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

The wheels of the seven trains were already red-hot when they rushed down the inner fort slope.

There was no silver in the car.

The wooden crates were filled with stones. Han Wanshan deliberately let people see the silver cart being dragged into the inner fortress, then stuffed the empty crates with stones and pushed them out. He wanted the cart to be heavy, so that the seven balls of fire would crash through the street corner.

The first vehicle headed straight for the East Street Grain Depot.

The manes of the two cart-pulling horses caught fire, driving them mad with pain. The people blocking the way dispersed, and the train was only a hundred paces from the grain depot.

Anato rode up to meet them.

She didn't collide head-on.

The black horse galloped close to the side of the train. Anato used her lasso to strike the carriage shaft, the other end wrapping around a stone pillar on the street. The rope taut instantly, tearing open the wound on her left shoulder.

The train only veered off course by half a foot.

The left wheel hit the stone steps, and the entire vehicle overturned into the empty ditch. Burning stones rolled all over the ground, and the villagers who had prepared water immediately poured it out.

Anato fell off her horse.

The lasso had torn her palms, and her left shoulder was covered in blood. Her first words as she got up were still, "The next one!"

The second one has arrived.

The butcher, who had just had his abdomen stitched up after being scalded, lay motionless inside the granary. He heard the sound of wheels and grabbed Lin Qinghe's sleeve.

"Don't close the warehouse door."

"The person is still outside."

Lin Qinghe tucked his hand back under the covers.

"Neither the grain nor the people can be burned."

She led the wounded soldiers from the medical shed to push more than twenty empty wagons onto the street, locking the wheels sideways and piling the wagons into two layers. When the second train crashed into them, the first empty wagon shattered on the spot, but the wagons behind it lifted it off the ground.

The wheels are still spinning.

The wounded soldiers poured water over themselves through wet blankets, and the fire didn't recede even when it burned their eyebrows. In the end, only six empty cars of the train were burned, and not a single door of the grain depot was burned.

Two trains on West Street rushed toward Macang.

Ma Sanque had already driven over six hundred horses out of the pass, leaving only fodder and thirty-seven sets of horse armor in the granary. Yet he didn't let it burn.

The old man and his stable boy dismantled five horse mangers and arranged the long logs into a ramp. The first train hit the ramp, lifting the entire locomotive and overturning it into the nearby Han Family Restaurant.

The second vehicle was hooked by the Black Pot Heavy Armor with an iron hook.

More than twenty people couldn't withstand the downhill momentum of the vehicle, their boots bleeding from the stone slabs. Lu Shuangyi inserted the latch into the rear wheel, breaking the wooden pole on the spot, and she was also knocked down by the rear of the vehicle.

The train continued its journey.

The young Han soldier, wearing his elder brother's armor, lunged under the wheel and shoved half a bolt into the axle. His right leg was run over by the wheel, and everyone heard the sound of bones cracking.

The car finally stopped.

The young Korean soldier lay under the chariot, still laughing.

"This time... it's my brother's turn to save people."

Lu Shuangyi and the others lifted the car and dragged him out. One of his legs was flattened, but his breastplate was still intact.

Lin Qinghe rushed over and sawed off the leg right there on the street.

The young Korean soldier bit the gun barrel left by his brother, without uttering a sound. As his leg was carried away, he spat out a mouthful of wood chips.

"I can't go to the inner fortress either."

Lu Shuangyi placed her dagger into his hand.

"Keep the pot."

"If Han Wanshan tries to escape from this side, you'll be the first to strike."

The young Han soldier gripped his sword tightly.

The three trains in the south alley were the most dangerous.

The alley was crowded with women and children who had just escaped from the interior of the pass. It was so narrow that even an empty cart couldn't make it across. Su Wan told everyone to climb over the walls on both sides first, while she and five girls stayed behind to move stones.

The first train crashed into the stone pier at the entrance of the alley.

The second car then crashed in.

Chen Mu's medical vehicle was blocking the road.

Lin Qinghe had just gone to East Street to rescue people; there were only two wounded soldiers by the car. Chen Mu sat in the car, unable to lift his right hand, but his left hand gripped the reins.

"Push the car over there."

The wounded soldiers dared not.

Where are they?

"The child hasn't finished climbing over the wall yet."

"push."

