Shi Zhongshu stood on the wall of Guankou Village, holding binoculars in both hands and looking at the Mongolian army camp three or four miles ahead. At this time, the sky was already bright, but the camp he saw through the lens was very quiet, except for the occasional movement, and it seemed that the Mongolian soldiers were still asleep. It's just that he knows that there may be a murderous motive behind this apparent quietness, or maybe the Mongolian army is pretending to be careless and deliberately luring the defenders of Guankouzhai to attack, and then let the cavalry who have already been ambushed carry out a counter-surprise attack and seize the city gate in one fell swoop. Three or four miles is really not a long distance for the charging Mongolian cavalry. Even if the city gate is not captured, as long as the Thunderbolt army out of the village is blocked, a big victory can be achieved.

A few days ago, the secret one Huoli led his army to the vicinity of Guankou Village at the request of Niu Ling. In the battle of Yokohara Fort, he suffered a heavy loss from the Perak army's fortified fort and the artillery of the navy, so he set up camp four miles away from Guankou Village, a position that could not be reached by either gunboats or the artillery on the Guankou wall. Although he asked him to contain the Thunderbolts, it didn't mean that he didn't want to avenge the defeat of Yokohara Fort. "A general who doesn't want to win is not a good general", since he came, he naturally couldn't go home empty-handed. At this time, Ali Buge and Kublai Khan were fighting, and winning a victory would be beneficial to both his own prestige in the Mongolian army and his support for Ali Buge.

This time, the secret fire brought 1,000 cavalry and 2,000 new annexed troops, and it was obviously impossible to capture Guankou Village under the protection of gunboats with this number of men and horses. In the eyes of the Mongol army, this Guan Kou Village is like a combination of a turtle and a hedgehog, not only protected by a strong shell, but also covered with sharp thorns. The secret man who had suffered a lot adopted the outwitting strategy of his new annexed generals, wanting to lure the defenders out of the village, and then take advantage of the chaos to use cavalry to carry out a surprise attack. As long as they left the village and went to the plain, the defenders of Guankou Village were a ball of tender turtle meat that had been stripped of their shells.

He knew that Shi Zhongshu had already seen through the tricks of the Mongolian army and ordered the defenders to hold out. When a large group of Mongolian troops approached the provocation, they bombarded it with shotguns and dispersed it. For the sporadic Mongol army rangers, they ignored it, anyway, there were many trenches dug near the city wall, and a lot of mines were laid, as long as they dared to approach, there would definitely be no return. The new annex sent a messenger to bring women's clothes, and laughed at the tree in the stone that he did not dare to fight, and he was really cowardly as a mouse. Na Zhishi Zhongshu was not angry, he took the clothes and said that his wife was dressed properly. The envoy of the new annex had no choice but to return and was beaten again before leaving, in order to punish him for betraying his ancestors and being a traitor. In this regard, Shi Zhongshu argued that although the two armies did not fight each other, he did not say that he could not beat people.

Seeing that giving women clothes could not anger the defenders, the secret man ordered people to insult the village with foul language. The defenders naturally refused to be scolded, and also asked Hou Mengjun's female relatives and ancestors for eight generations with foul language, and there were many kinds of tricks, which directly scolded the Mongolian army. When the plan failed, the Mongolian army once again came up with a plan to show weakness, pretending to be lax in armament, lax in military discipline, and demoralized. The appearance of the Mongolian army's appearance of being possessed by the spirit of the drama made the defenders of Guankou Village feel amused. The Mongolian army was barbaric and brutal, but the military discipline was extremely strict, and even after the Song army, which had been corrupted in military discipline, became a new annex army, military discipline would become stricter. It's just that even ordinary Thunderbolt soldiers can see the Mongolian army's plan to show weakness, how can Shi Zhongshu not see it?

