Chapter 328 Ashes, Ashes, Ashes, Ashes, Ashes
When the first rays of the sun shine on the flagpole of the camp, a new day begins at Moncruse Manor.
Although yesterday's march was tiring, the Black Hat Army, the war monks and engineers did not slack off, and immediately began the intense and orderly construction work.
At the edge of the manor, bags after bags of mortar were loaded from cars by engineers and local villagers.
After being taught a lesson by Laurent yesterday, the Drachma steward did not dare to act wildly against the engineers again, but when facing the local villagers, he still had the same attitude as before.
He already knew that many of the engineers were retired men. If they were accidentally offended, they would definitely be punished.
These new bosses are just ignorant. How can we let the old bosses work?
"Quick! Move those stones over here! You bastards!" Drachma loudly ordered the local villagers, "We need more mortar!"
I saw anyone who was lazy. The villagers, he even pulled out the cane and beat them severely.
The sacks filled with mortar powder were unloaded from their shoulders, and the villagers exposed their bare backs.
It’s hard to imagine how their bodies, as skinny as bamboo poles, could carry such heavy sacks.
After the mortar powder arrives, it is poured into a large wooden barrel in the proportion of 35 pounds of water, 68 pounds of mortar, 124 pounds of sand, and 252 pounds of gravel.
Then a few villagers and engineers used shovels and wooden sticks to stir evenly back and forth, mixing it with sand, gravel, and water. The original yellow-brown mortar gradually turned into khaki color.
When the mortar concrete is mixed, pour it into the small wooden bucket, put it on the bullock cart, and pull it to the vicinity of the Moncruz camp.
Twenty villagers pushed carts to transport mortar concrete to the foundation.
The villagers and engineers worked together to dig out the foundation, tamped it down with sledgehammers, and inserted two fir wood piles every three steps.
Because there is no time to make wooden prefabricated panels, they will use branches, shrubs and rattan to weave a mesh structure between the wooden piles, and then apply mud to solidify to form a temporary formwork.
Anyway, the purpose of the mortar low wall is to block the enemy. It doesn’t matter if it looks ugly.
There is another good thing about mortar, that is, it can be used without maintenance for several weeks, but it just requires more attention from the natural priest.
Anyway, every holy gunman is a natural priest, so they have no shortage of manpower.
Standing on a wooden scaffolding that was as tall as one person, the engineers poured buckets of mortar concrete.
On each section of the wall, there were several war monks holding wooden sticks, sweating profusely and thrusting into the semi-solidified mortar concrete, muttering something in their mouths.
This is plastering the wall and casting magic to reinforce it.
Laurent, who had come back from his shift to eat, sat down under the awning, drank a large pot of water, and then said helplessly: "Isn't this just ashes? How can it be compared to going to the battlefield? I’m still tired!”
“Who says it’s not the case? The main reason is that we have to rush to work.” Another division captain lay on the ground regardless, “Hey, didn’t I see some cavalry scouting this way yesterday? How’s it going?”
Momli had two dark circles under his eyes: "Don't mention it, I led three divisions to guard the whole night, and I didn't even see a hair."
"Is there any conspiracy behind this? Laurent struggled to get up, "Could it be that they are using the enemy's fatigue tactic?"
Coleman, who was covered in dirt, came over and just heard Laurent's words. He scratched his head and scalp. Debris fell like mud and snow: "Will the stupid knights use this tactic?"
Looking at Coleman's embarrassment, a familiar division captain asked: "Boss Coleman, what are you doing?" What's going on? "
"Stop it, the template is exploding," Coleman complained to Jourdan, "Is there really no wood? This template is exploding too often."
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Jourdain tore at his skinned arms: "I have already sent people to cut down the nearby forest. It's too late."
"Then why do you think the knights didn't come?"
Several division captains and corps commanders looked at each other, but still failed to think of each other's intentions. They were all ready to fight while constructing.
What does it mean if you don’t come? Shy?
“Whatever, those arrogant geese, when our fortress is built, they won’t have anywhere to cry!”
These officers, who were neatly dressed and brightly dressed before, now all look like clay figures.
Though someone like Laurent, who was meticulous and managed things, still had the energy to talk a little, the rest of the division captains couldn't even speak.
Standing under the pergola, the entire ruins of Moncruse Castle have become a large construction site. But at a speed visible to the naked eye, walls of light khaki color are spreading along the ruins of the original castle.
These low walls are not completely connected together, but cross each other front and back, with breaks in the middle to prevent the knights from being able to attack Huanglong as soon as they break through the low walls.
To say that they are short, these walls are not short at all.
Considering that the imperial war horses are all third- and fourth-generation mixed-blood war horses, the horses can jump two meters, and the armor-piercing knight on their back can also jump one and a half meters.
Under the influence of the magic of Walking on Flat Earth, they can ignore trenches and horse traps.
So when designing, Horn had to set the height of the trench wall to two meters, and pile half a meter of sandbags inside to facilitate shooting by the holy gunners.
This temporary fortress was designed by Jeshka and Witte and was modeled after a bastion.
But since there were no artillery, and the knights themselves had no artillery, they only needed to think about how to maximize the power of the spring-loaded muskets.
These temporary walls and bunkers are divided into three platforms through the mound - the ground layer, the mound layer and the castle layer, which is equivalent to a concentric hollow pentagon.
The first layer of walls is 350 meters long, the second layer is 300 meters long, and the third layer is 250 meters long. The plane area is about 12 acres, which is about the same as a football field.
A protruding triangular gun platform is built at each corner of the pentagon, allowing the clockwork gun to be fired without blind spots.
The design of the three-layer structure allows the ground layer and the mound layer to be launched at the same time when the cavalry attacks.
If the ground layer is breached, after the spearman is broken, the Holy Gun will be on the mound layer, and the gunman will be fired to cover the spearman on the second floor.
When the knights pretend to attack the second floor, the second and third floors can also fire holy guns at the same time.
Three lines of defense, layer by layer defense.
Under ideal conditions, with losses, it is expected to cost 92 tons of mortar, 168 tons of sand, and 340 tons of gravel.
The mortar was transported from the rear of Fort Joan of Arc, and it took 70 carts three trips to transport the mortar powder.
As for sand and gravel, which are relatively common building materials, they are all sourced locally.
Several legion commanders together purchased gravel and sand at a price of 2 dinars per truck, which was 1.5 to 2 times higher than the normal price.
After the first villager who got the money appeared, all the labor force from all over the country was mobilized.
Their total annual output is less than 300 dinars, and half of it is stolen by knights, stewards and bankers.
You can earn 2 dinars by pulling a load of gravel and sand. If you can transport six times a day, you can earn 12 dinars. This is a lot of money.
As for local laborers who do not have cars, they are provided with two meals and are paid half a dinar per day.
And this money is not given to the village head and housekeeper, there are special army documents responsible for distributing it.
Every time a truck is transported and every day of work, the clerk hands the money to the villagers hand in hand.
No matter whether the village head and the housekeepers will try to rob or not, at least they have basic trust with the villagers.
Compared with the engineers and villagers who worked hard to dig sand and push carts for construction, these officers still had time to rest, and it was good to be able to enjoy a moment of peace.
It's a pity that this peace will not last long.
"Captain Laurent Division, is Captain Laurent Division here?"
"What happened again?" Laurent finally asked inarticulately, holding bread in his mouth.
"The bracket fell over! All the mortar leaked!"
"...I, cough cough cough...I'm your goat!" Laurent swallowed the bread hard and trotted away Walking over, "Take me, where are you?"
(End of this chapter)