Chapter 42: Building the Walls

Because a large quantity of timber and stone had been dismantled and brought back from the Sijingliang bandit stronghold, the raw materials for constructing the fort walls and fortifications could be said to be ample.

However, although timber and stone were not lacking, building the fort walls required a great deal of loess rammed earth.

During the ramming process, digging earth, mixing mud, shaping adobe bricks, and drying them likewise required a large workforce.

Wang Dou simply mobilized all the residents of Jingbian Fort to help — several hundred people, men and women alike, all pitched in, and the family members of those artisan households also came out to labor.

"My lord, using blue stone for the wall foundation requires dressing first; ramming the fort walls also requires a binding slurry."

In front of Wang Dou, large numbers of men and women carrying bamboo baskets and wicker crates ran back and forth along the fort wall transporting earth, while some craftsmen directed the men of Jingbian Fort in dressing stone and others directed the men in ramming the fort walls — the scene was bustling with intense activity.

At that moment, besides Han Chao and the others, the person beside Wang Dou was the old craftsman who had built the waterwheel; although he was a carpenter, he was equally proficient in civil earthworks and masonry.

"Binding slurry?"

Hearing the old craftsman's words, Wang Dou was somewhat puzzled — he had not known that ramming fort walls required a binding slurry, and what exactly was this slurry?

Only after the old craftsman's explanation did Wang Dou understand. It turned out that in ancient times, when building city walls, they mixed loess slurry, river sand, lime, and glutinous rice slurry in certain proportions to make tabia; fort walls rammed this way would be durable and solid, hard to damage. In some places, they even added dog urine when building walls, locally believed to ward off evil — though for Wang Dou, that was out of the question.

Loess and river sand were easy enough, but thinking of the large amount of glutinous rice that would be used, Wang Dou could not help feeling pangs of heartache. Han Zhong and the others beside him wore similarly regretful expressions — glutinous rice, something they usually could not bear to eat, yet now it was to be mixed into these fort walls.

But according to the old craftsman, only rammed this way would the fort walls be solid and durable, able to last several centuries, and this was also the most common wall-building method since ancient times. In some large cities or within the palace, when they rammed fort walls, if the exterior was to be faced with brick, besides adding large amounts of glutinous rice juice, they would even add large quantities of brown sugar, egg whites, red beans, and other ingredients to make the binder — the expense was beyond reckoning.

Hearing the old craftsman's words, what more could Wang Dou say? He could only give one instruction: "Quality and quantity must be guaranteed."

Then he went off to make his rounds of inspection again.

……

According to the planning calculations of Wang Dou and the various craftsmen, the fort walls of Jingbian Fort would be slightly smaller than those of Dongjiazhuang, with a perimeter of one li and some tens of paces, the walls about ten meters high, the base five meters thick, not faced with brick. A south gate would be set in the southern side, with a gate tower built above it, a barbican outside, and a moat beyond that.

Outside the fort, a drill ground for the soldiers' training would be built, along with a command hall where officers could direct and rest.

Inside the fort, the streets and lanes were all planned to be paved with mountain stone, with drainage ditches on both sides, also paved with stone. Since the terrain of Jingbian Fort sloped from north to south, this would allow easy drainage when it rained, eliminating the problem of waterlogging. At the same time, a stone pit would be built outside the south gate; in the future, accumulated water would drain directly from inside the fort through channels into the stone pit, and that water would be used for the people and livestock inside the fort, and could even be used for future field irrigation.

This concept was thought up by Wang Dou; after discussion, the craftsmen deemed it feasible, and at the same time they marveled endlessly at Wang Dou's ingenious ideas.

After the streets were built, since the land inside the fort had already been planned out into individual plots, in the future, military households or outside residents who did not wish to live in the barracks could purchase land from Wang Dou and build their own houses on the designated plots, and finally all the fort's residents would pool funds to construct public buildings such as temples and opera stages.

With the designs of Wang Dou and the craftsmen, the military households of Jingbian Fort only needed to labor well; Wang Dou and the others estimated that completing these fort walls would take about two to three months.

High-intensity labor required consuming large amounts of grain; although Wang Dou could not possibly let everyone eat white flour, he could provide enough millet, coarse grains, and black-flour flatbread to fill their bellies. High-intensity labor also required meat and fat, otherwise their physical strength could not hold up and they would easily pass blood in their urine.

As during the land reclamation the previous year, Wang Dou set a rule of one day of meat and five days of vegetables, with morning congee provided at dawn, and one ladle of wine for every ten people every seven days.

With a superior officer like Wang Dou, and the fact that they were building their own homes, although the work was very heavy, everyone's drive was strong. However, Wang Dou estimated that at this rate, by the time the fort walls were finished, half of the money and grain he had gained from suppressing bandits the previous year would be gone.

……

Since the establishment of Jingbian Fort, the lives of the military households inside the fort were evident to all — although they had to work every day, everyone could eat their fill, which, in times like these, was extremely difficult to achieve.

Moreover, the reputation of Wang Dou and the other Jingbian Fort officers for caring for their subordinates had spread far and wide; in particular, that Platoon Leader Wang was a brave man who dared to kill Tartars, and the previous year he had joined the army in exterminating the Sijingliang bandits who had been harming the common people. Courteous to others and capable, through word of mouth, Jingbian Fort's appeal to everyone grew ever greater.

From the beginning of this year onward, commoners and military households had been arriving one after another to seek refuge with Wang Dou.

Wang Dou's demand for population would never be satisfied; he accepted all who came seeking refuge, having Zhong Rong register them one by one in the books and issuing them Jingbian Fort military household certificates.

