Chapter 95: I'll give you a bunch of hair crowns! (Seeking monthly tickets)

As the saying goes, the mantis stalks the cicada, but the oriole stalks behind.

The people of the aristocratic family wanted to hunt down Li Chengqian, but they didn't know that the person standing behind him was Li Shimin holding a net bag.

In fact, the mental journey of the Shandong gentry is easy to understand. If Wang Shi of Taiyuan valued this book, she would not have included it in her dowry and given it to Zhou Shi of Yixing.

But even if it is not taken seriously, it still needs to be brought up and written into an article.

Now, around the prince, apart from the nobles and old ministers, there are commoner landlords. There is no place for the Shandong gentry at all.

Li Shimin was a man of great power and influence, so it was fine that they could not exert influence on the court, but they would never allow the next emperor to still treat them like vicious snakes.

At present, it seems that there is no possibility for them to cooperate with Crown Prince Li Chengqian. So they will turn their attention to Li Tai, who has always respected scholars and been friendly to the gentry.

Little did people know that although Li Tai was friendly with the gentry, the one he attached the most importance to was "the emperor's son."

Unless someone has a mental problem or is really a bad person, who would help outsiders to plot against me?
However, the Shandong gentry were too anxious and wanted to exert some influence in the court, but they did not notice one problem.

That is, the throne under the current emperor was obtained through fighting, and he will never allow the same situation to happen to the next generation.

Even if Li Tai wanted to get the position of crown prince, he must not show any aggression towards Li Chengqian, at least not on the surface.

Li Tai had his own plans. Instead of attacking the crown prince, he might as well leak the matter to Li Shimin and gain some impression points in the emperor's mind.

Don’t underestimate these impression points. Once the quantitative changes accumulate to a certain level, they will cause qualitative changes.

Li Chengqian now also has his own worries, which is that the person he least wants to see has been promoted to the position of Zuo Shuzi of the Eastern Palace.

Oh yes, that’s Yu Zhining.

Helan Chushi has been executed. Now the only confidants of Li Chengqian in the Eastern Palace are Du He, the Shangcheng Fengyu, and Zhao Jie, the Prince's first horse.

Speaking of these two people, they both have a very close relationship with Li Chengqian. Du He is the consort of Li Chengqian's younger sister Princess Chengyang, so he is Li Chengqian's brother-in-law; while Zhao Jie is the son of Li Shimin's fifth sister Princess Changguang, so he should be Li Chengqian's cousin.

When Li Xiang pushed open the door of Mingde Hall, he saw three people chatting.

"Xiang'er, have you heard?" Li Chengqian said with a complicated expression, "Yu Zhining was promoted to the position of Prince's Secretary by the Saint."

"I heard about it." Li Xiang nodded.

"This is really shocking!" Li Chengqian said angrily, "I thought the saint saw through Yu Zhining's true colors, but I didn't expect that he still entrusted this guy with an important task!"

Du He held the glass cup and frowned.

"It's shocking, I didn't expect it."

"I've been putting up with Yu Zhining for a long time!" Zhao Jie cursed indignantly, "He was the one who basically spread everything that happened in the Eastern Palace!"

"What about Xiang'er? What do you think?" Li Chengqian raised his eyes and looked at Li Xiang.

Li Xiang opened his mouth and said, "I'm shocked too."

This is not an exaggeration. After all, there was the example of Zhang Xuansu. Li Xiang really didn't expect that Li Shimin could find another similar person to deceive Li Chengqian.

It took a lot of effort to make Li Chengqian a little better...

Li Xiang felt that Li Shimin might have done it on purpose, just to add more burden to him, but he had no evidence.

"Then how can Xiang'er teach him how to be his father?" Li Chengqian has become dependent on Li Xiang.

Zhao Jie and Du He looked at each other. Although they were somewhat surprised at Li Chengqian's dependence on Li Xiang, they did not express any objection.

After all, Li Xiang is the son of the crown prince, and the two of them naturally stand together, and they prosper together and suffer together. What's more, the Prince of Hengshan is so outstanding, it would be good to listen to his opinions sometimes.

The Three Stooges are better than Zhuge Liang.

"What else can we do? We just have to go find Grandpa." Li Xiang spread his hands and said.

Li Chengqian's face lit up and he asked, "Are you going to persuade the Saint to change his mind?"

"No, I will make the saint change his mind." Li Xiang said firmly.

