29 Dealing With Spies

A week had passed since the battle officially began and Yue Fei seemed to be only haphazardly committing his forces to look for other ways in, and to fight the soldiers in the narrow impasse. Han Xin knew that Yue Fei was up to something, but he didn't know what. Therefore he could only prepare his soldiers for the worst.

On Yue Fei's side.

(YF) "Lieutenant Bee, how are the preparations coming along?" Yue Fei asked Lieutenant Bee with anticipation.

(LB) "It's about a third of the way done, there seems to be no complications on our part. With this sort of progress we should be finished this project within two weeks." Lieutenant Bee said satisfaction.

(YF) "That's good to hear, what about the matter with finding another passage so that we can flank Han Xin's army?"

(LB) "We have only managed to find a few small passages so not too much progress there i'm afraid."

(YF) "Ah, is that so? Not to worry then, there are others ways to win this war."

(LB) "That is only natural for war."

(YF) "Oh yes that reminds me, we need to start building another type of weapon."

(LB) "Oh? What could this new weapon be?"

(YF) "I'm sorry I can't say. This has to stay a secret between me and engineer Robby."

(LB) "I understand sir. Some things just need to be kept an absolute secret."

(YF) "That is all, you are dismissed. I will go and have a chat with engineer Robby about how to construct this weapon now."

(LB) "Yes, sir. As you wish."

Lieutenant Bee promptly left the room so that engineer Robby could start to talk with Yue Fei about the new upcoming project that Robby would be spearheading.

(ER) "You wanted to see me about something? If it's about the current project then you don't need to worry about anything as we are working as fast as we can." Engineer Robby said quickly.

(YF) "It's good that you guys are working fast, but the reason I gathered you here is for another reason."

(ER) "Oh. Then what can I help you with general?" He said as he took a seat directly opposite of Yue Fei.

(YF) "I won't lie to you, there is a spy in our midst. I need to do something about this before we launch our true offensive in a few week's time."

(ER) "A spy? Do you have an idea as to who it might be?"

(YF) "I'm not too sure." Yue Fei said with a straight face, but in reality he had a pretty big hunch it was his very own lieutenant Bee. However, a suspicion was nothing more than a suspicion. He needed to have concrete evidence.

(ER) "Then may I ask what you plan on doing to find out? After all, information in a war is vital, if a spy can gather sufficient knowledge that could lead to a monumental disaster."

(YF) "I know, what I have planned for you is that you will be bait for the suspected spy(s) and if they capture you for interrogation then we'll know we definitely have a leaker in our presence. I have already informed a couple of my senior officials that you and I are to start a new project together, one that is even more important than the one we are currently building."

(ER) "I see, that is a pretty sound plan, and you're sure that the spies will try to kidnap me for interrogation?"

(YF) "How could they not? Something even more secretive is about to be built, i'm confident that they won't be able to resist such a temptation. I'm sorry but you might have to suffer for this. I chose you because you are one of the senior engineers here, so they will naturally believe that something incredibly powerful is going to be built."

(ER)"As you command sir Yue Fei."

(YF)"You should be prepared though. They may or may not use extremely inhumane tactics to make you talk. I need to know that you won't cave in until we come and save you."

(ER)"You can count on me."

(YF)"Good, you are dismissed." Yue Fei said as he turned around to look through the schematics all over again. Yet he did not realize the sinister sneer on the face of engineer Robby as he quietly got up and walked away.

Within days of his talk with Baron, engineer Robby didn't turn up one morning. So there was a massive search for Robby as ordered by Yue Fei.There were also a series of interrogations of people who lived around where Robby's sleeping quarters were. They Did everything they could to find Robby,but they had no luck. Yue Fei was no fool, he had Robby tailed by multiple men, and somehow all these men were knocked out just before the kidnapping. After waking up, these people had a mild concussion and couldn't remember much of what happened.

Yue Fei thought of all the possibilities in his mind. Could there be multiple spies hidden in my camp? Did the enemy somehow sneak multiple men into camp without the lookouts noticing? Yue Fei thought this matter through for a few days but he couldn't find a suitable answer. Then a messenger came in to report some news.

(M)"General Yue Fei, the matter with the missing engineer has resolved itself." The messenger said in a respectable voice which instantly got Yue Fei's attention.

(YF)"What do you mean resolved itself?"

(M)"Engineer Robby has returned back to camp covered with many wounds."

(YF)"Take me to him immediately."

The two departed promptly then rushed over to the place where Robby was resting. Once they got there Yue Fei immediately examined the engineer. Many scars were on his body, it seemed like a few fingers were missing, and many stab wounds that stretched all over his body were clearly shown on his body. Engineer Robby woke up and looked sorrily at Yue Fei, and quietly started shedding tears.

(ER) "They were really cruel to me. You said you would come to save me, but you didn't. I had to escape their camp on my own."

(YF) "Yes, there was a rather unfortunate turn of events right as you were captured. We noticed that after your disappearance the small passageway that leads to the enemy camp nearly tripled in guards."

(ER) "But you still decided not to at least try?"

(YF) "I'm sorry, other than that we didn't have any other leads on you. No matter how big our hunch was, we can't exactly risk thousands of men just for you alone."

(ER) "You still could have at least tried."

(YF) "Enough of this is, have you told the enemy my plans or haven't you?"

(ER) "...Rest assured, I haven't told the enemy anything I didn't want to."

(YF) "That's good to hear. You may rest now. I have some other business I have to deal with so i'll leave first. Rest well. Messenger! Go get me lieutenant Bee, now."

Now that Yue FEi and the messenger had left the room, engineer Robby was alone in the room.

(ER) "Haha, Yue Fei you fool. There is more than 1 spy in your inner circle." Robby whispered to himself quietly and then smiled in satisfaction to how his infiltration into Yue Fei's army had gone so seamlessly. The only thing that had to be sacrificed was possibly one of the other spies.

Yue Fei had no idea that Robby the engineer was also one of the spies that he was trying to get rid of, he believed that there was only one spy that was in a high enough position to threaten his simulation. That person was lieutenant Bee, and with this kidnapping of Robby it cemented the idea that Bee was definitely a spy. This was because Yue Fei had only told lieutenant Bee and Robby about his plan to build something. Now he was certain that Bee was indeed a spy.

Once he had met up with Lieutenant Bee Yue Fei immediately ordered for him to be sent away to do reconnaissance far away. There was no need to kill his second in command just because he was a spy. This would be a terrible course of action since this would only make his soldiers lose morale.

Two and a half weeks after the initial battle start date was when Yue Fei decided to seriously commit his forces to taking the narrow passageway. He knew that realistically speaking,his chances of finding another passageway to flank his enemy was very low. Plus, he had almost finished making the blueprint that Baron had given to him.

Yue Fei didn't send all of his men wishing that he could overwhelm them with numbers. In this mode the defenders had the advantage in terrain and quality of troops while the attackers had the advantage in numbers. He had to use tactics to overcome this. Yue Fei had had plenty of experience with this mode he had a few tricks up his sleeve.