Since the Julu Army's strength was three-thirds, Liu Bei led the troops to intimidate Nanpi City to attract the main force of the enemy army. Guan and Zhang led the cavalry to rush to the aid of the counties. Li Mengxi withdrew to the rear to organize the defense line and recruit troops. On the fourth day.

On this day, Li Mengxi led the team to a village. The village was sparsely populated, with only thirty or twenty old, weak, sick and disabled people left.

Li Mengxi personally came forward to negotiate. During the negotiation, he saw a helpless old couple. The old man was sick in bed and was dying. Li Mengxi did not want to stay for a moment longer, so he immediately left the family.

"Come here!" Li Mengxi called to the sergeant, "call the military doctor over!"

Li Mengxi didn't want to stay in this house any longer because there was a sick person in the house and he was afraid that he would die if he contracted the plague, so he couldn't avoid it.

After a while, the military doctor came.

A military doctor works in the army. He has armor and a stomach, and carries a sword at his waist. He looks like a sergeant. When the old woman saw the sergeant coming to her door, she was a little scared.

At this time, the female soldier who came to the house with the military doctor came forward. The female soldier came forward and said in a gentle voice, "Auntie, my general sent to see that there is a patient in your house, and specially sent a military doctor to help Ren."

The old woman was stunned for a while before she understood the meaning of the sergeant who came to the door, and quickly asked the sergeant to come in.

The military doctor came in and saw the patient. The old man in the room was so sick that he didn't look like a human being.

The military doctor had excellent medical skills and full experience. He took the pulse and made a diagnosis. After thinking for a while, the military doctor took off the gourd from his waist and poured out several pills as big as dates from the gourd.

After handing the pills to the old woman, the military doctor said, "Go and get some warm water, crush the pills and feed it. Wait for a day to see how effective the medicine is, and then proceed with treatment."

More than this, military doctors received orders and went door-to-door to treat people and administer medicine.

The villagers, who were originally wary of the officers and soldiers, became much less wary after this incident.

Li Mengxi saw that this village was sparsely populated and surrounded by houses, which was suitable for setting up defenses. It was also just west of Bohai County. If he wanted to find a place to set up camp and coordinate his operations, this was the right place.

When Li Mengxi was inspecting the village, the villagers approached him. The old woman in the family gave Li Mengxi the only remaining old hen in the house as a thank you gift for the military doctor. Li Mengxi could not ask for it, so of course he refused.

After politely declining, Li Mengxi asked the villagers for their opinions and said that he wanted to set up camp near the village, but he didn't know if it was possible.

Li Mengxi brought many men and horses, and the situation was stronger than the others. In addition, the Julu Army had performed a good deed of medical treatment and medicine. The villagers saw that the Julu Army was not as domineering as ordinary officers and soldiers, so they were willing to lend their houses.

With the permission of the villagers, Li Mengxi found several unoccupied houses in the village, hoarded all the grain, grass and military supplies, and then ordered his soldiers to use sidecars to surround the village to form a preliminary defense.

When it came time to choose a place to camp, Li Mengxi thought about it and felt that it would be better to camp outside.

What is taken into consideration in this is that we must have no offense with the common people.

After waiting for half a day, the camp was set up, and the people in the village saw that the army had set up the camp outside. The people couldn't help but said, there are still houses in the village, so why not live in the village.

Li Mengxi said sternly to the people, "We, the Julu Army, have military orders. We will freeze to death without tearing down the houses, starve to death without robbing the people of food, and not touch the people at all."

Such rhetoric made the people pay attention.

It was hard to discuss anything in front of Li Mengxi. When we got back, the people in the village talked about it privately, saying that these officers and soldiers were different.

The soldiers of Julu were camped outside and the soldiers lived outside. However, Li Mengxi knew that it was not safe outside, so he double-bargained and chose a house in the village to live in.

Everything is ready, it's dark.

At night, Julu soldiers set up torch stands around the village, and more than two hundred soldiers stood guard behind the car formation.

Seeing this scene, the people in the village felt inexplicably relieved.

——

The next day, Li Mengxi woke up to the sound of roosters crowing.

The loud crow of the rooster broke through the morning silence, and the people in the village woke up together.

The people were surprised that there were no roosters in the village, so how could the rooster crow? Then the people discovered the source of the rooster's crow.

At the well, the common people saw officers and soldiers with gourds hanging on their waists fetching water.

The common people knew that this sergeant was the one who went door-to-door to see the doctor. When they came up to talk to him, the military doctor did not say he was testing poison, but only said he was testing water.

He fed the rooster with water from the well, and tried again with a silver needle. After a while, the rooster was fine, which meant that the water was also fine.

The boiled well water was delivered to Li Mengxi. Li Mengxi, who was extremely thirsty, did not drink it first. He poured out a little water and fed it to the military dog ​​first. The dog came to the water bowl and sniffed a few times, but did not drink it.

.

Li Mengxi hesitated. He looked at Gouzi suspiciously.

Later, it was verified that the water was not poisonous and the dog was not thirsty, so he did not drink it.

From this, Li Mengxi discovered a small problem. It seems that the dog should not be fed too much water. The dog should be kept thirsty at ordinary times, so that when it is necessary to test the water, it can be tested directly.

Take out a pen and paper and jot down this little bit of knowledge.

The common people came again. They saw Li Mengxi drinking water and invited Li Mengxi to his home for dinner.

