NABC Chapter 46: Wood Shavings
Chapter 46: Wood Shavings
When Mad heard that he was to be in charge of a section of the city wall, he was terrified and quickly waved his hands.
"My lord, I can't! You should let Lord Dorgon..."
Before Mad could finish speaking, he saw Ron's cold gaze, followed by a slight upturn of his lips and a maniacal smile.
"If you dare to refuse, I'll kill you right now. If the city wall you're in charge of is breached, I'll kill you too."
Mad's lips twitched slightly, and he quickly kowtowed in agreement before leading his men toward the west city wall.
Mad's reaction was understandable. He was just an ordinary hunter, and he hadn't practiced any breathing techniques. At most, his archery skills were slightly better than the average person. Compared to the others, who were all formal knights, how could he dare to guard the city walls?
This was a choice Ron had no other option but to make.
The Knights Guard includes many official knights, but most of them are elite fire brigade members, rarely leading troops independently. On the other hand, Mad, as the captain of the crossbowmen team, has over forty men under his command who obey his orders, and has developed some command skills. He is also one of the few nominal military commanders in the territory.
It doesn't matter if he's not good at fighting or commanding; someone will assist him. His task is to stabilize morale, since the militia and laborers under his command don't know the guards' knights.
With him, one of the nominal commanders, in charge, it's still possible to keep many people's hearts at ease.
After assigning the city defense tasks, Ron took a sip of water.
Old Hall jogged over to Ron and whispered, "Young master, there are less than eight thousand catties of grain left in the territory. At this rate, we can only last seven days at most."
Ron had anticipated this; their food reserves were already low, and if it weren't for the two trades with the Dehea territory, the territory's food supplies would have run out long ago.
The territory now has over 1,100 people. Excluding the elderly and children, there are still 700 to 800 able-bodied men. In order to ensure the soldiers' combat effectiveness during wartime, food supplies must not be reduced. Two catties of food per day is the minimum standard. Old Hall calculated that even with controlled food distribution, that would still be the result of seven days.
Ron asked, "Is there any way?"
Old Hall nodded: "Young master, I will add some non-toxic sawdust to the next batch of dark bread, which will increase its yield by at least 25%."
Ron immediately recalled what he had seen in historical videos: the Soviet Union, facing food shortages during the Great Patriotic War, added sawdust to its dark bread, sometimes as much as 30 percent.
"Leave the sawdust to me. I'll be on the city wall with nothing to do anyway. Just come and collect it on time every day."
Old Hall breathed a sigh of relief: "Young Master, for the next period of time, I will be stimulating the growth of wild potatoes every day, so leave the issue of war supplies to me."
Ron said, "I'll take care of how long it will take to ripen this batch of rock potatoes in the general's territory, and how much yield it will produce."
After assessing the situation, Old Hall said, "One pit building with one side of rock potatoes is equivalent to one-third of an acre. Two pit buildings together cover a little over two and a half acres. I will ripen them side by side, and they will all be ripe in about ten days. If what Tuan said is true, the yield per acre is two to three thousand catties. We can increase the yield by five thousand catties of grain. This is the limit. These rock potatoes can only be ripened once. If we try to ripen them a second time, they will only die."
Ron nodded. That was about 15,000 catties of grain, enough to support them for ten days.
"Old Hall, watch your step. As long as you're here, I can make a comeback at any time. If something happens to you, I won't be able to help you."
Old Hall was so moved that his eyes reddened, and he nodded with a smile.
"Young master, you are not yet married and have children, how could this old servant leave first?"
Ron nodded with a smile.
Old Hall quickly waved his hand: "Young Master, please don't smile at me, it's making me feel uneasy."
Ron's lips tightened, and he angrily turned around and went back into the enemy tower to rest, casually using wood to condense some sawdust.
Old Hall rarely showed a gentle smile as he went down from the city wall to make arrangements.
Ron returned to the enemy tower and added sawdust to the black bread, but not just any sawdust would do; hardwoods, poisonous trees, resinous wood, and old fruit trees were all unsuitable.
Of these four types, the first is difficult to digest. The second may cause food poisoning. The third contains oils that can cause heartburn and vomiting. The fourth contains trace amounts of cyanide, which can be fatal if one is not careful.
Therefore, he chose coniferous trees, as the tender leaves and fine wood chips could be used, and they could also supplement a small amount of vitamins. During the Siege of Leningrad, a large amount of this wood chips were added to black bread, at most as much as 30%.
Ron found the Condensation and Transformation spells increasingly useful. He used a log to condense pine powder, which was as fine as flour, the only difference being its color. It was also sterilized at high temperatures.
Soon, he condensed two thousand catties of sawdust and pine powder in one go, and had Thun lead people to deliver it to the warehouse in Pit No. 2.
When Thun returned, he also brought several thousand kilograms of shrubs and mud.
"My lord, Steward Hall requests that you produce more logs and boulders when you have time."
Ron's lips twitched slightly, then he nodded.
This shows that this was Old Hall's daily work most of the time in the territory.
Early the next morning.
The goblin horns sounded simultaneously from the north, east, and west.
Ron stood on the top of the north wall's rampart and could see the gray-green tide surging in from all four sides of the city wall.
Outside the north wall was the main force of the Dodok, three thousand regular tribal warriors lined up in six square formations, with siege ladders and battering rams slowly advancing in front of the formations, and the Dodok ram's head flag standing in the very center of the central formation.
Outside the east, south, and west walls, there were over 1,500 miscellaneous soldiers. Their formation was loose, but there were enough of them. They were carrying ladders and grappling hooks and charging forward in a chaotic manner. Behind them, there were 500 supervisory teams, who should be the main force of Dodok.
"Attack from all four sides." Fanta's voice was low. "He wants to find out which wall is the weakest."
Ron smiled coldly. Every city wall was of the same standard; the only difference was the strength of the commander in charge of defending the city.
Thun and Green's squad had already started running. Goblins are very good at running, running from the north wall to the east wall and then to the west wall, kicking up dust all the way.
The north wall was the first to engage the enemy.
Dodo's main force did not press forward with all its might, but stopped its formation three hundred paces away, and only sent a small force carrying ladders to launch a probing attack.
Fanta directed the catapults to cover the area where the siege ladders were advancing with scattering bullets, and fire rain bricks slammed into the front row of the formation, while the flying rubble knocked several goblins to the ground.
The eight-bull crossbow was aimed at several shields that were faintly swaying in the square formation; those were the guards of the goblin hero.
However, the square formation never pressed forward in full force, but only used sporadic charges to contain the firepower of the north wall.
The goblins on the east wall were the most aggressive.
Hilden and his old troops withstood the first wave of attack, as logs and stones rained down from the crenellations and the bone archers on the ramparts covered the base of the wall at an upward angle.
The goblin set up a bamboo ladder to climb up, but was stabbed over by the militia guarding the battlements with a bone spear, and fell down along with the ladder.
But there were too many goblins; the ladders fell over and were put back up again, endlessly.
As Hilden swung his sword and chopped down the crossbeams of the ladder, he turned and roared down at the city walls, "Damn it! What's the West Wall like?!"