Of course, some of these people were deserters from other Battalion Commander garrisons; accepting them would inevitably lead to a series of disputes in the future, but once something entered his own mouth, how could Wang Dou push it back out? He accepted them all without exception.

Among those who came seeking refuge, some were solitary women. These women all looked very familiar; Wang Dou remembered that they were among the women he, Han Chao, and the others had rescued after the night raid on the Later Jin army. He had heard that after being rescued and returning home, most of them had a hard time, and a few had taken their own lives because they could not endure the gossip and slander. Remembering the words Wang Dou had spoken to them that day, and learning that their benefactor of that day had been promoted to Platoon Leader and was building a fort at Jingbian Outpost, they came one by one to seek refuge.

Wang Dou accepted them and instructed the two women, Madam Tao and Madam Liu, to arrange for them properly. Both women agreed wholeheartedly, especially Madam Tao, whose agreement was particularly resounding. During this time, all the women in the fort took orders from these two women — washing clothes, cooking meals, miscellaneous tasks, all were arranged by them, which gave the two women a feeling of being quite flushed with success.

In the early third month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, on the very day of Grain Rain, another dozen or so refugee households stood before Wang Dou, full of hope, wishing that Wang Dou would take them in.

Wang Dou was at that moment in the Platoon Leader's official hall discussing matters with everyone; hearing that another group of refugees had come seeking shelter, he hurriedly led everyone out.

Seeing this group of refugees, Wang Dou was startled. This group of refugees numbered about a dozen-plus households, around fifty-some people — the largest number to come seeking shelter at Jingbian Fort in this period. They were all in tattered clothes, sallow and emaciated, and they all spoke with the same accent, as if they had come from the same village.

These people stood before the south gate, all looking at those around them with fearful eyes, yet their eyes were also full of hope.

Around them, some Jingbian Fort military households who were working occasionally pointed at them and discussed them; looking at these wretched refugees, the Jingbian Fort military households only then realized their own good fortune — thinking back, they themselves had once been just like them, but now they could eat their fill and dress warmly, which made their voices sound even more vigorous.

When Wang Dou and his party came out and saw a circle of people gathered around the refugees, Yang Tong strode up and shouted sternly: "What are you doing, what are you doing? Is there no more work to be done?"

The military households scattered with a roar and went back to their work, but everyone's ears were pricked up high, constantly paying attention to what was happening over here.

Seeing a young military officer come out and shout at the crowd, seemingly a man of considerable authority, the refugees all instinctively shrank back. But they noticed that although this man had a dignified appearance, he was missing his two front teeth, which made his speech somewhat whistling and his words unclear.

Looking further, the refugees saw Wang Dou, surrounded by everyone like the moon amid a host of stars; though he was young, he was tall, broad, and powerfully built, with an extraordinary bearing, and the military officer who had just been shouting at people had returned to stand beside him with a face full of smiles.

The refugees knew that this was that widely renowned Lord Wang Dou, and they all knelt down, imploring: "We beg Lord Wang to take us in."

Wang Dou smelled the sour stench of people who had not bathed in many days on them, then swept his eyes over these starving people — from men to women, from the elderly to children, every gaze was full of hope and expectation. He asked: "Where have you come from? What place are you natives of?"

One of the elders among them came forward and kowtowed, saying in a trembling voice: "We have come from Huailai. Our homes suffered disaster, and the land taxes are heavy, so we had no choice but to flee famine. Hearing that the lord is benevolent and righteous, we have come especially to seek shelter, hoping the lord will take us in."

Immediately there was another chorus of kowtowing and pleading voices.

Qi Tianliang had been watching Wang Dou's expression all along; seeing him nod slightly, he stepped forward and said loudly: "The lord is merciful and willing to take you in, but you must firmly remember the rules of our Jingbian Fort. Upon coming into the fort, you must all join the military households; those unwilling will be expelled at once!"

"In the future, our garrison fort will organize you to reclaim wasteland, and will lend you plow oxen, plows, and other implements. When land is later distributed, in the first year, the fort will exempt everyone from tax grain. In the second year, one dou of garrison grain will be levied per mu to repay the previously lent oxen and implement costs. From the third year onward, two dou of garrison grain will be levied per mu. Are you willing?"

These refugees from Huailai had all heard of Jingbian Fort's rules beforehand. In these times, being able to eat their fill and dress warmly was what mattered; in what way were civilian households better than military households? Not to mention that they would eventually have their own fields and plow oxen allocated to them, and thereafter everyone could live a stable life — the military households before their eyes were living proof.

At once, everyone kowtowed and said: "We leave everything to the lord's decision!"

Wang Dou had Qi Tianliang arrange for these people to be settled, first cooking some congee for them to eat, then having them go to the river to bathe, lest they bring any germs into the fort. In addition, he instructed Zhong Rong to register these people one by one in the books and issue them military household certificates; henceforth they would be military households of Jingbian Fort.

Wang Dou also arranged barracks and dormitories for these new military households. After these people had rested for a few days, he would set them to work building the fort walls. With these newly added hands, perhaps the construction of the fort walls could proceed faster. Once the fort walls were completed, he would again organize these new hands to reclaim wasteland.

Finally, Wang Dou took Zhong Rong's register and looked at it, and could not help being startled. From the beginning of the year until now, the newly joined military households already numbered over thirty households, more than a hundred people. Including the original military and artisan households, Jingbian Fort now had over a Company Commander and a population of more than four hundred.

Jingbian Fort's population scale now already surpassed Xinzhuang and was on par with Dongjiazhuang.