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

They didn't even get to pull it out until tomorrow.

After more than 400 family members were rescued, people ran around the old camp all night. First, riders were forcibly conscripted to climb over the walls, and later even the slaves who raised horses for the white fox fled with their horses.

Batu killed more than twenty people, but still had only a little over 1,300 cavalrymen left.

He knew that by daybreak more people would realize his defeat, so he broke camp that very night and prepared to head northwest along the Langya River. There were still two large tribes there that were affiliated with the royal tent; if he could take the Gold and Silver tribe and the White Fox tribe with him, he could raise several thousand more men.

More than forty large trucks in the old camp were fully loaded.

Gold, silver, fox furs, women, wine, and grain—Badu was unwilling to part with any of them. More than six hundred empty horses were also tied to the back of the carts, and the procession stretched for three miles.

As soon as the first vehicle entered the Langya River, a muffled rumble of thunder echoed across the ice.

Batu reined in his horse.

There was no one on the other side of the river, only a black pot placed on the ice.

There was no fire under the pot.

The tattered white fox flag of Tamu was stuck in the pot.

"Charge!"

Batu's personal guards dared not make the first move.

Yesterday, three hundred riders sank into the Black Water; everyone feared there might be a pit beneath the ice. Batu wounded the leader with a single blow, forcing thirty riders to cross the river.

Thirty riders safely reached the other side.

The second and third teams followed, and the ice didn't crack.

Batu then led his golden-armored cavalry across the river.

When the forty vehicles reached the middle of the river, torches were lit on both banks at the same time.

The man who was in the black pot remained lying in the snow ditch.

They didn't break the ice; they simply laid hundreds of white sheepskins on the river. The sheepskins blended seamlessly with the snow. Wheels didn't slip on them, but warhorses struggled to keep their feet moving.

The first 500 riders crossed the river, while the rest of the group and the trucks were stuck in Bingxin.

Anato's arrow struck the horse's reins first.

More than six hundred empty horses broke free from the carts and galloped wildly across the ice. Batu's rear guard was scattered by the horses, and two carts carrying gold and silver overturned. Silver ingots rolled all over the river, but no one dared to dismount and pick them up.

Riders from Heishui and Beishan surged out from both banks simultaneously.

Ulie led his men to intercept the rear guard, while Heshi led six surrendered cavalry units to seize the large cart. The royal guards tried to protect the gold and silver, but the last two hundred or so men forcibly conscripted by Batu ran directly towards the shore.

Someone was running and shouting.

"The family members are already in Beishan!"

"There's no one left to kill!"

This sentence is faster than an arrow.

More than a hundred riders from the rear guard immediately dispersed.

Batu's five hundred personal cavalry, who had already crossed the river, were now isolated. Instead of turning back to rescue the chariot, he led his men straight to the Black Pot Flag on the opposite bank.

One of their low-slung wooden carts was parked in the snow.

Chen Mu sat on a wooden chair, its legs nailed to the cart floor. A bearskin covered his shoulders, his waist and right arm were still bound with cloth strips, and his left hand held a lasso.

Lin Qinghe stood behind the car, her face even more pale than his.

"You said you'd only watch from behind."

"This is the back."

"Batu is charging!"

"So the back became the front."

Lin Qinghe wanted to tow the cart, but Chen Mu had Er Gou cut the ropes pulling the cart. The empty cart remained in place, and the black flag was stuck in the back of the chair.

Batu recognized Chen Mu at a glance.

Outside Bailang Pass, the people of Haru painted his face. A Han Chinese who couldn't even stand up, seized Han Wanshan's pass and robbed Tamu's pasture.

They even managed to shake off the bear skin.

"Kill Chen Mu!"

All five hundred of his personal cavalry pressed forward.

The snow-covered riverbank was only a hundred paces wide, too narrow for the cavalry to spread out completely. Ninety-two heavy cavalrymen approached from both sides of the wooden cart.

This is the last heavy cavalry in Black Pot's hands who can wear armor.

Lu Shuangyi remained at the forefront. She had a wooden strip strapped to her left side, and her spear had been replaced with a short axe. When the two groups of horses collided, the first rank of over twenty horses simultaneously tumbled over.

The people behind them continued to charge, riding on horses and people.

The heavy cavalry did not retreat.

