After a long while, Xie Changzhi stammered: "It's autumn now, and the wheat will be harvested in half a month. Could it be that people from Xue Yantuo will come at this time?"
"I also hope they won't come, but with the temptation of food and population, it's hard to guarantee they won't be tempted."
Speaking of this, Guo Song glanced at the crowd and said, "Everyone, we cannot wait for the Xue Yantuo people to come and then flee the city. We must take precautions and be fully prepared to fight. I believe we can defeat the enemy."
Everyone stood up and expressed their opinions, "We are willing to listen to Commander Guo's orders!"
Guo Song nodded happily, "I do have some ideas, which must be implemented immediately. Lieutenant Jiang, it is your task first."
"The humble position is here!" Jiang Ping stood up and said.
"You immediately lead five hundred people from your headquarters to Feng'an County and move all the people in Feng'an County to Jiuyuan County. It's best to leave now!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
Captain Jiang Ping left in a hurry, and Guo Song immediately said to the county magistrate Xie Changzhi: "The biggest defensive weakness in Jiuyuan County is that the city wall is too short, and it must be raised as high as possible."
Xie Changzhi frowned and said, "I'm afraid it's too late to build the city wall now."
"I know it's too late, but we can use sandbags to heighten the city wall. I want to know how many sacks there are in the county?"
"It is estimated that we can collect more than 200,000."
Guo Song nodded and said: "This time I brought 400,000 sacks. There are more than 600,000 sacks, which are barely enough. Xie County Magistrate wants to mobilize the people to join the sandbag construction wall."
"Your Majesty, the circumference of Jiuyuan County is more than 30 miles, and I'm afraid 600,000 are not enough!"
Guo Song said decisively: "Don't think too much. Just build the east and west walls high. As for the north and south, I will think of another way."
"I understand, I will convene the elders for discussion today."
Fengzhou, like Lingzhou, also has four wealthy families, including the Leng family, the Wang family, the Li family and the Gao family. As long as the four major families mobilize, the entire city will mobilize.
In addition to the short city walls, Jiuyuan also had another major shortcoming, which was that it had too few troops. Guo Song also took this issue into consideration.
He immediately sent soldiers to Xishou surrender city and Zhongshou surrender city, and transferred two thousand troops from these two surrender cities to Fengzhou. At the same time, he sent people to Lingzhou to request necessary support from Duan Xiushi.
The entire Jiuyuan County was mobilized. Thousands of young men and women dug and bagged the soil outside the city and transported it into the city on oxcarts and donkey carts. The soldiers piled sandbags on top of the city to make it taller.
Don't underestimate these three feet, as the difficulty of attacking a city will often more than double.
However, the sandbags for the fort were divided into three layers, inside and outside. The higher the city wall, the soldiers' feet would also need to be elevated. So 600,000 sandbags may seem like a lot, but in fact they can only barely cover the east and west sides, and the north and south walls are not enough.
Therefore, Guo Song had to find another way to solve the defense problems on the north and south sides.
Guo Song recruited more than 50 blacksmiths and more than 30 potters from the people and the army in Jiuyuan County, and asked all the blacksmiths and potters to work hard to make thorns.
Guo Song also asked all the old, weak and young people in the city to cut sharp thorns from tree branches. The wooden thorns were sharpened at both ends. Then they dug a hole, inserted one end into the soil, and the other end of the sharp thorns facing upwards, covered with a layer of wood.
Soil is a sharp weapon against the enemy. Once you step into a hole, the wooden thorns will pierce the soles of your feet, causing the soldiers to completely lose their combat effectiveness. It is equally effective against war horses.
In several large yards near the military camp, blacksmiths and potters were busy making thorns.
The main job of the potter is to make molds, using clay to make a three-pointed semicircular mold, and then firing it into a pottery mold. The blacksmiths melt the pig iron and copper, cast them one by one into the pottery mold, knock off the pottery mold, and polish it slightly.
All of a sudden, they turned into thorns. When these thorns are thrown to the ground, there will always be a sharp thorn pointing upward.
But it didn't end there. There were several doctors in the room who were boiling arsenic and pouring in the thorns to quench the poison.
In just a few days, craftsmen created tens of thousands of poisonous thorns and scattered them on the grass outside the north and south cities before the war, so that the enemy would not dare to easily attack the city from the north and south.
The craftsmen are still continuing to make tribulus thorns. If the quantity is enough, Guo Song will certainly hope to scatter them outside the city on the east and west sides.
