In addition to the mountainous areas, there is very little snow in the plains and hilly areas of Sichuan. Although it doesn't snow, it's humid and cold. Before the Spring Festival, it is the coldest time in Sichuan. At this moment, the Arrow Beach Ferry is a hot scene. Thousands of people were busy at the ferry, some shouting trumpets to carry supplies from the boat to the shore, some working together to carry huge logs and rammed earth, and some struggling to dig trenches. They are building the Arrow Beach Crossing Fort.

The vast majority of these fort builders, except for a few technicians, were prisoners of war and civilians. Since the Battle of Shenjian City began, the Thunderbolt army has dealt major blows to the Mongol army in various battlefields, and has captured more than 30,000 prisoners. In the Battle of Pengxi alone, the 1st Division captured more than 2,000 new troops and more than 4,000 people in Yang Dayuan's department. The Mongol army that fled back to Qingju City was less than 2,000 people.

Captured captives were screened. With the exception of a few who were executed and hung on their heads, the captives were not sent to the mines of western Sichuan, but were served with hard labor on the spot. They will build a series of military forts before repairing official roads. When all this infrastructure is completed, it is estimated that it will be a year later, and by then it will be time for the Thunderbolts to go into production in the Tongchuan Fulu mine, which is suitable for prisoners with longer sentences.

At present, the Mongol army in central Sichuan has suffered successive defeats in front of the Thunderbolt army, and it is unlikely that they will counterattack in a short time. However, the joint military-political conference still decided to build a medium-sized fortress at Jiantandu and strengthen the defense of Lingquan Mountain and Pengxi Village. With the absolute superiority of the fortress and the naval army, even if tens of thousands of Mongolian troops attacked, they had to look at the arrow beach and lament. Prior to this, before the construction of the Jiantandu Fortress, the defense strengthening project of Lingquan Mountain and Pengxi Village had been completed.

After Cao Ergou led his army to Zitong and Huang Dagen to attack Wang's Mongolian army, the General Staff handed over the defense of Pengxi Village, Jiantandu and Lingquan Mountain to the Banzhou army. After consulting with Ouyang Xuan, Yang Wen decided that Yang Bangxian would lead the Banzhou Light Infantry Brigade to stay in the three places, and he would return to Banzhou with the rest of the soldiers. Since the assembly on the banks of the Chishui River in June, the Banzhou soldiers have been fighting abroad for half a year, and the casualties of 5,000 men and horses have reached more than 1,600, which can be described as heavy casualties.

After using a large amount of cement and steel materials, the defense of Pengxi Village and Lingquan Mountain was greatly improved, and it was equipped with heavy fortress guns, and Jiantandu was guarded by warships, and the navy brought a large amount of grain, grass and ammunition, making the defense of these three places impregnable. Yang Bangxian, who had no pressure on his body, focused on training his troops, and was ready to use this rare leisure time to improve the combat effectiveness of the light infantry brigade. To this end, he specially invited a team of 100 instructors from Cao Ergou's first division.

In view of the great contribution of the Banzhou Army in this campaign, the joint military-political meeting decided that in addition to increasing investment in the Miaojiang industry and mining industry, it will also provide military aid to the Banzhou Army. The first batch of military aid was the refitting of the Banju Light Infantry Brigade. According to the plan, when Yang Bangxian's light infantry brigade returns to Banju after the end of the defense, it will be equipped with the latest weapons and equipment developed by the Perak Army, including new breech-loading muskets, light field guns, military spurs, camouflage uniforms, new armor, and even binoculars, sapper shovels, and marching water bottles.

This decision was made in return for the significant contribution of the Banju Army. In fact, the current military production capacity of the Perak Army is still insufficient, and in addition to the supply of three field divisions, the firearms of many garrison units are also insufficient. Although there are three large arsenals in Dayi, Pengzhou and Jiading, as well as small arsenals such as Liuliba and Genting City, even if they work overtime, the products are still in short supply. On the one hand, it was because the Thunderbolt Army was expanding too quickly, and on the other hand, the consumption of various battlefields during this period was too large, and at the same time, it was necessary to ensure that a certain number of firearms were sold to allies such as the Arrow Furnace.

