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

boom!

The south gate was knocked open a crack.

The wind and snow, along with the roars of the barbarians, poured into the city cave.

A barbarian, carrying a round shield, squeezed through the gap.

He had just placed his foot down when his foot slipped, and he fell forward.

The barbarians behind him didn't have time to stop and crashed into him.

The two of them fell into the city cave together.

Zhou Tie slashed down with his sword.

The first barbarian's neck was almost severed.

Just as the other was about to get up, Chen Mu's spear had already pierced his eye socket.

Blood splattered on the snow.

Su Wan stood at the street corner, covering her mouth, her face deathly pale.

Zhao Chenglie stood behind her, holding a knife, his hand turning blue, but he dared not take a step forward.

Chen Mu did not turn around.

He was pouring a bucket of mutton fat onto the ground of the city gate.

Then they had someone sprinkle the ashes from the stove on it.

Zhou Tie stepped on it and almost slipped.

"Why pour ashes on top of oil?"

Chen Mu said, "Cover it with oil."

"If you just pour oil on it, the trick will be exposed when you shine a torch on it."

"Sprinkle some ash on it, and it looks like an ordinary piece of ground."

Zhou Tie was taken aback.

Chen Mu then pointed to the slope.

"Push the grain cart down and place it across the door."

"Place the firewood on both sides, but don't light it."

The guard frowned: "Not going to light it?"

Chen Mu said, "Let's order after they come in."

Zhou Tie finally understood.

The south gate is narrow.

When the barbarians rush in from outside, their first step on the ground, which is a mixture of mutton fat and stove ash, will inevitably be slippery.

The grain trucks blocking their path can suppress their momentum.

Once the piles of firewood on both sides are lit, the smoke and fire will turn the tunnel into a furnace.

No matter how many barbarians came in, they burned them all.

This is not a military formation.

This is a method used in the kitchen.

But at the South Gate, it's more effective than any other military formation.

Zhou Tie's gaze towards Chen Mu finally changed.

"You really used to be a fire starter?"

Chen Mu tucked the broken knife into his waistband.

"You can burn people to death even if you start a fire."

He didn't just say it offhand.

The people in the Fire Station Camp know fire best.

They knew better than the armored guards in Blackstone Fortress what kind of firewood produced smoke, what kind of oil stained clothes, what kind of ash was least noticeable on the ground, and what kind of vent could turn a fire into a tongue when the wind opened.

In the past, these skills were only used for cooking, heating wine, and brewing medicine.

Nobody considered them military achievements.

No one thought that a lowly soldier tending a fire could kill someone in front of the city gate.

Chen Mu, however, knew.

A knife can kill.

Fire can also do that.

Moreover, in such a narrow cave, fire is more deadly than a knife.

The knife must be used to chop, one stroke at a time.

Fire is not needed.

As long as the wind is right and the woodpile is dry enough, the mutton fat will stick to the fur coat, and every breath in the tunnel can turn into a knife.

That's the skill of the cooks.

No one had ever written it into the military merit book before.

Tonight, Chen Mu will write it in by hand.

He ordered one of his guards to tear the wet felt into three pieces.

A piece was stuffed behind the crack in the latch to block the flying arrows from the outside.

A piece of wood was placed under the wheels of the grain transport vehicle to prevent the wooden wheels from collapsing from the fire.

The last piece was given to Zhou Tie.

Cover your mouth and nose.

Zhou Tie was taken aback: "Now?"

"It will be too late if we wait any longer."

Chen Mu looked at the firing hole above the doorway.

The injection holes were covered in snow and no one cleared them; they were practically useless most of the time.

But once smoke rises inside the city gate, some of it will escape through the arrow slits.

If the discharge isn't fast enough, the people inside will choke to death first.

If the fire is released too quickly, it won't simmer properly.

When the fire station is being used for cooking, the airflow is of utmost importance.

Tonight, this south gate is like an overturned stove.

Barbarians are firewood.

The five of them were the ones who guarded the stove.

Chen Mu glanced at the mutton fat on the ground again.

The oil layer shouldn't be too thick.

It's too thick; even our own people can't stand up on it.

The oil should not be too thin.

It's too thin; even barbarian boots would only get a little dusty when they stepped on it, not slippery.

