Early winter came, and it started to snow again a few days later. The Han army camp was tense and orderly. Looking through the gate, there was a huge green military tent between the layers of military tents and spears. Although there was already a lot of snow on the tent, there were soldiers outside the tents without slacking off. The Han army flag was erected in front of the tent - that was Liu He's central army tent.

At this moment, although the generals in the tent were silent, there were only a few charcoal braziers crackling. Liu He sat beside the Shuai Case without saying a word, holding a small wooden stick in his hand and fiddling with the charcoal in the basin, staring at a piece of burning charcoal in his eyes in a daze; the generals were also staring at him motionlessly, as if they were clay idols.

After a long time, Liu He left the small wooden stick and looked around the camp and said, "Mr. Mr.! The governor's mansion recruited Jizhou, Qingzhou refugees enriched Guangyang and Youbeiping, and cooperated with the new policy. I saw that some things were needed to prepare first."

Ju Shu nodded and said, "Yes, I think we must first buy a large amount of food, immigrants and migrants to the border. When we arrived in Baicaowa, we were afraid that not only the army, but also the immigrant people would open their mouths to eat. Without food, there would be no stability, let alone the winter was about to come."

"Xian and you and Yide go to the prefecture. First, go to the governor's mansion to get more money and grain, and second, ask the uncle of Yide to go to Xuzhou, Yanzhou and Yuzhou to buy food. At present, there are still many refugees, but the more food the better, so you must raise as much food as possible. You must come back. Whether we can spend this winter depends on the two."

"No." Jian Yong and Zhang Fei took the order.

"Demou, your troops will continue to guard Lu Long. I will lead Bo Yu, Han Sheng, Xuan De, Sui'an, and Yun Chang to lead five hundred elite cavalry. First, go to Baitan Town near Baicaowa to investigate Baicaowa." Liu He pointed to the army and said.

Cheng Pu said seriously: "Lord, if you encounter a thief again, you must not take risks in person! The proverb says: 'The son of a thousand gold is not in the hall'. You are born in a famous family and have only become a member of the people. You will definitely get great benefits for the country in the future. The future is limitless. How can you be careless and not care about yourself? Just leave this matter of killing thieves to us!"

"The virtue and plan are not bad! It is precisely because I am a relative of the Han Dynasty, I have to lead the way! The soldiers are protecting my Han Dynasty. They are willing to sacrifice their heads and shed their blood. My life is life. Is your life not life? Everyone is raised by their father's biological mother. Their origins may be different, but no one is more noble than anyone else. Chen She said in the past: 'Is there any seed of kings, princes, generals and ministers? So Emperor Gaozu killed the snake and rebelled, and established the foundation of the Han family. I missed my grandfather, and cut off the frost and thorns to make a sizeable place. I will follow the descendants of the clan, and I will go to battle with my own hands, not avoiding arrows."

Liu He said sadly: "I would rather bring more soldiers home! The people are the most important, and the country is the next. The king is the least important. The people are the foundation of the country, and the country is peaceful."

"The lord is truly the lord of benevolence and righteousness! He has the style of a famous general in ancient times." Ju Su bowed.

"We are willing to die for the lord!" The generals bowed.

"Don't talk about life and death easily, and see victory alive." Liu He helped the generals up one by one.

Ten days later, Jian Yong and Zhang Fei returned with Zhang Shiping and the grain team, and there were 30,000 refugees. The migrant refugees were led by Ju Su, and Jian Yong and Zou Jing were guarded by Liu He and Liu He led their troops to lead.

Since entering the boundary of Baitan County, the road has become difficult to walk, and it is getting more and more rugged, and the mountains are getting steeper day by day. But what makes Liu He and others feel even more heavy is that because they have been abandoned for a long time, there are ruined houses along the way. Occasionally, some villagers on the road with yellow faces and thin legs and despair on the road are silent after seeing this team, and follow the team without saying a word.

But when Liu He came to Baitan Town, he was immediately stunned by the scene in front of him. Is this a town?

There is a archway on the Loess Road with the words Baitan Town written on it. This is probably the most trace of human civilization here. Behind the archway, the broken earth walls have already shown signs of weathering and holes are everywhere, so the simple city gates are just decorations from a distance. There are many low and dilapidated houses in the city, some of which are thatched huts, probably similar to shacks. It seems that it is a town, but it seems that it is not much different from a village. You can enter the town. You can see along the way all the old and weak women, young and strong men are almost never seen, and there are also ragged disabled old men coming up to beg.

Wars occur frequently here, with many casualties and injuries. Some soldiers in the town died or were disabled, and their families who survived on military pay lost their source of income, and Shanggu County was unable to continue to support them; so those people would be forcibly moved out of the military strongholds and set up another place and some land for them to seek their own way of survival.

The barren arable land, backward economy, famine, bandits, and wars were rampant. The Han army retreated and there was no strong labor force, so people lived a very difficult life. At first, these remnants saw Liu He's troops and thought it was the bandits, but later they found out that it was the Han army. Suddenly, the whole town was crying, and the Han government came, and the Han court did not give up on us.

