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

When news of the fall of Baiquan Ranch reached them, Han Wanshan was slaughtering the second batch of wounded horses.

Overnight, he lost eighty-six grain carts and then three hundred hay carts.

Of the six hundred forwards, only sixty-odd remain.

Of the four hundred riders sent to Baiquan, only a little over a hundred returned.

The main force of 1,500 has not yet attacked the city, and less than 1,200 are ready to fight immediately.

Han Wanshan finally stopped waiting.

"strike camp."

"Take Iron Horse Fort."

Iron Horse Fortress is located between Black Stone Fortress and White Wolf Pass.

The fortress was small, with only three hundred garrison soldiers, yet it controlled two supply routes. If Han Wanshan retreated into Iron Horse Fortress and waited for supplies to be delivered from White Wolf Pass, he could still turn back and attack Black Stone Fortress.

Chen Mu also set his sights on that place.

It's not because its walls are high.

Instead, the fortress contained a granary, a stable, and three iron furnaces.

The six blacksmiths from Chitieku recognized the old drawing immediately.

"The furnace at Iron Horse Fort can be used to make vests."

"Most of the Han family's cavalry armor was repaired there."

Chen Mu finished the last mouthful of porridge.

"Then we can't give it to him."

Lu Shuangyi said, "Han Wanshan is only twenty li away from Tiemabao."

"It's thirty miles from Blackstone Fortress."

"There are many others, so they walk slowly."

"We also brought grain carts and heavy cavalry."

"No grain carts."

Chen Mu stood up.

"People go first."

"The grain will come slowly from behind."

He left Yan Heng to guard Black Stone Fortress, Lin Qinghe led the medical team and wounded soldiers to continue garrisoning the city, and Su Wan was responsible for distributing silver and grain to the military households. Er Gou wanted to carry the black pot flag into battle, but his leg injury made him tremble as soon as he put it down.

Chen Mu took the flagpole from his hand.

"I'll take the blame this time."

Er Gou disagreed.

"I can also ride a horse."

"You can keep it for cooking."

"How can you fight a war without a pot?"

"That's why you should stay."

Er Gou hugged the pot, finally finding a reason he couldn't refute.

Chen Mu led three hundred light cavalry and eighty heavy cavalry from the east gate. Lu Shuangyi led the vanguard, Zhou Tie led the heavy cavalry, and six blacksmiths followed on horseback.

The 380 riders carried neither pots nor tents.

Each rider carried only two handfuls of roasted wheat and a bag of freshly stolen grass hanging from their saddle. After traveling ten miles, the light cavalry changed horses, while the heavy cavalry removed their shoulder armor and had it carried by their accompanying horses. The six blacksmiths were the oldest and rode the slowest, so Lu Shuangyi had each of the six light cavalrymen pull on a rope, dragging them and their horses forward.

Chen Mu's injured foot prevented him from using the stirrups, so he simply tied his injured foot to the side of the horse's belly. By the time they had traveled fifteen li, the white cloth was already soaked with blood. Zhou Tie advised him to switch to a lighter carriage, but he only asked one question.

"Is a carriage faster than a horse?"

Zhou Tie shut up.

They weren't arguing over half an hour.

Whoever reaches the gates of Iron Horse Fort first will get food; if they are a step behind, they will have to stand outside the city eating snow.

Anato did not return.

She lit three large fires at Baiquan Ranch, deliberately letting Han Wanshan see them, and then sent a hundred herdsmen riders to chase after Han's rear guard along the north side.

Han Wanshan therefore dared not retreat at full speed.

Every five li, troops had to be divided to guard the rear.

Chen Mu first arrived at Tiemabao.

The fort gates were tightly shut.

The defending general was named Dong Kui, a retainer of the Han family who had been raised for fifteen years. Standing on the wall, he saw that Chen Mu only had a little over three hundred men and immediately ordered his archers to fire arrows.

"General Han will be there shortly!"

"Hold on for half an hour, and the people below the city will be nothing but corpses!"

Chen Mu did not surrender.

He had six blacksmiths point out the location of the furnace.

The three furnace rooms at Tiemabao are located against the east wall and are used for coal transportation year-round. There is a wide ash outlet at the base of the wall. The ash outlet is fitted with an iron grate, which allows two people to push an ash cart side by side.

Blacksmiths used to work here.

One of them pulled out the key to the furnace door in the Han family's silver vault.

"Same style."

Chen Mu led fifty men to dismount their horses against the east wall.

Arrows continued to fall from the city wall.

