Thanks to Morr's years of careful cultivation in establishing a pipeline of engineering talent, and Edgar's gradual refinement of an organization and promotion system based on ability and merit, Carnford now possessed a young, creative, loyal, and dependable corps of engineers.
Working closely with the experienced engineer officers and staff under Brendan and Roland, they turned Karl's blueprint for a "three-dimensional defense system"—detailed to the point of harshness—into reality, inch by inch.
The zigzagging reverse-slope trenches surrounding the main city were dug ever deeper and wider, their bottoms thick with sharpened stakes and iron caltrops that gleamed coldly beneath the sun.
The excavated earth was swiftly transported to designated locations, where laborers and soldiers, chanting in rhythm, repeatedly pounded it with enormous wooden rammers to build low yet exceptionally thick sloping earthen walls, one after another.
These earthen walls wound and rose like naturally grown folds in the land. They would become deflectors for future Sauron shells. Farther out, the foundations of newly built bastions had already been laid. Massive dressed stones were hauled in, and craftsmen hammered away with clangs and clatters, determined to build these jutting angles of death even sturdier than the main city walls.
Yet even with the advantage of defensive fortifications, ten thousand regular troops still seemed stretched thin defending such a vast expanded area.
Brendan and Roland proposed an even bolder plan: arm the entire population.
During the slack farming season, healthy men between eighteen and forty-five throughout the territory would be recruited on a massive scale and given basic training in formations, spear thrusting, and musket shooting, then organized into militia reserve teams. Even many physically strong, resolute women were organized to train in battlefield first aid, bandaging, casualty transport, and logistical supply management, serving as auxiliary medical and logistical forces.
When the