First mistake: assuming military men would have retreated without taking the wine with them

Explanation: The Persian monarch Cyrus the Great once feigned a retreat when fighting the nomadic Massagetae, leaving behind his ornate and well-supplied camp. The Massagetae fell upon the camp, looted it, and got dead drunk. Once so-inebriated, Cyrus returned with frightening speed and force, wiping out the Massagetae force, and capturing their general, a prince of the Massagetae.

This story is not wholly reliable, as it is part of one of several accounts of Cyrus’s death (in this account, the Massagetae return under their queen, Tomyris, and kill Cyrus and his army), but is a common trope in military history - it’s often hard to restrain troops from indulging when they unexpectedly run across alcohol!