Zhou Tie ordered his heavy cavalry to raise their shields to block the arrows, but three men were still hit. A blacksmith, with an arrow piercing his shoulder, gritted his teeth and continued picking locks.

The key won't turn.

Dong Kui had clearly replaced the lock cylinder.

The old blacksmith threw the key away.

"Get the hammer!"

Six mining hammers took turns smashing the iron fence.

The first bar is bent.

The second one split open.

The city's guards thrust long spears through the ash outlet, and the blacksmith at the front was shot in the abdomen, but he still clung to the spear shaft.

"Smash it!"

He used his body to hold down the spear.

Chen Mu took the sledgehammer, but since he couldn't swing it with full force with his left hand, he let Zhou Tie hold the handle with him.

The two exerted their strength at the same time.

boom!

The last iron fence bar fell inward.

The blacksmith also lost his breath.

Chen Mu was the first to crawl into the ash tunnel.

The room was filled with hot ash and coal slag; smoke would rise as soon as you stepped into it. The guards raised their spears to block the entrance, but Chen Mu held it in place with his round shield, and Zhou Tie pushed his short spear out from behind the shield.

One person collapsed after being choked.

The second man was grabbed by the ankle by Chen Mu and dragged into the hot ashes. When his face was pressed in, his scream immediately turned into a muffled thud.

Fifty people squeezed into the furnace room along the ash channel.

At the end of the gray path, there is a brick embankment about half a person's height.

Two guards pushed a cart of red-hot charcoal forward, trying to block the entrance. Chen Mu shielded his face with a round shield, pushing forward against the heat. The shield quickly began to smoke, and blisters formed on his left hand. Zhou Tie and a dozen men behind him simultaneously braced themselves against his back, slowly pushing the charcoal cart back.

One guard was run over by a wheel and rolled wildly on the red-hot coals. Another turned to run, but the old blacksmith threw his mining hammer from behind, hitting him squarely in the back of the head.

As the group stepped over the burning charcoal, their trouser legs and boots caught fire. The first thing they did upon entering the furnace room wasn't to kill anyone, but to rush into the quenching tank. Steam billowed up, and the entire east furnace seemed to be enveloped in a sudden white mist.

The guards inside the fortress couldn't see how many people there were, but they heard the blacksmiths, forge workers, and Blackstone Fortress men shouting at the same time, and they thought that the east wall had been breached by a large force.

The furnace workers were all military households and laborers.

They saw six old blacksmiths and the black pot and tattered cloth on Chen Mu's knife handle. Instead of helping the guards, they grabbed fire tongs and smashed open the inner door of the furnace room.

A forge worker with a face covered in burn scars asked first, "After the fortress is breached, will we still be allowed to forge armor?"

The old blacksmith wiped the coal dust off his face.

"beat."

"Who should I call?"

"Hit the person who rode it."

The stoker then asked, "What would you like to eat?"

Chen Mu pointed to the granary in the fort.

"What's inside? What are we having for dinner tonight?"

The stoker, his face covered in burn scars, swung his fire tongs and smashed the last lock on the inner door.

"Then what are we waiting for!"

The east gate was breached from the inside.

Lu Shuang, dressed in light clothing, charged into the fortress on horseback.

Dong Kui still wanted to guard the inner courtyard.

He locked the granary door and ordered people to pour oil on the walls.

"Burn the grain!"

"Leave not a single grain for the traitors!"

The guards raised their torches.

The furnace workers rushed forward first.

They fought for years in Tiemabao, starving, yet their granaries were overflowing with white rice. Anyone who dared to burn them would be burning their own lives.

A stoker, his shoulder severed by a knife, still clung to the guard's waist and rolled into the oil ditch. Lu Shuangyi leaped from her horse, her spear piercing the wrist of the man who lit the fire, and flicked the torch into the water trough.

Chen Mu led his men to the inner courtyard.

Dong Kui, clad in heavy armor and wielding two axes, stood guard in front of the granary.

"The Han family will be here shortly!"

"None of you can take Iron Horse Fortress away!"

Chen Mu said, "He can't get there."

Dong Kui charged forward, axe in hand.

The double axes slammed into the shield, shattering it instantly. Chen Mu's right arm was immobilized, and he was forced back two steps by the impact. Dong Kui swept his second axe across his waist, and Lu Shuangyi's spear thrust from the side, but was blocked by the other axe.

Dong Kui possessed astonishing strength, managing to hold off two people all by himself.

