On the night of the twenty-fifth of the ninth month, the night of the uprising, thanks to Xu Dalang's three rallying cries with his arm raised and Zhang Xing's songs of the Eastern Commandery on every side, five cities-White Horse, Puyang, Weinan, Waihuang, and Chengshi-changed their colors overnight and fell into the hands of the Exorcising the Dragon Gang.
Among them, Liu Yezhong, the governor of Eastern Commandery, reached an agreement with the gang: he would command the commandery's cities, settlements, markets, and river crossings to submit to the gang in his capacity as governor, in exchange for his entire family being "courteously escorted out of the territory."
Of Eastern Commandery's three principal subordinate officials, Commandery Assistant Zhou Weishi, who oversaw civil affairs, formally submitted; Commandant Dou Bing, who controlled military affairs, was executed and his head circulated; only Jing'an Directorate Black Sash Li Tingwen, who held authority over intelligence work and major criminal cases, escaped.
Of the five county magistrates, those of Weinan, Waihuang, and Chengshi were killed in the initial attacks, while the magistrates of White Horse and Puyang chose to submit.
The following day, Kuangcheng, Lihu, Yuanju, and Jiyang fell into the gang's hands.
On the third day, Zuocheng and Lingchang submitted.
On the fourth day, Leize City opened its gates and surrendered.
Overall, progress was fairly smooth, but it still diverged considerably from the original plan... Some cities not included in the scheduled operations, such as Weinan on the first day, Jiyang on the second, and Lei Marsh on the fourth, were unexpected gains.
Lei Marsh in particular, situated on the border between Dongping and Jiyin Commanderies, had not even been part of the overall plan. Xiahou Ningyuan had merely been sent with some bandits to make a feint, yet the awkward result was that the