"Your Lordship, both Lord Malek and Lord Bodenfinger are already waiting in the small meeting room. What would you like to do?" Jenorio urged.
"All right, let's go then."
Lorist ruffled the hair of Andebel, who was holding a small wooden sword, then turned and left.
Ever since Andebel had grown more mischievous and lost interest in reading and writing, Lorist had reluctantly decided to teach him swordsmanship, laying the foundation early. Surprisingly, Andebel actually had a real talent for martial arts and showed genuine interest and patience in training — nothing like when he studied, when he was always looking for an excuse to sneak out and play. Lorist had only needed three days to teach him the twenty-eight basic sword forms, and he proudly boasted that the boy was clearly his own flesh and blood. Even this little rascal had finally given him something to be proud of.
Bodenfinger and Malek had come this time to discuss the defense arrangements for Pangshan Province. How to set up defensive lines along the borders of Pangshan Province, the Demon Dragon Mountains, and the Barbarian Plains was a matter critical to the province's long-term security. However, due to the constraints of the terrain, after spending over a year conducting thorough surveys of Pangshan Province's borders, they discovered that the interlocking forests and complex hilly landscape made it extremely difficult for the
Four hundred and seventy-three li — that was the total length of the border where Pangshan Province met the Demon Dragon Mountains and the Barbarian Plains. Even with the Rock Legion's forty-five thousand men, spreading them thin along this border left them hopelessly overstretched. At best, they could assign one hundred-man company per li of frontier. If arranged that way, they would have no reserves for mobile response, and even their supply lines would depend entirely on rear-area transport.
Lorist would never allow one of his family's main field armies to be wasted along a border line. How many residents did Pangshan Province even have? Stationing forty-five thousand troops along this boundary to defend against incursions by mountain barbarian tribes and magical beasts — setting aside whether they could even hold the line, this thin defensive formation alone guaranteed they would be in a passive, reactive position. The moment any single point was breached, the entire defensive line would become meaningless. Moreover, while ditches, palisades, and stone arrow towers might be enough to repel barbarian raids, they could never withstand an assault from a horde of magical beasts or predatory creatures.
"Your Lordship, the staff officers in the Armed Forces Department have concluded after more than a month of deliberation. To meet your requirements — establishing a defensive line that requires few troops to man and can permanently guard against incursions by mountain barbarian tribes and magical beasts — the best approach would be to dig an artificial waterway along the border. The river would serve to block magical beast herds from entering Pangshan Province while also creating obstacles for barbarian raids. When they attempt to cross, we would have ample time to raise the alarm and mount a response," Malek reported.
The border of Pangshan Province, traced in a thick red line on the map spread across the table, was strikingly vivid.
"An artificial river?" Lorist looked intrigued. "Tell me the specifics."
"Yes, Your Lordship." Malek continued his report. "This artificial waterway would begin in the upper reaches of the Lancang River and run along Pangshan Province's border all the way to Lake Taylinloz in the Black Forest, covering a total distance of approximately five hundred li. As for the scale, we've set the width at fifty meters and the depth at ten meters. After the Armed Forces Department dispatched personnel for detailed surveys, we've confirmed that the geographical conditions along the border can support the construction of an artificial waterway of this scale..."
Lorist suddenly felt a headache coming on. He had assumed they were talking about a small channel perhaps ten meters wide and five or six meters deep. He never expected the Armed Forces Department's design to call for a waterway fifty meters wide and ten meters deep. Was this an artificial channel? This was practically the scale of an artificial canal...
Malek's voice had grown somewhat subdued. After all, the planned scale of this artificial waterway was enormous, clearly meaning the family would need to invest massive amounts of capital over the coming years to complete it. Even Lorist couldn't be certain whether the family had the financial resources to see such a project through. Malek produced several more blueprints and placed them before Lorist.
"The staff officers from the Armed Forces Department and the designers from the Engineering Department have conducted meticulous calculations and confirmed that only a waterway of this scale could intercept magical beast herds attempting to cross and give the barbarian tribes serious pause. With the barbarian tribes' level of military equipment, crossing a fifty-meter-wide river with a force of one thousand men would take them over three hours. That gives our sentries enough time to issue warnings and hold out until reinforcements arrive."