He drew two lines on the ground with the butt of his gun.

"No one should step within these two steps."

"Don't draw your knife before the barbarian falls."

"Wait until they are all huddled together, then chop off their necks, eye sockets, and knees."

Zhou Tie heard his Adam's apple move slightly.

This is not luck.

This is like treating the city walls as a stove and people as firewood; every step has been meticulously planned.

He pointed to the piles of firewood on both sides.

"Keep the left side a little looser, don't compact it."

"Pour oil on the right side, less on the surface, more on the bottom."

Zhou Tie was taken aback: "Why?"

"The surface is shiny and frightening."

"It's so stuffy and suffocating down there."

Chen Mu looked at the dark figure squeezing in through the crack in the door.

"I don't want to scare them away."

"The idea is to let them in so they can't get out."

The barbarians outside roared angrily.

More people squeezed in.

The third.

the fourth.

the fifth.

They were all walking on the mutton-fat ash, their feet slipping, making it difficult for the shield formation to break apart and for the long swords to be swung in a wide arc.

The city gate was too narrow.

The barbarians' strength could not be fully utilized.

But on Chen Mu's side, including himself, there were only five people left.

The body of the guard who had just been shot through the throat by a crossbow bolt still lay by the door, blood flowing down the cracks in the stone.

Zhou Tie cleaved a barbarian soldier in two with a single stroke and roared, "Light the fire!"

Chen Mu replied, "Let's wait a little longer!"

"Still waiting?"

Chen Mu stared at the door.

The barbarian soldiers were still pushing their way in.

But the real leader didn't come in.

Those who came in were all scouts, ready to die for their cause.

If we start a fire now, we can only burn a few pawns.

not enough.

He wanted a second military merit.

You must take enough.

A muffled sound suddenly came from outside the door.

"waste."

Upon hearing this voice, Chen Mu's expression changed.

Last night, Wugudu had a lieutenant with black wolf tattoos on his face.

After Wugu was killed, the man dragged half of the corpse away.

Chen Mu thought he had escaped far away.

I didn't expect him to dare come tonight.

The barbarian soldiers outside the gate made way.

A tall, barbarian wearing black leather armor bent down and entered the room.

Sure enough, black wolf tattoos were etched on his face.

He was carrying a wolf-tooth axe.

Zhou Tie whispered, "Black Wolf Guard."

The guards' expressions changed.

The Black Wolf Guards were the personal guards of the Northern Barbarian King.

Those who can join the Black Wolf Guard must have killed at least ten border soldiers.

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern saw Chen Mu, his gaze lingered on the red fox cloak, and then he suddenly grinned.

"you."

He said in broken Chinese:

"Kill the people of Wugudu."

Chen Mu gripped his spear tightly.

Zhou Tie's heart sank.

This statement confirms Chen Mu's merit.

This also confirms that what they encountered was not an ordinary night raid.

The barbarian with black wolf markings raised his wolf-tooth axe.

"Your head."

"I want."

He stepped into the city gate.

My foot slipped as well.

But he did not fall.

He stepped on it firmly.

Sheep fat ash can only trip up ordinary barbarian soldiers, not this kind of person.

Zhou Tie roared and charged forward, brandishing his sword.

The wolf-tooth axe swept across.

when!

Zhou Tie was knocked back three steps, his tiger's mouth split open.

The barbarians with black wolf patterns advanced again.

Chen Mu suddenly threw the tinderbox toward the pile of firewood on the left.

boom!

The firewood soaked in mutton fat caught fire instantly.

The firelight illuminated the city gate.

It also illuminated Chen Mu's face.

He did not back down.

Instead, he took a step forward.

The barbarian with black wolf markings grinned maliciously and brought his wolf-tooth axe down on his head.

Chen Mu did not block it.

He slammed his spear into the ground, using the momentum to flip sideways and roll close to the axe blade to the side of the black-striped barbarian.

The wolf-tooth axe smashed onto the grain cart.

The wooden cart was torn to pieces.

Just as the barbarian with the black wolf pattern was about to return his axe, Chen Mu had already pulled out his broken sword and plunged it fiercely into the seam of his armor on his waist.

A knife.

It submerged half a foot.

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern roared in pain and slammed his elbow into Chen Mu's back.

