The fourth day of combat was a real testament to how long Baron's side would be able to hold out against this massive enemy of theirs. Reason being that unlike the previous days, their foes chose to launch their first all-out attack. Normally, Roxi would have to go through meticulous calculations to predict where their enemies were likely to send their units so that the deepstrikes would be able to hit accurately. However, now that the enemy was rushing them with such numbers and ferocity, this cut down her work significantly which allowed the deepstrikes to shine throughout the entire first part of the battle.
Even with the deepstrikes being so effective, soon the frontlines of each side were going at each other with malicious intent. Not only were the enemy forces fighting better than before, but it seemed like they also finally brought their fighters this time around. On previous days, there were almost none to be seen, as was the reason why Baron's side was able to inflict such heavy casualties on the enemy. Now that both sides had brought out their numerous fighters, it would be a much closer fight now.
What was a pleasant surprise was that the army of Ke was almost fighting together as a real professional army should. The small party that they held as well as the other gestures by the commanders allowed the two separate armies to finally be bridged as one. This allowed Ke, Qi Ji Guang, and Guan Yu to be able to fight on the front lines without worrying about the state of their flank. Their position was still the one that was the most targeted, meaning that the enemy was focusing more of their efforts there. As a result, Ke's battlefield was home to the most ferocious and bloody battles of the fourth day, but even with such horrendous casualties, the regular soldiers continued to fight forth as one army and were able to push back the all-out assault on their position for the day.
By the end of the day, all three battlefields would see many deaths, but it would be Ke's soldiers that would have the highest morale despite losing the most amount of men. There was a myriad of reasons why, but the main one was that Ke and his subordinates would be hosting another small party including all of the soldiers as they had done the previous night. This was promised to those who survived the day. It worked brilliantly. While Baron and Zhang Da Zhi's men were mourning the loss of the friends and allies and generally being all in a dreadful mood, Ke's men were in a rather lively mood.
Such a thing was not really sustainable long term, in fact, there were only so many days of food left before they would begin to starve. With no way to get resupplied, they had to make sure every speck of food counted. Although the "parties" that Ke's men had were able to lift the mood, it was still a foolish plan long term. The thing was, all of that went out the door the moment their enemies decided to have all of their forces march forward. Going by Baron's estimate for his own stores of food, he and his men had 3 more weeks of food left before they would run out if they rationed carefully. It was likely that the other two armies were in the same boat, but Ke was using up his stores faster with the celebrations.
The fifth day was nearly a repeat of the last with very minor changes. Somehow, the enemy forces seemed to be even harder to fight than they were yesterday. It wasn't that there were more people to fight, nor was it that the enemy of frontline strategist fighter higher, maybe it had something to do with a change in pace with the enemy generals. Who knows. At the end of the day, Baron, Zhang Da Zhi, and Ke held firm and were able to fight until the enemy forces were recalled at sunset. What was interesting now was that Ke's men were on an absolute figurative high from all of their fighting. All of the death that they had witnessed seemed to be negated with the thought of having another party with their superiors and surviving friends. They had managed to push their enemies further than any of Baron and Zhang Da Zhi's men whereas a few days ago they had been struggling immensely. This point did not escape the attention of Baron and Zhang Da Zhi, so the three of them held a small meeting to discuss the matter.
(BM) "Ke, what you are doing with your soldiers is risky, have you counted the days left of how sustainable this will be?" Baron asked with curiosity.
(CK) "Honestly, I have. I assume that if I were to lose 5,000 soldiers a day average, I will be able to last for another 2 weeks." Commander Ke responded.
(ZDZ) "I admire you for doing something that can backfire on you so easily, but you must know that if you fall before the rest of us do, that's on you." Zhang Da Zhi said in a serious tone.
(CK) "I have been thinking about it and I honestly think that it's still not even the all-stars that are fighting us at the moment. If it were, we would have long lost. They are still taking us too lightly."
(BM) "No way."
(ZDZ) "What?"
(BM) "Could they still be taking this as an opportunity to test their strategists against us?"
(ZDZ) "If that were true, then they seriously don't think too highly of us."
(CK) "Indeed."
(BM) "These guys… Whatever. Look. keep your parties to a minimum, Ke, it is better to be prepared than willy nilly waste it on something that could be saved for later."
(CK) "Fine, fine, I'll limit it to once every few days. I think that you two should do this as well, there is no doubt that my soldiers have the highest morale on either side of the battle."