“That’s… twisted,” Destrang said.

“It’s using intelligence and planning to stay ahead of your enemy’s thoughts,” the female ensign said with a grin. “Call it… subtle. Now, Asghar,” she continued, looking at Destrang. “I’ll help you find the relevant sections in there if you’ll help me with that damned engineering assignment.”

“What’s so hard?” the ensign replied, picking up a sheet of paper with a vague sketch on it. “It’s just bridge design.”

“It’s the schedule he required,” Van Krief answered. “I can design the bridge, it’s a straightforward pile bridge like we made in Blood Lords school, just bigger. But first you have to come up with the materials list, then a plan to gather the materials, then implementation. With a single legion.”

“Legion and supports,” Destrang said, sitting down. “Don’t forget the camp followers. You’re allowed six hundred camp followers as well; which is low according to the texts. Of those, some two hundred are going to be male. Some of them are semicritical servants, make it a hundred and fifty available. You don’t assemble the materials and then get started, you start to assemble the materials and then as soon as you have a certain amount you devote most of the legion to building while the camp followers continue cutting trees. You’re the one that keeps reading ahead, you might want to think back instead to Gallic Wars.”

“Ah,” Van Krief replied, with a smile. “But there’s no mention of using the camp followers in there.”

“The Romans didn’t organize theirs the way that we do,” Tao noted. “All the sutlers and other… ahem… ‘support -personnel’… have to be bonded.”

“’Ahem?’ ” Van Krief asked with a frown.

“Whores.” Destrang chuckled. “And the latter have to be examined by bonded medical personnel as well. But the latter don’t enter into the equation, much, because pregnancy rates run as high as thirty percent.”