As May began, the plum rains started displaying their power without restraint. Dampness, mud, itching, sour stench, uneven heat and cold, exhaustion, and illness assailed every camp and marching column to varying degrees.
At this point, all the celebrated commanders and great generals alike were beaten.
The liveliest battalions at the front of the Exorcising the Dragon Army could no longer show off. Dan Tonghai's, Wu Jingfeng's, Liu Heihuang's, Xiahou Ningyuan's, and Wu Changzai's battalions all wilted. The Hebei cavalry battalions under Fan Wang, Cao Chen, and the others no longer dared to gallop about everywhere either. Instead, Li Zida's and Zuo Caixiang's battalions remained active, since many of their men, from top to bottom, were locals familiar with the climate and good at coping with it.
This greatly stimulated Dragonhead Li Ding. Before Zhang Xing returned south to the battlefront, he repeatedly ventured into the lower Huan River region, sometimes accompanied by Xu Shiying and sometimes by Xiong Bonan, to observe the condition of the frontline Exorcising the Dragon Army and Imperial Guard at close range. What he found made him itch all the more to act... the reason was self-evident. Compared with the Exorcising the Dragon Army, which enjoyed half a home-ground advantage, the Imperial Guard, having set out in haste, was even less capable of coping with the plum rains, faced greater difficulties, and suffered more obvious weakening.
Moreover, as the rain gradually accumulated, tributaries of the Huai River throughout Huaibei were rising. This naturally separated the front and rear of the Imperial Guard moving from east to west, while making it easier for the Exorcising the Dragon Army moving north and south to seize opportunities.
In a word, although they had anticipated it, the Exorcising the Dragon Gang had still underestimated heaven's might and overestimated the