Border Soldier: My fiancée snatched credit and broke off the engagement, so I promptly became a marq

Qingluquan is eighteen li away from Yanmaji.

The spring is hidden between two stone ridges. In winter, steam rises from the water, and caravans traveling north and south drink here. Duanqi Post Station is three miles south of the spring. A mud wall and two rows of stables block the road to Hexi.

Han Wanshan sent 500 men to guard this place.

Three hundred cavalrymen pressed the spring, and two hundred archers guarded the post station. The commander of the troops was Tu Beishan, the deputy general of Bailang Pass.

He did not block the spring.

Instead, they threw more than thirty corpses into the upstream ditch. The corpses were mixed with dead horses and rotten hides, and the spring water was already red and smelly when it flowed down.

Tu Beishan stood by the spring and asked the fleeing merchant to deliver a message.

"Isn't Chen Mu fond of raising people?"

"Let him bring salt from the market to exchange for a mouthful of clean water."

When the news reached Jizi, Xu Wandou and other merchants panicked.

Grain carts can wait, but people and horses can't go a day without water. Some are willing to pay silver to buy their way through, while others even want to take down the black flag of the salt-horse market first.

Chen Mu did not consult with them.

As darkness fell, three hundred light cavalry and one hundred and twenty heavy cavalry set off from the south gate. For the first time, the new and old Black Pot Cavalry were truly mixed together, with one old cavalryman interspersed among every five new riders. The old riders' chests were white with soot, while the new riders' black teeth on their armor had just been worn away, making them easy to distinguish.

When they set off, Xu Wandou blocked the entrance to the market.

He wasn't trying to dissuade Chen Mu from going; instead, he sent twenty-eight empty grain carts. The cart planks could block arrows, and the axles were equipped with thick ropes and iron hooks for repairing carts.

"If we can recapture the road, these trucks will continue hauling salt."

"What if we can't get it back?"

"Then I'll pay for both the car and the repairs."

A dozen or so other merchants also lent out their guards.

Yesterday they dared not touch Han's scouts, but today they know that with Qingluoquan lost, all their goods will rot in Yanmaji. Chen Mu didn't promise them silver, only saying that if they died, they would share the spoils with the Black Pot Cavalry.

Seventy-three caravan guards smeared soot on their chests, willing to risk their lives for their goods.

Lu Shuangyi cannot wear heavy armor.

Lin Qinghe pressed the seam in her left ribs back tight, allowing her to wear only light leather armor. She still rode Han Qianshan's white horse, leading the 120 riders.

Chen Mu's feet were unable to step on the stirrups, so Bao Tie followed behind the heavy cavalry in a light chariot.

Lin Qinghe did not come along.

She tied a medicine pouch to the carriage shaft, securing the opening with a knot. If Chen Murong wanted to take the medicine, he had to first see the four characters she had written on the cloth strip.

If the wound is open, retreat.

Chen Mu glanced at it and turned the strip of cloth over.

Anado led two hundred White Spring cavalry to bypass Duanqi Post Station and intercept Tu Beishan's retreat route.

After nightfall, Qingluo Spring was covered with torches.

Tu Beishan had anticipated Chen Mu's arrival, so his three hundred cavalrymen did not set up camp; instead, they were all fully armored and mounted on their horses. Two rows of chevaux-de-frise stood by the spring, behind which were wooden barrels filled with kerosene.

"Chen Mu!"

"If you take one more step, I'll burn the spring!"

Chen Mu's light carriage stopped a hundred paces away.

"burn."

Tu Beishan was taken aback.

He thought Chen Mu would be worried about the water source being destroyed and would at least say something. But Chen Mu raised his crossbow first and shot an arrow through the foremost oil drum.

Oil flowed all over the snow.

The second arrow fell, carrying a flaming cloth.

Flames roared up.

The barricades, oil barrels, and thatched huts by the spring were all engulfed in flames. The people who had sacked Beishan had originally planned to push the fire toward the spring, but now they themselves were trapped behind the flames.

"Lu Shuangyi!"

The white horse began to accelerate.

One hundred and twenty Black Pot Heavy Cavalry charged towards Shiling along the outer side of the fire wall. Seeing the fire raging in front, Tu Beishan assumed they were going to circle around and immediately led three hundred cavalry to turn west.

Lu Shuangyi reined in her horse twenty paces from the stone ridge.

The older riders in the front row simultaneously threw out their iron chains.

The iron chains weren't used to lasso people; they were hooked onto the burning barricades. Sixty horses pulled together, forcibly dragging two rows of burning barricades towards the South Korean army.

