Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 42 - Defensive Measures

The bamboo was immediately stripped of its bark lengthwise and was set aside for the weaving of bamboo square and round trays, food baskets for food storage, storage c.h.e.s.ts, accessories boxes, farmer's hats, square and round food covers, sleeping mats, shades, bread platters, baby baskets, fish traps, ornamental baskets, pillow filled with fluff, folding screen partitions and panelling for doors.

There were 15 or more products that could be made just from the bamboo strips and I felt overjoyed seeing a group of workers carefully stripping the strips of the green bamboo. Since the priority was to make the defences around the farmlands, we need to design something light, mobile and practical.

I sat on the ground and thought of a way to make the defensive structure. I won't call it as a fence because it is not a fence in the first place. I took a few twigs and strip of a thread-like strip from the bamboo and designed the normal wooden stake.

A normal defensive structure would be made of sharpened end of branches et cetera. The wood would be driven into the ground about 1 foot deep and placed at an angle. I've seen those images that were drawn in books by some of the commanders and generals on the fortification of a town or village.

By looking at it was very impressive but to make feasible during these moments is not that sound. Even if we have enough manpower but we won't be able to accomplish much.

I tied the twigs and made it stand like an angle but to make it mobile, it should be made into a frame. I saw the design of a 6' by 8' on the ground that was used to represent the four corners of the new residential building. It was affixed with 4 bamboo poles to hold the ends in an upright position.

Since the workers were intent of removing the bamboo strips, I looked for 3 pieces and place them at an angle like a triangle. I tied the two cross beams together and from the looks of it, it was as though I was trying to make a roof from the contraption.

After trying the cross beams together, I placed a bamboo pole across the part where I had spliced. Then I took another two more and tied them together like a crossbeam. Since it was an 8' in length, I place another 6 more 'cross beams' and I stood back a few steps and crossed my arms and placed a hand under my chin.

Then I tried to drag it around and it was mobile even for a person to adjust it. If it is a smaller scale, the bamboo would be at a 35-degree angle, not too high and not too low for any animal to hop over. The length would not matter much because 2 people could work the structure around but more poles would be required to tighten the gap abit.

I walked back a few steps, jogged forward and rammed my body into it. The support base pokes lifted and nearly made the structure topple over. I asked 4 people to step on the base supports and I repeated what I had done.

"BAAM..."

The defensive structure didn't budge at all... "Young Master, are you alright?" the one assisted on holding down the weight with one foot asked as I rammed hard into the structure, but fell back on my bum instead. "The structure didn't move...! This is perfect...!" I exclaimed aloud.

The rest looked as if I had mad swine disease after eating too many ribs last night and was scratching their heads as if I was trying to design a roof that would withstand a typhoon. Someone pulled me up and I stood there and exclaimed, "This is going to be a defensive structure. Ben, Frank... Get over here while I explain." I called out for the duo and they came running.

Before that, they were thinking of making a permanent fence driven straight deep into the ground. But when I slowly pointed out the mechanics, they finally understand what I meant.

"If you were to make a permanent one, when we extend the farmlands, you have to extract it from the ground right? Look at how the designs of the residential plots, it was made above the ground, right? At least the house can move about within the 10' by 10' plot before the 4 ends were secured into the ground by the weight of its occupants...!"

"By implementing this, it could be moved around as we extend the farmlands. It could also be used as a barricade to stop those marauders. Secondly, we need to have plenty of sacks to weigh these base support with stones. In that way, after it was set, any wild animals or marauders would be impaled and dangled here."

Ben and Frank nodded their heads and realised that the idea I proposed was the best and the new families who had witnessed what I had explained, deepened their trust and respect for the young and inexperienced looking young man that called himself as 'young master'.

"Here... Another implementation. If an animal manages to jump over but dangled itself here, it might damage these points, right? If you put one more piece upright in between the cross beams, what do you get?" I teased their minds and they quickly responded, "Their c.h.e.s.t, belly or jugular will be impaled and get stuck as well...! It's like a snare that simply impales the animal and bleeds it to death...!"

"Young master, you are brilliant. If you are not standing right before me, I would be thinking as if I was talking to a war commander...!! My golly, you're a genius...! We don't even need a week to set this up....!" Frank praised and commented on his point of view and Ben was clapping his hands and tapping my shoulders as I had given them the best solution.

Simple, practical, mobile, easy to set up and deadly.

"The wider the base, the lower the gravity is and the lower the angle of attack. Extend this support here and here and use weights to weigh this thing down. These supports acts like skids so even on muddy and even ground it would simply glide over. Make a 4' and 3' designs first, with a 1-foot clearance here and here. The length could be 8' and 6' respectively."

