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

Outside the Vermilion Bird Gate, white banners fluttered and cries shook the heavens.

Thousands of Confucian scholars dressed in blue robes knelt densely in the square in front of the palace gates, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Some of them had white cloth wrapped around their heads, while others were dressed in mourning clothes. If you didn't know better, you might think that some emperor of the Tang Dynasty was in mourning.

The group of elderly scholars leading the group faced the tightly closed palace gates and banged their heads against the ground with a loud thud. Blood flowed down their foreheads, staining the blue bricks of the ground red, a shocking sight.

"A tyrannical ruler! A tyrannical ruler indeed!"

"To slaughter a noble family is a disgrace to scholarship! This is tantamount to extinguishing the seeds of learning throughout the land!"

"If Li Chengqian does not die, the Tang Dynasty will cease to exist! Today, we will die here to remonstrate, and with our fervent blood, awaken His Majesty's conscience!"

The atmosphere was built to its peak, so tragic it was like a farewell at the Yi River.

The onlookers were terrified by the sight, pointing and whispering, their eyes filled with awe and fear. In their simple understanding, scholars were like the God of Literature in the heavens, and so many Gods of Literature weeping together must mean there was a great injustice at play.

Just as the group of Confucian scholars were crying their hearts out, and some were even preparing to actually bang their heads against the palace wall.

"Squeak—"

The small side door next to the Vermilion Bird Gate opened.

There was no expected charge by the Imperial Guards, nor the emperor's tearful lament.

Only a small figure slowly walked up the horse path to the towering city wall.

Li Chengqian held a tin megaphone (a simplified version produced by the system) in his hand, perched on the battlements, looking down at the sea of ​​heads below.

"Feed—!"

"Hey you, have you finished crying? If not, shut up a bit, you're disturbing my ears!"

Amplified by the megaphone, the shout echoed like thunder across the square, instantly drowning out the cries of thousands of people.

The originally solemn atmosphere deflated completely, like a balloon punctured by a needle.

The scholars looked up in astonishment at the disheveled, nonchalant young man on the city wall, and they trembled with anger.

"It's the Crown Prince! It's that tyrannical traitor Li Chengqian!"

The leading scholar from a collateral branch of the Cui family, trembling, stood up and pointed at the city wall, angrily shouting, "You scoundrel! How dare you show your face? You kill without hesitation, treating human life like dirt, aren't you afraid of divine retribution?!"

"Divine retribution?"

Li Chengqian chuckled, propped the megaphone up on the battlements, crossed his arms, and looked at the spectacle with an expression of watching a monkey show.

"Old man, stop with the moral blackmail."

"If you really want to die for your cause, that wall over there is pretty hard; you'll smash your head against it and your brains will splatter everywhere. Why aren't you moving? Are you waiting for an auspicious moment?"

"You...you..." The old scholar was so angry that he almost died on the spot.

"Alright, stop acting."

Li Chengqian's playful smile vanished, his eyes suddenly turning cold, his gaze like two sharp swords piercing straight into the crowd.

"You keep saying it's for the sake of civility, for the sake of all scholars."

"Pah!"

He spat fiercely, his voice filled with undisguised contempt.

"A bunch of parasites sucking the blood of the people, do they even deserve to be called Confucian scholars?!"

"Are you really crying for those few corrupt officials who died? You're crying for the privileges of your aristocratic families! For the days when you can no longer ride roughshod over the poor and oppressed!"

These words were like salt, rubbing harshly into the wounds of the Confucian scholars.

The Confucian scholars, whose secrets had been exposed, immediately erupted in uproar.

"Nonsense! This is slander!"

"We, who study the classics, cultivate ourselves, regulate our families, govern the state, and bring peace to the world, how dare you, a mere child, defile them?"

"The sages taught that all other pursuits are inferior, only studying is superior! We uphold the way of the sages!"

"The Way of the Sage?"

Li Chengqian sneered repeatedly, grabbed the megaphone, and spoke in a booming voice, each word piercing the heart.

"The sage said that education should be provided to all without discrimination. Have you put that into practice?"

"You hide books in the attic and lock knowledge in chests! A single copy of the Analects sells for thousands of coins, and a complete set of the Records of the Grand Historian costs tens of strings of cash!"

