Without a superior or elder of absolute authority using laws, rules, strength, and tradition to compel them, many people knew perfectly well what was right, yet found it hard to put into practice, especially when it involved risks and costs.
Hu Bin was like that, Liu Huzi was like that, and so was Liu Cheng. All three had, in fact, felt fear and hesitation.
Liu Huzi was the first to shake it off, because Liu Cheng played the role of superior for him. He could transfer those feelings elsewhere and become a resolute executor.
Hu Bin, however, had clearly succumbed to those feelings, at least for a time.
As for Liu Cheng, he became the one who bore the greatest pressure for the entire day that followed... All day long, he pondered one question and worked at one task.
The question was the safety of his own troops.
Liu Huzi had a sizable force, four or five thousand men, but the vast majority were routed soldiers. The generals and Banner Chiefs among them had no desire whatsoever to fight. Only three banners, including Liu Huzi's own, had originally been south of the Ying River and counted as fresh troops. Even this force had only barely been cobbled together because Yuan Hong had come in person and repeatedly stressed, beneath the canopy of the General Who Pacifies the West, that this was Xie Shang's own intention.
Troops like these might manage a pursuit in a confused battle if they followed the crowd. But if the Di people detached a force of roughly equal numbers, it would probably be a repeat of that day beside the Ying River.
The task was simpler still: repeatedly urge Hu Bin to attack, without fail.
This really was not a matter of asking allied troops to