Zhou Tie pounced on him from behind and hugged his waist.

Dong Kui smashed Zhou Tie's forehead with his elbow.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Chen Mu pushed the cracked shield onto the axe blade and thrust his short sword into the seam of his armpit armor with his left hand.

Dong Kui tightened his grip on his arm, and the knife was stuck.

Lu Shuangyi released her spear, drew her waist knife, and slashed it into his knee.

The heavily armored giant finally knelt down.

Chen Mu pulled out a short knife and plunged it into his jaw.

Dong Kui collapsed in front of the granary.

With the general dead, the remaining soldiers threw down their swords.

When Tiemabao was captured, Han Wanshan's striker was only five miles away.

Chen Mu ordered the door to be closed immediately.

It's not about holding out in one place.

Instead, he led all two hundred-plus horses from inside the fortress to the west gate, and the eighty Black Pot Heavy Cavalrymen changed into their newly repaired armor. Of the three hundred guards, one hundred and seventy were willing to surrender. Chen Mu fed them well and then returned the swords to their deaths.

"If you want to protect the Han family, go to the East Gate."

"If you want to guard the granary, come with me to the west gate."

All 170 people went to the West Gate.

The remaining guards were not tied up either.

More than forty wounded soldiers remained inside the fortress, while several dozen others ran to the granary to extinguish the oil fire. Only about twenty men remained who truly wanted to avenge Dong Kui; they were cornered in the stable by the furnace workers and beaten to death with sticks.

Chen Mu ordered the two granaries to be opened on the spot.

The surrendered soldiers ate first, then the stove workers and soldiers, and finally the cavalrymen who had charged in with him. One surrendered soldier held a bowl of white rice but dared not eat it, fearing it was his last meal before he was executed. The stove worker next to him snatched the bowl away, ate half of it, and then shoved the bowl back into the soldier's hands.

"Why would I kill you?"

The surrendered soldiers then began to shovel the food into their mouths.

When Han Wanshan arrived at the East Gate, he only saw the city gate tightly closed and black smoke from the furnace.

Just as he was preparing to attack the city, the west gate suddenly opened.

Chen Mu and Lu Shuangyi led their cavalry out from the other side, circling around the low slope outside the fortress towards the rear guard of the Han army, which was short of food and horses. Anato's hundred herdsman riders also appeared from the north.

If Han Wanshan attacks the city, his rear guard will be wiped out.

If they turn back to protect their rear, Iron Horse Fortress will be completely lost.

He stared at the city wall for a long time before finally ordering a retreat to Bailang Pass.

More than a thousand riders slowly retreated.

No one shouted "flatten Blackstone Castle" anymore.

On the city wall, only five of the six blacksmiths remained.

They hung their dead comrade's mining hammer at the entrance of the furnace.

Chen Mu personally carried the black pot flag up the east wall.

The old Black Mountain flag was torn down.

The black flag was inserted into the highest crevice of the stone.

The fortress contained 32 granaries, 216 horses, three iron furnaces, more than 400 furnace workers and soldiers, and two roads leading to Blackstone Fortress and White Spring Ranch.

This time, they managed to grab more than just enough food for a few days.

It is a fortress that can support people, horses, and armor.

Lu Shuangyi stood below the city wall and looked up.

"You're still a corporal."

Chen Mu pressed the flagpole down firmly.

"The castle is mine."

Anato rode in on horseback, a black pot and rag tied to her scimitar.

"Baiquan Ranch is mine too."

Chen Mu looked at her.

"Share the fodder in half."

Anado laughed and scolded.

The large cauldrons have already been set up inside the city.

White rice, horse meat, and cheese from the pasture were cooked together. Guards, stove workers, shepherds, and soldiers lined up on the same long street to receive their meals.

No one asked who had granted Chen Mu the official title.

Black Stone Fortress, Wild Dog Gully, White Spring Ranch, and Iron Horse Fortress have been connected in a line.

Whoever controls the grain, horses, iron, and cooking pots will have people listening to him.

In the distance, towards Bailang Pass, Han Wanshan's twelve Black Mountain Flags retreated into the mountain pass.

Chen Mu stood atop the Iron Horse Fortress wall.

"Make the pot a little bigger."

The old blacksmith asked, "How big?"

"Enough to feed two thousand people."

"You have two thousand people?"

Chen Mu watched as furnace workers and soldiers kept coming to surrender from below the city.

"It will be available soon."

Another group of soldiers, with their families in tow, entered the fortress and lined up behind the hot pot.