JOURNAL SKETCH: SOUTHERN SONG'S FRONTIER FORTRESS 绘画日志: 南宋防御小碉堡

There are so many untold stories and amazing facts about the war between Southern Song and the Yuan Mongols. I am always wondering how did Southern Song dynasty hold on for almost half a century against the most formidable super power that conquered half the old world during the 13th century. One of the key factor would be the massive defense system that stretch across Chang Jiang river, which means hundred or thousands of frontier fortress in varies scale. As you might know, I always wanted to make a short comic series about the soldiers who stationed on one these fortress, and here is a rough concept sketch for such structure. To start with, this fortress will have the following features:
- small in size, but consist all life support facilities and defensive structures as a frontier base
- constructed on the strategic location along the river, observing any activity of the Yuan army who encamped on the other side of the river
-supplies are transported by small boats through waterway