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

The smoke from the old Nancang warehouse was not just a wisp.

It's black smoke.

Smoke rose from the roof of the abandoned warehouse outside the south wall, pressed down by the north wind, and rolled along the snow toward Black Stone Fortress. The smell wasn't the sweet, burnt aroma of burning grain and straw; it was more like wet paper, butter, and old leather being roasted together.

The crippled man took a sniff and his expression changed.

"Burn the book."

Old Chai, with cloth wrapped around his back, picked up his bucket and headed outside upon hearing those two words.

Shi Tou caught him.

"Uncle Chai, your back isn't healed yet."

Old Chai cursed.

"My back isn't fully healed, but my legs are still there."

"The paper's all burned, are you going to compensate with words?"

Chen Mu could not go to the old Nancang.

Lin Qinghe made her statement definitively.

She slammed a row of silver needles onto the table; the sound wasn't loud, but it was more forceful than a military order.

"If you leave the tent, I'll have someone tie you back to the bed."

Chen Mu glanced at her.

"Does a military doctor have this authority?"

"have."

Lin Qinghe pushed the medicine scissors aside, and the blades parted his wound by half an inch.

"I'm responsible for the lives of the living."

None of the military officers in the tent dared to laugh.

Chen Mu didn't laugh either.

He reached out and tapped on the wooden map.

"The old South Warehouse was sealed off three years ago. The main gate is now locked and there is an old tunnel in the back wall of the salt road."

Ma Liu was taken aback.

How did you know?

Chen Mu said, "You said that."

Ma Liu opened his mouth, but then remained silent.

He did say that.

At the time, he was just being nosy, saying things like how to remember the location of the old grain depot, and that there was a hole behind the old south warehouse, which he had crawled through once as a child and almost got bitten by a rat. Unexpectedly, Chen Muquan remembered it.

Chen Mu looked at Lu Shuangyi.

"Don't smash down the main gate; seal the back entrance first."

Lu Shuangyi nodded.

She took a small protective token from her waist and placed it on the table.

"Zhou Tie, obey my command."

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Chen Mu again.

Chen Mu also saw her this time.

Neither of them said anything extra.

Lu Shuangyi turned and left the tent, her silver armor making a soft clanging sound.

Anato sat in the corner, her wrists still bound, and suddenly laughed.

"You Han people are really strange."

"When war breaks out, don't look at the enemy first, look at the breached warehouses first."

Chen Mu said, "The enemy broke through the warehouse."

Anato's smile faded slightly.

She glanced at the black smoke outside the tent.

"Then you'd better hurry."

"When the northern barbarians emit black smoke, it's probably not to scare anyone."

"It's to guide the people behind."

These words made the tent tense.

Chen Mu immediately replied, "I'll remember."

Su Wenyuan put pen to paper.

Black smoke indicates the way.

The fire at the old Nancang warehouse was not only a destruction of evidence, but also a way to lure troops into battle.

The area outside the old South Warehouse was in complete chaos.

The northern barbarian vanguard held off the patrolling cavalry at Xigou, while several dozen barbarian soldiers clad in white leather uniforms crept along the snow-covered slope towards the old southern road. They didn't rush to attack the city, but instead fired fire arrows at the granary. There weren't many arrows, but they all hit the granary roof and windows.

It's like someone already knows where it's easiest to burn.

Zhou Tie led his personal guards to seal off the main gate first.

Lu Shuangyi personally led twenty riders to circle around the rear cave.

The cooks carried water and shoveled snow, while Old Chai stood halfway up the road, unable to straighten his back, yet he had shouted himself hoarse.

"Don't pour it on the fire!"

"Splash it at the base of the wall!"

"The wall collapsed, and all the paper inside suffocated!"

Stone's shoulder injury hadn't healed, and he rushed towards the warehouse door with one hand, carrying a wet blanket. The heat wave almost made him kneel down.

Old Chai kicked him in the butt.

"Don't be a hero!"

The stone gritted its teeth.

"There are tents inside!"

"It's not like you're asking me to risk my life for it."

After cursing, Lao Chai picked up the iron hook and walked towards the fire.

The lame man won't get into a fire.

He squatted on the snow outside the barn, looking at the footprints.

The warehouse, sealed off three years ago, now has new tire tracks at its entrance.

Two paths.

One in and one out.

The ruts weren't deep, indicating the load on the cart wasn't heavy. But there was black ash along the ruts, mixed with wheat husks and paper pulp.

The lame man picked up a small amount and handed it to Su Wan.

Su Wan's hand was still bandaged, and her fingertips trembled slightly when she caught the ashes.

"This is a grain register."

After she finished speaking, she added another sentence.

"Same as seven pages of burnt paper."

Zhou Tie cursed, "They really did burn the tent!"

Lu Shuangyi gave the order from the direction of the back cave.

"There are footprints in the back cave!"

"They just left!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Liu, despite his injured leg, wanted to follow.

Zhou Tie stopped him.

"Don't you want your legs anymore?"

Ma Liu got anxious.

"I won't run, I'll listen for the path!"

This sounds unreliable, but it actually works.

He squatted down by the back cave and twitched his nose.

"butter."

"And rust."

"It smells just like the sealed box from the Hei Tie Ku."

Han Wenshan's personal guards were also present.

They didn't fight the fire; they just stood around the outer perimeter, saying they were under orders to guard the witnesses and prevent the fire brigade from making any unnecessary movements.

Shi Tou's temper flared up instantly.

"The warehouse's burned down, what witnesses are you going to see!"

The guard sneered.

"You cooks are trying to conduct a secret investigation again?"

Shi Tou clenched his fist.

