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

The sewage ditch at the Blackwater Winter Camp was even more smelly than He Shi had described.

Twenty-one men lay prone on the ice, inching their way down to the wooden fence. The ditch was filled with frozen horse manure, rotten grass, and bloodstains, with only a thin layer of white ice separating them at their thinnest points. He Shi's silver armor was too shiny, so he had already taken it off five miles away, wearing only a short sheepskin coat.

Halfway up, the ice cracked.

His left leg was completely submerged in the black water, the stench assaulting his nostrils. The people behind him covered his mouth and dragged him out. His trouser legs froze solid in an instant, making a crackling sound with every step.

He Shi simply cut off half of his trouser leg and continued climbing with his calves bare.

There are two dogs inside the wooden fence.

The first dog had barely sniffed the edge of the ditch when Sangji reached out from the ice hole, grabbed its muzzle, and dragged it down. The second dog tried to bark, but Heshi used his frozen trouser leg to strangle it.

When the twenty-one men climbed into the camp, the camp was still occupied by people sleeping.

More than 1,500 family members on the west side were crammed into four rows of tattered tents. A long rope was tied to the outside of every ten tents, and the women and the elderly slept with their feet locked. The guards, fearing they would escape, did not even light many fires, and seven children had already frozen to death.

Heshi found the tent of the Red Sheep tribe.

Sangji's younger brother was hanging from a wooden frame, his feet off the ground, with a white fox mark branded on his chest. He had failed to steal a horse last night, and Batu ordered that he be kept until dawn to be skinned alive in front of the families of the Six Ministries.

Sangji tried to rush over, but Heshi held him back.

There were eight guards under the wooden frame, and more than a dozen bundles of firewood were piled up next to it.

If the camp were attacked before Batu arrived, the guards would set fire to the tents. The men of the Six Ministries would be tied together with long ropes and unable to escape.

He Shi first led his men to the Xizha winch.

Sanji went into the stable alone.

He released more than thirty horses and tied straw ropes to their tails. With a flick of the tinderbox, the herd, sparks flying, charged towards the east gate. The camp dogs barked wildly, waking all the guards on the east side.

"Fire!"

"The horse ran away!"

Xizha rose at the same time.

The first group to enter was not cavalry, but thirty black-boned women.

Each of them carried two knives and cut the ropes as they entered the prison tent. The young woman who had found her son at the Tamu Ranch also came. She left her son in the care of the old servant and carried both of her curved knives with her.

"Those who can stand, take out your knives!"

"Carry the child and walk towards the frozen river!"

The people inside the tent had known that someone might come tonight, but they didn't expect them to come so quickly. As soon as the chains broke, the six men pulled out bone awls and stone fragments they had hidden under the straw mat and pounced on the guards.

Just as the eight White Fox riders drew their swords under the wooden frame, Sangji fired the first arrow from behind the stable.

An arrow pierced his throat.

He Shi led twenty men in and charged in, but the second volley of arrows was all aimed at the torches. The guards couldn't see clearly, but they could hear shouts of "The black pot is here!" coming from all over the tents.

Sangji climbed the wooden frame to cut the rope.

When his younger brother fell, he could no longer walk. He carried him to a tent, but his brother grabbed his bow.

"Give me."

"You can't lift your hand."

"Your teeth can still bite."

Sangji shoved a short knife into his younger brother's mouth. The brother, still holding the knife, lay on the snow cutting the ropes binding the other people's feet.

The bugle call at the South Gate finally sounded.

Most of the two hundred-plus cavalrymen had woken up and began pressing towards the western camp. The centurion White Fox, who was leading the troops, did not go to block the gate, but first ordered his men to light the dry firewood.

Three torches flew toward the prison tent.

The first arrow was deflected mid-air by the impact.

Anato rode her white horse across Xizha and fired three arrows in quick succession. The second torch fell into the snow, and the third embedded itself in the centurion's wrist.

"Batu used your family members as shields!"

"Whoever sets the fire for him, their tent will be burned first!"

Among the cavalry were over a hundred men from a small conscripted unit. As soon as the torches fell, chaos erupted. Some deliberately missed their targets, while others turned their horses to find their families.

White Fox's personal guards began cutting down those who retreated.

