Chapter 36: A Massive Wall for You in a Short Time |
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Jonas held two long sticks and picked up a cluster of dense millipedes.
He was preparing to place them over Evelos's wound in front of him.
Before he even placed them, Evelos had already chickened out.
His lower body was completely soaked.
"I swear, I swear, I'll tell you everything!
I'll even tell you everything the Destiny Army has done up to this point.
Please... please don't really do it!"
Toward the end, Evelos even choked up.
Jonas said, "Alright.
You’ll have a share in the future construction of Thunderkeep."
...
Very quickly, Jonas fished out all the information he wanted from Evelos's mouth.
The Destiny Army was divided into six forces.
The sixth force was led by Evelos. As the newest army, it consisted of various races mixed unevenly and was the weakest of all.
Hence, it was assigned to suppress small territories that kept developing.
The other five forces were sent to attack the major cities of Postaya Province.
Attacking large cities with such troops was difficult.
Even if there was internal strife among the heirs of Postaya Province, when facing external invasion, they would first eliminate the external threat.
Therefore, during the assault on the major cities, the Destiny Army sent their strongest assassins.
They directly assassinated the governor of Postaya Province.
This triggered a civil war between the two heirs of Postaya Province.
By now, the conflict was probably raging fiercely.
His own territory was remote and hadn’t been affected yet, but the central region was likely in chaos.
It was probably difficult for them to pay attention to his area.
...
Jonas rubbed his chin.
"This is a bit troublesome!"
If the Destiny Army discovered that the sixth force had been scattered by him, they would likely deploy even stronger forces to invade.
If a large army came, it would be a serious problem.
He knew that the reason they had survived this time was that the opposing forces were uneven and lacked cohesion and morale.
Plus, his use of unexpected tactics gave him the chance to defeat them.
If an even stronger army came, no matter how formidable he was, he would be wiped out.
"Looks like I can’t afford to develop slowly anymore. I have to make a big move."
....
When Jonas walked out of the prison gates,
Charis was waiting outside.
Jonas casually tossed several magical scrolls to Charis.
Looking at those exquisite high-level scrolls, Charis’s eyes lit up.
She wanted to grab them immediately but still hesitated slightly and said,
"Lord Jonas, won’t you look at them first?"
She knew how tempting these high-level scrolls were to a mage.
Lord Jonas actually gave them all to her.
Jonas gave a warm smile and patted Charis’s head in front of him.
"I’m giving them to you first; you need them more than I do.
Of course, Charis, you have to study hard.
Don’t disappoint me."
Seeing the young master’s warm smile, Charis leaned into Jonas’s palm, then nodded and said,
"Yes, yes!
I will definitely work hard!"
Lord Jonas didn’t even look at them himself and gave them to her first. She must not let him down!
Jonas said, "Thank you for your hard work."
"It’s not hard. Being able to see such scrolls...
Hmm...
Following Lord Jonas is a blessing!"
........
....
When the jailer returned to the cell again,
He looked at the trembling and desperate Evelos inside.
The jailer was stunned.
It was hard to imagine that a man who had once been so tough was now curled up like a little woman.
"Lord Jonas is really terrifying!"
.....
...
On the city walls,
Jonas and Holdo stood by the edge.
They watched many soldiers below tidying up the aftermath.
Holdo asked, "Evelos surrendered?"
"Yes."
"What? When I went earlier, he was still stubborn and tough.
He actually surrendered so quickly.
Did you do it?"
Jonas smiled and said, "Father, everyone has their weaknesses."
"Tsk tsk... You’re really terrifying, kid."
The leaders of the Destiny Army were all tough characters.
To have dealt with the opponent so quickly, Jonas could indeed be called terrifying.
Jonas said, "Evelos, this leader, surrendered. The other Destiny Army forces will probably surrender as well.
Their uprising was mainly due to the Empire’s long-term oppression.
If we can offer them different treatment, they could be a decent force.
This is also part of our gradual move toward kingship."
