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

The outer stronghold of Bailang was built five li before the gate.

Two stone walls enclose a horse ranch, where 600 people are usually stationed, guarding Qingluoquan and also protecting Bailang Pass from the first wave of attacks.

After Tu Beishan died, Quanheyi was lost, and Waizhai became an isolated place.

Han Wanshan did not evacuate his men.

He then sent another four hundred archers from within the pass, increasing the garrison to one thousand. The walls of the stockade were covered with rolling stones, oil, and ballistae, and all eight hundred warhorses in the stable were saddled.

The day after the Black Pot Flag was raised at Duanqiyi, Chen Mu led his men to the outer village.

They didn't rest for three days.

They didn't wait for the injury to fully heal.

The trade route to Yanmaji had just opened, and the longer it dragged on, the more fearful the merchants from the south became. Only by planting the black flag right under Bailang Pass's nose would everyone believe that the Han family was truly trapped.

This time there are more capable fighters.

Of the 120 heavy cavalry that went into battle at Qingluquan, 27 were lost, leaving only 133 including the old cavalry who stayed behind. Tiemabao sent 17 new cavalry to join the battle, bringing the total to 150.

One hundred and fifty heavy cavalry, four hundred light cavalry, three hundred surrendered soldiers and forge workers' infantry. Anato also led two hundred White Spring cavalry, detouring around the north of the horse farm.

More than two hundred people remained at Tiemabao to guard the city.

Zhou Tie and fifty riders were also left at Yanmaji.

Chen Mu did not bet on everyone.

Before setting off, Chen Mu laid out the rice, meat, salt, and tea he had obtained from the salt and horse market at the post station gate. Each person who captured the outer stronghold would receive a bag of grain and a pound of meat; those who scaled the wall first would receive their horses; and those who died at the foot of the wall would have their families receive three portions. Those without families would find a brother to entrust their lives to.

Lin Qinghe followed.

It's not for the purpose of fighting a war.

She led twenty medical carts and forty female soldiers who knew how to stop bleeding, setting up a medical tent at Duanqiyi. Lu Shuangyi's left rib wound had not yet healed, and Lin Qinghe originally forbade her to go into battle, but she changed her heavy armor into two layers of leather armor and wrapped three layers of stiff cloth around her waist.

"If you break again, I'll mend you first, then I'll mend someone else."

Lu Shuangyi nodded.

"What if I die?"

"Even if he's dead, I'll still sew it up."

Lu Shuangyi smiled, a rare occurrence for her.

The garrison commander of the outer village was named Shi Bao.

He was Han Wanshan's last adopted son who neither died nor fled. Han Lie and Han Jiu Kui had both died at Chen Mu's hands, so he dared not leave the stronghold for open battle and simply sealed the gates.

When Chen Mu arrived at the city gate, Shi Bao pushed a row of people onto the wall.

They were all military households and their families who had been detained by the Han family inside the pass.

"If you dare to attack, kill fifty of them first!"

The newly surrendered soldiers below the city immediately fell into chaos.

On the wall were some of their wives, some of their parents. A surrendered soldier threw down his shield and ran forward, calling out his mother's name. A Han soldier on the wall shot an arrow through his leg.

Chen Mu had him dragged back.

"If you want to save people, hold your shield tight."

"They will kill!"

"Kneel down, and they'll kill you anyway."

The old woman bound to the wall heard this and suddenly spat down towards the city walls.

"Don't kneel!"

"I've lived sixty years, that's enough!"

Shi Bao slashed her shoulder with his sword.

The old woman knelt down in pain, but still looked up and cursed. The other hostages also began to shout; some told their husbands to attack the wall, others told their sons to leave them alone. Shi Bao killed three people, but the shouts didn't stop; instead, they grew louder and louder.

The surrendered soldiers who had been trembling below the city walls raised their shields again.

The man who had just been shot broke the arrow shaft from his leg and used his shield to stand up. His mother was on the wall; the old woman didn't beg him to save her life, but only told him to stop being a dog for the Han family.

He walked to the front of the wall-breaking team.

"I'll go smash it too."

Chen Mu looked up at the stone leopard.

"I'll let you live for another half an hour."

He did not attack the main gate.

Three hundred infantrymen carried planks that had just been dismantled from Yanmaji, braving a hail of arrows as they marched toward the west wall of the horse ranch. The area beneath the west wall was covered in horse manure and rotten grass, and the stone bricks, soaked in urine for years, would crack when frozen in winter.

