Stratagem of Running Away3

The Jin general feared that Bi Zaiyu’s retreat was a feigned maneuver and thus climbed to a high vantage point every day to observe and monitor Bi Zaiyu’s camp.

Bi Zaiyu discovered the enemy’s plan and did not hastily retreat. Instead, he ordered his soldiers to rearrange their battle flags and set them up neatly in the camp.

At night, Bi Zaiyu hung some live sheep upside down, allowing the sheep’s heads to be on the drums. The sheep, in pain, kept kicking, causing the drums to sound continuously.

Seeing the Song army’s white flags fluttering in the wind during the day and hearing continuous drumbeats at night, the Jin general believed he had the upper hand and started drinking and feasting with his troops.

While the Jin soldiers were drinking and feasting, Bi Zaiyu secretly gave the order to relocate the entire army without being detected.

After the Jin soldiers surrounded Bi Zaiyu’s former camp for three days, they launched a four-sided attack without any resistance and charged into the empty Song army camp.

The Jin general saw the sheep still hanging upside down and hitting the drums, and could not help but sigh, ‘Bi Zaiyu has indeed used his troops cunningly. I fell for his ‘retreat’ stratagem!’