Once he had something in his mind, he would not drink the wine as much as he wanted. Zhang Tuozi was more thoughtful and said, "I think Yuan Feng is a very knowledgeable kid. We might as well ask him."
Everyone nodded in agreement, only Zhao Ding'an said: "I'm so afraid! The horse thief has horses and swords, and we also have them. We just have to fight with him."
The elder Zhao slapped him in the face and said, "Children, adults, please don't interrupt. Go outside and help clear the table."
Zhao Ding'an rubbed his head and left aggrievedly. Lao Suntou concluded: "Let's do this. Let's block the fort gate tonight and send people to guard the wall. We can discuss anything tomorrow."
At Hu Laizi's house, Yuan Feng was completely drunk, lying on the kang in a daze, muttering: "Water, water."
The mute aunt took out a jar of hot water from the hut, twisted a handkerchief and wiped Yuanfeng's face, and brought out a bowl of sugar water. I don't know whose daughter-in-law left the brown sugar after confinement, and she treated it as a gift today.
After it was delivered, Yuan Feng was helped to sit up, drank two sips of brown sugar water, suddenly opened his eyes, looked into Aunt Mute's eyes and said, "Aunt Mute, you are so kind."
Aunt Mute's face suddenly turned red. She felt her cheeks were on fire, and her heart was racing. But when she looked at Yuan Feng again, she fell asleep again. Aunt Mute put the bowl down, touched her face, and was stunned.
After a pause, he helped Yuan Feng cover himself with the quilt, then turned around and left.
When I got to the door, I saw Hu Laizi standing there. I don't know how long she had been watching. The dumb girl's face felt hot again. She slipped under Hu Laizi's arm and went to the pot house to boil water.
Hu Laizi sighed: "The child has grown up."
Early the next morning, the rooster of the Zhao family had just crowed for the first time. Yuan Feng got up, put on his clothes and went to the backyard to chop firewood. However, someone got up earlier than him and saw something moving here. In Hu Laizi's house
He turned on the lamp, and the lame man came out and shouted: "Yuan Feng, stop working, the uncles are here to discuss matters with you."
Yuan Feng put down the ax and walked into Hu Laizi's room. He saw the same people from yesterday were there again, all looking haggard, obviously because they had not slept well at night.
"Son, my uncles came to you to say something. You said that Duyi Dao was dead. If his horse thieves could not avenge him, what would happen if they came to our fort?" Old Suntou asked.
The others looked solemn, waiting for Yuan Feng's answer.
"What else can we do? Let's fight." Yuan Feng's answer was exactly the same as Zhao Ding'an's.
"I just told you that if you fight with them, you still don't believe it." Suddenly a person bumped in outside, it was Zhao Ding'an. The young man had just come down from the fort wall, his face was still red from the cold, and when he walked to the door he heard Yuan Yuan's voice.
When Feng said it, he suddenly became excited.
"Just stay there." Elder Zhao scolded his son with a straight face. Ding'an was about to slam the door and go out unconvinced, when Elder Zhao asked again: "Is there anything going on outside?"
"There's not even a ghost." Ding'an said firmly and went out, but he didn't go far, squatting at the door and eavesdropping.
"Ahem, how to fight? Who is going to fight? You have to come up with a charter." Several old guys looked worried when they heard that Yuan Feng also wanted to fight.
Yuan Feng said: "Uncles, please be patient. Let me ask you, what is so scary about horse thieves?"
"A good horse and a sharp sword can come and go like the wind." said the elder Zhao.
"Killing without blinking an eye is lawless." Zhang Tuozi added.
"They are backed by the most powerful swordsman in the five hundred miles radius." Lao Suntou finally said.
"That's it. Du Yidao and his son are dead, so there's no need to worry about it. It's winter now and there's not much work to do in the fields. The villagers are hiding in the fort and blocking the fort gate. No matter how fast their horses are, it's in vain.
, if the horse thieves crawl in, then they will have no advantage at all. The people in our fort are not stupid. You can kill them if you want. Rabbits bite people when they are anxious. What's more, the people in our fort are not rabbits either.
..." Yuan Feng said slowly.
This makes sense, everyone has two arms supporting a head, so why should the horse thieves be more powerful than others? Besides, the people in the fort are all descendants of military households and exiled prisoners, and they have a somewhat martial tradition and a willingness to fight.
With a ruthless bloodline, if you are really desperate, who will be afraid of whom?
"Yuan Feng is right. What should be done? Come up with a plan and we will just follow it." Lao Suntou said.
"Okay, I'll just tell you, Uncle Zhao, how many knives do you have in your shop?" Yuan Feng asked.
"My blacksmith shop is mainly for horseshoeing. We only have seven ready-made long knives and four or five blades. What, brother Feng, do you want to equip all the young men in the fort with knives?"
"No, these knives are no longer of use. They are all remade. Along with those horseshoes, kitchen knives, hoes, etc., they are all turned into gun heads." Yuan Feng said.
"What? A good knife turned into a gun head?" Old Zhao had an incredulous expression on his face.
