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 soldiers to the Ji River, attempting to organize a military force to capture the southern half of Jiyin Commandery. The former began touring Eastern Commandery, participating in grain distribution and appointments for leaders and surrendered officials, while also organizing and expanding the troops... distributing grain was a fundamental political promise of the Exorcising the Dragon Gang, the central expression of its efforts to win popular support. Appointments were a matter of organizational development, and military development needed no explanation. None of these could possibly be called minor matters.
In fact, none of this work was particularly straightforward.
For instance, Zhang Xing had barely left-he had only just passed Weinan and had yet to reach White Horse-when Niu Da took a blow to the head: Chief Wei, who had remained in Puyang, publicly demanded that Niu Da take the lead, gather the county's wealthy households, bring out the debt notes from their usual lending, and burn them all in public!
As Chief Wei put it, distributing grain without burning debts was like taking off your trousers without farting, wasn't it?
Niu Da's response was interesting. Whether someone had egged him on was unclear, but he declared on the spot that, as the Exorcising the Dragon Gang's local Helmsman and the most powerful local magnate, he was willing to take the lead in burning debts... he also professed to understand the reasoning behind it: it was simply buying people's loyalty... but he wanted to burn the debts in Dragonhead Zhang's presence, rather than do so merely because Chief Wei had said a few words.
Wei Xuanding was