With each step they retreated, Batu moved closer to Chen Mu. He used his axe when his spear broke, and when the axe fell, he lifted the man from his horse. Six light cavalry units fired from both sides, arrows flying almost grazing their own heads.

Half-eared gray deer and his younger brother stood side by side beside an overturned vehicle.

The elder brother's left ear was bleeding, and the younger brother's shoulder armor had been slashed open, yet the two still held off three royal guards. Their mother and younger sister were on the northern mountain; they knew what lay behind them.

Batu's golden armor was too thick.

Three arrows pierced his chest but failed to penetrate. He swung his longsword, felling a heavy cavalryman, and then used his black horse to ram two more, while forty golden-armored guards around him tore a gap in the armor.

Anato came chasing from the side.

Her white horse had been struck by an arrow, so she had to switch to a gray horse. The two bumped into each other amidst the chaos of battle, and Anato's hand split open again, nearly causing her to drop her sword.

Batu recognized her and refused to leave.

"Come back to the royal tent with me!"

"Even though Tamu is dead, you can still be a woman of the royal court!"

Anado coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Your royal tent has overturned on the river."

She rinsed again.

Batu's longsword severed the gray horse's foreleg. Anato rolled into the snow, and her golden-armored guards surrounded her at the same time.

Lu Shuangyi attacked from behind, shoving one of them aside with her shoulder. Her short axe struck Batu's back armor, severing only two gold threads. Batu swept his blade back, knocking her and his axe to the ground.

All that remained in front of him was that wooden cart.

Chen Mu remained seated.

Batu's black horse was already foaming at the mouth, but it didn't slow down in the last few dozen steps. He raised his long sword, the blade pointing directly at Chen Mu's neck.

Lin Qinghe lunged at the back of the chair.

Chen Mu first cut the cloth belt around his waist.

He tumbled to the left, falling off the wooden cart along with his chair. Batu's long sword grazed the back of the chair, slicing the black pot flag in two.

Chen Mu fell heavily into the snow.

The wound under his ribs instantly reopened, and everything went black before his eyes, but his left hand did not loosen the noose.

The rope loop had already been fitted onto the front axle of the wooden cart.

As Batu's black horse charged past the wooden cart, its leg tripped over the suddenly taut rope. The horse's foreleg broke off, and Batu was thrown from its back, his golden armor crashing into the snow.

Chen Mu pulled a short axe from under the overturned chair.

Unable to stand, he used his left arm to support himself as he crawled forward. Batu also got up, his helmet had fallen off, and his face was covered in blood.

The two were less than a step apart.

Batu raised his sword.

Chen Mu's axe slashed into his right knee first.

Golden armor could protect the chest, but not the knees. Batu knelt down, his long sword slashing at Chen Mu's right shoulder, reopening the newly healed wound.

Chen Mu didn't dodge; instead, he swung the axe backward, tearing a piece of flesh and blood from the bone.

Batu knelt completely in the snow.

When Anado arrived, he still wanted to grab Chen Mu.

She took the short axe from Chen Mu.

"Wugu has been waiting for you for a long time."

The first axe blow landed on his neck.

The second axe cleaved open the golden collar.

With the third axe blow, Batu's head rolled onto the overturned black flag.

When the king's personal guards saw the golden-armored warrior kneeling on the ground, they could no longer charge forward.

Some fled towards the river, only to be blocked by their own carts. Others jumped off their horses to grab the silver, but were trampled by the horses behind them as soon as they bent down. Many more threw down their knives, covered their heads with their hands, and lay prone in the snow.

In the Battle of Langya River, Batu's main force and White Fox's personal cavalry suffered over 480 dead, over 670 surrendered, and less than 150 escaped.

The side that took the blame suffered 146 deaths and over 300 injuries. Of the 92 heavy cavalrymen, only 61 remained standing.

All forty large trucks were left behind.

The cart contained over 1,700 taels of gold, over 90,000 taels of silver, over 3,000 fox and wolf pelts, over 700 bags of grain and meat, and 80 jars of wine. In addition, over 1,060 live horses, over 700 sets of armor, and over 1,300 bows were seized.

There are also six iron cages in the very center of the large vehicle.

Inside were thirty-four women and nine children, all of whom Batu intended to take away. The key to the iron cage hung on his gold belt, which Anato took and opened.

