The two rebellious brothers quickly convinced Huoshu of the rightfulness of their cause, uniting the Three Guards against the Duke of Zhou. They and the Shang loyalists were soon joined by many independent-minded nobles, especially from the southeast. Large swaths of the Zhou dynasty's eastern realm rose against the official government at Fenghao, including some states that controlled crucial passes and routes. The rebel state of
Ying, for example, "was located near the exit of the
Ying River valley connecting with the
Luoyang plain and right at the entrance to the
Nanyang Basin, controlling the road to the middle
Yangtze region". Furthermore, the rebels were able to gain several external allies. Led by the states of
Pugu and
Yan, powerful Shang sympathizers, most of the Dongyi polities of Shandong rallied to the rebel cause. Even some Huaiyi tribes, which controlled the
Huai River region and had little connection to either the Zhou or the Shang, joined the rebel forces. Among them was the state of
Xu, which would grow into one of the Zhou dynasty's greatest enemies. Some vassal states in the east remained loyal, however, such as
Song under
Weizi Qi, and
Northern Yan under the Marquis Ke, son of the Duke of Shao. Among the eastern loyalists was also the aforementioned Dongyi state of Xue, which had no desire for the restoration of the Shang dynasty. The
Records of the Grand Historian reported the existence of two more loyalist states in Shandong at the time,
Qi and
Lu, but this is not supported by other textual or archaeological sources. After being informed of the revolt, King Cheng allegedly performed
turtle shell divination in an attempt to determine whether or not to attack his uncles. The oracles regarding such an attack were auspicious, but the king's advisors all urged him to disregard them in the face of the difficulty of an offensive and the unrest among the people. The king acknowledged this difficulty and disquietude, but refused to go against the apparent will of
Heaven. The Duke of Zhou, eager to regain the east, probably supported the king's decision. At first, the remaining loyalist states in the East had to bear the bulk of the fighting, as the government needed not only much time to mobilize its forces, but also at least two months to move them out of the
Wei River valley and deploy them on the eastern plain. As result, the rebels remained largely unchallenged for almost a year. After the long preparations, however, the dukes of Zhou and Shao finally launched the second "eastern campaign" to put down the rebellion. Bronze inscriptions of the time suggest that King Cheng himself participated in the
counter-insurgency campaign as commander, further disproving the later claim that he was a child at the time. Aided by the military strategists
Lü Shang, the loyalists exterminated the Shang loyalists in the second year of the rebellion after hard fighting that saw the complete destruction of Yin and the death of Prince
Wu Geng. The Three Guards' main force was also defeated, and Guanshu Xian and Huoshu Chu were captured, while Caishu Du fled into exile or was banished. Guanshu was executed and Huoshu stripped of his titles and demoted to a commoner. Despite his victory, the Duke of Zhou pressed on and further campaigned against the eastern rebel allies that were located beyond the Zhou kingdom's borders. Shortly after the Three Guards' defeat, the loyalists advanced into Shandong, with the Duke of Zhou personally commanding the conquest of Feng and Pugu. Yan was also attacked by loyalist forces, but managed to hold out. In the war's third year, the Zhou royal army led by King Cheng and the Duke of Zhou conducted a punitive expedition against the Huai peoples and thereupon attacked Yan again, finally defeating it. Overall, Dan's forces brought several peoples of the eastern seaboard under Zhou rule, expanding the kingdom greatly. == Aftermath ==