It was now 5 p.m. and decision time. An assault through the village that Root had hoped to conduct before dark was now clearly impossible. It was also clearly impossible for a single battalion to successfully hold the cordon until the next morning. By now Root had dismissed the Anderson assault as a fluke. More troops were needed. To this end Root flew back to meet with Hyle.

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Root requested permission to retain command of the operation and said he needed at least two additional companies. Hyle gave him A and C companies of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry (1/5). They were airlifted in to fill the gap between B and C Companies, 1/12.

C Company, 1/5, arrived at 7 p.m. aboard four Chinook helicopters and was positioned in the northeast corner. A Company, 1/5, landed at the same time aboard 23 slicks and deployed east of the village. B Company, 1/12, shifted left to cover the south end of the village. Two-man foxholes were dug completely around the village at 10- and 20-meter intervals.

With the ring around the village in place, Root returned his attention to ensuring that the cordon was tight. A small lake separated his Alpha and Bravo companies. The line there had to be extended to ensure that potential escape route was closed. Finally, Root ordered everyone to shake the hand of the man next to him. By 9 p.m. the adjustments had been finalized, and the line settled in, awaiting the breakout attempts.

Root, still nervous about how tight the seal around the village really was, decided to spend the night with B Company. When he joined the company at dusk, he realized he had left his radio on the helicopter that brought him. Rather than commandeer Mayer's radio and potentially cripple command and control in that unit, Root simply used it as a relay station. Another plan of Root's–to walk the perimeter–was dismissed when it occurred to him that a large segment of the perimeter was manned by soldiers who did not know him from Adam. Root decided to stay put and expend his efforts on closing the lake area–a certain escape route–and maintaining continuous illumination over the area.

A full moon helped, but Root was convinced that a clever enemy who knew the terrain could find a way out. The solution was to keep the flares falling all night. It was not an easy task. When the artillery ran out of ammunition after several hours, an AC-47 'Smoky the Bear' fixed-wing gunship was brought in. When the AC-47 ran out of flares, naval gunfire was used from a destroyer offshore. Then the resupplied artillery kicked back in for the remainder of the night.

About halfway through the night, Colonel Hyle asked if the battalion could not just rely on the light of the moon. Root replied that bright light through the night was the key to keeping the enemy bottled up. Hyle made sure the illumination kept coming. In another effort to keep the enemy buttoned up and off-balance, high-explosive rounds were dropped into the village at one-minute intervals. While the artillery proved to be both accurate and effective, a few rounds did land dangerously close to the friendly lines. A baby, camped with a group of villagers near the B Company command post, was hit in the face by a fragment. Among this same refugee group, Root had earlier watched in astonishment while a Vietnamese couple dropped to the ground for some recreational sex. Evidently, they had not seen each other for a while.

The breakout attempts started soon after dark. While Fields was still adjusting A Company's positions, the NVA made a run at his 2nd Platoon. Assisted by Fields and his command group, the platoon held, and the enemy fell back into the village. Two other major attempts were made in the south against B Company's 1st and 3rd platoons. There, the NVA followed behind a herd of stampeding water buffalo. The Americans let the animals pass, then shot the escaping NVA soldiers. The enemy promptly regrouped and made another try, this time using civilians as a screen. The results were the same. The villagers were let through, and the NVA soldiers were engaged. For the balance of the night, groups of four or five NVA soldiers continuously pecked against the inside of the perimeter. Their efforts were futile, and by dawn every company had a collection of dazed POWs, many bleeding from their mouths and ears as a result of the artillery fire.

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