When the first ray of morning sun hit the flagpole at the camp, a new day started at Monkulus Manor.
Though yesterday's march was tiring, the Black Hat Army, War Cultivators, and laborers did not slack off, immediately beginning the tense yet orderly construction work.
At the edge of the manor, bags upon bags of mortar were unloaded by laborers and local villagers from the carts.
After being scolded by Lauren yesterday, the Drachma Steward didn't dare to bully the laborers anymore, but he still maintained his previous attitude towards the local villagers.
He already knew that many of the laborers were retired gentry, offending them unintentionally would definitely lead to trouble.
This group of new gentry just doesn't understand; how can you let the old gentry work?
"Quick! Move those stones over! You miserable wretches!" Drachma shouted at the local villagers, "We need more mortar!"
Seeing any villagers slacking, he would whip them mercilessly with a cane.
As the villagers unloaded bags filled with mortar powder from their shoulders, their bare backs were exposed.
It's hard to imagine how their skinny bodies, thin as bamboo poles, managed to carry such heavy bags.
The mortar powder was transported to a large wooden barrel, then mixed according to a ratio of 35 pounds of water, 68 pounds of mortar, 124 pounds of sand, and 252 pounds of crushed stone.
Then several villagers and laborers used shovels and wooden sticks to stir back and forth, mixing with sand, crushed stone, and water, changing the original yellow-brown mortar gradually to khaki color.
When the mortar concrete was finished mixing, it was poured into smaller wooden barrels, loaded onto ox carts, and hauled near the Monkulus camp.
Around twenty villagers pushed carts to transport the mortar concrete to the edge of the foundation.
Villagers and laborers fully deployed, dug out the foundation, hammered it firm using large hammers, inserting two cedar piles every three steps.
Due to the rush to make wooden prefabricated panels, they used branches, shrubs, and cane woven into a mesh structure instead, then applied mud to solidify, forming temporary templates.
The purpose of the short mortar walls is to block the enemy; it doesn't matter if they look unsightly.
The good thing about mortar is that it can be used without long weeks of curing, though it requires Natural Priests to put in a little extra care.
Every Holy Gunman is a Natural Priest anyway, and they have no shortage of manpower.
Standing on wooden scaffolding taller than themselves, laborers poured barrels of mortar concrete in.
Each section of the wall had several War Cultivators with wooden sticks, sweat streaming down as they stabbed and inserted in the semi-solidified mortar concrete, chanting. Official source is NoveI-Fire.ɴet
This was to apply ash to the wall, reinforcing it with spells.
During a break eating, Lauren sat heavily under a cooler shelter, guzzling down an entire jug of water before speaking lifelessly: "Isn't this just ash work? Why is it more exhausting than going to the battlefield!"
"Who says it isn't? We have to rush the work mainly." Another Brigade Commander lay carelessly on the ground, "Hey, didn't we see cavalry scouting this way yesterday? How is it?"
Mormul with two dark circles replied: "Don't mention it, I and three brigades guarded all night, didn't even see a hair."
"Could this be some kind of plot?" said Lauren, struggling to rise, "Could it be they're using a fatigue tactic?"
With dirt all over him, Kolman walked over, overhearing Lauren, he grabbed his head, dandruff and mud falling like snow: "Would these dull Knights use such a tactic?"
Seeing Kolman's bedraggled appearance, a familiar Brigade Commander asked: "Kolman, what's with you?"
"Don't mention it, the templates blew up." Kolman complained to Juer Dan, "Is there really no wood? These template blowouts are a bit frequent."
Juer Dan peeling skin on his sun-burnt arms replied: "I've already sent people to cut down nearby forests, it will be on time."
"Why do you think the Knights haven't come?"
Several Brigade Commanders and Legion Commanders exchanged looks but couldn't fathom the Knights' intentions, all prepared for construction amidst battle.
In the end, you didn't come, what's that about? Getting shy?
"Who cares, those haughty fools, once our fortress is built, they won't have any place to cry!"
These officers originally dressed smartly and brightly, now each was covered in mud like clay figures.
Lauren, being meticulous and supervising work well, still had the energy for a brief chat, while the other Brigade Commanders couldn't even speak.
Under the cooler shelter, the entire Monkulus Castle ruins had turned into a large construction site.
But visibly, walls of light khaki color were extending along the outlines of the former castle.
These short walls weren't fully connected, but intersected forward and backward, featuring gaps in between, preventing Knights from breaking through and charging straight in.
Speaking of short, these walls aren't short at all.
Considering the Empire war horses are mixed-blood steeds from three to four generations, each horse can jump two meters, and armored Knights can jump a meter and a half.
Under the Divine Technique of Walking on Flat Ground, they can disregard moats and pitfalls.
Thus, in the design, Horn had to set the height of the trench walls at two meters, stacking half-meter sandbags inside for Holy Gunmen's convenience in shooting.
This temporary fortress was co-designed by Jeska and Vite, modeled after bastion.
But since there was no artillery, and the Knights themselves didn't have artillery either, just needed to focus on maximizing the power of spring gunners.
These temporary walls and cover formed a three-tier platform — ground layer, hill layer, and castle layer, equivalent to a concentric hollow pentagon.
The first layer of walls was 350 meters long, the second layer 300 meters, the third layer 250 meters, covering a flat area of about 12 acres, about the size of a football field.
At each corner of the pentagon, a protruding triangular gun platform was built, allowing the spring guns to fire without dead angles.
The three-tier structure allows simultaneous firing from both the ground and hill layers during cavalry assaults.
If the ground layer is breached, Long Spearmen will hold the line, Holy Gunmen will go up the hill layer, shooting guns to cover Long Spearmen advancing to the second layer.
When Knights feign attack on the second layer, both the second and third layers can still fire the Holy Gun.
Three layers of defense, layer upon layer.
Ideally, including loss, estimated use of 92 tons of mortar, 168 tons of sand, 340 tons of crushed stone.
Part of the mortar is brought from behind Joan of Arc Castle, 70 large carts transported three round trips completing the mortar powder delivery.
As for sand and crushed stone, they're common building materials sourced locally.
Several Legion Commanders discussed it, purchasing crushed stone and sand at 2 Dinars per cart, higher than the usual price by 1.5 to 2 times.
Once the first villager received money, labor from ten miles around was mobilized.
They produce less than 300 Dinars a year on average, half of it would be stripped by Knights, Stewards, and the manor heads.
Hauling a cart of crushed stone or sand earns 2 Dinars, doing six trips a day equals 12 Dinars, this just makes a fortune.
As for local labor without carts, they were given two meals, and paid half a Dinar daily.
This money wasn't for manor heads and stewards, a dedicated Legion Secretary disbursed it.
For each transport, each day worked, the secretary handed money directly to the villagers.
No matter if manor heads and stewards afterwards would seize it astutely, at least basic trust with the villagers was established.
Compared to those laborers and villagers working hard digging sand and pushing carts, these officers still had time to rest and even enjoy momentary tranquility, which was already quite good.
Unfortunately, this peace won't last long.
"Brigade Commander Lauren, is Brigade Commander Lauren here?"
"What's the matter now?" Lauren finally asked indistinctly while eating bread.
"The scaffolding collapsed! Mortar leaked everywhere!"
"...I, cough cough cough... blast the mountain goats!" Lauren swallowed the bread, rushing over, "Show me, where is it?"