Li Chengqian couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this.

He knew that his son never lied and would always do what he said.

Since he is so confident, he must have come up with a perfect plan.

But Du He suddenly asked hesitantly: "Prince, the Saint seems to think highly of Zhining."

"I dare not call myself a prince in front of my uncle." Li Xiang bowed slightly to Du He.

"Xiang'er is right. You are relatives in private. You are his uncle and Lao Zhao is his cousin. Is it this kid's turn to take the throne?" Li Chengqian responded with a smile.

Du He then nodded and said, "If that's the case, then I won't be so distant with Meng Ze... As I just said, the Saint thinks highly of Zhi Ning. I wonder how Meng Ze can change the Saint's mind."

"I know, and this is exactly my starting point." Li Xiang said confidently.

"Oh?" Li Chengqian became interested. "Tell me quickly!"

Li Xiang did not rush to answer, but walked in front of the three people, stood with his hands behind his back, full of confidence, like a master.

"What should you do if Ayeh wants to suggest that someone is not the right person for a position?"

"Defaming him?" Li Chengqian asked.

Li Xiang sighed, looking like he couldn't take care of his father anymore.

Seeing Li Xiang's expression, Li Chengqian suddenly wanted to kick him in the butt.

"Defaming others is the lowest form of behavior. If it were me, I would show my support for this person," Li Xiang said with a smile.

"Why?" Li Chengqian really didn't understand now.

Li Xiang looked as if he hated his father for not being able to do what he did: "Because I don't want to leave a bad impression of slandering others behind their backs!"

"And if you slander others, they will naturally think you are their enemy. And as we all know, the enemy's evaluation of the enemy is often biased."

"The kid thinks you have to make others think you are his friend."

"After all, only friends can stand behind a person - and when you stand behind someone, it's much easier to stab them in the back."

Li Chengqian couldn't help but fall into deep thought after hearing this. Du He thought for a moment and felt that it might not be feasible.

"Meng Ze's words should not apply to this person. You must know that Yu Zhining is a famous gentleman of morality and upright and honest. A saint will certainly not change his mind easily."

"That's great. This is the second step of our plan." Li Xiang said with a smile: "List all his good qualities, especially those that make him unsuitable for this position, and then emphasize praising these qualities to turn advantages into disadvantages."

"A better approach would be to label Yu Zhining and weaken other people's impression of him - just like your evaluation of Zhining just now."

The so-called labeling seems to be more high-end, but in fact it is often used on the Internet. In layman's terms, it is a labeling competition.

For example, let’s say you really don’t like someone’s remarks, but you don’t have a good way to refute them at the moment, but you want everyone to agree with your point of view, so you will label him, or put a hat on him -

【I looked at the homepage and found out that he was playing Genshin Impact. 】

Look, this is standard labeling, which instantly gives the other party's views the stereotype given by this hat.

This behavior is equivalent to directly alienating and deconstructing the other party's point of view, abstracting concrete things for you, and ultimately distorting what the other party really wants to express. The other party may then fall into an endless war of words with these hat merchants about whether this hat should be worn on the head, which deviates from the original topic.

"Moral gentleman?" Du He asked.

"Yes, a gentleman of morality." Li Xiang said with a smile: "But I think there is a better way, such as... Is he related to the Shandong gentry?"

"I have heard that his son Yu Lizheng is engaged to the daughter of Zheng from Xingyang." Zhao Jie said on the side.

"What great news! We might as well use this to attack him." Li Xiang immediately got into the mood, with an expression of emotion: "What a good moral gentleman! Even the Shandong nobles admire his character. They don't shy away from his status as a Xianbei old hero and betroth their daughters to his sons... Could it be that the Shandong nobles really just admire his character?"

Speaking of this, Li Xiang had a meaningful and sarcastic look on his face.

"This should be useless. His integrity is known to everyone in the government and the public." Du He said.

"Then say he's too upright." Li Xiang still had many ideas: "List all his shortcomings again, but use a way to excuse him - well, isn't it just a love affair? I don't think anyone would doubt his filial piety to his mother..."

"Seizing love is a special permission granted by the saint." Zhao Jie suddenly said.

Li Xiang glanced at him and asked, "Did Li Mi choose to abandon his grandmother because of Sima's summons?"

The Li Mi he was talking about was not the Li Mi of Wagangzhai, but the Li Mi who wrote "Chen Qing Biao".

