At night, the forest is a pitch-black forest where you can't see your hand in front of your face. But for the Aruru people, this is not a problem.
The winding procession passed through the forest without disturbing even the sleeping birds along the way.
With Yun Zhe's guidance on shoes and hooves, the Aruru people fully utilized their talent for stealth.
"Yun Zhe, why don't we just launch a surprise attack under the cover of night?" Cyrus asked the question for the second time. He really couldn't understand why, since they could move so quietly, they wouldn't just launch a surprise attack under the cover of night instead of taking such a long detour.
Yun Zhe sighed. "Didn't I already tell you? You've already launched a night raid once. The timing is so close, the enemy will definitely be on guard. Are you thinking of saying they might be different, or that you should give it a try? Let me tell you, don't even think about it. If you get discovered, you'll have to slink away, and you might even have your way back blocked. And don't say they're all useless. Different generals lead to different armies, and their reactions to the same problem will be different. Trust me, a completely new approach is the safest and most effective."
Cyrus was interrupted twice, and Yun Zhe managed to say what he wanted to say before he could, which surprised him but also made him more respectful.
"Let's go, we should be able to reach the main road by morning. We'll see when their grain transport team arrives."
As they were talking, Yun Zhe and Cyrus climbed a small hill, and on this rare little hill, they witnessed a scene that surprised them.
Meanwhile, a little earlier at the same time, Philby in Fort Dorgnitz paced back and forth on the city wall, while several centurion captains around him nervously exchanged glances, wondering why Philby had summoned them to the city wall so late at night.
Philby has been in a bad mood these past few days because he's overheard a lot of gossip about him from his junior soldiers. Most of it is praise for him, calling him a coward and inflexible. Because of this, even the mercenary Aruru got into a fight with his own guards.
In fact, Philby didn't really care about these rumors. However, when he was reviewing Yun Zhe's grand plan today, he discovered something that he thought was unreasonable.
If I really had three or four thousand soldiers, would I just sit in the castle and wait for you to attack?
At this moment, Phil felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and instantly understood many things. Following Yun Zhe's train of thought, he also conceived a bold plan. The reason he summoned these guards tonight was for this plan; as for the idea of proving he wasn't a coward or a rigid, inflexible person, that was absolutely not on his mind. Not even a trace of it.
“Tonight I need a hundred men to stage a feigned night raid on the enemy camp. The requirements are simple: you must appear to have several hundred men, but you must be discovered by the enemy and escape unscathed. You can't actually fight them, and you can't let them realize you only have a hundred.” Philby glanced at the six centurions standing there. Seeing the Aruru centurions' eyes shift from eager anticipation to evasiveness, Philby's mood improved considerably.
The centurions exchanged glances; they had never heard of such an outrageous request. This was a deception, a sneak attack—no, a feigned sneak attack!
It's normal for soldiers to be required to be courageous and strong, but since when have they been required to be good actors?
“This is an opportunity. If it succeeds, I will give all the credit to him; if it fails, I will take all the blame.” Philby had anticipated their reaction. He had already thought these words through.
The centurions continued to look at each other, and finally, McLean, the leader of his personal guard, stepped forward.
Philby was greatly pleased. At the same time, a centurion of the Aruru people stepped forward. Philby recognized the man; his name was Donald, a very un-Aruru name, so Philby remembered it immediately.
Donald and McLean looked at each other; they were the captains of the soldiers fighting on both sides.
“Killing two birds with one stone,” Phil’s smile deepened, ignoring the murderous glints in their eyes. He beckoned them to his side and began asking them some professional questions.
After further refining the details of the operation, the two men each led fifty men to attack from the east and west sides, preparing to give the Lunlang family army below the city a little midnight surprise.
Standing on the city wall, Philby was filled with emotion. The words he'd uttered earlier, "You take the credit, I'll take the responsibility," weren't actually his own. They were words Yun Zhe had told him before he and Cyrus left.
Philby didn't understand Yun Zhe's strange thought process, but he couldn't deny that his words were really useful.
As Philby was marveling at the scene, he witnessed the same bizarre sight that Yun Zhe and the others had seen.
The Lunlang family's main camp has caught fire!
Philby rubbed his eyes; it was indeed their camp on fire, not a hallucination. Seeing this, he couldn't help but wonder how long he'd been lost in thought. Had these two really succeeded so quickly, achieving such great results?
"Wait a minute, arson wasn't part of the details we discussed." Philby glanced at the direction of the fire; it was to the west of the enemy camp, right in the direction of McClean's group.
"Could this be what Yun Zhe always calls improvisation?" Philby covered his forehead, unsure whether he should be happy.
"Quickly, pass down the order: have all the soldiers get up and prepare for alert!" Philby suddenly realized this and quickly gave the order.
The fire was certainly not started by McLean, but the Lunlang family wanted to know who did it more than anyone else.
The guards on duty immediately notified Leon Lunlang upon discovering the fire. Leon's first thought was that the fire was set by the enemy, a prelude to a night attack.
But when the entire camp was mobilized to be on alert and put out fires, Leon realized he had been overthinking things. It was just a construction accident caused by his camp's workers working too hard at night to build siege equipment.
It is impossible to determine who started the fire, and Adam, who was in charge of building the siege equipment, could no longer defend himself and committed suicide in his tent.
When Leon saw his son hanging in the tent, he remained silent, filled only with anger.
He understood that none of his sons would commit suicide, not Adam. Because Adam was cowardly, too cowardly to have the courage to take his own life, even though he certainly had every reason to do so.
He just felt a pang of sadness; he couldn't be sure who was behind it. It could be one of Gossa's old men, his daughter who was on good terms with him, or even his youngest son, who always appeared carefree but was actually quite cunning.
"Sir, we have spotted a large number of troops outside the camp. It must be the Donic family taking advantage of the fire to launch a surprise attack on us."
"Oh, ha, hahaha, hahahahahaha!" Leon laughed in extreme anger, and his appearance made the surrounding soldiers feel afraid.
"Attack! Attack! Make sure they all die here without leaving a single one alive!" Leon looked up at the castle in the distance, where firelight flickered, as if in a show of defiance, or perhaps in mockery.
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