"Yes, I have seen the knives in Uncle Zhao's shop. They are ordinary iron knives, not even steel-clamped. Such knives have no advantage against horse thieves. It is better to melt them to make a gun head. There is a birch knife to the west of the bunker.
In the woods, cut some poles and mount them with iron spearheads, which are spears. Each inch is longer and stronger, so horse thieves cannot get any advantage."
After listening to Yuan Feng's words, the elder Zhao blushed a little. The knives hanging in his shop were indeed not of good quality, but this did not mean that his craftsmanship was not good. If he could have good pig iron and wrought iron, he could also
Create a steel knife that can cut through iron like clay.
"The fort wall is ready-made, as is the trench outside. We only need to deepen the trench, use the excavated soil to raise the fort wall, and then repair the gate. Although it is not as good as the original garrison fort, it is more than enough to deal with horse thieves."
The old guys all nodded in agreement. Shibali Fort was originally a military fortress. There were hundreds of families in the fort, and they could pool a hundred laborers to defend the city. Now it is the off-season, so there is no need to go out to work.
That's it, let's see what those horse thieves do.
"But it will take some time to dig trenches, lay walls, cut down trees, and make spearheads. What if horse thieves come here at this time?" Old Suntou still had some doubts.
Yuan Feng explained: "None of Du Yi Dao's subordinates are brave. I saw this that day. If one of them is brave, our fort is doomed. As long as we don't attack that day, we don't have to be afraid."
, their internal strife alone will take a while, and during this period we will be preparing our troops for war."
When daylight comes, the entire Shibali Fort has turned into a busy construction site. The horse thieves will come back. Yuan Feng alone cannot stop them. Everyone knows this. There are only two ways in front of everyone.
, one fled with his family, and the other stayed to confront the horse thieves.
If this choice was made in the past, people would definitely choose the former, but it is different now. Everyone has a backbone in their hearts, and that is Yuan Feng. He has practiced swordsmanship well at a young age, and can kill the father and son of Du Yi Dao in a row, scaring them away.
Horse thieves, how can you underestimate this ability?
Sometimes it's like this. One person's reputation can inspire a group of people. I think that was how Duyi Dao used his ruthless sword skills to expand a team of four or five horse thieves into an armed force of hundreds. This is the strength of the backbone.
.
There is no need for Lao Suntou and others to exaggerate, but Yuan Feng's skills have been rumored to be amazing in the castle. They say that his dead uncle is the real number one swordsman in Kansai. Yuan Feng has been practicing swordsmanship since he was three years old, and he has reached the level of perfection.
At this point, with such a young hero sitting in charge, I'm afraid he's a bitch.
Anyway, it’s the winter farm break. Instead of sitting at home pushing Pai Gow and beating the wife and scolding the children for drinking soup, it’s better to go out and work to strengthen the fort’s defenses. The Shibali Fort is a square castle with a circle of trenches outside, but it’s too old.
It is in disrepair. The city wall is just a wide fence with no crenels on it. The two northern and southern castle gates have disappeared at some time. The wooden arrow towers on the gate towers have long since collapsed, leaving only ruins and the trenches were blown by sand.
It's almost filled out.
The residents of the fort were divided into two groups. One group used hoes and shovels to dig ditches and pad the walls, while the other group drove carriages to the woods outside the fort to cut wood and make weapons. Big Old Zhao's blacksmith shop was in full swing, and the iron knives were all in full swing.
After being re-melted, every household also used the unused iron pieces to make spear heads. The fire was strong, and in the cold weather, Ding'an raised his upper body and kept beating the red-hot iron pieces to beat them into spear heads.
Shape, this does not require any technical content. The father and son can do it together and it will be very fast.
The carpenters in the town were not idle either. They selected straight, long, moderately thick birch poles, and planed them smoothly. Once the spear heads were forged, they could assemble them into long spears. In addition, they also used thicker poles.
The four gates were made of wood, not to look good, but to be strong. They were installed on the door openings of the north and south gates, and the door bolts made of the whole wood were horizontal, so that they could not be broken open without the use of siege engines.
The people in Shibali Fort were busy chatting together, when suddenly the man in charge of the lookout on the fort wall shouted: "People are coming from the west!" While shouting, he banged a broken gong fiercely. This was a pre-arranged signal, and the townspeople hurriedly
He left his work and ran back to the castle. Before the gate was built, he blocked it with a carriage. Someone flew to report to Lao Suntou and others. When Lao Suntou heard the report, he frowned and said: "What happened, horse thieves came to the door."
Yuan Feng said: "Did I guess wrong? They came so quickly."
It was too late to say anything. He quickly went up to the fort wall to observe the situation. When he saw the flag of the horse team in the distance, Old Suntou smiled: "It's a false alarm. It's not horse thieves, it's a caravan coming over."
As the New Year is approaching, the caravans doing business in the west are returning to the east one after another, so their appearance is not surprising at all. It snowed yesterday, and it is definitely not suitable for people to camp outside. Lao Suntou will ask someone to open it now
The fort gate let the caravan in, but Yuan Feng said: "Wait a minute, who can guarantee that this caravan is not a horse thief disguised as a horse thief."
When he heard this, Old Suntou was scared and said quickly: "Block the doors quickly and don't let them in."