Yan took with him two resourceful soldiers, to enter the enemy camp. While they were commuting to the other side of the wall, Yan found a hopping rabbit that he picked up by the ears and took it along with him. At the enemy camp site, they cannot enter as they please, but they had sneaked from the back to scan the ground. They put in laxatives in the food of the cooking help, making five of them sick. Compelling the head of the helpers to look for extra hands to serve the soldiers in the camp. The head helper saw these three men wandering about in the forest. Soldier that assisted head of the helpers questioned their identity, "Who are you all? What are you doing in this region?"
It was known that these region is under raging war, and any wandering passerby are suspicious, given that the civilians are already evacuated.
Yan replied the questioning soldier, "I am returning to the port with my folks. We had gone for trading in Changan (commercial city in Shenzhou empire)…" Even before he could complete speaking the soldier spoke, "Take these men as your help." And returned back to the base. Helper explained their situation, to which Yan contradicted that they were mercenary, who were ready to do anything for money. And the helper promised them an amount, therefore successful Yan and his two men entered the enemy camp.
While they were serving meals to the soldiers. All the soldiers of the camp came in orderly fashion in a line with their bowl. Yan had let the rabbit loose with the paper ribbon with the message to chew on. To find the soldier that reacts to the messaged ribbon. While they were serving the meals only one soldier took notice of the rabbit and rushed in a frenzy.
"What is this thing doing!" In a furious fit he tried to pull the ribbon off the rabbit and began a match of tug of war. Yan took the rabbit in his arms and took the message out from the rabbit's mouth and handed it to the soldier creating ruckus.
Soldier : "Make sure this rabbit does not cause more trouble or stew it!" And left.
Yan took the rabbit to the outside of the camp to set it free while rewarding it with a small carrot. "Here little friend your work here is done take this for you labour, now hop off."
Meanwhile one of the soldiers accompanying Yan was on his way tailing the soldier that panicked at the sight of the ribbon message. He saw the soldier enter the commander-in-chief's quarters to show the paper that was half chewed. The message that the rabbit chewed was crucial, as the rest of the sentence would become incomplete without it. The message left out was 'firing rations,' it did not mention which camp rations were being destroyed. Whether it was their rations that will be in jeopardy, whether Guoqiang was going to conduct a sneak attack, or whether the infiltrator was going to fire Guoqiang's rations. Because the message was chewed off, it provided quite a bit of confusion. Now panic rose in their camp, thinking it is their rations that were to be destroyed by Guoqiang's army. Commander-in-chief ordered soldiers to shift the rations to a tent. Taking advantage of this situation, Yan and the other soldier, decided to hoard some rations. Mock bags of husk with stones to weigh, were prepared replacing the actual rations. And the rations were hide by Yan in the dense forestation.
Chaos spewing in the enemy base camp, left the commander-in-chief's tent guard less. The soldier that accompanied Yan, and was spying on the movement of the enemy soldiers, went searching commander-in-chief's tent for more conclusive clues. He could not find the ribbon like messages but he found an order and token. It was an order by an anonymous authoritative figure, saying that they will attack two passes and defeat the Tianxia army with the help of an insider from the Tianxia court and that the token was for the internal help to recognise. With that much the soldier sneaked out the tent to Yan to report about his findings.
Yan knew that the commander-in-chief would know about the missing token, and they had to plan their escape right away. Where the mock rations were stored and locked under guards, they put the tent on fire, burning the rations. In that commotion they made an escape. But they were not in much luck, as the enemy realised the deploy and troops began to follow Yan and his men. They were at disadvantage, they were on foot, while the enemy on horse back. Yan and his men did not retrieve the rations as they did not have the chance to. Unfortunately, now they were cornered off, between, a rocks and enemy army. At the stroke of luck, arrows showered on the enemy. Yan's troops were hiding in the trees and shooting arrows, knocking every soldier off their horse backs. Down the tree came commander Yang along with Yan's archers.
Yang : "That was your escape plan? You would be dead if we were not here for rescue." Yang will not leave any moment to mock Yan. "Grab the horses." He commander the archers to gain control of the rider less horses as they will now be part of the Tianxia cavalry.
