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

On the first night after the flag was changed at Bailang Outer Village, no one celebrated.

The medical tents were set up all the way from Duanqiyi to the horse farm inside the village.

More than three hundred wounded soldiers lay on straw mats, their groans drowning out the firelight. The medicine Lin Qinghe brought was only enough for two days, and the clean white cloth ran out by midnight.

She had the Han family flag removed.

The Black Mountain flag was boiled in hot water and cut into strips to wrap the wounded soldiers' legs. Some people thought it was unlucky, so Lin Qinghe wrapped the section with the Black Mountain pattern around her own wrist.

"As long as it stops the bleeding, that's fine."

No one spoke anymore.

There wasn't enough medicine, but there were medicine merchants in Yanmaji.

Su Wan immediately dispatched thirty fast horses back to bring back all seven cartloads of medicinal herbs that had just arrived in the market, as described in Chapter 101. The medicine merchants were initially unwilling to extend credit, fearing that if the outer stronghold were to fall, they wouldn't even be able to recover the carts.

Su Wan mortgaged Qian Shouyi's old teahouse and her own new teahouse to him.

"If Chen Mu loses, the shop is yours."

"On what grounds do you pawn the houses in the market?"

"I opened the door."

While the medicine merchant hesitated, the five girls who had followed Su Wan to the Killing Clan had already placed their knives on the table. They weren't threatening him; they were handing over their knives and their share of the silver.

The seven cartloads of medicinal herbs finally set off overnight.

By the time they reached the outer village, four mules pulling the cart had died from exhaustion, and Su Wan's hands were raw and chafed from the reins. Lin Qinghe glanced at the cart and took all the most expensive hemostatic medicine without even a thank you.

Su Wan followed behind her, helping to grind the medicine.

The two worked until dawn to save more than a dozen wounded soldiers whose bleeding could not be stopped.

While washing her hands, Lin Qinghe suddenly said, "The teahouse doesn't need to be taken away."

Su Wan looked up.

"The wounded soldiers survive and will protect you."

That was her way of thanking her.

Chen Mu's shoulder was lacerated, and his instep was so swollen he couldn't take off his boot. Lin Qinghe cut open the boot with a knife, and blood poured out.

"No one is allowed to go to the fields today."

Chen Mu lay on the only bed in the garrison commander's quarters.

"The exterior walls haven't been repaired yet."

"Someone will fill the gap."

"The ballista needs to be turned around."

"Someone will share it."

"Han Wanshan might come tonight."

Lin Qinghe pressed the anesthetic gauze onto his mouth.

"You'll have to step over me first when you arrive."

Chen Mu finally fell silent.

Lu Shuangyi was on the other side of the bed.

She had sixteen stitches re-stitched in her left rib, and her face was completely bloodless. There was only one bed in the garrison commander's room, and Lin Qinghe wouldn't let her move, so the two of them each occupied half of it, separated by Chen Mu's black knife.

Chen Mu looked at the knife.

"It sleeps on a wider surface than I do."

Lu Shuangyi closed her eyes.

"You can sleep on the floor."

"My bed."

"I led my men to ram the village down."

"The wall was destroyed by the furnace worker."

"I killed Shi Bao by smashing him."

Chen Mu did not argue further.

When Anato entered the room, she saw two people lying side by side and first whistled a wolf.

"I'm out there stealing horses, and you're all sleeping in the same bed inside?"

Lu Shuangyi opened her eyes.

"There's still half a plot of land left."

Anato really spread the sheepskin out beside the bed.

She had just lain down when Lin Qinghe returned with her medicine box.

"go out."

"I didn't take up a bed."

"You're covered in mud."

Anado glanced at the soles of her boots, then simply took them off and crawled to Chen Mu's feet. The bed wasn't big to begin with, and with the three of them squeezed together, Chen Mu's injured foot jerked from the impact.

Instead of backing down, Anato lifted Chen Mu's injured foot onto her lap.

Her hands, rough and hot from years of drawing a bow, were also visibly swollen, and even through the cloth, one could feel the intense swelling on the insteps of her feet. She used the northern method of treating injured horses, gently massaging upwards from the ankles.

Chen Mu gripped the edge of the bed tightly in pain.

"Be gentle."

"You cry out in pain too?"

"My feet are mine."

"The horse is mine too."

