From the fifth day of the uprising onward, Zhang Xing and Li Shu went their separate ways entirely.
The latter took Xiong Bonan, who served as something of a reserve force, and a thousand garrison troops to the Ji River, attempting to organize a military force to capture the southern half of Jiyin Commandery. The former began touring Eastern Commandery, taking part in grain distributions and the appointment of leaders and surrendered officials, while also organizing and expanding the army... distributing grain was a fundamental political promise of the Exorcising the Dragon Gang, the core expression of its efforts to win popular support. Appointments were organizational work, and military development went without saying. None of these could be called minor matters.
In fact, none of this work was particularly simple.
For example, Zhang Xing had barely left, having only just passed Weinan and not yet reached White Horse, when Niu Da took a cudgel to the head: Chief Wei, who had remained in Puyang, publicly demanded that Niu Da take the lead in gathering the county's wealthy households, making them produce their loan notes, and burning every last one in public!
As Chief Wei put it, distributing grain without burning debts-wasn't that taking your trousers off without farting?
Niu Da's reaction was interesting. Who knew who had egged him on, but he declared on the spot that, as the Exorcising the Dragon Gang's local Helmsman and the greatest local magnate, he was willing to lead the debt burning... He also admitted that he understood the reasoning behind it: it was simply about winning hearts... but he wanted to burn the debts in Dragonhead Zhang's presence, rather than burn them merely because Chief Wei had said a few words.
Wei Xuanding was furious enough to half die, yet discovered that he