beat the gongs and withdraw the army

beat a retreat

The Chinese idiom, Pinyin is m í NGJ ī NSH ō UB ī ng, which means to send a signal to withdraw troops and return to the camp by beating the Gong; it means that the battle is temporarily over. From Xunzi Yibing.

The origin of Idioms

"Xunzi · Yibing" says: "when you hear the sound of drums, you advance, and when you hear the sound of gold, you retreat."

Idiom usage

To withdraw troops means to withdraw troops. See sun anyongmeng and Lu Xianfeng. Chapter 97 of Shi Naian's complete water margin in Ming Dynasty and Chapter 51 of Feng Menglong's Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Ming Dynasty: "Yue Jiao shot Zuo Li in the opposite direction again. The king of Zhuang taught him to return to the chariot and called for the army to stop. "