Next to Liu He's place, there was a thatched hut and dangerous house. There was a lonely old woman living in it. She was blind and skinny and thin, and she was completely sluggish by the townsmen. Not long after I came, I heard about her. Her husband and three sons died on the battlefield one after another. Her daughter was caught in a haystack when the Xianbei people went south and humiliated to death. Now the whole family is only half-tied old woman left.

It turns out that being alive is also so painful!

Liu Bei couldn't stand such a tragic incident and often saved a portion of his food for the blind old woman.

However, Zhang Fei occasionally complained and cursed: "It's so hard to live, and nothing happens when you close your eyes. What's the point of living!"

But this guy is just a mean person and will throw away half of the pancake after he says that. Liu He thought that a person doesn’t have to listen to what he says, but depends on what he does.

"Xuande, after camping, cook some porridge for these villagers!" Liu He ordered: "The soldiers have also changed to one day and one day, saving some food. I am afraid that more and more Han survivors will come."

Liu He had a very accurate premonition. As the news of the Han army re-station of Baitan and the settlement of Baicaowa spread, there were more and more refugees day by day. Following this army, there were porridge to drink. Although it was not full, it could save lives. In the end, a thousand remnants gathered.

However, when Liu He heard something bad, the remnants said that a small Xianbei tribe colluded with horse thieves to rob Baitan Town, but Liu He only brought fifty horses.

While Liu He sent Liu Bei to invite help, he gathered the people. He shouted: "Now the court is back! The Han army is back! I know there are many veterans present. You have served the country all your life and are fighting for others. Now the barbarians are going to trample on your homeland and kill and humiliate your relatives. It is time for them to fight for themselves! The Xianbei people are known to burn, kill, rob, and rob. They will die if they don't fight. They will pick up their weapons and use their last passion to defend their families! Dear fellow comrades and brothers, I will be able to defend the people and die on the battlefield with everyone, and feel infinite glory!"

Slowly, many gray-haired people stood up from the crowd.

"The old man has killed someone after he has been in the army."

"Including me, I don't have many days to live anyway, I'll die if I die..."

Those old men who claimed to have passed by the army were all over fifty years old; there were no young and strong people in this place, and even young and strong people returned to the pass. Liu He and others could only lower the standard of selecting soldiers, picking those who looked not in their seventies and eighties, walking more easily and energetic. After choosing for a long time, they had to get 68 people.

These old soldiers also dug out broken copper and iron armor from their homes that they had not used, which was better than nothing, and some of them had weapons.

In the afternoon of the same day, Liu He entrusted Guan Yu to register the soldiers. Then he started to organize his 50 cavalry and independently organized into a team; there were about 70 old and weak soldiers in the township, and they were called township soldiers. They promoted the team to lead three people among the township soldiers. They also asked each family to contribute iron tools to send them to the blacksmith shop in the town to build weapons and build fortifications.

Baitan Town originally had a city wall with rammed earth, but it was disrepaired and collapsed in many places. Now the recruitment of the people is just digging the dilapidated areas to repair the dilapidated areas; take the soil and digging the soil outside the wall, and then ramming it with clay. Guan Yu's suggestion is to add a deep trench to increase defense with sharpened wooden piles; nail the horse-repellent piles outside the ditch. Both manpower and materials are very scarce, so they can only achieve this.

The temporary old and weak soldiers were not fully equipped with armor, and most of the armor that the old soldiers turned out was rusted and damaged. So they used wooden blocks and drilling holes to make simple scale armor that were not fully supplemented with incomplete armor. The protection was not good, but it was better than nothing.

Liu He summoned Guan Yu and Zhang Fei: "Baitan Town is a mountain on one side and is easily attacked by enemies on three sides. The wall is estimated to be nearly two miles long by hiking measurements. Our warriors only have a hundred people, and most of them are old and weak. If we defend to the death, we will not have enough troops; our cavalry lacks long ranges, and we will lose the battle. We can only try to lure the enemy into the city, use the fortification terrain to prevent the enemy from spreading, and use the walls and alleys to annihilate the enemy; therefore, I asked the civilians to build walls on the two central roads to separate the roads, which was the intention."

The next night, the tranquility around Baitan Town was still as dead as the silence, which was no different from countless days. The soldiers were a little worried that the Xianbei soldiers would not come. It was strange that it was a good thing that the enemy would not come, but now people are looking forward to a battle. Because everyone has been busy for many days, they have been working hard to build fortifications, and have been trained to prepare fortifications. If they are not used, wouldn’t they be in vain? As for what is the best result, people don’t seem to consider it.

The soldiers were ready to go, and even the township soldiers were not convinced and looked forward to it. There were also hundreds of people working chores to report to the city gate every day. Liu He set up sentry points on all sides and miles away, and sent people to take turns to be scouts day and night. There were also people on duty on the city wall every day, which was ready.

"Why aren't Xianbei dogs coming yet?" The old man standing outside the door muttered.
Chapter completed!