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

Han Lie did not live to see tomorrow.

After retreating to the frozen river, he immediately sent two riders to Bailang Pass for reinforcements, and divided the remaining 270 riders into three teams.

One team guards the river mouth.

A group hid behind the reeds on the riverbank.

He personally led the last team, preparing to attack from the side when Chen Mu crossed the river.

The frozen river appears solid, but the ice layer in the center is thin.

Han Lie had dozens of holes carved into the ice and then covered them with snow. If heavy cavalry charged forward, the horses would fall into the ice holes first.

He was right.

Chen Mu did indeed catch up.

As soon as it was light, black flags appeared on the snowy slopes of Northeast China.

One hundred newly clad cavalrymen in heavy armor led the way.

They were not surrendered soldiers.

The entire force consisted of former Blackstone Fortress cavalry, veteran cooks from the Cooking Battalion, and men who had fought against thousands of cavalrymen in Wild Dog Gully. Their heavy armor still bore the blood of the former Han family masters, and the horses, unaccustomed to their new owners, moved with a shaky, unsteady gait.

Er Gou called this group of people the Black Pot Heavy Cavalry.

Lu Shuangyi thought it sounded awful.

"Like a bunch of scapegoats."

Er Gou spoke with righteous indignation.

There's meat in the pot.

The heavy cavalry all nodded.

The name has been decided.

Forming actual ranks was difficult. Some men couldn't mount their horses after donning their armor, while others collided after only twenty steps. Zhou Tie divided the one hundred men into ten teams, with each team only recognizing the horse's tail at the front.

"Stop pretending to be a general!"

"Wherever the road ahead leads, you crash into it. If you fall, climb out yourself. Don't stop until you've trampled people to death!"

Lu Shuangyi rode her white horse back and forth, correcting the formation. She didn't teach complicated formations, only three things: hold your gun tight, keep your head down, and don't be afraid to charge.

One hundred suits of armor steamed in the cold wind. The armor, horses, and spears were all stolen. Each person had a black circle smeared with stove ash on their chest to avoid being mistaken for Han's personal guard during the melee.

Er Gou looked at the hundred black circles.

"From now on, when you're grabbing armor, you'll have to smear it with soot from the bottom of a pot."

Chen Mu did not ride at the very front.

Lin Qinghe had his leg bag bundled up, and his right arm was still bound. He sat on the light carriage, with two powerful Northern Barbarian bows and a quiver of short arrows beside him.

When Anato saw the snow tracks on the frozen river, she first smelled the wind.

There is moisture under the ice.

"Han Lie has touched ice."

Er Gou called a halt to the heavy cavalry.

"A detour?"

Chen Mu shook his head.

"He wants us to go around in circles."

"I went around behind the reeds, and he bumped into me from the side."

Lu Shuangyi asked, "How will you get through this?"

Chen Mu looked at the seventy-six prisoners he had captured.

"Let them lead the way."

The prisoners' expressions changed completely.

Han Lie's deputy captain was among them and immediately cursed Chen Mu for being ruthless.

"They are Han soldiers too!"

"You're sending your own people to their deaths?"

Chen Mu had his men untie the ropes binding his feet, leaving only the ropes binding his hands.

"The ice was carved by Han Lie."

"You are the ones who have walked this path."

"If you don't leave, I'll kill you now."

"Go over there, give the horse and the silver."

The deputy captain was about to start cursing when a prisoner next to him stood up.

"I'm leaving."

He was just an ordinary border soldier, and his family still owed the Han family three years' worth of wages. Last night, seeing the garrison soldiers at Black Stone Fortress actually receive the silver, he had long been tempted.

The first person to step onto the ice.

He kept poking at the snow with his spear, avoiding the first hole and then skirting the second thin layer of ice. The prisoners followed one after another, treading out a winding path.

When they reached the seventeenth person, a crisp sound suddenly came from under the ice.

Everyone froze.

The foremost soldier didn't run away. He lay down, held his spear horizontally in front of him, and slowly moved across the crack. Icy water seeped out from the crack, freezing his trousers instantly. After climbing to the other side, he didn't run away; instead, he turned around and threw a rope back.

"Go to the left!"

"The right side is empty!"

The people behind grabbed the rope and moved faster and faster.

Er Gou looked at them and whispered to Chen Mu, "Are you really giving us a horse?"

"Give."

"Give us all seventy-plus horses?"

"To those who make it to the other side alive."

After Chen Mu finished speaking, he ordered someone to hang the silver pouch on a wooden stake by the river. The prisoners could see it from dozens of steps away. They were standing on ice holes dug by Han Lie, with arrows falling on their heads at any moment, but the horses and silver given to them by Black Stone Fortress were right behind them.

