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

When the north gate of Bailang Pass opened, none of the three cavalry teams moved.

On the left are more than forty packhorses, their backs laden with furs, milk bricks, and herbs, led by a merchant wearing a red felt hat.

The group in the middle consisted of eighty-seven riders, all clad in old leather armor, with a black wolf missing an ear painted on their banners.

The 120 riders on the right are the most orderly.

White horse, white fox fur, white bone bow.

When Anato saw the white fox fur, her hand was already on the hilt of her knife.

"Batu's men."

Chen Mu leaned back on the wooden chair in the gate tower.

His right shoulder had just been pierced by a spear, and his entire arm was bound to his chest. The stitches under his ribs had snapped once, and his injured leg couldn't touch the ground. Lin Qinghe nailed the four legs of the chair to a wooden board, so anyone who wanted to carry him downstairs would have to lift the chair along with him.

"What about in the middle?"

Anato stared at the black wolf flag with the missing ear.

"My uncle's people."

After Ugudu died, half of his tribe was swallowed up by Batu. The able-bodied men were incorporated into the White Fox Cavalry, the women and children were given to the royal herders, and those who refused to kneel hid in the northern mountains. Anato always thought they had all disappeared.

Under the Black Wolf banner, an old man with two missing fingers dismounted first.

He walked three hundred paces away from the closed door, drew his knife, cut open his palm, and smeared the blood on his forehead.

"Wugu tribe Wulie".

"To pick up Wugudu's niece."

Anato stood on the arrow stalk.

"I'm not leaving."

Wu Lie looked up at her, then at the head of Han Wanshan hanging at the highest point of the gate tower.

"You killed him?"

"My men killed him."

"Who are your people?"

Anato pointed at Chen Mu.

The wall fell silent instantly.

Wu Lie's gaze fell on Chen Mu, who was sitting on the wooden chair. He recognized the name. Half a year ago, Chen Mu killed Wu Gudu; later, he burned the White Fox Guards to death under the walls of Black Stone Fortress, forcing Batu to retreat.

Now, Wugudu's niece is standing beside him.

Ulie did not get angry.

"Your uncle died at his hands."

"I know."

"Are you still with him?"

"His uncle wanted to kill him, but he killed his uncle instead."

Anato's voice carried down the wall.

"Batu swallowed my people, stole my women, and forced me into the royal tent."

"Chen Mu gave me a horse, a knife, and even opened and closed the door for the White Wolf."

"Can't you see who I'm with?"

None of the eighty-six riders behind Wu Lie spoke.

Some people looked down, while others looked at the White Fox Riders on the right.

The White Fox Riders have already begun their advance.

The leader was named Tuomu, a centurion under Batu. He did not salute the gate tower, but led ten riders straight to the city gate.

Where is Han Wanshan?

Su Wan pointed to the arrow tower.

Tuomu looked up and saw the frozen human head; his expression changed for only a moment.

"White Wolf Pass used to provide the royal tent with three thousand taels of silver and five hundred shi of grain every month."

"Han Wanshan is dead, but the debt remains."

Chen Mu asked, "Did you bring silver?"

Tuomu frowned.

"I'm here to collect the money."

"Empty handed?"

Someone laughed out loud from behind the wall.

Tuomu's face darkened, and he raised his hand to point at Anato.

"Lord Batu has given other orders."

"The runaway concubine Anado, return her to the royal tent immediately."

"Hand over the people, the silver, and the customs, and Lord Batu can acknowledge you as the new customs master."

Anato leaped off the wall.

She still had an injury on her left shoulder, and her body swayed slightly when she landed, but she didn't stop walking. Two white fox riders beside Tuomu reached out to grab her at the same time.

The moment her first hand touched the leather armor, Anado's dagger severed her wrist.

The second person drew his sword.

She squeezed close to the horse's belly and thrust the knife upwards into his groin armor. The man screamed and fell from his horse, and Anato leaped onto his white horse.

The whip lashed out from under the wood.

Anato raised her arm to block, the whip tearing her sleeve. She grabbed the whip with her other hand and pulled Tuomu from the horse's back towards herself.

The two horses passed each other.

The dagger pierced through the mouth of the wooden man.

The tip of the knife pierced through the back of the neck.

The remaining eight White Fox Riders turned and fled.

One hundred and ten cavalrymen from outside the pass also drew their bows at the same time.

"Close the door!" Lin Qinghe shouted.

