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

The shout itself was a knife. The defenders of Chenjia Camp began to panic. The archers on the wall turned around and aimed to the south, while some of the infantry on the northern blockade line also looked back.

A fleeting crack appeared in their defenses.

Shen Du was waiting for this crack.

"Team C—Charge!"

Forty-two men emerged from the shadows against the wall.

Instead of taking the main road, they crept across through an abandoned irrigation canal on the east side of Chenjiaying.

The bottom of the irrigation canal had been dry for many years, covered with a thick layer of withered grass and silt, which perfectly masked the sound of footsteps.

Shen Du ran in the lead, and the passive effect of the "Pawn Crossing the River" increased with every step he took facing south. His speed was so fast that Zhao Laoliu behind him had to exert all his strength to keep up.

The end of the ditch is less than thirty steps away from the rear camp fence south of Chenjiaying.

The fence was made of thick wooden stakes and was originally used to keep livestock out, not to keep people out. Behind the fence were the logistics soldiers' tents and baggage piles, but now it was empty—all the men who could fight had been transferred to the north.

"Chop down the fence!"

Zheng Biao led the breaching team to the fence. With a short-handled axe, he chopped down thick wooden stakes at an angle, the sound of breaking wood completely drowned out by the cannon fire from the north. Three breaches were simultaneously created, and Team C filed in through them, trampling over several iron pots and a pile of empty quivers, encountering no resistance whatsoever.

The rear camp of Chenjiaying was the weak point of the defending army. It contained provisions, spare arrows, and several barrels of lamp oil, and was guarded by only a few old and weak auxiliary soldiers.

When a soldier saw Shen Du rush in through the gap in the fence, he was so frightened that he dropped all the arrows he was holding to the ground. Before he could even shout, he was knocked unconscious by the back of a knife.

"Don't stop!" Shen Du roared in a low voice, "Push them north! Hit their backs!"

Meanwhile, on the Xiajiaying observation tower.

When Qingshan put down the binoculars, the expression on his face was no longer as composed as before.

What he saw through the binoculars made him frown slightly—four plumes of smoke rose from the south gate of Baojiaying, and dust rose from the south of Chenjiaying.

The location of the smoke column and the direction of the dust made it seem as if a Yan army was moving south.

But he didn't believe it.

He raised his binoculars again and looked once more. The distance between the four plumes of smoke was too even, each about fifty paces apart, as if someone had measured it with a ruler.

He had seen the dust and smoke from a large army marching; real marching dust could never be so neatly arranged.

"It's fake." The man in the green robe placed his binoculars on the fence and said softly, "Someone is setting up a diversion to my south."

Song Yu rushed up the stairs, his face showing an unusual tension.

"News from Qingshan, south of Chenjiaying—there are Yan cavalry active, numbers unknown. Also, four smoke plumes have been raised in the direction of Baojiaying—"

"The smoke column is fake. The cavalry is fake too." The man in the blue robe turned around, his tone still calm, but his speech was much faster than usual.

"The enemy is deliberately creating a diversion. They're sending a feint to the south to distract Chen's camp and the half-camp. What's the purpose of this distraction?"

He walked to the table covered with a map and pointed to the locations of Chenjia Camp and Banbian Camp.

"Zhu Neng's main force is still north of Baojiaying, blocked by the blockade line of Chenjiaying."

If he wanted to launch a direct assault from the north, he wouldn't need to deploy a feint force in the south. The sole purpose of placing a feint force in the south is to cover a small contingent's infiltration southward.

Song Yu was taken aback: "Infiltrate south? The south is our army's heartland. Wouldn't they be sending themselves to their deaths if they infiltrated south?"

The man in the green robe didn't answer immediately. His finger slid along the map from Chenjiaying southwards, stopping at the south gate of Zhongying. He remained silent for a moment, then tapped his fingertips lightly twice on the paper.

"South Gate of Zhongying".

He raised his head, his voice suddenly becoming sharp. "The main forces of the Central Camp and the Northern Camp are all concentrated in the north to intercept Chen Heng, and only two centurions are guarding the south gate. If someone manages to breach the rear of Chen Family Camp and sneak along the base of the stockade wall to the south gate of the Central Camp—once the south gate is breached, Chen Heng's cavalry will have a second escape route."

"You mean their goal isn't to break through and retreat?" Song Yu realized as well. "They want to continue fighting south?"

The man in green robes didn't answer the question. He was still looking at the map. His finger moved south from the south gate of the central camp, stopping at the southern end of the Twelve Linked Cities, and then moved another inch south. Beyond that inch lay the largest bargaining chip on the entire Dezhou battlefield.

Texas.

The man in the blue robe's pupils contracted slightly. He picked up a pen and quickly wrote a few lines on a blank sheet of paper.

"Song Yu, immediately send a messenger to Dezhou City to inform the General that a feint by the Yan army has appeared south of the Twelve Linked Cities. A small force is infiltrating southward. The number of troops is unknown, and their movements are unclear. Please strengthen the city's defenses and do not let your guard down."

Song Yu took the order and quickly descended from the observation platform.

The man in the green robe picked up the binoculars again and aimed them in the direction of Chenjiaying. The smile on his lips vanished completely. He suddenly realized he had made a mistake—from the very beginning, the enemy's goal was not to break through.

Texas City. On the city wall.

Li Jinglong stood behind the battlements, holding the imperial monocular telescope in his hand. The sky in the direction of the Twelve Linked Cities had been stained grayish-yellow by smoke and dust, and four black columns of smoke rose crookedly from the direction of Baojia Camp, pointing towards the southern sky. Further away, in the direction of Chenjia Camp, wisps of yellow dust could be vaguely seen rising.

"Four plumes of smoke." Li Jinglong handed his binoculars to his aide, his voice hoarse. "Dust is still rising south of Chenjia Camp. How many troops does the Yan army have? Are they attacking south or north? Can anyone tell this general?"

No one could answer. The generals on the city wall looked at each other, some of them holding binoculars with trembling hands.

A steady voice rang out from the stairwell: "That's not a marching army."

Qu Neng strode up to the city wall, his armor still covered in dust from the rammed earth of the wall. He had been watching from the city wall for two whole days before he could clearly see these changes. He walked up to Li Jinglong and cupped his hands in greeting.

"General, the four smoke columns are too evenly spaced; they were deliberately placed. The dust in the south is stirred up by cavalry running back and forth, not by a marching column. This is a feint."

Li Jinglong turned around and looked at Qu Neng. He had forgotten that he had been reprimanding this veteran general just half an hour ago. Now, what Qu Neng said was the only thing that made sense to him at this moment—not because Qu Neng was right, but because what Qu Neng said could temporarily make him less afraid.

"But Qingshan just sent an urgent report saying that a Yan army unit is infiltrating southward." Li Jinglong pulled the order from his sleeve, his fingers trembling slightly. "The number of soldiers is unknown, and their movements are unclear. What if they reach the city walls? I, the Great General, have seen Yan cavalry at the Baigou River—"