Outside the Military Commissioner of Bazhou's office in Jincheng, over a thousand officials, scholars, and gentry had gathered. The air was a boiling cacophony of righteous indignation. Most of them wore plain robes and square scholar's caps, their expressions a mix of fury and bitter grief. Some held up torn fragments of an imperial edict, others wept openly, and passionate young scholars shouted, thrusting their fists into the air: "Lord Xia! The imperial court has severed our futures, and you must give us an answer!"
Main Bookkeeper Zhou hurried into the council hall and spoke in a low voice: "Master, there are even more people than we anticipated. Aside from the dismissed officials, there are hundreds of *juren* and *xiucai* whose scholarly honors have been stripped away, and even a few young candidates who haven't yet taken the imperial examinations have come."
Xia Huai'an nodded, his gaze deep. "Scholars hold their honors above all else. This move by the imperial court is meant to force them to turn against me." He turned toward the desk, picked up a document that had been prepared long in advance, and said to Pan Wenyuan beside him, "Lord Pan, we shall proceed according to plan."
Chapter 212