Li Mengxi declined again.

At the beginning of a new day, everything was busy. Li Mengxi not only had to sort out the news sent back from various ministries, but also sent out scouts to inquire from all sides, and also needed people to strengthen the defense. He was busy without touching the ground.

My younger brother, Xiao Zhuan, is very unhappy. There is nothing fun here.

"Brother, why don't I get home?" Xiao Zhuan asked.

Li Mengxi was helpless. He touched his brother's head and asked, "Xiao Bian, what are you doing back here?"

Xiao Zhuan felt aggrieved and said, "No one is here to play with me. I want to go back and find someone to play with."

Li Mengxi couldn't help but slapped his younger brother on the forehead, "I went out to fight, and you insisted on following me. I told you to stay home but you didn't stay. Where will I find my children now?"

The two brothers were having an argument here. Xiao Zhuan hugged Li Mengxi's legs and refused to let Li Mengxi go. Li Mengxi had no choice but to persuade him emotionally and rationally.

This scene was quite interesting in the eyes of the villagers.

One hundred people pointed at the Li Mengxi brothers and asked, "Master Jun, who are those two babies?"

The soldier glanced at the villagers and replied with a smile, "The big one is my general."

The villagers looked surprised.

——

A villager wanted to leave the village. When Li Mengxi let him go, he asked casually. The villager only said that they were going out to do some work, but did not say whether they wanted to do something. Li Mengxi immediately became wary.

The true and false situation of the army had been clearly seen by the villagers. He was afraid that if the common people went to tip off the enemy, Li Mengxi was cautious and immediately summoned his soldiers to organize a defense after the villagers left.

When you are out in the army, you have to be careful and meticulous.

When the sun rose, the villager who had gone out came back, and the villager brought back a little baby with a tiger-like head and a tiger-like brain.

The villagers led the little baby back to the village and smiled honestly at Li Mengxi.

Li Mengxi looked back and saw that his younger brother was also looking curiously at this child of the same age.

Li Mengxi understood immediately and smiled, "Xiao Brick, no one is playing here anymore, go and play."

Xiao Bian and the child ran away to play happily, and Li Mengxi could finally work in peace.

In one morning, the soldiers cut down all the trees around the village and roughly processed them in preparation for subsequent fortifications.

Around noon, dinner was served.

The cooks set up a large iron pot and cooked two large pots of vegetables, one of horse meat and the same of braised bean sprouts in vinegar, but they were all gone.

When I went to ask Xiao Bian to come back for dinner, Xiao Bian was sweating it out playing with his friends.

At this moment, the villager who didn't know whether he was the child's father or grandfather came over to ask the child to go back when dinner was served. Li Mengxi smiled and said to the villager, "If you go too far, just have a meal with us."

I called the cook to serve the rice. The cook prepared a bowl of porridge, filled a bowl as big as a head with half a bowl of horse meat and half a bowl of bean sprouts, and made two steamed buns with kuaizi to take out to the villagers.

The villagers stretched out their hands to take it with some embarrassment.

To the Julu Army, this was just an ordinary meal, but to the villagers, it was indeed an extremely sumptuous meal.

Horse meat, bean sprouts braised in vinegar, and steamed buns were all delicious. The child who ate with Xiao Bian probably had never eaten meat on weekdays. Li Mengxi gave him a meat bone, and the child devoured it voraciously.

At the end of the meal, the child had gnawed so many bones that his belly was bulging. When his parents called him to leave, he still held an unfinished piece in his hand and gnawed on it as he walked.

Li Mengxi was just entertaining him out of courtesy. He didn't expect how much impact this kindness would have.

According to the plan of the Julu Army, after arriving at the place, it was time to mobilize the local people to build fortifications and organize defenses, and to train rural soldiers to prepare for battle. Li Mengxi asked the people in the village about the surrounding situation. He asked how many villages and manpower there were in the surrounding area.

, prepare to recruit rural soldiers and prepare thieves.

Someone paid attention to these words, and the villager with the child left the village without saying hello. Near evening, the villagers left and returned, and he brought back thirty or fifty young people.

It turned out that after hearing that there was a riot in the north, many people in this village had taken their families to live in the nearby Wubao of a wealthy family.

You have to pay money and food for living in someone else's house, which makes you feel uncomfortable. If you have the choice, who wouldn't want to live in your own house?

Since Li Mengxi settled in this village, he first gave medicine and medicine, and then set up camp outside to keep the people safe. In addition, soldiers guarded the village all night, which gave the villagers a great sense of security and made them determined to call their friends.

The last step in the friend's visit was for Li Mengxi to treat the villager to a meal.

As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for the people. Ordinary people in the countryside eat poor quality food all day long. They had a full meal at Julu Army. Although horse meat is not good meat, it is salted enough and cooked with boiling water.

Stir-fried in an iron pan with oil, it is full of flavor. The bean sprouts braised in vinegar are sour and delicious, and even the steamed buns taste soft, glutinous and sweet.

It is no exaggeration to say that this meal is a delicacy that the villagers cannot afford to eat during the holidays.

After they had a delicious meal and good things happened, the villagers thought of their relatives and friends.

The villagers went to Wubao and told their relatives and friends that someone was recruiting local soldiers, and their soldiers had meat to eat.

As soon as they heard this, the people came with the idea of ​​giving it a try.
To be continued...