That soldier, intimidated by Du Sanbao’s threat, hurriedly responded and said he would go check immediately…

That night, Du Sanbao took over from the South Gate defending general, telling him to go guard the North Gate instead. Then he quietly called together twenty-four brothers who had worked with him to dig through the passage, preparing to wait until the Xiliang soldiers had all rested before leaving the city to raid their camp.

Although General Liu had said… His Majesty had forbidden their Great Zhou army from raiding the camp tonight, as a general of Great Zhou, how could Du Sanbao miss such a good opportunity?

“His Majesty said raiding the camp is not allowed, so taking a full squad out of the city is impossible. Only we few can act secretly.” Du Sanbao lowered his voice and said, “Tomorrow, Xiliang will attack the city. If we don’t cause trouble for the Xiliang people tonight, are we going to let them sleep well… and come fight us tomorrow? Absolutely not!”

“But… Generally, we’re only twenty-some people. Even if we sacrifice our lives, I’m afraid we can’t cause much commotion in the Xiliang military camp!” someone said with difficulty to Du Sanbao.

“That’s why I had people collect all the leftover New Year firecrackers in Jiangzi City. We can bring those along. When the Xiliang army is sleeping soundly, we’ll throw fire oil, torches, firecrackers, everything into their military camp! That should be enough to give them something to remember!” Du Sanbao’s face showed a look of gritted teeth when mentioning the Xiliang army. “As for us, we’ll leave two people in the city, then depart from the South Gate. Once we leave… these two must immediately go find General Liu Pinggao and inform him that I’ve led people to raid camps in the east, west, south, and north directions separately. Once the Xiliang forces on all four sides are simultaneously attacked and their military camps catch fire, we’ll retreat. General Liu Pinggao will open the city gates for us!”

“General, do you think this plan will work?” some Great Zhou soldiers hesitated. “It’s not that this subordinate fears death, but if we act first and report later like this… We’ll be subject to military punishment afterward!”

“Don’t worry! General Liu Pinggao also wants to surprise attack the Xiliang military camp, but it’s just that… His Majesty is reluctant to see our soldiers die in vain!” Du Sanbao looked like he understood Bai Qingyan’s deeper meaning. “But are we Great Zhou soldiers, people who fear death? Tomorrow, Xiliang will attack the city—we must stir up trouble for them! Besides, we won’t engage in direct combat!”

Seeing other soldiers still hesitating, Du Sanbao continued: “Besides, how many times have I, Du Sanbao, acted first and reported later? Which time did I mess things up? We subordinates need to understand how to share His Majesty’s worries. His Majesty is currently pregnant!”

Hearing Du Sanbao say this, several soldiers remembered how Bai Qingyan had specifically ordered Du Sanbao to lead them in digging the passage, showing that Bai Qingyan trusted Du Sanbao.

They looked up at Du Sanbao and said solemnly: “We’ll listen to General Du and are willing to sacrifice our lives in loyal service to His Majesty! However… Generally, this subordinate thinks we don’t need to alarm even General Liu. After we set the fires, we can just run back through the passage we dug! We didn’t seal that passage completely—we can just leave two brothers to watch the entrance.”

Du Sanbao thought for a moment and chuckled: “You little rascal wants to do good deeds without leaving your name!”

“Since it’s all loyal service to the nation anyway, not leaving a name also avoids punishment!” the young general said with a laugh.

“However, we still need to exit through the South Gate, otherwise we can’t bring the horses and the things we need to carry through such a small tunnel entrance!” Du Sanbao looked up at these soldiers. “We’ll assess the situation then. If the Xiliang people pursue us closely… opening and closing the city gates would threaten the city’s safety, so we’ll find a way to return through the tunnel. If the Xiliang people don’t discover us, we should return through the city gate—horses are valuable too!”

“You stay in the city. Your archery is quite accurate. After we leave the city, if you see Xiliang scouts making a move, shoot them dead without mercy!” Du Sanbao turned to the young general who wanted to do good deeds without leaving his name. “Work with our brothers on the city wall to put on a good show and scare those Xiliang bastards to death!”

With Du Sanbao making the decision, he led twenty-two men riding horses loaded with fire oil and firecrackers, falsely claiming orders to ride out of the city at high speed…

Xiliang scouts saw Jiangzi City’s gates open again and sent one person back to report, but over these past days, Great Zhou had always been toying with Xiliang like this—just minor skirmishes.

But who knew that before the scout could return to report, just as he stood up and moved, an arrow came whistling from somewhere on the city gate, striking the Xiliang scout directly through the heart. The scout didn’t even have time to let out a scream before falling to the ground lifeless.

Having been continuously toyed with these past days, the now-lax Xiliang scouts immediately became fully alert upon seeing this, looking up toward the walls of Jiangzi City, not daring to breathe heavily, bodies rigid, hearing a rough-voiced general shouting from the city tower: “Quick, quick, quick! Everyone, stay alert. Tonight’s camp raid must break Xiliang’s morale! Hurry!”

That Xiliang scout quietly crawled backward beyond the range of bow and arrow fire. Once outside the shooting range, he shouted: “Great Zhou is raiding the camp! Great Zhou is raiding the camp!”

As the Xiliang scout shouted at the top of his lungs on this side, Du Sanbao had already led his cavalry to throw all the fire oil, torches, and firecrackers into the Xiliang military camp.

The Great Zhou soldiers charged out, threw fire oil jars, threw torches, tossed in firecrackers, then rapidly galloped back toward Jiangzi City.

In the Xiliang military camp, flames suddenly shot up high, firecrackers exploded with crackling sounds, first startling the Xiliang war horses, then fires broke out everywhere.

Soon, the Xiliang military camps at the North Gate, East Gate, and West Gate were all ablaze with soaring flames, firecrackers crackling and exploding loudly.

Before leaving the city, Du Sanbao had someone give notice, asking the gate-defending general to keep the gates open for them. Since Du Sanbao had previously been carrying out tasks for Bai Qingyan and forcefully claimed he needed to leave the city on a mission, the gate-defending general didn’t dare ask questions and let them out. However, he didn’t dare delay going to report to Liu Pinggao.

Liu Pinggao, lying in bed, was so startled upon hearing this that he didn’t even dress properly and rushed out of his inner chamber in slippers: “Du Sanbao has already left?! You just let them out of the city like that?!”

“General, General Du insisted on leaving the city, saying he had a mission and that we shouldn’t ask questions we weren’t supposed to ask! We couldn’t stop him!” the gate-defending general said miserably.

Liu Pinggao thought for a moment and said, “Du Sanbao must have gone out to raid the camp! That Du Sanbao dares to raid the camp with just over twenty men—utterly reckless! Pass the order to all four city gates: when our soldiers return from the Xiliang military camp retreat, the city gates must be opened for them!”

“General, should we report this to His Majesty?” the gate-defending general asked.