Tales from the ancient chronicles: A fools chance

Note: This story is inspired from ancient Chinese jing (勁 or power) in any war, you have a combination of positive power, negative power but there is a thing jing or power which is shown in the story here. Hope you like it.

King Bahubali was a noble and just king ruling the land of Bhoomi Pradesh (the land of earth) he was known to be the most cunning and the most intelligent ruler of the land. His policies of building water reservoirs over the river provided water to peasants all over the year, even without rainfall.
‘Never trust nature,’ he would tell his advisors.
His panel of seven royal advisors were also very highly intelligent in their respective field. The kingdom of Bhoomi Pradesh was running in prosperity with only one problem, its neighboring kingdom was Khooni Pradesh, the region of murderous King Khoontosh. King Khoontosh as his name said, was very aggressive and murderous king. His soldiers bullied the peasants in the land and robbed his own subjects.
One day, as King Bahubali was sitting discussing the current drainage system with his advisors a royal message came from the neighbor, ‘To my neighbor king, prepare to war.’
The advisors where surprised to hear the message as nobody prophesized a war. They immediately looked at the king as he dismissed the messenger,
‘What should we do, my lord?’ asked the advisor to the king.
‘We have to build the drainage plans, don’t we?’ King Bahubali said.
‘But, with all due respect, your honor, what about the war? what should we do?’ asked the royal advisor.
‘Nothing,’ said the king.
The advisor got worried and assumed the king is getting mad.
After few days the enemy came at the gates of the kingdom. They were in large numbers and completely surrounded the kingdom. The advisors glanced at the enemy moment from the topmost tower,
‘What chance do we stand in front of such a vast army?’ said the advisor worriedly.
‘A fools chance,’ replied the king and started laughing.
The advisors looked at each other worriedly.
Admiral Kantana was the great admiral for the Khooni Pradesh army. He ordered his army to camp at the gates of the enemy, waiting for the messenger to bring any message. When no messenger came for two days he got worried.
‘Some devilry is at hand,’ he thought, ‘Why would the king not send any messenger? Does he wants to raid the walls? But why? Something is amiss.’
He immediately send a pigeon to his king stating the issue.
King Khoontosh was worried on reading the letter, ‘Why doesn’t the king attack nor does he surrender?’ he asked his advisor.
Vishant was the royal advisor with the king, ‘I am sure there must be some devilry behind the walls, ready to ambush our soldiers. We should send our spied inside the land to check.’

Admiral Kantana received the message via pigeon to send spies into the kingdom, they disguised themselves as villagers and scaled the walls of the kingdom at night. From the hidden walls they saw construction going on, with the roads and cities being drilled down. They saw big drillers kept on the street and they quietly reported that a lot of digging work is going on inside the walls.
The admiral was nervous, what devilry is this? What ambushing mechanism are they building? Shall he order the troops to attack, what should he face inside?
He immediately send the pigeon back to the king reporting the events.
The King started sweating, he could see the defeat immediately. Of course, he acted in haste, didn’t he know? Bhoomi Pradesh did not have vast army like him, but they excelled in engineering. They did master the elements of nature by turning water in the direction they needed, no to mention their ability to create earthy structure in the land gave the kingdom the name from traders.
Vishant was worried too, as a royal advisor, he did advise king against the attack long back, enmity with the neibours is not a good idea. A small rebellion will trigger a big fire that will be a big trouble for the administration of the kingdom later on, but the king had attacked without a plan. Without any Intel. This is it, his final test.
‘I think, we should retreat now,’ said Vishant.
‘But won’t it be a shame?’ asked the king.
‘We will organize a private dialogue with the king Bahubali. We will sign a deal of truce with them, a deal of peace and for all the trouble we have caused them, we will privately compensate and pay them some gold pieces. The world will see truce and will say that we both acted maturely to protect subjects.’
The king considered the advise.
‘If you attack now, and if we loose, it will be even bigger shame. Lets take a high road now. King Bahubali is just king, if nothing else, he won’t attack in frenzy,’ Vishant said, the last words where for the king, however the king was too worried about the war that he did not feel offended.
He ordered a quill and a parchment to write a message. Vishant glanced nervously at the letter, the eccentric king could do anything.
----
A months later:
King Bahubali sat at the royal throne with King Khoontosh, ‘After a long enmity between the two states, we are proud to join in alliance with our neighboring power, please give a round applause to now friends, Khooni Pradesh and Bhoomi Pradesh, for friendly alliance together forever.’
The whole crowd cheered.
----
That night, a quiet shadow crept into the royal chambers to meet the King Bahubali. The king glanced at the person and opened his arms, ‘Well done, Vishant, well done.’
Vishant removed his hood, ‘For the development of the Khooni Pradesh and its subject, it had to be done. It was a fools chance to make sure the king Khoontosh learn a lesson.’
King Bahubali smiled, ‘A fools chance indeed.’