Zhang Xing had made no mistake.
Or rather, Bai Hengqiu's hope that such a simple bit of espionage could rob Zhang Xing of his judgment itself smacked of a man at the end of his road.
As late February arrived, with grass growing and orioles on the wing, the Exorcising the Dragon Army retreated for three consecutive days, passing straight through Wuguan.
Their decisiveness made everyone realize that Bai Hengqiu had almost no chance of forcing a decisive battle. Some perceptive commanders also noticed that the number of cooking hearths in the Exorcising the Dragon Army kept increasing. Whether that was real or a deception, it showed that the enemy had ample room to maneuver. At this point, morale in the Western Pass Army began to waver. Many commanders questioned him to his face: how was he going to deal with Xu Shiying? Would Chang'an be lost?
Bai Hengqiu answered that the report was false. Xu Shiying had not come; it had merely been a deception to hold Zhang Xing in place.
Everyone could only accept this on the surface, but inwardly, some plainly no longer dared believe him... There were deserters that very day. Still, given the terrain of Wuguan Road, with both ends blocked, one stroke of Sun Shunde's blade in the rear ensured that no one else dared slip away.
That did not mean morale could be steadied, however, especially when Zhang Xing withdrew another thirty li on February twenty-fourth, retreating beyond Wuguan. By now, people were bound to wonder: once outside Wuguan, could you, Bai Hengqiu, still match Zhang Xing? It was not as though they had never fought outside Wuguan before.
Yet Bai Hengqiu still marched resolutely out of Wuguan.
So Zhang Xing retreated another forty li, coming directly to the other end of Wuguan