The rebellious grandson of Emperor Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty: Please, Your Majesty, be called Cro

In the prison cell of the Right Commander's Mansion, the junior officer and soldiers who had been standing uneasily at the door had forgotten their hesitation and were staring in disbelief as Li Xiang seemed to have descended from heaven and actually suppressed the two great scholars.

On the bed, Li Chengqian, who had originally had a gloomy expression, now couldn't hide the pleasure on his face.

If this rude and sharp-tongued young man hadn't been his own son, he would have loved to clap his hands and laugh, giving these two old dogs who had fallen into the water a good laugh.

Well said! Absolutely wonderful! That's so satisfying, so incredibly satisfying!

"How rude of you, you brat!" Old Man Kong, though shrewd and experienced, quickly concealed his wavering after a brief moment of vulnerability. He stroked his white beard with an air of righteous indignation, but his old eyes were fixed intently on Li Xiang.

"I have been writing memorials at my desk for forty years. If it comes to recognizing people and discerning matters, I am like an old horse that knows the way: though I can no longer gallop a thousand miles, I can still know the depth of the ravines."

"You brat, you're not even old enough to be considered an adult yet, how dare you try to argue with an old man like me? I've probably eaten more salt than you and your son have eaten rice!"

"You eat so much salt, how come you didn't die from the saltiness?" Li Xiang scoffed.

"What did you say?" Confucius, with his keen hearing and sharp eyes, widened his eyes in an instant.

"If Confucius refutes my rudeness, then I'll show you how rude I can be." Li Xiang's skills had cooled down, and he continued to hurl insults.

"You pride yourselves on offering honest advice, yet you dare not die. You call yourselves morally upright gentlemen, yet when the Crown Prince is in trouble, you rush to his door to threaten him. Clearly, you are cowards, afraid of being implicated in a major case! All you want is to distance yourselves from the Crown Prince!"

"Nonsense!" A flicker of panic crossed Kong Yingda's face as he hurriedly retorted, "You rude brat!"

"It's either nonsense or rudeness. Is that all you know?" Li Xiang rolled his eyes, nearly choking Confucius.

"If you're talking about rudeness, you're not only rude, you're also immoral! Don't you know that relying on one's age to act superior is immoral? And to scold one's father in front of one's son is rude!"

"The Crown Prince's current position is entirely due to you scholars of the Eastern Palace, who only know how to flatter the Emperor's willingness to offer advice, plotting to use the Crown Prince as a stepping stone to advancement, neglecting to educate the Crown Prince, and only knowing how to sell your integrity for fame!"

"Even Lady Suian, the wet nurse of the Crown Prince, a mere woman, understands the principle of teaching according to aptitude. She strongly advised you, Kong Yingda, not to criticize the Crown Prince to his face, lest it embarrass him and backfire. Yet you, Kong Yingda, in order to gain a reputation for honest remonstrance, have gone even further, harshly criticizing the young Crown Prince and spreading your shameless behavior far and wide, deliberately letting His Majesty know about it. You even put on a sanctimonious act, claiming that you 'have no regrets even if you die.'"

"But I wonder, when you tutors of the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace stroke the silk and gold bestowed upon you by His Majesty, do you feel joy or resentment?"

"You...you!" Li Xiang launched a direct personal attack, and Kong Yingda's eyes widened. The upright and righteous scholar could no longer maintain his composure.

Li Xiang continued, "You all seek to promote your own reputations while tarnishing the Crown Prince's honor, using criticism of the Crown Prince to gain rewards from His Majesty; this is disloyalty."

"You are either disciples of Confucius or descendants of a sage. Confucius taught his students according to their individual talents, yet you do not learn the manners of your ancestors and teachers, and instead forget their teachings. This is unfilial."

"The Crown Prince is the foundation of the future of the nation, bearing the weight of the people and the state. You, as his tutors, should have devoted yourselves to his instruction, ensuring that the people benefit from his guidance and that the Tang Dynasty prospers for a hundred years. Yet, for your own selfish gain and the pursuit of fame, you have ultimately caused distrust between His Majesty and the Crown Prince, leading to instability in the state and bringing crisis upon the nation. This is unjust."

