Right, let’s make a defensive encampment

 
 
 ☆
 
 
 Dig up the ground.
 
 Everyone froze at those words of mine.
 
 The first to open their mouth was Lionel.
 
 “Uhhh… So by that, you mean 『make a moat』?”
 
 “That’s also one way to put it.”
 
 I nodded at him, and the territory soldiers’ commander made a puzzled face.
 
 “Then, what else are we going to dig out?”
 
 “An exchange trench, I guess.”
 
 “Exchange trench? What’s that???”
 
 “A pathway connecting encampment to encampment. ——— I don’t know how far we’ll go, but let’s make a defensive encampment outside the city walls.”
 
 “Defensive encampment? Is that the same thing when you pitch camp???”
 
 Hearing words they’d never heard before, Lionel and the others tilted their heads.
 
 It seems an easy-to-understand explanation is required.
 
 
 ☆
 
 
 When you look back on Earth’s history, the defensive facilities protecting important locations change their form that era according to the weapons and tactics of the times.
 
 During the era in which swords, spears and bows played the leading role, the defensive facilities were 『castles』 and 『forts』 protected by tall ramparts.
 
 After firearms such as guns and cannons began development, that changed to the famous five-sided fortified pentagonal fortress kind of 『bastion-type citadels』, enclosed in moats and embankments.^[1]
 
 As the bombardment range and power increase as we enter the modern era, these many 『forts』 change form into giant fortresses and defensive encampments connected by trenches and underground tunnels.
 
 By the way, if you were to ask me about the present times, I’d say that since permanent positions are easily destroyed by aerial bombing, missiles and guided shells, battlefield encampments and trenches are used as needed.
 
 So then, what kind of defensive facilities would we currently need?
 
 
 
 “For us, I think the biggest threat is the number of monsters and the pressure they will apply as they advance forward.”
 
 Hearing what I said, Commander Vergil thought for a bit, then after that, he said “That’s correct, I guess”, nodding his head.
 
 “In that case, the first thing to do is 『stop the enemy’s feet』. I think next would be to 『kill off enemies efficiently』, but what do you think?”
 
 “Ermm… In other words, build a moat to stop their feet, then a defensive encampment or whatever to kill the enemy. Like that?”
 
 I nodded at Lionel, who answered like that while thinking.
 
 “That understanding is generally correct. ——— Look.”
 
 I picked up the pointer stick placed beside me, and pointed to the map.
 
 
 
 “With the Holmes River behind the city’s south, Cocomel was built on flat land. Each side is approximately 700 metres. A forest spreads out on the city’s west side, and on the east side is a gentle hill. Although the north side is flatlands, because it’s held between the western forest and the eastern hill, there’s never been a more proper bottleneck seen.”
 
 By the way, as there’s a bridge spanning the southern bridge, in the worst case, the residents can evacuate to the other side of the river.
 
 Of course in that case though, we’ll have to cut the bridge and abandon Cocomel…
 
 I hit the city’s north side with the pointer stick, tap, tap.
 
 “If you consider this terrain, almost undoubtedly, the monster horde will come from the northern flatlands. With force as if blanketing the land. And then, they’ll flood Cocomel right away.”
 
 I traced the predicted monster flow with the pointer stick.
 
 “Therefore, if we don’t do anything, the initial battlefield should be the city wall’s northern extremities. Along with the passing of time, the enemy will spread out to surround the city, and will receive attacks from the direct of the northern flatlands, the western forest, and the eastern hills. If that happens, we’ll be unable to catch up with dealing with them, and the enemy scaling the walls and invading will be a matter of time. ——— That’s how I was thinking, but I wonder?”
 
 
 
 I explained up till there in one go.
 
 However, when I looked up for the first time, I realised everyone was looking at me with their mouths wide open.
 
 “Uhm… everyone, what happened?”
 
 When I timidly asked that, my territory soldiers’ commander uttered one term.
 
 “A soldier, huh.”
 
 “Hm?”
 
 I asked him to repeat himself.
 
 Then Lionel messily scratched his head.
 
 “No, well, I knew Miss was a genius, but… I didn’t expect your talent to reach this far. Vergil and I came to the same conclusion. As expected of 『Brad of Gale』’s daughter. Like father, like daughter.”
 
