"Jin Dakui, come here quickly! When I send a letter to Zukuan, I will send reinforcements immediately! Otherwise, my family will no longer have such an ungrateful slave!"

The weak Zu Dale cursed for a long time, and then panted and shouted loudly at Jin Dakui who was standing with his head down.

Jin Dakui looked at Li Xiao with a look of asking for advice. Li Xiao nodded slightly to him to show his agreement. Jin Dakui hurriedly responded.

Li Xiao's heart suddenly felt full of emotion.

The selfish and despicable Longmen Guard commander Du Shi refused to agree to send reinforcements in order to ensure the safety of Xiaobaiyang Fort where he was stationed. However, Zu Kuan, the commander-in-chief from the Zu family, was so hesitant in the face of the old master who was in trouble and in danger, and refused to send reinforcements immediately. The warmth and coldness of the people and the plot of interests in it really make people sigh.

Li Xiao recalled that when he was in Jinzhou, the Guangning Zhongtun Station besieged a group of whistle cavalry teams headed by Gao Pu, who were temporarily commanded by the vanguard battalion. However, because of the unknown military situation, he refused to send reinforcements, which led to the entire whistle cavalry team being wiped out by the Tartars. It can be seen that although Zu Kuan was brave in combat, he was a person who was hesitant and difficult to take on a great task in his heart.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, Zu Kuan, who was first in Shaanxi to encircle and suppress the bandits, was hesitant and missed the opportunity to fight and was almost killed by the angry Hong Chengchou. Later, when the Tartars invaded Jinan, they also had the disease of hesitation and carefreeness, which caused his troops to fail to rush to Jinan to rescue him in time, and even the city of Jinan was captured and King De was killed. Finally, the furious Emperor Chongzhen ordered his position to be dismissed from his post, and a generation of brave general died.

Li Xiao increasingly recognized his opinion of Zu Kuan, that is, such a person can only be used by him and can fully exert his heroic and powerful side, but he cannot be the leader who stands alone. Otherwise, Zu Kuan's hesitation and fear in his bones will definitely miss the big thing.

However, now Zu Dale is willing to write a letter in person and force Zu Kuan to send troops, Li Xiao is happy to see his actions.

Now Jinjiazhuang Fort is in short supply, no matter how many reinforcements can be brought, it is a rare good thing. After all, a great man in his previous life also said: we must mobilize all positive factors to strive for victory.

Li Xiao was sure that Zu Kuan would not have broken up with his benefactor for the sake of this reinforcement. Although Zu Kuan was hesitant, he would know that if he really offended the Zu family, it would be difficult for him to gain a foothold in this Liaodong land.

Soon, Jin Dakui came in with paper and pen. At this time, Zu Wan'er's ginseng soup had been cooked and followed Jin Dakui into the room.

While Zu Dale occasionally drank a sip of the ginseng soup fed by Zu Wan'er, he frowned and wrote quickly.

When Li Xiao saw that when Zu Dale wrote the letter, he gritted his teeth and frowned from time to time. It can be seen that Zu Daleding wrote a lot of words of intense resentment in the letter.

Soon after the letter was written, Zu Dale put the letter paper into the envelope and handed it to Jin Dakui, and said loudly: "Dakui, don't leave your hard work, hurry up to Diao'e Fort and show me this letter to Zu Kuan. If he doesn't send reinforcements, tell him that from now on, he will not return to Liaodong. My Zu family will be considered as not such a shameless and ungrateful villain!"

"Don't worry, sir, let's go now!" Jin Dakui took the envelope with both hands, carefully put it in his arms, and then turned around and retreated.

Looking at Jin Dakui's figure leaving quickly, Zu Dale, with complicated eyes, sighed.

He quickly finished the remaining ginseng soup and his face gradually turned red.

This century-old ginseng is a fruit that replenishes qi and blood and has extraordinary effectiveness.