"Seeing the Crown Prince in distress, instead of showing loyalty, they rushed to threaten him, feigning innocence to distance themselves from him and protect their own careers and wealth. This is unjust!"

"How dare you, such rude, immoral, disloyal, unfilial, and unjust people, rebuke the Crown Prince!"

Although Li Xiang was a liberal arts student before his time travel, he wasn't a history major. He had some basic knowledge of famous poems and historical anecdotes, but things like the story of Li Chengqian's wet nurse, Lady Suian, persuading Kong Yingda, were not things he knew before his time travel.

Lady Suian had passed away several years ago, and these stories were all hearsay from the original owner of Li Xiang's memories. In the original owner's memories, there were many, many more such anecdotes about "the Crown Prince's tutor being upright and incorruptible, and directly advising the Crown Prince."

Even among the common people, stories like these circulated about Kong Yingda, Yu Zhining, and other tutors to the Crown Prince such as Zhang Xuansu and Du Zhenglun. The storylines were all remarkably consistent: how the Crown Prince was wicked, and how a particular tutor was upright and outspoken, offering honest advice…

The endings are all the same: Upon hearing this, the emperor praised it and bestowed upon it several bolts of silk and a certain amount of gold...

Slapping Li Chengqian in the face is a sure way to gain both fame and fortune without any risk! No wonder these old geezers who are buried in old books seeking fame and fortune but have little chance to make money are flocking to it.

Conversely, Wei Zheng, who also served as the Crown Prince's tutor and was known as the most outspoken remonstrator in the Tang Dynasty, along with other famous ministers such as Fang Xuanling and Li Gang, were not known to have any stories of directly remonstrating with Li Chengqian. Popular rumors suggest that Li Chengqian, who was said to be like a madman, greatly respected these tutors: when Li Gang passed away, Li Chengqian wept and erected a monument for him; although Wei Zheng only served as the Crown Prince's tutor for a few months, when he passed away, Li Chengqian, despite suffering from a foot ailment and having difficulty moving, still personally went to pay his respects.

This is quite different from the attitude towards people like Yu Zhining and Kong Yingda.

If Li Gang and Wei Zheng were to be resurrected and make Li Chengqian kneel before the Taiji Palace, advising him to bow down and admit his mistakes to Li Shimin, Li Xiang might believe that they were genuinely considering Li Chengqian's well-being and the fate of the Tang Dynasty.

But Li Xiang would never believe that Kong Yingda and Yu Zhining didn't intend to distance themselves from the situation and seek immediate safety!

Whether they believe it or not is not important. As long as this filth is poured on Kong and Yu, and they are also smeared with the labels of "selling their integrity for fame" and "rude, immoral, disloyal, unfilial, unkind, and unjust," Kong and Yu, who cherish their reputations above all else, will immediately go to Li Shimin to defend themselves and, in the process, denounce Li Xiang!

This is Li Xiang's true purpose!

If the initial favorability rating is too high, then let's keep lowering it! Let these two old men leave more bad reviews in front of Li Er, maybe Li Er will get angry and kill his own brother?

That's how it is in Ga La Ge Mu Li.

"You...you..." Kong Yingda stammered for a long time, his finger pointing at Li Xiang almost trembling, but he still couldn't come up with anything interesting.

Li Xiang's criticism was truly scathing. If this assessment of him as "immoral, rude, disloyal, unfilial, inhumane, and unjust" were to circulate...

Kong Yingda is going to ruin his reputation in his later years and be infamous for all time!

How could Confucius, who cherished his reputation above all else, tolerate this?

Moreover, he was in charge of the Imperial Academy of the Tang Dynasty, and boasted of having countless students. When had he ever been so berated and humiliated by a junior like this?

In a fit of anger, he was about to launch a tirade, citing classical texts and hurling insults at the other.

Suddenly, he felt a tightness in his scholar's robe behind him; it was Yu Zhining who had grabbed him.

"Master Kong! The child is ignorant; why bother talking to him?"

"Your Highness! This child is so rude, will Your Highness not discipline him?" Yu Zhining glared at Li Xiang, then turned to Li Chengqian and said.