The ambulance crashed into the first train from the side.

The locomotive shattered, and Chen Mu fell from the train into a ditch. The first train got stuck, but the second one grazed past, the flames already reaching the hem of his clothes.

Su Wan rushed in from the alley entrance.

She pressed the wet rice bag onto Chen Mu and used her body to brace against the rolling wooden box. A stone hit her back, and her face turned pale, but she didn't let go.

Five girls used iron hooks to hold the cart shaft.

Men and women in the alley all returned from the courtyard wall, hundreds of hands gripping the rope. The second train was forcibly pulled off course and crashed through the side wall of the Han family ancestral hall.

The third vehicle followed closely behind.

Anato rode her injured horse from East Street. Her palms were wrapped in bandage, yet she still swung the lasso at the front of the cart. Lu Shuangyi also rushed in from West Street, carrying a black pot and heavy armor, pulling on the other end.

On one side were the crazy horse and the downhill train, and on the other side were more than 400 people.

The rope cut into everyone's palms.

The train slowed down first.

Then it gradually turned.

The car wheels rolled over the collapsed threshold of the Han family ancestral hall, crashing into the main hall where the ancestral tablets of the Han family were enshrined. Oil drums exploded, and the Black Mountain flag and wooden plaques burst into flames.

Flames shot up three zhang (approximately 10 meters) high.

The guards on the inner fortress walls began firing arrows at the firefighters.

Su Wan picked up a broken shield and covered Chen Mu with it. Lu Shuangyi led seven hundred Guanmins who had just received bows and crossbows to line up on both sides of the roof, their arrows all aimed at the inner fortress.

"put!"

Arrows rained down on the ancestral hall.

More than a dozen people fell from the inner fort's arrow tower on the spot, and the rest retreated back into the crenellations. No one could stop the civilians from putting out the fire.

Of the seven trains, one didn't burn the grain, one didn't burn the horses, and not a single child in the south alley was burned to death.

The ancestral hall was partially destroyed.

As dusk fell, the fire died down, and steam rose again from the more than twenty rice pots inside the pass. The smoked meat from the granary was all cut off, and a piece could be scooped into every bowl of porridge.

People sat with bowls in their hands, filling three streets.

Behind them were their own houses, and in front of them was Han Wanshan's inner fortress. After finishing a bowl of food, a new group would take over guarding the wall; even the old men and women refused to go home.

Another volley of arrows was fired from the inner fortress.

The arrows didn't hit those wearing armor, but instead aimed at the pots and pans in the street.

An arrow pierced the rim of the pot, spilling hot porridge all over the floor. A girl in line was hit in the calf by an arrow, but her bowl didn't fall. Her mother dragged her behind the wall, picked up a crossbow from the ground, and rejoined the line.

"They won't even let us eat."

More than twenty pots were immediately moved under the eaves.

But the people didn't disperse.

Heavy armored soldiers stood in front of the black-clad cauldron, shields raised, while civilians continued to serve porridge through the gaps in the shields. Someone deliberately held the bowl high so that those on the inner fortress walls could see the white rice and meat.

"Han Jiabing!"

"If you want to eat, get down here yourself!"

The first rope hangs down from the west corner of the inner fortress.

One of the guards slid down a rope halfway down when he was shot in the back by an arrow from a comrade on the wall. He fell into the ruins of the ancestral hall, broke his leg, but still crawled toward the rice pot.

Lu Shuangyi did not allow anyone to finish her off.

She personally ladled a bowl of porridge and placed it in front of him.

After the guards finished drinking, they said there were still more than 280 people in the inner fortress. Han Wanshan stuffed seven carts of real silver and his family into the north courtyard. There was a horse path leading to the outside of the pass below the main fortress, but the exit was blocked by snow.

"Will he run away?" Lu Shuangyi asked.

"meeting."

"When?"

"When we can no longer hold the wall for him."

As soon as he finished speaking, the second and third ropes also drooped down.

This time, no one shot arrows from the wall.

Seventeen guards escaped one after another, some still carrying meat pies from the Han family. As soon as they landed, they broke the meat pies into pieces and gave them to the children on the street, then went to the pot to drink their porridge.

Han Wanshan finally appeared on the wall.

"Anyone who dares to flee again will have their entire family killed!"

An old soldier who had just come down from the wall raised his bowl.

