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

The autumn wind, carrying withered leaves, swirled through the gate of Mingde Gate, emitting a mournful wail.

Outside Chang'an, the open space that was once used for military parades, executions, and to demonstrate the power of the Tang Dynasty was now filled with kneeling people.

It was a dark, dense mass, like rotten eggplants that had been frostbitten in late autumn.

Among these people were elderly people in their eighties and nineties, young children, and even more were the heads of collateral branches of aristocratic families who were used to living a life of luxury and always traveled in sedan chairs carried by eight men.

They were no longer arrogant and domineering, nor did they live a life of luxury.

Each person carried a bundle of thorns on their back, the sharp thorns digging into their flesh, oozing blood that stained their plain white prison uniforms, which were already so dirty that their original color was no longer discernible.

"Bearing thorns to plead guilty."

This play was performed in a tragic and heroic manner.

Unfortunately, the onlookers showed no sympathy, only glee, and some even threw clods of dirt at them.

"Your Majesty! This humble subject confesses my crime!"

"Although I am surnamed Cui, I have never participated in treason! That was the sin committed by the main branch, and has nothing to do with us collateral branches!"

"Your Majesty, please have mercy! Your Highness, please show mercy and grant us a way out!"

Cries and screams rose and fell, converging into a torrent of despair that crashed against the majestic city walls.

On the city tower.

Li Shimin, clad in golden armor, with his hand on the Emperor's Sword, looked down at the ants from his high vantage point.

His eyes were as cold as ice.

"Irrelevant?"

Li Shimin sneered, his voice forced out through clenched teeth, "When we were eating meat, you all said it was none of your business, but now that we're about to be slaughtered, you're all washing your hands of it!"

"If I had been defeated back then, if the Turks had entered the pass, you lot would probably have knelt down even faster than you are now, except you would have knelt down to that barbarian Jieli!"

"kill!"

Li Shimin suddenly drew half of his sword, his killing intent palpable.

"Kill them all! Leave no one alive!"

"Keeping these two-faced opportunists around is a waste of the Tang Dynasty's resources! They're perfect for offering as a sacrifice to the fallen soldiers!"

"Clang!"

The clear, resonant sound of the Emperor's Sword being drawn startled the group of elderly, weak, women, and children below the city walls, causing their cries to instantly turn into screams.

"Please don't, Father."

A hand reached out and gently pressed down on Li Shimin's wrist.

With a candied fruit dangling from his mouth and a look that said, "You're too irritable," Li Chengqian slowly put the murderous sword back down.

"Killing someone is so tiring. You have to clean up the mess, dig a hole to bury them, and spend money to buy a coffin. It's so environmentally unfriendly."

"Not kill?"

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Li Shimin stared wide-eyed. "Are you suggesting we keep them around? Let them continue to leech off my life?"

"Father, you're being too narrow-minded."

Li Chengqian lay on the battlements, looking down at the trembling "fat sheep" below, his eyes gleaming with a light of "exploitation".

"If we kill them all, who will do the work?"

"If we kill them all, who will serve as a negative example?"

"Besides..."

Li Chengqian pointed at those people, "They may be bad, but they own land. Even if they kill someone, the land is still in their name. Taking it back would require going through procedures, which is too much trouble."

"Perhaps... we should let them spit it out themselves."

Li Shimin was stunned for a moment, then understood his son's meaning. The murderous intent in his eyes subsided slightly, replaced by a hint of schadenfreude.

"What do you want to do?"

"Simple, squeeze every last drop of value out of them."

Li Chengqian clapped his hands, straightened his clothes, and said, "Father, you can watch from up there. Let your son play the role of the villain."

After saying that, he turned around and walked unsteadily down the horse trail.

……

At the city gate.

Zheng Tong, an elder of a collateral branch of the Zheng family, who was kneeling on the ground, was on the verge of fainting from fright.

He saw the cold glint of the Emperor's Sword as it was drawn from its sheath.

At that moment, he thought he was really going to see his great-grandmother this time.

Just then, the heavy city gate creaked open a crack.

There was no large army charging in, nor were there any executioners entering the scene.

Only one boy dressed in casual clothes, carrying a thick scroll of documents, strolled out as if he were taking a walk.

"Your Majesty... Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

Zheng Tong, as if grasping at the last straw, crawled a few steps on his knees and kowtowed desperately.

"Your Highness, spare me! I truly knew nothing about this! I have an eighty-year-old mother at home..."

"Alright, alright, I'm tired of hearing that phrase."