"These extended base would hold the frontal force of an incoming beast or marauder as it won't tip over easily, am I right? The stakes should not go beyond this end here. Which means when an animal goes berserk, it would not topple the structure in itself."

"Complete before midday and let me see if it's according to what u have in mind. You may dismantle this." I suggested after explaining a bit about science and math which got them scratching their heads. .

=*=

"Say, that young master is sure smart. He was able not only design but implement and try it out by himself before he opens his mouth to give the proper instruction and explains everything clearly. Even if I hear parts of his speech I began to understand that contraption that he had made as a crude sample." said a young man.

"Yeah... I agree with you. Heard he was a scholar and I wonder if there are such schools that teaches one to make such a thing?" added another young man.

"Don't be a clod... Of course, schools won't teach you how to make those. They are there to learn how to read, write and study other things like counting."

"Heh... How do you know? Maybe there are such schools like for engineers, masons, carpenters and so on. If not how they would be masters of a trade?"

"Haha... We talk as if we had gone to school before and attended such classes and lessons. By the way, I heard his name is Macleod. It sounds very familiar. Is he Irish?"

"I doubt so, geezer... Ireland is not just across the riverbank where we can walk over and knock on their doors and got invited for afternoon tea, innit? I don't know where Ireland is and I heard we are smack in the middle of England."

"Hah... Maybe Ireland is just across those rivers and I don't know how big this country is and what countries are surrounding us. We have England, Ireland and Rebeland. Who knows... We are not learned, scholars. But I would really love to travel one day."

"Yeah? Me too. Say, you mention his name was Macleod... It is not an Irish name. Even my family name Innes and Jennings might not originate from here."

"Macleod... Sounds like someone from a powerful family. Like Ashworths, Burns, Chowdry and Lanford. As long as they speak English, they are English to me. I can't put my finger on it."

"Lor' luv a duck! Just put a finger up yaaahr nose an' see what yew could find then. Know what I mean? Haar Haar Haar... Come on lad, let's finish our job and break for lunch. The steam buns I had earlier was simply lips smacking my good...!"

"Aye mate, let's finish up these and get along with it. Haar Haar... Living here is much better than other places, don't you think?"

"But if we leave this place and travel, we need coins right? Maybe I can raise my hands and ask. Who knows we could get an answer from that young master. See if he could answer our question or not."

=*=

Not long after I had improvised the defensive structure, I headed back to the courtyard and went to the shed. I was leering around inside the sheds to find any empty sacks but found none so I went back to my 'study' table outside the house and took the stack of census papers and peered at it.

I took 6 empty sheets of papyrus and inserted them at the bottom of the stack and wrote the date of the new families arrival. The so-called calendar on my table had about 16 sticks in them, which means it would be another 14 or 15 days more before the end of May.

(I may have made an earlier mistake for the timeline since the last entry in this novel might have stated April instead of May 1440)

I am bad at counting the number of days in a month and so I round them off as 31 on one month and 30 for the next except for February that had a fixed 28 days. "This stack of records would one day be as tall as me if we grew into an empire. Hope one day some of the children would have the ability to read and write and take over my job to record all these" I thought to myself as I inserted the family name Chadwell under its heading.

That's the only one I knew of and decided to pay Chadwell a visit since his movement is restrained. After keeping my things, I reached into the storage basket, retrieve some fruits and walked across the river to find Chadwell sitting in front of his doorway, definitely looking bored being at home.

"Hey, Chadwell... How are you feeling? Better now? Does your leg hurt anymore? Have you gotten your breakfast and drinks to eat? Here are some fruits for you to munch if you're bored."

I greeted him as I bombarded him with general questions as such and if course he was happy when he saw me visiting him. I was the least he expected to bother come and visit him because he thought I might be lazing around or have not awakened from my sleep until it was close to midday.

"Hello, young master. I'm fine and I felt better like before I have gotten a bite from the wolf. My leg doesn't hurt anymore except for a numb feint where sometimes I can't feel any sensation when I wiggle my toes. Breakfast was sent by my wife earlier and yes, thank you for the kind visit and the fruits." he answered in a flurried manner and was laughing when he heard my last remark before he fainted.

"You could actually walk about the village, you know but you are not allowed to put any pressure in that leg of yours. Furthermore, you got a crutch and it would be good to be around since I don't want you to be left behind and not catching up with the progress."

"I guess you're right. With this crutch, I am able to move about. But I'm under strict order by the Health Minister." he looked at his bandaged calf and there's no more bleeding and the dressing would be changed in two days time.

"Come on, get up and leave those fruits behind you. Join us for lunch and in the way back you can spectate those making the new, improvised defensive structure. Even a wolf wouldn't dare to impale itself once the structure has been set up."

I hauled him up and he slowly put on his boots as we slowly sauntered towards the courtyard.