Of course, Shi Bao knew.

The five ballistae on the wall simultaneously turned to the west.

The first crossbow bolt pierced through three layers of planks and then through two men behind it. The second bolt embedded itself in the frozen ground, its fletching still trembling. The infantrymen, terrified, slowed their pace.

The furnace worker, whose face was covered in burn scars, rushed from the back of the line to the front.

He had no shield, but carried an iron bucket filled with wedges and charcoal on his shoulder.

The ballista fired again, and a thick arrow grazed half of his ear. He only staggered for a moment before continuing to run down the wall.

"Smash the wall for me!"

Three hundred people moved forward again.

The planks collapsed one after another, and the bodies were left in the snow. By the time the iron wedges reached the base of the wall, only about 220 people remained who could keep up with the others.

Oil began to be poured onto the city walls.

The planks, once soaked in oil, caught fire, and those hiding underneath were as if trapped in the furnace. A dozen or so men threw down their shields and ran back, but the furnace worker, his face covered in burn scars, didn't stop them. Instead, he tore off his thick leather apron and covered a young man engulfed in flames.

"Those who are afraid of fire, go back!"

"If you're not afraid, follow me!"

His face was covered in old burn scars, and he knew all too well what it felt like to have fire burning into flesh. More than fifty stokers followed him away from the planks and pressed themselves against the wall in a corner. The oil above couldn't be poured in, and the crossbows couldn't reach them.

They used shovels to dig through the frozen soil and hammers to break up cracks in the walls.

A stoker's finger was crushed by a rock, but he bit off the skin holding it in and continued smashing. Another man's back caught fire, and people nearby used snow to extinguish it; his clothes were covered in blisters.

Every time a brick fell from the west wall, a shout would be heard from below the city.

On the twenty-seventh shout, the guard on the wall retreated for the first time.

The forge workers drove iron wedges one by one into the cracks in the frozen wall, then hammered them down with heavy mallets. The sound of the hammers shook the entire outer fortress. The west wall did not collapse, but only a crack large enough to fit a hand broke open.

Stone Leopard laughed loudly from the top of the wall.

"Is that all you've got?"

Even the furnace worker with burn scars all over his face smiled.

He inserted the mining hammer into the crack, and more than twenty furnace workers simultaneously gripped the hammer handle and pressed down. The first brick loosened, and the others immediately dragged it away with iron hooks.

The second and third pieces fell off one after another.

A horizontal slit was carved out at the bottom of the stone wall.

Chen Mu raised the black knife.

"Dismount!"

All 150 Black Pot Heavy Cavalrymen dismounted, no longer waiting for the wall to open. They inserted their spears into the horizontal gap, and more than 100 of them lifted it up at the same time.

The stone wall bulges outwards first.

Then the whole thing collapsed.

More than twenty archers on the wall fell into the crowd along with the stones, and were smashed to pieces on the spot by hammers and horses' hooves.

"Mount up!"

The old rider turned over first.

The new riders followed and leaped over the broken wall. The horses of the Han family army inside the horse farm were startled by the explosion and were running around wildly inside the enclosure. The guards wanted to borrow horses to form a battle formation, but Anato had already shot down the fence ropes from the north.

Eight hundred warhorses charged toward the breached wall.

The stable manager wanted to kill the lead horse to disorient the rest of the horses.

An old shepherd, locked in the stable, lunged forward first. He had raised horses for the Han family for twelve years; all three of his sons had died at the stable, and he still had an iron chain around his neck. The foreman slashed open his back with a knife, but the old shepherd grabbed the man's waist and shoved him into the manger.

When the other shepherds saw this, they also picked up pitchforks.

The horse farm was in chaos.

Some people were cutting down the fence, some were blowing whistles to signal the return of Anato's White Spring Riders, and others were charging the guards on saddleless horses. By the time the Black Pot Heavy Cavalry had crossed the broken wall, more than seventy herdsmen were already waiting for them in the horse farm with bloodstained pitchforks.

Anato tossed a small white flag to the old shepherd.

"Can you ride it?"

"I raised it for a lifetime."

"Then lead the way."

The old shepherd mounted Han's lead horse and led the herd straight for the bow tower.

Bai Quan's riders whistled on both sides of the herd, driving the chaotic horses into a torrent. Han's guards, who had just arrived from the west wall, were trampled by their own horses.

The Black Pot Heavy Cavalry charged in from behind the herd of horses.

No one could see them clearly in the first round.