She wasn't afraid of the enemy coming in.

They were afraid Chen Mu would go out.

Chen Mu remained seated on the wooden chair, only raising his left hand.

The crossbows on both sides of the north gate went off first.

Twelve thick arrows flew over the archway and crashed into the White Fox cavalry. The front ranks fell in droves, men and horses alike, while the rear ranks immediately scattered to the sides.

As soon as they dispersed, the old followers of Wugu in the middle stirred.

Wu Lie neither helped Anado nor Chen Mu.

He led eighty-six riders straight at the flank of the White Fox Cavalry.

"Batu stole three hundred women from my tribe!"

"Today, let's take one hundred and twenty of his horses!"

The black wolf flag with missing ears crashed into the white fox formation.

The old guard's armor was worn, their horses were thin, but their knives were all short, curved blades meant for close combat. They had grown up on the grasslands with the White Fox Guards and knew exactly where the white fox fur was without iron plates.

In the first round, more than a dozen people were killed.

The White Fox Hundred Riders lost their tuomu (a type of wood), and were attacked from both sides by ballistae and their old troops, so they began to retreat to the north slope.

Anato did not let them go.

White Wolf Pass currently has over two hundred capable light cavalry. She led one hundred and forty riders out from the north gate, all riding the Han family horses seized in Chapter 107. The new horses were in excellent condition and caught up with White Fox's rear guard as soon as they set out.

The lassos were swung out one by one.

Some were dragged off their horses, others had their bow arms snapped by the ropes. Ulie's old men cut from the left, Anado bit from the right, and the White Fox Riders were forced into a frozen lake.

The lake surface looked solid, but it cracked when a herd of horses pushed against it.

The first dozen or so horses sank into the icy water. Those behind them scrambled to turn, only to be knocked down by their own men. The White Fox Riders abandoned their horses, bows, and companions, leaving only about twenty riders to escape into the northern mountains.

Anato did not chase after him.

She cut the white fox pelt from Tuomu's body, draped it over her shoulders, and tied his head to the saddle.

The battle, from start to finish, took only half an hour.

Sixty-seven White Fox riders died, twenty-nine surrendered, and twenty-four escaped. Twenty-one of the old Black Bone troops died, and over forty were wounded at White Wolf Pass.

A total of eighty-three white horses, more than ninety bone bows, and six cartloads of quivers were brought back.

Twenty-nine surrendered White Fox Riders were taken to the North Gate.

They thought they were about to be beheaded, so they all knelt in the snow. But Wu Lie's old men rushed forward first to identify the people.

A white fox rider with a missing nose led a raid on the Wugu tribe's winter camp three years ago, personally dragging away Wulie's youngest daughter. Wulie didn't ask where his daughter was now, but simply handed a short knife to the old woman behind him.

The old woman was the girl's mother.

She grabbed the white fox rider by the hair and slit his throat with a single stroke. Blood flowed onto the white fox pelt, and the other twenty-eight men trembled even more violently.

The second person to be recognized was the one who specialized in branding slaves for Batu.

He had a copper branding head hanging from his right waist, the branded face still bearing the white fox fur pattern of the royal tent. Three women with branded faces stepped out of the crowd and dragged him to the side of the recently extinguished charcoal brazier.

The copper branding tip is heated red-hot.

The first press was on the face.

The second press is on the chest.

By the third blow, he was already dead.

No one stopped them.

Of the remaining twenty-seven, fifteen were riders from a small tribe who had been forcibly conscripted by Batu. They saw Han family soldiers sitting by the White Wolf's cooking pot, and they also saw Wugu's former followers bringing their families in, voluntarily tearing off their white fox fur.

"We'll lead the way."

"We know about Batu's northern mountain horse ranch, grain carts, and winter camp."

The other twelve still refused to speak.

Anado threw the wooden head in front of them.

"If you don't want to follow me, then take a wounded horse and roll away."

"Go back and tell Batu that I did not enter his royal tent."

She pulled over Chen Mu's wooden chair and placed her palm on the back of the chair.

"I've fallen for this man's charm."

None of the twelve dared to look at her.

Each person was indeed given a wounded horse, and their swords were not even taken away. After they left the north gate, they ran north as fast as they could, fearing that the ballistae would be turned on and shot from behind.

Chen Mu did not give the order to fire.

Wu Lie couldn't understand it.

"Let them go back; Batu will be here soon."