Tu Beishan's vanguard was unable to dodge in time.

A dozen warhorses were pierced by sharp logs, and the rear guard was forced back by the fire. The Black Pot Heavy Cavalry took advantage of the gap and charged in, their spearheads clashing with Han Jiajia's armor in the firelight.

In the first collision, more than twenty new riders fell to the ground.

They didn't know to pull in their bellies before the charge, nor did they know to immediately draw their swords close to their horses after their spears broke. The veteran riders didn't turn back to help, but continued forward. The new riders, seeing their men trampled, finally understood that stopping during a charge meant certain death.

The second row will not stop.

They trampled their horses and crashed into the South Korean army.

A novice rider's lance went astray, barely grazing the enemy's shoulder armor. He instinctively tried to draw his lance again, but the veteran rider in front of him cleaved the shaft of his lance in two with a single stroke.

"Don't stop!"

The new rider, with only half a wooden pole left, could only continue ramming the old rider's tail. The next Han rider swung his sword from the side; he had no time to dodge, so he simply grabbed the other's belt. The two fell from their horses and rolled together by the fire.

The Han cavalry were heavily armored and pressed down on top of them.

The new rider, unable to draw his sword, bit the other's nose. The Korean rider screamed and looked up, only then did the old rider pick up a stone from the ground and smash it three times. By the time he climbed back onto his horse, his chest was covered in soot and his face was covered in blood, but the old rider nodded to him for the first time.

Another group of new riders was forced into Quangou by the fire.

The warhorses plunged into the water, the hot spring water reaching their knees. Korean soldiers stood on the bank and fired arrows, striking more than a dozen men in quick succession. The veteran cavalry leader didn't charge back, but instead ran upstream along the spring ditch.

All the new riders followed suit.

They climbed ashore from behind the ditch blocked by corpses and circled around to the back of the South Korean archers. Their horses' hooves were wet and kept slipping on the frozen rocks, but this also surprised the South Koreans, who didn't expect a squad of black-armored soldiers to emerge from the stinking water.

More than thirty archers were cornered at the spring and were all cut down and thrown into the ditch.

Zhou Tie's blue-maned horse was hit by a spear, its breastplate split open. He flipped onto another stray horse and swung half of the iron chain, striking the enemy rider in the face. The iron ring pulled the helmet out of a deep crater, and the rider fell straight off the horse.

Lu Shuangyi was only wearing leather armor and dared not engage the heavy cavalry in a direct confrontation.

She ran along the edge of the formation, her spear aimed at the flag bearers and drummers. Two of Tu Beishan's three team flags were knocked down as soon as they were unfurled, and the last one was hidden among his guards. Lu Shuangyi spurred her white horse over the burning barricades, and the tip of her spear pierced the back of the flag bearer's neck.

The cavalry formation at Bailang Pass lost its bearings.

Chen Mu's light chariot then entered the battlefield.

Er Gou covered the wheels with iron and hung three layers of wet cowhide on the front of the cart. The light cart rolled over the fiery ground, and the wheels were covered in flames. Chen Mu sat on the cart, firing a crossbow with his left hand. After firing, he threw the empty crossbow to the wounded soldier behind him and then took the next one.

He did not shoot Tu Beishan.

They only shot and killed the horses around Beishan.

Five of his personal guard horses fell one after another, immediately leaving a circle of empty space around Tu Beishan.

Tu Beishan saw Chen Mu's light chariot and personally led thirty riders to attack.

Chen Mu did not back down.

Instead, the coachman whipped the horse, sending the light iron carriage hurtling head-on into the thirty riders. The first horse struck the corner of the carriage, its sternum collapsing instantly; the second rider swept past from the side, his scimitar cleaving through the wet cowhide, the blade wedged into the iron seam.

Chen Mu grabbed the back of the knife with his left hand and used the speed of the vehicle to pull the rider off.

Tu Beishan leaped from horseback onto the roof of the carriage.

He was faster than Han Jiu Kui; the moment his feet touched the ground, he thrust his knife towards Chen Mu's throat. Chen Mu blocked it with his medicine pouch, the blade piercing through the pouch, and powder splattering all over Tu Beishan's face.

Tu Beishan instinctively closed his eyes.

Chen Mu grabbed his belt, and the two of them rolled off the light carriage together.

Upon landing, Chen Mu's injured foot touched the ground first.

The excruciating pain numbed half of his body. Tu Beishan opened his eyes; the knife was already pressed against his chest. Chen Mu's right hand was immobilized, so he could only use his left hand to grip the knife wrist tightly.

The force was gradually pressed down.

