Once Jiang Yan had secured an unconscious Ding Lai Hang, he immediately had the forces that were with him to retreat back to the base. However, he gave the order out that all other forces were to converge upon Qi Ji Guang’s position so as to give them aid. He had no intention of them figuring out that Ding Lai Hang had been whisked away right under their noses. Once he was in the clear though, he recalled many of the forces of his army to retreat to take a well-deserved rest. Now, it was up to Jie Zi Fang’s army to see some action.

Zhang Da Zhi had been fighting alongside Qi Ji Guang ever since they got word that Jiang Yan’s personal squad was taking to the field. He waited until they struck, then he came in along with many other reinforcements to take out the forces that had come to prey upon Qi Ji Guang. Now, as he saw his enemies disappearing into the distance, he got the news that in all of this confusion, Ding Lai Hang had been taken out by another group and taken as a prisoner.

The only thing he could do in this situation was curse at his own lacking foresight and vow to never let such a costly mistake happen under his watch again. He was about to have his soldiers fall back and rest for the night, but it did not seem that his enemies had any plans on letting them rest. Sun would set in an hour or two, but it was an unusual plan to attack after they retreated their first army. Nevertheless, he had to respond, and he sent a 25,000 soldier attachment with multiple Gatling guns to intercept them while the rest of his forces were ordered to get some much-needed break time. After all, the majority of them did not have the most pleasant sleep last night due to all of the night raids that happened.

25,000 soldiers that he had sent to meet with the enemy forces were enough, for now, to deal with the approximately 30,000 of Jie Zi Fang’s men. As soon as the night set, the fighting was still going on and he was at a complete loss as to why Jie Zi Fang was fighting into the night. This way of fighting was generally regarded as not safe due to the increased risk of unknown factors since visibility was limited. However, he was determined to not make the situation any more dangerous than it already was by making sure that they were properly ready for night raids this time around.

What really confused him was that the initial relatively small scale battlefield just went at it all night with neither side committing more resources to it. Thankfully for Zhang Da Zhi, neither Jiang Yan nor Jie Zi Fang made any attempts to break into their camp and his soldiers were able to fight at near full-strength for this day. Once the news of Ding Lai Hang being taken prisoner by the enemy got through the ranks, the morale began to tank just a little bit.

The third day of battle came and gone by with neither side making any big moves, even Jiang Yan who was normally trying to take out officers on the front lines was staying quiet and out of sight. This continued on to the fourth and fifth days until the next major development that occurred on the sixth day of combat. This was the day when Zhang Da Zhi and a couple of his best fighters snuck into the enemy camp expertly and silently took out some of Jiang Yan and Jie Zi Fang’s strategists that had been causing them a bit of trouble the past few days. On their way out, they were lucky enough to find a tortured but alive Ding Lai Hang and immediately got him out of his prison and back to their camp.

This little stunt that they had pulled was something that they did to improve the low morale as to deal a serious blow to their enemies. Getting Ding Lai Hang back was a bonus, not to mention that he had caught a whiff of the enemies’ battleplan for the next few days while he was under their care. Zhang Da Zhi knew that this was a possible trap, so, he had a few of his inside men go investigate what was really going on.

He made sure that one of his most important allies got the care that he needed and was on the track to being back to full strength. Then, he made a decision that would surprise everyone. The surprise attack on the enemy camp had happened during the day which they had to leave their armies to only a couple of strategists to take care of while they could go to do this mission. It was a definite risk, but it looked like it all worked out in the end.

What the surprise was, was that on the sixth night, just hours after they had launched an offensive on the enemy base, they would take tens of thousands of soldiers, split them up into a couple thousand per unit, and have them all charge into the enemy camp at virtually the same time. The overseeing of this task was given to one of Zhang Da Zhi’s most loyal strategists as well as a few others who knew what they were doing, and they set off immediately after their orders had been given.

The strategists that went were not there to fight alongside the soldiers, but rather to guide them in the most optimal way to deal the most amount of damage. This was why Zhang Da Zhi was careful in hiding their presence all the way until they had reached their destination. There was one more thing that no one expected from Zhang Da Zhi’s forces, that they would be sacrificing all these men along with hundreds of Gatling guns to lend to this cause. They only had a few thousand, to begin with, and losing them like this would be a blow to their forces, but this had to be done.