I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 150 Innovation Wall
As winter approaches, the days are getting shorter and shorter. Darkness is one of the natural enemies of mankind. In an era when night blindness is common, Luc did not dare to let people work in the dark. He did not have a lot of grease to light torches, as that thing consumed too much supplies. As for candles, ha, candles were a luxury only used by the nobles. Didn’t you see that Luc was now using a simple grease lamp?

Actually, Luc's current life has nothing to do with the wealth he imagined.
He has no shortage of food for the time being, but they are all coarse grains. He dare not eat fine grains like wheat. Eating them occasionally is considered an improvement in life. The meat is all smoked meat - he does not have a stable source of meat, especially in winter when he can't hunt or catch fish. Well, mainly because he doesn't have time to hunt. If possible, he needs to train a professional hunter in the future.

"It's a pity that no one knows how to use a bow and arrow"

Luc looked at the longbow behind him. This one was no longer the simple bow he had made at first. The short bow that took a month or so to make could not last that long. A truly good bow required at least three or four years of forging. Add to that the hunting ban, and it was as difficult to find an archer among the civilians as it was to find a cavalryman.

"There's no shortage of eggs."

Luc counted on his fingers and found that the pheasants that had been raised for two years had already been tamed into domestic chickens. The new generation of chicks had grown up and laid eggs in clutches. Excluding those that needed to be hatched, a hen could lay thirty or forty edible eggs a year!
This is under normal feed conditions. If it can be developed into a professional breeding farm, the number may double. Of course, that is a matter for the future, but even so, Luke has achieved egg freedom.

But Luc was not thinking about eggs now.

It took three days to clear the isolation zone, but Luc did not listen to old Eck's advice to introduce a moat like most castles of the time. The workload was too large. Luc simply placed the previous chevaux de frise stakes at the corner of the city. Taking advantage of this time, Luc personally used a wooden ladder to climb up the wooden wall to test the sharp wooden stakes. He didn't know what was going on at first, but he found out there was a huge problem after trying it!

The mortise and tenon joints on the top of the wooden wall were originally shared by the pointed wooden parapets, which means that all of them used one embedded joint to point vertically upwards, and the two were interchangeable. But at the moment when the pointed wooden pole was put on, Luc suddenly slapped his head in annoyance, wondering why he had forgotten this!
"The widths of the crenels and the timbers are completely different!"

The pointed wood is only the size of a tree trunk, but the parapet needs to cover the soldier's entire body for counterattack, so how can the width be the same?
But the most fatal problem is that the sharp wood must be densely packed to be effective. Otherwise, the gaps are too large and the soldiers can just climb up from there. What's the point of the sharp wood then?

Luc gestured at the width with a headache, hoping to improve it by using a 3:2 ratio, but found that it was not compatible at all.

"There is always a loophole"

Listening to Luc's regretful voice, Ryan was also dumbfounded. He was the creator, yet he didn't notice the problem.
"What should I do, sir?" Ryan blinked. Is it possible that he can only give up one type?

"No, there is another way."

Luc lowered his head and thought for a moment. The problem was very bad but not irreparable. After calming down for a while, another plan emerged in his mind.

If a vegetable soup is too salty, you can always remedy it as long as it’s not out of the pot. Yes, just like adding water to salty soup, Luc chose to build another batch of beams before the construction started!
"Well, don't use the same mortise and make another batch of beams, this time specifically for the battlements."

"But sir, doesn't this mean we can only use one of them?"

"Who said that?" Luc raised an eyebrow. Under Ryan's gaze, he stepped down the wooden ladder, placed his foot on an un-nailed crossbeam, and slowly rolled it. Luc pointed to the mortise and tenon joint that was tilted 45 degrees upwards and said with a smile, "Who says the wood has to be placed vertically? Wouldn't that also protect against climbing and ladders?"

Luc is a man who has been to the battlefield. He would not simply think that a siege ladder is just a broken ladder. A real siege ladder is a huge and sturdy structure, as high as the city wall, operated by burly soldiers. Any ladder built and accompanied by a siege vehicle will be a nightmare for the defending army.

However, no matter how powerful the ladder is, it still needs a passage to the city wall, and the forty-five-degree wooden stakes and vertical wooden stakes can also restrain it.

Luc really put a lot of thought into the unknown siege and defense of the manor.

"As for the battlements, they can naturally be erected on the city wall. We just need to stack the beams of both together, with the battlements on top and the spikes on the bottom. This way, our wooden wall will have both!"

"Master, that's wise!" Ryan nodded vigorously. It was a really smart idea.

He did it as soon as he thought of it. The day after the isolation belt was completed, Luc led his team to build new beams again. It was finally completed on the day when the first snow fell.

Everyone donned linen and reed-quilted clothing. After Luc promised each family two pounds of rye upon completion, they braved the fluttering snow to nail the two beams together, with Luc personally overseeing the process. Unlike the others, who had only meager linen, Luc wore a floppy-eared rabbit hat, a sheepskin coat, and deerskin boots, looking every bit the manor owner. Well, in terms of clothing, at least for winter, he looked wealthy.

The pointed stake is a trapezoidal tenon, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The advantage of this is that it can slide in easily when put in, but it is very firm, taking into account the effects of quick disassembly and stability. However, since it is tilted, an incision is made on the top and a wedge-shaped wooden strip is nailed in to prevent it from falling off.

The mortise and tenon are in the shape of a raised cross, stuck in the mortise and tenon of the same cross shape. It is very strong and requires two people to pull it out. Originally, they wanted to carve a few spiral scratches and then slowly screw it in, but found that it was too troublesome. So Ryan came up with this new method himself. Because it is in the shape of a cross, he proudly called it the God's Tenon.
Another point worth praising is that the two seemingly related mortise and tenon structures are cleverly connected together through the wedge-shaped wooden strips of the pointed wood. The parapet presses down the wedge-shaped wooden strips. The more stable the parapet is, the more stable the pointed wood will be.

Then they tied a rattan rope above the battlement and fastened it to the bottom beam.
When everything was done, Luc stood on the distant hillside and looked out. In the valley, a hundred yards south of the Knight's Castle, stood a ten-foot-high wooden wall. The wooden wall was gray in color. The top was slanted downward, and the smooth pointed wooden corners coated with resin could not hide its dangerous nature. It was intimidating and eye-catching. Directly above it was a battlement as tall as a person. This battlement, which was specially thickened by Luc and tied with a layer of rattan shield in front, showed good defensive power. Luc could not penetrate it even if he shot the bow from ten steps away. The gaps in the battlement provided enough space for throwing bows and spears or throwing stones and pouring oil. At the bottom of the wooden wall, rows of chevaux de frise were covered with snow, showing a cold and fierce warning that strangers should stay away.

"Master, this is definitely one of the strongest city walls!"

Ryan stood aside, pumping his fist excitedly. He had seen some city walls, like Cooper Castle, but aside from the shallow, almost useless moat, they were nothing compared to what he saw before him. Although only a section of the wooden wall had been built, he could already imagine what it would look like encircling the entire Knight Castle. It would be absolutely spectacular!

"It seems that the arrow tower is no longer needed."

Luc didn't say anything, but turned his head and said to Ryan with a smile: "Let's build the city gate!"

(End of this chapter)