However, it was evident that the King of Hell had underestimated the enemy's archery skills, and I had guessed correctly. The enemy had indeed intentionally released the pigeons into the city, with the aim of intercepting our intelligence. Amidst the rebel camp, a barrage of arrows, wave after wave, rained down upon the pigeons like a reversed waterfall.
Soon, three pigeons were struck and fell to the ground. I saw soldiers scrambling for them, perhaps intending to roast them for food?
Whether pigeons were delicious or not, I didn't know, but those three strips of paper all fell into enemy hands and were subsequently delivered to the rebel central command.
Zheng Baobao looked at me with suspicion. "Why aren't you surprised? Could it be you guessed this would happen?"
I nodded. "It's a diversion."
"But I still don't quite understand. Your intelligence mentioned the South Gate, but you and they agreed on the North Gate, right?"
"Think from their perspective," I said. "If you were the enemy commander, what would you think upon seeing that message?"
Zheng Baobao pondered. "If I were Wang Lun... I would be certain that you would break out from the North Gate."
"Why?" I asked.
"If the intelligence is true, but it was intercepted, and people in the city saw it, and no message was sent out, then you definitely couldn't break out as agreed. If the message said South Gate, then the breakthrough direction would change to the North Gate. If the message was false, it would mean the people in the city knew the pigeons would be shot down and were using a diversion to deceive those outside. Therefore, the breakthrough direction would still be the North Gate! Am I right?" Zheng Baobao herself sounded excited.
I gave her a thumbs-up. "Your analysis is excellent. That's exactly how it is."
"But this way, our breakthrough route is completely exposed!" Zheng Baobao asked, puzzled. From the way I was deploying troops within the city, she could tell that we were indeed planning to break through the North Gate.
"That's the result I wanted, Baobao. Go on, continue deploying troops. We'll attempt a breakout again."
"Yes!" Although Zheng Baobao's expression was confused, she didn't ask further this time and simply executed the order.
I observed the changes in the enemy camp from the city gate tower. Soon, their command made a decision, also beginning to redeploy troops and change defenses, moving infantry to the north while deploying fast-moving cavalry to other areas.
It seemed to be weakening the defenses of the North, making it easier for us to break out. After all, in any offensive or defensive battle, cavalry was far superior to infantry. However, I saw the intent of the rebel commander, Wang Lun: to feign weakness and cooperate with us, giving us the courage to exit from the North Gate. At that moment, he could use the high mobility of the cavalry to quickly redeploy troops from other directions to encircle us.
I had to thank this Wang Lun for his intelligence. If I were facing a slightly less astute general, I would worry that he wouldn't think of this.
At least, everything was under control so far.
Half an hour later, the troop movements below the city were largely complete. I had Zheng Baobao deliberately create a great deal of noise and dust within the army, so that those outside the city could also sense that a major military operation was underway at the North Gate.
Bingbing and Xiao Nu returned with the topographical map of the area outside the North Gate. I drew two circles on the map.
The base point of one circle was at the North Gate, and the other was about two li outside the North Gate. The diameters of both circles were similar, around five hundred meters.
"What does this mean?" Bingbing asked, confused.
This couldn't be explained too meticulously. I called the two of them to my room and used a small kerosene lamp to quietly issue instructions. "Xiao Nu, the rest is up to you."
As I spoke, I drew a large circle around the two small circles and shaded it. "The blank area is the position of our army. The shaded area outside the blank and within the large circle is the enemy's position. Xiao Nu, you are responsible for adjusting all the artillery to accurately and evenly cover the shaded area!"
"Ah, I understand!" Bingbing whispered. "Brother means that by using our two teams, we create two small circles, which are actually decoys, to lure the enemy into forming a large encirclement with our two small circles. Then, we bombard the enemy within the encirclement, except for our own people!"