Yes, he is the Li Mi who wrote, "Without my grandmother, I would not have lived to this day; without me, my grandmother would not have lived out the rest of her life."

As soon as these words were spoken, the three people present looked at each other and nodded.

Yes, even Li Mi could refuse the emperor by saying "the holy dynasty governs the world with filial piety". Do you, Yu Zhining, think of yourself as a moral gentleman but are greedy for an official position?
Li Xiang stretched his back and continued, "If this point is not recognized by others, you can also say this - isn't it that after admonishing the crown prince, he wrote twenty articles of "Remonstrance Garden" and spread them throughout the city? I believe no one will doubt that such an upright person would be the kind of person who seeks fame and buys his integrity."

"You can even link this incident together and hint whether he chose to seize the love because he wanted to gain fame in the East Palace or spread bad news about the East Palace?"

"Then use this to continue writing articles - of course, the Shandong gentry will not praise him for this. After all, collecting the prince's bad deeds will not benefit them..."

This is too bad. Although Du He and Zhao Jie don't know that the aristocratic families are gearing up to impeach Li Chengqian, they can also sense their viciousness.

Li Chengqian did not tell the two of them about this matter. After all, if the king does not keep secrets, he will lose his ministers, and if the ministers do not keep secrets, they will lose their king. The less other people know about the plan, the better.

Li Chengqian looked at Li Xiang with a brighter look. He had seen that Li Shimin would be furious and would expel Yu Zhining from the Eastern Palace...

Li Xiang sat on the Hu stool and leaned back tactically with his hands behind his head.

"If all else fails, we can also extend the idea to his ancestors. I remember that his father was Yang Yong's Eastern Palace Left Guard Commander, right? So could Yang Yong's dethronement be related to his father's obstruction of his master?"

"Will this trait of harming the master be passed on to my son?"

At this point, Li Xiang made his classic elephant hand-spreading gesture: "Look, Aye, as the saying goes, the magic of application lies in one's heart."

"Good! Good! Good!"

Li Chengqian's eyes sparkled and he said three good words in a row.

Just when they were worrying about how to deal with Yu Zhining, Haodaer made it seem like a traitor who was easy to deal with with just a few words.

Coupled with Li Shimin's love for Li Xiang and the offensive that the Shandong gentry will launch against him at the grand court meeting tomorrow, Li Chengqian feels that this time he is really safe.

You must take Yu Zhining down, even the hair crown will be thrown all over the floor!
No, the Grand Court Meeting...

Thinking of the grand court meeting, Li Chengqian was suddenly shocked.

Damn it, there will definitely be a group of imperial censors and ministers who don’t know the truth coming to attack me at the grand court meeting tomorrow...

Seeing Li Chengqian's constipated look, Li Xiang couldn't help but ask with concern: "Aye, what's wrong with you?"

"It's okay, but I feel a chill down my spine when I think about being criticized at tomorrow's court meeting." Li Chengqian sighed.

Even if his face is a little thick after being criticized, he can't stand the "aphrodisiac" which is related to men's dignity...

"What's the big deal? Isn't that fake anyway?" Li Xiang said happily, "After the grand court meeting tomorrow, you will definitely be cleared of the problem."

Li Xiang didn't say anything specific.

Du He and Zhao Jie didn't ask. After all, they were the ones who accompanied the emperor for many years and they knew the rules well.

You're not a cat, so how dare you have such suicidal curiosity?

"That being said, I am still being accused unilaterally..."

Li Chengqian stopped talking halfway through.

"Aye, do you still remember what I told you last time, how to respond to the censor's questioning?" Li Xiang asked.

After thinking about it for a while, Li Chengqian nodded slightly and said, "Of course I remember."

"If this set of moves doesn't work, then I have one last trick." Li Xiang smiled.

"Oh? Xiang'er, tell me quickly!" Li Chengqian suddenly became energetic and no longer looked listless just now.

Li Xiang shook his body and began to prepare for the training plan for the Tang Dynasty's spray dad.

"If you can't win an argument, find the faults of the person involved and change the subject."

Li Xiang started to focus on the key points, "In layman's terms, we should seize the shortcomings of a person's personal morality and attack them. In the Tang Dynasty, attacking personal lifestyle issues has a long history and is very effective..."

(Second update of 4000 words delivered! There will be another chapter in the afternoon)
(End of this chapter)