Holdo sighed and said,
"That may be true.
But...
It’s difficult!
After this battle, the city walls are almost ruined.
Recruiting and training soldiers will take time, but the Destiny Army won’t give us that time.
They attacked the big cities, which are far from us.
But soon enough, they’ll come here.
When that time comes, I don’t know what we will use to stop them."
Jonas looked at the damaged city walls ahead and said, "We need a wall as huge as the imperial capital’s, and elite troops."
"That’s easy to say.
But we have to be realistic.
Where would we build such a wall and find such elite troops in such a short time?"
....
Jonas said, "Father, the surrounding small territories must share the same crisis as us.
We can unite them, or more directly, annex them to increase our army size.
I believe they won’t refuse.
And I can give you a massive wall in a short time."
Holdo frowned, looking at Jonas in front of him.
He said, "The first point is feasible.
But the second, giving me a massive wall in a short time—
Are you sure you’re not joking?"
Without a city wall to defend, even if we gather armies from other small territories, it would be hard to resist the Destiny Army.
Jonas smiled and said, "We still have time, don’t we?
The Destiny Army’s sixth force has scattered. Destiny will surely send scouting parties.
Then, they’ll bring a large army to invade.
That will take quite some time, plus the war in Postaya Province.
It will probably take over a month before they focus on us."
"Over a month? You can give me a city wall in that time?" Holdo almost laughed.
He quickly said,
"Forget about a month. Even a year or two or three won’t be enough.
Building a city wall requires a large workforce, starting with compacting the mixed soil. Each layer must be compacted to prevent collapse when the wall gets higher.
That’s for the simplest kind of wall.
Not to mention transporting and cutting large diamond blocks.
That’s even more troublesome.
For a wall to rise in just over a month is almost impossible."
Jonas said, "We have mages.
Transporting and cutting isn’t as complicated as you think."
"That’s still impossible!"
Jonas said, "Alright, Father, don’t jump to conclusions so quickly.
Leave this matter to me!
Nothing is impossible; you just haven’t seen it before."
Hearing Jonas’s certainty, Holdo was a bit puzzled: "Hmm?
Alright!
I’ll wait and see."
...
In the afternoon,
Outside Thunderkeep, Jonas took a sip of rich milk.
He looked at Charis, who was focused on practicing magic in front of him.
Her purple magical robes and long blue hair fluttered gently in the breeze.
Her fair skin made Jonas feel good.
He couldn’t help but think.
In times of war, if he couldn’t even defend his own base, how could he think of farming and claiming kingship?
If he really wanted to build a massive wall in about a month that could resist mages’ attacks,
He had to adopt reasonable plans and era-crossing technology, with the help of mages.
Building a massive wall wasn’t Jonas’s sudden fancy.
He had inspected the surroundings of his territory.
Due to years of mining, it was full of countless rock fragments.
These fragments were gray-white and contained a lot of calcium carbonate.
When ground into powder, they were equivalent to limestone, and some limestone was essentially cement.
And cement was a revolutionary tool for walls nowadays.
Even magic would find it hard to break it down.
As for transportation, Evelos’s magic scrolls had many spells for moving objects remotely.
Most importantly,
The process of making cement was very simple: just grind limestone into powder, mix with clay and iron powder.
Then calcine it by dry or wet methods until mature.
Finally, grind it finely with gypsum to use.
The raw materials were ordinary; the key was the clinker’s forging temperature.
In an era where smelting technology was not advanced, maintaining high temperature was a problem for everyone.
But this was not an issue in front of Charis, who was highly skilled with fireball spells.
With the continuous stacking of fireball spells, reaching 1200 degrees Celsius was easy.
So Jonas was extremely confident.
As for the defeated troops, let them become slaves and carry stones.
Grind well to prepare for future military integration.
Thinking of this, Jonas said to the butler,
"Go find me a batch of workers.
Stone breakers, bricklayers, laborers...
Pay them double the market rate."
"Understood, young master."
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