 The words of the territory soldiers’ commander^[2] raised voices of wonder.
 
 “Haha…”
 
 Standing in front of them like that, a dry laugh leaked from my mouth.
 
 It’s some military nerd brother’s fault that I can read topographical and war maps.
 
 Well, either way’s fine.
 It’s useful to me now.
 
 Pulling myself together, I once again gazed down at the map.
 
 
 
 The battlefront that we should protect in the early stages is the 700 metres of the northern edge.
 
 If they spread to the east and west as time passes, we won’t be able to protect the upwards of a kilometre of city wall that they’ll cover.
 
 On our side, we have a total of approximately two thousand people.
 As for the monsters we’ll be facing, we’d better be prepared for something between ten thousand to fifty thousand.
 
 The difference in military strength is more than five to twenty times.
 
 If we did this head-on, our advantage of 500 magic rifles would be blown away.
 
 
 
 “Then, what’ll we do? is the question, but———”
 
 I pointed the pointer stick at the city’s north side.
 
 “———on the city’s north side, we’ll make an attraction route using embankments.”
 
 “Attraction route?”
 
 I nodded in response to Lionel’s question.
 
 “Right. An attraction route. ——— We deliberately open a few places in the pathway, and the embankments other than those will be made with a steep slope, guiding the monsters into a specific area.”
 
 I picked up the pencil on the desk, and atop the north-side city walls, I drew several trapeziums stretched horizontally.
 
 “These trapeziums are embankments. By intentionally opening a space between trapeziums, the enemy will flood through that 『pathway』. ——— If there’s a flat path and a sudden slope in front of you, do you think there’d be anyone who especially goes to climb the slope?”
 
 “I see, so that’s what an 『attraction route』 is!”
 
 Clap, Lionel hit his hands together.
 
 “Right. Then those monsters that entered the passage will have a dry moat trap waiting for them.”
 
 Then, in the space between trapeziums, and in the space between the trapeziums and the city walls, I drew in many rhombuses representing dry moats.
 
 “With these dry moats, we’ll chip away at the monsters’ force and pressure. We’ll put in many rhombic dry moats, with a depth of a metre and sides of two metres. Since the enemy will push forward one after the other, they should trip and fall in. ——— Are we good so far?”
 
 Looking up, I saw everyone nodding.
 
 I returned to my explanation.
 
 
 
 “Thus, the enemy, with their force and pressure dampened, will at last reach the city walls, but… that will become the main kill zone.”
 
 I drew a slash through the convex shape formed from the three-way intersection of the space between the trapeziums to the wall.
 
 “Kill zone?!”
 
 Hearing yet another word he’d never heard before, Lionel asked that question in return.
 
 “To put it simply, it’s 『a place to concentrate gun and bow attacks』.”
 
 I pointed the pointer stick at the city walls.
 
 “First, from the front side, from atop the city walls and from small holes opened in the walls — from gun ports — we’ll attack using guns and bows.”
 
 Hearing my explanation, everyone nodded.
 
 “Next, from the side…”
 
 I appended 『legs』 onto the trapezium bases symbolising embankments.
 
 “We’ll make an encampment with trenches and embankments in this portion, in order to add in flanking attacks. ——— And lastly,”
 
 I struck the base portion of the trapezium.
 
 “Is 『crossfire』. Shooting from here, we’ll fire at the monsters trying to climb up the city walls.”
 
 
 
 ““……””
 
 Silence from my companions.
 
 “?”
 
 I tilted my head.
 
 I wonder.
 Did I say something weird?
 
 As I curiously wondered that, Duncan opened his mouth.
 
 “… hey, Missy. Aren’t those trapeziums embankments?”
 
 “Yeah, but?”
 
 “If it’s an embankment, how will we shoot???”
 
 The workshop chief tilted his head.
 
 ——— I see.
 
 So that’s why everyone’s reactions were so subtle.
 
 
 I once again looked down at the map, and said these words with single-minded determination.
 
 
 “——— an 『anti-slope encampment』. We make an encampment on the opposite slope made by the embankment, and shoot at the enemies that stick out from behind.”