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

No one spoke on the north wall.

The first ballista overturned a sled.

The second ballista was destroyed.

The third one hasn't been launched yet.

The crossbowmen all looked at Lu Shuangyi.

Lu Shuangyi looked towards the direction of the medical tent.

Chen Mu cannot be posted on the wall.

Nor can we order the troop mobilization.

But he can calculate.

When the messenger rushed into the medical tent, Chen Mu was staring at the rough drawing on the wooden board.

That was the terrain of Xigou drawn by Ma Liu before he set off.

It's severely crooked.

Three ditches, one stone shed, and six sled positions.

As long as you can understand it, that's fine.

"The first one flipped."

"The second one broke down."

"The third one is awaiting orders."

After the messenger finished speaking, he himself became anxious.

"Corporal Chen, what fight are you starting?"

Du Song stood to the side and said coldly, "He cannot give the order."

The messenger's face turned pale.

Chen Mu looked at Yan Heng.

Yan Heng said, "The question is about distinguishing between accounts."

Du Song frowned.

Yan Heng added, "Which sled are you using? It's related to evidence preservation."

That's a stretch.

But it works.

Chen Mu pointed to the outermost part of the rough map.

"Don't fight the fastest runner."

"Let's fight one last time."

The messenger was stunned: "The last one is far away."

"The last one was buried the deepest."

"The mechanism is there."

"The people in front are dragging and the shield."

The messenger rushed out.

Han Wenshan stood at the tent entrance and suddenly said, "If we attack the wrong person, the people of Xigou will die."

Chen Mu looked at him.

"If we don't fight, the ballistae will be taken back to the northern barbarians, and even more people will die in Blackstone Fortress in the future."

"You're quite the calculator."

"You forced me to do it."

The third ballista was fully drawn.

The serrated edge of the pot made an unpleasant creaking sound.

The crossbowman's hands were trembling.

He wasn't afraid of the enemy.

They were afraid that the crossbow would also injure their own people first.

Lu Shuangyi stood to the side, her hand on the crossbow arm.

"stable."

The heavy crossbow bolt was fired.

The arrow missed by half a foot.

The nail missed the front of the sled, but it went into the wooden axle next to the rear wheel.

The wooden shaft broke.

The last sled tilted, and the felt was lifted up.

Two sets of ballistae mechanism cartridges rolled out from inside.

There was also an iron barrel sealed with butter.

In Xigou, Ma Liu, carrying the lame San on his back, stumbled.

The northern barbarian outposts were closing in from behind.

One of Lu family guards turned to block the knife, but his arm was entangled in the hook and he was dragged down into the snow.

Zhou Tie rushed over from the direction of the old beacon tower, roaring angrily across the hillside.

"East!"

"To the east, towards the stone hollow!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Liu immediately turned around.

The lame man coughed violently on his back.

"Left side... pit."

Ma Liu cursed, "Shut up! Save your breath!"

The lame man still insisted, "There are sealed barrels in the pit..."

Mazda 6 suddenly stopped.

He looked down.

Sure enough, half of the iron bucket's edge was visible under the snow.

It's not from the Northern Barbarians or Tibetans.

The barrel bears a red iron fire mark.

There were also hoof prints of Black Tiger Camp horses nearby.

Ma Liu's mind went blank.

Han Zhao did not come to trade only three sets of equipment.

He had also buried a bucket of butter in advance.

Butter is not for eating.

It is used for the ballista slide, winch, and mechanism.

Mixing in black oil makes the crossbow freeze and then become slippery on cold nights, making it seem usable when tested but collapsing when fired.

That's how the three ballistae at Blackrock Fortress were destroyed.

Ma Liu wanted to dig.

The lame man grabbed him by the collar.

"To deliver a message while still alive."

These four words are harder than a knife.

Ma Liu gritted his teeth and continued running with him on his back.

Behind them, the Northern Barbarian outpost had already stopped the second sled.

That sled had no mechanism.

It consists of a light shield and a grappling hook.

They were not the main force in the siege.

They came to collect their belongings and, incidentally, to test whether the Blackrock Fortress ballista still worked.

Now they know.

The Blackrock Fortress ballista can only fire twice.

There might not be a third one.

On the city wall, Lu Shuangyi looked at Xigou, her face pale with coldness.

"Archers, press down!"

Han Wenshan immediately said, "No one is allowed to leave the city without permission!"

Lu Shuangyi looked at him.

"I didn't leave the city."

"I'll guard the wall."

The archers fired in unison.

The rain of arrows suppressed the northern barbarian outposts, and Zhou Tie led his men to bring Ma Liu and Que San back down the slope.

But the Lu family guard who was caught by the grappling hook did not return.

He was pinned down by a Northern Barbarian's sword, while a Black Tiger Camp cavalryman swept past and casually cut off his waist token.

Zhou Tie's eyes turned red.

"Release the arrows!"

Lu Shuangyi did not let him chase after her.

She just stared in the direction the guard was being dragged away, the veins on the back of her hand bulging.

This is today's loss.

They rescued the lame man, overturned two sleds, and found the ballista mechanism.

But we lost one of our own people.

Moreover, the Northern Barbarians have already tested Blackstone Fortress's weaknesses.

When the news came back from the medical tent, Chen Mu remained silent for a long time.

