[7] During truce negotiations Kęstutis, brother and right-hand man of the Grand Duke Algirdas, warned the Prussian Marshal Henning Schindekop that he would organize a retaliation.
Kęstutis and Algirdas led their army, composed of Lithuanians, Samogitians, Ruthenians, and Tatars,[8] to Prussia earlier than anticipated by the Knights.
Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode decided to take his army from Königsberg to meet the Lithuanians near Rudau.
[9] Teutonic sources exaggerate the Lithuanian losses, claiming that 1,000 to 5,500 men perished due to wounds, freezing weather, and starvation.
[7] That the victory was not so one-sided as claimed by official Teutonic sources is also supported by a local legend that at a critical moment, when the Knights were about to give in to Lithuanian pressure, apprentice shoemaker Hans von Sagan replaced the fallen standard-bearer of Marshal Schindekop and led the Knights to victory.