Yu Gong Mike

The workshop smelled of sweat, and all manner of hammering echoed through the air.

Craftsmen of every trade worked at their stations in a busy but orderly fashion.

Even the apprentices had been drawn into the bustle.

The entire workshop was like a finely tuned machine, every part working closely with the others.

The beginnings of industry were quietly taking shape in the Red Tide Fief!

Louis watched it all and nodded in satisfaction.

He had a clear purpose for this visit. Heading straight into the depths of the workshop, he found the craftsmen's leader-Mike.

Mike was hammering a wooden plank, pretending to be busy to cover up the fact that he had just been slacking off.

Only when Louis approached did he put down his tools and beam with excitement. "My lord, what brings you here?"

"It's time to build a castle." Louis got straight to the point without wasting a word.

"Build a castle?!" Mike instantly grew excited. He had been waiting for this day for a long time.

"My lord, give me fifty years! I'll build you the biggest, grandest castle in the Ironblood Empire, right here in the Northern Frontier!"

"Fifty years? I'll be seventy by then, and you'll probably be in a coffin." Louis was speechless.

He suspected Mike was a monumental architecture enthusiast.

Mike burst out laughing. "If I die, my apprentice will build it. If my apprentice dies, his apprentice will build it!"

The corner of Louis's mouth twitched, and he could not help quipping, "Are you Yu Gong? Your descendants will go on forever."

Mike scratched his head. "Who's Yu Gong?"

Louis waved a hand helplessly. "Never mind. Be realistic. We don't have much time. The castle needs to be finished as soon as possible. It has to go up fast and have all the necessary functions, but defense matters most."

As he spoke, he pulled a castle blueprint he had drawn from inside his clothes and handed it to Mike.

The functions of the castle's various sections were marked on the blueprint in great detail.

"The castle needs to balance defensive effectiveness, integrated functions, and aesthetics, but defense is still the most important. Eighty percent of the focus goes to defense, twenty percent to livability. We must never weaken its defenses for the sake of comfort."

Louis pointed to the detailed annotations as he explained.

Mike studied the blueprint, his expression shifting subtly. Finally, he said awkwardly:

"My lord, this is a great design... but a stone castle like this would take at least ten years. With this level of complexity, we might not finish it even in thirty or forty."

Louis was dumbfounded. "Ten years? Thirty or forty?"

He had thought he had considered efficiency thoroughly, only to discover that his plan was completely impractical.

He had intended to build a sufficiently sturdy castle as quickly as possible. He had never imagined that even thirty or forty years might not be enough.

Mike looked at him with an awkward smile. "To be honest, with our techniques and the number of workers we have, we'd have to take our time to build something on this scale."

Louis knitted his brows, weighing his options.

The Red Tide Fief had already grown to a modest size, but it remained utterly vulnerable to outside threats.

A castle was not about luxurious living. It was a barrier between life and death.

The Cold Moon Tribe was currently in turmoil, but once it was unified, it would inevitably march south.

And that was not the only danger in the Northern Frontier. There were also the Glacier Giants farther north, the former Snow Kingdom rebels, and other threats.

These dangers were like a speeding dump truck hurtling straight toward the Red Tide Fief.

Louis had no time to wait another ten or thirty years.

Nor could he wait until he was old before moving into his ideal castle.

He changed tack. "Is there a faster alternative?"

Mike froze for a moment, then stammered, "Well... about that..."

He glanced at the hammer in his hand, then at the busy craftsmen around him, as though searching for a reasonable solution. In the end, he could only shake his head helplessly.

"I never had any schooling. I don't have much of a head for new ideas," Mike said with a bitter smile.

Louis sighed helplessly and waved a hand. "Forget it. I'll think of something myself."

With that, Louis closed his eyes and began recalling the classic architectural forms he had seen in his previous life.

The high walls of castles, the solidity of fortified towers, the massive bulk of fortresses-one structure after another cycled through his mind, but all of them required considerable time and resources to build.

"Not good enough, not fast enough..." he murmured.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through Louis's mind like a bolt of lightning splitting the still darkness.

"Tulou!" he blurted out.

Tulou-he remembered those buildings from his hometown in his previous life.

They were distinctive dwellings built by the Hakka people to escape war, enclosed by walls on every side, sturdy and durable, with enough room to house hundreds of people.

They were hailed as "ancient castles of the East."

Most importantly, Tulou could be built quickly!

"Yes! This is exactly what I need!"

He quickly picked up a pen nearby and rapidly revised the blueprint, replacing the original complex castle design with a large cylindrical structure.

Mike stood beside him, frowning. "It's so bare. There's not much beauty to it."

Louis rolled his eyes. "Beauty? What good is beauty? Practicality matters most! It has to keep the enemy out and fit everyone inside. That's what counts!"

He tapped the blueprint with his pen and explained, "Look, this circular structure distributes external pressure as evenly as possible, making it highly defensible.

"And using earthen building materials keeps costs low and construction fast. It won't take nearly as much time or resources!"

Mike rubbed his hair helplessly and began studying the "castle" Louis had designed.

But he soon realized that Louis did have a point.

Although this "Tulou" looked simple and rough, it was undoubtedly a practical and efficient choice.

Standing in the middle of the workshop, Louis waved the blueprint in his hand and began explaining his construction plans to the craftsmen one by one.

"First, the location is important." He pointed to a marked spot on the blueprint.

"The castle should ideally be near the hot springs, but somewhere that isn't too hot. Their geothermal heat can provide natural heating for the building.

"And in winter, we can pipe hot spring water beneath the floors. The floors will give off heat, keeping your feet warm all winter. It'll be like a naturally heated platform bed.

"That way, we won't have to worry about the cold in winter."

The craftsmen stared wide-eyed. They had never imagined anything like this was possible.

Seeing their reactions, Louis smiled smugly and continued, "Next are the outer defensive walls. We'll build a circular enclosure with stone walls one meter thick, then add hot spring clay to form a circular earthen wall. That will make it sturdy enough and highly defensible.

"The inner ring will consist of timber-framed homes, with massive logs for pillars and reinforced crossbeams, divided into multiple residential levels.

"The ground floor will be for storage, and the second, third, and fourth floors will be living quarters. We'll use trimmed tree trunks for the steps of the wooden stairs. Simple and practical."

He sketched a basic interior layout on the blueprint.