Leaving aside how the three plotted for the moment, one day later, the Second Patrol Team of the Central Pacification Office under the Jing'an Directorate, out on patrol through Huaibei's six commanderies, began splitting up along with the Ministry of War attendants.
Black Sash Hu Yan personally led a party to "escort" Chen Ling to the Eastern Capital to take up his post;
Ministry of War Assistant Director Wang Daiji led the ministry clerks to the Longgang military camp to hold the military tally temporarily, pending Chen Ling's handover and the arrival of a new commander dispatched from the Eastern Capital;
Bai Yousi, the patrol team's leader and greatest source of fighting strength, instead continued south with White Ribbon Qian Tang and a few others to inspect the Runyin Commandery area;
Finally, only Zhang Xing and Li Qingchen, leading seven or eight men, crossed the Wo River, then followed the Huan River, which they had only just traveled along, straight downstream toward its mouth on the Huai-that is, the vicinity of Xucheng County in Xiapi Commandery...
Now, from Chengfu to its mouth on the Huai, the Huan River passed through eastern Qiao Commandery, southern Pengcheng Commandery, and southwestern Xiapi Commandery in succession before finally flowing into the Huai River.
The Three Zuo Brothers came from Fuli County in southern Pengcheng, northeast of the Huan River. Their family had already begun to flourish two or three generations earlier. Reportedly, they had often traveled south along the Huan, then turned onto the Huai to trade in salted fish, so by their father's generation, they were a genuine family of local magnates.
But what had truly sent the Zuo Clan soaring to success and made it one of Huaibei's foremost lineages was, in fact, this generation's Three Zuo Brothers.
The eldest, Zuo Caihou,