At the first quarter of the Hour of the Dragon, Chen Caozhi and Xie Daoyun arrived at the hall of the Commandery Office. Officials from both Kuaiji Commandery and Shanyin County filled the room, and Commandery Assistant Lu Shu was there as well. Seeing Chen and Xie, Commandery Neishi Dai Shu said, "Left Supervisor Chen, Deputy Commissioner Zhu, an urgent document has arrived from the Chancellery of the Book of Documents. Read it first, then have it proclaimed before everyone."
Chen Caozhi took the document from the Secretary-Assistant and knelt beside Xie Daoyun on the same mat. They read it together. Xie Daoyun swept her eyes over it and thought, They really have killed a chicken to frighten the monkeys. This document has come just in time. Zizhong will have a better chance of persuading Yu Yu to support Tuduan when he goes to Yuyao.
Chen Caozhi returned the document to the Secretary-Assistant in charge of correspondence. At Neishi Dai's signal, the Secretary-Assistant read it aloud in a clear voice: "A directive from the Chancellery of the Book of Documents: The four seas remain divided, and the realm is in turmoil. The Central Plains suffer the depredations of the Five Hu; jackals and wolves hold the roads. Expenses and labor levies increase daily, and the common people suffer hardship. Powerful men north and south compete to recruit wandering idlers, retaining large numbers of households as their private dependents. A hundred households are combined into one, a thousand adult males share a single register. Tax revenues drain away; the state grows impoverished while private houses grow rich. The Gengxu Tuduan was intended precisely to remedy these abuses. Yet since the edict was issued, obstruction has been rife. Sima Xuan, Prince of Pengcheng, violated the prohibition by concealing fifty households. Grand Marshal