I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 148 Wooden Wall, Wooden Wall

The frost moon came faster than expected.

For some reason, Luc seemed to feel colder than he had in the previous two years.

He pulled out his deerskin coat and put it on, then stood next to the lumber mill, quietly watching the crowd of people busy cutting trees not far away.

"Wait until next year. Next year, you can build a small house here by yourself. I will allow you to use more wood, but you will be the only one building it, without any extra helpers."

"Thank you, sir!"

Seeing little Maiman's happy look, Luke gave him a few more instructions and left him alone to sort out the rosin oil.

Time passed quickly. After surveying the position of the wooden wall, Luc immediately divided everyone in the manor into two teams. One team, led by old Eike, dug the foundation, and the other team, led by Ryan, marched into the mountains and forests, staying there for more than ten days.

Looking ahead at the seventeen or eighteen sturdy figures, Luc took a deep breath. Including himself, the manor now had a total of forty-two people. Four servants in the castle, three at the saltworks, two at the bridge, one on the grazing land, two women at the textile mill, three children in the watchtower, and three elderly people tending the farmland. Adding him, Douce, and Oliver, a full half of the manor's staff was currently working on the wooden wall, but it still seemed stretched thin.

It took Old Ek ten full days to lay the foundation, while Ryan was still far behind.

According to Luc's plan, the wooden wall would enclose the entire castle, including the main structure, cellars, wells, the granary in front, the stables, the shooting range, the livestock area, the woodshed, the brick kiln, the bread oven, the textile mill, the toilets, and the tool shed (a newly built shed to store large farm tools such as the curved plow, wooden harrow, and grain windmill). In other words, except for the mill by the water and the charcoal kiln at the foot of the mountain, as well as the saltworks, church, and serf quarters, all the furnishings of the manor would be included.

There are two reasons for doing this. The first is to ensure that the interior of the castle can function normally in the event of a large-scale siege in the future. The second reason is a bit embarrassing to say, but I didn't have any plans when I built it. I built wherever there was space, which resulted in the buildings being piled together and had to be enclosed.

"It seems that we need to plan carefully when building houses in the future."

Luc tightened the deerskin, but as a result, the workload increased several times. It would be fine if more wood was needed, as the amount would only be about the same as the amount of the wooden fort. The main reason was that the preparation process was too complicated.

The foundation is fine, it's just a matter of making it more solid. In about ten days, the city gate and the arrow towers about ten yards to the east and west have been dug out and compacted. The most important thing is the wood. In addition to the city gate and arrow towers, there are also scaffolding battlements, fire shield chevaux stakes, etc.

That's right, in addition to the anti-corrosion used in ordinary wooden buildings, wooden walls also have an additional process.

——Fire prevention!
Yes, even when facing a siege, under normal circumstances, if the enemy is in the forest, no one would want to attack with fire, and if they are not careful, they will be swallowed by the sea of ​​fire. But it is better to be safe than sorry, so this matter gave Luc a headache for a long time.

He knew how to prevent corrosion, based on his experience over the past two years, including applying pine resin, adding sawdust and clay, and so on. But what about fire prevention? How could he prevent it? Remember, this was a wooden wall. How could wood be fireproofed?

Luc has been thinking about it for ten days, but still has no idea.

"The scaffolding will be planed last, so we'll deal with the walls first."

Luc reminded Ryan that as the most experienced carpenter in the manor, he should not be left out for large-scale projects.

"Okay." Ryan abandoned his tripod and devoted himself to polishing the wooden wall. "Master, are you sure you don't need sharp stakes on the wooden wall?"

The wooden wall built by Ryan was very sturdy. Since Old Ek and others joined the logging army, logging immediately became systematic: the humanoid logging machine Hans took the strongest people to cut down trees and transport them, and the other weaker women used the pulleys in the sawmill to fix the wood on the tool table, where there was a complete set of carpenter tools. Finally, Ryan and the other two helpers were responsible for chopping and processing the wood.

Listening to Ryan's words while he was grinding off the remaining material of the bevel with a saw and questioning himself, Luc nodded and shook his head, "It's not that I won't use it, but I plan to combine them." Previously, sharp wooden stakes were used above the fence to resist wild beasts, but this time the wooden wall is to protect against people.

It doesn't mean that pointed wood can't be used to defend against enemies. In fact, if you are facing a siege, pointed wood can prevent enemies on ladders from jumping over. But there are pros and cons. Pointed wood can resist enemy attachment, but it can also hinder your own hands and feet and vision.

Flat roofs do not have these problems, but their defense is reduced.

Luc also thought about this matter for a while and finally came up with a solution that would satisfy both parties.

"I'll leave a mortise and tenon joint at the top of the wooden wall. I plan to use detachable pointed wooden stakes."

"Detachable?" Ryan chewed on this relatively unfamiliar word.

"Yes, it's detachable. The matching mortise and tenon joints are chiseled out on the underside of the pointed wooden stakes. When needed, just push the pointed stakes in, and remove them for normal use. Another advantage is that if the pointed stakes break, you can always replace them with new ones."

If you are not familiar with the mortise and tenon structure, the word "detachable" would be just a fantasy. The rattan binding is not strong at all, but pavilions and towers can be built with mortise and tenon alone, and a small pointed wooden stake is not a problem.

Ryan was a better carpenter than Luke. After thinking about it for a while, he found that it was feasible.

"Then, sir, what about the battlements?"

However, Ryan immediately realized another new problem. The pickets were solved, but what about the battlements?

Luc's wooden wall itself has no aisles. A row of aisles is set up behind the wooden wall, which is then supported by wooden piles and scaffolding. In this way, the corresponding battlements can only be opened in the wooden wall itself.

"It's also detachable, with mortise and tenon joints like the pointed wood. We can then choose to use crenels or pointed wood, or even a mixture of the two, depending on the situation."

This way, both defense and offense can be taken into account.

Ryan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he stopped asking questions and just continued to work. What Luc didn't know was that while he thought Ryan was the best carpenter on the estate, he didn't realize that in his eyes, his master was the most talented. He might be better at carpentry, but when it came to new and groundbreaking tools, there was simply no comparison. Like the vast number of farm tools, Ryan had no other reason other than God's blessing.

However, this will increase the workload.
The sound of logging echoed beside the castle. After a few days, the felling of wood was almost completed and everyone was busy polishing the wood.

Hans swung his axe, his bulging muscles constantly driving the axe blade to whistle in the air. Some imaginative but timid farmers were a little scared just watching this scene. If the axe hit their heads, they would probably burst their brains out.
To be fair, no farmer looked up to Hans, but no one was not afraid of him.

This time the wood is roughly divided into three categories: the main wooden walls and beams. This category needs to be thick and tall. The wooden walls require the main trunk of a whole oak tree. The bark is removed and coated with resin, and the bottom is smoked to enhance its resistance to corrosion and insect bites. Ryan is responsible for the mortise and tenon joints on the top, and mortise holes are also opened at both shoulders so that the tenons of the beams can be snapped in to fix the wall.

The second part is the scaffolding and aisles, which are relatively simple and were handed over to little Maiman for supervision. Luc was personally responsible for the last part of the battlements and stakes. However, until all the wood was repaired, Luc had not figured out how to prevent fire specifically. He did have some rough plans, such as setting up isolation zones.

Until one morning, after Luc got up and checked the schedule for the day as usual, he found that the reed fluff at the textile factory was basically finished. When he wanted to praise Du Si, the slightly plump woman stared at Luc blankly. After Luc got a little creepy, she opened her mouth softly and said:

"Honey, why don't you send someone to ask Jean? He seems to know how to do fire prevention."

(End of this chapter)