In this realistic war game, only I understand the course of the battle.

"To Dezhou City?" Zhao Laoliu pulled his pipe from his mouth. "Master Li, with our numbers, plus Chen Heng's cavalry, we'd have less than four thousand at most. Dezhou City has tens of thousands of troops under Li Jinglong's command—"

"We just want Li Jinglong to know we've arrived."

Shen Du pinned the dagger to the flag and stood up.

He turned to face south.

Looking south from Baojiaying, one can vaguely see the outline of Dezhou City—a brick city taller than any of the camps in the Twelve Linked Cities, with the crenellations on the city walls gleaming bluish-gray in the afternoon sun.

"Li Jinglong could see the fireworks of the Twelve Linked Cities from the Dezhou city tower."

Shen Du's voice wasn't loud, but every word sounded like a pre-written judgment.

"In the Battle of Baigou River, the commander's flag of the 600,000-strong army was broken by the wind, and he ran faster than anyone else. This man was like a frightened bird."

If you can convince him that the Twelve Linked Cities have been breached by the Yan army and that the Yan cavalry are right under his nose, he will run away.

He fled, and Dezhou fell without a fight. The twelve cities were attacked from both sides; what was there to defend?

Gu Zhang remained silent for a long time.

"Make Li Jinglong believe that the Twelve Linked Cities have been breached." He repeated Shen Du's words, as if savoring the weight of each word. "How do we make him believe it?"

"Smoke," Shen Du said.

He pulled the dagger from the flag and pointed it at the ruins of the collapsed watchtower.

"The watchtower collapsed, the south gate of the central camp was blown open, and Chenjiaying caught fire."

These three things together, viewed from the Dezhou city tower, are irrefutable proof that the Twelve Linked Cities have been breached.

Li Jinglong wouldn't send anyone to verify; he wouldn't dare. He would only do what he did best.

"Run away," Zhao Laoliu added, his lips twitching involuntarily.

"Yes." Shen Du sheathed the dagger back into his waistband. "So what we need to do next is simple—head south."

"Pass through Chenjiaying, blast open the south gate of Zhongying, and then set fire to the city of Dezhou."

He glanced at Gu Zhang, then at Zhao Laoliu.

"We need to act quickly. Chen Heng's side won't hold out for long. General Zhu Neng also needs time to redeploy. We only have half an hour."

After Shen Du finished speaking, none of the people surrounding the command flag responded immediately.

It wasn't that they dared not answer; it was that these words carried too much weight, so much so that everyone mentally reconsidered their own fate.

Forty-two men, in half an hour, broke through Chenjia Camp, blew open the south gate of the central camp, and stormed into Dezhou City.

Any one of these three things would be a deal that costs hundreds of lives in a typical siege.

"Master Li," Zhao Laoliu said calmly, "I'll go with you."

He spoke softly and in a flat tone, as if he were saying who would be fetching water today.

Shen Du didn't have time to answer. A series of hurried footsteps came from the direction of the south wall, and a cavalryman covered in blood charged from the direction of Chen Family Camp. Before the horse had even come to a complete stop, the rider tumbled from the saddle. Gu Zhang caught him and recognized him as Chen Heng's personal messenger. A piece of the messenger's shoulder armor had been torn off by shrapnel, half his face was covered in blood, and his lips trembled as he struggled to speak—Chen Heng was surrounded in the depression between the central camp and the northern camp. His arrows were exhausted, nearly half his troops had been lost, and most of his horses had scattered. He could only hold out for half an hour at most. If no reinforcements arrived within half an hour, all three thousand men would perish there.

Without hesitation, Shen Du squatted down, rolled up the flag covered in engravings on the ground, and stuffed it into Zhao Laoliu's arms.

"The original plan remains unchanged. But I want to add three things."

He redrawn the route on the muddy ground with his dagger. The tip of the blade first marked a few points outside the south gate of Baojia Camp. "The infantry of Chenjia Camp are still blocking the road; their attention is all focused on the north. We need to make them look south."

"How do we get them to look south?" the train conductor interjected.

"Set off smoke." Shen Du drew several circles on the open ground outside the south gate of Baojia Camp with the tip of his knife. "Pile everything that can be burned in Baojia Camp outside the south gate, divide it into four piles. Unburnt hay from the granary, collapsed tents, the uniforms of fallen soldiers, anything will do. Four piles, spaced fifty paces apart, arranged in a diagonal line from the south gate of Baojia Camp southeastward. After lighting them, don't worry about the size of the fire, as long as the smoke is thick, black, and plentiful enough."

Zhao Laoliu chewed on his pipe for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "Four piles of smoke, arranged in a diagonal line from Baojia Camp to Chenjia Camp. From the lookout tower at Xiajia Camp, that's the Yan army's main force moving south."

"Yes." Shen Du moved the tip of his knife between Chenjia Camp and Zhong Camp. "The second thing. The Duoyan Three Guards cavalry sent by General Zhu Neng should have already circled around to the west side of the Twelve Linked Cities. Find me three men who can ride horses, have them ride the horses captured from the Southern Army, and circle around to the south of Chenjia Camp. Don't get close to the stockade walls, just ride back and forth outside the range of arrows. Tie tree branches to the horses' tails, and ride until the dust rises, the bigger the better."

Gu Zhang interjected, "A feint? To make the Chen family camp think there's a large Yan army force also to the south?"

"They don't need to actually believe," Shen Du said. "They just need to hesitate. Every moment of hesitation increases our speed as we rush south."

He plunged the dagger into the mud. "The third thing—from now on, Team C, put away your command flags and horns. Everyone, wrap your scabbards with strips of cloth, smear your faces with mud, don't take the main roads, and sneak along the base of the stockade walls. The smoke the defenders see is fake, the cavalry is fake, only our daggers are real. The real daggers will be used to stab the softest spot."

Outside the south gate of Baojiaying, the first firecracker rose.

Zhao Laoliu led the trench-filling team to pile up the remaining hay and several bundles of dry firewood in the granary, poured in a can of lamp oil, threw in a tinderbox, and flames shot up more than a meter high. The damp hay didn't burn thoroughly, and thick smoke billowed out, black smoke mixed with grayish-white water vapor, twisting into a crooked column of smoke rising into the sky. Immediately afterwards, the second, third, and fourth piles were lit in succession, and the four columns of smoke formed a diagonal line from the south gate of Baojia Camp southeastward. Viewed from three miles away, it looked just like a large army moving south.

On the open ground to the west, three elite cavalrymen selected from Gu Zhang's men had already switched to Southern Army horses. They tied dry branches and tent strips salvaged from the ruins to their horses' tails and galloped back and forth across the open ground south of Chenjia Camp. Hooves kicked up dry yellow dust, billowing up clouds of smoke, making it appear from a distance that at least three to five hundred cavalrymen were gathering.

A rapid gong sounded from the top of Chenjiaying's wall. The defending troops hesitated, as expected. Their main force was concentrated on the north side, leaving only a few auxiliary soldiers and archers on the south. The commander on the wall, looking south through binoculars, saw four plumes of smoke and billowing dust; his expression immediately changed.

"The Yan army is coming from the south!" someone shouted from the top of the wall. "There are Yan troops in the south too!"