In order to ensure production capacity, the military-political joint conference decided to build a new arsenal in Xuzhou and Shenjian City, and after the war in Zitong ended, another arsenal would be built in Mianzhou. After the destruction of the Kipchak under the Diaoyu City, Zan Wanshou did not continue to go north, but returned to the Shenjian City to deal with urgent affairs, one of which was the construction of the arsenal and its supporting coal, iron and other industrial and mining enterprises.

To say that the most lacking firearms at the moment is the new name of the Fourth Division, the Diaoyu City Defenders, after being incorporated into the Perak Army system. Of course, this is only an internal name, and when dealing with the Sichuan system and the Lin'an court, it is still in the name of Hezhou. Nominated by Ouyang Xuan, the military-political joint conference appointed Zhang Jue as the division commander and Wang Li as the deputy division commander. Although Diaoyu City has some firearms, it is too far from reaching the establishment of a field division. The strategic location of Diaoyu City was really important, and in order to ensure that it was foolproof, Ouyang Xuan ordered people to transport dozens of fortress cannons first. These guns were urgently dispatched from Hengyuan Fort and Sandushui in western Sichuan.

The primary reason why there was no rush to allocate field firearms for the Fourth Division was that the Diaoyu Cheng soldiers were still a traditional cold-armed army, and not only did the establishment need to be readjusted, but the soldiers, especially the artillerymen, also needed to be trained for a period of time before they could form combat effectiveness. The second reason is that Diaoyu City currently has only 2,800 soldiers, which is less than half of the number of field divisions, and a large number of soldiers need to be recruited.

In order to allow the Fourth Division to build up its combat effectiveness as soon as possible, the Joint Military and Political Conference decided to give priority to replenishing the troops of the Fourth Division and to transfer firearms for training in the use of firearms. When the military production capacity increased, firearms were prioritized for the fourth division. According to the plan, the fourth division will be composed of two heavy infantry brigades, three light infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade, one naval brigade, and one divisional brigade, with a personnel of 12,000 personnel.

It will take at least half a year for the Fourth Division to be organized and trained and to form a combat force. Not to mention the priceless war horses, just reaching the staffing level is also something that Diaoyu City itself can't do. There were only 8,000 soldiers and civilians in Diaoyu City, many of whom were old, weak, sick and disabled, and at most another 1,000 soldiers could be selected. What's more, it has been three months since the autumn harvest, and there is not much food in Diaoyu City, which cannot supply more than 10,000 people to eat, not to mention that the training intensity of the Thunderbolt Army is extremely high, and the food consumption of soldiers has at least doubled.

The city was underpopulated, so it was natural to have to recruit soldiers from elsewhere. For the source of soldiers, Ouyang Xuan's plan is three parts, that is, to select a part from the captives and people, to recruit a part in Diaoyu City and the surrounding prefectures and counties, and to recruit a part in western Sichuan, Xuzhou and other places, plus the original Diaoyu Army defenders, it is not difficult to reach the quota. At least the problem of training was sent to Chongqing Mansion for training in batches. On the one hand, there is plenty of food in western Sichuan, which can also allow soldiers to see the governance of the Perak army with their own eyes and enhance the centripetal force. On the other hand, it is also because Chongqing Mansion not only has teachers from the Military Academy, but Ouyang Xuan can also take the time to teach officers.

According to the plan, Wang Li led 1,300 soldiers and newly recruited soldiers to Chongqing Mansion for training, while Diaoyu City was guarded by Zhang Jue with 1,500 infantry troops and 500 naval troops. Zan Wanshou's last ambush on the river had greatly damaged the vitality of the Mongolian navy on the Jialing River, and there were not many boats and sailors under the Kipchak army. Without the navy, the Mongol army would not be able to encircle the Diaoyu City, which was surrounded by water on three sides, and would not be able to prevent it from receiving a steady stream of support from the outside world. What's more, there are dozens of more fortress guns in Diaoyu City at present, and the siege equipment of the Mongolian army cannot get close to the city gate at all. Without siege equipment, the Mongolian army could not capture Diaoyu City even if it took its life to fill it.