When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#328 - Graying, graying, graying, graying

As the first rays of dawn touched the flagpole of the camp, a new day began at Moncrus Manor.

Despite the fatigue from yesterday's march, the Black Hats, War Priests, and sappers didn't slacken, immediately starting the intense and organized construction work.

At the edge of the manor, bags of mortar were unloaded from carts by sappers and local villagers.

After being lectured by Laurent yesterday, the Drakma steward dared not bully the sappers again, but he maintained his previous attitude towards the local villagers.

He already knew that many of the sappers were retired veterans, and offending them could lead to trouble.

These new lords just didn't understand; how could they let the old lords do the work?

"Hurry! Move those stones over here! You beasts!" Drakma shouted at the local villagers. "We need more mortar!"

Seeing some villagers slacking, he lashed out with his cane, beating them severely.

Unloading sacks filled with mortar powder from their shoulders, the villagers revealed their bare backs.

It was hard to imagine how their skinny, bamboo-like bodies could carry such heavy sacks.

Once the mortar powder arrived, it was poured into a large wooden barrel according to the ratio of 35 pounds of water, 68 pounds of mortar, 124 pounds of sand, and 252 pounds of gravel.

Then, several villagers and sappers used shovels and wooden sticks to mix it evenly, combining it with sand, gravel, and water, gradually turning the original yellowish-brown mortar into khaki.

After the mortar concrete was mixed, it was poured into small wooden buckets, placed on ox carts, and pulled to the vicinity of the Moncrus camp.

Twenty or so villagers pushed the carts, transporting the mortar concrete to the foundation site.

Villagers and sappers worked together, digging the foundation, tamping it down with large hammers, and inserting two cedar stakes every three steps.

Since there wasn't enough time to make wooden prefabricated panels, they used branches, bushes, and vines to weave a mesh structure between the stakes, and then coated it with mud to solidify, forming a temporary template.

Anyway, the purpose of the mortar walls was to block enemies, so it didn't matter if they looked a little ugly.

Another good thing about mortar was that it could be used without weeks of curing, but it would require the nature priests to put in more effort.

Anyway, every Holy Arquebusier was a nature priest, so they had no shortage of manpower.

Standing on wooden scaffolding more than a person tall, the sappers poured in buckets of mortar concrete.

Several War Priests held wooden sticks for each section of wall, stabbing and thrusting into the semi-solid mortar concrete while sweating profusely, muttering incantations.

This was '打灰(dǎ huī)' on the walls, casting spells to reinforce them.

Laurent, coming off shift for a meal, plopped down under the awning, gulping down a large jug of water before saying with a lifeless expression, "Is this just 打灰(dǎ huī)? Why is it more tiring than going to the battlefield!"

"Who says it isn't? The main thing is we have to rush the work." Another company commander lay on the ground, not caring about appearances. "Hey, didn't we see cavalry scouting this way yesterday? What happened?"

Momri, with dark circles under his eyes, said, "Don't mention it. I guarded all night with three companies and didn't see a single hair."

"Could this be some kind of conspiracy?" Laurent struggled to get up. "Could it be they're using tactics to exhaust us?"

Kohler, half covered in dirt, walked over and happened to hear Laurent's words. He scratched his head, causing dandruff and muddy water to fall like snow. "Would those blockhead knights use such tactics?"

Seeing Kohler's disheveled appearance, a familiar company commander asked, "Kohler, what happened to you?"

"Don't mention it, the formwork burst." Kohler complained to Jourdan, "Is there really no wood left? This formwork is bursting a bit too frequently."

Jourdan scratched his sunburnt arms. "I've already sent people to cut down trees in the nearby forest, it'll be in time."

"Then why do you think the knights haven't come?"

Several company commanders and legion commanders looked at each other, but still couldn't figure out the other side's intentions. They were all prepared to fight while building.

But you're not coming? What does that mean? Are you shy?

"Who cares? Those arrogant blockheads, when our fortress is built, they'll have no place to cry!"

These officers, who were originally neatly dressed and glamorous, were now all covered in mud.

People like Laurent, who were meticulous and managed things well, still had the energy to chat a bit, but the other company commanders couldn't even speak.

Standing under the awning, the entire ruins of Moncrus Castle had become a large construction site.

But at a visible speed, walls of light khaki were spreading along the original site of the castle.

These low walls were not completely connected, but crossed back and forth, with gaps in the middle, to prevent the knights from breaking through the walls and directly attacking the heart of the camp.

Speaking of low, these walls were not low at all.

Considering that the Empire's warhorses were all three- or four-generation mixed breeds, each horse could jump two meters, and knights in armor could jump one and a half meters on their backs.

With the effect of the 'Walking on Flat Ground' spell, they could ignore trenches and horse traps.

So in the design, Horn had to set the height of the trench walls at two meters, and pile half a meter of sandbags inside to facilitate the Holy Arquebusiers' shooting.

This temporary fortress was designed jointly by Jeshka and Vitte, imitating a star fort.

But since there were no cannons, and the knights themselves had no cannons, they only needed to think about how to maximize the power of the spring-loaded arquebuses.

These temporary walls and bunkers were divided into three levels of platforms by mounds—the ground level, the mound level, and the castle level—equivalent to a concentric hollow pentagon.

The first layer of walls was 350 meters long, the second layer was 300 meters long, and the third layer was 250 meters long, with a plane area of about 12 acres, about the size of a football field.

Each corner of the pentagon was built with a protruding triangular gun platform, allowing the spring-loaded arquebuses to fire without any blind spots.

The three-layer structure design allowed the ground level and the mound level to fire simultaneously when the cavalry charged.

If the ground level was breached, then the pikemen would cover the rear, the Holy Arquebusiers would go to the mound level, and fire to cover the pikemen on the second level.

When the knights feigned an attack on the second level, the second and third levels could fire the Holy Arquebuses at the same time.

Three lines of defense, layer by layer.

In ideal conditions, with losses taken into account, it was estimated to cost 92 tons of mortar, 168 tons of sand, and 340 tons of gravel.

The mortar was transported from the rear of Jeanne d'Arc Fortress, and 70 large carts transported it three times to complete the delivery of the mortar powder.

As for sand and gravel, which were more common building materials, they were obtained locally.

After several legion commanders discussed it, they acquired gravel and sand at a price of 2 dinars per cart, which was 1.5 to 2 times higher than the normal price.

After the first villager received the money, all the labor force within a radius of ten miles was mobilized.

Their total annual output was less than 300 dinars, and half of it was taken away by the knights, stewards, and estate managers.

Pulling a cart of gravel and sand could earn 2 dinars, and transporting six carts a day would be 12 dinars, which was a huge profit.

As for the local laborers who didn't have carts, they were provided with two meals and half a dinar's wages per day.

And this money was not given to the estate managers and stewards, but was distributed by dedicated legion scribes.

For every cart transported, and for every day worked, the scribes handed the money directly to the villagers.

Regardless of whether the estate managers and stewards would seize it later through trickery, at least a basic level of trust with the villagers was achieved.

Compared to the sappers and villagers who were working hard digging sand and pushing carts, these officers still had time to rest and could enjoy a moment of peace, which was already good enough.

Unfortunately, this peace didn't last long.

"Company Commander Laurent, is Company Commander Laurent here?"

"What is it now?" Laurent finally asked, with bread in his mouth, his words unclear.

"The support collapsed! All the mortar leaked out!"

"... I, cough cough cough... I'll fuck your goat!" Laurent swallowed the bread hard and ran over. "Take me there, where is it?"