest arc until the land embankment in the south, dividing the whole Leijiawan into two parts, large and small, the large one is concentrated in Lei, Fu and Yu three surnames, and the small one is dominated by the surnames who came to settle down here.

At the earlier meeting, Han An proposed that it was impossible for all the people of the county to squeeze into the county seat, so that the guards of the city would be enough, and the food supply would become a big problem.

Although the county has received donations of 4,700 taels of silver, more than 13,000 stones of grain, and more than 400 pieces of blue and white cloth.

However, there are already 40,000 inhabitants in this city, and all the soldiers and civilians have only enough food for a month, and if another 30,000 or 40,000 people pour in, the food will be scarce.

After discussion, it was decided to set up five fort towns outside the city, and each inspection sub-division organized the people to carry out the clearing of the fortified walls and concentrated on these five forts.

They are in the order of priority of construction, namely Mian Mountain, Leijiawan, Nanjuwei, Yangbu, Nanxia Mountain and Gubu. These five forts were strong outlying strongholds, absorbing between 20,000 and 26,000 civilians.

Therefore, Ma Jiu, Song Xiaoniu, Song Qian and others went to their posts with silver and a small amount of grain, and they would set up warehouses in each fort to collect local donations or purchases

Grain. In order to provide for the people who had come to take refuge if necessary.

After Zhu Erye and Chen Sanwen surveyed Leijiawan on the spot, they discussed with Li Dan to take the dock fort of the original Lei's manor as the core, and choose a high place along the river embankment to ram the road wall with bamboo tendons. The walls are one zhang high and one zhang thick, and four doors are opened.

The two wings of the door are within 50 paces of one zhang and two feet high, and one zhang and four feet thick, and the enemy platform has two to four seats. The south gate is connected with the outside world by land, so a wide moat is dug outside the gate, and a horse wall and a suspension bridge are set up.

There are ferries and wooden piers outside the north and west gates to dock boats, and the north gate is also a water gate, so small boats can row directly into the inner mooring. The entire walled wall stretches for two miles and can accommodate up to 5,000 people.

A wall was also built on the periphery of the residential area in the south, which was 600 steps long, one zhang high and eight feet thick, with a gate in the southwest and no wall in the northwest near the pond, which was only blocked by two wooden fences. The small village can accommodate about 1,500 people.

After the construction of these two villages, it is a complete defense system, and now Leijiawan is supervising 3,000 people under the leadership of Sun Liang, the third district team, and the hill is getting shorter and shorter, and the wall is also showing a big appearance.

Li Dan knew that people knew about the danger of the approaching lake bandits, so they were all working hard. "In ten days, Leijiawan Dazhai will be completed, and Xiaozhai may not have time to ......."

He wondered: Otherwise, the rest of the project will be built on the basis of the already completed wooden fence, can it be faster? But in that case, you have to send them a batch of axes, saws, nails, and so on.

"Dangoer, Dangoer."

Li Dan suddenly woke up and found that he was distracted.

The meal was already on the table in front of him, Aunt An looked at him and sighed and shook her head and walked out, Li Dan heard her seem to mutter, "He's still a brother!" Such a heavy burden ......."

"Let's finish eating and rest." Aunt Qian patted him on the shoulder, and when she saw him hooking his head and looking out, she immediately said, "Don't worry! Your little soldier just finished eating, and fell asleep against the doorframe."

Li Dan smiled at this time, picked up the bowl and devoured it, seeing that his aunt and needle were stunned.

"Auntie, doesn't my brother eat outside?" Needle asked softly in fear.

"This silly girl!" Aunt Qian said angrily, "He is an official, how can he have no food?"

Listening to their conversation, Li Dan felt funny, waved his hand, swallowed something and said, "In the army, I always mingle with the officers and soldiers, and I will learn to eat like this."

After speaking, he shouted twice outside to call Mao Zai in, and told him to go back and pass the word to Master Ba, and immediately send 30 axes, 20 saws, and 500 pairs of claw iron nails to Leijiawan, and told them the reconstruction plan of Xiaozhai.

"There is terrain on the side of the river that can be borrowed, and it is faster to add a wooden fence to the half-wall. The southwest gate can be done well. If you don't think it's enough, add a grid ...... on the inside."

The grille is a wooden fence standing on the ground, ten steps long and six feet high, similar in shape to an armor rack. When necessary, several people can carry it together and adjust the spacing between the two grilles.

This thing has the effect of blocking the enemy's attack and disrupting its offensive formation, and it can be adjusted and placed according to the situation on your own side to help defend and kill the enemy.

Brother Mao Zai received the order to go back immediately, and after he completed the order, he went back to live with his godfather Lao Ji tonight, and came to greet Li Dan tomorrow morning.

After dinner and a good shower, Li Dan lay comfortably on the bed, with his hair scattered and listened to Pei Xi tell him interesting stories about the city recently. Listening, listening, involuntarily falling asleep.

Betsy noticed that he was snoring, and took a quilt to cover him. Looking down and seeing the brocade bag hanging around his neck, he couldn't help but sigh secretly, and went back to his bed lightly.

In his dream, Li Dan saw a figure. I don't know who it is, and the surrounding fog seems to be confused and people can't see clearly. Is it a dream? Yes, it must be her!

As her name suggests, come and meet herself in a dream. Li Dan was happy in his heart, walked a few steps tightly, and suddenly felt that it was not a dream, and his heart tightened.

He awoke, and Betsy was in front of the bed in a small coat and a short jacket. "What's wrong?" Li Dan asked.

"Brother is here, saying that there is a military situation waiting in the courtyard."