Chen Mu flew out and crashed into the stone wall, completely reopening the wound on his chest.

Blood instantly soaked through the red fox cloak.

Su Wan stood at the street corner, tears welling up in her eyes.

She wanted to shout.

But I can't shout it out.

Zhao Chenglie was standing right next to her, with a knife in his hand, but he didn't dare to take a single step forward.

She finally understood.

It was the same last night.

Zhao Chenglie will not come.

Only Chen Mu will come.

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern drew his broken sword from his waist, his eyes turning red with rage.

"Han dog!"

He walked toward Chen Mu.

Zhou Tie tried to stop them, but was entangled by two barbarian soldiers.

Chen Mu leaned against the wall and stood up.

His vision was already starting to darken.

But he noticed something on the waist of the barbarian with the black wolf pattern.

A domino.

The Black Wolf Guard's dog tag.

It's more valuable than the ivory plaques from Wugudu.

Chen Mu smiled.

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern was taken aback.

This Han Chinese man is dying, and he's still laughing?

Chen Mu suddenly raised his hand.

It's not a knife.

It was a handful of stove ash.

Ash mixed with charcoal fragments was fiercely thrown into the eyes of the black wolf-patterned barbarian.

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern screamed in agony.

Chen Mu lunged forward, gripped the broken sword with both hands, and stabbed it hard into the soft spot between the man's neck and leather armor.

The first cut didn't go all the way through.

The second cut broke the tip of the blade.

The third cut caused blood to spurt out.

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern knelt on the ground, gripping Chen Mu's shoulders tightly with both hands.

It's like they're dragging him down to hell with them.

Chen Mu whispered in his ear, his voice hoarse.

"Tell Wugudu for me."

"I've earned my second military merit."

The barbarian with the black wolf pattern fell.

Inside the city gate, all the barbarian soldiers froze for a moment.

Zhou Tie was the first to react.

"ignition!"

The pile of firewood on the right was also set on fire.

The south gate tunnel instantly turned into a furnace.

The barbarian soldiers who rushed in were blocked by fire and smoke; those behind could not get in, and those in front could not get out.

Screams erupted inside the city gate.

Chen Mu knelt on the ground, panting heavily.

His hand was still gripping the dominoes at the waist of the barbarian with the black wolf pattern.

Zhou Tie rushed over to help him.

"How are you?"

Chen Mu handed him the dominoes.

"Make a note of it."

Zhou Tie was stunned for a moment.

Chen Mu raised his blood-covered face.

"One Black Wolf Guard."

"There's a traitor inside the South Gate."

"Barbarian soldiers..."

He glanced at the burning city gate.

"Count them after the fire is finished."

Zhou Tie's throat tightened.

He suddenly understood why Chen Mu was holding on to his breath and refusing to fall.

It wasn't about surviving.

It was for recording merits.

It's not for me alone to keep track of.

This is a record for the seventeen cooks who died last night.

In the distance, more footsteps finally arrived.

Lu Shuangyi arrived with her people.

She saw the firelight at the south gate, and she also saw Chen Mu kneeling in a pool of blood.

Chen Mu looked up at her, his voice hoarse beyond recognition.

"Commander Lu."

"Is the second skill enough?"

Lu Shuangyi looked at the black wolf dominoes in his hand.

After a long silence, she uttered only one word.

"enough."

Su Wan stood at the edge of the snowstorm, her face deathly pale.

She finally understood.

Chen Mu wasn't doing this out of spite.

He really is risking his life to climb up the ladder.

Zhao Chenglie stood behind her, not daring to even glance at Chen Mu.

After that night.

Who is the hero?

Who is trash?

She could no longer deceive herself.

Chen Mu, however, no longer looked at anyone.

He put the black wolf dominoes and the broken tooth dominoes together, wrapped them again in a rag, and tucked them close to his body into his pocket.

Two military merits.

Eighteen lives lost.

He looked up at Lu Shuangyi.

"General Lu, I want to see the military merit register."

"The booklet from last night was altered once."

"I want to see this entry recorded with my own eyes tonight."

Lu Shuangyi remained silent for a moment.

"The military merit register is not in my possession."

She glanced at the end of the firelight.

"It's in Zhao Hong's hands."