Kraft’s plan called for:

* All “survival-essential” buildings are reinforced with stone. These buildings include but are not limited to The Owl Guard Headquarters, the Barracks, the Granary.

* Every able-bodied man will be armed and sent to patrol the streets and if need be, fight on the walls and in the streets

* The division of the city of Tears into four zones.

* The Outer Walls where the majority of the fighting will take place

* The City Walls

* The Merchant Quarters

* The Inner City (Town Hall etc)

The City Walls, therefore, had to have three key elements. Firstly, the element of support, where they can assist any soldiers fighting outside the walls. Secondly, the element of defence, where they can assist any soldiers fighting on the walls. Lastly, the element of vulnerability, where it would be possible for any soldiers to sally forth and recapture the walls in a counterattack.

Eveline Evergarden then sat back in the round back chair, closing her eyes for a moment.

“I’d like to humbly add my opinion as well… When I went to Ludium, I noticed that the walls were fairly thin… If it was possible, I’d like for you to make the walls thick, much thicker.” Lawrence said and Eveline nodded slowly. Of course, Lawrence knew that by European standards, this was standard, even considered tough and almost impregnable in an era of bow and arrows.

The result of two weeks of discussions, sketches and revisions as well as Lawrence’s subtle inputs from his memory of history, it was a fusion of European defence fortifications and Chinese strength in walls.

The walls were to be ten to twenty meters thick at the base and five to ten meters at the top. Lawrence insisted that the walls had tamped earthen cores and the walls were made to be sloped instead of straight as well.

Next, a large ditch will be dug in front of the walls, with two gates forged with steel in the three areas of entry from land. In the event of a siege, both gates would have to be breached in order to enter the city.

Along the walls, large circular towers were placed on them, with heavy reinforced wooden doors as the only way of entry and stocked with medicine, food as well as arrows and javelins, so that defenders could seal themselves in and continue to harass the enemy while being relatively safe from enemy attack.

A hole was available over each gate to pour boiling oil over their enemies while wall towers capable of mounting ballistas and trebuchets shall sit atop of the city wall.

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Lawrence then explained to Eveline and Kraft his reason for insisting on a slanted wall as well as tamped earth cores.

He took them to the beach where he dug a small hole. Picking up a pebble, he threw it on the undisturbed ground. The pebble landed where it was aimed, creating a small hole and kicking up some sand in the process. Lawrence then picked up the same pebble and aimed for the sloped area of the hole. The result was that the pebble glanced off, skipping away. Most Chinese walls were also sloped rather than vertical to better deflect projectile energy.

China was the birthplace of gunpowder, however, compared to the nations of Europe, the guns there remained relatively small and light, weighing less than 80 kilograms or less for the large ones, and only a couple kilograms at most for the small ones during the early Ming era.

According to Tonio Andrade, this wasn't a matter of metallurgy, which was sophisticated in China, and the Ming dynasty did construct large guns in the 1370s, but never followed up afterwards. Andrade provides is simply that Chinese walls were much less vulnerable to bombardment.

In Europe the height of wall construction was reached under the Roman Empire, whose walls often reached ten meters in height, the same as many Chinese city walls, but were only 1.5 to 2.5 meters thick. Rome's Servian Walls reached 3.6 and 4 meters in thickness and 6 to 10 meters in height. Other fortifications also reached these specifications across the empire, but all these paled in comparison to contemporary Chinese walls, which could reach a thickness of 20 meters at the base in extreme cases.

Even the walls of Constantinople which have been described as "the most famous and complicated system of defence in the civilized world," could not match up to a major Chinese city wall.

Had both the outer and inner walls of Constantinople been combined, they would have only reached roughly a bit more than a third the width of a major wall in China.

Lawrence, however, incorporated some European defensive tactics, opting for the design of the ramparts to follow the European style, instead of the slightly more flashy Chinese style tiled towers that always adorned the walls.

The same form of walls was planned for after the construction of Black Bay Port, to face the sea.

Kraft then insisted that bricks be laid over the earthen cores after construction to prevent erosion.

The construction of the walls will then take place over the span of half a year, with Lawrence secretly speeding up certain aspects of the construction, such as slipping strength and stamina potions into the food and drinks of the workers.

Dugen Strongheart, a retired general who travelled the world, reached Tears many decades later. He later wrote in his memoirs in the same inn that Lawrence had built.

I pity any army that had thrown its forces against the walls of this place. In this city, I may even sleep well at night knowing that an army of millions stood outside. From the stalwart guard of the Owl Guards to the keen eyes of the Owl Bowmen and the thunderous hooves of the Owl Cataphracts and the walls of which the world has never seen, I, Dugen Strongheart, who thought he has broken all the enemies of my liege, only thank the Gods that no city like this has sprung up in my conquest.