Li Chengqian picked at his ear, looking impatient. "An eighty-year-old mother? You look older than your own mother, and you still have the nerve to say that?"

He walked up to Zheng Tong, but instead of telling him to get up, he plopped down on a stone stool next to him.

"Want to live?"

Li Chengqian asked.

"I want to! I dream about it!"

Hundreds of people spoke in unison, their heads banging so loudly it shook the heavens.

"It's not impossible to live."

Li Chengqian toyed with the document in his hand, his tone light and airy, "After all, I am not some kind of devil, and I know that Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life."

A spark of hope ignited in everyone's eyes.

The Crown Prince is merciful!

"but."

The moment those two words were uttered, everyone's hearts, which had just settled down, jumped into their throats again.

"He may be spared the death penalty, but he cannot escape punishment."

Li Chengqian's smile vanished, and a chilling indifference suddenly appeared in his clear eyes.

"Although you haven't directly colluded with the enemy, you've certainly done your fair share of land annexation, population concealment, and tax evasion over the years, haven't you?"

"In the past, the powerful clans couldn't touch you. Now that the main families are all dead, you collateral branches still want to occupy these positions without doing your job?"

"I..." Zheng Tong opened his mouth, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

He knew the real show was about to begin.

"Your Highness... what... what do you want? Everything this humble subject possesses, I'll give it all to you! It will all be confiscated!"

"That's right, it's so much easier to talk to smart people."

Li Chengqian nodded in satisfaction and casually tossed the scroll of documents in front of Zheng Tong.

"Clatter".

The document fell to the ground, kicking up a small circle of dust.

"This is a 'Voluntary Donation Agreement for Land Reform' plus a 'Commitment to Disband Private Soldiers'."

Li Chengqian pointed to the document, a "kind" smile playing on his lips.

"The content is very simple."

"First, hand over all the land under your names, whether fertile or barren, and donate it all to the imperial court free of charge, so that the court can redistribute it to the landless people."

"Second, disband all servants, guards, and private soldiers, burn all their indentures, and give them their freedom."

"Third, each of your families will send one person to the Royal College for 'advanced studies,' paying their own tuition. Those who do not perform well will not be allowed to graduate."

"As long as you sign this and put your fingerprint on it."

Li Chengqian stood up and dusted off his hands.

"I'll treat you as human beings, let you go back to your hometowns, leave you a few acres of land, so you can support yourself and live out your old age in peace."

"otherwise……"

He glanced back at Li Shimin, who was radiating murderous intent on the city wall, and then pointed to the Imperial Guards behind him with their hands on the hilts of their swords.

"Otherwise, the blood at Caishikou hasn't dried yet, and we're just short of people to wash it off."

"Sign, or die?"

"You have three breaths to consider."

Zheng Tong stared at the documents on the ground, his hands trembling as if he were playing a pipa.

Hand over the land?

That's their lifeline! Without land, what difference is there between these lazy and ignorant "gentry" and beggars on the street?

This is meant to send them plummeting from the clouds to the mud, never to rise again!

That's incredibly toxic!

It's even more painful than killing them!

"one."

Li Chengqian's voice rang out coldly.

"two."

Shen Lian's Embroidered Spring Blade was already half an inch out of its sheath, its cold light stinging Zheng Tong's eyes.

"Sign! I'll sign!"

Zheng Tong let out a devastating cry, lunged at the document, bit his finger, and pressed his bloody handprint onto it with trembling hands.

It's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death.

As long as you're alive, as long as you're alive, being a beggar is better than being a ghost!

With the first person taking the lead, the rest became much simpler.

"I'll sign too! I'll donate too!"

"I'm giving up being a member of the samurai class! I want to farm!"

A group of wealthy old men who usually valued their land more than their own lives were now rushing to sign the "contract of servitude," afraid that if they were a step too late, they would be dragged off to feed their dogs.

Li Chengqian smiled with satisfaction as he watched this scene.

He bent down to pick up the document stained with bloody handprints and gently blew away the still-wet blood.

"That's right."

"The most important thing in being a person is to have awareness."

He turned to face Li Shimin on the city wall and raised the document in his hand high.

Sunlight streamed down, illuminating each name on it.

It's more than just contracts.

That was the ticket to the new era of the Tang Dynasty, and also the epitaph of the old aristocratic families.

"Father!"

Li Chengqian's voice was clear and loud, and it spread throughout the surrounding area.

"The land has been reclaimed!"

"Everyone's here now!"

"Shouldn't we distribute some 'dividends' to the people of the Tang Dynasty next?"