Wei set the signal board beside the granary door, where daylight from the loading yard fell across the colored marks. Former soldiers gathered around it, while Mao Lin stood with his hands behind his back.
“This sequence calls a provincial column,” Wei said, raising two flags. “This one orders a local garrison to close a road.”
One of the men leaned close to the board. “The second flash could also mean a scout has seen the first flag and is repeating it.”
“That’s what we need to sort out,” Wei said. He handed Mao a short list. “Tell me which of these you have actually seen. Leave rumors off.”
Mao read the marks aloud. He recognized the pattern that had been used at the bridge assault. “That second flash is often a decoy. The first sighting may be true, but the repeat does not mean the column is twice as large.”
Wei drew a line beneath it. “How can we tell?”
“Spacing. A real garrison closure holds the flag longer. A decoy repeats the color too fast.”
They tested it in the yard. Wei raised the signals while two former soldiers watched from the far wall. The first man named the column correctly. The second called the repeated flash a closure.
