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

The doors of Ganlu Hall were pushed open, and a wave of resentment, mixed with morning grumpiness, rushed in.

Li Chengqian was "invited" here by Wang De. Rather than being invited, it was more like being half-dragged and half-pulled. This crown prince of the Tang Dynasty had his hair slightly disheveled, his boots were not properly pulled up, and he was shuffling along with his heels, looking utterly hopeless with a "I can't live like this anymore" expression.

"Father, if you're really that bored, why don't you catch those parrots again and have them fight?"

Li Chengqian plopped down on the soft cushion below the imperial steps, yawned without any regard for his image, and two sleepy tears still clung to the corners of his eyes.

"Your Majesty, I just dreamt that the Persian dancer was halfway through her dance, about to take off her veil, when Wang De was wailing at the door. I was so frightened that I almost thought the Turks had returned to fight again."

Normally, if Li Shimin saw him like this, he would have already taken off his boots and whipped him.

But today, this General Tian Ce seemed to have had his spine removed, slumped dejectedly on the dragon throne, his eyes bloodshot, staring blankly at the dome of the hall.

Outside the hall, faint cries could still be heard coming from the direction of the Confucius Temple in the distance, like a swarm of flies that could not be driven away or swatted, buzzing around and making people feel uneasy.

"Chengqian, listen."

Li Shimin pointed out the window, his voice hoarse as if he had a mouthful of sand, "Did you hear that? Those are scholars cursing me."

"They call me a foolish ruler, a tyrant, and say I have disgraced civilization, demanding that I issue an edict of self-reproach and apologize to the world."

"Let them scold us, it won't hurt us."

Li Chengqian reached out and picked up an orange from the table. As he peeled it, he said casually, "Back in the Xuanwu Gate Incident, there were far more people who cursed you than this, but you didn't seem to eat a single less bowl of rice."

"That's different!"

Li Shimin sat bolt upright, a flicker of anxiety in his eyes. "That was a mutiny! It was a real battle! My sword is sharp, so I'm not afraid!"

"But what about now? These pedantic scholars aren't holding knives, they're holding pens! They're holding mouths that can call black white and the dead alive!"

He stood up irritably and paced back and forth in the hall, his steps heavy.

"You killed Cui Mingan and those clan chiefs. Although I feel relieved, I also feel uneasy. Do you know why the Five Clans and Seven Noble Families have stood for a thousand years? Emperors come and go, but noble families remain. This saying is not just a joke."

Li Shimin stopped in front of Li Chengqian, looking down at his son with a deep sense of powerlessness in his eyes.

"Because they monopolized books."

"They monopolized the teachings of the sages."

"They monopolized 99% of the scholars in the world."

Li Chengqian paused in peeling the orange, looked up, but didn't speak, just listened quietly.

Li Shimin sighed and continued, "To govern the empire, I cannot rely solely on a bunch of ruthless killers like Cheng Yaojin. Governing prefectures and counties, collecting taxes, adjudicating cases, and educating the people—none of these can be done without scholars."

"But of all the scholars in the world, eight out of ten are from aristocratic families, and the remaining two are from humble backgrounds who have benefited from the favor of aristocratic families and studied in aristocratic academies."

"Now that we've slaughtered the aristocratic families, these scholars feel that we're digging up their roots and insulting their 'Dao' (the Way)."

"If they abandon their duties, or join forces to smear me in the history books, even if I secure my throne, I will be infamous for eternity!"

Li Shimin became more and more agitated as he spoke, and he picked up a scroll of bamboo slips from the table and slammed it to the ground.

"Crack!"

Bamboo slips were scattered all over the ground.

"Look at these books! Look at all these books!"

Li Shimin pointed at the bamboo slips on the ground, his fingers trembling. "How much would a scroll of the Analects cost in a bookstore? Eight hundred coins! If it's a handwritten copy by a famous calligrapher, it would cost several strings of cash!"

"An ordinary family of five, working hard all year round, couldn't afford this one book even if they didn't eat or drink!"

"Books are too expensive, so expensive that only aristocratic families can afford them, so expensive that only they can afford to collect them."

"It's difficult for children from poor families to achieve great things, not because they are stupid, but because they can't even touch the cover of a book!"

"Powerful families locked their books away in high shelves, turning knowledge into their private property, a family heirloom to preserve their wealth and status. They used this to control the court and to blackmail the emperor!"

Li Shimin slumped back onto the steps, not caring whether the ground was cold or not, and held his head in his hands, his voice filled with an unprecedented despair.

