The Zuo Tradition said: "Stopping the people's mouths is worse than damming a river.
When a dammed river bursts, many will surely be hurt."
For six years he had governed Suzhou, using the Ten-Thousand-People Umbrella to seal the people's mouths, using the name of a just judge to blot out the sun in the sky.
Now the dammed river had burst, its waters surging.
At the breach, where could He find a foothold?
On the long street before the Suzhou Prefecture Office.
At first, only three or five idlers leaned against walls to watch.
Then came women carrying baskets, peddlers bearing shoulder poles, old men leaning on canes.
They crowded in, rank upon rank, packing the flagstone square before the Prefectural Office so tightly that not a drop of water could pass.
There was only one reason.
The Imperial Envoy's Headquarters had issued another notice, black words on white paper, its vermilion seal square and proper, posted on the screen wall.
[By imperial decree, the case concerning Suzhou's temples is under investigation.
Anyone whose relatives were abducted, detained, or harmed by temple monks
May come before the Prefectural Office tomorrow at Dragon Hour to present their grievances in person.
I shall personally hear their wrongs and judge impartially.]
The moment the notice appeared, the whole city seethed.
The relatives of the women Zhang Zai had rescued from the temples had still been waiting for news at inns near the Postal Station.
Upon seeing the notice, they rushed to tell one another; some wept with joy, others fell to the ground and wailed.
Now all that remained was this: while He Yanming faced questioning inside,
Thousands of people knelt waiting before the Prefectural Office steps.
At three quarters past the start of Goat Hour, the main gates of the