Zhang Xing and Little Zhou traveled along the great river with the Lu brothers, the dozen mounted guards Guo Jingke had provided, and a guide. The farther downstream they went, and the farther they left the Eastern Capital behind, the more apparent the chaos became.
Around Puyang, routed soldiers and fleeing laborers had merely become bandits who robbed and plundered. They gathered in bands but had no bases at all, while the powerful local magnates, though they hated Great Wei to the marrow of their bones, did not dare rise in revolt. Even after joining an unequivocally anti-Wei secret society like the Exorcising the Dragon Gang, Xu Dalang still hoped to clean up the region under the banner of cooperation with the court. The thinking behind that was certainly worth pondering.
Once they crossed the great river, however, the scene in Hebei was markedly different.
With only a river between them, the scale of the banditry was plainly different. Out in the wilds, countless groups occupied wooded hills, lakes, and ridges, raising banners and proclaiming names for themselves. The roads had become a bandits' paradise even in broad daylight. Almost every town, village, and fortified estate had shut its gates and mounted strict defenses. Only around the few cities with garrisons did some order and vitality remain... Clearly, these bandits had undergone no change in outlook. After the court forced them into banditry, they regarded themselves as bandits and began playing the part of unrestrained destroyers. Meanwhile, the villages and fortified estates had also begun arming themselves out of the need for defense.
In other words, the Great Wei court no longer controlled order outside the cities.
Farther downstream, around Qinghe, Pingyuan, and Bohai-the typical lower reaches of the great river-things became even more spectacular... At least four or five