Tribulus thorns have been used for more than a thousand years and are very practical because they can produce a huge psychological deterrent to the enemy and greatly weaken the enemy's combat morale.
As time passed, two thousand soldiers from Xishou Jiangcheng and Zhongshou Jiangcheng arrived in Jiuyuan County. More than 2,300 men, women, and children from Feng'an County were also taken to Jiuyuan County by the soldiers. There was quite a lot of open space in Jiuyuan County.
Many, hundreds of tents were set up for them.
The sandbag wall has been completed, and the construction of iron caltrops is still going on, but Xue Yantuo shows no sign of coming to Fengzhou. For this reason, there are many rumors in Jiuyuan County, most of which criticize the new three-town military envoy for being too arrogant.
, some people even accused Guo Song of competing for power for the sake of fame and reputation.
On the county street, County Lieutenant Zhang Wenlong whispered to County Magistrate Xie Changzhi: "County Lord, there are many rumors in the county that are not good for Guo Shijun!"
Xie Changzhi glanced at him coldly and said, "Why do you care about the words of stupid men and women?"
Zhang Wenlong wiped the sweat from his forehead and explained: "That's not what I mean by being humble. I am worried that Xue Yantuo won't come. Isn't everyone busy in vain?"
Xie Changzhi was silent for a moment and said slowly: "Every spring we have to prevent insect disasters and wind disasters, but we don't know whether disasters will happen. I think the same is true for military disasters. We should take precautions. If it really comes, we should take precautions.
You and I, together with more than 10,000 people, have to be taken captive to the grassland to become slaves. This means that if you don’t have long-term worries, you must have immediate worries!"
Zhang Wenlong had a look of shame on his face and whispered: "I know my mistakes despite my humble position!"
At this time, a soldier ran over, bowed and saluted: "Your Majesty, Mr. Guo has invited you!"
Xie Changzhi quickly asked: "Where are they?"
The soldier bowed and said, "Shijun Guo is waiting at the top of the west city."
"I see!"
Xie Changzhi gave a few instructions to the county captain, urged his horse, and ran towards the west city head with a few followers.
Above the west city, Guo Song stared into the distance. There was still no news from the scouts sent by Li Ji, but what really worried Guo Song was Mengzi. Mengzi also went to the west to explore the enemy's situation. It has not returned yet, which shows that it must be
What did you see?
In fact, the premonition in his heart became stronger and stronger. Even if the Xueyantuo people did not come to attack the city, they would definitely come to steal food.
"Your Majesty, Xie County Magistrate is here!"
Guo Song turned around and saw County Magistrate Xie Changzhi walking quickly, and asked with a smile: "I heard there are many rumors in the county. Did Magistrate Xie hear anything?"
Xie Changzhi shook his head and said: "One hundred people have one hundred mouths. If you don't care about such rumors, don't live your life."
Guo Song chuckled and said, "Xie County Magistrate is very open-minded!"
"That's the truth. If you are bothered by rumors, you will achieve nothing. I believe Guo Shijun will not care about these rumors."
Guo Song nodded, "Xie County Magistrate is right. It's not terrible if we do it but don't put it to use. What's terrible is that the enemy is coming to kill us, but we have no preparation!"
Speaking of this, Guo Song pointed to the wheat fields outside the city and said: "Inform the people in the city to start harvesting wheat from tomorrow, and be sure to harvest all the wheat within five days."
Xie Changzhi said quickly: "It will take at least ten days for the wheat to fully mature. It is not yet time to harvest."
"Of course I know it's not fully mature yet, but the situation can no longer wait ten days. Harvesting will begin tomorrow, and I will send the army to assist."
Xie Changzhi was a little hesitant. He had done other things in vain and wasted some labor. However, if the wheat was harvested early, the people would suffer losses.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid that if you harvest the wheat early, there will be great resistance from everyone."
Guo Song saw through Xie Changzhi's worries and said coldly: "It's nothing more than a little loss! Send the order, if the wheat is harvested but the Xue Yantuo people don't come, I will personally pay for all the losses."
Xie Changzhi hesitated even more, "How is this possible? Let the envoy make personal compensation."
There was a trace of dissatisfaction in Guo Song's tone, and he said with emphasis: "Since I said this, I will naturally keep my word. Magistrate Xie just tell me what I said, and then organize the people to harvest wheat. Tomorrow, the wheat from Guantian will be harvested."
Begins harvesting by soldiers."
Xie Changzhi had no choice but to agree. He had never heard of an official who used his own money to compensate the people. Perhaps it was the personality of Guo Shijun. The key was whether the people would buy it or not was one thing.