Until the black-armored rider emerged from the chaos of the horses, his spear had already pierced the guard's chest. The new riders followed the old ones, turning around, no longer scattering after crashing into the enemy like Qingluquan. The 150 riders split into three groups: one to seize the gate, one to charge the watchtower, and the last to head straight for the east wall where the hostages were being held.

Lu Shuangyi led fifty riders from the east wall.

Unable to exert force from her left side, she could only tuck her spear under her right arm. Shi Bao personally led a hundred guards to block her path, their scimitars slashing at the horses' legs.

The white horse was wounded with its first strike.

Lu Shuangyi landed with a somersault, her spear slipping from her hand. Shi Bao saw it was her and charged straight at her on horseback.

"Are the women of the Lu family also warming the bed for traitors?"

Lu Shuangyi did not retaliate with insults.

She grabbed a wooden stake from the ground and held it horizontally in front of her. The stone leopard's warhorse crashed into the stake, its front hooves became entangled in ropes, and the rider was thrown from the horse's back.

Lu Shuangyi pounced on her.

The two rolled around in the mud and snow. Shi Bao, heavily armored, pinned her down, his fist striking her left ribs, instantly reopening her freshly stitched wound. Her face paled, but she still used her knee to keep him in the lower abdomen.

Shi Bao drew his short knife.

Just as the blade was raised, Chen Mu's light iron chariot crashed into it from the side.

The corner of the chariot knocked the stone leopard three zhang (approximately 10 meters) away.

Lu Shuangyi was also knocked down.

Chen Mu jumped out of the car, his injured leg barely able to touch the ground, so he could only kneel on one knee on Shi Bao's chest. Shi Bao grabbed his injured right shoulder and dug his fingers in hard.

Chen Mu's right eye went black.

The short knife in his left hand stabbed under the leopard's armpit.

One cut wasn't enough.

The second knife pierced the lung.

Shi Bao was still struggling when Lu Shuangyi picked up a stone from the side and smashed it into his face with both hands.

The helmet dented on the third strike.

On the fourth strike, the stone leopard stopped moving.

When the guards on the east wall saw that their commander was dead, they began to retreat.

The hostages, bound to the wall, bit through their ropes, picked up knives, and lunged at them from behind. An old woman grabbed the archer who had shot her son, and they both rolled off the wall.

When the soldier with the broken leg climbed up the wall, he only found one of his mother's shoes.

The old woman had just fallen down with the archer. The surrendered soldier peered down from the wall, tears falling onto the stones. The next moment, he picked up the dagger his mother had dropped, turned, and rushed into the ranks of Shi Bao's personal guards.

With one leg dragging behind him, he could only chop while kneeling.

Two fleeing soldiers, thinking him merciless, were grabbed by the ankles as soon as they approached. Then, the forge workers behind them smashed their heads into the brickwork with a hammer.

After the battle, the surrendered soldier carried his mother's body down the wall.

Chen Mu gave Shi Bao's horse to him.

"Ride again when your leg is better."

"It won't get better?"

"Let your son ride it."

The surrendered soldier hugged the horse's neck and wept, finally laying his mother's body across the horse's back.

The gate was quickly opened from the inside.

Four hundred light cavalry charged in.

Of the 1,000 defenders, over 370 died, 410 surrendered, and the remaining 200 or so escaped back to Bailang Pass. On the Black Pot side, 146 died and nearly 300 were wounded, with the furnace workers and infantrymen who broke through the wall suffering the most casualties.

The outer village has been captured.

Eight hundred horses were startled and scattered, but five hundred and sixty-seven were eventually captured. Inside the stronghold, there were also twenty-four granaries of horse feed, nine granaries of rice, twelve crossbows, and more than three hundred suits of armor.

More importantly, they rescued 237 military families.

Among those rescued were more than seventy young women. They refused to return to the old military village; some went to the medical shed, some helped the stove workers cook, and more than twenty followed Lu Shuangyi to pick up knives and learn to use bows.

They and the surrendered soldiers huddled together inside the village gate.

Chen Mu did not stop amidst the cheers.

He ordered his men to drag the stone leopard's carcass to the main gate, strip it of its armor, and cut off its head. The high walls of Bailang Pass were only five li away, and those inside could see the Black Mountain Flag being torn down from the outer village.

As the black flag was raised, Han Wanshan finally appeared on the gate wall.

Five miles apart, the two could not see each other's faces clearly.

Chen Mu knew, however, that he had seen Shi Bao's head.