The centurion severed half an ear from the gray deer rider's ear with a single stroke, and just as he raised his blade to strike again, Anato was already upon him. The white horse leaped past the fire, and her scimitar sliced ​​through the fox fur collar, the centurion still seated in his saddle, his head drooping to his chest.

The western camp was completely blown up.

The families of the six tribes retreated towards the frozen river, but not all the men whose ropes had just been cut left. They picked up the dead men's bows and swords and charged back behind Anato.

The south gate of the winter camp was also broken open at this time.

Sixty-eight heavily armored cavalrymen stood outside the gate, having only run three hundred paces. In the first round, they carried heavy axes and iron hammers instead of long spears. The two wooden doors were flung open a crack by the horses, and Lu Shuangyi first shoved her heavy spear inside, resting the butt of the spear against the saddle.

All five horses pulled together.

The door hinge was pulled out of the frozen soil.

Unable to twist her left side, Lu Shuangyi tied herself to the saddle. She didn't pursue the stragglers, but led her heavy cavalry straight down the south street towards the bonfires. Anyone carrying firewood, oil, or near the prison tents was knocked over.

More than four hundred light cavalrymen split into two wings.

Zhou Tie blocked the east gate, and Wu Lie blocked the north gate. The remaining men circled the camp shooting arrows, driving the guards towards the center.

The Blackwater winter camp originally had 237 cavalrymen.

Less than an incense stick's time had passed since the battle began. Sixty-one of White Fox's personal guards were killed, and more than thirty were beaten to death by the families of the Six Ministries with knives, clubs, and chains. The remaining hundred or so riders, seeing that the area outside the West Gate was full of their own elderly relatives and children, threw down their bows one after another.

The first to surrender was the gray deer man whose ear had been cut off.

He didn't kneel. Covering his bloodied face, he walked to the centurion's corpse, picked up the knife, and stabbed him three more times.

Where is my mother?

A white-haired woman squeezed out of the prison tent.

The Grey Deer Man saw her, and his sword fell into the snow. He embraced his mother and wept like a child. The forty-odd riders who had been drawn with him all turned back to help chase down the White Fox guards who refused to surrender.

Before dawn, the Blackwater winter camp changed its flag.

One hundred and eight cavalrymen were killed, one hundred and twenty-four surrendered, and five escaped from the east wall. On the Black Pot side, twenty-seven men were killed, six heavy cavalrymen were lost, and more than eighty light cavalrymen and newly surrendered cavalrymen were wounded.

All 1,563 people who were detained were brought out alive, and the seven children who froze to death were taken away by their respective families.

When the final count was done, sixteen people were missing.

The elders of the Chiyang tribe said that those were young girls specially chosen by Batu. The guards delivered food to them every night, but no one knew where they were kept.

The half-eared gray deer rider suddenly pointed towards the granary.

The granary was piled high with sacks of wheat, yet the back wall always emitted heat. Zhou Tie had more than twenty sacks of grain moved aside, revealing a wooden door underneath. Inside the door was no grain, only a cellar dug into the frozen ground.

All sixteen girls were locked inside.

Batu intended to reward them to the royal guards, but fearing they might run away, he even took away their shoes. Some of their feet were already frostbitten and black.

The gray deer rider took off his felt boots and handed them over.

The girl didn't take it; instead, she spat in his face.

She recognized the white fox fur armor.

Gray Deer didn't even wipe his boots; he simply placed them on the ground and turned to find the cellar guard. The White Fox guard, already dead in the stable, was dragged over so the sixteen girls could identify him themselves.

Some people were holding sticks, and some were holding stones.

Finally, even the fox pelt on the corpse was stripped off and torn into sixteen pieces to wrap its feet. Only then did the Gray Deer Girl put on the felt boots and say to Half-Ear Rider, "My brother was taken away too."

Half-eared rider retrieved the knife.

"Follow the pot, I'll go find it too."

Those who emerged from the prison tents did not leave empty-handed.

The winter camp guards had stored over four hundred sheepskin coats, originally intended for Batu's personal guards to wear in winter. Anato moved them all to the snowfield, giving them first to the children and then to the elderly. Thick felt was cut into foot cloths, and empty grain sacks were sewn into gloves. Two hundred ewes with nursing mothers were chosen from the nine hundred sheep and followed the sled carrying the infants.

