軍師獻計 The Fatal Counsel
旨意上時辰、數目，與那先生判斷者毫髮不差。諕得那龍王魂飛魄散。少頃甦醒，對眾水族曰：「塵世上有此靈人，真個是能通天地理，卻不輸與他啊！」鰣軍師奏云：「大王放心。要贏他有何難處？臣有小計，管教滅那廝的口嘴。」龍王問計，軍師道：「行雨差了時辰，少些點數，就是那廝斷卦不準，怕不贏他？那時捽碎招牌，趕他跑路，果何難也？」龍王依他所奏，果不擔憂。旨意上时辰、数目，与那先生判断者毫发不差。諕得那龙王魂飞魄散。少顷苏醒，对众水族曰：「尘世上有此灵人，真个是能通天地理，却不输与他啊！」鲥军师奏云：「大王放心。要赢他有何难处？臣有小计，管教灭那厮的口嘴。」龙王问计，军师道：「行雨差了时辰，少些点数，就是那厮断卦不准，怕不赢他？那时捽碎招牌，赶他跑路，果何难也？」龙王依他所奏，果不担忧。
逐句解 Line by line
The hours and amounts set in the decree did not differ by a hair's breadth from what the master had foretold. It frightened the Dragon King out of his very wits.
毫髮不差 is 'not off by a hair,' and 魂飛魄散 — souls flown, spirits scattered — is the phrase for terror complete enough to empty a person out. Both are still in daily use. 諕, 'to frighten,' is read xià, a form of 嚇, and 得 in 諕得 is the unstressed de that hangs a result on a verb. 那 is nà.
After a moment he came to himself and said to the water-tribe: 'That there should be such a seer in the mortal world — one who truly comprehends the patterns of Heaven and Earth! I am bound to lose to him!'
For one honest moment the dragon sees the thing clearly. 甦醒 is to come round after a faint, 靈人 is a man of uncanny insight, and his own verdict is that the bet is lost. It is the last accurate thing he says. (不 in 卻不輸與他 keeps its bù reading before the level tone of 輸.)
The shad field-marshal submitted: 'Let Your Majesty set your mind at ease. What difficulty is there in beating him? Your servant has a small stratagem that will surely stop that fellow's mouth.'
Enter the adviser with a solution, which is how a good many disasters begin. 鰣軍師 is the shad-fish field-marshal of the dragon's court; 管教, 'to guarantee that,' takes 教 as jiào; and 那廝 is a contemptuous 'that fellow,' with 那 read nà.
The Dragon King asked for the plan, and the marshal said: 'Send the rain off its hour, and give it a few drops short, and then that fellow's divination will be proved inaccurate — how could you fail to beat him? Then smash his signboard, drive him packing, and where is the difficulty in that?'
The plan, delivered without a flicker of alarm: send the rain off its hour, hold back a few drops, and the forecast is wrong. What nobody says aloud is that the forecast and the decree are now the same document, so falsifying the one means defying the other. 行 in 行雨, 'to make rain,' is xíng; 差 in 差了時辰, 'to err in the timing,' is chà; 斷卦不準 is 'the divination proves inexact.' 那 in 那廝 and 那時 is nà.
The Dragon King followed his counsel, and indeed troubled himself no further.
依他所奏 is to act on what was submitted, and 果不擔憂 is 'and truly did not worry,' with 不 as bù. Four characters, and they are the most damning in the chapter: handed a way to break the law of Heaven, he stops worrying.
The decree matching the forecast 'not by a hair,' the dragon is thrown into terror and, for one honest moment, grasps the truth: 袁守誠 is a real seer and the bet is lost. Then the moment passes, and his court's shad field-marshal offers the fatal remedy, the very stratagem the ministers' earlier warning had implicitly forbidden. Simply alter the rain: shift its hour, cut its measure, and the prediction is wrong, the wager won, the shop smashed.
The logic is a trap dressed up as a solution. To win a bet about the rain, the dragon is advised to falsify the very rain Heaven has just commanded — 行雨差了時辰，少些點數, send it off its hour, give it a few drops short. What is horrifying is how small the crime looks in the planning: one double-hour and a handful of water, undertaken to save face against a fortune-teller. That the Dragon King then troubled himself no further shows him wholly blind to the size of what he is about to do.