The two armies had been fighting for a long time. Though the Shang Army had held the advantage throughout, the mountain left little room to maneuver. Bolstered by Ji Fa's encouragement, the Zhou Army still clung to its last breath. Wiping it out completely would take some time yet.
"Go! Retreat at once!"
As the sky gradually darkened, Ji Fa finally made his decision.
Rather than descend the mountain or break through the encirclement, he would do the opposite: continue uphill and head into the valley.
The mountain paths were treacherous and the valley deep. By relying on the valley's terrain for defense, they could certainly hold out longer.
Ji Fa immediately left some troops behind to defend their position and led three thousand men toward the valley. Earlier, he might have hesitated, but now he acted decisively when the moment demanded it. In a crisis like this, he knew what to keep and what to sacrifice.
Seeing this, Zhang Guifang moved to pursue him, charging ahead of the others with his spear striking like a dragon. Unfortunately, the mountain paths were ill-suited to mounted combat. Although he routed the Zhou soldiers blocking his way, Ji Fa still found an opening to escape uphill.
Ji Fa had spent several days on the mountain with his army and had already surveyed this nameless valley. Its entrance was narrow, allowing only three men through at a time, so their entry was slow.
Yet Zhang Guifang deliberately slowed his pursuit. Riding up to the valley entrance, he stretched out his spear to bar the Shang soldiers about to rush inside and thundered, "Do not enter the valley!"
His booming shout left countless men dazed, and the Shang soldiers immediately bristled with resentment. *That's Ji Fa! There's no way out of that valley. We