Zu Dale caressed Zu Wan'er's head with love and smiled and said, "Wan'er, it's nothing wrong with your father. Please step down. I'll talk to Li Xiao about the serious matter."

Zu Wan'er was also happy when she saw her father's face improve. She nodded, picked up the bowl and left the room.

In the sound of the room, only Zu Dale and Li Xiao were left.

At this time, both of them had heavy and serious expressions on their faces.

"Li Xiao, the enemy is numerous and I am few. Do you have the confidence to defend this castle?" Zu Dale's voice was very low.

"Mr. Zu, as an official army of the Ming Dynasty, Li is responsible for his duties. As long as our army fights hard, this Jinjiazhuang Fort can still be defended." Li Xiao replied calmly.

Zu Dale nodded gently: "It's great. For generals, you can defeat others by yourself. It's rare for you to have this confidence. Li Xiao, if Jin Dakui can bring reinforcements, they will all be dispatched by you."

Li Xiao bowed gratitude and replied: "Thank you sir!"

Zu Dale waved his hand and a faint smile appeared on his face: "It's a pity that I'm injured in bed now, so I can't help you, it's useless."

Li Xiao hurriedly said, "Sir, don't be depressed. With a veteran like you in the army, we will have a strong momentum in our army. Sir, you can rest assured and keep the fortress in peace. I will do my best to do my best to do it."

Zu Dale stared at Li Xiao's face and whispered: "Li Xiao, if the Tartars withdraw from the pass in the future, do you have the will to return to Jinzhou with me?"

Li Xiao's heart skipped a moment. He smiled and replied lightly: "I have built a fort in Shandong. Although there are twists and turns, it is still smooth. To be honest, this place in Liaodong is full of gates and all the places have been divided by interests. It is really difficult to have the development space for someone like me who is helpless."

Zu Dale sighed lightly, looked at Li Xiao with complicated eyes and said, "Li Xiao, I just hope that even if you are in Shandong, if you have something to do in Liaodong in the future, you can still lend a helping hand. After all, Liaodong is your origin and starting point, so don't forget your original intention."

Seeing Zu Dale speaks so tactfully, Li Xiao smiled and said, "Sir, why don't Li be a person who doesn't miss his old love? Don't worry. If something really happens in Liaodong in the future, Li Xiao will definitely lead his army to help. But now, I am still thinking about how to guard this fort."

Zu Dale smiled at his face, and he said repeatedly: "It's great, very good. Li Xiao, you have this kind of heart, so I'll feel relieved."

The two talked about some of the troops dispatched in the fort. At this time, Chen Mazi came over with two friends to change the medicine for Zu Dale.

Seeing this, Li Xiao once again told Zu Dale to have good health and leave.

At noon the next day, Li Xiao inspected the military and civilians digging trenches outside the fort. He saw clearly that due to the efforts of all the auxiliary soldiers and the people, it was estimated that by this evening, the excavation of the entire moat and the landfill iron markings would be completed.

Li Xiao was very happy to see that his military and civilians were working so fast.

He emphasized to Guan Yi and An Qian that if the moat is successfully completed today, starting from tomorrow, you can dig as many deep pits as possible to dig as many as possible for the open space outside the city, and then fill in the iron marks in the deep pits, so as to delay the speed of the enemy's attack as much as possible and increase the difficulty of their attack.

Guan Yi and An Qian agreed repeatedly, and then went down to convey Li Xiao's order.

Suddenly, a cheer came from the flying kite probing from a distance.

Under the hot sunlight, Li Xiao set up a shed and saw a group of soldiers coming from the east, rushing towards Jinjiazhuang Fort.

"Sir, it's Captain Jin who came back with reinforcements!"

A flying kite showed joy on his face and rushed to Li Xiao to report the good news.

Soon, Li Xiao, who was smiling, saw the captain of the servant Jin Dakui, returning from the east with a team of hundreds of people.