Li Dan turned over, took a large coat from Pei Xi's hand, rubbed his eyes and asked, "Now."

At what hour?"

"Four quarters of the hour has just been struck." Betsy replied.

When I opened the door of the house, I saw Ma Jiu's daughter-in-law serving a bowl of something for Brother Mao to drink. "Thank you, Auntie!" Brother Mao gave a military salute and made Ma Jiu's daughter-in-law laugh: "This kid, why is it the same as my calf now?"

"Good morning!" Brother Mao saw that Li Dan was busy and saluted.

Li Dan returned the salute and asked, "What's the situation?"

"Two pieces of news were sent to the South Gate camp at night, and they were delivered as soon as the door opened this morning, and Chief of Staff Zhao asked me to send them immediately for you to see." Brother Mao replied as he took out two pieces of paper from his right pocket and handed them over.

Zhao Jingzi's position is the chief of staff and the director of the reconnaissance department, and once Li Dan blurted out that he was called "chief of staff", he thought it was a good name, so he let people call him so.

Li Dan unfolded the two pieces of paper and looked at them, nodded after reading the first one, and frowned and pondered after reading the second one.

Seeing him sitting motionless at the stone table, Aunt Qian, who was observing through the window paper, felt a little nervous.

She turned her face to look at the needle, but the needle didn't speak, poured two cups of tea and went out, handed one to Brother Mao, and put the other one in front of Li Dan, and asked softly, "Are you in trouble?"

Raising his head to look at the women in the yard, Li Dan smiled, got up and went to the window and said:

"Auntie, don't worry, it's not a big deal. Yang Baihu went to Meigang, and he told me about the situation over there. Don't worry, I'll come back to see my aunt in a few days."

After speaking, he returned to his house and changed into a arrow-sleeved robe, tied a leather belt, and came out with a knife to say goodbye. Aunt An wrapped two pieces of braised beef in lotus leaves for him to hold them, and the two hurriedly went back to the City God Temple.

"I see that something is still wrong, but it is inconvenient for my brother to reveal it." Needle whispered to Aunt Qian who walked to the door.

"Auntie, don't worry, at least my brother slept soundly last night." Pei Xi also explained, "With his temper, if it were bad news, he would have jumped up a long time ago. If my brother can sit still, it means that the matter is not big!"

Aunt Qian laughed out loud: "You girl will observe, okay, okay, let's not worry." As long as everyone does their work well, that's the greatest support for him, right?"

Before they reached the street where the inspection department was located, several waves of sentry horses and heralds were already coming.

The atmosphere of war suddenly became much thicker, and the residents on the street whispered a lot of discussions, but when they saw Li Dan, they immediately bowed down to avoid it and didn't dare to say more.

Walking into the small cross courtyard, Li Dan saw Master Ba hurriedly giving something to one of his subordinates, and saw him coming to meet him:

"It's all early, you sent my brother back yesterday to deliver the news, I collected all the numbers from various construction sites overnight, and I have sent people to load the ship and set off immediately. All the blacksmith shops are in a hurry, and the shortfall on the construction site will be filled tomorrow."

After speaking, he sighed: "It's a little hasty, no way."

"That's good already." Li Dan nodded, looking at his dark pupils: "You guys should also pay attention to your body, don't let someone fall down at this time and miss a big thing!"

As he was talking, he saw Zhao Jingzi walking in from outside, looking down at the paper in his hand as he walked. Li Dan called him, "Xianfu, what's the news?"

"Oh, you're here?" Zhao Jingzi looked up and saw the two of them, and hurriedly greeted: "Go, go, Han Xian'er is waiting for this translation manuscript in the hall, let's go in and talk."

All three entered the lobby. It's not as lively here as it is outside. Han An stood alone in front of the map with his arms crossed and pondered, and when he saw them come in, he said good morning to each other, then turned around and came to the table, and told Mao Zai to make four breakfasts to use.

Then he pointed to Zhao Jingzi's hand: "Xianfu quickly talk about it, what does it say?"

It turned out that this was a message that had just been delivered, and the translated manuscript was to the effect that:

Tatebe swept around the perimeter and plundered 3,000 stone of newly ripe rice; Wen Bailang was humiliated and said that he would raise troops to rob his relatives, and he was scheduled to send troops before the Mid-Autumn Festival;

The 7,000 troops of the Tatebu went from north to south, and the 3,000 naval troops of Chen Yuanhai and other troops went east from Santangkou.

Li Dan listened, got up and walked to the map to look carefully.

The first news he received this morning was that Yang Dayi told him that he had received a total of 200 remnants of the official army

He also went to Meigang to negotiate with Yu Zhiyong, the leader of the local militia, and the other party said that he would obey the unified command of the Southern Metropolitan Inspection and accept the arrangement of setting up a local inspection sub-division and the Sixth and Seventh District Teams.

Yang Dayi then awarded Yu Zhiyong the seal of the inspection of the sub-division, and the teams of the two district teams were waiting for the county to appoint, and the deputy teams were served by his wife and brother Yu Meiguang and Hu Congxi of the Hu family.

In addition, Hu Congxi is Hu Juren's father, according to him, this child went to Anren last year to study under Mr. Gan Huaiyou, and has never returned. It is estimated that it is still in the city.

Another piece of news came from Ma Jiu, saying that there was an abnormal movement of the enemy in front of him, because most of the local residents had been evacuated, and 2,000 of them had entered Leijiawan, so the inspection sub-division was also preparing to evacuate.

At the same time, he also reported that a group of less than 2,000 Hu bandits had gone east from Shikou Town, and he estimated that the purpose of this force was to harass and contain the Poyang garrison so that it could not support Yu Gan.