Although Shi Zhongshu had mediocre qualifications and did not have outstanding military talents, he was still promoted to the position of garrison brigade commander, and one of the important factors was his old and steady personality. The garrison brigade is mainly responsible for the defense of key places and fortresses within the territory of the Perak Army, and only needs to defend the hard village to fight a dumb battle, and the selection of the brigade commander is based on loyalty first, and execution ability second. As a soldier at the beginning of the Liuliba army, the down-to-earth Shizhongshu fully meets this requirement. Before the secret one led the army to attack, Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen told him that he only needed to hold on and not fight, and he carried out this request to the letter. At present, although there is only one battalion of defenders in Guankou Village, with the support of firearms and warships, it is impossible for the secret one to succeed in the fire.

Just when the battle in Guankou Village fell into a confrontation, the side of Baizhang City seemed to be unfazed. Cao Zhizhou led the army to attack Jiading, and did not relax the defense of Mingshan City, on the contrary, he also transferred hundreds of troops to Mingshan City. At this time, the defenders of Mingshan Castle continued to dig trenches around the city and build fortifications in the city to prevent the Thunderbolts from taking the opportunity to attack. However, the Thunderbolt army did not make a big move in the direction of Yazhou, and in addition to sending a large number of reconnaissance personnel, it was also making defensive preparations. Ouyang Xuan's requirements for the defenders of Baizhang City were also unattainable, and in the eyes of the General Staff, as long as the Mongolian army was defeated in Jiading, not only the famous mountains but even the entire Yazhou would be in the bag.

It is not only Baizhang City that is actively preparing for defense, but also the Thunderbolt forces in Ya and Lebanon Prefectures. After Cao Zhizhou openly surrendered to Mongolia, some of the Yibo and Qingqiang tribes in Yali, Diao, Yan and other prefectures chose to support Cao Zhizhou, some chose to support the Thunderbolt army, and some tribes remained neutral. In view of the drastic changes in the situation after Cao Zhizhou's surrender to Mongolia, the Thunderbolt caravans in these states were transferred to the nearby fortresses of Yazhou and Qian Bao next to the Lizhou Nitrate Mine, both of which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. Cao Zhizhou did not send people to attack these strongholds, but arranged defenders around them. In his opinion, it is not too late to take Jiading first, and then free up his hands to clean up these places.

Long before Liu Da'er made his move, Ouyang Xuan sent messengers to Weimao, Dajian Lu, Banzhou and other allies to inform them to prepare in advance to defend against the surprise attack of the Mongol army. Weimao and the Archery Furnace are both high mountains and valleys, and many passes have been built in dangerous places, plus the firearms purchased from the Thunderbolt Army, no matter how many Mongolian cavalry they have, it is difficult for them to pass. Banzhou and Miaojiang are also mountainous and undulating, the road is dangerous and dense, but the Mongolian army will not send cavalry to attack, but drive the Baiman, Wuman and other tribes who are also good at mountain warfare to attack, although it will not endanger Banzhou itself, but it will make many Miaojiang tribes fall into war. After receiving the news, Yang Wen had already sent people to various departments in Miao Xinjiang to warn, and at the same time sent a Banzhou army to the Luo clan cottage of the Dong tribe of the Luo ghost country to support Luo Suo and his son in resisting the invasion.

In contrast to the perimeter defenses, a massive mobilization is underway within the Perak Army. Now that the summer grain harvest has been completed and the cultivation of rice has basically ended, it is a good time to mobilize the militia to participate in the war. Although this year's summer harvest was a normal year, the grain harvested was enough to support even two or three large-scale military operations. The production of munitions has always been in a state of high efficiency, in addition to the production capacity of artillery and muskets, which is not yet able to meet the demand, grenades and mines can not only meet the needs of the military and allies, but even have a lot of stock. There is also a lot of ammunition in stock, and there is a shortage of musket bullets because of the lack of key raw materials such as copper.

The preparations of the army are in place. According to the operational plan of the General Staff, the Thunderbolt Army will go south to Jiading to fight, and it will be by land and water. The navy army naturally went down the Minjiang River, while the army was divided into two parts, one part set off from Changqiu Mountain and Pengshan City, and went to Jiading after taking Meizhou City. The other part went to Jiading City by boat after the navy seized control of the water surface of the Minjiang River.