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

Crow's Neck is a narrow road nestled between two black mountains.

The road is so narrow that only two vehicles can pass side by side. To the south is a gravel slope, and to the north is a deep ditch frozen white.

Chen Mu arrived here a night early.

He didn't have anyone dig pits, nor did he have time to build walls. He only had more than two hundred furnace workers and surrendered soldiers carry baskets of rubble up to the south slope. The newly made short shovels from Tiemabao were used for the first time outside the fortress, not for planting, but for digging stones out of the frozen soil.

Working until midnight, some of the surrendered soldiers began to feel afraid.

They just defected from Han's grain convoy, and today they're going to rob Han's second grain convoy. If Chen Mu loses, White Wolf Pass will hang their entire family on the gate.

A surrendered soldier asked if he could just move stones without showing his face. Chen Mu agreed that he could leave via the west slope after he finished moving them, and that he wouldn't send anyone to chase him. In the end, the man didn't leave; instead, he chewed on dried meat and carried an even larger basket of stones on his back.

Before dawn, seven more stone gullies appeared on the south slope. Each gully was only blocked by a dozen or so thick logs, and the ropes were all tied down to the cooking pot at the mountain pass. If the grain convoy didn't come, the whole night's work would be in vain; as soon as the grain carts entered the valley, the entire slope would collapse.

After reading it, Lu Shuangyi only asked Chen Mu one question.

"What if the Han family doesn't bring in the grain while you're sitting by the pot?"

"He will go in."

Why?

"Two thousand taels of silver are in the cart. Han Wanshan can lose grain, but he can't afford to lose face."

The following afternoon, sixty-four grain carts entered the mountains on time.

The commander in charge of protecting the grain supplies, Han Dechang, led three hundred cavalry and two hundred infantrymen.

After the first grain carts went missing, Bailang Pass was already on guard. Each cart was spaced five zhang apart, and scouts were spread out three li ahead and behind, all carrying bows and crossbows. The iron cart carrying the silver was hidden in the middle, with twelve bags of black beans pressed on the outside, making it impossible to distinguish by the wheel tracks alone.

When Han Dechang reached the mountain pass, he first smelled the aroma of porridge.

A pot was set up by the roadside.

Chen Mu sat behind the pot, his right arm in a sling across his chest, holding a bowl of white porridge in his left hand. He was surrounded only by Er Gou and a dozen or so wounded soldiers; there were hardly any horses.

Han Dechang reined in his horse.

"Chen Mu?"

Have you eaten?

Chen Mu scooped up a spoonful of porridge.

"Come over if you haven't eaten yet."

Han Dechang did not go there.

He first ordered the archers to fire arrows at the hillsides on both sides. Several volleys of arrows landed on the rocks and withered grass, but there was no one in sight, nor any birds that had been startled into flight.

The scouts reported back that there were no soldiers ten miles ahead.

Han Dechang smiled.

"You think you can scare five hundred people with just a pot?"

"The pot isn't scary."

Chen Mu finished the last sip.

"What's under the pot is really scary."

Han Dechang lowered his head.

There was no firewood at the bottom of the pot.

There was only one thick rope buried in the snow.

Chen Mu kicked over the iron pot, and Er Gou simultaneously cut the rope knot.

A loud bang echoed from the south slope of Crow's Neck.

Dozens of logs fell, and the rubble piled up on the hilltop the previous night rolled towards the convoy like black waves. Han Dechang had been on guard against an ambush on the hilltop, but he hadn't expected Chen Mu to have only left ten men there to push the logs. The rubble didn't distinguish friend from foe; it first overturned the eight grain carts in front, and then smashed more than thirty warhorses into the deep ditch to the north.

The road was instantly blocked.

Han Dechang's five hundred men were cut into three pieces.

Lu Shuangyi charged out from the rear of the group.

She led two hundred light cavalrymen, hiding in the snow-covered forest where the supply convoy had passed. After the scouts had searched the area, the men crawled out from under the white cloth and snow pits. The warhorses had burlap sacks in their muzzles and their hooves wrapped in fur. It wasn't until a black blade pierced the back of the neck of the last foot soldier that the coachman realized there was no way out.

"Protect the silver car!"

Han Dechang was not in charge of the grain.

He led his personal guards straight to the middle section of the iron carriage.

Both the guards before and after were shouting for grain, but Han Dechang only protected the silver. Many of the infantrymen escorting the wagons slowed down upon hearing the order. They hadn't received their pay for three months, and their wives and children had their grain withheld by the military farms. Now that they finally saw the silver chests, the commander was still thinking about protecting the money for the Black Tooth Cavalry first.

