They were sure that there was a mole in the army. Up till the time when the reinforcements arrived, they had made small but considerable advances. Once the reinforcements arrived, their advances were counterattacked. To consolidate that there was leak in information, they even made a false play. When they planned an attack in one of the beacon towers and instead attacked another, to confuse the enemy. This concludes that from that 20,000 men, that came from the capital, there was a traitor that need to be brought out.
All had gathered at the General's tent, General himself, and three of his best commanders. Commander Yan was not a militant but a tribal. He belonged to the Wuling tribe at the Yan mountains. During the expansion of the Tianxia empire, Yan state was ruling that region and chaos erupted. In the middle of which the tribes and of the mountain suffered. Ill-fate brought upon the burning of the village in that power struggle. Only few survived, Yan being one of them, he swore loyalty to General. Commander Chu comes from an wealthy family from the southern state. He joined the army for the glory, honour, and fame. But soon he changed his viewpoint over his beliefs. He joined General's Guoqiang army from Wang's army. Because in the court only few were bold enough to defy direct orders, Guoqiang was the foremost. He joined Guoqiang, with a righteous, although he is mischievous and quite the ladies man, he is loyal to General and the nation. Commander Yang rose from low to higher ranks. He got admitted in the royal guards to earn a living for his family, and to bring great honour to his family name. He devoted being a straight, uncorrupt guard, but when he was exposed to nepotism and corruption, his demeanour changed. Yang could not rise in ranks despite his achievement, due to his lowly birth status. Not so good, official's sons rose in ranks due to nepotism or bribery. Yang left the royal guards and joined Guoqiang's army, where people were treated for their talent and skill and not by attribute at birth.
During this meeting, at this very moment Commander Yan realised he heard the white wagtail bird's call. It struck him. "General do you hear that!?" Everyone in the tent, go silent, when each one of them could here a bird's call.
Guoqiang : "Yes, a bird call."
Yan : "Exactly General! If any birds were to be used to carry messages…
Chu interrupted : "The birds would be shot down by the tower guards."
Yan : "Exactly! But if they used a secret call to communicate and after that call, all they had to do was go out in the forest and have a secret meeting."
Yang : "So you are saying this mole has a secret call and the enemy soldier and they communicate with it."
Yan : "This call of the bird, that we just heard was white wagtail bird, it is not native to this land, and neither is the migration period, why would I be hearing this call ever since the reinforcements arrived?" It clicked to everyone, what was brewing in this camp now.
Guoqiang : "Go scan the area discreetly to see which soldier is not in his flank and monitor their movement. DO NOT, make the enemy aware of this. We don't want to catch them red handed we need to know their formation and who is the mastermind behind it. Go now."
General's falcon, Qin had arrived from sending message to Fei regarding selling valuables to raise money for the armoury. Yan took the falcon to the watch tower to have him tail any stowaways from the camp, to the forest. He caught the sight of a man returning from the forest behind the cooking tent in the basecamp. Qin flew down with his talons and ripped a piece of his clothing and circled back to Yan at the watch tower. He with that piece of fabric and Qin on his shoulder returned back to General's tent.
Yan : "General, Qin tore this piece from a suspicious soldier coming back from the forest."
Guoqiang : "Excellent work! Get Huang and Tao to sniff its trail in the forest."
Yan took out the hunting dogs from their kennel, and had then take a sniff at that piece of fabric. Yan and Chu followed along the trail behind the dogs. They went deep into the forest and found a long paper ribbon tied on the lowest branch of a tree. When Chu saw that he untied it from the tree and read the message.
Chu : "Yan, they plan on putting our rations on fire tonight!"
Yan : "Let's go back and inform General quick."
They both rushed back to the camp along with the hunting dogs. And informed everything, to General.
Guoqiang questioned : "Did you bring the message here?" Chu handed the paper to General.
Guoqiang : "Yan take this message with two more trusted soldiers infiltrate the enemy camp, and just observe. Try to spot the massager in their camp, who recognise this paper. And find the connection between who is setting this play and who is gaining from this war. Make an escape plan if caught. Yang and Chu…" Guoqiang stopped before he continued. If they were to change the location of the rations then the mole will change plans according, it will also inform them that the army is aware of their secret message exchange. This will take away the upper hand they have at the moment. But the rations are important, without it soldiers will have no energy to fight back. Guoqiang puts his hand over his forehead, before saying, "I guess we will have to loose rations tonight."
Yang : "General!?"
Chu : "I can understand no matter how we try to safeguard it. It will spook the enemy. But General…"
"The counties close by… look for rations there, after today's bonfire... If there is any other way that either of you can come up with, do share." And Guoqiang sat at the table staring blankly at the map of the Juyong pass walls. The three most trusted commanders of General, went about their way to work on other tasks. Yan preparing for departure to enemy camp, Chu and Yang finding a way for the rations.