When Lin Qinghe changed his dressing, she noticed that he had pinched his palm until it bled.

He didn't cry out in pain.

They only asked, "What's the person's name?"

No one answered immediately.

The Lu family's personal guards were not from the cookhouse.

Not on any of the three lists.

Zhou Tieping usually called them "the guards' brats," and the cooks also felt that the Lu family's guards were a cut above them.

But just now in Xigou, that man blocked the hook rope for Ma Liu.

After blocking him, he didn't come back.

If this debt isn't recorded, tomorrow he'll just be described as "lost in battle."

In a few days, it may not even have a name anymore.

Zhou Tie's voice was hoarse.

"Lu Ping."

"The Lu family's personal guards have been with me for three years."

Chen Mu nodded.

"Make two notes."

Zhou Tie looked up.

"One stroke, to save the witness and protect the old card."

"One stroke, and the Black Tiger Camp cut off his waist token."

Han Wenshan immediately sneered: "Starting to take credit for others again?"

Chen Mu looked at him.

"It's not a merit."

"It's a person."

"The waist tag was cut off, and the body was never returned."

"So that it won't be recorded as a deserter in tomorrow's accounts."

After those words were spoken, no one in the tent laughed anymore.

The dirtiest thing at the border is not dying in battle.

He died in battle, and even his name was changed.

Lu Shuangyi closed her eyes.

"remember."

Ji Yunzhou's pen tip touched the paper, his hand trembled slightly, but he steadied himself.

Du Song looked at that line of text and didn't say "private notes" again.

Because Lu Ping's waist tag was indeed cut off.

Because too many dead people have been changed to attribute their merits to others on the old military license plates.

When Ma Liu was carried back, half of his face was covered in snow and mud.

The lame man was in an even worse state than him.

My left hand was swollen like wood, my right fingernail was torn off, and my lips were chapped from the cold.

Lin Qinghe first examined the hands of the lame man.

The lame man stuffed the wooden board he was carrying into Chen Mu's arms.

"Miao Jiu... is not dead."

Every word he uttered felt like his throat was being rubbed with sandpaper.

"Han Zhao escorted him north along the old salt road."

"He carried the main ledger of the Hei Tie Treasury on his back."

Chen Mu's eyes darkened.

"back?"

The lame man nodded.

Miao Jiu is afraid of dying.

"But he has a good memory."

"The red iron armory has more than just ballistae."

He struggled to raise his hand.

At the very bottom of the wooden board, there was a line of crooked writing.

Three hundred sets of snow claws.

Twenty folding ladder hooks.

Twelve barrels of frozen oil.

All will use the old Black Tiger Camp name.

Du Song finally approached the wooden board.

He didn't touch Li San's injured hand, but only looked at those few lines of text.

"Who wrote this?"

Lame San said: "I."

"Who said that?"

"Miao Jiu".

"You believe him?"

Crippled Three coughed.

"He's afraid of dying."

"People who are afraid of death will not underestimate the number."

That's a rough way of putting it.

But this made several military officers bow their heads.

Miao Jiu was not a righteous man.

He was afraid of dying, so he spilled the money.

Such testimony is not eloquent, but it sounds more convincing.

Yan Heng had people lay out the items that Que San had brought back, one by one.

Half a piece of Miao Jiu wooden plaque.

A tuft of black oiled leather rope.

A piece of red iron from the bottom of an old bowl.

There were also two handfuls of iron filings that Ma Liu had caught from the snow in Xigou.

The iron filings were mixed with frozen oil, and as soon as you entered the tent, they left a black mark.

He Wenbai used the tip of his knife to pry it open and whispered, "This is grinding debris from the inner groove of the mechanism."

"It wasn't borrowed from outside."

Du Song asked, "What does that prove?"

He Wenbai's face was grim.

"This means those mechanisms have already been disassembled."

"It wasn't just a simple transfer; someone used them to test the oil, changed the pins, and then put them back."

Ma Liu sat on the ground, panting like a broken bellows.

"Two sleds are still missing."

He said this with his head bowed very low.

"I saw it."

"One was a light shield with a grappling hook, and the other seemed to have iron parts as well."

"Lu Ping was dragged away from there."

The tent fell silent for a moment.

This is not a resounding victory.

They rescued the lame man, but only managed to save one account book.

The fact that two sets of mechanisms were recovered only means that more were thrown out.

The northern barbarians retreated, but they had already seen that Black Stone Fortress had few crossbows, broken crossbows, and injured crossbowmen.

This loss cannot be covered up by "reclaiming the witness".

When Anado saw these words, her expression changed for the first time.

"Snow claws and ladder hooks are used for attacking walls."

Han Wenshan said coldly, "Can a wooden board written by a captured cook really be used to settle accounts?"

Chen Mu didn't look at him.

"Cannot be convicted."

"But it can save lives."

Just then, the scouts from the north slope rushed in for the second time.

"The sled team has stopped!"

"They didn't back down!"

"Changing the snow claws!"

Anato whispered, "They're going to touch the wall tonight."

Of the three ballistae at Blackrock Fortress, two are destroyed and the other is only half alive.

The three hundred northern barbarians did not immediately attack the city.

They waited until it got dark.

Waiting for snow.

Let Blackrock Fortress turn its old debts into dead debts on its own.