Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Time flies like an arrow; three months have passed in the blink of an eye.

The autumn wind in Chang'an swept away the summer heat, but it could not sweep away the chill in the hearts of the five surnames and seven clans.

The once bustling "Cui's Grain Shop" in the West Market is now deserted.

Old Wang, the shopkeeper, sat on the doorstep with a worried look on his face, idly waving a fly swatter in his hand. In previous years, this time of year was the golden season when autumn grain was stored and the price of old grain rose; one could count money until their hands cramped.

But this year?

"Snapped!"

Old Wang swatted a greenbottle fly dead, and looking at the bustling crowd on the street, no one even glanced into the shop, he couldn't help but sigh.

"Old Liu! Old Liu!"

His sharp eyes spotted a familiar face—the carpenter from the south of the city, a penniless fellow who used to buy rice on credit every month. Old Wang quickly put on a smile and greeted him, "Come in and take a look! Newly arrived old rice, price reduced! Only eighty coins a bushel! That's a fire sale!"

The carpenter, Old Liu, stopped, but did not show his usual ingratiating expression.

He patted his bulging belly, let out a burp that smelled strongly of starch, and looked disdainful.

"Eighty coins? Shopkeeper, you should keep it as a family heirloom."

Old Liu pulled a steaming hot roasted potato from his pocket, took a big bite, and exclaimed, "See this? This is an auspicious gift from His Highness the Crown Prince! We call it 'earth egg.' Plant it once and eat it for a year—soft, sweet, and filling. Who wants to eat your ridiculously expensive brown rice anymore? That stuff hurts your throat!"

After saying that, Old Liu strode away, leaving the shopkeeper bewildered in the wind.

This scene was playing out wildly across the entire Guanzhong Plain.

The potato yield is truly terrifying.

Li Chengqian's "agricultural extension station" spread like a virus, planting potatoes in every corner. In just three months, the first batch of autumn potatoes hit the market, and the yield left everyone speechless.

In the past, a family of five, tending to a few acres of meager land, still starved to death even when they tightened their belts all year round.

Now?

The cellar was piled high with potatoes, the kang (heated brick bed) was piled high with potatoes, and even the pigsty was piled high with potatoes.

Now that our stomachs are full, who would bother buying that ridiculously expensive grain?

As a result, the grain prices that had remained high for several years in the Tang Dynasty plummeted into the abyss, like a kite with a broken string.

One hundred coins.

Fifty coins.

Twenty coins.

Ten coins...

Even when the price plummeted to a meager ten coins per bushel, no one was interested.

At this moment, the heads of the five surnames and seven clans were heartbroken.

In an effort to pressure the imperial court, they had previously bought up all the grain stored on the market at high prices. Now, the mountains of grain had become a hot potato. If they couldn't sell them, they would just rot in the granaries, moldy, and eventually turn into a pile of garbage that even pigs wouldn't eat.

"This can't go on! This is that young prince's conspiracy! It's a plan to wipe out his family line!"

Inside the Cui family mansion, a furious roar echoed as porcelain shattered.

Immediately afterwards, rumors began to circulate in the teahouses and taverns of Chang'an.

"Have you heard? Those potatoes are monsters! They grow by absorbing the essence of the earth's veins, and eating them will make you infertile!"

"No wonder it looks so strange; it's condensed corpse energy from underground!"

"The Crown Prince is trying to get us all killed!"

Rumors are more ferocious than tigers.

The people who were still celebrating began to have doubts. Looking at the potatoes in their hands, they didn't know whether to eat them or not.

The Eastern Palace, Lizheng Hall.

Li Chengqian almost burst out laughing when he heard Qinglong's report.

"To be childless and without descendants? How could they even think of that?"

He shook his head, picked up a potato chip from the plate, and said, "Since they want to play the propaganda war, then I'll teach them what 'top-level salesmanship' really means."

the next day.

The main gate of the palace, Chengtian Gate, was wide open, a rare sight.

There was no imposing entourage, only a dining table covered with a bright yellow tablecloth.

Empress Zhangsun, the mother of the nation, sat gracefully at the table, facing tens of thousands of onlookers, and elegantly picked up her chopsticks.

Breakfast: Mashed potatoes with honey.

Lunch: Braised beef brisket with potatoes.

Dinner: French fries with ketchup.

For three consecutive days, Empress Zhangsun ate potatoes in various ways at the city gate, in front of all the people of Chang'an. While eating, she praised them endlessly. Her elegant eating manners and her blissful expression were a thousand times more powerful than any denial of rumors.

"Look! Her Majesty the Empress has been taking it for three days now, and her complexion is getting better and better!"

"Nonsense! If it were truly poisonous, would His Majesty allow the Empress to eat it?"

"That Wang Ermazi who spread rumors is a servant of the Cui family! Beat him to death!"

The rumors will fall apart on their own.

Moreover, Empress Zhangsun's "royal mukbang" elevated the way potatoes are eaten to an art form. The common people followed suit, and a "potato feast" craze even swept through Chang'an.

The final move by the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Families was easily neutralized.

Because potatoes saved countless starving refugees, people outside Chang'an spontaneously raised funds to build a shrine for Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

The shrine did not enshrine a majestic deity, but rather a statue of a boy lounging lazily in a rocking chair, holding a potato in his hand.

Its incense offerings were so abundant that they even surpassed those of the City God Temple.

……

In the stillness of the night, in the secret chamber of the Cui family.

The atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.

The accountant slammed the last ledger shut, his voice trembling with tears: "Clan leader... it's over. In these three months, we've lost over three million strings of cash on our stockpiled grain, and the clan's cash flow... is cut off."

"puff--!"

Cui Mingan, the patriarch of the Cui clan, felt a sweet taste in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the account book, staining the shocking deficit red.

"Three million strings of cash...three million strings of cash!"

His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was disheveled, and he looked like a vengeful ghost.

This is not just about money; it's the century-old heritage of the Cui family, which was destroyed by that eight-year-old child with a pile of rotten potatoes!

"We cannot lose... Our five surnames and seven noble families have a thousand-year-old heritage. Emperors come and go, but our noble families remain! How can we lose to a mere child!"

The head of the Lu family sat in the shadows and spoke in a sinister tone: "The grain has been wasted, but we still have other things."

"Anything else?"

Cui Mingan suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with a crazed light.

"Yes! We still have salt!"

The head of the Lu family stood up, walked to the map, and pressed his finger firmly on several red dots. The major salt lakes of the Tang Dynasty, as well as the salt trade routes, were all controlled by powerful families.

"A person can live on potatoes instead of grains, but can a person live without salt?"

"If you don't eat salt, you'll become weak, sick, and even die!"

"This is our last trump card, and also the fatal weakness of the Tang Dynasty!"

The clan leaders exchanged glances, all seeing the ruthlessness and determination in each other's eyes.

Since you, Li Chengqian, won't let us live, then none of us should live!

Cui Minqian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice hoarse, revealing a desperate madness.

"Pass down the order!"

"Starting tomorrow, all salt shops owned by prominent families in Guanzhong will be closed down!"

"Not a single grain of salt, whether from wells, ponds, or seas, may be spilled!"

"I will turn Chang'an into a city devoid of sage! I will make Li Shimin and his son kneel down and beg us to open the gates!"