"The horse will be divided in half."

Anado exerted force on her hand.

Chen Mu gasped.

Lu Shuangyi kept her eyes closed, but her lips twitched slightly. She reached out and pushed the black knife in the middle under the bed, making room for Chen Mu.

"Don't break the bed."

"If it collapses, let the furnace worker build a blacksmith's bed," Anato said.

"The iron bed is too cold."

"It's not cold when you're squeezed together."

Lin Qinghe stood by the bed and finally put the medicine box down heavily.

The room immediately fell silent.

She lifted the cloth covering Chen Mu's feet and found that the bruises had indeed dispersed somewhat after Anado rubbed them, and his complexion looked a little better.

"The method is correct."

Anato raised her eyebrows triumphantly.

"Get out."

Anato's smile froze.

"I need to reapply the medication."

She was eventually forced to the ground.

Lin Qinghe's expression grew increasingly cold.

Su Wan appeared at the door just in time.

"The Han family has sent people."

Everyone in the room sat up at the same time.

It wasn't Han Wanshan's army that came.

These were over a hundred merchants and military households who had been driven out of Bailang Pass. After Han Wanshan ordered the pass sealed, he first confiscated the property of everyone who had done business with Yanmaji. The men were forced to guard the walls, while the women and children were driven out of the pass and left to die in the snow.

The group included Xu Wandou's younger brother and purchasing agents whom Su, the registrar, had known in the past.

Su Wan led everyone into the outer village.

The problem is that there are no houses.

The outer barracks were just filled with wounded soldiers, the stables were full of frightened warhorses, and the more than one hundred newcomers could only squeeze against the wall.

Anato sat up.

"There are thirty white tents north of the horse ranch."

"Give it to the child."

Lu Shuangyi said, "The barracks for surrendered soldiers are still crowded."

Lin Qinghe was already packing up the medicine box.

"Send those with fevers to the medical tent first."

All three women walked out.

Su Wan stayed until the end.

She looked at Chen Mu on the bed.

"Just lie there and relax."

"I'll arrange the house, the meal, and the people for tonight."

Chen Mu asked, "Where do you sleep?"

Su Wan paused for a moment.

"I have a room in the tea shop."

"It's more than 20 li from here to Yanmaji."

"Then let's not sleep."

She turned and left.

Half an hour later, two of the twenty-four granaries in the village were emptied of horse feed, making room for the women and children. Another granary of rice was opened, and a large pot was set up against the wall. Su Wan did not allow the wounded soldiers' families and the people from Bailang Pass to eat separately; whoever brought their child to the pot first would receive their food first.

A woman from inside the pass recognized her husband as one of the four hundred who surrendered the day before.

She rushed over and slapped her husband twice, then hugged him tightly. The man knelt in the snow, crying, holding two bowls of porridge in his hands.

There were more than twenty such instances of recognition.

Some people didn't get to see their loved ones.

An eight-year-old boy, carrying his father's old waist tag, walked through the ranks of four hundred surrendered soldiers three times. No one recognized the name. The last surrendered soldier remembered that the boy's father had been killed by a ballista while breaching the outer wall of the village.

The boy didn't cry; he only asked where the body was buried.

Su Wan led him to the west wall.

The bodies of over a hundred had just been covered with white sheets and hadn't yet been identified. The boy looked at each body from the first to the last, finally recognizing the brass ring his father wore on a charred hand.

Su Wan sat with him until it got dark.

"From now on, you'll live with me at the teahouse."

The boy shook his head.

"I will guard the wall."

"You're too young."

"Then I'll deliver food to the guards first."

He took his father's helmet, and the next day he actually carried a food basket up the wall.

There are more and more children like this.

They weren't Chen Mu's soldiers, yet they ate around the black pot every day, helping the adults collect arrows, feed the horses, and boil water. More than a hundred people died in the outer village, but immediately more than a hundred more mouths were gained to stay.

The surrendered soldiers were originally afraid that their comrades would say they had defected to the enemy, but now that their families had actually left the pass alive, no one dared to bow their heads anymore.

The exterior walls were also repaired much faster.

Those who were too injured to lift stones sharpened arrows, women twisted ropes, and children collected broken bricks. By late at night, the breach in the west wall had been plugged up to a height of half a person.

Han Wanshan did indeed arrive.

He did not make a personal appearance.

