"First, the gang shall have eight ranks: Chief, Dragonhead, Great Chief, Chief Officer, Helmsman, Protector, Steward, and Gang Member.
"Second, military and civil offices shall follow the examples of Zhou and Tang, with reference to the former institutions of Eastern Qi and Southern Chen. Local government shall primarily use the village, neighborhood, commandery, and county system; the army shall primarily use the battalion, guard, and general system, supplemented by local administration, garrison farming, government directives..."
A day later, the decision-making assembly formally convened. In an open space in the camp west of Jiyin City, the fifty-odd Great Chiefs and Chiefs of the Exorcising the Dragon Gang who had attended sat in a circle, listening attentively as Yan Qing, the personnel chief standing in the center, read out the provisions for reorganizing personnel.
Outside their circle, many others listened attentively on both the north and south sides. There were fewer to the south, a dozen or so prominent figures from Huaixi who had arrived with Du Pozhen. To the north were more people, roughly a hundred local Protectors, Helmsmen, and Stewards.
Unlike the victorious, united assembly people had anticipated, everyone looked solemn. The Huaixi contingent could even be described as tense, and beneath those similar expressions lay complicated hearts.
Under the shadow of war, events had begun to crowd together. Since receiving the news the day before yesterday, everyone had entered a state of cautious, conservative busyness. After learning of it, Du Pozhen had also abandoned his insistence on arriving on the day itself, coming to Jiyin yesterday afternoon to prove his innocence. This had turned all the political networking and performances that might otherwise have taken place into bursting bubbles.
Some therefore said outright that Chen Bin's shout that day had pushed Great Dragonhead Zhang into Chief Zhang's position two