"Mr. Li, I have successfully brought back 500 soldiers from the Zujia Office. Master, when Zujia saw General Zu's stern letter last night, his face turned pale. This morning, he organized 500 infantry soldiers and handed them back to him."

Li Xiao smiled and patted Jin Dakui's shoulder with a happy face, and said with a smile: "Very good, Dakui, you are very capable in doing things. With these military soldiers, my Jinjiazhuang Fort has a much greater chance of winning successfully defending the city. This general has agreed with General Zu that all these military soldiers will be part of your army for the time being, but you need to work hard."

Jin Dakui knelt on one knee and said loudly: "Please rest assured, I'm going to make the decision to fight to the death with General Zu and Lord Li!"

The day passed again soon.

By the evening of the third day, Li Xiaojun's pre-war preparations had been basically completed successfully.

So far, the soldiers have been practicing for three days and are familiar with the tactics of defending the city walls, corner towers, fort towers, and fort gates. All kinds of city-guarding equipment stored in the warehouses in the fort, such as golden sweat bottles, ladder hammers, etc., have been placed on the top of the city wall.

Now, there are huge reservoirs of coal piled up like mountains of coal, filled with bricks of demolished vacant houses, as well as more than 2,000 stones of rice and grain, and nearly 1,000 stones of beans in the fort. Li Xiao estimated that it would be no problem to hold on for a month with these substances.

Outside the fort, in addition to digging and landing the moat with iron marks, many deep pits were dug around Jinjiazhuang Fort outside the moat, and iron marks were also buried. Li Xiao was sure that with these early defense measures, it would greatly delay the speed of the Jin army's attack and weaken its offensive strength.

On this day, the sun set, and everyone had just returned to the fort. Before they had time to have supper, the fort soldiers who looked up at the corner tower saw from afar that large groups of soldiers emerged from the wilderness in the south, like magic, and their formation was so wide that it seemed to cover the horizon.

"Not good, it's the Tartars attacking!"

After seeing the blue silk golden dragon flag flying high, the guarding fortress soldiers screamed.

The shrill conch horn sounded loudly, and the Jinjiazhuang Fort, which was gradually quiet, suddenly became noisy again.

Shield soldiers, spearmen, rampant teams, Lumi gunmen and auxiliary soldiers all ran up the city walls and made a warning posture according to the lineup of the drill.

Li Xiao was covered with armor and surrounded by several generals, and quickly walked to the fort gate viewing hall.

Li Xiao, with a serious face, held up the thousand-mile mirror and carefully looked at the Tartars who were surging from the south, and they felt tightened in their hearts.

He saw that within the enemy, there were about 1,400 Jurchen Tartars soldiers from the headquarters of Zhenglan Banner, about 600 Mongolian Tartars, and more than 700 soldiers from Shangkexi, who were holding high black-bottom white-centered flags.

These flags of the Han army were set up by Huang Taiji in March this year. The purpose is to distinguish them from the Eight Banners and to facilitate the distinction between the flag colors among several traitors. If it is the Tianyou Army of Kong Youde's troops, the flag colors are set just the opposite, and it is a black circle-centered flag on white background.

Because Li Xiao had accumulated some knowledge of Ming history in his previous life, he could see the types of these traitor troops at a glance.

In addition, Li Xiao also saw that there were nearly a thousand soldiers wearing tattered Ming army uniforms and hanging their heads. Li Xiao estimated that such soldiers should be this Tartar unit who fought back from Datong to Xuanfu, and captured various large and small Duanbao on the road, and captured the surrendered Ming army.

After these Tartar soldiers who were opening the road in front, there were more than 150 carriages and ox carriages, with mountains of grain and silver boxes piled up on them, as well as cloth and silk tied together.

Behind the baggage team, there were nearly six or seven thousand captured people, both men, women, young and old. Most of the people were tied together by ropes, and everyone looked sad, and the miserable crying could be heard from afar.