Yan : "Good work. Your smart enough to have insight now."
Yang : "NO! Thank you? Woah you have no gratitude.
Yan : "How did you know we would need help?"
Yang : "We saw the smoke, realised you must have done something and maybe in danger. But what took you so long to escape. About two hours it smoked and now you come out?"
Yan : "We were hiding their rations."
Yang : "Smart fellow."
Yan : "I am no you."
Yang : "Stop mocking me."
Commander Yan lead the way to the ration hideout. It was tricky as it was slightly close to the enemy camp base. At the spur of the moment, bulk loads by three people could not be moved much further away. But they were trained in stealth. Without alarming the enemy they were successfully able to take the rations on the horse backs, also the fact the enemy base was chaotic, in frantic hunt for runaways and trying to contain the fire.
They came back to their camp base, and went straight to General's tent. There they saw Guoqiang with Chu and an man lying dead in the tent.
Yan : "Reporting to General, we have procured an order letter and a token that is important evidence of treason. Source unknown so far."
Yang : "We have also procured rations from the enemy, during their chaos."
"Excellent work commanders. This man was found snooping around my tent, Chu caught him, but committed suicide even before he muttered a word."
Chu : "He also had a token and order letter on him."
General took the token and letter procured from the enemy and from the dead traitor. He placed on his desk. The tokens were identical, indicating the same network. However the letters drafted were different. One from Shenzhou court another form Tianxia court could be concluded. However it wasn't enough to pin someone for this crime. The identity of the mastermind or the masterminds was still unknown.
"Call superintendent Wan, commander Chen and commander Yuan," ordered Guoqiang. The three arrived at the General's tent a while later. And took their seats before they start the intensive meeting. Superintendent Wan was incharge of the Juyong pass, commander Chen accompanied the reinforcements from the capital and stayed back to make up for its defect and commander Yuan, is the head of an elite squad under General Han's army.
Guoqiang : "Superintendent Wan, I hope your alright in acting a little play. We are no longer battling by war ethics. We must use deception."
Superintendent Wan : "Yes General, I and my guards will comply."
Guoqiang : "Commander Chen?"
Commander Chen : "I and my troops will oblige."
Guoqiang : "Commander Yuan?"
Commander Yuan : "You have our compliance."
Guoqiang : "Thank you Superintendent and Commanders. We had a traitor amongst us, now annihilated. He was passing our movenmet and information to the enemy and that is how we failed at our previous attempts. I see no other way, out of this situation, then to purposefully loose this battle."
"General?" asked a stunned Superintendent Wan. He has dedicated his life protecting the Juyong pass. He lost only once and now he desperately wants to gain it back to save his honour and uphold his loyalty to his nation.
Guoqiang : "I understand your concern but I am of the opinion, that we play dirty and get back at the enemy strongly."
Commander Chen : "How do you propose that General?"
Guoqiang : "Superintendent Wan, march with your guards at the break of dawn tomorrow, to Zijin Pass. And vacate the Zijinguan villages. Communicate with the superintendent there and make him to comply with our plan. Abandon the Zijin Pass, completely empty, to confuse the enemy. Make sure it is very discreet, the enemy should not be aware, I will be sending the deployment to the court shortly. After your work at the Zijin Pass, join Commander Yuan."
Superintendent Wan : "Where, General?"
Guoqiang : "At the Yanmen Pass."
Commander Chen : "General we are attacking the enemy pass?"
Juyong and Zijin pass are both within the Tianxia empire. Yanmen pass is situated in the enemy empire. After loosing the Juyong pass, the enemy will make way to capture Zijin pass. But they will not be expecting a surprise at the Yanmen pass. Yanmen's location is a strong chokepoint in Shenzhou's territory, it will be devastating to them. And therefore force out the mastermind to reveal themselves.
Guoqiang : "Commander Yuan you will be incharge of leading the attack at the Yuan, make your plan and preparations thoroughly. Commander Chen and I will be attacking at Juyong last time. Any questions military officials?"
Commander Yuan : "What does General plan with this vivid flash play?"
Guoqiang : "Loosing to force out a victory."
The three officials glanced at each other and unanimously agreed.