"Li Jingxuan, what the hell are you doing?! Even if you feared an ambush, you didn't have to run! Have you lost your head or your mind?!"
The Prince of Badong watched in mounting frustration and berated him loudly.
The others voiced their criticisms more quietly:
"I don't understand what Li Jingxuan means to do either. Even if there really were troops lying in ambush on Lone Mountain, he didn't need to withdraw to his original positions. Why not turn their scheme against them and advance his army, sending one force to attack the reinforcements from Lone Mountain and another to seize Lu Kang City? Wouldn't that gain him two advantages at once? Why surrender every advantage to his opponent?"
"Exactly. He withdrew not only in the south, but in the north as well. Utterly baffling! Does he mean to keep both fronts aligned? It seems he's truly terrified of Wang Yang, hearing enemy troops in every gust of wind and cry of a crane. So much for him."
"The military classics say: make strength appear weak and weakness appear strong. Yet warfare is the way of deception; strength and weakness are never fixed. Weakness can conceal strength, and strength can harbor weakness. Wang Yang marched out of Lu Kang City to attack Li's forward camp as a feint, a probing attack. But had he discovered that Li Jingxuan was weak too, that feint would have become a real assault. Li Jingxuan was strong, however, so Wang Yang could only retreat-and that retreat was real as well. I suspect there were never any ambushers on Lone Mountain. Li Jingxuan was excessively cautious, mistaking strength for weakness and suspecting weakness of concealing strength, until he hesitated everywhere and doubted every step. Excessive caution leaves no room for grand strategy; excessive suspicion