Lawrence stared at the shovel in his hand as he paused from the digging that he has done for the past hour or so. Everyone else around him was either continuing to dig or laying logs and rocks. There was now a series of trenches with complex tunnel systems. Every squad leader watched as the digs unfolded, then huddling together to add onto their maps how the trenches weaved about.
The idea of the trenches is to not only slow the enemy down but to act as a massive maze. When the Carmine soldiers retreated, they can simply collapse a section of the tunnel by removing a support beam. Lawrence had also made use of magic to create a massive reservoir of water that can be dumped into the trenches, drowning any soldiers still stuck in trenches when the water is released from its confinement.
However, Lawrence had been placed in charge of the overall digging of defences. He had replaced the Soviet artillery with ballistas and Scorpions, swapped out mines with spiked traps and drove logs into the ground in front of the trenches to replace the tank obstacles that he hoped would slow down an army of horsemen down significantly enough for them to be taken down by arrows.
It is crazy to Lawrence, that as a person laying traps, it is curious that he himself would not be able to see its effects.
As more and more of the Carmine soldiers, as well as that of the knights and Lawrence himself, set to work, through several days, the front of the fortress looked barely recognizable. The trees have been felled, replaced with stretches of trench lines that could hold many of the brave men that would fight in them and even more in the tunnels, where an unsuspecting Gerheist soldier would have his throat slit by a sneaking Carmine soldier.
Lawrence’s defence plan for the trenches can be divided into roughly three stages.
The first line was a massive mix of logs driven into the ground and spiked traps, as well as sharp rocks, tossed all around. This was supposed to slow down or even stop foot soldiers and horsemen as the archers got to work on them. Those who supposedly breached the first line of defence would hit the first trenches, armed with spearmen, equipped to keep them away from the trench for as long as possible with dismounted knights in their heavy armour armed with their broad steel swords to deal with anyone who slipped past the wall of spears.
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Lastly, the archers behind the swordsmen would assist the spearmen in taking down foes coming near.
Should these lines of defences be breached, they would withdraw into the tunnels, where in certain areas, grain is stored as well as equipment and clothes dyed in black. They would slip around Gerheist lines and attack troops, causing confusion at the night and other soldiers hidden in the tunnels would come out and retake the lines in the confusion.
It was a mix of Hacksaw Ridge and traditional Defence in Depth.
Colonel Haussen dropped by often, watching the works. He had confided in Lawrence that the original plan was simply to commit most of the strength to the walls, as trenches were more traditionally used to besiege enemy settlements by gradually digging your way nearer and nearer. Using trenches as a delaying action was often seen as suicidal and used by troops making a last stand. Lawrence replied, with some snark after being made to dig for hours, that this was the last stand for them, one way or another.
Lord Black on the other hand, not unnoticed by Lawrence, had secretly made arrangements for his knights to be as far behind from the frontline as possible. It wasn’t as if Lawrence did not understand – He was a minor lord and if all his men went to meet their makers in one battle, he would be powerless.
Count Boulevard on the other hand, along with Colonel Haussen and General Kaffe seemed to thirst for blood, concentrating their forces in groups, enthusiastically volunteering their soldiers for various positions around the trenches. All that was left was for Lawrence to plug his troops in the gaps that these armies did not fill.
After a week of silence, Lawrence had even asked Roland and Trey on whether it was possible for the Gerheist army to have broken through somewhere else and simply flank Phoenix’s Fall, which seemed to be impossible.
Lawrence was worried about the Gerheist troops pulling off a Maginot but at dawn, the flags bearing the sigil of the royal crown of the Kingdom of Gerheist appeared on the horizon.