You can get it as soon as you walk over.

Han Lie saw this from the other side of the river and, in a fit of rage, chopped down the reeds with a single stroke.

"Release the arrows!"

The archers hidden on the riverbank all rose at the same time.

Arrows rained down on the prisoner who had led the way.

All three were hit by arrows and fell to the ground.

The others dared not look back and ran even faster. The deputy captain was among them, and he finally realized that Han Lie had no intention of letting them live.

"Han Lie!"

"I've worked for you for seven years!"

There was no response from the other side of the river.

Only the second volley of arrows.

The first soldier to step onto the ice was struck in the shoulder by an arrow, but he fell while still clutching the rope. Two men behind him dragged him along, and no one abandoned him. The deputy captain, who had just shielded himself from an arrow, was struck in the back by another, and staggered to the other side.

"Give me a knife!"

The shieldbearer from Blackrock Fortress kicked a bundle of captured daggers.

More than a dozen prisoners cut their hand ropes on the spot.

Instead of killing the Blackstone Fortress people, they rushed towards the Han family archers hidden in the reeds. One archer recognized his older brother and hurriedly lowered his bow, but his brother slapped him to the ground.

"Who did you just shoot at?"

"The commandant gave the order!"

"Then go and serve under the Commandant!"

The two brothers wrestled into the reeds. The people around them panicked as well; before Han Lie's archers could even cross the river, half of them were scattered by his own men.

Chen Mu ordered the shield bearers to press forward.

The path trodden by the prisoners was narrow, allowing only two heavy cavalry to pass at a time. Han Lie was waiting for the column to lengthen so he could personally lead the cavalry on the flanks out from behind the reeds.

"Kill them now!"

Horse hooves stepped onto the riverbank.

Han Lie charged towards Chen Mu, who had not yet crossed the river.

Er Gou was so frightened that he grabbed a black pot and used it to block the car.

The first spear pierced the bottom of the pot, its tip only half a foot away from his stomach.

Er Gou twisted the pot to the side, jamming the cavalryman's spear shaft. He Dashan's fellow villager with the severed finger pounced from the side and cut the horse's reins in one stroke.

Chen Mu sat in the carriage and drew his bow.

Unable to use his right arm, he braced his body against the frame and pulled the string with his left hand.

The first arrow struck Han Lie's personal guard in the face.

The second arrow pierced the warhorse's eye socket.

The horse fell to the ground and rolled into a heap on the riverbank.

Han Lie leaped off his horse, stepping over the corpses of his guards to pounce onto the light carriage.

The long sword slashed straight down on Chen Mu's head.

Chen Mu dropped his bow and fell off the carriage.

The blade cleaved through the car's dashboard and also severed the cloth strap binding his right arm. He pulled at his right shoulder, and the wound immediately bled.

Han Lie followed up with a second sweeping strike.

Chen Mu grabbed the quiver from the cart to block it.

One of the bamboo arrows broke off.

The blade still cut open the left arm.

"Without Lu Shuangyi, what are you?" Han Lie sneered.

Chen Mu took a step back, his injured foot stepping into the icy water.

My whole leg felt numb from the pain.

"I've killed enough of you."

He threw the broken arrow at Han Lie's face.

Han Lie instinctively raised his arm.

Chen Mu stumbled into Han Lie's arms, his left hand stabbing a short sword under Chen Mu's heavy armor. Han Lie pulled back his stomach to avoid a fatal blow, and punched Chen Mu in the burns on his back.

Chen Mu's vision went black.

But the knife didn't loosen.

He flicked it upwards along the nail seam.

The knife tip sliced ​​open the inside of Han Lie's thigh.

Blood spurted out instantly.

Han Lie staggered backward, still trying to grab the horse and escape.

The prisoner deputy captain he had shot with his arrow suddenly lunged at him and grabbed his legs.

"My seven-year salary!"

Han Lie slashed the deputy captain in the back with his knife.

Chen Mu has caught up.

The dagger pierced Han Lie's neck from behind, the tip of the blade shattering his throat bone.

Han Lie opened his mouth to shout, but only spat out a mouthful of blood.

Chen Mu drew his sword and kicked the man into the ice hole he had carved out himself.

The icy water engulfed the heavy armor.

Han Lie struggled twice, then sank down.

Chen Mu also failed to maintain his footing.

The frozen river water had already seeped into his boots, and the old injury on the instep was aggravated by the icy water, causing his entire leg to lose all strength. He only managed to stay upright by holding onto the cart. Er Gou came running over, dragging a broken pot, first looking at the ice cave, then at Chen Mu covered in blood.

