While Miss Bai was running wild in the Eastern Capital without the slightest restraint, Zhang Sanlang was spending his Mid-Autumn peacefully at a country estate outside Puyang, holding discussion sessions with some of his new acquaintances along the way.
There were only three or four hundred of these men, all from Hebei, most from Qinghe Commandery. Two hundred had belonged to Zhang Jincheng's core armored troops and then been picked out by Niu Da. The remaining hundred-odd had belonged to a minor leader called Wang Daba La, who had commanded a small mixed cavalry unit under Zhang Jincheng.
When Niu Da had received Zhang Xing's summons, he had crossed the river with only a dozen or so riders, working as a messenger. But after subduing Wang Daba La's unit at the very start of the battle, he had immediately gained command of that cavalry force. Afterward, he had received first pick of the prisoners, and finally been put in charge of escorting the surplus captured weapons across the river to support Dan Dalang, Fifth Wang Lang, and Xu Dalang.
With all these arrangements, by the time he had made the circuit and returned to Puyang, the black chicken had become a phoenix.
With three or four hundred hardened men, another three or four hundred mules and horses, ample weapons, and ten or twenty cultivators among his troops, Niu Da already had enough to stand somewhat apart before the four chief leaders, Dan, Wang, Cheng, and Xu. Even his father, the county commandant, though he had never left the city to show himself, had handed all the family's estates outside the city over to his son, making his position quite plain.
Of course, viewed through the logic of factionalism, this was the Exorcising the Dragon Gang's Right Dragon Head, Zhang Xing,