Their bamboo stakes snapped savagely in two, the tree guards had been hurled far and wide over the stubble field.

Sharp bamboo stakes were thickly sown into the grounds around the fort.

This was surrounded by a high double curtain wall of bamboo stakes filled in with mud cladding and sun-baked.

Ditches filled with water had been dug in front of the trenches, and the defences were crowned with bamboo stakes filed to sharp points.