The three hundred night raiding soldiers were all dressed in white sheepskin, almost invisible when lying prone in the snow. The first fifty men carried only short swords and tinder, while archers at a distance of two hundred paces fired fire arrows. If the horse pasture was in chaos and the granary burned, the outer camp would be too weak to defend the next day.

The boy who was holding his father's helmet was the first to find them.

He delivered food to the wall, and on his way back, he saw a white shadow moving against the wind in the snow. The boy didn't shout; he first put the food basket on the shadow's head, then hugged the shadow's leg and yelled.

The dagger pierced his shoulder.

The shouts had already alerted the entire west wall.

The first to charge was the surrendered soldier with the broken leg. Riding Shi Bao's horse, his injured leg bound to the side of the horse's belly, he single-handedly knocked away the night raider. The guards behind him followed, coming out of the wall and trapping the fifty men who had approached in the moat.

The boy was still holding his father's helmet when he was carried back to the medical tent.

Lin Qinghe stitched him up with seven stitches.

"Can you still deliver food?" the boy asked.

"able."

"What about tomorrow?"

"I can do it tomorrow, too."

The boy then fell into a deep sleep.

At midnight, hundreds of rockets flew in from the direction of the closed gate.

The target is not the city wall.

It was a horse farm and a granary.

As soon as the alarm bell rang in the village, Anato led the herdsmen into the horse pen. Without waiting for anyone to lead the horses one by one, she cut open the south fence and drove more than 500 horses to the north slope where there was no fire.

Lu Shuangyi climbed onto the wall wearing her coat.

Unable to draw her bow, she directed twelve captured ballistae to aim at the darkness from which the rockets were coming. The first volley of crossbow bolts was fired, and in the distance, the neighing of horses and screams of agony rang out.

Lin Qinghe led the wounded soldiers in the medical tent to extinguish the fire with water.

Su Wan then had all the silver chests moved to the wall.

For every Han soldier who gets close to the stockade wall that is killed, ten taels of silver are given on the spot.

The surrendered soldiers, who were initially frightened, saw the silver chest and rushed out of the firelight with their swords drawn. The three hundred night raiders sent by Han Wanshan had just approached the west wall when they were first scattered by crossbow bolts and then ran into the crowd of people who were robbing the silver.

Chen Mu was the last to leave the garrison.

He wasn't wearing armor, just leaning on a long spear as he stood at the door. Lin Qinghe saw him and was so angry she wanted to drag him back inside.

Chen Mu pointed to the west wall.

"The person has already left."

The night raid lasted only half an hour.

The Han soldiers left behind more than eighty corpses. Two stables and three barracks were burned down in the outer village, but the granary was not lost. Another twenty-seven people died on the other side.

Sixty-three night raiders were captured.

Su Wan found identical half-eaten biscuits on them. The biscuits were neither poisoned nor marked; they were simply mixed with half tree bark. Food supplies at White Wolf Pass were running low, and Han Wanshan's personal guards could only afford this kind of ration.

Er Gou showed his own meat porridge to the prisoners.

"Want some?"

All sixty-three people were staring at the pot.

"Han Wanshan will emerge from the pass tomorrow. Those who are willing to lead the way will be rewarded with meat, and those who are unwilling will be rewarded with tree bark."

No one immediately agreed.

As soon as the pot lid was lifted, the aroma of meat wafted out, and the youngest night raider stood up first. Then the second and third followed suit, walking to the black pot flag.

By daybreak, only seven of the original sixty-three people remained sitting in the same spot.

Han Wanshan sent men to burn the grain, but instead sent fifty-six guides familiar with the terrain outside the Great Wall to Chen Mu.

Su Wan immediately handed out more than 800 taels of silver.

The surrendered soldiers who received the silver did not return to their houses; they all stayed on the wall and guarded until dawn.

When Chen Mu returned to the bedside, the bed was empty.

Lu Shuangyi was on the city wall, Ana Duo was gathering horses on the north slope, Lin Qinghe was still in the medical shed, and Su Wan was looking after the newly arrived woman and child.

None of the four women slept.

Chen Mu lay down on the bed alone, but found it too spacious.

Before dawn, heavy war drums sounded from the direction of the pass.

Han Wanshan stopped sending out night raid teams.

The White Wolf closed all the doors for the first time.