"In ordinary families, three generations of farmers still can't afford a single book! Students from impoverished backgrounds have to kneel outside your doors for three days and three nights, and serve you like slaves, all to pursue their education!"

"Is this how you preach? This is a monopoly!"

"You're afraid!"

Li Chengqian leaned forward, looking down at the flushed faces below.

"You're afraid that those peasants will learn to read, afraid that those poor children will understand reason, afraid that one day they'll stand up and trample you bunch of empty talkers underfoot!"

"So you desperately raise book prices and suppress dissent just to preserve your ridiculous sense of superiority!"

"This guy, does he even deserve to be called a scholar? Does he even deserve to be called a disciple of a sage?"

"I think you're just a bunch of flies swarming around rotting flesh, disgusting!"

Dead silence.

A deathly silence.

Below the city gate, thousands of Confucian scholars stood with flushed faces and heaving chests.

They wanted to refute, to hurl insults, but Li Chengqian's words were like heavy hammer blows, leaving them speechless.

Because that's the truth.

The stark truth, which they have covered up with a fig leaf of benevolence and morality.

"So what?!"

Finally, a hot-blooded young man from a prominent family couldn't hold back any longer and jumped out, shouting loudly with his neck stiffened.

"Books are precious! Papermaking is difficult, and copying them is no easy task! They are the crystallization of the wisdom of our ancestors!"

"Those peasants, all they do is play in the mud all day, they smell awful, do they deserve to study? Can they even understand what they're learning?"

"If everyone could read, what would be the point of having noble families like ours? Wouldn't the world descend into chaos?!"

Upon hearing these words, many Confucian scholars nodded subconsciously.

In their subconscious, knowledge is noble and should belong to a minority.

This is like gold. If it's everywhere, is it still gold?

Li Chengqian looked at the young Confucian scholar and, instead of being angry, smiled.

She smiled exceptionally brightly.

"Well said."

"Finally telling the truth, huh? You think the book is too expensive? You think people from humble backgrounds aren't good enough for it?"

He straightened up, facing the blazing midday sun, and stretched out a big yawn, his joints cracking with each breath.

"Since you think books are like gold nuggets, only you deserve to own them."

"Then today I'm going to smash your golden rice bowl."

Li Chengqian turned around, his back to the thousands of angry, astonished, and bewildered eyes below the city gate, leaving behind an extremely arrogant silhouette.

"Listen up, all of you."

"Starting today, I'm going to make books cheaper than toilet paper!"

"I want every cowherd in this Tang Dynasty to have a copy of the Analects in his hands!"

"I will make your pride and joy, your vast knowledge, utterly worthless in the face of readily available, worthless books!"

"You're dreaming!"

The Confucian scholars below roared in despair and anger.

"Ridiculous! That's utterly delusional!"

"Books are cheaper than paper? Unless the sun rises in the west!"

Li Chengqian didn't turn around, but just waved his hand at the air, as if he were shooing away a swarm of annoying flies.

"Whether it's a dream or not, we'll see."

"Old Xu, Qinglong, that's a wrap!"

"Let's go to the backyard of the East Palace. It's time for our 'secret weapon' to see the light of day."

After saying that, he strode down the city wall, leaving behind a group of "disciples of the saint" who were bewildered in the wind, cursing and swearing, yet inexplicably feeling uneasy.

The Eastern Palace.

Inside a side hall that was classified as top secret.

Dozens of top craftsmen, gathered from the Ministry of Works and the general public, were sweating profusely as they adjusted a pile of oddly shaped wooden frames and metal movable type.

The air was filled with the rich scent of ink and a smell of "change".

"Your Highness, everything is ready."

An old craftsman, his hands covered in black ink, trembled with excitement as Li Chengqian entered. "According to your drawings, we carved a full thirty thousand of these woodblocks... no, these movable type pieces!"

"And that new kind of paper pulp, it's dried in the sun, as white as snow!"

Li Chengqian casually picked up a movable type made of lead-tin alloy, tracing the raised strokes with his fingertips, a cruel smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

That's the character "仁" (ren) from the Analects.

But at this very moment, this word is about to become a sharp knife, stabbing fiercely into the heart of the powerful clans.

"very good."

Li Chengqian pressed the movable type into the typesetting disk with a "click".

"Pass down the order: work through the night."

"Tomorrow morning, I will make the entire city of Chang'an rain down books."