The knife tip cut through the clothes.

A short gun suddenly thrust at him from the side, and Tu Beishan dodged it.

It was the surrendered soldier in Chapter 96 who was missing his left ear.

His father and the new house were both in Iron Horse Fort.

"Get out of my way!" Tu Beishan chopped the short spear in half with a single stroke.

The earless surrendered soldier didn't roll away; instead, he grabbed the arm holding the knife. Tu Beishan stabbed him twice, and the soldier's stomach was full of blood, but he still didn't let go.

Chen Mu picked up the broken gun from the ground.

The spearhead pierced through Tu Beishan's jaw.

He pulled it out, then stabbed it again.

The third time, the spear tip pierced the back of the neck.

Tu Beishan pressed down on the surrendered soldier with missing ears and remained motionless.

The surrendered soldier was laughing, though blood was gushing from his mouth.

"Squad Leader."

"My dad's room... no one took it back, right?"

"Nobody dares to accept it."

The surrendered soldier nodded, and finally released his grip.

Upon seeing that their deputy general was dead, the Han soldiers near the spring began to retreat towards Duanqiyi.

As soon as they arrived at the post station, a chorus of wolf whistles sounded from behind.

Anato had already killed the two hundred archers guarding the post station, their bodies piled up against the earthen wall. She ordered the stables opened, and more than sixty post horses blocked the entrance, obstructing their retreat.

Taking down Duanqiyi was no easy feat.

Two hundred archers dismantled the post station gate ahead of time and placed three rows of antler-shaped wooden stakes in the courtyard. On their first charge of the gate, the Baiquan riders lost twenty-seven men, and the carcasses of their horses were all hanging from the stakes.

Anato didn't let anyone rush over.

She dismounted from the back wall and led forty shepherdesses over the drainage ropes. The guards were only concerned with cavalry; they hadn't expected women to emerge from behind the low wall of the latrine.

The first shepherdess who climbed over the wall was pierced by a spear as soon as she landed.

She hugged the spear shaft with her body, and three men jumped down from her shoulders. Of the forty men who went inside the wall, only twenty-six remained, but they lit a fire in the stable.

The guard was busy rescuing the horse, while Anado cut the reindeer antler rope from the inside. The rider from Baiquan rammed the gate a second time, charging directly into the courtyard.

When the post station was captured, Anato was also hit by an arrow in the left shoulder.

She broke off the arrow shaft but didn't pull it out; she still rode her horse to the spring to block the people.

The remaining Han cavalry were trapped between Quan and Yi.

Of the three hundred men, more than one hundred and seventy died, ninety surrendered, and only thirty-odd horsemen escaped by crossing the eastern ridge.

Qingluoquan has been recaptured.

The father of the soldier who had surrendered with a missing ear also arrived with the grain cart.

The old man couldn't find his living son, but he recognized the missing ear next to Tu Beishan's body. He sat holding the body all night, and the next day he buried the body himself upstream of the spring.

Chen Mu had a captured horse brought in.

The old man shook his head.

"I can't ride."

"Then let's use water."

Chen Mu gave him another post carriage. The old man used the horse his son had been allocated to pull the first cart of water back to Tiemabao, with six children who had lost their father also on board.

From then on, waterwheels traveled to and from Qingluoquan every day.

The soldier with the missing ear did not return to the house alive, but his father and the house remained.

The fire burned down the thatched hut and the barricades, but not the spring. The stokers worked through the night to retrieve the bodies from upstream and then dug another crevice in the rocks. Just as the first stream of clear water flowed down, Xu Wandou's grain cart arrived from Yanmaji.

A herd of horses is drinking water at a spring.

Upon seeing Tu Beishan's corpse, Xu Wandou did not ask whether the southern route was passable.

There were also forty carts of hay, six granaries of black beans, sixty-three post horses, and more than one hundred bows inside Duanqi Post Station.

Xu Wandou's twenty-eight empty trucks didn't have time to go back either.

Ten carts were loaded with hay, eight with black beans, and the rest were used to transport wounded soldiers. Of the seventy-three caravan guards, nineteen died, and the survivors each received a bag of black beans and a bow.

They didn't wipe the soot off their chests when they returned to Yanmaji.

Some merchants laughed at them for becoming Chen Mu's soldiers, but the guard leader patted the bow on his back.

"Whoever provides the food, I'll guard the road for."

Chen Mu hung the image of Tu Beishan on the gate of the post station.

The old broken flag on the post station gate was torn down and replaced with a black pot.

South Road has been reopened.

Outside Bailang Pass, Han Wanshan only had one last outer fortress left.