"Even if you don't let him go, he'll still come."

"Then why send a horse?"

"Let him know that there is a place called Mado here."

Chen Mu looked at the white horse that had just been captured.

"If you want more, bring more people and Malaysians."

This was the first time Wu Lie had looked at him properly.

This man was so injured he couldn't even get off a chair, yet his words were more greedy than those of a prairie wolf.

Not all eighty-three white horses were left to Black Pot Rider.

Anado first selected twenty-one horses and gave them to the families of the former Wugu tribe members who had just died in battle. If the deceased had children, the horses were immediately given to the children; if they had no families, they were given to their brothers in the same tent.

A six-year-old boy couldn't reach the horse reins.

Ma Sanque shortened the reins for him and brought a small saddle from the Han family's storeroom. The boy's father had just died by the frozen lake, and his body hadn't been brought back yet, but he was already clinging to the white horse's legs and wouldn't let go.

Wu Lie stared at it for a long time.

In the past, when the Wugu tribe died in battle, the horses went to the chieftain first, while the women and children were only given meat. But at Bailang Pass, the horses were given to the children first.

"You're using horses to win people's hearts?" he asked.

Chen Mu said, "The horse returned to the home of the dead."

Whether or not someone wants to stay is their business.

Wu Lie didn't ask any more questions.

The remaining white horses were supplied to the light cavalry. Twelve horses that were seriously injured were handed over to Ma Sanque. The old man, along with more than thirty newly recruited stable boys, cleared out a row of warm troughs in the west stable, and even used the fine wine from the Han family's cellar to wash the horses' wounds.

Some people feel sorry for the alcohol.

Ma Sanque pointed outside the wall.

"A live white horse is worth ten jars of wine."

"If you drink alcohol, you'll urinate; if you raise a horse well, it will give birth."

No one stopped them anymore.

Lin Qinghe then rushed down from the gate tower.

She found a pool of blood on the armrest of the wooden chair. Chen Mu hadn't moved at all, and the cloth strap on his right shoulder was still red from raising his arm.

"Finished reading?" she asked.

Chen Mu nodded.

Lin Qinghe had the four wounded soldiers carry away with chairs and people.

Anato wanted to go with her, but Lin Qinghe turned around and glanced at her.

"Sew up your own shoulder first."

When Wu Lie saw Ana Duo obediently follow him into the medical tent, his face showed even greater surprise than when he saw Han Wanshan's head.

On the grassland, no one could restrain Wugudu's niece.

Inside the White Wolf Pass, someone had already managed to get her to sit down and have her medicine applied.

The caravan on the left never ran away.

The merchant in the red felt hat had all his men dismount and place their knives on the cargo. His name was Luo Wujin, and he had been traveling the northern route for twenty years. In the past, every time he passed through Bailang Pass, he would give Han Wanshan an extra layer of money, and then give Batu an extra layer.

Today, neither of our former masters is present.

He looked at the white fox carcass in front of the city gate and asked Su Wan, "How much do we have to pay to cross the border now?"

Before Su Wan could answer, Chen Mu spoke first.

"One fur coat can be exchanged for two bags of grain."

"It's up to you whether you sell or not."

"Nobody's going to take it?"

Chen Mu pointed to the frozen lake.

"The people who are grabbing the goods are over there."

Luo Wujin took off his red felt hat.

"All forty-three bolts of goods have passed through customs."

The north gate was wide open.

The caravan took its goods and left first, while the old followers of Wugu remained outside.

Ulie approached Anado and plunged the blood-stained knife into the snow.

"We've come to pick you up."

"If you don't leave, we have nowhere to go back to."

Sixty-six former subordinates were dismissed one by one.

Some were with their wives, others had children on horseback. The North Mountain camp had been discovered by Batu last night; all they took were these eighty-seven horses and seven tattered tents.

Anato did not make them kneel.

She turned to look at Chen Mu.

Chen Mu raised his left hand.

"Come in."

"There's still Han Wanshan's meat in the pot."

Wu Lie was stunned for a moment.

As Er Gou lay on the stretcher, he immediately began cursing from beside the large pot.

"It's Han Wanshan's dried meat!"

"I don't accept doxxing!"

Both inside and outside the pass laughed.

The black wolf flag, northern goods packages, and eighty-three white horses passed through the gate together.

The first group of northerners after the flag was changed at Bailang Pass entered the city.