hand-by-hand

There was an episode in Russian war history when a battle was won without single casualty (apart from numerous blisters), this was the battle of Azov, Russian troops besieged a Turkish fortress by piling sand around it and moving the circle of sand several meters high closer and closer to the walls of the fortress, it took a lot of time (about a year) and sand and labour, but it was a unique victory. The commander who won that battle was General Patrick Gordon, one of the closest friends to Peter the Great, and a Scot by birth (not sure what was more important in winning that battle, probably both). Looking from my window for the last two month I can see these two excavators battling hard for an extra handful of sand out of this foundation for a new office block. General Gordon would have been very proud of Moscow builders, who follow his strategy even if it's in reverse way.