A foot soldier crawled out from under the overturned grain cart, and instead of forming ranks, he cut open a bag of rice and stuffed it into his clothes.

The second person started stuffing in too.

Soon, a dozen or so men were fighting over the grain. The squad leader swung his sword and cut one down, but the rest didn't stop; instead, they turned around and tackled the squad leader. The Han soldiers hadn't even clashed with the Black Pot Cavalry yet, and they were already killing each other over a bag of rice.

Chen Mu saw it at the mountain pass and told Er Gou to carry the pot forward again.

"Shout it out to them."

Er Gou shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Carry the grain you seize yourself!"

"If you throw away the knife, you won't be killed!"

The first few dozen infantrymen immediately threw down their crossbows, carrying rice sacks, and ran up the hillside. Han's cavalry tried to give chase, but the ten crossbows behind the pot fired arrows simultaneously, pinning the fastest pursuer to the ground.

Zhou Tie's eighty heavy cavalrymen charged up from Beigou.

The slope was very steep, and heavy cavalry could not ride side by side; they could only climb up in groups of ten. The first two horses were shot down by crossbow bolts as soon as they appeared, and the riders behind them continued to charge, stepping on the fallen horses. Zhou Tie raised his shield to block three arrows, and his blue-maned horse pressed its chest against the iron chariot, forcefully turning the chariot sideways.

The iron cart got stuck on the mountain road.

Han Dechang's personal guards were also blocked on the other side.

The two sides thrust spears at each other across the carriage. The sheet metal could stop the arrows, but not the underside of the carriage. A heavy cavalryman, a former furnace worker, tumbled off his horse, crawled under the axle, and smashed the wheel pin with a mining hammer.

The wheel came off.

The cart full of black beans and silver chests tipped to one side, crushing seven or eight Korean riders. The two silver chests burst open, spilling silver all over the snow.

The South Korean soldiers were momentarily blinded by the silver light.

Zhou Tie jumped off his horse first.

"Robbery!"

The Black Pot Heavy Cavalry abandoned their guard duties and charged towards the silver chest, stepping on bean sacks. Han Dechang's personal guards panicked as well, each fearing the silver would fall into someone else's hands. The once-complete guard formation instantly crumbled into a chaotic mess.

Lu Shuangyi slashed her way in from behind.

She did not rob the silver.

The black blade only struck those still issuing orders. Two squad leaders were cut down from their horses the moment they raised their flags, and when Han Dechang turned around, the five hundred guards could no longer find a flag to relay messages.

Chen Mu also moved.

Lin Qinghe forbade him to draw the bow, so he ordered four old soldiers to carry the pot forward. Behind the pot were ten crossbows with their strings cocked, to be fired every twenty steps.

Crossbow bolts were fired from above the rim of the pot, specifically targeting the legs of the cavalrymen protecting the grain.

Er Gou became more and more excited as he walked.

"A pot can be used like this!"

"I'll make you a wheeled one from now on."

"Wrap it with another layer of iron!"

"Just get through today first."

Han Dechang finally broke free from the chaos of the army.

The twenty guards behind him were all sons of the Han family, and they knew that even if they lost this battle, there was no way to surrender. They held their scimitars in their mouths, first shooting the wounded soldiers behind the pot with short crossbows, and then spurring their horses onto the collapsed carts.

The first guard was blocked by the iron pot.

The second man swept past the side of the pot and slashed open Er Gou's shoulder with a single stroke. Er Gou released his grip in pain, and the pot tilted to the left, revealing half of Chen Mu's body.

Three crossbows were simultaneously aimed at Chen Mu.

The old soldier carrying the pot rushed over and used his back to shield him from two arrows. The third arrow grazed Chen Mu's left rib and embedded itself in the wheel.

Chen Mu did not help the old soldier.

If they paused on the battlefield, even more people would die. He snatched the spear that the old soldier had dropped. Unable to hold it level with his left hand, he tucked the butt of the spear under his arm and used the strength of his bodyguard's charge to send it forward.

The spearhead pierced the horse's neck and went into the rider's abdomen.

The man and the horse fell over together, tripping the three riders behind them.

He saw that Chen Mu, protected only by wounded soldiers, led twenty personal guards straight towards the iron pot. The first volley of spears pierced the rim of the pot, and the four old soldiers carrying the pot simultaneously released their grip, causing the heavy iron pot to overturn to the ground.