A woman came out but didn't cry; instead, she kicked Batu in the head.

The others followed suit and kicked.

The golden armor was quickly stripped off.

The breastplate was sent to the blacksmith's shed, where it was melted down to make dozens of horseshoes. The gold belt was cut into forty-three pieces, one for each person in the iron cage. Batu's black horse had both front legs broken, and the stable boy gave it a quick death; the meat was distributed to the deceased's family, and the hide was laid out in the wounded's shed.

Ninety thousand taels of silver were not locked in a large vault.

Half of the supplies were sent back to Bailang Pass in exchange for grain, salt, iron, and medicine; the other half were distributed among the dead, wounded, and their families. Ten cartloads of grain and two hundred horses were left at each of the three camps: Heishui, Beishan, and Langyahe.

The six minor tribesmen who had been suppressed for many years had their white fox brand cut off from their faces that very day.

The more than 600 people who surrendered were not herded into the prison.

Ulie told them to take off their armor by the river and then go one by one to identify the flags of the six tribes. Those who could find their families could take them with them, and those who couldn't should report the name of their tribe, which would then be sent by Blackwater cavalry to inquire in various places.

An old soldier in the royal camp had neither a banner nor relatives.

He had fought for Batu for twenty years, his hands stained with blood, and thinking he was going to die, he stretched his neck out in front of Anato.

Anato wasn't cut.

She pointed to the corpses in the river.

"Will you dig a hole?"

"meeting."

"After burying it, we'll go repair the horse pen."

The old soldier stood there stunned for a long time, then picked up a broken knife and dug into the frozen ground. Others who had nowhere else to go followed him, and the thirty-odd people dug for a whole day, burying the dead separately. Batu and White Fox's personal guards were buried on the west bank of the river, while Black Pot's dead were buried on the east bank, with a stone placed on each grave.

The old soldier did not escape in the end.

He followed the stable boy back to Beishan, and the first thing he did was dismantle the branding racks left by Tamu and build two sheep pens with wood.

The thirty-four women who emerged from the iron cage then took six large carts.

They poured out all the wine from the cart and filled it with fox furs, grain, and bows. Some wanted to return to their homes further north, while others, having no home of their own, chose to stay in the Blackwater and set up camp. Each of the nine children was given a sheep and a pony. The youngest girl, unable to lead the horse, tied the reins around her waist, taking one step and then looking back.

As the convoy set off, the woman who had kicked the head constable first carried a cooking pot flag.

"Who will come to snatch people away later?" she asked.

The half-eared gray deer rode a bow pointing behind her chariot.

"First ask about the arrows."

They did not appoint a new king.

Only one pot was set up in front of each camp gate.

When Chen Mu woke up, he was already lying on the red felt carriage. Lin Qinghe was sewing up his shoulder, and his fingers would twitch with each stitch.

"Where is Batu?"

Anado placed a blood-stained gold helmet beside the car.

"He's dead."

"Where's the knife?"

"I went and got it back too."

She placed the knife, which she had been sharpening all night, back on Chen Mu's lap, then pulled a piece of red cloth from the captured vehicle and tied it directly to the black wolf flag with missing ears.

Upon seeing this, Su Wan immediately said, "This one should also be paid for."

Anado's eyes lit up with laughter.

"Take it from my three hundred sheep."

Lu Shuangyi walked over, leaning on her broken spear, and kicked Batu's golden helmet into the pot of boiling meat.

"Go back to the customs first."

"If he continues this bumpy ride, he might really die before his wedding."

Er Gou and He Shi lifted the damaged car.

On both banks of the Langya River, thousands of people who had just removed their white fox fur coats made way for them. Herds of cattle, sheep, and horses followed behind, with the white fox markings on the carts scraped off and replaced with crooked black pots.

The north gate of Bailang Pass was wide open.

The children first saw Batu's head, and then they saw the 90,000 taels of silver, more than a thousand horses, and countless grain carts behind it.

No one in the entire pass shouted that anyone was the king.

The lids of all twelve meat pots were lifted at the same time.

Chen Mu lay on the damaged vehicle, smelling the aroma of meat, and finally closed his eyes.

"Eat first."

"After we finish eating, we'll divide up Batu's family."