"My home is on this street."

His wife stepped out of the crowd and raised a kitchen knife against the wall.

"Come down and kill me if you dare!"

The whole street burst into laughter.

Han Wanshan retreated back to the arrow tower amidst laughter.

The seventeen who escaped were not tied up. They changed out of their black-toothed armor and led men to guard the two alley entrances on the north side of the inner fortress. Whoever knew best which way Han Wanshan would run would stand at the front.

Su Wan smashed the fake silver car.

The stones in the box weren't thrown away; they were all moved to the ruins of the ancestral hall. Tomorrow, when they ram the wall, these stones will fall from the rooftops on both sides onto the defenders. The axles and iron hoops were also removed by the forge workers and forged into iron heads for the battering rams.

Han Wanshan tried to deceive people with stones, but those same stones could be used to hit him.

Chen Mu was then carried to the medical shed next to the grain depot.

When Lin Qinghe returned, he first saw the shattered medical cart, and then he saw the fresh blood seeping from under his ribs.

She didn't scold him.

Simply lower the curtain and let everyone go out.

Chen Mu thought she was going to sew him up again, and just as he bit the cloth, Lin Qinghe leaned down and hugged him. She hugged him tightly, avoiding his right shoulder, but also afraid of touching his ribs, so in the end she could only press her face against his neck.

"You always say you won't die."

"He didn't die this time either."

Lin Qinghe looked up and bit his lower lip.

They only let go after biting until they bled.

"Does it hurt?"

"Lighter than stitches."

"Then keep sewing."

Outside the curtain, Lu Shuangyi and Anato both heard Chen Mu gasp. Anato's palms were cracked, yet she still couldn't stop laughing.

Lu Shuangyi waited until Lin Qinghe finished sewing before going in.

She also had a new cloth wrapped around her left side, and when she walked, she pressed one hand against her waist, but placed the short knife stained with the blood of the stone leopard next to Chen Mu's pillow.

"I will enter the fortress first tomorrow."

"Your injury."

"How dare you say that?"

Lu Shuangyi bent down to tuck the blanket around him, her voice low.

"I haven't had enough of the half bed you promised me."

"Before Han Wanshan dies, don't leave the other half of the paper blank."

Her ears were already red when she turned around.

Anato then squeezed through the curtain.

She didn't mention the bed, but instead laid her two cloth-wrapped hands out in front of Chen Mu. The skin on her palms had been rubbed off by the noose, and blood was seeping from the seams of the cloth.

"Your people bit you."

"Is nobody taking care of my hands?"

Chen Mu couldn't lift his right hand, so he could only use his left to untie the bandage. Anato's brow twitched in pain, but she still urged him to hurry. As soon as the new medicine was applied, she lowered her head and kissed Chen Mu on the corner of his mouth.

"There's no blood here."

"It's mine."

Lin Qinghe coughed outside the curtain.

Anato grabbed the bandage and ran.

Su Wan sat on the doorstep, rubbing her back.

She didn't laugh; instead, she threw a small stone she had picked up from the wooden box of the fake silver carriage into the brazier.

"Han Wanshan's silver is still in the inner fortress."

"The real box is ours tomorrow."

Chen Mu noticed that her clothes were torn by a stone on the back and told her to go in and apply medicine.

Su Wan shook her head.

I can never repay what I owe you.

"Today's collision doesn't count as paying off a debt."

She placed the remaining key after the grain was distributed in the three streets next to Chen Mu.

"Only if you live can I continue to repay my debts."

After the fire at the ancestral hall was extinguished, the furnace workers discovered that the side wall that had been knocked down by the train was right next to the south wall of the inner fortress. The two walls were originally separated by only a narrow passage, but with the collapse of the ancestral hall, the entire section of the fortress wall was exposed.

The fire burned the seams between the bricks.

The furnace worker, his face covered in burn scars, struck the wall with a hammer, and a large patch of plaster fell off.

He dragged the thickest crossbeam from the ruins of the ancestral hall.

The beam was three zhang long, half of it was charred black, but the inside was still hard.

"This piece of wood can be used to ram a door."

Four hundred well-fed soldiers surrounded the beam and lifted it onto their shoulders.

The fire sent by Han Wanshan ultimately paved a path for Chen Mu to attack the fortress.