Chen Mu and Er Gou were both detained below.

Han Dechang laughed as he dismounted and personally lifted the lid of the pot.

Just as the pot was raised half a foot, a short knife stabbed out from below, piercing his palm.

Chen Mu smashed through the pot, his left shoulder ramming into Han Dechang's chest. Han Dechang, clad in heavy armor, only took half a step back, then drew his sword and slashed horizontally with his other hand.

Er Gou lay down on the ground and hugged his leg.

Chen Mu ducked to avoid the blade, and the short knife slashed upwards along the wound on Han Dechang's palm, severing three fingers. Han Dechang screamed and staggered back, as a guard thrust from behind, the spear tip grazing Chen Mu's neck.

Chen Mu grabbed the spear shaft and used it to pull his bodyguard in front of him.

Han Dechang's second strike landed squarely on the backs of his own men.

Chen Mu crawled out from under the corpse's armpit and plunged a short knife into Han Dechang's face with his left hand.

The knife tip went into the eye socket.

Han Dechang fell backward.

Of the twenty guards, twelve remained. Seeing their commander dead, they turned and ran. Er Gou scrambled out of the snow, picked up Han Dechang's knife, and chased after him for a dozen paces, but unable to catch up, he simply threw the knife away.

The knife missed the man, but it did manage to sever the reins of a horse.

"Stay, Ma!"

The guard abandoned his horse and fled into a ravine.

The Han family's vanguard tried to return to rescue, but the road was blocked by rubble; the rearguard tried to retreat, but Lu Shuangyi blocked their way; and the commander of the central guard died beside the silver carriage.

Half an hour later, the first group of people threw away their knives.

An hour later, only scattered fighting remained at Crow's Neck.

Of the 500 guards, more than 160 died, 210 surrendered, and less than 100 escaped into the mountains. On the Iron Horse Fort side, 52 died and more than 90 were wounded, and the Black Pot Heavy Cavalry lost another 9 riders.

Sixty-four vehicles, sixty-one of which can be driven away.

The carts contained forty carts of rice and wheat, eight carts of salt, six carts of coal for the furnace, five carts of arrows and spears, and one cart of winter clothing. In addition, there were 2,100 taels of silver for pay, 270 live horses, and 180 sets of usable leather and iron armor.

Chen Mu did not distribute the silver at the mountain pass.

He ordered his men to load the dead onto the grain carts first.

Each corpse was placed with a bag of rice as a pillow and ten taels of silver on its chest. Those who returned alive received an additional five taels, while the furnace worker who first overturned the silver cart received twenty taels and a horse.

The 210 who surrendered did not come empty-handed.

Those who were willing to go back to Tiemabao with the cart each carried a bag of grain; once they arrived, whatever was in the bag was given to them to eat first. Only a little over sixty people left the group; the rest squeezed onto the grain cart.

Lu Shuangyi let the first person to throw away their knife choose a horse. A skinny foot soldier only wanted a mule with a broken tail, saying he wanted to take his wife and children. She also gave him a leather armor: "Go back and learn to ride. If you can't learn, feed the horse." More than twenty people who were originally going to leave the group saw this and came back.

On the return trip, all the intact grain carts were adorned with palm-sized black flags.

The people from the military settlements along the way saw it from afar and initially thought it was another Han family grain requisition team, so they took their children and hid in the ditch. When the convoy got closer, they realized that the people on the carts were all deserters they knew, and some of them were even throwing rice cakes into the ditch.

Nineteen households followed the first military settlement.

Thirty-seven households followed the second military settlement.

When the convoy reached a point ten miles from Tiemabao, more than two hundred people had joined them. The grain carts moved slower and slower, but no one complained. Chen Mu had originally only intended to seize sixty-four carts, but on the way back, he seized both the carts and the people inside.

When the convoy returned to the exit of Crow's Neck, one of Han's guards who had fled into the ravine was caught by the herdsmen.

He was not a grain transport soldier.

Hidden at his waist was a secret order from Han Wanshan to Han Dechang.

Er Gou couldn't read, but he could recognize eight black teeth drawn on the corner of the paper.

The prisoner looked at Chen Mu and whispered, "The Black Tooth Cavalry have already left the pass."

"Eight hundred riders will reach Iron Horse Fort tonight."

Chen Mu looked up at the sky.

There were only two hours left until nightfall.

Lu Shuangyi mounted her horse.

"The grain carts should proceed slowly."

"Those who can ride, go back to the fort first."