The next day, just as it was getting light, the people in the village were woken up by Liu Ce and others shouting and scolding, starting a new busy day.

  In front of the grand hall of Zhuangzi, on the empty ground, more than a hundred men grasped bamboo spears and square shields made by Feng Ying overnight, standing in military posture and maintaining formation according to Liu Ces instructions.

  Feng Ying finally knew why Liu Ce wanted to cut a triangular notch on this so-called shield, it was convenient for the gun to be placed in the notch during formation and thrust forward, especially with those bamboo guns that were less than 2 meters long.

  Originally, Liu Ce had planned to make the bamboo spears three meters long, but considering that most of these men were currently not in good physical condition and couldnt even hold them steadily, let alone fight with them, he gave up on this idea and made the bamboo spears two meters long instead, to be used in conjunction with square shields for training. Liu Ce had also thought about distributing the captured bandit weapons, but those bandits weapons were all over the place, and Liu Ce really couldnt think of how to arrange them into a reliable formation, so he could only pick out some short knives and short spears to give to some of the men who looked stronger to carry with them in case of an emergency, and threw the rest to Feng Ying to deal with.

  "Raise your shields, stand!" Liu Ce shouted in the middle of the crowd of people practicing, a man beside him gritted his teeth and held up a half-body-high square shield to the front, with a stiff bamboo spear inserted in the gap, slowly approaching and gathering together with the team.

  "First row, imagine the bandits in front of you are going to kill your wives and children, thrust!" With another order, the first row of men thrust their bamboo spears with all their might. To Lius eyes, it was utterly lacking in flair, but time was pressing, there was no time for particular corrections now, just as long as the troops could keep formation without dispersing.

  Sun Cheng continued to supervise the group of men, and whoever was not serious would be beaten on the buttocks without mercy. Under double pressure, although the cooperation was not very familiar, they all persisted with gritted teeth, and compared to yesterday, there was significant progress.

  On the wall, Han Feng looked at Liu Ces training of this group of refugees who had no military knowledge, holding a feathered arrow in his hand, with a gloomy face and expressionless. After the battle of Thick Earth Fortress, he lost two good friends who grew up together since childhood, and also learned from Xu Hui that Zeng Yanzheng died at the hands of bandits to save himself, and had been feeling guilty ever since, rarely speaking, following Xu Hui and Sun Cheng on their escape route, fighting against the bandits with a desperate attitude, if not for Xu Huis carefulness pulling him back from the brink of death, he would have become a corpse by now.

  Feng Chou Nian held a heavy millstone weighing over 200 catties, fixed with an iron rod in the middle, and lifted it above his head, then put it down and lifted it again, repeating this motion dozens of times. A group of refugees nearby watched in amazement. Yang Kai Shan, standing beside Feng Chou Nian, gazed at him with a mixture of admiration and envy, humming softly to himself as he spat out the dry grass from his mouth corner. He raised the ghost-headed knife in his hand and began to dance with it, drawing the attention of many onlookers, who cheered and applauded, making Yang Kai Shan feel extremely proud and enthusiastic, dancing even more vigorously...

  Ye Bin stood in front of the steamer, gazing at the wisps of hot air rising from the several large steamers before him, still somewhat perplexed. Ye Bin managed a medicinal herb business in his own familys compound and was quite confident in his knowledge of medicine, although he couldnt compare to experienced doctors who had been practicing for years. However, he believed he had some insight into treating patients with external injuries. But last night, while chatting with Liu Ce in the house, they discussed the skin injuries of several refugees in the village, and Liu Ce suggested using a steamer to disinfect and then bandage them, saying that "alcohol" was most effective for cleaning wounds and could largely prevent inflammation from leading to tragedy. Ye Bin listened, but it was all vague to him - what did "disinfection" and "alcohol" mean? He didnt understand at all, so he decided to try it out today. But alcohol was impossible now - the river source had been dry for two consecutive years, and the grain that was originally produced in four seasons could only be produced in one season now. With bandits destroying everything, people couldnt even get enough food to eat, let alone make wine? However, he could try "disinfecting" the cotton cloth used for bandaging wounds...

  Qin Mo sat alone in the room, using a charcoal pen to draw fine lines on a yellowed paper, recalling last nights conversation with Liu Ce, his eyes becoming unusually determined...

  As noon approached, Feng Chou Nian and Yang Kai Shan were still boasting to each other at the entrance of the village when Hu Zi and Guo Tao returned from scouting for bandit information. After exchanging greetings with the two, they hastily ran towards Qin Mos place inside the village. Feng Chou Nian and Yang Kai Shan watched as Guo Tao and Hu Zi entered the village, then exchanged a glance. Yang Kai Shans eyes narrowed, while Feng Chou Nian raised an eyebrow, beckoning him over with his hand. He walked to a wooden table not far away, sat down on a long bench, and rolled up his sleeves. Yang Kai Shan chuckled and walked over to sit across from him, surrounded by refugees who had gathered to watch the commotion...

  "Alright, lets get ready to eat. After lunch, rest for half a watch and then continue training. Well train for another watch this afternoon!" As the sun had already reached its peak, Liu Ce shouted loudly to dismiss the troops. Everyone was drenched in sweat, panting heavily as they sat on the ground resting and waiting for lunch.

