In mid-November, the once-illustrious Know-the-World Army suddenly suffered a surprise attack by government forces in Qi Commandery, followed by a severe defeat. Its second-in-command, Shi Zijiang, was killed, and two of its other eight leaders went missing. Know-the-World himself led more than fifty thousand remnants in a desperate flight across the mountains to Lu Commandery, while some troops and supplies on the northern bank of the Ji River were taken back to Dengzhou by their local leaders to join Gao Shitong.
As for the victorious Qi Commandery troops, they captured a full sixty thousand head of assorted livestock, took nearly five thousand heads, and followed up by recovering all of Qi Commandery.
When the news spread, the entire Eastern Territories shook, for this was the government forces' first great victory against the Righteous Army.
But that was all.
As late November arrived, a long-anticipated cold front surged down from the north, spreading a vast blanket of ice and snow across the entire Eastern Territories from north to south.
The weather brought large-scale military operations to a halt, but cultivators and mounted scouts instead seized the opportunity to travel ceaselessly in every direction, brewing and brokering various arrangements.
Clearly, the court meant to use this opportunity to make deployments, rest and reorganize, and convey orders for rewards and punishments. Meanwhile, neither of the two major Righteous Army groups in the eastern part of the Eastern Territories-the Hebei Righteous Army around Dengzhou and the Exorcising the Dragon Gang's Righteous Army around Dongping Commandery-could possibly accept stopping here... in fact, according to reports from the front, Li Shu had already sent Fifth Wang Lang and Dan Dalang north and south respectively, stationing their forces on the borders of Jibei and Lu Commanderies to rest and reorganize. He was also contacting Dengzhou while redoubling