Crows cried amid tangled shadows; the evening sky was about to darken.
In the vast Chief Clerk's Residence of Jingzhou, only Liu Yin's family of five and a few servants knelt in the central courtyard. Zhang Bin, the court-appointed inspecting censor stationed in the commanderies to oversee revenue and grain, much like an inspector from a finance ministry's regulatory bureau, filed in with several squads of Yamen Soldiers, who took their places and stood at attention.
The heavy dusk pressed down, stretching everyone's shadows. Liu Yin's forehead rested against the cold ground, and he could faintly hear his family stifling their sobs behind him.
Twelve Court Envoy guards, the imperial commissioner's bodyguards, wore Yulin White-Clad uniforms and carried Hundred-Forged Steel Sabers at their waists. They stood in a straight line, upright as pines. Wang Yi stood on the steps, holding a Yellow Hemp Edict, his cold voice echoing through the suffocating residence:
"To the Chancellery:
The Spring and Autumn Annals condemns wrongful intent, which ritual demands be punished; the Monthly Ordinances enjoins strict enforcement of the law, allowing no indulgence at any season.
Liu Yin, Chief Clerk of Jingzhou and concurrently Governor of Nan Commandery, was originally a scholar of humble birth, long deficient in integrity and reputation.
Favored by fortunate circumstances, he abruptly came to wield great authority. With the capacity of a peck-measure and a bamboo basket, he presumptuously occupied a provincial office.
Rather than seeking to repay imperial favor through service, he practiced harshness and cruelty. He recklessly initiated criminal proceedings and indiscriminately arrested men of learning.
He trampled scholars accomplished in the classics, freely imposing the three wooden restraints; he crushed men of distinguished lineage and reputation, discarding all five methods of judicial inquiry.
Thus recitation ceased in the schools, and denunciations rose along the roads;