Forty-one grain carts, one bag each.

Travelers would grab a handful of roasted wheat as they passed by. No one was given a whip, and no one was urged on. Those too cold to walk boarded the carts, and when the carts were full, they unloaded the grain sacks onto the horses.

An old man with one eye sat on Batu's grain cart, stroking the cart floor and laughing.

"He drove the carriage for twenty years."

"It's the first time I've ridden in his car."

His three grandsons huddled together beside him, each clutching a piece of meat. The old man laughed, then cried, and used a knife to scrape away the white fox mark on the cart bit by bit, carving a crooked pot instead.

When the people from the Sixth Department saw this, they also went to scratch other cars.

Before the forty-one vehicles had even left the camp, the white foxes had all been turned into pots.

The winter camp also contained 267 horses, 41 cartloads of grain, more than 900 sheep, two granaries of bean feed, and 300 thick felt tents.

Anato gave it only one glance before ordering it to be moved.

Grain carts were harnessed to horses, sleds were loaded onto thick tents, and flocks of sheep were driven toward the northern mountain pastures. The elderly and children went first, while those who could ride stayed behind to dismantle the wooden fences. Even the pyres meant for burning people were tied to the carts; they could burn for three days on the way back.

Some people couldn't bear to part with the well and pasture where the black water was.

This winter camp is located by an unfrozen spring, surrounded by withered grass under the snow. If Batu were to take it back, he could raise several thousand more horses.

Lu Shuangyi planted a black wolf flag with a missing ear by the spring.

"Who said we had to give way?"

She left behind eighty riders from the Six Divisions who were familiar with the terrain, and summoned all one hundred and twenty-four riders who had descended.

"Family members, go first."

Those who want to protect their own water plants, stay.

Of the 124 people, not a single one boarded the bus.

Some of them feared the king's tent, while others feared that the person who had been framed would turn against them later. Lu Shuangyi did not make them risk their lives to prove their loyalty; she simply placed the captured horses, bows, and sheep inside the enclosure.

"Guard for a day, one sheep per person."

"Hold on for three days, and the horse is yours."

"If too many Batu come, retreat northwards with the sheep. A living person is worth more than a spring."

These words are more effective than any vow.

Two hundred and four guards immediately began moving the barricades. Half-eared Grey Deer Rider even led the centurion's fine horse to his mother, letting her touch its nose before remounting.

Sangji, carrying his younger brother, didn't leave. The brother, placed on the grain cart, bit his knife until his mouth was full of blood, yet still urged Sangji to go back and guard the gate.

Anato left the winter camp with two cartloads of grain, three hundred sheep, and all two hundred and four new cavalrymen. She also dismantled the wooden palisades on the southeast and replaced them with six barricades. Batu wanted his cavalry to storm the camp, but he would first have to dismount and move the timber.

The remaining 500-plus riders escorted the families and the spoils to the North Mountain.

The group had only gone a mile when torches appeared on the northern horizon.

Batu has arrived.

The first three hundred riders from the royal guard saw the grain carts and sheep and immediately sped up. Anato did not turn back to fight, but instead ordered the last twenty empty sleds to be placed across the frozen river.

The sled was already covered with a thin layer of ice dug from the black ditch.

The king's horsemen stepped onto the river, and the first fifty horses simultaneously sank into the water. The rear guard couldn't stop them, and they tumbled into the icy water, one after another.

Zhou Tie led a hundred cavalrymen back from the river bend, only killing those who lagged behind, without touching Batu's main force. More than seventy riders died in front of the king's tent, leaving behind more than eighty horses. The remaining men retreated without even seeing Batu's face.

When Batu himself arrived at the Blackwater, the sun had just risen.

He saw that the prison tents were all empty, and the granary was filled only with unswept grain husks. But by the spring stood a black pot, in which the white fox centurion's fox fur hat was being boiled.

More than two hundred men who had been tending the horses for the king's tent yesterday stood behind the wooden fence and drew their bows at him.

Further south, more than 1,500 family members are walking along the frozen river toward the northern mountain pasture.

The ropes binding Batu's three thousand cavalry were cut in one night.

The nine hundred conscripted riders behind him all saw the black wolf flag with a missing ear.