  Liu Ce had just thought of going down the steps to take a drink of water when Guo Tao called out, "Brother Liu, Mr. Qin wants you to go to the house for a moment."

  Liu Celie stepped forward, and Guo Tao followed him into Qin Mos house. The crowd at the entrance burst into applause as Yang Kaisan and Feng Xueyan were evenly matched in a wrist-wrestling contest, drawing cheers from everyone...

  "Brother Liu, take a look at this, its the bandit camp layout diagram. All four sides are built with thick wood, about half a mile long, and each of the four gates has four bandits taking turns standing guard. Every two hours, they will switch shifts. There are estimated to be no less than 800 people inside the camp. If we want to attack, we can only charge in from one side, take advantage of the momentum to disrupt the bandits deployment, and kill the leader of the guarding bandits in one go, dampening their morale..." Qin Mo pointed at a yellow paper with countless black lines drawn on it on the table, bringing up key points and precautions to Liu Ce. He occasionally looked up to see Liu Ces expression, worried that he wouldnt understand, but fortunately, Liu Ce kept using his hand to point at the positions being discussed, so he knew his worries were unnecessary.

  This drawing is certainly easy for Liu Ce to understand, although the details are far from comparable to a stack of drawings in his previous life, it can still be easily understood what this drawing means...

  Liu Ce pondered for a moment, Qin Mo was right, if he wanted to quickly break through the camp, he could only do so by killing from one of the camp entrances. However, the problem was that Liu Ce didnt expect these 120 refugees to have any fighting power at all. The real main force was still himself, Feng Qianyuan, Yang Kaisan and some other old soldiers who had been through hundreds of battles on the battlefield.

  "How is the bandits combat strength?" Liu Ce asked.

  "There were less than 100 crack troops within the camp, 300 battle-hardened soldiers, and the rest were refugees who had recently joined the bandits, mainly responsible for guarding and transporting grain."

  "Less than a hundred elite troops? Three hundred bandit soldiers?" Liu Ce heard this and his mind moved slightly more optimistically than expected. He was very familiar with the combat effectiveness of ordinary bandit soldiers, which wasnt much different from that of newly joined refugees. The remaining new recruits were even less to be feared. Only the nearly a hundred elite troops were not easy to deal with. He had to carefully plan his tactics to maximize the combat effectiveness of his over a hundred men.

  "Its time to eat!" Xu Hui and Qing Sao, along with several other women and children, shouted in unison as they pushed a large vat, and suddenly the empty space was filled with people, who began to squeeze together in preparation for grabbing food.

  A man knocked down the woman and child in front of him, just as he was about to push another old woman, a heavy scabbard suddenly slapped over his face, and he felt a burning pain on his cheek, wailing and falling to the ground... Sun Cheng stood at the side with an iron face, coldly staring at the man covering his face on the ground.

  "Give me another squeeze, try it!" On the other side of the queue, Feng Qiu Nian lifted a refugee who was crowding in front of a woman and child with one hand, holding him above his head. The refugees legs were half floating in mid-air, constantly kicking, his hands tightly grasping Feng Qiu Nians hand that was lifting him, his face full of terror. Meanwhile, Feng Qiu Nian had a ferocious expression, like a fierce god of war, making people feel chilled to the bone.

  "Whats going on!" Liu Ce and Qin Mo shouted as they walked out the door, seeing the commotion, and the crowd gradually quieted down...

  "Madman, put the person down first." Feng Chou Nian saw Liu Ce speak up, and the hand holding the refugee also loosened, throwing it aside and ignoring it.

  Liu Ce let out a sigh after understanding the situation. This group of refugees way of thinking cant be changed overnight, it needs to progress gradually. But now, in this chaotic situation, who has the time to reason with them? After some thought, Liu Ce shouted loudly: "Whoever disobeys the rules again will be expelled! You two lunatics, Sun Cheng! Keep an eye on things, if anyone else fights and I have to throw them out of the village, whoever dares to resist will be killed without mercy!"

  In a chaotic world, using heavy rules is more effective than lengthy and tedious advice. As soon as this was said, the refugees began to line up voluntarily to receive their rations...

  "Alas, Brother Liu, when will this day come to an end...” Qin Mo sighed, “Originally thought that the distant East was already plagued by war every year, with people struggling to survive. Didnt expect that compared to the distant East, this place is even more perilous, with a corrupt and incompetent court, causing the common people to become homeless and displaced. Truly dont know what face to show in front of heaven and earth."

  "Mr. Qin, dont worry so much for now. Since the imperial court is unreliable, we can only rely on ourselves. Whether we can get through this difficult time depends on tomorrows battle." Looking at the long queue of refugees receiving food, Liu Ce had his hands behind his back and revealed a determined expression.

  After dinner, Liu Ce and Sun Cheng continued to drill the refugees. Since they had to ensure sufficient energy to deal with the bandits tomorrow, they dismissed the troops after only one hour, letting them return to rest and maintain their condition. He glanced at Han Feng, who was shrinking on the wall of the village, and saw that he had lost a lot of weight in recent days, being indifferent to everything, with a look of despair on his face.