禁挫不動 A Hundred Men Could Not Budge Them
正嚷處，只見老王子出來，問及前事，卻也面無人色，沉吟半晌道：「神師兵器，本不同凡，就有百十餘人也禁挫不動。況孤在此城，今已五代，不是大膽海口，孤也頗有個賢名在外；這城中軍民匠作人等，也頗懼孤之法度，斷是不敢欺心。望神師再思可矣。」正嚷处，只见老王子出来，问及前事，却也面无人色，沉吟半晌道：「神师兵器，本不同凡，就有百十余人也禁挫不动。况孤在此城，今已五代，不是大胆海口，孤也颇有个贤名在外；这城中军民匠作人等，也颇惧孤之法度，断是不敢欺心。望神师再思可矣。」
逐句解 Line by line
In the midst of the uproar the old prince came out, and asked about what had happened. His face too went bloodless, and after a long, brooding silence he said, "The divine teachers' weapons are not of the common sort. A hundred men and more could not shift or stir them.
禁 is jīn here, the reading for withstanding or bearing a thing, not the one for forbidding it — so the weapons are not resisting the men, the men cannot manage the weapons. The old prince is the first person in the chapter to make the smiths' own argument for them, and he does it before he has heard them make it.
"Moreover I have held this city five generations now. This is no bold boast of mine — I have some name for worth beyond its walls.
孤, the orphaned one, is the humble self-name of a ruler, and it sits oddly beside a man listing his own virtues. That is the balance he is trying to strike: he must vouch for his city without seeming to preen.
"The soldiers, the people and the craftsmen of this city all stand in some awe of my rule, and would certainly not dare grow covetous."
He is staking his own record as a governor on the honesty of his workmen, which is a considerable thing to do for men he has never met. 欺心 — to cheat one's own heart — is the same phrase Eight Rules used to accuse them, handed straight back.
"I beg the divine teachers to think again."
The politest possible way of telling a guest he is talking nonsense.
The old prince rescues the scene, and the way he does it is worth watching. He does not plead for the smiths or dispute the theft. He makes two factual claims — the weapons are too heavy for ordinary men, and his city is well-governed — and then invites his guests to draw the conclusion themselves. It is the manner of somebody who has settled disputes before.
He is also putting something real at risk. If a smith did steal the weapons, the prince has just staked five generations of family reputation on a lie. The novel usually gives its kings either piety or foolishness; this one gets administrative nerve, which is rarer.
Notice that the argument he leads with is the one the smiths already made and nobody heard. The difference is not the reasoning but the rank of the man producing it — a point the chapter makes without ever stating it.