Chương 239: 236. Parapets

Darora had already provided them with the third crossbow a week ago, and since then, he had been working to make as many seed drills as he could, after giving a trial to the first machine and removing any problems in it. By now they had four seed drills already stored in a barn in the manor, and hopefully they should have more than a dozen of them by the time they would have to start sowing seeds in another two weeks or so.

He glanced at the now growing stack of paper - even as primitive as it was - on the shelf where all the blueprint parchments were stored, and couldn't help but be proud of this accomplishment of Tiranat. While he was still using a sharpened charcoal stick as a pencil, he would have to think of a better solution in the future. But for now, that was more than enough for the primitive quality of paper they were producing here.

There were still only half a dozen labourers working in the east of the village to produce paper, which meant they could only get two or three sheets of paper every day, which was far from the quantity they needed to provide it to every child and adult who was learning from Gorsazo in the evening classes in the longhouse blocks, he had still decided to familiarise them with paper, so every day he gave one of the sheets of paper produced to Gorsazo so that he could let his students use it in his classes, while keeping the other sheet for his own use.

Hopefully, once they had a trip hammer ready - which would require them to buy more iron from Cinran - they should be able to produce enough paper to provide everyone in those classes with it. While most of the things were going well, there was a setback with the construction of the mushroom barn a few days ago, which had meant they couldn't complete it in the targeted ten days like they had planned originally.

One of the labourers who was working there had gotten too drunk in the village alehouse the day before that, by trading in some of his weekly rations to the barkeeper instead of coin, and next morning he had been too hungover to properly tie a rope on a log which was supporting a corner section of the roof. While the logs were meant to be fixed with mortise and tenon joints later on, the workers were using a rope to hold the logs together until then.

However, not realising his mistake, when some other workers went to put the next log of the roof, the whole section of the roof collapsed, and set back the progress of the barn by a few days. The good thing was that nobody was seriously injured in it, however it very well could have led to it. That meant Taniok had to rebuild that section of the barn from scratch, which had led to the delay in the completion of the building.

Of course, that worker was thoroughly scolded, and despite all his apologies, Duvas had told every foreman at every construction site that he shouldn't be given any work for another week as a punishment, which meant the labourer wouldn't get the weekly rations either. Hopefully that warning would be enough for him, and he wouldn't repeat that mistake again. Taniok had also assured him that he would check every such weak point himself before proceeding with the construction of anything.

As he walked to the shelf and picked out a fresh sheet of paper to get started with a blueprint for something he had in his mind for the future, the outer door of the manor hall opened and Duvas walked inside along with the old carpenter Taniok.

"Huh," Kivamus muttered.

"I was just thinking about you." The bald carpenter grinned at that.

"Milord, I just put together the door of the mushroom barn. I apologise again for the delay, but that was the last remaining part, and now it is ready for use."

"Oh, that's excellent!" Kivamus looked at the majordomo.

"Let Madam Helga know about it so she can start transplanting the mushrooms from the temporary shed to this barn."

"Of course," Duvas nodded.

"I will also give her a few workers to help with that." Pausing his conversation with the ex-mercenary, Hudan looked up towards them.

"Milord! You really should start the construction of watchtowers now." Kivamus snorted.

"That's exactly what I was going to tell him." He looked back at the carpenter.

"That's your next construction project. We have already talked about the height of the watchtowers, and they should be double the height of the village walls which are themselves five meters tall." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Taniok gave a nod.

"So the watchtowers will be ten meters high then. Thankfully you had already ordered us to keep enough logs of that length for this in advance instead of cutting them down shorter for easier storage, so we don't have to spend time in felling new fedarus trees for this." He added, "You said it only needs to have a ladder on the inner side, and a covered platform on the top, right?"

"Kind of," Kivamus said.

"I certainly want a horizontal platform for the archers and watchmen to sit on, as well as a roof above them to protect them from the elements, but I also want a parapet on all sides of the watchtowers." Explaining it further, he continued, "It is basically like a guardrail on the sides, but you will have to make them from planks in this case.

They should be around chest height, so that the watchmen can still see around the area properly from the platform, but in case of an attack it would give the archers some cover so they can reload their bows or crossbows while hiding behind those parapets, before they stand up and attack the enemies again." Taniok seemed to be thinking about it.

"That... parapet shouldn't be too difficult to add once the watchtower is ready, but I'll still consult with you again about it once I have the platform ready for the first watch tower."

"Of course, feel free to ask about any problems you might have." Kivamus added, "How long will it take to build all four watchtowers on the corners of the village walls? I also want to make two more watchtowers - one each in the middle of the longer walls in the north and south, but that will come after the first four ones are already completed."

"With the holes for the watchtower foundations already dug before the winter, and the logs ready in advance, it shouldn't take as long as it would have otherwise." The carpenter continued, "I will take the best labourers who have worked with me in building the longhouse blocks and the barn, and will use them for this.

I will also need a pair of horses to raise the logs into the foundations, along with a wheelbarrow to move around the planks and other tools, as well as a lot of rope to keep the logs standing securely before I connect them together with beams. With that, I should be able to finish the first watchtower in four to five days. It should take around the same time or a little less for the other ones as well."

"That's not ideal, but this means we should still be able to complete two or probably even three watchtowers by the time the surrounding area is ready for travel, which also means ripe for bandits to attack." Kivamus gave a sigh.

"Alright, carry on then. Talk with one of the servants and he will provide you with all the rope and tools you need."

"Thank you milord." Taniok gave a short bow of his head, before he exited the hall. Kivamus looked at the guard captain and the ex-mercenary.

"With the three crossbows we already have, we should be able to put a crossbowman or woman on the top of the first three watchtowers for every hour of the day and night. We already have more than enough of a stock of bolts, even though most of them are just sharpened fedarus wood, and only a few are iron tipped. Still, in case of an attack the crossbow-women can take out a few bandits by themselves before they even reach the walls."

"It's true that having even three watchtowers would help a lot in the defence of the village," Feroy commented with a shrug, "but it just makes me think that the last side would be the one where any bandits attack from."

"That's what we are here for, aren't we?" Hudan grinned. He looked at Kivamus.

"We don't have a gate in the northwest of the village, so we should keep the last watchtower for that side. Having the first three ones built on the remaining sides will help us to cover the gates more effectively."

"That's a good idea," Kivamus agreed, while wondering if they would be able to complete even these three watchtowers before any bandits attacked. Suddenly remembering what Duvas had gone to do earlier, he asked, "What was the dispute about?"

"Wasn't anything too important," the majordomo waved it off.

"Just some squabbles between a group of workers which had worked a lot yesterday and wanted an extra helping of porridge for their lunch, and another group which said that everyone was entitled to the same amount as long as they were living in the longhouse block. Fortunately it didn't lead to a brawl, but these kinds of things will keep happening as long as we keep housing that many people there." Kivamus nodded thinking about it.

"We still have many other important projects which we need the labourers to complete, including the forest clearing, making the farms ready for sowing along with the sowing itself, not to mention the watchtowers and the dam. But once those are done, we should be able to allocate some workers to start tearing down the damaged huts and shacks in the village, although we will still have to put most of them to start coal mining.

My savings won't last forever, and we need to start earning money as soon as the roads open, and coal is still our primary source of income." He continued, "Well, we'll deal with it when the time comes. That reminds me, didn't you also go to ask Pinoto about the status of forest clearing in the morning?"