Zhao Kuo Was No Armchair Strategist

260 BC, Changping. The Qin spent a thousand gold pieces to buy a rumor: "The only one Qin fears is the son of Lord Mafu—Zhao Kuo—being made general." All of Handan laughed at the young man who read his father's books. But Zhao Kuo spotted the flaw in the handwriting of the rumor slip—the imitator did not know that when Gongsun Long wrote the character "bai" (white), the final horizontal stroke was always half a cun shorter. He did not expose it. He followed Qin's script and played along: letting the Qin believe the swap of generals had succeeded, letting Bai Qi leave Yewang and walk into the Dan River valley. On the night four hundred seventy thousand men entered the fortifications, he finally began to pull in the net. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Zhao Kuo Was No Armchair Strategist — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