Among these captured people, some strong men were ordered to carry forty or fifty siege ladders and more than forty newly built siege equipment such as siege shields, and were beaten and scolded by a small group of Tartar soldiers to keep up with the troops in front of the Tartars.

Li Xiao didn't know that when he was carefully watching the Tartar troops walking closer, in the Tartar formation, Jialaezhen Aibali, surrounded by more than 40 white armored men, was talking in a low voice to Niu Luezhen Baiktu next to him about himself watching the castle gate.

"Sir, it's that damn Ming general who annihilated half of my Niulu! I dared to predict that the thief who attacked me and pursued the cavalry a few days ago on the north bank of the South River was also this thief!" Baiktu looked angry and gritted his teeth.

"Oh, is it? So, this Nikanming general is quite a brave and resourceful person. However, in my opinion, this person is wearing our Baiboyala armor and is also strong. If he can lead his army to surrender, he will ask the banner master for advice and allow this person to be my name and personally follow the Baijia."

Two terrifying scars on his face, his short and thick figure, and his thick lower palate stood forward like an angry orangutan. He was wearing luxurious cold-forged blue painted iron armor, and he was completely disgusted with Bektu's resentment. He said this in a teasing tone.

Baiktu could understand the ridicule in Abali's words. He gritted his teeth, suppressed the anger in his heart, and reminded Abali: "Sir, this Ming dog is very brave and his subordinates are all elite. In the eyes of a slave, the combat power of this man's military forces is the best among these border Ming troops. However, the adults should be careful to do this when fighting with him."

"Hmph! Baiktu, are you afraid of this unknown general, and you are talking to this person like this! Look at your cringe, there is no point in the heroic spirit of my Eight Banners Warriors. In the eyes of this general, it is obvious that you are useless, and that the unnamed general has wiped out the might of my Zhenglan Banner."

Aibali, who looked dissatisfied, glanced at Baiktu and snorted coldly in his nose.

Baiktu blushed and stammered, but couldn't say much.

Over the past few days, he has been pointed and ridiculed by other Niu Luezhen people under his jurisdiction, but he can only pretend that he didn't hear it, and the anger in his heart is beyond words.

Byktu could even feel that the attitude of the other half of Niulu soldiers he brought to him seemed to have changed slightly. Their eyes looked at themselves were not as respectful as before, but they had a lot of hesitation.

In the Jurchen tribe, a group that only respects the strong and only abides by the law of the Lin, the leader's prestige depends entirely on his achievements. It is the most natural that the leader who has defeated the battle is underestimated and suspicious by his subordinates and ridiculed and despised by his colleagues.

Byktu stopped talking, he let out a light breath, bowed slightly to Aibali with complicated eyes, and then retreated to his Niulu formation.

"I passed the general's order. It's already late now. Five hundred steps away from Jinjiazhuang Fort, set up camp and rest on the spot." Abali looked at the silent Jinjiazhuang Fort opposite him for a while and ordered loudly.

"Yeah!"

"By the way, let me tell you, don't waste too much energy on those Han women tonight, and you need to rest well. Tomorrow morning, the entire army will immediately start attacking the fort. After the fort, the military and civilians in the fort will be taken and killed by all the military and civilians." A grim smile flashed across Aibali's face, and then he shouted to the two Bakashi soldiers who were leaving to pass the order.

"Yeah!"

At the entrance hall of Jinjiajiazhuang Fortress, the Tartar army began to set up camp. Li Xiao, with a stern face, put down the Qianli Mile Mile Mile and began to issue military orders.

"I passed our military orders, and all the fortress walls will arrange auxiliary soldiers to receive arrows and pass the quotations to the night, so as to be on duty. I believe that the Tatars must attack tomorrow dawn, and the entire army of warriors will rest tonight and accumulate strength. Tomorrow, they will fight the Tatars to the death!"
Chapter completed!