Malek pointed to an engineering blueprint laid before Lorist. "The earth excavated from this waterway — the Engineering Department's designers and the Armed Forces Department's staff officers have decided to use it on-site to produce large mud bricks. We would then build a trapezoidal embankment on our side of the waterway and establish watchposts and arrow towers along it. This way, only a minimal number of patrol personnel would be needed to maintain excellent early-warning coverage. Whether it's barbarian tribes or magical beasts, any approach to the artificial waterway would be detected. Patrol sentries could light beacon fires to alert the rear, and the arrow towers could launch defensive attacks against barbarians or beasts attempting to cross..."
The best solution.
When there were no natural barriers, they would build an artificial one. The staff officers of the Armed Forces Department and the designers of the Engineering Department had certainly thought big on this one. Fortunately, this canal-and-wall would only be about five hundred li long. Lorist estimated the family could grit its teeth and produce the massive construction funds without having to bankrupt itself.
And if this artificial waterway and embankment project were completed, the benefits for the family and Pangshan Province would be enormous. To name just one: the Rock Legion could be freed up to serve as the family's mobile striking force, and Pangshan Province would be relieved of the danger of barbarian and magical beast incursions. They could even use the waterway to improve the province's irrigation systems, transforming this somewhat wild frontier province into a land of abundance...
"Bodenfinger, do you really think such an enormous defensive project is necessary?" Lorist asked the silent Bodenfinger beside him.
"Your Lordship, I don't know how to put it..." Bodenfinger said with a bitter smile. "In principle, I should voice my opposition, because digging this artificial waterway and building the defensive embankment is a blow to the morale of our Norton Family's armed forces. It would turn us into turtles hiding behind an artificial barrier, too timid to take the offensive against the barbarian tribes in the Demon Dragon Mountains or the roaming beast herds on the Plains, reduced to passively counterattacking after being attacked.
But in reality, I wish this artificial waterway and embankment were already finished. The Rock Legion has only been stationed along Pangshan Province's border for a year, but our casualty count has already reached over twelve hundred men. These casualties didn't occur on battlefields or in pitched battles. Almost all of them happened during patrol when small groups of barbarians launched ambushes, or when patrols stumbled upon roaming predatory beasts or barbarian hunting parties.
Due to the complex terrain and our soldiers' lack of experience fighting in mountain forests, among other factors, we can never locate the enemy for a head-on engagement. We're constantly hit by these harassing attacks or stumble into all manner of traps. It's not that our soldiers' armor is weak or their weapons are poor, nor that they lack courage or fighting spirit. Among the seven hundred-plus soldiers who have died, fewer than two hundred fell in direct combat with the enemy. The majority were killed by poisoned arrows, traps, and encounters with magical beasts. When a patrol is ambushed and reinforcements arrive, the enemy has long since vanished...
Right now, the Rock Legion's morale is quite low. Our soldiers are accustomed to meeting the enemy face-to-face. They feel no fear even when facing foes several times their number. But the current situation is something they're deeply unaccustomed to, because we can never locate the enemy, and every patrol carries a significant risk of unexpected casualties. So for both me and the soldiers of the Rock Legion, following the Armed Forces Department's plan to dig the artificial waterway and build the embankment as our border defensive line is a truly encouraging piece of good news."
Lorist slapped his forehead. He had stationed the Rock Legion along Pangshan Province's border precisely because of its reputation for defensive prowess. But he had forgotten that this time, the Rock Legion wasn't supposed to hold off an invasion of tens or hundreds of thousands. They were tasked with defending a border stretching four to five hundred li, in extremely complex terrain. This was no simple job, even for the defensive-minded Rock Legion. If not for Bodenfinger's report, Lorist truly hadn't realized just how severe the casualties and difficulties had become.
It seemed this canal-and-wall project had to go forward. Lorist turned to Malek. "Since the Armed Forces Department has designed this artificial waterway and embankment, there must be engineering calculations and a project timeline. Let's hear it — I want to know how much this will cost in gold Forde..."
"Your Lordship..." Malek looked somewhat embarrassed. "The Engineering Department's budget estimates that excavating the waterway and building the embankment will require a hundred thousand able-bodied laborers. If the annual progress is set at one hundred li, the construction period would be five years, with a preliminary annual budget of approximately two million gold Forde."
