簇簇攢攢 Pilgrim Shouts at the Prefect
那郡侯同三藏、八戒、沙僧、大小官員人等接著，都簇簇攢攢來問。行者將郡侯喝了一聲道：「只因你這廝三年前十二月二十五日冒犯了天地，致令黎民有難，如今不肯降雨。」那郡侯同三藏、八戒、沙僧、大小官员人等接着，都簇簇攒攒来问。行者将郡侯喝了一声道：「只因你这厮三年前十二月二十五日冒犯了天地，致令黎民有难，如今不肯降雨。」
逐句解 Line by line
The prefect, along with Tripitaka, Bajie, Sha Monk and officials great and small, met him as he came down, and they crowded and clustered round to ask what had happened.
攢 is cuán here, the gathering sense — to press together — not the zǎn that means to save up money. The doubled pair 簇簇攢攢, clumping and clustering, is one word doing the work of a crowd noise. 著 is neutral zhe, hooked on to meeting.
Pilgrim bellowed at the prefect: "It is all because you, fellow, offended Heaven and Earth three years ago on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, and brought this suffering on the common people. That is why no rain will be sent."
喝 is hè here, to shout at someone — not the hē that means to drink. Both readings live in the character and the chapter uses only this one. 這廝, you fellow, is the contemptuous word Pilgrim brought back down from heaven, and he uses it to the man's face in front of his own staff.
The crowd runs out to meet him wanting news, and Pilgrim shouts an accusation at their governor in front of all of them.
It is a genuinely ugly moment, and the novel does not flinch from it. He has been sent down with one instruction — persuade the man to turn to goodness — and the first thing he does is humiliate him publicly using heaven's own word of contempt. The Four Preceptors said persuade. Pilgrim heard prosecute.
There is something believable in it, too. He went up boasting, came back with nothing, and had to face a town he had promised rain to. The anger has somewhere to go and it goes at the man who caused the problem.