"Dead?"

It sank.

"Such fine nails!"

Er Gou was heartbroken and immediately ordered ten men to use hooks to retrieve him. He didn't care about Han Lie's life; that heavy armor was worth at least thirty sheep.

Chen Mu sat back on the carriage shaft and tightened the straps on his right shoulder. The blisters on his back, broken by that punch, hurt with every movement. Luckily, Lin Qinghe wasn't there, otherwise she would never have allowed him to mount the horse again.

With the commander on the flank dead, the ambushing troops on the riverbank began to retreat.

Lu Shuangyi had already crossed the river with the black pot on horseback.

The hundred heavy cavalrymen couldn't form a proper battle formation, but they were all focused on the Han family's horses. She pointed her spear, and the heavy cavalrymen pressed forward from both sides of the narrow road simultaneously.

Iron armor blocked the arrows.

Warhorses trod into the reeds.

Without a commander, Han Lie's remaining cavalry scattered after the first clash. Anato led herdsman riders around the river bend, blocking the direction of White Wolf Pass.

The surrendered prisoners also picked up their knives.

They had just been shot by their own people; there was no turning back.

Zhou Tie led the first group into the reeds, his spear breaking after only one thrust. He threw away the broken spear shaft and used the breastplate of his blue-maned horse to push two enemy riders into the ditch. The nine riders behind him followed too closely, almost all crashing into his back, but they still managed to scatter the last row of riders opposite him.

The new heavy cavalry finally figured out how to use this armor.

It doesn't have to be faster than a knife.

As long as the horse keeps moving, its armor and weight will crush a person.

Han cavalry fired arrows from both sides, the arrowheads clanging against the armor plates. A heavily armored rider with a black cauldron was hit in the cheek, but still followed the vanguard out of the reeds before falling from his horse. The rear guard parted around him, then rejoined him in front.

Lu Shuangyi rushed to the end of the riverbank before raising her gun and turning around.

Of the original 100 men, only 84 riders remained behind, their formation even more chaotic than when they set out, yet each man's eyes shone with an alarming intensity.

Their first clash resulted in the destruction of a Han family cavalry unit.

The battle ended before noon.

Of Han Lie's 270 cavalry, more than 90 died, 110 surrendered, and only 60 or so escaped.

The Black Pot Banner now boasts an additional 186 horses, 70 complete suits of armor, and over 200 bows.

The Black Pot Heavy Cavalry suffered sixteen deaths, twenty-three serious injuries, and twenty-one destroyed horses.

This comes at a high price.

When the eighty-four survivors returned to the riverbank, not one of them was willing to remove his armor. The reward chests that Su Wan had prepared beforehand were brought over, with ten taels for each person, and Zhou Tie, who was the first to break through the enemy lines, receiving an additional twenty taels. The share of the dead was doubled and sent home, and the destroyed warhorses were replaced from the spoils of war.

Of the prisoners who crossed the ice, sixty-one survived.

Chen Mu honored his promise as before. Those who could ride received a horse, and those who couldn't received ten taels of silver. The border soldier who first scouted ahead still had an arrow stuck in his shoulder, and insisted on touching the chestnut horse assigned to him before allowing the medic to remove the arrow.

The deputy captain, who had just been stabbed in the back by Han Lie, lay prone in the snow and asked, "Will I still get my pay?"

Er Gou stuffed a small ingot of silver into his hand.

"If you survive tonight, you'll still get breakfast tomorrow morning."

The vice-captain was clutching the silver and laughing, his mouth full of blood.

Lu Shuangyi had Han Lie's body retrieved from the ice cave.

The heavy armor was flooded, and it took ten people to drag it up.

Er Gou wanted to cut off his head.

Chen Mu shook his head.

"Need not."

He ordered the body to be thrown back into the ice cave, and only cut off the Han family's copper seal from the waist.

The copper seal was hung on the black pot flag.

"There's almost no room left on the flag," Er Gou said.

"Get a bigger one."

How big?

Chen Mu looked towards the direction of Bailang Pass.

On the horizon, a huge Montenegrin flag is appearing.

There were not six hundred riders behind the flag.

They are Han Wanshan's main force.

The cavalry covered the snowfield, numbering at least 1,500.

The sixty-odd riders who had escaped from Han Lie were now approaching the main force.

Lu Shuangyi gripped the gun tightly.

"Still want to fight?"

Chen Mu tossed Han Lie's bronze seal to Er Gou.

"I won't hit anyone today."

"Beat his pot."