 The Serbians had two courses open to them, namely fight or retreat, buoyed by the recent successful counterattack against the Bulgarians at Leskovac, making a final stand on the Field of Blackbirds resonated also with Serbians from a historical and national standpoint but a retreat to Prizren and from there across the mountains to the Adriatic coast where the army could rest and refit was the chosen course of action.Putnik gave the order to retreat on 22 November.On 23 November he Austro-Hungarian Fifty-Ninth Infantry Division reached Mitrovica.