The Norton Family had extensive experience with large-scale development projects and was well familiar with such budgets. Without prisoner labor, the able-bodied workers would have to be conscripted from the family's territories. A single laborer could earn seven to eight gold Forde per year, so a hundred thousand laborers would require seven to eight hundred thousand gold Forde in annual wages alone. Add in free food and drink, welfare subsidies, construction equipment, transport vehicles, tents and housing, and an annual budget of two million gold Forde was entirely reasonable.
"However, since the construction site lies along the border between Pangshan Province, the Demon Dragon Mountains, and the Barbarian Plains, the family will also need to deploy its armed forces to provide security for the project. Three main field armies would need to advance roughly thirty li forward from the border to ensure absolute control over the area, which is essential for the project's safe and smooth progress. After careful budgeting by our Armed Forces Department staff, each army corps would require an additional one million gold Forde in annual military expenditure..." Malek closed the folder in his hands. His report was complete.
Mm, very well-organized. Lorist was quite satisfied with the Armed Forces Department's efficiency. The detailed budget projections for every aspect of expenditure ensured that all funds would have clear allocations, rather than becoming an accounting mess.
Deploying a single main field army of the family's armed forces at an annual cost increase of only one million gold Forde was already quite economical. Wartime bonuses for soldiers, replacement of weapons and armor consumed in combat, compensation for fallen soldiers, treatment for the wounded, supplies for constructing camp defenses, rewards and bonuses — all of these represented significant expenses. That was why a hundred thousand laborers working on a construction project for a year cost about two million gold Forde, while deploying a single army corps of forty-five thousand soldiers cost over one million gold Forde.
Based on Malek's projections, a five-year plan to excavate an artificial waterway and build an embankment would cost ten million gold Forde in construction expenses. If this could secure Pangshan Province's long-term stability, permanently shielding it from barbarian and magical beast incursions and giving the family a secure directly-administered province, then the family could grit its teeth and scrape together the funds. But the problem was that for the project to proceed safely, the family also had to deploy three main field armies, adding three million gold Forde in annual military costs. Over five years, that meant an additional fifteen million gold Forde in military spending, bringing the total to a staggering twenty-five million gold Forde.
Lorist had led three of the family's main army corps plus the Northern Sea Fleet through three years of brutal warfare against the Commercial Alliance's forces on the Mana Hill Plains, and the family's military expenditure had exceeded ten million gold Forde. But the Norton Family hadn't lost money on that war — quite the opposite. By opening trade routes to the continent's central and southern regions, seizing the Golden Sea Route through the Sunlit Waters, and investing in
But now, deploying three of the family's main field armies for five years of patrol duty along Pangshan Province's border to ensure the project's safety — the additional three million gold Forde in annual military costs over five years, totaling fifteen million gold Forde, would not yield an equivalent return. They might even clash with the barbarian tribes, requiring still more military expenditure...
Sure enough, the Armed Forces Department's report on building an artificial waterway and embankment along Pangshan Province's border as an artificial defensive barrier caused quite a stir within the family. Steward Sperel, who was always the most tightfisted about military spending, became the most vocal opponent. He declared he would rather the family raise two additional army corps dedicated solely to defending Pangshan Province's border than approve such an enormously expensive project.
Lorist was forced to convene a special high-level family council to deliberate on the project. As for Steward Sperel, Lorist had a single analytical discussion with him that completely changed his position — transforming him from the most resolute opponent into the most steadfast supporter. Lorist told him that building this artificial defensive barrier could guarantee fifty years of stability for Pangshan Province. Spread over fifty years, that worked out to an annual cost of only fifty thousand gold Forde. But raising two new army corps to garrison the border — setting aside equipment costs, the annual military expenditure alone would be one million gold Forde. If large-scale conflicts with the barbarian tribes erupted, even more funds would be needed. Over fifty years, the total would come to no less than fifty million gold Forde.
Once Steward Sperel switched from opponent to supporter, the high-level council quickly reached consensus and decided to implement the defensive barrier plan. The project was entrusted to Malek. Lorist jokingly proposed that the border defensive line formed by the artificial waterway and embankment be named the "Malek Line," and the suggestion was unanimously approved...
……