Fleeing

Dugu Xian could not remember from which senior general he had heard of the theory that the real battle began when an army was routing; he had always used it as a guiding principle.

As such, when he brought an army out to battle, he always retained a reserve unit if possible. In this way, he could ensure that his army could retreat in an orderly fashion if needed and that it would not be routed.

When he was young, he encountered a scene whereby a routine retreat started to flee mindlessly for some unfathomable reason, as if they were being chased by devils.

The generals would usually blame their soldiers, while the ministers behind the scenes would accuse the commander of being incompetent. All of them would debate endlessly in front of their king.

Dugu Xian knew what had happened. At that time, he was just a low-ranking military officer who was fighting along with the common soldiers in a bloody battle with the enemy.