"I want to kill them all, but if I kill them, who will help me govern the country?"

"I want to promote people from poor families, but how can I promote those from poor families who can't even read?"

"This is a dead end, Chengqian..."

"These remnants of aristocratic families dared to incite those ignorant Confucian scholars to force the emperor to abdicate and threaten me, precisely because they saw this opportunity."

"They are telling me: This Tang Dynasty can't function without their powerful families!"

A deathly silence fell over the main hall.

Only the sound of the wind outside the window, mixed with the protests of the Confucian scholars in the distance, pierced my ears in waves.

Li Chengqian put the last segment of orange into his mouth, ate it slowly and carefully, then clapped his hands and stood up from the ground.

He looked at the once-spirited General Tian Ce, now squatting on the ground like a helpless old farmer, and felt a mix of emotions.

This is the limitation of our times.

No matter how wise and powerful Emperor Taizong of Tang was, he could only feel deeply powerless when faced with such a deep-rooted "cultural monopoly".

The barriers of knowledge are a thousand times, ten thousand times stronger than city walls.

It is invisible and intangible, yet it can solidify class distinctions, keeping those at the bottom forever struggling in the mire and those at the top forever high above.

"so……"

Li Chengqian walked to Li Shimin's side, squatted down, picked up the scattered bamboo slips, and slowly and carefully re-threaded them while asking softly.

"Is Father Emperor planning to concede defeat?"

"Do you plan to go to the Confucius Temple to apologize to those pedantic scholars? Do you plan to issue an edict of self-reproach, admitting your mistakes? Do you plan to hand over your son to appease their anger?"

Li Shimin froze, then abruptly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.

"I don't want to!"

He roared, "I am the Son of Heaven! How can I bow down to my subjects? How can I sell my son for personal gain?!"

"But... what can I do?"

"If I don't bow my head, the court will be paralyzed; if I don't bow my head, all the scholars in the land will criticize me behind my back!"

"I... am in a difficult situation!"

A long sigh revealed the bitterness of an emperor.

Li Chengqian gently placed the neatly arranged bamboo slips on the imperial desk, making a crisp sound.

He turned around, his back to the sunlight, and a smile that was both extremely bright and extremely cold appeared on his youthful face.

"Father, you just said that books are too expensive?"

"Are you saying that because powerful families control books, they control what people say?"

Li Shimin nodded blankly: "Isn't that so? Copying books is harder than climbing to heaven. A skilled copyist can only copy a few thousand words a day, and that still consumes a lot of paper and ink..."

"That was before."

Li Chengqian interrupted him, speaking casually, as if he were saying that the weather was nice today.

"What if I told you there was a way to produce tens of thousands of books a day?"

"What if I told you that this book costs less than the toilet sticks you use to wipe your bottom?"

"If I could make all the books in the world as plentiful as potatoes, so plentiful that no one would pick them up if they were thrown on the ground, so plentiful that even a beggar could grab one to sit on..."

Li Chengqian bent down, his smiling face close to Li Shimin's, his voice carrying a devilish allure.

"What do you think of those aristocratic families who treat books as their lifeblood, as family heirlooms, and as bargaining chips to blackmail the imperial power...?"

"Will their faces get swollen from being punched?"

"Will their hearts shatter into pieces?"

"Will their prized 'refined' character become a worthless joke?"

Li Shimin's pupils dilated little by little, and his breathing became rapid.

He stared intently at Li Chengqian, as if looking at a madman, or perhaps a god.

"What...what did you say?"

"Even cheaper than toilet sticks?"

"Tens of thousands of books a day?"

Li Shimin swallowed hard, his voice trembling uncontrollably, "Chengqian, this is the crime of deceiving the emperor... this is..."

"Whether it's deceiving the emperor or not, we'll find out by trying."

Li Chengqian straightened up, his hands behind his back, and his small body exuded an aura of domineering arrogance.

"Father, please sit here in Ganlu Hall and have some tea prepared."

"Leave those pedantic scholars outside to your son."

"Don't they like to reason? Don't they like to rely on their past achievements?"

"Then today, I will use this 'tonnage' of reasoning to slap their faces into the ground and rub them mercilessly!"

"Wang De!"

Li Chengqian shouted.

The head eunuch, Wang De, who had been cowering in the corner like a quail, suddenly shuddered and scrambled over, shouting, "This servant is here!"

"Go, prepare the car."

A cruel smile curled at the corner of Li Chengqian's lips.

"Prepare your carriage, Confucius Temple!"

"I'm going to... cause a scene!"