Toward evening, a flock of crows rose from the battlefield and flew north together, drawing surprised upward glances from the Exorcising the Dragon Army soldiers clearing the field and repairing the defenses. But the crows soon vanished into the night sky, their scattered cries gradually fading, and the soldiers finally gathered their thoughts and returned to their work.
Before nightfall, after Chief Zhang had led almost all the chiefs with advanced cultivation in an all-out strike that ended in a stalemate, Xu Shiying promptly took over Niu Da's camp, while Ma Wei organized Wang Xiongdan and Zhou Xingfan to lead troops against the riverside ground east of the main camp, retaking it and pressing Bai Liben and his two battalions of Taiyuan troops, ultimately bringing the curtain.
Down on the day's fighting for the time being, as the enemy could advance no farther and had no choice but to withdraw after dark.
After this battle, morale in the camp seemed to rise a little, but by evening it appeared somewhat subdued again.
There was no helping it... To the lower- and middle-ranking soldiers, this battle had come too abruptly. Their frame of reference was still the great advance into wealthy southwestern Hebei a month earlier, or at most the counterattack by the Eastern Capital army. Although the situation had been specifically explained before the battle, they were slow to turn that corner, so merely holding their ground after such bitter fighting inevitably left them somewhat dejected. The middle- and upper-ranking men understood the situation better, and many had previously been filled with despair and unease. Today, seeing the great formation work, and Chief Zhang wielding a supreme treasure and actually holding his own alongside Heavenly King Xiong and the others, had heartened them for a time. But by the same