Old Chai grabbed him and pressed him down.

"Don't hand them a knife."

This is something Chen Mu said before.

Old Chai's imitation wasn't perfect, but it was enough.

Suddenly, a corner of the warehouse roof collapsed with a loud bang.

The heatwave whipped up a cloud of black paper dust.

Su Wan instinctively lunged forward.

Zhou Tie grabbed her.

"Do you want to burn it again?"

Su Wan didn't earn any.

She just stared at the tiny copper glint in the gray.

That's not Mars.

Lu Shuangyi drew her sword and pried open the pile of ash.

A copper clasp was visible beneath the gray.

It's not a regular buckle.

It's the buckle on the license plate of the grain depot.

The sign was burned black, leaving only half a character.

South.

The "Nan" in "Old Nancang".

When the lame man saw the copper buckle, he suddenly stood up.

"This warehouse wasn't just used recently."

Everyone looked at him.

The lame man pointed to the tire tracks.

"Old tracks overshadow new tracks."

"I've walked this path at least three times."

"Today is the last time we'll burn it."

The two clerks sent by He Wenbai, who were originally standing far away, heard this and, disregarding the smoke, squeezed over to look at the cart tracks.

A clerk whispered, "The spacing between the carts is the same as that between the grain treasury carts."

The other one turned pale.

"According to the records of the Grain Bureau, no carts have entered or left the old South Granary for three years after it was sealed."

The lame man glanced at him.

"It's not in the tent, but it's on the ground."

That's a rough way of putting it.

But it's more effective than anything else.

The clerk dared not say anything more and quickly wrote it down.

Ma Liu squatted by the back cave and suddenly dug out a small piece of hard mud from the snow.

There were some yellowish-white fragments mixed in with the mud.

He took a sniff and almost choked.

"Wheat husk ash".

Su Wan took it and pinched it with her fingertip.

"It's not new grain."

"It's wheat husks tucked inside old account paper for moisture protection."

Zhou Tie felt a headache coming on.

"Are the account books still covered with wheat husks?"

Su Wan nodded.

"The border troops' ration books are susceptible to moisture, so a little bit of husk residue is mixed into the pulp. That's why they smell like that when burned."

As soon as she finished speaking, blood began to seep from the wound on the back of her hand. The blood dripped into the snow and was quickly covered by the black ash.

Upon seeing this, Shi Tou couldn't help but say, "Miss Su, please don't touch it."

Su Wan did not look up.

"I failed to protect him before."

"We can't afford to leak this time."

No one responded to that.

Old Chai sighed, then quickly started cursing again.

"Don't just stand there!"

"They were picking things up even with their hands cut, and you guys have your eyes cut too?"

The cooks immediately dispersed, searching through the ashes for copper buttons, paper fibers, and iron sheets.

Then, shouts of battle came from the direction of the south wall.

A troop of light northern barbarian soldiers sneaked closer under the cover of smoke, but were pushed back by arrows from the wall. However, their retreat was not haphazard; instead, they spread out along both sides of the old southern road, as if protecting some kind of path.

Lu Shuangyi stood at the top of the abandoned warehouse and glanced back.

She was looking in the direction of the medical shrine.

After reading it, she stuck the knife into the snow.

"Barricades were set up on both sides of the old southern road."

"They wouldn't let us check the roads, but we're going to check them anyway."

Zhou Tie immediately led his men to move the wooden stakes.

The fire was still raging, and the battle line had already reached the outside of the warehouse.

The old Nancang warehouse is no longer just a warehouse.

It became the second battlefield south of Blackrock Fortress.

The moment the first chevaux-de-frise was driven in, three arrows flew down the snowy slope.

One bullet pierced the wooden stake, another grazed Zhou Tie's shoulder armor, and the last one pierced the sleeve of a lowly soldier in the cookhouse.

The soldier turned pale with fright, but he didn't loosen his grip.

Old Chai yelled through the smoke, "Name!"

The soldier was stunned.

Old Chai roared again, "You almost got shot by an arrow, name me!"

"Liu, Liu Gui!"

The lame man immediately remembered.

Liu Gui, outside the old South Granary, stood a barricade; an arrow pierced his sleeve, yet he did not retreat.

When the soldier heard his name being noted, his eyes hardened, and he gritted his teeth and continued hammering the stake.

Accounts aren't only useful after the war is over.

Sometimes, just hearing someone's name makes them dare to stand there for a moment longer.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a muffled thud came from the back cave.

It looks like someone is kicking a wooden plank on the ground.

Lu Shuangyi raised her hand.

Everyone stopped.

Another sound.

This time it's clearer.

It wasn't a fire that caused the collapse.

are people.

Zhou Tie and his men lifted up half of the charred wooden plank at the entrance of the cave, revealing a grain pit underneath.

There was no grain in the grain pit.

There was only one person.

The man's face was half blackened by smoke, and his left wrist was wrapped in tattered cloth, the blood on the cloth already frozen solid.

When Zhou Tie dragged the man out, Shi Tou recognized him first.

"Square-faced captain!"

The square-faced captain is still alive.

But his left hand was gone.

The severed ends were hastily wrapped up, as if someone had chopped it off and thrown it into the grain pit to die.

Lu Shuangyi squatted down and used the tip of her knife to pry open the black cloth around his mouth.

The square-faced captain opened his eyes and uttered two words.

"Liang...Seven..."

Su Wan immediately wrote it down.

The fire was pushed down from the top of the old south warehouse.

The shouts of battle from Xigou grew ever closer.

When Chen Mu heard the report, he closed his eyes briefly.

He needs to investigate the dead warehouse.

But a living account crawled out of the dead warehouse.