Stockaded Village Walls Completed
The construction of Stockaded Village Number One has been completed.
Unlike Carnford, which had to withstand fierce enemy siege fire and had to build a solid foundation, this Tunbao was primarily designed to defend against small groups of Sauron cavalry while also serving as the administrative and social management center for the surrounding area.
Based on these functional requirements, its defensive design completely abandons the heaviness and complexity of the main castle.
The city walls were relatively thin, only one to two meters thick, far from enough to withstand the impact of heavy siege weapons; the height of the city walls was also much lower than that of the main castle, so there was no need to pursue a commanding view of the battlefield.
There were no complex, layered combat platforms on the walls, nor were there numerous arrow emplacements and firing ports. Only simple lookout posts were set up at key high points in the four cardinal directions for the militia to observe distant movements.
The entire Tunbao had only one gate, which faced precisely the main road to the south.
This design facilitates daily personnel movement and material transportation, and also allows for the rapid closure of city gates and the concentration of defense forces in the event of an emergency, minimizing the pressure on management and defense.
Because of its simple and clear structure and standardized construction, the construction speed of Stockaded Village Number One far exceeded expectations, and the main city wall was successfully completed early on.
From a distance, this building, constructed entirely of rammed earth, resembles a square earthen box, sitting steadily on the open plain. Though lacking the imposing grandeur of a castle, it exudes a simple and reliable sense of security, quietly protecting the surrounding farmers and land.
The management of Tunbao, from the fort chief to the junior officers in charge of various affairs such as security, warehousing, and civil mediation, was almost entirely composed of wounded soldiers who had retired due to injury but retained some of their ability to move and think.
The current commander of the Stockaded Village Number One is a veteran who lost his left arm in the defense of the city.
He could no longer charge into battle with a gun, but his rich combat experience, the discipline he had developed in the army, and the basic literacy skills he possessed after receiving literacy education made him fully capable of handling daily management work.
More importantly, these wounded soldiers held an almost absolute loyalty and gratitude to Carnford and Karl, because they knew that the Lord's Residence had given them a second life and a place to settle down.
By entrusting them with such important grassroots management positions, Karl demonstrated both his trust in their abilities and a clear commitment to rewarding meritorious individuals. This greatly reassured and inspired all the soldiers who had shed blood for the territory.
On the plains further away from Stockaded Village Number One, the foundations for Stockaded Village Number Two and Stockaded Village Number Three have also been broken up.
Under the foreman's command, large numbers of displaced people worked enthusiastically to dig foundations and move stones.
With the complete experience gained from building the Stockaded Village Number One, the construction of subsequent Tunbao became like assembly line production, becoming more systematic and efficient.
Morr has already distributed standardized drawings, bills of materials, and construction process manuals; he only needs to inspect key nodes and maintain overall control.
As for the specific administrative work, Morr had boldly delegated it to several of his protégés whom he had personally promoted and trained.
These young people have now become officials at various levels in the Department of Public Welfare, which he leads, and are responsible for on-site construction supervision, material allocation, and manpower coordination in different Tunbao.
They were already able to take charge of projects independently and handle most daily issues on their own, only reporting to Morr for instructions when encountering major problems.
This empowerment not only greatly liberated Morr, allowing him to focus on more macro-level planning and technical challenges, but also cultivated a valuable group of mid-level technical bureaucrats with practical engineering management experience for Carnford.
Outside the Stockaded Village Number One, on the wasteland designated as a training ground on the outskirts of the Tunbao.
From afar, one could hear a series of shouts, not exactly in unison, but full of enthusiasm.
Three hundred young men, armed with wooden spears of varying lengths or wooden clubs masquerading as muskets, were being trained in basic marching and bayonet techniques by instructors composed of wounded and retired veterans.
This is the Militia Camp that Karl set up for each Tunbao. Considering that the existing standing army in Carnford is limited in size and that it needs to deal with the elusive small groups of Sauron harassment, each Tunbao in the territory has formed a militia composed of able-bodied farmers from within the Tunbao.
During the busy farming season, they would retire to their fields to manage the essential tasks of spring planting and autumn harvest; during the off-season, they would gather for training to practice the art of battle formation and coordination.
Once war breaks out, they will transform into auxiliary forces, shouldering the heavy responsibility of local vigilance, patrols, and even the defense of fortresses.
The key to the success of this system lies precisely in the starkly different agricultural models of the Northern Territory and the South, which gave farmers here ample time to devote to military training.
The land of the Northern Territory has long been scarred by the Sauron's constant raids and massacres, and the devastation of its dwindling population stands in stark contrast to the vast, boundless wilderness.
This reality of having a small population and abundant land means that agriculture here cannot replicate the development path of the water towns in the south.
In the south, fertile land is divided into small plots. Farmers invest a huge amount of manpower in the limited arable land, busy all day long with meticulous farming processes such as weeding, fertilizing, building canals, and irrigating, exhausting all means to pursue the highest yield per unit area, squeezing every inch of land out of its maximum value.
But the wilderness of Carnford does not allow for such a business logic; agriculture here can only follow an extensive path of "planting extensively and reaping little."
An ordinary farming family in the Northern Territory is often responsible for a dozen or even dozens of acres of land, and with only a draft horse, a plow, and a few simple farming tools, they have to complete the entire process from clearing land and sowing to harvesting and storing the crops.
Their harvest is never determined by the amount of human labor, but rather depends to a great extent on the whims of nature. Favorable weather means a bumper harvest, but if they encounter drought, floods, Locust Plague, they can only watch as the ground turns yellow and the harvest is gone, truly a helpless situation of "relying on the heavens for food".
However, given the current reality of Carnford People and vast land area, it is impractical to forcefully promote intensive farming.
The most urgent task is to solve the problem of food availability, so that the people under our jurisdiction are free from famine. As for improving the quality of the harvest, that can only be planned after the population has grown and everything has been rebuilt.
Of course, this seemingly inefficient and extensive agriculture also played a significant role, as the labor input per unit area of land was far less than in the south, allowing farmers in the Northern Territory to break free from the shackles of the land.
Apart from the two busiest periods of the year, spring planting and autumn harvesting, they have a lot of relatively free time during the rest of the long season.
Unlike farmers in the south, they don't have to be tied to the fields all year round, exhausting their energy for a few feet of meager land.